BlooDeck

So I'm guessing Dawncaller Crusades is either going to be some kind of narrative supplement, or the Dawncaller Crusaders are a brand new human faction right?

Most likely, you can buy all the other warbands on their respective faction pages. Though they don't come with the cards for them (and are in grey plastic).

I'm guessing March is vampires, April is something orruky (Bonesplitterz?), May is obviously Ossiarch Boneyboys and June is probably Idoneth?

I'd love the CoS to get new sculpts, give them some Stormcast design cues to show they're an Azyrite faction. Make them kitbashable as well so people can add on realm allegiance stuff with other kits.

I don't remember her resurrection in the RGW books, maybe it was in the Sylvaneth battletome? I don't own it so that might be why I missed out on that bit of lore.

I had to read up on the lore of Kurnoth because I just sort of presumed he was still around normally, but yeah. I'd like Kurnoth to return though I don't know if Aenarion really fits the bill. I guess he was the Phoenix King and Alarielle is the Everqueen. But yeah having an excuse to expand the Kurnothi were good. Honestly they have a lot of directions to go for Slyvaneth - expand the Outcasts under Drycha, resurrect the Lady of Vines and expand the dryads or bring Kurnoth to prominence and add all the goat-aelves. That's three more expansions, about as much as the Lumineth are slated to have! Yeah, Order is taking a battering right now. I think Sigmar will have to respond to the threat of Morathi just to keep up his strength, whether it is sacking all her temples in the rest of the CoS or even one of her temple-cities. Whoever saved the Lord Veritant might be trying to stir up conflict between the two maybe? (And it has to be Malerion right? I swear the crimson eyes thing has been attributed to him before...)

I reread the Ritual passage and it doesn't seem like Aenarion escaped Slaanesh's stomach? Like he carves her in two and then Slaanesh's gurgles and spits out a protean being that chases after Morathi. Which seems more likely to be the Newborn than Aenarion right? Or is Aenarion the Newborn and he becomes an Ynnead equivalent?

I think, but could be wrong, Lileath's original intention was that Araloth would become the Asuryan of the new setting and his daughter with her the new Lileath. But that never made it through. It could well be he is the Ur-Phoenix now, or maybe instead of taking up the mantle of Asuryan he became Kurnoth. Or the plot thread was kind of forgotten and the writer of Hedonites of Slaanesh threw it a plot bone without getting into specifics.

The Slaanesh book reveals what happened to Araloth: the elves that did survive into the Mortal Realms were his descendants.

I think they've added already revealed the fate of Araloth's people. The Slaanesh battletome mentions the few untainted elves in the Mortal Realms were from some hidden sub-realm created by the old elven gods. But it would be cool nonetheless to have Brets back, even if it was just a way to style the Cities of Sigmar.

Ever since the first General's Handbook, or even the inception of AoS, GW has been trying to get people to play more narratively (and 'open play' I guess) and Crusade really looks like their biggest attempt. It was enough to make me even briefly consider collecting 40k again!

Well, I'd like them to cool it until 2022 at least. I can't imagine the Coronavirus has made it easy to test a new edition. And I'd prefer they do a lot of testing to make sure it's fine. I guess a simple one would be to revamp Path to Glory to match something like the Crusade system, also throw in Anvil of Apotheosis features into it. Maybe something like the War Cry quests as well. Given how they're going all in on Narrative focus, I think this is pretty likely. As for more rules based stuff, maybe for predatory endless spells instead of control being based off turn order, the caster owns the spell but the other side can cast a spell to take control of it? The idea of two wizards fighting for control over a purple sounds very Warhammer to me. Could also be if no wizard controls it for whatever reason, the spell goes wild and it alternates or just reverts to a simple set of actions governing it.

I mean, technically Hallowheart is part of Aqshy even if it apparently looks very much like something in the realm of Life!

I'm trying to find it, but I remember reading a reference to Pestigors recently that had them capitalized and everything. Which backs up this rumour hopefully. That said I hope they add AoS Poxwalkers. With all these new cities about, it seems like a great time for Nurgle to spread some of his gifts...

At the very least ard boys should be.

Part of me is hoping for the mounted character pack for the Fyreslayers. But that would probably be too good of deal since it gives three characters total. And they just repacked some Wanderer and Dispossessed kits, so its possible. The repacked Wanderers also make a perfect Start Collecting box: Nomad Prince, Glade Guards and Wild Riders. £7 saving so it wouldn't be too much of a wishlist!

Right, but Disciples of Tzeentch was the key word Tzeentch book. If they follow the same path with Nurgle then they're going to get allegiance synergy. I could see them as a distinct branch of the forces of Nurgle, like how daemons and disciples are separate.

We'll know by the GH2 whether Nurgle is getting an update at least. If he hasn't got any Allegiance rules it seems like a fairly strong indicator that he isn't getting much this year. I wonder if Clans Pestilens will be folded into the greater Nurgle collection, or if they'll remain distinct though.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were 10 bloodreavers/acolytes (they're limited by the sprues after all, but bloodreavers could be as little as three in that case). But that is just the box art contents.

Prosecutors also have it. Maybe the Vanguard Wing formation will be reworked to allow Hunters as well?

Hopefully Steamhead. Though it could be the new AdMech robots rumour from ages ago. Fingers crossed on new stunties though, I just want to see new AoS models that aren't Stormcast.

Aelves don't seem like two wound units. If we're going by the model for chaos armies so far.

Good point, I was trying to figure out what models might fit. Witch Aelves and their alternate kit certainly fit the theme!

So I've had a slow day and decided to compile all I can find on the Shadowkin and maybe figuring out what a potential release might look like. Our first bit of info comes from Mighty Battles, the first book released. Here it describes Malerion (the patron god most likely) who is a vast shadow dragon mosnter after Malakeith merged with his dragon. Morathi is also back, attended to by a court of shadow-daemons. I'm getting an Alarielle/Drycha relationship here with Malerion as the faction leader and Morathi acting as a foil. It wouldn't surprise me if they're both special characters with Malerion being the set-piece model. As one might expect, they’re from the Realm of Shadows. Next up is the description of the Caengan lodge in the Fyreslayers book. In particular we get the name of the faction (Shadowkin) and how they've learnt guerrilla tactics from individuals known as Shroudling Kings. I imagine Shroudling King will be the name of the main command unit of the Shadowkin. This also matches the speculation of the Tenebrael Shard and Mistweaver Saih being Shadowkin due to the similar naming conventions. Speaking of which... Here are our only suspected Shadowkin models. So far we can derive a fairly dark elfy vibe from them, with a little bit of dark eldar thrown in for good measure. The main thing that sticks out are the bits of metal jammed into the flesh of both models (hard to see from this angle but on the right arm of the Mistweaver and the back of the Shard) which is very Dark Eldar-y to me - maybe some kind of power through pain aspect? They’re also very spikey models, GW just loves their spikes I guess. There is no unified colour scheme between the two models, but we’re probably looking at the black and purple faction since that has been the staple for the dark elves. Now for the stats. Both have 8" move, 5 wounds and Bravery 8. The latter two are fairly standard but the 8" move sticks out - one is an assassin and the other is literally floating but I wouldn't be surprised if a high movement score was common throughout the faction, given they're apparently very sneaky. In fluff I would guess they emerge suddenly from the mists that plague the Ulgulands and then disappear rapidly back into them. Speaking of which the Shard does exactly that - he can rapidly teleport about the battlefield and after making a kill can do an immediate move away. I imagine the Shadowkin will be the go to faction for movement shenanigans. Both the Shard and the Saih have rubbish saves, 5+ and 6+ respectively, but each get a boost in their own respective way. The Shard is immune to Rend since he relies on his speed to avoid hits and the Saih can use her Glimmermist ability to save one attack per turn at 1+. Finally the Saih's unique spell is rolled against the enemy Bravery. This might be just a one off but I can see the Shadowkin being a faction who don't necessarily attack you face on and in the fluff follow a doctrine of move in, cause chaos, disappear. We don’t really have any clue what their units will look like beyond the heroes, but I would assume a core of light infantry. Perhaps with the ‘shadow daemons’ thrown in for diversity, probably 1 wound and a high movement score. As for the fluff we've only got scraps. The Saih and Shard are both described as emotionless in battle - the Saih is serene despite the carnage and the Shard is called callous in his killing. I haven't read the novel, but I also believe a Shard and Saih are working together and murder their allies? They don’t sound like a nice bunch. Likely they're in the tower for an ulterior motive. And we can probably guess that motive is something to do with Slaanesh. Given that Tzeentch is tied up in the Prince of Excesses absence, and this giant invocation Tzeentch is plotting, there might be some big changes coming to the Mortal Realms. Anything more I don’t really know, but more than likely it’ll involve a Stormhost going into the Uglalands, meeting some Shadowkin and them going from there. So for a release I would probably reckon something around the size of the Sylvaneth: - Three hero sprues. Two we already have and the Shroudling King as a third. Perhaps a fourth if they’re feeling generous. - Some units, probably dual kits since GW loves them. Maybe a shadow daemon kit as well. Maybe two boxes to give us 3-4 options. But hopefully more! - A Malerion box in the vein of Alarielle, Archoan and the Prime. Though there is the possibility of him being a dual-kit alongside a more generic shadow-dragon monster rider. - Morathi, though she might end up in the background fluff if the release is smaller. - A battletome with all the bells and whistles. Thoughts? Anything I've missed?

Didn't think of that. Makes sense! Also means at least two tile themes hopefully.