Overread

There's no pattern at all. Sometimes its really close, sometimes its months off and sometimes its not even hinting at anything to come at all. So there's no pattern to play with Play him as the mighty metal/resin monster he is. Though you might have to rebase but otherwise he's still a mighty warhound!

They are not a bad unit by any means, but because they are close combat rather than ranged, they are more at potential risk than heartrenders. Heartrenders can fire at range and move away so they can put quite a bit of distance between them and their target. Thus meaning they can avoid countercharges by close combat units; and duck behind cover to avoid return fire from ranged units. Lifetakers need to get up close and personal in order to deal out any damage to the enemy. However their saving grace is how close combat works now and how their fight and flight mechanic works. Because you fight close combat in alternating turns (you go then your opponent etc...) then ideally the turn you get your lifetakers into close combat is the turn you want to have them attack first, so that you get to make your attacks and then use flight to escape combat, before your opponent can counter attack. Of course other units in your army might also want to have first chance at attacks, so you have some tricky choices to make on who gets to attack first and which you might risk to getting counterattacked by your opponent. Points and actual stats wise they are not too dissimilar, though they are purely close combat focused. They are still great at swooping into support other units engaged in close combat; in attacking loan artillery/ranged/hero (eg mage or archer) units and to contest control points and objectives on the table.

A few tips: 1) With the Blood Cauldron break out the magnets. If you magnetize it you can use it easily as either cauldron or shrine, and at the very least for the Cauldron you want it magnetic so that the Avatar can be removed for transport (reduces the height by a lot) and also have the two queens able to be swapped over. Fully magnetic would mean that you can go for whatever you want, shrine or cauldron and have spare heroes for your army. If you don't want to use magnets then build it as a Cauldron with a Slaughter Queen and have the Avatar magnetized for transport purposes. Since Hag Queens are often better on foot for support. Or build it as a shrine and take the queens on foot. 2) You are right she will want the Bloodwrack as her general so that she can take one unit of 10 Witchaelves/Sisters of Slaughter and then a unit of Blood Sisters as battleline. This is a solid choice as the spear wielding snakes are generally favoured over their ranged variation at present. 3) The Khinari work well in either form, though spears is often more popular since they can strike at range. Two units of 5 I would build at 2 separate units (hero with each block of 5) which you can then deploy as separate groups or take them as a single 10 unit flight (just make sure the leaders for each group have a unique marking on them - or better give each group of 5 a unique unified marking to identify them) That should keep her happy with the box contents. If you want to go beyond the box I'd almost say a second box would be well worth it. Giving you all useful models with no waste at all really (some might consider 20 khinari too many, but I'd not, plus with the discount price they are basically totally free so better to have the box and have free khinari!) If she wanted to expand in other ways then adding more Witches is good to build up a nice solid core; or you can add more Snakes and go for a snake heavy theme (both cost about the same and both are very viable choices). Otherwise adding some units of Doomfire Warlocks is good, they give you a fast skirmisher cavalry with magic and a unit of 10 can be very powerful and versatile. Note I'd personally say 2 battle boxes is a good start, at 3 you'd be just getting it for free Khinari (the rest being all useful purchases in most armies, the khinari being a little more situational - esp once you get to owning 30, but don't forget they've two forms so that's only 15 of each if you build them equal). Beyond 3 and you'd likely end up with more Cauldrons and Shrines than you'd need for most situations, though extra queens is no worry and more avatars gives you the option of going avatar heavy (doesn't seem to be a heavily popular choice though, but it might just be that its an overlooked approach at present)

Get an Assassin model from Shadowblades and use her as a hero leader for your army. Even if she's not set to general, that gives you an assassin focus and a good versatile model to use in battles and to form a narrative around. I do agree that DoK need one or two named heroes who are not Morathi nor influenced/directly controlled by her to give some flavour to the faction. Fingers crossed we get an Inferno short story or a future Novella or even a book!

They don't, the only way to get them is with the Blood Cauldron kit. Whilst it can sound expensive, it actually works out cheaper for DoK players as you get a Hag Queen, Slaughter Queen, Bloodwrack and Avatar for far less than GW would charge us if we were buying them as separate models. Plus if you use magnets (and its advisable to at least magnetize the avatar so that it can be packed easier) then you can build a blood cauldron or shrine out of the kit and vary if its topped with a hag or slaughter queen

I read it a day or two ago Fantastic read!

It's an interesting thing to notice, but it also appears in the books like that too. Chaos worshippers go through a sort of blood crazed phase when they are totally overcome with chaos and they charge around like a maniac without armour. Those that survive and make it to become champions and true chaos warriors are often more stoic. They still revel in battle, but they are more controlled, more in tune with themselves and their chaos influence. Radiating power in a menacing form as they march forward, towering over mortals and encased in thick metal that would be impossible to lift for a regular human. Plus they revel in that power far more so than, say, a stormcast because the chaos warrior still has all their memories of their past, when they were a weak simpleton. Before Chaos came to show them the way, to empower them, to bless them with the gift of the gods

It's based off the keyword rather than the model name, so as the Bloodwrack shrine has the Bloodwrack keyword; and the Shrine is a hero unit capable of being a leader, and thus set as general, it can indeed make the bloodsisters battleline. IF GW ever releases another Bloodwrack unit with the keyword in a hero slot then that unit could also make the snakes battleline as well.

Lore wise Daughters of Khaine are a religious cult that is ruled in a totalitarian regime which is dominated by women and topped with Khaine. However Morathi really leads as she is the mouth through which Khaine speaks. My understanding of Melusai and Khinari is that they are both formed within the blood pools by Morathi and forged from flesh and souls harvested from Slaanesh. However I believe that otherwise they have independent will and thought. That they are raised and heavily indoctrinated likely affects their outlook on life heavily, but they do have capacity to think and act and form their own concepts on the world. They are also kept hidden within the temples, so you can think of them like warlock monks - kept cloistered within the religious structure and only let out on rare occasions when needed. The result might actually give them an edge of naivety about the world and other cultures. Another aspect is that Morathi might use runes on them or other magics, to bend them or at least make them more compliant to her wills and ideals. Although any such magics could be broken or twisted or changed by outside forces or even a very determined insider force within the faction. The lore also doesn't establish if they can or cannot breed within their own kind, though I don't think there are any male melusai or khinari there's nothing that says they could not select males of the Aelf species to breed with. We know that Idoneth can breed and are forged like they are, though Idoneth fail in that their offspring lack souls. I would wager khinari and melusai would likely produce twisted offspring like themselves. Morathi might already discourage such unions in the fear that it could produce male variations which could then establish a population. That said if anything were to interrupt her supply of souls from Slaanesh this might be something she has to do in order to keep her legions healthy. Bloodwrack are certainly different and are formed from a bite from Morathi herself (from her head of snakes). They appear to lose a lot of free will and become very bound to her ideals and rulership. The Battletome never says that they are directly controlled by her, just that they are her most loyal subjects and worshippers; and that she often uses this to twist those who are rising within the ranks who question Morathi and her ideals. So clearly there is some control happening here, some breaking of wills. That said Witch aelves, Sisters of slaughter, queens, doomfires and the greater population of Daughters of Khane are all worshippers of Khaine not Morathi. It's from here that uprising could happen (and clearly does try to happen based on how many secret orders and control schemes Morathi has to use to keep things running as they are). I think that there is a general feeling that something is not right within the faction and within their own leader. They are a faction born of blood and battle, who favour survival of the fittest and strongest and yet their own males are pitiful from birth. It's one thing to look down upon another gender, but the males are physically imperfect compared to the women. Clearly this might well be causing some contention and conflict within the faction and it wouldn't shock me if Morathi has to bring in laws and religious argument to prevent her peoples breeding outside of their own kind. To prevent any chance that a stronger male genetic code could work its way into the peoples (esp since now they are so wide spread its likely that Morathi wouldn't be able to work the magics required to weaken the male bloodline again - plus how they are now spread out over most of the Realms where Order holds lands). My impression is that Daughters of Khaine is a totalitarian religious order right on the cusp of potential revolution. It all hinges and stems from Morathi, both her hatred of males and also her lie to her people regarding Khaine. It wouldn't surprise me if we see this being abused by other factions. Clearly there are queens who question if Morathi really is speaking with Khaine's voice or if she's just making it up for herself. Clearly there are needs to keep to strict codes and secret police forces to keep things running as they should - thinks that are hard to maintain once you're out of the shadow realm. Clearly an old soul within a Khinari or Melusai could recall its history over time. It need not even be a named hero from the Old World; an old queen or witch who truly knew the feeling of Khaine flowing through them could easily start to raise secret rebellion against Morathi in order to ensure the return of their true God.

I think it was around mid-year. Which makes sense as Chapter Approved is coming out in November/December for 40K. So that gives GW 6 months between each major game release.

@Souleater if you're going to magnetize wings that big remember to get some firm metal rods to pin them too. The metal pin (glued only to the wing part of course) gives a lot of strength and support and carries the weight, letting the magnet just do the job of holding the parts together. Otherwise parts that big can easily have enough force away from the magnet to pop of the join all the time.

@bsharitt I fully expect GW to either relaunch AoS skirmish or make another similar product to Killteam. Killteam works great as an intro product. It gives long term fans a chance to have a shorter, faster game with their models. Either filling in time before a big game or being the game for the evening because they don't have more than an hour or so to spare. Then on the other hand its great as an intro to new gamers. For a really cheap price they can get models and rules that is only 1 box of troops to put together. Quick and easy to get into the game. Then they add a commander and then perhaps one or two other types of troop. Now without realising they've already got near 500 points of the "big expensive" game without feeling the sting in the wallet. It's the perfect way to get people into 40K itself and thus i fully expect GW to emulate it with AoS once AoS is in a better position battletome wise. Of course 40K always had killteam, but in the past it was the side-game that you had to buy the big rule book for and it was sort of just there, but not really focused on nor marketed. Now GW is marketing it as its own product (heck some of the commander models are cheaper in their Killteam box than they are sold separate! Broodlord for Tyranids is £5 cheaper if bought for killteam) and that is getting it all kinds of additional attention. Esp as the wargame market has exploded with lots of lighter skirmish games

Right now I think the focus must be on cleaning up the minor factions and bits of factions and getting AoS to a point where they can release a "Killteam" type product (intro/gateway product) and have most armies viable and up to date. Then I think we can hope for GW to address old models and older sculpts with newer revised designs. I'd far prefer that than GW getting hooked on a handful of factions that already have battletomes and messing around updating them and ignoring all the rest. Right now there's some awesome models like dragons and phoneix sitting there gathering shelf-dust; they should be flying off shelves and into new armies and getting used.

@Sleboda I've no idea if they've ever actually refused anyone, I've certainly never heard of it. So I can't say if they are shifting to a "prove it or walk" approach, since I'd wager most people show the proof when asked without quibble - just the same as pretty much all other retailers and manufacturers (shops require proof of purchase as to most companies). It's just normal standard practice. Plus the bigger you get the bigger influence those "handful" of scammers can have and it might be that finecast already made them tighten ship just a little. In the end it might just be an admin thing and keeping a tighter eye on stock flows - both checking that they are not getting scammers at the customer level, but also in the distribution network itself.

Proof of purchase is quite common for GW to request. It's basically them covering themselves and stopping people just trading kits on ebay/secondhand and using the same "fault" to get multiple replacement parts. It also helps them track where errors are coming from in their retail chain which can then be logged and checked against their supply and stock system.

Note that I've not actually purchased ANY of this yet (I feel bad for it because I did contact them and the customer sale person was very helpful in giving advice on what would and wouldn't work - though it helped that I did spend a little while working out how their system worked and thus had a rough idea what could work before contacting - time well spent), but this is what I'm considering making with KR Multifoam cases: It should fit into one of their tall cases and then the Thrones into a smaller backpack case 6 Case system storage possibilities: Case 1 4 foam 1/2 of 6 khinerai each = 24 https://www.krmulticase.com/product/trays/V2H?m=GW&s=WHAOS&a=GAODOK Case 2 2 foam 2/3 of 10 melusai each = 20 https://www.krmulticase.com/product/trays/D5H?m=GW&s=WHAOS&a=GAODOK 2 foam 1/4 of 20 aelves each = 40 36 https://www.krmulticase.com/product/trays/SM57?m=GW&s=WHAOS&a=GAODOK Case 3 2 foam 1/2 of 10 warlocks each - 20 warlocks https://www.krmulticase.com/product/trays/D2H?m=GW&s=WHAOS&a=GAODOK 1 foam 1/2 of 2 bloodwrack and 2 avatars https://www.krmulticase.com/product/trays/J2H?m=GW&s=WHAOS&a=GAODOK 1 foam 1/2 of 6 khinerai https://www.krmulticase.com/product/trays/V2H?m=GW&s=WHAOS&a=GAODOK Case 4 1 foam 2/3of 10 melusai each = 10 https://www.krmulticase.com/product/trays/D5H?m=GW&s=WHAOS&a=GAODOK 1 foam 1/4 of 20 aelves - 20 18 https://www.krmulticase.com/product/trays/SM57?m=GW&s=WHAOS&a=GAODOK 4 foam of 20 aelves each = 80 72 Totals: Khinerai = 30 Medusa = 30 Warlocks = 20 aelves = 140 (4 groups of 30 and 20 spare slots for command) or 126 with 6 spare slots Bloodwrack= 2 Avatars = 2 Edit - the reps reply which I recall now did change a few of the ideas above and suggested a higher storage option for Khinerai which would let you fit even more into this case system. So do check out this advice too. REMEMBER I've not bought and actually tried this as yet. This is my intended plan (currently my money gets sidetracked into more models)

I think Christmas would be spoilt if we don't get a song with Duncan! The poor guy has gone from anonymous painter to official meme and mascot!

Thing is most of this is just logical. We know GW isn't making/buying square bases any more, so we know that at some point they will run out of existing stock with square bases in the box and will thus only be shipping things iwth round bases. So its going to happen at some point. Old battletomes being remade is also a given, the only surprise would be if GW releases them before finishing off the required battletomes for armies that don't even have one. And new models coming "at some point" is somewhat a given, and agian with no dates its a rumour that has existed since most of those armies were founded .

Honestly I think we more talk about potential ideas and then newly released info and models form the GW community pages. There are just not all that many rumours around really and those we get are often very sketchy at best (its nearly impossible to tell rumour from wishlist).

Ahh but it does - in a little known corner of the Realm map, one of those many island nations that's teaming with life. The Realm system gives GW and gamers insane capacity to make up whatever the heck you want (pretty much). You want a heavily steam punk totally custom designed army of Aelves who fight with duel dagger who worship slaanesh and who basically use the Slaanesh rules system. You can do that! The only limit is your imagination and creativity (and budget).

Most people expect a free Cities because they can't see GW wanting to flesh out half a dozen further full factions under Order. It's also because people feel Order is big enough as it is and that the range doesn't want too much bloat in it. Add too many factions and GW will lose the long term ability to appease their fans. Even if the rules keep up we'll flip over to where factions never see any new models ever because there's another 40 other factions in the line before them.

Don't forget AoS at launch and the end of the Old World was done under a totally different management team and set of objectives. It's very clear that AoS today is a totally different beast. That's why they are slipping back in some old characters, why they've improved the lore; putting out character based stories that are not just Stormcast VS chaos etc.... Basically the whole focus has changed. It wouldn't shock me if there are people in GW who would like to sweep AoS under the carpet and bring back the Old World; but it won't happen. Plus AoS is selling strongly now and can establish itself. It's just its first year and a bit of life was a rough nasty start under the wrong focus with no real eye to what the market actually wanted. So I think GW will be careful with removing factions, I think they'd be far more apt to combine, merge and adjust rather than remove stuff. At least major factions that are already supported now. I'd not be surprised to see factions with 2 or 3 models to their name vanish or get merged, but I'd be surprised if they start retiring stuff outright now. It would start to send the wrong messages and AoS, whilst its selling well, is still in a precarious position.

However pleasure demons, demons with bits of metal stuck in various bits of their body, undead skeletons, robots with human flesh peeling off them and blood soaked demons and huge tanks that have huge vats of blood on the back are all fine? I think the slaves issue is terribly minor and almost of no impact at all. Heck the Imperium has servators which are basically human brains slaved inside their own skull; whilst the Penetant Engine has a person being crucified on the front of it (more or less)

@Malin Warqueen https://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-age-of-sigmar/novels/warqueen-ebook-2018.html Part of the new Novella series that came out yesterday in physical and ebook formats. I got the 10 set (which if bought from Black Library gives you one free in either paper or digital form). @Xasz I agree I feel like they are going to be very popular and give a new flavour to chaos that, indeed, isn't just all pure addicted madness. Heck wouldn't surprise me if they are more fluid in how they serve the gods and being prepared to make the gods work for them to earn their woreship (if Tzeentch fails they might turn to Nurgle or Khorne). So they are working for Chaos but not slaved to it

I've not yet finished but the new Darkoath based Novella released yesterday is a great read. Has a relationship with the Chaos gods a little like Conan in that they woreship the gods, but are not as thralled to them as the pure chaos woreshippers. It gives them a sense of independent thought that is refreshing in a chaos faction. They also feature at least one chariot pulled by huge hounds and one character flying on a tzeentch disk. So clearly they'll have some warp influenced elements, but not as chock full as other chaos factions.