Will humans continue existing in AOS

[Baron Klatz]

Should've specified Order humans. Chaos has had floods of human models since the start of AoS, 2017's Age of Intrigue having Tzeentch infiltrate cities with warriors that shapeshift into merchants & nobles to even more now with Warcry.

Humans aren't the central force now with a setting where all the other races are on the rise instead of dying off like the world-that-was and other generic tropes but they're still prominent in the game and lore. Be they regular or boosted by chaos or Sigmarite armor.

3 hours ago, Chikout said:

I'm pretty sure icegoat is a troll account but to give a serious answer I believe that gw admitted a previous preview seminar that they were finding it difficult to come up with a good concept for regular humans in AoS. I wouldn't be surprised if this experimentation with what makes a regular human in AoS led to warcry. The truth of the lore is that the majority of humans did fall to chaos. 

Indeed. Back in 2017 when questioned about humans /freeguild at Warhammer World GW said they wanted to redo them and make them realm focused.

The Warcry bands are likely prototypes for Freeguild armies that will come from each mortal realm and serve as true mortal soldier Order armies to replace the Cities of Sigmar stop-gap and it's old holdover models with mixed forces of humans, duardin and aelves (just as it was back in the first Grand Alliance Order tome where "Freeguild" meant mixed-race defense forces).

With how many varieties of freeguild troops they keep detailing in the lore like Ghur's leather-clad hoplites of Jercho with their grindworm bone weapons and Glymmsforge's Shyish black cloaks with silver shields and magic rifles to fight the ethereal I can't wait to see what they bring to the table(top).

Edited June 22, 2020 by Baron Klatz

[dirkdragonslayer]

On 6/21/2020 at 2:09 PM, Beastmaster said:

Without humans to protect, there is no Sigmar story. 
But as a fighting force, they are still a footnote. And I fear they will stay that way until Oldworld comes. Unfortunately.

Old World is definitely going to be a factor in all this. Kind of like Custodes or Mechanicus having 30k models in 40k, I feel that the Old World will be used to update some older kits. From what we have seen, it seems to be focused on the northern Old World, so I expect things like Empire soldiers, Dwarves, and Chaos Marauders are on the table (as well as new Kislev). GW loves their dual game kits like Daemons, Tzaangors, and Warcry Cultists.

[Baron Klatz]

Not definitely, they said at Open Day the two studios won't be in communication with eachother so that means they can't plan out that stuff as they go in different directions with designs. Especially with Freeguild coming much sooner than a game that may not appear until 3-4 years away

Possibly Forge World's world-that-was game will just be looked at for conversions but otherwise the mortals of the mortal realms will go in the direction the art and lore have been showing rather than the older designs which are being phased out for much more epic fantasy designs(Lumineth are a good example, leaked tome stuff shows they can't even ally with Phoenix Temple but only Deepkin which gives a bigger sense of new directions only)

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by Baron Klatz

[Chikout]

9 hours ago, NkfPanda said:

Hey I was reading through the post and was just wondering what you meant by "stagnation and decline of 40k"?

That's the theme of the game. The imperium has stagnated, the eldar and the necrons are shadows of their former existence. Any time they introduce new imperial tech they have to find a way to explain that it was always there, they just didn't find it yet. 

In AoS order is expanding out of Azyr. New cities are constantly being founded. New technology is being developed. It is a setting full of potential. This is the hook that differentiates it from 40k and the old world and is a big part of why I like it so much. 

[NkfPanda]

1 hour ago, Chikout said:

That's the theme of the game. The imperium has stagnated, the eldar and the necrons are shadows of their former existence. Any time they introduce new imperial tech they have to find a way to explain that it was always there, they just didn't find it yet. 

In AoS order is expanding out of Azyr. New cities are constantly being founded. New technology is being developed. It is a setting full of potential. This is the hook that differentiates it from 40k and the old world and is a big part of why I like it so much. 

Oh I thought you meant the game itself. I was like what the game is so popular but ya I feel ya. Ya I play both games and love me some Grim Dark but I love Fantasy much more than Sci Fi and it is nice that AOS has a different feel.

[Baron Klatz]

1 hour ago, Chikout said:

In AoS order is expanding out of Azyr. New cities are constantly being founded. New technology is being developed. It is a setting full of potential. This is the hook that differentiates it from 40k and the old world and is a big part of why I like it so much. 

Another nice thing is the "oh it went wrong so let's lock it away and never learn from it and improve" warhammer trope is being averted too in Age of Sigmar. The only things that come close are understandable things like the ancient evils sealed in the Stormvaults or the Kharadron not putting all their eggs in one basket with massive super dreadnoughts.

Otherwise it's full of examples of learning from past mistakes and fixing them be it ancient magic like the Agloraxi realm of fire super weapons from the Age of Myth being turned to the defense of the growing nations or the new Lumineth lore where a Matriarchy's magi-tech cloning went wrong and furthered the civil war problems but afterwards they just regulate it better and carry on to the benefit of their people instead and a brighter future to repair their realm.

 

Edited June 23, 2020 by Baron Klatz

[Euphanism]

I read 'all humans are gone' and immediately glanced to the 45 Chaos Warriors waiting to be painted on my desk.

Here I was just assuming thats where all the humans went. 

[Sinfullyvannila]

On 6/21/2020 at 11:55 AM, Icegoat said:

I keep getting the feeling that soon humanity as a species will entirely fall to chaos in the aos lore. It's been 5 years and we havent had a single order human model released. Outside that one war priest who was 8 foot tall and discontinued.  The empire was the most popular faction in old warhammer they were the protagonists of the entire 25 year story. Aos humans are a footnote.  Used to create stormcast and nothing else. 

Three new aelf factions two dwarvish. I mean the lizards got a terrain piece. It seems the time of order aligned humans are limited within aos and will soon be completely discontinued. Especially as all the new human models are going to be found instead in warhammer the old world.

Chaos is almost entirely human. There are vastly more humans in Chaos than all the other factions combined. Probably over 99% of humans follow chaos.

[Baron Klatz]

Now couple that with the fact chaos humans in the Mortal Realms can be restored by the order gods and "Reclaimed" are a constant case of chaos tribes(or neutral tribes forced to live amongst chaos) being converted and reformed to be brought back into society by the order cities that retake those lands claimed during the Age of Chaos and we circle right back to this being a moot worry.

Edited July 3, 2020 by Baron Klatz

[Mwatts25]

On 6/22/2020 at 6:37 AM, Kamose said:

Humans (and horses!!) aren't going anywhere in AoS.  Like others have said, in order for a world to relevant, most people need characters that look, think, and act like they do.  A completely alien world becomes frustrating and unpleasant for most people to have to constantly struggle to understand and that's not conducive to an enjoyable game or engaging lore.

Speaking of lore, Stormcast Eternals are derived from humans and there's no evidence that Sigmar's done making more of them.  In fact, there's ample evidence that, as the reforging process is repeated, 'the flaw' in the process slowly destroys the Stormcast sometimes making them completely insane, violent, and unstable lightning gheists (I think that's what they're called).  Even if only a small percentage of Stormcast degrade this way after each reforging...well, no humans means eventual extinction for the Stormcast.

As others have also said, no humans means there's nothing for the Stormcast to fight for and protect.  It becomes an endless, pointless war of attrition, fighting and dying for nothing in a battle they will never win.  Its very grimdark, I know, but also its not very deep or interesting.

Making new models takes time and the Cities of Sigmar book has 50+ warscrolls in it, each requiring its own model.  Some of the current models are fine (Demigryphs, Steam Tanks) and some really need a refresh (Freeguild Guard, Crossbowmen).  Making those new kits takes time, money and effort.  My money's on a slow refresh/retirement of models as the Cities book is updated and changed in the future.  GW might simply not have the time or incentive to update the human ranges just yet.  Which brings me to my last point...

Prior to the release of AoS and the change in GW's corporate mindset, accessible data concerning of sales numbers, the actual purchase of individual model lines, and the breakdown of each army's relative popularity was almost nonexistent.  Any claims from back then to know which armies were 'the most popular' are essentially baseless and anecdotal.

What I'm trying to say is... 'grabbing anti-troll shield' 😰

...maybe the Empire and Bretonnia... 'backing away slowly' 😨

...just weren't as popular as people want to believe! 'runrunrunrun' 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️

 

You really can’t use gw’s sales as an indicator for faction popularity. Gw sales on certain factions were low due to the gw dual trend of increasing price and reducing miniature quantities and quality. This led people to buy offbrand minis instead