Asbestress

Maneaters are in it! Perhaps we will get a plastic kit for Warcry, after all.

I'm personally still in the camp that hopes that we'll get CoS in the February-May timeslot. It honestly depends on what happens after the StD release, as I think we'll probably start getting some Votann styled bi-weekly preview articles (with the first bigger reveal being in the New Year Open?) after that Battletome's out. This would match up with the general time of the Soulblight release, and allow them to hype up the 10th edition of 40k during that same timeframe, and not have the post Edition release time in the Fall filled with an AoS army when they could be pushing new Codices and separate Tyranid and SM releases.

I really hope we get a CoS Warband sooner rather than lather (gotta fill out Camp Fortune on the Gnarlwood map), although I agree that we will probably be getting Maneaters vs Chameleon Skinks, and then something Death and Chaos related first.

I think the next big reveal event will be Warhammer Day on the 30th of October.

Devoted will probably just become Order of Azyr, and get a Flagellant kit refresh and some generic Witch Hunters and Priests I reckon with maybe some special units.

In terms of "expanding Freeguild in two directions", I think new/refreshed gunpowder units will be kept to Ironweld (Ironweld Handgunners?). I also hope they embrace more of the light steampunky weirdness that Empire engineers had, and, for example, give some wacky equipment to a potential new sniper/elite ranged unit. I also think a new Ironweld Engineer could fill the role of a ranged/support hero, although that may make the Cogsmith redundant. I kinda hope that not every piece of current/former Ironweld equipment (Cannon, Helblaster/Helstorm) will get a chassis and steam engine (although an Ironweld Steam Train would be AMAZING), because it would be a nice contrast of "basic massed artillery" vs "COGFORT". On the topic of the Cogfort, I kinda hope that they make it something more than just "Steam Tank but big", because most official art we've seen so far has felt pretty uninspired to me. I'm also curious if they will keep the current Steam Tank kit (as I think it's still absolutely amazing, although a bit tricky to assemble, and the gunner could use some updating), or make a new one, with more weapon options perhaps? Also, for the "Grundstok Gunhauler equivalent", maybe we could get the Gunwalkers mentioned in the CoS Battletome as the smaller steam machine? It'd give a useful fast glass cannon unit to the collection of steam machines. I'm actually thinking they might move away from the "fantastical beasts" aspect of the Cities, keeping the Demigryphs and Griffons as elite units, and leaning more into "regular horse", like the Lumineth. Also, we got dogs instead of gryph-hounds for Hexbane's Hunters, so probably no beaky good boys for new characters And yeah, more armour is always good.

Oh, I really hope this is what happens. Dispossessed have been consistently described as core parts of the cities (many times with alongside the Ironweld), due to the fact that they are the main builders of them. If they get cut, I could see them giving this role purely to the Ironweld, but I think my Irondrakes have a fair chance of staying 😛 Wanderers are also semi-major parts of the lore of the Sylvaneth, with them abandoning Ghyran and such during the Age of Chaos, and now fighting to retake it to atone for that. Phoenix Guard and Black Ark stuff will probably be staying, due to both of them being integral to the existence of major Cities (Phoenicium and Misthavn respectively), but those are in a bit more of a limbo alongside their Cities imo.

Pretty sure that would put them in mid-2024, which doesn't really seem to make sense with them annoucing this so early. Now, if they were teased in late-2023, then I could see them being for 4th. My personal theory is that they will release in 2023 (February-April at the earliest, November at the latest), as spring/fall is when they like to release new armies (based on the fact that Votann, Sisters of Battle. Lumineth, Soulblight, Sons of Behemat were all released either in the March-May or September-November timetables.)

We'll be seeing these stretched out the next 2-3 months I reckon. Then the Cities will start appearing from the New Year Open, perhaps?

You're right. Since July, there's been one week where there was just one, and there have probably been other such cases thus far. However, they don't tend to tease book covers in the Sunday Previews. We'll just have to wait and see...

Maybe... But for the past, what, one and a half years, they've always done two miniatures reveals every monday.

Trying to revive the conversation here. The Greywater art got me thinking about handgunners. If this is sort of what they'll look like, would it be a stretch to imagine that they could be moved from Freeguild to Ironweld to get it to have some kind of infantry? (Assuming the subfactions and overall make up of the army stays relatively the same.) Also, I'd like to gauge the community's stance on the "CoS vs Dawnbringer" issue I've been seeing since the initial announcement of the range refresh. So, for anyone reading this, do you think that A.) The range refresh will effect the CoS range, refreshing the Freeguild/Ironweld/Collegiate/Devoted ranges and either getting rid of or not touching the duardin and elves or B.) This will be a completely separate CoS subfaction/It's own faction I'm personally in camp A, and although our Gracious High Lord and Saviour, the Benevolent Greyfang has expressed their opinion that CoS is the faction which the refresh was announced for, and that the Dawnbringer Crusades are a pan-Order narrative element, I've still seen opinions swaying towards B. Perhaps this will let us get a more clear view of what the good people here think.

I'd agree if it wasn't for the CoS range refresh. They like to tease things in "edition closing books" (e.g.: Votann in Psychic Awakening) that are coming in the future, so I think it's more likely that the Ven Densts were the teaser for the range refresh.

Completely unrelated apart from Gargants, but I'd KILL to see a Mason-Gargant mini. Of course, I'm not expecting it to be a part of the CoS range refresh, but I can dream, damn it! Perhaps I'll convert one... Oh... yes...

Also, brand new "Order of Azyr" keyword that will probably be absolutely useless until we get the range refresh (hopefully) next year.

Getting a bit off the "cod" topic I like where they are going with this (this should have been in my first comment today but I kinda got caught up in the excitement.) It seems, based on these, the Ven Densts and now Hexbane's Hunters, that they are aiming to keep the roots of the Empire aesthetic, but make it a little tiny bit more practical (not AS puffy sleeves for example), and move the inspiration timeline forward from 16th-17th century Europe to something more akin to 1900s Britain (which is basically Empire x not-quite-Kharadron-levels of Steampunk awesomeness). Also, more armour/advanced weaponry, but that would be agiven for the Mortal Realms I reckon. It seems I have been both blessed and cursed by Whitefang. May have gone a bit overboard on my steampunky speculation...

Puffy sleevey, huge hat-ed, ridiculously mustachioed Freeguild Handgunner sounds good, but I think I would be just fine if they decided not to have giant codpieces 😛 But just in case, I'm keeping my optimism low for this one, they might just reveal some Lumineth and Tzeentch Battletomes and be done with it...

Oh, those are nice! I only hope that the more armoured designs are reserved for more elite units, like Greatswords, and regular soldiery, like Freeguild Guard and Handgunners look more like the Greywater art. Also, does anyone have any hopes for Nova? Perhaps a new skull render?

At last, could we finally be seeing a new snippet of the Cities update? A few new renders, or even a single mini would be mighty exciting!

I mean, we haven't seen anything to the contrary either. They even gave a lukewarm answer during the original reveal that there may be other races.

Still nothing new regarding the army update, but by taking Hexbane's Hunters as a Crimson Court (which was a Soulblight warband released before the Battletome, and shared a lot of visual similarities with the new range), then I think this kit, alongside the Ven Densts, is probably our best guess what the new range will hopefully look like (or at least the Order of Azyr part of it 😛). I think this fits the bill of being new and AoS-y, while still carrying that WHFB Empire vibe just a tiny bit. Now to see if we get more steampunk-y... Hopefully we'll get some sort of update on the range refresh during the summer. Edit: more clarification

I just assumed that we'll get The Old World next year, 40k 10th Edition in 2024, and AoS 4th Edition in 2025, because new AoS editions have always come after 40k editions, and I don't think they'd release TOW alongside 40k 10th Ed. in the same year. (This is also assuming that we'll finally begin to get some more previews for TOW, and that the estimated 3-4 year timescale for release from the initial reveal (2019) is still relevant for it)

4th Edition is still at least 3 years away. I think it's a bit early to start speculating about it, considering that we'll probably be getting the first wave of Dawnbringers early-mid next year (revealed in the same way as World Eaters, who are pretty much confirmed to be coming around end of 2022 early 2023)

Made a bit of a recap of what we know so far. I have taken our holy harbringer Whitefang's word as gospel, just because they have been quite reliable thus far.

A thing to keep in mind imo is that releases are almost always complete years in advance. E.g.: the newly teased World Eaters are probably already fully ready for production/already produced. The Castellan Crowe studio mini was painted around 5 years before release. Snazzgar Stinkmullett (the Malign Portents Gloomspite Shaman) was probably made together with the full range that released around a year after him. This could mean that our best guess at the refresh's aesthetics could be the Ven Densts released last year, as, perhaps, they were done either as a "testing ground" for the redesign's style, or together with it, and released as "harbringers" before the 3rd edition, as they like to tease the "big releases" of upcoming editions in the book series (Malign Portents, Psychic Awakening (Squats!), Broken Realms), and the minis released alongside them (e.g.: Knight of Shrouds, Gloomspite Shaman, Kragnos, that Lord-Ordinator, etc.)