AGPO

The colour palette of the Wrath and Rapture logo is a perfect match for the first edition of Realms of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness, which also featured Khorne and Slaanesh. It was also the book that got me hooked on Chaos. I could not be more hyped!

New Start Collecting and army deal boxes tend to pop up around Christmas and the start of the school holidays. I'm really hoping for at least SC: Disciples of Tzeentch and Rotbringers this year, but maybe they'll go all in and do those plus Idoneth, Bonesplitters, Beasts and DoK, then we'd be more or less up to speed for the battletome armies. Updating the boxes for Death certainly wouldn't go amiss either.

Honestly I can't see the cause for any negativity here. Brayherd players just got the following: Full access to all the units they lost during AoS 1 like Warherds, dragon ogors etc. Their own endless spells A new herdstone and possibly other new minis A revamp of items and allegiance abilities Access to the full range of Tzaangors from the Tzeentch book A strong chance of getting marks, giving them access to a range of really useful allies. Their range back in stores No longer having to buy a separate pack of round bases which added 4-6€ to the price of each unit.

I'd guess it's because they're being re-boxed on round bases, and hopefully in bigger units with a saving overall, like they did with Stormcasts and Slaves to Darkness. I'm kinda peeved that GW haven't started shipping the direct only minis with round bases now that they're semi-required.

Damn that's nice. I love the skintone you've achieved with the orc.

Controversial I know, but I don't think Slaanesh will arrive for at least a year. The return of the lost chaos god is a massive event, and I can't see them doing it without first filling out their disappearance and what Malerion and Tyrion are up to. Also, doing it this close to the release of Soul Wars steals Nagash's thunder.

I'm just so happy to see this thread back!

Re: Stormcast, GW will always want to have a golden boy (no pun intended) faction because it makes total business sense. According to GW, more than half of all 40k players play some variety of marines, and anecdotally almost everyone who has played 40k has owned some marines at some point. New marine units can therefore make their money back really easily, because if I like say the Repulsor when it comes out, I can probably get one and play with it without starting a whole new army. Contrast this with Eldar - let's say 5% of 40k players have an eldar army. A new set needs to sell a lot make all its money off those 5%, or convince other players to invest in a whole new army in order to play with it. Of course, you need multiple factions to make the game and setting appealing, but loyalist Space Marines have long subsidised the rest of 40K, which is why they seem to get every other release. Stormcast are GW's attempt to create a similar cash cow for AoS. Any order player can use them and they'l come in every starter set, so they're going to have a wide customer base. Likewise going forward we'll probably see more order factions than any other because they can be sold to Stormcast players as allies. Of course, were GA Soup armies more popular, we might well have seen a different approach, but AOS doesn't seem to be going that way. Because whilst the minis are static on the tabletop in reality combat would be a swirling mess where you're very likely to hit your own men. In contrast an unengaged unit is a fairly easy target even for fairly raw troops. Precision fire has historically been less common than "make the big block of troops march through the wall of arrows/lead approach to ranged combat.

Awesome work! What torsos did you use for the guards with halberds?

We've all seen examples of That Guy giving new players hassle because their army isn't optimised or beautifully painted. They're the reason the scene in some places is toxic, not money or style of play. As a matter of fact, narrative is far cheaper than competitive, especially in the long run, since you only have to buy models you want rather than adjusting your lists to a constantly shifting meta. I can quite happily play a game with minis I brought for 3rd/4th edition WFB and have a great time doing it. It's helped by the fact that the people I'm playing are friends or at least have basic social skills. We want everyone to have a good time because that's how you grow a community and get more people to play with. I really don't want to paint this as a matched play issue. Narrative has its share of ***hat hobbyists as well. There are people who will try to tell you at length that your army/background/favourite BL novel sucks because it doesn't match up to their headcannon. Others will give players hassle for using proxies or unpainted minis when they're starting out. Perhaps, if some people in your local scene didn't take the attitudes you're describing towards new, casual and narrative players, you'd have far more people playing right now.

You're missing out another group - the people who buy a unit because the models are cool or they like the background. That's a pretty significant chunk of the hobby right there.

There's a couple of misconceptions in this thread. 1. Many people think almost all games are matched play, because that's what's popular where they play, but that's not reflective of the wider community at all. Many stores and other public environments favour matched play because it's the easiest format for pick up games. On the other hand, there are plenty of store owners and managers (Warhammer Glasgow is a great example) where people play loads of narrative games. A huge proportion of hobbyists also play at home or in private or semi-private clubs, and in these settings there is much more of a balance between the three styles of play, depending on the preferences of the individual players. It's worth remembering that the whole Heresy line started out from a community of purely narrative gamers. Likewise most of FW's products have not been tournament legal for the majority of their existence, but have still sold phenomenally largely due to their popularity with narrative players. 2. Matched play != competitive play and competitive play != WAAC. Many of the friendliest, most sportsmanlike gamers I know play competitively, but almost all would agree that winning in an underhand fashion or being a **** to your opponent is not worth it just to win at a game of toy soldiers. We're talking people right at the cutting edge of the tournament circuit here. Likewise, many people use the matched play format to set up a game, but do it in a very casual, non-optimised fashion to play beer and pizza games with friends, and that's perfectly valid too. Not everyone needs to fit into a neat box of hardcore competitive or narrative purist. WAAC is a trait far more associated with 'That Guy' rather than any particular group of players. Every part of the hobby has its anti-social behaviour issues. Tl;dr - Every style of play is very much both popular and valid, even if it isn't that prevalent where you play. The type of social eexperience you have is less down to the type of play you favour than whether or not you play with nice people.

I'd love it to be the new Keeper of Secrets, but I have a feeling it could be 40k related.

I think many people often mistake their group/local community as being representative of the community as a whole. There are a lot of players playing narrative and open play. They may well be more likely to play at private clubs or at home than frequent FLGSs for pick up games, but just because you don't see them doesn't mean they're not out there. Likewise there are plenty of players using the AOS rules to play in the WTW, either because they prefer background or they have longstanding collections they want to keep playing with but prefer AOS rules to 8e. A lot of the complaints about the compendiums came from the tongue in cheek aspects of the rules. From this release it seems Legends addresses that complaint very effectively. As someone who played a 'squatted' army which didn't receive support for four editions (chaos dwarfs) as long as rules exist for your minis you can play with them, and there will always be fans creating excellent homebrew for you to try out. The Heresy, Specialist Games and Chaos Dwarf communities have shown that the best way to get GW to provide you with more support is to engage constructively, create inspiring content and build excitement. With Warhammer Legends, 8e and the 9th Age you now have more options than ever to play with your collection, before you even start to look at minis migrating to new factions. That's more than any of those communities started with.

Really nice army with some gorgeous retro figures! Couple of questons - 1) how did you find building and painting the AoW dwarfs? I've found their minis a bit disappointing in the past but their dwarf stuff looks really cool. 2) Where does that female ranger mini come from? I want to build my D&D group's characters and that mini would be perfect.

I had this problem for 20 years, and my pile of bare plastic , resin and metal is still embarrassingly large, but over the last couple of years I've made a real dent and saved quite a bit of money. Here's my method: Ask yourself these questions before making any hobby purchase: 1. Does it make any difference if I buy this now or later once my other stuff is done? 2. Do I realistically have time to build and paint this in the next month in addition to everything else I've got on? If the answer is no to either question, don't buy it. Set a monthly budget and if possible seperate ýour hobby funds from your regular disposable income. Set goals and use the forum for accountability and motivation. The monthly Painting Contract thread is great for this. Rather than go cold turkey, set yourself a target like painting twice as many models as you buy. Keep track of the numbers, and if you really want that new unit, make sure you finish two old ones before you buy it. Paint a little each day. Even grabbing 5-10 minutes can really add up. Use quick but effective methods like the ones recommended by @Vincent Venturella and @Mengel Miniatures in their tutorials. Not every mini needs to be your best work but there are ways of speeding up the process without sacrificing quality. Using these rules, last year I painted more than twice as much as I bought and finished nearly 500 minis. This year I have already finished over 200 and have only bought 18. Another effective tactic I've seen is to write a 2,000pt list and then not buy anything outside of that. Once the army is finished and painted, write a list for a new army, or adjust your original one to try a new tactic or sub out less effective units. That way, everything you buy is playable and you guard against impulse purchases. Best of luck!

When you want to get your army done quickly but you've just re-read The Lost and the Damned and realize all your Tzaangors *have* to be different colours... Apologies for the truly shoddy photo, I'll take a better one in the morning.

Brets were two editions without an update. Their last book was towards the end of 6th. The only army to go four editions without a main studio update were chaos dwarfs (4th-8th ed) and Sisters of Battle, who hold the record with six editions and counting since they had an actual Codex.

I've been trying out some different schemes on my flamers. All still need eyes and teeth doing. Also decided on this as my test scheme for my Acolytes of the Hands of Fate. One down, lots to go.

Having been on the breadline myself not so long ago I certainly wouldn't expect every member to chip in, even £2. For those of us who are fortunate enough that this kind of subscription is not noticeable, or just buying one less cup of coffee from a stand, it does feel like more of a responsibility. TGA is not the product of a business, it is a community. Communities don't let one member shoulder all the burden. At the moment @Ben is not only paying for the whole site, but also doing a lot of the work on its upkeep. It's only fair for those of us who can (and if we're honest, it's the majority of us) to take a bit of that off his back.

First up, thanks to @Ben and the team for all the amazing work they do running the site. This I'd happily pay a couple of pounds a month for this site. Sustaining all this hobby goodness for less than a pot of paint seems a no brainer to me. I'd second the suggestion of merch as an income stream or incentive for higher donations. Scenery dice would be good, as would dice, tape measures, dice bags etc with the TGA logo.