The Tithe - Speculation.

[Theduke]

1 hour ago, Acid_Nine said:

I am getting a very polish winged hussar vibe from the Calvary, and I am interested to see what these guys actually are. Maybe they are the second coming of soulblight?

 

anyways, can't wait to know more!

This will be a brand new faction and apparently there will be around if not more than the same number of kits as the nighthaunts release.  

[Umjammerlama]

I bet he’s called  Mortarch of Bones. 

[Forrix]

They better have a spell or ability called "Bonestorm!"

[BaylorCorvette]

1 hour ago, Forrix said:

They better have a spell or ability called "Bonerstorm!"

Fixed.

[Sleboda]

1 hour ago, Umjammerlama said:

I bet he’s called  Mortarch of Bones. 

Mortarch of War? Conquest?

Speculation is fun!

[KillagoreFaceslasha]

Mortarch of taxes.

[janenglund]

13 minutes ago, KillagoreFaceslasha said:

Mortarch of taxis.

Fixed.

[Lucky Snake Eyes]

There better be an allegiance ability or command ability called death and taxes.

[Chickenbits]

2 hours ago, Forrix said:

They better have a spell or ability called "Bonestorm!"

 

[Kirjava13]

I've unearthed a private GW concept video for the new Death army.

 

[Overread]

5 minutes ago, Kirjava13 said:

I've unearthed a private GW concept video for the new Death army.

 

Ahh Necrons - what you could have been!

 

Also I found the video of the other release GW should do

 

Exodites! Eldar on Dinosaurs with lasers! 

[Kirjava13]

Ah, Dinoriders, aka my happy childhood.

"Put this in your Easter basket, Krulos!"

Edited August 26, 2019 by Kirjava13

[Overread]

2 minutes ago, Kirjava13 said:

Ah, Dinoriders, aka my happy childhood.

"Put this in your Easter basket, Krulos!"

Without spamming the thread up but seeing some old Dreadfleet kits reminded me of Pirates of Blackwater (great series shame it never got finished). I do wonder if one day GW might bring back Dreadfleet in a new form for AoS because darn their ships were fantastic and fleets of fantasy ships would be epic for the setting  - combined of course iwth the odd dragon and sea serpent and kracken and god only knows what else! 

[Kirjava13]

I remember that being a show with quite a sinister vibe to it... dammit Overread, now I have to go and search for it on YouTube.

[Overread]

3 minutes ago, Kirjava13 said:

I remember that being a show with quite a sinister vibe to it... dammit Overread, now I have to go and search for it on YouTube.

Whilst you're there look up the old Conan the Barbarian series! 

Oh and don't forget Bucky O Hare, the original (and only true) XMen animation and probably loads more. Ahh the 80-90s - a true golden age of creativity and cartoons. 

 

 

Oh and if you want an injection of Bretonnia - Prince Valiant is on Amazon Prime! Perfect material to get you into the knightly mood! 

Edited August 26, 2019 by Overread

[Kirjava13]

Bucky O'Hare goes, and you can choose to believe this or not, where no ordinary rabbit would dare.

Now I have to go and revisit all my favourite old cartoons.

[Death1942]

Back on topic...

 

Are we getting model previews this Thursday?

[Mandzak-Miniatures]

Someone at GW likes Masters the Universe Golden God Skeletor.

 

[Uvatha]

The armours and weapons are really Morghast-style and I like it because they are the very first models which attracted me while I was passing in front of a GW shop gallery some time ago, and which made me start this hobby 

So far I understood that we have:

1. A single same voice speaking over the 3 trailers: a general in life and emperor in death, destroyed and reborn, who survived Storm God's hammer and freed from his prison. This last statement links to the old entity (old ally of Nagash) released from the Midnight Tomb by Lady Olynder?

2. A Mortarch (of Bones?). But I am not sure if the  previous entity old ally of Nagash is the Mortarch itself, or if a new Mortarch is acting on behalf of the released entity. The main character/general in the 3rd trailer has a shield with a figure which looks a lot like the entity released from Midnight Tomb (mouth wide opened + magic runes). Does it mean that this character with the shield is the Herald of the army, but no necessary the  Mortarch itself (like the Knight of Shrouds was a Herald for the Nighthaunt)?

3. An ambassador/tithe collector,  a distinct character going from city to city to announce the coming of the army and the collect.

4. A well organised legion/type of army of bones constructs, marching in with banners, in Asian and Morghast style (no wing but undead mounts) and catapults ...throwing what? (green magic?)

 

Edited August 27, 2019 by Uvatha

[Dirtnaps]

1 hour ago, Uvatha said:

The armours and weapons are really Morghast-style and I like it because they are the very first models which attracted me while I was passing in front of a GW shop gallery some time ago, and which made me start this hobby 

So far I understood that we have:

1. A single same voice speaking over the 3 trailers: a general in life and emperor in death, destroyed and reborn, who survived Storm God's hammer and freed from his prison. This last statement links to the old entity (old ally of Nagash) released from the Midnight Tomb by Lady Olynder?

2. A Mortarch (of Bones?). But I am not sure if the  previous entity old ally of Nagash is the Mortarch itself, or if a new Mortarch is acting on behalf of the released entity. The main character/general in the 3rd trailer has a shield with a figure which looks a lot like the entity released from Midnight Tomb (mouth wide opened + magic runes). Does it mean that this character with the shield is the Herald of the army, but no necessary the  Mortarch itself (like the Knight of Shrouds was a Herald for the Nighthaunt)?

3. An ambassador/tithe collector,  a distinct character going from city to city to announce the coming of the army and the collect.

4. A well organised legion/type of army of bones constructs, marching in with banners, in Asian and Morghast style (no wing but undead mounts) and catapults ...throwing what? (green magic?)

 

I am 100% on board with a Morghast themed army, those are imo some of the coolest GW models you can get. My bet is on whatever coming out of lake lethis is a god or god-like being subservient to Nagash and this faction serves it and by extension Nagash. It seems a little weird to have it's image on the shield of what I'm assuming is the new Mortarch if that isn't the case. 

If their allegiance ability or a spells or terrain doesn't have something to do with collecting a tithe I'm going to be disappointed, I mean how could they not have something be named like that when they've set it up so nicely. I wonder if they'll be able to summon or not, if the rumour from a while back is true and they are an elite army then probably not but if they're rank and file skelies then I think there's a good chance.

[Dr Ben]

12 hours ago, Overread said:

Without spamming the thread up but seeing some old Dreadfleet kits reminded me of Pirates of Blackwater (great series shame it never got finished). I do wonder if one day GW might bring back Dreadfleet in a new form for AoS because darn their ships were fantastic and fleets of fantasy ships would be epic for the setting  - combined of course iwth the odd dragon and sea serpent and kracken and god only knows what else! 

They seem to be making a lot more spin off boxed games recently. Aeronautica imperialis isn't a million miles away from dreadfleet as an idea. I'd say the odds aren't bad on dreadfleet being re-invented as a new boxed game.

2 hours ago, Uvatha said:

The armours and weapons are really Morghast-style and I like it because they are the very first models which attracted me while I was passing in front of a GW shop gallery some time ago, and which made me start this hobby 

So far I understood that we have:

1. A single same voice speaking over the 3 trailers: a general in life and emperor in death, destroyed and reborn, who survived Storm God's hammer and freed from his prison. This last statement links to the old entity (old ally of Nagash) released from the Midnight Tomb by Lady Olynder?

2. A Mortarch (of Bones?). But I am not sure if the  previous entity old ally of Nagash is the Mortarch itself, or if a new Mortarch is acting on behalf of the released entity. The main character/general in the 3rd trailer has a shield with a figure which looks a lot like the entity released from Midnight Tomb (mouth wide opened + magic runes). Does it mean that this character with the shield is the Herald of the army, but no necessary the  Mortarch itself (like the Knight of Shrouds was a Herald for the Nighthaunt)?

3. An ambassador/tithe collector,  a distinct character going from city to city to announce the coming of the army and the collect.

4. A well organised legion/type of army of bones constructs, marching in with banners, in Asian and Morghast style (no wing but undead mounts) and catapults ...throwing what? (green magic?)

1. This seems to be accepted as almost certainly correct, but I'm not sure it has been officially stated in so many words (yet). 

2 and 3. Your theories seem as good as any. Skulls and runes are common motifs so personally I wouldn't read too much into that bit - but that's not to say you're wrong.

4. Pretty much. Certainly looks like green death magic. There definitely seem to be Asian influences in the helmet shape and other details. Infantry, not quite a horse/bird head (undead gryphcharger or demigryph?) cavalry and catapults are definitely in and who knows what else. Most of the troops look skeletal with uruk-hai style swords or spears and shields. The boss (mortarch?) looks like he has lips on the lower half of his face/mask so not sure what's going on with him. 

[Cèsar de Quart]

I really like the illustration of the bone mortarch and his guys, I dig the callbacks to Tomb Kings silouhettes and trinkets. I'd be very disappointed if, at the end of the day, we get Morghast-like ingracile mountains of bone, which I disliked so much that almost topped the Stormcasts as the thing I despise the most, aesthetically speaking, from AoS.

The most ridiculous thing about the morghasts is the way they're supposed to hover over the ground on fumes and wisps of smoke. 

Just look at them buffoons:

 

I don't like their hulkiness or their blades, their dinosaur legs, their faces, but all of that doesn't kill the miniature. These are just uninspired, WoW-like designs. What kills them are the poses, the proportion, the lack of balance and the fact that they were made to ridiculously hover with such disproportionally small wings.

The one in the front has his legs at an awkwardly unbalanced position, both looking forwards, counteracting the general impression of speed and flight it wants to present, and you may say "well, sir, it's because he's landing!", then the wings are not positioned in a way that gives off that impression, neither are the arms.

Also, they're giant husks of bone and... obsidian? If you want to give the impression that they can fly, either make it look supernatural, like with Nagash (so no wings), or give them wings that look like they can work supporting their weight. GW has some truly masterful sculptors who well those passions read, but whoever did this was having a hard day. "But hey, the wings are just cosmetic, they don't really fly on them. Look at all the holes, nothing can fly like this!". True, but our brain recognises shape and function, looks for analogues and then assigns similar properties, so we see "bug with wings", and our brain says "ok, where have I seen this before?". And we get to the conclusion: "these wings are too small for such a big guy". Rationally, it doesn't make sense, but art doesn't appeal to our rational brains. That's why the Parthenon's columns are slighly fat, to counter the optical illusion of having too many vertical lines parallel to each other. That's why Michelangeo's david's hands and head are bigger than they should be, so that your brain, used to seeing people at your eyeline, doesn't counter for the distance (it's a 3m tall statue!) and you end up imagining weird proportions. 

Even the End Times artists saw the mini and said "nope, this ain't gonna work":

This works better. Bigger wings, slimmer, recognisable armour material...

Maybe not everyone sees this the same way, but my art studies make me prone to dislike sculpts such as these. At the end of the day, I'm the one who's all the worse for it.

A simple solution is this:

Not perfect, but it's lost a big part of the awkwardness. Now the "oh god I'm slipping" pose turns into dynamic movement, whcih works oddly well (I woner if the mini wasn't designed initially this way and later some suits decided to have it flying). If I had to buy the kit, I'd do this AND remove the wings.

But if I ever need morghasts, I'll make some of my own instead. A jack'o'lantern guy, a scarecrow, a tomb king styled bone giant, a sphynx... 

Edited August 27, 2019 by Cèsar de Quart

[Panzer]

Eh, at the end of the day GW models are still heroic scale and actual artworks always look better. The only thing I think they could've done better with the models is the whisp/smoke effect coming from the wings. The poses could be slightly improved too but they aren't THAT bad.

[Cèsar de Quart]

I guess you're right, at the end of the day, aside from objective problems in proportion and sculpt balance, the main problem is totally subjective: the choice of having units that are half dinosaur half ogre made of bone.

I'd rather have something like this. It has the weird (multiple arms, mysterous shape covered by robes, a halo) and the recognisable (the materials are still understandable, the cloth, the bone, etc). The hat looks cool as well, and the mini is balanced in a simple way. The halo may be a tad too much, but I like the idea.

And this Tithe of Bones looks like it resembles this general idea. It maywell  be what I was looking for.

[Uvatha]

34 minutes ago, Cèsar de Quart said:

The one in the front has his legs at an awkwardly unbalanced position, both looking forwards, counteracting the general impression of speed and flight it wants to present, and you may say "well, sir, it's because he's landing!", then the wings are not positioned in a way that gives off that impression, neither are the arms.

While I do not share the conclusion I thank you for the detailed and justified explanation. It shows that you have already invested a decent time into looking at these models   If you wish to spend more, and to give a try at building one of them, then I would just say that the joints for gluing these legs you don't like are actually flexible for allowing you to adjust their pose. You do not have to glue them in a pose where they look like landing: you can just glue the legs more like sliding to the rear. And same for the heads: you can orient them the way you want (e.g. if you want to make them look like a Velociraptor trying to capt sounds )

For the wings I agree with you: the conversion from Rob Hawkins is great, especially with the mausoleum pieces he produces ! 👍