Beastmaster

No, we get shadowy assassin aelves and snakey assassin aelves. Maybe some flying owly assassin elves to round it all up? 😎

I don’t get the elf stuff in AoS, actually. I mean, they are all Order, they squabble a bit as to who is the most well-liked elf flavor of this god or that, but they can all ally all the same. There is no REAL conflict, which makes them narratively a bit samey. I mean, High and Dark Elves killed each other on sight, and for good reason, while the Woodsies would kill both if they came near their forest. AoS elves seem comparably rather tame.

Which, of course, strikes a more sensitive nerve in a time where comparable narratives are actually endorsed in real-world politics by a growing number of voters. As much as you may try to keep a fantasy world apart from real development, it’s inevitably shaping the way people look at the fantasy. That’s just a fact.

The prices of molds can’t be that much of a problem, considering how many of them were created in the last years for some specialist game warbands, which were surely no big sellers, and which even were relatively reasonably prized individually.

I could imagine that the aim at religious fundamentalists fighting demons was at least in part making fun of the people who thought D&D would teach their kids to summon the devil. 😄 But. With all those heavy themes, it’s really important how they are represented. For example, you don’t see environmentalists criticizing 40k for endorsing the building of industrialized megacities, while poisoning whole planets. Why is that? Because it’s shown as really detrimental to all inhabitants involved. The xenophobia is a bit more complicated, because it’s shown to be generally justified: Many, if not most of the alien species really are a danger to the humans and their imperium, the humans often „only defend themselves from the invaders“. In this day and age, those are arguments that sound all-too familiar, especially in the last 18 months. We should be very aware of that.

Aleguzzler is gone 😢

I don’t know. A gaming console is a piece of pretty sophisticated electronic hardware (even though such things are easily mass-produced nowadays), while a Gargant miniature or two is basically a piece of pressed plastic (even though well designed etc.). In my mind, they should be priced on completely different levels for me to say „That’s a fair offer“. I admit, I never understood capitalism.

First thought: YAY!!!! Second thought: Omg, Man o War Basic would be 250+€ today... 350+ if I want to play a fleet I like... Sad times, those.

Remember that they definitely don’t hold back to tell you the unpleasant results that such ideologies have. No one in their right mind would want to live in the 40k universe for even a day. It’s never presented as anything anyone would wish for outside the game.

Guess what: Every hobby that needs to have several people of different households in a single room for a few hours has lost a lot of steam this year. I wonder why that is. Must be the prices. 😄 Though price increases may not exactly help, of course.

Currently writing my house rules as a combination of Hinterlands and Shardsfall. Hobby time and money go into terrain pieces. I, for one, have fun. 😃

Short term, yes. Viable strategy. But the whales of today didn’t start as such, I would say. And if fewer people begin collecting, fewer will turn out to develop into the whales of the next generation. Even fewer will begin/make that development if it becomes more difficult to find other new players in their area. Not a viable long-term strategy.

May be that the delivery chains are already changing. But in formal laws and taxes, nothing has changed yet. The big changes will come in January. I could imagine that they build their price structure so that prices don’t have to suddenly jump up with the beginning of next year. Or maybe they build up capital to weather the inevitable blow next year. Just wild guesses, of course.

Trying to ask myself from a neutral point of view how this offer compares: Just the starter box gives you a complete board game, without the strengths of a tabletop (very limited variability in setup and warband composition). For 160€, there may be better offers. If you want the strengths of a tabletop (huge variety in setup and composition) you’d need to invest in many addons. And, again, there are a lot of better offers. So, no.

With or without compound words? I just say Fußbodenschleifmaschinenverleih. 😎

Glad I chose Hinterlands. 😄

And they usually don’t carry Rapiers.

New Ogors! Butcher? Slaughtermaster? 😍

Only way to drag me in would be Space Skaven. 😃

Wow, that’s intriguing! Never heard of that theory before. But it makes sense. There was always something very dark hidden in the concept of Athel Loren. Which was what made Warhammer wood elves special and interesting in my eyes. Nature is Satan‘s church. 😁

First world problems 😅 I decided that I‘ll only have one „full“ AoS army (Mawtribes) and only buy models from other factions for small skirmish games. In this way I have a clear focus and will have one sizable AoS force over time (currently around 1600p, will go well over 2000 once I got everything I like about them) but I can paint and use a wide variety of models when I’m currently sick of Ogor skin.

I heard that shipwrecked Kharadron started eating their own more than once. The eternal hunger of the Great Maw is within you too, as much as you deny it.

What I also like with Hinterlands is that you still keep in touch with the larger AoS developments. You can directly use almost any unit/warscroll that will come in the future (as long as it’s not a behemoth or a warmachine, and even those could be used as centerpiece of a scenario. Imagine an Aleguzzler rampaging through a village, with two warbands trying to stop him... or a siege cannon threatening a city wall, with one of the warbands sneaking out to destroy it before it breaches the wall), and you use and learn the basic AoS rules that could later be used in bigger games.

Looked at the Warcry rules and yes, they are tidy. I just found the warband building a bit too limited for long-time engagement, and I miss the possibility to level up (and injure down) the warband members. Hinterlands (with some houseruling down the road) seems more my alley.

To be honest, from an official site of a commercial organization I never expected anything different than a sales pitch. For discussion and true community there are other formats (like this forum).