Greybeard86

The hobgoblin rider tribes just happen to wear fur hats and use terms like khan? I mean cmon, we all know that back in the day GW was “inspired” by both fantasy tropes and somehow inappropriate caricatures of the different real cultures around the globe. The warhammer universes were mostly a parody of the real world and nerd culture, and they leaned heavily on it. they wanted you to recognize the source material, I guess they were not so concerned about copyrights back then (specially given how liberally they borrowed). For me, what makes it a little more ok is that they also were quite brutal with their own culture. This was more obvious in 40k, with the whole repressive state, but I believe that few cultures were unscathed in fantasy (who are the good guys exactly?). Insofar as they are a tad more sensitive moving forward while still leaning on the absurd (and no good guys!), personally im fine with TOW. But no good and bad guys, please. Make the “good” pretty bad and the “bad” have their moments.

Ever since we go the first teaser with Skaeth’s, I have been excited as the prospect of kurnothi. I admit I am not always a fan of the over the top designs in AoS. However, I think they nailed it with those early kurnothi. If the faction manages to keep that vibe across a larger selection on models, it could be glorious!

Chorfs vs Kurnothi would be epic. Nature vs industrialism, both in their savage versions.

I think we "consumers" also got this impression. It might be generational, but I much prefer it. Absolutely, I guess I resent this a bit less. Perhaps you might even come back if that is the case? I think the Kurnothi seed from your Dark Harvest needs you to develop (and then hopefully bring models).

I find this a bit surprising. Same as your other comments on writing to support models. What built GW's most "iconic" set up, 40k, was not "novels for models" in the strict sense that you describe. Yes, they started by creating a setting and a game to sell more miniatures. However, what contributed more to the setting, Eisenhorn's collections or some random short story to support new models? In following Eisenhorn (or Gotrek), the reader is placed in many different contexts of the setting, most of which do not have a direct correspondence on the shelf. It does, however, contribute to world building and this is what reels in the reader/player/buyer (at least in my case). My impression is that the sort of subordination of art and prose to models you describe is a newer phenomenon. Very much like the case of new codexes / army books having a smaller ratio of illustrations to pictures of models. I bought the black templars limited edition codex and the only memorable part of it is the cover. Which is simply a re-printing the original illustrations by JBlanche. All this to say that I believe that GW's obsession of only doing things to boost sales (e.g. old white dwarf vs new white dwarf, attitudes on conversions, or whatever warhammer community is) is simply eroding at the capital their franchise had build over time. I certainly don't find most of AoS's lore interesting and much of what you and others have said about here is, IMO, spot on. Losening the grip on writers and detangling a bit more novels from models might lessen initially whatever "conversion metrics" they are considering, but could prove a smarter long term investment.

No kurnothi No chorf centaurs (not counting that thingy as one)

I think quite a few of us were missing exactly "mortals" in the "mortal realms". Because when everything is over the top, the lack of contrast removes the excitement. So I applaud the move to give simple mortals more of a role. That said, I am also concerned about the fate of CoS, as it seems that crusades might be invading its design space. Frankly, the slow bleeding of CoS is very painful to watch, I can imagine it will only get worse now. At the end of the day, it seems that GW is going with TOW as a home for old sculpts (though when?), so they might feel "safer" squatting (wait, do we have to retire this term now?) CoS. That'd be the nicer way to look at it.

Yes! They teased us with Skaeth's wild hunt to then leave us hanging for years... 😭

I really like that zombie dragon. I am new to this whole new world of 3d printed stuff. I am a bit like a kid in a candy store: there are so many alternatives that look very nice. However, there are many sources (etsy, myminifactory), with some printing (others do not); it is all a bit confusing at the moment. Furthermore, sometimes I have a bit of trouble with scales, though they often seem to report them. I was also surprised to see that some of the mass produced plastic alternatives are catching up a bit. That said, I still think it is in unique "centerpiece" options that one can find the most appealing alternative sculpts. Thanks, folks, keep them coming!

This, so much. I picked warbands as nice additions to spice up my armies, and to try painting new things for cheap. If you wanted to try whether you'll like painting a new army, few options (if any) could beat a warband.

Underworlds warbands have been a good source of proxies for the main game. They are commonly used as "fancier" champions or heroes (or simply scavenged for bits). In addition, they were cheaper than existing options (such as the massively overpriced foot heroes). This got me thinking about proxies in AoS and how, in my opinion, can add a lot of character to an army and the battlefield in general. I know that GW is determined to keep the table top GW(TM) only, but this is our game so I am not playing it by those rules. So, in that vein, what are good sources of proxies? What are alternative sculpts (both GW and not) that you have used in your armies and/or games? Let me get the ball rolling with some of the sculpts that I found and really like for AoS (and are not GW): Alternative dragons: https://karolrudykart.com/index.php?id=offer&kat=19#odnosnik Alternative gargants: https://www.darkswordminiatures.com/shop/forest-giant/ Alternative dwarves: https://avatars-of-war.com/sh/es/97-regimientos-en-plastico Alternative saurtus knights https://www.lostkingdomminiatures.com/en/saurian-ancients-cuetzpal/94-146-ezocamatl-knights.html#/26-supports-pre_supported

GW would probably love to rotate all of its inventory regularly, as I bet that the sales boost it would fuel would compensate for the costs of development. In fact, it is my understanding that AoS was designed to be a large scale version of underworlds, with small armies rotated out every few years. The fact that many small ranges have received little to no love over the years seems to corroborate this. They probably never intended for them to stick around so long, hence the lack of planned releases. AoS seems to have moved away from this with releases like lumineth, which I really like (the business model, not the actual models, which I do not like :P). In this particular instance, I think that for us, consumers, this is probably a net loss. Those sculpts can be used nicely in a variety of roles and tend to be more interesting (and cheaper) than the main range counterparts. That said, as long as we don't let FOMO best our impulse-control, we'll probably be fine as this means a stream of fresh releases.

This. The only reason why so many turn to domestic 3d printing is that while it is vastly more costly than GW's process, GW is pricing it so high above cost that it still makes it wortwhile. I do not know much about the tech for commercial 3d printing, but my guess is that it is still well behind GW's tech. Ultimately, whether 3d printing eventually cuts into GW's pockets is unclear, in my opinion. If it becomes cheaper (even if it is still professional / commercial printing, not domestic), it might end up fuelling a more fragmented industry of highly detailed miniatures by multiple smaller design companies printed by pro-services. To me, that's the ideal scenario. GW would need to compete with cheaper minis and lower prices, given that quality-wise some are already on par with them. Domestic 3d printing might get more followers, but I find it extremely hard to believe that it will replace proper mass production processes any time soon. Some might knit their scarves, but most won't.

Domestic 3d printing is still very inefficient from an industrial perspective compared to mass produced plastic, afaik. An important component of why it is even a thing is because mass plastic is sold at way above cost. This means that every person printing home (as opposed to buying mass produced) is effectively a waste. Shops with pro-grade printers are probably a bit better (don’t know the tech well), but still likely producing at fair greater costs than GW. The printing revolution might evolve to more efficient processes, but this is unlikely to happen with domestic printers. There is a reason why we moved from home economies to market economies and it very much applies to miniatures too. All that to say that from an economist’s perspective this is a crazy thing. The equivalent of people knitting their own sweaters (taking far longer than needed) because Zara dominates the market and sets crazy prices. We live in crazy land and GW’s marketing machinery is so powerful than most don’t even notice it.

Spam does affect 40k too. Less than AoS but you do see skewed army compositions. In fairness, i think AoS has always been designed to be more wacky and play what you like to an extreme. Skewed lists are encouraged in the ads run in warcom. Factions were designed with very few options and the whole conditional battle line thingy. Frankyl, as an older Wargamer, I prefer balanced armies that represent the lore. I know it is unfair but every time I see an all whatever army I think it is some rubbish luuulwot lelel kinda thing. I know it isn’t necessarily the case and that it is a matter of preference, but it feels cheap and bland.