Turgol

If you haven't, I really suggest that you read BR: Kragnos. IMO, it is by far the best narrative in an AoS mainstream book so far. I know the reactions to the summaries have been mixed. But summaries betray the quality of the narrative. BR: Kragnos is mainly narrated from the viewpoint of normal humans in Excelsis. This is so in chapter 1 and 3, which are far longer than chapter 2 (mostly Skragrot point of view). This is far better than all previous books. Teclis takes places mostly from a godly point of view; the lowest it descends is either to Lumineth heroes or Mortarchs. And it feels much less grounded. I would say the same about dimensions travelling narratives in Be'Lakor and Morathi. Here, Excelsis and Ghur really shine from a grounded point of view. Chapter 1 is essentially a narrative of inner strife in a city that knows it is marked for likely doom. Although nothing really important happens in it, it is beyond even City of Secrets in achieving that narrative. And chapter 3 is the story of the siege of Excelsis. I think no siege had been so well done since the fall of Altdorf in End Times. As a battle, it is arguably a more spectacular narrative with the combination of full waagh siege of a massive city, with a fleet attack, and an inner catastrophe taking place at the same time. The resolution to the most important parts of the plot may sound lame when written as a summary. Grodrakk joining Kragnos isn't easy to explain - it is hinted that it is the effect of the Bad Moon, but it feels like a deus ex machina. The final victory of Order feels less of a deus ex machina and introduces, yet again, Morathi as a major player. But anyways, I think any warhammer fan would do himself a favor by reading this book. As to the Epilogues, I did not find them as good, except for the now explicit confirmation of Grugni's return and direct involvement and stuff. The Nagash-Teclis exchange is getting old; Be'Lakor - talons of Slaanesh feels irrelevant; Kragnos is just an introduction of the Kruelboyz. But Morathi's "judgment" and Grugni's interruption, though not a great narrative, points nicely to things forward. Oh, and I remember that when AoS was launched, there was this rumour that Lizardmen were turning to dragonkin. Guess that will very likely happen now. Interesting times!

The thing I love about the Kruelboyz is the licenses they took. I keep hearing LotR like orcs, but they are so much more cartoony and stylish and yet deviate enormously from the post 4th edition, canon Warhammer orcs. Don't get me wrong, the warhammer orc (and goblins) is one of the most venerable creations in GW's history. But precisely because of that the boldness of coming up with something new that supplements the canon is just great. And they nailed it. Kudos for that. Plus, the "emerging out of the swamp" effect on the clothes is just great. I think the SCE also look fantastic, but wouldn't it have been a mindblowing set if it was cities of sigmar (or oder of azyr or devotees or whatever)? If 3 edition is about the cruel reality of expansion into this dangerous world, that made more sense. I get the space marine complex that is sells better if you have those super heroes there. But still... I am not sure if this has been discussed, but doesnt the set also look unbalanced? All sorts of elites by SCE with the same amount of heroes than Kruelboyz, one of which is top tier? Yndrasta or whatever she is called might cost close to an important part of the boyz side by herself!

They nailed it with armour. But helmet... I have some doubts. Hope for no helmet options.

Oh nice. I like the annihilator

Oh come on. Give me some orcs! Primaris are ok

LOL, primaris quite soon!

The lack of early morning hyping has me nervous that it won't be AoS 3. Crossing fingers

New 40k or AoS editions have been lately revealed at Warhammer Fest. Will this mean that AoS 3 will be announced on Monday? That would be beyond awesome.

Everything points to BR: Kragnos being the final point of BR; it taking place in Ghur-Excelsis; and leading up to AoS 3 in the summer. Fascinating that after the seizure or a major city, Morathi's ascendance, the (sort or) rebirth of Slaanesh, the destruction of Nagash and the end of the soul wars, the destruction of a stormhost, isolation of Chamon, and apparent return of Grugni, we still have not yet reached the climax! Even more fascinating that the climax takes place in the least expectable place and is linked to an unknown character.

Worst article ever.

I am really looking forward to Lumineth lore. I am sorry for deviating a bit the conversation based on this, but I just bought and read Gloomspite and Ossiarch BTs. I am really impressed by lore in both. When compared to the first BTs in AoS (SCE, Fyreslayers, Everchosen - original khorne was a bit better), it is really amazing how far we are. Even relatively recent BT were not that good (Kharadron first edition, IDK, DoK). So I was expecting a thin downed night goblins BT and an excuse of an army to release cool models for Ossiarch. But they are both WHFB quality at the least, with extremely cool concepts really well worked out. So what will come out of a more traditional, civilization building new faction in this new developped and high quality scenario? What is revealed so far is not spectacular at all, but promising in fleshing out a civilization. /excited

You never met WHFB players then. Now that was serious!

This is precisely my point: the mortarchs have a very ambiguous background and thus are hard to grasp and get involved with characters. And they would be quite wonderful characters, either as disadapted old entities (like Gotrek) or something else. IMO they should be made less ambiguous, just as GW is approaching lizardmen.

True. Although daemons are not technically from the old world! Glottkin has always been a weird shot: a young, never heard of trio of brothers then reappears with a different background in AoS?. It is almost as if an AoS model was released sooner. But Archaon and Mortarchs are relics for sure. Wish they would exploit that more. As with Gotrek: make them trully mystical creatures with memories that span before time.

Relics of the old world: All order gods + Gotrek Thanquol Gorkamorka Slanns and some lizardmen. Am I missing anyone?

Actually it is quite explicit that they were left in stasis (so alive) on their ships. So they were always alive but inhabitanta of the realms did not know what to think of them.

I think it is a very fitting adaptation of old Lizardmen lore to AoS. Very nice. I read then the lore introduction to Space Wolves in Psychich Awakening. It's amazing how AoS seems to be a good job of keeping things moving and creating a crescently more interesting setting, while 40k is getting ever less interesting. Lore is just: "they fought there, then there, always almost losing almost winning." So bland!

Other producers do not depend on hype mechanics, GW does. GW administers a not so huge clientele of extremely invested customers. A big part of their business depends not so much on customer growth, but continuous and oft irrational expenditure by their clients. Businesses showing schedules do not depend on such high per capita expenditure by client. They rather have to draw attention and get as many as they can. Computer games or movies are a good example: you have a pool of millions (even billions) of potential consumers but must face strong competition for their attention. The order of the day is trying to get as many as you can. With a much smaller potential pool of customers, all of which are extremely loyal to their brands (because of lore, identity and other investments required bynthe hobby, GW does not seek that effect. It seeks to keep your attention with them and expend as much as they can make you. And hype (and constant suspense) is essential for that.

There are some obvious elements drawn from the Eldar (four warrior paths to take them away feom Slaanesh). Others are drawn from old HE (fighting style, aesthetics), and some are original. That is typical GW for you and it's fine.

Would be nice if Lumineth had semi slave, at least serfs/vassals, made up by those formerly proud human realms of the wise. Arrogants being slaved by even more arrogant masters would be a cool Warhammer twist.

Tyrion is 100% part of the new faction. A different question is whether he will have a model as part of this release. Teasing so far was guided by LVO including Teclis. Maybe they decided to do this because only Teclis got a model. Or maybe they decided to reveal Tyrion later, because Teclis' model did not end up being that stunning and they have Tyrion under the sleeve for potentital buyers to close the deal nearer to release. It's interesting that they decided to only show basic troops at this first reveal. The fact that the more eye.catching, extravagant elites were left for further releases certainly speaks to that strategy of slowly building up. Already basics look stunning, so who knows what they have reserved!

Back to the End Times, when it became clear that the unbelievable rumours of WHFB dissapearance was true, one of the central pieces of information was a change in business model. Whereas WHFB worked around people having large collections of one or two factions and offering them new centerpieces, and some core units, for every edition of the game, the new warhammer would change this to a model of limited releases. That is: new, smaller armies would be constantly invented and released, but would phase out. GW would incentive frequent rotations of armies. AoS might.have been originally designed that way, with people throwing new GA armies into their collections. They probably changed along the way and decided to be more traditional, thus forming large enough factions that are less chaotic than GA collections. What I think did not change, because it was a big success, is the idea of constant releases instead of the old model of constant recycling. Short answer: GW will keep adding new factions or new "chambers" to old factions. I think they threw away the aggressive model of not updating older armies. Endless spells, terrain and heroes, as well as large battletomes, show that they are feeding old collections. But don't expect the old focus on renewing completely the old ranges with each new edition.

I think they have a nice concept to them, mixing WHFB dancers with a more feral design. Execution I think is so so. If they make AoS miniatures, might be a really good one if well executed.

Slaanesh looks like 99% like a big release. Greater daemon? Check. Announced with a lot of time? Check. Building hype on teasers and trailers? Check. Many models? Check. Space and time for surprises? Very likely. Since they revealed the triple organization of Slaanesh hordes, it has been plainly obvious that the major Slaanesh release would not be tied to his/her being freed.

Well corrupted slaanesh elves has always been part of WH universe. You know, the cult of pleasure. It was never really made into an army, but the mortal realms are rife with opportunities...