sandlemad

The Kruleboys’ cross-clan, role-specific ‘tribes’ are actually surprisingly well laid out, though they’d certainly be a good way to expand the range. Beast-breakaz: boss on mirebrute, Warcry monsta-killaz Git-snatchaz: boss on mirebrute, sloggoth with goblin crew, WHU snatcha crew Feels like any gnashtoof cavalry- which really do feel like the obvious addition to the range, thematically and for improving the playability - would be the perfect addition for the Beast-breakaz. Some sort of hunting pack would be good too. Tbh the snarlfang riders would have been a solid addition, all the more so if they had been hobgrots, but oh well. I quite like the hobgrots as a mercenary element in the kruleboys list though, they broaden the background and it’s nice to see this kind of multi-race cooperation… even if it’s just because both are sneaky gits.

I think this is the point. I agree with the sentiment and would have been completely cool with a Necromunda/Mordheim-style all or mostly random chaos goons approach. But a lot of people around the time of the launch disagreed strongly and wanted something more like contemporary Kill Team, where every faction was represented. On the original point, I don’t think @novakai is ‘generating a narrative’ so much as recognising a perceived issue with early Warcry in the community. I observed folks having the same issue with the game, even if it wasn’t my feelings on the matter.

What makes it all the more, let’s say, impressive, is that SCE speedran the whole affair. It took Space Marines decades to build up such a bloated, redundant roster. SCE did it in 7 years.

No? Dragons, griffins, the phoenix, great eagles, both chariots, skyrunners… Some of those can (or could) fit into the CoS range but that’s a chunk of units, even putting aside the fairly inexact proxies, like the Lothern Seaguard.

Seconded. I get some of the thought process but it’s the only place I’ve seen get so excited about squatting ranges or parts of ranges, including speculating happily about other things which could be squatted. That’s not even to say everything must stay the same forever but a lot of minis which have been dropped cannot easily be proxied. Moreover the prospect of freeing up the design space seems pretty illusory and unreliable. ‘Drop X because GW might do something broadly like it’ feels weird. So too does the definition of what’s ‘AoS-appropriate’, which can come off as sticking to a very narrow and flashy idea of what the background is meant to be like.

Didn’t someone notice how Phoenicium doesn’t feature on the new CoS iconography? Could be they just stop mentioning it

They’re also pretty ‘embedded’ in the background of AoS in a sense. A novella, multiple references to the old Scourge Empire, and they’re linked in with the larger Morathi/Har Kuron Broken Realms plot as the main elven rebels against her rule (where they work particular closely with the human Freeguild rebels).

I want to believe. Would probably need to check against other renders to see how they’ve handled perspective but I like this thinking re: the skull. Granted, it might be sculpture or not a real skull but tbh that scar and the general Freeguild vibes make me think it’s a relic and this actual/proportional human skull size. If it were some sort of hardass veteran cadre, I wouldn’t be too put out mind, just a bit disappointed.

EDIT: double

How do we feel about the prospect of Freeguild ogres as a unit? Is that dead in the water, given we’ve seen the guy with the lookout tower, or are we expecting more based on the render of a big (ogre sized?) two handed axe?

These are great. They look hard bitten, definitely more of an elite or specialist unit than the old handgunners. They fit perfectly into this new elaborate, blustering, rickety, Terry Gilliam/Terry Pratchett-esque aesthetic, especially with the torches and lanterns attached to the pavises. The Blackpowder squire is a nice feature and I like his little flag but it does seem like a bit of a step down from the literal Powder Monkey than accompanied the handgunners.

That’s just a brute with a (very cool admittedly) mask though. If the background for ardboys is rewritten to just be generic brutes-but-smaller, it’d work. Otherwise, if they want to keep the current background of comparatively orderly aspirants, the whole 40k stormboys approach, I think Ironskulls Boys are the best we could hope for. Better details, more dynamism, wider variety of textures, and a slightly more scuffed look to somewhat bridge the gap between the cast armour of the regular orks and the beaten plate of the true Ironjaws.

This is an excellent idea and I think very different to outright binning whole factions. There’s a huge amount of redundancy in the stormcast range and by taking this approach you could comfortably slash a ton of warscrolls without having any effect on playstyle, background, army character, etc.

Yep. A mashup but closer to Warcry, basically Warcry on a hex grid. This new one is more explicitly for the regular game. As a mini-starter of sorts, I wouldn’t expect balance to be the aim tbh.

Already did, they made a Barnes & Noble (or Target? Some non-GW retailer) Warcry starter kit with the Chaos Warrior and Darkoath WHU warbands. This is just an expansion of the same concept.

Eavy metal schedules I guess? It does feel like a missed opportunity. They’ve done it before when an army has a change of scheme or gets a new variant but maybe when it’s relating to older minis that they aren’t pushing as much as the new hotness, it’s not considered a priority. A shame though. I actually think it’d work better for the dwarves than for the old dark elf minis, which have a bit less in the way of intricate swirly armorial detail and so might need a slightly different approach to make them gel.

Are we expecting the demigryphs to disappear and effectively act as Cavalier proxies? I suppose Freeguild Guard will do the same for Steelhelms, though that’s more of a loadout difference for those with spears or halberds. Incidentally, did anyone catch what’s up with the priest-dude in the Steelhelms kit?

Definitely. I think they’d gel with the humans quite well in that dark red and with black iron/gold details.

The manticore works particularly well for CoS. Still sort of regal and heraldic, being a lion, but also more ‘alien’ and weird than a griffin with its big scorpion tail. It’s appropriate for AoS (as well more specifically that Aqshyian desert feel you get from Hammerhal sometimes) and marks a shift from WHFB’s Empire look. It works well and clearly has a lot of thought put into it. I’d much rather this approach than having it set in stone as a chaos beast, particularly when it already had an older heritage across multiple factions, as a Dark Elf beast. RE: CoS ogres, it’s been said already but that has a significant heritage as ogres used to feature as part of the WHFB Empire, Orcs/Goblins and Chaos ranges. They’re wanderers and mercenaries so it’s good to see them appear around the place.

Exceptional catch, really looks like that old screaming bell ringer. I’d be surprised to see a new screaming bell though… Maybe a variant or a terrain version or something?

One of the issues with the Fyreslayer background does seem to be the approach taken to that overwhelming warrior-cult culture, it makes them feel shallow. The portrayals of FS holds and society outside of that - domestic life, institutions, details of religion - are all very lightly sketched out in broad, vague, hesitant strokes. They hang out in mountain holds and lodges and… that’s it. It’s actually broadly quite similar to WHFB dwarf society but less thoughtful and with a huge amount of detail cut out in favour of, yes, adding fyre- or rune- prefixes to everything, which is a problem. The authors seem to want them to be both one-note warriors while still carrying the torch for older dwarf signifiers like big halls and family lineages and such. And I don’t actually think it’s just about what resonates with individual people, it’s that when you compare FS background to that of the Kharadron or Idoneth or Lumineth or Ossiarch… there’s just not as much there. Not as much thought or detail or effort. Compare how the Idoneth castes or the Lumineth temples are treated as elements of society to the FS scattering of ‘auric’ as a term effectively at random. It’s still very AoS 1.0, not so much a portrayal of a fantasy culture as a few bodged together high concept ideas without much connective tissue. I don’t want to just say “FS were a misfire” because there’s the germ of some really interesting stuff there. If they’d leaned harder into fleshing out the esoteric ritualistic warrior cult side of things - make them like a true weird religious order of full time warriors, the dominant elite of a broader ‘lay’ dwarf society in the holds, unlike the old WHFB dwarfs where they were mostly well-drilled militias - there would have been a lot more that can be done with it. But as is, their background just hasn’t had the same effort and thoughtfulness as other AoS factions. And yeah, the models are the other, bigger issue, with almost no visual or aesthetic variation across the range.

This is my feeling as well but for the sake of argument, is his closeness (or lack of closeness) any different to that of Kragnos with the destruction factions? He barely talks to any of them, and perhaps a slightly different situation given they just follow what they see as a living earthquake, but still.

There was some really cool fan art of what an elven member of the Freeguild infantry might look like. This is of course linked to the older WHFB landsnecht aesthetic but I think the idea works well. Slightly more refined than the human uniform and incorporating classically High Elvish pointy helm, feathers, sash, large belt, assorted gems and elvish gubbins. I think something similar with the new CoS aesthetic could work well, either as a new unit or preferably mixed in. And of course we have a long history of dwarves in WHFB imperial gear rather than horned helms and big runes.

Tbh while there is a good bit of aesthetic difference between WHFB ogres and the more recent versions (this dude, the Bloodpelt hunter, and the Cursed City chap), I don’t think it rises to the level of real physiological difference. Seems to me to be in - the variety of facial sculpts (old OK had a really limited range of faces) - more or less clothes, which kind of accentuates the appearance that older ones are way fatter, when it seems to me to be more a product of finer sculpting - the lack of a gut plate on these new guys, which more than actual fatness would draw similarities with the older range They’re definitely drawing from pre-7th ed. WHFB ogre minis but I’m not so sold that they’re utterly out of step with the Ogre Kingdoms range, certainly not to the point of serious physiological differences.

It’s cool. Distinct from the Mawtribes range but also similar to the Cursed City ogre and, to a lesser extent, the Bloodpelt Hunter. I think we are at the stage of there being a slightly more diverse approach to ogres post-WHFB Ogre Kingdoms, both in terms of technicalities of changing sculpting techniques and showing ogres from outside that core culture. I do think the crow’s nest is a bit big for the ogre but then that does contribute to this Terry Gilliam-esque frantic ungainliness, like it’s meant to look like it’s swaying and almost toppling, which is a lot of fun. Here’s hoping we still get some regular Cities Maneaters though.