The Rumour Thread

[Baron Klatz]

It's very possible. The father and daughter Order of Azyr members were teased with Shyshian vampire hunting trailers but instead end up all the way in Ghur & Excelsis instead to slaughter Slaanesh's forces.

And this one Dawnbringer Crusade art is obviously in the Realm of Death with haunted green aether and all the skull architecture and purple uniforms honoring the death gods there.

Things likely got ported around to make use of them(could also be why the next UnderWorlds realm is Ulgu to make use of darker designs going from death to shadow)

That all said i'm very happy the Corebook has the Lake city of Lethis as the focused Free city of the realm of death instead of Ulfenkarn. Yeah Ulfenkarn and Glymmsforge are really cool but Lethis narratively has the most story potential has a broken city of mortals, Stormcast and Deepkin at war with NightHaunt, Ossiarchs the Stormvault under Lethis allowed to be unleashed in the first place and Death's Fyreslayer mercenaries.

Lots of boiling tensions great for wargames and rpg's.

[Magnusaur]

14 hours ago, Baron Klatz said:

The aesthetics make sense to me since they've been realm-focused releases. Soulblight have a nice OTT mix as they bridge the change between magical Malign Portents to gritty Era of Beasts so we got vampire-centaurs & werewolf hybrids next to zombies and skeletons(though very heroic looking). So we go from crazy Ossiarchs and Lumineth to gargants and orruks while the Thunderstrike have a few toned down elements to balance out their meteor knights, angel and lords who look like they solo'd Warcraft raids for crazy epic fantasy armor(and heck even the Vindictors are packing sword-staffs instead of actual spears. all their new weapons are easily 10-12 feet tall).

They wouldn't fit Ghur's bestial tone if they all came charging in on lightning vessels backed up by Azyr's robot automatons powered by sentient storms. Though now we're getting very ungrim/unwarhammer dragons straight out of high fantasy 90's DnD or Spyro for another tone balance.

It's like how grim Cursed City was but still had art showing the light of Hysh reached the city. They're showing the Mortal Realms can do every tone. That "anything goes" aesthetic AoS has in ample supply with the infinite realms.

I'm sure when focus swings back to realms like Chamon or Ghyran they'll crank the dial back up to match the crazier realms with their floating islands and rampant magic realmscapes compared to Ghur's hungry wastelands(though the continents eating eachother and even ghurian moons staying far away because the Realm of Beasts reached out and ate one are great)

 

That's a really wonderful observation! For an edition focused on the realm of beasts, it certainly makes sense to release models that emphasize the gnarly, gritty, and monstrous. I hadn't thought about it like that, and I suppose I still give pause to part of that line of thinking. Part of me worries - perhaps naively - that some of the resulting model releases will feel overly 'specialized' by whatever realm they were designed for.

Like, will my Thunderstrike Stormcast look out of place in a few years when the tone shifts? Will the simian lips of the Ghur-based Seraphon keep me up at night? That kind of thing. But at the same time I understand that there may be no such thing as designing from a 'neutral point-of-nowhere'. Age of Sigmar is only just beginning and it may be better to lean into different styles at different times, rather than to try to exhaustively nail down how a vampire, knight, or skeleton looks. That's how you end up with stagnation.

It's an interesting tension. The realms are at the heart of the universe but they way they are reflected in the models is for me at least also a source of slight concern.

Edited September 16, 2021 by Magnusaur

[Baron Klatz]

My only slight concern there is for my overworked wallet.

I fully encourage the realm variety models though. Something for everyone.  Broken Realms was a spectacular example:

Heavy metal dark fantasy giant Belakor.

Grounded but still magic/large weapon-laden witch hunters with a early Victorian clean dress look.

Super high fantasy Gardus Steelsoul looking like he could give MCU's Thor a class on hero landings and the Warsong Reverant showing that the average AoS bard is a supernatural ghost-tree-aelves hybrid that kills daemons with magic insect swarms it grows on it's back.

And Kroak's glow-up, after empowering himself with the infinite magic of the Realms to become fleshy & eternal, going full science fantasy Star-gate and his lore entrance being a fullblown Space Battle in the aetheric void.

Very few fantasy universes can have all that in the same setting much less the same storyline While being the tip of the iceberg with how crazy and varied everything else is with endless possibilities in the infinite realities of the Mortal Realms.

And then there's the big plus the variety isn't one lane. We got AoS, UnderWorlds, Warcry and Warhammer Quest(when it recovers) that puts more depth in the factions with new focuses on how parts of their forces adapted to the realms for even more spins.

(And of course the boon of being hobbyists. Even if say future Seraphon are pure sci-fi Starborne but you wanted Coalesced Aqshy tribes, well where there's a will, file and greenstuff there's a way. )

Edited September 16, 2021 by Baron Klatz

[Elephant_fresh]

10 hours ago, HollowHills said:

It's bad right?

I don't mean power level bad. I'm sure Stormguard spam is going to do a job. There might be a Vindictor spam build and possibly some meme lists with annihilators.

But it's the most bland and inspired rules I've ever seen in either 40k or AoS.

The Honest Wargamer had some good insight into this. Many of the rules and flavour comes down to +1 to this or -1 to that. With that sort of aspect books quickly come down to which warscrolls have better numbers which is not an interesting place to be. 

[Chikout]

28 minutes ago, Elephant_fresh said:

The Honest Wargamer had some good insight into this. Many of the rules and flavour comes down to +1 to this or -1 to that. With that sort of aspect books quickly come down to which warscrolls have better numbers which is not an interesting place to be. 

You should watch the Warhammer weekly review. They give a more balanced take. It's a beginner army as it should be. They compare it to the fighter class in D&D. It may be considered boring but it is still the most popular class. I actually think the book is pretty good apart from the handful of warscrolls that they over simplified. The dragon build may be the strongest but they are several different viable builds. I will be very interested to see how people's opinions change after having a few games with it. 

People originally said that the Soulblight book was too bland but it's seems to be a pretty popular book now. I very curious to see if the next book follows suit. A GW problem over the years has been the inconsistency of their approach to the rules. 

 

 

[RuneBrush]

+++ MOD HAT +++

Gentle nudge back onto rumours please folks - feel the past page or so has gone off at a bit of a tangent!

[Gitzdee]

Do we think the releases of Warcry and Underworld models is any kind of indication on what armies we can expect next? StD have a bunch of warcry models and got updated trough white dwarf. Bonesplitterz/ ironjaws/gloomspite gitz/idoneth got some underworlds sets. Does that indicate they wont get any model wave any time soon? What other armies didnt receive any love of some new models releases?

Edited September 16, 2021 by Iksdee

[KingBrodd]

27 minutes ago, Iksdee said:

Do we think the releases of Warcry and Underworld models is any kind of indication on what armies we can expect next? StD have a bunch of warcry models and got updated trough white dwarf. Bonesplitterz/ ironjaws/gloomspite gitz/idoneth got some underworlds sets. Does that indicate they wont get any model wave any time soon? What other armies didnt receive any love of some new models releases?

I dont think the boxed games are an indication of army updates. More so what the army may look like when or if updated. 

Well today is the big day, our first 'Classic' Warhammer Preview in a long time!!

What are our hope and expectations for today? I'm hoping for either the Warcry or Underworlds show today.* 

Personally I'd love for the Underworlds name.to be revealed and a roadmap of the order of Warband releases, release dates arent needed as that just leads to disappointment if delayed.

*I'd rather one or the other so we have something else to look forward to over the course of the event.

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

47 minutes ago, KingBrodd said:

What are our hope and expectations for today? I'm hoping for either the Warcry or Underworlds show today.

I am not going to guess whether Warcry or Underworlds will be first, but I expect one of the two to be shown today as well.

For Underworlds, I think we might see the Stormcast and Kruleboyz warbands we all know are coming. Maybe just the Kruleboyz, with Stormcast to be revealed later. I hope we get a roadmap again, that was fun last time.

For Warcry, there are a lot of exciting directions we could go. Maybe we get a new season not set in the Eightpoints or something. There is a lot to still explore with the Cursed City narrative, for example. For example, at the end of Cursed City...

Spoiler

...Ulfenkarn is plunged into perpetual night, and we have not yet seen anything to explain this or elaborate on it.

Ulfenkarn could become the new Mordheim, that would be pretty sweet. There are a few rumour engines around that look like Death/Vampire and Cities/Dawnbringer/Order of Azyr. Maybe that could be a new starter for Warcry, Vampires vs Vampire hunters (although it would be weird to essentially do the same theme as Cursed City again so soon).

 

 

[Perturbato]

a warcry box with speficic destruction warbands fighting to be chosen alongside arch.. oups kragnos !

 

Or as we saw for 40k with the kill team box between necron and ultramarines : stormcast and kruleboyz with specific scenery for the kruleboyz

 

Edited September 16, 2021 by Perturbato

[Chikout]

2 hours ago, KingBrodd said:

What are our hope and expectations for today? I'm hoping for either the Warcry or Underworlds show today.* 

I'm hoping for a new season of warcry featuring warbands from four different cities and four different Skaven warbands, each representing a different clan. 

[GenericEdgyName]

Do we have any idea at what time specifically to expect the preview? I'm really excited, especially for warcry and would love to know for what hour specifically I'm waiting

[SunStorm]

1 minute ago, GenericEdgyName said:

Do we have any idea at what time specifically to expect the preview? I'm really excited, especially for warcry and would love to know for what hour specifically I'm waiting

It's in Indiana right? So 5 hours behind the UK, although I don't know what time the seminars/events are going to be. 

I'd expect maybe 5pm here, but not sure

[Nos]

2 hours ago, Iksdee said:

Do we think the releases of Warcry and Underworld models is any kind of indication on what armies we can expect next? StD have a bunch of warcry models and got updated trough white dwarf. Bonesplitterz/ ironjaws/gloomspite gitz/idoneth got some underworlds sets. Does that indicate they wont get any model wave any time soon? What other armies didnt receive any love of some new models releases?

Certainly for the first two editions there was lots from designers of Underworld gangs saying that it was a place for them to practice and let their creative juices flow outside of major projects . Quite a few of the warbands at least at that stage were just Mortal Realms concepts that were not intended for release until Underworlds became a sort of vehicle for it. 

[Gitzdee]

20 minutes ago, Nos said:

Certainly for the first two editions there was lots from designers of Underworld gangs saying that it was a place for them to practice and let their creative juices flow outside of major projects . Quite a few of the warbands at least at that stage were just Mortal Realms concepts that were not intended for release until Underworlds became a sort of vehicle for it. 

I really like almost all of the underworlds models to be honest. I like them because they change up the look of the the army a bit instead of all the samey basic units. Now i'm at the point that i start buying the ones that i can ally into my armies.

[KingBrodd]

58 minutes ago, Chikout said:

I'm hoping for a new season of warcry featuring warbands from four different cities and four different Skaven warbands, each representing a different clan. 

Maaaate that would be amazing. I'd love to see what a modern sculpted Rat Ogor could look like!!

2 hours ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

I am not going to guess whether Warcry or Underworlds will be first, but I expect one of the two to be shown today as well.

For Underworlds, I think we might see the Stormcast and Kruleboyz warbands we all know are coming. Maybe just the Kruleboyz, with Stormcast to be revealed later. I hope we get a roadmap again, that was fun last time.

For Warcry, there are a lot of exciting directions we could go. Maybe we get a new season not set in the Eightpoints or something. There is a lot to still explore with the Cursed City narrative, for example. For example, at the end of Cursed City...

  Hide contents

...Ulfenkarn is plunged into perpetual night, and we have not yet seen anything to explain this or elaborate on it.

Ulfenkarn could become the new Mordheim, that would be pretty sweet. There are a few rumour engines around that look like Death/Vampire and Cities/Dawnbringer/Order of Azyr. Maybe that could be a new starter for Warcry, Vampires vs Vampire hunters (although it would be weird to essentially do the same theme as Cursed City again so soon).

 

 

I agree I think it's a safe bet either SCE, Kruelboyz or both Warbands will be revealed. 

[KingBrodd]

23 minutes ago, Iksdee said:

I really like almost all of the underworlds models to be honest. I like them because they change up the look of the the army a bit instead of all the samey basic units. Now i'm at the point that i start buying the ones that i can ally into my armies.

I feel the same!! I love the look of them and the attention to detail each gets, I know people worry about their Warscrolls in mainline AOS but I would just proxy them all as their respective characters. 

Horthgorn for example is a much better looking sculpt than the current Icebrow Hunter so I would use him as such, not to mention the Frost Sabre!!

[Nos]

28 minutes ago, Iksdee said:

I really like almost all of the underworlds models to be honest. I like them because they change up the look of the the army a bit instead of all the samey basic units. Now i'm at the point that i start buying the ones that i can ally into my armies.

Biggest sucsess for the Mortal Realms for me is Underworlds. I'm amazed they haven't done it for 40k to be honest 

[Ogregut]

I'm not expecting much, maybe teasing the next season of Underworlds, a book for Warcry and hopfully a new team for blood bowl (bretonnians would be awesome). 

This way I won't be disappointed by expecting full blown reveals. 

Guessing it will be around 10pm - 12am UK time tonight we'll see. 

[KingBrodd]

Waiting for GenCon announcements.

[Gitzdee]

[Twisted Firaun]

16 minutes ago, KingBrodd said:

Waiting for GenCon announcements.

 

1 minute ago, Iksdee said:

[Neverchosen]

1 hour ago, Ogregut said:

I'm not expecting much, maybe teasing the next season of Underworlds, a book for Warcry and hopfully a new team for blood bowl (bretonnians would be awesome). 

This way I won't be disappointed by expecting full blown reveals. 

Guessing it will be around 10pm - 12am UK time tonight we'll see. 

I am not expecting much only Umbraneth Aelves, Chaos Dwarves, new Xenos faction and Dark Mechanicus. Also of course a new Warcry season focused on Dawn Bringers with a boxset featuring newly sculpted Dispossesed Miners fighting newly sculpted Wanderer Waywatchers.

What would go beyond my exceptions is if they bravely announced a new Space Marine character with optional helmeted and unhelmeted builds and a melee weapon in one hand a bolter in the other. 

Edited September 16, 2021 by Neverchosen

[Ogregut]

1 minute ago, Neverchosen said:

I am not expecting much only Umbraneth Aelves, Chaos Dwarves and Dark Mechanicus. Also of course a new Warcry season focused on Dawn Bringers with a boxset featuring newly sculpted Dispossesed Miners fighting newly sculpted Wanderer archers.

What would go beyond my exceptions is if they bravely announced a new Space Marine character with optional helmeted and unhelmeted options and a melee weapon in one hand a bolter in the other. 

Don't forget the tactical rock!! 

 

[The Red King]

I'd be super happy for even a proper tease of the incoming chaos battletome.

 

Actually on that note if we're assuming that white dwarf updates mean "no battletome soon" then the chaos book is either not beasts or they're not getting souped with slaves like I half feared.

Edited September 16, 2021 by The Red King