Skabnoze

I would expect models that they no longer sell to potentially be phased out of Matched Play entirely and only work for Narrative or Open games.

I don't think the Forgeworld units summon spells on the warscroll are going to survive the release FAQ. I saw it confirmed somewhere that the Forgeworld FAQ & Warscroll update is going to come out day 1 along with the other errata. I expect that they will have made a decision on how to handle these things. But maybe they do keep them - you never really know.

Man, the Legion of Azgorh are going to be pissed when they see the Stormcast have stolen their Bale Taurus... First Sigmar steals souls from Nagash and now they steal their mounts. What's next - Squigmarites?

I actually like JGroover's list a bit more than the old-school Gorefist. Gordrakk's command ability does not work on himself and the Gorefist at the same time, but you could use the Fungoid Shaman's command ability to let Gordrakk run and charge. Also, the Warboss with banner is a nice addition.

Orcs & Goblins models have had bird skulls on the models before - although mainly for the Savage Orcs. I don't think it would necessarily be out of place for Moonclan. Regardless of orc & goblin subfactions this thing looks like it is for something destruction related - probably an orc or goblin.

This is fair and I agree. For Ironjawz to do more will probably require a model update wave and a new Battletome. But my question is - what other role should they do? I'm not denying that they could use more playstyle diversity. But the whole point of the army is to be uber-elite melee orcs. They name all their formations after a Fist - which tells you how preoccupied they are with punching stuff. The only alternate role that I can come up with off the top of my head that seems fitting would be the ultra-durable role. Right now Ironjawz really are not that tanky. They are tankier than other orcs, but they still are mainly built around offense. Maybe they add an alternate brutes unit that carries shields and is a bit less offensive in order to be highly defensive and hard to shift? That seems like it might be fitting for Ironjawz. But as it currently stands I don't think the army is really geared to do much more than punch people in the face. The biggest playstyle change you could really do right now would be to go heavy into the Wierdfist. In regards to Gore Gruntas - don't discount the buffs we can layer onto them.

To play devil's advocate - what else would elite orcs do? Thematically speaking I don't think this is really the army for subtlety.

Well, new editions is the most likely place to see existing army books get rewritten. Historically it has not always happened since there have been army books that have spanned multiple editions before. But on the whole those are rare and it has mainly happened in 40k and less often in Fantasy (although it has happened). My hunch is that we will see a number of older Battletomes reworked for Age of Sigmar 2nd ed. 40k has most of their codexes out now and they will probably slow down their book releases for that game and probably concentrate on releasing more campaign books. Theoretically that means they may have more bandwidth for book rewrites for Age of Sigmar - although that will depend on if they also want an accompanying model release and how big they want those releases to be. But, books like Legions of Nagash do not require model releases so we may see more of those. I have a feeling though that we will see reworked battletomes and small model release waves for some of the earliest battletomes. So things like Ironjawz, Beastclaw, Fyreslayers, Silvaneth, Clan Pestilens, etc. They have a lot of allegiances to expand with new books, but it would probably be best for the game if they balanced out updating existing books with releasing new ones. This is generally what has happened in the past when they have released update editions that are backwards compatible with army books. Ironjawz are a fairly popular faction but have a limited amount of models. I'm sure there is a fair bit of money to be made with a new book and a small release wave.

Well, if you use either Gitmob or Moonclan grots units you can get a big bucket of wounds for relatively cheap. I like Gitmob myself because it allows me to use all of the forest goblin on foot models that I have. Also, since both gitmob and moonclan grot units are base battleline you can build your list as general destruction without really losing anything if you wanted to run a couple units. If you want a more durable unit then you could ally in some Ardboyz.

I have felt for a while now that Bonesplitterz as an army should emphasize berserk melee. Not only does the battletome mention this but it is also what Savage orcs have always been. They have always been insane lunatic berserkers that fight without any thought to their own safety. So you end up taking lots of casualties but dish out a ton of attacks. The main ways that I can see to represent this is to either give units a ton of attacks or buffs for more attacks. Have units generate additional attacks or hits. Or to make units attack in melee multiple times in a turn. I like how many units and abilities in Bonesplitterz fight multiple times per round. I will probably look into the Drakkfoot clan as well because of that. I have always liked the idea of the Kopp Rukk as well. My one major gripe, outside of price costs, is that I still think that the standard Savage orc warscroll needs to be reworked. Even if they become super cheap I just don’t think they are representative of the standard Bonesplitterz orc like they should be.

Stormcast models are bulky - but honestly everything that GW sculpts tends to fall on the bulky side. Most game miniatures tend to be bulky and it is partly due to material and sculpting design choices. Most humans have exaggerated proportions so that the materials can hold the detail, painters can paint it, and so they are durable enough to stand up to regular handling on the table. Very few games use more regularly proportioned models as they tend to be very thin and spindly. This means that for heroically scales games like GW games the artwork and the models diverge a bit in appearance since artists often make the subjects more appropriately proportioned. I agree that the Stormcast art on the new cover looks very cool.

GW still sells non-river trolls individually on their web store. So you can pick up 2 more if you want. You can also find lots of troll models on eBay pretty easily. Or, you can sell the one you have without too much issue.

If you are playing matched-play games using point values then units have minimum sizes now and you purchase them in chunks rather than individual models. Trolls come in minimum groups of 3.

My preference for allies is Gitmob. One reason is that I have a lot of forest goblins on foot from long ago - including characters. They work perfectly as Gitmob grots with a shaman and visually stick with Spiderfang.

Coincidence? I think not...

It should have a rule where if dispelled then the wizard plummets from on-high and lands on his face and takes a mortal wound. This needs to happen if only because the mental image is hilarious.

I think Darkoath may end up being a rebrand for Slaves of Darkness. Slaves of Darkness seems like a faction where if they put out a full Battletome they may be likely to replace half the kits in the faction with newer ones. Maybe it ends up just being a name applied to a few heroes, maybe it becomes a keyword, or it might simply become the name of the allegiance and they drop Slaves of Darkness.

I just hope that whatever Darkoath ends up being has models that look like the two characters released so far. I really love the old Frank Frazetta Conan look they went with for those characters and I would love a whole faction with that theme.

The way rumors have been leaking out, including rumor engines, it feels like Moonclan will probably be released before Darkoath. There has been almost not talk that I have seen about Darkoath which makes me think that they are a little ways out.

I think Skarsnik is the new Mortarch of Grief and inside the coach is Gobbla. #youhearditherefirst

You are correct. I made my post having only looked at the artwork that had been previously linked in this thread and not having seen the video. In those pictures the headpiece looks a lot different than the close-up in the video. After watching the video I agree with you.

The silhouette looks nothing like Isabella and a lot like Khalida. Isabella has always been transylvanian vampire themed and not egyptian in any way. I would love for Isabella to come back into the story in some way, but it does not really seem to fit with that picture.

No, I don't get that feeling really. GW has doubled down on very specific themes and Grots are thematically all over the place. The only product so far that breaks that trend is Legions of Nagash. We might see a book like that at some point for all of Destruction, but I don't get the feeling that they will make a grot specific one. I expect that they will turn at least one grot faction into a full allegiance with a battletome and probably eventually get some sort of anthology book released for most of Destruction. The rumors specifically for Moonclan seem strong enough that at this point it feels like a "when" and not an "if".

To be fair, Mannfred died many times in the Old World. When the old Undead army book was released in the early 90s he was still "dead" and his spirit was being held in some form of reliquary prison. The Gotrek & Felix short story in that book (most army books used to have a Gotrek & Felix story in them back then) was about the pair stumbling across a group of necromancers/cultists performing an arcane ritual to resurrect a vampire and bind him to their will. Gotrek interrupted the ritual and killed them all and by accident the vampire spirit broke free of the spell was able to return to the world. At the end of the story they revealed that it was Mannfred. So, just saying that he (and most vampire characters) has a history of being dead and then not dead - or UNdead if you will.