Overread

@Tiger I think the Mallus Darkblade reference is showing how a dark sided character can be the focus of a story and do well. In the AoS world that can be done again with armies like Daughters of Khaine. Heck if you want an AoS example look at both Warqueen and Heart of Winter stories - one follows Slaves to Darkness the other Scourge Privateers As for Daughters of Khaine they've been around in the AoS world for many generations now; hiding in the shadow realm and also working with most of the major order factions. So they've got a huge wealth of potential lore and references. From how they live and work with more good and well natured factions to also how they survive on their own and their world views. Right now mostly what we have is the generic overview and the views of their ruler Morathi.

Aye, that said with at least 1 model going out of production in the last week it could be that the update for Skaven is a lot closer. We've really no idea - GW could jump the gun and push Skaven in before Slaanesh.

Loads of things. From fleshing out how their society works to their views on life and the world around them. How they interact with other armies and agents of order; if there's any hint of rebellion within their peoples. Morathi rules them with an iron fist and secrete snake police so there's ample room for Queens and Witches who might disilke the way their people are ruled. Furthermore there's a huge story element with tehir relationship with Khaine since he's not actually returned and is instead partly held hostage by Morathi as she has his heart and steals the prayer magic for herself (boosting her power since she didn't get to be a demi-god/god like the other mighty Elves that survived the end of the Old World - such as the two brothers and her son).

I'd wager Skaven won't hear much until Slaanesh is out. The only thing we might get is the release date for the combined box. Otherwise GW is front loading AoS with a few too many "coming soon" releases without delivery. And I wager we won't hear much from either of them until Cultists are out, which I'm wagering might be next week (we'll have to wait and see later today on what goes up on the GW store).

Daughters of Khaine, far as I know, don't have any stories that focus on them alone save for a couple of shorts in Malign Portents (on the website for it). They also appear in the Heart of Winter Novella in a decent supporting role. There's also the odd Witch Aelf that appears in Khorne battle tournaments here and there, but only as a background reference not as a central character (I recall one appearing in Warqueen novella). Morathi herself features quite centrally in the very early lore and in the lore around the capture of Slaanesh; but thus far DoK are very new, but also a fragment of a former army so unlike Idoneth there are bits of their history around, but never anything central to them. Hopefully this changes and there's a skilled author beavering away on a story for them.

Genestealer Cults - pretty much going to be the next big thing any week now for at least 2 weeks of releases Slaanesh - all but confirmed at some point and Wrath and Rapture is out Khorne - possibly getting an update Battletome - Wrath and Rapture is out Flesh Eater Courts - possibly getting an update - Duel kit not yet out Skaven - possibly getting an update - Duel kit not yet out. That's how I see it, so any future release are going to be well after mid year I would wager. If GW does a major Battletome every month that's taking us into June.

Rolling Collegiate into Freepeoples makes a lot of sense; that said we really don't know the final fate of anything on the store. I think the christmas sort out was mostly done to make the AoS section much more navigable and easier to use which is has achieved! There are still things in there that are not clear. Eg Greenskins are being removed as a faction with all their models barring 1 now gone., despite them having their own tab. Meanwhile Gutbusters and Beastclaw Raiders are listed separately despite the fact that its fairly clear that they will most likely be rolled into one force (though that would be a major release for GW considering how many of the Gutbuster models are currently in resin - almost the entire army! ) Further they've mashed all the remaining Aelves into a single listing - which I'd be surprised at if they followed through with a Battletome. Personally I'd hope for them to do them in 2 blocks - Dark and Light (not just because of the history of the models, but also the designs of them in general - because unless they redesign the appearance of the dark and light are very powerfully different); with the great chance that the old wood elfs will get rolled into the light force.

Ahh yeah that is an odd one as its such a versatile kit too! I really wish GW could be a tiny bit more open with withdrawls - sure we don't like it but they could be up front and say "the mould busted" or something

Battlemages?

From what I gather GW is changing printers for the cards and currently dont' have one so they've set it all to last chance. I believe their plan is to negotiate a new printer and get it back on track.

All praise and celebrate for the triumphant return of the mighty Archibald!!! https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/01/25/season-2-no-010-a-dog-eat-dog-world/ Swiftly not only finding a long lost human warrior, but also saving him from a grizzly end from one of the most fearsome of chaos hounds! A feat no other than the Great Archibald could achieve!

With regard to Stormcast I think GW has to ease off with releases for them; the army already has a lot of tools to work with and I think that if they release too much they'll actually spoil the army itself. Plus I'd really like it if they could avoid making Stormcast into a total carbon copy of marines. I'd rather see GW work on steady high sales across a wide range of AoS armies and provide support; rather than in 10 years end up with 20 different fully fleshed out Stormcast "Chapters" whilst other armies are left ignored or just not given as many updates.

Note - All the battleforces from Christmas are now listed as "last chance to buy". Furthermore a load of specialst game stuff is last chance too - mostly card based stuff; but a huge chunk of killteam and necromunda cards and associated packs are up for the chop. https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Warhammer?N=647457687+3907428971&Nr=AND(sku.siteId%3AGB_gw%2Cproduct.locale%3Aen_GB_gw)&Nrs=collection()%2Frecord[product.startDate+<%3D+1548373860000+and+product.endDate+>%3D+1548373860000] https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Boxed-Games?N=3281529261+2385576319&view=all Seraphon Battleforce is already gone and several of the 40K ones are gone too. So mayhap to grab them whilst you can. There's also A Flesh Eater Courts set up for last grabs too so good to get if you're interested in them since they are getting a likely update soonish (though considering the cultist reveal today I'm wagering that might be a while off as cultists are going to be at least two or three weeks of releases.

I think the Island of Blood stuff can return, but at the same time if its got to be retooled onto a new mould they might well redesign them with more options or make changes. Certainly the sprues contained a lot of core models and on the skaven side some very iconic ones. But they could be remade - eg the weapons team could be remade into a single pair of rats with several backpack and weapon options. So there's potential to make a lot of changes there. I do agree it was a short sighted idea to have unique models on joint sprues. Then again GW maybe hoped they'd shift all the original stock so that hwen it came to releasing individual the master moulds would be worn and needing replacement anyway.

My prediction is that the new Aelves will come reasonably fast on the heels of the Skaven - possibly one or two months after. Just about the right sort of time scale to utterly mess me up having caved to skaven and then wanting to cave to new aelves

*Raises hand as someone who would love to field and army of dragons* And what's this talk of not liking Dracolines? The only downside to Dracolines is that Stormcast are too big and chunky in size to let you steal those mounts to repurpose and put Aelves on them! You'll be saying you don't like gryph hounds or other such mad things next!

Also its not poorly so much as "not as well as forecast" which can be very different things. Might be GW just over-estimated and that sales are in-line with other ranges; might be they overproduced might be that they just need to get a getting started box and more lore out there etc..... All sorts of things oculd be coming into play.

KO are what Dwarves of Old would have been closer too if the Guild had not kept such a heavy lid on technology. Even in old lore books they could build huge Zepplins; the only thing KO bring is a new technology that lets them fit a zepplin style ship onto a 35mm table without breaking the bank.

@Emmetation I just came across this book The Loathsome Ratmen and all their Vile Kin* for WFRP (video linked below shows it off a bit) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCybmrLla5Q Have to say I'm really sad that its now out of print, but I wonder if that's the kind of depth and detail you guys are looking to be able to put into factions for the game. I also wonder if, and I don't know the legalities of who specifically owns copyright on the book it might stil be GW or it could be 3rd party; you'd be able to put pressure on GW to bring such books back into print even if its under "print on demand". They'd be fantastic for your Old World RPG game. And if you could do books like that for your AoS game it would be beyond awesome! *its kind of scary that this now sells around the £100 or more because its out of print.

Fyreslayers are as highly priced as Daughters of Khaine so that isn't a barrier on its own. However I agree they have far too few units and not enough army diversity. Which is no surprise; they are a corner of the dwarf army and basically not very interesting on their own. They certainly need either rolling back into Dwarves in general or updating like Daughters of Khaine got so that they've got more interesting variety within the faction. Fyreslayers not selling strong is no shock to me. The issues with them as an army are very apparent and they are another casualty of the early AoS era when armies were just too small on their own. I'm sure GW will repair them though - they've put too much into lore and background and investment to just dump them. They are just likely going to have to wait. These are both exciting times for AoS as armies get updated; but also frustrating times for those eager for specific armies and waiting for them to get an update. The only thing rocking the boat is the recent confusion over GW pulling Greenskins suddenly - esp when they had some modern models and a getting started set and were specifically allied to the Goblin Gits. Of course it might just be they've pulled them early in anticipation of a bigger launch, but I'd have expected some news on that by now if they were.

Idoneth look fantastic but I can understand why they might be harder sell than some others - they are the most epic and out-there of all the factions at present; being as they are flying fish on land. You know I'd wager if GW were to publish some really outstanding full battle artwork of them at war it would help them sell. And I don't mean their classic "two armies facing each other and not really engaging" but an actual battle picture that shows them in the full swing of their magical tide. Sometimes I think that if you spark the imagination in gamers they will discover they really like a faction without realising it. Heck I'm certain GW knows this and its why they make a lot of lore and support material. Similarly its often something I think a lot of smaller compaines lack and that hinders them getting a bigger market. For me its no shock that games with artwork and lore do well. Also Idoneth are 100% new. There's nothing in them that even connects to previous armies so there's no "return" market. Other factions might well be selling really well because they are not just getting new, but also many returning customers eager for their armies to arise again from the ashes of the old world and take war unto the realms!

I don't think you can "mod hat" rumours into existence unless you're a GW Mod That said I think the closest to rumour is Skaven metals going out of production - Warlord is already listed out of production and others might well follow. Even that isn't really a rumour and is just sorta news though good news to spread. It would be a shame to see them vanish without people realising like we've just had happen with greenskins stuff.

It was announced somewhere over Christmas as a general thing to come, but we've only been told they are coming with no hint as to what they might be. As for predatory spells they have a lot of uses, but are very positional critical. Because of how control swaps over (or can swap over) you need to position them carefully so that when they are used you leave them in a position where your opponent cannot fire them easily back at you and, at best, can just deflect them. So you can guarantee one good turn from them and thereafter its more of a risk; but it varies. Eg the Pendulum can only move one way; so all your opponent can do is slow it for a turn by hardly or not moving it. Meanwhile others can drift or move more freely.

This Employee Orientation video should tell you all you need to know sorry about the - ahem - filters they put on it for creative effect.

GW closed the rumour mines and I've heard that cutbacks at the office have meant that the Leaks Department has also had to donate their potato for the shareholders dinner.