Neil Arthur Hotep

Hearthguard Berzerkers are still a better deal than Alarith Stoneguard as far as price-per-point. Plus, it's probably more fair to call them semi-elite rather than horde.

I agree with you that the release timing for Lumineth wave 2 must be deliberate. I think that should be fairly uncontroversial given the time we know it takes to get models designed and produced, as well as books printed. It's not possible that they released Lumineth, then looked at their sales numbers or whatever and decided to give them a second wave of models. There is just not enough time of this to happen, especially given COVID delays. However, I disagree that the choice GW had was between releasing all of LRL at once, or splitting the line and releasing half of it about a year later. Given what I have just said above about the lead up these things take, I would guess their choice was between releasing LRL in the split fashion we are seeing, or all at once but later. I don't have any insight into GW production time and logistics, but I would be surprised if they can produce, store and ship a release of 10 kits exactly as fast as one of 20. If this is right, I would personally prefer a small release and quick update after a year over a big release that comes substantially later. But then again, I did not buy into Lumineth yet, and this is partially because I did not yet see a list from just the first wave units that I would be excited enough to build.

I mean, on some level we all know that the price of a kit is not mostly decided by the amount of plastic in it. I am not going to say that those prices are justified, but GW does at least partially tie the price of kits to their point cost. In theory, this is so that horde play styles remain possible at all. I think this makes sense. People already naturally want to play elite armies over hordes (less time spent building and painting, often cooler models, easier to transport...), so horde armies would probably not be able to compete if their models were not cheaper. Still, I am sure the extra profit on more elite units and heroes is a welcome byproduct of this.

I have been thinking about this as well. I think BR: Morathi was likely delayed to begin with, and then additionally Broken Realms seems to be forced to release at a slower pace than originally intended. It's hard to guess when Broken Realms was originally supposed to come out, but we can take some guesses from related rumour engines. Usually, there seems to be a gap from as short as one month to as long as around six between a rumour engine being teased and the model coming out. The gap for the Lord of Pain from the Shadow and Pain box was 13 months. 11 months for the Ironscale. It's not anything definitive, but I'd say these extraordinarily long gaps indicate a delay. As for the release schedule of Broken Realms: It seems to release at about half the speed of Psychic Awakening. BR has a seen a periode of about two months between the announcement of a book and it's release. Then another two months until the announcment of the next book. Psychic Awakening, by contrast, was about one month from announcement to release, then another until the next announcement. I can't really tell you whether that makes GWs release schedule more or less egregious, but at least it's something to consider.

Excuse me, I think you mean before they got re-vamped. This is actually a super good catch! I have seen people speculate that the greyed-out shields are for future expansions, but I think this puts that to rest. So could that imply a kind of campaign structure where you first tackle some boss-less levels and then go face the named characters later? There seem to be four locations without an associated overlord. I agree with the others ones, but I don't think we have seen the priest guy. Looking at the new years video again and cranking the brightness way up, the armour of the "undead ork" is just too different (fur collar, bone shoulderpads, different style and colour coat...). Plus, a switch from a wolf staff to a huge axe for that priest also seems unlikely. So I don't think we have seen him yet. The thing I find the most mysterious at the moment is the lady (?) on the right of this picture: We see the grave keeper and the wolf in this shot, so that implies that the lady is similarly important to the two. But the website seems to suggest that there is no room for another Overlord of Ulfenkarn.

In the two factions that I am the most familiar with, Cities of Sigmar and Legions of Nagash, the subfactions are basically mandatory. I like how it's handled in those books, though, with each subfacitons coming with their own artefact and command trait tables. Plus, for both factions there are neutral choices (Grand Host of Nagash and Hammerhal/Tempest's Eye) that don't particularly push you in any direction, so that's nice. In other factions like OBR, where there is the choice to go without a subfaction, at the moment I think the balance between having more options and getting extra stuff for specializing is not exactly right. I think we see a similar situation with the decision of taking a battalion or not doing so. In theory, not taking a subfaction/battalion should give you access to more versatile tools, at the cost of being overall lower power in some way (extra abilites, drops...). But the extra freedom of choice is mostly not worth it at the moment. Personally, I don't mind. Subfaction descriptions are fluff anyway. You can just reflavour them as you like if you are care a lot about your army's narrative. And it's enough form me that the option of not taking a subfaction exists for those who want it. It does not necessarily have to be as good as taking one. Besides, subfactions and battalions fulfill an important role in signposting intended playstyles for a faction. Arguably, it is better if players feel incentivized to take one over not doing so to make ir more likely they have a good play experience (i.e. the list they build actually works).

It's probably a reference to this.

Although we can probably check off Slaanesh now, and LoN if Gravelords come out after BR: Teclis, so four books is possible if there are in-between book updates.

There could certainly be room for all three. Glass cannon, tanky and fast infantry are all pretty destinct niches. The big guy could also come mounted on some kind of creature in AoS proper.

Interesting, I had put down the big mace guy as a likely one-off. I was thinking lightly armoured duellists and winged vampires.

I was thinking the most likely would be Malerion and his guys as a new faction. You are right that another Lumineth or DoK expansion seems unlikely. But a completely new faction in 9 to 12 months seems like a possibility. At the moment I am wondering how Destruction will come into play in only three books worth of time. Especially since we still need to resolve the Slaanesh plotline. I guess their payoff from BR would be that they are the big antagonists of AoS 3.

Didn't they also say that every faction would be touched on over the course of Broken Realms? Seems hard to do in only three books. I don't think this is very likely, but maybe Tyrion/Malerion for a fourth book?

That sounds pretty on point. For Broken Realms, we can also look at the Morathi timeline: The book was announced in August, and released in November. So about a three months turnaround. However, there was a one month gap between the announcement and the first piece of news after that. This might be indicative of an unplanned delay for BR: Morathi. So, I would expect BR: Teclis in late March at the earliest, probably more likely April.

I'm probably getting at least some Lumineth if that becomes possible. But everyone knows what Cities really needs: STEAM TANK CITY WHEN GW?!?!?!?

I could see a release of Cursed City before the Soulblight warband, as well. We know it has been in the works for ages from rumour engines. It's just really hard to tell what is slowing down GW releases right now. Is production the bottleneck? Distribution? Did Paul Marketing find out a slower release schedule would maximizie consumer engagement?

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Triple posted somehow.

Destruction plotlines are already being set up in the fiction. Three stories so far are about Destruction. They will be important for sure, but likely more towards the climax.

Yes, let's not lose sight of that. Cursed City is looking really nice, lots of room for cool models both on the hero and undead sides. I was originially hoping the Vampire Huter would be a proper Cities of Sigmar unit, but I am warming up more and more to the idea of a self contained little hobby project like Warhammer Quest. Since the preview had nothing about Gravelords, it would make the most sense to me if they got their release after BR: Teclis. I think it's likely that the events of that book will be justifying why Vampires are suddenly their own faction. We should have expected that, to be honest: Vampires being impotant had been set up in BR: Morathi, but not paid off. It makes sense that we would need to see the narrative developments of one more book before the faction can be officially revealed. Since BR: Teclis is about Nagash, but Legions of Nagash don't feature in the book, I think a release of the (possible) LoN successor faction afterwards would be a very natural place for it in the narrative. That would also mirror what happened with Hedonites.

The Soulblight Gravelords release seems to follow the Hedonites pattern: It will probably release after BR: Teclis, around three months after the Underworlds warband that teases the faction. That's what I have been expecting since before we even saw the Vampire Lord leak, at least

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.