Overread

From Spiel I'm expecting to see some clarification on the Necromunda content to come and perhaps the next round of the Physchic campaign that GW is doing for 40K as the Eldar stuff is out now. Though that one might be little more than a teaser. More general Sisters of Battle info and perhaps some outline of the Reapers release program over the next week or two. Another Warcry Warband or two would be neat to see; however Underworlds also has a good chance of showing something else off. I don't expect to see any details on future AoS releases; its too hot a moment with Ogors and Reapers right in the middle of pre-ordering.

We've seen both before in different works of art. Likely its different types of ammunition. Perhaps the skulls are more a scatter shot - so weaker but hits more targets; whilst the urn might hit fewer targets but do a lot more damage. Otherwise its really interesting to see them get two big and complex kits (harvester and trebuchet) which are not duel kits.

Part of it is that many people read warscrolls and abilities without thinking of them within context of a game. Then they do some rough maths thinking about the stats and they get even more worried about them. Take Gotrek, GW did some matchups for him in close combat - downing 3 bloodthirsters, downing nagash etc... He beat a LOT of things singlehanded. But that was all in close combat range without any army support. It didn't take into account that if you've 3 thirsters you won't likely have them all in the same place on the table; that if you've nagash he's not wanting to be in close combat and would instead move away and bombard Gotrek with spells. Another aspect is that, in Gotrek's case, you can't even spell move him, so that 4 inches really is 4 inches only. A massive thing in the game which lets him hold down a flank on his own (and for 500 points that's not a bad thing); but won't let him charge all over the board. And that point raises the subject of points, we don't know them. The Bonereapers might be tough, but if they can't put many models down and they can't move fast then even with movement boosters (which will likely require wizards you can remove from the table and more points into endless spells as well as the casting failing some turns); they can't move the whole army faster. So you've still got a lot of armies who can and will out manoeuvre the Reapers. Honestly for an army with short movement, battleshock immunity makes some sense. Otherwise you could easily skirt their units and shock and awe the rest back; which would make them seriously hard to play in only 6 turns. Losing a whole two turns to moving back adn then having to recover distance is a BIG thing when you only move 4 inches.

Except Daughters of Khaine who are still doing really rather well and were one of the first AoS 2.0 battletomes. The only Creep is that 2.0 battletomes ARE stronger than 1.0, 1.5 and armies with no battletome - which was fully to be expected. Especially as the early Tomes didn't have army wide abilities and such. Also don't forget these reapers are strong, but their core infantry only moves 4 inches. And unlike your traditional dwarven army, they don't have lots of artillery and ranged units. They've got one trebuchet of which we don't even know the points value.

It's kind of a hard choice I think, but the re-rolls to hit/wound might well be good against targets that can avoid attacks but might have fewer wounds. Though yes wounds and rend is likely going to be a very popular general choice for many.

Don't forget GW always show off strengths when marketing a new army Look at the movement, Moteck move at 4 inches. That's only just as fast as Gotrek! So those guard are going to take time to get into any position on the board. Being able to weather damage is going to be needed because ranged magic and such is going to tear at them very readily before they are in position to charge. Even the stalker only moves at 6 inches. More expensive cavalry and morghasts might be essential, esp considering that their only ranged attack is an artillery unit that might be rather expensive and come with its own limitations. In addition they appear to use a lot of their own command point system, however units are clearly made to work with them ideally. This means that resource allocation and ability activation is even more critical for them. Mess up a Reapers plans enough and their army might well unravel. They are going to be a bit like warmachine armies and their focus allocation. A badly allocated set of abilities could break a reaper army just as a good allocation could cause them to surge forward. We've not heard anything of any buff spells so far in terms of movement. We've heard more about them rebuilding and healing units and buffing armours. I can see them liking Forbidden Powers. Not just visually, but the bridge and boat might be very important movement aids for the army in general.

Hero sniping has become a big thing for the game so having something that almost denies that and instead works within the unit and relies on you either sniping or having to kill the rest of the unit off is a big change. Of course Reaper heroes are still going to be important to take and will still be important sniper targets. My gut feeling is that this army is going to be a bit like a warmachine/hordes army with their activation abiltiies being far more dominant in their structure. So instead of the few choices with command abilities they've got way more choices to throw at the player which means more structured planning for how you'll use them across all your units

Eh they've got 2 full weeks to tease stuff to us. Plus they want to leave some details in the book and likely balance what they tease to what's coming out now that they are into an actual release window. So I'd wager we won't see a huge number of teases on things that aren't being pre-ordered this weekend

Our first proper look behind the trebuchet! Wider and you can clearly see the platform now at the back where there's the loader and fire commander ready to get the arm pulled back and ready to fire.

There's also the champions extra sword as well which has that forward pointing pose.

What's interesting is that its up in the air on its own and clearly in some kind of holster (you can see a top strap holding it down). So this suggests that its mounted on some kind of vehicle which might suggest a light walker or jet-bike type model so that the gun is held in secure, but also sticks up proud and easy to grab for the character.

Also things like clan rats are swarm models. Same for things like Tyranid gaunts sold in batches of 16 or so. I'd expect if GW ever updates them Stormvermin would go up to 10 in a box, which wouldn't be too bad as a block of 40 or so is already around 500 or so points.

It was said again in the most recent one on Bonereapers too. Though its clear that GW isn't making it a full link. For example Glomspite was released for Destruction right in the middle of the "Death" focus period in the story. Meanwhile Slaves to Darkness are likely going to land with some noise as they get new models through warcry and get a new tome next year even though that would be during the Death cycle (or at the near start of the Destruction cycle). That said I'd welcome Destruction getting some attention, of all the four Grand Alliances they've done worse. Gloomspite aside they've had very little, Orruks lost a chunk of models; meanwhile Ogors are only getting one new model - though recombining the two forces is going to at least boost what people can use in a single force. So giving them some lore, story and attention focus is going to be good. Hopefully GW can then release some new fresh stuff for the Orruks and Ogors and heck perhaps even a new surprise army.

Yeah I think that's just a photo showing off lots of models, 10 to a box would be what I'd expect for them. If they put 20 in a box then the price would go up quite a bit I would think. As for the coffin leader, don't forget battle-mages are a thing. Not every wizard has to hang back. Daughters of Khaine already charge forward with their queens only a pace behind the front ranks. The biggest issue would be keeping it alive long enough in a meta environment that is fast learning that leader sniping is a very sure tactic to disabling the power and combo cores of many armies.

We don't yet know its full stats and from those abilities it sounds like its going to be a bit like a witch aelf queen - ergo a support unit for the troops that gets up front rather than hangs in the background. We already know that the chair character might want to hang back with artillery so there's a character in the back lines; this one might be a front line warrior. Thus able to get within range.

The Ogor dice are oversized compared to regular GW dice (which makes them very big because GW dice are oversized compared to standard gaming dice)

I also fully encourage Ogor players to get a box! In fact I'll even help swap out those dusty reapers that they don't need and give them fresh ogors that I don't need!

From Dakka from Warhammer Instagram Behold the Legion marching against the Stormcast! And the final hero in the flesh - er plastic!

The current podcast goes into more details https://www.warhammer-community.com/stormcast-podcast/ In general it sounds that by elite its elite in death terms. So they are self aware, more martial yet also builders and constructors. So they are not like ghosts flitting around or skeltons who rely on a mage to hold them together in legions. Sure they aren't going to get to gut-buster level of elite warrior where one stands alone against whole armies all the time.

Have we had any really awful armies in AoS? I'm aware that there's a few who are not considered "top tier broken" but overall they are all pretty solid releases thus far. There will likely be split boxes on ebay for a while after the sets go live; so you'll have some time after launch to get the box. Of course how long and at what prices is always hard to tell. In theory you could order the Battletome and many retail stores send out product just shy of a day or two before they go on sale so you might get it on the Friday from a 3rd party store. That would give you a night to read over and decide and make a purchase choice on launch day.

Far as I'm aware GW special edition Battletomes/Codex are direct order products and GW only sells them through their own store. So we wont' be seeing prices for them as the price lists all come from 3rd party stores. Though I'd expect them at the normal rate

What's interesting is the designers commentary. It reinforces the idea of it being a more elite army rather than swarms of undead and they mention that many units have their own commandpoint system in place; with the army generating more to compensate for needing more to activate them on the tabletop. In addition they mentioned that there were infantry and cavalry themed army forces in the book (great news I can field a cavalry army). Wizards were mentioned very much in a supporting role so it sounds like much of their magic is going to be in buffs, repairs, returns and such rather than more offensive spells. Katakross gets mentioned with confirmation of his unique mechanic of increasing his battle stats as you do damage to him, with also specific mention of abilities phasing in and out as the different warriors around him come into play as you deal damage to him. The Motek Guard are mentioned with them saying that the spear version was your basic warrior, whilst the sword variation (who have a command ability to lock shields and thus reroll saves) is more suited to smaller units. So it sounds like the sword version might be the tarpit option whilst he spears more a thrusting attack. Overall like the articles thus far its a general overview with no real specific details nor numbers being thrown around. A Rules preview later this week should highlight more, though of course we'll really get some idea when the nda lifts on 3rd parties for the Battletome and, of course, in less than 2 weeks time when the Battletome arrives for people!

One aspect is how alliances work. The Imperial force doesn't just have loads of alliance options like AoS has, but also can take way more of them. Even the individual sub-armies within a single army can work together like this. The result is far more "souping" of forces rather than a single army like you get with Aos. So with AoS you'd be using one allegiance table per army and then have 1/4 of the army as potential allies. In 40K you could be using 3 detachments from 3 different sub-armies within the same codex itself, with each using its own form of allegiance abilities. To me that's a huge difference. AoS actually rewards and encourages single army approaches; whilst 40K far more encourages this soup approach. Which of course breaks really easily when you've forces like Imperials who have a legion of options to min-max; next to armies at the other end of the scale, like Tyranids or Necrons, who have far fewer ally options.

RPG games also get considerable leeway because the game runs through a DM (typically). As a result imbalance doesn't really matter "as much" because the mechanics work through a moderated element that works to twist balance to suit the players they've got. If things are too easy they just throw more encounters/higher level encounters. If its too hard they just lower the number or adjust the stats themselves. And whilst I'm not involved in them I'm sure they do get revisions and updates. Though its not likely as much pressure on them as there is for competitive games. Wargames don't have someone in the middle mediating the experience and bridging the gap between rules and players - so in many ways the rules have to be more robust toward balance. Even if players can introduce their own house rules to mediate imbalance; its not something you can do on the fly in the middle of a game. With an RPG game you can very much change things on the fly.

Reaper article! https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/10/21/model-focus-ossiarch-bonereapersgw-homepage-post-1/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=AoS&utm_content=aosossiarchs211019&fbclid=IwAR2kYiQlROvPYt6wqnbRMzIcDEphcJT8KZj8BXE5dAH_459-IRbIbZ4SPUk includes a designers interview and shows off the sprue for the 3 new model kits in the launch box. Also "While the Mortek Guard and Necropolis Stalkers will be available separately the week after the release of Feast of Bones, Vokmortian will initially only be available in this set. If you want to add him to your collection, make sure to pre-order yours this weekend!"