WarLadle

Guess there's a Sylvaneth vs. Skaven battlebox coming anyway! BUT, no new units for Skaven at all. Also, the new Sylvaneth units are pricey!

I don't love how they're pushing the new characters from these books before any of the books are released. Feels like putting the cart before the horse. I'd much prefer knowing that the books are good and that I like the characters before they pump out models and marketing. Doing it this way feels kinda forced.

This whole thing is a prime example of Godhart's Law. "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." We want balance, on the whole, because it makes the game fun and keeps most armies viable. Until this point, we've been using the measure, winrate, to determine the state of balance. GW have cottoned on to this fact, and have released a "Balance"slate that only addresses winrate. So the measure looks better! Yay! But the underlying target, balance, is almost unaffected. (the true ultimate goal is fun, but that's so difficult to quantify and discuss we usually default to balance).

I think this is a miscommunication. At this exact moment in time, DoK are remarkably eay to buy into (I'm doing it) I'm not sure why they brought up Morathi/Bloodstalkers, because Morathi (the largest singular expense in that list) is nearly the ONLY kit without a bundle/'discount' for DoK right now, and there are discounts around to make most other builds reasonably cheap. Witches/Sisters are in both Arena of Shades and the Warcry box. Blood Stalkers/Sisters are in the Warcry Box and Start Collecting!. The Cauldron/Shrine with most of the leader options is in the Start Collecting! at nearly the same price as it is standalone. Warlocks and Khinerai are in Arena of Shades. So the only things NOT on sale (or the closest GW has to it) at this moment in time are the Melusai Ironscale, Morathi and Morgwaeth's Blade Coven. I do agree that GW's model heavily penalizes normal purchasing, and I believe this current 'sale'/'cheap' scheme will fall apart very soon, as soon as any (or all) of: A) the FOMO dual box goes out of stock B) the Warcry Box goes out of stock/oop like the last bunch seem to have C) The Start Collecting is scrapped for a new, lower 'value' Vanguard box. At which point we'll just be stuck paying the newly inflated prices on everything (Khinerai and Snakes went up $5 a box where I am, heroes went up a couple bucks). But at this singular moment, DoK are the 'cheapest' they've ever been, except maybe the Morathi/Snakes build considering the old Shadow and Pain box was literally made for that build.

They really needed to end on something other than the two bad reveals. The Corsair model for Kill Team was inferior to the art, to the point that they just put the art up for a bit instead of looking at the model any longer. And the Necromunda reveal was a lot of watching shoddy 'animation' (great little comic, but I think the 'animation' actually took away from it) for a PNG logo and the hosts saying "Ash Wastes are coming soon(TM)" The rest of the preview was actually pretty solid, 3 new units for AoS, like 4+ new things for Eldar and a cool multi-game Bloodthirster. They just backloaded the worst reveals and let that be everyone's last impression. We have cleared out literally anything even teased now though, so hopefully there's something planned after this battlebox releases, or we're sitting high and dry.

I don't really have a horse in this race, being quite ambivalent on the DT myself, but I have to point out how (intentionally?) hilarious this is. "The best part of getting shot while playing Russian Roulette is knowing you aren't going get shot again right after." I can understand how the double turn creates a (fun) anticipatory tension that feels great when it is released, but it's still very funny.

I'm pretty sure the new Whitefang teaser is for the Underworld Skaven box. If it's the second solo-warband release, I assume it'll be Skryre (lightning, warp-lightning). But, given the percolating Eshin rumours, and with all the trees in the teaser, I think it'll be the new core box, Eshin vs. Sylvaneth. Pie in the sky, it might be a full battlebox, but I'm going to try to set my expectations low.

I'm hearing rumours that the Dragons are coming out of the box miscast? Any one gotten their hands on one or can corroborate/debunk? I'm hoping it's just an assembly error or false. This is the picture I've seen. EDIT: A friend who preordered a dragon says theirs's isn't miscast, so leaning towards this being a false rumour or at least rare.

The reddit/4Chan rumour appeals too closely to my biases to ever possibly be true. Spiderfang, more KO, Cities and Chaos Dwarves AND Silent People? Nothing could ever make me happier model release-wise. So it's obviously false.

It actually did, wow. I might need to lay off the meme juice for a while.

I actually find that pretty funny. "A Big Order Guy and a Big Chaos Guy have to have a fight before the Era of the Beast (Destruction) ends." Like, GW forgot that the Era of the Beast was supposed to be about Destruction and just decided anything non humanoid was more important.

On the topic of the Christmas Battleforces, here are my guesses: Order We're due for a Stormcast battleforce (they've not missed an odd numbered year so far). I think Order will probably get a second battleforce too (they've gotten the most 'double slots' in history, and I could see either Chaos or Destruction missing out). The only factions that have never received a force are CoS, Fyreslayers and Lumineth, and I think Lumineth are the likely candidate. New, but the first half is just about old enough, and hugely popular (seemingly, anecdotal for sure). Chaos No solid guesses, but maybe Nurgle? Hedonites are probably a bit too new, Beasts are maybe too old, and everyone else has gotten one semi recently (last 3 years) except Khorne. Maybe Khrone. Maybe nothing? Death I would expect either FEC or Ossiarchs, 50/50. Nighthaunt have gotten two boxes prior, including one last year, and Soulblight are just too new. FEC would make sense because they haven't ever received one, and are somewhat overlooked, but well liked as far as I can tell from the zeitgeist, meaning a battleforce could clear out some slow moving stock. Ossiarchs are just as plausible, as quite a new faction (but still old enough to get bundled) with a solid range. Destruction Either missing out, or Orruks. Given that they got 2 slots last year, I don't expect a repeat of Gitz or Ogors, and Behemat just don't really fit the battleforce box format. An Orruk box would supply some more 3rd edition codex units in mass, but I'm leaning toward Destruction missing out on a slot at all.

Alright, I'll put myself out there. 1. I don't especially like dwarves, nor elves. 2. I would much prefer an actual focused and standalone 'normal people' army instead of Cities of Sigmar just being a dumping ground for old models. I want some normal people just trying to make their way in the crazy world that is the Realms, in a force that is thematically and mechanically coherent (and has it's own book instead of being balanced alongside every old model that has ever existed). 3. I don't like that there isn't an Order faction that is mostly independent of the gods (again, other than the random mishmash that is Cities) the closest thing we've got is probably Kharadrons, but even that is looking less likely with the probable imminent return of Grungi. My favourite Order armies are the ones the least concerned with serving a god: KO (until Grungi shows up), DoK (sort of, until Morathi became Khaine-Morathi). Now that I think about it, Idoneth actually almost fit the bill, I should look into them more. It's why I'm more drawn to BoC and Destruction armies I think. Those factions have separate identities (to a point) rather than just "extension of __insert god here__"