The Rumour Thread

[uk_unbeliever]

I was pretty hyped for high elves but the Teclis model really doesn't float my boat. I like the V shaped reference to the older model and clearly it's very nicely detailed but I don't understand why he's just kind of next to the sphinx, it doesn't look right to me. The sphinx is cool- would be great on its own.  Teclis looks ok (the face and super straight legs look a bit off to me) but some magical elements to explain the floating (like on nagash or celestant prime) would look better in my opinion. This looks like a conversion people do when they stick a flying model on some scenery because they need the model to look like it's flying past it- that's ok because you're focus is on the model, but here it's  a confusing as to what is the focal point of the model.

The ghost elf I like a lot better

[Gareth 🍄]

On 1/23/2020 at 7:53 AM, EMMachine said:

Behemat was a godbeast and was basicly known as the ancestor of the Gargants, who was under the Scabrous Sprawl (this was the story back in the "Realmgate Wars: Godbeasts" Book). He basicly was killed by the Stormcast Eternals to prevent that Archaon got Behemat under his control.

It will be interesting to see if King Brodd, "last true son of Behemat" has survived.

 

 "Wherever he goes, Brodd carries a huge granite pillar - both his symbol of rulership and his weapon in times of war"

King Brodd miniature?

Edited January 24, 2020 by Gareth 🍄

[Still-young]

1 hour ago, SaJeel said:

I'm thinking new models In a vs box with sons of behemat 

I really doubt it. 2 whole new sets of miniatures in a double box like that would be a departure, and I don’t really see Sons of Behemat working in a double box - the models are gonna be pretty big and expensive. You’d probably get one in there for the price. 

[Nos]

6 hours ago, PaniuBraniu said:

With maritime I agree, however, the Old World high elves had maritime flavor, as they were somehow supposed to portray the British Empire of old.

These new guys are as neo-classical as one could hope. They have greek helmets and plums and the cavalry resemple greek cataphracts with armoured horses and lances. 

I don't see any east asian influence other than the bonsai trees.

In no way way so ever did the High Elves portray a British Empire "of old" besides being an island nation.  Like-theres nothing there at all for that.

There are however masses of comparisons you can draw between two classical civilisations (Greece and Rome)  who lived by the sea who conquered and colonised much of the world before eventually retreating into themselves and antiquity in the wake of a dark age and new beginning in world history while leaving a foundation of classical heritage and impression of a superior and more advanced culture upon which a new world order was built. You know, like what happened with the High Elves.

Greek Cataphract is an oxymoron. Greeks are recorded as having fought *against* Cataphracts. Macedonia and the Successor kingdoms  (not Greece, and both Greece and Macedon were very clear about that fact) used them, although they looked nothing like these.  

Having Greek helmets dosent make them look greek, it makes then have greek helmets. The rest of their stuff, the stuff that makes up their silhouette -flowing robes and trousers, porcelain armour, crescent moons, even the way in which the runes are crafted-these are all much more reflective of Eastern culture than neo-classical.

The Aekheliean aesthetic is much closer to Greek. The Greeks famously celebrated the human form, hence the muscled cuirass of a hoplite, and abundant nakedness. They didnt cover it up with flowing robes and considered it a form of barbarism to do so. 

I do enjoy the echoes of the Aekhelian style in these but part of that is because of how narrativley clever it is. You can tell by looking that while both share the same progeny there is a wild and muscular (Spartan) cunning  to the Aekhelians vs the more effortless and disdainful martial tradition of these guys.

Realistically though the biggest inspiration to the range by far is 40K Eldar of course, a model range which has very little Greek in its visual language.

Edited January 24, 2020 by Nos

[Saturmorn Carvilli]

On the Seraphon cover art not matching the current models.  I believe that is a good sign there are new sculpts on the way.  About this time last year the Chaos Space Marine/Space Marine art for Vigilus was available (with no hint of new models) and there were a couple of tiny little paint brush stokes way in the back that turned out to be the models for Shadowspear.  I truly believe Games Workshop no longer commissions art that doesn't look like their model line anymore.  I think the Chapter House case has made them paranoid to the extreme on this sort of thing.  People talk about no model, no rules.  I think this also applies to their art.  As I can't remember the last time they had a image (especially so prominent as the cover of a book) that featured art that didn't look like their model line. 

 

As for the pointy elves, I am glad their is another faction that looks to be sticking to fighting battles with line infantry, cavalry and archers (mostly likely).  I play my army very much like a rank and file one, but I haven't encountered another faction that wasn't trying some kinda of crazy way of fighting.  "Not that that there's anything wrong with that."  I would just find it refreshing to face another army who is interested in fighting with solid rank and flank fundamentals like mine.  These pointy elves look like they just might do that.

[Hyperion]

If I can find a way to model the sphinx and Teclis separately and then cover Teclis' face up I think I can work with them and be happy.  

[Still-young]

4 minutes ago, Saturmorn Carvilli said:

On the Seraphon cover art not matching the current models.  I believe that is a good sign there are new sculpts on the way.  About this time last year the Chaos Space Marine/Space Marine art for Vigilus was available (with no hint of new models) and there were a couple of tiny little paint brush stokes way in the back that turned out to be the models for Shadowspear.  I truly believe Games Workshop no longer commissions art that doesn't look like their model line anymore.  I think the Chapter House case has made them paranoid to the extreme on this sort of thing.  People talk about no model, no rules.  I think this also applies to their art.  As I can't remember the last time they had a image (especially so prominent as the cover of a book) that featured art that didn't look like their model line. 

 

As for the pointy elves, I am glad their is another faction that looks to be sticking to fighting battles with line infantry, cavalry and archers (mostly likely).  I play my army very much like a rank and file one, but I haven't encountered another faction that wasn't trying some kinda of crazy way of fighting.  "Not that that there's anything wrong with that."  I would just find it refreshing to face another army who is interested in fighting with solid rank and flank fundamentals like mine.  These pointy elves look like they just might do that.

There have been pieces of art that don’t match the models though. There was art of a keeper of secrets with cool Slaanesh mortals cavorting around it, but they’re nowhere to be seen. 

[Platypus]

44 minutes ago, sandlemad said:

Now that you mention it, it's been fully 13 hours since we last heard anything from GW about these pointy elves. That's kind of a suspicious silence, isn't it? Feels like they're trying to downplay their importance... I dunno guys, can't prove anything but feels like they might be about to squat pointy elves.

Yeah, looks like the Pointy Elves were squatted, instead we got these fancy "Lumineth Realm-lords"...not happy about this development!

[Still-young]

4 minutes ago, Hyperion said:

If I can find a way to model the sphinx and Teclis separately and then cover Teclis' face up I think I can work with them and be happy.  

They look easy to separate. 

[Hyperion]

8 minutes ago, Still-young said:

They look easy to separate. 

Yeah, I was thinking more of in base size, if teclis is by himself, does he have to stay on that massive base haha.  hopefully he has an alternate profile with just him and no ''mount''. 

[Gecktron]

24 minutes ago, Nos said:

In no way way so ever did the High Elves portray a British Empire "of old" besides being an island nation.  Like-theres nothing there at all for that.

Colonies all over the world, strongtest navy, their former colony in "not-north-america" fighting a war against them and becoming independent. 

Its not on the nose but there is some stuff in there. 

[mojojojo101]

15 minutes ago, Still-young said:

They look easy to separate. 

 

It looks easy to break.

My initial thought would be to take him off the top of the wing and instead attach him somewhere near where that tree is. Hopefully get him on a little more securely and to get the idea that the wing of the sphinx is sort of enveloping/protecting him.

 

[Saturmorn Carvilli]

18 minutes ago, Still-young said:

There have been pieces of art that don’t match the models though. There was art of a keeper of secrets with cool Slaanesh mortals cavorting around it, but they’re nowhere to be seen. 

I haven't seen that bit of art.  Are you sure it wasn't just Deamonettes?  I did a quick of Google search, and all I can find is art with the Keeper of Secrets with Deamonettes.  It was hardly an exhaustive search though.  So I don't doubt you, I just haven't seen anything like that from the new GW art.

[madmac]

12 minutes ago, Still-young said:

There have been pieces of art that don’t match the models though. There was art of a keeper of secrets with cool Slaanesh mortals cavorting around it, but they’re nowhere to be seen. 

You're right, and there's other examples, like the winged magmadroth looking things in the Fyreslayer tome, but none of those were cover art.

With the 2.0 Battletomes especially, nearly every one of them has followed the pattern of "unit champ, front and center, other army models in the background."

With the Seraphon tome that seems to be the setup, except the Centerpiece Saurus warrior and surrounding models (who all look just like him, just less elaborate and some of them holding banners) don't look anything like any Saurus unit* models we've seen, or any other Seraphon art I've personally seen, and I'm including the art in battletomes as recent as Orruk Warclans. We have Saurus Warriors, who are basically unarmored, and Guard who are lightly armored and look completely different, and then we have the cluster of heavily armored Saurus Warriors on the cover which have never existed as models or as any art I've seen.

I'm not convinced it means anything in the end, but it certainly looks like the artist is pulling from actual models for the image, just not models that have been generally released.

*Qualifier because the center image actually looks nearly identical to the TWW version of the Oldblood, except what we have on the cover looks more like a whole unit of Old Bloods than a lone hero.

 

[Kramer]

Hadn’t seen this anywhere. It’s from the black stone video

[HollowHills]

27 minutes ago, Still-young said:

They look easy to separate. 

If I get Teclis, which I may not do on account of him being a genocidal maniac, I would look at magnatising that. No idea how it will fit in a case without breaking. 

[Still-young]

9 minutes ago, Saturmorn Carvilli said:

I haven't seen that bit of art.  Are you sure it wasn't just Deamonettes?  I did a quick of Google search, and all I can find is art with the Keeper of Secrets with Deamonettes.  It was hardly an exhaustive search though.  So I don't doubt you, I just haven't seen anything like that from the new GW art.

 

[Still-young]

7 minutes ago, madmac said:

You're right, and there's other examples, like the winged magmadroth looking things in the Fyreslayer tome, but none of those were cover art.

With the 2.0 Battletomes especially, nearly every one of them has followed the pattern of "unit champ, front and center, other army models in the background."

With the Seraphon tome that seems to be the setup, except the Centerpiece Saurus warrior and surrounding models (who all look just like him, just less elaborate and some of them holding banners) don't look anything like any Saurus unit* models we've seen, or any other Seraphon art I've personally seen, and I'm including the art in battletomes as recent as Orruk Warclans. We have Saurus Warriors, who are basically unarmored, and Guard who are lightly armored and look completely different, and then we have the cluster of heavily armored Saurus Warriors on the cover which have never existed as models or as any art I've seen.

I'm not convinced it means anything in the end, but it certainly looks like the artist is pulling from actual models for the image, just not models that have been generally released.

*Qualifier because the center image actually looks nearly identical to the TWW version of the Oldblood, except what we have on the cover looks more like a whole unit of Old Bloods than a lone hero.

 

Honestly I don’t know how you can tell the artist was drawing from models and not just their imagination. Saurus models are pretty boring, I could see it just being something extra in the art to break it up a bit/make some stand out. 

[Nos]

Just now, Gecktron said:

Colonies all over the world, strongtest navy, their former colony in "not-north-america" fighting a war against them and becoming independent. 

Its not on the nose but there is some stuff in there. 

Hadn't thought of the Colonial Civil War aspect, that's fair enough actually. In 20+ years I never even thought of that despite always being perplexed as to why North American Warhammer was Naggaroth and awful and nothing geographically like it. Good spot!

Nothing intrinsically British about being a colonial sea power though.  Been lots of those.

[HorticulusTGA]

So between recent announcements, the Chinese shipment informations and the LVO reveals, we know at least 4 forthcoming AOS books (and linked releases*) and we can safely speculate on the fifth. So, in (probable) order of releases : 

- Soul Wars : Wrath Of The Everchosen

- Battletome : Seraphon

- Battletome : Lumineth Realmlords

- Battletome : Sons Of Behemat

- Soul Wars : "Falls Of Excelsis" or something. 

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE 😍

* I wish so hard for a Lizardmen redesign in the magitek / total war style it's not even funny. At least a plastic Slann for AOS, Blood Bowl or Blackstone fortress !!!

[Nighthaunt Noob]

Is it just me or did they seriously leave a massive mold line running down the side of Teclis in their studio shots?

Edited January 24, 2020 by Nighthaunt Noob

[Still-young]

1 minute ago, Nighthaunt Noob said:

Is it just me or did they seriously leave a massive mold line running down the side of Teclis in their studio shots?

No, if you look at the front on photo it looks like he has some white trim down each side of his trousers. 

[swarmofseals]

54 minutes ago, Nos said:

In no way way so ever did the High Elves portray a British Empire "of old" besides being an island nation.  Like-theres nothing there at all for that.

There are however masses of comparisons you can draw between two classical civilisations (Greece and Rome)  who lived by the sea who conquered and colonised much of the world before eventually retreating into themselves and antiquity in the wake of a dark age and new beginning in world history while leaving a foundation of classical heritage and impression of a superior and more advanced culture upon which a new world order was built. You know, like what happened with the High Elves.

Greek Cataphract is an oxymoron. Greeks are recorded as having fought *against* Cataphracts. Macedonia and the Successor kingdoms  (not Greece, and both Greece and Macedon were very clear about that fact) used them, although they looked nothing like these.  

Having Greek helmets dosent make them look greek, it makes then have greek helmets. The rest of their stuff, the stuff that makes up their silhouette -flowing robes and trousers, porcelain armour, crescent moons, even the way in which the runes are crafted-these are all much more reflective of Eastern culture than neo-classical.

The Aekheliean aesthetic is much closer to Greek. The Greeks famously celebrated the human form, hence the muscled cuirass of a hoplite, and abundant nakedness. They didnt cover it up with flowing robes and considered it a form of barbarism to do so. 

I do enjoy the echoes of the Aekhelian style in these but part of that is because of how narrativley clever it is. You can tell by looking that while both share the same progeny there is a wild and muscular (Spartan) cunning  to the Aekhelians vs the more effortless and disdainful martial tradition of these guys.

Realistically though the biggest inspiration to the range by far is 40K Eldar of course, a model range which has very little Greek in its visual language.

Agreed - to me they have a vibe that is more Hellenistic than Hellenic. 

I'm super excited for this release. Not a huge fan of Eltharion but love the rest. I'd have preferred Teclis coming with a giant owl, but the sphinx is great too!

[sorokyl]

28 minutes ago, Still-young said:

There have been pieces of art that don’t match the models though. There was art of a keeper of secrets with cool Slaanesh mortals cavorting around it, but they’re nowhere to be seen. 

1. 2.0 battletome art seems to have higher standards, do you have any examples of 2.0 battletome covers that so blatantly do not match the models. 
2. They revealed a nurgle warband, but no other warbands. They always release 2 at a time right?  It would be a convenient time to release seraphon warband so it could be in the book. otherwise you've got years of that warscroll not being in a book (they seem to try really hard to avoid this sort of thing).  Nurgle is now the oldest battletome, they don't have as long to wait.    If you've got your designers making a little bloodbowl team, and a little underworlds warband, doesn't it make sense to have them design a few other models at the same time while they're in the seraphon grove? 
3. You already have an example of releasing a new SC box for an old army  (STD) that just adds some new sculpts without replacing the existing kits. 
3. The current seraphon start collecting box is a terrible mess. It's got odd model counts, it's got very old inefficient sprues.. it has 7 full frames! The new Slaves to Darkness box is 3 full frames.  When you've been production bottlenecked for years, being able to reduce a high volume product like a SC box from 7 frames to 3, that's a huge plus. Not to mention, the saurus warriors and knights are some of the most complained about sculpts, even though they're plastic and still servicable, so some new supplmentary sculpts would be very welcome. 

So, all that considered. I think it's possible we'll see some new Seraphon models yet... 

[Still-young]

2 minutes ago, sorokyl said:

1. 2.0 battletome art seems to have higher standards, do you have any examples of 2.0 battletome covers that so blatantly do not match the models. 
2. They revealed a nurgle warband, but no other warbands. They always release 2 at a time right?  It would be a convenient time to release seraphon warband so it could be in the book. otherwise you've got years of that warscroll not being in a book (they seem to try really hard to avoid this sort of thing).  Nurgle is now the oldest battletome, they don't have as long to wait.    If you've got your designers making a little bloodbowl team, and a little underworlds warband, doesn't it make sense to have them design a few other models at the same time while they're in the seraphon grove? 
3. You already have an example of releasing a new SC box for an old army  (STD) that just adds some new sculpts without replacing the existing kits. 
3. The current seraphon start collecting box is a terrible mess. It's got odd model counts, it's got very old inefficient sprues.. it has 7 full frames! The new Slaves to Darkness box is 3 full frames.  When you've been production bottlenecked for years, being able to reduce a high volume product like a SC box from 7 frames to 3, that's a huge plus. Not to mention, the saurus warriors and knights are some of the most complained about sculpts, even though they're plastic and still servicable, so some new supplmentary sculpts would be very welcome. 

So, all that considered. I think it's possible we'll see some new Seraphon models yet... 

2. No. They’ve been releasing them one at a time so far, even if they released 2, they’ve shown the Ogor one that isn’t out yet, and we know the rest of the warbands this season from the cards (Daughters of Khaine and Orruks). 
3. That was also announced alongside the battletome.