Nos

They’re super humans basically. Their valour and virtue is drawn from their humanity but their strength and power transcends humanity. And their armour is also massive. But they’re not really humans anymore. In the Lore other humans tend to see them as either friendly giants/angels when they’re approachable or terrifying automatons created for one purpose.

Just wanted to share my 1500 point list that’s currently working well in my local group. My goal wasn't to make something that was invincible or that could take all comers. I was far more interested in creating something which avoided the tedium of Gav Bomb or other "Hail Mary two turns games over" approach and create an army that felt and played true to the feel of Stormcast and made the most of their combined arms and expertise while still being good at the game. Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals Realm: Ulgu Heroes Lord Arcanum with Scroll of Condemnation and Azyrite Halo 240 Lord Castellant 100 Priest 100 Battleline 5 x Liberators 100 5 x Judicators 160 5 x Judicators 160 10 x Sequitors 240 Other 10 x Evocators 400 Obviously deployment depends on Battleplan but Broadly speaking it's set around a classic Hammer and Anvil tactic. The Liberators spread out as wide as possible in the Centre while the Judicators take objectives either side and plink at things from a distance. Castellant's Gryph Hound jogs off to join them and support with summoning issues. Castellant and LA give the Liberators a 2+ save and the LA gives them Azyr Halo and they sit in the middle and dare people to charge at them while the Hero team stand some distance behind them and and shout encouragingly. The priest heals or damages as required (Prayer is picked depending on opposition) and the Sequitors and Evocators come in to clear out the backline or flanks as the situation dictates. The thing that I really like about it is that it creates matchups that allow Stormcast to act as the elite that they are supposed to be in pretty much all circumstances. The "Centre" can hold out to a remarkable amount of damage with Cycle of the Storm and the Priest and Castellant to heal them and are an amazing tanking unit for a measly 100 points. They also do the job of sucking in the opposition as there's very little else on offer for them to hit with half my army off the table and the rest of it behind them. The heroes are providing constant value with their buffs before they swing a weapon. Judicators reliably cause wounds without taking any in return for a while and with the Gryph Hound are a solid objective defense platform. Again, in most circumstances they will require an investment far greater than the points they cost to shift them. Evocators or Empowered Sequitors are going to delete most things they come up against in a points match up and that's before they receive any buffs from Heroes. Scroll of Condemnation is an insurance option against the few things which are liable to cause them any sustained trouble. Worse case scenario the centre is lost but it's usually at cost due to the Halo Spell, almost certainly required more than 100 points to shift it, and even then it's really just a question of trading, and with a general who can reliably hop to either side of the board in a turn and two units who can come on from anywhere and delete most things in a short space of time even then you're probably going to come off better. I have a 2000 point extension in mind which is more aggressive but I have no idea how viable it is. Liberators make way for a unit of Gryph Hounds(!) and provide the same screening duties, but in this instance the plan is more about dictating the centre than holding it. With 18 wounds and a 5+ save and the same healing powers behind they they will be able to hold for a short while if needed but it's more about denying the centre. Evocators on Dracolines are lined up behind them at a judicious range to facilitate the charge if I get the turn and deny it if I don't . Sequitors are split into two units of five with the Cleansing Phalanx Battalion, deployed or in Heaven as circumstances dictates. The Hounds melt away to nab objectives or take up flanking duties with the Castellant as escort to give them their 4 attacks, the mounted Evocators plough through the middle and attract attention while the Sequitors and Evocators come on as before to threaten the flanks or centre as required. The Priest gives way for a Knight Zephyros who is armed with the Sword of Judgement and is there to shadow monsters and heroes. Even if she just ties one up for a few turns without killing it it's 100 points investment well returned. It's been really fun trying to work out what some of the lesser-favoured units in the current meta can do if you work on a synergy rather than just naked power play, highly recommend it!

Behold my necklace Ye mighty and despair

It is thanks. Still can’t get over that dude being so into his jewellery. He’s even wielding his weapon sub-optimally just so he can show it off. All of your mates have one too man.

You could stick a shield on the back of the Greatmace guys too I guess

But it’s still confusing because it says you can arm the Prime with a cache if they have a weapon and shield but the models with caches have neither!

I always thought that was supposed to be what this guy was doing. Otherwise he’s just particularly attached to his necklace maybe I dunno

To further add to the confusion though the Warscroll also states that they can replace their weapon with a greatmace, not both weapon and shield. There’s also a Prime Model holding a Great Mace and a Redmemption Cache 🙃

There’s an old model that’s very similar, I’ve got him. But this guy has a sort of Nosferatu vibe going on that’s different. A homage though I’d say

Heh Nice. I wasn’t too sold on the Shadespire gang but this is a well realised aesthetic. Fanatics are too sharp for my liking mind. Interesting to see if they can do anything on the tabletop. Sort of besides the point I suppose as they’re the epitome of thecarny you college t for the fun of it but still. Goblin armies always been fun but basically useless. The idea of Stormcast lining up to smash them into pieces feels almost like being abusive to small animals.

I loved Mordheim but woukd compare it more to Necromunda than Kill Team. It requires a lot of investment into roster tracking and building and campaign tracking and such, as well as tons of terrain to really work. Kill Team has nailed an ability to be a good game which plays easy while requiring little effort and with little bloat outside the actual gameplay. I would love that for AOS, but the thing is I just can’t picture what it looks like. Although having said that something like the first LOTR game, which was excellent, actually would work really well. You could almost translate it directly actually.

I suspect they’ll protect AOS as jealously as they did Warhammer in respect to liscenses etc. All the non GW AOS stuff I’ve seen is gateway stuff clearly designed to sell the fiction and get you into AOS proper.

In the absence of any rumours available I’m going to say it’s unlikely

It wasn’t a slap in the face. It was a change in direction. A company that owned one game decided to retire it and start another. They didn’t owe anyone anything. They didn’t owe gamers the right to play with their existing armies. If they wanted to do daft rules and just sell models (That’s their entire business by the way, that’s all they do, nothing new in GW “just” wanting to make and sell models, that’s what GW is) it’s entirely their own product to do that with. They’ve since changed direction again and are succeeding with it. That’s not down to the fans not os it an insult to the fans of the initial AOS either. It’s just another progression. It is a brand new game only. You can use models from a different system because GW decided to write rules for that purpose. But those models are being used in a new game, with new rules, as new models, against new models and new factions. They might decide to continue this practice, but they might stop. And if they do that won’t be a slap in the face to anyone.

Oh sorry I misunderstood. Yes I’m sure they will at some point down the road. But there’s a sense from the community that it’s obviously a good thing for GW if they do it now now now and it’s a missed opportunity for free money that they’re losing with every second they don’t release battletomes to make all the Old World factions playable . I thought that’s what you meant sorry.

It’s not just about initial cost it’s about return of investment and profit. The profit and return of investment is going to be very low on the things you say. Bottom line- there’s a reason they’re not doing these things that seem obvious to the community. If a simple cheap idea was going to make them a lot of money they’d obviously do that. The fact they haven’t suggests that it’s not as simple or straight forward as people are saying it is. The company with all the information about purchasing habits and excess stock has decided not to do it. There will be a reason behind it other than just because they haven’t realised something obvious.

They know what they’re doing better than anyone. They’re making money hand over fist. It’s not a simple equation of if this, then that. Everything takes time and money. Money and time used to produce old world rosters into new Battletomes is money and time not being used on Stormcast, Slaanesh, new Aelves , Mortal Realm stuff basically, i.e the stuff that is unique and which strengthens the Mortal Realms IP. And as this rumour board proves, stretching out all that exciting new stuff over a long period and feeding just enough tid bits and scant releases to keep hope for its imminent release permanent locks in far more customers over time than the big immediate release you’re suggesting they need to capitalise on. Look, bottom line, Old World stuff wasn’t selling. They’re not going to take resources away from what is making them rich in order to serve people’s nostalgia and impatience. The idea in particular that more people will buy models if they can use their existing ones is very odd. They might buy a few new models to supplement things sure. But not nearly as many models as they will if they have to play a whole new army. GW only cares about AOS as a game in as much as it sells their products. Given that it would be backwards of them to give more of that game and facilitating people use their existing stuff with only a fraction of the profit they would get if someone decided to buy a new army instead. Meantime they’re using the existing New Hotness to sell whole armies to the most enthusiastic and making sure that the rest of the majority feel *something big* is imminent with releases like Wrath and Rapture to keep them involved in the License and it’s associated products. It’s not. But it will keep people engaged until GW has gotten the most out of its existing range at which point far more people will be around to buy the new New Hotness because they have been mesmerised by Hype. And at exactly the same time Slaanesh finally does get a big reveal there will be hints of something again (Malerion, Ruination Chamber etc), something that’s surely only around the corner....

Their release cycle Is timetabled well before things are hot or otherwise. I’m willing to bet that all of 2019 was planned early this year at the very latest. And because things have gone so well the past few years I think they will stake their trust in their future planning rather than reacting to trends. Nothing to suggest they need to change their approach in respect to how well it’s selling. While nothing is certain (ahem Brexit) I think their approach so far shows they’re playing the long game with AOS and are more interested in laying a stable foundation that generates its own success through investing in a solid foundation for the Mortal Realms and making that as rich and expansive as the Old World, rather than chasing the hits. In essence they might miss out on a few No 1 singles as it were but they’re more interested in developing a record label.

Slaanesh ain’t coming for a while yet. Wont be coming without Malerion in tow. In all honesty I reckon Slaanesh will be either AOS 3.0 or the trigger for it ala Nagash and Malign Portents. GW are very good at pacing their releases these days and they won’t intend to bring out something as anticipated as the Slaanesh chapter of AOS until they’ve sucked as much commercial mileage out of the current one. Marvel built up to Infinity War over ten years rather than release everything within a year of each other for a reason.

I’m susceptible to marketing sure but GW haven’t marketed a free people’s tome or a combined aelves tome or an upcoming slaanesh faction release etc yet. That’s community hype. Self created self nurtured hype. I don’t base my expectations as to what GW are releasing on completley unsubstantiated guesswork, no.

Impatience around this particular hobby is especially weird. I mean it’s pretty much impossible to play with even unpainted figures without hours of assembly and on top of that you’re assembling for a game which takes hours to play, is very inefficient and requires hundreds of interactions with things like rolling dice, moving models and *actual counting out loud* etc. And that dosent take into account any painting what so ever. To paint an army even to a basic standard takes dozens of hours at a bare minimum. How can someone be willing to invest their time into that while having such a short thrift with very reasonable if not quite rapid product release cycles?

Yeah exactly. You get what you pay for as soon as you pay for it. It doesn’t depreciate in value. Usually the opposite actually.

They shouldn’t be frustrated. They can play the old game still with the armies they have, within the ruleset they bought it for. Plenty do. They didn’t buy that old army with a guarantee it would forever more be viable at all times in a GW ruleset. I don’t exprct to be able to play with my Stormcast in 40 years time. Or even 2 years time necessarily. That’s an assumption I have but not one GW are responsible for. I wasn’t sold them with a guarantee they will always be usable within an organic and evolving ruleset and system. I understand that rules change. I mean at present many people are arguing that the entirety of the SC’s roster prior to Soul Wars is basically useless. It would be perverse for me to think that might not happen with my Sacrosanct Chamber right? I didn’t buy them for the future though. I bought them to paint and play with now. And I’ve already got my money’s worth. Hell I remember a decade ago when IPods were sold explicitly with something like 10,000 hours worth of charging before they would no longer work. Pretty much everything you buy now is explicitly limited use or access. Not sure why people expect GW armies to always be completley contingent to any changes that occur. If people want to play the new game with one of the new or more recently updated factions designed specifically for the new game and its new rules then that’s very easy of course. Or they can be patient and wait for the work required to update the army from a different game to work with the new game and turn it into something probably quite different. In which case they’re actually really getting a new product for very little money. Which is sonething to celebrate and worth waiting for I should have thought. It’s really very simple. If they want to play AOS there’s loads of armies to play it with. If they want to play specifically that game only with their own army they’ll just have to be patient and hope their army gets an update. It might, it might not. You bought what you paid for. You’re not due anything more than that. If someone bought an army for hundreds of pounds and invested hundred of hours into painting it with the expectation they would always be able to play with it, and they can’t, and they feel it was money and time wasted then that’s down to them. They were never promised what they expected.

It’s a completley different game. It took the best part of thirty years for those factions to become fully functional and as diverse and well realised as they are. It took *work*, you know? It’s not easy doing that stuff. The Lore and world building that Warhammer has is so beloved and valuable because it’s different to most other things and creating something different is *hard*. GW have never come even *close* to being as efficient with releases as they are now. They release in one year what they used to do in three. I get why people are enthusiastic about the hobby expanding and new options becoming more viable on the tabletop. But there’s a profound difference between looking forward to something and having completley unreasonable expectations about what the community is owed. Which is, literally, nothing. Just because an enthusiastic community exists around something does not mean the company is obliged to deliver on any sense of entitlement that such a community engenders among its members. Either you agree with buying their toy soldiers or you don’t. That’s as complicated as it gets. I’ve been a customer to GW for most of my life now but there was a period that I wasn’t brcause I found their products vastly overpriced and their attitude mercenary. But at no point did I declare that I deserve better or the like. I buy their products at point of sale. I always got what I paid for. I felt disappointed and even exploited that they wanted to fleece me for things that used to be much cheaper but the fact was at the time I used to buy my models I bought them at a fair price. That transaction did not become retroactively unfair because they were now asking for more. I just refused to repeat that transaction at the new terms they were asking. GW does not exist and thrive because of any hobbyist goodwill or the like. It’s because they make products that are good and sell them at a price people are willing to pay. It’s success is it’s own. It doesn’t owe any gamer, hobbyist, painter anything.

It’s very endearing that no matter how often the GW storefront undergoes simple administrative changes for purely functional purposes someone always reads it as an omen regarding the release or rehabilitation of new factions etc. A hope that refuses to be stamped out.