Forrix

No evidence just a feeling that we're over due for an army consisting of either entirely new models or mostly new models. I think that will be the "Tomb Kings" release though I don't think we'll see any of the old Tomb Kings models besides the old Sphinx kit (just because it was plastic and awesome).

No duplicate sprues though! Finally!

I went with Iron Golems for favorite though mostly that's because they also get a Chaos Ogor and a Chaos Dwarf. It was a close call with Splintered Fang and the Unmade. I'm not really a fan of the Corvus warband, the stilts just seem silly to me. Depending on their rules I might include them in my Nurgle army. Red paint aside, the first thing I thought when I saw their helm was Nurgle.

Ironically I haven't even heard of people running the actual Skryre models on account of them being so expensive. I don't know what all goes into producing these minis and what not but I feel they either trying to wring everything they can out of the one rich lazy guy who buys them instead of proxies them or they're trying to make sure no one buys them...for reasons... I'll chime in my usual spiel about price increases in this hobby: You can live just fine without GW minis, don't buy if them if they aren't worth it. It's not the end of the world. I will also say that major price increases and a bungling of one of my armies in the new GBH (Nurgle) have made me more hesitant in buying GW stuff. I'm still having fun playing AOS and plan on finishing up my Gloomspite army but I'm keeping an eye open for other miniature wargames now.

I'm really liking these unmade. Going to be a toss up now between Iron Golems and them for me.

They said they would review points when they do rules reviews now (so December) but won't do across the board points adjustments till the GHB. So I'd interpret that as if anything is really sticking out (like DOK was) we won't have to wait a year and a half for it to brought into line. So we might see some Fyreslayer and Slaanesh tweaks in December if they really take over the meta.

Auric Hearthguard are a pretty terrible value kit to start with, only 5 heads and monopose bodies. Turns Fyreslayer armies into clone armies (vulkites are just as bad). Granted the individual hearthguard models are very good but its a terrible kit to build an army out of. I really wish they had done something like the Tempestus Scions kit at least (17 head options in a box that builds 5 guys).

I'm not so sure. I wouldn't expect anything huge AoS wise with the AoS open day coming in a month but I'm thinking we'll get a full reveal of Warcry (its supposed to be out by the 20th right?) Edit: apparently there's nothing to be revealed.

I haven't thought of that before but I definitely like it.

I'm not a big elf fan but aelves riding moths would be a must buy for me. The display boards would be amazing.

I'll chime in that in an all-comers list I'll always been including at least a 10 man Poleaxe unit since I got crushed by a 3+ save rr 1 ethereal vampire lord on zombie dragon once when I went all broadaxe. There are some things in this game we just need those mortal wounds to crack. Currently I'm running a 15 man poleaxe and a 15 man broadaxe, only got one game in so far but it went well.

I think its because he's an expensive model (real $$) that isn't part of a modern battletome of his own that while fine for fun games is probably a 3-2 at best in tournaments. When I use him I find his huge base to make movement a pain even with tons of movement buffs, i.e. you'll never be assassinating Nagash turn 1 or 2 unless your opponent completely fails to screen. He's also extremely fragile for a 660 point model without buffs (I've both killed and lost him turn 1). As for your math stuff- Archaon is a buff sponge, he is going to suck hard without any. My most memorable Archaon moment is when he took a charge of 15 evocators to the face then killed them all on his return attacks. Harbinger of Decay, GUO, and Sorcerer Lord are my go to for him in Nurgle (+1 attack, 5+ save after save, and reroll 1s to hit, wound, and save). Cycle of Corruption gives him +1 to wound too (nice for Slayer of kings triggers too).

A reliable source has told me* that the shipping container has, in fact, been washed overboard. Normally, this would be covered by insurance but GW had ended their coverage plan due to almost never using it and needing the money to develop more Stormcast models. So they've tasked an intern named Todd with retrieving it. Todd was last seen snorkeling near Holland, corroborating Kramer's speculation. It may be some before the battletomes hit the shelf as unfortunately there weren't funds for a wet suit (Hammers of Sigmar are extremely lacking in named characters after all) and the waters are quite cold limiting his search windows. I'll keep you all updated on this story as it develops. *I just made this up

I agree on this for the most part. As much as I'll complain about AoS rules, for the most part they're pretty solid. Its the outliers that are the issue. Something that interests me about GW and their design process is how (in modern times) is that they can put out solid rules and battletomes for the most part but then have a few absolutely bonkers oversights. Most recently terrain rules that effectively eliminate faction terrain, literally in the case of Skaven. In my headcannon, the GW writers are all highly competent professionals except for one guy who literally wears his pants on his head and is cross-eyed. No one wants to critique his ideas for fear of offending him. More seriously, I feel GW is playing it fast and loose with the battletomes lately but then being highly conservative with the latest Big FAQ and GHB. I can understand them not wanting to overhaul a product after people buy it or require people to print off a huge FAQ to carry around with their battletomes but they're really going to need to do something soon. This development and support style is creating problems that aren't getting fixed (well, we'll see what the upcoming PDF has but minor points tweaks aren't going to fix everything, especially for factions that are getting left behind). As for the combo of rules/models/lore I'm going to say the emphasis for me on that is models and overall community size. I really like the lore of Warmachine/Hordes and I haven't played the new edition but based on how the last stacked up to the then 40k/Fantasy editions I'd say the rules are better. Model wise though, well, I like the design of Privateer Press miniatures just as much as GW's minis but their material/casting technology is noticeably behind the curve. Wyrd game is probably the best alternative to GW in my opinion on the whole but nobody plays it in my area and the Other Side miniatures that I've seen aren't quite up to GW standards but its close. The models come pre-assembled (yay!) but the ones I've seen look like they were assembled by child slaves (nay!). Their models in general have finer details which can be a bit more difficult than heroic style minis to paint. I went to Malifaux (also Wyrd games) tournaments but from my experience I'd say it has the best skirmish rules I've played. These models aren't pre-assembled on are on par with GW minis except for the finer detail issues I've mentioned (style difference really). So in short, GW (specifically AoS) is the top game out there right now but its not by that big of a lead for me. If Privateer Press modernizes their miniatures or GW slides more in the rules department I'll probably switch to Warmahordes or try to get Malifaux going in my area.

I haven't taken a 30 HGB unit for pretty much exactly the reasons you say. I've been running a 15 man HGB poleaxe unit in lotl and doing pretty well with it, including against Gristlegore (though I still lost that one due to objectives). I'm currently building 15 more but planning on running two 15 man units, one poleaxe and one broadaxe. I've also started running Icon of the Ancestors for 18inch bubble on the battlesmith and taking prayer of embers when I take Hermdar. I know 30 man HGB units did well at 6 Nations but I'm still not sold on that build personally. Objectives seem to be the Achilles's heel of Fyreslayers when I play them and I've yet to entirely lose a 15 man HGB unit.

While there is some hyperbole to my statement, this is a dice a game with a high level of randomness after all, I picked those examples as I'm literally rocking a 0% win rate against LON and a 100% win rate against Nighthaunt as Nurgle. I don't want to turn this thread into a Nurgle tactics discussion, its well discussed in its thread in the chaos forum but its bad idea to dismiss an armies issues just because its win rate over the past year is within a given parameter. Nurgle is far from the bottom of the barrel but when I look at the emerging power level among 2nd edition battletomes I get very concerned for how Nurgle will be doing in the forth coming year. On a side note, if anyone knows of a Youtuber or Podcaster who plays a lot of Nurgle by all means let me know as I don't know of any currently. A lot of my frustration with this conversation and the recent discussion is that I've struggled with Nurgle, particularly against LON, and literally cannot find any tactical advice beyond "Just be glad he didn't take more Grimghast reapers". Then you come on forums and hear about how Rotigus should be 400 points and you must suck or are just a try hard. Hell, in a facebook group a guy said Nurgle belongs up in A tier with Fyreslayers then declined to give any reason as to why. Side side note: When I play my Fyreslayers I magically become a very skilled player....

As long as they get a plastic kit or two for their heroes I think they'll do good. They did a really good job on the whole with Fyreslayers despite that faction being incredibly limited. In my local area they went from completely unplayed to at least 3 regular players I can think of off the top of my head. I think your 3rd option might be more likely than you'd think as I think we're due for another model heavy AOS army release soon. There hasn't been a new model heavy army released since January.

I'm seeing a lot of good suggestions here. Dead Scribe's points are dead on. A couple of points I'll add for consideration: Basing is very important. A lot of legacy models went up in size too when they moved to rounds. I'll say from personal experience there is a significant difference in the offensive capability of Plaguebearers on 25mm squares vs 32mm rounds, especially with the buffs Nurgle can put on them. Sloppy isn't friendly or laid back, its just sloppy. If you want people to have fun have a clear, concise, set of rules that are widely available and consistently enforced. Letting that one guy bring a bunch of bloodletters on 25mm bases and another guy go 20 points over the limit (There was seriously another thread where a guy was saying he'll go over the points limit in tournaments) or letting the lunch break run an hour over time isn't going to lead to more people having fun.

In all fairness to LLV he does often state that his stats should be taken with a grain of salt and him and Rob tend to dive into their meaning more. That said, I've noticed some players do like to just point to win rate as an end all or an excuse to ignore a faction's issues.

I'll chime in and say that Hermdar adds another layer onto the HGBs with the start of combat phase command ability, battleshock immunity (most of the time), and -1 to wound. In the last Warhammer Weekly Vince made a good point that with Gristlegore the real problem is the stacking of so many buffs on the general rather than the warscroll itself (though its still good). I feel there's a similar issue with HGB.

I'm going to very strongly disagree with that. I think a lot of players are looking to have games that they feel they can at least participate in. If I take Nurgle and play 2 games, one against LON and one against Nighthaunt I'll walk away with a 50% percent win rate and a 0% fun rate.

I'd love a female model for my Fyreslayers. It feels weird to have such a human seeming faction has absolutely zero female models and barely any mention in the lore (dwarves in general). With Fyreslayers in particular, I get that a warrior society would have more male soldiers but its still that army that features RuneFathers and Runesons and places a premium on hertitage but doesn't even have a picture of a woman in it. It would be easy to add a Runemother to its priests units and make the army feel more alive. Or they could just go with my original Fyreslayer headcannon and make the Magmadroths the female Fyreslayer form. "Aye man-ling, when Vulkatrix and Griminir's essences combined we swore only to take Magmadroths as wives to honor ter union" Runefather answering a Freeguild General's question about why he's never seen a Fyreslayer woman. Runefather is slowly stroking a Magmadroth's leg while the General looks on in bewilderment and horror.

Pretty much this. Jokes aside, it would suck if they finally made a new Fyreslayer sculpt, even if it was just an alt sculpt of an existing model, and then released it in such a way a majority of players wouldn't be able to get it (or would struggle to). I'd also add that I don't think they really put a large amount of effort into these models (not saying they're bad) and the extreme amount of SC models means they have a huge library of CAD files to play around with and can probably make it for less effort than for factions with less files. My guess at least.

Yeah, as someone who plays Fyreslayers and Nurgle those armies absolutely do not belong on the same tier. I'd put Nurgle in the B tier and maybe bump Fyreslayers to AA.

This. So much this. I feel this disconnect has actually lessened over time but its still big. I also have a hard time believing that they actually play test. Stacking Command abilities with the launch of 2nd edition was one of the stupidest things I've ever seen in a game. It was so easy to see coming and lo and behold it turned out the way everyone thought it would. Even then they just went through and FAQ'd nearly every command ability in the game instead of just making a core rule of "command abilities don't stack" and then editing the few command abilities they still want to stack to be able to. I'll note that listening to Stormcast has me convinced that most of their staff only play Open or Narrative games. Which does explain a lot, especially the initial launch of AOS where I swear they were genuinely baffled that people cared so much about points and the implementation of power level for 40k.