The Rumour Thread

[Dreddships]

Prediction -

Skellies are going to get shafted outside of OBR.

Deathlords will be LoN minus Skellies, Ghosts and Arkhan.

LoN wont be squatted straight away and will be in a weird place for a while whilst NH, Deathlords and OBR sweep up what's left.

Will still be able to field Nagash - next Nighthaunt book/BR will have Nagash be able to run in pure NH army too.

New Zombies, Varghulf, Giant Bats Blood Knights, Vampire Elite on Foot and Dire Wolves

Edited January 19, 2021 by Dreddships

[El Syf]

Vampire Lords need a new warscroll, make them back to what they used to be; absoloutley terrifying. As opposed to the oh is that a vampire? SPLAT vampire lords we have now.

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

3 minutes ago, Nasnad said:

Still not sure what the halloween tease was about, do you all think it will tie in with the new vampires?

I think that will be part of the expansion of the Deadwalkers subfaction, along with those rumor engine pictures of wooden stocks with hands nailed to them. Literally zombies bringing their graves with them.

3 minutes ago, Dreddships said:

Prediction -

Skellies are going to get shafted outside of OBR.

Deathlords will be LoN minus Skellies, Ghosts and Arkhan.

LoN wont be squatted straight away and will be in a weird place for a while whilst NH, Deathlords and OBR sweep up what's left.

Will still be able to field Nagash - next Nighthaunt book/BR will have Nagash be able to run in pure NH army too.

New Zombies, Varghulf, Giant Bats Blood Knights, Vampire Elite on Foot and Dire Wolves

The new years tease showed something that looks to be a Deathrattle hero. It's easy to miss, since the paint scheme of that model and the axe zombie are similar, but the model with the viking shield appear to be a separate, skeletal hero. So I'd predict that normal skeletons are not gone, they will just be under the command of vampire lords now like in the good ol' days.

[Beastmaster]

As far as I know, mounted archers try to release the arrow at the moment where all 4 hooves are in the air. Which would be, I think, actually easier to accomplish on an animal that does bigger leaps.

 

[lare2]

3 minutes ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

The new years tease showed something that looks to be a Deathrattle hero. It's easy to miss, since the paint scheme of that model and the axe zombie are similar, but the model with the viking shield appear to be a separate, skeletal hero. So I'd predict that normal skeletons are not gone, they will just be under the command of vampire lords now like in the good ol' days.

I really hope so!

[Nasnad]

4 minutes ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

The new years tease showed something that looks to be a Deathrattle hero. It's easy to miss, since the paint scheme of that model and the axe zombie are similar, but the model with the viking shield appear to be a separate, skeletal hero. So I'd predict that normal skeletons are not gone, they will just be under the command of vampire lords now like in the good ol' days.

Just went back to look at the teaser, and you are right.
It have a bone leg.
Looks a little like the same style as the old skeleton underworlds warband

Edited January 19, 2021 by Nasnad

[El Antiguo Guardián]

[MitGas]

16 minutes ago, El Syf said:

Vampire Lords need a new warscroll, make them back to what they used to be; absoloutley terrifying. As opposed to the oh is that a vampire? SPLAT vampire lords we have now.

Lots of Chaos units know that feeling. When I think back how strong Chaos Lords used to be (especially back when Tzeentch Lords were just normal Lords WITH spells on top, oh boy, don't even get me started on Khorne Lords, they killed whole units by themselves). I hope at least Vampires get some of their former glory back... that said, the Ghoul heroes are very strong, so maybe that's a good sign.

Edit: Oh and it would be a shame to drop normal skeletons... the warband looked amazing, IMO a thousand times better than the Bonereaper stuff.

Edited January 19, 2021 by MitGas

[Harioch]

25 minutes ago, dekay said:

Out of all the old undead range, zombies, dire wolves and blood knights are probably the only units that really need the update. Everything else still looks great.

You forgot the bats..

[Clan's Cynic]

1 hour ago, Enoby said:

I'm on the fence about the leaks; I quite like what we've seen, but at the same time they take out some of the excitement from the reveal itself. Kinda like when we got the Warcry book with the Slaanesh faces in; it wasn't a 'leak' as such, but it did take the edge off the reveals. I'm a little worried that these leaks will have the same effect, especially if we get more. 

Soulblight would probably have been the only thing they could show off thus far at one of these Previews that would get me genuinely pumped when it appeared, so it's typical that their confirmation gets leaked early... actually the same thing happened with Cities of Sigmar too, albeit only by a few hours.

Oh well! I'm still excited to see what else is coming. Be interested to see if GW show the Kangaroo and Vampire Lord on the Community site ahead of the Preview now.

Edited January 19, 2021 by Clan's Cynic

[drcrater]

Damn, I am the only one that kind of like the current Dire Wolves?

And, if I can field a zombie army, my wallet will cry.

[dekay]

23 minutes ago, Harioch said:

You forgot the bats..

This is correct, they're so bad I literally forgot they exist :D. So, yeah, bats as well.

4 minutes ago, drcrater said:

Damn, I am the only one that kind of like the current Dire Wolves?

They're not a terrible *model* but without context, no one would guess they're supposed to be wolves and not some random zombie-construct-monsters. A bit fresher looking update would be nice.

[sandlemad]

49 minutes ago, dekay said:

Out of all the old undead range, zombies, dire wolves and blood knights are probably the only units that really need the update. Everything else still looks great.

Probably also the fell bats and bat swarms too, though I suspect they're more likely to be replaced with a broadly similar new unit rather than exact updates. But yeah, the legions of Nagash range largely holds up pretty well.

Given how the skeleton warriors and grave guard units have been repackaged for AoS and also featured as part of other kits, I'd be very surprised to see them go. Complemented by a new zombie-like unit though, sure. 

If this is to replace the old Legions of Nagash book, I wonder if it'll hold onto the legion of blood/night subfactions and keep Mannfred and Neferata in starring roles.

[HorticulusTGA]

I'm still convinced we'll get Warhammer Quest style boxed game with Death vs Witch-Monsters Hunters in it (on top of AOS and WHU vampire releases, that is), because : 

- The different kinds of Death looking Rumor engines (still a LOT) and the Halloween image ; 

- The trailer that showed both "Zombie" and "Skeleton" types as well as an Adversary for them : (human) Vampire Hunter ;

- The fact that the new Vampire is for AOS, and that we also have a Soulblight WHU warband coming (both AOS and WHU are announced for the preview),

- The absence of Warcry release from the aforementioned preview, where the Witch Hunter could have belonged.... 

- GW always said they would go back to AOS for WHQ. Blackstone Fortress is over. When BSF got new releases, its logo was shown alongside other games to preview the Preview, like we got yesterday.

- With Slaanesh, Teclis and Gordrakk on the horizon (Broken Realms, AOS 3rd Edition), a last Battletome, a WHU warband AND a boxed game all themed around Death could be a great way to finish the Death narrative arc from AOS 2nd Edition. 

 

[SorryLizard]

I hope that any new Vampire faction is not tied into subservience to Nagash. Let Death as a whole alliance become a less monolithic 'and they serve Nagash' thing and let our heroes have more personal agency.

[Souleater]

I listened to a podcast a few days ago that described the Mamluks from around the area of 'Middle ages' Egypt. 

 

Heavy armoured cavalry, expert shots on the move with longbow, plus numerous melee weapons for close up smacking.  I would love for Blood Knights to get a new plastic kit that allows that sort of elite cavalry.

 

Plus...maybe some decent shooting units for Death! Please?

[Nasnad]

5 minutes ago, Souleater said:

Plus...maybe some decent shooting units for Death! Please?

please, it is about time we get some ranged units! .. not just screaming units

[Nostrammo]

So as far as units are concerned I think we will get these pretty little things back 

Vampire Lord (obviously)

Necromancers

Coven Throne

Skeletons

Black Knights 

Zombies 

Dire Wolves 

Bat Swarm

Blood Dragon Knights

Vargheists

Everything is actually there and apart from the zombies and the bats all other things dont show their age...

Maybe its time to transfer those 120 skellies to round bases after all....

 

[Black_Templar_Lad]

WHAT glorious magnificence I woke up to this morning!!! 

Dragon shield? Gothic baroque Dark Souls style armour and aesthetic? Bats?! 

I have achieved hype levels previously deemed unfathomable. 

Its the prospect we might see Vampires across AoS, Underworlds, and a Quest box set, I'm so happy. Look at the little plastic bats! 

 

[Enoby]

20 minutes ago, SorryLizard said:

I hope that any new Vampire faction is not tied into subservience to Nagash. Let Death as a whole alliance become a less monolithic 'and they serve Nagash' thing and let our heroes have more personal agency.

I agree. I used to play Death (in AoS 0 and a bit in AoS 1), especially vampires, but I'm not really a fan of Nagash as a character so them being tied to him so much kind of put me off them. I don't really like Archaon either, but Chaos sits well with me because a lot of chaos worshippers don't care all that much for him (or actively dislike him).

[LuminethMage]

5 hours ago, SilentSentinel said:

While definitely looking similar to a kangaroo, they don't seem to have the same method of locomotion. while kangaroos move both legs simultaneously as they hop or move and you can see in the image that this ones right leg is raised while the left is making contact with the ground. this suggests it quite likely moves more like say a tauntaun from star-wars. 

Suppose it means the riders are less likely to get motion sickness from all the hopping, though it wouldn't surprise if Lumineth were immune to such things haha.

Yup, and likely some of those who call this ridiculous, probably found the Slaanesh ones great, which have a very similar body shape, and probably will have very similar poses for both mount and rider.

The kangaroo thing is fun for memes, but they obviously are not jumping. 

 

Edited January 19, 2021 by LuminethMage

[silverstu]

Wow- aelves riding desert  Taun-tauns... this is what I love about AoS, WHFB was brilliant but these wouldn't fit- love the otherness of these [a lancers option would be cool too]. Looks like the whole wind temple is getting a release which is more than I expected for Lumineth, a good sign for other factions that expansions are on the way. Could see Syvaneth getting an expansion with Kurnothi in the future [BR3?].

The Vampire .. really like her- the heavy armour, bats in her hair.. I have an old VC army with actually very few vamps as I didn't like GW's design -the big baldies didn't float my boat [I used a few reaper ladies and gamezone mournful knights instead] . These could be right up my street with lady blood knights.. really looking forward to the reveal- still think there is a dead vs hunters boxed game as well as the Soulblight faction. I wonder if we see thralls on foot as well as mounted knights.. with the Underworlds war band there will be a few varieties..

Edited January 19, 2021 by silverstu

[NotAWzrd]

@HorticulusTGA 

Agreed. I don’t think GW cares enough about Cities of Sigmar for them to release a dual box just for the vampire hunter model. Also, there is such a myriad of death rumour engines that I still think they’ve been teasing more than one death release, so fingers crossed for the Warhammer Quest or similar.  

As for the Roo-mineth, I love them, I love them, I love them. I’m genuinely starting to get disappointed when something new comes out and it’s only riding a horse.  

Edited January 19, 2021 by NotAWzrd

[KingBrodd]

****** that is an epic Vampire!! Classic and new in all the right ways I'm so happy for Death players!!

GW also love Lords. Gravelords, Realmlords, Overlords. Not a complaint just interesting!! 

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

1 hour ago, drcrater said:

Damn, I am the only one that kind of like the current Dire Wolves?

And, if I can field a zombie army, my wallet will cry.

Even though the Dire Wolves are a plastic kit, I'm not sure they will get carried over unchanged. They are a bit mundane for AoS, and their sculpt has to be one of the worst plastic sculpts in the game.

36 minutes ago, SorryLizard said:

I hope that any new Vampire faction is not tied into subservience to Nagash. Let Death as a whole alliance become a less monolithic 'and they serve Nagash' thing and let our heroes have more personal agency.

I think now would probably be the best time narratively to break Nagash's stranglehold on Death. Soulblight Vampires becoming more independent would make a good pretense, Legions of Nagash being a single faction is not necessary anymore and Broken Realms gives us a good narrative opportunity to explain this change.

Plus, it would help explain why there are still skeletons around if OBR are a thing. There are Deathrattle kingdoms in the lore where their inhabitants are all sentient skeletons. They would probably be the most likely to object to the OBR bone tithe. Leaving open the possibility of some LoN infighting makes the setting much richer with narrative possibilites in my opinion.