sandlemad
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Posts posted by sandlemad
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12 minutes ago, Ookami said:
Well, with weapon profiles difference erased, I suppose GW will use tactic of different warscrolls to preserve some obvious differences, like units with shields or without (e. g. Fyreslayers’ vulkite berserkers), with ranged weapon or big bonker (e. g. Kurnoth with bows or with scythes)
I get how this is easier to balance from a points-per-unit POV but it does lead to warscroll bloat on a faction level. Fulminator, concussors, desolators, tempestors; that sort of thing.
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14 minutes ago, Twisted Firaun said:
This is a pretty interesting point: The Great Horned Rat essentially occupies corrupted/“ruined” forms of the big 4(best example: clans pestilens).
Exactly, rot and disease without the cycle of life/decay element of Nurgle. Tzeentchian scheming and ambition, just as convoluted, but always incredible petty and stupid.
I do think it’s a little more of a stretch for Khorne (the blood flows but motivated by hysterical fear-rage) and Slaanesh (the fertility element is largely gone from Slaanesh, though the skaven do breed like rats and see very little pleasure). But still, it’s an interesting lens to look at the GHR through.
Even their path to glory, so to speak, is basically not there, with their god being both more interventionist in some ways but way more grudging with his favour.
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There was a blog post years ago by Kieron Gillen, famous comics writer and dude who also wrote a skaven graphic novel once, about how the Great Horned Rat on one level basically fills the conceptual role of Malal. This sort of thing has been discussed upthread and I think this thematic approach is much better, and also Gillen puts it well:
Violence without bravery, sex without pleasure, decay without rebirth and endless scheming which only ever eats its own tail… It’s almost as if the Skaven’s very existence is deliberate mockery of the four chaos gods. […] It would be a rat burrowed in the belly of Chaos Undivided, gnaw-gnawing away…. It’s a paranoid fantasy. It’s nothing to worry about.
To my mind, this is a much more interesting way of looking at the GHR and the great four: the perpetual outsider, entwined but opposed, not bound to the others, always throwing a wrench in others’ plans, the skaven as their own thriving thing that is both chaos and utterly un-chaos. ‘Ruin’ dragging down the the pantheon just as much as the rest of the world.
(Separately I would note that the dominions in the 30k Ruinstorm list very clearly were meant to suggest Malal, Vashtorr/the Forge of Souls, etc. Not saying ‘hey, these are fully there as actual Big Things in the universe’ but as thematic nods to them, and kind of highlighting how limited a bluntly reductive focus on explicit canon is.)
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5 hours ago, Mcm6495 said:
As for models, I would like them to renew the models of the Lord of Chaos and the Sorcerer of Chaos on foot.
Agreed on the others but hope they don't re-do the Sorcerer. It's an excellent mini that holds up well with the rest of the range and is unlikely to be particularly improved on. All a remake would change would be doubling the price.
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The clawlord immediately scarpering is perfectly on point though
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Bit disappointing to see the Ruination chamber appear to be grizzled veterans with skull iconography rather than barely coherent lightning-warriors, at least so far. I’m sure the sculpts will be cool but feels like it’s probably more duplication of roles within the SC range.
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Not a miss so far, all looks good, but honestly the standout for me is Young Ungrim (Yungrim?)
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I think a lot of the issues with 40k are a bit overstated, even if it’s become a game I don’t care for, but certainly there’s problems in implementing some of the core concepts.
The new tau battlesuit rules, effectively splitting the unit into three based on loadout, are a really sloppy and panicked way to make the lack of wargear points ‘work’. It might address a particular un-fun loadout of the previous edition but in the process it invalidates many (maybe even most) existing players’ units, clashes with the background, and makes it impossible to build one of the units from a single kit. Tone frank, that last one is a real surprise, that the rules writers would borderline invalidate the seemingly sacrosanct GW guideline of “kit = rules”.
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I think a skaven mini for dawnbringers is reasonably possible.
Szeras appeared with the last Psychic Awakening book right before the big necron relaunch. Kragnos (though not a kruleboy) appeared in Broken Realms, right before the Era of the Beast launched. Granted there was no tyranid accompanying the Arks of Omen stuff right before 40k 10th ed.
Still, a skaven character might well show up.
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2 hours ago, Luperci said:
Removing their own god/gods in favour of gorkamorka was a big lore fail too, the great maw was one of the most intriguing things in ToW imo
100%, it was a fascinating god. The passage where it was ‘revealed’ in the old army book was one of the most evocative bits in the entire WHFB setting and still gives me chills.
What he found has since been depicted on a thousand gut-plates and banners, and is forever etched into the legends of their race. Before the Ogres lay a massive and gigantic gaping crater the size of which stretched for miles, filled with ridges upon ridges of jagged teeth and rippling, convulsing muscle that stretched down and down into nothingness; a gullet so huge it could swallow a race like the Ogres and still hunger for more. It exists there even now; a vile, pulsing god visited upon the face of the world by the vengeful heavens.
Switching to Gorkamorka and his not-quite-aspects was a real step down. Having their particular aspect be called ‘The Gulping God’ is particularly awful, possibly the most awkward combination of words in AoS.
(though the Everwinter is brilliant)
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53 minutes ago, BarakUrbaz said:
The problem with Ogors is that they basically removed the most defining feature of the Ogre Kingdoms from Warhammer Fantasy that gave them a unique niche in the universe: their neutrality. Sure they still have mercenaries, but that part is far less emphasized and 80% of the stories with Ogor Mercenaries end with them betraying and eating their employers making you wonder why anybody hires them in the first place. Ogre Kingdoms were pretty much the only guys who were tolerated by every other faction and were equally likely to work with the Empire as much as Orcs and Goblins, but that didn't really fit into the Grand Alliance scheme. Without that neutrality, they're just Orcs but hungry.
I broadly agree, it’s a weird setup where they frequently are mercenaries but it’s generally only discussed in the context of them turning on their employers. They’re a lot less cosmopolitan than in WHFB.
With that said, I think the Beastclaw Raiders concept is killer, one of the best things to come out of early AoS. Tightly defined, evocative, unique. If anything, I feel like BCR are actually held back by being associated with ‘regular’ ogres.
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1 hour ago, Ejecutor said:
Interesting how GW summarise the Darkoaths history via images referencing all their appearances: Chris Thursten Interview – Getting to Write Gunnar Brand after Years of Painting Darkoath - Warhammer Community (warhammer-community.com)
This is a good piece and hits interestingly on the tension between how the Darkoath see themselves and what they know about the gods they’ve oathed to (in-universe, as opposed to the less interesting birds eye view of the reader). Also on the larger questions of the Reclaimed of the realms vs Azyrite conquest. More interesting and more grey areas, that tension that makes interesting stories.
“They offer a contrary perspective on what it means to survive in a world of gods and monsters, which hinges on the notion that you can bargain with the gods while retaining control of your own destiny. Rather than present the Darkoath as villains, I wanted to ensure that they too, in their own ruthless way, embody the themes of heroism, strife and hope that underpin the Age of Sigmar.”
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8 minutes ago, Skreech Verminking said:
😂the skaven release.
it was all just an april fools plot released to early😂.
jokes aside,
I just had a look through the old world high elve sector of the book for the less evil armies.
in the pictures you kinda see swordmaster of hoeth and the seaguards from the blood island kit.
considering how many runors lately have hinted towards rat ogres and warlock engineers getting a plastic revamp, how likely you guys think will it be that the blood island box makes a return with skaven and highelves being split.
giving us the release of an old starter box for skaven.
This would also make sense with some people claiming that a new clawlord on foot would be released
Vanishingly unlikely, I’m afraid. The sprues were mixed, so there’s none without at least some presence of high elves or skaven. The clawlord is on tbr same sprue as the griffon, for example.
They can’t be split out without a total overhaul unfortunately. A real shame, given how good the sculpts are.
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46 minutes ago, CommissarRotke said:
did they both feature in a book? not sure if I forgot or simply never heard!
Yep, they were prominent in Book IV, along with the Warcry fyreslayers.
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Good to see Reikenor feature. As a NH character, he’s a distant third behind Olynder and Kurdoss in terms of characterisation so will be good to see him get fleshed out a bit. The core features and visual language around him - Hysh, former sorceror-king, the corpse candles - are solid and can clearly be turned to good horror effect as in this short.
Also we probably shouldn’t be surprised the see the Warcry Pyregheists feature here, just as with the gorgers and wilderkorps. I wonder if this suggests that the Lumineth river temple monks will feature soon?
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If that big monster is a chaos spawn (or a type of spawn), it could be a bit of a callback to some stuff in the 6th ed. WHFB hordes of chaos book.
There were spawn there called werekin which weren't just roiling masses of uncontrolled mutations but relatively 'coherent' mutants. Mindless and bestial but not like what is represented in the current plastic kit. You can kind of see something similar with Scylla Anfingrimm, a spawn with a 'unified' sort of form. It's an interesting concept and would be cool to see it picked up again.
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DARKOATH STAYS WINNING
Just the purest distillation of Frank Frazetta barbarians, tinged with horror.
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That sorceress/shaman is a brilliant mini. Truly creepy in a low-key sword & sorcery way rather than wildly chaotic.
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47 minutes ago, Sception said:
I'm also confused why the Old World can't function as a 'specialist game' for AoS like warcry - or for that matter why 30k can't operate as a 'specialist game' for 40k like killteam. Accountant conniptions & department fights over who gets credit for what sales clearly don't prevent them from releasing a new model kit for 40k as a kill team (Eldar Striking Scorpions) or a new model kit for AoS as a warcry warband (Lumineth Riverblades). Underworlds teams get rules for AoS and Warcry, 40k units get rules for Kill Team and Necromunda, corporate can't definitively know what game to credit for the sale of any given genestealer magos blister, and yet somehow the sky doesn't fall.
I'm not saying the product line segregation isn't happening, it clearly is. Just that it's dumb and not even universally applied.
I would say that there's a distinction there. Kill Team, Warcry and WHU are 'boxed games' or something similar, where the releases are all plastic and the minis are essentially all usable in the mainline games. That's the distinction made by GW themselves at least, though I can't find the WHC article where they set that out.
Specialist games, by contrast, are your Blood Bowls, Necromundas, ATs, LIs where the distinction is that you can't easily cross over the minis. There's some examples of crossover, like genestealers in necro or how they re-use a chunk of the genestealers' vehicles as generic necro ones, but tbh it's always relatively low-key compared to, say Warcry units getting official rules. To me it looks more like adapting to a lack of resources and loosely plugging a gap in the rules. It's a lot less than the 'boxed game' examples.
I think that these two types line up with 'main GW studio' and 'specialist games studio', which seems to be mostly a matter or managers and resource allocation (organisationally SF came out of FW veterans under Andy Hoare, even if that isn't everyone working there) rather than strictly defined remits. They might not want to step on each others' toes but it's not a big strategic matter, more something which comes out of inconsistently applied turf establishment. Like any big org really.
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Agreed that reaching for malice is a mistake but there’s a lot there that does fit with the picture of internal silos within GW. Consider how much FW stuff was outright scrapped prior to 8th edition 40k, or what Rick Priestly said about the whole ‘Thrones of Chaos’ project being developed and then dropped prior to AoS”, or about certain senior figures holding veto rights over particular releases.
Some of the details about active internal rivalries might well be slants or interpretation but it’s very clear that large sections of GW just don’t talk to each other and that projects change tack very suddenly (often extremely late in the day) at the whims of different managers. I don’t think anyone really ever thought GW was a particularly well-managed company anyway?
And then yeah, whatever about the external issues that have plagued GW lately, it’s also clear that their own resourcing and production capacity is extremely chaotic. A good chunk of that is self-inflicted.
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10 minutes ago, Twisted Firaun said:
Oh good god that's not a hat, it's a helmet.... a BLOOD BOWL HELMET!!!!
The brutality of Blood Bowl always escalates. First bombs, chainsaws and steam rollers... and now an angry goose on the field.
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I would have preferred a knarloc but this is a cool mini. Love to see a new beast and having at least some beasties being 'normal' and not devolved kroot re-emphasises the kroot's wandering mercenary nature.
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I always thought the Total War studio’s stated reasons for not including some things to be a little weak. What they’re saying about tzaangors is pretty misleading, for example.
Yes, the WHFB beastmen range was largely goat-themed but tzaangors never actually had minis and the background had plenty of mentions of WHFB beastmen with other bestial aspects. Same with Blightkings. An End Times kit, true, but one that was perfectly in keeping with a decade or more of how Nurgle elites and champions were depicted in WHFB artwork. They’re not Lumineth or kharadron, you know?
It’s a thin excuse for a narrow aesthetic range and stands out all the more due to TOW having rules representation for things like AoS squig knights.
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15 minutes ago, Captaniser said:
Eh, I Dunno about this one. New kroot are always welcome, but this one seems too similar to the 2 previously shown kroot characters.
They’re fairly distinct. The War Shaper has distinct gear (staff, bow, triskele), a cloak and no hood. The Flesh Shaper has robes and assorted swords/axes.
If anything, this dude is sort of an update to the classic kroot shaper mini: hood, rifle, knee-socks. A bit plain but works for a lower level character.
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The Rumour Thread
in Age of Sigmar Discussions
Posted
Might be a quirk of the angle and the highlighting but this dude (unintentionally?) has a fun little smirk. Sylvester Stallone vibes.