The official AoS Website, 2.0 Previews, and GHB Allegiances, what does it really mean?

[kenshin620]

As we near the first anniversary of AoS 2.0 and are seeing more battletomes new and old show up, I can't help but dredge up the topic of Factions in AoS. I've been bringing this up constantly in a few other topics focused on one or two factions, but I wanted to see what the whole discussion brings to the table.

With the "death" of greenskinz and gitmob grots, I think the last of the "going to get squatted" factions is over (ok there is one other faction I think and thats the majority of Swifthawk Agents, yet I think their chariots may survive). Now thats a pretty big leap of assumptions, but hear me out....

This is based off of some evidence that may mean nothing, and yet so far has been scarily accurate thus far. And this also brings up the question of how Battletomes may come out. If at all of course. There are 3 pieces of evidence which are the Official Age of Sigmar website (yes, thats a thing), the warhammer community  2.0 faction focus Previews (yes the WC is not 100% accurate, but it seems to be lining up), and the GHB Allegiances (which many people have the assumption means the faction is "safe" and may even get battletome'd).

This of course brings up some interesting theories, namely in the Order department because they clearly separate Free Peoples, Dispossessed, and Aelves. This could possibly debunk the wishlist of a "Free Cities" book.

 

As so far how has history played out?

Beasts of Chaos, one of the least likely books to ever come out.

The official AoS Website lists a faction called the Creatures of Chaos, specifically points out Brayherd and Thunderscorn.

The AoS 2.0 faction focus preview flat out calls them the Beasts of Chaos despite months before the official Battletome announcement and talks about Brayherds, Warherds, and Thunderscorn.

In the GHB, the Brayherds have an Allegiance ability.

 

Gloomspite Gitz

The official AoS Website lists a faction called the Grots, specifically points out Moonclan, Spiderfang, and Troggoths

The AoS 2.0 faction focus preview also calls them Grots, and talks about all the grots alongside troggoths and gargants. While it does mention the Gitmob, this is a warhammer community article so they likely had no idea the gitmobs were going away. Plus all the pictures were strangely absent of any gitmob.

They have had no GHB presence, BUT already had the Herald which guaranteed some form of grot update.

 

Skaventide (sure one could say this was a guarantee, but evidence nevertheless)

The official AoS Website lists the Skaven faction as a untied force.

The AoS 2.0 faction focus preview also has the Skaven all in one preview.

They have 2 GHB allegiances. (well one used to be a battletome turned GHB allegiance)

 

Where does that leave us?

The 4 chaos gods are of course a guarantee, none of that "slaanesh recton" conspiracies exist now. Hosts of slaanesh have their own faction profile, warhammer community article, GHB allegiance, and already has a head start on brand new units/kits.

For Non-God dedicated, they combined Everchosen with Slaves to Darkness in both the faction preview and the official website. Slaves have a GHB allegiance (and theres the Everchosen book, even if it is a weird format), and the Darkoath have a Herald model. Darkoath may become it's own minifaction/keyword. Funnily enough they even specifically pointed out in the faction preview: "There are also a host of changes incoming that we’ll be previewing when the time comes – so there’s even more for Slaves to Darkness and Everchosen to look forward to".  With this faction, it's not a question of "If" but "When" much like skaven. Unless they pull a fast one and Darkoath is it's own thing, but seems doubtful, even Nighthaunt isn't 100% independent from Legions of Nagash. Doubly so for Chaos with all the cross faction hopping.

Death is.....Death. They already got the big 2.0 faction with Nighthaunt, they have Legions of Nagash, and FEC got their 2d book. The only odd one out is Soulblight, but there have been little to no hints of them becoming independent any time soon if at all. No other known new factions.

Destruction is interesting in that there is evidence of Gutbusters being a faction. Unlike Greenskinz and Gitmobs, they have a AoS Wesbsite page (specifically mentions Firebellies and Gargants), and a faction focus. The real odd part is the lack of GHB allegiance. Yet if they were to be with BCR, they surely wouldn't have bothered with separate pages.

 

Order is the big one.

Free Peoples have their own faction profile which combines them with Devoted of Sigmar, Ironweld Arsenal, and Collegiate Arcane. Their faction preview also mentions using Ironweld and Wizards (yes as allies, but thats also what happened in things like the Grot previews) . They have a GHB allegiance.

Dispossessed have all 3 tick marks (website profile, faction preview,  GHB allegiance). Unlike all other factions, they right now are standing on their own, the community article mentions allies but in the form of KO and SCE. Maybe Gyrocopters will come back, but oddly they never mentioned them. It may be a Flesh Eater Courts situation, a bit sad I suppose to have only so many models to use, but better than squatting.

 

Aelves...well this is the REALLY big one. In fact the warhammer community article specifically labels it a MEGA Faction Focus.

Unlike Free People or Dispossessed (the old factions still existing as a AoS flavor), Aelves are very unique in that evidence points to a united aelven force of all 3 old armies. The Aelves faction page on the official website specifically mentions Dragon Wizards, Phoenix Riders, Lion Rangers, and Scourge Privateers (all in ONE SENTENCE). All aelven factions are talked about in the faction preview, even the nearly gone swifthawks (but once again, Warhammer community only has so much info). They have 2 GHB allegiances. Yes of course there are of course rumors for the completely brand new TM friendly aelves, yet why would they go all this trouble for the old aelves? It could be that Aleves are going to be the order equivalent of Skaven or Beasts of Chaos.

 

Once again all I'm going off on are a website that probably doesn't get updated much (the official website), the 2.0 community faction focuses (community isn't 100% official), GHB allegiances (mostly safe bets?) and of course how the recent string of new battletomes.

 

well that was a loooong post. Sorry for the brain-ramble but I really wanted to get this off my chest. And the rumor thread probably is a bit too big for this kind of a post.

 

For resources

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/06/05/faction-focus-index/

https://ageofsigmar.com/factions/order/

[Thiagoma]

I have to myself that GW is clueless about what to do with Aelves. 

Only collection with 90% plastic still not AoS packed. 

Really wish they would make their minds.

[Overread]

I think Aelves will possibly the the biggest mess that GW leaves AoS with for a while. The fragmenting and story attachment to so many subfactions was a mess that original AoS left GW with. They can't get rid of them - there's way too many modern plastic kits and quality models in there - and they can't make each into an army of its own. 

That said we really don't know what they will do, though a combined army might be on the cards. The biggest downside being that the old dark, light and wood elves all had very unique appearances and styles - heck the high elves were all with those big pointy cone hats. So it might look odd until such time as GW might udpate the listings. 

 

 

What will happen will happen but we are stuck with a waiting game. My greatest hope is that we don't lose too many kits over that period - though we've already lost the glade archers. 

[eciu]

<grumbling and waiting for Dispossesed BT>

[Asensur]

I expect that the 4 grand alliance books will do something to cover issues like the aelves subfactions. 

Maybe we will even see allegiance made of different armies, as pure daemon army allegiance, or a highborn allegiance. 

Even we could see the return of the squatted factions. 

[Overread]

Honestly I kind of hope we don't see grand alliance books released for rules for the game. Right now AoS is in a really good place in terms of allowing all faction lists, but having a bias toward single faction lists. I don't think we really want to end up like 40K space marines where the only way to win is by building broken lists formed from 10 different factions in order.

 

Losing Greenskins was a shock but I can sort of see how it happened and was suprirsed they didn't roll the models into one of the other greenskin armies. That said I really hope tombkings - in some form - return!

[pseudonyme]

Soulblight is weird because they don’t have a faction focus, are not at the fore front of Legion of Nagash, and yet, they are on the front of the small diamond shape previewing armies like gutbusters.

 

I wonder if it will be just endless and terrain or with a couple of new kits.

[Still-young]

8 minutes ago, pseudonyme said:

Soulblight is weird because they don’t have a faction focus, are not at the fore front of Legion of Nagash, and yet, they are on the front of the small diamond shape previewing armies like gutbusters.

 

I wonder if it will be just endless and terrain or with a couple of new kits.

I wouldn’t necessarily expect those art pieces to be indicative of what books are coming. The art used is from before the announcement anyway, just reused to show each grand alliance. 

[pseudonyme]

If so, why would they put a vampire in the core front instead of Nagash, Olynder or the FEC Archregeant?

Vampires being in the odd state of having 2 out of 4 allegiances in LON, and also having specific Soulblight allegiances. 

[Still-young]

41 minutes ago, pseudonyme said:

If so, why would they put a vampire in the core front instead of Nagash, Olynder or the FEC Archregeant?

Vampires being in the odd state of having 2 out of 4 allegiances in LON, and also having specific Soulblight allegiances. 

It was just art they used to show each grand allegiance during the run up to AoS 2, which they’ve reused here. 

[Turin Turambar]

I wouldn't be surprised if we see the combined Aelven battle tome shorty after Slaanesh, as it fits narratively (to have aelves getting updated tomes after slaneesh), fixes one of the biggest messes in AOS and allows them to save the big releases of malerion and tyrion aelves for next year or later. some of the factions of the Aelves are also super popular from what i can see so making them more competitive would be something i doubt GW will not cash in on.

I personally doubt swifthawk agents will be squatted (as chariots and skycutters are unique and to a lesser extent so are their other options being decent [to an extent] in both melee and shooting) especially due to their position in lore.

personally if I were to design the Aelves of the Free cities, I would give the faction a list of basic units that get upgraded with traits and weapons based on the faction you choose them to be, combined with unique units for each faction. you use the existing models for these, combined with a few cheap upgrade sprues. 

for example: a generic lord or two; aelven shieldwall (with spears or swords), aleven skirmishers/archers (longbows?), aelven cavalry, and perhapps the return of bolt throwers.

then if i took swift hawks, for example,  i would unlock stuff for all the genric units, like bows (and other upgrades) for shield wall turning them into spireguard, and upgrades for aelven cavalry that turn them into reavers, etc while i gain skycutters and chariots etc as unique units, swifthawk agents also are the perfect faction to have the return of hawkridders (but now with lothern style rather than wood elf style)

or if I chose darkling coverns the skirmishers could be armed with repeater crossbows and you gain sorcerers and blackguard, and unit rules and upgrades, etc (I would also move dark riders to darkling coverns as they fit their style better, they can be their 'upgrade' for aelven cavalry)

In this way you could make a whole load of unique looking factions while also not overdoing the number of kitts, they could also in the future replace the entire ranges to just a few kits and upgrades both in the sprues and separate from them.

[madmac]

47 minutes ago, Still-young said:

It was just art they used to show each grand allegiance during the run up to AoS 2, which they’ve reused here. 

Sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean there's no meaning.

It's interesting for example that they've consistently used Ogre Artwork prominently to symbolize Destruction in AoS 2, including the core rulebook.

I wouldn't take those images as gospel, but it would be equally silly to think they were chosen at complete random. That's not how business works, and especially not how marketing works, where a lot of time and money goes into choosing these images and store blurbs.

Keep in mind also that as pointed out in the OP, the recent releases have tracked very closely to the store reorganization so far. At the time it happened, GW denied it meant anything, and a lot of people here also insisted it meant nothing, but it's been a very good indicator so far, especially paired with the faction focuses and short faction write-ups.

[Still-young]

7 minutes ago, madmac said:

Sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean there's no meaning.

It's interesting for example that they've consistently used Ogre Artwork prominently to symbolize Destruction in AoS 2, including the core rulebook.

I wouldn't take those images as gospel, but it would be equally silly to think they were chosen at complete random. That's not how business works, and especially not how marketing works, where a lot of time and money goes into choosing these images and store blurbs.

Keep in mind also that as pointed out in the OP, the recent releases have tracked very closely to the store reorganization so far. At the time it happened, GW denied it meant anything, and a lot of people here also insisted it meant nothing, but it's been a very good indicator so far, especially paired with the faction focuses and short faction write-ups.

I’m not saying it absolutely doesn’t mean anything, I just don’t think it’s a good idea to get hopes up about what’s coming based on some art that could just as well been picked at random as it could to foreshadow new releases. 

[kenshin620]

45 minutes ago, Still-young said:

It was just art they used to show each grand allegiance during the run up to AoS 2, which they’ve reused here. 

Yea it's the same art as in the official AoS website (essentially a New Player Primer). The only other different one is chaos which on the website is represented by khorne.

I think the Soulblight is an interesting conundrum because I think there is a "fear" of getting rid of Allegiance Abilities and it costs little to nothing to toss in the Soulblight Allegiance page into LoN (heck they tossed in the Death Grand Allegiance into LoN as well, and there is little to no reason to ever run that). Plus 1/2 the legions having vampire leaders does show their importance. How they will handle Soulblight vs Legion of Blood is beyond me. Maybe Soulblight Bloodlines can become mini factions of LoB or something or they're waiting for the Death hype train to slow down before launching new undead lines (though FEC could have used some love for new models).

 

6 minutes ago, Turin Turambar said:

 

I personally doubt swifthawk agents will be squatted (as chariots and skycutters are unique and to a lesser extent so are their other options being decent [to an extent] in both melee and shooting) especially due to their position in lore.

I do think the chariots will still be sold but literally all their other units are OOP , so thats why I think on their own, SWA are done.

 

 

[madmac]

1 minute ago, Still-young said:

I’m not saying it absolutely doesn’t mean anything, I just don’t think it’s a good idea to get hopes up about what’s coming based on some art that could just as well been picked at random as it could to foreshadow new releases. 

I guess what I'm saying is that there is no business that just picks art at random. They may have chosen specific art for a variety of reasons, but random never really enters into the equation.

[Turin Turambar]

"literally all their other units are OOP"

on the one hand I can see them being squatted due to that, but that is only due to their 'updated' models for those 3 units (reavers, highwarden and spireguard) being in that box mixed with skaven.

swifthawk agents still have skywardens, skycutters, chariots, and shadow warriors.  (so no they still have have 4/7 models available)

the three former I think are too unique to squat and the last one (shadow warriors) are a sharded kit and thus unlikely to be squatted. thus they have battle line, commanders plus 2 large models and enough for playing. while it is possible for these units to be absorbed into other factions i think they fit aesthetically and rules wise in swifthawks. plus it would be relatively easy to take existing models from one sprue and design a new sprue for it, but too much work except for a battletome release, so I wouldn't be surprised if we got spireguard, highwarden and reavers back (I think its as, if not more likely, then swifthawks getting squatted).

[kenshin620]

Well I suppose you don't need too many units to have your own faction traits and items. Thunderscorne is made up of 2 units. Swifthawks do still have more than many tinier aelf factions, I was just thinking that out of all the aelven fores, they lost the most to oop. I mean they still sell the dang stupid old Swordmasters!

 I would honestly thought Lion Rangers be dead, except they blatantly said "Lionheart Rangers" on the website (which is weird since right now they are just called lion rangers, maybe a typo?)

 

[King Taloren]

13 minutes ago, kenshin620 said:

 

 I would honestly thought Lion Rangers be dead, except they blatantly said "Lionheart Rangers" on the website (which is weird since right now they are just called lion rangers, maybe a typo?)

 

That or GW is hinting at the most absurd crossover of Sigmar ever.

Care Bears faction. 😱

[ledha]

4 hours ago, pseudonyme said:

If so, why would they put a vampire in the core front instead of Nagash, Olynder or the FEC Archregeant?

Vampires being in the odd state of having 2 out of 4 allegiances in LON, and also having specific Soulblight allegiances. 

this picture was already used in 2017, it doesn't mean anything

[FlatTooth]

2 hours ago, King Taloren said:

 

Care Bears faction. 😱

All in. 

[Gorthor21]

I really hope the expand the grand alliance allegiance abilities to be more in-depth like some of the single faction Battletomes to make it more appealing to use them.  Given the lengths they went to incorporate the dispossessed and aelves into the free cities lore I would be surprised if they were separated like has been suggested here.  

[pseudonyme]

13 minutes ago, ledha said:

this picture was already used in 2017, it doesn't mean anything

Ok but from a marketing point of view, it does not make any sense to put a non faction up front.

[JackStreicher]

2 hours ago, pseudonyme said:

Ok but from a marketing point of view, it does not make any sense to put a non faction up front.

GW and marketing 🤣😁🤣🤣

“let‘s release new, underpowered and overcosted Space Marines, The People will buy that as Crazy!“

🤣🤣🤣😂

GW is the worst at marketing, have you seen the backlash they‘ve got for Shadowspear? ^^

[FlatTooth]

6 hours ago, JackStreicher said:

GW and marketing 🤣😁🤣🤣

“let‘s release new, underpowered and overcosted Space Marines, The People will buy that as Crazy!“

🤣🤣🤣😂

GW is the worst at marketing, have you seen the backlash they‘ve got for Shadowspear? ^^

The angry nerds on the internet don’t really represent the actual fan base, my dude. I am sure the sales for Shadowspear will be plenty good. 

[Turin Turambar]

11 hours ago, Gorthor21 said:

I really hope the expand the grand alliance allegiance abilities to be more in-depth like some of the single faction Battletomes to make it more appealing to use them.  Given the lengths they went to incorporate the dispossessed and aelves into the free cities lore I would be surprised if they were separated like has been suggested here.  

it could be like imperium in 40k where you have multiple factions with the same key word (free cities), but i guess order will be that. the main reason it will likely be 2-3 battletomes is the number of subfactions and units is surely too high for 1 battletome.