Rogue Explorator

If we are taking a D&D comparison, I would rather say that Order represents those whose alignment is actually dependand on their own personality, as opposed to demons, Undead and Monsters in most D&D settings, whose alignment is determined by their nature. If you look at Chaos and Death, they are entirely composed of beings who by their nature, misfortune or foul bargain are bound to the will of their GAs leading element (Nagash for Death, the Realm and Gods of Chaos for, well, Chaos). Any personality or capability for independent thought is ultimately overruled over by their Masters. Even the most unruly elements are ultimately devoid of true independence, like the Flesheater Kings, whose insanity keeps them from making any sort of founded decision. The forces of Destruction meanwhile are completely ruled by impulse and instinkt. They do as they want and can hardly be commanded, but all just what they want is set in stone. That is the huge difference between Order and the other three GAs, by and large the factions of Order are made of actual people with a will, personality and agenda of their own and more importantly, the freedom to act on it. This is true for even the most supernatural members so far, the Slyvaneth and Stormcast, in fact, Stormcast loosing their personality and free will with each reforging is presented as one of the biggest issues Sigmar faces. The people of Order can have the best and worst of qualities, good or evil, lawful or chaotic, but whatever they are, they are so because of their own choices and are all capable of going either way. To give an example of what I am talking about, lets take for example the quality of compassion. Order is the only GA where a character being compassionate would act as we expect. A Stormcast Lord Celestant has his host pause to care for civilians, a Kharadron Admiral might deliver goods (at a slimm profit) to a poor community near an aethergold vain, a Fyreslayer take an oath for a mere token, a Sylvaneth Gladelord give hidden boons to nearby mortals and I guess even a Deathhag might decide to only sacrifice the wicked. Now, a mortal servant of Chaos or certain high ranking Undead (a Vampire, maybe even a Wight King, Deathmage or Liche) are well capabable of having a compassionate personality. However, the Powers of Chaos twist everything beyond recognition. To a Chaos Champion compassion would mean spreading the contagious gifts of Nurgle to the unloved wretches, giving the dull the experience of exquisite torture, warping and mutating the mind and bodies of the insufficient or forcing the weak into combat where they either claim strength or are relieved of their suffering. Meanwhile, to a servant of Death their compassion becomes meaningless the moment the needs of their Undead nature or the commands of a greater will of Undeath makes itself manifest. Some Soulblight might ensure their mortal thralls live in comfort and happiness, but they still enthrall and predate on them. A Deathmage or Liche tells himself he is doing the living a favor as he turns their flesh to dust and puts the bodies to eternal work at Nagashes command and to a banshee the knowledge of the horrible fate she bestows uppon her victims adds just another layers to her own eternal torment. Meanwhile a compassionate Ghoulking dotes on his faithful Men-At-Arms, always seeking out splendit feasts to fill their bellies. Lastly, to the forces of Destruction, compassion is simply not a part of their nature and it goes right over their head. If a Ogor or Greenskin even manages to take notice of the concept, at best a Megaboss would think how he gave "da umies" a good scrap, a Gutbuster Tyrant how he found his bunch a great meal and a Moonclan how a just petted his favorite Squig. Then they'd decide they are doing good, forget about it and seek out the next fight.

Morathi really more than measures up to her new servants miniatures. I really like her Aelf form as well, it is a fitting and so far very unique pose. I particularly like the relaxed left arm, for all the focus on dynamic posing we have had so far, I think for models that are more comanding we need more of that. I think DoK may turn out to be GWs best miniature release so far and by all we hear the next one may very well top it. Just to "reignite the GA bash" (not really, but I felt I had to weight in), I do hope with Aelves being provided some new flavors, those of us who like Orks, Goblins, Ogres, Vampires, Ghosts and Skeletons get the same treatment soon. To me, this is what the whole matter of GA balance is all about: GW has delivered us three flavors of Chaos dudes and two entirely new flavors of dwarf where before there was only one of each. They now bring out two different flavor of Elf back to back. If you look at Chaos and Order now, I will whole heartedly agree with those that say that AoS is going into a direction where GA does not matter that much to what comes out or what one collects. However, people to whom the factions of Death or Destruction appeal most to are still mostly left out of this developement, with playing usually GA being the only recurse if one wants any variation at all. We have to get out of the mindset that Destruction or Death are only one "thing", each is made up oft multiple faction types with their own appeal (Vampires, Zombies, Skeletons and Ghosts for Death, Ogres, Trolls, Orks and Goblins for Destruction) that can be varied and reinvented as GW has done for Elves, Dwarves and Chaos Warriors so far. For me, this is the sources of the "where is the Death support" calls stems from. At least Ogres, orcs and goblins already inherited a selection of different styles from Warhammer fantasy, but almost the entirety of Undeath is still stuck all conforming to the very same style. So anyway, that is my attempt at explaining the GA imbalance issue, now lets get oogling awesome new elf miniatures. I think we will do that for an entire month starting from now.

I have no idea what GW wants to tell us with this one. But it so suited to raise all sorts of false hopes, that I think it passes the line to genuine trolling. My guess is: Another thing that at first looks like it might be something new for Death, but then is not. But whatever it is supposed to foretell or tease, this one gets a thumbs down from me. GW should at least give people a slight idea what they are teasing. All this tells us that there is something new for AoS to follow somewhat close to DoK (since this gets teased before anything for wh40k that is more than books or a single kit).

The vainest Soul to ever have existed. Slaanesh is far bigger in Scope than a single Soul I believe. There have been some speculations it might be Sigvald though. Never. Beastmen are the true children of Chaos and shall forever be part of it. Besides, Beastmen go beyond pure destruction for its own sake. To just tear something down is not enough for them, they must see it despoiled and desecrated, turned to less than it ever was. Where the hordes of Destruction rampaged, you can come back and rebuild as if it was unsettled, where the Gor-kin succeded, you face a land poisoned and desecrated with the stuff of Chaos.

I do not feel anyone, even at GW, denies that Duradin are Dwarves, Aelves are Elves, Orruks are Orcs etc. Look at it this way, Duradin are the type of Dwarves specifically populating the Mortal Realms (and so on). GW is by far not the only one to do this in their worldbuilding, and while IP protecting is an often cited (and certainly not wrong) reason for doing this, I would like to point out that there is a pretty good non-comercial reason for giving "your" version of a standart fantasy creature another name. It simply helps seperate a world specific version from any preconceived notions the audience brings to a setting. Tell someone a game has Dwarves, and that person immediatly has a pretty precise idea of what a Dwarf should look and act like (propably something like movie Gimli). Think of Duradin after some time familiarizing yourself with AoS and Fyreslayer and Kharadron pops up in your mind. People are also far more to accept the likes of half naked mercenary lodges and industrialist warriors strapped to a miniblimp when it is not straight out called a dwarf (that is not what dwarves are all about, but a Kharadron Duradin that is just a subset of a subsetof dwarf can be). It is a neat little trick to help get acceptance, recognition and curiosity for a twist of an known image. Back when I was still into Magic the Gathering, Wizards of the Coast would often do this whenever they created a new world for a new season, even though they might already have had multiple "ip-able" names at their disposal for differentiation, and it is also something quite a few non-corporate (like indi-RPG developers) or entirely non-comercial creators (like D&D hobbyists with homebrew settings) would do.

True, but we do not know what he has been up to and how live (and apparent immortality) in the Mortal Realms and Blight City has treated him. I mean, is he now some sort of avatar of the Horned Rat? If so, why did he not turn into a Verminlord? All we know is that he is still around because he got a snazzy new model during the Endtimes, would be nice to get some in-setting explanation to.

The prices on the books are great news. I feared Malign Portents in particular would cost much more. If GW sticks to their current pace (likely, with the production issues apparently sorted), we might see DoK very soon and they are propably a two week release at max. Add the Necron and Knight minireleases, as well as Shadespire and Nekromunda and we still have unknowns starting mid to late march.

I really do not think all the current minifactions need to ever be merged or further developed, many of them represent by now neat small background elements that just do not warrant any further expansion. I think such factions have a great place in AoS as allies and part of GA armies, especially those really small Order factions that have by now been defined as compound parts of Free Cities. For example, I really like the scourge privateers and their status as defining part of the Free Cities criminal underbelly, but as things stand, they are really self contained and can already serve a variety of narrative and hobby purposes. As a Death player, I feel similarly about Deathmages (though I think they should have gotten the Corpse Cart), they show that old world style Nekromancers are still around as a minor force. But I'd rather see a few new styles of Necromancy in the future, with most Death faction to see release boasting their own mages and, if Death gets an expansion with mortals, those not bound to the wasted away and tattered styling of the World-that-was, where every Necromancer was a solitary outcast, rather than have Deathmages expanded or completely folded back into a larger faction.

Because the GAs are not just army, but also a collective of similar style, appeal and place in the lore. If what you want is a "people" faction you are absolutely spoiled for choices with the wide range of miniatures order inherited from the World-That-Was and the many releases the GA has gotten. Now, all those are wonderful miniatures and releases, but they do not hit the "spot" a Destruction or Death release would. I can only speak for myself here, but when I truly discovered AoS (I have been a long time in and out of the hobby, but it took some time before I gave AoS a proper look) I fell in love with the overall style and the creative work GW is pouring into each new release. Looking over the existing range and what came with End times, I actually quite quickly knew Death would be "my" GA. But I wanted an AoS army and to this day almost everything in AoS Death is really still just one Warhammer Fantasy army. That was in late 2016. I thought then that Death may still be over a year away, so I tried busying myself with Tzeentch, knowing it was reasonably close, but in the end just was not really "feeling" it. Quite early in 2017 we got the first teaser for Malign Portents, along with the info about the Knight of Shrouds (then likely the first "pure" AoS mini) and a rough timescale. So I prepared myself for a proper Death release would soonest be late 2017 just before MP. As 2017 reached its close, we got the realization that there would be no Death that year, but at the end of 2017 the MP teasers gave a silver lining. Then came the Nurgle announcement, telling us that new Death would come earliest some time after the MP announcement. Then, as MP starts to pick up some steam narratively, we get the first Morathi teasers and an elf release. And just in line with that, some new rumormongers get confirmed that do not have any Death on their screen until summer. So already not expecting any Death at all before Q2, it is propably now a good idea to redjust that further to Q3 2018. And all the while GW is teasing Death, via Shadespire lore, via Malign Portents teasers (that, remember, saw their first appearance quite early in 2017). Really, I am still full of praise for what GW has been doing with AoS so far, but I think it is understandable that those of us who have their heart set on Death are a bit ruffled by now. I am afraid the sticking in the craw is mutual, so I am taking a step-by-step in my answers. Hopefully we can clear the air a bit. This one really only works when talking about 40k as well. I am talking AoS specifically (for 40k, lets just consider how long Chaos has been on the backburner in that setting). Talking actual new miniatures released for AoS, nobody has gotten as much and particularly as much variety as Order. It has been the main conflict so far, and (propably not) concidentially it is the conflict between the two GAs that went into AoS with the biggest range to start with. And lets not forget that almost everything released up till nearly now has gone into developement before GW even found out what actually sells in AoS. Most factions released for AoS so far did not even exist before, I really do not see how the "biggest seller" argument can be brought up here. Meanwhile, judging by release frequenzy, Dark Elves, High Elves, Skaven, Vampire Counts and Empire where some of Fantasys biggest sellers, yet none of them saw support in the infancy of AoS. The argument does not even hold water for Extremis Chamber and Vanguard Chamber, those must have started developementment before AoS even hit the stores. We also do know some big AoS sellers that will not see developement anytime soon, GW publicised allegiance abilities for popular (i.e. selling) factions in GHB 2017. They include Nighthaunt and Soulblight. Which is not really the issue we are talking about here. You could even say I am complaining that GW is releasing something I want with DoK, all the while teasing something I want even more, because I could not possibly afford both in the same year. I did, picked up Tzeentch. It did not work out for me. Meanwhile, it is not like we do not know Death factions are coming. I hope this helps explain my (and maybe some others) perspective.

Note that you have quoted "the ugly", not "the bad". Supposedly, Malign Portents is the current AoS main event and Death its biggest player. The issue is, GW continues bamboozling the presentation. If they had to push back Daughters of Khaine and Nurgle, I think it would have been for the best to push back Malign Portents, including its anouncement, as well, so it can take true centerstage and the players of these new armies can realistically have an army ready when the big events unfolds. As things are going, MP really is more of a sideshow to the new non-Death releases. As for LoN, it really is great news for people that have build a GA Death army and want to continue playing it Vampire Counts style. But for me, I do not want primarily a GA army. I have seen what amazing creativity GW has unleashed on all its new Order releases and I love the hints of a new style for Death from the End times releases. I am waiting for a faction or two like that I can dedicate my (limited) hobby energy and rescources to. With the announcement of MP, I really got the impression the time for Death to get it has come. Now we have to see "Yeah, it will be sometime this year, but first Order and Chaos get new toys". And what hints we do get (LoN being essentially Vampire Counts 2.0, the very traditional Shadespire Skeletons, The Ringwraith Knight of Shroud, rumors of Undead Orcs and Skaven) it does not look like GW will be all that innovative when they finally get around to doing New or Updated Death factions. I guess I am about to jump ship on Death since it is still so unclear where the journey is going. I am sorry if my frustration with that is showing.

So, last Nights reveals: -The good: Daughters of Khaine look quite awesome. Like very, very awesome. Love the Gorgons, I would expect them to be about Kurnoth Hunter or Enlightened/Skyfire equivalent. I think it is a bit sad GW wasted the name furies on weak Chaos Daemons no one ever remembers, because that clearly seems to be what the winged witches are, to go with the gorgons and the regular Witch Aelves being Maneads. Maybe they'll call them Erynies, use the greek style name with a compound element in front like they did with the Bloodwrack Gorgons? Looks like two unit kits, the big Morathi box and maybe a clamppack, though I think if any of the gorgons represent heroes, they might be build from the unit box, like the mounted Blightking hero. All in all, it looks like a pretty small release that nonetheless puts its faction well into "well supported territory", I think the total of units ends up outstripping Sylvaneth?I really like this, I hope we will see plenty of releases like that, AoS really needs more well supported varied factions, not more small new factions with very little variety (like Ironjawz, Everchosen or Fyreslayers). I think the biggest thing for me is the Battletome, I think there has been no AoS faction so far whose lore I am more eager to read, I think it might tell us a lot of new things about the Age of Myth. Sadly, if the Malign Portents tome, Legions of Nagash and Daughters of Khaine are all out in February, that leaves my hobby budget for the month beyond spend from the three books alone, even at the most affordable pricing. -The bad: The heralds look very uneven. The Goblin can support his entire GA, the Stormcast at least supports specific builds within the entire GA and the Warqueen at least supports a faction many Chaos armies can use. Meanwhile, the Knight of Shrouds is only really good as a Nighthaunt general, I think his beatstick qualities are neglegible. Many Death armies get the short end of the stick if they go the "both sides get to use heralds for free" route. Order continues its march of overshadowing all other GAs in large strides, getting another awesome release, after being the biggest GA to begin with, getting the best supported posterboy faction and then getting the greatest amount of non Stormcast releases. The gap in support between GAs is a jawning chasm by now. Yes, aelves where due, but at this point I really hope Tyrion and Malerion are actually part of the same faction, so GW can just let Order fall back for a bit after putting them out and let the other GAs at least catch up a little. -The Ugly: Once again GW overshadows their big, supposedly centered around Death, event with a spectacular reveal for another faction. In december the buildup and website reveal ended up looking entirely lackluster next to the release of Nurgle. Now, a battletome and the release of the Malign Portents book are upcoming, but all eyes are on Morathi and the daughters of Khaine. Notice how nobody is even asking about the release date of the MP book? Instead I see a lot of comments saying "I still don't know what the big deal with Malign Portents is, but I don't really care anymore". GW really knoes how to kill their own hype. The Global Campaign that I guess belong to MP starts mid February. At best, Battletome:LoN is barely out by then. With a lot of people ready to start Death for it quite possibly jumping ship for Daughters of Khaine now (hell, I am almost ready to do so). Lets just hope the story branches depend on something other than which GA "wins" each phase, because otherwhise it is a foregone conclusion, if anything Order is even more dominant now than it was in Seasons of Hope. Really, I am not looking to be negative here, I love the upcoming DoK minis and the Lore we get as part of MP. But when Death finally gets something new, I really hope it was worth the wait.

New teaser out via Warhammer Community site, pretty much confirming Morathi, if there was still any doubt: Not much new, at least mortal form Morathi still looks the same as ever, though she dresses a bit more modestly (at least in the video). P.s.: Actually, looking at her clothes, I am no longer sure the Mistweaver is not on Morathis team, there is a lot of stylistic overlap, though I still think the Mistweaver skirt and Moon icons do not fit the daughters range. I still lean towards the Mistweaver being another aelven faction (possibly even of hysh and uglu combined), but I no longer consider her being with Morathi unthinkable.

You almost ninjaed me there, was about to say the same for harpies and lesser gorgons from the artwork. But I think the witchaelves with spear are from the Bloodcauldron/Bloodwrack Shrine kit. I think the biggest hope for many here is a reboxing of witchaelves into boxes of twenty, which is the only way GW has reduced prices (the way they doubled liberators at not double price). That kit is still way expensive.

I actually hope this means more releases with minis in this year altogether, even if not all are "army foundation" level scale.

Morathi leading updated daughters of Khaine? Interesting. Since they tease Morathi specifically, I guess that means new miniatures (unless they pull something silly like "play a Bloodwrack Gorgon as Morathi"), so hopefully that is something to finally silence the "no old faction will ever be updated with new miniatures" voices. I guess this will be another order release, I really do not see them shuffling miniatures between GAs, since it would mean players suddenly no longer being able to use their posession in the forces they bought them for. I also think we might then see the Tenebrael Shard as part of this. He defenitely has a Cult of Khaine vibe and those horn crowns mostly tied to them. Really like the monologue, some very nice lore in there. AoS can really use demigods, so, another plus. Still no new Death minis though

I think the point is that the mortal people of the Realms do not have that sort of perspective. Alarielle going into isolation, while Tyrion and Malerion went skipping of after Slaaneesh happened in the Age of Myth. All they saw is, after nearly half their gods already having abandoned them, then their prime protector just leaves them to their fate without as much as a word. Meanwhile Nagashs part in the success of Archaon does hardly seem to be public knowledge and he is the only god to go down fighting against Chaos. There are good arguments to be made for Sigmars decision, but he never told them to the mortals he abandoned. The way things are heading, I would say that being bad at public relations is looking like Sigmars fatal flaw. Which is either highly self aware or ironic considering GWs own history over the past decade.

If possible, all new models for all new factions or subfactions seems to be the trend of recent times, but I would not count on it holding up. I think we need to remember that the developement of the larger releases takes a looong time (3 years tends to get tossed around). This means, most minis we see currently/the last two years saw most of their developement under "old" GW. Since the leadership changed, we saw massive shifts in policy in almost all aspects of GWs business. But we are still waiting to see how the developement cycle has changed. Not updating any old faction or kit may have been the plan once, but I think the non-miniature support for old kit factions and the MP harbingers, whom, as a small line, may have been developed much faster and mostly support "old" factions, indicate this is propably no longer the long term intention.

Cthulu Aelf Fishmen confirmed !!!111 Honestly, at least this is an interesting looking rumor mill. Some sort of beast, though it is not really clear wether its scales or fur without context. Well, it does also look a bit more like AoS than 40k, so that is nice.

I do not really see it. Make a big deal of a long running Campaign about Death and Shysh, then at what is likely to be the height of that Campaign release the Aelves of Hysh and Uglu? That would be so jarring, I can almost see GW do it. I think it is good to keep in mind that none of the correct predictions where awefully hard to guess. We had plenty of hints for all three by early November. Guess the most likely stuff for the next months, then predict something entirely out of the left field for the longer term is an established pattern of false rumors.

Not necessarily. They say FEC are not part of the actual Legions of Nagash, but the Battletome also includes GA:Death rules. So FEC units may still be included under that particular umbrella, but incapable of joining the 4 "character driven" factions. Since they supposedly reprint all Warscrolls, they may just decide on a case by case basis and add individual keywords for Blood, Night, Sacrament and Grand Host allegiance.

It is mostly an overall impression I get from the bits and pieces of lore we get here and there. But I have got my GA:Death book on hand, it has some lines about how they are ghosts who managed to flee the Underworlds that even the Undead fear (I can not quote literally, since I only have a german copy to work of). There where some much more meaningfull bits of lore of this sort, but they are spread wide across multiple battletomes and other sources. I also remember GWs answer to complaints about the inability of Nighthaunt allying in a Mortis Engine being that the Nighthaunt on the Mortis Engine are bound by Nekromancy, which is something free Nighthaunt despise and they would rather tear Deathmages appart for it and never willingly work with them. All in all, Nighthaunt have up to this been portrayed as escapees that just want to mess with the living and do not take kindly to being ordered around. The lore so far has portrayed both Deathrattle and Nighthaunt as forces that exist on their own when there is no greater power of Death to command them. They are a far call from their will-less puppet forebears from the World-that-Was Vampire Count armies The Deathrattle are no longer the likes of the random Joe Shmoes hastily ressurected to form units for some Vampire or Necromancer and only animated bound to their will, but are often more like Tomb Kings, entire Kingdoms and cultures dating back to the Age of Myth of the dead reanimated in their own right, going through the motions of their previous lifes., directed by their Lords who still have an intact mind and personality. Yes, regular skeletons hastily raised to serve some master would not need their own battletome. But undying remnants of a lost age, wielding weapons not seen since the time of myth, acompanied by warbeasts long extinct would be a different matter. Meanwhile, the Nighthaunt are the denizens of the Underworlds, which to me seem like a very important part of the cosmology. One that could be very well explored much more through a battletome. And the Nighthaunts we have seen so far are just the escapees. If the various Underworlds where to be opened, there are pretty much unlimited possibilities of what ghosts could surge into the Realms. Both have the background and the possibility for expansion an army with its own battletome requires. It would be a pity if GW went back on their word and turned them back into being just the tools of Nekromancers and Vampires. Particularly for me, as I have no interest in either of those. However, with some of the latest lore, it seems this is exactly where GW is heading, particularly for Deathrattle. The high hopes I had for the future of Deathrattle are certainly sinking by the day currently.

So, I have just read the Death article in the new WD. Most of it reads like it was written for Vampire Counts with some slight "oh yeah, right, this is AoS" amendments. I found that strange, since, to me, so far the portrayal of Death in AoS has been far more diverse, interesting and nuanced, so I hope this is no permanent return to "the old ways". Well they are over all the most likely Undead to go rogue. Well, actually I got the impression Nighthaunt are in fact even wilder than FEC, but most of the really troublesome ones are propably locked up safely in the Underworlds. However, the battletome makes mention that numerous Flesheater Kings are still enthralled by Nagash, often worshipping him as part of their delusion. So it would actually go against established lore if there where no FEC among the Legions of Nagash. That does not mean that many other of the Kings are not still as far away from Nagash as possible if not even actively opposed to him (still from far away if they have any sort of sense left). Its not like the FEC hold regular conference to agree on their common agenda. It is propably very few Undead who can resist when their god calls them to service. Though there is propably a sizable number who would deny it if some lowly Souldblight tries to do it in his name.

And absolutely nobody here asked for a full projection of the year at all. They could not stick even close to one, due to the flexible way their scheduling works anyway. However, the status and circumstances of the current releases could use some more communication and transparency. Even if, in the current example, it is just a short "no, this release does not include new miniatures, yes we know you are waiting for them".

Unless LoN represents Death at the start of Malign Portents and the new units only emerge as a part of the developing storyline, which is how the Realmgate Wars handled this sort of thing at times. And then there is the matter of real world logistics. The only other option would be for to drop this book and all new Death stuff for 2018 at the same time. Them not doing it like this heavily implies that would propably be a bit too much to handle. And that should be good news for Death players, since it further implies that indeed a lot is coming. But in the end, all we can say with some certainty is that new releases seem to still be quite a bit further beyond the horizon (quite possibly we are looking at nothing before Q2). I would be happier if GW would go out just say so openly and I think that sort of transparency would be in their own interest in the long run, since otherwhise every announcement for Death and Malign Portents will be viewed in the light of "But where are the miniatures?". But even with the "new way", that is just not how GW does things (possibly, again, due to logistics).

It is described as "the start of a huge year for Death". Fokus on start. This is not the be all end all of all AoS Death ever, but just the basis for whatever is coming for Death in 2018. And when did GW ever release a book alongside a release wave of miniatures, without announcing any of the the miniatures first? I sure can not remember any instance of that.