The Rumour Thread

[HollowHills]

I can't believe people are being salty about this release. For ages people have asked that GW update old WHFB factions. Either you get a book, some endless spells and a scenery piece or you can wait for years to get a full model update. GW can't release new model ranges for every old faction every other month. 

What do people expect? 

[lord_blackfang]

That corpse cart really looks awfully specific to just be random filler art.

 

I fear there's no more to this release wave, but I suspect this thing has a CAD model somewhere in someone's "9th edition maybe" folder.

[novakai]

6 minutes ago, HollowHills said:

I can't believe people are being salty about this release. For ages people have asked that GW update old WHFB factions. Either you get a book, some endless spells and a scenery piece or you can wait for years to get a full model update. GW can't release new model ranges for every old faction every other month. 

What do people expect? 

I am pretty sure everyone ideally wants a Gloomspite or DoK type release.

But I think FEC have such a small model range to begin with is not helping.

[JackStreicher]

15 minutes ago, HollowHills said:

I can't believe people are being salty about this release. For ages people have asked that GW update old WHFB factions. Either you get a book, some endless spells and a scenery piece or you can wait for years to get a full model update. GW can't release new model ranges for every old faction every other month. 

What do people expect? 

Since most people can‘t get where I am coming from:

As a 3D Artist you try to recycle assets since it saves time. So let‘s say you have one base-mesh  for a human body which you re-use, but then you redo parts of it (face mostly). Same goes for smaller assets which mostly stay the same.

usually you change those base models to suit your client’s needs and to give your client a unique model. 

What you are seeing with the flesh eater Courts is just randomly placing already made assets, mostly not even changing them (I assume each of that models took about 3-4 hours in average. The throne took longer since the bones had to be placed, the goblet took shorter since you can do that with one array modifier...). I am already counting in the time it took to make them 3D printable. 

You simply would not do what GW did, it‘s insolent, lazy and just cheap.

they‘re a 2 Billion GBP Company which uses cheap „tricks“ you would expect from a shady Chinese business. 

Bow after knowing that and also hugely disliking the way it looks I am also aware that they will sell it for the usual price since they sell „premium“ products (what exactly was premium about those FeC spells again?).

so what do I expect: premium Products, which this isn‘t and there is no justification for it.

 

this is somewhat insulting to me especially since I didn‘t expect that from „new GW“.

Edited February 3, 2019 by JackStreicher

[Charles]

I really love the new scenery that is being released with each faction. I’m just happy to be able to Warhammer up my tables every month, even though I don’t use the factions they are meant for.

[Klamm]

I don't blame anyone for disappointed. I'm excited about to hear about the new lore, but in the case of FEC models, it's a little underwhelming (and not because of the lack of actual units, I think the Skaven stuff is awesome).

On the sliding scale of 'okay' to 'amazing' that AoS releases tend to fall on, the Skaven better represents its faction. The Gnawholes are a crowd-pleasing, intriguing depiction of just 'how' Skaven burrow through reality. Then their endless spells hit the key beats: bell, realmstone, the dreaded 13th spell.

Meanwhile, IMO the FEC stuff is a little generic. The endless spells look fine, but really: if no one told you which factions they were for, would you be able to guess? The goblet is generic death, only the red colour implying FEC or Soulblight. The fence would fit equally in deathmages/deadwalkers. None of this captures the admittedly elusive themes of madness, delusion and flesh-EATING that define FEC. The terrain piece is a little better, subtly hinting at the duality in the detail, but 'ruins and some skulls' is not the kind of maverick, creative thinking that GW has spoiled us with in GG, IDK, Maggotkin etc. 

I  don't want to harsh anyone's buzz. The model quality, as ever, is on point. But in terms of theming the army to its great AoS lore, opportunities were missed.

[Shankelton]

4 minutes ago, JackStreicher said:

they‘re a 2 Billion GBP Company which uses cheap „tricks“ you would expect from a shady Chinese business. 

Personally I can't say I view it that way. Using methods to produce, at least for me, good, flavorful models in a more efficient manner is really only a good thing. If that justifies more models, and more importantly more battletomes updated to the AoS.2 standard, then that's only a positive for the game.

Of course I understand the sourness. Like @novakai said, we all want that sweet, sweet Gloomspite treatment. Flesheater courts could certainly go for more models, as I always found them a little samey. Then again, their flavor never really spoke to me anyways so I doubt I would have ever collected them anyways!

Beasts of chaos only really got a new terrain piece, and a handful of endless spells.... that took them from a faction I thought would just fade away to winning major events, and being the subject of a lot of positive hobby discussion.

[HollowHills]

8 minutes ago, novakai said:

I am pretty sure everyone ideally wants a Gloomspite or DoK type release.

But I think FEC have such a small model range to begin with is not helping.

I understand that, but if you get something now then your army will be in a much better state than it has been since the aos launch. They are perfectly free and able to revisit these factions in the future. 

If they know that their big releases for the next year and a bit are planned out, then its better to support those that aren't part of that picture with a small release. That way those factions aren't left with nothing until 2020 or 2021.

I think if you look at the aos website and the store you can see a picture of how GW want the factions to look like going forward. If they can get all those into a playable state with battletomes they can revisit them later and dot in new releases. 

It's like with 40k, they wanted to get a codex out for everyone. 

6 minutes ago, JackStreicher said:

Since most people can‘t get where I am coming from:

As a 3D Artist you try to recycle assets since it saves time. So let‘s say you have one base-mesh  for a human body which you re-use, but then you redo parts of it (face mostly). Same goes for smaller assets which mostly stay the same.

usually you change those base models to suit your client’s needs and to give your client a unique model. 

What you are seeing with the flesh eater Courts is just randomly placing already made assets, mostly not even changing them (I assume each of that models took about 3-4 hours in average. The throne took longer since the bones had to be placed, the goblet took shorter since you can do that with one array modifier...). I am already counting in the time it took to make them 3D printable. 

You simply would not do what GW did, it‘s insolent, lazy and just cheap.

they‘re a 2 Billion GBP Company which uses cheap „tricks“ you would expect from a shady Chinese business. 

Bow after knowing that and also hugely disliking the way it looks I am also aware that they will sell it for the usual price since they sell „premium“ products (what exactly was premium about those FeC spells again?).

 

this is somewhat insulting to me especially since I didn‘t expect that from „new GW“.

I don't know anything about modelling. But if reusing some digital assets and reducing some of the time and cost it takes to develop new kits means we can get more, well maybe that's a good trade.

In WHFB armies might languish for years without rules updates or new kits. Ask a Brettonian player, or an Orcs and Goblins player what is was like playing WHFB. 

We are now in a position where, GW for all their faults, are supporting all of their armies for both core games. 

[JackStreicher]

1 minute ago, HollowHills said:

We are now in a position where, GW for all their faults, are supporting all of their armies for both core games. 

For me the support would have been to give us at least one kit which includes unique models for our heroes)

🥺😣

[novakai]

3 minutes ago, JackStreicher said:

For me the support would have been to give us at least one kit which includes unique models for our heroes)

🥺😣

Umm the Archreagant hero  from the Box doesn't count?

TBH I would have at least hope a named hero character (Ushoran) or plastic Varghulf

[HollowHills]

Well some people are theorising that the corpse cart and zombies are getting added to fec. With the cart becoming a wizard to cast the new spells. 

[Mandzak-Miniatures]

2 minutes ago, HollowHills said:

Well some people are theorising that the corpse cart and zombies are getting added to fec. With the cart becoming a wizard to cast the new spells. 

As long as the zombies get a new kit.. gw should be embarrassed to use the old ones at this point lol

[JackStreicher]

22 minutes ago, novakai said:

Umm the Archreagant hero  from the Box doesn't count?

TBH I would have at least hope a named hero character (Ushoran) or plastic Varghulf

The new Archregent for example is an awesome model! And that is Though it‘s also a 70% recycle =}  (enough was changed to make it unique and Interesting.

imo we never had issues with too few hero choices...Pretty much all the rest except for behemoths is lacking

 

@HollowHills

would be cool though how would ordinary zombies fit in?

Edited February 3, 2019 by JackStreicher

[Neffelo]

8 minutes ago, HollowHills said:

Well some people are theorising that the corpse cart and zombies are getting added to fec. With the cart becoming a wizard to cast the new spells. 

I could see this. I'm not a huge fan of those models, but I would not turn down expanding the range somewhat.

Would be cool if that Artwork we saw is a new dual-kit corpse cart.

[novakai]

9 minutes ago, JackStreicher said:

 

would be cool though how would ordinary zombies fit in?

maybe they are the Serfs

[HollowHills]

The theory goes that zombies are the serfs, ghouls are men at arms and so on. 

Based on the art for the fence spell it seems plausible. 

As mandzak said though the zombies are pretty bad sculpts.

[Overread]

Zombies and the corpse cart would be ideal things to port over and put in Flesh Eaters. Though might be that they are getting a reworked corpse cart. 

[Nighthaunt Noob]

36 minutes ago, JackStreicher said:

The new Archregent for example is an awesome model! And that is Though it‘s also a 70% recycle =}  (enough was changed to make it unique and Interesting.

imo we never had issues with too few hero choices...Pretty much all the rest except for behemoths is lacking

 

@HollowHills

would be cool though how would ordinary zombies fit in?

Could you explain how it is a recycle? Which model does it recycle from?

[Chikout]

Well there is a lot to unpack here. I woke up briefly at 4 this morning (Japan time) glanced at my phone and went back to sleep. A couple of  hours later I woke up again after this weird dream where gw announced a second wave of Gsc kits, a new box set, two new battletomes, endless spells and scenery all in a single week. Madness!

Firstly the fec. I actually like the endless spells a lot. While it is clear they are using recycled assets, they all look great. For me some of the endless spells look a little goofy. The nighthaunt spells are a prime example of this. These look a bit more grounded and I really like the choice to base the design on the ossuaries that someone posted above. The scenery piece is less successful. The throne on top is great, but the little staircase does nothing for it xcept to give it some height.

@JackStreicher mentioned the strangeness of the scenery piece appearing in each battlefield. When the staircase is included I agree. I hope from a fluff point of view that the scenery piece is the throne. I think they are imagining something like this

They then put on the highest place that can find on the battlefield. 

This feels like a pretty good idea to me. There is lots of conversion potential for those who don’t want to buy the official kit.

the inclusion of zombies and the corpse cart would be a good fit I think. While I agree that the zombie kit is rubbish, there are many many great alternatives made by other companies.

the gw zombie kit also looks a lot better when kit bashed with other kits. The Cawdor Necromunda kit would be an awesome but expensive possibility. 

As for the skaven the scenery kit is great but the endless spells don’t do it for me. The rats look decent but the Necromunda bomb rats have shown the creative possibilities. These look a little plain by comparison. The bell and the warp stone are heading a little too close to goofy territory for me. 

As for the minis the core range is actually pretty recent and are all great sculpts. The clanrats, storm vermin, bell, storm fiends, thanquol, Doomwheel, lightning cannon, verminlords and most of the heroes are great sculpts that hold up really well. It is some of the subfaction stuff that is really showing its age. The gutter runners, plague monks and rat ogres being prime examples of this. 

Personally I kind of hope that clan Eshin gets left out of the book and gets its own tome nighthaunt style , later in the year.

a Skyre acolytes kit would also have been awesome. 

Overall it is very exciting for AOS. Who thought we would get three battletomes in the first six weeks of the year? It really makes you wonder what else they have planned for the year when gw thought they had to cram all this AOS stuff and a significant wave of minis for a popular 40k army into a single week. Remember when we got a single bloodbound hero as the week’s release, or when we got 4 battletomes in a whole year.

This has really reset my expectations for what is possible this year. Can’t wait to see what they unveil at Lvo this week. 

[Oredre]

I'll be purchasing almost everything available in the Skaven part of the release.  I am curious to see if Poison Wind Mortars and Warpfire Throwers aren't usable however.

[The_Yellow_Sign]

9 minutes ago, Oredre said:

I'll be purchasing almost everything available in the Skaven part of the release.  I am curious to see if Poison Wind Mortars and Warpfire Throwers aren't usable however.

I really hope they stay in. Though the kits were only available in Island of Blood, they are beautiful models and a pretty important part of Skryre thematically.

[novakai]

3 minutes ago, Oredre said:

I'll be purchasing almost everything available in the Skaven part of the release.  I am curious to see if Poison Wind Mortars and Warpfire Throwers aren't usable however.

 I would not know how they would put  Skyre acolyte in considering how hard it is to get a unit of them in the field, rat swarm are the other thing I don't know if they will keep. I have a feeling that a lot of stuff won't make it into the tome.

[NinjaDetective]

3 hours ago, Chikout said:

  

Personally I kind of hope that clan Eshin gets left out of the book and gets its own tome nighthaunt style , later in the year

The community article said their in the book

[Yoshiya]

Not sure I get how reusing assets is a bad thing as long as the end creation is new. In fact, I kind of like them doing it as it helps tie everything together. A dead horse is a dead horse after all, we don't need them to redesign them from stratch everytime otherwise you'll end up with things that are supposed to be the same looking completely different. If a lot of time has passed sure but otherwise I like the idea that skeletons don't suddenly change in appearance because the ghouls got to them instead of Nagash.

That said, I'm not a huge fan of most of the new stuff. The horses are kind of cool, as is the chalice. The fence looks more like a piece of terrain than a spell though and the throne just looks a bit off. The skaven spells are either goofy or underwhelming (the rats need coo background to look like anything more than a gathering of rats in my opinion. Compared to the spider swarm they don't even seem to be particularly numerous) and whilst the pools are alright I'm not a huge fan.

That said, the idea that GW is willing to put out two battletomes at once as well as update old ones excites me a lot. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what comes out the rest of this year. Also, it shows they are willing to share major/semi-major releases from both systems on the same day which means 40k releases don't rule out AoS ones.

[mikethefish]

2 hours ago, Yoshiya said:

 The fence looks more like a piece of terrain than a spell though

The spell part is that the fence is actually bursting out of the ground