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Ah yes... The many many units of duardin artillery pieces we are so familiar with like... uh, hmm, you know, the things they allegedly use? 😄

... Or maybe there is hope. See attachment.

They should have just ripped out all the old units rather than give us this watered down nonsense which is obviously designed to only have us wanting the new kits. Getting your stuff Legends hurts but having your army being treated like they barely exist, effectively getting 'soft squatted', in their own newly released book is worse. Especially since the direction of CoS is written on the wall. All it is going to do is sucker unsuspecting new players into buying kits which will get squatted next book.

All we need now is a bunch of Steam Tank variants and the transformation to Imperial Guard of AoS will be complete.

Fear the bristlegore meta. The blood of players will flow and the movement phase will be pain incarnate.

I may also have been guilty of de-helmeting some Lumineth. 😆

They'll still be oozing with character when they've gotten a trim. When I paint and build stuff I do not want to create minis which try and draw your attention everywhere at once. Which is what some of these are suffering from.

The models are so ridiculously busy with detail it really detracts from the quality of the models themselves (which are high). That said, nothing some green stuff, a file and clippers can't solve.

That said, if someone were to paint up an entire army of insectoid beings I would gladly create a personal space in my head-canon for them. Even a Chibi army cause that would be adorable. Sometimes you gotta take a step back and simply acknowledge the hobby is bigger than our perceived notion of what is and isn't setting appropriate. I mean, sure, if you play a narrative game a Chibi army might be... distracting. 😆

Exactly. I've never ever felt like my work has been tarnished because someone has leaked it. The opposite, in fact, if people are so excited about something I've done they couldn't contain themselves I'd be both flattered and proud. Same thing is when I've seen people copy me. It is the way of design or art... And business. Also (to echo your sentiment), no one here should ever worry about the designers and artists because of leaks. That's just a narrative that's designed by to shield the company. Whenever a large company start to talk getting all gushy over their fans you'll just know what's around the corner. In GW's case it is always another unfortunately price hike to bump up them quarterly numbers. So don't worry, the designers/artists are already getting paid. Put pressure on GW to treat them better/pay more instead of trying to blame "toxic fans" or <insert whoever you want to misdirect blame to here>.

Space Marine Attack bike. Always been a fan of chonky brutalist design. More bikes, a dreadnought quickly followed along with some tac marines. About the same time I also go Kurnous and Ariel + Waywatchers (which probably are my favourite unit in all of WHFB aesthetically). This was some time during early 2000s.

I'm definitely not hyping myself up for a FEC book yet. Those clawed feet could be anything avian-themed.

The overall style of the new CoS has this wonderful overlap between Mordheim grimdark and Empire/Brettonia. For the lack of a better term I'd call it Blanchesque. Other than use for their intended factions my mind is spinning off to FEC/SBGL or chaos kitbashes.

The deployment of the armies are for display purposes only. I don't recall ever simply lining up and pushing forward. If you've put yourself in a position where you can only move forward or backwards that's a deployment and/or strategy error on behalf of the player. Similar to how if you simply charge straight ahead with no heed to priority or objectives in AoS you'll lose. That said, deployment is a big part of WHFB and your overall strategy.

A part of AoS even feel like a prequel to 40k or 40k is an alternative future (whichever makes you happy). All the various gods of AoS get their shards broken and put into the primarchs (or turned to something even more otherworldly) while Sigmar ascends to become the emperor, and in the epic cataclysmic fight the realms go big bang mode and expand or join into the larger universe. You could even say this is where he got inspired to call his new super-soldiers "thunder warriors" cause, well, SCE. There's lots more connections you can make I'm sure. I also think they do this intentionally to stoke fan theories/fiction. Overall though I do think I'm starting to get into AoS now. Just need a bit more work on establishing the world through tangible locations and space cause it still feel a bit abstract and it is hard to appreciate what the stakes are since I have no idea what it would actually mean if X or Y city fell. Most importantly of all, they need to bloody stop resolving conflicts and moving on. That is the number one issue I have with AoS, real conflict doesn't just resolve itself and yeets itself out of existence. Every time you add something you need to build on what you've already established. That is how you make sure your world feels lived in and how you involve multiple factions in a conflict without adding horribly contrived plot points to put them in there or, worse, completely forget about them. Solve that piece of the puzzle and I think AoS could blow up as a setting (hopefully not literally).

Overall, the road map has been a net positive for me. Less uncertainty means I've been able to enjoy the hobby more. There's been a high frequency of hype build up on twitch and warcom which has, ironically, led to me not frequenting the site much and instead relied on indirect sources. Warcry releases barely register with me any more. In end it is a good thing, to re-prioritise and focus. For other, I suppose, the hype-train had to stop somewhere. Plus, there's other factors in life which probably takes priority like @EonChao mentioned.

I'm getting reports that the major incident has resolved itself and everything is now fine.

The more things change the more they stay the same. I happen to like the new CoS cause it brings me back to Mordeim but there's isn't much that says, "this factions draws upon the many different mortal factions and races of the realms." It has a distinct Blanche-esque appearance. A huge opportunity to have units mixed with all kinds of races was missed here, i.e. the result of cultural exchange and collaboration to more effectively beat back the many threats they face. Still cool minis and having a more grounded human faction does tend be successful since it easier to relate to and place yourself in the setting. Not quite what I imagined when thinking of CoS but that's apparently where we're going. The imperial guard for AoS.

They used to be called Dark Elf Warriors with various weapons options. The silly (and new) naming scheme is GW's doing because copyright obsession. Their faction is a result of Slaaneshi corruption by the hands of Morathi and Malekith (plus conflicts with dwarfs). There's also quite a few interesting characters among them as well. Not liking a faction is A-OK but, seriously, going off a rant where you call people a bunch of cringey emos for liking a particular faction... Yikes.

Yeah, I had hoped we'd see these units mixed to represent the fact of the cultural diversity the cities of Sigmar has. Not just in terms of the various factions soldiers but also in the weapons and gear they use. The new CoS has a striking resemblance to the 40k's Imperium style (which is a really cool aesthetic, I have to say). I mean, you could pick almost any miniature from CoS and it'd be right at home in a 40k imperial army. The new CoS looks like how one might expect the mortals to become, i.e. more and more warlike which gets represented in their appearance and attitude. There's also lots and lots of potential for kitbashing for other factions in AoS. A FEC player might use some of their kits to add more history of origins to their ghoulified units, a chaos army might use them to represent infiltrators who finally reveal their true selves, for SBGL it is just a smorgasbord for anything they want, and so on.

The new CoS is going to be hecking amazing for 40k too if you wish to theme your lists towards the Inquisition and/or Arbites. Plus, the obvious pick, Sisters of Battle/ecclesiarchy soup.

I wouldn't call it negativity. Especially since it looks like you're right. Watching the latest SoW report this season is going to produce very one-sided games. In the post-game discussion they talk about just how ridiculous the MW output was and that unless you're playing an army with STRONG magic defence there's no answer for it. Of course, there are armies who will just shrug it off like Null Myriad OBR (though only effective versus targetted spells). This might be an issue with the army itself (won't spoil which) but with the new GHB toys it gets so much worse. The biggest issue with the new GHB is how flat out boosts magic dominant armies and the only drawback is more damaging miscasts. Very little nuance or interesting counter-play and it really adds to the lethality of the game. If SoB used to be a DPS check, then in this GHB its added in a magic/MW tanking check. Adding, as mentioned, to the issue of heavy-handed RPS in AoS. That said, hopefully life finds a way.

It may not be my faction of choice but I'm marking down the CoS reveal as a win. That Manticore model is magnificent.

FEC hero got to be with 3" of an enemy unit and friendly unit (at the end a charge) and the opponent has to wilfully choose the option you want to fit an already situational ability... And then you roll against their bravery (if that option is chosen). That's a lot of jank and its also a 6W unit with a 5+ save who has to be in the thick of things. Yeah, that's a no from me. Shame though since it is a really cool model. Could have some play with summoning but that's a big maybe.

They released essentially the same tome twice. Added a hero no one asked for. Made the army more expensive to collect while adding nothing of note. To get excited over any potential the faction has is going to need a lot more than "they might get an update in 2-5 years" or "AoS is in a good spot right now." This might be coming off as negative but I'm just so done with hoping for things I know 100% won't happen. As a concept I really like the FS. Mercs going mad for their god creates opportunities for stories which aren't just good versus evil but several shades of grey. More creative units and naming scheme would help too. I mean, they literally got a volcanic underworld of beasts and creatures to pull from. Not to mention the various aspects of warriors and cool looking armour/weapon designs they could have come up with... But then again, that's just unrealised potential, so it is just ash in the wind until something happens.