RyantheFett

Oh 100% Just funny that GW put them in Cities when Sylyaneth could of really used more units. Then gave them some lore, a city, and even a entire book.......................... just cut them with no in game explanation lol.

That is the strange disconnect between the lore and the game itself. Pretty clear they are copying the 40k road map for factions. Stormcast and humans will have zero interaction in game (mostly for balance reasons) despite the fact that in almost every book they will be working side by side. The Prince Maesa book is so strange. It introduces a cool character as well lore and culture for the Wanderers, and then a few months later the sub-faction is erased without even a word. At least Phoenicium got a few sentences lol.

Oh it was 100% because of balance issues. The amount of units they would have had to adjust on top of everything would have been insane (and GW is not known for being that good with internal or external balance). But ya the faction really lost a lot of its identity by these hits and I will always find it funny that the Cities don't really want to take any of the other factions lol. Stormcast is the big one that just stands out as being funny, but I guess 40k does it with Space Marines and Imperial Guard?

I have not read many books, but the stuff I have seen seems to laid a lot of work for breaking up the races (or in a lot of cases showing that they never got along or lived together in the first place). Wood Elves- Shown to be super racist against the humans and were mostly nomadic and kept away from the Cities. Looks like the new book just skips over them so I guess they could show up in Sylvaneth? Dark Elves- According to others who have read the book (hopeful get to that today) these elves most likely get kicked from the faction if their evil ****** is revealed. Dwarfs- Most likely get their own crusade when they go back to reclaim their land. My only issue is that the books I have read show how important they are with building the Cities as well as being in charge of a lot of the Stormcast armor................ but they live and fight separately from the humans in the few books I did read. High Elves- Their city will most likely get destroyed lol. Of course this will not account for a lot of the books that mention them working together, but I am pretty sure 40k had a lot bigger retcons in the past.

Got to set up lore reasons for why the units are getting removed from the faction. A soft retcon to the lore without blowing anything up. High elves- Main city gets destroyed. Dark elves- Kicked from the cities for all their BS. Wood elves- Lore had that they were pretty racist and kept their distance from humans. Dwarfs- Hard one to justify since they are so closely tied to both humans and stormcast, but from the lore I read they live away from humans......

Wanderers? Phoenicium? Whats that lol?!?!? Best guess would be they have to set up the dark elves and dwarfs as future order factions. So while the races can get along they often fight each other. That way they can still be taken as allies, but will kill each other on the table? The AoS lore is still young so removing non human from city armies won't be too much work. 40k has had bigger retcons and this one does not really break anything.

Maybe going too far down the rabbit hole, but GW has given themselves a lot of time and space to fully remove the other races with little worry. The next City wave does not even have to remove non human stuff since they still have the mages and tanks to redo. So we can well be into 4th with 2 Cities books and two waves before they even think of pulling the last two. That also does not even throw in TOW factor, future order factions, the lore in the book, and the even harsher race restrictions.

My overall reaction to the leaks is pretty much Of course this debate for the faction has been going on forever and I feel like nothing here will change minds for either side. In fact I think it will make things worse. The book setting hard race requirements for the factions is a bad sign as well as the big red flag of just cutting the high and wood elves. Need to read the new book, but others have said the lore is also a bad sign. On the other hand, the sub factions each feel very unique. And while some non human they have some good ones as well as some bad human stuff. They also have several units that feel like you can just throw them in any list and they could do some work. That hydra healing 5 health a turn looks fun. And I think the community has made it loud and clear that mix Cities is what most of us want. We will have most likely wait a few more years before we know for sure what happens to the faction. Hell GW still needs another human wave to remove the rest of the human stuff lol..................

Looking at the leaks it's pretty clear that this is three different armies and will at some point be split. Sad that one of the coolest ideas GW had feels like it is on life support for a watered down Imperium 2.0. At least we have years before they can remove all the nonhuman stuff. Sort of love that it goes with the joke GW has no idea what they are doing, but will always make bank lol. I just feel sorry for the more casual fans that think Cities will get nonhuman waves in the future.

Hurricanum is 230 so yaaaaaa not sure if that is enough or not. I am just glad they have some old units that looks good. Some do look like GW put little to no effort, but others did get some love!

Looks like hammers give the Warden King a +4 save? Not sure if that makes them good or not lol. Iornbreakers also have a chance to get a +4 ward.

For the record the whole book, points, and warscrolls are now out in the wild. Don't know if we can post any of it here, but if you know where to look you should find it and you can always message me for it..... I think? Edit: Looks like they don't have the Stormcast rule anymore? Holy cow that is a lot of subfactions lol. 11?!?!?!

So it looks like GW did not do a lot of overlap with the new units. No elite weapons, no monsters, spear men, etc. Means that there should be some mixing of the races? Also glad to also see the glow up for the dwarfs that were leaked. Was afraid that a lot of the non human stuff would not be touched or nurfed off the table. Of course still worried with how much they did the race bonuses and a quick glace does make it feel like Cities will be 3 or 4 mini armies that GW will easily pluck out into their own factions in the future......

Was a bit worried that the old stuff would be bad, but they at least some of the things look ok. Wonder how long before we have everything. Longbeards and Warden King look like they got a decent buff. Sorcress looks the same minus the command ability. Old mage stuff is a mix bag I think?

Beat me to it lol. Since I joined the game 40k has been taken very serious by both the community and GW. Even the Orcs have been given a much darker side with their human farms. And I prefer the nobledark setting of AoS with Sigmar himself being a pretty big departure from the God Emperor. Just not sure how much faith I would put into GW into not going the lazy route and just copying and pasting from one to another.

The Old World still seems so confusing and wish we really had more info for it. Really just seems like they will see all their old stock at marked up prices right now lol. They have really talked about old metal and resin models a lot. As for Sigmar how much unit and factions still use the old models outside Cities? After the HH it does seem like they want to really separate their games as much as possible.............

The only warning would be that GW moves very very slowly. A decent amount of human stuff is still in Cities and who knows how long before they get another wave to be fully removed. The same could be said about other factions, but we really have no idea. You could even look at the removal of wood and high elves as their big test run of pulling old models out of AOS and putting into TOW to see how the fan base react.................. Of course that has never stopped GW before.

I agree that some older models are safe, but I think after this last purge we will never truly know which ones and GW sure as hell is not given us any hints lol. Safe bet will be to always go for the new stuff. Especially now since they may be more aggressive with cutting stuff since TOW is coming soonTM. As for how much is left 6 to 7 is a really good bet. About 23 models have been cut so the faction would need about 14 new units to get to that 54 they mentioned. Of course that is if they don't do anything to units like the steam tank and steam tank with commander.

Its a solid take on the situation and I agree with most of it. My big question from all this is when/if they try and remove those darkelves what will they say to the players then? Sort of feels like GW kicked the can down the road and will have to deal with all of this again in a few years again lol.

Hopefully you are right because I love the cosmopolitan nature of the army and think GW would be crazy to just do nothing with it. Easily my favorite faction. On the other hand, the removal of two whole races is not a good sign and it will take years before we get any real answers. Made worse by the belief that all those old models will get removed at some point by a chunk of the community.

They will just do it like in 40k with races that use other species. Just ignore it lol. Does not chage the lore nor does it break it. Saying it's a Sigmar crusade also let's it stay mostly human since GW can can the other races workshop other gods. Hell, as someone said in these forums them using orges is just them copying the human faction in 40k.

The Honest Wargamer goes over the Cities article and give some interesting takes/insight/rumors. Some highlights: He is in the camp that Cities will end up as an all human army in a few years. Mentions the rumors of both dark elves and dwarfs getting their own factions at some point. Thinks the current dark elves and dwarf modles will be used as the starter of those new armies. Notes how big GW giving people the Ok to proxy is and how GW is scared this move may upset the fans. Thinks a lot of the mage stuff stayed since it would not go with the lore of the Old World. The bad spot GW is in for trying to take out all the old models from AoS despite them forming the core of several factions.

2024 seem a bit optimistic lol. Hell they could not even get thought all of the human stuff this round, but keep that hope alive!! Two or three maybe?????? I do wonder how they will spin when they pull the rest of the non human stuff from the faction since they said to just proxy the stuff they cut right now?

A safe bet for any future purchases for AOS would be to make sure they are not old fantasy models. In theory all of them will be cut from Age of Sigmar at some point. And as GW said you can play them in Old Worlds or proxy. Of course just based off of what is staying vs leaving right now Cities this process will take several more years.