Overread

Wayback when most of the range was metal they published a catalogue every single year and within that they showed every model alongside every part of that model with the part number. Because it was mostly all metal you could order any bit you wanted off any model. For GW it worked because most metal assembly lines use part pickers to pack the packs so the models are cast and then the parts picked out to make a pack. So it was easy to just pick out bits you did need and any error in volume at the end of a production cycle could just be thrown back into the melting pot and made into fresh models.

It's mostly building around the idea of a wall being a wall rather than a wall being full of little tiny gaps you can just see through. I've no problem with it, fairly set out it simply means that you do have areas where archers can't sit back and just fire away. It also adds value to no-line-of-sight spells and ranged attacks

I don't see a problem with that. Line of Sight blocking is an important thing in the game. It's not as critical in AoS because many armies run far more heavily on close combat than ranged attacks and there's quite a few that have hardly any access to ranged units at all. Heck the new Bonereaper army is looking to have only one ranged unit in the trebuchet whilst Slaanesh has only one ranged support leader.

Getting two fully fleshed out new factions, one of which features in multiple getting started focused sets and likely is going to be the magazine collectable focus in the new year (AoS equivalent of 40K Conquest). I'd say Death isn't being ignored by GW in the least. There's even ample space to consider Death might get one or two more armies - one focusing on the Vampiric line of models and another on the potential skeleton aspect (which could be rolled into Vampires or left out). About the only Death army doing really badly in the model front is Flesh Eaters and they were ruling the roost for broken overpowered at the start of the year. Death overall is in a good place. Destruction is the Grand Alliance in the weakest spot. Notably they got Gloomspite Gitz, but since then nothing major. The new Orruk release was a tiny bit of a flop in so much as they didn't get any terrain nor spells but they did get a very solid sounding Battletome. Meanwhile Ogres are hoping for a big update later in this year with at least one new model confirmed, a potential terrain feature (big pot) and likely a new Tome which is expected to combine Gutbusters and Beastclaw Raiders.

@prochuvi proxy or alternate models work great. A great lord or hero for most armies can easily double as another. So Thogrim might not be Thogrim but he can be your "Thogrim" in your own army and just stand in for a regular dwarven lord.

I missed the Deamonettes too but that was more because I was in a gap with my Slaanesh so wasn't interested back then. But its more when they give you a week to go "OMG I need £100+" for some limited edition castings that you know will only go way up on ebay. That isn't a long time to find that kind of money.

If models come out on the 26th I'll be very happy because that's the same date as my local store Anniversary event so I can not only get a load of Reapers, but also pair it with a nice few extras and such!

We'll get to know what is in the first wave either this Sunday or next if GW sticks to them being released this month. Ideally this Sunday as that means there's time for models to actually go on sale during October.

I wish they announced things further in advance and also ran the order period for a longer time slot. Considering that many times the orders appear and then vanish forever its a last chance and often as not you get very little warning and often very little buying time. Heck the last round for the old high elf stuff GW wasn't even casting any fresh, it was just running them out of stock of what they had so it sold in well under a day. Now I can accept that when moulds break, but otherwise I really wish GW gave us a fairer and better chance for things. Of course in the long run they are one time affairs though there's a few things that I really wish GW would bring back. Eg their Diaz Deamonettes sell for a fortune on ebay - it would be great if GW stayed abreast of such developments and focused on recasting fresh waves of things that prove really popular. Far better for GW to profit direct than for models to be going in circles and eating up way more of hobbyists budgets. Of course there's always limits on these things and we've no idea how disruptive they might be to GW's general production flow nor now pressure they are (their new factory isn't yet online if I recall right though it should be "soon?"

Yeah I'd figure they'd hold off on rules and more details until such time as they are showing off the stuff in the week leading up to a pre-order and release. That's when GW wants to build the most hype up about them.

Exactly, otherwise the balance in the book isn't too bad. It's purely how it revolves around depravity generation. Hopefully Bonereapers won't suffer the same problem.

Honestly I think the biggest thing to avoid is the Slaanesh Demon army issue whereby the options in the book basically push you down one single good pathway (lots of keepers). Instead you want a book that, even if its not at the top of the power curve, offers variety and choice within the faction. Ergo letting you have viable variety of building options without huge power swings between the options. That way it rewards people building different styles of army and also rewards different purchase choices and has the greatest chance of meaning that most models within the army have a niche where they work well. Otherwise you can end up a bit like slaanesh where the "build" is "all leaders" and that steers you toward keepers. Meanwhile troop or cavalry heavy options are out; fiends find it hard to find any place where they shine etc... And its not that a troop and fiend heavy list wouldn't work its that it wouldn't work significantly as well as a list chock full of depravity generating keepers all working toward summoning more leaders and keepers.

Change will come, GW has typically always expanded armies. FEC are a great example becauase right now its mostly in the Getting Started set. So GW has a load of FEC players only buying the entry level product because that's all there is. GW now has a market that will fairly quickly buy all they need. So they will most certainly expand the army with new options; adding new models and new concepts into them. Of course how they release the update is impossible to say as is when. They might release a big second wave of models in one go with an updated Tome in a years time; or they might drip feed models over three years or heck they might not touch them again for five or more years. It's very hard to predict. Suffice it to say that if an army is making sales then its in GW's interested to release new and updated models so that existing fans will dip into their pockets agian to pay for stuff; whilst new fans will have even more to buy. AoS is just messy because of its history; but look at 40K for a clearer picture. Loads of armies expanded. Tyranids used to do everything they needed with warriors, carnifex and hive tyrants. They had all the weapon varieties to handle any situation from close combat to artillery and everything inbetween. Now they've added massive monstesr that do artillery, close combat etc..... They even went and added a whole new type of flying unit in the form of aircraft that are always in flight to the game which gave them room to add stuff to every single army (before them flight was more a jump-pack that let you hop over terrain and other models). AoS would likely get the very same treatment. New models being added into niche roles; the introduction of new niches within the game itself. Heck GW could certainly go for a "dedicated flying" approach if they wanted; or add sieging equipment or any one of a number of other ideas. Heck just breaking armies into troops, cavalry and monsters could easily add a whole new dimension to the game (esp for some armies that don't currently have cavalry or a cavalry equivalent or which might then get more anti-cavalry options )

I think its more that in a lot of the Old World stories Chaos were a bit like Orks in that they popped up armies out of the ground (ok the Chaos Wastes) but we never really saw those armies forming. We also generally only ever saw individual people or small groups fall to chaos and they were most often the same kinds. Those inclined to darker acts getting darker and darker. Often we'd see mages or powerful heroes. So in the past we got to see a lot of Chaos leaders, but very few peoples. I think GW is addressing this with the new lore in AoS, which is interesting because there's even less "need" for itas Chaos had 500 years to recruit people. So they've already got that vast nameless army. However GW is going further and giving those armies far more identity. They are also showing how mortal humans at the trible and settlement level can come to the worship of Chaos and the internal struggles for power that go on within Chaos. We get to see these tribes of wildmen or civilised peoples who are slowly tainted and twisted to Chaos, but they are still relaitable. They still have dreams and hopes; joy and sadness; love and hate. It's giving far more dimensions to Chaos than we've ever really had before. It's moving Chaos from that "big nasty" into an actual characterful multitude of races and peoples. It gives us reasoning for how people can come to worship the dark gods even when there's mighty Sigmar proclaiming great things for all; or Nagash or any one of a number of other gods and demigods in the Realms. I think that's important; we have to see how Chaos grows itself; how it views itself. Heck we have stories now of noble maggotkin. Sure we know they are evil, but we see behind their eyes and the madness that their corruption breeds within them. Personally I think it makes the faction far more exciting and dynamic than just the "big evil"faction it was before. I hope Orks get the very same treatment; along with such forces as the totally insane Flesheaters.

I've seen it a few times where online everyone is convinced that an army is super weak. Then someone goes and wins a major event with them and the whole net jumps head over heels to prove how this, only the day before, mathematically weak army is now broken and OP. Which is to say that the mathematics are there and are important, but so too is control of the maths - ergo how an army is played on the tabletop. And yeah many armies jump over and over in power and online often reports things into the extremes. So an army can appear "trash" when its just not the top of the power curve in typical mathhammer etc...

GW has been relaxing their "Webstore only" policy. You'll notice if you hover over the icon its now "direct order" rather than "direct order only" and many 3rd party stores are now stocking/showing them for sale. Though these models they can't get at the same discount so they tend to be little different in price from the GW store. This tends to mean a good few webstores, that I've seen, tend to have them in the "on order" rather than stocking them and they prefer to stock the stuff they can buy at a better trade discount and then offer at discounted prices.

This is one of those areas where the casual manner of GW's rules writers tends to show through. They clearly know how Battalions are supposed to work and you can logically see how they are supposed to function. However there is room to interpret it differently. It's not a terrible mess, but they could clear it up if they got a more technical rules-lawyer style writer on board in their rules design phase

You could always stick some gears and pipes on them and make them into a steam-punk-death army of constructs

The Cauldron set comes in and out of stock a lot. I figure that with basically all of the factions leader models save for Morathi, its simply a very popular model that gets its stock drained faster than normal. It will be back in stock eventually - use the "Email me" button because GW does use that to pace their casting. If a model gets a lot of email requests then they bump it up the list a bit to meet that demand; whilst those with little to no "email me" requests get bumped down. They get cast, of course, just not as fast. It is odd that they've no getting started set, but I think that's because GW has a general policy of putting a leader into the sets where they can so that the set can work out of the box. Daughters currently have all their leaders in the cauldron and GW appears disinclined to discount that set further. It might be DoK are waiting on a second wave of models and a new leader before they see a Getting Started set. Personally I think armies like DoK, Fyreslayers, Flesheaters etc... are all due for a "secondwave". Now that might come like Slaanesh in a big lump; like Gitmob in a massive lump or like Eldar are getting now with a drawn out drip fed release of models. Whatever happens I'm sure they'll see their rosters expanded and increased.

As they are "elite stormcast" I'm guessing £35 for basic troops as a cost. Anything less I'll be happy with, but this seems to be where GW is aiming new troop packs. Catapult is hard to price but could be up into the £50 bracket. I'm guessing around the £15-30 for heroes of various sizes with the average being around £20. Katatross I'm guessing will be up near the Greater Demons in price even though he might not be as big he's got a dynamic base and several models on that to make up for it. Battletome standard prices of £25 regular and £50 for limited (though honestly the only limited GW appears to have tried to make limited is the new Sisters of Battle which has actual additional pages of content not just the bog standard content with a clear front cover).

Unlikely, the all the items in that list are overseas produced plastics like terrain and endless spells. The new Tyrant is a GW model so will be produced as normal in Nottingham

Try clearing your web cache. Yesterday the site was very much in the "Community not available" all through the day for many

Ogre and Ogor are both used as spelling and Ogor actually gets a red underline to be "corrected" to ogre under most spellcheckers. It doesn't mean that GW is spelling it wrong, they could be using an older style of spelling which simply isn't added into most modern spellcheckers. Heck Word used to flag meerkats as a non-word for years.

I need rules points and prices before I can make any firm choices. Things like infantry its hard to choose because they can wind up costing a lot if you need many of them or for varied weapon options. Meanwhile things like the trebuchet look awesome, but until you know the points its hard to make a choice. If it winds up 500 points or something insane like that then 1 is likely the most you'll ever get to use in most games; of course the other extreme is it ends up being 100 points and then taking four or five is a high possibility.

Hey far as I know Gotrek has not yet confirmed it. He greatly suspects Felix would be a Stormcast because of his noble life defending the lands of men from the taint of chaos, however I'm not sure if he is a stormcast (though I've not yet made it as far as the End Times stories about them so I don't know what happens to Felix in them - yet). Felix could well have fallen through a crack and wound up a Reaper! Imagine poor Gotrek - travelling not just with an aelf who, for all intents and purposes, is a DARK ELF to Gotrek, but then having to wander with the product of a necromancers madness in a Skeletal construct Felix! He only just tolerated Ulrika in the old tales and was half way to slicing her in half @Scurvydog it might not be a purging of all life, but possibly more a purging of non-death-peoples. Ergo that the living are not hated, don't forget the Reapers talk of a Tithe, they clearly realise that if they destroy all living things then their bone supply will eventually run out. Taking a Tithe suggests that they will treat living settlements like farms, taking their tithe and reaping a harvest from them. Purification would likely take the concept of cleaning the lands of Stormcast, of the living who don't follow Nagash. Cleaning out Orruk infestation; Chaos taint; pesky Stormcast and human settlements who stand against or who just don't want to pay the Tithe. Calling them Monarchs I think ties into their slight mongolian influence. The idea that the hoards of the Reapers are made up of united "Clans" of reapers brought under one ruler. Lets not forget whilst this is a "new" army, the story speaks of how Nagash was building them for aeons and that the new leader is only now taking command of the full force under him. So the Monarchs might well compete for his attention and reward; or might even plot against each other. They might even have old rivalries and such.