RexHavoc

Mushrooms, goblins and horror. Oh god, I was hyped yesterday, but I've just completely flipped out. Too all those I've chuckled at, by having brought into the GW hype sales strategy, I apologise! So that's how they get you! 🤣 I also loved the little spider skull. I've always wondered why they never added a servo skull equivalent in to AoS, I thought a magical skull as a wizards aid would always be a nice bit to include in kits. I wonder if this is the how they will keep the spidergrots around as part of moonclan, which might mean no new huge kit as I predicted. (This isn't a massive issue, the kit is smashing, just I live with an extreme arachnophobe that wouldn't handle them in the house. I've kept the smaller ones I do own out of the way, but that is a big kit to try and build, paint and hide in the same house! So I've always try to avoid it!) I was looking forward to seeing what models I was getting tomorrow, now I'm just going to be waiting for the trailer!

Yeah I kind of expect them to follow last years release schedule if anything, which means getting skirmish box set around the same time as kill team was released. I thought they might flip between the two games year by year, but with grots *maybe* coming in January looks like they are sticking to last years schedule, which would mean summer time for a big AoS release. Oh yeah, all conjecture. It just seems unusal from GW to release something in WD just before it comes out- this is far more what late 90s WD would do and not what even the new and 'improved' GW would do. But We will see. Could be a sign of better times. I'd be happier getting caught up in the hype with free rules long before a game came out (this would have been good for kill team too in hindsight) haha I had the same exact thought, no Korean in the photo so nothing to do with him! haha

The big thing I find odd with skirmish is that it is the perfect way to get people that want to get in to AoS in to the game and its the perfect way to get people to spend money on kits and conversion they might otherwise never touch (I'd never paint a deepkin force, or at least no plans too any time soon but would happily paint 10 models for fun) but instead of giving us a new pamphlet style rulebook that is cheap and easy to buy, instead they opt to put it in white dwarf as an article- something you can't buy after the month (well, there are ways but not easily and not off the shelf). Even a booklet would have been better, as then there would have been a stockpile of leftovers (40k only players, return magazines from newsagents, bulk from the print run) ready to give out at the till or with start collection boxes. I know they need things in white dwarf to encourage people to buy it (being that white dwarf is now all but pointless as a hobby magazine) but this seems like a poor choice to make skirmish have some of the spotlight again, as it had last year. If it's a precursor to getting a new version down the line then its ok, but this seems like it will be hyped for a month then forgotten again. I'll probably pick this issue up anyway, but don't see this making Skirmish as big as it was when it first came out. The real curiosity will be if the rules/article is written by Bottle. Only thing I've seen him do with GW since he took hinterlands down, was the live stream game. It would be interesting to see if his name is on this, which might point to a much, much bigger release later in the year

I think that the start collection boxes is just a go way to push skirmish as they have enough mix of troops in there as well as a hero or two, but they they can use it as the stepping stone to 'full scale' AoS, using the big model as your next planned step in the army. Even though one of the simple joys of V1 skirmish was that you could get into it as cheaply as just a single box unit, GW do seem to be moving away from having the cheap basic troop boxes on the shop floor. Things like the old €20 units of 20 models seem to be a thing of the past. Newer forces seem to get more of the €45 sets with 5-10 models max. The start collection sets seem to be the way to buy your cheap starting models and I Wouldn't be surprised if they become the only way to get core infantry in the future. (which isn't a bad thing, as they are great value, you only have problems when people want very specific forces) The core infantry is of course always available online and most of the sets are still in stores, I've just noticed they are becoming less common and not always on the shelf.

Yeah the image is not great on a mobile.

Hopefully the skirmish stuff is similar to how mordheim was done- with rules started off in white dwarf until the game was pretty much ready then a big box release. but if not I can live with the original rulebook. I was really hoping that we would get a new box set, but I wasn't so keen on what kill team actual was, were as I'd happily continue to play the original skirmish game pretty much forever. A few new battleplans in white dwarf will be enough for me, if we are not getting an actual big box.

New flying mushroom squig! Looking at it closely, it looks to be just a mistake, probably one of the lighting effects is normally covering it in the video, and it might only show up on the picture (just a guess)

Here's the full Image, viewing it full screen you can see the moon is almost fully bad now! The teeth and nose are clear now!

For sure, they are going to show something off at christmas! They can't tease us with Grots all week and not show anything! I'd be mighty displeased if it was just the other shadespire warband being shown again, and I don't expect them to show off as much as they did with nurgle (though that would be cool). I expected we will see something like plastic squigs or some hero model shown on christmas day. There is bound to be some super large kit (I'm hoping pump wagon or squig chariot, though a plastic squig cannon would be awesome cool) but wouldn't be surprised if we don't get one, rather seeing the arachnarok or Giant in place of a true huge kit. Still, I suspect we will see plastic squigs (as we've seen some in shadespire) with herders, battletome, dice and spells and probably a new stone troll replacement (as river trolls are still kinda of new kits). Not sure how much more they will pump out for them to be honest. I suspect this is going to be more like the nurgle or DoK release, as they have been teasing it for a while now, but it could be more like BoC, with very little in the way of brand new kits, just a reboxing.

That's the exact feeling I'm getting with the art though! It is probably just how they have incorporated them in to the art to make it 'christmasy' but the goblins poking out the tree and hiding in the house feels like they are up to no good! This would be amazing if they went this route for the fluff though, rather than, like you say, bullied mini orcs. The shadespire defiantly had more of a magical feel to them though- the captured sprite as a lantern gave them a more dark fantasy feel, akin to the dark crystal or labyrinth goblins. Still, even they don't go the folklore path, it's an easy fix for the collector! A good bits box and some imaginative colour schemes and its all good!

I'm usually pretty good about not buying into hype. I've done it a couple of times and been let down so now I make a conscious decision to buy stuff long after it's been released and I've had plenty of time to think about it (and often choose not too) But the moonclan reveal has caught me off guard and has me hooked with every aesthetic I've ever enjoyed about this game. It's like a 90s symphonic black metal album cover! It even matches my current Moonclan colour scheme! As a skirmish only player, I still have the habit of buying up full size armies, as I love painting and I love having a supply of parts for other conversions. But this battletome could be the one thing that makes me ditch skirmish and try out full size armies (Something I moved over to 6mm to do, as it's cheaper and looks amazing even in smaller spaces) I've enjoyed every AoS release this year so far, some less, some more. But this one is going to be the best yet!

That is a quality bit of narrative art. Wish they did more like that. It does look like its ripped right outta warcraft, but personally I'm fine with that. I hope we get a free guild tome that follows the aesthetic of that house and landscape. I'm so hyped for grots but they need human lands to plunder. Its defiantly time to see civilisation return!

I'm throwing money at the screen, but nothing is happening! Nothing would be better some sea expansions, I'd love to see dark elves corsairs get a battle tome to go along side the DoK. Would make use of some of the other fantastic, and still quite new dark elves kits, plus a a raiding party boat as their scenery piece would open up to a seas expansions.

Oh, I'd go broke so quickly and I'm usually pretty good about not buying into new armies until they get start collection boxes, especially since I only play skirmish. But I'd buy so much steampunk goblin stuff in a heartbeat. We have a big aerial battle game planned for sometime in the future, I'd love to be able to add some goblin airships to it!

Best* new years ever. *Poorest even!

I've sadly had no time to do anything more towards our campaign, real life has had the whole house hold tied up for weeks. I did steal five minutes here and there to get my Barn painted (In the classic blue roof scheme. I'm going to use the old guide to make some home made ones too!) and finished off another couple of wall sections from the manor set. Rebased the first couple of my giant rats as well, to match my plague monks. I have brought a ridiculous amount of parts for new skirmish forces though and looking forward to having January to work on them (and an actual nights sleep!)

Wow, I hadn't seen this log before, those dwarves are fantastic!

Urgh, I'm sick of seeing comments like this. It makes me want to go away and set fire to my army and then share the video on youtube. I might even just quit the hobby all together. It's comments like this that remind me of the that one time GW did that thing I didn't like to that one thing I liked. Urgh. I wondered if the reverse is true as well. I was very surprised that Gotrek didn't get an insanely expensive model to tie in with realmslayer. Maybe they dont want to make models of characters that might be killed off in books later on. I'm not 100% (not with out scanning over all the hero models) but from memory, has every character (model) recently been non-mortal. In fact the only mortal character I can think of right now is Brokk. Everyone else is a demi-god or as near-immortal as you can be (daemons and stormcasts) The books with the freeguild (which seem to be rather popular) have not had any of their characters brought to miniature. I wonder if the books to miniature process has a character lifespan taken in too account. No point them having released a free guild hero from the realmgate wars, only for him to be dead by now I guess.

Noise marines, or a single marine rather, is being released over christmas. That's probably why they are drumming up some hype about them now. I'd say no more of an indication of things to come outside of that one model. There is a good chance that if it is a strong seller though, we will see a full set released later down the line. Not sure it means anything for AoS though. Though the musical theme with both the harp and the noise marine getting a full blown guitar bolter again might mean we see more musical themed AoS minis when they get a battletome. I'd happily take a bunch more bits to add some musical flair to my skirmish gangs though!

I love both settings. I have no problem with them releasing stuff for both either, looking forward after the mention on the community page to them bringing back the old world stories through warhammer horror. I've been buying up all the collected editions of the the old world books (and replaced a lot of books that I have lost over the years) But AoS needs to be it's own thing, especially as GW put so much effort at the start at stating that it was its own thing. Connections are fine, I love that there is a city built around a shard of the old world. I'd love to see something like a freeguild city or dwarven hold built around the survivors of the old world (or even just some relic/book/bit of trash that was passed on through the ages). What I don't like is them bringing back so many dead characters. People have been demanding that Gobbla is brought back now. A dead squig. It's ludicrous. In an infinite realm, open for all sort of creativity, people would rather see something old brought back yet again (and a squig of all things. I've been a collector of goblins since I got in to the hobby and I still don't want to see a dead squig resurrected) The old world IS part of AoS lore. The two can be connected. But they don't need to be identical. No it wouldn't. His story, like Gotrek, had an ending. Goblins don't live for thousand of years. Though GW hinted that the souls of dead characters could be possible placed inside new bodies/vessels, that is going to get tiring very quickly. From the day they created the first of these it will less than 12 months before we have a carbon copy of every old world mortal running around the realms. If AoS if that poor a narrative, then GW should just throw their hands up and say ''sorry lads, we made a mistake. We need to go back''. Nope. Terrible idea. Would rather dust off the old WFB rules or play AoS rules set in the old world than see any more cheap rehashes. The rehashes are there for one reason only- to appeal to the customer base that ditched the game when AoS came out. I was taken in when Realmslayer was announced, because production wise, it is a cracking bit of entertainment. But I've come to realise that it makes for a poorer narrative. It's watering down AoS as if even GW don't believe in what they are doing with the game.

fantastic stuff as usual! Always a fan of the leathery and brown styled greenskins!

Not really an overreaction. I'm not ditching AoS products, I just don't agree with the path they are taking and it might put me off buying future products. I know I'm not alone in this, as others have mentioned the same issues with AoS. A lot of people got into AoS, or made the move from WFB, as it was a fresh take on the fantasy genre and it's very quickly becoming as close to a clone of WFB as they can without just outright swapping back out for the old game. They have brought back more than the couple of characters you have mentioned. I won't list them all here, as at least one is a massive spoiler for a new book (though sadly GW spoiled this return for themselves when they put out on of their promo videos and announced it which took away the surprise) Yes, many of these characters are changed in ways to suit the realms, but many of these changes simply need to be to explain away the time difference between the old world and the realms. Some of these returns have not had full books or are just from tid bits from rulebook fluff, but one of the largest returns is simply a couple of lines in a rulebook but could dramatically change the realms, if they so choose to follow this path. The return of the Von carsteins with Mannfred recreating a whole area of the world that was (though I kind of like the idea in theory, it could be used to interesting affect) but leaves it open for abuse as soon as the community start making demands again. There is already an obnoxious amount on comments on anything that GW post about getting them to place mordheim in the realms. Why I have no problem with things returning in principle, but AoS was meant to be a clean slate from the Euro-fantasy world that the old world was, both systems can and do already exist, why make one a carbon copy of the other (other than to make fat stacks of cash of people don't seem to realise that they could still play in the old world if they so choose) If AoS was doing so badly to the point they need to bring back most of WFB, why not just can it and bring back WFB. There is retconning from the original AoS fluff. The biggest change was originally the realms were infinite in size. Huge amounts to people were complaining that it was one of the main reasons that they couldn't buy into AoS as it was too big. AoS2 remade the realms from infinite to just 'pretty big'. The original AoS community were, from at least the people I spoke to regularly, annoyed at this change as we all loved the insane size of the realms. It was a huge sandbox to play in. There was no way to step on the toes any of the official fluff (A problem I have encountered in the 40k community) and there was room for all sorts of weirdness. The change was nothing more than another decision 100% based on making money- mostly from people who were still busy burning their armies and complaining that the old world was destroyed by GW (as If the warhammer police were going to make the rounds and take away anyone still using their old rulebooks, v for vendetta style) Again, most of the decisions I completely understand, they are a company driven by greed like any other big company. But a fantasy world built around making money rather than creative decisions is always going to suffer, taking the money option over the narrative is going to leave it stale in a very short time. Which will bring us back the problems WFB had at the end of its life. Not to mention GW hinting at the realms gates being designed to pull the realms together and returning it to be one world (which, yes, may or may not be true by their own admission, but it was an odd thing to make up if it's not been passed around the design studio) Exactly! Where are the adventures of Brokk Grungsson! Seraphon were given a whole new lease of life with AoS and even the soft reboot that they got during Malign Portents was amazing, where is a series of novels about some new seraphon heroes! Take Gotrek for example. He was an amazing character in the old world and had a complete run of books. They ended his story and he had a decent ending. Now bringing him back has the issue marvel and comic books have. His original stories and background mean nothing. You can't have a heroic death with emotion or a final ending have that emotional gut punch because, oh look, they came back again. The production values of realmslayer were amazing but I can't connect to story that I know has no meaning. There is no tension. Because no one is in danger any more. Anyone dead can now be brought back as if nothing happened. Who cares if Gotrek is about to face down the biggest enemy in the realms. He'll just be back next week to do the same thing over and over again. Nostalgia is not a good thing for creativity. Rehashing old ideas all the time leads to it becoming stale. There is nothing wrong with nods to what has come before. But creating things based off nostalgia leads to poor tier products. Except there is almost as many as new characters now. But each one that does return is one more noticeable than a dozen new characters. They stand out a lot more, often like a sore thumb due to the time differences between the old world and realms (again, ret-conned. From 'a huge amount of time' to only about a1000 years, a more believable amount of time for fantasy heroes to be missing and return). And for each one that does return leads to people demanding the next most popular one to be returned. Which means we will see more and more returned with new characters being sidelined or dropped completely. Some make sense- Sigmar and Nagash are obvious ones that made the jump and it makes sense (in terms of the narrative anyway) but another year or two down this path and AoS3 will just be the old world again.

Exactly this. A lot of people are still convinced that it was a total disaster when it launched, when it really wasn't. It brought a lot of people back into fantasy gaming, there was a very solid and friendly community that were really enjoying that the tournament/points side of the game was now gone and people were experimenting with all sorts of new things. Things like skirmish were born from those early months. It was a great time to be part of the game, and though it made good financial reasoning that GW reintroduced points, some of us would have been happier if they had left it. I'd still be on AoSV1 right now, the only reason I brought into AoS2 is because of the fantastic hardback rulebook, extended fluff and things like Aerial battles in the new GHB. I had already skipped over buying the 2017 GHB, the original 4 page rule set and original GHB would still be in use now otherwise. I have no reasons to replace what I have now, this will probably be the very last version of any warhammer game I do actually buy (for more reasons than just what I've mentioned here) I totally agree they could have continued growing AoS as it's own thing for a lot longer before reintroducing points. I dont begrudge anyone their hobby, but it was hellish when all those WFB 'fans' returned with their 'we beat GW and forced them to do what we want' attitudes. There were quite a number of us that were put out with that sort of attitude, as if it was wrong to enjoy narrative AoS and I think many people decided to return to keeping their hobby private. I certainly didn't post as much as I had been and there are a number of the community that stopped posting narrative AoS once the points crowd returned. The hobby is big enough for every to have their own style, but narrative players have been forced out due to lack of numbers. Look at the complaints that the Soul wars starter box didn't have a tournament ready model selection. Even GW said that it was crammed full and based around having a narrative based starter set. Their was outrage and I saw people demand that it needs to be tournament ready as 'narrative players can make do with what ever is in the box'. GW haven't helped with the current phase of retconning AoS lore and bringing back WFB characters. Very soon AoS will just be WFB again and will have lost all uniqueness. I'm actually tempted to return to playing/setting my games in the old world, just so I can continue to do what I love with out internet complaints that I'm going against the 'official' rulings. GW no longer really have control of the old world now they are finished with it and now AoS is now the #1 hype, meaning I can post to my hearts content and the people in the mindset of needing to be spoonfed everything by GW will ignore my stuff as its old world/old news.

Not particularly. I think the last thing GW advertised that caught me in its hype wave was Shadow war, and as that didn't exactly turn out great, I've learned my lesson in pre ordering (or at least attempting too!) anything for this hobby now. I'd rather wait a week and see after the hype has died down if I really want the item or not. I dont tend to get lead in to buying a lot of things, I dont watch TV so the only place I tend to see ads is youtube, and generally don't advertise anything that would appeal to me except for video games and as I'm still content playing through my mass of Mega drive games and the only modern games I own I have on the xbox 360, even video game adverts are wasted on me. Movie trailers are probably the only form of advertising that catch me, but as I tend to seek out the ones I want to see anyway (another luxury of not watching TV) I rarely see one for a film I wasn't already expecting to go and see anyway. I'm very much against GWs current hype advertising/selling cycle, I think it's absolutely dreadful, even if it is great for their short term profit. But that's a whole subject in on itself. I was going to sat don't quote me on that, but too late! I checked the gift guide I have here, and though some of the other terrain kits for christmas are in there, that one is not. In fact most of the bundle terrain packs are missing from the gift guide. So maybe I'm wrong and they are not out yet.

Wasn't it out a couple of weeks ago and sold out right away? I could be wrong, but I'm sure they were all released Dec 1st