JPjr

I know it hasn't been out long but wondered if anyone had had a crack at the Forbidden Powers tie-in battleplan yet, it looks fun. I especially like the inclusion of Wild Troggoths, takes me back to playing old games of WHFB with a GM who controlled a few creatures. Kind of thing I'd love to see a lot more of going forward really. I made up a battleplan a while ago to act as a minor side battle that could slot midway into a bigger campaign, two smaller forces trying to find a magic weapon in a cave that was inhabited by some kind of unruly beast. I was unsure how best to 'operate' the neutral creature without a GM but should be easy enough to rejig these rules.

holy ******, calm down people! I mean we have 1, literally 1 whole paragraph to go, that you would have to stretch beyond belief to come even close to some of the conclusions that people are reaching for here... "We’ve looked at this expansion in previous seminars, but we’ve got even more to share with you today! First up, we’re excited to unveil the all-new mercenaries system. With Forbidden Power, you’ll be able to recruit renowned sell-swords to your cause regardless of Grand Alliance. So, for example, you could have a Chaos army and enlist some of the notoriously ur-gold hungry warriors of the Greyfyrd lodge…" How people can read this and think this means you'll randomly be bringing Greater Daemons into Daughters of Khaine lists staggers me. If you're really desperate to parse the text for hidden meanings (assuming it's not just some bloke writing what they think of as colourful copy rather the Voynich manuscript for toy soldiers) then things like "renowned sell-swords" should give some pause. That, to me, suggest specific named units, or at most it's like a battalion where maybe there's a command unit and then you get to pick from a few options. Maybe instead of being affected by allegiance abilities they might have their own special abilities that can be used by the 'leader' of the mercenaries. Who know but I very much doubt it's just going to be some big free-for-all. I'd say the example they give is also fairly useful as a guide, so you have an 'Order' race joining up with a 'Chaos' faction, narrative/fluff/lore is at the absolute core of this game, so they've picked what on the one hand is an extreme example but also one which is 'lore' friendly and has a basis in the existing fiction. That should at least give some indication that they're trying to do this in a way that makes sense, and again for that to work there will need to be some hard limits on what can be included and what goes with what. Hey maybe I'm completely wrong and we can look forward to Morathi, Nagash and Archaon all appearing on the same side but I would be amazed. I mean seeing as it's part of an expansion that features some kind of campaign it could also just be directly tied to that and be more narrative focused. Lets just wait and see.

Admittedly they’re one of the more obscure factions, but when you get a chance you really should check out Stormcast Eternals.

My guess is that rather than the existing battalions the new BT will give all the models 1 of 3/4 keywords (using a couple of the old battalion names, Oakenbrow etc) with different key models ‘leading’ each of these sub-factions (like how all the new BTs operate, so Gloomspite has Moonclan, Spiderfang, Troggoths, FEC have different courts, Skaven have different clans etc etc). So I could imagine say spite-revenants getting, for example, the Dreadwood keyword. And then if someone like Drycha or a Branchwych is general they’re battle-line with certain allegiance abilities. Maybe a Treelord Ancient as an Oxenbrow (or whatever) general who allows you to take Tree-Revenants as battleline again with certain allegiance abilities. Durthu as a Free Spirits, again or whatever, general that gets you Kurnoth Hunters as battleline etc etc etc etc. (Though this is where I’d like to see an actual Kurnoth model to lead them but let’s see). Then Alarielle kind of floats atop the whole structure. I mean this is all just speculation, going on my own guesses and what seems like the most obvious answer anyway (so probably wrong!)

@novakai @GeneralZero not saying it’s the case but they sometimes split up the AoS & 40k ‘what’s coming next’ posts, so you never know might still be worth checking back later. Of course if they are holding it back for next week’s big event that could (but probably won't) mean more models. I’m still obsessed with the idea of having a massive Horned God style Kurnoth model and I don’t even collect Sylvaneth.

The thing in the background is ‘something’ (I assume it will be some kind of Bone King, greater daemon of death that will lead the next Death faction they release) that was in some way tied to Nagash in the past and that Sigmar locked away in a Stormvault in the region of Stygxx aeons/a few years ago. With the Necroquake loosening reality Nagash has sent Olynder and her Nighthaunt forces to break out this ‘something’, and that’s the focus of the narrative campaign in the Forbidden Powers expansion. This picture is from the climactic battle of that campaign as the ‘something’ is breaking out of its cage/prison whilst the CP & Olynder throw down. With the mercenaries I’m assuming, and this is all assumption, there will be just a small selection of thematically appropriate options, maybe even explicitly named, structured forces (like battalions, so some options in numbers but available units is set) that you can take from just a couple of factions, a particular Fyreslayer lodge, a certain Ogor tribe, maybe a Corsair captain and his crew or a rogue necromancer/wight/liche and his deathly legions, that kind of thing, like the Nightmare Legion from the very old Regiments of Renown back in the 80s. One other thing from these new reveals a hell of a lot of manpower and time has gone into Warcry. So we’ve seen just 2 of the new warbands now and they’ve both had around 9 individual models. Times that by 6 and plus the extra furies and monsters and that’s a huge range of unique models. Just in terms of what it’s possible to design and manufacture no wonder Slaanesh mortals got put on the back burner.

As I understand it the ‘thing’ in the background is probably what Sigmar locked away in Stygxx and the Nighthaunt & Stormcast are now fighting over in the climax to the Forbidden Power mini-campaign,

Sadly one doesn’t seem to exist and I’m not near my laptop to create it myself, so just for a second let’s all imagine a picture of the Ice Queen of Kislev singing ‘Let It Go’...

@Greasygeek these are really great, I especially like your spirit hosts, once again I’m left looking at my own wondering where it all went wrong! Seriously though they look fabulous as a whole army together, you must be deservedly very happy. Have you had a chance to play a full game with them all painted yet? (Actually do you even play or just collect/paint?) @Sleboda talking of pink/purple, though depending on your taste possibly turning things up a bit too much (though I absolutely love them), have you seen Dana Howl’s Nighthaunt? They’ve had me thinking of stripping all mine, starting again completely from scratch again and going wild with them. https://instagram.com/dana_howl

The Shattered Temple is a little bit dull but sure it’ll look good all painted up, and being quite a blank canvas does mean you can do your own thing with it. only thing about I don’t particularly like are the steps leading up each side. I know it would have meant decreasing the number of steps or giving the model a much bigger footprint but I’d have much preferred it if they’d found a way to do it so at least models on 25mm bases could have been perched half way up them.

Talking of Sylvaneth terrain/endless spells, I had initially crazily thought maybe the 'Tanglethorn Thicket' marker was a proxy for one of them (as unlikely as giving that away as a piece of card would have been) but yeah, close to 100% sure that @PJetski is bang on the money there as most of those are just tokens to use to mark what units have done. I only suspected it as my hunch had been that when they get them the Sylvaneth Endless spells would include either a souped up more thematic version of Soulsnare Shackles, like twisted vines erupting out of the ground to slow/trap units and/or a version of the Prismatic Pallisade/Fyreslayer rune wall made from trees and thorny branches, either of which could have been a 'Tanglethorn Thicket'*. looks like the other tokens include objective markers maybe (the 3 cauldrons and 3 shields). 'Mirror Prism' I guess is possibly related to the new Sylvaneth characters abilities/spells, unless I'm missing something existing (probably am), and I guess the 'Cave In' ones maybe have some narrative function, unless they're redoing the Loonboss Warscroll already, which I'd be surprised about. Terrain for Sylvaneth is going to be an interesting one if/when it does come. Much as it will cause howls of outrage I could see definitely see a set of Sylvaneth woods that are more Gnawhole sized, and possibly the rules changed so they're limited to 3 and with the Citadel woods going back to being just ordinary woods or taking on some other role. Of course that would be understandably a bit annoying if you have invested heavily there and bought a dozen of the big buggers to cover tables with, but hey at least you'd still have lots of scenery and we'd have the grisly spectre of YouTube videos of burning plastic trees being threatened. * With Sylvaneth endless spell number 3 being a damage dealing Spite Swarm counterpart to the existing Emerald Lifeswarm. Calling it now!

Calling it now this is the Looncurse MVP. I want just hordes of weird chittering things like this rampaging around...

I'm (a) totally buying this the second I can & (b) totally baffled that when I do I'll have somehow amassed around 50 bloody squigs without ever planning on starting a GSG army.

@IneptusAstartes pretty pretty sure it's just the big head with an axe in it from the Shattered Dominion objectives marker set. They talk in one of the Stormcast shows about how the team have been busy building lots of scenery from bits and pieces for the army photos, like you can see a bit of an Umbral Spell Portal just to its left.

The mystery derpens... sadly whatever it is it'll arrive too late to save this bloody troggoth I ruined over the bank holiday weekend.

I think this is obviously part of the brand new DEATH faction GW are releasing later this year made up of the skeletal remains of Slaanesh mortal followers.

@Dirtnaps I'd guess it's the mirror with the two daemonettes, unless I missed it I'm pretty sure that's the only model that would have wounds (and I guess a fair few), so not the Fane of Slaanesh terrain piece or spells, that we've seen that hasn't been named yet.

Yeah I don’t know about you guys but I’m a bit disappointed with this Rumour Thread 1000th page reveal. Bit of a slap in the face for all the TGA fans who have been holding out for some time for this moment. Like ok we weren’t promised anything but still I thought we’d get more than this. Just feels bad man, and I think TGA should have managed our expectations better. Anyway... Fool me 999 times, shame on you; fool me a 1000th time, shame on me. I’m out.

Are they ever not?

One thing that's got me curious with the Sylvaneth mob is the 'OAKENBROW' keyword, Oakenbrow was just the name of one of their super-battalions before wasn't it? So first off the top of my head guess is that the new BT will take a few, say 3 or 4, of those super-battalions and turn them into properly keyworded sub-factions, (Dreadwood, Oakenbrow & Gnarlroot let's say) and lots of abilities like 'Waypipes' will then be baked into specific battle traits for each keyword. Pretty sure we'll just see 'Martial Memories' changed across the board too when the new book is out.

Pretty much same issue with most the Underworlds warbands in AoS then. The support units looks amazing, are great to paint and I've got them all but in a big game with loads of different weapons and abilities they're slow to play with and susceptible to being wiped off the table in one go as soon as they go near anything that pumps out some Dx Mortal Wounds. Still they're a lot better for smaller skirmish matches and I love all the models and the chance to pick up units from factions I dont collect so still going straight into the basket. Personally I just think they should just make the (smaller model count) support units a bit more elite than their massed rank standard unit counterparts even if just giving them an extra wound or some kind of built in MW save.

Info on the KO warband is up... https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/04/17/warband-focus-thundriks-profiteers/ Looking forward to picking these boys up. @Turin with the new Sylvaneth & KO war bands that's in almost all likelihood it for this 'season' (there's the dreadfane release too I guess if you count that), so assuming there'll be a 3rd season you'll probably need to wait for that. I imagine DoK will have a fairly decent chance of a release in that set.

et voila... https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/04/15/apr-15-big-community-survey-2019gw-homepage-post-1fw-homepage-post-1/

Actually (and having spent half this week writing bibliographies and end notes that one above is the last you're getting out of me for some time) there are references to what I presume are intergenerational groups of Chaos mortal followers, off the top of my head in some of Josh Reynolds' 'Hallowed Knights' books you have the corrupted chivalric Order of the Fly, whose members, at least for the last couple of generations, I believe appear to be born into service of Nurgle. And my god I really wish the new Skaven Battletome had done away once and for all with the idea of Skaven broodmares, ****** awful concept, the kind of thing that if you were to write a horrible parody about the people into this hobby you'd come up with to illustrate your point.

In regards to the existence and appearance of female Kharadron Overlords my learned friend may do well to consult the work of Robert Charles and his monograph 'Faith In Thunder'.(1) (1)Charles, R. "Faith In Thunder." Inferno! Volume 2: Ed. Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells. Black Library, Nottingham. (2019). 145-173 Print.