EccentricCircle

I agree that the beast men are unloved and neglected... But the thing is they basically always have been. "One edition away from being squatted" feels like its beem true for as long as I've been in the hobby! It's not happened yet even in GWs most frenetic squatting sprees ever so I reckon they're here to stay. They are such a central lore thing that I can see them being merged or split or what not, but I think warhammer will always have beastmen, just as it will have orks or elves od some permutations!

It would be interesting if they can be Tau allies. For a long time there has been a stark divide in 40K between factions like the Imperium who can ally with any other of the countless imperial forces, and the xenos factions who are stand alone. Newer ranges do seem to be slowly addressing this, for example the Ynari allowing the different eldar factions to team up, and genestealer cultists being allies for the tyranids. I could see the Kin being intended as a range that can stand alone, but which would also work well as Tau auxilliaries, so that another faction has at least someone on its ally list finally.

I think there is so much potential here, the KO and Space Dwarf aesthetics definitely look as though they could meet in the middle. It will be interesting to see whether most of the troops have the big bulky space suits/armour, or whether they also have some with the old hatched padded jerkin look. I'm really excited about this preview. Dwarves are one of my favourite fantasy races of all time. Just the other day I was talking about what warhammer armies I had and jokingly told some friends that since I have Dispossessed/WFB dwarfs, Kharadrons, Fyreslayers, and Chaos Dwarfs, I now just needed them to bring back Squats and I'd be able to complete the set! Little did I know that my wish would come true just a few days later. I probably won't kit bash them, since AoS barely gets played among my friends, so I'm far more likely to get a game in if I build them as a 40K army, but such is life. Its also a testament to how much this forum loves dwarves of all varieties that so much hype about a 40K thing has taken place here without everyone getting shouted at for not talking about fantasy games from the get go!

If ten years ago, you had told me I would one day say the words "I'd better finish painting my genestealer cultists before they release the squats", I would have laughed, or assumed time travel was somehow involved. I mostly got bored with 40K because it was all space marines, and the same old factions getting all the love. Of late I've really gotten back into it though, as they have absolutely diversified the range. There will always be too many space marines, but at least some of the Age of Sigmar style creativity is finding its way back into 40K too.

Wow, I really hope that is a real teaser. As a fan of all things Dwarvish I definitely need more space dwarves. I have no idea what to make of it being previewed on April Fools day. Hopefully that doesn't mean it was just a joke, but maybe they actually are rereleasing space hulk or something, and so its a trailer for that, with a squat as a joke? Who knows. Either way its pretty epic as animated trailers go!

As I've said elsewhere, I'm finding the current year's focus on dual army boxes a little frustrating. I genuinely don't mind single hero battletome updates too much, but it annoys me when they are stuck in a box with lots of other stuff you don't necessarily need. I like getting a big pile of models to build as much as the next person, but I can't (or perhaps shouldn't) be doing it every single month. Those big sets seem to be where most of the stuff I'm excited about are being released though, so I need to be careful and choose which I will actually get the most out of. I've picked up a few of them over the years, but only when I actively collected both armies, I've never been tempted to start a new army because I got it in a box and couldn't sell it on. But its a personal thing really. A few years ago I was actively collecting AoS armies, and so any chance to get a batch of models at a discount and quickly flesh something out was a good deal. I got a lot of the christmas battle boxes over the years. However, nowadays, most of my AoS armies are pretty much where I want them. I might want a few small things here and there, but there is no guarentee that those will be in any given box, and frequently they will come with lots of stuff I already have if they are. I've still been getting a few of the 40K battleforces and start collectings, but as that collection matures, and I start "finishing" my armies, I do see a time when I don't really have a use for big boxes anymore. What I'd like to see really is more start collecting sets. I like how Seraphon and cities have various SC sets, which cover different themes of the army. I suspect that will change now that we are getting these new, bigger boxes like 40K has been getting. So far none of those 40K ones have seemed nearly as good a deal for the price point as the old SC boxes did, the increased price just makes them a bit too big to pick up casually, whereas back in the day when I was mostly getting SC boxes, £50 was the perfect price point to feel like I was getting something good, without breaking the bank. It felt like quite a deal compared to the Old WFB battalion boxes, which were more like 70. I got quite a few of those back in the day, for Lizardmen, Tomb Kings, and Dwarfs, and those were great sets that really had the core of your army in them. SC's never had quite so much, but the cheaper price point and the fact they usually had a big monster sold me on them. So maybe something more like those, not quite as big or focused as a vanguard box or whatever they're calling them now, more like the old WFB ones where its just your core troops for your army in an easy to get package. But then again, as I say, I've probably already got all the core troops for all my armies now, so while that was great back in the day, its not personally as appealing now.

That's good to know. I'd assumed they were still selling out at launch, so its encouraging if that isn't the case. I might be in with a chance to pick one or more of them up later, after saving further! @Arzalyn is right in their interpretation though, the more stuff gets locked in big boxes, the harder it becomes to keep getting them. Even if they stick around for longer. I can justify the expense of a big box every so often, but not one every month, even if I do pick which month I get any given one in. I'd put some money aside for Arena of Shades, with the intent of getting it, as I want all the new models, and having more sisters and khinerai would be handy. Now that I know more big things are coming, I'm looking at the contents and wondering whether I really need more of the other ghosts, or the warlocks though. Maybe I will just be patient and wait for them to be available on their own. We'll see what the discounted prices look like. I do quite like the 40K terrain box too, which I wasn't expecting at all, and terrain boxes are generally more useful than troop boxes, as I know I'll use the stuff in multiple game systems. Many decisions lie ahead.

I really hope not! I've excited for the narrative book and scenery too, but I would like it to come at least a month after arena of shades so I can actually afford to get both! Their focus on Big Boxes recently comes with a pretty major downside, you can't get them all...

I mean technically this very thread! (though reliability may vary). The tourney players keep getting sidetracked into complaining about rules changes and the rest of us are obsessed with Chaos Dwarves, so its maybe not the most accessible rumour aggregator. but all the rumours do eventually get aggregated here.

People pointed out that we'd already seen it on the WarCom facebook post, and the "Rumour Engine Technician" claimed that the picture was a new model, even if that part existed on an existing one too, so actually I'd say that's an upgrade kit confirmed! (and from the horses, or maybe gargants, mouth for once.)

"Helped" is one way of looking at it. I love the way the Tomb Kings book leaves some mystery around his escape, and then you read the Skaven book and are "oh, so that's what was what was really going on! " that's what made me fall in love with the setting as a whole rather than just my factions!

So much for his aspirations then I guess...

I'm going to assume that nothing of interest will be shown off. That way I won't be disappointed, and anything that does peak my interest will be a nice surprise!

I don't disagree, per se. However, its worth noting that quite a lot of people do in fact knit their own clothing for fun and customisability, even if it would perhaps be cheaper to just buy one (and they do that most of the time). 3D printing fits that same niche.

I'd agree with this model for sure. The technical term for your fifth pillar in the industry is actually "network externalities" which is a measure of connectivity and how easily consumers can engage with the product due to community factors. Definitely worth reading up on if you are interested in how it all works and why GW have such a clear lead! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect

With the zombie dragon its pretty easy to magnetise the riders so you can swap them out, use it without one etc. I find they are less likely to break in storage when stored separately too!

Certainly last year was pretty good for AoS over all, the broken realms release cycle was jam packed and it was tricky to keep up. The 40k folks were very concerned that they were falling behind at that time ( or rather bemused, as many of them still seem to not really recognise that AoS has a following at all.) To clarify I'm not concerned that AoS is failing or anything like that. All indications are that it's more popular than its ever been before, and substantially more successful than later day wfb. The issue is that however popular aoS may be, 40k is still bigger overall. I thus think they could conclude that their massive reboot of fantasy has been successful at this point, but with resources being strained they no longer need to market it on the same level as their heavy hitter. They may be happy to just keep it going for a while amd then pick up the pace when things are easier or if sales do drop off. But who knows really?

My worry is that up to now the coverage and support for AoS has been conspicuously on parr with that of 40k. They've spent the last five or so years really pushing the game, and !making it clear that it's their big fantasy system, and on an equal footing with their primary game. But now it kind of feels like that may have changed. All evidence suggests that 40k is bigger and more popular by a substantial margin, and I wonder if covid has made them stop and reconsider the focus they give AoS. If resources are stretched then something has to give, and its not going to be space marines... In short we know that we've been punching above our weight. Maybe this is what proportional coverage looks like.

Enjoy! I hope you have lots of fun using them in all the games.

People are generally willing to try new things, but getting people to invest in a game, that's hard. 1) Time. We all have a limited amount of free time, and want to use it for different things. One opponent of mine got keen on competitive play, and now wants to spend all their time practicing or going to tourneys for their chosen game. They just don't play the same range they used to. 2) Money: We can only invest in so many systems, and a lot of people for better or worse, do feel compelled to get the official minis if they are going to play a game and do everything "properly" there is tons I could write on that, but I'll save it for a longer post!). I really like fantasy and would love to play more big fantasy campaigns, but most of my gaming group have 40K armies, and are more into Sci Fi stuff, so guess what gets played. (I love SciFi in general but 40K isn't my favourite expression of it) Now, no one who wants to play AoS with me actually needs to spend a penny on anything, because I have multiple fully assembled armies and are more than happy to lend them to my opponents. But people like their own things, and like to use their own guys. They'd rather play with the toys they have than play with my toys, and that's fair enough.

Interesting. that perhaps sheds some light on why they are constantly "rebooting" their core games too. Even if they don't rely on distributors, they may be considering the same factors, and conclude that a new edition is needed when it really isn't, because stores will be more likely to shift it.

WotC is an interesting comparison, as the only other gaming company to really be in the same weight class as GW, and with a similarly lengthy history of lore development. However, its worth noting that they have tried repeatedly to break into the mass battle games market with Battlesystem in the 80s and 90s, a "new" Chainmail in the early 2000s, D&D miniatures game throughout the mid 2000s and Dungeon Command in the 2010s. Even with the full weight of D&D's lore behind them, none of those ever came close to rivaling warhammer, even back in the 80s and 90s when warhammer itself was just taking off. Now the reason is pretty clear. They never had a solid all around product like GW has. For much of the early 21st century their miniatures were pretty bad prepainted sculpts. What also didn't help was trying to sell it like Magic booster packs, they just made it hard to collect. By the time they changed tack and released Dungeon Command (with basically the equivalent of an underworlds warband) there wasn't much uptake and the game fizzled after about six warbands. I think the older metal minis from the 20th century attempts were better (comparable with the warhammer of the day), but it didn't take off to the same degree. So it just goes to show that you can't rely on any one of those pillars of rules, models, lore, etc. You need all of it.

No new AoS army for me this year, as I have lots of chaos tribes to paint from last year's still, and a box of half painted goblins from the year before for that matter. That kind of hasn't stopped me starting a genestealers army for 40K though... I mean, that's a completely different system... right... right?

I'm a D&D player first and foremost, so all of my warhammer collection started out with buying stuff for D&D and then expanding it to full armies. So I have a lot of thoughts. First, I've never found 32mm bases on a grid to be that much of an issues. D&D is pretty forgiving and even when using the squares to count distance and position, it's not as though the characters know they are there. I usually have a mix of 32mm scale warhammer, reaper and lego models and 25mm scale LotR, frostgrave and D&D figs. Lego bases in particular don't fit the squares at all, but they are the most customisable pc figs so it's worth it! If you are still worred I believe that non competitive AoS still doesn't actually require a specific base (unless 3e has changed that). So you could always put 32mm models on 25s. You could also check out LotR which is mostly 25mm bases, and has some gorgeous models for D&D characters, though quite a different style from aos. To actually answer your question, grave lords is the way to go as you get at least a dozen encounters of different combinations of undead out of the standard army, and can ally in other death stuff like the ghouls and ghosts. Cities of sigmar then has all your basic D&D races covered and again can be mixed and matched. Lastly I strongly suggest building warcry bands, rather than a full AoS army. A couple of those built around different themes will rapidly get you more variety for you rpgs, and once you have a couple it gets easier to have a game as you cam lend your D&D players a band to let the try it out!

As someone with chaos dwarf tomb king and third party araby armies I support this unholy alliance of desert power! Sadly have very few brets though!