Flippy

Spam lists should be obliterated ASAP, always. Otherwise factions end up in a strange place - at a glance everything seems fine, as the overall winrate is good, but then you dig deeper and, behold, it's always Fuethan Allopex circus. Gross.

I think GW is to blame, not the people. For many players this document is far more important than new minis.

It's rather simple, really. Good index is better than old tomes which are better than bad index. Time will tell.

Almost there…

Made some unusually good progress this weekend with the aquatic Skinks and assembling and preparing Idoneth warband for Warcry.

100%, I've just assembled these.

No way. Space Marines removed from 40k is more likely than GW abandoning D6.

It might have been what GW intended, but AoS is not a quick game, not even close. Lack of customisation can help in preparing the army list on the run (is that really important for anyone?), but the game itself is bogged down by different factors. So, you have a game that's supposed to be relatively quick & accessible and sacrifices certain aspects for this purpose, but ultimately fails to reach the goal.

100% agree. Disagree. Using points for enhancements is simple and intuitive, points are already main "currency" to pay for everything you use in a game. The whole "enhancements" idea, tied to specific army composition through battalions that in turn affect deployment order and priority was a design mistake. To be very clear - I'm not into the ToW simulationism level in AoS, stuff like various armours, shields, weapons is unnecessary.

You can do this one specific thing with the Battlemage and it's only because of the multiple models attached to this warscroll, all of them transferred from WHFB. The regular AoS situation (at least for small heroes) is that you only have a single, non-customizable model and the corresponding warscroll with extremely limited customisation options. Even if you believe that the result is lower barrier to entry (I don't think that's the case), this also means that you lose the potential to field two similar heroes, unless you customize the model by yourself (and that is an actual entry barrier). How am I supposed to field two Endrinmasters if there is only one model available? Does GW really expect me to buy copies of same hero model? How is then AoS supposed to keep refining its focus by committing to lowering barriers to entry further? Remove any unit customization altogether? You are of course right about the importance of fun during downtime element, as most of the hobby time is spent either on models (building, painting), fluff, list-building or activities such as TGA discussions - and AoS is no different from WHFB in this regard.

I don’t usually post same model twice, but this picture is much better 😁

Ok, I’ve finished my first IDK test model and I’m really satisfied. The Reavers themselves are cool, but I think this scheme may work well for the whole army. By the way, I seriously enjoy doing these test models… anything is possible at this stage 🙂

Some progress with aquatic Skinks.

C'mon, GW creates induced demand. If the faction is not selling it is usually because it has been left without any development for a long time. Whether it's GW out of creative juices or the business decision is made to prioritise something else (understandably, they cannot do everything at once). I can imagine that they should track sales in particular with regard to new releases; if they put a lot of effort into new / refreshed faction and the sales are still sub-optimal then yeah, that would be something to consider. But the sales argument is simply unfair when used against factions that lack any real development for years.

You make some good points. At the same time, I don't think anyone would have the audacity to announce up-front that a faction has a limited lifespan. It would be a radical change of a decades-proven (WH40k) business model. For many people engaging with a faction is a years-long (if not lifelong, at this point) endeavour, and such announcement could very well mean that certain products are dead on arrival. I firmly believe (and I've stated this before) that GW is not a miniatures company. Their business is a mixture of models, games and background - and their customers tend to assume that their armies will get at least official rules & stories (i.e. narrative presence) for as long as the game remains in existence. This effectively means that GW can get away with some pruning (people generally seem to understand that it is necessary) but they cannot fail the trust of their customers constantly. I am currently willing to invest in Idoneth (and have already bought some). It will take me approx. a year to build and paint a small army, which means I don't really care about the current rules. The moment GW would announce that they intend to support this faction, say, for the next 5 years only, I sell everything and shift my attention elsewhere. Little plastic sculptures mean nothing without their ecosystem.

High Elves were pruned, but the process was slow and included both introduction of Lumineth and (simultaneously) keeping elements of the HE in CoS. I'm not sure if the quick cut would be a better way of handling this.

Well, a new faction with completely different models, units, thematics, aesthetics, characters and play style should indeed be classified as purge of the previous faction. But GW doesn't have to go this far. You can serve the existing players and still introduce a lot of new element to the faction - new names, new models, new themes, new play style. Isn't this the recent case of CoS? They purged (or rather pruned) a lot of bloat (rightly so) and introduced many new elements - and I think they balanced the old with the new rather well. I would assume that this is the way, going forward, for the bloated WHFB factions - Skaven and BoC.

This is most likely.

I've done much work with the Skinks recently and also painted new Hunters of Huanchi. The Hunters are obviously much better models, in terms of quality, detail etc. But the painting was a chore. Old Skinks are far better in this regard, especially if you plan to use them in large quantities. The mould lines are awful, though.

Finish my aquatic Skinks unit; start the painting of the Starfyre pylon terrain; maybe some Idoneth test models.

Tough month. After the pyramid, I’ve only managed to assemble and prime some more terrain a a handful of nice models.

Tomaszewski 😂

Saying Arkhan was human-sized is like saying Archaon is human-sized. Technically true, if you ignore the huge mount. If you judge by the base size he is already Katakros-equal, second only to the catapult and obviously bigger than Morghasts. I dare GW to make a bold move and return him as a regular-sized character, a foot wizard, max. 50mm base size.

I would be in favour of nerfing them, that's a natural solution. A limit is just an additional lever you can pull, if needed - on top of the current options (warscroll power & point value). What I meant with regard to Blissbarb Archers is that even though they are supposed to be a basic unit (fluff), they are in fact an elite shooting option (in-game). If, for any reason, you are not willing to nerf them, you can currently only increase their value.

I know the pain, my close friend is a HoS player. Just put a limit on these damn models and people will be happy knowing that they only need to paint 22 at most. Problem solved. As for the fluff... maybe they are meant to be the lowest rank of Sybarites, but in-game it's usually the other side that becomes the arrow fodder. Would you rather increase their point value till you reach the breaking point or introduce some limit on the number of units? With the second solution you can still use them, they still feel strong and fun - you just can't field a hundred, which doesn't bother me that much.