Death & the Divine undead previews

[Tali182]

On 1/24/2021 at 5:36 AM, JackStreicher said:

The quiver however looks dumb.

Not sure if you think this because you feel it is a bad design, but I think it is based around the Japanese quiver.  Though they are more open I believe 

If you search for some koshiya kumiyumi (japanese acher squad tactics) videos I think it gives an idea of the influence for the model.

 

 

[Honk]

3 hours ago, Tali182 said:

koshiya kumiyumi

It seems to involve a lot of yelling and shuffling... a great day to be a Death player indeed 😹

till I face foxy the first time and it peppers my poor vampirelord with arrows, after that  he‘ll look like a crow that got caught in a windmill 

[JackStreicher]

3 hours ago, Tali182 said:

Not sure if you think this because you feel it is a bad design, but I think it is based around the Japanese quiver.  Though they are more open I believe 

If you search for some koshiya kumiyumi (japanese acher squad tactics) videos I think it gives an idea of the influence for the model.

 

 

I dislike the design 90 degree quiver with a line of arrows... seems inefficient. =}

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

4 minutes ago, JackStreicher said:

I dislike the design 90 degree quiver with a line of arrows... seems inefficient. =}

It's probably a reference to this.

[Sception]

saw this pic online (posted by count michael on the carpe noctem forum, not sure if they made it or got it from somewhere else) showing how many (most?  maybe even all if you don't count the basket hilt previews from the underworlds warband) of the undeadish seeming rumor engine pictures seem tied to the Warhammer Quest: Cursed City set, based on art from the trailer video & website:

[Sception]

If it's the case that all of the rumor engine pics can now be ascribed to either Underworlds or Warhammer Quest, then it lends credence to my thought that the Vampire Lord leak /was/ an actual leak, that games workshop was not and is not ready to announce Soulblight Gravelords, and that we still have a pretty significant wait in front of us before we'll start to see or hear anything further when it comes to a new Battle Tome / AoS proper release wave.

[Honk]

49 minutes ago, Sception said:

that games workshop was not and is not ready to announce Soulblight Gravelords

I think they were ready to leak a picture 🥸

and stirr up some hype from the starved and ravenous vampire count fanboyz... 
selling Shadespire stuff : check

selling WH Quest: check

and then, come autumn: baaahm

[Lich King]

It worked .... I’m suffering for a Soulblight / Lon update tome ... maybe it’ll be its own army and Lon will be updated via Broken Realms. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Who knows at this point.

[Sception]

1 hour ago, Honk said:

I think they were ready to leak a picture 🥸

and stirr up some hype from the starved and ravenous vampire count fanboyz... 
selling Shadespire stuff : check

selling WH Quest: check

and then, come autumn: baaahm

I think the leak was an actual leak.  I mean, even though the leak showed the "Soulblight Gravelords" branding, the responding article with a high res pic didn't mention that at all.  And look at the response to the Death and the Divine preview - there was a lot of really neat new stuff in that preview, but what's the most common response I'm hearing about it online, the one echoed again and again from youtube personalities?  Disappointment.  Not excitement for the new stuff, but disappointment that there was no announcement or news or previews or even teasers for the Soulblight Gravelords battle tome.  Which is an utterly predictable response, and absolutely cannot be a response that GW wanted to see.  Sure, they probably wanted us to be speculating excitedly about the *possibility* of an AoS soulblight book based on vamps in Underworlds and Quest, but *knowing* it's coming and being unhappy at the lack of details isn't in the same thing.

Fake leaks happen, sure, and a fake leak to drum up interest in their big preview day would make sense.  But it only makes sense if the things leaked are actually in the preview in question, which was not the case here.  Sometimes a leak is just a leak.  They used to happen all the time.  Not so much these days, but not so much isn't never.

Edited January 25, 2021 by Sception

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

3 hours ago, Sception said:

saw this pic online (posted by count michael on the carpe noctem forum, not sure if they made it or got it from somewhere else) showing how many (most?  maybe even all if you don't count the basket hilt previews from the underworlds warband) of the undeadish seeming rumor engine pictures seem tied to the Warhammer Quest: Cursed City set, based on art from the trailer video & website:

I think these all seem pretty rock solid. I wonder who that round shield will end up belonging to and if they will be important. They are the placeholder image on the Overlords of Ulfenkarn section, but we know they are not one of the four important guys.

Images missing form this are:

Spoiler

Less certain, but still potentially Death:

Spoiler

 

2 hours ago, Sception said:

If it's the case that all of the rumor engine pics can now be ascribed to either Underworlds or Warhammer Quest, then it lends credence to my thought that the Vampire Lord leak /was/ an actual leak, that games workshop was not and is not ready to announce Soulblight Gravelords, and that we still have a pretty significant wait in front of us before we'll start to see or hear anything further when it comes to a new Battle Tome / AoS proper release wave.

 

I agree with this. I think the Vampire Lord being vindicated by GW, but no mention of the Gravelords faction both in the articel and reveal show indicates that we got to see this before they were ready. I would think the smart money should be on a release after BR: Teclis. The narrative opportunities to set up the Gravelords faction as a result of whatever will happen in that book just seem too good.

100% a real, actual leak in my book. Revealing the Gravelords faction name and then refusing to mention it again would make no sense as intentional marketing.

Edited January 25, 2021 by Neil Arthur Hotep
Spoiler tags, how do they work?

[Sception]

49 minutes ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

I agree with this. I think the Vampire Lord being vindicated by GW, but no mention of the Gravelords faction both in the articel and reveal show indicates that we got to see this before they were ready. I would think the smart money should be on a release after BR: Teclis. The narrative opportunities to set up the Gravelords faction as a result of whatever will happen in that book just seem too good.

100% a real, actual leak in my book. Revealing the Gravelords faction name and then refusing to mention it again would make no sense as intentional marketing.

After Teclis sounds possible.  At the same time, it's pretty commonly speculated that the BR books in general are setting the stage for AoS 3rd edition, and if that's the case then the Gravelords battletome proper might not show up until after that even.  Despite the long shot prediction I made of Soulblight in the 3rd edition starter set, I don't actually expect that we'll see undead as the primary antagonists in two starter sets in a row, which also means we'd be seeing new battle tomes for Sigmarines and whatever the starter box antagonist is before Gravelords as well.  So for AoS, we might be looking at:

• More Lumineth / BR Teclis
• At Least One More BR book after Teclis, probably involving Slaanesh stuff since we're still waiting on a big release wave we already know is coming for them
• Big 3rd edition starter box set & related releases setting up the primary thrust of the 3rd edition narrative (ie, Soul Wars done, now its time for Other Wars), with Sigmarines vs. maybe hedonites, maybe something else entirely.  If they're really breaking up the order alliance as they seem to be doing, then possibly Sigmarines vs. some other formerly order faction like DoK.
• New battle tome & release wave for Sigmarines
• New battle tome & release wave for starter box antagonists
• Only then to other 3rd edition battletomes start to roll out, presumably with Soulblight Gravelords being among the earlier releases here

And all that still sharing schedule space with 40k, war cry, underworlds, quest, kill team, & other content, AND contending with ongoing delays in the overall production pipeline due to COVID, which might even get worse since GW is UK based and the UK in particular is looking at a troubling news of both a stumbling vaccine rollout and a potentially significantly more transmissible variant strain of the virus.

If that's the kind of situation we're looking at, then even late 2021 release may be optimistic.

Now, on the other hand, It's entirely possible that BR Teclis could be setting up for a more immediate Soulblight release, with the Gravelords showing up as one of the late 2nd edition battle tomes instead of one of the early 3rd edition ones.  If that's the case then late spring/early summer is possible.  BUT if that were the case, I don't think GW would have been as coy about admitting 'Soulblight Gravelords' were a thing to begin with.

Edited January 25, 2021 by Sception

[Honk]

2 hours ago, Sception said:

But it only makes sense if the things leaked are actually in the preview in question, which was not the case here. 

I bow to your wisdom, ancient one...

1 hour ago, Sception said:

BUT if that were the case, I don't think GW would have been as coy

And bowing some more...🤔

on the other hand, first book in AoS 3.0 is better than last 2.5...

guess I’ll have to field my old school Legion of the Night list till then

🤘🧛🏻‍♂️ 🍷

[Sception]

Don't get me wrong, I would /love/ to be wrong about this, and if I am I'll happily admit as much while placing my preorders.

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

1 hour ago, Sception said:

BUT if that were the case, I don't think GW would have been as coy about admitting 'Soulblight Gravelords' were a thing to begin with.

Disagree here: It makes sense from a marketing perspective to hype up one army at a time. This is currently Lumineth. GW has an interest in keeping customers in the dark as to the release of upcoming factions, because they believe they can get people to spend more that way. Plus, the existence of a future Vampire faction in itself would be a minor spoiler for BR: Teclis if we knew it's coming out after that book.

[Sception]

I just don't think GW would deliberately undermine excitement and positive community engagement over impending lumineth, hedonites, and BR: Teclis this way.  Angry "where are the vampires" chatter has undermined the reaction to all of those products in a way that I don't think would have been the case without the leak.

[BaylorCorvette]

I think we may have a much clearer picture once BR: Teclis is released as it relates to the future of LoN / Vampires. 

[Clan's Cynic]

I'm shifting into the camp of thinking we might not see Soulblight until 3.0 as well. If we assume they aim for the usual July release we've still got..

Slaanesh, Daughters of Khaine (confirmed to be the same week as a Hedonites release should tell us how packed it is), Lumineth/BR, Warhammer Quest (a potential two-week pre-order itself), maybe another Broken Realms book, at least one War Zone book for 40k. another Sisters of Battle wave, multiple 40k codexes, Kill Team, the Specialist Games stuff in there somewhere (Titanicus, Underworlds, Cawdor for Necromunda), another possible expansion for Lord of the Rings. Oh right and we know that releases are being done on a two-week basis now for a short while.

That's a lot of stuff to cram into six months. The only thing that gives me optimism is the picture of a clampack implying it's sitting in a warehouse somewhere but unless we're getting another Stormcast vs Death themed starter set (which seems unlikely when Destruction is due for one) I don't see how they can be 'coming soon' unless it really is just an isolated, one-off hero blister they're putting out for an updated Legions of Nagash Battletome ALA the lone Hero packs a lot of 2.0 Battletomes got - the Gravelords name suggests otherwise but then we did get things like the 'Steamhead Duradin' being renamed to 'Dispossessed' and 'Gutbusters' becoming 'Mawtribes' so it happens.

 

 

Edited January 26, 2021 by Clan's Cynic

[Evil Bob]

10 hours ago, Neil Arthur Hotep said:

Disagree here: It makes sense from a marketing perspective to hype up one army at a time. This is currently Lumineth. GW has an interest in keeping customers in the dark as to the release of upcoming factions, because they believe they can get people to spend more that way. Plus, the existence of a future Vampire faction in itself would be a minor spoiler for BR: Teclis if we knew it's coming out after that book.

Not to mention the rabble had been hyping up a Vampire Coast reboot so much that some kind of damage control was needed.  If they directly said “no it isn’t” then people would have a new expectation of GW answering them.  Alternatively could have just stay quiet but that could have caused other problems later.

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

9 hours ago, Clan's Cynic said:

I'm shifting into the camp of thinking we might not see Soulblight until 3.0 as well. If we assume they aim for the usual July release we've still got..

It seems like we are actually roughly in agreement on the timeframe. I personally just believe that AoS 3 will not come out/is not planned to come out in July.

Following the pattern that Broken Realms: Morathi has set, it takes two months for an announced BR book to come out. Then, it takes another two months for a new book to be announced. That would mean:

BR: Teclis release - March

BR: Alarielle (or whatever) announcement - May

BR: Alarielle release - July

And then we would be seeing a potential AoS 3 announcement after that (and that is working from the theory that there will only be three BR books).

We know for Hedonites, they were aiming for a January release (from the coin they wanted to give away in GW stores). So that's two months after the November release of BR: Morathi.

Applying that to a potential Soulblight release: After BR: Teclis comes out in late March, we might expect Soulblight in late May, early June. Possibly a month or two later to make room for Ulfenkarn in between. That would put us in the vincinity of a July-August release. That would also be about three months after the Underworlds warband, which would again be the same timeframe as Hedonites.

Of course, this is working under the assumption that GW will stick to the pace they have set with BR: Morathi. If an AoS 3 launch is planned for July, they might well decide to pick up the pace for Broken Realms. Psychic Awakening used to release on a schedule of one book every two months. That would make a July release of AoS 3 possible if there are only going to be three books.

[Honk]

Kinda off topic, but aelementors???
Drowning in the sea to appease some water spirit? Teclis and his meditating morons really stared a bit too long into the light 🤩

somebody was binging „the last airbender“ in tight lockdown and it hasn‘t done them any good...

I hope the Gravelords come with less 🥳 and more 😈

[PiotrW]

20 hours ago, Clan's Cynic said:

I'm shifting into the camp of thinking we might not see Soulblight until 3.0 as well. If we assume they aim for the usual July release we've still got..

Slaanesh, Daughters of Khaine (confirmed to be the same week as a Hedonites release should tell us how packed it is), Lumineth/BR, Warhammer Quest (a potential two-week pre-order itself), maybe another Broken Realms book, at least one War Zone book for 40k. another Sisters of Battle wave, multiple 40k codexes, Kill Team, the Specialist Games stuff in there somewhere (Titanicus, Underworlds, Cawdor for Necromunda), another possible expansion for Lord of the Rings. Oh right and we know that releases are being done on a two-week basis now for a short while.

That's a lot of stuff to cram into six months. The only thing that gives me optimism is the picture of a clampack implying it's sitting in a warehouse somewhere but unless we're getting another Stormcast vs Death themed starter set (which seems unlikely when Destruction is due for one) I don't see how they can be 'coming soon' unless it really is just an isolated, one-off hero blister they're putting out for an updated Legions of Nagash Battletome ALA the lone Hero packs a lot of 2.0 Battletomes got - the Gravelords name suggests otherwise but then we did get things like the 'Steamhead Duradin' being renamed to 'Dispossessed' and 'Gutbusters' becoming 'Mawtribes' so it happens.

Out of curiosity: do you think that the AoS 3.0 starter would be Stormcasts vs. Destruction? I admit I'm leaning toward Stormcasts vs. Slaanesh... The storyline seems to build toward Slaanesh's grand return from imprisonment. Of course, I may be wrong...

On 1/25/2021 at 8:42 AM, Honk said:

good damage output, but very fragile...
fe vargheists/flayers, pretty good damage, but low save

If I may ask: are such units useful?

[Clan's Cynic]

2 minutes ago, PiotrW said:

Out of curiosity: do you think that the AoS 3.0 starter would be Stormcasts vs. Destruction? I admit I'm leaning toward Stormcasts vs. Slaanesh... The storyline seems to build toward Slaanesh's grand return from imprisonment. Of course, I may be wrong...

I do.

Personally I think the 'buildup' is for Slaanesh's kid, not Slaanesh themself - they spawn at the end of BR1 and then the new Hedonite stuff lands shortly thereafter. The reason I think Destruction will be the starter focus is because they've clearly been building up to Excelsis for some time now - even prior to the Broken Realms short stories - as being a big deal, which isn't unlike how they built up to the Necroquake with Malign Portents. 

Destruction are also the only GA which hasn't featured in a starter yet and the Ironjawz stuff is perfect for a starter set aimed at newbies, being chunky models which are easy to paint and have simple enough rules for newbies.

Traditionally whichever army is in the starter gets a big release very shortly after the starter lands, presumably to take advantage of those potential 'I bought the starter box for the value, I might as well buy the new stuff as well' sales - Hedonites are already getting their Battletome and new models this side of 2021 which would mitigate them getting such a treatment for a while yet which I think cancels them out of being in the running as a starter set army.

[Sception]

I would /like/ for destruction to be in the starter box, and to be the main thrust of the 3e narrative.  As for predictions, though, really, the non-stormcast faction could be anything at this point.

Just a shame one of the factions has to be stormcast, though.  There is a such thing as too much attention.  It's bad even for stormcast players, who are expected to effectively completely replace their army every couple years as a big new range of units 'just like the ones you already have only better' comes out.  All the design attention that in other factions might get spent on balancing and bringing up the units that are already there instead get put into new units instead.

Better than being left completely to languish, but still.

[Honk]

1 hour ago, PiotrW said:

If I may ask: are such units useful?

You may ask, but I can’t answer...

sure they have some uses, either to scare an opponent into overcompensating or to destroy something of value and then die in the counter...

the so called smash bat from FEC (superbuffed varghulf): 8hp, 4+ Save, charges 30-40“, deals 30-40dmg and then dies on top of a mount of dead bodies and heroes...

it is tricky to position a glascannon unit and one has to pick fights carefully, because they cannot take a beating only dish out.

38 minutes ago, Sception said:

There is a such thing as too much attention.

QfT...

[KK9T]

I wasn’t disappointed by the lack of info on SGL. It’s good enough for me just knowing that it’s coming this year. The warband and Cursed City both look great, and will hold me over until SGL.