Neil Arthur Hotep

This kind of thing always looks super cool and you should definitely do it.

Graphic design is my passion 😎

The old Gorger was a model that I clearly remember looking at in 2008 or so and thinking "Wow, this guy sure looks old and ugly." It only took them 15 years to replace him, but at least it was worth it.

Is that possible? I thought they had an FAQ about that which went the other way on it. Or was that about command abilities? I have seen people talk about Tree Revenants for the movement shennenigans. They even count for Banners Held High. They don't benefit a lot from the Living City allegiance, though.

The trend in 3rd has definitely been to move away from soup armies. I would personally not count on big waaagh sticking around.

Do we know what being an "army of renown" actually means? Do they work like a subfaction? Or a warscroll battalion that gives you extra rules in exchange for running a certain army list?

One thing that makes me wonder if Bonesplittaz might actually be in it for the long haul is how prominently they featured in the lore during Broken Realms and the existence of the Underworlds warband: As far as I know, no (sub-)faction that has received new models post AoS launch has ever been completely removed.

If Kruleboyz also get new models in Dawnbringers, I think it is possible that those two will get separate battletomes next edition and be the two remaining AoS Orruk factions. Although things could go completely differently, as well, if we get new Bonesplittaz instead. They are like, what? Two unit kits and three heroes? That's within the realm of possibility for a complete refresh.

They might look nice, but now that the Gorgers are no longer ballin', what are the Mawtribes going to do when Sigmar proclaims the start of the Space Jam in the next edition? I just don't thnk these new Gorgers can really bring it on the court against a Stormcast Lord-Slammer or even a Soulblight Blocklord, tbh.

Short opinion: Finally, it feels like the Era of the Beast. This Ironjawz wave in particular. I hope they set the pattern for how the remaining micro-factions are handled in the future. But the new giant Troggoth and Gorgers are also amazing additions to the Destruction GA. Also, how nice is it that after the Cities release, normal humans are finally allowed to participate in the setting?

A unit of Fusiliers and a few Steam Tanks are a good use for Greywater. I think it's a very justifiable route to go. But I find it important to keep in mind that there are other ways to get +1 to hit. Most obviously, the Hurricanum is an extra wizard hero that gives out a +1 attack aura (and not just in the shooting phase) and also dumps out mortal wounds in both hero phases (FAQ pending) which are not affected by "Look Out, Sir!". The Stormcast Lord-Ordinator is another option. 110 points for a +1 to hit aura for all ORDER WARMACHINES. And in my opinion that needs to be weighed against other city abilites that are not as easily repicated, like cast bonuses or the Misthavn movement buff.

I wonder if the Thondia box sold that badly. I have recently picked up most of the terrain from it separately (apart from the out-of-scale dino skeleton), and it's actually all really nice. But the box itself always felt a bit too expensive to justify, and I had no real interest in running the Incarnate because it felt weirdly pay-to-win for casual games. Which is a bad feeling for a thing from a narrative box to evoke.

Sounds like a fun experiment for a casual game, running the old Pistolier/Outrider warscroll in the new book. Personally, I think those guys or equivalents might come back in a later wave. Same with Greatswords. The lack of a human melee elite unit is pretty glaring (although we can fill that gap with Stormcast or Dispossessed, of course).

I find the different cities to be very close from an optimized-but-non-competitive perspective. Almost all of them have at least one specific, good list they enable. Hammerhal Aqsha: The base-line to beat. Double orders is strong and makes flexible play much easier. It just looks kinda weak because the advantage is hard to put into numbers. Maybe Aventis Firestrike will be good at some point, too. Currently, I don't see him used, though. Tempest's Eye: Probably the weakest city, mostly because nothing in Cities particularly wants to retreat and shoot. Still casually playable if you want to skirmish with a few Gunhaulers or something. Hallowheart: My prefered casting city. Even though you will kill your own wizards with it, it virtually guarantees that your spells will go off for the first three or so turns. Very useful if you game plan hinges on the Alchemite giving everyone mortals on hit. The Cities spell lores are both really solid, too. Hammerhal Ghyra: Lets you play a Freeguild horde army. Our troops are pretty cheap, and Steelhelms can become very durable threats with Zenestra and the Alchemite supporting. Living City: Ambushing is generally strong and it is nice that Sylvaneth are allowed to do it, too. If there is an area in which Cities struggles, it is probably movement shennenigans, so this city shores up that weakness. Run that double Luminark meme build and live the dream of lasering down all of the opponent's front line. Greywater: Nobody ever complained about free command points, but in my opinion the interest in this city will fall off as people gain more experience with the book. In many lists, you don't actually need the ability to All-Out Attack three times in the shooting phase. If your shooting mostly consists of one big, buffed block of Fusiliers, the most important component to their performance is the Alchemite spell. Since the cannon and warhulk are both currently kinda sub-par, what else are you buffing? Lethis: Turning off wards is situationally a very strong ability. But on top of that, turning a Steam Tank or Marshall on Griffon into a priest to deliver Curse to the front lines seems pretty solid. Potentially, you get a lot of priests out of this subfaction choice if you set up your list for it, and they all still get a prayer from the generic lore. Vindicarum: Rally into combat has been a problematically strong a few times already in 3rd edition. Not sure about Flagellants: At first glance they read a bit like Zombies, but they are a lot more expensive. Overall, I don't think they have quite the same potential. Excelsis: Even though the temptation is to think of Cavaliers purely as charging units, they can actually grind reasonably well with their 3+ save. And save stacking/wards for humans are easy to come by. So mortals at the end of combat might be more impactful than they look if you gear your list for it. I would not consider Excelsis outside of cav spam, but I think that list is potentially strong. Settler's Gain: +1 to cast is nice, but on its own I don't know if it is nice enough to pick over Hallowheart in cities that really want to power out specific spells. Maybe for Tenebrael Blade, because the Sorceress can already get +2 to cast without problems. You can run Ellania and Ellathor in this city and get a bunch of free command points. Misthavn: Mobility is the most important stat in the game. This one makes the first turn charge with cavaliers pretty reliable, allowing you to potentially pin in the opponent with them. For Steam Tank enjoyers, the Tank Commander is also mounted and thus gets that 2d6 movement bonus, as well. Delivering a self-buffing 2+ save guy to the front lines turn 1 seems pretty decent. Plus, you get to move into combat without charging, another historically often problematically strong ability.

I'm going to bet this will turn out to be a commemorative/limited edition Necron model of some kind. This guy is really weird, though. I thought @Whitefang more or less confirmed it to be another upcoming Incarnate. I really wonder what happened with Incarnates in general. Almost seems like they abandoned that idea mid-way.

In general, allies don't get to benefit from allegiance abilities unless otherwise stated. In the case of Greywater, though, it's not the units that get free commands. You, the player, get the ability to use All-Out Attack three times in the shooting phase, and you can use it on whatever units you like, including allies. EDIT: Was a bit quick: You get to use All-Out Attack three times regardless of ally or not, but you only get to do it without spending command points if you use it on GREYWATER units the first two times. So command your allies last, I guess, or just pay extra.

Rally in combat is super strong. Soulblight has been on top of the meta since the new book came out in part because their healing can be done in combat. Vindicarum is just currently flying under the radar for non-competitive players because dealing big damage is and casting at +4 is more immediately exciting. The same applies to Tahlia Vedra, I think.

Good post! I am still wrapping my mind around the exact mechanics of orders, what they can do and who they affect. Just a few things I have thought about in this context, with no particular point: Orders are not Command Abilities, so there is no limit on how many orders a unit can be affected by at once. You don't have to choose. And you can also command them on top of that. The unit that benefits from an order can be identical to the hero that uses it, as well. Counter charge allows for some shennenigans. A Freeguild Cavalier-Marshall can counter-charge, gain strikes first, and give a nearby unit of Cavaliers strikes first as well, potentially majorly swinging a combat out of nowhere. Flying units like the Marshall on Griffon have the potential to order themselves to counter-charge over a screen. Especially the Griffon-Marshall, who gets double orders, and can be kitted out into a pretty devestating melee guy. The Steam Tank Commander can pull a bunch of fun tricks with order, like giving itself strikes-first with Suppressing Fire, letting itself counter-charge and deal mortals, or responding to Unleash Hell with Return Fire. Personally, I find that kind of flexibility pretty valuable, and it justifies the hybrid shooting/melee profiles for me (which would ordinarily be a downside).

120mm is definitely too large. I would guess 105 x 70mm.

Or could we be close enough to see a teaser for FEC? If their book is about two months away (November) they might want to start the hype machine soon. Although it probably makes more sense to show us the models for Dawnbringers II with a tease for III instead.

Since we have access to the full book it feels like the faction is out, but it it's important to remember that we are actually still in the pre-pre-release periode.

A Morghast hero for OBR would be a neat mini to release as part of Dawnbringers.

Hoping for FEC, but this could be a 40k thing as well.

I have one Gyrocopter and have been thinking about what to do with it. I still like it at base line: A cheap fast, flying unit that shoots a bit and does d3 mortals once per game. I think that's a fairly useful model for 80 points. Absorb an Unleash Hell, ping a hero that is out of position, grab a point out of nowhere... All useful jobs. It's kinda too bad that it got slower and doesn't get a champion if you run it as a single. For a unit of 3, I am kind of less in love with it. 240 is a sizable investment that I am not sure I would want to make. I'd probably just ally in a Gunhauler at that point. The Gyrobomber is an interesting unit. It might be worth trying to spam it (if it were not for the price of the kit). I think the full Gyrobomber meme list would definitly be a headache to play against, but I think a single Gyrobomber is harder to fit into list than a Gyrocopter.