Overread

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.

I still hope that GW releases "Apoc" style rules for AoS. In fact I'm fairly sure the new format White Dwarf will have them at some point. Still even with that style of rules you'd still want a good weekend for vast battles like that as even just setting up can take a few hours for both sides The first 2-3K is normally fairly "easy" to build up too if you're active in gaming because that's your core army and a few extras. Stormcast also ahve a lot of variety and units so they are probably easier to bulk up to a higher points value even just by getting yourself more choices and variety. Armies with less model diversity are harder to expand up as you end up mostly buying just the same models over and over so can get more dull and have less direct use to buying more.

Makes me want to campaign for Daughters of Khaine to get a second wave release of models

It is indeed the unmodified roll. That said considering how many attacks units like Witches can put out I don't think there are any blanket "to hit" spells or auras for units in the army. There might be a relic for a leader to get a bonus, but not for basic troops. It would just be too broken to have units duel blade witch aelves in leader range to get that many attacks and a bonus to their "to hit" chance. The best way to deal with an army that is cutting down your abilities is to identify the unit(s) within that army which are causing issues and remove them from play or avoid their ability/spell range. Otherwise take more twin-blade aelves so that your number of attacks is greater and gets around a lower to-hit value.

Skaven might well get the Grot style release. Ergo several "armies" combined into a single Battletome. Each able to stand on their own, but also able to freely build a mixed army. The bonus there several fold: 1) It means instead of several armies, GW only has one Skaven force to contend with. This means a new model for a niche group is still a viable addition to the force as a whole because any other group can take it without limits. So it can make updates a little more frequent. 2) Because its all one army the "soup" aspect of taking a mixed force will generally be more balanced than if they are separate forces 3) Because its all one army there's no alliance limits to contend with when building a mixed force. 4) Organisation wise its a lot easier because instead of having multiple battletomes with shared units (eg clan rats are likely to be shared by most) and then another "mixed/unified" battletome you've instead got one book, one reference source. I'd say that would be a great way to approach Skaven, it also means that players who collect skaven are more likely to branch out in-faction because now if you want to add a bit of pestilens you just add a few models; you don't have to buy a new book and worry about how many alliance limits you've got. So I think it would encourage more buying of skaven stuff Win for GW; win for gamers

Thanks @Cheby and welcome to TGA! Also I just started making some Witch Aelves from the Battleforce and I wonder if they've refreshed the mould for Witch Aelves because the mould lines on them are really fine/light. Not that my prior experiences were bad, but either its random luck or they've refreshed the mould and its back to really fine mould lines!

Out of interest has anyone used Lelith Hesperax as a stand-in-model? https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Dark-Eldar-Lelith-Hesperax I was thinking she'd make a neat alternative for a hag in a unit of witches. She's already got the same style of gear and weapons, so it's really a question of the overall size comparison and how well she'd fit into a unit.

GW - testing the limits of the strength of plastic! Someone please show their sculpting department how to make running poses with two connection points on the ground Which is not to say they look bad just nightmareishly fragile!

Would be pretty easy to do for many, though you might have to muck around as I don't know if the long hair will fit all the whip positions (I've not put my sisters together so I've no real idea where the whips position relative to the hair). The weapons are pretty clear so it would be easy to do without any problems since you get enough heads in the box.

Previous count -3 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: 0 ; chipped away at a few models here and there, but no block completed. Current Count 2. So Christmas has hit and with it a storm of content in the form of a Battleforce which has fast pushed my count back into the positives. I fully expect this to have a lingering impact as until I hit the painting side of things I'm likely to leave the cauldron and the melusai mostly incomplete since they require more painting in separate parts before assembling (at least to make the painting a little easier). So that will be at least 2 boxes that will last for a time. That said I've got only 3 more Doomfires till I complete another box and I've started on the fragile Khinari from the Battleforce. Looking to make them into 10 more Heartrenders. I've also plans to add a second Battleforce to my collection which would round me out with all 20 of each type of Khinari that I think I'll need (whilst I love the models I can't see any reason to take more than 20 of either kind at present); 20 Blood sisters (one full unit of them); 4 Cauldron kits in total (more than I'll need in leaders and cauldrons and even Avatars so that's a nice completed block of purchasing). Plus the Witches from two battleforces means I only need to add one box of additional witches to complete my third block of 30 Witch aelves. Tempted to make them twin daggers as they look great like that, even though I'll admit that bucklers is likely the more versatile build choice. Hoping I can knock back the count to 0 before January, I've also come up with a new "rule" for myself - no buying models* unless my count at the time of buying is 0 or lower. Who knows if I can keep up at the rate I am currently I might even be able to adapt that rule to a lower value threshold. It would be great to see it at something like -10! *exception for Kickstarters, limited release models and supreme good deals that are insane to avoid.

Welcome to my world and the curse of fragile khinari! Thankfully nothing broken but darn if I'm scared that a stray wind will destroy the army in a second

It's certainly a marketing trick and GW knows people will be pausing to try and grab screen pages. That's why the speed flipping through varies and why some pages are blurred out and others clear. GW does it for marketing, it soaks up peoples desire to hunt down those rumours and hints and secrets and builds up a little hype and interest of its own beyond the "hey here's all the info" dump. GW knows people like rumours so they are feeding that desire directly rather than relying on internal hints. It might even be that it helps reduce internal leaks when staff feel that the marketing division is doing stuff like this.

It could be a centipede - it could be a huge smoke stack - it could be a wavy rising spore - it could be a squigpede - a mount of writhing squigs! It could even be a worm or a wyrm without wings or a giant spider monster thing - its basically a tall wobbly shape at present. Still GW will likely spill all the beans (mushrooms?) soon!

Those are not dice those are squice!

Darn this is a fantastic release for Grots! Really liking the way GW has done this - they clearly are thinking about it being two functional forces within one book that combine easily and effortlessly! Destruction and Grot fans rejoice indeed! *tries not to be jealous of the Grots Endless spells --- all FOUR of them!

My doctor has told me to stop taking salt with my rumours as its getting my salt levels way too high and I can't stop my rumour addiction. That said something happening with Slaanesh either in AoS or 40K sounds right. A new Greater Demon is expected this year at the very least.

Personally I fully expect to get a second wave release for Daughters of Khaine. In fact it surprises me that both Daughters of Khaine and Idoneth, both being early 2.0 ready factions, have not shared a joint release of faction specific Endless Spells. In the future I'd expect Dok to get at least: 1) One 3 model faction specific Endless Spell set. It's clear that this is the intended direction since we've seen them for all new factions since 2.0 dropped. 2) A getting started boxed set which might possibly come with a new unique hero for the set. GW could even just provide another hag queen sculpt if they wanted. GW clearly has GS sets for big and small factions, its just a standard part of their model delivery system. The Blood Coven set was in stock with 3rd parties for quite a while, but UK side it seems that distribution stock has fully dried up now as I don't see any of the regular big stores getting any more. We do have the Christmas battleforce right now (as so do Idoneth) so it might be that a getting started set comes much later because right now the battleforce is an ideal starting point and also expansion to most forces. That said GW could make Daughters fans happy if they just released a new Witch Aelf boxed set with a new price that is more in line with a battleline troop type (and do the same for Fyrslayers too). Personally I got a Battleforce for Christmas and am really tempted to grab one more before they vanish forever (we've really no idea how long they will last before they vanish and I can figure that the DoK one is going to be a strong seller). I'd then have a full 20 both kinds of khinari; 20 Blood Sisters, enough cauldrons and such to last me a lifetime and more witches (In fact that with the box I got for Chistmas I'd only need one more box to get another full 30 witches)

One big bonus if the spidergrots are in the same book is that GW can still internally balance it so that both moonclan and spiders can be viable forces in their own right; whilst also being able to swap units over and take whatever they want without alliance limitations. Consider that Daughters of Khaine can go witch heavy or melusai heavy or a mix and all three are viable choices. If Grots get the same internal treatment then it leaves players in a much better position to have one book than two or three. Personally I've no interest in Grots, but will look forward to seeing this new battletome and chapter in AoS development unfold!

I agree with this, it seems the wrong time for GW to push skirmish hard for new customers and gamers because so many factions are not yet ready; instead get skirmish encouraged with established gamers (hence why its in white dwarf) and then when you revamp to skirmish 2.0 later in the year (or even early 2020) you'll have legions of existing fans already playing and willing to encourage new people; plus a lot more armies with battletomes so that when those new players get into the new skirmish they'll be ready to be led into AoS as well

That open day might be a huge huge event esp for AoS in getting sneak peaks/ Hopefully GW might even go a little further than the next handful of releases - a game plan for the year would be great (They had one for 40K when they said they were going to do pretty much every faction they could in one year)

Every time I see that pegasus hyena model I get jealous of stormcast getting mounted units looking that darn good!

By getting started I mean the very same getting started boxes that we have right now on sale.