sandlemad

Eh, I dunno about specific bloodlines, feels like the opposite kind of direction to how most AoS goes. Those were very Old World-specific and kind of totalising in a sense, like all vampires had to have a specific pre-defined background derived from their bloodline. That doesn't quite square with the more open approach to faction background you get in AoS. Even in 7th edition WHFB GW was moving away from very discrete bloodlines as the main focus (though they brought them back a little in 8th edition) on the basis that they'd become sort of flanderised and led to ideas like "all Von Carsteins wear evening dress all the time", "if your vampire has armour or is at all martial, he must be a Blood Dragon", etc. Too much like VC-branded chaos marks, was the concern. The broad concepts were still there - e.g. Neferata was still scheming - but there was more of a unified vampire aesthetic put forward in the art and in the models, meant to represent a Von Carstein or a Blood Dragon or a Necrarch or a Lahmian, though less so a Strigoi. I'd expect bloodlines to come in as something more like army subfactions. There in the background and with some rules differences but not directly represented in the sculpts. It would also be weird to see more Strigos when that would be moving in on conceptual/visual territory already covered by FEC.

My mind went towards wanderers as well but looking at it again, I think this definitely is a vampire. There's the drops of blood alright and I'd make a connection between those two protrusions on the blade, which have some similarities to old undead models (and current Mephiston) but the real giveaway is the combination of a curvy handguard with a straight quillons. That is characteristic of most modern GW vampire sculpts with swords. See below. New Soulblight, who up.

Damn, that'd be a catch for BL. Not wild about his stuff one way or the other but he's won enough awards and got enough attention that he'd probably be the highest profile dude in their stable. Children of Time was a big, big deal.

Yeah, though it's out of date, the rules content in these books is actually fairly scanty. There's a good few scenarios but a lot more background and art, including a lot of wonderful little illustrated snippets about the dozens of famous regiments that took part. Curiously the End Times books also got as much if not more art commissioned for them than your average 'update' AoS 1st ed. battletome. It's good stuff.

Cherubs were a thing in WHFB as part of the empire range but they only really came in around 7th edition. They drew criticism from some folks for being too similar to the 40k imperium, which I get because there the cherubs are creepy servitors whereas in WHFB they're just sort of winged babies.

Oh huh. That's cool. Completely inappropriate for a skirmish game in dense terrain but very cool. Warhammer hasn't really had a proper pike unit since Dogs of War and never in plastic.

An FEC warcry warband would be cool, particularly if they go with a more obviously chivalric look but Soulblight is still pretty plausible if they're sticking with the "sun's out in, guns out" look they used with Mannfred. Swole vampire-knight beach-bullies could be a way of making a uniquely AoS take on the vampire archetype. FEC on the other hand could do with more unit variety in general, less so new heroes.

It's certainly undead-ish. The sword has similarities to the nighthaunt and existing vampire range, that gothic Dark Souls look. The claws actually look longer than those of a regular ghoul, while not being the talons of an abhorrant. What do we reckon about that slight ridge that's partially out of view along the forearm? The abhorrants have either bone spikes or vestigal wings so it could be something similar. Soulblight doesn't seem too implausible, though whether that would be for Warcry or mainline AoS is still open.

I think it might have been 30k that had some sort of rule about hurling things where the strength of the hurled model was somehow linked to their toughness... Can't remember what exactly it was but it'd be a nice touch if this attack's power was tied to the model's wounds or armour save or something. Launching a stormcast like a shot putt should be a scarier notion than hurling a gobbo. And agreed about the Warstomper, particularly as they have less of an obvious shtick than the other two. I can see something being said about them being "the most warlike of their kind and natural leaders, as evinced by the tusks or horns worn on their back like a crown".

Yeah the tusks were a surprise! It does make you wonder as they're currently really only a thing on the chaos giant. The mega-dudes we've seen appear to be sticking to large, slab-like, exaggerated human-ish teeth, not these orky tusks. I guess we'll see (and hopefully also see how chaos giants are being incorporated in the background).

Extremely minor thing to note but the WHC article today on Rich Dando's (excellent) gargant army features these sort of interstitial headers or page breaks, the kind you'd see in, say, a battletome. From their style and the size of the skulls, I suspect these are from the SoB battletome.

Those giants are fantastic. Amazing paintjobs too. I think that while you can see they’re all built from the same kit, they’re sufficiently distinguished by their details, gear and poses (poses here being limited to head tilt, arms and general body orientation, mind) that this is far from the GUO (or to a lesser extent the KoS) situation of being slight detail twists on models that are positioned in the same way. More like a stonehorn/thundertusk situation. What makes them most obviously the same kit to my mind is that (clumsy and rather charming looking) inward orientation of the feet. It’s weird and unique and so stands out for the two that have it. It’s the Ulgurite Shadowstalker champion that really blows me away through. There’s so much clever stuff going on. They’re an elf but the curve of their shadow/cloak mimics a snake’s tail, very close to the poses of some of the Melusai. The cloak is fading into shadows in similar forms to some of Morathi’s armour and some Dark Eldar weapons (while giving the impression of a juddering, hard to perceive effect, like some sort of visual lag). There’s a contrast between the sophisticated, obviously Witch Elf-y crown and boots, and the crude ritualistic stone/glass dagger and head of the staff. It’s so good. I don’t like it in the same fashion as the giants, it’s less my thing, but it’s so well done and visually sophisticated. Recognisable links to DoK, old school Dark Elves and some new Ulgurite elements. They do sync with the Mistweaver!

This dude can't be to scale, he's maybe one and a half times to twice the height of the Bonegrinder. Definitely a good sign though. I think Archaon's probably the biggest AoS kit? Three sprues but a lot of that is for the spread wings of his mount. With clever sprue and kit design, maybe they could turn that space to pure height.

Seeing Sons models this weekend doesn't seem implausible at all, look like they're leading up to that by only using art from the previous trailer. What's more interesting to me here is that they mention King Brodd and his crew specifically. It's unsurprising confirmation that the Aleguzzlers are sticking around but it seems to suggest that Brodd will remain more or less as he is, an Aleguzzler with a skull, a pillar and big dreams. I'd expected him to be semi-retconned as something much bigger but the fact that they mention him by name, show his picture and then say "Indeed, stories tell of even larger gargants, vast creatures closer in size and ferocity to their lost father than their already huge kin…" says to me that Brodd himself might not be centre stage of this battletome. Yeah, the SM supplements work (insofar as they work) because there's nearly two decades of modern-ish background for the Raven Guard, Salamanders, etc. and they already had special rules/characters/the works for some time. Not as much as the Blood Angels or other more prominent chapters but a lot. They also clearly had devoted fanbases for years (I'd wager that even a fanbase for second-tier chapter is bigger than that for many AoS factions) and existing kits that gave GW a clearer idea of what sells. A Battletome: Celestial Vindicators would be a pretty niche and I suspect unpopular release.

I think that’s probably partially it but I suspect it’s also a case of GW actively trying to occlude or diminish the importance of individual designers/sculptors/artists and elevate the GW brand. A bit like how there was that period where they did everything they could to hide author names from BL AoS books because readers should be loyal to or interested in GW and AoS rather than particular (interchangeable, expendable from a particular management point of view) artists.

I could easily see this happen. Maybe not quite on the level of different warscrolls but different equipment options. Dragonskull club vs. weapon-studded tree club vs. masonry flail, that sort of thing. Maybe the millstone and the cage as additional options, same for mutations.

Looks like this release is going to have a powerful Roald Dahl BFG energy - Childchewer, Gizzardgulper, Fleshlumpeater, that sort of thing - and I’m here for it.

I get what you mean but the way Josh Reynolds has handled him is a lot closer to a not-quite-pure-evil god. I suppose that's what you mean by nuance and Nagash himself in his main aspect is of course monstrous but his worshippers have been depicted rather closer to ancient Greeks or the Aztecs: sure the gods might be fickle, violent, actively destructive but hey, that's life for you, best just get along with the inevitable. Particularly if you worship/perceive Nagash in the positive form of the Forlorn Child or the Black Priest or even Nagash-Mor, which are ways for that slightly less horrific death god archtype to come through. On the other hand, well, a nightmare titan of bone and iron isn't such a bad thing when it's driving chaos from your borders. And then of course Reynolds gets at the benefits. "Revere Nagash, get a cozy spot in the underworld instead of being tortured by Chaos for eternity" is fairly spot on, though cozy might be a bit of a push. It's bleak but it's got that appeal of a totalitarian regime, "a place for every man and every man in his place". Needless to say this only really applies on the day-to-day or cultural level rather than the top-down Marvel-esque "Sigmar does this, Alarielle does that" framing of AoS that the studio (perhaps inevitably?) deals with, so YMMV.

Those edits look good. It's sufficiently natural that when my eyes drift back up to the original minis, they look a little like weird photoshops or kitbashes. They work well as masks. Gives them a curious ritualistic air. Like something Minoan-ish or vaguely orientalist like the Brazen Beasts from George RR Martin's books.

Actually It's even more obviously Ossiarch, the cartouche isn't just close to that of the Emissarian caste from the battletome, it's almost the same as that on Vokmortian's staff. So some sort of herald or emissary.

It's definitely Ossiarch, got their particular faceted gem, their moulded bone-stuff and a cartouche that's a little like that of the Emisarian caste, a stylised mouth for the messengers of the Ossiarch empire. They probably won't be announcing the next season of Underworlds until the end of the summer but as a prominent faction the Ossiarchs are conspicuous by the absence so far. I'd love a warband based around an emissary or ambassador lost in Shadespire/Beastgrave/whatever next.

Those traits were already there with elves, as with the White Lions, Phoenix Guard, Black Guard, Eternal Guard... All of them full of resolve and with a strong emphasis on mass and steadfastness, weighty armour (particularly for the halberd-wielders, it's the main part of their silhouette), resolve, not moving. I don't think there's a mismatch, particularly as the idea here was to blend themes associated with the mountains/the earth. If it doesn't work with your specific vision of elves, that's fine and that's you but I don't think the designers were trying to mitigate some error or mismatch so much as do something that builds on what has gone before, draws inspiration from RL cultures, and tries to add something fresh. I really don't see anything here that couldn't have been brought up decades ago about the White Lions in particular, i.e. elves don't use axes, elves aren't strong, lions aren't as elvish as birds, high elves aren't fur-wearing savages, the designers are trying to cover a bad design. If we're going to stick to a very narrow, Flanderised idea of what constitutes traits associated with elves, all we're going to get is increasingly inwards-looking iterations on the same shrinking set of visual cues.

Yeah, there's a good thematic basis for oxen/bulls/aurochs to be associated with these mountain spirits. Being stoic, solid, calm, resolute, dutiful, unyielding. This isn't coming from nowhere. Turning this to "lol cow elves" across the internet is not unexpected but still disappointing and an indictment of a lot of folks' ability to look beyond the meme version Symbols don't just have one set of connotations and can be used for different thematic purposes, which is kind of design 101. Lions, for example, have those associations of being regal, noble and distinguished (which is the mould they were used in for the High Elves) but look at Homer and the language associated with lions puts near-exclusive emphasis on their savagery, hunger and wildness. The associations of oxen/aurochs/whatever with the mountain-Lumineth is different from that used for Hashut (the Near Eastern god Moloch, sacrifice, some of the dwarf virtues of strength and robustness) or Slaanesh (fertility, images of cattle festooned with garlands, that whole "ox-eyed beauty" Hellenic thing).

Damn those scions are cool. Great combination of design elements and surprisingly low fantasy-ish.

Those hammerers are cool. Having a whole bull’s head cresting their helm makes em a bit top heavy but they should be simple to snip off. The cowled armour and the poses are cool.