Ganigumo

Something to consider is that the Gitz update only actually replaced 2 kits, the loonboss and the loonboss on great cave squig. Every other kit that was an update was a dual kit with a new unit. Its a good way to update kits if you can make it work, since older players with existing models can buy it and build the new variant. It wouldn't be tough to replicate that with some of the kits that need updating, like gluttons and bestigors.

If Tzaangors and Kairics are playable I'll be happy. I guess kairics were kind of playable on release, even if it wasn't the meta pick, but the rules changes and point hikes have pushed them over the edge I think. Functioning rules for cult of the transient form would be nice too, I love the narrative of that subfaction but the rules are so awful, definitely a contender for worst subfaction in the game. In terms of coalition units until the BoC tome (and possibly even after) bray shamans and ungor raiders are still solid picks. Devolve is a fantastic spell, and ungor raiders are non GV chaff with a pre-game move.

Votan are way too boring. Gw played it way too safe and as a result nothing in the faction is wierd and/or eye catching. The whole faction is just "fine" or average.

Brodd is cool, hopefully the upgrade kit can also build something else though. A proper shaman gargant would be awesome. I know we've seen them before, but the ogroids look great, the chosen look great but are a bit busy at spots, and the new daemon prince just has too much going on all over. Its hard to even tell what some of the parts are from the images. Also the tzeentch head is pretty hideous. I really hate the new hunter model. The head is pretty awful, the antlers might've been a nice touch but the ropes are ridiculous. The midsection is way too busy. Gutplate, arrows, crossbow, spears, two different animal pelts, and extra doodads on top. All the extra details on this model orbit his midsection. This guy is on a 50mm base tops, but it looks like a 40mm one, its a lot. Also the proportions feel off. Based on the gutplate we get a feel for where his gut (and torso) should end, which make this guy's legs seem way too long. That section is obscured through the ring of stuff, but his legs make up nearly 2/3rds of his height and they aren't straight. The last nitpick is the complete lack of footwear. Hes a BCR unit, bcr are continually followed by an icy blizzard, and this guy is walking around barefoot. Also weird that its the hunter getting a new model. The current one is decent, while the butcher/slaughtermaster are really questionable and in need of an update. Plus you can kitbash a hunter out of the stonehorn kit pretty easily with the extra bits and ogor body.

If we get a middle sized gargant, with a hero option, you could make a box with a middle gargant and 1-2 babies vs an ogor force.

From what we've seen so far a "dawnbringer crusade" is the group that sets out to attempt to found a new city, so as long as the cities of sigmar keep seeking to expand and found new cities the dawnbringer crusades will continue. So basically from a narrative perspective they can exist until order wins and claims the realms.

I suspect "Dawnbringer Crusades" will be cities' answer to scions of the storm, with the "cities" being their equivalent of stormkeeps. Once you consider it the rules could be structured very similarly to the stormcast rules to cover both.

It wouldn't fix the models issue, but they could try exploring combined factions a bit more, like with big waaagh! & LotFP. Without gitmob you probably can't really recreate that old O&G feel, but having an option for combined orcs and goblins again would be cool, and its an area I'd like to see explored a bit more. If this happens it will feel like they're just trying to get destruction out of the way. Certainly looks like it could be gitz, but it looks more moonclan than spiderfang, and I'd be shocked if the solo hero gitz get isn't a scuttleboss. Maybe its from one of the upcoming warcry warbands?

Ironjawz are orcs reinvented, and do the concept really well. Orcs want to do nothing more than fight, and the entire army is about fighting, and getting into the fight. They really made their narrative match their playstyle. They're not really a proper heir to Orcs and Goblins, because O&G didn't have a unified design or strategy, like most WHFB factions, they were a mixed arms horde force where pretty much everything was a mixed arms force of some variety. Kruleboyz and/or gitz come closest to what O&G were from a playstyle perspective.

Its not just about matching the aesthetic, but also matching what the army is narratively, which pretty much rules out any ranged options, outside of like throwing weapons. Ironjawz can't make elegant & effective ranged weapons, nor would they want to. You could certainly expand Ironjawz, but I don't think anything you add wouldn't count as unit bloat, as the army has every tool it needs to fit its playstyle. That's not to say it won't happen though, it happened with every WFB army and all the old 40k forces, but personally I like seeing more small forces like ironjawz and KO (as long as they feel complete), than I do seeing big expansions to existing ones. Personally I really hated the arms race of it, where they'd release a new unit type or something, then rush to make sure most of the factions got access to it, it was like designing based off a checklist of unit types, rather than trying to fully realize what the faction should have & use from a narrative perspective. The orruk soup was pretty obvious seeing as they did it last edition, although I hope gargants and ogors don't get souped, as they share literally nothing narratively. I prefer the design direction of many small factions, to having a handful of ones with a ton of units. Seeing more of the world through new factions is more exciting than just getting variations on what we already have, plus you get less units that don't really serve a purpose (i.e large swaths of the stormcast book) since the factions tend to be cut down to the most essential elements. Thats not to say I hate seeing expansions for existing armies, but I'd like them to feel like natural expansions that complement the army rather than just to fill a starter set or something.

The only issue with MB on grunta is that it wouldn't distinguish itself as different from the MBoF or MBoMK, it would just be an in-between step, it would be nice to have but its not like the army needs it. If its primarily a unique unit they could take it somewhere interesting though, like a unique bloodtoof warboss that gets the MK version of Skull Splitting bellow (3- for -1 commands), and lets bloodtoof units run & charge, and choose to run if he issues mighty destroyers. I'm always for multiple sculpts of things though, but its annoying that so many end up being locked behind events and paywalls. I would've loved that alternate swampcalla shaman.

When it comes to Gargants I'd love an in-between. Keep the current mancrusher, maybe throw in an upgrade sprue or something Throw an upgrade sprue into the mega kit Create a new kit for an in-between gargant that would come in at ~250-320 points or something (either the cost of 2 babies or half a mega), maybe it could have some hero options. The in-between gargant would add a lot more visual variety to the army, as you'd have a smoother progression from small to big.

Honestly despite only having like 7 kits Ironjawz feels like one of the most tightly designed armies in the entire game. You get everything you need, with no bloat. I don't know what you add to Ironjawz without it feeling unnecessary. Not that I wouldn't appreciate some new sculpts or anything though. New ardboy sculpts would certainly be nice, and personally I'd love to see the greenskinz boar riders brought back as 'ardboy gruntas or something as I really loved that kit and think it would still hold up, but the army doesn't really need that as a unit. An interesting direction to take an ironjawz expansion would be to make a few new named characters, like a gordrakk equivalent clan head for bloodtoofs and da choppas. Maybe the bloodtoof boss could double as our grunta megaboss, and the choppas one could be a shaman/warchanter on a warshrine/chariot/new monster The kruleboyz models individually look really great, but when they got down to the rules its clear they struggled to make them a cohesive force. The models are pretty much just monsters and rank & file infantry, but the narrative is about being sneaky and tricky. So pretty much all the models we got are as far from being sneaky as you can get. They're lacking the in-between bits that should be the armies' bread & butter. If they had dropped the sneaky & kunning narrative, and just stuck with them being particularly cruel, fighting battles like old greenskinz with tons of bodies and big beasties, while still using stuff like poisons and kidnapping people, it would've fit the models we did get better, but the faction would lose a lot narratively I think. Kruleboyz could certainly be made strong with the existing models if they got a good rules rewrite, but they feel like they need a couple units that properly explore and represent the kunning aspects, like units built specifically for ambushing, and something that specializes in hit & run strategies, maybe a unit that sets traps etc.

Obr wouldn't be getting new kits, just a book and a hero. We know StD are getting some new models, so if it gets paired with something they probably won't get anything except maybe a small hero.

WRT the std tome release, I wouldn't at all be surprised if they get paired with OBR, Death's due a book, OBR have the oldest white dwarf update of death factions, and its a good way to follow up on wrath of the everchosen. Seems like a slam dunk. Others pointed out the krakeneater, but one of the mancrusher options also only has 3 toes.

Its not too surprising gitz are getting passed over in favor of gargants and ogors given their treatments in the ghb. Gargants and ogors went untouched with gitz getting a bunch of rules changes.

I don't remember many people thinking seraphon would be bad, there were some for sure but a lot of people realized how good they were as soon as they were revealed. Nurgle ended up being better than many people thought competitively, but the army is still a slog to play with and against (which fits with nurgle's design but its a bit boring/annoying with all the bookkeeping). Also in general aos 3 is reducing synergy across the game, there might be some more, but only since Tzaangor had basically no synergies specific to them, but the chances of them being better than the current fatemaster are incredibly low, and he won't be keeping his rerolls since they're pretty much removing them from the game entirely.

My impression is that they'll be like the cicadas who spend over a decade under the earth before they emerge, but on a much bigger scale because its high fantasy, possibly spending millenia underground as nymphs until they all emerge and swarm over the land, for a short period (on a cosmic scale, so still potentially hundreds if not thousands of years) only to repeat the cycle. Maybe they have more direct control over the cycle and have been waiting chaos out too. GW tends to seed a ton of concepts so they can pull on them at their leisure. They won't pull on all of them, but it makes new things feel like a part of the history better than stuff like kruleboyz. With how heavy handed chaos dwarf and malerion stuff is its a guarantee we'll see both, but the silent people stuff could go either way.

Are they extinct? I thought they were just dormant under the earth like cicadas. IIRC there were some hints of stuff scuttling around and hiding during beastgrave but I might be mistaken.

Yeah but boltboyz are absolutely mot the reason KB are bad. Its nearly everything else

I kind of disagree that boltboyz are a trap. The real trap is just poor listbuilding. The army only has 3 potential hammer units, boltboyz, sludgerakers, and mirebrutes, and they all have their own flaws and weaknesses. Boltboyz struggle a lot with durability, but have the best threat range. Mirebrutes struggle with mobility & durability, but are cheap Sludgerakers are somewhere in the middle, double as a support piece but are expensive. Overinvesting in boltboyz is just overinvesting in hammer units, you always need a plan for how to protect and get those hammers where they need to be, its just that Kruleboyz hammers have particularly exploitable weaknesses. I think you could make a list with like 18-21 boltboyz work (or work as well as kruleboyz can), but you'd need to leave the sludgeraker & probably the mirebrute at home and get a bunch of screens. the list would have very one-sided matchups for sure, but I think thats unavoidable when playing kruleboyz.

Just so we're clear here, This is what 9 boltboyz (360 points) looks like damage wise with and without buffs. Heres the missing boltboy profile and 20/30 blissbarbs (280/420 points) 330 points of the new sentinels have a higher threat range than boltboyz (30" threat vs 24", or 27" in big yellers), outdamage them against all but the 17" or 20" profile on low saves, and are significantly more durable (20W vs 18W, 5+ save vs 6+ with far better bravery.). They compare pretty well vs blissbarbs too, doing better vs anything but terrible saves per point. Kruleboyz might not be good, but boltboyz are a solid shooting unit, and short of spending 400+ points to buff them sentinels compare very well against them. They don't really seem out of line at all to me.

The gutrippa tax is a big deal. 360 points down the drain on something that only functions as a screen. For those points you could bring 2x10 hobgrots AND 2x5 spider riders, which is the same number of wounds spread across multiple units that can cover more space when zoning/screening AND the spider riders cover a weakness of our low movement. Also when it comes to spells it only sometimes stops them. Endless spells don't need vision, you measure visibility from spellportal if you have one, and any spells that splash mortals around (like slann/kroak/warsong/etc) also don't need vision (and those are the spells that smash MSU boltboy spam). Ultimately the problem with grinnin blades is that the gutrippa tax is really hard to manage when the army is already struggling to fit enough damage, utility, and screens into 2000 points. If the meta shifts hard into shooting/magic, and the types of spells being used can be blocked by grinnin blades they'll probably become the better option out of necessity. You'd be running 15 either way, unless you go grinnin blades, to fill up battleline. The advantage of 9 is that a second shaman is more of a bonus, rather than a necessity, and being 9 GVs its a bit easier to score the one BT where you need to slay a GV with a GV. plus you're slightly more resilient against the mortal splash spells, but only a little because they're still made of paper.

I agree that I'd like to see the shooting part applied across the game, with a less accurate attack if the unit moved (with some specific exceptions like KO boats), but its much more realistic to just change boltboyz than it is to change every other shooting unit in the game. If we weren't so strapped for points, and/or the sloggoths aura affected shooting attacks, I think he might make it into some lists. I find myself using AoA a lot on stuff like sludgerakers, mirebrutes and vultures. If you could fit it into a monster heavy list it would definitely do some work.

In my opinion secret agendas is a much better Tzeentch mechanic than anything else in the book, it could maybe use a bit of streamlining, but it feels Tzeentch-ier than even destiny dice. I know Tzeentch likes to twist and control fate, but he's also incredibly fickle, and loves scheming, which fits secret agendas better than the incredible precision given by destiny dice. The big loss from kairics (and horrors) losing spells it that it will make fate point generation tougher.