Ferban

Don't forget warscroll cards!

Well if they think they can support 30k and 40k without too much cannibalization of their own audience, they probably see AoS and ToW the same way. Plus, I think if ToW stays as a rank&flank game, and AoS stays on it's circle bases, the gameplay itself is likely to be different enough to avoid too much overlap in audience.

Totally agree. I have high hopes for the new Gitz book, though. My preference would be to see (nearly) all gitz warscrolls as kinda bad. But under the light of the bad moon, they get really good. Similar to how Nighthaunt are pretty bad in a vacuum, but the allegiance abilities really make up for it. Maybe under the light of the Bad Moon, they don't take battleshock (cuz they're all hopped up on moon fanaticism). Or they get bonuses to hit and wound. Or they suddenly do impact hits on the charge. Or even extra rend. Or some combination of all of the above. And make the moon semi controllable. So that it isn't just there and gone. Give the player some method of controlling it. Maybe you still roll, but the player can add or subtract one from the die roll for every five enemy models killed that round. The Bad Moon will continue to orbit a battlefield where the grots are celebrating it. Or maybe it circles the board, but never gets removed entirely. Or maybe even a heroic action that can be used once per battle to re-set the moon to a location of your choice. There are a lot of options here.

I'm quite a casual player, so factor that in on my perspective. But I'm very, very glad they didn't separate it out like the space marines. I like that it's all one book, gives the standard 4-6 subfactions, and then I can go to town. From a casual outsider (I don't play 40k), having a codex and then codex supplements seems like a headache. Also, if I want a thematic one chamber list, I can totally build it. So it's not like I have fewer options.

So I came to AoS during COVID and have loved it (AoS, not COVID). My son and I also got into Warcry which I really enjoy as a light game we can play on a school night rather than AoS which (while awesome) takes several hours. I hear a lot about Mordheim but don't know much about it. What about it would be superior to Warcry?

It was mentioned above, but the Gloomspite novel does a great job of representing the horror of gitz. It's something that I hope the new BT will show better on the table. I think rather than spitting out a few, unrelated buffs, the Bad Moon should take what would otherwise be pretty bad units and buff them into something remarkable. Sort of like the approach with Nighthaunt. Nearly all NH units are pretty bad by themselves. But they get really strong with all of the NH battle traits (Ethereal, Frightful Touch, debuffs on the charge, etc). And the Bad Moon should either just exist for the battle or at least be semi-controllable by the player. Right now, it's a pretty big bummer to lose all of your battle traits to bad die rolls.

I've been wanting to go back and look at some of the unsolved rumor engines. Is there a particular place I can go to to see them all? Google gives me some very dated results.

So it isn't explicitly said in the article, but it sure seems to imply that Dawnbringers are going to be part of Cities of Sigmar (maybe a replacement faction like SBG for LoN?). If it is going to be a larger narrative event, maybe it just starts there and goes outward. But the implication seems to be that it will be part of Cities (maybe a sub faction or portion like Ironjawz and Kruleboyz in one tome?).

I think "troops" is just a catch-all. If you aren't one of the special categories, then you're "troops." But I also wonder why they have the Artillery designation. There are few artilleries in the game and even the ones we have are mostly (with a few exceptions) indistinguishable from regular shooters. I really wish they'd make more artillery and have it have more specialized roles. The beastkilla kill bow is a great example of something that definitely has a use, but outside of that use is fairly lackluster.

I really like Warcry and, so far, I've enjoyed 2.0. Not every game is for every player, so if it's not for you, that's totally cool. But I think about it as its own thing. I don't look for models that fit my other armies. I appreciate it as a skirmish game that: (1) I can easily play on a weeknight when I wouldn't have time for a full AoS game, and (2) is relatively simple to get a few warbands in order to have everything needed to play when a friend comes over. I have friends that will never play AoS and don't want the expense, but who don't mind sitting down to a game of Warcry using my models. If I looked at Warcry through the prism of how it benefits my AoS play, the value for sure isn't there. But when I look at it as it's own game and the additional gaming opportunities it presents, I'm a big fan.

Prediction time: I think we get to know the identities of the two Destro battletomes AND I think they will give us a new "roadmap" of additional tomes. Between Kill Team and Warcry, they've been really into "roadmaps" lately, so I think that's likley. That might be it. But if I take some hopium, I could see them showing off the new leader from each destro tome or maaaybe confirm a battle box for the two factions.

In the reveal when they were first announced (Warhammer Fest?) I thought they said explicitly that it would be human-centric. I don't think that means human exclusive, but my guess is that the new sculpts will be all or nearly all human models. Maybe you'll still be able to bring in dispossessed and aelfs. If it's more pan-Order, that would be cool, too.

I'm almost positive that I read somewhere that the units within a Skyvessel do not count toward the number of models on an objective. But I've looked through the FAQs and can't find that info now. Did I make this up or can I just not find that rule? Thanks!

For the starter box of Warcry, we got two new warbands in the box, but then another sold separately (Legionnaires) and the monster guy. I'd love to see each new quarterly box also have a companion warband sold separately. It would be a great opportunity to flesh out more warbands.

I grabbed it when I bought some paints and picked up the new Warcry. They tossed it in the bag. No in-store building or painting required.

Total casual player, here. So I'm not sure if they are good or bad for the tournament scene. But for me, I really like battle tactics. It gives you something to do other than stand on an objective or kill the opponent. Adding in those layers is fun. And it also gets you thinking about future turns. What battle tactic can I do now? What will set me up for my next turn? I like that. I'm less enthusiastic about grand strategies. They are fine and all, but I feel like they too firmly lock me into a particular play style or objective before I've even seen my opponent. I'd rather respond to the situation on the table (which is why I like tactics). But Grand Strategies aren't terrible. We still use them. Maybe I'd like them better if you got to pick them after seeing your opponent's list? As for improving their implementation, I would strongly limit the amount of battletome specific battle tactics you could use in each game. Maybe one per game? I like that the battle tactics in the new GHB are a little more difficult to achieve. And some battletomes (DoK, I'm looking at you) have several that are basically completed during list building and are not responsive to the battlefield. I think that's not as fun as those that require you to assess the current state of the battlefield and make a choice from there.

My knowledge of rumor engine history is weak. Do they often take the picture at odd angles?

The August White Dwarf doesn't have a Tome Celestial. Since Ogors and Gitz are the only ones without one (other than LRL and Tzeentch) and there are two destruction tomes coming, I'm hoping that's evidence that Ogors and Gitz are the new books. I love you, Sons players, but I think Gitz and Ogors need it more.

It looks available on GW's site. Search for "Malign Sorcery". Most of the generic endless spells come in that box.

I came to the Mortal Realms in 2020 (COVID hobby) near the end of 2.0. So that may color my perception of things. I didn't play in the world-that-was and so have no memory or nostalgia for it. That said, I think the lore has (mostly) successfully walked a tight line between having concrete events with "canon" events and leaving the world open enough for players to tell their own stories. The lore feels an awful lot like RPG supplements that throw out a lot of settings and hooks but ultimately leave it to the players to decide where they will interact and what stories they will tell. I thought Enoby's rundown on the first page was great. I wasn't reading those stormcast stories, but I agree if they consistently just showed up and punched people in the face, that would be pretty underwhelming. Many of the stories I've read of them (including in Thunderstrike and other stories) generally has them barely saving the day and generally at great sacrifice. So I've enjoyed the stories I've read. (The Dominion novel is somewhat of an exception). I tend to think of the huge setting as a net benefit. I can set my warriors up in any ol' place in the Realm of Fire (doesn't even have to be in the Parch) and I'm good to go. And everything in the Realm is infused with fire, I have to think that there are parts of the land that are arable. Maybe you can't grow rice (which takes a lot of water), but plenty of crops might grow and there are sure to be plants native to Aqshy that are edible. The large realms are great for the Path to Glory narratives and for anyone who wants to build significant head canon. I toyed with the idea of getting into 30k because that starter box has a lot of models. But there is so much "canon" about how guys have to be painted and what iconography they wear, etc. It felt like I'd have to do a whole research project just to get my guys painted "right." I definitely don't have that issue with the AoS. As for the story moving forward, by necessity it has to move forward in such a way that it doesn't invalidate people's armies or eliminate units. If it did, there would be wailing and gnashing of teeth (or teef). So with that restriction in mind, I think BR was overall positive. Anvilguard becomes Har Kuron and the Stormcast and DoK have a strained relationship. Rather than being allies, they now merely have a common enemy in Chaos. This is a great hook that could be explored in novels and maybe might lead to DoK aligning with Malerian's dark elves (when they arrive) against Sigmar. So it could be the seed to a greater conflict later. Belakor breaking the skies was cool, and that resulted in Grugni coming out to forge better armor for the Stormcasts. So, while it has little impact on gameplay, it does show that Chaos and Order are escalating the war. The only negative for me was Kragnos and Excelsis. Excelsis was nearly decimated, but ultimately it seems mostly fine? And Kragnos wanted to destroy Excelsis because it was civilization built near his homeland. But he gets teleported away and he's ... just fine with it, I guess? Maybe that gets more explanation in the Kragnos book, which I have yet to read. If Anvilguard was going away, it seems to me that Excelsis probably should have as well. You could have had the "survivor of excelsis" if you wanted to have your CoS army from there so that you could keep the rules. But it would be a great change and open up narrative opportunities if the Spear of Mallus was destroyed or maybe broken and carted off to various Orruk/Ogor/Behemat/Gitz camps. But with that gripe aside, I think the lore is moving forward at an appropriate pace and I'm looking forward to the next big shakeup. Probably right around the time 4.0 launches.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was a little disappointed with today's reveals. Don't get me wrong. I thought what we saw today was cool. The new skaven model looked neat, I really liked the Sylvaneth units and the Ogroids are cool. The tease of the new GHB and Cities/Dawnbringers are fine, but didn't really have enough to get excited about. And I like the SBG and KO models well enough, I suppose. Maybe it's because I don't play StD, Sylvaneth, or Skaven. So there just wasn't a lot for me personally to get excited about. But even when that happens, usually the reveals give us some new direction about where the story is headed or the direction of the mortal realms. And that advancing of the story or additional grist for PtG is always exciting to me. But there was very little of that, outside some vague descriptions of the GHB. Oh well. They can't all be bangers. I am happy for the people who are excited by the new models, though. The big question is, will Warcry just get two new specific warbands, or will it be a Red Harvest style release, or will there by a 2nd edition? Tomorrow's reveal will be interesting.

So let's say I cast fleshy abundance or the Glottkin spell to raise the wounds characteristic of a unit. Then a model is taken down to one wound. When the spell ends, it would die. But, if the spell lasts until my next hero phase and, at the start of the phase, I can heal with disgusting resilience, does it still die? In other words, could they heal before the spell ended and thereby stay alive with one wound? My thought is no, they would still die. The spell lasts "until the next hero phase" and the healing doesn't happen until the "start of the hero phase." So, it would seem the spell ended (and the model died) right before they could have been healed by disgustingly resilient. Do I have that right?

I got a digital copy on black library. It's super good. Not just the story, but the writing is solid and rarely relies on the reader knowing outside lore.

Just wanted to comment that I think the boxes are actually fairly new player friendly. You get enough for small army engagements (enough to move around multple units, but not enough to be overwhelming). You get some basic army rules. You get warscroll cards and tokens. And with Arena of Shades, you even get a core rulebook. It seems like they are targeting these boxes for new players. And if you really only want the new hero or one particular side, you could always just wait. They almost always sell those "exclusive heroes" separately after several months. And, in Dominion and Soul Wars, you got better units later (Now you can get Gutrippaz with musicians and banners, for example. Or boltboyz with a leader). So waiting might even be beneficial in that sense.

Totally agree. I much prefer video painting guides. But GW doesn't have a video for every model. So having suggested paints and schemes on the back of the box seems like a no-brainer.