Kyriakin

There is clearly *some* demand for traditional fantasy tropes, but GW maybe don't want these traditional tropes in AoS (Vampires' AoS status remains to be seen). Therefore, this allows them to not be leaving money on the table, while keeping their vision for AoS "pure". I think that GW survey also had a lot to do with this.

What "business practices"? If you like it, buy it. If not, don't. I never understood the anger against releases that don't interest a specific person. Other than the zero-sum-game fight for GW's attention and resources - which are now greatly expanded, by the way - a new game that is of no interest can just be ignored. For example, nothing - and I mean nothing - can make me continue scrolling down the Warhammer Community page more quickly than a Middle Earth release, but I am glad that those who do play The Hobbit are receiving stuff for their game. Ironically, the only real exception to this was the WHFB-AoS changeover, where one directly replaced the other. In that regard, the WHFB reaction kind of made sense (aside from the minority who's reactions went beyond the pale).

My favourite over-reaction (be it anti-WHFB or anti-AoS) is the old "Due to this *thing* I will stop playing. I asked all my friends, and they will all stop playing too". It's as though that person realises that one person quitting (but probably not) won't move GW's needle at all, so he has to pretend that his entire hobby group will quit en masse due to said *thing* in order to spook GW into changing course. Of course, this reaction is usually two weeks before the release of something that has been in development for years, and is way beyond the point where GW would/could cancel it anyway (although not in this case, obviously),

Vince and Tom almost always do a "very good job". Unless one or both of them has terrible wifi in a hotel somewhere (or Vince is in one of his very occasional prickly moods), Warhammer Weekly is the best Warhammer show/podcast IMHO. In this kind of situation, VV is especially good as he tends to be pretty level-headed and can reel in - or at least try to - some of the worse excesses of the "this is the greatest thing ever!" and "this is the worst thing ever!" camps.

I like both, so don't have a dog in this fight (or support both dogs). In fact, I might even have a slight AoS preference (cue accusations of being a "concern troll"). But I tend to see as many "boo-hoo Fantasy (or Tomb Kings, etc.) sucked and is dead - get over it" posts as anti-AoS posts on the various parts of the internet I frequent. And not all of them are entirely unprovoked (e.g. entering a peaceful discussion about using, say TK, in AoS, or whatever, and trying to stamp all over it). I think those who skew heavily towards one side have a subconscious persecution complex, whereby posts that attack their thing are noticed than those that attack the other thing (or justify the latter by "They started it!").

Relax! GW are not going to bash down your door, and burn your old AoS books and models One "tribe" will highlight the embarrassing behaviour of the minority of the other "tribe" (and perhaps try to frame them as actually representing the majority of the other tribe), but then ignore the minority on their own tribe who behave embarrassingly when the tide turns and the shoe is on the other foot, I'm certain there may be political parallels here, lol.

Watching Warhammer Weekly made me think about all kinds of things. At the time of his re-release, Gotrek was a weird one for me. An Old World Mortal entering the Mortal Realms, and with such fanfare? I don't think they want to recon the End Times, so I think we may be looking at a OW-MR portal.

I prefer the Mortal Realms from a pure aesthetic and diversity standpoint, with regards to being able to theme any army in any way (e.g. Fire Skaven, Winter Sylvaneth, or whatever). I prefer the Old World in terms of its lore, maps and characters, as the pseudo-historical, real-world basis of the finite OW makes is more relatable for me. ----------------------- That said, I would prefer any Old World revisiting to be very distinct from AoS. In that regards, a new Mordheim, Man O' War and/or Warmaster would have been ideal for me, with Blood Bowl already being (sort of) Old World based. Warmaster would be especially great, as it potentially scratches that rank and file "real war simulation" itch, with no chance of cross-contamination with AoS. Warmaster could tell the Old World's big stories, while Mordheim tells the small stories. If, however, it turns out to be a 28 mm large-scale battle game that pulls people in difference directions, I am not so sure that it is the right move on GW's part. We need more detail in the form of a loose road-map, as many in the community are clearly a bit spooked by this announcement.

I am guessing it isn't the content of this specific forum, so is it some kind of blanket ban on the "Invision Community" forums?

I wonder how, psychologically speaking, players are effected by now knowing that eventually the world ends and all these little battles and rivalries are pointless from a fatalistic perspective. I guess players play historical games when the real-world end result is known, so maybe it's not a big deal.

Sigmar: Origins

I had long imagined some big, expensive leather-bound book called "Legends of the Old World", or something, with Old World lore, maps and warscrolls. However, the key point was that it would be on round bases and use the AoS ruleset, and thus allow round-based miniatures to play double-duty on both games, where applicable. Of course, these warscrolls would be totally separate from mainline AoS, with no cross-contamination. With the square-base teaser, this sounds more like rank-and-file Old World fantasy though, which is beyond surprising.

In a weird way, maybe this is an attempt to liberate AoS from the past? By that I mean, with the presence of a genuine "classic" type of fantasy game, AoS can truly go in any direction it wants without paying any more heed to the past than it creatively wants to. Sure, they'll always be the "WHFB sucked - get over it" crowd (who probably would want the demand to be ignored completely for the usual tribal reasons) and the "every resource put into your Game X isn't being put into my Game Y" zero-sum-game crowd, but I think the Warhammer IP has enough meat on the carcass to be profitable for a non-mainline game(s) and it might be still worth retrieving the baby from 2015's disposed bathwater. Also, this might be a defensive move to gobble up some of Mantic's market share. I bet Dreadball sales dropped significantly after Blood Bowl's re-launch - even if it doesn't make huge money for GW. What's the current situation with 9th Age? If I was GW, I'd just try and go in with that ready-made system (while changing the names back, of course). Aside from a wobbly period a year a two ago, the impression I get is that it is fairly popular with those who play such games?

My dream would be for GW to open up a facility in China somewhere, and slowly reintroduce their entire back-catalogue on a web-only, Made to Order basis. Kind of a new Citadel Catalogue-type thing.

I often see the "WHFB players burning their armies" line used. Sometimes in a light-hearted or bantering kind of way, and sometimes a bit more dismissively/snobbishly. Genuine question. How many cases were there of this happening around the WHFB/AoS changeover? I genuinely don't know whether it was just one guy, or were there many such cases. I always got the impression that it was like politics, where you take the worst of the "other side" and then try and give the impression that they are typical of that side.

He said "locally" - as in the local area (i.e. not a specific tournament). How does that work?

On what authority?

Skaven's range is in an even worse state, and they got nothing*. At least the Skink part of the Lizzies still holds up (Saurus side of the range is gash though, I agree). * Complete speculation on my part, but I wonder if they are waiting on the Year of the Rat and its marketing possibilities.

Neither of those are elves in the more traditional sense though. I sometimes forget that IDK even are elves, while DoK - while obviously spun out of the old Dark Elves - are very feral and lack the ornateness and discipline usually associated with the elf archetype. In both cases, the theme (i.e. blood-frenzied murder girls and the whole marine/aquatic thing) takes prominence over their race. Or, to put it another way, either army could have been, say, human-based, with little change in their overall aesthetic. I feel a spiritual successor to the more traditional HE and DE would have far more overlap - both in terms of visual design, and intended customer base - than IDK and DoK, who have almost nothing in common besides both technically being elves.

While technically having a Battletome, Seraphon's came out in 2015 (i.e. a few months after AoS dropped) when they game was vastly different to what it is today and was still finding its feet. I think it was before the game even had points, right?

There is another precedent for a dark-mirror type of single release - The Geminids. I don't follow the lore much, but Uhl-Gysh seems to be a thing. Plus, I feel that if they were separate, we'd have seen one of them already to prevent their sales cannibalising each other (elf people tend to like elves in general - no matter the flavour). Otherwise, the hypothetical second army would have to be years away, as we haven't even had a hint of the hypothetical first army's model release.

I have to disagree with those saying Allarielle for Sylvaneth. To me, an Aelf riding a giant beetle sticks out like a sort thumb in an army that is otherwise 100% tree-based, and thus doesn't visually represent the faction at all. Or, to put it another way, if you only saw that model (e.g. as a leak before an army was released) would you be able to guess the aesthetics of the rest of the faction? For Allarielle that is most definitely a "no". You'd think she was heralding a new Wood Aelf faction, where they are perhaps all riding around on a variety of forest critters, such as giant butterflies and crickets. However, depending on cost, time, painting ability and personal preferences, every other model in the range fits the theme and is thus an option - ranging from a Dryad all the way up t the Spirit of Durthu. Personally, I'd go Drycha, but I have a preference for that Spooky Dreadwood theme.

I worry for Legion of Azgorh now. I wish GW could purchase one of whatever machine FW uses, stick it in a factory in China somewhere, and save that army. FW refuses to update keywords to make the models usable (e.g. Skin Wolves) or refuses to update rules/lore to make them enjoyable and/or immersive, and then blames the resulting low sales to justify removing some excellent sculpts (something they can do well) and throwing their own loyal customers under the squat bus. Some decent sculpts aside, Forgeworld are an utterly worthless company, and I feel sorry for those who have made big commitments to their ranges. Even if the LoA squatting never comes to pass, it will have been no fun buying, hobbying and playing with a Sword of Damocles hanging over them in the meantime.

Skin Wolves never got the BEASTS OF CHAOS keyword, which is a single word change (i.e. "MONSTERS" to "BEASTS") on a PDF warscroll. For me, that is a microcosm that sums up FW's policy towards AoS. They just don't care.

Someone on the rumour thread said that FW sent them a reply that confirmed that Fimir and Tamurkhan are gone forever. Doesn't neccessarily mean anything for LoA, but doesn't exactly scream commitment to AoS either.