Missing in Action: Which Units Exist in Lore but Need Models?

[MitGas]

Yeah, all I see are a bunch of people that have no idea what women look like apparently. Are you white-knighting

4 hours ago, Lucky Snake Eyes said:

I mean the armour of undivided worshipers doesn't really give any indicator of gender at all. They're all walking refrigerators with capes, the only way you could discern gender is if they're helmet is off and even then many are mutated beyond recognition or even need of gender. Now when it comes to god specific stuff it's a different story. Tzeentch arcanites are fit but not more so than a barbarian, Nurgles worshippers are all just kinda round and rotten, khornes are all built like brick ****** houses regardless of gender and it's implied that becoming a bloodreaver turns anything that isn't muscle into muscle. Slaanesh is the only one with variety and that's kinda intentional. You have beefcakes and slender doll like body shapes for both genders and with glutos now including fat body types as well. As for your prior example of varanguard, how can you be certain they're all male? Chaos lord isn't exactly a gender specific rank and they're all wearing thick enough armour to make anything short of stormcast blush. Some of the bodies have abs and beefy arms but those aren't male exclusive traits. The only argument in favour is the lack of a helmetless female head but we all know how GW struggles with good head sculpts in general until recent years. I don't think you have too much to worry about as the underworlds warband shows, if you aren't blessed by nurgle or slaanesh and made it to a warrior rank you're gonna be built like a brick ****** house wearing a fridge regardless of what you looked like prior to walking the path of damnation.

The armor of Undivided suggests a man under it so strongly, it seriously makes me wonder if you've ever seen a girl in the wild or you're deliberately white-knighting cause you want girl Chaos Warriors to exist. I know the answer.  Women certainly don't look like CWs and even less so Varanguard. Not even men naturally do unless you inject them with huge amounts of illegal substances and they have the genetics for it. Yes, there are very few females like that too but they're fully outside the norm as they take supplements that aren't even meant for their gender (hell, no even men should take them). It's not a natural look. There's a ZEROOOOO (*Greg Doucette voice*) chance that Varanguard are women at the moment. Look at the neck. That is not a female neck. Of course you can imagine them to be women if you like.  Then you can also imagine the moon to wink at you at night too, though.

The female WH:U leader was thought of by many as a dude at first, cause the overall body shape of a CW clearly doesn't read as female (else that mistake wouldn't have been made). And yes, they could change the armor slightly to make it look more female but that's messing around with an iconic look and I'm heavily against it. It would be like messing with Space Marines (that is out of the question due to background thankfully) or other iconic looks. Not a single piece of Warhammer art in the last 21 years (since I know them) suggested females under Chaos Warrior armor. Chaotic females had their own look (Yes, it was Chaos armor but the style was different, it was feminine) and they weren't part of Chaos Warrior units.

Karic Acolytes: The single female sculpt looks clearly like a woman. I'd like more girl sculpts in there.
Bloodreavers: No women as far as I know. Would you also argue there are women under the armor of the Blood Warriors? Cause those are also clearly male.
Nurgle: The only woman is the WH:U witch AFAIK. Which looks like the part. Not sure anyone wants more Nurgle females.
Slaanesh: The heavily armored units still look predominantly male in body shape and we all know Slaanesh blurs the line... they could all be hermaphrodites for all we know.
S2D: The new Start Collecting box has no women in it. The helmetless head variants are ALL male. We got a single female leader in the upcoming WH:U warband.

It's all good  to have women be part of Chaos but give them fitting spots and looks (what everyone is waiting for are Marauders). And don't change the look/feel of established units. There are a billion ways to add more women to Chaos without ****** around with things. A woman in Chaos Warrior armor is not a natural fit and I'm against it not because I'm backwards thinking and hate women but because I like the established look and HATE for it to change just because self-proclaimed enlightened kids think this is the way. And you're bending the gender's identity to make fit the CW aesthetic anyways as it's not a natural fit.

A natural fit would be the Lumineth models, where the sexes are much closer in looks. Oh and please also argue for male models in basic DOK units. 

[Vasshpit]

1 hour ago, MitGas said:

S2D: The new Start Collecting box has no women in it. The helmetless head variants are ALL male. We got a single female leader in the upcoming WH:U warband.

This is in the description on the S2D SC. Just saying. 

 

 

Its mentioned in one of the novels that Gordrakk sends out Ironjawz scouts. This could be a fun and new utility unit for them. 

Edited January 14, 2021 by Vasshpit

[NotAWzrd]

Age of Sigmar has been giving us great female sculpts lately, from the Nurgle Sorceress Fecula Flyblown to the new Chaos Underworlds warband. Leena Stormspire, despite having an incredibly goofy expression, is another example of awesome female stormcast that really need to be more than just store exclusives.
 

I love that GW are moving away from the outdated supermodels in bikinis aesthetic that a lot of third party models still have whilst showing that women, just like men, come in all shapes and sizes. There are many, many women in the real world who are bigger, taller and stronger than the average man, and so it shouldn’t be a surprise to see that represented on the tabletop in some capacity.

I’d hate for current or prospective female AoS fans to see that, despite the many blessings, curses and mutations of chaos, some people can’t stomach the idea of a female varanguard. If you don’t like a model you don’t have to buy it, but it’s great to have options for everyone. 

Edited January 14, 2021 by NotAWzrd

[MitGas]

28 minutes ago, NotAWzrd said:

Age of Sigmar has been giving us great female sculpts lately, from the Nurgle Sorceress Fecula Flyblown to the new Chaos Underworlds warband. Leena Stormspire, despite having an incredibly goofy expression, is another example of awesome female stormcast that really need to be more than just store exclusives.
 

I love that GW are moving away from the outdated supermodels in bikinis aesthetic that a lot of third party models still have whilst showing that women, just like men, come in all shapes and sizes. There are many, many women in the real world who are bigger, taller and stronger than the average man, and so it shouldn’t be a surprise to see that represented on the tabletop in some capacity.

I’d hate for current or prospective female AoS fans to see that, despite the many blessings, curses and mutations of chaos, some people can’t stomach the idea of a female varanguard. If you don’t like a model you don’t have to buy it, but it’s great to have options for everyone. 

Put a female head on the current Varanguard models and see how well it fits. It won't unless you lie to yourself. There's a good reason why female SC (which also fall into the heavily armored warrior category) have different proportions to the male ones. If you want it to fit, then the base model needs to be changed. Same for Chaos Warriors as the champion got mistaken for a dude at first by multiple people (see blog posts or reddit). All I'm against is that a wonderful design gets changed cause some people need to enforce gender equality and inclusivity in minis. It's similar to enforcing male sisters of battle.  Noone in their right mind would want to change their beautiful design ... and if you put a male head onto their models it simply wouldn't work as their overall body shape is clearly female.

Add a female sculpt to Varanguard (SPOILER: it won't come for Varanguard, maybe for new Chosen or for a champion or whatever), make it bulky, huge, whatever - but make it female. Don't use the body of a guy and stick a female head on it like they did in the WH:U warband. Simply doesn't look "right" and simply messes with a concept that is older than most of you are because it's "in". There are unlimited ways to add more women to Chaos without ****** with an established look. The gender and race swapping of today is annoying as hell (especially in historical storytelling) and pointless as all that is needed is to make cool new characters or units that fulfill the requirements. So leave stuff like Witch Aelves, Sisters, Space Marines and Chaos Warriors alone. *Chris Crocker*

 

33 minutes ago, Vasshpit said:

This is in the description on the S2D SC. Just saying. 

 

That's what's written, look at those faces. I see no female face. The one with the nose ring looked female in the first image of it but it's clearly a dude on other images. That was a mistake in the description.

[Neverchosen]

@MitGas  I am sorry if my posts offended you in anyway.

I just think that it is hard to ascribe gender to someone covered in heavy armour and mutated by powerful metaphysical entities. I did mention that part of the reason I personally like Chaos warrior models is that they eschew their previous identity in favour of massive armour, horned helmets and eventual mutations. I think the Varanguard are an example of mutation causing the characters to bulk up and become more warlike and less easily defined by any typical anthropomorphic concepts. As such they grow massive horns and become more demonic. While I will agree that they are much more inline with a masculine aesthetic, I also think they are demon infused warriors and I know next to nothing of who or even what they are. I often use green on my models to represent 80s style pop culture mutation as it contrasts with the red colour scheme I use on my warriors' armour and it also creates a fun degree of alienation from my models. So I guess in the end they are just plastic representations of fictional soldiers, so I suppose I don't really care that much what they are meant to be. Again, I apologize for causing any offence to anyone on either side of the debate. I think of this as a hobby and I never want my hobby to hurt anyone's feelings.

Edited January 14, 2021 by Neverchosen

[MitGas]

12 minutes ago, Neverchosen said:

@MitGas  I am sorry if my posts offended you in anyway.

I just think that it is hard to ascribe gender to someone covered in heavy armour and mutated by powerful metaphysical entities. I did mention that part of the reason I personally like Chaos warrior models is that they eschew their previous identity in favour of massive armour, horned helmets and eventual mutations. I think the Varanguard are an example of mutation causing the characters to bulk up and become more warlike and less easily defined by any typical anthropomorphic concepts. As such they grow massive horns and become more demonic. While I will agree that they are much more inline with a masculine aesthetic, I also think they are demon infused warriors and I know next to nothing of who or even what they are. I often use green on my models to represent 80s style pop culture mutation as it contrasts with the red colour scheme I use on my warriors' armour and it also creates a fun degree of alienation from my models. So I guess in the end they are just plastic representations of fictional soldiers, so I suppose I don't really care that much what they are meant to be. Again, I apologize for causing any offence to anyone on either side of the debate. I think of this as a hobby and I never want my hobby to hurt anyone's feelings.

Seriously, you got less than ZERO need to apologize. Sorry if I made you think that way. All cool, if I put out my opinion, I gotta defend it as well and vice versa - that's why we even discuss these things and well, I know my opinion is unpopular in this day and age but I stick to it out of conviction that it doesn't look right in some cases. I'm only disgusted if someone doesn't bother explaining their POV and instead like say posts smileys, I'd rather hear people angrily disagree with me as why else be part of the discussion.

[CommissarRotke]

2 hours ago, Honk said:

And to be honest, I personally started playing WHF grimdark style, where you best not be female around a bunch of Slaneesh Chaos Warriors... but AoS seems to try its best for noblebright, there is that.

Gates of Azyr, the first AOS book released, opens with Aqyshy refugees being hunted by members of their own tribe who were converted into raving cannibals by Khornates. Then you find out they were converted by being forced to choose between death or eating other captives to receive Khorne's Gifts. AOS is certainly grimdark; having more  'good people' than 40k doesn't change that.

[Beastmaster]

I am thinking more and more that wargaming miniatures HAVE to be a bit exaggerated to bring their point across. If they don’t scream MALE or FEMALE or ORC or ELF at you from 3-4 feet across the table, they just don’t work as what they‘ve been designed for. So the Alternative to exaggerated gender stereotypes would be (factually, seen from across the table) no gender at all.

[Vasshpit]

While I can see logic on both sides of the discussion I fear this ship has veered off course. 

There's plenty of other threads here dealing with the sexes discussion.  

[CommissarRotke]

2 hours ago, MitGas said:

Yeah, all I see are a bunch of people that have no idea what women look like apparently. Are you white-knighting

you're really going to come in here and call us white knights because we think that a fantasy tabletop game can include hulking warriors that are ladies? If you've never met or even seen a woman who is taller and/or broader than you, either you're The Mountain in real life or you don't know what women look like yourself.

[NotAWzrd]

1 hour ago, MitGas said:

Add a female sculpt to Varanguard (SPOILER: it won't come for Varanguard, maybe for new Chosen or for a champion or whatever), make it bulky, huge, whatever - but make it female. 

 

I understand your point here, in my head I was thinking of a new model too as opposed to just doing a simple head swap, so apologies for the misunderstanding. With this being a largely high fantasy setting though I think its logical to have a varying representation of gender throughout, as well as strange, nonsensical body types. I don’t want anyone to feel discouraged for doing conversions or taking creative liberties with their armies that’s all.  

Edited January 14, 2021 by NotAWzrd

[NotAWzrd]

As for units that don’t exist, I haven’t read their battletome or anything but surely Flesh Eater Courts are the faction in most need of something new? If there’s anything in the lore that reinforces the idea of a horrific mirror to Bretonnia that would be awesome. 

[Enoby]

13 hours ago, MitGas said:

Unpopular opinion:

Hard disagree... I'd hate hate HATE HATE a female Varanguard rider! Whenever something is described as a HULKING BRUTE, I don't think the female form fits that description. So yeah, I'm far from a fan of female Chaos Warriors (or Chosen, Varanguard, whatever). No, I don't hate women. I usually like them. Usually.
 

And yes, I know it's a magical world but I still don't like it. WH:U warband included. Female marauders aren't such a jarring image to me, probably because they work fine visually. Or even special cases like Valkia or Dechala. Or the Marauder Warqueen character. But hulking, heavy armored Chaos guys should stay dudes.

I'm of the exact opposite opinion - I wish we'd have more bulky women. As a women, it's a shame that a lot of female models (especially older ones) were basically skinny pretty ladies (or as pretty as they could look in finecast, for example the Bretonnia caster, the female vampire lord, the female elves, Valkia, even Khalida the mummy) whereas men were depicted as hulking brutes (orks, ogors, chaos lords, daemon princes etc), pretty boys (high elves and Sigvald), just normal human warriors (Empire), heavily armoured tanks (dwarves and Bretonia), little sneaky creatures (Skaven and Goblins), and, well, you get the idea. 

I'm very glad women aren't just stuck in the box of "traditionally feminine" in AoS anymore. It gives more narrative potential, more diverse models, and on a personal point, makes me glad my entire gender isn't narrowed down to one concept/body type.   

Edit: reading a few of your other responses (sorry, I was on the wrong page and didn't see page 4 too), it's a shame you think that people who want bulky female models "don't know what women look like" or are just "white knighting" (I can assure you I know more about women than you do ), and that you don't think people would want more Nurgle female models (assuming because they're brutish, ugly, and disgusting - as they should be). It seems like you only want female models that would be considered attractive, but don't hold male models to the same standard (so men can be bulky monsters but women can't); I don't want to accuse you of anything, but I'd ask that you reflect on why you think this should be the case? Personally, I'm always a little wary when people complain that female models aren't attractive enough (but never that the male models aren't attractive enough) because it implies that the main value of a female model is their "sexual" appeal (not that they get their rocks off to minis, but I can't think of another way to word it atm). 

Personally, I'd like it if female minis were the norm in all factions and didn't need to meet a special femininity bar for some people. 

Edited January 14, 2021 by Enoby

[MitGas]

7 minutes ago, Enoby said:

I'm of the exact opposite opinion - I wish we'd have more bulky women. As a women, it's a shame that a lot of female models (especially older ones) were basically skinny pretty ladies (or as pretty as they could look in finecast, for example the Bretonnia caster, the female vampire lord, the female elves, Valkia, even Khalida the mummy) whereas men were depicted as hulking brutes (orks, ogors, chaos lords, daemon princes etc), pretty boys (high elves and Sigvald), just normal human warriors (Empire), heavily armoured tanks (dwarves and Bretonia), little sneaky creatures (Skaven and Goblins), and, well, you get the idea. 

I'm very glad women aren't just stuck in the box of "traditionally feminine" in AoS anymore. It gives more narrative potential, more diverse models, and on a personal point, makes me glad my entire gender isn't narrowed down to one concept/body type.   

But would you think that say a Varanguard with the exact same proportions as the current models but a decidedly female head would look remotely "right" (right as anatomically fitting, not that women  couldn't be a strong follower of the Chaos Gods)? Notwithstanding that a female warrior would arguably have a rather athletic frame and thus suggest a certain look?

A few days ago, on reddit, someone recreated the female SC from the rulebook as a mini - I don't wish to single his work out but it illustrates the problem to me pretty well; the body is too wide which makes it look like her arms wouldn't even really fit into the armor as the model is simply too wide, even if she was heavily muscled with and not a low bodyfat percentage. They could only upscale the heads in those cases as else even the heroic scale is completely off. So all they can do is adapt the armor to fit a brutish woman (not something I'd personally wanna collect but I understand if someone does) but that would still look different to the IMO obviously male CW or Varanguard sculpts we currently have.

They have to work with visual stereotypes as else no army could get a distinct look and visual identity quickly if every model was as unique as people are in the real world. I see no fat aelves either, yet nobody argues for representation of those - and I'm sure somewhere a fat guy collects Aelves and would enjoy an Aelf with less typical body. 

[Enoby]

1 minute ago, MitGas said:

But would you think that say a Varanguard with the exact same proportions as the current models but a decidedly female head would look remotely "right" (right as anatomically fitting, not that women  couldn't be a strong follower of the Chaos Gods)? Notwithstanding that a female warrior would arguably have a rather athletic frame and thus suggest a certain look?

A few days ago, on reddit, someone recreated the female SC from the rulebook as a mini - I don't wish to single his work out but it illustrates the problem to me pretty well; the body is too wide which makes it look like her arms wouldn't even really fit into the armor as the model is simply too wide, even if she was heavily muscled with and not a low bodyfat percentage. They could only upscale the heads in those cases as else even the heroic scale is completely off. So all they can do is adapt the armor to fit a brutish woman (not something I'd personally wanna collect but I understand if someone does) but that would still look different to the IMO obviously male CW or Varanguard sculpts we currently have.

They have to work with visual stereotypes as else no army could get a distinct look and visual identity quickly if every model was as unique as people are in the real world. I see no fat aelves either, yet nobody argues for representation of those - and I'm sure somewhere a fat guy collects Aelves and would enjoy an Aelf with less typical body. 

Personally, I would be totally fine with a female varanguard having the exact same proportions as a male varanguard - to me, the 'chaos mutation' part is much more important than the gender part. I suppose I don't see much 'special' about the female form - as in, I don't consider something less female if it doesn't have a feminine body (e.g. the Khorne Dragon is female and that's not hard for me to imagine, same with the Chaos Warriors etc). 

Personally, seeing a female head on a male body (like that stormcast) doesn't bother me at all I don't feel the need to make a model look purposefully feminine for me to think of it as female and it's more the identification itself that's important to me, if that makes sense? 

[Ggom]

3 minutes ago, MitGas said:

But would you think that say a Varanguard with the exact same proportions as the current models but a decidedly female head would look remotely "right" (right as anatomically fitting, not that women  couldn't be a strong follower of the Chaos Gods)? Notwithstanding that a female warrior would arguably have a rather athletic frame and thus suggest a certain look?

A few days ago, on reddit, someone recreated the female SC from the rulebook as a mini - I don't wish to single his work out but it illustrates the problem to me pretty well; the body is too wide which makes it look like her arms wouldn't even really fit into the armor as the model is simply too wide, even if she was heavily muscled with and not a low bodyfat percentage. They could only upscale the heads in those cases as else even the heroic scale is completely off. So all they can do is adapt the armor to fit a brutish woman (not something I'd personally wanna collect but I understand if someone does) but that would still look different to the IMO obviously male CW or Varanguard sculpts we currently have.

They have to work with visual stereotypes as else no army could get a distinct look and visual identity quickly if every model was as unique as people are in the real world. I see no fat aelves either, yet nobody argues for representation of those - and I'm sure somewhere a fat guy collects Aelves and would enjoy an Aelf with less typical body. 

This is pretty illustrative of the degree of subjectivity here. I don't actually see anything odd with that model. I think the proportions across 32mm heroic are all messed up anyway, and many people swap parts and kitbash and "true-scale" so the range of normalcy I expect is pretty wide. 

I love the witch elf aesthetic. It is totally not realistic and overly stylized. Head too big, body too narrow, hands are huge, etc. I don't know that I would convert a male witch elf specifically, or a heavy set witch elf just to prove a point, but I'd be cool with picking them up if they released a new sculpt and it looked cool. 

[MitGas]

49 minutes ago, CommissarRotke said:

you're really going to come in here and call us white knights because we think that a fantasy tabletop game can include hulking warriors that are ladies? If you've never met or even seen a woman who is taller and/or broader than you, either you're The Mountain in real life or you don't know what women look like yourself.

Not my point. I'm arguing that the current look of Chaos armor as seen on Chaos Warriors or Varanguard minis is a decidedly male aesthetic and doesn't work all that well with a female (even a strong/fat/uniquely shaped) in it as the visual disparity is jarring in a way - it's similar to sticking a dude's head on a Sister of Battle mini, it would look off if not downright stupid. Add more girls of all shapes and sizes to Chaos armies and units, worst thing that can happen is that I won't buy those models - not much of  loss for GW. If they're good models though, I gladly will. But don't twist established looks and units to fit trendy representation parameters, rather smartly adapt (which will slightly change the look ... which is dangerous territory in itself in iconic designs, I'd count CWs e.g. among them) or create new things to the existing range to include these "new" concepts. 

Yes, I accuse people of forcing change for change's sake (tzeentch be praised) when it's detrimental to the original design as this is one of the most prevalent things since around 15 years - just look at Hollywood for many examples. I'm not against chaotic women at all but make it right. IMO arguing that women were supposed to be in Chaos Warrior armor since 20 years feels off as nothing suggests that. Neither fluff nor aesthetics.

[Greybeard86]

43 minutes ago, Enoby said:

I'm of the exact opposite opinion - I wish we'd have more bulky women. As a women, it's a shame that a lot of female models (especially older ones) were basically skinny pretty ladies (or as pretty as they could look in finecast, for example the Bretonnia caster, the female vampire lord, the female elves, Valkia, even Khalida the mummy) whereas men were depicted as hulking brutes (orks, ogors, chaos lords, daemon princes etc), pretty boys (high elves and Sigvald), just normal human warriors (Empire), heavily armoured tanks (dwarves and Bretonia), little sneaky creatures (Skaven and Goblins), and, well, you get the idea. 

I'm very glad women aren't just stuck in the box of "traditionally feminine" in AoS anymore. It gives more narrative potential, more diverse models, and on a personal point, makes me glad my entire gender isn't narrowed down to one concept/body type.  

I don't fundamentally disagree, but I want to point out that part of the "weirdness" @MitGas is feeling might be associated to the fact that there hasn't been an effort to make "female chaos warriors". Instead, they are just "head swapped". Why does the female chaos warrior have to be identical to the male chaos warrior? Specially when the male chaos warrior has been developed as so stereotypical "bulky man"; that makes it a tad weird to see, since we are mixing things we aren't used to seeing.

Now, of course, femenity could not be linked to the body form; I am cool with that too. But I also think it would be cool to have female chaos warriors that are different than the male ones. No need for bikinis, or a sexual theme. But to have their own look besides old stereotype with a new head.

I do not know if I am explaining myself well, or making any sense to the rest :P

[MitGas]

16 minutes ago, Enoby said:

Personally, I would be totally fine with a female varanguard having the exact same proportions as a male varanguard - to me, the 'chaos mutation' part is much more important than the gender part. I suppose I don't see much 'special' about the female form - as in, I don't consider something less female if it doesn't have a feminine body (e.g. the Khorne Dragon is female and that's not hard for me to imagine, same with the Chaos Warriors etc). 

Personally, seeing a female head on a male body (like that stormcast) doesn't bother me at all I don't feel the need to make a model look purposefully feminine for me to think of it as female and it's more the identification itself that's important to me, if that makes sense? 

Personally - as you might've mentioned by now  - I think it looks off. From an artistical POV. But well, I can only respect your opinion, thanks for illustrating your preference!

[MitGas]

2 minutes ago, Greybeard86 said:

I don't fundamentally disagree, but I want to point out that part of the "weirdness" @MitGas is feeling might be associated to the fact that there hasn't been an effort to make "female chaos warriors". Instead, they are just "head swapped". Why does the female chaos warrior have to be identical to the male chaos warrior? Specially when the male chaos warrior has been developed as so stereotypical "bulky man"; that makes it a tad weird to see, since we are mixing things we aren't used to seeing.

Now, of course, femenity could not be linked to the body form; I am cool with that too. But I also think it would be cool to have female chaos warriors that are different than the male ones. No need for bikinis, or a sexual theme. But to have their own look besides old stereotype with a new head.

I do not know if I am explaining myself well, or making any sense to the rest

That's what I'm arguing for - the current CW look is not female - I don't need female CWs to have bikini-plate or a typically stylized female body (like Witch Aelves) but they should have some slight adaption to the female form to make it work (and even brutish females look different to male brutes, and it's nice men and women look different). Can be reasonably close but just sticking a female head on a warrior with the basic proportions of a dude will always look off to me. I'm not saying that women couldn't be super-strong and successful followers of the Dark Gods, just they'd probably look slightly different. no need to make them "sexy" though.

[Enoby]

3 minutes ago, Greybeard86 said:

I don't fundamentally disagree, but I want to point out that part of the "weirdness" @MitGas is feeling might be associated to the fact that there hasn't been an effort to make "female chaos warriors". Instead, they are just "head swapped". Why does the female chaos warrior have to be identical to the male chaos warrior? Specially when the male chaos warrior has been developed as so stereotypical "bulky man"; that makes it a tad weird to see, since we are mixing things we aren't used to seeing.

Now, of course, femenity could not be linked to the body form; I am cool with that too. But I also think it would be cool to have female chaos warriors that are different than the male ones. No need for bikinis, or a sexual theme. But to have their own look besides old stereotype with a new head.

I do not know if I am explaining myself well, or making any sense to the rest

I think I get what you mean I do get why some people may find it weird - personally I don't, but I'm not everyone. I suppose from my perspective I'd like it if 'female' wasn't seen as this special trait in a world of gods and magic; giving chaos warriors more form-fitting armour for women may lead to 'othering' of those models. For example, you have 'normal' chaos warriors (whose theme has been there since day 1) and 'female' chaos warriors (who are new and a bit different to the old theme) - the old male design would be the normal one and the female design would be the 'other'. 

Personally, I'd like men and women to be equal in the world of fantasy plastic toys, and for female and male designs to only have slight variation (like the Lumineth and new Slaanesh models) except in exceptional circumstances (e.g. Daughters of Khaine). While I'm very much in support of female Stormcast, it's a bit of a shame they came so late and look so different that all of the first wave Stormcast are now undeniably male; now we have better representation in that army, but female Stormcast feel like a variation from the norm as the 'iconic' first wave are all male and the female models look very distinguishable from them. 

I hope that makes sense but I may have blathered a bit 😛

[Grim Beasties]

To get things back on topic, I would love a model of the Ur-grub and hopefully the Silent People. I mean look how cool this art is.

[Neverchosen]

Thank you @Enoby and @Ggom for being much more articulate than I could ever be on this subject. I will say that I was under the impression that women historically wore the same attire to battle as men: https://www.jeanne-darc.info/biography/suit-of-armour/

I still find it strange that in a world of Talking Rats, Lizards in Flying Pyramids and Lightening Forged Angelic Warriors that women in battle or with different body types strains credibility? Furthermore we have two unique female sculpts in the upcoming Slaves to Darkness Underworlds set and neither would look out of place next to any of my Chaos Warriors. I am particularly interested in the cool Sorceress as she defies what I would stereotypically expect from a female model while embracing the lore and aesthetics of Chaos. I am greatly looking forward to adding that set to my army.
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Now to return to the topic at hand is there any units from the Smaller factions that have been hinted at in the lore that anyone wants to see. @NotAWzrd points out that Flesh Eater Courts have a really rich lore lending itself to cool expansions but I am more or less unaware of any outstanding units in the faction. However, their hierarchal society shows that there are likely many positions even within the court to fulfill. I would love to see a Flesh Eater Jester for example.

Edited January 14, 2021 by Neverchosen

[Neverchosen]

On 1/14/2021 at 11:00 AM, Grim Beasties said:

To get things back on topic, I would love a model of the Ur-grub and hopefully the Silent People. I mean look how cool this art is.

Initially I was not a big fan of the dead bug aesthetic people were mentioning, then I played Hollow Knight and I can say that I would literally play a dead bug army in a heartbeat.

I think originally I could not shake the idea of Starevich's weird and uncanny early animations:

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Neverchosen

[Greybeard86]

50 minutes ago, Enoby said:

Personally, I'd like men and women to be equal in the world of fantasy plastic toys, and for female and male designs to only have slight variation (like the Lumineth and new Slaanesh models) except in exceptional circumstances (e.g. Daughters of Khaine). While I'm very much in support of female Stormcast, it's a bit of a shame they came so late and look so different that all of the first wave Stormcast are now undeniably male; now we have better representation in that army, but female Stormcast feel like a variation from the norm as the 'iconic' first wave are all male and the female models look very distinguishable from them. 

I hope that makes sense but I may have blathered a bit 😛

I see your point.

I think that there is a lot to build in terms of female representation in fantasy worlds, and wargaming in general. I do believe that the traditional approach is crabby. But what can new authors imagine that is not "old sexist" but neither just "see we put a female head on it so the female gender is represented"?

I don't know! I am not sure witch elves is necessarily the way forward (personal preference), and I haven't read that much about sisters of battle.