Sception

Being right out of a Fromsoft game is what I love about him, but absolutely fair enough, nothing can appeal to everyone. I will say he's not what I envisioned or wanted either, and I DO know what I envisioned - a diorama style situation like Katakros or the Sisters of Battle procession, with a whole royal court of attendants around Ushoran who I pictured as big, but not gigantic - again, like Katakros. But I love the souls game, so a huge gothic boss monster straight out of the Souls was always going to win me over. And if you think about it, the heavy themes of faded and tarnished nobility that run through Souls Games and heavily influence their art design is a good fit for FEC's narrative in AoS. But again, I absolutely understand not caring for it. Thankfully the undead factions are varied enough at this point that most necromancy fans should be able to find one that appeals. Personally my favorite remains the 80s cartoon toyetic goofiness of the Bonereapers. One day they'll get their second wave, and I'll be all over it.

yes the cryptguard are one kit with options for swords or halberds.

I didn't much care for the bone dragon at first, but I've warmed to it this morning. I like it more in profile than front on, Which makes me think I'll be ok with it in person as a 3d object. I'm not surprised that the howda/rider & dragon were designed by two different people, because they feel unfortunately disconnected, and I hope the liche rider can be assembled without the sand vulture without too much trouble removing it. Overall I think the sphinx remains the superior centerpiece kit, but I'll probably pick up one of these eventually. I would have traded it in an instant for new basic skellies though.

I'm warming to the bone dragon. IMO it looks much better from the side than from the front, which makes me think I'l like it more in person as a 3d object than in most of the still pictures from the preview.

I could very much see myself getting the FOMO box, Cardinal, Judge, and Ushoran for fec. I've got enough leftover ghoul stuff from oldhammer to round that out into a solid 3k I figure. Love the look of em. Mostly fur & skin too, should be quick to paint. The bone dragon... yeah, I don't think I care for it. Certainly don't like it as much as the Brett's pegasus hero. And I won't be getting any big army box of TOW tomb kings, not when most of it will be made up of those old skeletons. That said, I'll happily replace my old metal tomb guard with the plastic ones once they're available for less than like 200 bucks a box. And I might pick up some necroknights. Mostly I'm happy I already have an army's worth of tomb kings, plus enough old vamp count skeletons to not have to use the old plastic skeleton warrior bodies for anything. I don't envy new TOW undead players collecting the army from scratch with old boxing fist skellies, and resin ushabti and catapults.

AND... that's the show. Big reveal is obviously the Flesh Eater Courts. I love them, including Ushoran. He's not what I wanted him to be - I wanted a Katakros-style diorama with courtiers gathered around in like a mock procession, not One Big Guy, but for One Big Guy I do actually quite like him I think. In case anyone is curious, I looked closely at the tattered skeletal wings with bits of flesh on the Morbheg knights, and they do NOT match the recent rumour engine that we've been thinking might be something for OBR: .... I might change my mind when I see it in person, but I'm not overly impressed with the Tomb King bone dragon. The posing seems weird, it looks awkwardly top heavy with the big howda on skinny bones, and I'm not convinced the anatomy works (ever the problem with six-winged dragon designs, and why I tend to prefer four-limbed versions). IMO the old Royal Warsphinx looks a lot better. Again, though, the opinion may change when I see it in person. I didn't look closely at the whole video, but the one pic I took does confirm returning old models for Tomb Guard (yay) and Skeleton Warriors (boo). I'm glad I have a bunch of the old vamp count skeletons, as they're generic enough to use as tomb kings if you swap out the shields, official gw models so I can play them at the store, and just look a lot better than the old old tomb king skittles.

TOMB KINGS new skeleton warriors de-confirmed.

He's HUGE .... It does look like the current plastic range for FEC all remains in place - the new ghouls are a new semi-elite mordant unit, not a replacement for crypt ghouls, and the horrors, flayers, terrorgheist, etc all seem to remain as they are. I was kind of hoping some of the older plastics would get retired and replaced, but the current range is anemic enough that I might not complain... except for basic courtiers. If ghoul, horror, and flayer courtiers are still key hero units but lacking in models I'll be a bit annoyed at that. New Varghulf, though! It does look to be on a new base size (frustrating to those with existing varghulfs they'll have to rebase). It also seems to have lost its wings, which will be unfortunate for converted varghulfs that took pains to emphasize the wings.

FEC! Holy Cow They're Amazing

Necrons! Wrong game, but it counts as undead to me! Plus a new necron-focused narrative campaign. Cool.

Cool model, but I kind of wish I had waited for the proper reveal rather than spoiling myself on a potato-quality pic w/ watermarks.

At time of posting, World Championships event coverage is live over on twitch The Preview show starts in about 3 hours. Undead expectations are high: Age of Sigmar: this is pretty much the last possible preview show before the new FEC battletome and range are due for release, and we've already seen a couple cool new FEC heroes on Warhammer community. A full new FEC release reveal is almost guaranteed. FEC have been desperate for a proper model range expansion since they were first split off from Vamp Counts / Soulblight. Additionally, chances are high that we'll see the first proper Mortarch reveal since Katakros back in 2nd edition, so this is a big deal for Death in the Mortal realms in terms of both models and lore. While fec is the primary undead news expected for AoS, we could also see the next Dawnbringers book reveal. It's likely that book would also focus on the new FEC refresh, but new releases for other death factions aren't entirely out of the question. Unlikely, but still possible. The Old World: TOW is supposed to get some time in the preview, and we've already seen what is supposed to be the full supported release range for the new Brettonians, which makes it likely that we could finally see some real focus on Tomb Kings - what models will be returning, what we might see new. A Tomb Kings preview isn't as certain as FEC - we might just see some sort of FOMO release box for brettonians for instance, like a 'you've seen the new brett models, now check out the new box you'll be able to buy them in' sort of deal. But still though, going in I'd say the odds are with us here. 40k: the big 40k preview is supposed to be Dark Angels, so big shrug in terms of undead, BUT the new Necron Codex is on the way. We've already seen previews for Imotekh and a new Overlord, and we're not expecting a big range refresh this time around, so that might be it. However, it's entirely possible that there might still be some new Necron stuff yet to show tonight. Side Games: It's side games, who knows, there's always a chance of something. I've heard some potential FEC underworlds buzz, but it might be just noise.

Absolutely fantastic. Sadly I can't do 3d printing (no space w/ proper ventilation in my apartment), but I imagine people will be selling things like this online soon enough after TOW releases. I had been working on a homebrew Tomb Kings rules update for AoS. I'd abandoned it when I realized I was going to end up re-rebasing the army for TOW, but if a solution like this could allow me to avoid that then I might revive the project.

Nagash doesn't really need singular attack dogs. I'd picture Ushoran's usefullness being more in terms of the control Nagash could exert over FEC enclaves generally through him. like a half-broken radio tower that sometimes lets you control a robot army, but half the time it's on the fritz and the robots will start behaving in a totally unpredictable manner. If anything, I imagine its the sort of thing that would especially drive a control freak like nagash to distraction.

Ushoran's madness should make him inherently unreliable. I'd like for him to be the leader of both nagashi and anti-nagashi ghouls, depending on what side of the bed he's waking up on today. On his most lucid days he'd know both he and nagash were monsters, but be unable to resist Nagash's control. On a more deluded day, he'd be the champion of freedom leading his people against the tyranny of a dark and cruel nagash, his madness breaking the bonds of nagash's control and allowing him to strike back against his master. but on his most deluded days he'd swing right back around as the willing and devoted paladin of a bright and benevolent nagash - not actually under nagash's control but 110% loyal regardless. But that's just how I'd characterize him.

I mean, you could spread them out 10 long, or put them on a hill.

Gormayne is goofy as all heck. Fantastic.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/11/13/court-is-in-session-all-rise-for-the-honourable-grand-justice-gormayne/ What a goofy model & character. I kind of love him.

Speculation has been all over the map. Personally I'm hoping for a Katakros style diorama / royal procession type kit. If it's a single model then I doubt he'd be smaller than, say, Radukar the Beast.

Looks good to me. I like the marching column distinction, mostly in that it prevents you from going deeper than you are wide as a combat formation. Prevents things like the sometimes-seen practice of stacking up huge blocks of skeletons or zombies with narrow frontages entirely displaced by powerful vampires or ethereal wraith heroes. If you want to outnumber, you'll probably have to expose some actual troops to enemy attacks.

The Noble Seneschal really is fantastic in its own right, but I can't stop thinking about how perfectly the upcoming bret hero on pegasus would represent it in a 'FEC-as-they-see-themselves' concept army. You'd just have to add some key ring bits to match the cool lore. Am I the only one hoping most of the new FEC range has similar 1-to-1 brettonian equivalents?

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/11/06/hail-to-the-noble-seneschal-who-makes-safe-the-borders-of-his-masters-kingdom/ Pretty impressive. As usual for FEC models, I wish the delusions were worked into it more, though I'm not sure how. Maybe instead of a snarling monster face they could put some weird solemn & dignified or lofty & sneering expression on it? But really that's a minor complaint as this guy looks fantastic. Also looks like something that would be perfectly represented by the upcoming plastic bret hero on pegasus model for old world if you were doing a 'FEC-as-they-see-themselves' concept army.

I'm fine with no dedicated magic phase, but if spells are divided into subsets that are cast in different phases, then the names of those subsets should be the same as the names of the phases they're used in. Like, instead of 'you can cast enchantment or hex spells in the strategy phase' it should be 'you can cast strategy spells in the strategy phase, you can cast shooting spells in the shooting phase', etc.

I'm not sure on two harvesters, or harvesters without mortek guard. I'm probably just too hung up on their prior support role, despite how massively downgraded their current healing ability has become, but using them purely as beat sticks feels off to me.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/10/14/the-warhammer-preview-online-warhammer-day-2023-all-the-reveals/ Warhammer Day Previews start in about half an hour. I'll be watching the show with fingers crossed for undead reveals. The last preview show didn't have too much for us, just the vampire Bloodbowl team, though in their defense those are some nice looking models. There are reasons to hope for a more exciting show for undead players this time around though, as we draw closer to faction book releases for both Flesh Eater Courts and Necrons, plus there's been a lot of Old World buzz and rumors, plus some ossiarch-looking rumour engines, not to mention outright image leaks of new ghouls, so yeah. Show starting now Necrons count as undead, right? Well, new plastic Imotekh to go with their new codex. I've really got to get rid of my Chaos Marines so I can start necrons. ... neat admech sniper .... really amazing stormcast hero model. I'm jelly. He's even narratively tied to the realm of death. ... cool sylvaneth model .... Dawnbringer book three has Khorne and Ogors as the primary antagonists. Very 1e AoS with Stormcast v. Bloodbound. Not seeing much undead though.... ... New plastic Striking Scorpions. Finally. ... New Brettonian Hero on Pegasus. Also some Knights on foot. Very nice. ... And... That's it? No Tomb Kings? Not even the already leaked ghouls? The closest to undead we get is a necron hero for 40k, and a shyish themed named hero for stormcast?? ... Next preview is for mid November. We'll be back to try again then, maybe.