The Rumour Thread

[Bosskelot]

Having a huge part of Dominion taken up by Hobgrotz probably wasn't the best idea either.

But then it's not like Kruleboyz had lots of other units to fill that space.

Also, GW overproducing stuff is still actually an issue for hobbyists as they don't have infinite production capacity and warehouse space. You can praise the market being flooded with cheap Dominion sculpts which nobody actually bought all you want, but all that production time and materials is stuff not being allocated to already existing products that were, and still are, consistently struggling to stay in-stock. Great there are 200k extra Yndrasta's in the wild for hobbyists. Those same hobbyists struggled for a year to actually get a hold of like, Fire Prisms because GW couldn't produce them fast enough to meet actual demand.

Edited April 16, 2023 by Bosskelot

[JerekKruger]

24 minutes ago, Bosskelot said:

Having a huge part of Dominion taken up by Hobgrotz probably wasn't the best idea either.

They certainly don't really feel like they fit into the army. I'd have much rather they include some swamp themed grotz rather than what seems to be a Chorf unit.

[Gitzdee]

My Bonesplitterz are jelly of the Kruleboyz.

[Ogregut]

Scaly claws crossed for the lizardmen box tonight. I want to give you money GW, let me damn it!!!! 

[Clan's Cynic]

Hobgrotz feel like somebody's personal project they were working on in their downtime and somebody saw them and said "lets use them for Kruelboyz!"

They're just so randomly thrown in. I'd have no problem with Hobgrotz if they were the 'forth pillar' of the Warclans armies - but clearly that was never going to happen so long as the focus was on fleshing out Kruelboyz. I can't even say they work as a 'teaser' for Chorfs when we're seemingly no closer to getting them now than we were when Dominion released. 

[Tonhel]

I really like the Kruelboyz mini's, but they really need another wave. Imo GW should prioritize a new wave for Kruelboyz, Bonereapers, Fyreslayer and Idoneth, before releasing new armies.

[Vasshpit]

I love the bog ninjas!!! Kruleboyz are my favorite design to come out of AoS yet. I'm super excited to see where they go from here. 

[Magnusaur]

I really like the Kruleboyz and hope they get another wave of models to establish them as their own army. Of all the models Games Workshop have done, I think the Kruleboyz really manage to convey a sense of sadism and mean-spiritedness that is both menacing and irresistible. 

However, to me, they do not feel like appropriate poster villains for an entire edition. Their reveal was needlessly drawn out through those rumor engines that seemed to fuel more speculation about Fimir than anything Orky - at least in my anecdotal experience. And when they were finally shown off, their role in the preceding Broken Realms/beginning Era of the Beast storyline wasn't really clear to me. Even with Gobsprakk, their connection to Kragnos feels tenuous at best.

Even with a passing interest in Age of Sigmar, I intuitively understood that 2nd edition's SOUL WARS had to do with SOULS and those who do SOULSY stuff with them. The dead are restless and Sigmar unleashed a gang of Stormcast ghostbusters to combat them. Got it. With Dominion, I don't think the two forces felt connected in quite the same way. I mean Yndrasta's supposed to be the premier monster hunter, but there aren't even any big beasties on the Kruleboyz side of things. The Sacrosanct was a clear answers to the Nighthaunt. The Thunderstrike was a counter to something that was revealed in a Broken Realms book, just a few weeks prior...

Also an odd place to introduce a named character in my opinion.

In general, I don't feel the Era of the Beast has managed to convey the same sense of urgency or scale as the Necroquake and all that did. Kruleboyz are great but feel like they could have been introduced at any point in time, like Kharadron or Idoneth. I don't immediately understand why these degenerate Shrek-a-likes hiding in a swamp are the next big threat facing the mortal realms. This is coming from someone who enjoys the universe of Age of Sigmar but isn't tuned-in to every single lore dump or book release. I have faith that some of my questions are answered more fully in battletomes and Black Library releases, but brevity is the soul of wit (severely contradicting this post) and there's something to be said about the eloquence of effective branding. 

I hope when 4th editions rolls around it manages to more effectively establish the stakes, the state of the union, and the call to action from the get-go. 

[EonChao]

I think part of the problem is there isn't really a great threat facing all of the Mortal Realms right now. Sure the existing threats are still there but this edition feels more like the calm inbetween the Necroquake and something bigger and I'm not really sure if that's intended by GW or not. The Kruleboyz work aesthetically but they also feel too small scale a threat to whole factions, but they do feel like a threat to the Dawnbringer Crusades. I honestly wonder how it would have felt if we'd had a new wave of Ironjawz alongside the launch of 3rd and then had the Kruleboyz released just after the Cities update

[Vasshpit]

@Acrozatarim I just finished your short story. It was a good little read and congrats. 

[Clan's Cynic]

They've not really pushed the metaplot along at all. Soul Wars was hardly fantastic at this either, but was definitely a beginning, middle and an end.

Soul Wars/2.0 Launch -> Forbidden Power (Katakros freed) -> Ossiarchs/Eight-Points Invasion -> Broken Realms/Soul Wars ends.

It doesn't feel like we've really had any of that in 3.0. We've kind of had the setup; focus on Ghur, Dawnbringer Crusades are a thing, Kragnos is riling up Destruction... and then nothing? The lore hasn't really progressed in either the Thondia supplement or GHBs, we're no further along than we were at the start of the edition. Ghur has just kind of become this sandbox to set your battles in, but that's where the narrative has started and ended.

Most of the lore advancements we have seen were in Battletomes, which largely just reinforced the status quo anyway - Grungi's reunification efforts faltered, Katakros is still in Eight-Points apparently(?), Nagash is still respawning, Kragnos is... still being worshipped by Destruction I guess? - I'm fine with not feeling like you have to buy Battletomes you've no interest in just to get the lore, that's fine, but nothing has really pushed things along in any capacity it feels.

I also forgot that Yndrasta was a thing. They seemed to be setting her up for being something of an Order/SCE protagonist this edition, but mostly she's served as a neat piece of art on the rulebook and that's about it. 

I wonder if the backlash to 40k's more metaplot-focus (over being a setting) led to them assuming the AoS community had the same problem.

Edited April 16, 2023 by Clan's Cynic

[Acrozatarim]

25 minutes ago, Vasshpit said:

@Acrozatarim I just finished your short story. It was a good little read and congrats. 

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it!

[Lucentia]

Perhaps underselling things a little, but I feel like if the Kruleboyz had released with a unit/option for 'Gutslittaz with Swamp Bows,' either in place of the Hobgrots or just as an alternate build option for the basic troops, they would have felt a lot more complete as a range.  They seem like a faction that would benefit well from a skirmishy, ranged battleline option.

[Baron Klatz]

I think they’re dragging their feet on the plot because they planned to have the next several editions just be tours around the Realms so we can see the aftermath of Broken Realms and what new factions, gods, settlements and elementals will rise up from it.(a lot of the lore from the White Dwarfs and battle sets like Arena of Shades felt like “so where are they now” narratives plus the conflict plot)

So things are “bad” but not “Death god enacting a cosmic ritual to turn every realm into a soul black-hole” bad to keep the pace going until something actually big happens later down the line.

 

 

[Clan's Cynic]

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I still think a full Fimir faction would have been better than Kruelboyz - and I still quite like the Kruelboyz. Destruction could have used some racial diversity beyond "it's the Greenskins and Ogres faction" and they'd have been a great addition, which would now feel strange when Kruelboyz already kind of nicked their schtick.

[Vasshpit]

Just now, Clan's Cynic said:

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I still think a full Fimir faction would have been better than Kruelboyz - and I still quite like the Kruelboyz. Destruction could have used some racial diversity beyond "it's the Greenskins and Ogres faction" and they'd have been a great addition, which would now feel strange when Kruelboyz already kind of nicked their schtick.

They could release them with Kruleboyz. they could be their 3 model 50mm unit and the faction could become a coalition of different races. 

[zilberfrid]

1 hour ago, Clan's Cynic said:

Hobgrotz feel like somebody's personal project they were working on in their downtime and somebody saw them and said "lets use them for Kruelboyz!"

They're just so randomly thrown in. I'd have no problem with Hobgrotz if they were the 'forth pillar' of the Warclans armies - but clearly that was never going to happen so long as the focus was on fleshing out Kruelboyz. I can't even say they work as a 'teaser' for Chorfs when we're seemingly no closer to getting them now than we were when Dominion released. 

Yeah, Hobgrotz are the one set of the swamp orcs I dislike, and they are in everything.

[Baron Klatz]

That’d be really good if they actually got split into own Tome.

Kruleboyz Mirelords. A collection of shady and terrifying creatures dwelling in the swampy, toxic and back-alley black market places of the Realms ranging from Kruleboyz, Fimir, Hobgrots mercenaries, mutated swamp beasts and even stuff like the Merkaveth to also play on the Kruleboyz being aquatic creatures.

 

[DinoJon]

Will today be the day? Hopium blimp at max altitude. 

Regarding the Kruleboyz and meta-plot. I do wish we got a new race in Destruction besides greenskins and vaguely human giants. Fimir could fit that but so could a lot of other species along the mortal realms. 

and I'm with @Baron Klatz that the narrative is moving along but even with the rite of life and Kragnos' reawakening. The damage to realms is a lot less than that of Soul Wars. I feel like Era of the Beast is about rebuilding and expanding. I think we'll feel that a lot with Cities when they're out. 

[RocketPropelledGrenade]

2 hours ago, Tonhel said:

I really like the Kruelboyz mini's, but they really need another wave. Imo GW should prioritize a new wave for Kruelboyz, Bonereapers, Fyreslayer and Idoneth, before releasing new armies.

As much as I want Chaos duardin, Malerion's shadow aelves, and so on, I don't really disagree that this would be amazing. I think there might be a logistical issue planning a bunch of diverse sculpts that would probably be released in separate waves versus one big release, but maybe they could just go all out on the next edition's Broken Realms equivalent for it or something.

2 hours ago, Magnusaur said:

In general, I don't feel the Era of the Beast has managed to convey the same sense of urgency or scale as the Necroquake and all that did. Kruleboyz are great but feel like they could have been introduced at any point in time, like Kharadron or Idoneth. I don't immediately understand why these degenerate Shrek-a-likes hiding in a swamp are the next big threat facing the mortal realms. This is coming from someone who enjoys the universe of Age of Sigmar but isn't tuned-in to every single lore dump or book release. I have faith that some of my questions are answered more fully in battletomes and Black Library releases, but brevity is the soul of wit (severely contradicting this post) and there's something to be said about the eloquence of effective branding. 

I hope when 4th editions rolls around it manages to more effectively establish the stakes, the state of the union, and the call to action from the get-go. 

1 hour ago, EonChao said:

I think part of the problem is there isn't really a great threat facing all of the Mortal Realms right now. Sure the existing threats are still there but this edition feels more like the calm inbetween the Necroquake and something bigger and I'm not really sure if that's intended by GW or not. The Kruleboyz work aesthetically but they also feel too small scale a threat to whole factions, but they do feel like a threat to the Dawnbringer Crusades. I honestly wonder how it would have felt if we'd had a new wave of Ironjawz alongside the launch of 3rd and then had the Kruleboyz released just after the Cities update

In response to these two, I'll just say I'm hoping for a long-standing theory to be proven right and 4th to be Ulgu focused and about the release of Slaanesh back to the Realm of Chaos. There's been a lot of guns being placed on mantelpieces in that regard. It would probably require Malerion's aelves to get a full range release, and as I discussed above, I think there's other ranges that should be attended to first, but I also wouldn't complain about sweet shadow aelves getting some minis.

[Hollow]

This is a bit of a hot take. I personally think that destruction would be much better served if it was combined into a single large Battletome. Giants, Ogres, Orcs and Goblins fight together in my mind. I'd like to see a single Destruction battle tome that incorporated them all. It would have the freedom to add different monsters and esoteric units of strange beats that all flight under the same flag of whoever is the biggest, meanest, or most cunning. 

Edited April 16, 2023 by Hollow

[Baron Klatz]

19 minutes ago, Hollow said:

This is a bit of a hot take. I personally think that destruction would be much better served if it was combined into a single large Battletome. Giants, Ogres, Orcs and Goblins fight together in my mind. I'd like to see a single Destruction battle tome that incorporated them all. It would have the freedom to add different monsters and esoteric units of strange beats that all flight under the same flag of whoever is the biggest, meanest, or most cunning. 

[Noserenda]

Yeah its a real shame that we had the awesome rollercoaster of broken realms (I think, the end of 2nd ed books anyhow) and then essentially nothing since.

[KriticalKhan]

3 minutes ago, Baron Klatz said:

Oh god... I'm starting to feel nostalgic for 1e AoS...

 

[Beliman]

3 hours ago, Tonhel said:

I really like the Kruelboyz mini's, but they really need another wave. Imo GW should prioritize a new wave for Kruelboyz, Bonereapers, Fyreslayer, Idoneth, Ironjawz and Kharadron Overlords, before releasing new armies.

Fixe'd!!