Baron Klatz

Would be funny if that was the super armor light enough for a human to wear despite being made of fused metal, stone & bones Brinnock is working on. Size isn’t a problem anymore. But nah that is a really good catch. 👍 If it is for a horse and not something stranger(like the Lumineth hybrids) then we’re in a for a big size increase when you compare that to the old knight barding with the riders nearly the horse’s size. Looks like whatever the Freeguild rides might be on par with the Blood knight Nightmares.

Plus despite how people are laser focused on Orruk Warclans they have been de-souping AoS when they can like with Legions of Nagash transitioning to Soulblight Gravelords which removed their ghost and bone golem options to purely NightHaunt & Ossiarchs respectively(reason why I think Gitmob can be their own thing & seperate tome in the future if the Cairn Wraith can evolve into a independent army) and Legions of the First Prince being disbanded was a major blow to daemon soup despite 40k souping theirs at the same time. With the rumored CoS & FEC refreshes on the way it’s likely a trend to continue to make the factions further their own thing instead of trying to band-aid them together.(I think the fact Beast of Chaos weren’t touched during STD’s big update but given shiny new tome instead speaks volumes they’re not planning any soup for a long time, several editions down the line at least until a lot of brand new AoS armies start crowding in)

Plus, if dead, she might just be at Assassin’s Rest in Shyish. https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Assassin's_Rest It’s next to Hallost where the Corebook mentioned Dawncrusades are heading to carve out areas from Chaos territories there as the heroic Hallost ghost companions(spent much of the Age of Chaos protecting the living from Chaos already) are all too happy to help the Dawners as they ride out on their spectral chargers to smite evil. Could be a case for her return that the Order of Azyr pick her spirit back up from the crusades there and use the Life-flood to bring her back to life and continue her service with the Cities.

I like the detail how the red line just crossed them out instead of underlining them. i won’t be surprised if the tech stuff and Cogsmith go(as he now lacks artillery) if this wave is to replace humans & religious units with new Dawner soldiers out on the rugged frontiers holding down the settlements backed up by all the aelven warriors and monsters to fit Ghur’s theme. the tech might have to come back in follow-up waves. Could be cool if it’s treated like a game of Civilization with primitive settlers first, steampunk and tech advancement next and finally Wizard and magi-tech supremacy for late stage free city metropolises.

Good time to be fans of green-colored people that swarm their enemies with stabby knives while a ominous planetary god watches down on them. Oh and Moonclan fans too.

I mean it’d make sense for her model to release around the time of the big CoS reboot next year(possibly) anyway. Hopefully with another solo short story of hers. They could even do a dual-release here of her and the ex-Sigmarite since they both technically left the Order of Azyr but still help the free people so would be good rebel heroes to go along with Gotrek and his ability to mix with other factions(Maleneth would even answer his speed problem while the new priestess could cover his vulnerability vs hordes) Anyway, love the new books! They feel very new and fresh and show off the Mortal Realms amazing diversity with how different each hero is. Also nice that these plus the chaos one gives us one novel per Grand Alliance. Been a good year for books! 👍

Then I think you’re actually anti-soup because that’s the real debate here. 😛 I think you’re just grouping factors like posterboy favoritism and Grand Alliances into it when flavorful cooperation is perfectly fine. Just like Dawncrusades have humans, city-aelves, dispossessed, fyreslayers, Daughters of Khaine and Stormcast working together. We want that stuff but not someone saying they have to cram them into fewer tomes to work(Duardin +Fyreslayers, DoK+city aelves, humans +Stormcast) That stuff can be symbolized by allies and coalitions but keep the over-arching seperate GA’s, factions and sub-factions and letting the various detailed races have room to expand themselves.

Decades to be more precise. ”even as the frost-locked land of Bjarl inveigles fjords into its underside and chokes Andtor’s southern coast with ice floes. If a scholar was to somehow map the Heartlands, he would find his document hopelessly out of date within a matter of decades.” Thondia tome has a neat note on that how it’s caused Ghurian map makers to basically become orders of warrior monks with how dangerous the surveys are and how rigorously they have to go and redo their works over and over to keep up-to-date on the hungry continents biting & slashing tectonically at eachother. on the little details they’re doing pretty well and I can gush about recent works(even outside Soulbound) like “Arkanaut’s Oath” but man do I miss Josh Reynold’s stuff on fleshing out the alien worlds of the Mortal Realms. The Blackmarsh Barony having giant land-eating turtles they build castles on the backs of who “seperate” the indigestible precious minerals that become the provinces currency to everything about the Crawling City: https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Shu'gohl like how fun is that to detail that among all the giant worm hairs they hollow out into buildings that they need a source of light amidst the follicle skyscrapers? “Bristle-Towers: The Bristle-Towers, or Setae Towers, of the Crawling City are structures carved into and made from the hair-like setae that grows from the worm's back. These towers rise above the squirming, clustered streets found on the worm's backs. They are connected connected to one another and the streets by walkways and bridges made from warm-scale and setae. Mirror plates hanging from the towers are used to reflect lantern light down onto the city streets, ensuring the city is as bright as day even at night, these lights are part of a defense system to keep watch for the Skaven who still lurk deep within the worm.” But it’s another reason I’m looking forward to the pace of the AoS videogames picking up in the future. Nothing beats visual media on getting the cool stuff across to newcomers and how they can work. like with Tempestfall exploring the Shyish city or Stormground showing trees so massive whole cities are built in the branches and in desperate measures they have a number of magic defenses from weaponized life wells to ward off spirits to even the Freeguild setting up enchanted weapons as an imprompt electrified barricade the Stormcasts power. (that mission is crazy hard, btw. We both lost all our forces and me and the enemy commander played death tag running around the map using abilities.) Also I love little details videogames can do like show even the Vanguard bear-traps have faces on the triggers.(also nice the game gives us another Lord-Arcanum Redeemed character that was formerly a chaos champion turned Stormcast hero) A solid videogame Rpg would help a lot.(even if average the info it can give and funnel fans toward Soulbound would help opinions overall)

I mean you already stated how it’s different. We want them seperated into more distinct factions with more books focusing on a faction alone so instead of say Beastclaw Raiders being treated as cursed nomad versions of Gutbusters or Spider-grots the Shyish forest cousins of Moonclans it’s back to being full tomes just on them and their seperate tribal cultures, gods, battles and army configuration abilities along with model ranges that fleshes their specific themes as individual forces out rather than give variety that makes them feel like add-ons. The variety would come through the GA’s allowing combinations(you get all the above unit choices but lose special abilities that buff the certain army) Your take on Death being one faction would fall apart as soon as we started expanding past it with stuff like Shyishian mortal armies, void entities, Stygxx River guardians, Hallost companions, Primordial Tomb Sons of Gnorros, Frost Titan legions of Okaenos, etc. Same as if you compared something like the Grand Alliance Order as a simple Faction and that Seraphon being in the same book as Deepkin would be normal.

I think he might be the “old foe” the upcoming Stormcast novel is talking about since it’s in Aqshy and the article goes over their past since “Gates of Azyr” “Even among the Stormcast Eternals, the golden-armoured Hammers of Sigmar are considered paragons of the God-King’s might. Led by Vandus Hammerhand, they were the first to bring Sigmar’s storm to the Mortal Realms at The Gates of Azyr, and they’ve been at the forefront of the battles against Chaos, Death, and Destruction ever since. Now a trio of them face new threats in Richard Strachan’s new novel.“ https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/09/21/new-sagas-of-hammers-and-axes-from-the-mortal-realms-are-coming-soon/

Honestly push comes to shove this could probably be Deadwalker Legions with creatures on the side(or made into another faction of Shyishian God-beast offspring, would love cairn hounds & bone hydras to get their own thing) We already have several zombie leaders that can even be expanded with the Kosargi zombie ogors getting some commanders alongside Crelis from Soul Wars: “Crelis Arul the Lady of All Flesh, mistress of Deadwalkers is a Deathlord in the service of Nagash. She is famed for her charnel gardens and their potent fragrance. She travels atop a palanquin draped in rotting and stained finery with her features hidden behind a crudely stitched leather mask. Her eyes are flat and milk coloured, her voice is like a liquid slur and akin to her subjects she stinks of rot and decay. She is inevitably accompanied by two great dire wolves, their ribcages showing through tattered fur and their skulls bare to the moonlight. Her bones are carved with words and sigil’s in an ancient language” Add a few more zombie heroes, Zombified beasts & zombie-tossing catapults and the Exiled Dead made into both an electrifying horde of Tesla experiments and elite Frankensteins on top of faction terrain of Corpse Gardens that act similar to Skaven Gnaw-holes that sprout on the battlefield to disgorge undead but also enhance enemies turned into zombies via their life-seeking vines and you can get a great faction that represents the militias of Shyish and lower ranking hierarchy of zombie-ran estates. 🧟‍♂️ 🧟‍♀️

Honestly I think we’re pretty safe from that. Some people say the bring backs are inconsistent but they do follow a pattern Chaos: anyone can come back because Chaos won and they went into the Chaos Realm to plague new worlds. Though it isn’t a guarantee as Chaos is still very fickle. Death: most can return as long as they have a connection to Nagash who can drag their souls back or for his closer vampire followers he can regrow from his ribs.(though after a number caused him trouble to outright betrayal he put a hard cap on that) Order: godly intervention like the aelves being siphoned from captured Slaanesh’s gullet, Grimnir sending Gotrek through that portal and otherwise they need a magical connection with the Realms for their souls to be drawn there like Gelt’s, his Fire college predecessors and the Tsarina reincarnating in Realmgate Wars as a ursa priestess in Ghur. Destruction: they lack all of the above so are pretty much all new characters with the best they can do is Skarsnik’s magical nature helping him reincarnate into the meteor that orbits Da Bad Moon. So unless that person has a god or magic connection they don’t really get drawn towards the Realms. Felix had no magic so at best it would be a distant wisp or something minor like that which would probably play out as Neverchosen said. Speaking of new characters apparently the ork rockstar is semi-canon to the Mortal Realms too which is a big surprise to me. His order even comes with Battleplans for use in AoS as you battle around his concert. Reddit with all the music references in the comic. Can’t wait for more of these. https://www.reddit.com/r/ageofsigmar/comments/zakh7d/can_you_find_all_gags_and_references/

Oh, then that’s already there. It’s hard to find since they tucked it away on the site as a tiny tab but Warhammer Chronicles does have the majority of their stories already. https://www.blacklibrary.com/series/warhammer-chronicles-series/Gotrek-and-Felix-The-Fifth-Omnibus-2020.html All that’s missing is their End Times stuff. Being that’s his Fyreslayer axe on the cover it’s likely just a new story altogether. Giving stuff he hasn’t tussled with yet and the Brexit hardships UK is going through now, my guess is Avatar-Gotrek vs Ossiarchs in “Titheslayer”.

As in models? They wouldn’t fit anywhere. The specialist game is set too far back to where Felix isn’t born yet and Gotrek is just a baby. Eh, Gotrek said that quote though so it could be anything from getting a whiff of Felix’s spirit to just indulging in his memories with new companions.

Could also be them finally covering the End Times part of their adventure again and connecting them to the Realmslayer audio put to paper. Or hilariously the red herring take and it’s the Ironbreaker and a Karak stuck in stasis and were transported to the Realms. Or just Dispossessed shenanigans in general. Though the salt from Felix showing up as an Hammer of Anvilgard stormcast(reforged dead that talk in archaic languages) would be lovely.

Tough choice on voting. Really appreciate the package deals though like if you vote for the Flamekeeper then his Deepkin counterpart also gets it. That’s a nice way to take some pressure off and support the AoS side with bigger batches of votes. Certainly made giving the Thondia set/Krondspine or Lady of Vines & Gossamids more approachable. Also liking how many naval themed units we got between the Ogor captain, Boat ghost and Drekki Flynt. Stormy sailing this year with hopefully better tides(of releases) next year. For me it was Really hard deciding because I did love a lot of this year’s models. Everything Sylvaneth and finally getting the Lady of Vines and those amazing flying archers, crossboos with death note ghost and more. I finally narrowed it down between Awlrach and Drekki. I’ve been on a huge Elden Ring hype kick all year to where after that finally dried out I dug out my old copy of Dark Souls 2 In it’s original packaging and started playing that this month- (been having a lot of fun making a Stormcast “Rustcast” character advance to a shining Hallowed Knight-Questor on his journey to save a Ghyran kingdom transported to Shyish: ) So it was with a heavy heart I finally gave the vote to Drekki Flynt instead. Both are insanely amazing, have all that over-the-top I love on my AoS designs but Flynt edged ahead with his fantastic novel and just in general me wanting to give support to more Kharadron, AoS high technology steampunk/dieselpunk and more high flying adventures in the infinite Aethers! 🍻 ✈️ Edit: on the Dawncrusade allegiance idea I still go with my theory that it’ll be based on 7 major city-fortresses that the Core Book noted are launching the crusades in each Realm so you get coalitions there.(Aqshy/Ghyran Hammerhal-Fyreslayers & Sylvaneth((already can ally)), Excelsis-Seraphon, Misthavn-DoK, Vindicarum-Kharadron, Lethis-Deepkin, Settlers Gain-Lumineth)

Yeah, they came with some of the first rumors on that two months ago. Feels like GW wants a rock-paper-scissors system so there’s never one true dominant force(like in Gallet people just skipped the Bounty Hunter threat entirely by relying on Thondia’s monster list still instead of playing into the infantry hype) by just changing up options so people can make new lists and get previously shelved models back into the game with a meta shift.

There are rumors of a “Sniper core battalion” that does just that. Gets past the hero protection so they’re still a threat you have to watch out for or build around to punish over-confident hero delivery systems. Anyway was 4 pages back and just got caught up with the rumors. Thoughts: Arenai being DoK gladiators makes a lot of sense. Goes with the hero they got and the Beast cards match the Arena of Shades art of what they fight in the city colosseums. I could imagine one of the creatures in the Warband. Could fit lorewise too, in the White Dwarf flashpoint there’s focus on the Free City of Everquake in Lendu renowned for it’s gladiator rings and has a large Melusai temple next to it. The Arenai might be from there to capture and bring back Gnarlwoods monsters to entertain the people of distant Everquake and make more good PR for Morathi-Khaine’s to get a foothold(tailhold?) in Ghur. Now onto CoS rumors. Well firstly it bolds well for Kharadron that being the last Order update for 3rd edition means they have some excellent chances of getting a big update ala Lumineth’s Wind Temple wave before 3rd hits. As for Wanderers, well sadly it felt like they were going this direction. Prince Maesa’s omnibus wasn’t put under Cities of Sigmar as they usually do with city focused books and a lot of Wanderer lore has been them adapting and settling down into the cities like with Corporal Steelwater and the recent Ulfenkarn supplement had with a Wanderer that went there to get a medical license. They basically have been taking the Wander out of them as they become full city-aelves as things aren’t improving on the Sylvaneth “please stop genociding us for abandoning you” front. As for classic units like zealots, demigryphs and steamtanks disappearing. Not surprised since it’s going to be a reboot. As Whitefang hinted it’s likely going to be a lot of stuff that has the High Elf to Lumineth transition reactions of “You ruined our faction!! What is this nonsense?!” With how wacky they can go. Like a earlier comment said “they need regular horses, otherwise aren’t they just smaller Stormcasts?” Well that could be the case. The Witch Hunter warband has a guy dressing as a Stormcast, WD lore has a new city called Brinnock making “super armor” for the crusades and there’s 2018 art of Azyr warriors that do indeed look like mini-casts: It could easily go primitive gunpowder and heavy armored troops for Battleline that get backed up by armies of super Warrior Priests, magic armor and fantastical beasts from Azyr(like those new horned gryph-chargers) that are all about proving themselves for reforging into true Stormcasts. And then later down the line we get the Ironweld update for new warmachines, Dispossessed engineers and mini-cogforts to replace the steamtanks, then a collegiate arcane and aelven update for the mage elements of the cities. Lastly, I don’t see this hurting the mixed race element of the Cities. There’s been tons of material since Broken Realms of them all working together and Soulbound’s Blackened Earth really doubled down on it with how important the duardin and aelven civilians are to keeping Greywater alive while the Forge city got a retcon from being a purely duardin run city to a duardin/human hybrid city. With how important the druchii elements are to the cities like Excelsis’ Scourge harbor patrols, Bilgewater’s privateer protected trades in Ghur and Misthavn being huge on them working together in both naval and magic narcotics smuggling activities across the Realms(note they played a huge part in Broken Realms Morathi as a Black Ark fleet escorted by freeguild steamcogs with Misthavn human marines on the Ark protected Morathi from the vengeful Deepkin as she ascended) means they’re likely to get love down the line in cities too when they need (sea)monster updates.

It feels pretty evenly divided between Malerion/Morathi, city Darklings, Hedonites or Belakor. Personally I’d like another CoS force instead of one for DoK as beast-tamers from the nearby Cities looking to capture and smuggle the dangerous twisted Gnarlwood creatures to employers across the Realms. Though I feel it could be Belakor’s cronies looking to smash up the spaceship since the artifacts can destroy his plans. The Beast cards may be related to the Centaurian Marshall and other animal commanders under his rule that are directing his mortal forces there.(remember the Centaurian isn’t just a monster but a tactical leader that uses stealth , gladiator ingenuity and even political guile to force people under it’s command. They’re the whole package of a Marshall)

Yeah, I think Warcry warbands may start serving as specialist troop builds. (Lot of people assumed that was gonna be the case with them replacing Chaos Marauders but they kept them around since they’re a 20 model kit to fill out armies) Hoping Nightmare Quest turns the UnderWorlds Loon Court into a Warcry unit. Armored Grot infantry on quests to take objectives for Da Bad Moon would be flavorful and offer a tankier build option than hordes. Dude I absolutely love this! Great desert theme for them. A Grindworm* mount would work so well with Gitmob’s Ghur themes and tie into all the underground insect tunnels so they can have a super-heavy ambush option for their fast elite forces to fight around. (*Grindworms were a common sight in the Realmgate Wars for those that are unfamiliar. They mostly inhabit the Bone Sea deserts and are big enough to swallow a Gore-grunta and it’s Ironjaw rider in one go((that’s like 4 horses)). The marble city of Jercho has soldiers use grindworm teeth as spear-points and arrow-heads as they make handy replacements for metal weapons, which Ghur lacks, being just as hard and sharp)

No Soup. That was fine back in 2019 when they had a 100 sub-factions floating around and needed organization but now AoS is at a solid place it can focus down on it’s factions and build them up in very unique ways. Even split some back off again and build them from there. Soup should only happen when we hit critical mass with all the Grand Alliances sub-factions again like if Destruction grows to have 12 factions (ex: Orruks, Ogors, Behemat, Gloomspite, Gitmob, Grotbags, Silent People, Realm Scions, Elementals, Abyss Hunters, Aetar skylords, Drogrukh Returned) Then it’d make sense to combine a few to get it down for balance. As is, AoS needs to continuing growing and expanding. Not consolidating when it’s still at it’s stride in getting bigger.

@Gitzdee @Moldek @CommissarRotke @KhaosSpawn @Thostos Well dreams do come true, they brought it back today and gave it a big update for both Gnarlwoods, tournament tracking and a free organized play rules pack! 😍 https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/11/30/warcry-roster-builder-organise-your-warbands-and-enter-the-gnarlwood/

Dude, it’s just some steroid direwolves for the Ghur focus, make like a Beastclaw Raider that overslept and chill. ❄️ Like I was hoping for spider-grots(still am or a nice new Troggoth) but a one-off unit for a beastly era sub-faction isn’t a big deal. Honestly it’s better they pull this while AoS is on the backburner so that whenever we get to the new crazy stuff like Grotbag Scuttlers they can get a full release rather than this model dripfeed. On another note I hope Soulbound adds a Destruction Gitmob supplement to the upcoming Era of the Beast & Dawncrusade stuff for players that want to take to riding Snarlfangs on the fire-winds of the Ghurian plains for this. I can see a lot of potential for people that want survival scenarios while hiring out their services to foreign forces and even extremely desperate settlers needing areas scouted.

People keep saying this but can we take a second to appreciate that AoS gave them a huge upgrade in it’s usual glorious over-the-top fashion? the 7th edition wolf riders were indeed Mongolian themed but the “giant wolves” they rode were still shown off as just above average sized mangy creatures, barely equipped with anything and both were ragged and underwhelming looking as a mediocre threat at best. The AoS Snarlfangs on the otherhand are properly huge dire wolf size, both rider and wolf are excellently equipped with well crafted leathers, weapons and tools(harkening back to the Grots having started in the Realm of Metal as skilled tinkers, with the 2015 stuff having them and duardin working together in sky domes before chaos toppled them, where most split off from there to make up various tribes including gnoblars), both are muscular and fit with no hint of being scavengers and of course the Snarlfangs having deadly venom on top of it all to make them a extremely deadly threat even an otherworldly enemy would have to be aware of. (They’re even taking on Ogors as well as Blightkings in the size department)

The warbands are indeed on rotation so will come back in the future. I imagine Kharadron and Sylvaneth were spared since this season doesn’t have replacements for them. So far many of the new warbands look like new flavorful spins on the old ones. It’ll probably be past the Gnarlwoods seasons before they have new armored sky-merchants and insect-boosted tree spirits ready. Realm flavor. Everything’s in Ghur right now so everyone’s got hairier beasts from vampires getting werewolf-hybrids, Stormcasts dragons with visible fur, a literal fur-tracker ogor and mega-Gargant beast-Hunter, Maggotkin got a guy going full animal fly form, StD got full monstrous Ogroid units, etc. There’s a pretty consistent theme of animals, animal hybrids and animal hunters this Season in Ghur and the Era of the Beast. Gloomspite there would be more dependent on their spider-clan empires and bestial Troggoth dens in the insect tunnels rather than the fairy tale horrors. Suitably the ones we’re seeing have to act as errant moon knights trying carve out a stronghold of their own in the stinkhorn.(heck, Ghur has half-eaten moons floating overhead the Realm tried to eat. Not like Da Bad Moon would want to stay there long) I expect we’ll continue to see other odd match-ups as we go through the other Realms building off their aesthetics as well since infinite magic realities mean consistency can be shakey at best. Like just imagine what the Freeguild would look like if they were fully realm-based between Aqshy, Ghyran and Chamon?