Overread

Purple?

@Mosquito onthe TenthFloor try reading the new Novella books, they establish peoples and settings really well. Skaven Pestilens also does well even though the civilization it describes is somewhat torn to bits by the rats.

GW I think cleaned up their store, but I think it was partly just moving small subfactions into groups based on species. eg all the Aelves got lumped into one group and its very unlikely that GW would take the remains of all three (high, dark, wood) and put them into a single army or even army book like Grots. I think it was purely done to simplify the store appearance and shouldn't be taken as gospel in terms of what future releases might look like. Many of the subfactions have lore and books and stories about them, however we've no idea if GW will split them off as their own armies or make them into combined or even just quietly drop them. There are also some oddities - eg many thought Sisters of Silence would be added to Custodes (in 40K) and they weren't; whilst many also thought the Privateers would join the Idoneth but, again, they didn't.

Cutting new releases from WD makes a lot of sense, by the time its come out the internet has already spread all the news anyway and it only encourages leaks and screen captures to be spread around because its information the whole community wants. Plus, as they say, the community pages are already covering the releases well in advance of WD ever hitting the shelves. Shifting WD to being more a hobby magazine than a content advertising one is a very sensible and positive move.

The real trick isn't finding people who want to contribute, but those who can contribute. Both in terms of actually getting them to spend time doing the article and also in terms of people having the skill to compose an article that is of sufficient quality that its worth putting up. Whilst sometimes anything is better than nothing, I'd argue that fewer well written articles are better than a lot of articles of which some are good, some are bad and some are just unintelligible. So it might well be worth having some level of neutral quality control. Repetition might also be an issue, but like many things sometimes the same article written differently appeals to a different group reading and often you'll find small differences in how the writers compose and focus their article so that there can be worthwhile content in both. The real issue is if you end up with 20 articles on "how to make a marine" or such. The other big issue is pacing. I think if Ben wants this to work then he's got to put the time in to contacting people who show interest and nudging them along to write things as well as continually badgering and advertising interest in more article writers and getting ideas for article subjects. A lot of schemes like this on forums can start out really great and then after a few months they are utterly dead. It takes at least one key person with an interest to keep it going and to push the others along a bit. Voluntary work can be started with great energy and enthusiasm, but "life" can get in the way of it and grind it to a halt just as fast.

Don't forget some things might well go away now and come back later. Goblins riding wolves and a wolf chariot could well return with new sculpts in the future. So they are not always dead - indeed GW has had just a rich history that many "new" things today are revamped old things or old ideas from the past. It can be a huge pain and it would be great of GW to give us a heads up what they are going to do with AoS in general, but I figure we won't get that. It would be phenomenal if they did it. Heck if they outright stated which Freeguild (as an example) were going to stay and which were going to leave/be upgraded I bet they'd see a surge in sales! Those building for 9th edition or older Warhammer editions would want to buy to get their armies finished, whilst those looking for a new faction might well start buying the stuff that is going to remain in advance of Battletome drop.

Teach me to paint and I'll make it (also provide the effort, enthusiasm and motivation too). As I've got several Cauldron kits I'll have to make one without any stages or photos anyway and will have at least one or two to follow so I can take photos at each stage. The only thing that holds me back is that the way the cauldron goes together there's a few bits that might benefit painting before assembly.

I've written bits here and there on forums so I could certainly show a hand as being interested in writing up an article or two here and there. I'd be happy to do one on photography and miniatures and far off might do one on magnets (it really hinges on me learning enough to paint to be able to get started on building a Cauldron kit properly). Heck I could port my guide on making a simple conversion over too.

"We know they've had their big push towards more copyrightable models," Actually I wouldn't say we've seen that in the least. Idoneth are not the first undersea army and several others have had huge undersea turtle beasties of various kinds (heck Reaper Bones has a turtle dragon too). Meanwhile look at Daughters of Khaine where most of the new stuff is quite generic. Medusa and succubus/harpy style winged models. Then look at goblins; nothing there is vastly different from designs or concepts GW used in the past, and the trolls have a very 80s inspired design. I don't think GW is in the least changing lines to be more protected in terms of visual design. Heck I'm not even sure how that would work since GW can't copyright the concept of a model, only its specific design which has always been protected anyway no matter the design. All they've changed is their naming culture to terms that are non-standard in an attempt to protect them; however that's mostly a marketing move so that 3rd parties are a bit more limited on how they can advertise their products, but it won't stop them making alternatives. Nothing would stop any model company making a winged female with a spear or hand scythe and bladed shield. I think its simple that GW is revising their lines and armies and some things are being lost and some are being updated. It's just a bigger change right now because they are relaunching whole armies not just revamping existing ones with a few new models. AoS is letting them drop some design paths. Or it might be that they are not dropping them, just removing and replacing with something else (something else which might not come for many months - ergo GW is playing the long game plan not the short term). There's nothing in goblins riding on spiders that makes them any more copyright protected than riding on wolves or slugs or snakes or anything else for that matter

The new Carrion box could come out between Gitz and Genestealers since the boxed set is a one-item release. So quite small compared to the bigger release of both Goblins and Cultists.

What I really like is that a lot of things are looking very 80s! The Troggoths and the new Cultist female leader all look like they've leaped out of films and media of that era, which I think is really great because that's the 40K era where it grew up too! Heck Dark Oath look like proper barbarians! You can also hear the heavy Arny german accents

Lots of new pictures of stuff from the event https://twitter.com/spruesandbrews Including a preview of the new Darkoath warband

Let us not forget Cultists are still waiting for their Codex even though the Space wolves got theirs last year. So yes soon can be a few months; but at least within the year or half a year!

Nice work - I like that the base is quite grey and muted like the shadow realm!

Yeah I'd wager Spiderfang drew the short straw in this round in possibly getting new sculpts - although the huge possible centipede model could be spiderfang related. It would be odd for GW to have put a huge amount of effort into all the other areas of the Goblins and not give Spiderfang even a nod. Still getting to take spiders without any riders would be a big change in itself, both visually and likely gameplay wise.

Not only that but I think GW's internal management of projects has had a huge overhaul along with Forgeworlds. I think in the past they did run things side by side, but often had a lot of things that dominated. As a result something like a specialist game or a game that isn't selling that strongly or a faciton that wasn't as popular might well get put to the side for a while. That being put to the side could last and last and then suddenly they realise that no one is buying into that game/army/brand because they've not done anything with it for ages. GW right now I think realises that and realises that its daft for them to have to re-invest huge amounts of money in big relaunches of things. Having dedicated teams focused on specific aspects of their product line helps cut that out because now there is a dedicated person and team and time slot for each product line. FW is even getting this with having their own AoS team now established (and lets face it FW has a pitiful offering considering how old and long fantasy has been around). Another aspect is their major community outreach program which means that they can do articles and focus on a faction or game even without releasing anything at all. Reminding people it exists and introducing it to new gamers. Furthermore their new White Dwarf design I think is designed to feed into that directly by boosting the rules and alternate rules content of it; again allowing GW to release change and new things without releasing a product such as rule book. I think GW realises now that if they can maintain interest in multiple lines and maintain their own attention then gamers will react in kind. Gamers need their manufacturing company to "love" and support and pay attention to their own products. As soon as a company ignores a product - even a good one - it can start to bleed customers, bleed interest and dwindle in popularity. Gamers get worried that its going away or going to die and they jump ship to another thing (that might not be GW) that is getting attention. Part of this is the fact that it might take a gamer several years to build a full collected army - they don't want to think that after several year their army/collection is going to get squatted.

Honestly you can't really compare. In the past GW used to roll out Battletomes and Codex MUCH slower and each one often came with a full army revamp which would often mean new sculpts for existing models (updates) and also new things. So they were big launches. The last two years or so GW has instead shifted to releasing a big wave of codex and battletomes; some with new models, some with almost nothing new and some iwth only a token model here and there. It's really variable. AoS had had more bigger releases with more models in general ,but that's also because many of the factions were ignored for years by GW and also are being bumped up as many also got shattered into subfactions. There's also several brand new armies and GW is very keen to make new armies release with a lot of their core and special options. Gone are the days of GW releasing a new army with only 3 or 4 models to its name (such as how Necrons were for ages). Of course duel and the rare triple kits really helps bump up the number* *eg Daughters of Khaine got 3 new kits which makes 5 new models. GW also split up the Cauldron kit into multiple leaders and a monster unit (Avatar on foot) which also boosted the number of model choices from a single kit.

Eh he'll either die to a falling rock or to Khinerai deep striking in from nowhere

I believe the context is that it only affects one of 4 segments of the board of which only 2 can ever be targeted in any one game as the Bad Moon travels from one corner to the other.

They don't even have to have "spells". Witch Aelves get magic and prayers where prayers are akin to how a spell works save that the risk is a bit different when casting and you can't counter them. Khorne could well get "sacrifices of skulls" or something which would act like magic but wouldn't be "magic" as such.

Previous count 2 Additions since last count: 1 Daughters of Khaine Battleforce - which I'm going to count as 5 boxes worth of content (it includes 2 khinari, 1 melusai, 1 witch aelf and 1 cauldron kits) Completions since last count: Set of 5 Doomfires finished 2 sets of 5 khinerai finished (one wing was damaged and being replaced) Set of 10 Witch Aelves finished Current Count 3 First day of the New Year and, technically, the starting point for this quest to keep my buying down and my building of models up! Would have liked to be on 0 or lower for the start, however one gifted and one recently bought Battleforce is going to keep the number higher. This is not just due to the number of kits in the box, but also because both the cauldron and melusai components require part painting quite significantly before final assembly and thus won't count for a fair while yet. That said I've finished all the fully finishable content from the first box and the second is on the way. This also marks a big landmark for my collection since with this final battleforce I'll have all the cauldron/shrine kits I'll need as well as all the khinerai. I'll also have a full functional 20 melusai, which is where I'm going to stop collected them until such time as I've completed other aspects of the army. That leaves me needing only 10 more witches to complete my 90 witch army, though I will pick up a second box of 10 which will give me a few parts for some conversions and some painting models to test out the scheme. This means that my budget for January is already taken up (battleforce) and leaves me the start of February to complete my Witches. This is pretty much where I hoped to be a while back as Feb is my target month to start messing around with paints. That point might well mark a shift in my building and buying as I really want to get this army built and painted.

I can't imagine why GW would release more Slaanesh models and not a Battletome. They don't ahve to tie the tome to any story elements - we know that Slaanesh as an army is still functional even with their God entrapped. If anything their armies are even more wild now as they hunt for their lost master. The way chaos works many of their armies and leaders can work only with casual glances from their patron god at most - most of the time its the Greater Demons who do most of the legwork in war and corruption as they battle for the adoration of their direct master the God itself. I'd wager we'll see a new Keeper of secrets and a Battletome released together at some point in the next few months (since GW is unlikely to tease things too far off that they are not arleady clear on - such as we know Sisters of Battle are a fair way off)

The Endless Spell note simply mentions that they are releasing more of them including those universal to all armies. We already know that basically every new battletome gets them so we know any more for the year will likely have their own few endless spells. A few universal ones would be an ideal time to also drop the specific ones for the two factions that were 2.0 ready but still don't have them.

That confirms Slaanesh Battletome and more Endless spells (hopefully some DoK and Idoneth ones too!)

@Olincay looking very bloody there indeed! Nice work on the base! The end is in sight for me! Or at least meaningfully closer! I've just ordered a second Battleforce which means that I'll soon have 20 heartrenders 20 lifetakers 4 Cauldron/Shrine kits (ergo 4 hags, 4 slaughters, 4 avatars and 4 bloodwrath) 20 Bloodsisters 80 Witch Aelves. Which means that I shouldn't need any more khinari, cauldron kits and only one more witch aelf kit to round out all those components of my army! I also only need 5 more Doomfires to have 20 (with their price in points its hard to imagine needing many more and being able to field them). This basically will wrap up a huge part of army building, leaving me just needing Sisters of Slaughter and more snakes. Which is great because I was aiming to have at least 90 witches by Feb when I'll start the daunting task of painting properly.