Wobbly

A thing that has given me reason to speculate and ponder is the symbol on the cover of the second book of the Dawnbringers series. If I´m not mistaken that represents specifically Ironjawz! A Ironjawz focus for the lore/story in the book? More Ironjawz kits? Just chosen because of the revealed Maw-Grunta, so a more general Orruk/Destruction driven content? Not that I dare to go hogwild when it comes to hints and teases from GW...as they keep on surprising me.

Aye the new orruk faction is good for the Warclans concept but it does nothing for Ironjawz and Bonesplitterz. A cynical viewpoint would be that it seems that those two factions will only get token battletome support 2 editions in a row. No new miniatures for them. I'm both excited and sad about this orruk direction that GW is apparently taking. The swampy ladz are great but my Ironjawz are still looking for more proper fellows to krump with. As for Ironjawz and Bonesplitterz being boxed into a dead end for expansion that's bull from my point of view. They might not be as expansion friendly as newer factions but there's plenty of space with a bit of creativity and craziness...and even then it's not as if GW can't change the lore (slightly) if it suits them.

I think that the issue with Nagash is his supposed power level and what limitations are set upon him. He is supposed to be this super powerful Death god that eats other death gods for breakfast while walking the realms doing his business, yet the other (mortal) gods need to be able to confront him as what would otherwise be able to halt him from achieving his goals? To me it seems that the only beings within the setting that are stronger are the chaos gods and those have some rather harsh limitations set upon them to not wreck havoc on the setting and ending it. So if Nagash is supposed to be a legitimate threat to all life in the realms that the mortal gods can´t really face then he also needs to be given limitations of some kind. Continuing the storyline of Nagash losing himself by becoming Death and every part of it could potentially solve that. It does have it consequences though, here are a few; GW could ramp up the power of Nagash harshly without making it silly or realm breaking. Where would a creature of Death start and Nagash end? Not to mention how much would his will be part of them? Other characters of Death could be given more time in the spotlight. Nagash could still be portrayed as pulling the strings from the background but from a more macro level. Nagash old self could occasionally reform in pivotal moments and even if he wouldn't wield his full power that could create some real panic situations for the involved parties. Death victories wont need to be about ultimate victory any more with the ego of Nagash being in the driver seat (not that it is a bad thing). His miniature model could be an image/avatar of him and kept at the current power level. In the end it seems to me that Nagash is either on another power level then other gods and therefore needs to be given limitations or he is just another mortal god of the bunch.

Have Bonesplitterz been mentioned anywhere in fiction/lore of joining Gordrakks big destruction army?

Here´s a left turn what if Kragnos is connected with the Silent People? They´re gone and are technically under a mountain.🤔

To me that sounds like a great starting point of a new destruction faction. A mix of goblins, orks and perhaps trolls, the only thing missing is the pitch/angle to make them stand out in the faction crowd of AoS. Basically destructions take on Cities of Sigmar! 😃

Yeah factions should only be merged together if it makes sense for both of them and it makes the whole better then apart. For Warclans, Skaven (they did technically get merged once again), Beasts of Chaos, Mawtribes and Cities of Sigmar it actually creates more opportunities from my point of view, while still maintaining most of the old unique and interesting stuff from them. It´s a risky avenue to pursue though as you never really know how fans of the faction(s) will react to it. We are all attached to our favourites by sometimes the strangest things and aspects! 😄 That trollslayer is fantastic! Good pose, nice texture contrast in the sculpt and enough "plain" areas for great painters to excel. Also female Fyreslayer of that resemblance/character could add much better variety within the range. Not just different proportions but also other slightly different design cues like those long braids to contrast nicely to the males beards. A Fyreslayers army closer to those aesthetics has the potential to look great, especially if their connection with fire/magma would also be enhanced. Think magma golems/elementals/creatures or magma wielding priests or such. With a KO expansion into more melee focused I would actually like if GW would experiment in changing the design cues slightly. As an example the KO hero in Cursed City I think looks more interesting due to not only being clad in a full suit of armour but also wearing cloth/leather to add spots of interest. Or for that manner really push KO technology as the sane contrast to the confusingly charming Skaven take on technology. Would a merger between Dispossessed and Ironweld contain enough GW spin to make it worthwhile in their eyes? They do like to make the factions their own by adding small tweaks so that they are (somewhat) recognizable as a GW specific faction/miniature. Adding them to Grungni/Valaya´s potential faction in the sense of going out into the world to reclaim their holds and settle grudges could be cool.

While joining these 3 factions together would be technically possible it would be like combining lumineth, idoneth and the remaining aelves of CoS into a single faction. Possible but wasting a lot of potential and cluttering it up, not to mention risking major negative reactions from the factions fans. Here's my detailed thoughts on existing dwarven/duardin factions in AOS. Kharadron has no need to be merged with any other faction as they have a great theme that can be expanded into several directions of so desired. Dispossessed as it stands are not in a bad position within cities of sigmar. They can be developed within that faction or they can be repurposed to be a (small) part for a new faction that is setup for expansion as newer released factions tend to be. Fyreslayers are in a weird position. They are both based on the slayers of old and religious mercenaries trying to "collect" their god. GW needs to decide what they actually want to do with this faction: keep it fairly close to it's slayer roots, go towards the religious mercenaries or add new aspects to it. I would actually say that Fyreslayers are roughly in the same boat as Ironjawz was. They both are fairly limited within their own themes and need to be slightly modified (theme/lore/focus) if they are kept as standalone faction going forwards. Taking fyreslayers more towards the fire/magma or religious theme could solve this but only GW knows what will happen.

From looking at the pattern that GW has been working towards during this edition it seems that factions has been steadily moved towards where they are set up to have an easy way to get the chamber/temple treatment that Stormcasts and Lumineth has recieved. Factions are in general moved away from being a very specific path within an overall theme and are instead a part of a greater theme ripe for exploring. So if a specific faction is "narrow" in theme as it stands I wouldn't be surprised if said faction either will get merged with another related faction or be "widened" by adding focus of other themes then the traditional one. Warclans is an example of the first and Lumineth (high elves) of the second. At least within destruction the older factions has been merged together into a more cohesive factions with more possibilities. Most of the death factions are also set up for it, including the upcoming Gravelords. My knowledge about chaos is limited but the god specific factions are wide open, Slaves also so. Even for Order factions this seems to be the overall case. The only current released faction that stand out to me is Fyreslayers. Not that it cant be made into a more broader theme, only GW stands in the way of that. There has been plenty of suggestions just within this forum to solve it. All this pattern gazing has started me pondering of what new, fun and weird sub-factions that can be introduced to Orruk Warclans! 😁

I don't see how game rules/keywords would necessarily impact actual lore and therefore potential future releases. Just change the keywords in a new tome or generals handbook and that issue is fixed. Wouldn't be the first time it happened.

More kits to such a small range at the cost of one kit that stands out visually from the rest is definitely something I wouldn't be against. That would really move Ironjawz more into an elite theme as a faction/force. Aye the Ardboys kit have aged well and could easily be expanded upon if wanted. My only "gripe" is that while it makes sense going from sensible ardboys orruks to crazy bonseplitterz, it doesn't so much from Ardboys to Ironjawz in my opinion. Why would the basic unit have better gear then the more elite unit, to me there is lacking a sense of progression that makes sense. In the first case they get exposed to enough Waaagh energy to go completely crazy so that they want to run around the world chasing the biggest monsters, absorb their energy to get closer to perfection and throwing away the tools of civilization (well civilization for orruks that is) to achieve this. In the second case they get so big, beefy and brutish that they cast off their high quality armour and weapons for metal scraps that they themselves beat into shape with their fists that ends up covering less of them. Why not then taking their old gear and beat that into shape? If this was the case then there would be some semblance of design cues in their armour between Brutes and Ardboys. To me its clear that if Ardboys are kept as a concept that is introductory to Ironjawz then they need to mix the design cues in some form between the Brutes and Ardboys (or Ironjawz design cues with basic orruks) to tie the faction together as a whole. That or option #3 of mine above where the Ardboys would end up as the elite option for that third faction! 😁

What I generally want to see for 3.0 is mainly the expanding and refreshment of existing armies. Be prepared for lots of text! 😀 Skaven and Seraphon are two given factions with old models that has the potential to look epic with new and modern sculpts. Who doesn't love sentient lizard-people riding dinosaurs as a concept? Ive been so close to backing projects on kickstarter that had this theme! Skaven with their madcap science, ninja assassins and total disregard for each other would also be hard to resist! Dwarves (in general) are another bunch that sorely needs some support. Fireslayers badly needs their range to be more diverse in compostion, some melee focused Kharadron has good potential. Especially after seeing the chap in Cursed City, adding that coat to the Kharadron aesthetic was a real nice visual contrast to metal suit. In relation to the dwarves adding fresh/new kits to Cities of Sigmar would be cool to. Actually mixing humans, dwarves and aelves in the same kits has quite the potential, not to mention go wild on the sub factions within this encompassing faction! For our overlords the stormcast eternals I think the only concept I have been excited to hear or come up with so far is monstrous stormcasts. As that would produce kits that actually would differ radically from the existing kits in the faction, while still aesthetically fit in. For chaos in general I´m interested in more from the Slaves to Darkness and Beasts of Chaos. I liked the new kits Slaves got last year and I would like more in that vein. For Beasts of Chaos they sure have lots of potential with everything that they can get inspiration from but I´m not feeling anything from their current kits. Which is strange as I really like the lore and the Minotaur approach in making domesticated species into terrifying monsters that haunts the wild. Flesh-eater Courts would in my mind be benefited from actually visually hinting at their delusions. As it is they visually are ghouls that differ in size and well mutation is the word I think fits the best. I would like that those thinking they are noble knights should actually wield crappy weapons they have found that matches their delusion, same for armour and other details. Now this shouldn't overtake their ghoul aesthetic rather give some nice visual contrast to it. As an example with going into the knightly and royal/noble delusion having the noble/royals actually wearing crowns, relics and caps in the Flesh-eater Courts fashion would look fantastic. As would a master of the royal/noble hounds, a "noble" ghoul leading/directing/commanding a pack of "feral" ghouls. Or for that manner imagine "knightly" ghouls riding on "monstrous" ghouls as a cavalry unit. This has epic possibilities! Now last but certainly not the least comes my favourite Grand Alliance; Destruction! 😈 For Gitz an expansion and refreshment to the Spiderfang sub faction like the Moonclan got would be great! New spider riders, medium sized spider monsters and mutated gitz into weird spider hybrids would be awesome. Just imagine this sub faction being led by these mutated gitz due to their increased size, lethality and having a wee bit more brains then their "lesser" kin. 😀 When it comes to the Ogor faction they are actually quite solid, aside from the Frost Sabres, Yhetees and all that Finecast. Replace the finecast kits with new dynamic ones and give us actually good looking miniatures of the other two and most people would be happy. Now as this is whishlisting I would want more then that; going further into the Everwinter theme, the Firebellies, gnoblars or even something tied to the new ogor in Cursed City! There is so much that can be done here! For our friends the brilliant troggoths an expansion into different types of them as swamp, desert, forest, lava or others would be brilliant. Or for that manner work with what exists in the lore and in miniature form already. The Sons of Behemat would benefit with more options, much as the Knigts of 40k did when they got the those 2 new kits. This is the destruction faction I´m the least into but they sure do have tremendous potential and the Mega-Gargant kit is gorgeous. I have been saving the best for last, my favourites the Orruks! In true wishlist fashion I will go totally nuts here! Firstly I would instantly break apart Ironjawz and Bonesplitterz into two different factions again. This to mainly give them lots of room to grow further into their aspects. Of course an option would be to keep them in a single tome and instead tie them together thematically and visually by a third orruk faction consisting of more basic orruks that has visual clues from the two other factions mixed with their own. For Ironjawz I would replace the Ardboys kit with a new one that visually would be a mix of the Ironjawz and normal orruks visually. Thematically these would be the chaff of the factions with decent damage and bad/okay survivability. Deadly in numbers but not much staying power. Then I would introduce a mob of bosses that would be somewhere in size between brutes and the megaboss. Either build them as armoured up to their teeth and make them real hard to shift/beat or build them as wielding the most impressive orruk weaponry possible and have them be whirlwinds of death! I would like for the Gore-Grunta kit to be replaced with a kit that actually emotes speed, brutality and mad riding stunts from the orruks. Not that this would happen due to the newness of the kit. A boss or megaboss miniature on a gore-grunta would be great to though! An idea I really like is that a mob of Brutes would go out in the wilds to find a juvenile Maw-Krusha and try to beat it into submission. Of course some of them would be eaten in the progress but just imagine a smaller Maw-Krusha (50-75% of the size of the current Maw-Krusha) running full tilt with one Brute fruitlessly trying to steer this monster, another hanging off one side of the beast while trying to bash in somebody's skull and a third standing on the top gleefully throwing javelin-like spears at anything in the vicinity that dares to be seen. Both the orruks and the Maw-Krusha would have a joyous time! 😍 For Bonesplitterz I would want two things; A refreshment of the existing range. The newly announced Underworlds Warband would be a great basis for it. The only actual change I would like is a change in what mounts they would use. Lets the Ironjawz have the pre-historic hogs and pair the monster hunters with a mount that also is a hunter. My suggestion would be Terror birds as they would fit the theme, contrast with the orruks due to the feathers, they are awesome and that they would be different from all other mounts in use in Age of Sigmar currently. An expansion to the range. Bonesplitterz riding wyverns would be cool, that could be something for heroes/leaders to differ them from the Terror birds but also a nice throwback to old school orks in the Old World. Something actually fitting their insane gimmick like some Bonesplitterz gathering up the feathers of great flying beasts/monsters and then fashioning crude wings from them. This due to them thinking this would enable them to fly and in true orruk fashion this would enable them to sort of to just that. Imagine a swift moving infantry unit that can jump long distances and then attacks with the claws of monsters they have collected. I think this is what I can think of at the moment. Give me more time and I´m sure I can come back with more...or for that matter with more detail! 😅

I just want GW to make something drastic with the Ardboys kit! As it it there is a distinct visual difference between the Ardboys and the rest of the Ironjawz range. Unless the paint scheme does a superb job tying them with the rest of the Ironjawz kits they stand out a sore thumb to me. They lack the visual cues that otherwise distinguishes Ironjawz from other factions. Beat up and uneven armour with scratches and bolted on armour pieces here and there. Rough, haphazard and makeshift weapons that strangely looks sturdy and nasty at the same time. Surprisingly showing lots of skin to show off how green they are. Sporting quite a mishmash of trophies; skulls/heads, horns, claws and teeth. Meanwhile the Ardboys have smooth and rounded armour of quite good quality (with a bit of scratching here and there), hardly show any skin, uses ring mail to contrast with the plate armour (Ironjawz has mail, leather and cloth) and wield weapons that basically are roughened and beefed up standard looking weapons. Now don't get me wrong I actually like the Ardboys and their overall style, especially the Underworlds warband but they don't mix well with the rest of the Ironjawz faction as it stands. As I see it GW has about 3 options to choose from; Replace the Ardboys kit with one more thematically tied to the Ironjawz faction. Make them truly wannabe Ironjawz with a good punch, lesser survivability, more bodies and empathise their desire to become actual Ironjaw brutes! Retire the kit (and warscroll) and introduce other kits to the Ironjawz range. More elite boss brutes, monstrous brutes or go more into the kunning aspect of orruks. Create a third orruk faction consisting of "basic" orruks that has enough visual ties to both the Ironjawwz and Bonesplitterz to tie all 3 (sub-)factions together. Or my favourite option a lot of all 3 options! 😁 New wannabe Ironjawz Ardboys kit and other new ideas/releases to the Ironjawz faction sounds lovely to me. 😍

That would truly be a fitting end for any orruk. Dying in joyful combat by the biggest, baddest and dangerous foe possible would most likely be the dream scenario for orruks, perhaps only be rivaled by bringing the foe down with them.

I would want a trio of Ironjawz Brutes that is riding on the back of a juvenile Maw-krusha! One is doing it's best at steering the obstinate beast (with not much luck), the second is hanging low on a side while swinging at anyone getting close and the third is having a grand time chucking spears/javelins towards anything that moves.

Wouldn't that be solved by giving this third potential faction both the ironjawz and bonesplitterz keyword? Granted I'm a collector and not a gamer so I'm totally out of the loop when it comes to rules but your criticism seems to be about how the current rules (and tome) is written. Making the third potential faction fully integrated (ruleswise) wouldn't that solve it? Any case all of this is pure speculation and wishlisting so no one beside GW knows how it'll go.

While I would love a big expansion of the Ironjawz ( and a redone Bonesplitterz) I wouldn't be surprised if GW would continue with the Orruk Warclans setup they have by launching "basic" orruks. These orruks could that take enough visually design hints from both Ironjawz and Bonesplitterz to tie them all better together while diversifying the range. The path forwards for orruks are decided by if they are kept united in a tome or if they'll get split up again. Either way (as I see it) will reflect on how them all, a subfaction or a specific theme is brought forwards as the future.

If this becomes the future for Stormcasts I would actually enjoy the aesthetic more as I find them a tad plain with only the super holy warriors theme they got going for them now. Breaking up that mono theme with "regular" humans/dwarfs/elves would act as a real nice contrast to them and could make certain aspects of a force easier to distinguish due to them being more unique.

Yes most likely they have new releases ready and waiting in warehouses around the world. The question is how many they have of those or rather for how many weeks would those releases fill? Starting up the factory x of weeks before starting the release of new stuff would give them the opportunity to both resupply their existing products (and that supply is not limitless) and start filling up the queue of new releases. I doubt GW would like to halt their pre-order for a week or two after they have restarted it with big fanfare and has had it going for 1-4 weeks. Overall they have their big logistic net to get going smoothly again (as much as possible) and that ain't accomplished quickly.

I don't see the benefit for GW to announce the starting up of their factory and at the same time start doing the next week shout out for the pre-orders. Not accounting for what GW has stored of upcoming releases, the start up of their factory most likely will hit some snags (hopefully minor) and they likely want their production to be (to a degree) ahead of demand, product launch and resupply. I would think they would like to start up their factory and get it working properly before starting up releasing new stuff.

The problem is that once you think you have decoded what GW will do, what they intend, what they will release or how future miniatures will look then they will absolutely not do just that. They constantly do things that (most) people do not suspect. Lets take Sons of Behemat as an example. Already people have started filling in the huge and gaping blanks of what we don't know about the faction (basically anything beside the name). What´s the odds of anyone doing these speculations being anywhere close to the mark? What I gathered from the Spiky Aelves teaser was that it was a new faction, roughly based on the old High Elf faction and I then assumed that GW would do their usual new iteration of them with a twist. How wild and out there this twist would be was to be determined later...and here we are partway down the stream.

Not to mention that they need to be enough visually different that they are easily distinguishable between each other on the tabletop. Its a fine line to tread on, that varies for everybody. Too much difference and it can get jarring (break immersion), too little difference and people can have issues telling units apart from each other.

These Spirit of the Mountain miniatures sure looks to me to be the fantasy equivalent of the Eldar Wraithknights. Same rough proportions and build. Not to mention it suits elves to take mountain spirits and stuff them into a body that aint built like a mountain and instead be built like a big and tall elf instead with a few pieces added for mountain flavour! 😆

That sure seems like the more likely answer, although it's the more boring alternative! 😁

Going back and reading the blurb in the Coming Soon article about S2D Start Collecting kit got me wondering after comparing it to the provided image of the box. The 9 Chaos Warriors are there in the image, so is the Champion, the 5 knights are there and so is the Chaos Lord mounted on the lizard, apparently a Karkadrak...but what is the Chaos beast we´ve never seen before? Am I to literal in reading the blurb? Is the end part of the sentence meant to for the Karkadrak? 🤔