Overread

I like how GW is steadily making strings of infantry less and less viable. Though a part of me is wondering if we are going to end up with complex rules that basically end up with units fighting almost like they are in rank and file style all the time. When you couple it with the change to points whereby you no longer get a bonus for full units; it does seem to suggest that GW might be building a system that favours smaller units of big models and larger units of smaller ones. That said they might make smaller ones more susceptible to ranged fire and such. Interesting times are coming it seems!

Don't forget that Necrons were a fully fledged diverse army before Indomitus - a good number of their kits were new, but many were also updates to older sculpts or returning older sculpts. Nighthaunt were almost a fully new faction that stage and didn't have a big army of things. AS for if they get their own tome or not that's impossible to say at this stage; I would wager they will get their own. There's no reason we can't have different orruk tombs just like there are different aelf ones. I think the only reason we didn't see this before with Orruks is due to three factors 1) They were originally one army 2) They had several different styles of orruk, but they were all the same themes and designs and concepts - just with slight modifications. A bit like primaris and marines etc... 3) It was a tidying up tome and orruks didn't seem a heavy focus at all during 2.0 . Right now I'd expect Cruelboyz to be their fully fledged own army and tome.

I wonder what kind of cost these new battalions will have. It always felt odd to me that they cost so much to start with and then on top of that mid 2.0 GW increased the cost by making you pay for a command point for each battalion.

Don't forget the Steam Tank is not just an Old World design but quite an oldish model by now in concept. And yes bring on the metal inspired alters!

I fully expect to see GW flesh this new army out faster rather than slower. They will be the new poster-army alongside Stormcast and a core focus of the 3.0 release. So I expect them to get a fairly chunky release of new models. This won't be like Ossiarchs with only a handful of models at launch. This will likely be several months of releases spread out and a fairly chunky diverse force. AT least that's what I'd expect after Indomitus and 2.0 editions.

At the same time one thing we see more so with the Mortal Realms over the Old World, is that races in the Mortal Realms are far more inter-mingled. In the Old World most races kept very very much to themselves. Dwarves and Elves might trade and work as mercenaries for humans, but by and large they were outsiders. Same for humans in dwarf cities and the like. It happened, but they were always outsiders and it was often traders and the like not massive intermingling. AoS has a lot more intermingling and in the lore we even have Orruks and the like running shops and retail and the like within Cities of Sigmar. Even if their faction at large is more nomadic. That said I do see your point and its a fine line for GW to walk. On the one hand intermigling on the tabletop does show that its a living world where not everything fits within specific rigid lines. On the other hand most players do prefer to see unified visual aesthetics within armies. AoS has even taken good strides in allowing alliances, but hindering outright mash-up armies from being a thing. Lets not forget we've hit the 3rd edition and we've not seen a reprint of the Grand Alliance books.

I find it amusing how Stormcast are rapidly become the Tyranids of AoS You want to prove the new model/hero/army/god is all powerful? Have them go kill some Stormcast and a named Stormcast Character. Just like the poor Swarmlord gets beaten by any new big hero in the 40K setting who wants to make their mark.

Oh gods I just had a thought - Imagine if the new Hobgoblins adopt another "Lord of the Rings" style monster and GW brings back the DREAD MAW for them!

And back from reality and catching up on the preview - I have to say I'm not an Ork fan nor much of an Orruk fan. I've loved them in lore and stories and computer games, but I've never wanted them as an army over the years. That said these new Cruelboyz I really do love. There's a deadly smartness to them that speaks of cunning and deadly intent. THESE Are the greenskins of your nightmares. Note the jovial madness of the gitz nor the bash-smash brutality of Orruks. These are the dark swampy monsters that come for you in the dark of night. That strike without fear; that stab you through the chinks in your armour and wear down your defences with precision strikes. All the brutality of an ork with all the cunning of - dare I say it - almost a human or aelf. I love them as a concept and if I ever collect greenskins these would be the ones for me! Stormcast are great and whilst their army gets a bit more bloated the new designs are very sweet. A degree of elegance to them now, even the hounds are looking very sleek and deadly. The new chariot is awesome and makes me jealous that they get it (DoK need a chariot!) Great preview and whilst neither army is "mine" to collect I'm greatly looking forward to seeing the future. I will have to keep an eye out when the new boxed set goes on sale and see if I can snag a cheap secondhand split box copy of the rules at some stage.

I'm not a typical ork fan - like the themes and ideas but rarely the models. And I freaking like these new critters! They've got a very classic ork look to them. Lord of the Rings, Old 80s art - these are old school greenskins from before wow and even warhammer created the beefy ork. These are serious greenskins for serious stuff!

BOOM!

Twitch is live

Ahh I've not been keeping up. If those are accurate then they are probably about where I'd guess them. Not the power-house of a keeper, but an average regular leader point cost at the upper end. Keeping in mind our cheapest is a viceleader at 130

Thing is if you give them abilities which only work when the other is on the field, then the point cost for them has to include those abilities as well. At which point there's the problem that whenever you take just one, you are paying for abilities that you cannot use. It starts to remove the choice of taking one alone and makes it a default "non-option" and makes the choice of "take both" into the default answer. The only way they could do it is if taking both came at a different point cost to gain the joint abilities; but that's a bit fiddly and AoS has never really gone in for granular unit based point upgrades like that.

I will agree, 2 spells per turn at least would fit giving that character access to pretty much every Slaanesh spell there is. Having a huge toolbox but perhaps only getting to actually use a small number of actual spells per game is strange. Then again having a cheaper wizard who can fit any wizard role (support, debuff, attack) isn't bad either. A lot is going to come down to what points these two have.

Lore is never manifest on the table. Heck Greater Demons spent almost all of Old World being only twice the height of a human (and then only just) and being way smaller than a giant. Yet lore wise they were vast beasts and capable of using incredible levels of power. AoS has literal gods on the table, which at the scales we play, even accounting for some creative concept of "one model equals 100 in reality"; our forces are still way too small. Nagash on the table should sweep anything that isn't a God on the other side away in a single hand wave. I do agree the Twins feel a touch weaker, but at the same time I think its so that they have cheap points and might pair up well; or functionally work well fitting into more armies without overshadowing Keepers. If anything one surprise is that they don't really have paired up rules; but then again that would likely make them feel like you'd have to always take both (to get their maximum point value) rather than giving you the option and choice to only take one or the other.

Commands are also changing so that ability could be far more powerful than people as yet realise. Also lets not forget the twins might well have point costs well below some of the other major leader characters. So having only 1 spell per turn might not be as bad when that twin doesn't end up costing something like Nagash at 900+points

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I think with the Twins one thing we have to consider is price in points. Many of the other Gods are powerful models, but they can be very high costs, Nagash is up to almost 1K points. That's a huge powerful mage who costs half your army in a 2K game. The twins might not be as powerful, but they might be a lot lot cheaper. As a result they might actually see more table use in more varied armies rather than mandating that the army is built around them. It is odd to see a Wizard with such open spell access, but limited spell casting. I'd have thought at least 2 spells per turn casting for a mage who basically has the entire Slaanesh toolbox of spells at their disposal.

It's all about GW trying to find the ideal times that pair well with international exposure on a weekend.

Some classic boxes can sell for quite a bit and some are still very popular as they have unique models that aren't sold elsewhere by GW. Depends on the box, some will have value and some won't. Also when checking ebay don't look at current listings alone, look at sold listings. There's a bunch of scalper stores that put huge prices on things on ebay which never actually sell at those prices, they are just listed at them and "might" sell once or twice but are not the normal market value. If you should or should not buy it is really down to you - do you have the capacity to sell them on and to catalogue them so that you reach customers properly; do you even want to do that. Also depends a lot on the price, if its a good price and you can easily see a profit go for it.

Very pleased to see the Ironscale getting her individual release! Surprised GW didn't tease her and the boxed sets this last weekend.

Also note that the final Gotrek and Felix Omnibus approaches! City of the Damned Kinslayer Rememberers (short story) Slayer That's one outstanding story and the 3 stories (2 full and one short) that comprise the End Times series of tales for the pair. That means that if you want too, by next week, you'll be able to get the entire Gotrek and Felix stories. I think the only short not in one of the omnibus is The Lost Kinsmen, it could also be in the 6th or might have slipped into one of the others without me noticing. Otherwise its in Myths and Legends.

GW basically had their new factory and warehouse systems come online during the pandemic so those new systems have yet to really be put to their full capacity. Also don't forget after things quieten down sales will most likely dip. Right now they've a lot of people who aren't going out to events or eating out or attending their gym so they've more money floating around. Heck just not commuting saves a fortune for many. Plus a good many old gamers came back because they had nothing else to do whilst locked down at home. So GW has had a phenomenal bump year ontop of a new edition (which whilst messing with things has likely meant that 9th ed 40K has done really really well). If I were GW I'd likely not be investing in any new factories right now; the best might be warehousing in the EU to smooth that over; but otherwise a second new factory in the UK would be overkill right now. They don't know what the next year or two will bring and it might well be that sales will dive down after this; or heck perhaps they'll keep growing. They need a few normal years to really answer that question before investing again in a new factory. Then again investing in infrastructure whlist they are on a profit high is also a smart move since it helps them against future needs to grow. Though right now their smartest move on that front might be just to buy and hold onto land. GW did also take furlough money; however they paid it all back and have (far as I know) not taken more. One of GW's biggest advantages has always been their refusal to carry debt. It leaves them in a very robust position where they control all their outgoings. IF things turn bad they can scale back their operations. Many other firms can only scale back so far; but will still have big loan and investment repayments that have to go out continually and can't easily be modified. Many a highstreet name has sunk as a result of debts.

My angle was that was very keen to pick up Cursed City. I loved the models and I was prepared for a medium term core product (at few years restocked) and short term expansions. I didn't really get into Blackstone, but I wanted to get into Cursed City. I also foresaw that getting into it would likely result in me owning enough core vampire models to do a bit of casual "I'm not starting a vampire army but I am" move. However because I thought it would be medium term I wasn't ordering it on the day it went live; not because I wasn't keen, I simply did not have the money. Plus I had zero pressure on me to try and scrounge up the cash quick because I didn't think it would vanish. It vanishing is a disappointment. I appreciate that its clearly something going wrong for GW and I'm sad that they've chosen radio silence over informing us. "We got something wrong sorry" is better for me than radio silence where we are left with a million theories why and no simple answer. I'm very pleased to see the models that I liked from it are going on individual sale. When I saw CC originally I got a feeling that GW were going to pair it much closer to their core armies than Blackstone was; which actually made me more keen to get the CC Game. I wanted to own the game because I figured the models had a duel use for me. Even if I might not actually get to play CC for years I'd still get a lot out of the models. As it stands now I don't own any vampire models; I don't own CC; I don't have temptation to buy into the models as they appear to be going on general sale (if direct from GW which suggests white box which further suggests something went wrong with CC for GW to go that path and not have colour boxes for them). So chances are any vampire army from me is either a long way off or shelved (just through me being inspired by a LOT of GW armies and thus not having huge loyalties to just one or two forces forever