The Lost Sigmarite

It's always great when Warhammer factions actually use their brains instead of just smashing and bashing each other.

You can tell GW has learned from its mistakes because now the first thing to get updated in range refreshes are the basic troops, be they infantry or cavalry. And you're right. I started the hobby in late 8th ed WFB, and it felt weird to see High Elves, they had those modern new sculpts like the phenixes, lion chariots and elite units next to the antediluvian sculpts of the spearmen, archers and silver helms, that you where forced to use because you needed 25% base for a valid army.

Ushoran, Morghur, either way I'm down with it.

That's why Gardus Steel-Soul is many people's favourite Stormcast ! And why his mini was well received (that and his AoE ward). With Era of the Beast, I think it's time for another famous Black Library Stormcast to get his mini. Come on GW, give us Hamilcar Bear-Eater in plastic !

Damn... I can almost hear "Can You Feel My Heart" going on in my head as I look at those faces and physique.

Isn't there also a Gazul narrative arc where the Dawi are out for grudges because Nagash defeated Gazul in the Age of Myth ? Tying the Dawi against the Zangunaz for some good old fashioned grudging ? Between the teased return of Grombrindal, whatever Grungni is up to (return of Valaya, a new Duardin bloodline, or new machines) and that Gazul arc, GW has left a lot of doors open for our favourite stunty little grudge gnomes. Wazzock ! That's a lot for even one edition.

The man-things are building many new city-towns across the realms. They guard-guard against threats from the land, or sky, but not from below... We will infiltrate their gutter-sewers, yes-yes, from the under-cities. The under-empire has been building in the shadows. Soon the Skaven will invade the surface world, yes-yes ! As the council demands ! Maniacal laughter as ramshackle skaven contraptions explode all around in green mushroom clouds and the Vermintide theme plays in the background

I'm stoked for the end of the Era of the Beast. So many things could happen, my personnal wish is a return of Morghur. There was a Broken Realms short story about a beastlord talking to a mutating human if I remember, and he said that Morghur was coming back. Apparently this was continued in the BoC BT. And Whitefang haha reacted my post on Morghur (I know I say it a lot but I will never shut up about it because it's my greatest achievement here), it means there's happy times ahead for the beasty bois. Or it could be something else entirely. GW has dropped so many teases. This beastly edition will have a wild ending, I'm sure about that.

Or you could allow their respective BTs to "soup" with each other. A bit like CoS and SCE do now, like in a DoK army, 1/4 unit can be a Malerion elves/Umbraneth unit, and vice versa for Malerion's BT access to DoK units. That would be a great way to fill in the army lists with new options in a lore friendly and fun way while keeping both BTs separate for more unique lore and rules.

I don't know if that Kruleboy shaman was already revealed on WarCom or is it was leaked online, but he looks stellar. I wouldn't worry about Kruleboyz in the next editions. Looks like GW will always have something for them. I feel like those soup BT are here as placeholders while they flesh out the factions. Sometimes we forget how much of a colossal undertaking AoS is... they can't do everything at once. Like how Gitmob gobbos are inside GSG, they could have launched a warscroll that would've been "pure Gitmob" but it would have had 0 synergies with other gobs and no one would've wanted to play or buy the minis. Wow... really ? That's a bit extreme to say, don't you think ?

Thanks for that artwork... those new Dawnbringer are not just "inspired by 15th century burgundians", they're pretty much carbon copies in a fantasy setting. Another well known inspiration (to me) of these new Sigmarite humans, is Berserk. The gritty medieval, "down to business" look, but still quite well armored, seems straight out of a Miura drawing. It's even more fitting since both are ordinary humans facing off against demons, monsters in an unforgiving world. They even have the rumoured bombards coming with the rest of the range ! Very pleasing for me as Berserk is one of my favourite fantasy works of all time. I hope GW goes with this inspiration even further, and we get some of the other the top, intricately ornate armors and weapons like those the manga is known for. Give me some fancy Sigmarite drip !

Looks like a big trophy rack to me. Someone got these 3 big claws or tusks and wants to expose them. The paint at the base looks sorta metallic. Like some steel wire placed inside those bony structures to hold them.

Stormcast are the good guys faction, easy to paint and build with large smooth areas and large sizes, straightforward in their gameplay, and demand less miniatures in an army because of their elite nature, which translates to less money to spend on them compared to other factions. They're the perfect beginner faction, that's why I don't see them going anywhere as the starter set/beginning of edition release faction.

Ironjawz will never be bankrupt aesthetically. There's always going to be new ideas for big, brutal Orc war machines and warriors. The "maybe" before "new ardboyz" is pretty telling, this is now a midhammer kit but it's aging pretty well. I wouldn't worry about Ironjawz personally. Tinfoil hat time but the their underworlds warband really felt like a demo for new Bonesplitterz models. A bit like the Snarlfang and Seraphon ones. Those demon units could be updated via 40k too. And among those, the screamers are the "less ugly" ones. But I agree on the flamers and spawn. When new Tzeentch are brought up here, it's always "armored mortal warriors" and "armored mortal warriors on disks", but the spawns and flamers always fly under the radar, while they would need new models fast. I would also add Nurgle to your list. They still have Forge World units like the plague toads. I would like to see plastic plague toads. Alongside new Nurgle stuff, maybe brand new, maybe plastic reboots of the old Tamurkhan Forge World minis like the plague trolls and plague ogres. Nurgle really feels like the poor sibling of the Chaos gods. Strange for the god that keeps on giving... Also btw, Whitefang heart reacted your post. Time to decipher what it means...

You've make me change my mind. It's just that the old SCE models where limited by the way GW handled minis back then. I liked some of it, like the animal helmets of the vanguard chamber, but most of the pre-2016 SCE look too bulky, clunky and static for my taste. And fair to say, most of the models don't live up to those artworks you posted. Imo SCE started to really get into their own when Sacrosanct released. The poses where more dynamic, we got more female SCE and I love the talismans and togas/robes they wear. Overall, I think a mix of different armor patterns would be great. I would make them less like soulless which was one of the biggest criticisms of Stormcasts at launch. I like me some variety and dynamism. And it would be the occasion to introduce some new ideas too, like new armor patterns, new motives... It would fit the theme, since SCE have a big Greco-Roman vibe to them, and those people used different patterns of armor across the ages, even in the same time periods. Like for example, I never understood how vanguard hunters could be sneaky going around in massive golden plate armor. And please GW, a pet dream of mine, please redo the Dracothian Guard with actually dynamic and varied poses.

To get an idea of which ranges GW will make Old World exclusive, and which ones will be cross system with AoS, we need to ask ourselves "how can GW please both the AoS and TOW communities with the least expense ?". If GW can kill two birds with one stone and update a range for AoS and TOW at the same time, of course they will. With the same amount of cash spend, you appeal to two communities and two "different" (because there's definitely gonna be overlap) customer bases and so earn bigger profit than if you did it for one of them only. This is an educated guess, but I think the only ranges that GW is going to make "Old World exclusive" are Tomb Kings, Brets, Empire, Dark, High and Wood Elves, Dwarfs, Kislev and Cathay. And that's already a lot. The rest of TOW armies that are cross compatible with AoS I think would be upgraded in AoS : BoC, Chorfs, Skaven, Ogres, Bonesplitters. This is what I would do if I was GW to maximise profits while diminishing costs.

This is exactly the reason why I don't see those armies receiving stuff on the short term/near future. And I would add Nurgle to that list too. Those factions have smallish but well rounded rosters that when properly balanced, work well and most importantly, are 100% useable competitively. Imo this has been one of the greatest things to happen to AoS. SCE failed at being the posterboys, which meant more attention was directed to other factions that needed it : aelves, undead, the chaos gods, etc. And prevented a situation like 40k where a certain chunk of factions (hello xenos) really feel like NPC factions in the grand "Imperium vs Chaos" GW is pushing. (Hopefully, Necrons and Tyranids are pushing out of that category by being included in the starters). This is great. Now that thunderstrike armor is out, I have trouble looking back at the pre-thunderstrike SCE. Old SCE are less dynamic, less varied, their proportions seem off compared to thunderstrike Stormcasts. If GW wants to replace every pre 3rd Ed SCE with a thunderstrike reboot, I'm down with it. It would be a good opportunity to clean the bloated mess that is the SCE army list with its gazillion entries of which half are only regularly used.

Some people want extra mini ranges for TOW, some want just one line you can use for AoS and Old World. But deep down we all know, Old World plastic humans (Brets, Empire, Kislev, Cathay) will just be fancy conversion material for Cities of Sigmar.

Making a model of Sigmar would mean redoing or getting rid of the Celestant Prime model, because you can't have 2 guys going around wielding Ghal Maraz at the same time.

I don't see GW making a second line of LZM for TOW specifically. It would cost massive amounts of money for what looks like a small community of potential buyers. Molds cost a ton of cash, the new Seraphon release likely cost a lot and GW needs it to be profitable. I don't see them doing that all over again for a smaller sample of customers than the AoS community.. And GW wants profit above all else. Best I can see is a Lizardmen/Coalesced upgrade sprue and nothing more. In general, I don't see Old World having more releases than AoS for the same purely economic reasons : AoS has the bigger playerbase (something bad WFB grognards and to an extend TWW fans will never stop malding about, when they want to admit it) and so the biggest customer base compared to TOW, so it's more profitable to invest in AoS than TOW. Ofc they're still gonna release stuff for TOW, but I wouldn't worry about it stealing AoS's time in the sun. That 4chan quote sums up everything in a few sentences. On the "divide", I'm with TWW on this one, Warhammer has always been about the cool toys on display that you can play with. In the end, the setting's norms are just so you can have a (very detailed) background of the sandbox you're pushing your toy soldiers in, and I totally embrace that and I love it. But as an AoS player, it's this community attitude that's my primary reason that I won't play Old World. I don't wanna hang out with those guys.

Reminds me of the meme with the speaker giving a speech to a crowd : "Who is hyped for TOW ?" - Everybody raises hands "Who will actually get into TOW when it comes out ?" - No one raises hands What's crazy is that they would get a better bang for their buck by playing 40k or AoS but they won't, because they want Old World and nothing else. It's crazy to think that the TWW community mostly jumped on the "We hate AoS" bandwagon because... reasons, but they have actually never played (any kind of) tabletop. Basically LARPing as WFB grognards. You're right in saying they're quite volatile, and the Chorf DLC has shown that. I don't know if that's the kind of players I want to see at my FLGS.

Hopium and wishlisting have always been a strong component of the WFB/TOW community since 2015. I mean, AoS is gonna flop anytime soon, right guys ? Right ? One thing that makes me chuckle is when he talks about new blood. Obviously the old grognards will be back (for better or worse) but new blood from TWW players ? I don't know. Many TWW players aren't likely to come and play TOW when they see how much money and time consuming tabletop wargaming is, even though they say they are "interested" and that "they would rather play TOW than AoS". It's all fun and happiness until the would be beginners get a scale of what the hobby demands.

It would make sense for TOW to drop for winter 2023. Autumn is gonna be occupied by Cities of Sigmar and likely FEC for AoS, and the rumoured Votann 2nd wave for 40k, and the obligatory specialist games release. But winter is pretty free since by then all AoS 3rd BTs will be done and you can't do all new 40k codexes in a trimester. And like the video above says, people would be more inclined to buy for Christmas. I don't know if I'm gonna play TOW. Probably not, but never say never. But if you've been waiting for it and you get it this year, good for you, the wait will be finally over.

These are plastic kits to me. No such modularity can be achieved with 3D printed scenery used mostly for some BT photo shoots. Another thing : Azyrite buildings would be more useful for everyday games than an Ossiarch castle. I think GW has learned its lessons from the Chaos Dreadhold...

It's sad there is no "crown" emoji to react to posts, because you dropped this king : 👑