The Rumour Thread

[Jaskier]

What's weird is they've shown a clear willingness to redesign and diversify army rules where needed, i.e. with Maggotkin and Nighthaunt in particular which both feel so much nicer to play than they used to with lots more flavourful and thematic rules, then you get the odd lame duck like Tzeentch that has few real changes from the previous book and actually loses some of its old flavour. I can only guess that the designers were happy with Tzeentch in its current incarnation and saw little need to really turn the wheel on them, mostly just removing clutter/superfluous rules and giving lesser seen units a bit of love. 

For what it's worth, I'm happier with the book on a second look than after my first. The lack of changes is the most disappointing aspect, but as someone that likes diversity in builds, I'm reasonably happy with both the daemonic and mortal sides of the book so I can't really complain. I do feel like the endless spell manipulation and extra deployment tools available to the army will make for some more interesting games at least. 

[Enoby]

25 minutes ago, Sonnenspeer said:

Same here 😕 , don't know if it is because of AoS3 or life in general. But it's hard to find someone for a game night at the moment. On the other hand Warcry gained some momentum.

Seems to be the case here too, and in general AoS discussion hubs things seem to have dried up. It's a shame because I don't think AoS 3 is doing much to deserve what appears to be a growing lack of intetest, but rather I think it's just the fact the hype fell off. Between 40k taking the lion's share of releases, AoS's big future release being leaked, and the books (while better quality than 2e on average) not really sparking much discussion, it seems AoS is losing quite a lot of momentum which is a huge shame. This, of course, could just be observational bias - but on the other hand, they did mention this in their financial report so there's likely some truth to "AoS is losing hype" statement. 

Personally, I've not enjoyed competitive AoS in a while as it's often felt very samey - perhaps it's the armies I usually face, but it's kind of turned into sink or swim alpha strikes that don't leave much of a game. I'm not sure if this is what other people have experienced, but in my last few games the damage has been so high that there's hardly been a game at all. I have been enjoying narrative games a lot more, especially when curated to stop people bringing their "narrative" triple cabbage list. 

[mojojojo101]

I Would say, after 24 hours and another look through, I'm less disappointed with the DoT rules as a first impression.

I think the book will end up reasonably powerful and to be fair, it was already had a book that had good theme and solid balance so it was never going to get the work that, say, Nighthaunt and Maggotkin recieved.

I'm not sure how much this book really does to encourage using Tzaangor and Acolytes which is what I think people were looking for, a broadening of viable options, like the new DoK book did.

[MitGas]

47 minutes ago, Sonnenspeer said:

Same here 😕 , don't know if it is because of AoS3 or life in general. But it's hard to find someone for a game night at the moment. On the other hand Warcry gained some momentum.

Yeah, I guess it‘s a lot of things. Basically after Sons and Lumineth came onto the scene, the overall speed of AoS releases  slowed down a bit… add Covid and its repercussions (money alone) to the already slowed down release schedule and it suddenly feels like AoS is „out“ (guess it had to stop being that hot new thing eventually). The current focus on 40k doesn‘t help much either… and neither does the addition of more complicated rules but that might just be my personal beef (a friend of mine would start playing but he looked at the rules and thought it‘s too much work). 
 

Oh well, nothing we can do here other than continue playing/supporting GW and hoping they‘ll finally tackle a couple of issues. 
 

I‘ve been told Warcry has the best GW rules so far but despite having bought the first box and cypher Lords, we never played it so far, not even the first ed😅. We only play KT but its rules are IMO overcomplex at best, downright stupid at worst (seriously, the distance icons for example, what the heck did they think?)

[Jaskier]

I personally feel that the first half of next year will be quite AoS focused, especially as Imperial Guard (the last 40k codex after World Eaters) are supposedly slated for February at the latest, and the rumored 10th Edition likely won't drop until mid-year. There's a few months there which could easily be filled by some decent AoS releases. 

[EntMan]

1 hour ago, Jaskier said:

I can only guess that the designers were happy with Tzeentch in its current incarnation and saw little need to really turn the wheel on them, mostly just removing clutter/superfluous rules and giving lesser seen units a bit of love. 

Or, they thought the current incarnation was fine, but they needed to make a few changes to justify releasing it as a "new" tome which means they get to sell more, and also put everything but the warscrolls behind the app paywall.

[CDM]

I think AoS could do with a D10 system for dice rolling. So so many things are 3+ or 4+. Out of special rules there's not much variety meaning you have to keep up to date and not play too casually as you'll need the latest rules.

With so much melee combat I'd like to see only one roll for hitting and wounding, a defence/parry roll done simultaneously for armour saves.

I think where AoS shines is on the positioning and counter charges you can set up or defend. I feel combat can be improved and more intuitive. Maybe bringing an initiative step in for weapons like the old 40k system. As there's more weapons per unit it would work better than in 40k where it was largely redundant

 

[KingBrodd]

50 minutes ago, Jaskier said:

I personally feel that the first half of next year will be quite AoS focused, especially as Imperial Guard (the last 40k codex after World Eaters) are supposedly slated for February at the latest, and the rumored 10th Edition likely won't drop until mid-year. There's a few months there which could easily be filled by some decent AoS releases. 

This is what Im banking on. Theyll want a lot of AOS out of the way for 10th Editions release and I think that we have had all these single model releases because of the Covid knock on affect and they are simply easier to push out then big range refreshes.

[Segersgia]

Going to mention the 40k preview again coming soon. Seeing as Warhammer Fantasy Battle was released in 83, and its 40th birthday coming around next year; could we expect The Old World being revealed on its birthday?

[Grimrock]

2 hours ago, EntMan said:

Or, they thought the current incarnation was fine, but they needed to make a few changes to justify releasing it as a "new" tome which means they get to sell more, and also put everything but the warscrolls behind the app paywall.

Perhaps unsurprisingly their attempt at a quick easy sale is having the opposite effect on me at least. I have a decently big Tzeentch collection, about 4500 points, but I have absolutely no plans to pick the book up or buy any new models even though I have very little on the mortal side of the book. Not only that, but a big Khorne daemon expansion I've been planning has now been put on hold indefinitely because I've just lost faith that I'm actually going to want to play it in 6 months. So not only has this low effort copy paste book lost me as a customer for Tzeentch for the next 3 years or so, it's also destroyed my desire to buy any other products from them. 

Edited September 25, 2022 by Grimrock

[Bayul]

7 minutes ago, Segersgia said:

could we expect The Old World being revealed on its birthday?

Good observation, they'll probably kick off their first marketing cycle during the celebration with a video similiar to HH.

...that's what I would do.

[Mutton]

7 hours ago, Bosskelot said:

This feels like a consistent issue across a lot 3.0 Tomes honestly.

On the one hand it doesn't seem like it's leading to any excess craziness in terms of balance, but it's not exactly making a lot of people excited to either play their armies again or start new ones. At least from chatter I've seen around online and locally.

The Nurgle book is an exception. The rules of that battletome quite literally moved me to build a Maggotkin army, which I'm quite happy with. I think the Nighthaunt/Stormcast books, too, made people excited to bring out those particular armies. I haven't played my DoK much because their book was closer to a Skaven/DoT book with few game-changing rewrites.

5 hours ago, Sonnenspeer said:

Same here 😕 , don't know if it is because of AoS3 or life in general. But it's hard to find someone for a game night at the moment. On the other hand Warcry gained some momentum.

We've had a similar problem here. After talking to a number of players, I think it's the complexity of 3.0 and the lack of consistent releases that are keeping people away. I can sympathize with the fact that after a long day/week at work, sometimes you just want to roll dice and smash armies together. But because AoS now has so many interlocking systems: grand strategies, battle tactics, battalions, GHB specific rules, and the whole Gelato Vet thing...it's too much to remember and prepare for.

I try to say, "These things are modular, and you don't have to play with them if you don't want to." But gamers are compelled to play the way they're "supposed to" and are less willing to strip away content, even if they might have a better time with it.

TLDR: Although AoS 3 is the most balanced it's ever been, it's also the most complex, and we've strayed far from the easygoing beer-and-pretzels game we used to enjoy. Also, few actual major kits to get hyped about.

Edited September 25, 2022 by Mutton

[EntMan]

So what are people's thoughts on what the October Miniature of the Month might be?

I think they alternate, which would mean we are due AoS. And the new format means it'll be something new from an upcoming release.

[Gitzdee]

Imho the Nighthaunt book is great. Cant wait for Gitz 3.0. 

[Matrindur]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/09/25/sunday-preview-amazons-on-the-pitch-and-a-return-to-the-cursed-city/

 

Bloodbowl and Cursed City rerelease next week

 

Also a big reveal for Underworlds next week

Edited September 25, 2022 by Matrindur

[madmac]

5 hours ago, Jaskier said:

I personally feel that the first half of next year will be quite AoS focused, especially as Imperial Guard (the last 40k codex after World Eaters) are supposedly slated for February at the latest, and the rumored 10th Edition likely won't drop until mid-year. There's a few months there which could easily be filled by some decent AoS releases. 

I hope so, but On the other hand...I dunno. Out of the 10 or so armies that are left to update after STD, there's not many that I would peg as big updates being likely. Dawnbringers/CoS are confirmed but probably farther out than the first half of 2023.  Slaanesh, Khorne, Gits, Soulblight, KO, I wouldn't bet on these getting more than a model+book or maybe slightly more at best. Seraphon or BoC maybe,..it doesn't help that there's no rumors for anything after STD. Big releases typically don't just materialize out of the ether, and we're not really that far out from 2023 at this point.

[lare2]

Just a quick comment on the popularity of the game, statistically (cf. Honest Wargamer) more people are playing it competitively than ever before and the scene continues to expand. It's never been this healthy. That's competitive play though - don't mean to challenge anyone's personal experiences of trying to find a game, etc. 

[CDM]

34 minutes ago, Matrindur said:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/09/25/sunday-preview-amazons-on-the-pitch-and-a-return-to-the-cursed-city/

 

Bloodbowl and Cursed City rerelease next week

 

Also a big reveal for Underworlds next week

So happy for nightfall this week! Hoping it's not above £50. Should be about £35 tops tbf

[Howdyhedberg]

Kind of odd that the Lumineth book won't be preorder next week.... Did they quality control it this time and found out that they had to redo the whole thing?

[EntMan]

38 minutes ago, madmac said:

Big releases typically don't just materialize out of the ether, and we're not really that far out from 2023 at this point.

Squats went from nothing (bar a couple of Necrosquats) to Kin Space Dwarf army box release in 5 1/2 months which means on that time scale we could be playing with a brand new AoS faction by end of Feb '23.

[madmac]

1 minute ago, EntMan said:

Squats went from nothing (bar a couple of Necrosquats) to Kin Space Dwarf army box release in 5 1/2 months which means on that time scale we could be playing with a brand new AoS faction by end of Feb '23.

Sure, but they were teased/leaked far far ahead of even the initial april fools not-joke announcement. Now, 40K gets way more leaks and accurate rumors than we do in general but even so, there's always chatter when a big thing is looming. If not outright leaks, then Warhammer Community dropping heavy-handed hints, a suspicious clustering of rumor engines, or what have you. It's more or less confirmed now that the only genuinely large AoS release for the entire year is STD, and we got a massive leak for that 6+ months in advance of it's scheduled release date.

Not saying it's impossible mind, just...I've been pounding the rumor beat for a couple of years now, and I can't recall the last major reveal that wasn't already anticipated to some degree or another. Big secrets tend to be too big to be truly secret.

[ArcLight]

12 minutes ago, madmac said:

Sure, but they were teased/leaked far far ahead of even the initial april fools not-joke announcement. Now, 40K gets way more leaks and accurate rumors than we do in general but even so, there's always chatter when a big thing is looming. If not outright leaks, then Warhammer Community dropping heavy-handed hints, a suspicious clustering of rumor engines, or what have you. It's more or less confirmed now that the only genuinely large AoS release for the entire year is STD, and we got a massive leak for that 6+ months in advance of it's scheduled release date.

Not saying it's impossible mind, just...I've been pounding the rumor beat for a couple of years now, and I can't recall the last major reveal that wasn't already anticipated to some degree or another. Big secrets tend to be too big to be truly secret.

That's when they surprise you with an actual release for Chaos Dwarves/Malerion's Elves or something! They've been rumoured so much that no one would take the suggestion too seriously lol.

[Jagged Red Lines]

3 hours ago, Mutton said:

But because AoS now has so many interlocking systems: grand strategies, battle tactics, battalions, GHB specific rules, and the whole Gelato Vet thing...it's too much to remember and prepare for.

This 100%. Part of the reason why I haven't had a game of third edition yet, and have largely drifted away from the hobby.

AoS was always for me a beer and pringles game. Something to play while drunk and enjoying big swingy dice rolls.

I don't need to feel like I'm playing four dimensional chess, having to remember dozens of other rules. 

I'm not saying there shouldn't be some battletomes that cater to the more cerebral types, but having the entire core rules on like a four page pamphlet was a massive plus for me at least.

[Ogregut]

18 minutes ago, Jagged Red Lines said:

This 100%. Part of the reason why I haven't had a game of third edition yet, and have largely drifted away from the hobby.

AoS was always for me a beer and pringles game. Something to play while drunk and enjoying big swingy dice rolls.

I don't need to feel like I'm playing four dimensional chess, having to remember dozens of other rules. 

I'm not saying there shouldn't be some battletomes that cater to the more cerebral types, but having the entire core rules on like a four page pamphlet was a massive plus for me at least.

But you don't need to use battle tactics, strategies and the GHB. Use the battle plans out of the rulebook and just the rules in there and you're set for a beer and pretzels game. 

Imo, AoS is in a great place. I just finished a 2 day event of 72 players that had virtually every army present (no slannesh, tzeentch or cities of sigmar). 

I think AoS is the healthiest it's ever been and its just unfortunate its been hit by delays. 

[KingBrodd]

2 hours ago, Matrindur said:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/09/25/sunday-preview-amazons-on-the-pitch-and-a-return-to-the-cursed-city/

 

Bloodbowl and Cursed City rerelease next week

 

Also a big reveal for Underworlds next week

Will the big reveal be a new Edition with repackaged already released Warbands?