Let's chat Kharadron Overlords

[Barkanaut]

9 hours ago, Gecktron said:

There are some great ideas here already, keep them coming! But ideas and wishes aside, what can we reasonably expect from GW for a new Kharadron Overlords Release? 

First of all: the release cant be bigger than the main one last yearI dont think there will be more than 3 boxes. 
These three have to fit certain criterias.

They have to be visionable different from the existing ones. 
Just a new weapon option for thunderers or arkanauts wouldnt create enough Buzz in the Community. 
They should use Elements already existing in GW visual library to shorten the design process.
There needs to be a new Sky vessel as GW knows that they sell really Well.
And there needs to be a new centerpiece model to attract new players (Like the Star Drake for the Chambers extremis).

My solution to this Situation would be 

•  a 3 models close combat unit using Brokk Grungsons exo-suit but without the endrin (and using either hammers or saws as proposed before)
• a Sky vessel somewhere between a Frigat and a Ironclad. Faster but sleeker than the Ironclad. Maybe it could use more torpedos and dont have a big main gun and less carabines than the Ironclad? So it could offer a different play Style.
•  Third one: No idea. Maybe another endrin unit?

The KO are the only non stormcast to be said to get support in the future and you think GW is going to cheap out? I really doubt it. I would expect about... 3-6 kits. Especially as AoS is really picking up steam year after year. Stormcast can always get another small release as GW is trying to make them marines, but KO can't always be given mini releases like them. Hence why I think 4-5 kits is more likely. The great thing with KO is there is always room to expand. I mean if GW gets bored making the standard ships they could branch out and do ships invented and made famous by other ports (that any port can use). So for example we know the Barak-Mhornar love Gunhualers so perhaps they invented a variant that packs on more weaponry at the expense of being far more dangerous to its crew. Sky is the limit lol. 

[Gecktron]

1 hour ago, Barkanaut said:

The KO are the only non stormcast to be said to get support in the future and you think GW is going to cheap out? I really doubt it. I would expect about... 3-6 kits. Especially as AoS is really picking up steam year after year. Stormcast can always get another small release as GW is trying to make them marines, but KO can't always be given mini releases like them. Hence why I think 4-5 kits is more likely. The great thing with KO is there is always room to expand. I mean if GW gets bored making the standard ships they could branch out and do ships invented and made famous by other ports (that any port can use). So for example we know the Barak-Mhornar love Gunhualers so perhaps they invented a variant that packs on more weaponry at the expense of being far more dangerous to its crew. Sky is the limit lol. 

I dont think they will be the only one. Rumors are saying GW wants to expand on the Fyreslayers as well and there a hints we will see something for the Ironjawz too. 
Dont get me wrong. I would love to see more (than just three new sets) for them but I dont think just adding stuff to a existing army has top priority for GW. Even the Stormcast Release were supposed to be at least a new sub-faction with a new theme. A addition to a existing army won't add a whole lot of new players to the Kharadrons. As people who liked them before will buy them anyways and people who didnt liked the Sky duardin won't start liking them after adding more of the same. 

I dont want to sound too pessimistic. I just wanted to look at this situation from a business perspective and try to think what would fit into GW strategy. But thats just my guess, maybe Im miles off and I will be pleasantly surprised with a f*** ton of new stuff.

EDIT: a word

[Barkanaut]

1 minute ago, Gecktron said:

I dont think they will be the only one. Rumors are saying GW wants to expand on the Fyreslayers as well and there a hints we will see something for the Ironjawz too. 
Dont get me wrong. I would love to see more for them but I dont think just adding stuff to a existing army has top priority for GW. Even the Stormcast Release were supposed to be at least a new sub-faction with a new theme. A addition to a existing army won't add a whole lot of new players to the Kharadrons. As people who liked them before will buy them anyways and people who didnt liked the Sky duardin won't start liking them after adding more of the same. 

I dont want to sound too pessimistic. I just wanted to look at this situation from a business perspective and try to think what would fit into GW strategy. But thats just my guess, maybe Im miles off and I will be pleasantly surprised with a f*** ton of new stuff.

Except GW themselves said they would post ko launch on an official message? It’s omly a matter of time. KO are on the best sellers regularity and probably their second best earner for AoS. Would kind of be nuts not to tap that market if it is that big as they implied. Heck even a few people here remember GW saying that. Now am I saying for sure next year? Nope. It’s just the earliest we could see them imo. 

[Arkanaut Admiral]

I can think of two character types the Overlords could use; a grundstok officer who is the only other character of ours with a command ability and who makes Thunderers battleline.  And a surgeon type character who heals our troops using aether powered ‘violet ray’ type machines, but also carries an aethermatic saw for amputations, making them a fairly powerful melee character.

[Furuzzolo]

I think that endrinriggers should become battleline with a "baloon" Hero as general and we need  more elite flat battleline choice. 

So: 

-New baloon general (with endrinriggers battleline unlock)

-Thunderers rework as elite battleline

-updated points along all the line

I think just that can fix things...maybe the hero coming with a shadespire gang, as fyreslayers and skaven got one. 

[TheNotebookGM]

I think a couple more kits could bring in new KO players- the limited playstyles is what's kept me to mixed order. 

[ParachuteHopper]

Limited playstyle can easily be changed by adjusting the skyport abilities and some of the current units. 

[Dez]

5 hours ago, Furuzzolo said:

I think that endrinriggers should become battleline with a "baloon" Hero as general and we need  more elite flat battleline choice. 

So: 

-New baloon general (with endrinriggers battleline unlock)

-Thunderers rework as elite battleline

-updated points along all the line

I think just that can fix things...maybe the hero coming with a shadespire gang, as fyreslayers and skaven got one. 

I'd love Balloon Boyz to become battleline, but I think that would be BIG trouble too at least as far as matched play. I'd personally just max out Iron Sky Squadron with Zilfin and 3 Khemists.

I'm really looking forward to an Underworld's KO warband!

[Barkanaut]

I think we just need more units. We simply have too few at the moment also some decent buffs for existing stuff wouldn’t go amiss. We need a dedicated melee battleline unit and I agree a hero who makes frundstodk battleline wouldn’t go amiss. 

[Arkanaut Admiral]

3 hours ago, ParachuteHopper said:

Limited playstyle can easily be changed by adjusting the skyport abilities and some of the current units. 

This is a topic  I’m really interested in.  What would you suggest?  

I’d start with Barak Zon, which in my opinion is the weakest of the skyports.  They should change their ability to +1 to hit when they charge, and their unique footnote to disembark and attempt to charge in the charge phase.  Suddenly that useless footnote becomes quite decent!  Plus, I think Honour Is Everything should affect all units, not just heroes.  

And the basic footnotes need a boost.  They are only one use per game after all.  For example, I’d change Without Our Ships We Are Naught to ‘once per game, when a sky vessel heals a wound, it immediately heals an additional D3 wounds’. 

[silverstu]

I'd really like a female character like queen Helga - I think a female faceplate could look really cool- maybe as a ships captain or as a sky rigger officer? {actually a full unit of female skyrigger's as Valkyries would be excellent [possibly either with shields as a defensive unit or multiple light attacks with dual cc weapons]. And yes I have been watching Vikings a lot!

The mining theme could be useful to explore - maybe an arkanaut level battle line unit for melee - I loved the Blanche concept sketch of the deckhand/miner that appeared in the WD. 

Possibly a specialist Khemist ship - with vents/funnels down the sides to spew forth aether toxic gas at close range on the enemy. Maybe specialist guild vessels might be a way fo adding themed variety to the ships.

Going back to the Grundstock melee unit- two builds maybe? One for absorbing attacks maybe with shields/extra armour and one for dishing out lots of attacks with maybe heavier cc weapon specialists available to both. 

[Gecktron]

In regards to the topic of potential new Sky Vessel:


Just a quick sketch of my Idea. The Sky Piercer Destroyer as a (compared to the Ironclad) faster but more fragile warship for the Sky Ports of the Kharadron Overlords. The Sky Piercer only has 3 carabines as guns but instead relies on its 6 Torpedo tubes to destroy its enemies. With its 4 propellers at the rear of the ship its substantially faster than other ships of its size. The destroyer gains this speed advantage by giving up most of its internal space which is normally used to transport troops or cargo (limited transport capability, maybe 0-5?)

For the design I mostly used design elements already established with the Frigat and the Ironclad. Its larger than the Frigat but less massiv than the Ironclad.

[Barkanaut]

If it’s the same size as the Ironclad just cal it an ironclad. If it’s meant to be bigger than the Ironclad it needs two enddrins because of the lore. If it’s smaller then call it a Frigate. I want to keep the ship sizemclassification consistent on the range as KO seem very professional. Other than that Inthinkmit has potential. The other niggle is the captain can’t see where he is going lol. 

[Gecktron]

23 minutes ago, Barkanaut said:

If it’s the same size as the Ironclad just cal it an ironclad. If it’s meant to be bigger than the Ironclad it needs two enddrins because of the lore. If it’s smaller then call it a Frigate. I want to keep the ship sizemclassification consistent on the range as KO seem very professional. Other than that Inthinkmit has potential. The other niggle is the captain can’t see where he is going lol. 

The Sky piercer is supposed to be larger than a Frigat and slightly smaller than a Ironclad. While the Frigat has found a balance between, strength, speed and durability and the Ironclad is heavily armed and armored, the Sky piercer forgoes these twos in pursuit of more speed. (Its basically a Torpedo Boat Destroyer from WW1)

Why should new Sky vessels be either called a Ironclad or a Frigat? I couldn't find anything in my Battletome. Is that lore from the new Kharadron Book (Overlords of the Iron Dragon)? 
But you are right on that things much larger than a Ironclad need more than one Endrin. 

[Barkanaut]

36 minutes ago, Gecktron said:

The Sky piercer is supposed to be larger than a Frigat and slightly smaller than a Ironclad. While the Frigat has found a balance between, strength, speed and durability and the Ironclad is heavily armed and armored, the Sky piercer forgoes these twos in pursuit of more speed. (Its basically a Torpedo Boat Destroyer from WW1)

Why should new Sky vessels be either called a Ironclad or a Frigat? I couldn't find anything in my Battletome. Is that lore from the new Kharadron Book (Overlords of the Iron Dragon)? 
But you are right on that things much larger than a Ironclad need more than one Endrin. 

I didn’t realize it was it’s own size of vessel. In that case destroyer is fine. 

[Zetsu20]

-new lord of other Barak...

- 2-3 new units

-new big ship from Forgeworld 

-nerf some unit’s point. 

 

Wanna  hear all these new soon ?

[J.J]

I'm not even sure I'd want to see a new ship, I'd more just like to see our current range be more useful. A couple extra units wouldn't go amiss, another slow footslogger unit (maybe some big elite infantry in exosuits?) to go in the boats and a fast cav-style (escort fighters?) unit would be fantastic.

I think the big gains though would be from some changes to each skyport as already mentioned above. Really push on what that particular port is good at and exaggerate it, so we can see some more unique styles coming out of the army, rather than mishmashing what's already in the battletraits list and adding one or two unique things in there.

Zilfin and Urbaz feel like they have some great tools and abilities for you to focus around, while the others seem a bit all over the place in comparison.

[Sky Pirate]

Our ships are fine I think, except a points adjustment. 

We need a unit that fills the function that Berzerkers Fyreslayers do currently: an unit to protect our shooters. 

I can see Grundstock with shields and hammers, just like Horus Heresy SM with Boarding Shields. 

I am sure we will get new models/new unit through Shadespire, as Stormcast got their shooty unit in this game. 

[ParachuteHopper]

I think a support hero/unit that buffs would be great too. We've got all this cool science stuff going on, but only one hero that buffs with it.

[Qaz]

On 4/7/2018 at 5:38 AM, Barkanaut said:

KO are on the best sellers regularity and probably their second best earner for AoS. 

Where is this from? Local shop still got lots of KO on their shelf and this seems to be true for the region (that KO is not selling). What sells are stormcast and daemons of the red, blue and green variety. 

I'm curious to see how the sales per faction is like. (And how that will impact their future releases)

[Barkanaut]

2 hours ago, Qaz said:

Where is this from? Local shop still got lots of KO on their shelf and this seems to be true for the region (that KO is not selling). What sells are stormcast and daemons of the red, blue and green variety. 

I'm curious to see how the sales per faction is like. (And how that will impact their future releases)

Wow that sounds like quite the anomaly. GW's own words KO sold extremely well. The facebook post has been lost to time but they posted an image saying they love the support seen and they definitely want to return to the KO again. If they aren't selling there than seems quite the exception to the norm here. Half of the community has some here. On GW's own page in Canada the battleforce box is the second most popular thing in the best sellers after Sepharon and has been firmly entrenched in the top 5 consistently since December even when new releases came out.  I looked at GW best seller page and the KO are there still. What region are you in exactly? Not only that but in big online fan survey's they tend to be consistently top 4 most popular armies across any of the GA's.  

[Mordeus]

Maybe Canadians like bearded flying sailors more than the rest?

People keep saying that Forgeworld should do a bigger ship, I really hope they don't. Resources could be spent elsewhere. While it would be cool to see more content, resin is terrible to work with on larger pieces and I really feel like GW has overtaken FW in terms of quality. Their was a time when the highest quality stuff came out of FW but not anymore. FW should focus on customization packs, such as new weapon styles or helmets for the troops and new figure heads or something for the ships. Would make each ship unique in a cool way.

[Badlander86]

I think more troop variety would not hurt as in terms of packing and transporting, troops are a lot easier to work with then say ships even though the ships were what drew me to KO in the first place.  I also think KO is going through a bit of a "Tau" phase where the idea of them being a shooty army is priority in a meta where Close Combat gets more things done...unless you play Tzeench.

Ha ha, maybe the Endrin-less Exo-suit would be best described as the Khradron Equivalent of a Crisis Battlesuit with all kinds of custom options.

 

But in all seriousness, I do hope this line gets a bit of love here and there, whether its in the main line or in supporting products such as Shadespire or Silver Tower. We don't need "Buy this and you win" type kits but having more variety helps to make the collection more robust.

[Barkanaut]

32 minutes ago, Mordeus said:

Maybe Canadians like bearded flying sailors more than the rest?

People keep saying that Forgeworld should do a bigger ship, I really hope they don't. Resources could be spent elsewhere. While it would be cool to see more content, resin is terrible to work with on larger pieces and I really feel like GW has overtaken FW in terms of quality. Their was a time when the highest quality stuff came out of FW but not anymore. FW should focus on customization packs, such as new weapon styles or helmets for the troops and new figure heads or something for the ships. Would make each ship unique in a cool way.

As a love of all big models in armies form FW (proud Ta'unar and Tigershark owner and considering a Sokar for my DW) I say bring on the bigger ships. I love the challenge. Besides GW even said making models too big with plastic is cost prohibitive. Things like a plastic Thunderhawk could be done but the cost per model would be nuts compared to even FW. Or so that is the last worst I heard on the matter when asked why they don't. I'm sure GW could do a bigger ship than the Ironclad but FW should stick to the truly colossally impractical to bring to a game ships that you bring once in awhile for fun and a joke lol. 

Maybe we do lol but checking US best sellers KO is in 2nd spot too. 

[Mordeus]

I mean of course if FW brought KO content it would be great its more a personal experience with working with resin and large scale models. The detail isn't as crisp.

I doubt anyway that GW would make something bigger than the Ironclad yet, its about the same size as all the other big models.

A customization pack from GW would be great for the ships. Something similar to the different Land Raider options. Then instead of getting a new hull, they can just have variants of each ships. Minesweeper frigate, carrier Ironclad, gunship frigate with no space inside, etc.