NotAWzrd

Love the Saurus’s Predator stance, giving off real “come at me” vibes. Also the vampire hunter would suggest that there’s definitely more vampires coming in some form.

Will Khagra’s Ravagers be up for pre order next week?

Does anyone know what the reason for Ymetrica having a variant colour scheme is?

I’m with you on the duellists angle. Having them as expert character slayers in game would fit with that idea perfectly, it would also double down on them typically only being elites and hero units on tabletop. Damn that last image is great. I think it would be a far more subtle influence going by GW’s current design ethos if they ever did something like that. Most likely it’s not going to be far off what they already are from the Old World, especially as there was artwork for a Soulblight vampire on one of the future Warhammer Adventures book covers.

We know we’re getting vampires of some form as there’s no point teasing a vampire hunter with no vampires, unless he/she is just unbelievably adept at their job. Rapiers and pistols aren’t just synonymous with pirates though, so a large portion of those rumour engines could be something completely out of left field. They could end up being Spanish conquistador vampires for all we know (which actually sounds kind of dope). I’d say there’s as much evidence in the unsolved rumour engines for Flesh Eater Courts as there is for pirates, zombies and all the other death factions speculated, so it could really go anywhere at the moment. I’m completely down for extra gothic in my vampires though for sure.

I hope that they are gothic in the sense of their armour and other design elements being baroque, but that they also add some uniqueness to them that distances them from the Warhammer Fantasy stuff.

Has anyone done any pose adjustments to the Auralan Sentinels they could share? They’re great I just wish they weren’t all shooting at the sky.

@sandlemad I really like your priesthood expansion idea, and with them now worshipping both Grimnir and Vulcatrix, it further enforces that cult like parallel flirting with the darkness. That could definitely lead to some more unique visual identities, large scale avatars of Grimnir, or cult members who’ve taken on a grey scale like sickness that hints at their devotion to Vulcatrix. It reminded of this piece of art from the battletome actually. Combine the more heroic monster slaying side of Fyreslayers with the darker priesthood and doubling down on them being the Aqshy poster boys with some lava or steam powered constructs and I think they’d get some much more positive fan responses. Adding duality / conflict within their lore (which is already there for them to expand upon) as well as their aesthetic design would hopefully mean they don’t just get lumped in with another Duardin book as I think theres a lot of potential here.

Kharadron Overlords took the isolationist nature of fantasy dwarves and turned it on its head by taking them to the skies, giving them lots of fresh and interesting design avenues to go down. Fyreslayers seem to be extrapolated from a single unit and stretched out into an entire army rather than being a reinterpretation of that army. I much prefer them to Old World slayers (I didn’t play Fantasy though so I am bias) and they have some great artwork in their battletome, but they definitely lack variety. If they doubled down on the monster slaying, trophy collecting aspect like the guy above, they could really expand some of the lack of variety in characters. Unit wise as people have already mentioned, salamanders of various kinds would work for cavalry and monsters. For elites and / or more basic core troops something like ancient suits of dwarven armour powered by living magma could be another idea. The issue is I think they might just end up getting folded into a larger Duardin book if and when Grungni gets his own faction, similar to the destruction battletomes.

Can we have mounted archers but it’s just the upper torso of an undead Elf stitched onto an undead horse?

I loved the art of Teclis, and so it really baffles me as to why they went for the pose they did. There’s a great conversion out there that fixes him to mirror the art but it doesn’t look all that easy to achieve. On the Lumineth aesthetic though, I do love what they are doing with the elemental aligned factions. There’s a lot of Indo-Asian inspiration behind them, including the shift from a typical fantasy approach to magic to a more spiritual inspired one. For starters, the idea that the Alarith can so perfectly control their posture and core to the point of wielding great hammers and balancing their centre of gravity on the tops of their heads is the most outrageously elven thing ever. That inspiration could also be seen in the iconography of the crescent moon within the horns of the Alarith, a possible reference to cattle’s sacredness in Hinduism, as well as potentially seeing influences of Taoism and Shintoism in some of the upcoming models like the Sun Wukong-esque cloud rider or the Fox spirit. Maybe it’s all down to GW’s branding focus, the desire to protect an IP in Age of Sigmar better than they could with the Old World, but I’m really appreciating the shift from classic fantasy tropes to a stranger, more unpredictable world. The Aelves in particular have completely taken on a new visual identity in AoS related to this, each being a somewhat darker, metamorphosed version of their Old World selves. Sylvaneth physically merging with the woods and forests of their realms, DoK with their snake hybrids, the Idoneth becoming soulless and aquatic, and now the Lumineth. The Umbraneth may even end up trumping them all with its speculated shadow and draconic forms. A lot of factions aesthetics seem to reflect the unstable nature of the realms and the magic within, as the world and lore mirrors the infancy of the IP itself.

I much prefer Teclis’s first attempts at Aelves over the Lumineth (Idoneth and Kharadron Overlords have captured my attention more than standard fantasy dwarves and elves ever could) but Eltharion, the Dawnriders and all the Mountain aligned units are great. It’s actually the wardens and the sentinels that I don’t like as much, mainly due to them being so static and regimented in comparison.

That shield design does look very Scandinavian / Norse compared to anything in the current death range now you mention it. Also I was constantly thinking of zombie whalers as a left turn when everyone was mentioning vampirates. Vampire Pirates has always felt too one note of a design for how AoS armies are seemingly designed, so Scandi fishermen zombies would be awesome! Would make a great counter to Idoneth and all their sea beasts stealing souls from Nagash if we had an undead Captain Ahab / Davy Jones character as well.

The vampire hunter could be a store exclusive or a black library tie-in for sure, however I think Warhammer Quest is the most likely given the numerous death rumour engines and the critter and keys familiars type models. Happened with Silver Tower and Tzeentch, and then again with Blackstone Fortress and Chaos Space Marines, so it would mean a full death release later on in the year. The Lumineth mount has an elongated face which would suggest it’s not a Sphinx inspired creature like Celenarr or the Sphiranx. It could be some kind of camel given the Asiatic design cues of the Lumineth. As for the big zombie boy, I initially thought he was an Orruk when I first saw it, could it be an undead Ork?

They look like zombies, and my theory for dead walkers going forward was that we might get zombies of different races, like ogres and dwarves so you could be onto something.

A Monkey King inspired Lumineth model, a vampire hunter, and a zombie?

Ramping up the boar iconography for Ironjawz could be a cool way to inject them with some more flavour. Looking back through the rumour engines there isn’t too much that suggests Destruction other than the vulture, the big jaw thing and what looks like the body of a Gargant. On a side note I saw this again and thought it could be Slambo’s shield on his back as we don’t see it in the released images for Khagras Ravagers

Yeah my immediate thought was Ironjawz getting something new. They basically consist of armoured Orruks and then bigger armoured Orruks at the moment. The same problem the FEC line has with Ghouls and bigger Ghouls. There isn’t much variety compared to most of the other armies in AoS. As for new factions the only thing I could think of would be Sky Grotz because flying goblins versus flying dwarves is the most Age of Sigmar thing ever.

If the Siege of Excelsis becomes the catalyst for AoS 3.0 like a lot of people are theorising, and we do indeed get the Order vs Destruction box to complete the triumvirate, what might the Destruction side contain? Destruction is the only alliance I haven’t collected anything from, so I have no idea what they need model, lore and rules wise. Might it be new models for Orruk Warclans or a new faction entirely?

A safe bet would be the big palanquin thing for Hedonites and then some Underworlds previews. Although I think because its the New Year we could get a few teasers at what’s to come in 2021. The rest I think will be 40k, maybe a first look Kill Team?

I was assuming (correct me if I’m wrong) the Old World would essentially be them bringing all the old Warhammer Fantasy sculpts out of retirement and letting Forgeworld handle it all, as well as pulling any old factions from AoS like the Phoenix Guard etc. I know they are adding factions like Kislev but I can’t imagine that will be anywhere near the pace or scale at which AoS and 40k get releases. As for existing factions the easiest thing for them is just reprinting the old sculpts on square bases again and then periodically adding some new units or heroes now and again. Anyway it could be good news for Cities of Sigmar as they would almost definitely get a completely new range refresh if most of their current models get pulled into TOW! (Or GW just savagely deletes them from existince)

Those exalted steeds of slaanesh look incredible!

Battletome is most likely for Slaanesh Mortals as it is surely too big a range to fit into a Broken Realms book with all the other lore and stuff. I’d also wager the reason no one can settle on what all these Death rumour engines are is because they aren’t from one faction. The theory that seems to be picking up speed is that it’s all for the next Warhammer Quest, and that it will lead to a Legions of Nagash revamp, Soulblight included.

I’m hoping that all this inquisitorial stuff is actually related to both 40k and AoS. There are still a few unsolved Stormcast rumour engines from a while back (the staff and the arrows), plus with all the witch hunter looking weapons we have been seeing, perhaps they are getting ready to introduce us to the Order of Azyr. After Space Marines, the Inquisition is arguably the most iconic aspect of the 40k universe, and it makes sense for them to translate that to AoS. Chaos exists in both universes, Stormcast are essentially fantasy Space Marines, and so mirroring the Imperium even more would allow them to really put their trademark on both games, miniature and lorewise. Heck it might even be the catalyst that leads to Cities being revamped into something akin to the AoS version of the Imperial Guard. This was mentioned the other day, but I agree that it could be the next Warhammer Quest, featuring the Order of Azyr as a party of Witch Hunters sent out to investigate a Vampiric Castle of some kind. That then leads to the Soulblight battletome similarly to how Silver Tower preceded Disciples of Tzeentch and Blackstone Fortress preceded the Chaos Space Marine codex. Just a thought 🤔

They could do with a new type of tree revenant unit, something akin to Druanthi and Khinerai. I like the idea of them being dark, twisted, almost insectoid fairies (kind of like the Dark Elves in God of War?). That would at least give them some more thematic depth so you can choose to go with a more dryad / tree lord heavy army or a mainly tree revenant army. I’d much rather Kurnothi be their own faction than a part of the Sylvaneth.