Public Universal Duardin

Hooray, we are back! Or was I the only one that couldn't get into TGA? Either way, I return fashionably late. 40K: Haven't actively played 40K since 5th edition, but those were some beautiful miniatures. Memorable reveal as the information that Sisters of Silence would be rolled into Custodes and mentioned to not be strategically viable as SoS only army caused my phone to blow up from messages from a friend who belongs to the extremely small but fanatically loyal secret society only spoken about in revered tones. You might have heard their name whispered in awe and fear, for their madness and dedication knows no bounds - for they are Sisters of Silence mains. AOS: I am happy for all Nurgle fans, you deserve a new battletome! I'll miss the old sorcerer, but looking at the Fly Sorcerer I know better than dissing them. Underworlds: I expect @KingBrodd to marathon Pirates of the Caribbean flicks in the near future to master his Jack Sparrow impression. HH: White Scar fans, rejoice! Warcry: Fantastic models. The Darkoath look p e r f e c t - brutal, attractive, at their martial peak...and I have watched enough BardicBroadcasts to feign being cultured enough to throw hey look it's that bloke from the Heroquest box art 'Frank Frazetta-inspired' around. But can we focus on the REAL star of the show? Yeah, you heard me. No, I don't mean the Underworlds monkey. I mean the Warcry terrain of course! Have you LOOKED at it? It's ----ing gorgeous! A varanite mine for Warcry? Perfect! A fell Chaos lair for AoS? Perfect? A small Chaos Dwarf settlement for a future The Old World homebrew campaign? PERFECT! That terrain, I need it.

Pirates here we gooooooo

Rekal Dawikins Duardkins and 'Epic' Uros Aponiasson I would hope the Furnace Kings/Babyloneth Slavelords/Chaos Duardin/The Duardin She Told You Not To Worry About would be usable in TOW! I am pretty sure (read: gut feeling born from hopium) we'll even get rules to Chaos Dwarfs in TOW before/if we ever get models - I am betting on the LOTR model where they release day 1 a book with every army list so grognards can dust off their old collections and play, with CD being such a fan-favourite it's probably included. However, I am not sure if we'll get any TOW reveals even if I yearn for those as much as a duardin yearns Bugman's. Regarding AOS, I think that would fit nicely if CDs are part of StD. Looking at how GW drinks from the nostalgia well I would assume visually they'd keep a certain 'big hat' look while incorporating elements from the Azgorh/Tamurkhan army lists. If a contract system would exist, it could be converted easily to TOW and fit as a thematic opposite to Dogs of War which will get a new army book and-- sniiiiiiiiiiiiiiifffff Ah. That's some good hopium-copium blend. A sample from Rules of Chaos Copium: 1. Chaos rewards the patient. 2. The reveal is always tomorrow. 3. If no reveal, blame Clan Eshin whom stole it.

This just makes me laugh because if it's true it's the most GW thing ever and if it's fake it's funny for taking the mickey out of geedubs That all said, I couldn't but think same as@Noserenda did. If it's legit it's way too revealing. "Leaking plastic toys during a drunken rant" is not the ideal way to squander a recent promotion!

This is just a ploy to make 365 different squigs. Yes, you COULD have a St. Patty's Squig with a green hat, or an Easter Squig with bunny ears...but why not January 13th Squig? Or June 28th? Can you even call yourself a real fan if you don't have an October 5th Squig? I don't think so!

Probably not an unpopular opinion: AOS vs WHFB arguments on which is objectively better are really boring and predictable, it's like arguing between fish and chips. Just gimme both. Doesn't mean either can't excel in some particular way, but I don't think either trumps the other. I do think AOS fans can at times kneejerk, due to all the grognard rage, and rewrite history into "Fantasy was never good" just as well as those grognards can groan about "Sigmarines"! Dwarf vs elf arguments should never be taken seriously, but neither should anyone be bullied from their faction of choice (looking at you, fellow duardin fans - I know we're more numerous than the knife-ears, but let them enjoy their shiny toys). The broader point is probably not something that warrants a comment among such fine folk as this, but I'm still reeling from reading last night--elsewhere online--someone's post psycho-analysing elf-dislikers/Dwarf fans. Details are unimportant, but needless to say this is a fundamentally silly hobby we participate in and I hope nobody makes value judgements on someone's real person based on what armies they play as or don't play as. Unpopular hot take to balance my streak of popular opinions: Meta is for scrubs, real gigachads play like you're back in 2006 and blame your constant losses not on GW but your mate Freddie for being a godawful cheat. I know you cheated Freddie, Necrons don't respawn ad infinitum!

I have been joking with friends that in a couple editions we'll see movement trays back too 😂 WHFB is truly the Lucius the Eternal (maybe 'Tamurkhan', if we want a WHFB joke) of wargames!

WHFB had a fair share of criticisms, but this feels almost like elbowing an elderly gentleman on his 85th birthday. I understand this is an AoS forum, but this is a very simplistic take on why WHFB died (and I believe if we'd have had Total War: Warhammer, Vermintide and you know, GW actually caring about Fantasy, it wouldn't have). Ironically AoS seems to move towards WHFB with increasing complexity - we're far from needing a single A4 and warscrolls. And of course TOW won't be 8th, they already had (allegedly) 9th edition almost ready as End Times happened - and even if the rules we have are completely unrelated to those unreleased ones, it won't be exactly what we got - just like AoS 3 isn't AoS 2, or Fantasy 8th wasn't WHFB 7th which weren't 6th which weren't...you get the gist.

Heh, I'm really looking forward to TOW but while I expect getting a collected army list tome at launch, it'll take years until every faction is supported (and that includes rotating Made to Orders!). This leads me to weep bitter tears as I foolishly did not muster enough Brets in my youth, and now I'll have to make do with what I got hahah. I'm unsure about crosscompatibility as someone with a classic HElf army will have smaller (in width) regiment than someone using same amount of Lumineth models (which aren't designed to be rank-and-file'd!) on a mov-tray. I almost wish we'd have gotten smaller scale models just to prevent bloat of 8th and facilitate bigger battles with less miniatures. I predict, by gazing into the entrails of a stray gnoblar, that we'll get Cathay one day in the distant future, most likely Dogs of War too based on the Border Princes map as maximum nostalgia bait and to get us to dip into evert faction to convert Regiments of Renown and buy as mercs. I'll also predict that we'll get Chorf rules at launch but no models. I'll make do with Brets/DoW/Empire (Marienburg will finally get some relevance if my memory of the map serves me well 👀) until that day.

I laughed at the implication that the Chaos Dwarf fandom is akin to magpies, drawn to new shiny dwarf-shaped obj---they sparkle and shimmer, they shine and delight...I must have them for my nest! Ahem, back to discussing rumours... With Whitefang shooting down CDs as part of the set, it closes another door on the hype train demon engine. Then again, all the Chaos Dwarf rumours seem to have been about AoS proper so maybe that was to be expected - but I do believe we'll start to see them a lot more in the background, building up the eventual (yet all too distant!) release.

With Whitefang's comment it seems our collective wallets get some much-needed rest... I'm not over the idea of Chaos Dwarfs soon™, even if Warcry might not be the avenue for them. Who knows, maybe Whitefang intended to say "They may be not, but...EVERY other release in 2022 will be Chaos Dwarf related, including 40K and LOTR." A duardin can dream.

Whitefang giveth, Whitefang taketh 😔

O Frabjous day! Calloh! Callay! Our prophet has spoken, the curse has been broken!

I swore off men when none would grant me the gift of Undeath or even ATTEMPT to raise an army of the dead to conquer the world 😤

I really like your idea, but I feel the names need to be more unique. I'm just making these up as I write, I'm just WIP brainstorming, so bear with me. Humm... Flesh golems...maybe call them...Ushabti? Larger creature...maybe a Tomb Scorpion? A Warsphinx? And a serpentine undead...I know! Sepulchral Stalker! And maybe a giant bone catapult carrying the name of 'Screaming Skull Catapult', so cool! Don't worry, checked GW's webpage, they aren't using these names for anything currently.

Unpopular opinion: GW moving away from the wacky, random rules of WHFB (everything with giants, Skaven weapon teams exploding or getting extra killy, Orcs being wildly unpredictable in general) to a more streamlined experience took away some character from the game. I'm a beer&pretzels gamer, I don't even play to win, I just want big things go boom and laugh like a maniac. And... We need more LGBTQ+ characters in lore. No, I will not elaborate.

To be fair, I WOULD buy a Warhammer Underworlds-themed corset and endure the subsequent ridicule by my peers. Clearly there is a gap in the fantasy strategic miniature skirmish cardgame-related accessories!

So it seems our mysterious rumour giver was correct, blessed be the day! (Although that also means he was correct in no Underworld chorfs 😭) Is this what young'uns call 'poggers'? What isn't poggers however is a new coreset half a year after Harrowdeep. Well, I mean, if you are into it do not let me rain on your parade, I just know I won't buy Harrowdeep knowing it'll be replaced that soon - with the glacial pace I paint my miniatures I'd not even get a single game before it would get outdated, heh.

What's in the rumour? C'mon...what's in the rumour?

...and now I'll never re-read the book again, gotta protect my future retirement fund! I do hope we get enough to run a 'Chaos Dwarf only' army, including Hobgrot Slittaz of course. 1-2 battlelines, 1 Chaos Duardin sorcerer, maybe a Hellcanon re-release.

I think it is a draw, for sure. If you know the lore, you know exactly what Kislev stands for and what their motivations are -act as a speedbump to Archaon stop Chaos no matter what. No matter if you read a novella or create lore for your armies, that previous knowledge gives you something tangible to anchor yourself to. I am sure AoS will reach similar heights when it has more history - both in terms of written lore and just having had a community for decades. But for now, I really understand why many still prefer the setting of Old World vs. Mortal Realms. I disagree respectfully. I don't want to parrot @EccentricCircle's great points, but just the rules for Tamurkhan was ridiculously expensive - I want to say buying the book+shipping ended up being close to 80€, and this was at a time army books had jumped up in price to 25-ish euros (oh, if we'd just known how good we had it!). Yes, Tamurkhan is a so called 'premium' book and I still believe it was worth every penny; but it is quite disingeous to claim Chaos Dwarfs failed because the community was ungrateful and whining over competitive pricing when just your rules were thrice the price of a normal army book. It isn't a secret most probably would balk at such prices, especially when the models themselves were much pricier (and in resin!) compared to GW proper's armies.

I agree...to a point. Mortal Realms excels in many aspects where Old World falters - so far there's always room for Your Dudes in the Mortal Realms, and that is something I really really value. I can paint Stormcasts pink and they could still technically be a part of the Mortal Realms without breaking lore, I could write fanfics about me and my friend's battle reports and in theory they could pass for 'real' fiction about the Mortal Realms. That is the strength of the setting. As you can't really paint Empire miniatures randomly and claim these are the men and women under your OC Elector Count of Donutsteelland, we know the full history of the World-That-Was^1. I hope GW keeps it that way and won't 'overexplain' the setting, drawing maps too full or we end in a situation like with the previous Impossible Elector Count of the Magnificent Realm of Donutsteelland. Mortal Realms also feels like the more diverse and vibrant of the settings. However, the more diverse and progressive characterisations we've seen in AoS could as well be retconned into Old World, I don't think that setting is 'beyond saving' in that regard. Where I differ with you on crowning Mortal Realms as king (despite my previous deep praise!) of settings is that while all that open-endedness fits me, after talking to multiple friends who have been slow to adopt Mortal Realms; I realised there is strenght in history. Not everyone is creative in same ways, and for every person who creates their own space marine chapters and stormhosts, there's one or two who want to play as Dark Angels and Hammers of Sigmar because they have a deep history - you get to know exactly what kind of dudes your dudes are, heh, without having to pretend to be the next George RR Martin. At least AoS 3.0 rulebook seemed to explain the important cities of the Realms and featured heraldry of the CoS armies within, but I hope GW balances it out so neither - full unknown or everything explained - reigns over each other, but there's room for both. [1] Yes, I know Border Princes exist, but as they were so sparse with information and about unimportant wannabe-nobility I think most gravitated towards just picking an existing colour scheme or as well say their army was some minor noble's serving under one of the canon Elector Counts or Bretonnian Dukes.

Heheh yeah, that's exactly what I meant 😁 I.e, to play a Bretonnian noble 'Prince', use Bret models, maybe with some small keyword change/bonus. So despite looking like a Kislev/Empire/Bretonnia army you'd get some rule to differentiate from the 'host army'. Would be very lucrative for GW - as you'd need the rules for whatever miniatures you'd run as BP AND the BP supplement. I'm of course speculating/wishlisting here but that's how I'd do it. Although that would mean Estalia and Tilea would be represented as miniatures too...

I'm going to come off as complete nutter for having done this, but here's the specific different fonts One is 1:1 Bretonnian and another mimics a 'German' font (I.e, Empire) - that is, the font of Fraktur. It was historically used in Germany so Empire seems an obvious choice due to that and Fantasy-German names. One based on name and coat of arms is obviously Kislev! That leaves Ortegeta - based on name and almost cross-like T:s I expect them to be Estalia (Conquistadors, reconquista, inquisitions - in pop cultural history Spain is mostly associated with Christianity). Ortegeta's font evokes 16th century manuscripts as mentioned above, and the star and moon on the coat of arms /could/ reference the religious diversity of Spain before the reconquista and inquisitions. Harkon's coat of arms features a red grail with two drops of blood falling into it, alongside an unique font - most likely refers to VC This leaves Tordorno and Aquilena as a mystery faction, but based on names I suspect Tilea. Both do in some way evoke Bretonnian heraldry, Tordorno with the fleur-de-lis and Aquilena mimicking the colour scheme and theme of L'Anguille! I was wrong and Pontenne definitely is Bretonnian font. You and @Loyal Son of Khemri are probably right in it signifies who they split from - but maybe teases two new areas (Tilea, Estalia) and return of Vampires!

Reiterating myself from Rumour Thread... Have you noticed the different fonts used on the different noble houses? Some are definitely Empire, but my thoughts that it showed cultural heritage doesn't make sense - Gastonne, despite Bretonnian coat of arms name has the 'Empire' font, while Aquilena differs and has a much more 'Bretonnian' font. Different fonts include Uvetovsk (Kislev?) , Ortegeta (Estalia?) , Pontenne (???) and Harkon (Vampire Counts). Rest seem to be Empire/Bretonnian, with focus on the former. Subfactions? Your Dudes? Hints of factions to come? Edit: As you can see, we know for certain one font is associated with an existing faction. Considering the 'empire' font looks like Fraktur, a font associated with Germany, we have thar locked down. Ortegeta evokes 16th century manuscripts, and the star and moon on the coat of arms /could/ reference the religious diversity of Spain before the reconquista and inquisitions. Uvetovsk's imagery and name are obvious references to Kislev. Harkon's coat of arms features a grail where two blood drop falls - alongside menacing aura and red/black colour scheme its a clear reference to VC. Pontenne uses Bretonnian fonts. This leaves Tordorno, whose fleur-de-lis evokes Bretonnian heraldry but name sounds more Italian - as the font is unique from Bretonnian font Tilea is the best guess.