sandlemad

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.

I think this is part of the point, that just like the marines line, the Stormcast have a huge amount of redundancy, even if the (high) quantity doesn't stretch to the complete dominance marines has over the 40k line. Something can be not-great without stretching to the out-of-control level you see in 40k. I think it's completely fair for non-SC players to look at the SC's 4th or 5th respective line infantry unit (or basic missile infantry, or monstrous cavalry), most of which have relatively minor differences between them in terms of role, and feel left behind. So too when the call is to release a visual update for some of these kits, when other ranges have barely a handful of units. Like, it's weird to me that people are concerned about tiny AoS ranges potentially getting bloated or doubling up when that's already the case with Stormcast, several times over. You could comfortably amalgamate a quarter to a third of their warscrolls without any meaningful effect.

Not completely sold but I guess in that light, this new rumour engine looks a little like some of the kroot ammo cartridges.

Probably just the WHC team grabbing for photos from the pile? Given that plastic treelord/treeman was a WHFB mini.

This is spot on, there’s something about them that calls back to that even more than WHFB.

****** those are good minis. Amazing presence and posing.

Tbh I think you can point to large parts of the Death ranges and identify how buzzed GW designers were about Dark Souls. Not even in a superficial way but as though the games got the creative juices flowing. Same for Mad Max: Fury Road and a lot of ork/necromunda stuff, and, I think, Wayne Barlowe's work inspiring the Ossiarch range.

From the WHC article with the Marrowscroll Herald: @These scabrous delegates somehow act as vectors for the madness of the carrion kingdoms, spreading and magnifying the delusions that drive them. Rumours abound that the morbid messengers may even serve an ominous, higher power…" Hints at the Carrion King returning, perhaps? Separately, while the Maw-Grunta looks brilliant, I'm not wild about the sidecars. Cool concept but the brutes are just sort of standing there? Very static poses, at odds with the sense of motion you get from the rest of the mini.

The old Harbinger was one of the best Nurgle minis and this is a fine update. It's impressive that they've actually managed to make him more Frank Frazetta-ish.

That Fyreslayer hero is great. A super-saiyan dwarf. Whatever about how much FS need another hero, I think he's evidence that a lot of the problems with the FS range are down to same-iness and poor execution. Pull it off well and you get this fantastic dude.

The offal hounds for the new FEC warband remind me of some of the designs in Pat Mills’ comic Requiem Chevalier Vampire. That weird confluence of vampires, ghouls and horrible, wide-eyed baboon monsters. Great designs. Not 100% sold on the Flaymaster’s hand bone kneepad-piercings but good to see some new designs.

Nighthaunt range remains all killer. This is the fourth WHU warband but in fairness they’ve all been quite distinct in terms of playstyle and these dudes look great.

I really like how they managed to keep the ‘bald old man with sideburns’ look for the screamer killer.

I do think there's something interesting about their faces, something not quite naturalistic. Still a living creature but the shape of the head is like a stylised Mesoamerican sculpture in flesh. Same with the head-crest and there's a glimmer of it in the carnosaur mini. In-universe it's a cool subtle way to emphasise that these aren't entirely 'natural' evolved creatures but permeated with heavenly star-magic and the influence of the Slann. Out of universe, it's just cool design and makes them more than just a dinosaur stand-in, even with the nods towards accuracy and modern depictions of theropods.

Cooool. Island of Blood holds up exceptionally, with those rat ogres being vastly better sculpts than the shoddy (older!) ones used in the AoS range. Skull Pass, the gobbos are all perfect, single-piece versions of the normal moonclan kit but the dwarves are unfortunately pretty tired. The miners, cannon and grudge-pony are good but the lord and warriors are low detail chunks of plastic and the dragonslayer is… I don’t know, even for the time that was a weird sculpt.

EDIT: double post

Same. I have to say, the meticulously measuring and remeasuring units against different auras/bubbles was one of my least favourite features of AoS. I was playing Khorne damnit!

I quite like the mix of Latin names and 'naturalist observer/troop catchphrase names'. This Von Ryan's Leaper is a great one. The real issue comes (or came, around 6th ed) when the designers/writers just sort of bodged the names together, so you wound up with species terms with no real depth or connection to anything. Tyrannocyte, neurothrope, venomthrope, tyrannofex, toxicrene... None of these feel like the writers knew what they were doing with the Latin. The punniness behind HG Wells' morlocks/mawlocs wasn't great either. RE: thematic redundancy, that's kind of characteristic of starter kit forces in both AoS and 40k. You had it with nighthaunt and necrons, and most definitely with stormcast and marines. Moreover it's a feature of tyranids, you have a small and large versions for most roles: the biovore and the exocrine. Ravener and trygon/mawloc. Zoanthrope, neurothrope, maleceptor (and now the new psychic thing from the trailer). Carnifex and hierodule (and now screamer-killer, as a distinct species). So too the lictor and the von ryan's leaper as a smaller pack-hunter version. It's not ideal but they're somewhat distinct roles. It's nowhere near as bad as the 4-5 near identical bolter marines types or (to a lesser extent) four very similar basic stormcast infantry units.

I think it’s both. James Hewitt, one of the designers behind the newer Necromunda, Blood Bowl and Adeptus Titanicus, was open about GW both underpaying (while playing the whole “you have to be soooo passionate to work here” card) and being haphazard and clumsy at best, actively pretty bad at worst in how it treats its staff.