Neil Arthur Hotep

It's alway a possibility. Dawnbringers don't necessarily play by the normal hype building rules. They got confirmed to be in the works last May, after all (which I am super grateful for, by the way, otherwise we would definitely be hearing everyone speculate about Cities getting squatted right now). They are my personal most anticipated release. I'm just trying not to set myself up for disappointment in terms of expecting reveals any time soon.

I would say chances are low. Just because there are too many other books coming out first. As long as we have not seen all of Seraphon, I would not expect Dawnbringers, at least.

No more time to finish any units this month, but I managed to squeeze in some statues for use as scatter terrain or maybe objective markers:

4+ army-wide rally on KO of all armies. Kinda seems out of place. I really wonder how bonkers OBR and Soulblight regeneration will get when they get their updates. Will SBGL go back to basically healing SUMMONABLE units for free and resurrecting whole units for a command point like Legions of Nagash?

I'll concede I worded my post badly. It's true that these are options for already enfranchised players. But I was writing from my own perspective as someone wanting to get started with the game. And my honest personal experience is that I found a lot of barriers that, I think, made it harder than it had to be. So that this does not just sound like me hating on the game: I like Underworlds and currently own 4 warbands. The first barrier that I encountered was that, even fairly early, it was impossible to get the warband I was most interested in (Sepulchral Guard) with the necessary fighter cards included. I believe when I first became aware of Underworlds during Beastgrave, and I think it was already not possible to buy them from GW with the cards at that point. So as an interested player, I found a pretty significant barrier when it comes to playing any warband against any other: You simply could not get the required cards without going on the secondary market. And now, you cannot even get a lot of the warbands without doing so. As for deckbuilding, I have only been looking into that with the current season, when I finally started buying into the game. Officially, it seems to me that the deckbuilding formats are: Use preconstructed decks, tune up your warband's deck by adding up to 10 cards from a preconstructed deck and a fairly free format where you can potentially use all of the season's cards. Your milage may vary, but I don't consider that deckbuilding "like in Magic". There is a barrier that I specifically noticed, which I thought was really unnecessary, and that is the decision to use different card backs for different seasons, which weirdly kills the possibility of an easy to get into eternal format for very little gain. To do this at a time where Commander, the "your dudes" format of Magic, was the largest draw of that game makes these decisions very hard for me to understand. You are right that it's actually correct to say that you can't play old warbands, or you that you can't deck build. It's more like "You can technically use old warbands, but..." or "You can technically deck build, but..." where the restrictions are, in my opinion, so significant that they make me want to not bother. However, I do think the game is currently good when viewed as a board game, where you buy a big starter box that gives you everything to you need to play, and then buy warbands like expansions that give you a new experience.

I think it's important to recognize that looking at mechanics from an in-world, "does this make sense?" perspective is always only part of the process. Yeah, it makes sense for hail a spell that summons hail to be affected by armour. But a spell already requires a casting roll, and getting through an unbind. Adding a save roll on top of that makes three potential rolls only for nothing to happen in game. This may not sound like a lot, but over the course of the game it adds up. Individual games in AoS already take a few hours. Adding extra dice rolls that further prevent changes to the game state from happening might not make the game better overall, even if it increases the degree to which the game world logic fits the mechanics. I believe from the designer's perspective, those are two competing factors that need to be balanced. Do I make the rules match the world, or do I make the rules such that they maximize playability? Since the aesthetics and game world of AoS are a significant part of its draw, I don't think it's always clear which aspect should get priority. I don't know that the amount of mortal wounds in AoS at the moment is mainly a game play problem. Arguably, the game is the most balanced it has ever been at the moment, so I definitely don't think it's a balance problem, but then again (competitive) balance is not all there is to game play. A high lethality game is not necessarily bad, either. If anything, I think a game where nothing dies is generally more problematic. However, I think the regular attack sequence and everything that is involved with it (hit, wound, save, rend...) is getting devalued by the over-abundance of mortal wounds on regular units. It feels weird that offense in AoS depends on so many characteristics, but then the really good offensive units just skip the whole sequence rather than engaging with it. In general we can ask ourselves: Why is it a problem that a unit like zombies deals about 1/6 wounds per zombie pretty reliably, regardless of the target's armour? I honestly think the answer to that question is not mainly gameplay-related, but rather that it is a mismatch between what the mechanics and the fantasy that the unit portrays. This does not have to be the problem with mortal wounds in every case, but I think it's valuable to distinguish "gamist" downsides of mortals (too high lethality, less counterplay, mortals/wards arms race, devaluation of normal wounds) from "simulationist" downsides (the mechanics don't match the fiction).

The biggest problem for me was that I could not figure out which warbands and cards were still supported for the longest time. I hope they clean that up soon. I know there are now generic decks that any warband can use, but I hope they re-release the shadespire guys with new fighter cards, as well. It's a difficult game to pitch right now: Hey look, it's a miniature/card game hybrid by GW! Oh, so you can army build like in Warhammer? -No. But you can deck build like in magic, right? -Also no. Well, at least you can play any warband against any other. -That is also not possible. Right now, what you can do in Underworlds is pretty tightly constrained. It is truly best engaged with as a board game, where you buy something once and then it's complete. The avenue for expansion is not building up "your dudes", it is buying a different warband.

It is arguably the best it has ever been right now. The quality of most of the 3rd edition battletomes coupled with the fact that we are getting substantial releases again makes me really optimistic that 2023 might be the year 3rd edition really reaches its full potential.

My brother-in-Sigmar, there are literally half-dog half-eagles in the mortal realms. I think it's safe to say that biological accuracy is not at the top of the list for GW 😉

Those are gills:

Double post, but I finally managed to get some of my Helstorms and crew properly based:

I have not posted here for a while, because I started a new job and had to move. But I am finally getting back into painting. Before my break I started working on an OBR battleforce box. I have a bit of a rough history with battleforces, because when I got into Warhammer I bought a big box of Tomb Kings and the amount of models absolutely broke me. So it is pretty personally significant to me that I have this box almost completely finished except for a few Mortek guard: These guys are my speed painting army. I have chosen their colour and basing scheme with ease of painting in mind. I am using a lot of spped and effect paints on them, as well as uncontrolled techniques like drybrushing. Because of this, you will definitely be able to spot some imperfections on them if you look closely. I take the time to carefully paint high impact details like eyes, though. Their bases are supposed to be what I imagine a Gravesand desert would look like. I was worried the "space" effect would be too dark, initially, but I think it actually works pretty well.

GW has historically been pretty reliable when it comes to keeping models playable in their respective faction, but have been pretty bad when it comes to preserving options that break faction barriers. Over the course of the last few years, we lost a number of those options: Grand alliances after the shift to 3rd edition, mercenary companies from GHB 2019 I believe when GHB 2020 came out, Legion of Grief just after Soulblight Gravelords released and also Lethisian Defenders at some point. Personally, I have become pretty weary of allies and mercenaries. They have a tendency to just disappear when point updates come out and they are not on the list. Plus, by running allies, you are making yourself doubly vulnerable to tome updates breaking existing synergy. I used to run a Knight Azyros in Cities, but that interaction broke when Stormcast got updated. I believe there was also a bunch of trouble with Slaves to Darkness and Beasts of Chaos coallition at the start of this edition. Preserving cross-faction compatibility just does not seem to be much of a priority for GW. So if you want to get one of those ROR boxes to play them in a faction that can't usually run them, you should accept the possibility that the option might go away as soon as next GHB, and very likely with the next edition.

I have just started a new job for which I have moved to a new city. This has made it difficult for me to make time to paint. But a thing I have been doing is working on bases when I have time. Taking 15 minutes in the morning to slap some texture paste and a few bits on a base is possible. I can let everything dry while I am at work and then prime it in the evening. Then maybe paint the base up the next day before work. It's not a lot, but it helps to keep thing moving. And because a miniature really looks a lot better with a proper base, it also keeps me excited about the progress of my collection.

Even though I am excited for the Cities revamp, I am dreading the inevitable price hike, that's for sure. I honestly don't know if I would be willing to spend Teclis or Mega-Gargant money on a kit. I have not had to make this decision so far. But it might be a step that I am unwilling to take when it comes to it.

They used to be, but I think we are past that era of the game. Dawnbringer Crusades seem to be happening just a few years after Broken Realms. Plus, they can always come up with some magical plot device that makes some humans have exceptionally long life spans.

I detect some kind of Genestealer/Genestealer Cults misunderstanding happening here.

I think OBR fail if you view them as a replacement for Tomb Kings. I certainly had that perspective for a while, and it is why I didn't warm up to them initially. I think their themes and design are just too different to fill the same niche for most people. However, I have come to like OBR a lot on their own terms since then, especially after using them as the antagonists in a Soulbound campaign I ran. And I think you are underselling them. They have a lot of fun moments of characterization, like Katakros dying and finding himself in an afterlife of hard work, and getting so angry about the neighbouring underworld whose inhabitants believed in an afterlife of luxury that he conquers it while still in spirit form. Or the fact that Mortek soldiers know they are disposable and make little pacts to collect their parts and rebuild each other if they get destroyed in battle. Or the fact that in Nagash's ideal society, you get built to do a job, like wheel-turner on a Mortek Crawler or Mortisan, and there is no way to rise through the ranks. What is possible, however, is getting demoted if Nagash doesn't like how you do your job. There is depth to OBR if you look, and they are a lot more than the emotionless skeleton robots they appear to be at first glance.

Also indicates that there is no big model release between now and Seraphon. If FEC get a sizable update like Whitefang suggested, then that means they are probably not among these 5 tomes. So the Death tomes would be OBR and Soulblight.

I definitely see your perspective here, but I personally feel like OBR would work *especially* well as a foil for Tomb Kings. What better target to reap bones from than a kingdom made up almost entirely of living skeletons that *hate Nagash*?

OBR have some similarities to Tomb Kings, but are still very different in their overall aesthetics, lore and feel. Most importantly to me, Tomb Kings have this mood of fallen splenour and long-lost glories, while OBR are Nagash's new ideal for Death. Because of this, they really don't resonate with me in the same way. But the differences between them have also lead to collect both, so it's not like I dislike what either faction is doing.

I got the impression that they are at least doing a rules rework. As for models, it's hard to say. Bringing back the old plastic kits would be appreciated (especially the snake and sphinx kits), but that alone is not really enough to allow people to build a TK army. I am not even talking about old metal/resin kits like the Ushabti, Tomb Scorpion or Casket of Souls here: The old TK skeleton infantry and archers kits are now two generations out of date, and you can't combine their old upgrade sprues with the current skeleton kit. So I imagine if GW commits to actually bringing Tomb Kings (and Bretonnia, for that matter) back, they will need at least a few completely now kits. If they are not planning on selling 20 years old skeleton models again, at least.

I wonder what that means for Tomb Kings in the context of AoS. I used to think they had a chance to arrive in the Mortal Realms some day, but if they get brought back for TOW it probably makes more sense for them to live in that setting exclusively.

I would bet that there will be at least one or two important characters. The most obvious choice would probably be whoever is currently in charge of the Goldjackets of Hammerhal, since they are the "main" Freeguild after which others model themselves. I think that would be a new character, though. The person who last held that position currently seems to be dead according to Lexicanum. I see no reason we could not get a model like this for CoS:

Sometimes the locations on the map don't directly point towards any of the warbands. Dreadfang's Tower, for example, is just the place where King Velmorn got his cursed crown from in his character fluff, so we probably won't see a Dreadfang warband. Count Moltaire's Bloodhunt might turn out to be a background element, as well. That or we still get an FEC warband in Nightmare Quest.