CommissarRotke

I also want to point out that just because Tolkien (or any other writer) did X Y Z super well, doesn't mean every single fantasy series is required to check off all of the same boxes. Hate to say it as a fellow writer but GW is getting what they want to pay for IMO; even the most diehard AOS fan isn't going to crank out awesome lore if they're underpaid. Like you said, Reynolds left BL and it was most likely over money. I'd disagree that it's noblebright, and I've called AOS "nobledark" since I started reading lore and books. It is a great choice to make struggle mean something in AOS, however I don't think it's broken into being "noblebright" since it retains a lot of a Warhammer identity.

Because AOS makes a point to show us that there is no singular Azyrite/Reclaimed/mortal/etc culture? I can get on board with Fyreslayers being for copyright but like... naming places has always been weird and inconsistent. Because that's how real people are. "Anvil Guard" sounds more like a regiment than a city. Misthåvn umlaut so you know to pronounce it as Misthaahven, etc..

Growing up on Heroes of Might & Magic 3 gave me a deep seated love of fantasy maps like this! I really like that they show a wider-scope of how certain areas can look. I agree with your criticisms though; for a brand new tabletop setting they unfortunately don't make sense over world maps. I only saw them after coming in for the back end of 2.0 and I completely understand why they wouldn't be well-received at the start of AOS

It's not that I disagree with all complaints against AOS, it's that I think players need to blame GW more for their issues with it. The pandemic likely stagnated their narrative plans, yet even through that it feels like there's only a backlog of games and books for 40k, and never AOS. There are already a ton of novels and shorts out that cover most of the Mortal Realm's denizens; from the superpowered or supernatural to the mortal and mundane. These have seemed to freeze lately, and instead Soulbound has been picking up GW's slack since its release in 2020. I'll close this out by mentioning that if GW were to actually market things like Soulbound, I think more people would come to appreciate the lore AOS has so far.

I will also reiterate that these are problems with all Warhammer systems and should not be held solely against AOS: If it's got a model for tabletop, they aren't dying. Most of the 40k books we see have been HH, (primaris) Marines, or Inquisitor/other human elite types. Even the WH+ anims are all some flavor of this. The 8e complaints that reached my ears involved lore retcons. 40k even got new rules for magic and psykers I heard. (some my comments, some from others who know 40k better)

Maybe if your setting is given the writers and money to produce a 53 plus novel series*** fixed it

this too yeah. The Underworlds game and Stormground feel more like fan-made titles than full games, though they suffer from the same lack of an art director that most indie Warhammer titles do. They're both WORTH playing and Underworlds especially is like a 1:1 love-letter to the tabletop version, but the lack of someone to design proper UI/UX is glaring.

This is exactly why I think GW still isn't going "all in" for AOS. Yes, comparing 35 years of lore to 7 is a huge gap. Yes AOS still needs time to breathe because we still don't have all the major players (Malerion) out yet. Yes 40k gets the majority of money, and Yes the resurgence of WHF is mostly due to Total Warhammer and Vermintide. But! 7 years is still enough time to putting in the effort to flesh out more factions. It's enough time to develop a healthy amount of secondary media. It's enough time to decide whether they're truly sticking to AOS or not. It's enough time that Cubicle 7's *quite new* RPG is blowing you out of the water in terms of establishing the Mortal Realms and its inhabitants as a fully-realized fantasy world.

Soul Wars is a great start (and it has cats!!!), and it continues in other Hallowed Knights novels. the HK are more of your noble paladins, generally with actual personalities and willing to cooperate with Reclaimed. "Ghosts of Demesnus" and "Black Pyramid" are solid picks after Soul Wars. Hamilcar series I haven't read yet, but heard a lot of positive reviews on both his characterization and the variety of other Stormcast in his novels. For Shorts: Lightning Golem includes some Stormcast romance and Imprecations of Daemons involves a Stormcast meeting her mortal family again.

It is entirely up to GW whether or not they capitalize on the goldmine of a setting they've created. They do not seem to be wanting to do this for whatever weird reason. They told us AOS sells better than WHF ever did, yet GW is still not pushing out secondary media in a way that reflects this.

All of what you want does actually happen in AOS books... Stormcast worship gods/deities that are not Sigmar and he's fine with it. They have inter-host rivalries because some Stormhosts view mortals badly (among other things). They disagree with Sigmar and don't get killed or exiled for it. They can visit their mortal families (if still alive) and are told to record what memories they remember. They have the full range of human emotions if they haven't been reforged too many times. Please read beyond "posterboys are Sigmarines." You do not need a fantasy HH to have internal conflict or make Stormcast interesting.

40k can be boiled down to this same exact formula... it IS Warhammer's formula. Sigmar and Stormcast are actually far more interesting than people give them credit for. You just have to read the lore at the same level that you do 40k's. They are more humanized and nuanced than Space Marines. It comes down to who's writing what BL piece, rather than a game system. Both 40k and AOS have great books with nuance and human perspectives. They both also have books that are very much not those things.

Half this event was showing off in-progress development. Why not show even CONCEPT ART of Frontier's RTS....

If even a single mobile game was single player it'd be better. the fact that they're all forced PVP is what really kills me

Don't think this "reveal" could've been any more disappointing. Literally ALL 40k ******. Was there zero AOS mentioned during the livestream??????????? AOS is perfect for a CRPG and yet once again it's given to 40k. https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/06/01/every-reveal-from-warhammer-skulls-2022-the-warhammer-video-games-festival/ Like seriously what is this

I think they've pivoted to the Rumour Engine itself being a Votann, not that it means the RE is Votann/40k specific. Remember when the last one got "broken" from Chaos? It used to be an Eldar device. Though with this older RE they're now saying the Engine was a Votann all along. So the rumours aren't guaranteed to be LoV, even if this hammer is.

Unless they suddenly do a complete 180 on digital rules, I agree that the next editions for 40k and AOS probably have at least a year delay on their release. It probably affects TOW's release too and in that regard I think we can all agree GW would get 10e 40k out before TOW.

Trust me, none of them out right now except maybe the VR game are Stormcast power fantasies. Stormground is hard as hell and I'm lucky if I leave a mission with only 1 death. We can only dream of getting the action game Space Marine treatment for AOS tbh...

We know one of the main AOS batreps was delayed so maybe this one was too? The 2021 tome doesn't have all of the Underworlds warbands now, and those plus new set = new rules IMO.

This was a really good intro to Warcry batreps and then it just stops at the Gryph-Hound Wished it was a longer article. They are using the 2021 rulebook too https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/05/25/kruleboyz-clash-with-stormcast-eternals-in-this-weeks-warcry-battle-report/

uhh did the rumor engine change? because I'm seeing this, which looks like a saw and most likely part of the new Warcry terrain. edit: okay I see how this could be a trigger/winch now. Those books look like a dang fencepost!!! Country boy brain.

The bayou aesthetic IS very cool, yet I still find myself wondering why this wasn't Beastmen even more now. It would even keep the original Chaos vs Chaos objective: Bayou beasts of chaos that don't map directly to the Big Four (just like Hashut cultists), with an aesthetic that gives beastmen a more lived-in, cunning intelligence type of look. It feels a little too on the nose for me I guess, that the swamp-dwellers are Nurglites. I'm sure they'll look amazing, but I hope the poxes and pustules are restrained. Nurgle always seemed like the Chaos God with the quickest way to mutation, which is something the Warcry warbands have kept away from.

I'm hoping this means multipart Vindictors, Vanquishers, and/or Vigilors aren't off the table! Especially Vindictors, it's really disappointing their separate kit is just the Dominion sprues reboxed

When GW is destroying stock that won't sell rather than recycle or discount it, it is GW shareholders cannot expect the pandemic boom to continue. I could see 4.0's box being one or two Stormcast attached to a new Cities/Dawnbringer force. It would not only change up the Stormcast vs X, but it doesn't stop GW from putting out a separate Cities launch box. IIRC, the Thunderstrike Brotherhood Start Collecting was supposed to be used with the 1.0 starter set so you could get a full 5 Retributors? So there's precedent for GW doing two big boxes that fit together.

Funny how the second robotic arm is grabbing a hose that is also attached near where said arm is! gotta be Admech or Necromunda. Seems like a very Imperium thing to do. I'm now realizing the hands are... facing each other? And at this angle the hose looks chest-attached, not on a backpack. The arms look too close together, like they're on one side of the body instead of opposite. The longer I look the stranger this picture is 👀