Overread

Except Daughters of Kaine is based on several "old world" kits Also I very much doubt your first line. In my experience wargamers readily update their armies with new models and updated sculpts. Many gamers are not running gen1 or 2 Space marines but brand new ones or newish ones. If GW improves a model scupt then people will buy them. Heck how many people are really running first generation things like the super old Dark Elf Cold One Riders? Very few I'd wager. I do agree that the designs of some older models are more static and less dynamic and showy; however GW can simply replace them. Why remove something like High Elf Archers and Spearmen when they will just replace them with another spear and bow using warriors models in the future. Far better to embrace the old and build forward than to simply dump and abandon - and GW has shown that dump and abandon isnot what they are doing now in general. Why throw away old fans, old army concepts and also many fans who were on the fence. Embrace them instead. Furthermore AoS has been around for years - Darkling Covens have too - as have several other forces. So you can't argue that they are old and defunct because they are the refreshed version of old forces - they are current and active and right there for sale now.

The problem Aelves have is that Order has a lot of factions in it which already have a battletome of some form - whilst groups like Destruction were significantly lacking. Aelves are on a lag-time in getting updated and also suffered from a lot of fracturing in general - 3 armies became near 20 which is a huge amount of issues. Personally GW also missed some tricks I feel - Scourge Privateers should have combined with Idoneth; Darklings with Daughters of Khaine; etc... I also hope that they might consider blending some Dark and Light and Wanderer groups together. They could form a fantastic bestial army by putting Serpentis, Draconis and Wanderers together. In the end we don't know what GW will do with them ,but with a lot of good plastic kits I don't think we will lose them entirely; but I think we will se combinations and updates. The new Dark and Light Aelf armies iwll also be interesting to see how they blend with the old armies. If they will be like Daughters and bolt onto armies or like Idoneth and their own thing.

@stato I don't think armies got broken up with through any great scheme of greater game balance - I think the motivations there were very different. The thing is they can do it like they've done for Goblins - several "Clans" in a single book. That way you've got bonus and benefits for using a niche of the army, but at the same time you can build a combined army without having to touch the allies rules and its limitations. Furthermore it allows easier sharing of core unit warscrolls in a simple fashion. Take Clan Rats. They are likely to be used by pretty much all the clans, and yet if you have them in 4 or so different books then any FAQ or Errata that affects one has to affect the others in turn. The result is increased update annoyance and sharing of a warscroll and identical stats in 4 different armies for no strong reason. Instead if its all in one book its a lot easier to keep track of things. Each Clan can come with its own benefits and advantages and is little different to if they are in separate books; save that with them all in one there's no allies limits or issues. Furthermore it makes them appear far more complete a faction and it means if GW releases a new Clan Moulder model then it updates "all" the skaven armies even if they don't produce something for another Clan for a few years. Whislt if they keep them separate there's a barrier there which means a Clan Moulder player might not collect anything but them so new units for other clans are not updates to that player and their army. The issue of weaker clans is the same no matter if they are in one book or four. Honestly the only ones who know the future are GW; they might have solid update and release plans and can keep up with 4 or more armies. Also as yet they've not actually made a single formal "Allied" armed force. Ergo an army that has no Battletome, but has an official document and is designated and designed to be an ally only. We have them, but that's more accidental and a result of factions that were established the day AoS launched and have not been revised since that date.

Skaven are honestly in a pretty good place overall. There's a few kits showing their age, but by and large most of their non-plastic are heroes rather than rank and file troops. So they could easily adapt to a new battletome. Honestly they'd work better in a single tome as there's so many core units that the clans likely share. Things like clans, giants, ogres etc..... are likely shared across most of the clans so why have them split into 4 armies or so when all could be united. Especially since in the lore you often see them working multi-clan anyway - even if they are aiming to backstab each other at a moments notice. Plus some clans, like the assassin clan - just don't work well if you try and turn what is essentially an assassins department of a whole faction into a whole army unto itself. Much easier to have it simply as one part of many in a single book.

I forget the questions, but they were quite open and there was quite a bit of room for writing custom ideas so it wasn't just a series of tick-box results. It took them a while to process the information and they got something like 100,000 results. I think many of the general issues might have been address quietly through the year, however the end of this post shows a summary of three things changed: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/03/22/breaking-news-major-revealsgw-homepage-post-1/

I wonder if anyone has heard if GW are going to do another big customer public survey? The last one seemed to do rather well and highlighted to GW the need/desire to bring back Sisters of Battle as well as a few other things. It would be interesting to see if they are doing to do another one.

Actually the last two or so years are REALLY abnormal for GW. In the past GW would have longish periods where nothing major would happen, then you'd get a new Battletome/Codex drop with a big swathe of updated and new models. This would happen every few months and the upshot was some factions never got updated before a new rules edition came out. In fact once or twice armies missed two whole editions of rules. That could leave armies in a really bad and odd spot where some bits work and many don't. However GW also only marketed through White Dwarf. They didn't need news 3 times a week, just once a month and even then there was less buildup and very few to not hints (we relied on a lot of rumours in those days) Since 8th edition 40K and AoS 2.0 GW has been in full overdrive at an insane level, both with their marketing being now 365 days a year (seriously this year they didn't even stop over christmas) on multiple formats; but also they've been pushing out Codex and Battletomes at a fast rate. For the first time ever they've got almost all of 40K with Codex - there's only Sisters of Battle and Genestealer Cults to go before GW has to add new armies or divisions. Meanwhile AoS has lagged, but GW is clearly pushing out all the stops to get them up to date. Behind the scenes they've also had changes, one key one (in my impression) is that with specialist games, instead of having them fit around major games; they've instead got dedicated teams set to them. Now these teams might have duel roles in other games, but the upshot is the specialist games have formal time slots and staff set to them. That means content and production. GW is basically smashing out content left and right to strengthen its position in the market. I think its also a drive to try and get many of their games to a very functional state then I expect to see GW ease off the pressure a little. Basically once armies have Battletomes they can be marketed and run on their own without any issues - I think if GW gets to that point then they can trickle out updates a little slower because most of their market will be at least content with functional viable armies and games.

I see two in the bottom sprue and something in the first sprue that might be a head or might be something else (bottom right corner of the upper half). It's hard to tell without knowing the kit better and seeing the part in person.

I think this means we might have to hire a cat for TGA! Because that means new Skaven book and that means our resident rats are going to go all kinds of nuts!

Interesting thing to note - Battletome Flesheater Courts is sold out on the GW UK website - rare that I ever see a Battletome/Codex out of stock and I wouldn't have pegged it as being on of the "hot sellers" to run out of stocks. And this isn't just "out of stock" its "sold out!"

Dispossessed references might be historical though - Dwarves and Grots always had a lot of fighting between them so it stands to reason that those icons could just be nods to historical references. We have to be careful when interpreting lore and actuality. The Old World lore had Nippon, Araby and others that were oft mentioned as existing, but never had armies (Araby did get a Warmaster army though). Meanwhile even in AoS we get references to things that might or might not never come to be. Eg in Inferno 2 one of the early stories talks of water nymphs battling against the forces of Chaos alongside the Sylvanath; along with the possibility of giant sea serpents. Now these could be a big hint at a creature that might be coming to be added to the Sylvanath army roster; or it might be the writer using creative licence or it might be fully realised lore that just never makes it into the full game at all. Heck for some reason Khinerai have one body that has a stormcast helm strapped to their hip and no reason (that I'm aware of) has been presented for that design choice. We get bits of lore all the time and the Realm system means that we can get huge chunks of potential since Dwarves in different realms will differ here and there. Some of those diferences might feel like new armies or models to come - there's potential all around. And some might never come to be, or they are references to old things form the Old World

I don't think it was last minute, but I do agree that the original plan was likely to split and keep them split. Dont' forget AoS at launch made factions of Shadowblades - an army with 1 unique model and 1 half of a duel kit. It also had a couple of factions with only 1 model in them. I think as 2.0 has firmed up the market GW is changing and addressing things and has been doing so through releases that pull some forces back together in part or in full. They've changed their approach to AoS for the better I think. Of course Skaven had a Battletome out already so that might have changed things forever for them - we just don't know. Only GW knows the future and they are cagey at best when it comes to things more than around 3 months in advance. A few things we know of are coming later - either directly (eg Sisters of Battle) or through deduction (Slaanesh). I do think its a failing for AoS that GW can't release at least their long term plan for what armies will look like in terms of what models are already released. Then again it might be delibrate so that GW can keep a lid on production demands; rather than revealing all and risking going out of stock as people start to build armies and buy up models en-mass over the range of "to come" armies that might be a year or more out (that also creates very impatient fans)

Skaven don't need a huge number of new kits to combine up, especially if GW reunites them. Plus it makes sense, things like Clan Rats and Slaves are going to be shared over most of the clans anyway so there's 1 or two units that already will have to be universally balanced between them. Then you've got the fact that alliances within a Battletome removes the points and count limits of the normal allies system, its far more flexible without having to change anything to the core rules of the game itself. Finally it means that if GW releases a new "clan moulder" style or themed unit it counts as a new thing for all the Skaven clans. Otherwise they've got to support 3 or 4 armies with new releases, updates and attention. That latter point is a big one and I think it was fine when AoS was in its original form whereby we had a lot of small armies which were likely going to be cycled through (retiring some, bringing new ones in). However today they are approaching it more "normally" for GW. Supporting more armies is hard, whilst if they combine things up it makes things a lot easier and, honestly, better for most involved. So long as they balance it like goblins then you'll still have viable mono-clan factions to pick from, whilst having the total freedom to mix and match if you want.

If a human is a duck then a Stormcast is a Goose - Compare the size of the average stormcast to the average aelf or human and the Stormcast tower over them. They are essentially the Order equivalent of Chaos Warriors - super powered and sized and birthed from human origins, but twisted. Whilst Chaos warps the original body; the Stormcast is born from the souls of those who cry out to Sigmar for revenge on Chaos; from powerful individuals who die in Sigmar's embrace and whom he takes up through bolts of lightning to be reforged within his Realm. Stormcast are not human, they appear sort of human, but they are not. They are capable of rebirth through Sigmar through the reforging; but they lose a part of themselves every single time. Some recall their past some recall nothing. They don't breed (far as I'm aware) they might love; but they are mostly a living weapon. Humans on the other hand are building civilizations; born naturally, are smaller in stature and size and form the bulk (along with Aelves and Dwarves) of the peoples of many Realms. Humans are very much going to get an Order army, at least one if not two I would wager. Free Peoples is the popular focus because it already has a large population of humans to build an army from and has rules in the Generals Handbook. When that army will come is known only be GW.

Free Peoples or an unnamed human faction for Order. Considering how many humans there are in the Lore and in Order as models it stands to reason a human army for them is coming. Remembering that Stormcast are not human.

In other news I'm thinking on starting a riot to complain at the lack of griffhounds in Roll Models! 8 pages into season 2 and not a single Archibald appearance!!!

Ahh no what I meant is that most of the old Warhammer Chronicles short stories are not repeated in multiple books over and over again. Yes GW is reprinting them and they are collecting a lot into collected editions now, but many of the short stories are only sold in those or separately. Granted some are appearing again in things ilke the Inferno reprints, but those are short term products and out of print otherwise. In contrast AoS has many short stories that are already copied through two or three separate collected editions and where those shorts are also sold online on their own as well. To me it makes it look like GW are desperate in trying to boost page counts at the cost of repeated content in books published very close together. Eg Sacrosanct and Gods and Mortals both share 3 of the same short stories and they are published quite close together.

For some unfathomable reason BL keeps reprinting a lot of short stories into collected editions for AoS. They don't really do this for Chronicles and the old Warhammer line at all and where there are reprints its often cases like the new Inferno Print on Demand - where they are reprinting an old out-of-print book that had some of its stories printed later in newer inprint publications. AoS hasn't got any of that, but for some reason they keep copycatting them along. It reduces my desire to buy new complition books from them when half of the book is already in another book I own.

We just don't get the rumour service we used too. We know that there are "dark" and "light" aelf factions to come, but when we'll see either of those forces is impossible to tell. We don't even know what GW are going to do with many of the existing Aelf forces. About the only thing we can debate on is what we might see for the Flesh Eater Courts and Skaven after this new duel box. Otherwise we've no real material to go on. We know a human faction and two Aelven factions are coming and that Dark Oath are coming - but we've really nothing on specifics. The only other rumour is a more fleshed out Skirmish update that was hinted at for a while here and what was thought could be the WD but turned out it wasn't. However that is again just logical that GW likely has a killsteam level of support and structure for AoS in Skirmish in the works to come when they've got more of the line cleared up as to what is what. Other than that a lot of rumours are just logical guesswork and deduction. With GW pumping out news and articles as fast as they do there's just no pressure for more rumours or staff to risk jobs to sneak info out

The Original Infernos are very different to the new in several ways: Old Inferno are from the earlier days and have stories from 40K, Bloodbowl, Necromunda and Old World Fantasy. It also has artwork, cut aways, info slips, comic strips (one of and some longer term). A general mish mash of media and lore produced by the GW team. It was the place where some long term stories appeared (eg Gotrek and Felix and the Gaunts Ghosts) as well as one off adventures and the like. This is going way back to some of the most early stuff that GW made and even before they had a formal "Black Library" division. There is somewhere in the region of 40 issues and GW is re-releasing them in blocks of 5 at around £5 a book. Which is about what I see them going for second hand on ebay (or thereabouts). The New Inferno (of which there are 2 issues published now) are only short story collections and feature the current worlds which are basically the same as the old, save that there is now Age of Sigmar instead of the Old World fantasy stories. Part of the reason that the new inferno is only stories is because today BL and GW have more outlets - they've got dedicated comic strip pages; dedicate art websites and products and the like. So there's no need to squeeze it all together.

Lol nope you've just been pulling the short straw on them I think. Though this does remind me that Inferno 2 is now out!

Another option would be to give armies like KO a bonus to taking allied mages. That way the KO retain their ability to be magic free, but gain an increased reason to take an allied mage to bolster up a clear gap in their armed forces. Just like many real armies would, if there's a gap they'd want to fix it. Could be the KO have no magic, but have access to some ancient texts (or stole them) which allows them to train or empower (for a limited period) allied mages with a specific set of spells or endless spells etc... So they can take them; they might even get a points reduction on taking an allied mage or it might not count toward ally limits in their army etc... GW could even take this a step further and give KO a specific model that is an allied mage - such as a runecaster from another force. The Casters of the Order of the Brick joined the ranks of the KO upon being saved when their tower was falling down - pledging their name and giving the once magic free faction access to some limited spellcasting etc...

@Joseph Mackay I think KO are highly ranked in peoples desires to have new Battletome because whilst they are not super old they do have some issues. Furthermore they lack any magical ability so the whole Endless spell system is closed off to them at present. Of course this could be resolved with a single duel mage kit release or something like that or adapting existing rules. There is no denying that al ot of older factions that got books before 2.0, do need a clean up. That said an army with a Battletome at least is SAFE in terms of it being very unlikely GW will retire the army or even models within it. There are a lot more armies that are not "SAFE" at present which GW to address that. Last thing we want is for AoS to limp on with loads of confusing half and semi factions kicking around - it confuses old players and its even more confusing for new players

This is why FW is missing a huge trick on their store pages. Sure they show a scale marine next to some models; but they really should show armies alongside some of their biggest. The Dread Saurian has a massive price, but it wasn't until I saw a photo of it towering over a whole army that I realised quite how big the model really is. It's a lot more justifiable on price when you really get a sense of size with some FW models.

@JPjr I'd love a more involved flying system - sadly its often limited by the 2D nature of the boards we play on. Even with buildings with levels its still all a 2D ground based game. The core issue is how to represent a unit "in flight" whilst keeping it on the table as you encounter the issue that terrain and other units on the ground get in the way of placement. Whilst if you remove the model to a flying "sideboard" you're essentially taking models "off the table" or you're creating a separate flight table which increases tablespace requirements. Granted things like delayed deployment also do this, but the other way around, so its not as if we are not used to the idea of models not being on the table during the game. Plus 40K has dedicated fliers and seems to get along well with them. The real issue for AoS would be that a lot of the dedicated fliers would have ground/landed poses; whilst the 40K fliers that remain in flight are all air units and modelled for being in flight the whole time