Fulkes

I'm committing to an army this year for AoS (maybe more than one, but that's a "we'll see" sort of thing). I've largely been a 40k player for a long time but lately I've been feeling burnt out by the game (and the saltier parts of the community) and just want to lean into the more insane stuff AoS has. I'm currently split between IDK, Nighthaunt and KO since they all have great models, interesting lore and some fun gimmicks, but knowing me I'll end up getting into all of them eventually, it's just picking one to start with that I can get into painting.

Let's not forget that most of AoS ended up seeing massive delays on when things where planned on being released and there is usually an 18 month (or more) lead time on every release to start with. It's easy to look at Lumineth and say it should have been in the book on this end, but the gap between when stuff was finished is too big for that, and no new army is just going to release with 100% of every possible model in it's first book. Even GW's poster boy Primaris Marines have needed several years to flesh their range out.

Some real old world dragon proportions going on there.

Yeah Dwarves are known for their booze, not their cooking.

If things splinter off the grand alliances may be broken up enough that Nagash isn't able to claim control over his entite faction.

40k is probably reacting harshly becauee they're used to being the focus and they feel they have so many things that need to be buffed or replaces to balance the current game. Thar said, people play AoS as well and they can learn to take the backseat a bit so AoS can play catch up.

I've been thinking about the "Lord of Gluttony" name, and I have to say I hope he gets the ability to eat magic (and maybe gain wounds from it). Like make him a soft counter to models like Teclis without being in the caster arms race.

No tusks and the mouth is too small for an Orc.

In 40k it's a narrative system where you start with a smaller force that gains experience, can gain new special rules, or gain draw backs called "battle scars" from being destroyed (which have ways of being removed). As you play games you record experience for things like units destroyed, and which unit is your MVP. and other bonuses and can expand your force by spending requisition points. Part of this is that special characters can't gain XP, but they also can't gain battle scars if they're destroyed in a game. The biggest bonus of the game mode is that it can be used in campaigns, or solo (only requirement is that you play Crusade Missions to improve your army) as you build and army and creates reasons to customize units to represent special skills or battle scars they've gained over time. Balance for the 40k version has to do with units increasing in Power Level as they gain improvements, and certain bonuses being given to the weaker force to keep the games roughly even.

My biggest fingers crossed hope for 3.0 is the introduction of a system like Crusade to the game for narrative play, as well as putting the Anvil of Apotheosis into the core rules for narrative. As much as I know competetive is often seen as the definitive way to play I just want to have excuses to make custom models to represent an unfolding story.

Never heard of them before you mentioned them but they were good episodes. I liked the talk about Namarti Corps lists as well, which has finally given me hope that a Namarti heavy list can be viable. Not sure if I'm sold on running them as Fuethan since if we rely on alpha striking we can suffer pretty hard if we hit the wrong armies, but then again Morphann struggles to keep blocks on the table long enough to put the increased rez to good use. I feel like the ignore terrain enclave might be the real winner since it buffs Namarti mobility which is super important with the game revolving around objectives, but that could be 40k pushing a bias on me.

Considering the Namarti will die young and need transplanted souls just to live to 30 I don't buy in the the claim it's strictly for expansion.

Since he's a god leading an army from the Realm of Light I'm not sure how you'd model light magic to be honest. Maybe paint OSL effects from his gems?

My main focus for AoS improvement would be for the Idoneth Deepkin, more specifically the Namarti Thralls. 2" reach would allow them to better synergize with healing buffs by letting them run larger units, and balance their 32mm base size when used in said large units. As is they just lack enough punch to compete with eels, and at least making larger units more viable might make them pop up a bit more often. As for the game proper, I feel like a lot of it is getting old models replaced with either straight replacements, or a more AoS version of the old models and continuing to expand factions so they have more ways to be played. Well that and Chaos Mortals could use some balancing so they feel like real playable options over their daemon counterparts (since said daemons get locus style bonuses, and mortals don't get much if anything to balance that).

I was mulling over this some more and almost shelved the idea due to how poorly some of the older models have aged, but after seeing some Skaven-count-as-Skitarri conversions I've got some ideas to kitbash thinga I need instead of relying on the classic models. Definitely feeling that I'll be leaning into Skyre visually, even if I don't go all in on the keyword bingo proper.

Casual good is still not horrible and gives me some hope for running a few. Does the formation with the Doomwheel in it help any?

I've been trying to pick a 2020 army project so thought I'd ask the experts: how's Clan Skyre doing? I'm a big fan of the warmachines (though Moylder has some stuff I like as well, Doom Wheel trumps everything else), but don't want to spend hours and dollara on something that plays like a blind rat with four peg legs.

I think I'll just have to keep testing the waters with every points update (which has helped, I mean Sharks at least look playable now) and keep my fingers crossed for a future army release that gets the army into 2.0 proper instead of the 1.5 realm it lives in.

I full get that the eels are the crutch of every list, which is a large part of my frustration. I feel like the peices are there but they just don't fall into place like they should. Guess I'll be leaving Deepkin alone a little longer.

And despite being the worse he's one of the few models that specifically buffs Namarti. Which likely says more about Namarti honestly On a different note, that's an interesting list (though a bit eel heavy but what can you do when they support the most of the army at this point?).

I've been puzzling over this over a while, but I'm reaching out to the more experianced since I'm not quite clicking it: is there a way to run a Namarti heavy list? I keep looking at Mor'Phann and Namarti Corpsbut I feel like I've been going down the wrong road there.

Thought I'd share how I'm doing my Orky flesh in case it gives others some ideas: Forgive any amounts of potato this brings, I took quick pictures with my phone while I worked and then cropped them down later. So some background: I wanted to have an easy side project while I work on my #Everchosen entry that I could make large amounts of progress with in a short amount of time, and this turned into me working on a Feral Orks army that will also be playable as a Bonesplitterz army in AoS. The thing is that the Contrast paint definitely has a layer of depth in the color, but I wanted a higher quality result that helps pull the highlight and shadow further than the paint can do on it's own over a flat primer coat. This lead to me treating the paint more like a heavy glaze and doing a bit of prep work on the base coat to get the effect I wanted. I started with a base coat of Mechanicus Standard Grey out of a rattlecan, followed by a layer of Grey Seer applied from a 45 degree angle to the top of the model and finally a straight down shot of Corax White to hit the highest points. Here's a bottom shot to try and illustrate the way the paint creates a gradient of shadows to highlights. The first step washed out the model's texture so I gave the model an all over wash of Nuln Oil, keeping it thin so it wouldn't pool on the high points. To pick out the high points I did a directional drybrush of Pallid Wych Flesh, only flicking the brush over the model in a downward direction to hit the highest points and leave the recesses darkened so the texture has more contrast. This was followed by giving the model a coat of Munitorium Varnish to smooth the texture of the model and give the Contrast paints a smooth surface to move over. This was followed by a layer of Ork Flesh, applied starting at the high points and working down to prevent it from pooling at the top of the model. You can see the recess shading is more pronounced, in part due to how the higher points are a much lighter color where the dry-brushing picked the texture out. A back shot to show how the color gradient from the successive layers of primer create a natural shading effect that simulates shadow being cast by the Ork's upper body onto his legs. Another low shot to show how the Ork flesh looks over the torso, and how the wash helped give the recesses some extra contrast for the darker flesh color. A Wurrgog Prophet model done at the same time in the same way. Due to how recessed his body is under his cloak his skin is darker than the Savage Warboss model, but this fits the natural shadow his body would have. Final example is a Wardokk. His more exposed skin shows off the way the highlights have helped create more texture for his skin by pushing the contrast over the other high points, allowing us to look like we spent more time layering green than we actual did. I hope this helps some people who are trying to get a little bit higher quality result out of their Contrast paints while keeping the whole project from becoming too much of a time sink.

Forgive any amounts of potato this brings, I took quick pictures with my phone while I worked and then cropped them down later. So some background: I wanted to have an easy side project while I work on my #Everchosen entry that I could make large amounts of progress with in a short amount of time, and this turned into me working on a Feral Orks army that will also be playable as a Bonesplitterz army in AoS. The thing is that the Contrast paint definitely has a layer of depth in the color, but I wanted a higher quality result that helps pull the highlight and shadow further than the paint can do on it's own over a flat primer coat. This lead to me treating the paint more like a heavy glaze and doing a bit of prep work on the base coat to get the effect I wanted. I started with a base coat of Mechanicus Standard Grey out of a rattlecan, followed by a layer of Grey Seer applied from a 45 degree angle to the top of the model and finally a straight down shot of Corax White to hit the highest points. Here's a bottom shot to try and illustrate the way the paint creates a gradient of shadows to highlights. The first step washed out the model's texture so I gave the model an all over wash of Nuln Oil, keeping it thin so it wouldn't pool on the high points. To pick out the high points I did a directional drybrush of Pallid Wych Flesh, only flicking the brush over the model in a downward direction to hit the highest points and leave the recesses darkened so the texture has more contrast. This was followed by giving the model a coat of Munitorium Varnish to smooth the texture of the model and give the Contrast paints a smooth surface to move over. This was followed by a layer of Ork Flesh, applied starting at the high points and working down to prevent it from pooling at the top of the model. You can see the recess shading is more pronounced, in part due to how the higher points are a much lighter color where the dry-brushing picked the texture out. A back shot to show how the color gradient from the successive layers of primer create a natural shading effect that simulates shadow being cast by the Ork's upper body onto his legs. Another low shot to show how the Ork flesh looks over the torso, and how the wash helped give the recesses some extra contrast for the darker flesh color. A Wurrgog Prophet model done at the same time in the same way. Due to how recessed his body is under his cloak his skin is darker than the Savage Warboss model, but this fits the natural shadow his body would have. Final example is a Wardokk. His more exposed skin shows off the way the highlights have helped create more texture for his skin by pushing the contrast over the other high points, allowing us to look like we spent more time layering green than we actual did. I hope this helps some people who are trying to get a little bit higher quality result out of their Contrast paints while keeping the whole project from becoming too much of a time sink.