Rogue Explorator

I think the less popular legacy factions will always be there in the background, but they will surely slip into obscurity as far as tabletop presence goes. I am thinking less squats and more 40k beastmen, general Mutants and Genestealer Cults pre-rerelease. Or Fimir in the World-That-Was.They where always there, pretty much from the start, but as their old kits went out of production, simply no new ones dropped. They still played a (sometimes important) part in the lore, but they hardly ever had armies playing an important part in events. It sort of makes sense, particularly for many of the order ones, as more and more "proper" armies show up, the cults, colleges, messengers, engineers and criminals (heck, even the freeguild comes across more as a militia than a "real" army) of the Free Cities have less and less reason to go to war themselves. They can remain an important part of the free cities, but I suspect the Free Cities/Free Peoples may ultimately get new stuff not connected to any of them as well, slowly but surely pushing the old stuff further and further to the sidelines until by the time it is to discontinue the models, hardly anyone cares to complain. This is the gentlest way to do it and as a added bonus GW used those old kits to do some worldbuilding for them, without them, we would hardly have by now learned that aelven pirates and sorceresses run some of the organized crime in the free cities or that the best messengers you can get are elves on flying chariots. And if any prove to develope a cult following asking for their return or GW runs out of ideas, they can always be brought back in force, just as Genestealer Cults where.

The crest is misattributed to the Soulrender (it lack the lantern). However, I think it belongs to the Allopex Crew (if not, then a fangamora rider). It is definitely from one of the Idoneth though, so it matters not. Other than that I think you have got it. There really is not much left. A few more that look like we might see them resolved with Knights/Terrain and then a lot of the rest look really like Death and upcoming SC. The eternal mysterious 1 is still the most puzzling. It really looks like it should have resolved with KO. But since it does not (we have been through this a few times) it is really impossible to place and has been left unresolved for so long I sometimes wonder if they have pulled a KO kit from release at the last minute.

A little reminder that Nagash is still up to no good. Could mean one of two things: 1) The vast spell is Nagashes great work, meaning we are at the doorstep of getting a revelation what he actually does/did 2)The spell is just another step in the great work and this entire business gets drawn out a bit more before we actually learn what is actually going on I find 2 to be more likely, as I can not see everything resolvingneatly according to Nagashes designs.But even one is to find option 1 more likely, number 2 is hard to disprove, meaning: still possible So, while we certainly can not say that nothing has happened, at this point we still have no further knowledge what is actually being planned by Nagash than we did at the start of MP. We only know that it is very magical, vast in scope, a long time in the making and throws some nasty spooky hickups across the Realms. I would have though it would somehow tie up with an upcomming Death release, but nothing we have gotten rumored or teased implies a force different enough to varant the fuss. I have greatly enjoyed nearly every aspect of MP on its own merit, but I am still caught up in the feeling that the actual center stage is empty and we only see the side stories. Well, something is new: The Forces of Death are now fully on the offense, where before they mostly seemed to be doing pin point attacks.

According to White Dwarf it is for catching Souls. Also, on a purely visual level, it is reminescent of an Anglerfish, reinforcing the Idoneth's deep sea theme. Sadly I have yet to spot an actual Anglerfish among the Idoneths pet collection but we have yet to get closeups of most, so I am still hopeful.

Forgotten Nightmares affects all Idoneth units. Even if we where to get the 40k character targeting rules, Idoneth would still be quite special with that, behing able to "hide" a behemoth behind a battleline unit alone is huge. Personaly, I think character protection is the one rule change AoS absolutely needs. Not even for balance reasons but because character sniping goes completely against the feeling and style of the setting. Really, we have a world that is all about epic heroes, in the lore often among the last ones standing on the battlefield. And then in a game they will often be scratched of first, being relatively squishy force multipliers, but given the LoS rules often hard to hide. None of the other more controversial rules have such a discrepancy, even shooting from melee has some basis in the lore and somewhat suits the settings over the top feel.

Well, one of these could fit the fancy plumage on the Stormcast head: However, we have here two very similar, but not exactly same textures going into each other. It could be some sort of plumage or hair wipped up so much as to bend into itself, but I do not really see how that would make for a convincing miniature. But, then again, many of these rumor engines do not exactly show parts that are very exciting or convincing without context. There where some rumor engines that I really liked that really show something tpo sink your teeth into without giving away to much (the lion head, some of the terrain bits, Cawls set of keys, the Stormcast icon that has yet to show up), but most are just dips and daps of texture and standart design elements that more often than not, proof impossible to place, and without context really do not look so great.

Beepbeep, new Rumor Engine up: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/04/10/the-rumour-engine-april-10th-2018/ Talk of "cunning" makes me think "cunnin but brutal" Mork. That really does not compute with the image though. I think my best guess is another magical vortex like the Purple Sun.

Happy to see more screentime for the Anvils, they are propably my favorite Stormhost. Have they featured as protagonists before? They are noted for their antiquated manner of speaking, which should be entertaining (and possibly annoying).

Yeah, I think Magic and Undeath will come in May and June. I think a late April full announcement and reveal of the magic expansion outside of events (they still do that too, particularly for such releases with few minis) and then a full announcement of upcoming Undeath on Warhammer fest.

The new 40k edition was also announced at last years Adepticon. At this years Adepticon, there was no announcement of a new AoS starter. So if there is one, I would not expect it to be demoed on the same events new 40k was.

She would be the only ID with hair and actual mutation other than missing eyes. Also she wears a completely different style of dress from all ID mages and her Crecent Moon symbol makes no sense among ID. The faceplate is only the same in being blank, which is already a minor recurring theme in GWs Eldar ranges, thus a part of GWs design library of "elfy" features likely found in mutiple AoS aelf lines eventually. Add her featuring in no ID material so far to that and the likelyhood of the Mistweaver turning out an Idoneth after all is beyond slimm.

Could very well be those sort of spurs on the forehead some squigs have. Also could be fur. Space Wolves have been in rumor circulation recently.

I really think GW is quite comfortable leaving the finecast kits languishing in limbo for quite a bit longer. Except for the GUO and Beast, the release of Maggotkin left the finecast Nurgle models untouched and the same goes for finecast Tzeentch, Khorne or Space Marines. My guess is, if a model is really central to a line, GW will make an effort to replace them, as with the GUO and Beast (though there where other reasons to redo these, the GUO no longer fitting with the other greater demons and the beast simply not looking enough like its classic image). But if it is rather periferal to a line, like a special character, side character, rare unit, non-centerpiece monster or small elite unit, they can keep them untouched for quite some time, as I gather finecast kits seem to be rather cheap to keep in production. This is one of the reason I do not think the previewed coach is not actually the black coach. If they are going to redesign a unit, and, in the case of the black coach, give it not just a new look, but new lore and new rules to boot (as neither really fits with it being a centerpiece to the army it belongs to), they may as well give it a new name along the way, one that is more their own IP than the rather generic "black coach". Translated to Moonclan, this means they might redo the squig and squig hoppa units (especially if they can do so in one kit) as they seem rather central to the faction. But the heroes and mangler Squig? Another plastic hero and a even bigger monster kit to push the mangler out of being the armies centerpiece, and those can continue their existence as sidelined finecast kits for a good while longer, sharing the fate of Doomweavers, Curselings, Festus, Harbingers of Decay or Thunderfire Cannons. I am not sure about how much GW themselves realize they could have a living ruleset in AoS. Or how much they want one (note how 40k 8th was actually less digitalized and living than the earlier AoS). I would have thought there would be far more warscroll changes, but it seems like they are loath to do so outside of a book release, with only one change, that I can think of, so far (weapons on grundstock thunderers, even Vortexbeast of Tzeentch and Slaughterbeast of Khorne where alternative Warscrolls added with the original remaining unchanged). I think GW does not want to go full digital living ruleset and instead pursues a hybrid model, with most rules still bound up traditionally with books (though those get decent FAQ and Errata now) and only a selected portion of the rules evolving and more prone to more frequent change tied up in the GHB (and Chapter Approved for 40k). So, while the overall setup of AoS would enable a living ruleset, given developements so far, I find it quite unlikely that GW would forego new editions with big launches and a fancy box.

So far, we have had one army for either 40k or AoS release each month in 2018. Now, while this may be in part due to them clearing their backlog from presumably falling behind schedule in 2017, this is not actually an entirely new pattern and they have been busting these out in addition to all the Nekromunda, Blood Bowl, Shadespire, Terrain, Supplemental, no-new-miniature codexes and boxed set releases they have also been putting out lately. So, while things might slow down enough to give us one or two "empty months" as far as armies go, I do not think 10 armies in 2018 is an unreasonable guess. Putting together only the most certain info and this expectation I think we can say: -We know Idoneth is an April release, though it has been suggested they are a massive release, possibly stretching out into May. -This would fit with Imperial Knights, that we know most likely to be next in line, being a big release in the size of the kits, but small in the number of kits to be released. I think we can lock these in for May. -June then would not be unreasonable for the new Death stuff they teased at Adepticon (I stick by these being straight up Nighthaunt being far from assured After that, things get far more uncertain. In 40k Orcs will be among the few older armies to actually get new models by all accounts. They are also quite far out in 2018 by those same accounts. Other rumors talk of Slaanesh (40k), Kroot (40k) and more Stormcast. These too, seem rather far off. And some may be 2019 or no pan out at all (looking at you Kroot). Most likely, most of these do not even have a more than broad-strokes release date yet, afaik know GW works on a rather flexible release schedule, with only about the coming three months really planned out (and even there some shuffling being quite possible. So, army whise, the year seems about filled out with rumors, but there is room for a wildcard release or two. This would propably be somewhat smaller "supplemental" army release with about 3 kits, like DoK, as these seem much more likely to stay of the radar for much longer. We only got rumors that turned out to be DoK rather shortly before they hit us (same for Custodes and IK), while we had heard about KO and Idoneth quite far in advance. So, while we have had no actual rumors of them, I think Moonclan are the most likely army to show up as an Wildcard, as there are quite a few factors to imply them: -They did not get GHB 2017 support. -They did get a herald though and they are a bit unique among the armies to do so, being the only one without at least allegiance abilities. -They already have quite the sizable selection of miniatures, three to five kits would actually push them into major player league among AoS armies. -Nightgoblins where among the iconic units/army elements of Warhammer Fantasy, about on the level with Slayers and Witch Elves, who have gotten their releases. So, they are far from assured, but if an army for AoS ends up shuffling itself into the release schedule, they are the candidate. All that said, I consider 40k Orcs the only assured army release not yet previewed or officially teased by GW. The second half of 2018 may end up where different from what rumors currently suggest, while the first half seems quite clear. This brings us to non army releases: - Raw Magic Unleashed: I think the magic supplement will come before new Death. Late April seems possible but unlikely, May propably has room for it, with plenty. We know it comes with kits, but we have no idea how many there will be beyond the purple sun. This will also continue the story of Malign Portents, so an early May release would give some neat pacing, we have had the first hot phase now, so April can be a bit of a short lull/breather while Idoneth make their big entrance. Then with the magic supplement, the real trouble can start. - Boxed set: I think a big boxed set in Summer is likely. It may even be a new starter. I am much less convinced that it is going to be an actual new edition. We are entering phase two of Age of Sigmar, in fact I think phase two started with the release of Malign Portents. However, I also think phase 2 unequals edition 2. A new edition right on the back of a magic supplement that likely changes how the game plays (though that one would not be unprecedented) and one year after 40k 8th (so not with enough time to see how the changes of 8th play out and take that into consideration designing AoS2) seems oddly timed. I also wonder why they did not announce a second edition for AoS at Adepticon when they did so for 40k (which released around the same time this one is supposed to?) last year? Obviously, I remain unconvinced of all the rumors floating around this one. The good news is, I think we should learn what is up quite soon. Starter sets are announced a with a fair bit of extra advance time, so it would have to be in one of the next few announcement rounds. If one of those has a boxed set or even starter that is not a new edition, I hope we can burry this one. The same goes for New Death, with the teaser out, more info will also be forthcoming, if that disproves Nighthaunt, I likewhise think "new edition with Nighthaunt vs. Stormcast" is out (along with new Stormcast). - Shadespire: The only new Stormcast and likely Nighthaunt we actually know are coming. No telling when the next season hits, may be one year after season 1 started, but quite possibly sooner (I think otherwhise it would be quite the lull in between seasons). I think there is absolutely no certainty that the new Warbands will have any direct connection to the release of actual armies. So far the Warbands where either for factions already out for some time (with the Vanguard being the closest, still over a year after their faction release) with other two apparently not connected to a release at all. That format is certainly changing, but there is no telling how. Anyway, I am happy GW is putting out another season, recent word pointed in the opposite direction. I have no idea how much merit and perspective Shadespire has as a competetive format, but I think the minis have been great, particularly for converters, that it gives GW a great space for more bold and experimental "units" and it looks like a great game to play loosely as a beer and pretzels thing on the side, when there is no pressure to own everything, and as such, I could see it also as a Gateway. There are a lot of great candidates for warbands both new and old. My personal favorite would be brayherd, but I think everyone has that one faction they really get a warband. I just hope none are as basic and static as the farstriders, the bird is the only thing seperating them from the basic ranger box, imo. -Terrain: Chances are good we will see more unconnected to specific army releases. AoS could really do will a modular utillity terrain system like sector imperialis and mechancus are for 40k. Those two took year to get build up into what they are and had a few releases here and the before they where named system like they are now. The Azyrite Ruins look like a first step, it will be interesting to see where this goes. I think GW really had to reorganize how they approach terrain for AoS since the first two directions seem to have flopped. No big loss on the Dreadhold, which demanded a huge investment while offering little utility, but I sort of miss that we did not get more magic ruins like the Ophidian Archway/Dragonfate Dais/Occulum, though I gather they had some production issues? -Dread Solstice Supplement: GW said they plan to offer some sort of narrative support supplement based on the outcome of Draed Solstice, like they did with Firestorm for Seasons of War. Firestorm was certainly interesting, though really only for narrative. I think the different format and outcome warrants a very different supplement , so I am very curious what they come up with. I think we can be quite certain that there will be no new miniatures specifically for this, given there will only be a rather short production time. I think they said they where aming at the late year, but I think we could also see this early 2019. -Another GHB: The GHB is a yearly thing. I have no idea what they will put in there, beyond updated points and I think the artefacts uncovered in Dread Solstice (unless they are in the above). -Wild Cards: Given all of this, I actually think there is very little space for even more AoS stuff, unless this year very heavily favors AoS over 40k. Still, there are a few more imaginable things: -Another update for skirmish or path to glory. -Another mini supplement like those, for example a expansion of the siege rules. -More Warhammer Quest? This time with new minis again? This has already been a pretty big year for AoS and even if the rest of the above turns out far to optimistic it would still be an amazing turnout. That said, some issues remain. As far as miniatures go, GW has yet to deliver on this being "a great year for Death". I also really hope the grumbling that starts coming out of the Destruction corner does not have to reach the level of discontentment reached with Death. That said, I do understand not everyone can be satisfied, a Moonclan release likely does little to make an Ironjawz or Ogre fan happy, and Nighthaunt do not deliver for fans of Vampires and grotesque Zombies, just as the Syvaneth, Duradin and many Stormcast releases did nothing for the many fans of Elves.

The Eidolon is neat and all,but look at that adowable wittle aquazoo he carries with him. It should be clear by now that GW has picked up on models with pet sidekicks being really popular and really rolls with it in AoS. So, I now expect an entire petting Zoo of skeleton goats and clouds of ghost-kittens come Deathrattle and Nighthaunt. GW better deliver, or I swear I will riot

I am pretty sure that is not where you are coming from (or driving at), but I will take this opportunity to say how much the "other GAs have hierarchies, so order is not even Orders thing" argument bothers me. There is so much more to order in a society. Laws, institutions, some sense of accountability, law enforcement, courts, institutions of learning, iternal and external trade, settlements that form an actual society. All that stuff is at best rudementary in Chaos, Destruction and even Death. More often it is nonexistent or an outright mockery of any remotely civilised concept of such things, where even the worst factions of order live within a society that knows these things. To think that Hierarchy=Order is really rather incomprehensible to me. Particularly as the hierarchy among the other GAs is a pure matter of might makes right. Even in Death most characters would gladly dispose of Nagash and take his place if they only could, it is merely by the fact that most leaders in Death have magical control over their subordinates and far fewer cretures of Death are even capable of climbing up the ranks (as most undead are locked in at their status and many even lack self any awareness) that they are more stable than Chaos and Destruction. Sorry, I know we are really of topic here, but that is a little thing I can not simply let rest. Now, to put this all a bit back on the rumor track, there have been some whispers here and there in the lore and from insiders that there is plenty of space for Undead that do not follow Nagash at all or even oppose him. We had a, shall I say, taste of that with FEC, though they are hardly less vile. So, provided the teased upcomming Death release is not again the only one for the next few years, there is good cause to hope that Death will become much less monolithic in due time and thus, more morally gray. Right now Nagash and Death play the part of main Antagonist, so it makes sense their worst qualities are highlighted, but even then, we have gotten some pretty ambigous portrayals of the lower ranks of Deaths self-aware followers. I would also like to take this moment to recall that many servants of Death do not serve willingly, but are cursed to do so anyway, giving the entire GA a undertone of tragedy unique in AoS. I really hope we will see that aspect explored further in future Death releases. I could see this done with Nighthaunt in particular, while most Nighthaunt shown so far are remains of the wicked, the lore is clear that Nagashes underworld can twist any soul, no matter how noble in life, into a monstrous apparition that hates the living (as shown with Banshees).

I just do not see the other gods being good enough sports to make it a "propa" scrap, though with Sigmar sitting tightly locked up in his pretty fortress these days that is a distant memory. Maybe Gorkamorka should come knocking on the Gates of Azyr when this entire (obviously unrelated to our lord and savior Nagash) Portent and wonky time business has quited down (on its own accord, I am sure)? You know, just for old times sake

He earned that moniker alone for having his little temper tantrum in Shyish while Chaos was overrunning the Realms. Admittedly, he officially forsook his mantle as Barbarian God afterwards, but he seems to have worn it quite proudly during the Age of Myth and I do not think he can ever fully lose all aspects of it. I can certainly see how all the living (and unliving) Gods of the Realms, and not just the Aelven ones, would still consider him "The Barbarian",. Though in the case of Gorkamorka that propably means "The only fun one to have a scrap with".

Did not think alternative Mathlann would look so different and non highelven compared to the first version, but I agree with Chikout, it looks just as stunning. I also think the other version of the Seaunicorn rider is much better. Think it is no SC then, which is nice, everyone should get their own custom Seaunicorn rider.

It does, but judging by the Shadespire teaser we will get Harry Potter Stormcast instead. I am also pretty sure from their portrayal so far that Cogforts are: 1)unique to Hammerhall 2)to big for a miniature 3)more Freeguild than Stormcast None of that precludes walking fortresses for Stormcast, but there is no indication that is a thing either.

I am quite astonished how trusting everyone in this thread is so far to be honest. But then again, AoS has not had that many fake leaks since it came out (the time between end times and AoS released was pretty wild from what I gather, though I was not there to see it). Of course, the rumors could be true, but when a poster goes from speculating along with everyone else to open floodgates of insider info pretty much overnight, I feel a bit of caution and salt is appropiate.

You know, I really can not see how the Mistweaver could fit with the Idoneth range shown so far. There are a lot of superficial similarities, but once you go into the details, the style is very different for each bit. Like they have the same curve to the armor bits, but the decoration on the armor does not match at all. Both have blank faceplates, but again, very differently decorated. None of the idoneth feature half moon icons or the style of the Sais wrapped top. Both Idoneth and the Mistweaver feature skirts, but on Idoneth they are very classical with a wave decoration, the Sais looks more like a greatcoat bottom with no extra decoration. None of the Idoneth have something like the Mistweavers weird bonespur grows. All Idoneth spellcasters seem to have thick fancy full body robes, unlike the Sai. And last but not least, the Mistweaver Sai has her floaty hair and the only Idoneth shown with any hair at all is the supposed Avatar of Mathlann. Bottom line, I think we can put all similarities down to aelfyness (all similarities have featured on Old World Elves or 40k Eldar before) and say they are not on the same team, suggesting the Mistweaver and Shard where indeed Malerions Shadowkin all along. What really impresses me with the Idoneth is how these minis tell a story about their organization, culture and playstyle. At a glance, we can tell that the beastriders (and one hero on foot) shown seem to belong to a warrior caste. they look far more barbaric and dark than the others and seem to have two visual precedessors from GW darkest elven ranges, the Dark Elder reavers (on those jetbikes) and Dark Elf Beastmasters. They are almost split between those two inspirations in accordance with what they are more likely to play like. The Eel and shark rider look like reavers and are likely to play like fantasy jetbikes. The turtle looks like the behemoth sucessor of the scourgerunner/drakespawn chariot, with its less armoured crew and bolt thrower/harpoon gunners. The monsters actually do not look all that eldritch and mutated, which makes sense when you consider how clean the Avatar of Mathlann looks. The Mathlann elements seem to be the less corrupted elements of the Idoneth, so it makes sense that the seabeasts, creatures of Mathlann, would actually look less wicked than their riders. The warriors are a stark contrast to the Avatar and three caster heroes. The Avatar looks like a Lothern Seaguard in overdrive, with the two headdress wearing heroes sharing far more with him than with the rest of the range, suggesting to me they will be priests of Mathlann. These two and the caster type are set appart by their thick more high elven robes. Interestingly, the third caster type without headdress seems to sort of bridge the gap between the other two "casters" and the warriors, with his exposed bald head and a bit more vicious look. I suspect he will also bridge the gap in the lore. Last there are the thralls. What little lore we have on the Idoneth suggests to me that there are propably very few Idoneth, they might need the thralls (or at least tell so themselves) to sustain themselves. That so far, all "proper Idoneth" shown are either heroes or mounted on beasts would support this notion, suggesting a very small amount of actual Idoneth would make a lot of points, requiring the use of thralls if you want to put numbers on the table. However, we have yet to see the entire range and the War of Sigmar leaker described a sort hoplites, so we will have to see how those would fit into that idea. What is interesting about the thralls is that they actually look, apart from the bald eyless heads and vicious blades very basically elven in their styling, closer to wanderers than anything else I would say. While I truly am impressed with the range, there are some elements suited to holding me back from going all in collecting them. For starters, my favorites are the robed two heroes with the fancy headdresses. This is a minus, as I find the warriors to barbaric, crude and overall Dark Eldar like for what I would want from a faction like this. It may sound like a small thing, but that everyone (but the Avatar) is bald is a bit of a dealbreaker to me. I just do not like it, especially with how outplayed it is in GW IPs. It is so noticable that I suspect there is a very strong lore justification for it (I suspect they do not grow hair at all), so no rectifying it personally without needing a major lore justification. Also, for all my love of Deep Sea creatures and even though they are all in all well executed, their beasties do not look weird, monstrous and eldritch enough for me. I would have loved a stark contrast between sleek and cultivated aelven riders on mishappen mounts. As is, both are pretty close together, with the aelves often being a bit "darker" than their mounts. I also dislike flying stands and would have favored a basing integrated solution like most newer flying kits (Disks of Tzeentch, Khinerai, Persecuters) have. Most of these I could rectifiy with kitbashing and sculpting, but since I intended to stay clear of order and destruction, they suffice holding me back from Idoneth. I think for me personally, I can see their use being mostly in kitbashing and as conversion base, particularly for Slaaneshi models. After a head and equipment swap the thrally really should not need much work to make Slaaneshi Marauders, while the sea unicorn rider I see as a great basis for a lord on daemonic mount (either the StD or the hosts one). Many of the heads and weapons and other bits last would work great for Chaos Warriors and Knights. Meanwhile many of the fishy pets and decorations would work very well for Tzeentch conversions. Deepkin not pulling me in allows me to hold out for new Death, which we finally know is coming´. I sure hope the bits shown belong to something fancier and more innovative than a rehashed Black Coach (a completely new kit inspired by the black coach would be an entirely different story). While the glances offered do suggest something Malignant, I think it is important to note that all rumors on Nighthaunt so far are based on speculation and not leakers and Nighthaunt are not the only force in Death to feature ghostly elements (Deathmages, Deathlord and Soulblight so far also do). Add to that GW stating that GHB 2017 supported factions will not see releases anytime soon, and I think we should treat "Nighthaunt are incoming" with a heavy dose of salt. Personally, I hope we will get a breath of new (un)life for Death, I hope through an entirely new faction that challenges what we see Undeath like as was done for elves and dwarfes with Idoneth and Kharadron, or by expanding an existing range into entirely new directions like Sylvaneth or DoK did. In fact, I still hope we get both this year, but I am braced for a single well executed, yet essentially more of the same release like Maggotkin. Last I really like the goofy weird purple sun and suggestion for a big magic expansion. The magic of Warhammer was always very weird and unpredictable in the lore and in AoS it is magnified, I would love for that to be more accentuated in the lore and gameplay. Well, the eels have one rider and the sharks have two, that is pretty big difference and also suggests the sharks are bigger.

Somebody really needs to send GW a memo that they really are overdoing bald characters, I think more than half their human and humanoid figures are bald. Appart from that, I could not agree less, the cavalry are my favorites from the (non-hero) units shown.

I love the Scribe with the Octopus. Looks like the Idoneth have a lot of kits, though only 4 for units (might be the eels and sharks are not dual build, that would be 5[edit, jepp the sharks have two riders where the eels have one]), everything else looks like heroes and SCs. Overall a great looking range, I am not so sure about the eyeless infantry ( some type of thralls I suspect) though.

Let us not forget that unlike in the Old World, in AoS almost any faction can pop up almost anywhere, not only due to the Realmgates, but also because most factions are highly mobile. Most of Destruction is at least semi-nomadic, but more commonly entirely nomadic, Kharadron are always looking for new claims, DoK have their (futile) seeking shards of Khaine thing, Fyreslayers could be on hire from anyone, etc. And then there is Stormcast, Seraphon, Daemons, most of Death and Skaven (at least, possibly Moonclan and Idoneth are counted here as well), all of whom can very much literally pop up anywhere (or fall as lightning bolts from the sky). Really, the Free Cities, Syvaneth and the mortal servants of Chaos seem to be the most passive and defensively oriented factions and they hardly sit on their behind all day. Simply, there is no need for anyone to live on top of each other, as everyone runs into each other all the time anyway. Azyr and the Eightpoints (not counting Blight City as it is now part of the Realm of Chaos) seem to be the only truly unmolested homebases and I think even that is only for now. Also: I think the Brayherd wants a Word with you and those Tree Spirits.