EonChao

Not really, unfortunately GW tends to keep its talent fairly obscured. Even when they do interview them it's kind a coin toss whether or not they give them their full name or just their first name. And I know from reading articles and speaking to people at GW that there's definitely multiple people in the studio with the same first name. So that doesn't make it easier. Honestly the best thing you can do is pay attention to when names are mentioned in articles (or look through Warhammer Community's previous articles) and then see if they post about what they make on places like Twitter and Instagram. Just be aware that some of these people might not want fans swamping their social media

Last I checked there were almost 150 GW stores in the US, more than any other country in the world including the UK, and whilst I get the US is a very big place in terms of overall area, store anniversaries are advertised well in advance, are also around the same time for each location every year and last for around a week. So it shouldn't be difficult to plan a trip to coincide with visiting that location for that week and then if need be arrange a trip back there a month or so later to collect anything that wasn't in stock and was made to order. And exclusive items for games do drive positive engagement, that's why almost every successful games company does them to one extent or another. Most of the GW ones are just alternate sculpts so you're not losing out on any actual game play options unlike how some other games do theirs and they do incentivize people going to events and stores to get them. Frankly for every person getting frustrated about them there's a few hundred who get excited and work out if they can go to an event where they're available and thousands more that simply don't care.

Warhammer World is always an odd one for event models. With conventions they have a set slot of time to make sales in then it's time to pack up and vacate the premises. Warhamer World on the other hand is a permanent GW store, so if they've had an event there then they could pack up the exclusives and take them away to the warehouse again, but why bother getting staff to do that when they'll sell over the next couple of weeks anyway. It's also pretty much next to the actual factory itself so it's not hard to get them there at short notice for the event, whereas things like conventions and expos require much more forward planning. So you end up with this really weird scenario that has more event models available than usual but with no guaranteed supply levels at the event of afterwards. Like the Space Marine Company Champion from a couple years ago was one they had a few left after an event and it sold out to one tourist the next day who walked in and just dropped the money to buy a couple dozen of them so they could take them home to sell. Except event exclusive items are really good at driving engagement with your product, be they tournament promos, or convention exclusives etc. They foster an interest in the game beyond it being something people just horde. I get it's frustrating to not get something but end of the day they serve a really good purpose in the hobby ecosystem. And the loot group does help with that. It might suck to have not got what you're after but as someone who has been part of the group for years they do a lot to ensure rare stuff gets to people who are after it, event minis, especially after the first time they've been available, are just one of those areas where there's more chance of being disappointed than not.

If last year was anything to go off of we’ll get both the final minis for Dawnbringers and the announcement of 4th ed. And hopefully the Cronoseer box isn’t too pricey, I could add that to my little DoK pile of opportunity quite nicely.

The gnome thing was also on the same day that we saw the goose and the event was announced. I'd have to dig back to look for the order of the posts but again it was a reasonably safe guess

I was going to complain that despite still having the best human models in AoS the Darkoath still need some actual proper kits. But then we got them so now I’m pretty happy. The new characters are fun, really looking forward to getting them. The gnomes are great, and whilst I’m not upset with the 40K models I am annoyed that the rumour that single model releases are initially coming in big expensive box sets turned out to be correct

Yeah, that might not be in the starter but that's definitely a push fit kit from the looks of things. It'd be fun to see if they can figure out how it goes together

To be clear, I know book 6 is happening, I mean they won't reveal everything to do with it at the event, they'll save a little for Adepticon. Maybe it'll be the book and one model, maybe just the Darkoath. But it'll be something from Book 6 but not everything

To clarify I don't think it will be book 6 itself but rather a model or two that's accompanying it. Otherwise there's nothing really to reveal for AoS. Yeah that's what makes me think Empire are next for TOW with a preview there. Some new Halfling models would both be something fun for the studio to make, and something very different to what had been around for the end of WFB and absent for all of AoS to generate hype. Alternatively it could be from some kind of Shire set of releases for MESBG

Last year it was just articles, not an online preview on the Twitch channel. And last year wasn't much, just two minis for each of AoS and 40k, so I'm going to guess that this is the Ork and Custode minis, Dawnbringers 6, and then an Old World Empire figure

You forgot the most important part!

It's pretty much guaranteed they'll do an exciting big kit to tempt the people who get into the enemy faction after buying the starter, Mortarion, Black Coach, Silent King, Corpse-Rippa Vulcha, and Norn Emissary are all equivalents. It's just what it will end up being that's in question

I'm assuming it does include it, better to air on the side of caution. Which would mean presumable a mounted shaper and a unit of gnarloc riders left to go.

I could see them do it quite easily. Something like 2 for each Grand Alliance with possibly a 3rd one for either Order or Chaos. The only question will be whether or not several of the Stormcast units from the new launch box and starters are a separate Spearhead to the revealed box

Yes but those are models that still have rules for them for that edition. If I want to take my old Landspeeder to a game I can despite it not being in the codex itself

I kind of wish the FEC box had a different hero in it (selfishly as I already own the Archregent) but honestly both boxes are fine in terms of getting started with the army, the value spread is a little weird but if they do produce balanced rules for the format like Combat Patrol is getting then it should balance out

The new Stormcast sound more interesting than the initial flagellant talk. I wonder if they're ones who've lost so much of their identity due to reforging that they're little more than walking weapons or if they're ones that have realized they're on their last reforging and become like fantasy dwarf slayers

Whitefang likes comments from lots of people when they guess things right. That doesn’t mean they all have sources. So far they’ve only reacted to one of those posts which just means there’s one guess that’s right (of the two in that post)

They said we’d see Orcs and Goblins and Dwarves in January, after GW had already announced a launch event at Warhammer World. It wasn’t a stretch to guess that the next army would be revealed then and it was a 1/7 chance of any guess getting it right, and they got it half wrong. Everything they’ve posted has been talked about by other reliable sources or content creators, with the exception of the dwarves that they clearly suggested because of the dice leak.

I was deliberately not including Dawnbringers because that's the end of edition bonus some factions get, and it doesn't have much bearing on the actual main releases that happen throughout the year. And even then, for DoK, Fyreslayers, Nurgle and Soulblight it's still only a second character which is hardly the same as getting a new unit.

Honestly Lumineth can go another edition with minimal updates for me, Daughters of Khaine are in much more need of a proper update. Does anyone remember everything we got for 3rd with the battletomes themselves? Like not including Warcry, Underworlds and Dawnbringers. I think we got: 6 big updates: Stormcast, Orruk Warclans/Kruleboyz, Slaves to Darkness, Seraphon, Cities of Sigmar and Flesh-Eater Courts 3 medium updates: Nighthaunt, Sylvaneth and Gloomspite 15 single character updates: Fyreslayers, Kharadon, Lumineth, Idoneth, Daughters of Khaine, Beasts of Chaos, Maggotkin, Disciple of Tzeentch, Blades of Khorne, Hedonites, Skaven, Ogors, Sons of Behemet, Ossiarchs, and Soulblight That feels like a reasonable amount of space for expanding existing factions plus adding in Chaos Duardin

There's not really a but there though is there. Every army lost it's subfactions so all were technically on the same footing with that regard. And if you're playing casually with friends then any list building adjustments about what's battleline or not caused by subfactions can be handwaved in by just talking about it before hand. Likewise the hotfixes will often be needed regardless of whether or not it's for issues with indexes or battle tomes, but again, those are published for free so it's not like it changes much. And again if you're just playing casually with friends then it shouldn't be difficult to just play something slightly less broken in your list.

I kind of hope we get a set of indexes for 4th, I get people don't want to buy the battle tomes again for everyone but to me that's what indexes let me do. Oh I'm not likely to play my Sylvaneth beyond casual games in the near future? Cool I don't need to buy the book and will just use the index until 5th ed.

Assuming it wasn't pushed back due to the Legions Imperialis delays then it should be going up for preorder this month

Indomitus had 20 Necron Warriors and a Necron Lord, Leviathan had 20 Termagants and a Screamer Killer, so it's not unrealistic for 4th's launch box to contain basic clanrats and something else classic that needs an update then have the other stuff be newer exciting things.