madmac

Honestly, that's my take. I mean, Greenskins were literally squatted and they still got point adjustments in this book. I'm very confident now Gutbuster and Bonesplitterz books are coming soon, but it does look like BCR will remain their own thing. Aside from Gutbusters/Bonesplitterz, I'm pretty sure literally the only other factions that didn't get point adjustments were the ones that got books this year and Sylvaneth, who were supposed to have by now.

That is a complete list, yes.

Just because I'm surprised it's not posted here yet, BCR point changes: Stonehorn Beastriders from 320 to 300 Thundertusk Beastriders from 340 to 320 Mournfangs from 160 to 140 Icebrow Hunter from 140 to 120 Huskard on Stonehorn from 340 to 320 Yhetees from 120 to 110 Olwyr Alfrostun from 190 to 100 Skal from 150 to 130 Svard Alfrostun from 150 to 80

In theory, perhaps, but in practice I think not. Even in most video games a three month update cycle is usually far too fast and results in a constant flood of kneejerk changes and burning out the playerbase over time. And that's a medium without nearly the time or financial investment tied into any particular game piece.

Ironjawz aren't exactly festooned with double-edged blades either, though, and the attachment point is much closer to what various Ogor weapons have. Mournfangs, Ironguts, and Tyrants all have weapons with those riveted wood pieces on the side, I don't recall a single Ironjawz weapon that does. Ironjawz weapons also tend to look more like great big hunks of steel, while Ogor weapons are typically a bit more restrained like this. Covered in teeth but otherwise usually not as outrageously proportioned. Given the proportions of the weapon, I'd say this is some sort of Spear or Glaive, which leans a bit more towards Beastclaw than Gutbusters, but it doesn't rule them out.

Ironjawz and Ogors both have that weapon style, so it could be either.

I think the only thing to takeaway from the new GHB having just the leftover allegiance abilities from last year, is that GW is moving away from using the GHB as a vehicle for providing stopgap/test rules for unsupported or older factions. We already know they have plans to support all factions (in some form) by the end of 2020, this just means they don't see any reason to provide additional emt support for factions that don't have rules yet.

I just don't have enough of an opinion of most of the factions to participate, I think. I will say I think Fyreslayers internal balance is solid, Deepkins is dire, and trying to evaluate Beastclaw Raiders broke my brain. If pretty much all the units are bad, does that mean the faction is internally balanced?

Eh, yes it's full of mentions of other factions, but I found the framing for those three to be unique. Just because I haven't quoted literally the whole book doesn't mean I didn't read it. Time will tell which of us is correct, but I don't personally find, for example, Gordrakk raiding a stormvault and getting a cool battering ram to be on the same level of "these are formerly reclusive factions becoming active because of the stormvaults being unveiled". Also do you really think Grotbag Scuttlers and Devoted of Sigmar are going to come before Slaves to Darkness and Seraphon? Based on what? Edit: I think the one thing that works against the Soulblight theory is that nothing about the Forbidden Power story references Vampires in any way. OTOH, no one has said there is only one new Death army coming, and there has been a lot of Nerferata fiction coming out in recent months.

As others have said, the cover doesn't necessarily hint at anything, but it's interesting. I posted the exact passage in another thread, but there's a bit in Forbidden Power that talks about certain native factions being "stirred up" by the intrusion into their sacred lands caused by Stormvault Seekers. specifically Chaos Tribesmen, Seraphon, and Wanderers. It's interesting to me because two out of the three mentioned are almost assuredly getting battletomes soon, so I do take it as a likely hint. Scourge Privateers are a good counter-example though, since they get referenced a lot in the lore and yet I don't think anyone expects them to become a stand-alone faction. I do think there's a good chance of them having mercenary rules though.

Well that's just weird. The Battlesmith is arguably one of the better Fyreslayer sculpts and one of their most useful heroes, so certainly not in danger of selling poorly vs the rest of the line-up. I have to assume there's a plan behind it.

I don't mind the returning of old characters at all as a long time fan of Warhammer fantasy, but I will agree that I would like to see more lore exploring the AoS original characters (Volturnos, Brokk, ect) and fleshing them out.

I'm still working my way through Forbidden power, but this fairly early passage caught my attention: A furious race began between those who wished to plunder the Stormvaults for their priceless contents, and the Forces of Sigmar, determined to secure the God-Kings Holdings at any cost. Mercenary treasure-seekers formed their own companies, and Scourge Privateers led voyages deep into the deadly wilds of the realms, hunting rumors of ancient ruins and long-lost cities. These quests inevitably stirred up native populations who resented the intrusion into their sacred lands-Chaos worshiping tribes of the plains, isolated pockets of aelven Wanderers, and even reclusive hosts of Seraphon, still guarding strange ziggurats in the depths of the wilderness. So clear references to Mercenaries, Darkoath, Seraphon, and Wanderers. We know mercenaries are being expanded in the GHB, and the other three are long rumored/speculated to be coming...(well Aelves in general more than Wanderers, but some of the rumor engine/shadespire stuff recently has used Wanderer symbols, so I find it plausible.) Based on that I'm going to slightly shift my predictions for the rest of the year in terms of battletomes: Chaos: Darkoath/Slaves to Darkness Death: New army, tied to the released champion in Forbidden Power Order: Sylvaneth, Seraphon, and Wanderers. All relatively small releases, but Wanderers if it comes to pass would probably have some new models. Destruction: I'm going to stick with Ogors. There's been a lot of mention of them lately, and I think it's the Mercenary angle that's going to be their hook for becoming an active faction.

As someone who already has a fully painted Fyreslayer army especially, I'm going to be all over the Gortrek model. I just hope it's something that can be purchased normally.

I agree, I think there's a lot of people out there holding out on buying the army/models they love but have no idea what form it will eventually take, or when. Or the regret of splurging for older plastic or finecasts model and realizing that they may have spent a lot of valuable hobby time painting something that will just get removed or replaced when the armybook finally comes. It's less people being entitled/demanding more new stuff constantly than it is people being on edge waiting to take the plunge on a currently unsupported army or nervous to see if the next update makes their bottom tier army playable again, IMO.

I get that, it just comes off as surprisingly niche for something they (seemingly) expect to be a big popular game everyone wants to play. A little like kicking off a six month preview blitz for a new version of GorkaMorka.

There's been three seminars in May, and the sum total of reveals for all of them combined has been a lot of Warcry minis (but no insight on how it plays) one shadespire mini, and a brief preview of the Generals Handbook and Forbidden Power. I really do suspect the Sylvaneth/supply problem is deeper than they've admitted. Also I could be wrong but I believe the "preview" for tomorrow is strictly for Black Library.

I think, psychologically thinking, the reason these feel like letdowns is that maybe one in four of these conferences throws in anything that is actually surprising. Everyone assumed we'd get the next warband reveal for Warcry, just like every single conference since like January referenced Forbidden Power somehow until it finally came out. The Wood Elves also, were teased some time ago. I can't speak for the 40k stuff because I don't really follow it but I doubt the necromunda/Blackstone stuff was a surprise to that community either.

Pretty much my minimum expectation and nothing else. I will say the Crow Warband is I think just above Iron Golems as the second worst Warcry warband.

It will be interesting to see what GW ultimately does with Aelves. I think it's pretty likely that we'll eventually see High/Dark Aelf stragglers largely absorbed by their new factions when they finally come out. Wanderers are the real mystery. There seems to be no movement towards putting them back with Sylvaneth, they aren't strongly associated with any of the other Aelf gods, and yet they're also among the only legacy Aelf factions that have GHB allegiance abilities and heavily repackaged kits. I feel like no matter what GW does with Wanderers it will be a surprise.

Everyone is on a different point on the curve. For me, I had virtually no interest in Warcry until they confirmed there would be rules for playing other factions. Accordingly I will probably pick up the core set but my interest in the warband reveals hovers a notch above non-existent. I'm more interested in seeing the rules at this stage than anything else related to it. I am expecting another Warcry preview, but at this point I just want to see teases for something that isn't Warcry/Forbidden Power, since we've been getting constant updates on those since almost the beginning of the year. Show me another armybook, another battlebox, more Shadespire, just anything that isn't Forbidden Power/Warcry/Contrast.

Another thing of note in all this, is that Sigmar and Nagash have a long history, going all the way back to the World that Was. One of Sigmar's last great accomplishments as a mortal was leading his armies against Nagash's undead legions and destroying him in 1v1 combat. There's some hints in the various novels that Nagash had forgotten about the whole thing when he was first awoken by Sigmar but felt like he'd been deceived when his memories starting to come back.

Happened to me too, but this is not unusual for Kindle, and not just with GW. For some reason, a lot of pre-orders seem to get pulled a few days before the ebook is released, which automatically cancels existing pre-orders. Aggravating.

To be fair, the text is often actively misleading. OTOH, there have been a fair number of Hysh/Aelf related clues lately. There's still that unresolved rumor engine with the horn and aelven runes, that lion from Shadespire, and heavy Teclis hints in the lore, so it does feel like Hysh is approaching, whereas there's been no clues for Seraphon in some time. I personally have a mostly painted Seraphon army waiting for on a new book, so I would not be unhappy to be wrong, but I try to be unbiased when it comes to guesses.

I will say, I'd expect a crocodile tail to be much more angled/flatter, not nearly as rounded as that image looks to be. Obviously GW can do whatever, but worth mentioning.