Is There Any Evidence For Vampirates

[Grim Beasties]

The topic of a Vampire coast like faction has been going around to the point that some believe they are right around the corner, I'm not convinced. I have firestorm so I know about the Wraith fleet, but has there been any recent concrete evidence or is it all hype?

[Overread]

ZERO

There's nothing for Vampirepirates in terms of rumours of models or armies or concepts. The closest you get might be some short stories; some lore mentions and the fact that Warhammer Total War 2 (PC game) happens to have a vampire pirate army from the Old World - which I hasten to add never had an official GW army either, it was a conversion army from a White Dwarf issue from years back. 

 

In general its a potential angle for a vampire army and it could happen. There's basically nothing to stop it happening lore wise. It's also important to realise that GW will create, flesh out and feature lore armies and factions that never ever appear tabletop side. Cathay, Araby (did get a warmaster army at least), Nippon - are all mentioned fairly often in Old World stories. None got an Old World Warhammer army, some might have got a mordhiem team and such like the Amazonians - much like Kurnothi got an Underworlds warband. 

 

So its all speculation and theory and hope and dreams of gamers. Same as Grotbag Scuttlers, Exodites (40K Eldar on Dinosaurs) etc... 

[novakai]

This response from a year back was the only thing that gave people hope it can happen but I doubt GW design process have progress much if they did start at that point

[Skreech Verminking]

7 hours ago, Grim Beasties said:

The topic of a Vampire coast like faction has been going around to the point that some believe they are right around the corner, I'm not convinced. I have firestorm so I know about the Wraith fleet, but has there been any recent concrete evidence or is it all hype?

No not really.

[Beastmaster]

At some point they will have to sort out the vampires in some form.  And the traditional gothic vampire look might not be considered AoSy enough. So the open question is which way they will go with them. Pirates are just as likely or unlikely as literally anything else.

Since the TW vampire coast is fully fleshed out and was well received, Pirates may seem the safe lazy man‘s choice for the designers. But GW has shown in the past that they’re not afraid of completely new and quite bold design decisions. So everything is open from that angle, too.

Edited September 17, 2020 by Beastmaster

[EccentricCircle]

I do not believe vampirates are coming. Everyone is very quick to jump to conclusions whenever a gothic or undead rumour engine pops up, but to my knowledge we've seen nothing that unequivocally mixes the aesthetcs.

I think it would be a cool army to develop, and might happen eventually but it kind of flies in the face of their current trend of not basing new armies on one recognisable real world aesthetic. They might feel thst vampire coast looks too pirates of the Caribbean -y, and thus not AoS-y enough.

So I'd say it's possible but not overly likely. It could happen down the line due to popular demand, and if it does then expect all of the folks who've been saying its coming for years to be vindicated, even if it's really the self fulfilling prophecy effect.

[Lord of the Isle]

There’s a Vampirate active in Aqshy mentioned in Soulbound. Varkos Varactyr I think

[Whitefang]

Varkos Varactyr and his wraith fleet

[sandlemad]

1 hour ago, EccentricCircle said:

Everyone is very quick to jump to conclusions whenever a gothic or undead rumour engine pops up, but to my knowledge we've seen nothing that unequivocally mixes the aesthetcs.

I think this is is. There's been a number of WHC rumour engines that have been sort of taken together.

• some that are very clearly vampires in the tradition of GW's existing vampire minis (two swords)
• some that are more generalised gothic with vague links to elements of the existing Death aesthetic (spiky halberd, a crow, a possibly demonic hand holding a skull, possibly demonic hands holding a bone flute, a possible FEC arm with a sword that could still be a regular vampire)
• some that could be taken to hint at pirates (a fairly generic pistol that could be for freeguild, this hook-thing from the other day)
• some that hint at the sea more generally (a big crab claw which could well be Idoneth; an Idoneth WHU warband seems all but guaranteed)

There's also a pair of rumour engines that look like shattered bits of a ship. These were enthusiastically taken as suggesting a wraithfleet/vampire coast/undead pirate force but turned out to be part of the SoB mega gargants.

So overall there's definitely going to be something vampiric - whether that be a Warcry warband, a WHU team, villains in a new undead-themed version of WHQ, or a full AoS army - as well as probably some other death stuff. That's all reasonable but jumping to a specific vampire pirates release requires some connective tissue that isn't there yet.

[Overread]

There's a few armies that are certain releases for GW since 2.0 got under way:

1) Luminoth - ergo light aelves

2) Dark/Shadow aelves (Malarions forces)

3) Soulblight - ergo vampires for Death

It's partly why Ossiarchs were such a surprise because all three of those armies are well hinted at in the very core lore; all have very key leaders integral to the games plot and Vampires have been a major faction for years. 

Of those three we've got one so far and the other two look more certain all the time. GW could drop Shadow Aelves, but only if they go "and then Morathi took over the whole Shadow Realm in one weekend" type affair. Vampires could be dropped, but only if they rebuilt Legions of Nagash into basically a vampire army. 

 

One might even add two more to that list

4) Skeleton army - Ossiarchs "sort of" fit this but they are neither Ghost (nighthaunt) nor Skeleton. They could well be a bridge between the two and Legions of Nagash or even the vampire army could both take on a skeleton focus

5) Something for Destruction. No idea what, but another army that isn't grots or orrks

[EccentricCircle]

Given how long people have been speculating about Light and Shadow Elves, I actually think its entirely possible that Games Workshop didn't have a definite plan for the faction at the time those first hints emerged in the early AoS lore. We've been told that developing a new or revised army takes about three years from inception to release. The fact that Teclis and Malekith were gods and had some sort of armies has been in the lore since the start. So unless it was a really slow process, its likely we've been "certain" that a lore only army was going to be a big new faction for longer than GW was. It wouldn't surprise me if the same thing happens with Vampirates in a few years time.

[Beastmaster]

3 minutes ago, EccentricCircle said:

Given how long people have been speculating about Light and Shadow Elves, I actually think its entirely possible that Games Workshop didn't have a definite plan for the faction at the time those first hints emerged in the early AoS lore. We've been told that developing a new or revised army takes about three years from inception to release. The fact that Teclis and Malekith were gods and had some sort of armies has been in the lore since the start. So unless it was a really slow process, its likely we've been "certain" that a lore only army was going to be a big new faction for longer than GW was. It wouldn't surprise me if the same thing happens with Vampirates in a few years time.

Speculating armies into existence, so to speak 😄

[EccentricCircle]

1 minute ago, Beastmaster said:

Speculating armies into existence, so to speak 😄

I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say that GW follow the fan's lead... but its possible they'll look at what seems like a popular idea.

I'm sure there are a lot of things which they put in the lore, with the intention to develop and explore. How much of it actually comes to fruition is another matter. We don't have much of a window into their design process, so we don't know how many factions get concept art and test models, but never get picked up for actual development.

[Beliman]

2 hours ago, Overread said:

Something for Destruction. No idea what, but another army that isn't grots or orrks

No Grotbag Scutlers? No party.

[amysrevenge]

There is less to support Vampirates now than there was to support "Slaves to Darkness will be replaced by Darkoath" a couple years ago.

[Noserenda]

I think Vampire pirates fits Warcry or Underworlds a lot better than it does main AOS tbh.

[Overread]

1 hour ago, amysrevenge said:

There is less to support Vampirates now than there was to support "Slaves to Darkness will be replaced by Darkoath" a couple years ago.

Honestly I'm surprised Dark Oath didn't get a Warcry band

[Popisdead]

22 hours ago, Overread said:

ZERO

There's nothing for Vampirepirates in terms of rumours of models or armies or concepts.

Sartosian pirates in WFB and the models have been available as of recent but they didn't' get rules.  There were 3 models.  

[Baron Klatz]

9 hours ago, EccentricCircle said:

Given how long people have been speculating about Light and Shadow Elves, I actually think its entirely possible that Games Workshop didn't have a definite plan for the faction at the time those first hints emerged in the early AoS lore.

Nah, at the end of 2016 Rountree stated they had the next 5 years of AoS planned out (as they had to account for the changes Seeds of Hope made). So it's all been in planning from then.

Plus your aelven examples don't help support speculation. We got Malerion's portrait in the 2015 AoS starter book so that's a case of us getting an example of what to expect with twisted shadowy daemon forms as we did with the melusai and book examples of future devil-looking shadowkin to match their god.

Then there's the light aelves who were always heavily speculated to be angelic greek winged warriors, not Tibetan cow monks. So that just shows speculation is worth diddly to the whims of GW.

15 hours ago, Lord of the Isle said:

There’s a Vampirate active in Aqshy mentioned in Soulbound. Varkos Varactyr I think

He's from the 2017 Firestorm Wraithfleet OP already mentioned.

Had pretty cool faction rules of his spectral ghost ships floating over the battlefield to disembark troops in a torrent of spirits

He got another mention in the new Kharadron tome as his ghost fleets battled their airships in the skies of Aqshy.

This is why I don't think we'll see Vampirates. Cause frankly, they're pretty limited in the realms where there's seas of lava, aether, sunlight, liquid metal or void seas into oblivion and all the while they can be attacked from above or below (not counting other dimensions by Skaven & Seraphon) by powerful magical armies.

Now flying ethereal NightHaunt fleets that build off the Wraithfleet while being able to sail under the oceans to attack Deepkin or soar through the aether to get revenge on Admiral Brokk or just so they can navigate the innumerable floating islands and continents of the realms and take part on the battlefields as the Kharadron fleets do?

Yeah, that I could much more likely see happening.

Edited September 17, 2020 by Baron Klatz

[Sabotage!]

Well, I don't think there is any strong evidence. I do think it's a possibility there could be some sort of Vampire/pirate warband for Underworlds or Warcry looking at some of the more recent rumor mill pictures. That last hook looks definitely like it belongs to some sort of undead and it is a nautical tool being used as a weapon. Very well could be zombie/ghost/skeletal/undead sailors or something and have nothing to do with a vampire though.

It does definitely look like we are getting some sort of new Undead soon, which makes me soon. What they are though, I'm a bit unsure of.

 

I will say I think a Vampire Pirate and some undead sailors would be a neat Underworlds band.

Edited September 20, 2020 by Sabotage!

[Sharkbelly]

Clearly it is Count Noctilus. He has returned from the Galleons' Graveyard. 😁

Edited September 20, 2020 by Sharkbelly

[MaatithoftheBrand]

So my creativity has stalled and I need to kick myself back into working on a number of projects, including my Kurnothi, but this was a vague idea I was working on that was very much Vampirates/Luthor Harkon/Zombie Pirates inspired with an AoS twist.

Hopefully at the very least this helps get the more creative souls who are itching to start work on a ghost fleet a bit of a push/some inspiration.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lgHstU7MjqJwa6Z8lAnqGUPqYZYhkjHtRQgytHJLhjM/edit?usp=sharing

 

(I may end up doing a thread similar to my Kurnothi thread in the Narrative section if people want to see this developed further/when my creativity returns - curse 2020's Balck Death theme!)

[Fairbanks]

It’s really just a meme from the Warhammer Weekly guys, and they keep flipping between vampire pirates and vampire selves.

What the world really needs though, is werewolf ninjas

[Evangelist of Cinders]

Speculation unless a 20 year old white dwarf army was a long plan on GWs part

 

[Kyriakin]

I suspect we might get a Soulblight and Anvilguard range expansion - so both concepts seperately