ArcLight

Almost 100% temporary. It's a very recent model (2021?) and there's really no reason why they would be replacing him in the near future.

Wasn't this the Stormcast vs Crimson Court that was officially announced recently? With graveyard terrain. Edit: Nevermind, I was beaten to the punch!

Primal dice do count as a modifier, which is what these changes seem to be trying to exclude. The Warsong's bonus no longer boosting his spell properly is just collateral damage unfortunately.

The timing of these rumours is also a bit suspect imo, given that they have come about the day after Warhammer Weekly did a show about wishlisting for the 4.0 and a fair chunk of the things discussed there are part of these 'rumours'.

Also clarity that Doomed Minions doesn't apply to mounts.

Thomas the Spank Engine surely!

It's probably worth tempering expectations for the reveal a bit; although the 1.5 hour slot seems amazing, it's for the reveal + Q&A which means it's still shorter length than the 40k slot, just that is split into 2 separate 1 hour slots for reveal, then Q&A. I think it's realistic to expect a sizeable reveal for Cities, the seasons of war book + mini(s) and maybe confirmation of what the other mystery book will be / teases for FEC.

I see what you mean and from that perspective I understand it completely.

I'm curious why you think the Sylvaneth box is bad/worse? It's one of the few* Vanguard boxes I would be happy to buy multiple times personally as a relatively new collectors of AoS with a small current army. I could easily see myself getting 3 - 4 of them as I build up my Sylvaneth. The Branchwych is a bit of a waste of time having multiples of, sure, but that applies to the old Start Collecting box + most of the other Vanguard equally. *Gitz, Idoneth, maybe DoK and Nurgle are the only other ones I could see myself getting 3+ of if I collected those armies, although I'll acknowledge I'm not hugely knowledgeable on most of the armies outside of Sylvaneth/Soulblight/S2D.

That's fair, it just wouldn't surprise me if GW don't see it as needing an urgent fix as it's (from their perspective) obvious how it should be played. Maybe I'm just not giving them enough credit haha.

If there's no immediately needed errata it usually takes a couple weeks for the FAQ I think?

I feel like if you've got a decent number of summonable units, particularly smaller sizes or ones that you'll be screening with early on, then Empire of Corpses is usualy the better option. It's something you can secure before the end of the game, its difficult for your opponent to deny it unless they're avoiding killing your units (not exactly a bad thing), and you can achieve it even if the game is otherwise going badly. The only downside is the obvious potential to just roll horrendously all game, but you could always include something like Gorslav and get it consistently.

I think this is part of it, but more specifically that Soulblight are I think the only book that has special character(s) for every sub-faction, which means you always have access to at least one special character that works with your army, whichever bloodline you go with.

It is nice and feels like a bit of a change in direction maybe compared to some other books. It brings to mind the old ways of characters leading units and I wonder if it could be early signs of changes to character/unit interactions. I realise I might be reaching a bit, it's just with the most recent 40k 10th Ed article hinting a return to characters actually joining/leading units it's got me thinking.

I see a lot of people bemoaning the lack of command abilities, but I actually think it's a good thing and something that did have some thought put into it. A good chunk of the old useful CA have been turned into free to use abilities for one thing (so still there + able to stack better in some cases), but more than that, reducing the amount of command points people feel they need frees up heroic actions to be used more on newer or more interesting stuff rather than the default of trying for an extra CP. So they've made the army less CP hungry than they were before, while also giving more interesting option for heroic actions than going for extra CP - I like it.

Skeletons are also looking pretty solid at staying alive with that 4+ per slain model resurrection being every combat phase + the 3 or 4 in your hero phase with deathly invocation. Then they can actually hit kind of decently if the hero babysitting them is a vampire lord for +1 attack and the rend they should have.

https://imgur.io/a/vWYncGd?fbclid=IwAR16L0Dva_KMSQ8QQ3mYwNllMkbLmJa4VluCrdEJjDwRzgZmwq1iPClo_as

Worth noting the corpse cart buff for zombies is on 6s to Wound and is a mortal in addition rather than instead of normal damage. But they function much better as a tarpit now and will take enemies down with them when they get murdered. All of the Vyrkos buffs go on Dire Wolves the same as zombies so it's interesting that they can use the heroic action to increase the size of a unit as well as do additional healing. Radukar's bonus 10 wolves is just something any of them can do now too which is nice.

New article with some more Soulblight rules: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/04/06/battletome-soulblight-gravelords-ushers-in-a-new-era-of-ravenous-spell-slinging-vampires/ I like the new idea for the locus of Shyish.

To clarify, I mean the changes to battleshock. Seems like an interesting way of going about working it, although it does feel like AoS has been doing an increasingly good job of making battleshock relevant but not too punishing throughout this edition.

Think you got them all and I'm 100% with you. I wouldn't have minded a new foot hero if they were going to bring something new, like a vampire ancient or something who would be more like old school WHFB vampire lords, but a new special character on foot was needed less than literally anything else.

This sounds very interesting!

Some overall thoughts about the show. Firstly, this is definitely the best reveal show in a good year or 2 imo. Feels like the first time in a while that most people correctly called the vast majority of what would be shown too. 40k: The Lion looks amazing, love the different head options. Very cool model. 10th edition is not a surprise and there's nothing really exciting yet I don't think. Definitely looking forward to seeing the other Tyranids and the direction they're going with the rules though. AoS: Holy cheeseburgers those Seraphon look amazing. All the new stuff has looked pretty good but the Saurus sort of stuff is what really looks cool for them and the Kroxigors + the aggradon riders... just lovely. The OBR hero sure does seem uninspired (although admittedly cool), but I actually really like the look of the vampire huntress. The bestial elements are great and I love the idea of another less traditional vampire (with a wood chopping axe!), even if it is a shame they didn't go for a mounted vampire. The Cities Troops... meh. They look like models that you could get from half s dozen other places right now. They were never going to be my cup of tea to be fair, but I'm unimpressed. Underworlds: Very cool, the out there designs for the Tzeentch in particular are great. Kill Team: The Votann sure are there. The Beastmen look okay, maybe I need more of a look at them. Overall very exciting stuff and interesting to see what will still be at Warhammer Fest (Cities, next Season of War, more 10th edition?)

That's true (can't believe I forgot her I even have the model lol) , I suppose it felt different due to being part of a larger release. Was the Nighthaunt boat guy also a special character?

She does look a bit smaller than the existing vampire lord in the army photo, but hopefully base size will be the same. Its just bizarre as well when I don't think any other army had their one hero be a special character.