Charleston

Yep You missed the Elephant in the room Look at this picture: Do you see it? Well, in general when GW announces a book and shows off some armies, you can concider Units in the Picture to be in the Tome. Last occurence that confirmed this was Gutbusters, with Firebellies beeing shown only in the far background and with no mention until the late previews came

btw I am reliefed that Slaughterbrutes are included. Really hope same goes for Soul Grinders and maybe even Belakor

Aren´t thoose the snippets from the Core Book Lore? I always found them to be a bit thin to be seen as an announcement, rather like putting a brick in a door so it doesn´t shut close. Like some concept they may follow up later. I belive the Kurnothi are our only hint at a new faction right now, but they propably may be just an experiment by gw to see how people react to them. I belive this is the same as for the Gitmob Riders coming soon. Or the Darkoath Warband beeing GW testing resonance for given design. To commit to the general topic: I strongly belive we will see the same pattern of releases like we have in 40k: 1 book a month with some additional rules and maybe models for some factions, campaign rules etc. to keep people busy. From time to time maybe some reworks, shifts from failcast into plastic like with aeldari and so on. And, rarely, a new faction uprising. Althrough I belive that GW will keep the pace of 1-2 new factions a year.

I belive having the Warcry Bands as Marauders would be quite cool as long as there will be a bigger kit with a better cost to model ratio. Such a kit wouldn´t be unpropable as leaks point into this direction Currently each of thoose is a highly specialised light unit. Ironbreakers have a good save, poison boys have some MW output we really need, Tzeentch guys...yeah, they are weirdos but thats usual for Tzeeentch This allows us to use them for different roles which is quite a nice touch. I hope we get some usefull rules to buff them a bit. I am really curious what GW will give us. Seeing current design trends and also further possible releases next year after SC and Tome drop makes it actually a really exciting release and I would love some leaks or WarCom articles on them. Longest month waiting for a release since the Necron Codex in 40k for me right now

Well, I noticed my guesses were ok for AoS but awfull for 40k :'D

The question about the definition is a good one. Or to ask about the perspective from which we want to judge about the state of an army. Do we want to see it from a competetive viewpoint? Or from a rather casual viewpoint? Talking about the situation of tomes from a competetive viewpoint is an neverending story. GW satisfies this quite well by making new tomes having new cool rules. Nevertheless people will always dislike something and call armies utter trash only because they can´t do X or Y. Talking about this, there is really no way to win an award here. Noone will really be happy once their 5 weeks of glory are over after a release. To really balance things in competetive terms, gw would have to slow the pace of new cool rules down to have the time to adjust rulings and wordings and point values. Currently FAQ´s and Point changes are supposed to do so, but are rather a hotfix solution. Talking from an casual viewpoint updates in tomes are more than just rules. It´s a mix of backgroundstories, ideas how to diversify your game, inspiration for colorshemes and cool hero stories that make that little plastic figure feel like a great hero we love. New tomes were also a long time bound to new releases and therefore the main source of new models (which are important as we need new stimuli. There is joy in having something nice and new). From this point of view, all factions without a Tome were treated like unloved orphans. Look how little Lore Gutbusters had prior to the tome. Slaves are in a similar position, althrough the Campaign around the Eightpeaks etc. was some source I belive, but which simply is no longer available. If you joined 2 years ago into the hobby, there are 3 pages in the core book for Slaves. This is the point that in my eyes distinguishes pretty much Seraphon and Kharadron from StD and Gutbusters which was my perspective for my statement. I admit that the next logical stage would be a tome for the remaining 1.0 factions. And we all know that gw will deliver them soon. I strongly belive until march all Books will be updated before gw introduces something big and new. I know in what a state Seraphon are, I had several talks with my Seraphon buddy about this. But we always came to the conclusion, that beside the lack of spotlight time and love in terms of stories and new lore or models, the faction is ok. Because there is another point: How playable an army is. Seraphon are by no means in a bad shape rulewise. Also GHB had updates for them each year, so they got at least a bit of love. I belibe that Seraphon are harder for GW to tackle as they need a better alignment into the word of AoS as their mysterious stereotype makes them hard to indentify with. Kharadron have plently of lore and are a very well implemented part of the world of AoS. Rulewise they are flawed but not unplayable. The ruleset is simply from another age of gw rulewriting. I know Kharadronplayers who enjoy their army and compete quite well within most games they play. So yes, an Update would be nice and necessery seeing it that way to be up to day. But nevertheless thoose factions do not feel alien to AoS. They are valid, althrough maybe a bit dusty. And yes, I wonder why GW didn´t update them before updating newer books. Yeah, for sure. We had this topic here on tga several times~ It´s a thing of internal balance as eels are simply overall good units and jacks of all trades which have no big downsides. This makes everything in the book, no matter how good it is, look bad. Compare f.e. Thralls to other Factions: These are amazing units. The eel spam build is just an easy way to win with IDK. They are the best option to pick as they deliver a load of freedom in positioning, deliver resilient units that can tank a lot. Picking up a blobb of Reavers which are harder to utilise seems worthless, but this doesn´t mean thoose are bad. Things get even worse by the competetive mindset around~

Why exactly? StD are the last faction that really need a tome. Anything else is just an update~ I understand it is your favorite faction, nevertheless there is no reason for a special treatment. The faction is fine, like any other is

Magnetizing is really the best option. If you want to have a versatile and robust and yet affordable magnet back, skip magnaracks and buy ikea: Kvissle is beside Detolf a product that ikea seems to sell like 70% of time to hobbyists: Below some pictures of how people utilize them for miniature transport. one should easily fit 1-2 bloodthirsters. Also you can put models on the walls and back as anything about this bad boy is magnetic Also, here is one in video format: Edit: Bags are usualy bought on amazon as there are fitting ones for sewing machines. just google a bit. Thoose are also super for just storing miniatures they can fit a huge number of models on small space. I currently use one for storage and was able to reduce the ammount of space necessary drasticaly. Quite nice if your wife is not so happy about plastic miniatures in boxes everywhere

I wonder a bit: Are Legions in such a bad position? They are quite a distinct battletome, beeing the "classical Undead" faction. They have a broad spectrum of warscrolls, sublegions that are a bit deeper fleshed out than the usual sub-alligiences etc and so on. They also made long enough a good stand in competetive play so I wouldn´t concider them weak.

Ahh well an interesting topic

How do you guys deal with BCR Lists and Magic? I really dislike playing without any sort of magical defense as it always seems to end in a disaster, having like al heroes nuked and a -1 to hit or wound modifier everywhere. Yet beside a single one use artifact I don´t see any magical defenses in the whole BCR section. Can we get along without? Or is a footslogging Butcher and necessery pick?

Nah, don´t call the bad spirits of another new edition, they won´t come back before 2 years had passed. Althrough, it would be possible, but I am not sure if GW will call it a new edition or an major update sort of thing. I belive that the release may be big indeed as march will be the point at which we should have all Factions on 2.0. Actually the timeline would even alow an suprice á la OBR. It could be 1-2 new factions (rather less likely) or an AoS Counterprt to Psychic Awaykening: A major campaign set which will slowly update several factions over time. Do someone has in mind what Adepticon brought us last year? I think to remember Shadowspear, Looncurse and Apocalypse, so overall an 40k focus.

Pre Battletome worth mention

Real power in Meatfist is not the charge bonus but spamming gluttons in general. The additional die may not be a lot but still does its job. Meanwhile, the command ability that grants another Gulping Bite Attack together with the Slaughtermaster Spell seems like to be the main combo behind meatfist. This gets 2 Attacks per Ogor that does MW´s and Heals on a 6 to wound, in additional to their overall good damage output. If this is really worth it, is another question. But I totally see a fluffy list which uses 2-3 maxed Gluttons Squads, eqch having a Slaughtermaster in the back to buff them in some sort.

I´ve had a similar theory: GW prices always end up beeing around 400€ for a 2k army (not counting BCR). This would perfectly fit with your explaintation.

uh, sorry, than it was quite a common case of misunderstanding I agree with you on this point! NH have a lot of small perks and flying and beeing mobile is quite an important one!

Well, it is hard to compare metas. Especially casual ones. NH fare quite well in our local group. My post was also never aimed to say NH or IDK are OP as factions, but simply that they benefit in a very big manner from terrain as they can simply skip it. We use rocks with 2"-4" height with out local group which means for my units a -4" to -8" to reach a unit or a point that is behind a rock which simply does not apply to units that fly. This is a huge factor actually. Imagine your movement 5" unit looses 2" movement to get on that rock, only to be able to pass it in the next turn. AoS is a positioning game, more than 40k ever will be. Things like the smaller role of shooting, 3" close combat deadzone and even initiative roll make positioning the key to AoS. Terrain is important to this and makes armies that ignore it easier to play. It is as simple as this and has nothing to do with NH powerlevel

While I belive that it improves the game experience, I am quite carefull to say it improves the balance of the game. I´ve had several games against faster armies like Nighthaunts or IDK in which I was not able to compete in any form due to terrain. While I had to move around things and was really cut short in terms of moving and attacking, my opponent was free to pick whatever position desired. Especially in a game like AoS, in which movement, charges and pile ins are very important elements, beeing at disatvantage here means often quite a disatvantage for the whole game. Btw, if you have any suggestions how to play around such disatvantages (which I belive shall be possible) I would be glad to hear them

The whole moulding process is in general a fascinating thing that show how little we know about gw´s numbers. In general, when a mould costs 100k, and you sell like 10k kits, each kit has a production cost of 10*currency*+further manufacturing and production costs. This would fit the gw prices quite well. Add up overhead costs for packaging, logistic, developement, marketing and a profitable margin and you end up quite fast at the current gw pricing. But we do not know how many kits of something gw produces or sells. or how expensive the moulds are. It may be, that gw already started their own mould production a while ago. Or that it will be a part of the new plant. They seem to optimise this btw, and Shadowspear is a good example. A dual box, sold a lot, and the moulds are now still in use for SC!-Boxes. Looncurse was also only a small mould to be used for the heroes and reuse of existing moulds. Therefore dualboxes are a smart move by gw. This is also while I would expect the upcoming monopose sisters of battle to be reused, maybe for a SC!-Box in a year

I returned to wargaming in general about 2 1/2 years ago. I´ve build up my 40k Necron army and started a second 40k army. In this time I had not much people to play with beside some folks at our local gw every two weeks or so. The community was cool, the manager too, and when they started a build up campaign for AoS I gave AoS a try. Thats how I ended with my first SC!-Slaves to Darkness. The campaign was fun but the fact that my Slaves couldn´t compete in any single game was really something that almost put me off. Them I found some cool allies from Khorne Alligience and started to understand that I can play my folks as another Aligience. That is how I slipped into Khorne, had some more successes with the game and decided to keep playing from time to time. Eventually I got a friend of mine to start playing as he fell in love with IDK. His brother joined and we started a monthly gaming club in a local youth centre (is this a thing in english?). Not that the club is running for a year and became a huge success AoS has spread among many other friends. Althrough I for my own prefer 40k more as a cool and balanced system, AoS became the game of choice to play with freinds

Do you guys think a return of the Forsaken Kit is possible? Thoose models are actually quite cool, even superior to old warriors in terms of dynamic from what I saw. It would be an easy grab for gw to reintroduce them. I actually never understood why the kit had to go in first place

Why do people keep saying this? Lorewise StD are everything other: Tribes and Warriors from all Realms gather in the Eightpoints, a melting pot of cultures and forge to Archaons ruinous forces. Edit: Meanwhile a "Every fourth of your Units may be from a [GOD] army without counting towards Ally points" would be cool

Part of me is like "Yeah, finish your MArines and Khorne Backlog and StD will be in perfect time there to start a new project. Another Part of me is currently like "Hurrdurr, When does some Rules get Previewed or Leaked?!

Bingo. This mean more announcements to come. May be further releases after the "known" ones in dec 14, may be more info on thoose Warcry Reboxes. I assume there will be another Wave of releases 2020 as all models in the SC! look like monopose at first glance. Would be kin to 40k Shadowspear release stuff

Love this reveal! So much amazing stuff! And finaly a book I noticed the following things, too: They kept the Slaves to Darkness name and did not go further into Darkoath All revealed Models remind me strongly of 40k´s Shadowspear: Models seem to be quite unique sculpts with interchangeble heads from what I see. Could be GW toying with a new release strategy here, giving us monopose in the SC!-Box to keep the interest in buying more than 1-2 of thoose low, saving the multipart-box release for later in 2020 for Warriors and Knights. This would be a perfect marketing decision as currently the SC!-Box will sell great: Anyone who has a StD Army wants the new sculpts, any beginner will propably, too. But none will buy them too often for the discount. After the initial Spike it will automaticaly return to be a product to get new players hooked into the army like any other SC!-Box We currently have one new hero, 2 reworked sets, 2 new monsters, a rumour that can be assumed trustworthy that Warcry Sets will be repackaged (maybe only new rules?) and rereleased in december. Cut to Lord on d. Mount (Finecast) can be assumed to be save. Choosen may be in a critical spot, but there is no evidence yet. Edit: Cuts to Warscrolls without Models (Sorcerer on Mount) possible? Price increase due to new kits in Knights and Warriors possible, loss of value in the SC!-Kit debatable (->will get sold quite fast together with remaining battleforces from last year I assume as people who waited for a book will now want to grab thoose discounts) New design is more dynamic and detailed but overall fits well with older kits, assuming that scale and proportions were not changed too much (scale in case of warriors, proportions in case of Knight´s mounts) Edit: No mention of a new Endless Spell. Might propably come in a second Wave.