Overread

I think that there's a difference between armies having a theme and armies having distinct missing aspects. It's one thing to have, say, a close combat focused army which has very few ranged units, but some; from one which has no ranged unit options at all. IT's one thing to have a weak aspect but another to have no aspect. Eg Khorne could have the no spells thing perfectly with no magical element what so ever, not even prayers. Thing is that means they have a whole phase of the game where they can do and can counter nothing; it cuts players out of a whole layer of the game to play that force. And in the end there isn't anything else they can "give" the army to make up for it in the close combat area besides making them stronger. The mechanics would remain the same there. So yes as the Demon armies have become their own forces instead of parts of a single force; we will see more and more a general covering of all bases. As I noted before I'm eager to see Artillery options for them arise and perhaps some unique warbeasts/monsters as well that count in the large categories as right now that's mostly just Greater Demons. I'd love to see some Slaanesh artillery and some bigger beasts/monsters/constructs for them; same as I would for the other Chaos forces.

Interesting observation - Firestorm games have around 4 or less of almost all the Battleforces. And 19 Hedonite ones This means that either they REALLY over-ordered in the extreme on Hedonites compared to the others; or my prayers earlier in the thread got answered!

SOULSLAYER - NEW GOTREK BOOK!!!!!! https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/12/11/discover-what-reads-await-in-2022-with-black-librarys-warhammer-preview-online/

I think some of the old Demon themes will weaken a bit as they are shifting from being parts of an army to being armies of their own. Eg the only ranged weapons used to be magic or the Khorne Skull Cannon ,but now we've seen Tzeentch and Slaanesh getting archer and ranged units of their own and such. Heck I expect at some stage we'll see artillery added to all the gods not just Khorne.

Nurgle, if I recall right, was always the more "tanky" Chaos side to things. Nurgle - tank Khorne - heavy hitter Slaanesh - glass cannon Tzeentch - magic! So nurgle being a tanky tome sounds about right, hard to kill and pretty tough.

We don't even know what kind of update Eldar are going to get (rumour hints suggest that its a make-over and its high due for one). So its hard to say what kind of update that will be or how many kits there will be. It could be a huge chunk, it could be a small handful. Skaven certainly need an update, but honestly the same can be said of the majority of AoS armies; either needing a good addition of models and/or updating of old sculpts and materials. That said the reliable rumours that hinted at Eldar and several other releases which have happened, haven't hinted at Skaven getting a major update. Now I could see them getting some updated models or new kits, but at this stage if their release is in the next few months i'd be (happily) surprised if its a major do-over.

*yes I'm totally aware I'm behind on painting anything or even getting undercoat on anything - don't abuse me!!* So just some wild army building thoughts, what do people think of this: Godseekers Host 1995points 1 Herald on Exalted Chariot - 265 General Battleline: 1 Seeker Chariot 130 1 Seeker Chariot 130 1 Seeker Chariot 130 10 Sickblade Seekers 460 10 Blissbarb Seekers 440 10 Blissbarb Seekers 440 And yes this is mostly me theorying on how many new seeker riders one can squeeze into a 2K army. The Seeker Chariots provide the cheapest battleline whilst in a Godseekers Army, Of course any of the seeker groups could be broken down into smaller units of 5. I did try and put more Sickblades in, however they are just more in points that it tips the scale. At least not without dropping a whole 10 blissbarbs. The biggest issue is the lack of any volume in leaders compared to what the army likely should have; whilst not having enough spare points to squeeze in two leaders of any worth; at least not without again dropping some seekers.

I almost voted for Ossiarchs but I've been more focused on my Slaanesh. Sadly I see no one has voted for Ossiarchs I kinda feel like they are in a limbo, everyone who is a fan waiting for GW to release a new Battletome or even a second wave (like Lumineth got) to really give them more variety and spark. I think we are past the "they aren't Tomb Kings" aspect and now they just need fleshing out (ooh is that a pun!?) to really get peoples attention. A few releases here and there or a big launch and I think they'll be solid. Heck look at Lumineth, an army that were much in the same position and now are roaring with popularity

The only "souping" that GW has done with Daughters of Khaine is allying them with the remains of the Dark Elf line through the Broken Realms story. There is potential there that GW could go that pathway. Certainly old Dark Elf fans would be happy to see the army work again (its pretty much all there save for one or two hero models and the reaper bolt thrower). At the same time DoK back then were just Witch Aelves and the Cauldron - now they've got Harpies and Melusai of their own and I just get the feeling that they are their own thing. Its hard and could be a huge sore if GW did it because DoK fans from the start of AoS would be unhappy whlist Dark Elf fans would be super happy. It's hard to tell and its very hard to tell because Cities of Sigmar is such a big question mark and hodge podge of models and armies. Some, like Dwarves, are easy and could splinter out to their own army. Some, like Dark Elves are almost all there and a full on army. It's very hard to tell honestly. Personally as a DoK fan I'd be torn over a formal reuniting of the Dark Elf line. Seeing DoK go from their own army to a "subfaction" group within a greater Dark Elf line - it just doesn't "feel" right to me. I'll have to read Red Harvest and see how the lore shapes up. Morathi using Malarion's forces as her elite assassin/spies sounds really wrong for Morathi. I just can't see her trusting her Son enough to give forces loyal to him such a role within her faction. I'd far rather expect her to use loaned armies as suicide/chaff/expandatory or other such roles - ergo warrior roles where they are important, but where they aren't going to be a cornerstone of her faction's organisation structure nor armed forces.

Yes and no. Lets say the threshold for "fast selling" is 5 kits in stock in their warehouse. If GW only ever prints 6 of a specific kit then it only takes one sale for it to enter the "fast selling" category. If they only sell 1 a week then its going to appear in the "fast selling" list for quite a long time because they are unlikely to feel pressure to print many more even once they are down to 2 copies because they are only selling at a very slow rate of 1 a week. Fast Selling mostly came around because GW lost the ability to just bump things up the printing list at a whim. In the past if something suddenly became popular (a rule update, a bit of marketing etc...) GW could quickly just shift the production line around and bump the popular thing up and get it out into the market fairly quickly, certainly in the UK with some lag for overseas. Today everything is snarled up so things might run out of stock and stay out of stock for a while, even in the UK market. So the fast selling is more of a "get this now because it might vanish for a few weeks" - and its more applicable overseas where those markets have to wait for shipments so there can be weeks/months of lag right now.

I wonder if there's degradation of the plastic with repeat melting and moulding? Ergo its fine to do it once or twice, but repeated processes results in a poorer overall performance. Another issue might simply be that the hopper design can take pellets but not sprue so easily. That said I do have some recollection that GW did try a recycling system through their stores but couldn't get efficient/cheap enough return transporting and sorting to make it work. It would be wonderful if they could sort something out and if material could go around again . Sorting might be an issue, customers might apply glue and paints or other such things to the sprue that they return without thinking about it and suddenly you've got contamination in the mix. Or even plastics of a different formula from another firm being thrown in (because why not get rid of your plastics all at one spot).

The problem with "no summoning" is that the army is pointed to expect you to summon during the game. So you have to have some pretty big bonuses if you are going to remove the mechanic entirely. Thing is a bonus always applies whilst summoning is very variable and takes time to take effect. It's tricky because leaving out summoning and having an army wide bonus to counterbalance might just make the sub-faction the best choice. Much like how at launch everyone took the +1 save subfaction for Ossiarchs because it always had effect and it was nearly always the best choice at the time compared to anything else.

I think I see the flaw in your review - you don't own any Prosecutors. Or at least you don't give the impression of owning any. I understand the concept of your review in breaking down a model into different aspects so that you can review each aspect in itself without letting one override the other. However you've boiled it down so much that I think you've moved away from a review to a blurb, like the one on the back of a book. A summary that's so short and quick to the point that you lack the space to go into detail on any one aspect. Eg the first section on building you make potential suggestions on what might be weak connections, however the way its worded sounds like you've looked at a photo, but not actually built, held or played with the model. There's no mention of how easy it is to actually build; any tricky or confusing parts; no mention of sub-assemblies for ease of painting; no mention of hard to reach spots or of cool little detail features on the model or variation or optional parts (or lack there of) in the kit. This carries through into the other sections; the comments are generalise based upon the stats but not really going into actually using the models on the table or in armies. Not even just your own experiences of using them. It's one thing to have good or bad stats, but to actually use something within the context of games is essential to any review. Math-hammer is very important, but context is also critical. You also make little to no mention of any combos, interactions, buffs/debuffs etc... within the review. Again this comes off more as a review based on a photo and warscroll than of actual model experience. And this taints the review because it ends up so basic that it lacks depth in itself. Even if you remove all flare and "lore/fluffy/personal" aspects from a review there is still room for a lot of engagement in the small details of each aspect. Granted I accept that your review is a quick demonstration of your theory, however I think that its important to note that a big critical part of any review is trust in the reviewer themselves. That comes across in the writing and for many that might be someone really hyped up about a model. Who sounds excited and interested and fired up - that carries a lot of weight because that's how we gain the impression that what that person says is "true". They are interested and that means the positive parts of their review regarding the model gain extra importance whilst the negative lose importance. If you remove the emotional aspects then you've got the small details; things that give confidence that you have held it and used it. That you have experienced and tested the model and thus are a valued source of information. This is a sub-text to reviews that some forget and yet its critical to the overall uptake of any review. Especially when the reviewer is otherwise an unknown person to the person reading the review. Some "long established" people within a community can have very brief and "to the point" reviews and get away with it because they've built a fanbase who trust their word. The demonstrations of the reviewers skill, validity and more have been done, just in the past.

GW are still cautious on sales. The risk for them is if they run regular sales on models then that does set a new baseline for the value of a product. It's why several video game companies were very angry at Epic games a year or two back when Epic did a big sale without telling the companies or asking permission. Now Epic footed the difference in price to the publishers so the customers got a sale and the publishers got the same profits as a full price sale; but it meant that a game which were £60 at launch, were now "seen" as being valued far lower at one point in time. Many customers who aren't around for the sale will then wait for the next sale and when the price comes down again. GW has an issue with that because their products might last 10 or more years in the market. They don't want customers waiting for a sale. At the same time I think they've slowly realised that things like vouchers can be used to generate sale conditions without devaluing specific products. Furthermore they do have a rough 10-25% range to play with on their own store because that's where the prices are in 3rd parties. So it doesn't devalue because anyone who wants those prices normally just goes through the 3rd party system. GW can still set those prices on their own store from time to time and still make more profit than going through 3rd parties.

Sometimes this is because the error isn't caught until after the product starts shipping to customers. By which point its already through enough of the delivery system that it might actually be easier/cheaper to resolve problems and send out replacements than to issue a recall and then re-issue stock. It might also be that whatever shipment has the issue is a latter batch, so the early "test/sample" batch passes fine and then the error creeps in later. So you see enough of the error appearing that its significant, but not enough that it was worth GW getting everything sent back, unpacking it then replacing everything then shipping it out again etc.... Eg some people seem to have this new plastic casting error and some don't. So already we know its not universal, just significant enough. I do agree a formal notice on the GW website and such to inform people would be good.

I wonder if they can keep messing it up as far as February so I might have a chance at two boxes

UK stores appear to be holding out a little better than some others, this might just reflect that GW hasn't sent as much overseas, but it can be really hard to judge. The sets this year are actually pretty impressive - most of the AoS ones are sporting brand new models, some only released this year. Necrons have a lot of new things, again only just a year old at best. So there's quite a lot of bright shiny new things in them which makes a lot of the sets way more popular.

Firestorm Games are my go-to and generally have good discounts. Wayland I think took a hit during the pandemic and their discounts haven't gone back down on things like Warhammer - they used to be one of the best discounted rates. Lets not forget a lot of those stores also rely on in-person shopping and gaming centres which have all been hit hard and whlist online sales have been good shipping costs and importing have become very complicated and expensive. Those stores have likely lost sales to the EU block and lost profits on what they still sell there. That said a fair few (inc firestorm) are using floating discounts so as the stock gets less and less the discount reduces as well. Grabbed the Slaanesh set off Firestorm - very tempted to get the Necron but I can't justify it all at once. I figure neither set will be in stock come January and whilst both have new models in them that I need, my Slaanesh is further along than my Necron so I figure get the Slaanesh. I can also pick up some of the Necron stuff for cheap through Indomitus (save for the flayed ones as that got messed up)

Surely they'd be allowed to have a store copy for display purposes and just blank out the code. I'm guessing they aren't allowed to open just any codex/battletome, but a sacrificial one to show off isn't out of the question. Then again it might depend on footfall in the store. I'm sure they'll have some codex/battletomes to hand (even their own ones) to give people an idea what's inside.

To be honest that seems to happen a lot with the initial hype around a fair few AoS armies that are new. Ossiarchs are the same. I think its a few things. First up both forces were dropped with very little build up in the lore. GW in their bid to avoid tipping their hand to 3rd parties means that they don't seed. It's not like adding Exodites, Cathay, Araby and such, but totally new forces that have "always been in the setting but no one spotted them until today" kind of thing. So there's very little initial seeding from GW to build up some hype. Heck they've actually done more with things like Spider Grots. Secondly a huge part of initial hype are Old World fans. Like it or not 30 years of selling and marketing one of the worlds biggest fantasy wargames on tabletop leaves its mark. Cruelboyz, Ossiarchs - they aren't Old World. If Ossiarchs had been Tomb Kings in all but name they'd have been leaped on even if they'd kept some of the designs like the harvester or catapult. Thirdly it might also be that because Cruelboyz are a bit like a Skaven clan in that they aren't their own army, there's a bit of a feeling that they aren't a "full" force of their own; but also that they aren't regular Orruks that people are already collecting. Finally lets not forget that Orks in general in AoS have been neglected. No terrain feature, no endless spells, no actual new models (until Cruelboyz which are a new design approach); removed one chunk of models. Yes Goblins got attention and Destruction got a new force in the Mega Gargants, but actual Orruks have been to the side for a while. So there's a good few things that conspired together to perhaps lower the initial hype around them. That said I think the design is very very solid and I'm honestly more of a fan of them than any other Orruk/ork models GW has made in a long time. To me they are actually closer ot the design ethos of REALLY old Warhammer orks. Back when they were slightly less of the 40K style of football hooligans and much more a dark menacing force of evil straight out of the pages of Lord of the Rings.

I believe that @jeanfluflu only released some pre-sliced files for download earlier. Those can work provided that you've got the very same printer and resin as they were using, but if not then they won't work. I don't think any stl/3mf files (or even obj) were released for the dragon. Might be that cleaning them up and putting them up on My Mini Factory/Minihoarder/CGTrader/Cults is in the works for sale etc...

I recall the days when we waited 6 months* between codex/battle tome releases and you were lucky IF you got to the end of an edition and got a new book Physical books won't go away, they earn GW money and they are also more engaging than digital assets, esp for staff selling models and product and the game to customers in stores. I suspect that we will see slowdowns and issues for at least the next year and that assumes that global shipping doesn't get any worse. *or at least it felt that long!

I think that's a key point - Dominion didn't sell out as much as 40K, but it has sold really well and better than Soul Wars. Also lets not forget Cruelboyz are new whilst Necrons and Marines of Indomitus are both established armies. Domion was harmed with the same thing as Indomitus with delays after release for the follow-on products. Fleshing out Cruelboyz with a Battletome and new models and such. Same thing happened with Indomitus, but in that case the Necrons already had a Codex, they already had long established fans and such. Plus in AoS, Destruction has been the most neglected segment for quite a long while and the Orruks especially. So slightly lower sales on that side is expected; or if not expected at least tolerable. They also didn't have the fanatic fan service that Sisters of Battle had; however SoB also got a multiple releases in a row, front place marketing and a lot of other bonuses to marketing. They were pushed hard but were also fleshed out with a big range fast.

Don't forget a year before Indomitus was set to be a major boxed set that would last a while and it sold out in about a day or two and GW decided to do a second print run of a starter discount box. The Pandemic basically threw all of GW's marketing predictions out the window. Dominion might well have been a reaction to boosting production in anticipation of higher than normal sales that then didn't happen; or it might have happened and just wasn't as big as GW thought it would be. They rarely release full data on sales even at shareholder meetings. So we rarely have proper insight. A good few stores have sold Dominion at a steep discount, but don't forget part of that isn't just that its not sold as fast as they want, but also as fast as they need. Many independent game stores are on tight margins and just can't leave multiple boxes sitting on a shelf for 3 years. So they slash the price to clear them - even if they don't make much profit it releases that money for them to buy something that does turn a faster profit. It's why many 3rd parties rely heavily on card games and such for their main income and wargames are, whilst higher cost per unit, often slower to shift and slower to recoup profits from. But its a hard line to walk - if GW undersupplies too much customers complain that they couldn't get the product; if GW oversupplies too much then 3rd party stores complain about lack of fast enough sales. The line between the two is a tight one and one that is probably impossible to ever get perfect. As customers slight over-production is a good thing as it ensures we get what we want. So long as GW doesn't make a long series of blunders in over producing, they will be fine. One outlier every so often is fine; its when you get repeat bundles and boxed sets that don't shift fast enough that you have a problem

Sorry for the late reply. There's a few instruction archives around such as here https://www.reddit.com/r/WarhammerInstructions/ That said if you email Games Workshop you can ask for build instructions for any model if you lose them.