JPjr

Been staring at that list for a while and one small thing about that it that did just occur to me. For a while I'd been wondering how they'd fit the DEATH factions in. I'd assumedly what had been revealed there would be a no wizards (NO CAPES!) rule, at least before they started rolling out the inevitable expansion packs, and that would have really limited the DEATH hero choices. As it is, it appears to be instead more of a blanket no heroes at all rule, full stop (well almost full stop, full comma maybe). So then very mildly odd then that of all the factions the only one that can actually include a hero, it's the LoN one with a wizard. I assume there won't be a special magic section/phase/rules in the core rules just for one model from one of the non main warbands so guess he'll just have some unique ability tied to his 'Runemark' that's triggered on a 6/spikey symbol like all the units seem to. I mean it makes thematic/narrative sense to have a necromancer lead the party but then they really wanted a hero to control/lead the Skeletons they could have replaced him with, let's say, a Wight King and not had this issue. Anyway, don't mind me utterly inconsequential drivel here, just thinking out loud.

Yes please! I knew* randomly buying a necromancer and box of bone boys when I got back into this dumb money sink of a hobby, before even reading any rules, would one day pay off. For the first time I’ll actually have a fully painted, based and ridiculously backstoried army to play with just like the big boys. * Totally didn’t, had absolutely no clue whatsoever.

No you’re supposed to think it’s a light hearted throwaway quip and move on with your life.

I also really really really hope that someone talented does the Corvus Cabal up in a bright tropical parrot scheme, because in theory I think it will look awesome but in practice when I do it the results will probably look less than impressive and more like some elderly, mangy looking budgerigars stuck at the back of a pet shop that no one wants.

there's also a part of me that if I could run the universe as a simulation and then ctrl+z and roll it back would like to see GW release a faction with a name not so subtly insulting whoever owns them, is made up of models that literally look like bits of Play-Doh crudely sculpted by a child into rudimentary piles of 💩 and is released at a premium price BUT with game breakingly powerful stats and abilities and who are effectively an auto-win at tournaments.

Going by that leak the US price will be around, if not exactly, $50

I'd love to see some top notch painter do the Iron Golems with kind of polychromatic, iridescent, armour that subtly shifts as light falls in different ways on it. Really play up the mutative, transformational nature of the realm of metal. maybe with different thinned down contrast paints blending into each other over a silver/steel base coat, so no one colour is overwhelming but you get subtle shifts right across the spectrum. I'd try myself but well...

Had a few thoughts about this over the past few months. Mainly though I keep hitting dead ends when trying to create something genuinely original, not even sure it's possible (or even that desirable to be honest), but we've got most the fantasy tropes well covered from elves, dwarves, orcs and goblins to treemen, lizard creatures and beastmen etc etc. First I thought something Realm based would be good, after all that's one of the defining features of AoS and they've done a pretty fine job with the Warcry models. But then they're each just a small unit within a specific faction, to do a whole army for each realm would involve a ridiculous amount of time and effort. Or be bland enough that they could work across multiple realms and totally defeating the point. Also kind of goes against the whole 'your dudes' philosophy. Still did make me think that next time they do a big release of Endless Spells I'd love them to lean in that direction there. I know pretty much most the faction agnostic spells nod to one realm or another but I'd love them to release essentially a 'Super Spell' for each realm in the shape of an elemental that has been brought into being by the Arcanum Optimar and can now be conjured up. Not necessarily Greater Daemon sized but big enough to have that wow factor. My wallet aches when I think how good a unique looking avatar for each realm could look. Anyway back on track... I think if I was creating something brand new it would have to be a Destruction faction, they're the most underserved right now both in ranges and lore. Order is overstuffed, Chaos is completely covered and Death is ticking along nicely with any new addition likely to be just refinements & developments of existing ideas. So Destruction but nothing to do with Orks, Goblins or Ogres... The obvious one, that also fills a gap in AoS, would be some kind of insect race, like a magical horde of locusts and their kin that sweep across the realms erasing all traces of civilisation. Maybe they're a magical manifestation of the realms that has been unleashed by the Necroquake and are seeking to restore balance by purging the civilizations that seek to chain, bind and control the realms. It would fill an unexploited niche and if you went with some version of the backstory above would provide an explanation as to why a major new faction has just appeared out of nowhere. Of course they would essentially just be Fantasy Tyranids. Depending on your point of view I guess that's either a good or bad thing. Would certainly make it easy to introduce them and possibly interest 'Nid players (and also sell a load of models to 40K players looking to kit bash and freshen up their army) but it's not particularly original. So... bit on the fence there. Some kind of aquatic beastmen, Lovecraftian Deep One analogs could be cool, especially as a foil to the Idoneth. But then again if it stretches credulity having Deep Sea Aelves battling Orruks on the fire plains of Aqshy it'll just be much worse for actual fish men. One best saved for background fluff and Black Library novels perhaps. Another dedicated airborne faction would be great and I'm positive that something along those lines will arrive sooner rather than later but in this case I'd say it's probably best developed as an offshoot of existing forces like Grotz or Skaven, so best to leave that to them. So how about... The Dismal Throng The nightmarish truth behind the fairy tales that Azyrites scare unruly children with. The lords and ladies of foetid fens and miasmic swamps, the masters of the mist shrouded forests where even the children of Alarielle fear to tread, the creatures that inhabit the darkest caves that canny Grotz know to steer clear of. As civilisation and chaos alike both seek to conquer nature, one to tame it the other to corrupt it, they've pushed further and further into the wilds and now the wilds are pushing back. Cackling, insane, enraged hag like Baba Yaga's leading the charge from their houses mounted atop giant chicken's feet, will'o'the wips leading the unprepared into the rotten jaws of swamp beasts. Baleful black boginkas, brownies, barghests and bluecaps. Spiteful Bluds that lead men down dismal paths and grind the bones of children into paste. Rusalkas that will drag you to a watery grave. Grimm Dark Stories come to horrible life. Oh yes and a Gingerbread House as a terrain piece...

Can’r remember offhand, and in a forest right now so no access to them, but I think it was in one of the Inferno collections. there’s a group of people held prisoner by, I think, an ogor warlord and forced to fight in one of the mortal realms’ many, many gladiatorial pits that every black library author seems to have a hard on for. amongst the captives was a disillusioned Stormcast and a Duardin in full KO gear and mask who it turns out is a woman.

Judging by how Cubicle7 wrote & illustrated the WFRP core book, and the subsequent pathetic whining of (thankfully a small % of) various men online unless it’s a very specific archetype with very specific lore (something like Witch Aelves for example) you’ll be able to play pretty much any character how you want. From a lore POV we’ve certainly seen female KO pop up in stories too.

For what little it’s worth I’d say Wanderers/Wood Elves have a much more distinct style that could work with AoS right now than say their snooty Home Counties cousins. I think they can easily fill a spot that other ‘good’/order armies don’t without too much of a radical overhaul compared to just armoured elves. I reckon most of their existing models are much more interesting than other aelves, just use the sisters of the thorn/wild riders as the basis and really go in on them being the fauna faction to Sylvaneth’s flora. Go full Wild Hunt/Druid with them, couple of menhirs/trilithions as terrain, lots of different beasts from bears to lions to made up ****** like zebroxes, some big horned god centre piece model and I’d buy into that, especially for a smaller Warcry sized ——> 1000pts force.

1 Awakened Wildwood is made up of 3-6 of the new models, this doesn't include the old woods. The new wood models have, individually, a much smaller footprint but have been designed to be linked together to create a larger 'model' that's easier to actually use. Alternatively you can use 1 of the old large models as 1 Awakened Wildwood. Seems pretty clear really. Yes a 6 model wood might have a slight larger footprint than the old model but that's the price you pay for getting to carry on using your old models (and they'll have had to buy two kits). And yes people will try and game the system because they're awful, so expect lots of moaning and probably some cheating and then after a bit the old woods will be banned from use and that's why we can't have nice things.

Because most people that own this stuff buy it to just put in a display cabinet and talk to on long, lonely, winter nights?

@EevikaI just feel like it's different times man, maybe at the start of AoS when it was all about Grand Coalitions and a small faction of 4/5 models could slot into a big old mix of different models but now, I just don't see it. Certainly not something worth putting too much time and money into developing, even if there was enough of a market to make some money out of it the way things are today I can't see GW suddenly giving Fimir a push without it blowing up in their faces and causing them a load of hassle. It'd just become another pathetic flashpoint in the ongoing culture war and opportunity to create divisions and rustle people's jimmys. Nah much as I like my one eyed weirdos I'd say it's best to move forward, create something new. Or, of course, bring back Zoats and Elementals... I do realise saying all this that in around 30 minutes Warhammer Community are probably going to post an article on the surprise new 30 model Fimir faction and dedicated stand alone game they're due to release in the autumn.

Fimir are a tricky one, I think they occupy as 'fond' (if that's the right word for what are disgusting beasts) a place in my nostalgic Warhammer heart as they do for most grizzled 40+ overgrown kids still into the game but they're intrinsically always going to be problematic. They ballsed up their introduction to the game back in the 80s leaving them effectively DOA and I'm not really sure that decades on there's enough people desperate for Fimir to genuinely make them an army worth developing properly, and dedicating all the time and effort need to doing a full release. From GW's POV I'd guess it would be much better to create something totally new with no baggage, it's that or you'd need to do a total lore re-write to ease them back in and that would almost inevitably result in spilt milk and toys being thrown out of the pram by the very people who would be your niche market. All round probably best to leave them shrouded in the dismal mists of time where they're happiest anyway.

Well assuming they're not total savages you'd expect them to tan the skins to make leather which normally has a darkening effect. not sure if the painter thought it through that much and just wanted it to stand out but there you go.

Hahaha, ****** hell of course you are 100% correct, a mistake made all the worse by the fact I own a UK company but live in Belgium and have spent the past couple of years obsessively watching the currency rate whilst freaking out about how much my savings are being gimped. Just goes to show Brexit will make idiots of us all.

Have to say I'm quite tempted to paint the flayed arms bright orange and develop a narrative for my warband that they've hunted to extinction a tribe of Mr. Tickles.

Well it's ******, obviously, but it's not necessarily just an inflationary correction... I mean give it 6 more months and the few people in the UK who can afford to still play the game might need to turn up to GW stores with wheelbarrows of cash just to buy a single Grot. All before having to dodge real life versions of the Warcry warbands, eager to relieve their victims of their Tetley's teabags and Greggs' sausage rolls, on the way home. Seriously though as and when the company repatriates cash from our former colonies and neighbours back into the UK they're going to be taking an ever increasing hit which at some point is going to have a knock on effect and this could be that.

if you look you can see the cloak on the 'leader' has the kind of stitching on it that the rumour engine had, not sure if it is but that could fit. I was so focused on the flayed faces it took me a hot minute to notice some of them are wearing flayed arms like particularly fashion forward scarves. disgusting, vile, horrific and unnecessary. instant day one pre-order buy.

Honestly, and I could well be wrong, but I get the feeling we just won't get that much out of them any more, or at least for a while. I would assume they're operating on vastly more limited resources than the main Citadel design team and right now 30K is obviously their bread & butter and focus for the moment. Throw in Blood Bowl, Necromunda, Adeptus Titanicus and Middle Earth and it's hard to see how they'd find the time to do much more than the very odd upgrade pack or one off special mini. And, of course, going forward the launch of Apocalypse will, if anything, divert any fresh spare capacity towards making more massive models for 40K, so yeah ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Plus it's not like Citadel can't and don't knock out pretty OTT models for most factions themselves these days anyway, so maybe that time is effectively done. Away from the actual models though you're 100% right on the rules side. I rarely bother looking at FW but every now and then I do and they do have all these great monsters that they seem remarkably keen not to make at all useful. They really should spend a week or two just going through the lot, rejigging warscrolls and giving them multiple keywords that allow them to be taken as part of specific (and indeed multiple specific) factions. Things like the Merwyrm would be great for Idoneth, Bonesplitterz would be a natural home for loads of other monsters etc etc. That they don't do this is one of those very odd (and rare) "let's leave a big potential pot of money on the table" decisions that GW sometimes makes. EDIT: It will be VERY interesting to see if they provide AoS rules for the upcoming 'Ruinstorm' Daemons. The ones we've seen teased have no discernible 'futuristic' elements to them and in theory they'd be perfectly timed to bolster a potential big Everchosen/StD/Darkoath/Chaos Undivided push. But I've yet to see anything suggested that that may be the case.

I would say more like ‘can be played as their own army’ but in doing so you’re deliberately choosing to make life a bit more difficult for yourself for narrative, aesthetic or just LOLTROLL reasons. Which tbh are all perfectly valid reasons as far as I’m concerned and is how I play but I don’t then expect to ROFLstomp tournaments. Gloomspite have access to very cheap (both pts & £) units with Stabbas, Shootas, so you can still have an 75+% Troll army and have a couple of Grot units with plenty of bodies for covering objectives if needed (plus of course one of Gloomspite’s main allegiance abilities is being able to ‘resurrect’ those particular units). Also, slight tangent, but I suspect the kind of people taking GG armies to tournaments are also in main there to have fun rather than win every game which will further skew %s. Whilst I agree BCR are in a badbadnotgood position right now, and as stated I can think of some fluff friendly units they could create to fill that role or you change how behemoths contest objectives, when they (or Ogors in general) get an update I’m sure we’ll see them deal with that issue somehow, but they’re a bit of an edge case as factions go.

@Infeston ha didn’t know that, my Warhammer progression is essentially... 2nd ed., 3rd ed. ———————> AoS 2 So a few ‘lore’ gaps I’m slowly filling in but it’s a fairly hoary, though enjoyable, fantasy/horror/folklore/myth trope so I’d never claim originality there. Just off the top of my head I can think of similar examples from Norse, Greek, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic mythology, in fact it’s a well I’ve already drawn from when I created a ridiculously and unnecessarily convoluted backstory for my first little AoS warband led by a necromancer who, in an admittedly less epic and world ending scenario, pulled the same trick on the mayor of his town who pissed him off.

Might sound odd but personally I'd suggest trying Skeleton Horde, and then if needed just a few extra little highlights to really make it pop. It's what I used on buns of steel here (head and boot hair!)...

Probably Chaos related but alternatively... Noses rotted away, cheeks hollowed out, eye sockets like pits of despair but also the eyes and mouths give a sense of animus and never ending horror... These heads are still 'alive' in death, the rotting remains of proud princes of Shyish who refused to bend the knee and now hang from a totem/standard/chariot/cart belonging to the Deadwalker legions, cursed to cry fell warnings and morbid prophecies to the enemies of the Great Necromancer until crows finally eat their traitorous tongues and peck their eyeballs from their rotting skulls.