madmac

At the very least, I feel like it bodes well for Fyreslayers being included as one of the four "Harbringers" kicking off the new Narrative Campaign even if they don't get anything else for now except maybe/hopefully a warcry warband. That's some unusual headliner treatment for our slayer boys, compared to BR where they were a complete afterthought shoved into the back of BR Belakor with two tiny warscroll tweaks and no models.

Looking at the full announcement, it looks like the new kill team box is a "narrative expansion" with about four warbands worth of dudes included but no terrain, that lines up almost too well with that (order vs destruction, 4 warbands) release slot on the Warcry schedule. I'm thinking we'll see something similar for AoS.

Yeah, I had the same thought. Three order armies have already gotten Warcry bands, leaving 6, and three more means half of the remaining order factions likely getting a warband this year. 50% is not bad odds for Fyreslayers, and honestly they lend themselves to Warcry pretty well as an army anyway.

Wow, what an awful decision. Or a penny-pinching one, I guess. Doesn't indicate much confidence in any case.

They outright said in one of their community articles that they would be making Cathay for TOW, and hinted several times in the lore/map articles that Kislev would be playing a very large role in the Narrative of the game/setting. I don't think starting with Bretts and TK de-confirms either, after all they can't just reprint a bunch of old Kislev and Cathay models to get things rolling, those armies will require brand new ranges.

Yeah doesn't bode particularly well that TK and Bretts are the very first armies that are getting attention, and they're going to be a mix of old models, new resin, and I guess a smattering of new plastics. If this is the premium treatment, imagine what the less supported factions are going to look like.

Alright, overall review time Dawnbringer Knights-I like them, surprised that they're dragging out the previews for CoS this hard though, even given their release date. Fyreslayer hero-Love the model, Hate hate hate that it's just another foot hero for Fyreslayers, not to mention being stuck in a FOMO box. I can't justify buying more vulkites/HG at this point, I just can't, and that means I'm at the mercy of Ebay, gaaaaah. Really annoyed with all these FOMO boxes honestly, they all seem completely awful for anyone that isn't brand new to an army, and these added hero models are naturally going to appeal mostly to people who already collect the army. Nurgle Harbringer-Nurgle does absolutely nothing for me, but that's a great model Bonesplitter Git-Gits, out of all the destruction armies, do not need more random foot heroes. I'd complain about his fomo box also being terrible but honestly, even as a Gits player I'll probably just skip this guy he's so unnecessary. FEC Hero-Again, really good looking hero, FEC are not for me though. Hopefully these initial four harbringers mean that FEC and Fyreslayers both get lots of new models soonish... BIGPIG-Pig is Big. Actually really love this model. I have a smattering of Ironjawz, no Mawkrusha, and I could see me running this guy instead Dawnbringer Narrative Series-Really feels bizarre to have a four book narrative series starting halfway through the year and ending in about six months, not what anyone expected I think. I really like the lore and stuff that comes with these campaign events but I will not be snookered into buying more hardback books that get invalidated in two weeks again, not a chance. Also, they say more than 12 armies are getting updated through this, but we've seen five of those updates already and only BIGPIG is notable in any way, so....

These are some incredibly unexciting FOMO boxes, IMO.

Maybe he's a harbringer of 4th edition, like pretty much all the broken realm releases were...probably not, but let me have my hopium.

Several of them see play regularly. It's just that STD has like 50 warband options so obviously people only run the best of the best. The Chameleons for Seraphons are literally just new chameleon models and a new melee option+mini pteradons. It's three kits in one. About half of the Killteam releases are upgrade sprues and half of them are brand new. Corsairs for Eldar are a full-on unit. The Ork Commando killteam is literally just the new commandos replacing the resin versions, etc etc. My only complaint about sidegames is that as Warcry continues to expand and move further away from being the all chaos barbarian game, it's making Underworlds feel increasingly redundant to me, especially with how bad Underworlds prices have gotten. We still get more stuff having both sidegames than just one, though.

Eh, I'm fine with Warcry because Warcry kits are in fact full units for AoS, in the same way that Kill Team releases are just a different avenue of adding new full units to that game.

Huh, not loving the New Engine of the Gods, to be honest. The Math on basically every ability is massively skewed towards "don't bother unless you have 3+ dice, and even then.." which makes this a unit you'll probably save up for one big roll once, maybe twice per game and hope you don't blow it. Not very fun, IMO.

Out of everything, it's Starborn and Coalesced having unique spell lores that really throws me.

What I will say on this, and not drag it out, is that I get annoyed at so many people conflating designs and models. I don't have any problems with the design of Fyreslayers, that's not the issue. The problem is that they are one of the oldest of all the AoS original armies, (basically on par with 1st wave Stormcasts) and as such many of their models are not very good on a technical or sculpting level, especially compared to stuff GW has put out in the last few years. In particular the infantry kits are lackluster, they're basically on the same level as some of the more mediocre 8th edition WHFB kits, which makes sense, they would have been made back then. Look at many of the first run KO heroes and compare them to the various special characters and event models released in recent years, the difference is massive! The frustrating thing about Fyreslayers is they get so few new models to put that theory to the test. The new hero looks good, as uninspired as he is. The Underworlds band looks incredible compared to the normal vulkite/Runefather, and that was season one, not even close to Underworlds at it's best. I do want new models and unit types for Fyreslayers, but even more than that I want to see new anything for Fyreslayers to better showcase their potential. C'mon GW, give them a new underworlds band, they're due. Or even better, Warcry.

Confusingly enough, the starpriest is a wizard and not a priest.

What I really love about this drawing is that even all the tiny details here, the ur-gold runes, the small differences in headcrests, beltbuckles, loincloths etc, it's all dead on accurate. If you don't play Fyreslayers you can't even fully appreciate this picture.

New Kharadron book blatantly teases Gholemkind, so that's one direction to expand them into. Agreed that Fyreslayers are always assumed more unpopular than they really are, they've had a consistent mid-high meta percentage in tournaments their entire lifespan and I see new people picking them up often enough. Maybe not a massive wave but I do feel like they are due a real update in 4th edition, it's been more than long enough. As for new Dispossessed, since the entire storyline of Grugni returning hasn't resulted in dwarf soup or any real changes for Fyreslayers or KO, either updating Dispossessed or adding Grugni focused Dwarfs seems like the most plausible path for all that teasing to lead into. Probably not anytime soon, though. Still, Dispossessed have endured this long, even apparently into the revamped CoS.

A lot of single hero releases are probably just repurposed test models (either having the new guy practice making a model using established elements, or experimenting with a new design direction) just like Underworlds has always been a way to monetize the same sort of thing.

Yeah, I've noticed recently that every single mildly interesting 4)k release lately seems to sell out before I even get a chance to think of picking up, like almost every boarding patrol box. Saves me money and all, but it reminds me of the days that every FOMO release was like that and I don't miss them at all.

It's actually the first time TOW has gotten any kind of reveal at a preview event, so that's a very major step. It's incredibly unlikely that they'll preview something that's more than six months out, also, so I'd say TOW release later in the year is also pretty much confirmed.

Running out is basically impossible, we get a new one every week, but with Warhammerfest coming up fast I think we are probably going to hit an all-time low for banked rumor engines.

All I'll say on the matter is that there was a time I actually paid close attention to GW's painting tutorials, they used to be excellent and easy to follow for good results, but the quality and consistency of their videos has just keep plunging further and further over the years, to the point that they really might as well not exist at all.

He's a surprisingly small model for being a mounted character and only a single sprue, so it's not that out there.

Well if nothing else, I think lately Underworlds has proven itself to be a decent indicator of future releases on a long enough timeline, at least the ones that aren't just straight copies of existing models. Sylvaneth got a Revenant Warband and then a Kurnothi warband, and then a Revenant model update followed by (apparently) a Kurnothi one. The Snarlfang pack got turned into a real unit just this year, with some lore indicating that there might be more to come. Seraphon got modern redesigns in Underworlds before the avalanche of new models since then, etc etc. Bonesplitters got their own Underworlds Warband which was literally the first new sculpts the had gotten in many years, and the designs were different in a lot of subtle ways from the existing models, reminds me a lot of the Seraphon situation. Not that I would expect them to get nearly as much as Seraphon but it makes sense to me that GW has been experimenting with new designs for them.

That's a weird one, I think probably it's horns suspended from chains. Combined with the rune carvings I can't really think of anything that matches...