madmac

You are wrong. Orcs in general don't get much attention in novels or lore events, but Bonesplitters show up as much there as any of the other subfactions do. For a recent example, I'll remind you that is was bonesplitters allied with beastmen who were involved in that mid-edition lore supplement that introduced Incarnates. It was the Wurgog shaman who invoked the Incarnate of Ghur for the first time, even. As for Spiderfang, there are basically no significant GG stories or lore that don't bring up spiders, they're a big part of the army. I don't think the fact that both are excluded from Vanguard sets and the like means anything really, they're just old models that are bound to be replaced eventually and without any real variety to offer. (both factions basically consist of two quite old plastic kits and a smattering of resin)

Regardless of release date I expect we'll see Dawnbringers 3 previewed on Warhammer Day, a smidge less than three weeks from now.

I'm not really expecting anything marked "winter" on the roadmap to make it out this year. Maybe an early armybox release for FEC, but otherwise probably FEC, Harbringers 4, the Order vs Death Warcry Band and the 2nd standalone Underworlds band will all get pushed to Jan-Feb.

At this point, I would honestly say that there's no meaningful difference in age or quality between late 8th edition WHFB models and early AoS models. As AoS slides towards it's 9th year, the important distinction between 8-9 vs 10-11 year old plastic models becomes vague at best. I expect old models will be replaced on a case-by-case as always. Even setting that aside, there's not that many fantasy holdover models left anyways. It's inevitable that GW will begin setting their sights on replacing and updating older AoS models, and I actually think we'll see the first major indication of this with 4th edition and the next wave of Stormcast.

Beastgrave was out before CoS, so I always had a skeptical eye pointed at Wanderers. I take them being removed now as just another sign that Kurnothi will officially be added to Sylvaneth soon. That's kind of my point though, we have new Light Elves and new Wood Elves and New Dark Elves feel assured at some point, but there's not anything out there like that for Dispossessed. Grugni has returned, we'll almost certainly get a Grombrindal model at some point, but there's no substantial lore hints for a new subrace of Dwarfs to replace dispossessed even now.

I think Dark Elves will simply go when Malerion finally shows up, like the old HE models made way for LRL. Dispossessed is the real question, because it's still extremely unclear if they are going to be replaced by anything, in cities or out of it.

The way Skaven just kinda randomly show up and save Trugg here, I'd say they're definitely setting up them for the new 4th edition starter. There were hints of Skaven activity in some of the earlier Dawnbringer stories, too.

I think maybe they were planning to put them in the 2nd Harbingers book ala LRL in BR Teclis and decided against it. Which was the right decision, to be fair.

Odd weapon design, doesn't cleanly fit any existing faction. Probably 40K but more because I can't match it up with anything in AoS than because it screams 40K.

I was hoping, but I didn't dare hope too much, I love it! Definitely grabbing at least two boxes of these guys. Nice selection of new weapons spread among the group, too. Whips, Spears(shovels) bonepicks and even the greataxes are a big improvement on the old models. Also the half capes are a big aesthetic improvement over the old loincloths, it's not quite the same as wearing pants but it hides the baby legs better. The new helmets are also a big improvement, the upper body proportions on the male Fyreslayers...everything is a huge win, IMO, as a Fyreslayer fan.

I mean, they are harbringers...The Rabble-Rowza literally brought us the Troll King, so we can count that as a promise fulfilled. The Ghoul Herald should of course release alongside his Summer King. Fyreslayers and Nurgle though, Hmmm...

It looks like a different style of vs set at least. Smaller looking box, less terrain and extra bits. Probably they scaled them down and made them a bit cheaper because the old style boxes weren't selling well enough.

They're straight blitzing through these space marine reveals, at least.

Underworlds is a new core box, they haven't done an Order warband in a while and the next warband after the box is Destruction so expect Order vs whatever. Warcry is likely either Ogors or Sylvaneth, my guess is Ogors.

I figured they'd be small, but yeah dang they're shorter than I expected. Good for people who still have old Empire models I guess.

I understand the need for caution, but Just looking around at the usual places it doesn't seem to be sold out anywhere, I don't think there's any need to panic on this one. The Harbringer boxes sold out faster than this did.

I mean, you can theorize all you want, Underworlds has a long track record going in the exact opposite direction of what you are saying. Many big race updates and new units have been heralded by Underworlds releases years in advance that clearly show them experimenting with the new designs. Look at the long awaited Seraphon warband for underworlds and compare it to the Seraphon release we finally got this year. Notice how CoS was completely and utterly ignored by Underworlds until the new design direction for the range had been locked down. Look at Snarlfangs, Revenant Archers and a dozen other examples. Not only that, but if you go back and listen to the old GW podcasts Underworlds is explicitly a way to monetize the experimental sculpts that the model design teams were already making anyway.

So a new ghoul unit with blades and scraps of armor it looks like? Not a bad Pegasus either, I'd say.

Yeah honestly I'm less bothered by the sudden erasure of Wanderers and Phoenix Temple (although that doesn't bode well for the remaining non-humans) as I am losing the coalition options. It's just not the same army anymore, it's a small selection of human models with some still-around-but-probably-doomed elf and dwarf sidekicks, and that's it. I like the new models, mind you, I like most of them a lot, but now that it's basically just it's own thing like every other army instead of something neat I can easily branch out into using my other Order armies, a lot of the fun is gone, IMO.

I think the non-human side of things has a clear divide, the aelf stuff is mostly still pretty good, while the dispossessed stuff is mostly awful now. I don't believe it was part of some master plan though, that's just how things worked out. Either way the fact that things are even more heavily keyword locked than in the previous tome means that the non-human pieces of the book who both have way fewer synergies and options period need to overperform a little on their warscrolls just to even keep pace with the Human side of the book which has huge buffs and synergies spilling out everywhere. I'm undecided on how I feel about the new tome overall right now. It has some neat stuff, but it's very very different than the previous book and as such lost a lot of what made that book special and unique. It's a much smaller feeling book than the last tome, on multiple levels, and while I think it will be very strong mechanically it doesn't have the same charms, IMO.

No coalition rules at all. Some subfactions extend their subfaction bonus to certain allied races, which is really just a minor flavor thing overall. It's very much now a human book with dwarf/dark elf sidekicks and maybe a token ally here or there.

Probably just a planned leak to start with, GW loves doing that kind of thing. It's got all the hallmarks of a controlled leak, including the selective release of very limited information over a period of several days.

They haven't functionally changed that much. Extra wound, no more damage track, some removal/re-wording of abilities but they still do the same things. Hurricanum gives +1 to hit and mortal wound output, Luminark gives a 6+ ward and mortal wound output, as before. Major change is that their buffs work on human units only.

They have two special character models, but no generic centerpiece. That is unusual, to say the least.

There will be consequences, but the main benefit (IMO) is that it will make base size less of a hidden stat boost, and also mean things like conversion trays or just not having quite the right size bases will matter less. For making the game more accessible, that's not nothing.