robinlvalentine

I mostly agree - I do think that more competitive players tend to assume the game revolves around them, when actually often GW's releases serve a very different audience (as you say, the Gryph Hound might not make perfect sense for matched play, but it's a lovely freebie for open or narrative play, or even Skirmish, and particularly young players are probably just thinking 'cool, free bird-dog!' rather than 'how does this fit into my tournament list?') But I do think some of the Sacrosanct stuff is a little... messy. There's a difference between 'this build isn't perfectly optimal' and 'this build is objectively detrimental in the rules'. So, for example, competitively speaking the Redemption Cache isn't a great option compared to the Greatmace. But it is at least a genuine choice - do you want this effect, or this effect? Which is better than the other is a matter for players to decide and debate. The balance is maybe a bit off, but in theory the items fill different roles. But, on the other hand, if your model has neither option (such as the ETB Sequitor Prime, one of the Primes from Soul Wars, and some of the options in the multi-part kit) then you're just straight-up missing out on a free bonus. Rules-wise, your model is objectively worse, for no real reason other than that the mini design team and the rules design team didn't communicate as well as they could. When these are, like the ETB Prime, some of the best minis GW's ever put out, I think that's a shame. IMO it's straightforwardly an oversight on GW's part - the frequency of such issues among the Sacrosanct range to me suggests a bit of a rush around the Soul Wars box and getting the Battletome out in time with it. It's not the end of the world, but it's not ideal. All it'd take is a couple more lines on the warscroll, giving some kind of unique effect to Primes that use a one-handed weapon with no Cache, and maybe even Primes that don't use shields, and it'd feel better for everyone. I'm far from some hyper-competitive wargamer - my Stormcast army is just made up of whatever I find cool, really. I think it's fair to point this out as a bit weird, or a bit of an oversight, without being labelled a joyless min-maxer!

You're putting words in my mouth... You're free to build your models however you like. I'm just saying that some of the options, even though they look cool, have no purpose in the rules, and that that's a bit weird. In no way am I passing judgement on anyone's mini collections.

Yeah, but if you take that, then the model holds the Redemption Cache in their sword hand and has the sword sheathed on their hip, so still no need for a sword arm unless you're doing a conversion. It's like how you can build one of the Primes to have a one-handed weapon and no shield - a lot of the Sacrosanct models have weird options that there's no reason to use in the rules.

They definitely are just special fancy swords for the Primes... they're on the Prime sprue and made to fit the Prime bodies. It's not one of GW's more logical design choices (especially as Primes have no reason to use a sword in the rules) but that's what they are, I'd be very surprised if they were ever intended to be some kind of special weapon. I think the sculptor just thought it'd be cool to include some special swords on the sprue for the Prime. I've found them useful for conversions!

Weirdly, it looks like for the Feb issue it's going to be the Hammerhands, as teased on the back of Jan's issue. Weird pick, seeing as they're not a Stormhost, just a particular army within the Hammers Of Sigmar, without much to mark them apart beyond their leader who already has rules. Maybe they'll get some special bonuses reflecting them being the very first Stormcast to be deployed - like a super-veteran variation of Hammers?

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily saying they'd be unpopular, I was just responding to the original idea, stated as 'fact' upthread, that they'd be AOS's most popular faction - IMO they'd be mid-level popular at best, and GW, who has far better data than any of us, probably has good reasons for not having rebooted Freeguild yet

I agree that I'd like to see a 'default human' faction, but I don't think the idea that they'd be super popular holds much water. The Empire were never WHFB's most popular faction, and the Imperial Guard are nowhere near 40k's.

@EMMachine so Black Library got back to me and said City Of Secrets isn't contained in The Silver Shard... so maybe that was only a thing for the German edition?

Confirmed - Mollog is just a Troggoth, with the combat stats to match, not a wizard of any kind. https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/01/14/14th-jan-warband-focus-mollogs-mobgw-homepage-post-1/

Is he actually allowed in matched play anymore? Seeing as he didn't get points in the latest battletome or GHB?

Interesting the way they describe Mollog - I think a lot of people had assumed he was some kind of Troggoth shaman, but this just describes him like a straightforward warrior. Maybe not every warband this expansion has magic?

It's a cow skull, isn't it?

All the Dispossessed references on the Gloomspite Gitz do seem pretty significant to me. Not in the sense of 'OMG GW teasing new battletome!!!!' necessarily, but it does mean that a) the idea of dwarves as a traditional enemy of goblins is still strong in the team's mind and b) at least some time has been spent concepting and nailing down what the 'look' of the Dispossessed is in the context of Age Of Sigmar, which we've seen before with stuff like the Harbingers and the Silver Tower models. I know they're just bits of masonry and stuff, but I don't think the sculptors take anything lightly, and we know that GW plans things years in advance sometimes, laying solid groundwork for stuff now so that it can be the basis of something later. At the very least, it means they consider the Dispossessed in some form to be a key part of the setting, enough to work out their 'look' going forward. Now at the same time that doesn't necessarily mean they're getting new models or even a battletome in the future - they could just be a background element, something that's mentioned in the lore and hinted at in new models, but not reborn as a new army - but it does indicate that they're not getting written out any time soon, and team members are thinking seriously about them

Yeah I agree it would make sense to do something like splitting this out at this point. This thread is just this endless cycle, and it creates unnecessary sniping back and forth every time we get to this 'not enough rumours!' phase of the cycle. Maybe as simple as just having a 'latest news' thread for general discussion, and leave this thread behind for only rumours (and see how fast it dies from lack of posts :P)

WTF! Going to send Black Library a disgruntled email tonight, that's not mentioned anywhere on the website, really feel like I should get my £10 back. Thanks for letting me know!

Thanks for this When you say both stories are in the same book, what do you mean? That City Of Secrets is included in The Silver Shard? Will be annoyed with Black Library if so as I've just bought City Of Secrets separately!

What's the correct reading order for Callis & Toll? Is it City Of Secrets > The Old Ways > The Silver Shard? And can anyone offer any opinions on either of the collections The Old Ways is found in? So far I've just got City Of Secrets, but I'm really enjoying what I've read

Flying Night Goblins? If you mean the Doom Diver, that wasn't a Night Goblin thing...

Yes and no really... it certainly addresses some of my issues with the previous rules, but it does feel like a very slight update. But then, as a White Dwarf only thing, I'm not sure how much more they could have done - IMO the only way to *actually* balance Skirmish and make it feel like a properly complete game is to give all the units new warscrolls that are just for Skirmish, which would obviously be a huge undertaking and require way too many pages. This feels like a stopgap ahead of a Kill Team-style full boxed game, to me.

I suspect that anything significant will eventually be put up on the website as a PDF - that's what they did, for example, with the Chaos and Genestealer Cult Necromunda gangs

The new White Dwarf confirms in the intro that all the rules in it are 100% official going forward

I'd be really surprised if they don't just combine all Skaven into one faction. Focus in on the interesting and weird bits, jettison some of the duller old bits or things that don't have models anymore, just like Gloomspite.

Based on the chat on the latest episode of the Stormcast podcast, it seems like GW's intention these days is to allow a wider range of possible armies for each faction than in the past. Gloomspite Gitz, for example, can be a horde (grots), all cavalry (squig hoppers and spider riders), or even super elite (all Troggoth army). I'd expect Skaven to go a similar way

Yeah... just emphasises how weird a spot GW have left Skaven in.

Oh yeah, this pretty much confirms FEC and Skaven both getting a new release somewhere on the BOC to Gloomspite spectrum. Glad to see Skaven finally get it - they feel like such a good fit for AOS, and they're so prominent in the lore, so it's painful right now seeing them divided up into all these barely functional factions