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Preface As a foreword, I know these topics can get very heated and turn nasty quickly. I don't want that happening with this thread, so I want to preface this entire thing by saying that these numbers are presented as a point of discussion, but in and of themselves they are not saying anything. I've created this post not to stir the pot, but because I'm a woman who plays Warhammer and female representation is important for me. Just as any topic about wanting to see changes in the rules, discussions on the aesthetic of an army, or lore segments, I believe this topic can be discussed sensibly on this forum (probably one of the few places on the internet where that's the case). So why have I written a massive post on this looking at nearly every hero model in AoS? Is it because I'm a bit bored? Partially yes, but also because I believe claims should be backed up with evidence. If I said "We need more female heroes in AoS" and didn't give any evidence as to why the current number may be lacking, I don't think I'd be making a very strong point. In addition to this, I find looking at numbers can be quite eye opening; it's easier to discuss something if we know what we're talking about. Female model representation in Age of Sigmar This was written as a follow up post from a Reddit user we'll call Pebble. This is going to be long, so there'll be a TL;DR at the bottom with the numbers, and a conclusion just above that. I found the post quite eye-opening. For those who haven't seen the original post, it was basically a 'Bechdal test' for Warhammer factions. To pass, a faction needed at least one female named character. To follow on from this, I wanted to compare the numbers generated by Pebble to factions with named male characters and no named characters, as well as also looking at generic heroes. There are a couple of guidelines I'll be following to try and keep this as a reliable evaluation: I will only be looking at AoS factions with battletomes, with the exception of Bonesplittaz and Ironjawz as they used to have separate battletomes before being merged and can still be played as separate factions, as well as having a varying lore. This is because AoS used to be incredibly divided as a game and there are loads of mini factions that have about one model in, and factions with a battletome represent factions that GW wish to continue to some degree. I will post a list of included battletomes at the bottom That said, I will not be including Foregworld factions. As FW factions seem to be dropped on a whim and mentioned in passing in the lore at absolute best, they are not treat like official AoS factions by GW. I might note down FW models in existing factions, but these never effect the 'Bechdal test' results Characters being male and female are counted based on gender and not sex. As such, arguments such as 'daemons/orks/goblins aren't male and female' don't hold water as we're looking at gender representation and these characters are referred to as he and she. As Pebble's post was looking at the movers and shakers of the AoS world, I will not be including Underworld warbands, White Dwarf heroes, or store opening special characters as these were created to tell unique mini stories rather than being a driving force in the larger narrative When looking at generic characters in AoS, lore wise they can nearly always be any gender. As such, I will have to look at how they are presented (e.g. female or male coded), if it is impossible to tell then they will be left as uncertain. This is quite difficult as you can imagine, and I didn't want to end up naming every character wearing non-boob armour as male, so I've included some qualifiers discussed below Named character breakdown: From Pebble's breakdown, they found that the following factions passed the test: Stormcast (Neave Blacktalon and Astreia Solbright), Sylvaneth (Drycha and Alarielle), Daughters of Khaine (Morathi), Nighthaunt (Lady Olynder), Legions of Nagash (Neferata), Hedonites (the Masque and Syll), Blades of Khorne (Valkia), Slaves to Darkness (Marakarr). This comes to 8/24 having a female named character No named characters: Beasts of Chaos, Bonesplitterz (though note they're sometimes mixed with Ironjawz who do have a named character), Cities of Sigmar, Flesh Eaters Courts, Fyreslayers, and Ogor Mawtribes. This comes to 6/24 having no named characters Male Named characters: Stormcast (Vandus Hammerhand, Aventis Firestrike, Gavriel Sureheart), Gloomspite Gitz (Skragrott), Idoneth Deepkin (Volturnos and Lotann), Ironjawz (Gordrakk), Kharadron Overlords (Brokk Grungsson), Khorne (Skarbrand, Skulltaker, Skarr Bloodwrath, Scyla Anfingrimm, Khorghos Khul, Karanak and a FW character duo that I won't count in numbers as Vorgaroth who's male but Skalok is female), Lumineth Realm Lords (Teclis and maybe the Light of Eltharion, and the Stone King), Nighthaunt (Kurdoss Valentian, Reikenor), Legions of Nagash (Nagash, Arkhan, Mannfred, Prince Vhordrai), Nurgle (Rotigus, Epidemius, Horticulous Slimux, Orghotts, Bloab, Morbidex, Festus, Gutrot Spume, the Glottkin triplets), Ossiarch Bonereapers (Katakros and Arch-Kavalos Zandtos), Seraphon (Lord Kroak), Skaventide (Lord Skreech and Thanquol), Slaanesh (Esske from Syll'Esske), Slaves to Darkness (Archaon and Be'lakor), Sylvaneth (maybe - the Spirit of Durthu isn't a named character by rules but is the spirit of a named character), and Tzeentch (Kairos Fateweaver). This comes to 17/24 factions passing the male version of the test. By numbers alone, it's obvious that there are far more named male characters than female. Nurgle has the most male named characters at an uncharacteristic 9. If we add up the total number of named characters, we have 11 female named characters and 43 male characters, and one non-binary with Shalaxi (note, I am unsure if the Celestant Prime has been confirmed either way so they are not included). There are nearly 4x the number of male named characters compared to female; 15 of these male characters come from Khorne and Nurgle combined. There are three factions (Stormcast, Hedonites of Slaanesh, and Sylvaneth) who have more than one female named character, and 10 factions (Stormcast, Lumineth Realm Lords, Legions of Nagash, Ossiarch Bonereapers, Khorne, Nurgle, Skaven, Idoneth Deepkin, Slaves to Darkness and Nighthaunt). The leaders of these factions are defined as the characters with the greatest importance on the lore for that faction. In AoS, some of these leaders have models, which I will be looking at. The chaos gods will not have leader models as their named greater daemons are not the leaders of their factions, but instead usually daemons with a unique story. The leader models are as follows: Skragrott (Gloomspite Gitz), Volturnos (Idoneth Deepkin), Teclis (Lumineth Realm-Lords), Nagash (Legions of Nagash and Death as a whole), Lady Olynder (Nighthaunt), Katakros (Ossiarch Bonereapers), Lord Kroak (Seraphon), Morathi (Daughters of Khaine), Alarielle (Sylvaneth), Archaon (Slaves to Darkness and kind of Chaos as a whole), and Brokk Grungsson (Kharadron Overlords). Out of the leader models, 8/11 are male and 3/11 are female. Generic Heroes: As said before, these are a bit harder to measure. As such, if a character is wearing armour and their faction has been shown to have no gendered armour then they will not count towards either. For example, as we saw with Slaves to Darkness, chaos warriors all wear the same armour and other chaos armour wearing characters can be assumed to follow the same path. Even though Kharadron Overlord armour has beards, the battletome shows that male and female Kharadron have the same kit. Stormcast on the other hand have boobplate, and so characters without boobplate are assumed male. Female generic heroes: Daughters of Khaine (Hag Queen, Slaughter Queen and their cauldron variants, new snake hero), Idoneth Deepkin (Isharann Tidecaster), Lumineth Realm Lords (Scinari Cathaller and maybe the wizard on the floating rock - it's hard to tell), Nighthaunt (Tomb Banshi), Cities of Sigmar (Sorceress and on black dragon), Slaves to Darkness (Darkoath Warqueen), Stormcast Eternals (Knight-Zephyros, Knight-Incantor), Sylvaneth (Branchwych, Branchwraith, Arch-Revenant), Legions of Nagash (the vampire lord has a lot of female variants), Slaanesh (The Contorted Epitome, Viceleader, Herald of Slaanesh on all chariot varients, and Infernal Enrapturess) Male generic heroes: Beasts of Chaos (Beastlord, Great Bray-Shaman, Doombull, Dragon Ogor Shaggoth), Bonesplittaz (Wurrgog Prophet, Savage Big Boss, Maniak Weirdnob, Wardokk), Cities of Sigmar (Freeguild general on Griffon, Freeguild General, Battlemage, Battlemage on Griffon, Cogsmith, Warden King, Runelord, Annointed on Frostheart Phoenix and on foot, Black Ark Fleetmaster, Dreadlord on Black Dragon, Nomad Prince, Steam Tank with Commander), Flesh Eater Courts (Abhorrant Archregent, Abhorrant Ghoul King and on mounts, Crypt Ghast Courtier, Crypt Haunter Courtier, Crypt Infernal Courtier), Fyreslayers (Auric Runefather, Auric Runesmiter, Auric Runeson and their magmadroth varients, Grimwrath Bezerker, Auric Runemaster, Battlesmith, Doomseeker), Gloomspite Gitz (Dankhold Troggboss, Webspinner Shaman - it's hard to tell with the Moonclan heroes), Idoneth Deepkin (Akhelian King, Isharann Soulscryer, Isharann Soulrender), Ironjawz (Megaboss and Mawkrusha varient, Warchanter, and Weirdnob Shaman), Khorne (Herald of Khorne, Skullmaster, Bloodthirsters x3, Mighty lord of Khorne, Bloodsecrator, Blood Stoker, Lord of Khorne on Juggernaught, Exalted Deathbringer, Aspiring Deathbringer, Slaughterpriest, Skullgrinder), Legions of Nagash (Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon, Vampire Lord, Necromancer), Nurgle (Poxbringer, Spoilpox Scriviner, Sloppity Bilepiper, Lord of Afflictions, Harbinger of Decay, Sorcerer, Lord of Blights, Lord of Plagues), Ogor Mawtribes (Frostlord on Stonehorn and Thundertusk, Huskard on Stonehorn and Thundertusk, Icebrow Hunter, Tyrant, Butcher, Firebelly, Slaughtermaster), Skaven (Plague Priest, Warlock Bombardier, Grey Seer and Screaming Bell varient), Veminlord Warpseer, Warbringer, Corrupter, Deceiver, Clawlord, Arch-Warlock, Warlock Engineer, Deathmaster, Master Moulder), Slaanesh (Lord of Pain), Slaves to Darkness (Daemon prince, Darkoath Chieftain), Tzeentch (Tzangor Shaman, Changecaster, Fateskimmer, Fluxmaster, Magister, Ogroid Thaumaturge) There are 9/24 factions with at least one female generic hero, compared to 16/24 with almost certainly male heroes (maybe 17 if we include the Treelord Ancient, which I was on the fence about). This list is giving GW the benefit of the doubt by trying to only include models with distinctly male features. I just want to clarify as well, I know you can convert a model so that it is female or male - very few of these heroes are exclusively gendered lore wise, but we are looking at models only. To look at specific numbers, there are 24 generic female character compared to 101 coded male characters - that's over 4x as many, and that's only if I'm being very strict on what counts as a male coded model. Also, there's a very good chance I missed something. Conclusion: Looking at the numbers, the balance is very skewed towards male characters and generic heroes. While there has been an uptick in the number of new female models being released, there would still be a lot of catching up to do. If we wanted a 50/50 split in AoS for generic heroes (not saying we do, this is just to put things in perspective), GW would have to release one female hero model a week (and no male generic heroes) for almost two years straight. But these are just numbers, and while I do find them interesting, I think they only become valuable when we look at what they could mean. Does a lower selection of female models have an effect on women entering the hobby? Would increasing the number of female models also increase the number of women interested in Warhammer, or are there greater barriers that have to be broken down first? While hardly scientific, I've at least noticed that more women play Sylvaneth and Slaanesh - is it coincidence that these two factions have the highest female representation after Daughters of Khaine? However, I've not noticed many women play DoK - though this could also be down to how expensive they are and the fact that they are very scantily clad. Personally, as a woman, I do think a greater number of female models would help me at least, and my friends are also in agreement. Most people find it easier to connect with characters of the same gender as them (note, this isn't saying you can't empathise with characters of an opposite gender!), and you find that women play D&D (a similarly nerdy game) more regularly than Warhammer and in those ttrpg they tend to play women. Warhammer is just as much a narrative as it is a game; if we didn't care about aesthetic and story, we'd be happy playing with different coloured rocks instead of models. A lot of guys online seem to have the idea that women don't like WH due to some innate natural preference (often then citing primate studies which is a... rocky way to back up human psychology claims), but asking women who are happy to play D&D why they don't play WH they have always said it's because they feel unwelcome into the hobby. This could be for a lot of reasons, including the more toxic members of the community, but it may also partially be because the vast majority of characters they'll be playing are male. I think discussions like this are important as growing the hobby helps keep things alive and more welcoming to groups who may have previously felt like they don't belong. If you don't agree with me, that's absolutely fine and I'd also like to hear your opinions. Overall, these numbers should act more like a discussion point - a bit of numerical evidence to help points be made, but it'd be too difficult to draw any conclusions from this. TL;DR The numbers simplified: Have a female named character: 8/24 Have no named character: 6/24 Have a male named character: 17/24 Number of female named characters: 11 Number of male named characters: 43 Number of 'leader models' that are male: 8/11 Number of 'leader models' that are female: 3/11 Number of factions with more than one female named character: 3 Number of factions with more than one male named character: 10 Number of factions with at least one generic female hero: 9/24 Number of factions with at least one generic male hero: 16/24 Number of female generic heroes: 24 Number of male generic heroes: 101 (if I haven't miscounted) Battletomes: Maggotkin of Nurlge, Legions of Nagash, Daughters of Khaine, Idoneth Deepkin, Stormcast Eternals, Nighthaunt, Beasts of Chaos, Gloomspite Gitz, Flesh Eater Courts, Skaven, Blades of Khorne, Fyreslayers, Hedonites of Slaanesh, Sylvaneth, Orruk Warclans, Cities of Sigmar, Ossiarch Bonereapers, Ogor Mawtribes, Slaves to Darkness, Kharadron Overlords, Disciples of Tzeentch, Seraphon, Lumineth Realm-Lords (23, but count as 24 with a split in Warclans)

Literally saw the article and thought I'd take a look later, how wrong I was!! This is bloody excellent!! A named Mega Gargant!! God this has me so excited how many others are there?! Will they have their own lore?! They even confirmed that they were coming out before too long so the October 10th Pre Order date could be true for the Sons as well as the Audio Drama!! If you cannot tell...I'm excited.

An elegant weapon...for a more civilized age looks dare I say it positively human'esque, and of a non death, non chaotic, non golden armoured variety... though I'd be having words about that grip if I was their instructor...

The troops seem far too expensive. Unless you get 10 of each, I can see many people being put off by these prices. If we compare them to OBR (the most recent totally new release): 5 Deathriders (which are bigger) = £35 compared to £40 3 Necropolis Stalkers (the closest match to elite troops) = £30 compared to £36.50 20 Mortek Guard (which are individually smaller) = £35 compared to £36.50 for the wardens and sentinels Ossiarch is also an elite army. This isn't so much complaining as it is confusion; I can't understand why they'd price models this high. I can imagine the prices will put people off - especially for the cow aelves, who already have some unpopular design choices. Do they not expect to sell much, and want to make as much back as possible? The limited edition box didn't sell out, so maybe that's the case, but we just don't know.

Because someone is throwing around rumors about the LRL ... . Looking at your comment about their artifacts just a few days ago (artifacts are OP, but we don’t know what their heroes do) - it looks like you hadn’t known anything much about their rules at that point though, and now you are already have become such an expert with better insight than someone who bought the Battletome, read it, and had actual experience playing with them? Which core mechanic of the army is obviously broken?

Me: - "Oh, a new article about Lumineth and allies... fine... let's go to read it... " * Bundt Whalebiter appears * Me: *micro hearth attack*

Just a reminder for everyone on this line, GW is in total control of the narrative of every faction. They aren't bound by some external or historical force that tells them that there can't be female fireslayers or ogors or a group of orcs that present more feminine than masculine. They can and do write the lore however they want and can add new pieces whenever it's convenient. They could release three black library novels over the next few months that mention the inclusion of female warriors in the cities of sigmar and then bam, it's entrenched in the lore and when the models come out it's perfectly natural for the faction. They could encourage the next couple video games to have a female chaos villain and then make her a special character model and the focus of the next chaos narrative arc. The entire game can be shaped and molded however they see fit. Personally, I'm all for more female representation if it means more people playing the game.

The index finger on the ricasso is quite standard for gripping a Rapier. Rapier sounds elegant, fitting for vampires 😁

I wouldn't want to jump to conclusions, but Sigvald has been teased a bit in Malign Portents and the Slaanesh Battletome... I would love a box with him and his mirror guard

Building and painting both. I tried to have the riders separate from their horses so that I can paint them a little easier. After building them that way, absolutely nothing lined up. I had to paint them in once piece and I totally messed up the build. I really love the models, but unless I find a painter who can finish them for me I'm not gonna touch a second unit. Totally unrelated: What do you think about the Cathallar's Darkness of the Soul spell? My take is that it's totally busted, especially in the Teclis / Powerstone list where you can pretty much guarantee that it goes off. For an opponent that brings something big, i.e. a max unit of anything, it is straight up in negative play experience territory for me.

Actually both. There was Knight Questor Larissa Shadowstalker as a Store Anniverary Model and Leena Stormspire the Liberator Prime that is a Store Opening miniature. And there are two female Knight Incantors because Xandria Azurebolt the Knight Incantor of the Mortal Realms series is female too. I think the problem is partly because models need years to be produced. The Fyreslayers came out first at the start of 2016, about halve a year after AoS startet (I actually have to look if the Fyreslayer Queen was a thing in the first one and the models created in the time were successors of the WHFB Slayers. The first time I read about was in The Volturung, but there, they mostly were workers (the fiancee of the ruleson that became a runelord for his own lodge worked in the mines). Since 2016 we had 1 single new model with the Doomseeker (also released in 2016) so we had no new Fyreslayer models in 4 years. Do we know how many years it takes until models are ready? In the lore or art it is easier because It doesn't take that long. (until 2017 we had 2 female Stormcast Models. Since 2018 we have at lease 10-13 models in the Sacrosanct chamber in basicly every unittype (Sequitors, Casticators, Evocators, Celestar Ballista, Knight Incantor, Lord Arcanum) But I also have the feeling that an Fyreslayer Queen does have a little problem in the lore. We all know that Rulefathers often have about 12 childen because some will die with their actions getting recognised for becoming the next Runefather or opening their own lodge. Which literally would mean that the Auric Queen would literally be pregnant the entire time. Well most Lord Celestants are even called this when a Woman has this rank (Cassandora Stormforged for example. If she is mentioned by rank it is Lord Celestant, when mentioned by name it is Lady Cassadora). I think in the english text the gender is rearly mentioned in the rank. If I remember correctly I read the term "Liberatress" as a female form of "Liberator" when Shadespire came out. In german translations the gender is more often used (instead of "Prime" they often use "Primus" or "Prima" and I think I have to look it up again if for example the "Knight Venator" which is translated in the male for as "Venator Ritter" if in case of "Enyo the Sunwinger" "Venatorin Ritter" or "Venator Ritterin" was used but I think it was the first one because "Venator" could stand as a rank alone. In case of the Cities of Sigmar, with a little converting it is quite easy to get a female general or a entirely female army. One part of my projects is basicly an entire army based on Sisters of the Watch and Sisters of the Thorn, with heroes build from the same models.

Some very good points here @Enoby and I think this one is worth emphasising. It was an eye-opener for me the first time I went to a store tournament at an FLGS and there was a Yu Gi Oh event happening at the same team. Our players were all male but around 50% of the TCG players were women, and that would not be unusual from what I've seen since. It seems to be the same with RPGs...the same kind of "guys online" might try to explain that away as being more cooperative and more about story-telling, but I think the fact that card games (which are just as adversarial as wargaming) have so many more women playing really highlights that miniature wargaming is the odd one out, and could be so much better. This is also a really important point I think, and has got me wondering why that would be the case. To give one example, the short story in the Fyreslayers White Dwarf issue was explicitly about female leadership and female empowerment. And yet there are zero female Fyreslayers on the tabletop. So the recognition of the issue, and the will to improve positive female representation, does seem to be there. But if it's not making its way through to the tabletop in the same way that it does in the lore, why would that be the case? I guess there's a few reasons: time delays being a big one (GW can turn out fiction, especially short stories, more regularly than they can update every model range). Even then, while the newer ranges do tend to have more women than the older model ranges, it's nowhere near parity. One possible factor is that the creative team (perhaps subconsciously) are cautious about how they model females without being reductive. DOK for example are basically a teenage boy's fantasy and not something that I believe would represent the hobby well to a woman who was new to the game (happy to be told I'm wrong if women reading this disagree). The classic boobplate is less egregious but still (rightly) draws criticism, and maybe it's just easier in that context to stick to what they know? I'd be interested to know how many women are involved at GW in conceptualizing and designing the miniatures. Hopefully someone can turn around and tell me that there are loads of women already employed in that area, but if not, it's something that could probably be looked at in the future as vacancies are created.

So from a handful of games which apparently you won, you can say definitively that an army is auto win. Sounds right to me.... I hate when people say ****** like this, it means I never get to win a game playing this army. If I do defeat my opponent, it's not because of my skill, but because some internet rando said my army was auto win, I didn't win, my army did. If I loose to my opponent, not only have I lost a game, my opponent defeated what was supposed to be an auto win list, meaning I cant win with the deck stacked in my favor, I lose twice. No matter the outcome of the game, I come out the looser. The army isnt even released yet and already you have enough experience playing it to know definitively its OP, and ruining the game for others. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ I'm done with this conversation, as this is the rumor thread, not a place to whine about whichever army you think is OP. Maybe try some empathy before posting like this again.

This says we're going to have a bunch of named special mercenary giants in our book! The question will be if we are able to freely use them also in addition to generic megas. We now know a little more content about our book at least, it's not just 4 warscrolls!

So for the past several months I have been working on a custom Vampire Khorne Army (Vampire Chaos Lord on Karkadrak, Vampire Chaos Lord on foot, Vampire Chaos Knights, etc) and my latest creation will serve "officially" as a Vampire Chaos Lord on Manticore. However for games where I can use Anvil of Apotheosis Heroes, then this will be "Duntov Von Corvent on Corvaul" I am still working on the base but the model itself is nearly complete.

Just checked the book and Celennar is generally referred to by name or as "the moon spirit" with the occasional use of "they" as a pronoun, so yeah, agender. Would have liked to see that sort of approach to the chaos gods as well. Slaanesh was emphatically referred to as "Neither male nor female" but then received male pronouns throughout. Same with the other gods tbh, they're all beyond gender and flick between them e.g. Nurgle being referred to variously by the usual 'grandfather' appellations but also in the aspect of "Mother Mort", Khorne being both the Axe Father and the Brass Belladonna. That was a good part of the StD battletome so flopping on the pronouns was sort of a little failure of evoking how they're beyond mortal concerns like that. Also worth remembering that "they" as a singular gender-neutral pronoun has a long and well-established history in English, going back to the 14th century as a common term. There was some pushback in the 18th century but it's not like it's a new or weird affectation.

I would add that Code of the Skies has a female admiral and female arkanauts as the main stars. I think that female KOs are equal as any other male KO: you rise up in power for your merits and not for your gender (maybe surenames and vaults full of aether-gold can help... but that's not the point).

Rumour engine

I found trimming the pegs off of the sides of the horse helped a lot in that regard. That, and keeping one leg separate in the sub-assembly. Here is an example of my sub assembly, and a finished (well, 95%ish) result.

I was incredibly smart and built them fully with no subassemblies. If I haven’t come back within the next couple of weeks, call an ambulance.

I think this is an interesting question, but it's very difficult to answer. While I don't have data, I think it's safe to say that there are fewer women interested in WH compared to men. This could be for a few reasons, but we get into a chicken and egg situation: 1. Women are naturally less interested in wargames (or war in general) 2. Women feel alienated when approaching wargames, perhaps due to othering from male peers 3. Women would be interested in wargames, if there was greater female representation within the models and the hobby. As there has always been a low model count for women in either WH (looking at the full games, not specific factions), women have not been as interested which has lead to a more male community 4. A combination of all of the above As a woman, I can say I do have an interest in war, tactics, and wargames. Even when I was younger, I wanted to play Warhammer but was put off when a male friend (well, kind of friend) said that Space Marines were the best things in the entire 40k universe and made a big deal how men were only strong enough to become them, and how the Witch Hunters (I think the SoB) were the weaker all female variant. That put me off starting WH40k for years, and I only regained interest when reading a bit about Neferata in WHF at the beginning of AoS. However, this is only my personal account and I don't speak for all women. Historically, men have made up the vast majority of soldiers and generals, and so wargames (as we know them) when they first began were marketed towards boys. Look at HG Well's book, Little Wars (considered the primogenitor of modern wargames) - its full title is "Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books". From the very start, women and girls have been alienated from this community as the original book insinuated that girls are less intelligent to enjoy certain things. I think it would be short sighted to view this as not having an affect on women joining in the hobby. When nerd culture was more insular and far more male dominated, female models just didn't sell as well (adding to the idea that people like to play armies the same gender as them). This would also help explain the drought of female models; I've attached a comment from one of the creators of 40k as to why we don't have female space marines any more. This is more tangential to any points, but people may find it interesting and it does help frame the discussion a bit as to why we may be lacking female models To get back to my original point; I think that we shouldn't dismiss women in wargaming on the basis of 'just not liking it'. Maybe that is the case, but there are plenty of other good reasons (as discussed). If we look at comic books, which used to be similarly insular, their breach into the mainstream has caused an uptick in female fans and popular female super heroes.

Interesting it seems the allied Mega Gargants might be named characters? I wonder if they will have specific rules or if Warhammer Community is just being cute? https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/09/08/lumineth-and-friends/

So I'm going to be horrifically gauche and quote myself from back in May, when we saw a similar sword (below): it's Soulblight. Meaning we now have a few soulblight-ish hints, possibly suggesting.... well, more than one vampire model. A warband, for Underworlds or Warcry? An army, fully Soulblight? A unit of vampire champions within said army?

In terms of female dwarfs - I don't think there has ever been an explicit mentioning of why they wouldn't be warriors, they are supposed to be as tough, stubborn and resilient as the males. They just haven't really been talked about until recently- bar Valaya and Queen Helga from the grudge of Drong. they have been introduced into Kharadron fiction and art which is excellent and I could see them being added to other dwarf factions -maybe as distinctive cults/formations. Model wise I think in th past they have been tricky to do well, but I think they have really got dwarf proportions perfect now with the recent sculpts, so adding subtly female forms is much easier [now they have waists and knees!]. I think we will see more of them as they continue to expand AoS, GW seems much more keen to add female models recently and I think when they revisit some of the ranges we will see more.

Ahh defence, shooting ... I clearly see ... you are an Gryiffindor .. no .. hmmm a Lumineth Realm Lord player. Now go and have fun

Yep, I think this touches on some of what was discussed in the rumour thread. Though it was discussed in terms of warscroll numbers and variant viable army builds, the sheer homogeneity of the Fyreslayers is unfortunate. There's almost no variation in visual language, just the same note repeated over and over again with very little to distinguish line infantry from elites from missile troops from most heroes. The only hints of any other cues are (i) the magmadroths themselves and (ii) the whispers of old WHFB chaos dwarf influence visible in the designs of the runesmiter and runemaster. That latter element - the slightly more cultic side of things, masked, solemn, ritualistic, a little mysterious - would be good to pick up for any prospective female fyreslayers. I could see a priestess or followers of Valaya unit fitting in in that regard, distinguished from the mass of naked male berzerkers. It's an angle you see a bit in the art (e.g. here) but that isn't there so much in the models. But then that might indulge too much in what Enoby mentioned in their last comment: here are the distinct female fyreslayers, safely distinguished in their own unit which is tied directly to their gender and particular associations about that (men as warriors, women as more associated with the hold and religion). I don't think it's necessarily an angle that lacks potential or artistic merit - it's a strand that already existed in older dwarf background - just that it could 'crowd out' the approach we see with stormcast or idoneth or lumineth where there's a blend of genders within the ranks. It could crowd out representation of the female berzerkers we've seen in the Soulbound RPG, as below.

A bit to the side of the main topic, one thing I have noticed is that a good chunk of female units (non-hero, multiple models) tend to have a title that references their all-female status, but this is not the same for most of the male units. Please correct me if I'm missing out some units Sisters of the Watch, Sisters of Thorne, Blood Sisters, Witch Aelves, Sisters of Slaughter (Blood Stalkers and the Khinerai units do not), daemonettes (arguable on gender, but certainly more feminine than other daemon troops - seekers do not), Myremourne Banshees (Dreadscythes do not), and Dryads (Dryads are nymphs in folklore, which are maidens). Out of the 12 all female units I've counted, 8 have a 'female' title (as in, it refers to their gender or to a creature that is only female). I won't list all of the male only units, but they very very rarely refer to their male-ness. To name a few newer all male units, we have Hearthguard/Vulkite Bezerkers, Auric Hearthguard, Liberators (buying them from the box has them as all male varients), Varanguard (all helmetless options are male), Tree-Revenants (correct me if there's a female one, but iirc the female one is in spite revenants), and Kairic Acolytes. I can't think of any multiple model units that have "Brothers of" or "Sons of" as a title. The male titled units I can think of are Bullgors, Doomfire Warlocks, and Ardboyz. This isn't meant to be some claim that GW are secretly sexist or something, but I just find it quite interesting that the all female units are often pointed out as all female whereas the all male ones aren't usually. It should also be noted (and commended) that a very large chunk of new units are mixed gender or indeterminate. The lumineth aelves do a great job at this, with the differences between the two being tiny and quite hard to notice without looking. This is mostly to give just a little bit more raw data to the discussion; there aren't any conclusions drawn and I may have missed out some units, so please say if I have.

Plus if any one is going to stubbornly still be a badass warrior while heavily pregnant its a fyreslayer queen. In warhammer lore seraphon/lizardmen are born from spawning pools, so I'm not sure there are males and females. When I use those models for other games though I often say that skinks and saurus are the same species, but represent sexual dimorphism. Since the females of many reptile species are larger than the males, that would make the saurus the girls. Pure headcanon, but its proved fun in a few D&D games.

Well done with the Dawnriders! I painted two of them mostly finished - and they and I barely survived the process. 3 to go including the banner "shudders".

Hello everyone. LRL will be my debut into fantasy models, looking forward to picking up the new battle cow and stone mage once they are available. Here's my Eltahrion. Thinking i should have done him last, but never mind!

My current Dawn Rider Sub assembly Troll. Excuse the messy photo, quick snap for you before work. I don't think id want to build any further than this, its pretty tight in there.

Imho, it should be the other way: all armies should have male and female representation unless the narrative fits. Btw, I don't have any problem with male-only/female-only factions, it's a nice touch to any setting to have this type of "exceptions".

If fyreslayers get some female models that look like that picture I'm pretty sure I'm getting a new army.

I would add to what @Enoby said that cultural and pop reference are part of that too. We can do an experiment (I already did that some years ago for my studies). Ask to a whole classroom (8-12 years old) who would play a war-game (no need to be a tabletop game, anything related to war counts) and another random game. You can imagine how it went in my case... Go to another classroom, read about war stories/historical conflicts with female heroines (Ching Shih or Disney's Mulan, no need to be accurate or real, only matters if the weight of the main story is moved on by the heroine). And then ask the same and see how it will differ from the other classroom. Well, nobody was impressed with the results but I got my point (btw, that didn't have anything related to war-games, but that's another story).

In my experience the lack of female representation does have an impact on people entering the hobby. My husband and I both had old 40k armies and a couple of years ago, in response to curiosity from our children, boy 7 and girl 12, we introduced them to the hobby. Boy was very happy with his dad’s old necrons, girl was not happy with my tyranids. She wanted an army of her own, and she wanted a female army... but the only option was Slaanesh, and in terms of Lore it’s not really the army I would have chosen for a 12 year old. Obviously Boy then wanted an army of his own, and obviously it had to be male... but that wasn’t an issue because he had a comparatively huge array of choices (he picked orks). Soon after plastic Sisters of Battle appeared, and although I don’t mind the Warrior Nun aesthetic the fact that the choice of female armies in 40k boils down into the old Madonna/Sex Worker trope is something I find problematic. As a family we ended up starting AoS because it’s much better in terms of gender representation than 40k. Girl has three predominately female armies to pick from, and is now happily playing Sylvaneth. Boy has Kharadon Overlords, Husband has Night Haunt and I have Idoneth. The Slaaneshi have been consigned to the bits box, for which I am heartily glad. AoS is definitely improving, but I do think they have room to improve further, and I would also love to see the improvements trickle through to 40k.

I've been working on an army for the past year and a bit, and I've come to a good stopping/resting point now. I've put most of them (and their lore) in the linked thread, but here are a few pics

I think my strategy is going to be a complete paint job on the horses first. Keep moral up for as long as possible then hopefully once the sub assembly begins I’ll be close enough to the finish line to get home without losing my mind.

The price to points ratio in battlelines seems to become a bit of a problem in some armies. I mean, I get 6 Ogor Gluttons for 26-29 € in my favorite online shops. That’s 240 points and two minimum size battlelines of useful fat. Would I pay double the amount for the same number of battleline/points? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe I’d deliberately try to go for minimal battlelines. But it doesn’t make the decision to start another army easier.

Well hopefully there are some deals on ebay as punters become frustrated by them! This is my list currently, its purely around models I like. Keen to do the stone guard with cut down cow helms, maybe a plume on top if the rules require a similar height? I dunno. LeadersScinari Cathallar (140)- GeneralAlarith Stonemage (130)The Light of Eltharion (220)Battleline10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (120)10 x Vanari Auralan Wardens (120)10 x Vanari Dawnriders (260)10 x Vanari Dawnriders (260)Units5 x Alarith Stoneguard (100)- Stone Mallets10 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (140)10 x Vanari Auralan Sentinels (140)BehemothsAlarith Spirit of the Mountain (340)Endless Spells / Terrain / CPsHyshian Twinstones (30)

Yep, painting Dawnriders is horrific. To the point where I’m considering leaving them at 5 even at 2k lol.

I really like diversity in the model ranges and I like the idea that people can see themselves reflected in any media, particularly one that is as creative and dynamic as this one. I do often feel that there is a lot of gatekeeping in Warhammer: including the high cost of entry, dense lore, and problematic stereotypes (often dealt with in a fairly satirical manner). I do not personally want my hobby to offend others and I really want it to be open for as many people to enjoy as possible. So personally, I am all in favour of the models and stories reflecting as many people as possible to help people feel more included within the hobby. Even if this diversity does not permeate into an expanded market, I am still a fan of people hopefully feeling more welcome into the hobby. I will always love and embrace the use of customization and personal story telling that makes this hobby so creatively fulfilling. Inclusivity should be the goal and if people find that alienating… well there are plenty of ways to build and model your armies to your own tastes as people wanting more diversity have been doing it for years. I always think that the argument that the lack of females reflects reality is really silly. Female soldiers are and always have been real, whereas Trolls and Dragons don't particularly fit any true form of real world verisimilitude. I am happy that female models are being included in various factions and that many of them are heavily armoured and well armed. I also enjoy the introduction of named female characters but I am much more interested in seeing diversity represented on the tabletop, as it is how I most directly and regularly engage with the hobby. Personally I really like Hedonists of Slaanash: narratively, aesthetically and rules-wise. But I am also aware that some people find the depictions to be somewhat problematic. I am hoping to purchase Shadow & Pain and add some Slaanesh units to my Slaves to Darkness army and also start a Daughters of Khaine army… but I also do not want to offend anybody’s sensibilities. This makes me debate getting the box but I am still leaning towards purchasing it knowing that I will create (to some extent) my own lore* for the models. So I do hope that GW will continue to add greater diversity to their line and I am grateful for the movement towards greater inclusivity and hope they will aim to continue to do better going forth. *My army is themed around the notion of a crusading force that had become tempted by the demons they had sworn to defeat now they return home with the intention of starting a new crusade in support of those demons. I feel this narrative makes Slaanesh a natural fit, even if my storyline is only tangentially influenced by canon AOS lore. I also do really like the idea of a bunch of empowered aesthetes fighting alongside 'beautiful' Hellraiser style demons against the tyranny of mankind, even if the lore for some reason treats them as the villains.

Astreia Solbright despite a being female character is still called a Lord-Arcanum, though I can see that being more about faction cohesiveness of everyone of the same rank being named the same rank. Should also be noticed however that Lord in UK has been in recent times been used to refer to female holders of certain titles like the Lord of Mann (held by the Queen) or Lord Mayor which has had female occupants who were styled as Lord (not Lady). So maybe as time moves on Lord will become are more gender neutral term. The female equivalent for the title of Knight is a Dame, but time has made Knight become more gender neutral term at least in pop culture for instance.

Ghyran's seasons, at least in some places, are linked to Alarielle's form and mood and Aspect - when Alarielle mourns or grows restful, large swathes of Ghyran would be smothered in winter. The altitude of some of the regions of the Realm/natural cycle/passing Ogor tribes and all manner of other factors could also create brief/Realm-wide/localised/permanent winters. As the Azyrites expand and build new outposts, towns, and cities (both with and without the blessing of the Everqueen) the likelihood of a winter themed city rises, and you can justify it however you want! Maybe your city is built around a shrine/former nest of the Ur-Phoenix, and Frost Phoenixes live in large numbers, chilling the air. Maybe the city is in lands the Everqueen has not yet reclaimed, even with Nurgle pushed back, and so the "normal" seasons reign there, with winter taking up a fourth of the year. Maybe there is a Realmgate in the region that leads to Shyish, and the chill of Death has manifest in Ghyran as a cold, eternal winter. Maybe there is a local Winter God whose influence is waxing. If you have fallen in love with painting icy stuff, you should totally do it - there's a million ways to justify it, and pretty much all of them are cool and could lead to some really nice little additions to the story/conversions/list themes you go for.

Some women get longer nails, others hair extensions. Morathi gets a tail extension, sounds perfectly logical to me

I legitimately forgot they were releasing a book for a minute and was trying to work out why they would increase her model length

You can use the seraphon bound cogs... as that only requires the CASTER to manipulate. Not a wizard.

Asexual isn't a gender, it's a lack of sexual characteristics (or a sexuality, though I can't imagine that's what you meant) the exact definition is "(of reproduction) not involving the fusion of gametes." So Orks are asexual sex wise, but not gender wise (that would be agender) I did explain why I would code them as male in the post you replied to, and it was not due to their looks. I said I code them as male as they are referred to as 'he' by GW, as well as boyz and ladz. To clarify: The definition of he (pronoun) is "used to refer to a man, boy, or male animal previously mentioned or easily identified." Orks are referred to as he by GW (look at Gordrakk's description). GW refers to Orks as a man, boy, or male animal. That is my reasoning.

First post! Just wanted to show off my baby, or as he is otherwise known, the Light of Eltharion!

Its a game about war, honestly how many women read, play, get into games about war? Yes it is fantasy and yes it is for everyone for the most part but in the end its fluff about battles, you are simulating a battle as well. There are ways to make full armies of females. So really for what type of game it is I honestly feel women are well representative for what would be if in real life if a chaos and death god kill off 90% of the population. At least their faces are better than 40k Female faces too... IDK who is doing 40k vs aos but dang, they need to learn to make female faces lol.

I really like the Warrior Chamber Stormcast but I am waiting for their kits to be about fifty fifty male and female. Yes, maybe they could be under all that armour but I just really like the Leena Stormspire and Angharad Brightshield models as well as the female Stormcast on the cover of the core book. They just look boss. It is also a problem that much of the current range just doesn't fit the background as presented in the Battletome stories and Black Library novels . Female heroes (and anti-heroes) should be plentiful. Also, the history of the setting suggest multicultural societies. We should be seeing all the ethnicities from the near-earth analogue Old World. I have a wonderful one year old daughter and by the time she is old enough to ask to play models I want to offer her a space to realise that women are boss. I actually feel pretty positive that we might actually get there.