Neil Arthur Hotep

Ulgu confirmed.

I for one welcome Order being the ones to build a big doomsday weapon for once. Can't wait for Skaven to blow it up eventually.

I, too, joined AoS to late to experience it, but Gavriel Sureheart was pretty infamous for a while as part of the "Gav Bomb", which involved spamming his warscroll command ability (they were not limited to once per phase at that point) to give Stormcast ridiculous movement and a turn 1 charge. That tower is super interesting, though, I agree. Especially since apparently Cities and Stormcast are the ones collaborating on it. It being related to Ionus somehow makes the most sense. I can only thing of it being anti-Death somehow, otherwise, with the mention of Lethis. But Death does not seem like a major threat in the current narrative.

Wow I wonder who that could be!

They are completely fine as a 90 point screen. Good even, with their damage reflection. It's specifically using them as the recipient of Tenebrael Blades that I don't like. Here's why. Corsair combo: Requires a fleetmaster and sorceress Requires a Darkling Covens unit to sacrifice 1" range Can't take a punch 20 Corsairs + Fleetmaster + Sorceress = 370 points Black Guard combo: Requires only the sorceress Can sacrifice the Black Guards themselves 2" range Can take a punch like a champ 4+ wards for everyone! 20 Black Guard + Sorceress = 380 points And their damage output is basically the same. I agree, though, that if you are already running the combo and Scourgerunner shooting, you might as well bring a few Corsairs as screens just on the off chance that it's helpful.

So, the Warscroll for Sekhar is out: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2024/02/01/fangs-of-the-blood-queen-how-neferatas-top-lieutenant-wages-war/ First impressions: Good spellcasting Benefits from Legion of Blood allegiance abilities, so cast 2, unbind 2 both at +1. That's very solid. Her warscoll spell seems like some nice anti-ranged tech, too. Sadly, only anti targeted ranged, not mortal wound bombs. Too bad the Vampire lore is still sucks, though. Bad stats 7 wounds, 4+ save is low for a hero. 6" move no fly is slow. Melee stats are good, but can you and do you really want to get her into combat? Serpentine agility is bad, actually Controversial take, I think: Serpentine agility at most reduces damage by 3/5ths if the opponent hits on 2s. More likely, it reduces damage by 1/2 if they hit on 3s. But against worse profiles, it can actually end up doing nothing. And it doesn't protect you from auto-hits (spells and abilities) at all. I'd rather have a 5+ ward and The Hunger. Time Swallower is also bad, actually You need to get her up close to the enemy to use it (hard for Sekhar) and it's the best against slow units (probably not what you need to mortal down). This ability is very likely to do nothing even against 6" move dumb-dumbs. And it turns off your defensive ability. --- My impression is that she is a good caster for Legion of Blood that will be hard to take down at range, between her spell, Look Out Sir, and Serpentine Agility. I view her as a support piece that helps protect you against shooting while providing magic support. In that context, even Time Swallower is pretty good, because you can use it to punish an enemy charge. Or at least that might be worth doing once Merciless Blizzard leaves play. Until then, just cast that. Overall, I think she is good for what she is. I don't think she will become a fixture in every Soulblight tournament list, even though her abilities read as powerful at first glance.

I saw one video claiming that skirmishers, dragons and long lines of missile troops seemed strong. I don't know how accurate that will be, but if this turns out to be the tournament meta, then it will probably look pretty different from "normal" TOW.

That's why I didn't really like it that much from the start. The damage output is obviously insane, but for melee units you always need to have either a delivery mechanism for them (high mobility, deep strike, teleport) or be able to take a hit and counter-punch. Corsairs have neither, and as an extra mark against them, their damage output falls apart if they don't get their spell.

The Steam Tank list would probably do fine against giants. It has good power projection and access to the counter-fire order, which is always super nice against shooting lists. In general, I think if you are running Freeguild you should be able to figure out a path to victory. Dwarf and Elf lists, especially those focused on slow infantry units, will have a much harder time, however.

"Are you sure we should be using that chariot? Kinda looks like a vain edifice of the civilized weaklings to me, and you know how I feel about those."

It's hard to say. Soulblight also has its Deathrattle and Vampire subfactions, and some things key off of that distinction, but you can still give Grave Guard +1 attack from a Vampire Lord no problem. I don't think there is a line that says "No synergies between different races" in the AoS master design document.

Personally, I am interested to see how The Old World will develop in a tournament setting, though. Just because I have a hunch that tournament play will look pretty unrecognizable to casual players. I want to see some of the absurd stuff that's going to get cooked up.

I would expect Ironjawz and Kruleboyz to stick around as subfaction keywords, but with fewer restrictions on what you can mix in a list and just one common set of allegiance abilities. You know, like every other battletome.

GW still lists Big Waaagh, Ironjawz and Kruleboyz as separate armies (for example on their Meta Watch articles), even though they share a book. Orruk Warclans is a weird edge case at the moment.

Yeah, having "normal person" versions of dwarves, elves and humans is necessary for believability. We already have humans and elves (kinda). Time for dorfs next.

I mean, they forgot to give Hammerers their command models in the Cities of Sigmar book... I agree though it was probably intentional. It's just weird. Not really even convinced that her defensive ability is that much better than The Hunger in the first place.

Weird that she doesn't have The Hunger.

Yeah, there is. Because AoS faction overhauls have not been "remove one faction, introduce a different unrelated faction". There has always been a strong continuity. An overhauled BoC faction, for example, would almost certainly be picking up the existing plot threads surrounding Morghur etc. Yeah, rob is not a reliable source of rumours. He just throws whatever he hears out there. If I recall correctly, he was echoing the idea that BoC might get rolled into S2D at the start of the edition, and we all know that nothing came of that. Personally, I don't think BoC will get an overhaul because of their popularity, but rather because a) GW has kept them around long enough to signal that they want them to be part of AoS, and b) the inevitable fate of all old WHFB factions is to eventually get an AoS overhaul.

There is definitely a big difference between a purge and an overhaul. Beast of Chaos getting squatted would be unprecedented and (in my opinion) hugely damaging in terms of player trust. Beast of Chaos getting a new model line and faction name would just be what we should expect to happen. Because that is the model of other reworked WHFB factions, such as Soulblight Gravelords and the Cities of Sigmar Freeguild. Skaven fans should also expect this for 4th ed. Some Skaven kits will be gone without a direct replacement when they get their update. Personally, I don't know why genuine inside sources would frame "Beast of Chaos are getting an overhaul" (if that is the case) as "Beasts of Chaos are soon not going to exist in AoS anymore", though.

You are completely right and it is important to point it out. An AoS faction that has had a battletome for 2 editions being removed without replacement would be an extraordinary development. Even if they remain playable in TOW. Also important to point out: So far, no develoment on the AoS side has been done "with TOW in mind", as far as we can tell. TOW does not dictate the future of AoS factions.

You hear this point a lot, but I have never seen it mentioned by a primary source (GW insider) as a driving motivation for the creation of AoS. Recently there have a lot of interviews on this topic, and IP concerns never come up. To be sure, they used the shift to AoS to make their IP more protectible, but it didn't stop them from making new elves and skeletons down the line.

Personally, I don't believe it. If only because I still remember Legions of Nagash, Seraphon and FEC "getting squatted for sure".

Oh wow, they actually put the Mortarchs into the Regiments of Renown. Looks like Death soup is back on the menu. This is going to play merry hell with the competitive scene until 4th ed arrives and RoRs are non-canon again.

Doesn't it make sense for GW to pre-produce a certain amount of stock even for a planned Made To Order release? The last MTO release I participated in was the limited edition Vampire Lord, and they had clearly pre-produced a fairly significant amount of them at the time.