sandlemad

Exquisite. This is exactly the sort of visual representation folks have been asking for with the FEC: the delusion but manifest in gore. Can you imagine what it sounds like when he turns his head and everything jiggles…

The Bretonnian connection is definitely thematic rather than ‘in-universe’ so to speak but it’s definitely there, even if mostly in the form of cheeky references and pretty clear Easter eggs, like those which @Ejecutor shows. I’d also throw in the broken sword on the Arch-Regent’s belt as very similar in style to those in the post-6th ed. Bretonnian range. That said, I’d agree with @Neil Arthur Hotep re: the background references through the delusions. They’re more general chivalric knightly touchpoints rather than anything too specifically Bretonnian… but as it’s all deliberately campy, effusive, OTT stuff, that does line up well with the deliberately campy, effusive, OTT portrayal of stereotyped medieval France that made up most of the Bretonnian background. RE: the Estalian link, I don’t think so. Rather I think the bone ruff is more of a general indicator of noble European finery. It’s a bit like how the Royal Beastmaster has some fancy cords/tassels (I think the proper term is aiguillettes) on his chest but fashioned from entrails. Could be a sign of GW trying to widen the breadth of references beyond medieval knights and into a bigger pool of aristocratic cultures, though again they’re pretty clearly just there to be riffed on. Although if we did have a character called, like, the Infante des Menudencias or something, I’d be here for it!

In the spirit of Bretonnia, I could see these dudes being Men-At-Arms (armed with some weapons and protective gear) and the regular crypt ghouls being recast as the peasant levies.

Gorgeous mini, positively dripping with nobility. I really like the bone ruff doing double duty as a gory stand-in for fancy clothes and also for the solar/sun-rays image. Solar imagery would be pretty unique for an undead faction and would be great in a Louis XIVth sort of way.

BL and special minis have a weird relationship. Where GW does release them, sometimes it’s well after the book is out (that 40k White Consuls hero, plastic Gaunt’s Ghosts, Gotrek), sometimes it’s just in time to coordinate with a new release, effectively premiering a new BL character (Commissar Raine, Drekki Flynt, that vampire). They’re very hit and miss. Tbh the fact that we haven’t seen any hint of a mini for the Godeater’s Son suggests that there won’t be anything connected to it. Don’t forget, it was previewed a full year ago and the ebook was released back at the start of 2023, so it’s just the paperback that’s coming out.

The real problem with the Celestant Prime to my eyes is his big goofy lion’s head chestplate. It’s dumb, low detail and makes him look like a knock off zoid from power rangers. Like a toy is right.

Not saying DoK don’t need some variety, ruleswise, but tbh it feels way way off to compare them to Fyreslayers or other ‘rump factions’ like that. They’ve tons more visual variety, let alone unit types where they have: Big centrepiece special character 2 priest heroes 2 distinct snake heroes Duelist hero 2 line infantry units Elite melee unit Elite archer unit 2 winged skirmisher units Scout unit (Warcry shadow guys) Magical cavalry Monster 2 war altar variants That’s a solid range, with the kind of diversity FS, IJ or FEC players could only dream of. A distinct-in-the-background death priest could be cool or some sort of anvil unit - always thought the CoS Executioners could be sensibly slotted into this role - but it’s a well supported range.

Sounds like a bad idea tbh, those kinds of lists only last until the next points update or battletome refresh. Which is to say yeah, they’d sell well, to a minority of serious tournament whales at least, but tbh I don’t think GW is actually interested in specifically targeting them. @CommissarRotke Peachie’s podcast, Painting Phase, had a good interview with Tom Hibberd, formerly a senior designer in GW, and he was clear that GW works on the assumption that a majority of people buying don’t necessarily go on to play much, if at all. Many don’t even paint. The idea behind stuff like Contrast paints was to smooth all that out, get people painting quickly, onto the tabletop, and ultimately staying in the GW ecosystem for longer. He was also pretty clear about tournament players, folks with multiple armies, people who focus in on older ranges, people who are deep into it enough to be deeply involved in forums, they’re all such a tiny minority in the grand scheme of things that they’re not really worth considering when it comes to serious business decision.

That could work, they're good sculpts, but it would leave the TK range without archers, one of their distinctive units.

As someone who doesn’t like that sort of thing normally, Beltanos’s pose is excellent. Yes he’s standing up in saddle but it’s a dynamic moment, he’s launched himself into a standing position to blow the horn, while his roots grow to cling to his big beetle. It works. Good sculpt in general. Personally I’d pick ‘tree/forest spirit with antlers and hunter god vibes’ over generic not-beastmen every time. Also put me down with those who like the old Bretonnian minis. The men at arms and peasants in particular hold up exceptionally well.

I think folks overstate what exactly Khorne’s hatred of magic means. It’s really jocks vs nerds stuff, with the nerds being wizards. Magical weapons, magical auras, mutations, daemon summoning (daemons being made of magic) have always been grand. A burning spear or a reality-tearing axe, no bother. That said I can see the Varanguard (or something similar) argument here. There’s a bunch of eight-pointed stars on some Bloodbound minis but I think not as prominent as this.

Tbh even then, if they’re more detailed or more dynamic… they’re clanrats. The average player is seldom going to be painting less than about 40 of them. They’re cool but they need to be comparatively affordable and capable of being churned out efficiently, meaning an appropriate level of detail/texture/etc. I genuinely think it’s a case where “good enough” (as in, good enough not to drive people away from collecting the range, unlike e.g. the old ardboys) is actually better than an all-singing, all-dancing fancy glow up. As you say, it’s likely that it’s other ancient resin/metal minis, particularly high-cost low-value ones like jezzails/weapon teams/rats that really push people away. That and the tragic uggos like the rat ogres, which had superior replacements of sorts which were then dropped.

Completely agree with @Swamp Trogg. Clanrats and Stormvermin are maybe a little heavy on the ranked up poses (more so the stormvermin tbh) but really, they hold up very well. Characterful, solid detail, and lend themselves well to painting 50+ of the little devils. Almost every other unit in @Garrac‘s excellent post is in more critical need of an update. That’s based on need, of course, not necessarily what GW will do, through I struggle to imagine anything new or worthwhile a refreshed clanrats kit could bring other than a price increase.

Glancing at some of the background in the sprues and brews video, looks like interesting times for gorgers. Seems that with the coming of the era of the beast, they’ve been more active, grouping up in packs under these newly appearing alpha gorgers or Clawbacks, who adorn themselves with tusks ornaments and cloaks in imitation of tyrants. The fresh attacks seem to be associated with the appearance of living mawpits, something cheerfully encouraged by the butchers. In a wonderfully creepy note, they’ve been observed to begin making crude weapons, which obviously follows the new plastic minis but is a nice touch, and some seem to have developed a primitive form of magic deep in their caves. These ‘Cave Howlers’ can give voice to their curse and their shrieks are able to drive enemies mad with hunger. It’s all very unsettling, in an “uh oh, they’re learning” horror movie kind of way.

Same approach taken for the LotR game, another line that had its time in the wilderness. By and large old sculpts for most troops but accompanied by new plastic versions of old characters.

Gorgeous pegasus and good pose but I rather liked the way the old ones had feathers in their mane.

Yeah, these are good sculpts but I actually quite like the basic, animalistic, almost running-on-all-fours ghouls. They look fast and most FEC players have a million of them, so I hope they stay as a distinct unit, with these guys as a new semi-elite.

Chorfs are a bit like the Ossiarch in that they have great potential as a dark mirror to the dawnbringer crusades in terms of expansion, industrialisation, and that dubious ‘civilising’ ideology. Disciplined legions of well-equipped troops marching out to seize land and establish their fortified citadel-cities. You could maybe say the same about skaven, come to think of it, if a lot more rickety. That might be the kind of angle that’s taken in 4th ed.

I’d agree with your overall assessment of this ed being light on ‘stuff’ but the whole big military technology/tactics revolution that’s come with the CoS revamp feels like something. Linked to the Dawnbringer crusades but not wholly part of them, you had the mass roll out of relatively standardised shieldwall-and-firearms methods across the realms. Big pseudo-factories churning this stuff out, massed recruitment and the increased professionalisation of the Freeguilds, better supplied crusades, etc. This was in response to Kragnos and the Kruleboys’ early edition stuff, and then in turn led to the adoption by the Ironjaws of more spear formations and catching the new big pigs. All very miniatures-led but still, meaningful for the social and political landscape of the cities at least. You also effectively had a coup in Hammerhal by Tahlia Vedra over the Azyrite establishment, which feels like something.

Kroot my beloved

Skaven featuring, interesting. Wonder if this is a hint that they'll appear more in other dawnbringer stuff.

Now that’s a surprising amount of art and background for the Ironjawz. Makes me wonder if this was meant to be part of a second tome, or some sort of cut content.

Also, excluding 40k squats, are these the first female dwarf minis in…27 years? Cool kit for that, as well as hopefully bringing some much needed visual variety to the FS range.

These look really good. I particularly like the addition of spear/shovel/partisan looking weapons, they really do look like specialised tools for getting between maddened droth scales and killing them quickly.

Good god. Literally half a year after the last one, which was maybe 5-6 months after the late 2022 one... Looks like the twice-annual price increase is the pattern now. Given their profits, it rather makes clear that any noises about increased costs and such were just a fig leaf.