Yoid

Well, I convert mostly for saving money because im in a tight budget. I adquired Wrath and Rapture back in the day when Fiends were awful. I converted all my fiends with Daemonettes heads to turn them into Daemon Princes, specially one that I give a spear too (the others don't look so good in the neck). Before Covid I had plans of making a chariot pulled from one of these "Exalted Fiends" as a way to represent the exalted chariot. The thing is, you can change the beast that pull the chariot to something mighthier. If you got money and/or access to an Slickblade kit, you probably can make one pulled by exalted seekers.

Oof. The interview is a nice content, but it is a constant beating to any slaanesh dreams. Admiting that summoning is baked into the point cost of units, and that playing with Hedonites units instead of StD is handicaping yourself. When asked about Hellstriders costing so much he said something like "Don't know if i should talk about that" like if something disturbing is behind this decission. When they talk about the twins, what he say is "They got the potential of changing how the rest of the army plays", he dosn't refer to a power level at all. He also describe them as "Smaller Keeper of Secrets" And later he say "Well, I already know what they do" to clarify any doubt about his words being speculation or not. Really bitter, but well, nothing new we didn't know by reading the battletome ourselves.

The cool art is supposed to be the cover of the new core rules, I don't think it refers to a specific new faction but simply chaos spreading like in the realms of chaos, this kind of biomass that twist reality and grow. It can tie into later themes or simply point the art direction into a more grim-dark tone. If gitz are treated with enough respect they can be a formidable opponent to Stormcast, some of the Gloomspite Gitz storys describe really gritty stuff, like the shine of the bad moon making mushrooms grow over the skin of humans and the mortals pulling his own skin off while trying to erradicate them. Gitz can be nightmarish creatures once you accept that most of their cartoony things come from outdated concepts from the old world.

I still didn't see that specific intervew because no one seems to know the exact reference/link, but what I heard is he said "I cannot wait for the Slaanesh players to see the twins rules" and this can be interpreted in a good and bad meaning. Whathever they do may be overcosted or an extremely niche thing that the army don't need. I prefer to wait and see the rules before becoming excited.

In fact, in that story Tzeench fight the bad moon in a dreamlike/esotherical space within the minds of the tzeenchian prisoner and Skragrot (the bad moon wins). I didn't read it personally but I heard of it. Skragrot grab the bad moon and use it as a fanatic chained ball to smash Tzeench mystical/magical/mental assault. Sound cool as hell.

Not really, the new stormcast has been refered as a "new breed" too in some of the promotional art. It can be a big range of new models and still be within the bounds of an old tome/keyword. I mean, it can be, but the "new breed" part dosn't mean anything if it was used to describe the new chamber/not new chamber of stormcast. More so "new breed" instead of "new race" or something equivalent seems to refer to a slightly mutated second wave of something we already know.

Could it be a new Gloomspite Gitz tome (maybe with other name) that includes a new sub-faction type. Now that everything is coming circle with that idea. It make sense as the other half of the box is simply Stormcasts, and they need to update tomes into 3.0, and they stated that the focus in "new waves" is gonna be bigger than "new factions".

Just hype for the models and not the rules. Wait patiently because they can be really disapointing otherwise. We don't know if their rules are writen by the same guy that did the battletome or there is another more generous guy that write every small update of Kragnos. As something funny, today I had a dream in wich I was playing with Dexcessa. The dream was pretty short as it was just my opponent rolling a bunch of mele attacks, dealing 11 wounds to Dexcessa, and me removing the model from the table because she only had 11 wounds. Upon waking up I was so happy it was just a dream... but one never knows...

The next GH is gonna be crazy, now that we have points that end on 5s a massive change to all unit costs is almost guaranteed. If they are really toning down point costs and units sizes in 3.0 we may expect a lot of game-changing meta-shifting adjustments. Some warscrolls may have their points changed based on the new core mechanics of 3.0 that increase or reduce their raw power. I hope the usual losers (BoC, Sylvaneth, Slaanesh) get some new boost. The thing is Sylvaneth and Slaanesh gonna get more rules in Kragnos too, this dosn't fix the whole range, but is a good start.

They keep revealing amazing save values. 2+ on the stormcast paladin and 3+ on the vampire knights. A generic CA that gives +1 to save as a charge reaction and Mystic Shield turning into +1 to saves according to rumors. Even if the buff is capped at +1 we are looking to regular 1+ saves and 2+ saves. I foresee some power creep in rend values too, probably a core rule like having an additional -1 rend when charging, some form of generic CA or even a third common spell that all wizars will know. Speaking of wich, that would be an amazing way of expadning the core rules, adding a third generic spell for all casters.

Well, is not gonna happen, but an army of Fae (Faeries, pixies, that kind of stuff) would be incredible. They can look quite goblinoid. It match the folktale mood of the video and faes are usually asociated with being allies to animals (like the rumored wolfs). The only problem is this lore is already adapted into Sylvaneth and their spites.

Something massive, sound like there is hope after all. Then you remember that they are paid to hype even small things as something MASSIVE ._.

I want: Anything related to the AoS universe. I expect: Anything related to the 40K universe. I don't want: Anything related to the 40K universe. Yep, I don't ask much and still I feel im gonna be disappointed. Still I will hold to the Ghal Maraz banner as a beacon of hope until the last second.

Well, we all can agree in liking the crab. So they only need to release a second wave of mercenary crabs that can be allied in any faction.

The Ghal Maraz banner and coin got to mean something tho. The coin may be related to a later release or anouncement, but the banner got to be something Warhammer Fest related. Even if it is just a teaser for AoS 3.0, some kind of animation or a computer game promotion.

They are clearly waiting for me to write the next slaaneshi book. Totally not what an slaaneshi devotee would claim driven by his oversized ego, god no.

In the video of the designers talking about the exciting things in Kragnos they didn't even mention the twins ._. *Oof* Khorne daemons were featured in Be'Lakor storyline, even if they dosn't have faction specific rules. Now for me the mystery is the Ghal Maraz coin and banner. Will it be AoS 3.0? Or will it be some kind of Stormcast featured in an specialist game like Warcry 2.0? Im not really into 40k, but there are rumours of a new Daemon Codex happening soon, that may come along with some kind of Daemon sculpt, so we may see some AoS models released in the 40k days (maybe classic heralds or battlelines).

In the HoS thread I shared my toughts on the Slaanesh one. Some of the Daemonettes at their feet are suspicious of being new models, specially the one with four arms and a staff. More so, Dexcessa is wielding a different staff than the model, wich make me think someone built her wrong for the preview pics (the model have the same staff-tip than Synnessa instead)

Well, this goes heavily into the personal opinion area. I prefer diversity and everything having his own utility, and you prefer a "take what you want and everything is good vs everything" approach. I can see the "take what you want" working if done right, but as it is done right now it have some fatal flaws. Since everything is reduced simply to a mass of good stats, you can clearly tell wich unit is the better, making all the other units the wrong choice to pick. Also there are certain units that are not currently design with this philosophy, and by the mere existence of the others that are (often the spammy Mortal Wounds units) you make all the others a bad choice to pick. If this was really-really a "take what you want" I can see it working as a design philosophy, but currently is more a "take the best choices or play with an obvious disadvantage, bad luck for you if your army cannot support a best-choice type of selection" I can see why GW don't refine that philosophy because it would make a lot of people complain. Some time ago warscrolls were more simple, and a lot of units were copies of others with basically same stats and abilities, and there were a lot of complains about that. I prefer a complex design that encourage the tactical use of all units in an army, but I admit the other way can work if done right. The problem is we are somewhat in between because GW cannot made his mind (probably different people working in different battletomes without following the same design philosophy) and the spam of Mortal Wounds/Ward Saves in certain units tie tightly into this.

I admit it was a poor example the cannonbal one. Im sure there will be other weapons that one say "should kill a mounted horseman" but also "Should not kill multiple models". In fact a rule for this already exist in the system, and is in the Fiends of Slaanesh stinger. It deal 1 damage to 1 wound targets, D3 damage to 2-3 wounds targets, and D6 damage to 4+ wounds targets. Fiends are often look as a bad unit because it is design to underperform vs most enemies and only sligthly overperform vs 4+ wounds enemies (wich are quite rare), but that rule is actually a good fundation to develop better battlefield roles for the armies in the future. For the cannonbal example, you can make something like: It have 3 attacks, so it can kill up to 3 models, but it got a damage value of 1 vs 1 wound enemies, 2 vs 2 wound enemies, 3 vs 3 wounds enemies, and 4 vs 4+ wounds enemies. Suddenly this artillery piece got a clear battlefield rol that differentiate it from a catapult, wich may get a number of attacks equal to the number of models in the target unit to a cap of 15 or something like that, making it an anti-horde artillery piece. And both may have -5 rend (or deal the damage in the form of mortal wounds if you please). But both this designs don't simply fall into the "more-more damage" rule. Wasting the cannonbal in a horde would be bad, and wasting the catapult in a multi-wound elite unit would be awful, so you still want both in your artillery-like list. The enemy then can do the tactical choice of going and destroy whichever is better agaisnt the mayority of his army in general (Gloomspite Gitz launching an all-out attack into the catapult, or Stormcast going quickly to dismantle the cannon). If the monsters and artillery got a proper high rend and focus on anti-horde or anti-elite, the knights-elites got a proper low attacks with medium rend, and the light-infantry got a proper high attacks but low rend, then this kind of choices become relevant over all armies and all situations, and make the game more believable and more tactical, probably more fun and engaging. I would be fine with all armies having access to an specialist that deal mortal wounds in the form of magic damage just to counter ethereal, and that is probably wizards and priests already. Having too much wards saves is becoming a problem too. Because you dont have a unit archetype that is good vs wards saves. They need to be toned down too or the tools to counter it must exist. The counterargument of "then some anvils become too squishy" is not valid because then you buff the wounds/armor/point-per-model of these units to compensate, and depending on what you have choosen to buff this units become stronger vs certain enemies but weaker vs others (again the value of attacks/rend/damage making the game more tactical and rich). Then when anvils are not simply "more-more tankiness" you start wanting different anvils for different purposes and your list become more varied, how you move your troops to face agaisnt certain unit types become more relevant.

Mortal Wounds are pretty flawed as a mechanic. Having high rend wounds/improved rend wounds would be much better. A cannon should be lethal? Sure, make it -4 rend. To what creature should be lethal? Up to a horseman? Then 3 damage you go. But oh, this magically kills two other models if you hit a 1 wound unit... suddenly this is wrong. To correctly have it done, the combat values would need to be reworked, with no spilling wounds, and an approach to save/rend similar to S/T (allowing certain units to have 2+ save and others to have -5 rend) Ideally, certain unit will deal a very small amount of attacks/damage but with insanely high rend, and other will do an insane amount of attacks/damage but with no rend at all. The first would be good vs monstrous behemoths with 2+ save and elite units with 3-4+ save, and the later would be good vs hordes of low armored mass of wounds and even fleshbag type monsted that have insane amount of wounds but low saves. The problem is, instead, mortal wounds (effectively high rend wounds) are mix with regular damage in most units, and often used as a way to deal very high amounts of damage. Is not that those units got a niche of dealing very poor damage but in the form of mortal wounds. I think GW should be more clever with the system they have, using the same fundation they can create way more interesting unit archetypes, instead of simply "Yes, more damage" or "Yes, more tankiness" that lead to only 1 unit anvil, 1 unit hammer and 1 unit chaff being viable in most battletomes, and some battletomes having clearly underperforming units compared to the same type of unit in others. To me the existence of Mortal Wounds only make sense to counter ethereal, as a way to represent magic to fight nighthaunts and thats it. I wish for the armor/rend and wounds/damage values to have a bigger impact and diversity within the system instead of the current Mortal Wound spam that make every damage dealer almost the same.

Well, it make sense that they are more than one, as Slaanesh embrace way more complexity than the other Gods. Maybe Tzeench that is both change and scheming make sense as two beings too, and that is already represented in Kairos two heads if im not mistaken. Slaanesh is both the craving of extreme sensations (Dexcessa) and the manipulation of the extreme sensations in others (Synessa). There may be other lore reasons, like something interfering with the protean form in Kragnos, we don't know if someone will try to destroy it and instead split it in two or something. But in the end any lore reason can be just a mean to an end, that was to sell two different models. Since they stop preorders for two weeks, we will be waiting like a month or so until Kragnos is released and we know the full rules.

Well, I bet they were design as a single model, then GW cannot decide wich one was the named version and wich the generic version, or wich one to discard, and they simply make two characters. The main difference for me is the face anyway. Im probably gonna build both like Synessa but one with Dexcessa's face. Not a fan of the whip-rope-whathever, if it dosn't have clear rules, I may just give both the two upper hands of Synessa and the two lower hands of Dexcessa, then both will be using two staffs. Dexcessa's fin make the silhouette of the model busy and unreadable, and make the shoulders and neck not visible from behind, so im probably gonna give both the wing-like fin. Im happy with them being design this way because then we can customize both as we please, and people are liking one and the other for different reasons. One thing that I really really like about the model is the upper right hand of Synessa that is hold in a mantra-like gesture. For some reason people find the KoS inspiration as something wrong, but the current KoS is like a mini-slaanesh design-wise. I really like the twins being basically a GW version of the Exalted Keeper of Secrets. And since the game is moving around god-like models in every army more and more, this will probably open the door for the other three chaos gods to make their own exalted greater daemons/sons in the coming years.

Yeah, is a criticism that is worth sending. Is not so much that we are asking for better points, but asking for better ways of approaching design in the future. Even if Kragnos fix Slaanesh there is worth in making our opinions about this current state of the game reach GW.

Yes indeed, we are very excited for the twins, although I don't know if I can afford both. Im also planning to update some of the lore on Qatieta for my next attempt into Black Library based on this Newborn event. She being born from the echo of Slaanesh within his empty palace while the god is absent was more fitting for the previous state of the story. Right now im thinking she may be born from what the Newborn discarded about himself, like if the Newborn matured into this perfect twins form assimilating all of Slaanesh glorious virtues, the leftovers were all the Slaanesh disgraceful weaknesses, and that eventually take the form of Qatieta, a KoS that embody what Slaanesh dislikes about himself and try to hide. Instead of consciously manipulative like Synessa she is actually soft and naive, to the point of moving others to their doom but in an uncosncious level that scape of her own control. Instead of wild and elegantly violent like Dexcessa she is childish and playful, showing a cruelty rooted in innocence instead of malisciousness, stepping into mortals like a kid would mindlessly step into ants. And with the weakness of love, the ultimate form of twisted obsession into other being to the point of dedicating everything in your life to serve and worship that creature, contrary to the virtue of pride wanting others be that utterly obsessed with you instead. Or maybe they will slap me in the face for even trying to think in such a plot thread, I don't know.