AoS 2 - Ossiarch Bonereapers Discussion

[Uvatha]

Maybe we could have a unnamed Dread Abyssal warscroll (i.e. without Arkhan)?

Just like the Flesh Eaters have Terrorgheist and Zombie Dragon warscroll in addition to the versions mounted by the hero. They could fit Behemot role as well. It would be nice for those who have magnetised their Mortarchs 

We already know three named Dread Abyssals but it is assumed that there could have existed hundreds or thousands: https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Dread_Abyssals

[Overread]

That article makes me hope we might see Hounds of Usirian or a similar undead hound skeleton/construct!

I'm  not sure about a generic Dread Abyssal; the riders on the kits are pretty unique and already identified as heroic of the age. I'm not even sure if the mount can be made without a rider attached (or at least a saddle attached). The zombie dragon can at least appear without a mount/rider atop it; and the leaders within the box have enough variety of parts to allow for generic and named versions to be visually distinct. 

[Neck-Romantic]

Curious to see if this will be the first book to actually allow Naggy. Its been weird not having him allowed outside of his own private army list

[Sception]

I mean, he's been legal in generic death.  Not that you would want to run that, and not that he'd be any good in it if you did, what with the lack of faction spells, but still.

[Neck-Romantic]

I kinda wanted to run him with a horde of Spirit Hosts and Spirit Torments 😊

[gilgaron]

So the foot soldier warrior guys I heard somewhere they had head options that didnt have noses, is that confirmed? I know its kind of silly but having your basic skeleton looking guys with noses kills it for me.

[Panzer]

37 minutes ago, gilgaron said:

So the foot soldier warrior guys I heard somewhere they had head options that didnt have noses, is that confirmed? I know its kind of silly but having your basic skeleton looking guys with noses kills it for me.

Yeah we've already seen pictures. They look slightly better but not good enough for my taste.

[Neinball]

3 hours ago, gilgaron said:

So the foot soldier warrior guys I heard somewhere they had head options that didnt have noses, is that confirmed? I know its kind of silly but having your basic skeleton looking guys with noses kills it for me.

You can see them in the preview video with all the models in rank and file. No idea what the spread will be on the sprues, but it also seems that they're on 25mm or 28mm so traditional skeleton heads may end up fitting nicely on them.  Won't know for certain till we have the models in our hands though.

[Amradiel]

On 9/13/2019 at 7:45 PM, Neck-Romantic said:

Curious to see if this will be the first book to actually allow Naggy. Its been weird not having him allowed outside of his own private army list

He is in this picture so I guess he well be in the book 🤔

[Goldy751]

man I really want to see some new models/rules about now. im too hyped.

[Overread]

Yeah its been too long since the last news/leak. Heck if we hadn't of had the leak we might have waited the whole month before news - come one GW tease us something! 

[Neffelo]

8 hours ago, Overread said:

Yeah its been too long since the last news/leak. Heck if we hadn't of had the leak we might have waited the whole month before news - come one GW tease us something! 

Yeah me too. My gut feeling is we won't start getting stuff until halfway through October though

 

[Neck-Romantic]

Yeah they teased these guys a bit early imo

[Tronhammer NZ]

Man. this is the first time I've had decent advance warning about a release I am really interested in. For once I will have something saved by the time they are on the shelves!

[Overread]

36 minutes ago, Neck-Romantic said:

Yeah they teased these guys a bit early imo

 

1 minute ago, Tronhammer NZ said:

Man. this is the first time I've had decent advance warning about a release I am really interested in. For once I will have something saved by the time they are on the shelves!

And that's why they were teased at the right moment 

If GW teased them too close then everyone who wants them is trapped likely having spent their months hobby money; whilst teased at the Nova there was enough info to get people hyped about them. Though if I were GW I'd have wanted to perhaps do a single unit focus article each week or so until launch - that way you keep the hype going strong by continually reminding people. 

Of course we still don't know the pre-order date - it could be any time from the 5th to the 26th

[Panzer]

It's always a balance act of teasing early so people don't get surprised by it and can save some money beforehand and teasing not too early to keep the hype alive. Imo this time they went too early and most of the initial hype is already disappearing.

[Overread]

2 minutes ago, Panzer said:

It's always a balance act of teasing early so people don't get surprised by it and can save some money beforehand and teasing not too early to keep the hype alive. Imo this time they went too early and most of the initial hype is already disappearing.

It might also be that the leak we got forced GW to release some marketing earlier than they wanted which now leaves  a gap. 

[Panzer]

Yeah I'd say that's rather likely.

[smartazjb0y]

Eh don't really think they got announced too early, if they do legitimately get released in October that's at most 2 months between announcement and release for a brand new army. It was announced at NOVA which IMO seems like a perfect place to announce them. 

As soon as they start doing previews again the hype will pick back up 

[Sception]

I agree, the announcement wasnt early.  The preview might have been, but imo that was a reaction to the leaks, which weren't under gw control.

[SentinelGuy]

Is there any chance the basic troops will have bows do you think?

[Overread]

45 minutes ago, SentinelGuy said:

Is there any chance the basic troops will have bows do you think?

Right now it doesn't look like it. We've seen the basic troops with both spears and swords as weapons for all the models and we've seen at least one holding a duel handed sword (which might be a 3rd option or a special unit within the regular unit, such as a leader model). Cavalry we've also not seen with archery options either. 

We've also seen the back-of-battletome photograph of the army, which often showcases much of the army. The only ranged in there (besides magic) was the walking artillery. It would seem that, certainly for this launch, the Bonereapers are a close combat orientated army; likely with the capacity to repair and replace and perhaps summon troops on the battlefield. This latter ability might be tied to kills made as well and is likely tied to specific models such as the harvester (the big thing with corpses on its back). Though that could equally be a support for repair/replacement. 

 

 

[Sception]

15 hours ago, SentinelGuy said:

Is there any chance the basic troops will have bows do you think?

I'd pit the chances at about 5%.  That said, if the bonereapers sell well, we might see future expansions to & subfactions of the ossiarch range similar to how stormcasts have seen multiple release waves, which might bring more shooty stuff later.

Not soon though, and reaction to the bonreapers so far has been decidedly mixed, which means they might not sell well enough for GW to be intetested in expanding them at all.  Definitely too soon to bank on anyway.

[Overread]

1 minute ago, Sception said:

I'd pit the chances at about 5%.  That said, if the bonereapers sell well, we might see future expansions to & subfactions of the ossiarch range similar to how stormcasts have seen multiple release waves, which might bring more shooty stuff later.

Not soon though, and reaction to the bonreapers so far has been decidedly mixed, which means they might not sell well enough for GW to be intetested in expanding them at all.  Definitely too soon to bank on anyway.

Eh I think the reason is somewhat muted online due to

1) They aren't Tomb Kings

2) They weren't hinted at for a long while in the lore. So people weren't expecting them.

3) There's some bitterness from those with old models or small armies thinking that GW could have used this slot and production to update existing forces rather than plug for a new one. Heck Bonereapers are going to launch with more model variety than Fyreslayers, DoK or Flesheaters in terms of complete model kits without considering duel kits. 

However overall one of hte main reasons its muted is that we don't yet have the models in hand to play with. Plus GW hasn't pressed hard on the marketing yet so the hype has come and gone fast. It's in the simmering phase now, but you can bet once GW gets a week or two of marketing behind them the chatter will pick up a lot. Doubly so once people get to see, handle, assemble models and also see them painted up with different schemes and read some of hte lore about them. 

[Sception]

The negative reactions I've seen have almost entirely revolved around the models themselves, rather than complaints about misplaced expectations.  Not liking the noses.  Not liking the grins.  Not liking the proportions, especially on the big monster.  Not liking the hamster wheel on the catapult.  Not liking all the gribbly bumply bits.  The faction aesthetic overall is very cartoonish, it reminds many of late 80s / early 90s era children's toys (masters of the universe, inhumanoids, skeleton warriors, etc).  And while the studio painting style, color scheme, and photography all serve to highlight & exacerbate those aspects where an alternative style might diminishing them, it seems pretty clear that a lot of that cartoonishness is baked into the models themselves.  Personally I love all that stuff, but reaction has been mixed and I don't think that should be very surprising given that cartoony models almost always see mixed reactions, and these are about the cartooniest AoS models we've seen, especially for the undead.

Edited September 25, 2019 by Sception