RileyArlic

I'd be thrilled to get some novels about the Seraphon. The battletome apparently makes them seem a lot more relatable, especially the skinks, while keeping the slann ever-mysterious and the saurus rather single-minded and the kroxigor as himbos. The stories are what get people inspired and invested in a faction, so the more that's out there the better.

I'm not really sure I want them to bring too much over from 40k that we don't already have in AoS. I think I'd like for things to be getting tougher, like they are getting in 40k. A reduction in the deadliness of things, a reduction in mortal wounds. AoS has steadily been following 40k 8th and 9th's trend of increasing rend/AP and damage, and I'd rather that get nipped in the bud before it gets too out of hand. I like what I'm hearing about Battleshock in 40k and I think that system could do very well in AoS, along with the 'OC' score.

Eh, different people can tolerate different cultures. If you're truly passionate about designing miniatures, then working for GW will give you incredible experience on how the pipeline works. There are many, many people that have worked for GW that then went on to make their own game systems. The thing GW is trying to tackle is tying their company to any individual. Remember what happened with Subway and Jared? They also aren't a talent agency, making the next great idols and influencers, they make miniatures and they sell miniatures. Just because your face and name isn't seen doesn't mean you wouldn't get the experience of how the mini-making biz works. It comes down to why you're designing minis and what you want out of the job.

I am very, very excited. I woke up this morning just as leaks were breaking and I'm quite pleased with everything we've seen so far. I'm also really glad to see these rules as I can start planning out purchases and stuff. Mostly? I just need lots of warriors and aggradons!!

Love the lore! Not a huge fan strategically of the synergy, since it encourages doubling up on a unit that you might want an odd number of, but we'll see how it pans out. It's not like you're missing out on huge amounts of damage if you don't, and there might be other synergies you can take advantage of instead to make up for it, but at least the launch box has 2 sets of 5. Getting more and more excited! I can't wait to see the focus on the Saurus Warriors when I hope we finally see them with spears!

At long last! I'm mostly looking forward to the articles this week! Community members painting the box set, rules previews, lore previews, all sorts of stuff! As it stands, I'm working on a project for my local Warhammer store's Retribution Crusade. I now have 2 weeks to finish that because once Seraphon come out, that's 100% my focus.

Kruleboyz weren't an issue of aesthetic, it was an issue of rules. It was an issue of being one of the first battletomes in a system where GW does 'battletome creep'. Could have done even better with those new models if they'd kept up with keeping them competitive, at least better than... bottom tier XD

That's fair. I don't have good memories personally of WFB. I remember trying to get into it 15 years ago with Lizardmen and it was a slog. It was a slog to buy multiple boxes to fill out a single unit on a movement tray, it was a slog to learn the rules, a slog to get games (I got gatekept because a lot of my stuff wasn't painted, and also because apparently some factions never fight lizardmen for lore reasons or some ******). So when the fallout happened with it being replaced with AoS, I found myself the only person in the room saying "Good riddance to that miserable experience". But, I get that wasn't everyone's experience and a lot of people have a lot of fond memories. Would have been nice to make some of those fond memories myself, but that just didn't happen. From my perspective, as time has gone on, the number of voices complaining about WHFB being gone shrank - they moved on to other things or simply made the jump to AoS. Then 30k 2.0 hits and it feels like I'm just seeing a foreshadowing of what's going to happen with TOW. Gatekeeping for not having the right colors on your minis or not having played back in the day or trying to use AoS models on square bases, etc etc etc. It's hard for me to look forward to something that is likely going to consume a lot of talking space with bad feelings and controversy over plastic toy soldiers, and I'm not looking forward to the same guys that gatekept me out of WHFB back in the day coming back and pretending like they're somehow the 'best' hobbyists and that TOW is the end-all be-all of hobbying like they pretended WHFB was. Again, that's just my experience. I have therefore developed the controversial opinion that I hope TOW is a failure of a product due to the jerks that will try to come in and gatekeep it again and GW instead double-down on supporting AoS

I just find it really hard to care about The Old World. Larger bases, nice. So people that want to make conversion kits for their AoS stuff will likely have the opportunity to, and we'll see some more dynamic models coming as a result, great. But like others have said, 30k took a long time to wind up, and even with 30k 2.0, we're still waiting on KEY things in order to play the full breadth of the game in plastic, or at least with rules for minis that we already have but don't have rules yet. It's going to be a slow slog of a mix of plastic and resin. Some things will be resin that will infuriate people, and some things will wait for years before finally getting any sort of plastic release. Some things will simply be reprinted plastic, which will also infuriate people. All of this to appeal to what crowd?

Yeah, even if they somehow catch up on rumor engines, all it'll take is yet another week to make a new one. Also remember not every model they show connects to a rumor engine

that's wonderfully vague and could mean anything. "All in on AoS" could be as simple as expanding Cities of Sigmar, prepping for the next 'end of edition' book series, or leading all the way up to 4th edition AoS, and we're still totally in the dark on what that could be. Hopefully not indexes. You'd think GW would be more keen on being 'all in' on 40k instead, filling out codexes and getting those printed so people can play 10th ed in earnest, but we'll see how that pans out.

Swirly smokes looks to be same value/style as this rumor engine. When we get really weird stuff like this, I tend to just guess it's an Underworlds Warband or Necromunda thing we haven't seen yet that's drawn out of nowhere. Trying to assign some of these weird ones to a faction that exists tends to lead to disappointment, in my experience anyway

This is mostly because from a narrative standpoint, many people identify with the humans, in any setting. It's also easier to describe things from a human standpoint. Imagine if more Tyranid names were created by Orks, Chaos Daemons, or Genestealer Cults. Ork Names would be like "Da Spikey One" or "Stealthy Boiz" Chaos Names would be like "Cha'kith Snorukara" Genestealer Cult names would be like "Him On High Who Delivers Us Swiftly Unto the Stars Above" So... yeah.

Yeah, a bit odd. The fact that even "Tyranid" comes from the fact that the first planet they ate was "Tyran". Like, you couldn't go with the real reason, with Tyranid being based off of the core word Tyrant? Then you've got Parasite of Mortrex, Doom of Malan'Tai, Red Terror, Ol' One Eye, Screamer Killers, and now Von Ryan's Leapers. They hit really different than Biovore, Hormagaunt, Lictor, Carnifex... We'll see if we get a more appropriate species name added on later.

All great points! And I agree, the issue is with the corporate side of things. It's a bizarre give-and-take, because companies that embrace the sort of creative side, free thinking, and whatnot, often fail because of really simple and basic stuff, like not bothering to hire lawyers when it's needed, or failing due to budget issues as they overspend on ideas that don't pan out or on fluff that serves little purpose. Being 'corporate' means being efficient in some senses, cutting out waste and protecting yourself against lawsuits while maintaining a strict level of growth. Where creatives and corpos butt heads, sparks fly, as we've seen with the presenters leaving GW. Either GW will figure it out, or they wont. I hope they do, so they can start changing course. With as long as it takes them to change things, maybe by the end of 10th ed 40k we'll see some positive changes and WH+ will either have been abandoned or grow into something worth more than just the miniature they throw in.

The timing is definitely interesting. It's pre-10th, so there's gunna be a lot of people on the fence on whether to bother getting these units or not, since they might not be any good. It may also be the last time we see many of these units in resin as they are all due for an update, and Drukhari haven't gotten much love since like 6th edition when they first came out, aside from a kit here and there. They are due for a big wave of minis to expand their range and lore. Watch, with the whole MTO thing being 180 days, that could mean that at 181 days we start seeing these kits in plastic

Seraphon and the latest Kill Team set are basically the next big things that we're waiting on, and should be coming pretty soon. We may see Kill Team and/or the new Underworlds set next...

1. Unless we hear it from Louise herself, everything is speculation. That said, we can draw a few conclusions based on what others have said. 1b. Peachy has been quite vocal about the idiocy within management, so we at least know there's a level of incompetence that has been driving talent away. B. Instead of getting on the hate train for GW, support the talents that they decided not to. Louise, Peachy, Duncan, all fantastic channels. Give them a subscribe if nothing else. Bb. The telling part for me is: YouTube and Patreon aren't very forgiving. They don't give health benefits, 401ks, etc. The fact these talents are choosing these platforms for their career does indeed suggest that either the policy or the pay (or both) at Games Workshop were not sufficient. %. GW is not a 'talent scouting company'. They're a miniature selling company. As much as it pains me that they're not properly crediting the creatives that work for them, I do also kind of understand. It's a corporate mentality. Look at what happened to Subway and Jared Fogle. Companies never know when a person they've 'elevated' will turn around and end up dragging the company down due to behavior, mistakes, history, or some other reason. GW doesn't make money off of the elevation of these talents, but here's the thing: All three of the 'big' names here, Duncan, Peachy, and Louise, are still making content that feeds into Games Workshop, be it talk shows, tutorials, or other things, as the majority of the things they paint/talk about is still GW product and news. So, am I upset for the talents involved? Yeah, my heart goes out to them, of course. I want to support them and I hope that GW finds a way to do better. Am I surprised at all by the outcome? No, not at all. Do I think GW will change? Eventually, yes. I think the true fallout of these events will take time to pan out and for GW to perceive hard numbers, either in viewership of their youtube or Warhammer+ content, social media outcry, or discontent at hosted events and tournaments. They're a slow turning ship, and whatever management of Warhammer Community has been causing this exodus of talent (painting talent is not necessarily easy to find tbh) is sure to change... eventually.

The stuff that OBR and SBGL are getting now is making me even more excited for Seraphon. Really hoping for some really fun, flavorful rules!

Good stuff. A lot of the Heresy stuff is likely to be released in big chunks. For example, everything here is just retooled resin, and likely to be released in one big chunk: "Legion Arquitor with SpiculaLegion Arquitor with MortarGlaive with Volkite carronadeFellblade with Accelerator CannonFalchion with Volcano CannonMastodonJavelinDamocles Command Rhino" So that'll take care of half that list, and hopefully the rest will be right behind. But even with all of that, we still need plastic assault marines. Seems like the well for updated tanks and things is drying up...

A proper bug-people faction would be super cool. There's not a lot of fantasy bug races out there that I can remember. Thri-kreen from Pathfinder/DnD... Some bee-people from that same setting... Getting something real buggy would be great. And who knows? Maybe due to the delays, next edition will still be in Ghur

Honestly? Thrilled. As a Night Lords player, I've been shoehorned into leadership shenanigans in game systems that ignore leadership shenanigans for well over a decade. Half the factions simply don't care about Night Lords and Night Lords get very little benefit, while other factions get huge bonuses flat out just for existing. Now, I ought to be able to take a daemon engine focused list, with bonuses for daemon engines, without having to say that my guys are using Iron Warriors rules. I LOVE this change. It's what the subfaction rules should have been since they were introduced in like 5th ed.

Fiscal year begins July. This is why often things are announced and hyped through June, perhaps with a few preorders starting around that time, but the bulk of a new edition is meant to release in July to make for a strong start to the year. A strong start to the year means the company has cash they can spend more easily through the rest of the year, and it helps give them an idea on how to pace further releases. There's also a small danger with things coming out at the end of the fiscal year. If a company does TOO WELL in a year, they then have to BEAT those numbers NEXT year, which is why often times GW will randomly seem to slow down releases around certain periods of time. Companies pacing their growth is nothing new per se, but it's an odd bit of corporate logic that regular people have a hard time fully understanding. Basically, if they don't pace themselves, they could end up not hitting growth % numbers in following years, which scares off investors. SO the way things release over the next few months, through April, May, and June could be very interesting indeed. It's a long time, 3 months, but I would NOT expect the bulk of 10th edition to release until we are firmly into the new fiscal year.

Wouldn't surprise me. A lot of Stormcast and Space Marine stuff mirror each other in terms of how GW releases models. There was a plan to release a 2nd 9th edition codex for space marines earlier in the edition. That got scrapped and the models were simply put out in Strike Force Agastus, and other boxes were put out for the various chapters. If we extrapolate that, then sometime in the Fall we or Winter we could see a similar thing happen with Stormcast, where they come out with another wave of models. I'm not a huge fan of the idea, mostly because it pushes this idea that Stormcast must be the Space Marine equivalent to AoS to support the rest of the range. I'd much rather have the sales spread out across factions, which I think they are moreso in AoS than in 40k, but time will tell.

On the contrary, I think the campaign book is coming shortly and then the FEC will be in the Fall. GW are in a weird position, because there's SO MUCH TO HYPE but so little time, and they don't want anything to overshadow the Lion or 10th edition right now. So while they take the macro approach to 10th, AoS and other reveals and releases are going to be played a little lower key. We may only learn about that campaign book through official channels a week or two before it actually comes out. Then, I expect after 10th edition's launch is done, we'll see more about the FEC and more about Cities. My one doubt is that the FEC are going to be getting a big update. You'd think we'd hear more about them, but it seems the focus is instead on Cities and the big revamp that they are getting.