Jaqques Posted January 28, 2017 Share Posted January 28, 2017 Hey guys! Long time lurker - first time poster. I need some input from the community on factions. In every other tabletop war game that I've experienced, each faction is separated by 'armies' including Warhammer 40k. The armies are clearly defined, and although new armies may pop up from time to time, you know what the standard factions are, that they should get updates, and can feel safe by investing in the army. Age of Sigmar has turned that on its head by not clearly defining armies, but lumping things into order,chaos, death and destruction. Then dividing those up into subfactions. My questions are below: What factions can we expect that currently have little to no model support? Are Aelven factions confirmed to be coming by GW? Or is it just something the community is running with? We know that Malerion, Tyrion and Teclis were all elves, but that doesn't mean that their armies are Aelves, or that they even have armies... Steamhead Duardin - same question - we know Grungni helped craft the stormcast, then disappeared. We know there *are* duardin around, but are they the same ones in Azyr? Could some Duardin worship Nagash (due to him absorbing Valaya)? Any others? New undead to replace tomb kings? What current minor factions can we expect them to expand and which ones can we expect to go away or be rolled into another faction? (Spiderfang Grots, Shadowblades, phoenix temple etc) Do we think we will get a full rundown on all of the factions for Age of Sigmar "2nd edition"? Thanks in advance for answers/insight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mohojoe Posted January 28, 2017 Share Posted January 28, 2017 2 hours ago, Jaqques said: Hey guys! Long time lurker - first time poster. I need some input from the community on factions. In every other tabletop war game that I've experienced, each faction is separated by 'armies' including Warhammer 40k. The armies are clearly defined, and although new armies may pop up from time to time, you know what the standard factions are, that they should get updates, and can feel safe by investing in the army. Age of Sigmar has turned that on its head by not clearly defining armies, but lumping things into order,chaos, death and destruction. Then dividing those up into subfactions. My questions are below: What factions can we expect that currently have little to no model support? Are Aelven factions confirmed to be coming by GW? Or is it just something the community is running with? We know that Malerion, Tyrion and Teclis were all elves, but that doesn't mean that their armies are Aelves, or that they even have armies... Steamhead Duardin - same question - we know Grungni helped craft the stormcast, then disappeared. We know there *are* duardin around, but are they the same ones in Azyr? Could some Duardin worship Nagash (due to him absorbing Valaya)? Any others? New undead to replace tomb kings? What current minor factions can we expect them to expand and which ones can we expect to go away or be rolled into another faction? (Spiderfang Grots, Shadowblades, phoenix temple etc) Do we think we will get a full rundown on all of the factions for Age of Sigmar "2nd edition"? Thanks in advance for answers/insight! From what we have heard Steamhead duardin, Shadowkin and new death stuff this year. These are just rumours so pinch of salt needs to be taken with all of them. I would recommend getting involved in our Rumour thread as it is where all the juiciest gossip gets posted. The Warhammer community site now posts rumour mill images of upcoming stuff and the Warhammer twitch team do some great previews on their live streams. Sorry that I cant give you much more to go on but its mostly because at the minute everything is new and we just don't know that much yet. I was very much worried about starting any army when I first got into the game as I didn't want to start a faction that would just get squatted. What armies are you leaning towards and perhaps the community can advise you more based on your interests? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veterannoob Posted January 28, 2017 Share Posted January 28, 2017 Ioooo, hadn't thought about Valaya. That's a good point. Interested to see if that carries over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buffalozap Posted January 28, 2017 Share Posted January 28, 2017 3 hours ago, Jaqques said: Are Aelven factions confirmed to be coming by GW? No. 3 hours ago, Jaqques said: Steamhead Duardin - same question No. 3 hours ago, Jaqques said: What current minor factions can we expect them to expand and which ones can we expect to go away or be rolled into another faction? There is no way to know. 3 hours ago, Jaqques said: Do we think we will get a full rundown on all of the factions for Age of Sigmar "2nd edition"? Seems unlikely to me. There is incredible emotional investment by the community into believing that specific factions will get future releases. A lot of that belief is probably justified because it is in GW's financial best interests to release those ranges of miniatures at some point. However as to the question of when, timelines, release schedules, this no one knows and anyone claiming to be sure is probably confused about where they got their information. GW keeps its release schedules a closely guarded secret. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaqques Posted January 29, 2017 Author Share Posted January 29, 2017 4 hours ago, Mohojoe said: Sorry that I cant give you much more to go on but its mostly because at the minute everything is new and we just don't know that much yet. I was very much worried about starting any army when I first got into the game as I didn't want to start a faction that would just get squatted. What armies are you leaning towards and perhaps the community can advise you more based on your interests? Thanks! But I actually jumped on Stormcast after selling my High Elves ( wrongly thinking that they would get a new faction with the new game last year). I realized that Stormcast were getting dragons and jumped on! 4 hours ago, Veterannoob said: Ioooo, hadn't thought about Valaya. That's a good point. Interested to see if that carries over. There are a ton of little hints of things that GW *could* jump on and flesh out as factions. Araloth is another point that wasn't really tidied up - he went into a "pocket universe", then Lileath talks about being "cut off" from it - they could theoretically bring this faction out as aelves. 4 hours ago, buffalozap said: There is incredible emotional investment by the community into believing that specific factions will get future releases. A lot of that belief is probably justified because it is in GW's financial best interests to release those ranges of miniatures at some point. However as to the question of when, timelines, release schedules, this no one knows and anyone claiming to be sure is probably confused about where they got their information. GW keeps its release schedules a closely guarded secret. Thanks for the input. It seems like this is a bit of a double-edged sword for AoS. On the one hand its great that the realms are still so undefined that things can literally be created out of thin air, keeps things fresh. On the other - its hard to get people into it who are used to more defined worlds - Tabletop RPG players, Videogame players etc. The reason why I brought this question up is because I showed the game to a friend, and he liked the test game we played, but didn't want to commit to jumping into the game until he knew "the full scope of the factions". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhsellwood Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 10 hours ago, Jaqques said: Hey guys! Long time lurker - first time poster. I need some input from the community on factions. In every other tabletop war game that I've experienced, each faction is separated by 'armies' including Warhammer 40k. The armies are clearly defined, and although new armies may pop up from time to time, you know what the standard factions are, that they should get updates, and can feel safe by investing in the army. Age of Sigmar has turned that on its head by not clearly defining armies, but lumping things into order,chaos, death and destruction. Then dividing those up into subfactions. My questions are below: What factions can wlook e expect that currently have little to no model support? Are Aelven factions confirmed to be coming by GW? Or is it just something the community is running with? We know that Malerion, Tyrion and Teclis were all elves, but that doesn't mean that their armies are Aelves, or that they even have armies... Steamhead Duardin - same question - we know Grungni helped craft the stormcast, then disappeared. We know there *are* duardin around, but are they the same ones in Azyr? Could some Duardin worship Nagash (due to him absorbing Valaya)? Any others? New undead to replace tomb kings? What current minor factions can we expect them to expand and which ones can we expect to go away or be rolled into another faction? (Spiderfang Grots, Shadowblades, phoenix temple etc) Do we think we will get a full rundown on all of the factions for Age of Sigmar "2nd edition"? Thanks in advance for answers/insight! On new factions: If you look at Silver Tower there are two aelves that are nothing like existing models. All of the Tzeentch models have now been released as fully fledged AoS releases. I think we can take this to indicate that Silver Tower shows us where things are going in future. At the moment however we have no real details Steamhead Duardin: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2016/11/16/the-rumour-engine/ shows an image of an as-yet unreleased model. If you look at the bottom right you can see a dwarf (duardin) ancestor mask. Although this is not a certainty it is pretty indicative a duardin release is in store. I have not seen anything solid on a new undead faction, but you would certainly expect it at some point. On current minor factions I am sure I have heard a GW staffer say that all current minor factions indicate areas of interest for GW and areas of potential expansion. I think it is unlikely that any will be go away or be rolled up, but certainly not all will receive equal love and attention. But on which, who knows? I think it is fair to say that the current factions listed in the Generals Handbook is the current list of all factions. But will we see others? If AoS is a success I would think so - GW will want to keep making money and expansion is a good way to do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDuff Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 While the gamer part of me would like to know the full extent of every faction, the storyteller part of me finds what GW is experimenting with to be very fascinating. Unlike 30 & 40K, where for decades the game timeframe has been locked pretty much into a single short period of fixed time (although the story is advancing now), AOS is taking generational leaps forward for the races in just the last few months of real time. Now we see the Stormcast evolving from a Blitzkreiging heavy infantry force into a more nimble army with rangers, scouts, long range sniper crossbows, etc. This is reinventing the game design paradigm so that the narrative of an evolving universe - over time - drives game design, as opposed to a fixed game design forcing narratives to be shoehorned in. What this means for all factions is that they will likely evolve as they take center stage in the narrative. Based on the preservation of so many Old World factions (in some fashion, such as points), it's unlikely any new minis will be squatted, only added to. While this ambiguity could be frustrating for some, for me it means AOS will continually surprise and grow in richness. Add to that the fact that GW is shaping the story based on worldwide player participation in campaigns (and now tournaments to gain tuning insight), and I've come to realize that the player base is now also woven into the grand story that AOS is telling. In the short term you might want to pick one of the four alliances, and build around that, collecting units that appeal to you (what many encouraged early on), ensuring you have a balanced force (admittedly losing some faction buffs), and you can then build on the faction(s) in it whose grand story you like, adding new units to build it out. This lets you always use your initial investment while keeping future army development options open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veterannoob Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 12 hours ago, Jaqques said: There are a ton of little hints of things that GW *could* jump on and flesh out as factions. Araloth is another point that wasn't really tidied up - he went into a "pocket universe", then Lileath talks about being "cut off" from it - they could theoretically bring this faction out as aelves. Naw, dude, you've got my metal cog wheels turning on this one. Nice catch even if it doesn't happen. This 23-year dwarf nut appreciates it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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