Battleforce 2021 Speculation

[Aeryenn]

It might be a bit early since Battleforces are released around November but some small talk won't hurt either. Any ideas of what we might expect?

It's probably inevitable to see some factions getting their second battlefoce box (or fourth? in case of Stormcast). If I were to guess I'd say both Ossiarach Bonereapers and Lumineth Realm-Lords will get a box since they didn't have one in the past. I would really like to see a box of Cows and Stoneguards. Yeah, really. Stonegurds are expensive and you need a lot of them to run Alarith army. It would be great if Battleforce had at least two units of them, a cow and some heroes.

As for the two more boxes, since we always get 4 for Age of Sigmar I'm afraid those will be for older factions. Fyreslayers deserve one for sure but chances are small since GW seem not to care about this faction. If it's Chaos then maybe Nurgle. There was a rumour I think that they would receive a new battletome. And probably Stormcasts again.

What do you think?

Edited July 19, 2021 by Aeryenn

[EccentricCircle]

Well, I've been hoping for a fyreslayer battleforce for the last three years, as I've wanted to get a small army of them for a while. They have never been featured, so my hopes have always been dashed.

However, earlier in the year I decided to stop waiting for a battleforce and get the start collecting set instead. Ergo, sods law will dictate that this year will be the year they finally get their due. Now that I have enough fyrelayers, a fyreslayer battleforce box will be released just to spite me.

[JustAsPlanned]

I reckon it’ll be

-Stormcast (Thunderstrike, of course)

-Warclans (Either Kruleboyz or Ironjawz)

-Lumineth (They’ve been shilled a lot recently)

-Gravelords (Maybe an Avengorii monster mash type deal?)

[Clan's Cynic]

Seems a bit too early for Slimcast or Kruelboyz.

Order - Lumineth, probably 2020 stuff.

Chaos - Nurgle, I don't think they've had a Battleforce yet.

Destruction - Ironjawz/Bonesplitters, just because the latter have no plastic Heroes.

Death - Ossiarchs haven't featured in a Battleforce yet, although Soulblight wouldn't be a shock.

Edited July 19, 2021 by Clan's Cynic

[Ragest]

Order: Alariths

Chaos: Slaneeshi mortals

Destro: Ironjawz

Death: Ossiarch

[Baron Klatz]

Gonna agree with Lumineth Alariths because of their popularity and it feels like they've been showing up a lot more in warhammer community battle scenes.(subliminal messaging worthy of sneaksy aelves)

Maybe Fyreslayers because they already did Kharadron and Ossiarchs are pretty likely now, especially if they get a new battletome then they'll definitely want to lure people into the Bone-tithe collection agency.

I can't see Dominion forces showing up when they're already pushing them so hard with even more starter sets now.

Feels more likely they'll just promote them as ally options. Some stalwart Alarith to hold the line while Annihilators act as a sky hammer to their mountain anvil while armored juggernaut Ironjawz charge in  under a flurry of crossbow Kruleboyz shots.

Edited July 19, 2021 by Baron Klatz

[Icarion]

I feel like 2 of them have to be the Stormcast and Nighthaunt halves of the the Soul Wars sets, since that box is gone, and there is no other way to get some of those models currently. It's what they did with the aos 1 starter set, split into start collecting sets. 

[Clan's Cynic]

12 hours ago, Athrawes said:

I feel like 2 of them have to be the Stormcast and Nighthaunt halves of the the Soul Wars sets, since that box is gone, and there is no other way to get some of those models currently. It's what they did with the aos 1 starter set, split into start collecting sets. 

Battleforces are limited-print runs, so it seems unlikely they'd take them from an OOP set to a limited-time set. 

Dark Imperium's contents never received a repackaged box either, just the models that you could only buy from that set were slapped together Direct Only from the webstore. 

[EMMachine]

19 hours ago, JustAsPlanned said:

-Stormcast (Thunderstrike, of course)

-Warclans (Either Kruleboyz or Ironjawz)

-Lumineth (They’ve been shilled a lot recently)

-Gravelords (Maybe an Avengorii monster mash type deal?)

Looking at the last boxes Thunderstrike Stormcast and Kruleboyz are nearly impossible. It's more likely that those will be the Battleforces for 2022 because the models aren't new anymore at that point and anyone who really wanted the box has already bought the stuff.

Looking at the last boxes we had:

• Tzeentch (Battletome was January 2020)
• Kharadron Overlords (January 2020)
• Gloomspite Gitz (January 2019)
• Ogor Mawtribes (November 2019)

My Guess is that models that are included in a Battleforce are at least 9-11 Month old.

So my guesses would be Ossiarch Bonereapers (Battletome November 2019), Hedonites (February 2020) either Realmlords with 2020 stuff or maybe Daughters of Khaine or maybe Seraphon. In case of Destruction it is a little weird that we got 2 Boxes last year and besides Bonesplitters and Sons of Behemat their isn't much left.

[Charleston]

28 minutes ago, EMMachine said:

Looking at the last boxes Thunderstrike Stormcast and Kruleboyz are nearly impossible. It's more likely that those will be the Battleforces for 2022 because the models aren't new anymore at that point

Was this also the Case with the year after 2.0 dropped? I remember a SCE Sancrosanct Box and a Nighthaunt Box but don't recall the exact year.

My guesses:

• Lumineth (Sentinels, Dawnbringers, Wardens, maybe a Cow and maybe something from the second wave as Hero?)
• Cities of Sigmar (Let's get rid of some old stock before the new Dawnbringer Faction drops)
• Slaanesh/Nurgle/Khorne didn't had their spotlight for a long time and would be all good candidates. Slaanesh most likely to happen, Khorne and Nurgle could be maybe tied to some new dex dropping before/afterwards
• Death would make perfect sense with OBR as their new-but-not-that-new-faction. Also maybe some SBGL Love with some of the old Kits?
• Destruction could go with Orruks or a janky Behemat Box to get some more players to play Gargants. Althrough GSG seem to fit into GW's pattern for Christmas-Sales, maybe because they look toonish enough to sell as a child-friendly faction?

[EMMachine]

1 minute ago, Charleston said:

Was this also the Case with the year after 2.0 dropped? I remember a SCE Sancrosanct Box and a Nighthaunt Box but don't recall the exact year.

The Battleforces for Sacrosanct Stormcast and Nighthaunt were both 2019.

[Baron Klatz]

Yeah, I could see them segwaying into new Start Collecting kits next year with the Souls War box split in half. (Or maybe sooner with how fast the Vanguard box went so it could be Start Collectings herald battleboxes with those popular armies)

[wargames101]

It's so hard to guess – I thought last year's boxes were odd choices for a couple of reasons:

+ Gloomspite got the first back to back boxes of any non-Stormcast army

+ The boxes jumped $30-40 with commensurate extra figures

Still, I enjoy this speculation, so here goes:

High probability

- Ossiarch: Have a relatively large range to choose from and could mix and match leaders. Could imagine an infantry swarm, a catapult centerpiece theme, or a mixed force.

- Lumineth: Massive range and the original wave is sufficiently old.

- Stormcast: GW tends to do battleforce supporting new edition armies. Could wait til next year, but the speed with which they brought out the new starter sets after Dominion's relatively slow launch was surprising

- Kruelboyz: See above

- Sylvaneth: A reprise of one of the original Battleforces with the new HQ in the mix. 

Medium Probability

- Slaanesh: A mix of the newish mortals and Demons

- Soulblight: Feels like a 2022 box.

- Fireslayers: Just like the ogor box was a bit of a surprise last year, this could be the "why not?" box.

- Sons of Behamet: One big guy and a pair of the mid-sized giants would work price-wise, even if its a bit underwhelming from figure count. My dream would be a "Renegade Knight" style 2:1 discount box.

- Idoneth: They've been including centerpieces in more of these boxes, e.g. Skaven/Tzeentch so you could imagine the turtle with a few boxes of eels or something.

- Nurgle: Lots of recent, but not too recent plastic.

- BCR: Could redo their launch box, 2-3 of the rider kits and a box or two of the cav.

Low Probability

- Kharadron/Gloomspite/Nighthaunt/Daughters: All had recent boxes and not many new models to freshen up the range. Didn't stop the Kharadron/Gloomspite boxes, but still feel less likely.

- Khorne: Sure, maybe.

 

Edited July 20, 2021 by wargames101

[baiardo]

28 minutes ago, wargames101 said:

- Ossiarch: Have a relatively large range to choose from and could mix and match leaders. Could imagine an infantry swarm, a catapult centerpiece theme, or a mixed force.

For large range you mean beside mortek?😄they need a new battleline, maybe archers?for them hope no more warmachines, welcome to new monsters.

Edited July 20, 2021 by baiardo

[Kramig]

Like start collecting arrive no before 1 yeas, battleforces are like bigger start collecting. Gw doesn't want to sell on sale new armies for at least 1 year (except of course dominion) 

Also it seems to me That an army could receive 2 boxes in 2 following years

Moreover, battleforces are a way to sell what has remained in Gw stock 

So I guess:

- ossiarch 

- cities or fyreslayer

- slaanesh

- ironjawz and bonesplitterz

[RuneBrush]

The Battleforce boxes do tend to be pretty varied with a wild card or two thrown in.  I do agree that generally we don't see ones that contain recent releases in (though nothing would surprise me).  I'm thinking we're going to have a heavy leaning into monsters because it ties in with the new edition & Ghur focused games.

Although I've listed each grand alliance separately, I could see one not having anything (Chaos) and another receiving more (Destruction).  I also could see there being 6 boxes.

Death
FEC / Bonereapers

My leaning is onto FEC as I believe Bonereapers are due a second wave this edition.  Soulblight is possible with a double/triple Terrorgheist box, but becomes less likely as ideally you'd want a Vengorian Lord (< 12 month old model)

Chaos
Beasts of Chaos / Mortal Slaanesh / Mixed Chaos / Skaven

Hard call on this one because there are quite a few viable choices out there although not many that fall into the monster line of thinking.  Beasts & Skaven do work on the monster front and certainly would be nice to see something for those armies.  Beasts and mixed chaos would also slot in as Coalition units, which would increase the popularity.

Order
Seraphon / Stormcast / Cities

I'm of the view that Fyreslayers & KO are due a second wave at some point this edition so don't consider them in the running for a battleforce this year.  Lumineth feels possible because we know they've not been quite as popular as anticipated (so this would be a good way to shift some stock), however I actually think that may be the reason GW avoids them in a battleforce because we've had a lot of releases for them and their release box hung around in stores for months.

I'm hoping we won't see Stormcast (it certainly won't be Thunderstrike if we do see them), however will concede that they're the poster boys and make a good Christmas pressie

Destruction 
Gloomspite (Spiders) / Sons of Behemat

Personally I don't think there's any chance we'll see Kruleboyz because they're a brand new force and we waited a year for the Nighthaunt box (also a new army).  Ogors works on the monster thought line, however it's been done before and I suspect we may get a big update this edition (the Cursed City Ogors don't look anything like the old range).

[Baron Klatz]

Hey I know they’ve already been confirmed but with them about to arrive soon I thought I’d drop this interesting Reddit post on how competitive the AoS boxes are(thus technically being “speculation”) and how they can be a good start up point for it.