Charleston

I wouldn´t expect all of them to be featured anyway, it was just a compilation of book names I could imagine

Reading this, I wonder what major characters may receive a Broken Realms book. Following come to my mind: Archaon (Based on his size and importance to lore quite well possible, yet due to wrath of everchosen and Belakor beeing the face for StD BR I won´t expect a Broken Realms: Archaon) Gordrak (With Siege on Excelsior and an attack on Azyr quite possible, if not even the Starter for AoS 3.0 Setup Allarielle (Sylvaneth Godess would line up well with Teclis and Moriathi) Grungi (would be great for an Dwarf Reunited Setup and had some hints in lore to return so far) Volturnos (IDK's most important character so far and would be like the last missing major Aelven Faction to get some BR-Action) Skragrott (Gloomspite were always good for unexpected appearences and have a new and lovely model range so a spotlight on them sounds quite possible, especially as it is the only real option beside Gordrak for a Destruction-BR-Book that comes to my mind) Manfred and or Neferata (Most prominent GA:Death characters beside Nagash and Arkhan who...who am I kidding, it will be BR:Nagash...dammit Nagash! You are a narcistic snob!)

GW´s publishing policy is a mess in general, not only due to covid but also by design. Especially the book-releases are getting more and more messed up. Having a new tome for my factions released is no longer good news for me tbh.

WHFB times Chaos Daemons were a single faction that was often recommended to players due to the fact that a single army could be used in WHFB and WH40k. WHFB was dominated by daemons for a long time from what I´ve read, and the old range was quite heavy in pewter models. Splitting Daemons off in 4 factions, leaving you only the Great Alliance Alligience, made it far less desireble to play (even Belakors Host in Wrath of the Everchosen did not much to change it). I imagine this way gw wanted to lure more players to get into a new army. That beeing the historic reason I see for the "shared books", and yes, GW focusing design wise on models for sub-alligiences feels quite like pushing you to buy more stuff if you want to change the suballigience. Mawtribes is a good example: Each tribe has 1-2 designated units that are supported. The best way to get around it is to not get fooled by the carrot on a stick.

I WANT HIM! AAHHHHH THE ANTICIPATION IS KILLING ME!!

Uff, hard to tell. It could fit due to the 10cm extra room. But concider that the bag has rounded edges while the KVISSLE has (in best LRL tradition) pointy ones.

I couldn´t help but meme this up

As much potential I would see in a Chaos Dwarf Faction for Aos, with Plastic Kits and some reworks...I really don´t see them coming anytime soon, if at all. There were no tidbits dropped by gw in lore.

There are also rumour engines showing Wings with a chain which look like a Belakor redesign. All portents hint us another model release for StD. We could possibly expect: Multipart Chaos Warrior Kits Belakor Plastic Kit Plastic Chosen (rather unlikely to happen, like 30-40% if I had to guess, based on fact that they are the only remaining resin kit beside belakor) Marauders (going after the fact that they are quite pushed and the kit is damn old. Many people (including myself) actually tought them to be swuatted with the Tome. New Chaos Lord Kit with a flail (Profile in the tome but no model available yet)

Thanks for remembering And yes, I can only second this! Valkia is great and we need more tough Valkyries like her

Yeah, things have pro´s and con´s: More releases means the hobby stays interesting for longer time. Remembering times like 4th Ed. 40k, I am quite happy about a higher release pace. Nevertheless, the pace and order of gw releasing new stuff has frustration potential. Especialy as we talk about some damn pricey books here, that are designed with a 2-3 years headtime. Noone can excuse thoose releases to be "fast additions because fans desired more". It is the same approach that we sadly know from video games: Take a part of the release, split it off and force people to buy it as extension/dlc/campaign book. This was already done with Slaves to Darkness and the "Wrath of the Everchosen" book that dropped like 1 month later. It was done with DoK with the Broken Realms book, and I am quite confident that Lumineth will see another Tome within this or the next year, together with a 3rd wave of models. That´s why gw stretches their release instead of putting it all into one wave. Theoretically it is possible to circumvent this by using online ressources like warscroll-pdf´s and so on. Nevertheless, the feeling of an incomplete battletome remains. This is also by design, simply to convince people to buy that new book/cards/whatsoever The point is, that this is quite a predatory way of product design. Is it legit? Yes, sadly yes by out current society standarts. Is it nice? No. But GW know´s that people love their products and therefore they can do this and much worse stuff until sales decrease. So we have either to live with it, or decide to stop consuming their product and look for alternatives. That beeing said, I´d expect a Slaves to Darkness Battletome Update within the next year. The new, splitted off, Warband and also the hints of a new Belakor Kit make it possible that we will see the same "update" pattern on a quite new book here, too.

Nice update. Comes handy and makes cultist a bit more desirable to play. Not great, but still neat. I´d assume that in a update for the Battletome this will be added for all other Legions.

Well, they need also different content from time to time. Also, the upcoming releases are wuite well known: Hedonites, Lumineth, Gravelords, Daughters Tome. Yet, I would love Khorne getting some spotlight. Can you maybe give a brief summary of what was told about khorne? Currently Khorne Lore is written into a dead end: All is reasoned with Khorne beeing Angry. There are no plans or schemes behind the whole faction. It´s a veryplain lore. And a quite boring one. But not even because of the motifs, but rather due to how they are told. There could be several better approaches: Khorne is known for getting grudges against foes. Why not let Khorne fail in a manner in which it becomes personal, making him obsessed about destroying a particular foe? As Khornes essence is based on anger, bloodshed and so on, why not taking the approach of a cold-blooded-reptile. Hysh f.e. is known of self controll since teclis teachings, which could lead to khorne loosing his grasp and maybe a part of his power. This could incite fear in the god of slaughter, maybe even despair, leading to new facetes and maybe a new depth of design? The aspect of weaponsmiths and warforges was always quite present in khorne. I could imagine that this gives a lot of room for more deamonic machines. While writing I noticed that all Chaos Gods beside Slaanesh have to fight this issue of beeing written into a cliché. Tzeentch is always about shemes which end up in the plottwist that all was planned to fail anyway. They should shake up the chaos gods in my opinion. For new units: Inspired by Valkia I could imagine Khorne to take up some Valkyries. Winged Daemons with Spears, specialised on High-Rend or maybe in hunting flying models. The same could be a multikit with a bow, allowing some ranged units. As mentioned above, I could imagine them to get some more daemonic machines similar to the Skullcannon.

Hm. This 5-book-calculation would mean that the rumoured Belakor plastic kit is not part of a Broken Realms release. Althrough this wouldn´t be a big thing, concidering DoK and Hedonites tome update seem to come without a bigger tie to the broken realms. I´m only a bit afraid of diving into Lumineth. My plan was to get the Release Box, but now I´m not sure if the dex will last longer than 6 months.

My experience: Bigger games are not really a solution. It would put the game more in the spot in which whfb lost many beginners: When the entry point of an army is too high, people won´t jump as easy into the hobby. What helps to really shake up the meta is playing smaller games instead. On 1k you really can´t assemble many deathstars. It does not allow you to play a list that can take it up against all opponents and forces you to play more reactive to your opponent. Playing 2-3 small 1k games in a match-setup can be really a nice refreshing experience that I like to repeat from time to time

For me it somehow evolved over time: On first glance I tought the models look odd. Cow-Helmets, Sauna-Hat-Archers, Giant-Cow-on-Spider-legs and so on. With time, I got used to most of these and found conversions for the worst offenders. And Lumineth also provide all that I desire in an army: Units With Bows, nice Cavallery, big monsters, outstanding heroes, base troop infantery that seemingly matters and looks awesome (wardens). Right now I really concider Lumineth as next Army-Project.

Ok, I guess I am not enough around Lumineth Groups yet because I really didn´t hit on many of the hammer boy conversions. I actually didn´t knew they don´t see much play, tought they are quite decent unit.

It is really hard to judge and I would love to know this as well. I guess when Pandemy is gone, we will see more. There are so many factors here: The bundle Box releasing a shard of the army could be either a good way to establish them in some sort of teaser-release, or as well be a reason why some people stepped away from the release until wave 2 hit. The Alarith-Guys and big Spirits were controversial, yes, but to be honest, many people that complained were never about to start the army anyway. I assumed to see a load of conversions on these Models, but have not seen many to be honest. Rulewise the faction is already a quite interesting and distinct faction.

GW noticed that thay can milk the cash cow better when they force multiple book releases on each faction. Thus, releasing half factions and forcing players to buy two books to have full access is a logical consequence. Hedonites are the other approach: Release two waves with two battletomes. Later one has the advantage of less stuff to be carried around for the player. PA and Broken Realms are also just a way to lure people into buying rulebooks, which meanwhile loose value so fast that more and more people start using online resources, mostly "free" ones that are not provided by GW. In general, GW is always experimenting on how to sell stuff in an efficient way. Thats what the company is for: Making money. It´s an important thing to keep in mind. That´s btw also why new units are mostly stronger than older ones, to keep them attractive in sales. Also, as stated in the powercreep: GW creates rulewise frustration/imbalance on purpose. It´s something that defines 40k since ages already: Unit A is good, Unit B is trash. Both can even be sold in a single box. People build Unit A, then the next edition/faq/addon nerfs Unit A and makes Unit B incredibly good. People who are into competetive mindsets see Unit A now as worthless and buy the kit again to assemble as Unit B now, increasing sales...This does not only has to be right about internal balance of units within a faction, it can also be about factions. Many players who play sub-tier-factions know the temptation of buying into a new army that gameplaywise is more attractive... I should write a blog post about this actually. Talking about experiments, another one that defined many AoS factions was keeping neccessary Battlelines in quite expensive boxes with inclusion in as few bundle boxes as possible. Witch Aelves and Kharadron Arkanaut Companies are an example, Lumineth are also quite dependable on wardens so far. Althrough bonereapers break the pattern here due to the heavy discount in the dual box during introduction.

I just noticed that this Vampire Hunter could be the first designated CoS Unit Release

Thats what my post was about to point out: We do not know much about the game. Will it be rank and file? Or a Skirmish? Will it be 28mm heroic scale? Will it be bigger, as AoS and 40k models tend toward in recent design? Or will it be a smaller scale like LotR, which improves the rank and file feeling due to smaller miniatures at cost of single model detail? Will it be square or round bases? Regiment bases? Will it be a new 4th main-system? Or a specialist game? Will heroes have a great role? Or a smaller one? How about magic? Will Skaven and Lizzardmen return? And what about Chaos? Will there be some sort of cross-compatibility of models? Or none at all? * Currently there is a lot of room for desires to flourish. Some may be inspired by old WHFB and golden memories. Others may be inspired by the awesome feel of Total War:Warhammer 1+2. And it is great to have some room for wishes and desires, especially in such cursed times as the current. But from experience I would fear that many of thoose wishes will turn into frustration when not fulfilled by GW. That´s why I really hope that GW keeps us up to date with what to expect. * Propably some of thoose questions were already answered by gw. If so, I am always eager to hear!

I´m afraid that the project is already doomed to frustration by the community from day one. People currently hype it and create expectations. There is no way GW will satisfy everyone. The more GW heats the hype train, the more frustration we will see day one. All could be stopped/prevented with a simple design manifesto, telling us what the heck we are actually about to expect

The Lord on Manticore is not bad, althrough his CA is a waste of potential. Currently some Khorne Players use him with their Alligience, as you can buff him into a sick blender with the Goretide-Hew-the-Foe-Generals-Trait (+1 Damage on all of his profiles). Adding a Gorecleaver Artifact (which requires to be a little more into Khorne as you need a battalion to unlock the second artifact beside the mandatory goretide one) gives him the chance on doubling the damage on one of his weapons when wounding on 6's. Then Khorne has some other buffs to make him even more dangerous! Despite this, the Lord on Manticore is still a good blender with many weapon profiles. His mount is adding a lot of fun, too since the buff in the battletome. He is a Mortal and a Monster, which has some upsides looking at StD Buffs. He is great in a Despoilers List, where he profits from the Regeneration of the Alligience. Also the Crown of Many Eyes is a great Artifact to make him more dangerous, letting him Fight first after the charge. His downsides are all rather small critique points: He only has a 4+ save and no inherited 5++ against mortals (which can be still obtained by the shield option) and also he has a quite useless command ability, which still may come handy at ocasions. If you want a strong mortal lord he competes for the slot with the new one on Karkadrak, which is also a good blender and who offers synnergy with Knights. Also since the new book I prefer the Sorcerer option: It is always wise to have at least one dispell around. Especially as the Manticore itself is blendy enough and the utility from the oracular visions is great! The meanest list I can imagine outright outright would look somewhat like this: Hitting with your 3-4 fast Monsters allows you to blend his army piece by piece. You will have so much manipulation of combat order that noone really can hold you up. The Sorcerer Lord on Manticore provides you some magic to blend hordes. He also increases your durability with his Oracular Visions. Downside: This list is terrible at the objective game, providing only 2 squishy althrough fast units to focus on objectives. You could sacrifice the cat to upgrade the marauders into chaos knights. Or you downsize them into Chaos Warriors and use the additional 20 pts to use the Lord on Manticore instead of the Sorcerer Option. As for Marks of Chaos: Decide on what matches your playstyle. I like Khorne on Despoilers as the CA on the Prince is really nasty and the Generals Aura is a great buff for the whole Army. On the Sorcerer I run Slaanesh or Nurgle.

My issue when reading into CoS with them was the low ammount of attacks and no way to increase them. Althrough 5 attacks with the -2 D2 Lance are nice, they are quite a small punch. Althrough I have to admit that I am spoiled from the output of the 30 pts more expensive Chaos Knights

A big issue in my eyes is how the "good stuff" makes the worse units obsolete. This lack of internal balance is even amplified when concidering the balance between the books. While GW adjusts stuff, the mainframe still is so distorted that things ain´t funny. Let´s take the Leviadon-Buff as example: From Deepkin Perspective, the buff was necessary and a good step to make the Leviadon worth concidering again, as it was always the worse choice compared to eels. This buff also improved other units like Reavers or Thralls and so improved internal balance of the faction. Looking from another factions perspective that is already lower tier than IDK one can only wonder what gw was thinking by buffing even more units in a faction that could be already oppressive as hell. As Mortal Khorne player, I really ask myself what the ****** justifies buffing that hell-turtle, especially as the eel-riders were already better and more point efficient than any available unit in my faction and thus from this perspective should rather be nerfed hard. New releases follow a similar sheme: Good/Broken units and combos of the book will be identified quickly "Bad" units don´t see much play and get dropped Factions and armies which are already suboptiomal feel even worse now as there is another faction that one can barely compete against. In my opinion that leaves the sorrow taste of power creep, even if the new stuff may be not much worse than anything that is already out there. The worst part about it is that a broad part of the community has the feeling that this lack of balance is by design and tied to selling kits. By frustrating players who use one product, they create salvation by selling another "better" product. Due to the constant change in rules the better product becomes the frustration one at another point of the products life cycle. This became a strategy that can be also observed in trading card games like MTG and that none can expect to go away on it´s own, as GW, WotC and many others have to use any tool available to maximize profit (that´s the rules). A simple way out is playing mixed lists, not focusing on "good" or "bad" units but taking a happy mix. But this in the end will only work in a non-competetive environment and will also suffer to the basic rules of games theory (like people taking more good units to improve their odds in the game and thus restoring the status quo)