Chikout

I think you're misunderstanding the nature of the indexes. This is the fourth time (that I remember) that GW has done a set of rules for every faction at the launch of the edition. They have always been a reduced limited selection of rules designed to ride players over until their army book comes out. GW want you buying those books. Being disappointed that this system is used rather than the old world system is a valid criticism but as soon as GW said the word battletome, it was pretty obvious that the battle packs were going to be limited. Since GW have chosen to give each faction 4 battle formations in a bid to be fair, it's certainly the case that the armies that had the most subfactions will suffer the most in this change. There will absolutely be fewer command traits, artefacts etc than there are in the current books. I'd expect at most two spell lores for each faction but I wouldn't be surprised if each battle pack only gets one. The good news is that the wait will be temporary. GW has a book they want to sell you. It will have more artefacts, more heroic traits, more spell lores, more battle formations etc. The bad news again is that the wait for some factions is going to be pretty long. As for the specific changes to how spells and prayers are chosen, I see reasons to be optimistic especially for cities players. Currently the human and Self lores only work on units from those races. If the whole army will be choosing one lore will we finally be able to use an Aelf hero to buff a human unit. Will a Duardin priest be able to buff fusiliers now? That would be cool. The other option is that some of these spells end up on warscrolls. It's not difficult to imagine a world where the tenebrael blades spell ends up on the sorceress' warscroll. I hope it's the former. As for the reason for the change, I think it changes the tactical equation. Currently if you have one wizard who knows one spell. You look at their lore and you choose the best one. Your wizard would then spend the battle trying to cast that spell or mystic shield. Not much in the way of interesting choices. With the choice of a lore there's potential for more interesting choices. With the removal of battleline restrictions it's good that players still have to make meaningful choices in the list building stage. It also lets GW write more powerful but situational spells that would never get taken before. With sub faction/ battle formations rules potentially being less interesting than before, I like the idea of a suite of 3-6 prayers or spells that you can use to lean into a particular theme or playing style. The old world style of lore per wizard gives you plenty of options but doesn't push you in a direction. Which style you prefer is a bit apples or oranges but I think the new system has the potential to be much more interesting than the old 3rd edition one.

One thing to bear in mind is that AoS is built around exceptions. For example UNLIMITED spells can’t be repeatedly cast by the same wizard in the same turn except Nagash who can cast Invocation of Nagash more than once per phase. It wouldn't surprise me if there's a Lumineth battle trait that lets them chose more than one spell lore.

The problem is that as has been pointed out there are presumably people who have bought painted and played exclusively with Big Waagh. Suddenly their army is gone and they're left with two half armies. One possible bright side is that Nagash has different warscrolls for different factions. One way of fixing the balance issue is having an ironjawz version of a scroll and a big waagh version of a scroll which can be pointed differently.

I imagine they'll be getting their own indexes. Balancing big waagh against the other factions was a bit a nightmare in third so maybe it's gone or changed!??!

I think manifestation lores are a distinct thing rather than a type of spell lore so you can probably take both.

I'm not sure what all the kerfuffle about coherency is. I had a look through the AoS minis and there's only a small selection of units that might really struggle with half inch coherency. Harridans and Bladegheists from Nighthaunt, squig hoppers and fanatics from Gloomspite and maybe thralls from idk. Anything old world that could rank up before will be fine with the extra half inch of space. GW have already said that some units will have different coherence ranges written on their warscrolls. Do that with the warscrolls listed above and there's no problem. Why make the change? I think there are two reasons. Aesthetics and board space. The more important aspect is the fact that tighter grouped units will make more space on the board and make movement more important. Combined with the lack of double reinforcing, this will make a huge difference. Before with a unit of 60 zombies you could make a line about 60 inches across. Now the maximum you will be able to do is 30 inches. Swamping the board is going to be much harder than before. Why not just switch to squares? I really don't want to go back to wheeling around bushes. I like to feel like I have 50 game pieces instead of 5 or 6. The suggested options in the other thread are all more complicated especially as AoS unit sizes are so variable. What about piling in? With the 3 inch combat range and the reduction of pinning possibilities, I think there's going to be a lot less piling in than before. Obviously the litmus test is actually playing the game, but I've experimented with my own armies and I don't have to much trouble getting them in coherency.

I think there's a lot of consternation about the idea of stepping away from the hobby as of it's some kind of failing. If the current game isn't doing it for you, do something else and by that I mean something completely different. There's nothing wrong with that and it doesn't mean the move has to be permanent. I stepped away from the hobby completely for almost ten years. Since I've come back I try and keep a better balance between the hobby, video games, other hobbies like cooking and sport I now enjoy the hobby much more than I did as a teenager when it consumed most of my free timem I have a much tighter budget now so I only buy something I'm really excited about and I try not to buy day one. If I miss out on a fomo thing, I don't worry about it. As for staying in the hobby, finishing projects can be very satisfying. I just finished painting the whole Dominion box set. It felt great. I try and keep projects manageable for that reason. The idea of buying a whole army at once is insane to me. If the lore isn't satisfying try writing your own. White Dwarf had a year long campaign focused on destruction. There's no reason you couldn't do something like that in your own games. I remember there was a well known Bonesplitterz player on the UK competitive scene whose personal challenge was to kill every monster in the game. They didn't particularly if they won or lost so long as they got to kill a new monster for the first time. Recently I was listening to Hey woah an AoS streamer. He told an awesome story about playing a Slaanesh player at Adepticon. The Slaanesh player painted, sold and then repainted the same Slaanesh army every edition, with the aim of doing it better each time. There's a well known converter who does crazy kitbashes and then runs them at Warhammer world events. His latest army is a heavily modified FeC army that he will run with the Ogor Mawtribes rules. GW themselves said its ok for him to run that army. There isn't a single actual Ogor in the army. So taking your Bonesplitterz and running them as some other faction is a completely legitimate option. I find these examples inspirational which is a big motivating factor for me. The important question you need to ask yourself is what you actually love about the game. If you come up with nothing then it's probably time to step away for a while but if there's an answer to that question for you then double down on it.

It will be gates of Azyr, Soul wars and Dominion. Those are the three edition tie in books.

While the BoC situation is sad, you have to feel a little sorry for Bonesplitterz. 900 replies and I only noticed one person saying Bonesplitterz.

I think heroes being in a unit is something they would have mentioned earlier. I'm not sure about the rend issue. It works the same it always did. Control seems pretty obvious. You add up the unit score, then add any bonuses. Warhammer weekly were full of praise for this system. The bonus can be much more nuanced as they are additive rather than multiplicative. I hope that shooting in combat is kept for small side arms. Getting off a quick shot with a pistol seems logical, shooting a cannon doesn't.

They've done minis for white dwarf plenty of times before. I think the last one was a liberator when they launched AoS They even did a metal elf for Mordheim. They've done versions of Gombrindal as a gift for subscribing before so they could do that again. I'm pretty confident that there will be a mini to accompany White Dwarf 500. Whether it will come with the magazine is another question.

This is a bit of a weird rumour. It's been well known for years that the specialist studio designed a range for Cathay to at least concept stage. It wouldn't suprise me if the full cad designs have been sitting around for a couple of years now. https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/09/14/watch-grand-cathay-come-to-life-in-an-epic-collaboration-for-total-war-warhammer-iii/ The article says they've even written the rules for the faction already. The question is if and when GW will allocate the budget and the production window to turn this range into real models.

The genestealer cults are rumoured to be getting some kind of psychic hero so it's probably that.

Yeah probably, but there are some other details that are a good change. They're pretty similar to the Preators but the details look a lot finer. Thinner parchment, chainmail instead of scale mail, the cloak not covering the chest, the thinner chains instead of the rope. It all adds up to a more pleasing design that isn't swamped by all it's detail.

Yes it is. It's in the eastern part of the great parch so presumably it's going to be ground zero for the Skaven attack. I'm definitely curious to learn more about it and to see the map in full. It could be a cool location for the next season of warcry or the next Warhammer quest game.