The Rumour Thread

[testingstuff]

3 minutes ago, Dragon-knight77 said:

Saw this on reddit

what people opinions on Stormcast getting units of Hurricane Crossbows/cannon range units rather than the Judicator bow and arrow?

I understand that some might say a bit too.... boltgun but I like it give off the whole supersoldier of the heaven vibes. maybe it because i give Darksider angel vibes

Haha, when Stormcast first got released. I thought Darksiders angels was the direction they were heading towards, especially when looking at the prosecutors. Sadly it wasn't soo... and I think GW would have made a killing with it.

A heavy weapon squad of Stormcast wouldn't be too far fetched and I can see it happen to counter Skaven mass of numbers and long range tech weapons.

[EonChao]

21 minutes ago, pnkdth said:

How is that the same thing? I don't keep tabs on release dates but for the most part WHFB models which has been replaced is a fair bit older, no? Most of the new-ish sculpts have remained in factions like CoS too.

New units are fun. Barely indistinguishable units are not. I guess it depends on the level of investment and/or willingness to seeing you army replaced in a fairly short amount of time. I think it more realistic to expect them to keep the "firstborn" SCE while pushing the sales of the units. GW very rarely resolve internal balance re-shuffling internal balance in a way that's customer friendly. 

I mean, I definitely hope the old models remain relevant for those who does not want to buy a new army but, again, it seems very out of character for GW to incentivise using old models while releasing brand new ones.

Whereas Primaris marines are different from firstborn from an enhanced biology standpoint, the Thunderstrike Stormcast are just wearing new armour that by lore is designed to help their souls return to Azyr upon death, as justification for better proportions in models. These are just Stormcast Liberators like the old models so players can continue to use the older bulkier models or these with the same rules 

[Luperci]

16 minutes ago, testingstuff said:

Haha, when Stormcast first got released. I thought Darksiders angels was the direction they were heading towards, especially when looking at the prosecutors. Sadly it wasn't soo... and I think GW would have made a killing with it.

A heavy weapon squad of Stormcast wouldn't be too far fetched and I can see it happen to counter Skaven mass of numbers and long range tech weapons.

What about a big artillery piece that launches thunderbolts, like that magic spear in d&d that causes lightning to strike at the point of impact 

[ScionOfOssia]

12 minutes ago, Luperci said:

What about a big artillery piece that launches thunderbolts, like that magic spear in d&d that causes lightning to strike at the point of impact 

You mean the Celestar Ballista? 

[Gitzdee]

27 minutes ago, Luperci said:

What about a big artillery piece that launches thunderbolts, like that magic spear in d&d that causes lightning to strike at the point of impact 

[Baron I_oyd]

If you look at the Warhammer twitter poll from the official account, who do you pick and Skaven are winning with 80%..bruh Stormcast got cooked so hard

 

[Vaellas]

I see a Skaven winning the popularity contest and think aaah... cheap Stormcast side of the box.

[king.del]

To everyone complaining about the liberator hammer size: It's WARHAMMER not Sledge-hammer

/S

Edited April 4 by king.del

[Gitzdee]

6 minutes ago, king.del said:

To everyone complaining about the liberator hammer size: It's WARHAMMER not Sledge-hammer

/S

Agreed. Small hammer makes them look like:

Edited April 4 by Gitzdee

[king.del]

26 minutes ago, Gitzdee said:

Agreed. Small hammer makes them look like:

And who wants Bob the Builder Stormcast?

[ScionOfOssia]

1 hour ago, Gitzdee said:

The Skaven are winning their popularity poll because they can cast the strongest spell in the game: Instant Vaporization Of You And Everyone In Your General Vicinity

 

[Chikout]

Lots to unpack here. Skaven are winning the popularity contest because they have been waiting ages for an update and now many of the new models will be useable in the old world too. I chose Skaven even though I’m a Stormcast player who is very much looking forward to the new models. I have shared this a few times but if you head over to instagram you can see how many times a particular hashtag is used. Stormcast externals are number one but Skaven are the second most used hashtag. I have a feeling this is going to be a very popular box set which makes me worry about availability. 
 

As for the new force organization system, I’m seeing some weird takes. No unit in the game will be auxiliary only, especially since they’ve already said that certain key heroes will,be able to take any unit. I can see an interesting tiering system for heroes now. You get low level specialist heroes that are designed to be power paired with particular units. You get heroes that help to emphasize a particular theme, a Skyre hero with skyre units for example. You get heroes that emphasize a particular play style; a fast hero that can take fast units. You get generals who kind of work like before; they can take what would have been the old battleline units. Finally you get the special characters like Teclis or Gordrakk who can take anything. 
 

This is all just guesswork but it seems a logical way to go and  helps to give heroes more diverse roles. 

[Luperci]

2 hours ago, ScionOfOssia said:

You mean the Celestar Ballista? 

I was thinking something mortek crawler sized, but maybe something like that would be better placed in one of the duardin armies

[Magnusaur]

7 hours ago, pnkdth said:

And not to be that guy, but I'm getting major 40k vibes. This essentially an accelerated version of primaris and turning old models obsolete ever quicker. I can barely spot the differenc so any SCE player could just rebase their models and I'd be non the wiser.

Seriously though, for AoS to move so quickly past established models is strange. They've barely established SCE "firstborn" or chambers properly before bloating their roster even more. Of course, more cool stuff is good but this is the bare minimum since it doesn't innovate their roster as much as it is iterating on existing units. I don't have any skin the game but if I were an SCE player I'd be a bit annoyed. It is like they realised the SCE roster is bloated but rather addressing the issue they created a new improved unit while leaving the rest behind.

I don't really understand the argument here. Models aren't being made obsolete. Even if swords are no longer an option, chances are that the warscroll will use an ambiguous term like "Sigmarite weapon" or alternatively they can easily be proxied. No options = no confusion. These fellas will definitely be on 40mm bases as well, so I don't understand what rebasing has to do with it either.

Now, if you really want to make people feel like their army is obsolete, you don't update their models - you create new units that are better and more sparkly. That's why Primaris (and to some extent, the initial reveal of Thunderstrike) felt a lot more nefarious to me. Vindictors having a better armor save definitely ruffled some feathers, 3 years ago.

If anything, this being a mostly 1:1 replacement means older players have the opportunity to go "nah, not for me", while prospective Stormcast collectors might be lured in by the new design.

Having said all of that, I can appreciate that we are in uncharted territory here. Even more so than some of the Space Marine kits that recently got superseded (Assault Marines, Sternguard Veterans), the old Liberator kit - divisive design or not - is by all accounts a good, modern plastic kits. Seeing resources used on updating kits that only the loosest sense could be considered "old" does not exactly spark joy with me. And it's a little weird to think that going forward, future kit updates will start to supplant otherwise decent plastic kits, rather than the crappy resin/metal stuff of yesteryear.

Anyway, looking back on the first few awkward years of Age of Sigmar, I really feel like Games Workshop rushed the constant expansion of the Stormcast range. They were trying too hard, throwing an absolutely sickening amount of kits at the wall to see what would stick. And it took a while for them to realize that their priorities perhaps needed a bit of adjustment - the thing that made Stormcast click with people wasn't necessarily the massive shoulderpads or pseudo-Bolter weaponry, but a compelling background, helmetless faces, and more diverse body types.

After blowing up the Old World, the Stormcast were almost literally passed the torch of continuing a fantastical and epic Warhammer universe. That privilege at the time felt unearned, as did the myriad releases that followed. But I feel like a lot has changed since then, and the people making dated jokes about Stormcast being mere "Ground Marines" are really just showing their own inability to meaningfully connect with the universe. I don't ever want to see a release schedule of any army similar to the grotesque amount of golden metal men that were shat out during 2015-2016, but I also don't want the Stormcast of today to suffer under the mistakes of the past. The current, 3-year-cycle feels much more healthy and if part of those releases become an attempt to rehabilitate earlier concepts, then I'm okay with that.

(Sorry for writing a novel. This wasn't meant to come across as being argumentative, just a lot of thoughts, I guess.)

[Eldarain]

As truly egregious omissions like Skaven get properly updated it won't be as glaring.

[Ejecutor]

7 hours ago, Jetlife said:

These new list-building rules present some really interesting options. For starters, it looks like the vanguard/spearhead boxes will basically slot right into a regiment for your larger army. This makes it a super easy and efficient way for new players.

I also hope this leads to multiple different spearhead boxes for each army.  This would be an awesome way to collect and build an army. Regiment by regiment.

Hopium I know... but what if each battletome release came with a small regiment. They could even sell them with the new book included. New Hero and two new units......

It seems like this hero and two-unit box model is becoming more and more popular. Dawnbringers box had this kind of format as well.  It definitely feels more "modular"

I don't think they will release Spearheads with the new Battletomes but Battleforces instead, which in the end is also a regiment. Who knows, maybe they even rename the Battleforce box into Regiment box.





Without knowing too much about 40k it looks like the new boxes also have a suitable number of units to make your own regiments (3/4 per box).

[Nezzhil]

11 hours ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

I think you have inside info here, but honestly even in a vacuum I would have expected the system to be less restrictive than the current battleline unlocking mechanics, which already let you run nearly anything you want.

The only thing I had known previously was: "free restrictions but the team want to reward being more friendly to the army lore using multiple warbands commanded by heroes instead battalions". I am as everyone here right now.

[Ookami]

Btw guys, today is World Rat Day. Maybe James will give us at least one clanrat to see

[Ejecutor]

7 hours ago, pnkdth said:

How is that the same thing? I don't keep tabs on release dates but for the most part WHFB models which has been replaced is a fair bit older, no? Most of the new-ish sculpts have remained in factions like CoS too.

In the end is not like the new-ish models have been maintained and the old ones have been removed. Replacements have been appearing without taking too much into consideration how old the minis are, for example, some minis like Flagellants (2007) were kept and the Demigryph Knights (2011) were removed.

[Ejecutor]

7 hours ago, CommissarRotke said:

i love how GW had us sign up for email newsletters... and then only shows extra liberators on instagram and twitter. why did i even sign up? i've gotten a single email to say "you signed up!"

And once the box is launched we will receive another one to say that it is out of stock. That's the purpose of signing up!

[Ejecutor]

6 hours ago, Baron I_oyd said:

If you look at the Warhammer twitter poll from the official account, who do you pick and Skaven are winning with 80%..bruh Stormcast got cooked so hard

 

That's pretty good news for the sales team. There are going to be real battles for the big box.

[Garrac]

17 minutes ago, Ejecutor said:

I don't think they will release Spearheads with the new Battletomes but Battleforces instead, which in the end is also a regiment. Who knows, maybe they even rename the Battleforce box into Regiment box.





Without knowing too much about 40k it looks like the new boxes also have a suitable number of units to make your own regiments (3/4 per box).

Those are launch boxes, they are intended to be bigger and last only a few hours at best. Not the actual force-box.

Also, after 10th point shrieking, that's not even what you need to field a minimum army. I count like 600 points there.

[Garrac]

Also, told you the skavendom is at a 40k level.

Edited April 4 by Garrac

[Ejecutor]

2 hours ago, Magnusaur said:

Having said all of that, I can appreciate that we are in uncharted territory here. Even more so than some of the Space Marine kits that recently got superseded (Assault Marines, Sternguard Veterans), the old Liberator kit - divisive design or not - is by all accounts a good, modern plastic kits. Seeing resources used on updating kits that only the loosest sense could be considered "old" does not exactly spark joy with me. And it's a little weird to think that going forward, future kit updates will start to supplant otherwise decent plastic kits, rather than the crappy resin/metal stuff of yesteryear.

I think this problem would only be applicable to SCE just because they are the only ones that receive updates so often. The rest of the army is not so complete, so after 9 years they would take an expansion of the army rather than a renewal of units that were launched in the first edition.

[Ejecutor]

18 minutes ago, Garrac said:

Those are launch boxes, they are intended to be bigger and last only a few hours at best. Not the actual force-box.

Also, after 10th point shrieking, that's not even what you need to field a minimum army. I count like 600 points there.

I am not talking about a full army but about a regiment. If a game requires 2000 points and what is in the box is around 600 points, as you said, it is the perfect box for a regiment indeed as you would need 3-4 regiments to play, in theory.