Neil Arthur Hotep

Crouching sword guy on the right as well.

Worked for High Elves.

Between Nagash being a huge chump and Teclis hecking everything up for everyone, this seems 100% in line with their previous characterization. All that is missing is Nagash building another Black Pyramid and Skaven blowing it up again somehow.

I could try to argue a bunch of stuff about supply chains, Covid delays and market saturation, but honestly I have no idea what GWs production cycle usually looks like. I think they produce products a long time in advance, and I know stuff that is just being released now has been in the works for a while. But I can't pretend that I know what that fully done blister means in regard to release timing.

Completely agree. I am still sticking with my original timeline of Vampires in spring/early summer. So I would not be surprised if we see very little of Soulblight Gravelords tomorrow.

I'd say we should also expect whatever "Ulfenkarn" is to be AoS related. Likely a Warhammer Quest.

Before the plastic Vampire Lord was put on the official site, a potato cam photo of that model's packaging was making the rounds. It was packaged as a "Soulblight Gravelords Vampire Lord". And a new faction name implies a new battletome.

By "leaked" do you mean "part of the Lumineth Underworlds warband and also that one Broken Realms story and obviously in the works for months" ? 😉

I just interpreted those guys as fancyful Bladegheists, Grimghasts and Chainrasp. Honestly, if we get another marginally different bedsheet with a spear I'll riot.

Completely on brand for Teclis to have terrible judgement once again.

I predicted exactly this in the Soulblight thread yesterday: So that's not at all an ad hoc rationalization. If the Soulblight release follows the Hedonites pattern, it's what we should expect.

Yeah, why would they weaken Nagash's control of Shyish? That would make it some sort of Fractured Domain. A Broken Realm if you will. I don't think that's a theme they are going for 😉

That's going a bit far, don't you think? I assume you don't mean that there is no appreciable difference in AoS between, for example, infantry and cavalry. Because that's clearly absurd. I think what you want to say is that AoS does not allow for significant differences between units of the same type in the same army (e.g. two different infantry units) but even that does not seem right to me. Maybe if you are looking at two units of the same type and at the same point level, but why limit yourself in this way? That does not seem to be what @RocketPropelledGrenade is talking about.

If we remove Nagash (just hypothetically), that's only three kits. Plus, while the Mortis Engine kit is cool, it does not have the rules to be a proper centerpiece. Even Ideoneth, with their small model range, have the Turtle, Akhelian King and Eidolon. Also, for big releases, including a new centerpiece seems to be the modus operandi for GW since OBR at least. Katakros, Teclis, the Slaanesh Chariot, as well as the Triumph of St. Celestine and the Silent King in 40k. Maybe the Mega Gargant, too, but that's kind of reaching. I think if SGL is a large release, a new centerpiece seems fairly likely.

If Gravelords are an LoN replacement and if the Wight King sticks around at all, I think him getting a rules rework is very likely. At the moment, he's just a worse Vampire Lord, pretty much. It would be nice if he actually offered good Deathrattle synergy, instead of being a Vampire Lord without synergy with anything other than Deathrattle, as he is right now. I think the least we can expect are new rules that make Mannfred and Neferata actually synergize with the SOULBLIGHT keyword. New command abilities seems fairly likely to me. A bit more speculation: If we see a range expansion, then I would guess one of the two will be the Vampire-focussed centrepiece, and the other will be more zombie/skeleton/creature of the night focussed. I think Neferata buffing Soulblight and Mannfred buffing all the other stuff seems somewhat likely, even though the new Vampire Lord looks more Carstinian than Lahmian. Another option could be that Neferata enables an aggressive playstyle for Soulblight, while Mannfred enables a more defensive/ambushy one. There is also the possibility of another Mortarch/big centerpiece hero being introduced, if we are being really optimistic.

I want to comment one more time on why I think it's not unrealistic to expect a larger release for Soulblight, not just a battletome update and a plastic Vampire Lord. I definitely don't want to imply that your points are somehow invalid, though. Especially the point about managing your expectations. I agree that the LoN book was actually really good for the time. Same with other, similar books like Cities of Sigmar, which has some of the best mechanical design of any AoS book, even if people are still disappointed that there were no new units. And you are completely right that we should not hype ourselves up to an unreasonable extent and then get disappointed with a good release just because it does not fulfill all our hopes and dreams. Your argument was that looking at the release patterns for old factions, it might be more reasonable to expect a small release with few new models than a big faction rework with lots of kits. I think the evidence supports this. But evidence is always subject to interpretation. It's up to the person analyzing the evidence to decide what is especially pertinent in the case at hand. In my opinion, your examples from 2019/2020 are not the most pertinent ones. It's true that they seem to establish a certain pattern for updates to old factions. But I think we also need to look at the context of those releases. In 2019, we were seeing close to a battletome a month. GW was going through an effort to give every faction real rules. At the same time, they were focussing their large releases on AoS original factions. That tells me that at the time their priorities were to make old factions playable, and to give AoS a more distinct identity in comparison to WHFB. I think we are past that era of AoS 2.0 now, though. And since I think priorities have likely changed now, I don't expect the same patterns to hold. For one, the battletome release cycle has slowed down considerably. Even disregarding COVID, we would not be looking at a breakneck pace of a battletome every month anymore. And since that pace has slowed down, we can probably expect future battletomes to come with more significant model releases again. It could also be valuable to look at Legion of Nagash related releases specifically. There were two of those, Nighthaunt and OBR, and both times they came with a good amount of new models. Nighthaunt are an especially pertinent, since much like Soulblight it's a faction that builds significantly on old models. Plus, there is the pattern of the Hedonites release. Since that is the most recent release, it might be a good indication of how faction updates will work in the future. So that could mean a large amount of models supplemented by spin-off game content (Underworlds, Warcry, duel box heroes, possibly Warhammer Quest). Anyway, there is not that much use in arguing this point right now. It's probably best to wait and see what the preview show on saturday has to offer. If we see any new troop options, I think a larger release is likely. If we just see heroes and Warhammer Quest, it's probably a minor battletome release. Either way, I personally be happy with updated rules and a new Warhammer Quest or something like that. Plus, if those rumour engines are not LoN/Soulblight stuff, at least Flesh Eater Courts players can probably look foreward to new models.

It's definitively what I expect (actually have been expecting for a few months). I think it's the logical place for LoN to go after Nighthaunt and OBR.

That's a valid position, but I would point out that all those examples are from a time period where GW was still in the process of giving everything new battletomes. Now that AoS factions have been fully established, I think we might well be at the point where old factions WHFB might finally get expanded or redone. The division between AoS and WHFB factions is murky, anyway. Hedonites are getting a big release soon, and while Slaanesh mortals are an AoS thing, Slaanesh in general certainly is not. We will have to wait and see. My personal stakes in this are fairly low, anyway, since my LoN is converted Tomb Kings, so I have long given up on the possibility of "proper" new models. But I genuinely think the new Vampire Lord, presumed faction name change and all the Death rumour engines/teasers suggest a larger release. If that could finally put to bed the idea that old factions can't get new models, that would also be appreciated (although I can understand that's probably the smart prediction at this point in time).

My thoughts on that prophecy: The gate will shatter! Probably the gates of Excelsis being brought down by Gordrak, as most people have guessed. The earth will tear! This one is mysterious. I think this line, plus the name "Broken Realms" could hint at something happening to the geography of the mortal realms. No idea what it could be, though. The sky shall eat the storm, I find this line tricky because both "sky" and "storm" could be references to Sigmar and the Stormcast. If "sky" is the Sigmar, I would guess "storm" is the Waaagh. That would suggest that Gordrak succeeds in bringing down the gates of Excelsis but is eventually pushed back by Sigmar. If "storm" is Sigmar, on the other hand, I have no idea what "sky" could be. Lumineth? Kharadron? Both seem unlikely. and the serpent’s tide will rise! The serpent is probably Morathi. The serpent's tide might be a reference to the DoK/Idoneth alliance, as some have pointed out. The Changer’s riddle is born anew The Changer is probably Tzeentch, but the reference to being "born anew" made me think it might be Slaanesh. by the splitting mirror of the Dark Prince! The "splitting mirror of the Dark Prince" is probably Sigvald, given his backstory. It would make sense if he somehow helps with the rebirth of Slaanesh, if that is what "the Changer's riddle" is referring to in the previous part. If it's about Tzeentch, I have no idea, though.

Of the two new Vampires we have seen, I think I prefer Bat Hair over 80s Hair, but they are both really nice. I like that they decided to go with plate armour with a bat wing motif as their aesthetic choice. I hope we get creatures of the night in addition to skeletons and zombies with this new battletome. I am fully willing to build that Castlevania army.

I think those are all very reasonable takes. Just to note, I put all rumour engine pictures that (I think) could possibly be Gravelords units into my list. I did not try to stick to ones that are likely, necessarily. Probably, some of these rumour engines will not be Gravelords, or not even Death. So yeah, I full expect some things on the list to be Underworlds, Warcry or a specialty game (Warhammer Quest seems likely). I agree that there are a few pictures that look like FEC. But I'm not sure where an FEC release would fit into the timeline. After Hedonites come out next month, there needs to be a Lumineth and Gravelords release. I would guess that Lumineth could be the driving faction in the next Broken Realms, and Gravelords could be a Battletome release in between Broken Realms II and III, much like Hedonites are in between BR I and II. I suppose it could be that FEC get a small expansion in BR II, but more likely they would go into BR III. We will be probably a year and a half out from the release of that rumour engine at that point, plus the "vampire foot knight" is the earliest Death sneak peek we have. That's why I think it might be somewhat likely that it's a model in Gravelords or Ulfenkarn (if that is the next Warhammer Quest). I put that picture down as Vampire Foot Knight because I fully believe there will be some kind of Vampire infantry in the Vampire battletome. I think that's almost as certain as new Blood Knights, even if we don't have rumour engine that definitively points towards it. It could be, though, that Vampire duellists will fill that role completely. Given how Underworlds warbands often depict a cross section of a faction's troops, I still think it's likely that we will see foot vampires even if we know that two of the rapiers and sabres are part of the Underworlds warband. For the bone flute, I could see that being a Chaos or FEC thing. The "necromancer vampire" seems like a Death thing to me, though. The long, skinny hand with the skull really suggests that, in my view. As for the boot in the "vampire knights" section, I just wanted to put that somewhere because it has a skull on it. That's by far the thing I am the least confident about. I think it's possible that there are several visual styles in this army for different Vampire bloodlines, though. That would explain some differences in armour designs and appearance. But I guess we will probably see on Saturday. Finally, as far as models being removed: I think it's fairly safe to say that anything Finecast will go unless it's replaced. I believe that means GW will get rid of build options such as mounts or wings for Vampire Lords/Wight Kings, because those are basically straight upgrades anyway and only really existed to ensure old models remained playable. And while I think retooling Wight Kings and Necromancers to be on round bases would be nice, I think that's not actually physically possible since plastic models use steel molds that can probably not be easily modified.

Since you mention stuff going out of production soon: I'm pretty sure we won't be able to get all the classic Vampire Lords and the Necromancer with Hat after Soulblight Gravelords are released.

That wolf head could also possibly go on a werewolf hunter to go along with the vampire hunter if that is indeed what Ulfenkarn is about.

Glad to see that I at least placed that sabre Rumour Engine correctly into the Underworlds warband. Now I also finally understand the weird colouration of the hand in that picture: Red just looks really dark in black and white. The same strange colour is found on the bone flute, by the way, which could indicate that it is a Soulblight thing after all. But as @NotAWzrd also noted, that might well be Flesh Eater Courts. I'm really into all the models that are getting revealed, though! I can't wait to see all the ways my predictions were wrong on Saturday 😎

To be honest, I didn't really know what to do with the straight sword holding vampire hand. I think vampire infantry is a fairly plausible addition for a Soulblight battletome, but I don't really have much confidence in that one. The boot is just there because it's black and has a skull on it, but it could be anything. It could even be nothing. I have been thinking about the WHU warband. I also think three or four vampires is a safe bet. Vampires are usually fairly elite, and we already have two silhouettes that look to be vampires. Since WHU warbands in recent times have reflected units in the army they are from, it is possible that vampire duellists are a new troop choice for Soulblight. In that case, not all rapiers and daggers would have to go in the warband. Another option could be that the WHU warband is not all vampires, but contains some minions as well. I find that unlikely, though. Except something like a dire wolf maybe. As for zombies: "The leader of a zombie horde can be armed with a Graveyardsmash Monstermasher." I could imagine the club being a special weapon option like that. I also fully expect some of these rumour engine pictures to be part of Warhammer Quest if we do indeed get one. Makes me hopeful that there could be a lot we have not seen yet, though. That was the case for Hedonites as well.