ShyishBarry

I'll have to wait and see if the line expands and what the rules are like, but I really like the look of both the crossbowmen and the Killbow, so I think I'd be running shooting-heavy if I end up getting into Kruleboyz (which doesn't seem unlikely, but time will tell if this is just the New Shiny Effect). As for book presence, I think these guys are gonna end up being their own book, but with the ability to take units from Warclans, kinda like a lot of Chaos armies can take units from other books and have them function properly. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up as a part of Warclans either, though.

It'll probably be guts, but I wish it were snakes because snakes are cool and are a type of beast.

Looks to me like the kind of leather stuff some of the new Slaves to Darkness models have, so I've got a feeling that it's more likely to be some poor guy's skin being worn by someone, rather than a balloon.

Huh, looks like they just updated the article like minutes ago to remove the last paragraph about Kroak, Morathi and Gardus managing to draw Kragnos away for now. Guess the intent wasn't to spoil that much and someone messed up along the way.

I'm cautiously optimistic with the new orc-goblins. The robed shaman look is intriguing me, and does kinda make sense considering that they've really put their religion front and centre in advertising material (worshipping Kragnos, the totems). But a lot of it will come down to execution, and this one fellow we saw might not be representative of the full army. Warhammer Plus, meanwhile, not too positive on that one, I don't think it's a good idea at all and I don't expect it to stay in business for long.

I think it's gonna come down to execution a lot for me. If they're going for very traditional types of Warhammer Fantasy hobgoblins and normal orcs and stuff, I'm gonna be disappointed (and given the way Soulblight turned out, that doesn't seem unlikely), but if they, say... make them an army of big goblins where all of them are just covered in armour and spikes and blades, looking like Kirk, Knight of Thorns from Dark Souls, that I'd be excited for.

Lauka Val can be built as a generic lord, at least. Not gonna lie, a bit disappointed with the large number of unique characters rather than new units, I'll have to give some thought as to whether if I want to get into Gravelords after all. But it's not like all this was unexpected, anyway.

I hope that we get more vampires and vampiric creatures. Lauka Val and dire wolves are a given. I think we'll get a little bit of rules. On the other hand, I fear that we'll end up with an undead chaff-heavy Gravelords because while I get the Vampire Counts appeal, personally if I wanted to play a skeleton army, I'd just play Ossiarchs.

Agreed, actually having bat swarms as like... units that are part of the army always felt kinda goofy to me. Like Dracula having three squadrons of regular bats following him around. Now, a cloud of bats gathering on the battlefield suddenly, that feels appropriate.

I very much hope for new characters, both to make AoS more its own thing, to tie it better into the new lore, and because both Olynder and Katakros are pretty cool characters. In particular, I would like to see Vhordrai given a new fancier model over Abhorash returning, since they're basically the same archetype but Vhordrai's "lord of the cursed teleporting castle" is really fun.

I'm also inclined towards Soulblight not getting much shooting; that part of the vampire mechanical identity goes as far back as Fantasy, and I think it's an interesting one. Having skeleton archers but not as battleline could be a good compromise, giving them some shooting but keeping it limited.

Yeah Kragnos is super fascinating like that. Some people think he'll be in Beasts of Chaos, some that he'll be in a Kurnothi army in either Order or Destruction, some think he might even be with a dwarf faction... Personally I think he'll be the leader of an all-new Destruction army.

Rise from your grave, TGA! Anyway, if they do keep Grave Guard I really hope they give them new models, since it would break my heart to have the chaff skeleton warriors with the fancy new sculpts, and the elite Grave Guard with the... honestly not even bad, but just very dated sculpts. Kinda like what's going on with the Start Collecting Chaos Warriors vs. Chosen.

Looks like GW took down the painting guide, presumably they didn't want to dilute the Kroak hype with Be'lakor content. Kroak looks really cool, hope the rest of Seraphon line gets similar revamps.

Seems unlikely to me, given how bad Underworlds warbands are and even the Warcry gangs were for a good while (maybe still are? I don't know StD that well). Maybe Radukar will change, if he gets a solo release with Gravelords. Your best bet is probably just using them to represent normal units.