Completely New Army Concepts

[hobgoblinclub]

Stormcast are thus far the only completely new army since the release of AoS. With all of the many factions we have yet to explore, I imagine it'll be a long time before we see another. However, if we were to be treated to something without precedent, what would you like to see? 

How about a birdman faction? This may or may not be Tzeentch aligned. I'm picturing an all-flying, magic heavy army. These guys would be pretty weak defensively but they'd have a load of spells designed around objective based play. They could have spells to hold enemy units in place, preventing them from moving, or spells to teleport themselves. 

To complement the magic, some units could have the ability to 'fly high' - disappearing from the board and returning anywhere on the table in the next turn. 

Overall they'd be an incredibly difficult army to pin down, but they'd burst in a shower of feathers when caught in combat. To me, it'd feel like a truly AoSified army - all about the objectives, and strategic maneuvers to capture the board, rather than simply taking the enemy out. 

What do you think? What other concepts would you like to see? 

[CoffeeGrunt]

I'd love to see some kind of artificial, mechanical faction. Perhaps they're possessed machines or wayward Dwarf creations that learned to self-replicate and hid away. They'd aesthetically be mostly scrap and random parts mashed together, with higher ranks being better designed. 

As far as tactics, they could probably regen quite well and have a lot of deep strike to represent them "assembling." For a monster you could just make something like the Shacktron, I guess.

[yarrickson]

Although I  don't know what shape or form this suggestion would take, what I would love to see is an all new force that really plays with the scenery. The scenery table can play a huge part in our games, (who hasnt been stung by a failed mystical roll, or taken the chance of a deadly roll, or powered up an insane combo with damned terrain). 

What I'd love to see is some sort of 'realm shaping' geomancer force with assorted abilities to move/summon/re-roll, choose new abilities or effects/terrain. Then potentially gain benefits depending on proximity/type etc. Could even be allowed to shift/swap objective markers, although that could become op very quickly without limitations. 

We already have a handful of these, The Heraldor, The Auric Runemaster, the Sylvaneth Wildwood's and the Balewind Vortex, and there's a few abilities out there in this vein. (death generals bonus, someone somewhere has an earth shattering charge ability somewhere that affects terrain). 

And there were small elements of this kind of thing in 'the world that was', Mazdamundis geomantic powers, the tile swapping spell from storm of magic, even the old classic high magic spell 'assault of stone'. 

But that's what I'd like to see, a faction that really plays with the battlefield, not just on it. 

[MacDuff]

I'd like to see InsectMen. All sizes, all shapes. Aren't cockroaches destined to rule the earth?

[MrCharisma]

I've been inspired by Frostgrave and Forge World with random monsters... and I'd love to see more models like the Basilisk and Dread Sauron. Give me a Beholder for the Chaos Dwarves, more Fimirach, and creatures from the sea. I feel like the sea is completely untapped...

[KHHaunts]

Its not entirely original army as i imagined it would bolt onto Death possibly as an extension of Nagash and the Deathlords.

But i kind of imagined a "Forces of Styx" army. Which is to say heavily greek underworld/Hades inspired faction that could possibly absorb/Incorporate some of the Night haunt faction.

Im thinking a ferryman (the one that takes people across the river styxx) The fates (Three witch type ladies who can see the future) and just generally units to incorporate many of the many new minions of Nagash that proberbly reside in the underworld.

Perhaps a new undead hero riding a Cerberus as a centre piece.

 

Failing that a female human faction like the sisters of battle would be good. (I know GW said that there could be female SC but i feel like they have left it a little long to introduce them suddenly)

[Durant]

Good Skaven, as in real life and history, bad Skaven being Rattus rattus, and good being Rattus norvegicus.

[RuneBrush]

Fish men

Constructs or elemental type creatures would be good.

Weirdly I'm not sure I want to see an entirely new army at the moment, I'd rather see existing models concepts being incorporated in new ways and new larger models that synergise with existing factions - for example, more keyword taggable monsters for Chaos

[KHHaunts]

4 minutes ago, RuneBrush said:

Fish men

Constructs or elemental type creatures would be good.

Weirdly I'm not sure I want to see an entirely new army at the moment, I'd rather see existing models concepts being incorporated in new ways and new larger models that synergise with existing factions - for example, more keyword taggable monsters for Chaos

 

You mean like WOW Naga?

I think i agree with you. However there are plenty of opportunities to flesh out the existing armies innew and exciting ways. The Tzaangors are an interesting example of this. Im looking forward to seeing what sort of aesthetic Tyrions crew have when they appear.

[Marc Wilson]

I for one miss the human element. I know the Old World is dead but the TOTAL WAR is a bit relentless. I hope when they come the Free Peoples are not fanatics, devoted only to Sigmar. I'd like to see them as survivors, eeking out an existence in the face of onslaught. A blend of ingenuity and cunning, I suppose playing a little bit like Skaven.

[Marc Wilson]

15 minutes ago, RuneBrush said:

Fish men

Constructs or elemental type creatures would be good.

Weirdly I'm not sure I want to see an entirely new army at the moment, I'd rather see existing models concepts being incorporated in new ways and new larger models that synergise with existing factions - for example, more keyword taggable monsters for Chaos

Menfish, surely?

 

[CoffeeGrunt]

3 minutes ago, Marc Wilson said:

I for one miss the human element. I know the Old World is dead but the TOTAL WAR is a bit relentless. I hope when they come the Free Peoples are not fanatics, devoted only to Sigmar. I'd like to see them as survivors, eeking out an existence in the face of onslaught. A blend of ingenuity and cunning, I suppose playing a little bit like Skaven.

I would really like that. They should be gritty survivors. Barely feudal tech clinging to existence on the edge of the Mortal Realms for small villages. Some might exist in mighty bastions strong enough to withstand the marauding hordes of Khorne, etc. 

Basically, anyone still alive after thousands of years of Khornate predation has got to be pretty tough by pure natural selection.

[KHHaunts]

20 minutes ago, CoffeeGrunt said:

I would really like that. They should be gritty survivors. Barely feudal tech clinging to existence on the edge of the Mortal Realms for small villages. Some might exist in mighty bastions strong enough to withstand the marauding hordes of Khorne, etc. 

Basically, anyone still alive after thousands of years of Khornate predation has got to be pretty tough by pure natural selection.

The amount of timesive heard someonesay they want a 'Human' army id be shocked if GW didnt cave eventually.

Id imagine that we will either see some sort of reclamation force from Azyr with a similar aesthetic to the Warpriest.

However i would like to see some more 'Barbaric' humans who perhaps try to emulate/venerate the Stormcasts. The strongest of these men could end up being parodies of the stormcasts in ramshackley armor.

However the biggest issue with making a non azyr army is that it would be difficult to incorporate all the different types of people youd find in all the different realms into one army. (Id image some soot covered barbarian from Aqshy would look a little out of place as a resident of ghyran)

I was thinking that perhaps they could incorporate the free guild generals/re lease a new core army from azyr consisting of Generals and priests etc that go around the realms rousing the different survivors and leading them to war. That way you would bringing out various units from different realms and even justify there presence in other realms.

[Undead4Life]

When they redo humans I'd like an aesthetic that GW hasn't gone for before, something like ancient Chinese or Japanese or Native American. This would also help them sell more models because there are far more medieval/renaissance/colonial miniatures out there than not, so alternative manufacturers would be taking less of a bite out of the game.

I mostly want to see most of the existing subfactions get revamps, such as Beastmen who don't all look like goats, and battleline in general who don't have identical, cramped poses designed for ranking.

Fish people would be neat but justifying their forays into the realms of fire, metal, etc. might prove challenging. They could have a bad-ass Lovecraftian aesthetic, too.

Bird men would also be cool; I see them as an admixture of Prosecutors and Pink Horrors.

An army that gets stronger as it takes damage could be cool. Where big blocks of infantry gain stats as their numbers dwindle and monsters with concepts in the same vein as Skarbrand. Maybe these could be the insectoid peoples?

 

[Turragor]

I want flying boat transport ships. Like the duardin could have blimps. OR you could have a death faction that is just ghost pirates, with ghost galleys that sail across the battlefield and disgorge their ghostly buccaneers.

Any kind of unit transport would be a neat idea tbh - like 40k. Not seen in Fantasy often.

A big golden manchest on wheels for Stormcast.

Or a huge beast of burden with a howdah that keeps a unit protected until unleashed. Unless it dies first.

 

[Vasshpit]

11 hours ago, MacDuff said:

I'd like to see InsectMen. All sizes, all shapes. Aren't cockroaches destined to rule the earth?

I'm in the VERY early design stages of an insect men army, reminiscent of Thri kreen from D&D, that i want to do a Kickstarter on  for use across multiple game systems.

 

[Turragor]

4 minutes ago, Vasshpit said:

I'm in the VERY early design stages of an insect men army, reminiscent of Thri kreen from D&D, that i want to do a Kickstarter on  for use across multiple game systems.

 

Cool! For a 5% cut I'll permit it.

[CoffeeGrunt]

20 minutes ago, Turragor said:

 OR you could have a death faction that is just ghost pirates, with ghost galleys that sail across the battlefield and disgorge their ghostly buccaneers.

Oh sweet Jesus yes.

[Groje]

14 hours ago, hobgoblinclub said:

Stormcast are thus far the only completely new army since the release of AoS. With all of the many factions we have yet to explore, I imagine it'll be a long time before we see another. However, if we were to be treated to something without precedent, what would you like to see? 

How about a birdman faction? This may or may not be Tzeentch aligned. I'm picturing an all-flying, magic heavy army. These guys would be pretty weak defensively but they'd have a load of spells designed around objective based play. They could have spells to hold enemy units in place, preventing them from moving, or spells to teleport themselves. 

To complement the magic, some units could have the ability to 'fly high' - disappearing from the board and returning anywhere on the table in the next turn. 

Overall they'd be an incredibly difficult army to pin down, but they'd burst in a shower of feathers when caught in combat. To me, it'd feel like a truly AoSified army - all about the objectives, and strategic maneuvers to capture the board, rather than simply taking the enemy out. 

What do you think? What other concepts would you like to see? 

There is a birdmen warband in the "Fury of Gork"-novel where they are shape shifter between raven and humans, called the 99 Feathers

Would be great as a small dogs of war add-on to be hired, even though they are strongly Chaos alligned in the novel 

[Turragor]

40 minutes ago, Groje said:

There is a birdmen warband in the "Fury of Gork"-novel where they are shape shifter between raven and humans, called the 99 Feathers

Would be great as a small dogs of war add-on to be hired, even though they are strongly Chaos alligned in the novel 

What if they have the wrong bird parts, like just legs and beak.

[AAL]

Personally I would love a more eastern based army or maybe an African lore base done now that tomb kings is gone I think there is a large opening for either a new desert faction maybe something that involves charging camels and using djin in their magic? Right now the game has so much northern hemisphere based heritage excluding seraphon that something more diverse would be very nice.

This or a voodoo type death faction could be amazing. It could finally be a death army that has color diversity and could really open up interesting modeling.

[KHHaunts]

This could open up a whole other can of worms. but what about an alien faction?

Not Alien as in spaceships and ray guns but aliens like the Seraphon and such.

Its pretty well estabilished that the old world wasent the only one with things of interest to the dark gods. What if one of them strayed across the mortal realms?

Or perhaps a new faction for destruction covering the same roll as the Tyranids?

[hobgoblinclub]

20 hours ago, CoffeeGrunt said:

I'd love to see some kind of artificial, mechanical faction. Perhaps they're possessed machines or wayward Dwarf creations that learned to self-replicate and hid away. They'd aesthetically be mostly scrap and random parts mashed together, with higher ranks being better designed. 

As far as tactics, they could probably regen quite well and have a lot of deep strike to represent them "assembling." For a monster you could just make something like the Shacktron, I guess.

A race of constructs could come from the Death alliance. I'm thinking ancient statues/golems risen from the sands. 

 

20 hours ago, yarrickson said:

What I'd love to see is some sort of 'realm shaping' geomancer force with assorted abilities to move/summon/re-roll, choose new abilities or effects/terrain. Then potentially gain benefits depending on proximity/type etc. Could even be allowed to shift/swap objective markers, although that could become op very quickly without limitations.

I thought about being able to move objectives when I was typing the original post. Like you said, it might easily be too powerful.

Alternatively, I thought about a unit that could 'home in' on objectives by charging towards them. Something like 'In the charge phase, if there is an objective marker within 12", it counts as an enemy unit for the purposes of charging'. This'd mean you could swoop in at objectives as long as you could get a model within half an inch as normal. 

10 hours ago, KHHaunts said:

Failing that a female human faction like the sisters of battle would be good. (I know GW said that there could be female SC but i feel like they have left it a little long to introduce them suddenly)

I heard a rumour those models became the Sisters of Silence from the Burning of Prospero box. I'm not sure how much truth there is in it. Apparently their swords match the Stormcast ones.

[hobgoblinclub]

9 hours ago, RuneBrush said:

Fish men

I almost said 'First one to say fishmen wins'. ?

[AAL]

10 hours ago, KHHaunts said:

Failing that a female human faction like the sisters of battle would be good. (I know GW said that there could be female SC but i feel like they have left it a little long to introduce them suddenly)

 

An amazonian faction could be interesting. I keep wanting more jungle based things but Seraphon has that locked down so far. Panther people would be cool though.