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I was clarifying what they normally do so we don't get a deluge of posts from less aware users also claiming the other characters only available in the Vanguard boxes have "disappeared" off the webstore. There's also been plenty of times that stuff has been marked as sold out instead of temporarily when it's just being repackaged too. If you'll note in my post I did clarify that I'm certain both are getting replaced.

Nope, the Frigate and the Ironclad are behemoths but none of them are artillery

Oh thank you, forgot those

They do go through phases of removing the characters from the Vanguard boxes from the webstore to encourage people desperate to buy them to pick up the box. There's plenty of others like it right now, the Isharen Soulscryer, Fyreslayer Battlesmith, Melusai Ironscale, Magister on Disc, Knight of Shrouds, Branchwych, and Mortisan Soulreaper are all in the same boat. That said both the Grey Seer and Vanguard are certainly getting replaced with new models One of the things I noticed when going through the path to glory campaign stuff happening in stores is that despite there being a point for painting a piece of artillery, there's strikingly few within AoS. I think it's only Cities, Lumineth, Ossiarchs, Ogors and Khorne which have any after the purge, so hopefully Stormcast get something if only to keep some variety in the game.

Cursed City, however, seems to still be in stock. So for an extra £40 you can get some zombies and skeletons, plus a few meddling sigmarites/brave champions of order

When I spoke to my local they said it was fine to build and paint stuff I already had at home in my pile of shame/opportunity. I just had to bring in them or photos of them to prove I'd built and painted them. The only thing required to do instore was to play the games there (mine is just doing 600 point Path to Glory ones) but the staff said if no other players were available when I was they'd play against me.

We're not really debating how accurate he is on the nitty gritty side of things, but whether he has actual sources. The evidence points to yes and the only things he's been inconsistent on is the smaller details. The Ancient was mentioned in B&C list but it was pictured in the codex despite it being a conversion which is practically unheard of in modern GW so an understandable mistake for his source to make depending on where in the supply chain they are. It is a Votann vs Brood Brothers kill team, he just had the wrong info about which Guard kit was getting the update. Likewise he said he'd heard Terminator lord which was incorrect but he still had the correct info about both them getting two new figures over one and that there'd be battleforce boxes in each, and for the Orks and Custodes (even getting it right that the Ork one would have a Stompa in it which I don't think anyone would have guessed).

I know they're a Great Horned Rat cult but there's crossover in their methods and how Nurgle works. I'm thinking with the rise of Skavendom and the asscension of the Great Horned Rat into full Chaos God, it means the other will want revenge. Nurgle manipulates Clan Pestilens to spreading a new disease, that infects even Stormcast, but the ruse is revealed when the plague also decimates the Skaven armies across the realms

Beasts of Chaos is an option so everyone should put it to show we want them in AoS

Just a thought, what if the reason the Plague Monks aren't being replaced is because there'll be a big focus on Nurgle in the end of 4th edition's campaign. Of the four Chaos Gods, their faction needs the most attention in terms of expanding it, and a major plague would be something that Death can take advantage of and push back against which leads to the rumours of Death being a protagonist part of the new narrative. It wouldn't be difficult to do an Ironjawz size release with a new priest, new monks, new censer bearers and a couple brand new things. They just need to keep the few plastics in circulation to keep them relevant, like with the old 'ard boyz. I don't like the guy, and he was wrong plenty of times in the past, but the last time he got something wrong was the Black Templars Ancient and that was based on a photo of a conversion in the codex that was leaked to him so would have seemed completely credible.

Plenty of them start off that way but the biggest ones like Valrak and a few others do have genuine sources. The ones who don't quickly disappear as they start making incorrect guesses based on community hopium.

Employees will rarely admit to big things like that if they aren't public yet, if they even know at all. It sucks but they know they'd be at risk of losing their jobs. That's why some people leak things, to get an outlet for stuff their excited or concerned about. If a company is a bit more lax of rumours you might get the odd tease but it will almost entirely about something positive. I've been fortunate enough to be friends with people working both in the studio and the community team over many years of gaming in the East Midlands and I think I've had at most... maybe 3 hints about upcoming releases in all that time at. And one of those was knowing a very believable rumour being passed around was wrong. The rule of thumb is you don't ask about these things, because if you learn about something big like a new game or army, or something being removed from sale, and it gets out, then you potentially cost your friend their dream job. And if you do find out something then you keep it to yourself. This is why you had so much radio silence about Cursed City, people knew what went wrong but because GW weren't saying anything as a company no one wanted to stick their head above the parapet and risk losing it all over a game that wasn't available anymore. Something as big as ranges being removed from a flagship game... that's the sort of thing that they'd really crack down on due to how negative the PR impact is from it.

The Mortal Realms and Stormbringer magazines might count here. Whilst not published by GW themselves they do have a bunch of lore included in them specific to themselves. Off the top of my head this includes a full campaign using the models in the magazine, in universe documents about the undead and beasts of the realms, narrative about battles involving various factions that might or might not be in the army books and, certainly in Stormbringer, a new City of Order that the narrative focuses on a little.

Here, I 100% buy that 90% of the people upset are genuinely so, but there's definitely going to be people out there, especially content creators and idiots looking for a reaction that will be putting on a show to rile up response through negativity. The 90% thing they were saying is a major over estimate but that part of the online space does sadly exist. Honestly my immediate reaction to the news was how many Youtube videos attacking GW by people who barely mention AoS most of the time will be clogging up my feed. I know this is going to come off as sarcastic but it's meant entirely genuinely, I really hope you do, and that if possible you enter them into any painting competitions, armies on parade etc that you can. Best thing to do is to keep GW aware of what they've done in hopes that if there is a plan for something similar to take their place down the line, that they see there's a market for them. Sadly I only currently have Hedkrakka's Mob but I'll be certainly getting them painted up and posted on socials later this year and hoping a few of the kits get picked up for TOW so I can grab a few to do the same with. I can never un-see that now. Justifies the entire range deletion to help me never see one again

Look it's a very big anvil in an even bigger palace with lots of corridors to defend. But seriously, I always figured it's more about them rehabilitating those Stormcast who are reforged, helping them come to terms with the changes to themselves, hence why each Stormhost has its own chamber. They also bring down those that come back wrong Yeah, I think if anything goes between now and 5th it'll be with a direct replacement. They know they can't do this too often so this is their big pr blow for this edition.

You have it the wrong way around, it was originally released as a regular release first, shortly after 2nd ed launched in 2018, as a wave of easy to build kits for Stormcast. There was Astreia Solbright, the Celestar Ballista, a trio of Sequitors and the Castigators with Gryph-Hound. Later on they were repackaged in late 2021, after 3rd ed had started, in a Warhammer Underworlds starter set.

Castigators come in units of 3 and were released in an easy to build box back at the start of 2nd that is, in theory, still available if out of stock right now. That was the main way to get them outside of the starters (which came with the wrong number in Soul Wars), the same as Glaivewraiths and Myrmourn, both of which are also still available.

Honestly there's room for two more factions in Destruction for me. Beasts who destroy civilisation and Bugs who destroy the self through parasitism would both fit really well.

They're demon fighters as well, so plenty of reasons to bring them back. Heck we could get a completely new mystical focused destruction faction that also requires their attention. Or maybe the Sacrosanct chambers redeploy to capture new realmstone deposits that hold the key to partially stablising reforging. Or there's that big a push from the forces of Chaos that it requires every stormcast to be sent out to hold it back.

Honestly Beasts fit Destruction as a faction better than Chaos. I'd be on board with them moving grand alliance narratively, breaking free from the yoke of Chaos to run wild across the realms tearing down everything and returning it back to the wilderness

And all of these models being removed will have support in 4th ed through online battletomes so they can continue to be played with their distinct style and feel, and if that changes in the future there's nothing stopping people from writing their own fan tomes to keep them functioning in future editions too.

For some people what is "officially" supported is the only thing that's valid. It's a limiting view but one that can be hard to shake. Ogor players getting a new hot pot type weapon would be a win though The problem is that's potentially a promise they can't keep. Companies don't like to make commitments beyond a year or two out. I collect Transformers figures and we know most of the main Transformers figures being released in 2025 due to leaks but Hasbro won't confirm or deny that on any level because it can effect spending on, but also because things change at short notice. According to the leaks for this year we should have G1 Sureshot on preorder now, but for some reason behind the scenes he's slipped off the release schedule to a future date. If Hasbro had confirmed the leaked list with him on that we got last year and then whatever happened to push him into 2025 still happened it would make them look bad and erode confidence. That's the result of the collision of the cutthroat world of late stage capitalism and the chasing views approach on the content creator size. GW likely know what every planned release for 4th ed is and what factions will be in the 5th launch box already but to start to talk about will both draw attention away from what they're currently promoting as well as potentially frustrate fans when a promised update is further away than they think it is. Companies don't deserve our unquestioned support. People should never lash out at employees but the company itself should be completely fair game for anger and frustration. I'm on the side of people should keep cooler heads over this but if they can't help but be frustrated then the faceless company is exactly where the should be directed at.

For Warcry it means they'll probably keep the pdf rules for the current edition but not see active support in terms of availability. When the next rules update comes out for Warcry it'll be anyone's guess what happens though This is why I'm convinced they'll be back. The Beasts have a visible presence within the setting. through Slaangor and Tzangors. Khorngors and Pestigors are easy design space to fill for BoK and Maggotkin. And as a faction there's plenty of room for creativity. They'll be back eventually under a different name Honestly it makes sense, do pdf rules for the chambers not the focus of the current narrative to allow them to be played and keep them relevant, then update their models in a few years time when you want them to be in the focus and need to release some new Stormcast models with a new edition. That way they can keep things like the Ruination and Logister chambers as being more elite focused whilst simultaneously avoiding rules bloat

Anything not getting the chop now is probably safe for the edition. If it's going before 5th then it's going to be because it gets replaced by an equivalent in an update. Little known fact, the monkey ninjas are central to the Skaven propeganda that they don't exist. "Rat ninjas? No the Lord Regent was most definitely assassinated by monkey ninjas." Yet, Sacrosanct is almost certainly going to be replaced in the future, just not in 4th edition. If Duardin were going and there was this whole beef between AoS and TOW studios, it'd be now. They're the next faction getting released for TOW and there will be crossover of kits. I think they get replaced by new kits in the next Cities update. Ogors will likely get an update in the new edition with the old kits getting replaced then. Delves I'm less certain about the future of but I'm sure they aren't going anywhere until a future Cities update or Malerion arrives.

I'm kind of shocked by the extent of the Stormcast range being removed, mainly because I really like the Sacrosanct sculpts but not the Vanguard ones and they're the ones that survived! That said I'm fine with getting Legends rules for them, I mainly play casually and I've no problem with playing against or using Legends stuff, plus the models will still look good on my shelf. Gonna have to weigh up if there's any characters I need to pick up from the 1.0 range to round out my collection but I think the main things, Paladins, Judicators etc will be getting updates in the new edition. The big kicker is the Errant Questor as he's been out of stock every time I've gone to Warhammer World in the last few years so I've not been able to grab one. The Beasts of Chaos thing is depressing. I'm still of the belief that they have a future in AoS, but it's just further out than 4th edition, but it's still sad to see them go. I might need to pick up the Herdstone if I can as it's the coolest piece of faction terrain in the range. I could see the Bonesplitters making a return in future too, either as part of Ironjawz or their own thing but they clearly need a bigger update than there's room for in 4.0 alongside other factions. Skaven wise I suspect most of those things will get replaced in 4th anyway, with a few being held back to get redone through Warcry or future editions. The Warcry one is the biggest blow to me though, they're just really neat models. At a guess I'd say the Horns of Hashut will be coming back alongside the Chaos Duardin, they're the only 2.0 band removed. I had plans for a few boxes of Spire Tyrants and Corvus Cabal so I might have to pull the trigger on them before anything else though. For those talking about Ogors, I think they're safe. We just had the Gorgers get released and if they were going to give them the chop it would be this edition. They also make sense, now Bonesplitters are gone as the main Destruction faction to give some love to for 4th. The Spiderriders and Arachnok not being removed does give me some hope for some Spiderfang love in the near future too.