Baron Klatz

I mean that’s just been fair for balancing. Coalitions are already Allies+ and counteract weaknesses like Clans Pestilens swarming in for Nurgle’s elitish Maggotkin and Cities of Sigmar getting beefier demigod troops & monsters(like Stormdrakes). If they got all the big armywide buffs too it’d make things go screwy quick. That way it’s just like a more controlled version of the Grand Alliance Forces where you could either go all in on one army and get their trait buffs or mix-and-match and lose the traits but get all that versatility with exotic units. Coalition’s are the middle ground. It’d be nice if they linked them to what Realm your army is from so choosing that trait has a purpose besides flavor. Like this guy did a Narrative Path to Glory and gave his Celestial Vindicators a Cockatrice which looks great and works thematically because they’re all from the Realm of Metal. Unlocking cross-alliance monster allies via your army being from a Realm(Aqshy Ironjawz paying for a Magmadroth merc or Hyshian NightHaunt able to attune to the spirit hearts of Lumineth mountain/wind spirits) would be really fun.

For TOW, no. Tons of interest is dying off now, announcing around this year would’ve been better at keeping hype up. For GW in general, yes. Itrobbed almost all the Thunder out of Kings of War’s third edition announcement. Which is likely the main reason they even said anything despite only having a logo ready at the time. Not as bad it did at the start. Last year on the Warhammer general Reddit someone posted on the TOW revealed map “Is it just me or is there not much of a reason to care? AoS is in a really great place now and me and my friends are having a blast with 3rd edition.” to which it became a top voted comment in the thread because AoS keeps going strength to strength while the new specialist game only has nostalgia going for it which the rules, resin and costs can easily nullify if old players decide to take their old armies to better rank and file games. Plus a Lot of comments of new hobbyists asking “What’s the Old World? A Age of Sigmar expansion?” because we are hitting an area in time where the old guard are getting replaced with new players who don’t even know what a Bretonnia or Mordheim is nor ever seen a empire soldier on a square base. As the years go by the nostalgia selling angle gets less and less weight to offset what are likely to be egregious prices.

Indeed. I imagine they’ll still lean heavily on painters and kitbashers to truly encompass the big diversity of freeguilders but there’s a lot of stuff in the books to explore like the isolated Ghur cities such as the marble city of Jercho having to wear all leather armor and use monster-bone weapons, Excelsis with it’s spider steel-silk plantations for soldiers to wear instead of chainmail to continue the theme of Ghur’s lack of precious minerals or Ghyranites wearing armor made from living wood and Chamonites with flowing metal clothes that harden on impact. There’s a wide swathe of design potential for them to make all kinds of new looks and armor diversity. But I suspect that’s why the teasers showed skulls, bones and leaves. They’ll work as Empire callbacks but they’ll crank it up to 11 so you can cover your troops in them and then paint them up to have the more exotic armors. Wood armor paint + mass of leaf icons = Ghyranite, leather armor + mass of bones = Ghurian, black armor and coats + skulls = Shyishian, blue & gold armor + comets & royal insignias= Azyrite, etc. I hope for much more but I could see them taking that economical route with it.

Cogforts, Sentry-keeps and Border-walkers all have giant piston-driven spider legs, not wheels. A steamtank’s greatest foe alone is unstable ground: The big ponderous landship would defecate screws looking at the average Realmscape the spider legs cross every day. Let the spider tanks reign!

Plus Conquistadors can have face masks which fits in seamlessly with the Stormcast Seraphim mask impasse.(as we see with the guy in the Hexbane warband) Goes with the whole People of Heaven Spanish/Latin theme Stormcasts go all in down to their bear traps and matches other works like Blasphemous and Dark Souls. Blasphemous makes me hope one day we get those storm cherubs that show up in the Stormcast art. Flying support unit that can’t attack but buffs Stormcasts and explodes harder than Thunderstrikes to punish those that’d kill the innocent. (fan art here but I really like it)

Yeah, Cogforts come in multiple sizes depending on what their function is. Patrol types can be more like medium-sized forts that hold regiments of troops and protect settlements or crawl along the borders marked by the ever-expanding walls of the cities. Or the massive city-sized Cogforts used to take new ground from enemy forces and expand Order’s border like Old Firesnout that conquered the lands that Anvilgard(and later Har Kuron) would settle) “Cogforts come in all shapes and sizes ranging from forts to small cities that travel on either wheels or piston-powered legs, making them appear like immense mechanical arachnids. They are often heavily armed with a wide variety of weapons such as cannons, fire-throwers and fire-steps for Freeguild soldiers to fire from. A central wall atop the fortress will often be constructed to surround a series of armoured towers. At the heart of these fortresses are the furnaces that power them, some Cogforts even use emberstone furnaces.” ”Cogforts are employed by many Dawnbringer Crusades in their reclamation efforts of the Mortal Realms, serving as mobile fortresses from which the Dawners can organize their forces and campaigns. Other mobile fortresses such as Sentry-Keeps and Border-Walkers are also used.” (I imagine the animated one will be a Border-Walker similar to the one shown in Soulbound) “Cogforts patrol the regions outside the walls of the ever-expanding Cities of Sigmar protecting the city perimeter and defending vulnerable settlements outside of the main city. They also bring their firepower against enemies that stand in the way of the expansion of the city's territory. For many Free Cities, particularly Hammerhal Aqsha, Cogforts play a vital role in expanding and securing borders, allowing the influence of Sigmar's bastions to grow These mobile fortresses are garrisoned by well over a hundred Human and Duardin soldiers, often pulled from the ranks of Freeguilds and the guilds of the Ironweld Arsenal. Occasionally Fyreslayer mercenaries and wizards will be employed alongside the rank-and-file forces.” That all said I’m skeptical that the animation humans will represent the actual new Freeguild models. GW doesn’t leak designs like that which are a year or more away as competitors and bootleggers can steal them and sell their own models before GW can which cuts into profits. So I’m saying just well armored placeholder troops for now(certainly better than the old pajama party but can still go further to at least the Kharadron-esque clothes Hexbane has) I am curious about the armored vehicles the troops on the left and right side are riding that look to be mechanized war wagons. The cranes on them look like Ironweld salvage units that are used as defensive emplacements.

I absolutely loved Grand Alliance armies and how they traded Battletome buffs for a versatile army(Khornites protecting Skaven artillery while Slaanesh cavalry flanked) but unfortunately I get why GW cut it for this edition. They’re much more competitive focused and balancing around all that was gonna be rough as shark skin. Made sense to just cut it from Matched Play rather than water it down to account for the constant influx of new armies, gods and spells until nobody used the Alliances anyway because of all the nerfs.(and why the multiplayer ally matrix was shot down) Coalitions make a fine enough consolation prize. Otherwise I say keep Grand Alliances as they are for the game and setting structure. It’s just too useful in organizing everything for both GW, Cubicle7, the various videogame & magazine creators and for newbies to look at a faction and get an idea of what they’re about like not being confused why Daughters of Khaine look evil with all the blood as they see them with Order(and surrounded by dead chaos bodies) and know from DND they’re Lawful Evil which leads them to read why they have temples in almost every free city and indeed helped establish civilization in the first place. As mentioned with Behemat I’d just like to see mercenary rules return with the proper factions like Flesh-Eater Courts, Fyreslayers and possibly become even a Keyword for certain units so Freeguilders, Darkoaths, Kruleboyz and Deathrattles can find themselves working for other factions & Grand Alliances while keeping it simple enough to easily balance around.(plus keeping it only a handful of units means if they cut it later too then no one wasted a lot on them and can just turn them into a new Warcry warband)

That’d be the rub, when their champions die by being Soulbound they’ll be unable to resurrect those souls anymore. “Those who are Soulbound have their essence entwined with other beings, binding your essence together until death - although it is a painful process that not everyone survives. Enduring the agony grants the survivors a powerful tether and conduit allowing them to draw upon each other’s essence and guarding their soul from Nagash. This group of bound indivduals is known as a Binding. Stormcast Eternals are unable to become Soulbound. A Soulbound heals quickly and does not age - but when they die their souls shatters in an explosion of light and energy,” That’s why Sylvaneth only accept it at great cost as it breaks their rebirth cycle and Stormcasts, Draconiths & Seraphon can’t do it at all. Chaos gods do many fell deeds with their worshippers but they’re too greedy to lose souls like that permanently. So there’s bound to be a twist on this, maybe a version that breaks down and mutates the flesh more as the cost instead so they can retain the soul? It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with. Also more tweets on the Death book make me more envious. Cubicle7 are fantastic on making their books thick. 👌

With how long it can take them to put out information I think they could comfortably delay information until after STD’s released. They still have Era of the Beast, Ulfenkarn and the Dawncrusade Settlements supplements to release afterall. I think the more pressing matter was having to work out a whole new system for how Chaos Soulbound is gonna work. Lore-wise Chaos doesn’t know the Pantheon’s ritual to do so and what’s even more Soulbound is perma-death that even disconnects the soul so the ever soul-covetous Chaos Gods are gonna be against potentially losing their best champions souls to this method of empowerment. They probably came up with a new twisted system Chaos can use but I kinda hope it’s Ikit’s bootleg Anvil of Apotheosis he has in his mobile dimension warren that keeps reforging him when he dies. That’d work for a Chaotic(faulty) version AND make the Chaos party more neutral as Ikit is getting hunted down by even the Chaos gods for all the secrets he stole from them so signing up as his agents would make you more powerful but even your main Grand Alliance may want your heads(or torture you to find Ikit)

Chaos is on the rise, lads: Really appreciate the Bloodbound being the cover guys. First chaos guys to herald Age of Sigmar itself now get to introduce the Chaos Grand Alliance into the rpg scene. Darkoaths, daemon princes, gor-kin and Skaven archetypes ho! Also really like the enthusiasm Cubicle7 has in their booths.

There’s some pretty nifty beginner cheat sheets and Core Rules pamphlets out there too you can keep on the side. Otherwise just don’t sweat forgetting a few things. Even long time battle reporters like MWG Studios on YouTube miss a few rules or misinterpret something in almost every battle report and that’s 100’s now. Just make like dice and roll with it.

I mean it’s been a Forge World game for decades that gathered a huge following with an insane amount of books before all this happened. Realistically this new specialist game will have to go through the same ringer for decades as well And Succeed to get this treatment in the future too. It’s extremely unlikely with what we know(small team and the like) that it’ll launch anything close to HH’s new level but instead start at the resin bottom too.(though this feeds into my earlier statement about being vague so fans hype themselves up, that you guys keep envisioning Horus Heresy+ release is just free hype PR GW doesn’t have to do anything for.) Oh you are messing with a major monkey paw right now.

I don’t think we got any hints for them(though Belakor’s guys would’ve come out of the blue aether too if not for the leaks so hey there’s always hope) I think from the Rumor engines the best bets are Flesh-Eater Courts from the fanged tower or Hedonites that are the late arrivals for the Excelsis siege Sigvald and the Glutton were too fashionably late for.

I mean they kinda missed the boat on that anyway. Empire is by and far the most popular TWW faction but very few players have interest in this because(besides the cost and resin) it’s so far in the past that the faces of the game like Karl Franz and Gelt won’t be around nor other popular things like Rockets, Battle Wizards nor their wizard wagons. That it’ll likely come out years after TWW hype has cooled off(2024-2026) and well.. A lot of people are criticizing it that it should’ve been announced now(or after TWW3’s release) to have kept the hype and showable teases fresh instead of back in 2019 when all they had was a logo made just to destabilize King of War’s 3rd edition announcement.

Haha, thank my Ex-Warmahorde friend who never misses a beat to talk about how they crashed themselves like the Hindenburg. My biggest take away is A Lot of those bad moves are suggested even now by warhammer fans for GW to take (like exclusive beta rules), not out of malice but because they’re all in their own player bubbles(like the 3D printer groups) and can only see from a limited view that may help them but hurt everyone else and inevitably GW because they can’t see the bigger picture and negative domino effects. Nothing is as simple as it seems. Man I wish! Reason I didn’t grab the Deathrattle SC when it was on discount because the new Wight King is the only appealing model in it(not saying the old skelies are bad but they’re dinky now). Hopefully we’ll get a Deathrattle Kingdoms update with Soulblight’s next big release that either updates or replaced with new armored skeletons & bone beasts meant to hold off the Ossiarchs from claiming their people for parts. (Also Avengorii centaur cavalry and drake-bats please) The Sons of Behemat only drink beer, not Soup!!

Same as saying owning bread makers has put all the bakeries out of business. It’s definitely nice to have but it’s not touching global official products.

Ye, probably will just DM him later about it. But yeah guys, beware Privateer Press’ snake oil even if it’s 3D printed. Anyway looking forward to Vilitch getting replaced by the new Mortal Realms Curseling. win-win, GW gets some subtle FOMO with people trying to grab that old model up quick to preserve some history from the game while we get a proper one that actually fits the “cultist leader rising high enough that Tzeentch blesses them with a daemon tumor that can tell when someone in their cult is lying.” Vilitch’s model was awesome but certainly didn’t fit that new lore as you’d need someone more normal looking to be in charge of hidden cults or even be any gender which the hulking old model did not fit in the slightest as it was both unsubtle and only male.

Neat post by Mengal Miniatures, here’s wishing them the best of luck this year! 👍

Oh boy strap-in, my friend went from Warmahorde champion to “kick em while they’re down” about this: ”> At the core of it all, two assumptions were made by Privateer Press. > -GW, the 800 lb gorilla of the tabletop hobby, would continue to make mistakes that any other company would find fatal. > -Warmahordes players were loyal, honest, and sporting. > > Both assumptions were wrong, but combined in ways that led to the current state of affairs. > > -Mk3 playtesting was phoned in; too small and incestuous of a testing body, no attention paid to feedback, and no blind testing. > -PP then lied about it. In print. > -The toxic competitives, who had already been driving newcomers away with aggressive and smirking gatekeeping, turned on PP when it became apparent that Mk3 was all of the things >>78965477 mentioned. > > Then GW woke up from a decade of douchy slumber and started making less douchy decisions, announcements, and products. The comparisons were swift and sadly accurate: PP was actually worse wrt its players than GW. > > In case you haven't been paying attention, that's *remarkable*. > There is a huge laundry list of what went wrong, and I was there from beginning to end. > >end of Mk2 the game was just past it's peak, still insanely popular and slowing down only because of bloat and rumors of 40k rules > >Newest edition mk3 released, instead of breathing new life into the game it made it riddled with dozens of broken rules interactions, bad new starter kits, some collections are made worthless overnight, and the broken meta lists just changed hands > >after months most bugs are fixed and balance patches are put out, but irreparable damage has been done to the community's faith in PP and the game hemorrhages players fast to new 40k edition or just quitting tabletop full stop > >game and community are seen as obnoxiously competitive and new players just aren't coming in to make up for the old guard leaving > >theme forces are reimplemented into the game, but are only available for a few factions > >mk3 was allegedly designed with theme lists being the de facto way to play, but the first theme lists didn't come out for months, and each faction only got one to start with > >if you had a good theme list, you were suddenly one of the best factions in the game, if you didn't you were ****** out of luck > >theme forces slowly roll out, closing the power gap between most factions > >while factions became more balanced, players found that their old collections didn't fit the new standard and had to buy hundreds of dollars to be able to play in the restricted but mandatory theme lists > >more players keep leaving instead of keeping up with a game that was starting to feel like a pay to win scheme > >PP rolls out 'CID', a playtesting forums where all new rules are essentially thrown to the community to essentially do the devs job for them > >LGS games become even more toxic as players are either playtesting a version of the game that doesn't exist yet or are only interested in games of 'practice' for the next tournament > >CID is still seen as a massive success, despite killing the mystique and hype of future releases and making the game feel more unfinished than ever > >certain theme forces are given makeovers in entire CIDs, and an entire minifaction was injected into your army overnight that was almost certainly too good not to spend hundreds of dollars on the day it released > >even more players become disillusioned with the game, not interested in keeping up with the rat race of what is becoming one of the most expensive miniature games in the market if you even just want to not get curbstomped by the angry hive of waac players in their communities > >said waacfags become more insular and more cliquey, certain strongholds pop up across NA where the game holds strong > >what used to be a worldwide phenomenon had degraded to a handful of gangs vying to be the guys everyone talks to to figure out how to be good at the game Privateer Press are a shining example of what Not to do as a hobby business. even this new edition is rocky as they’re making more wrong moves with cheap 3D printing that’ll cost newbies $200 to get in and another $175 for expansion while the PR marketing is atrocious by telling people not to Panic(which of course causes the opposite) Yep, recent announcements have swung between subtly saying “you guys better buy these or we’ll take your toys away.” to outright stating if you don’t like the look of their $200 3D printed products then it’s not for you: “ darthlythari: "Please don't look too closely at the models; you might see how bad they are " is a hell of a press release, yo. u/IcyShoes: Wait where do they say that? u/darthlythari: "if you put a 3D printed model under a magnifying lens or photograph it and zoom in on that image, you’re going to see the individual build layers that make up the model. If you typically view your miniatures at 1000% magnification, then 3D printed models might not be for you." Like, seriously? My photos were only 2x zoom so I could actually focus on the models. All of the lines are very visible to the naked eye. I was also able to spot them on both the arm released fresh out the bath they posted the next day after my album drop and on marg's stream by pausing at the right moments. I strongly suggest people pop the boxes to look at the models before handing over payment. Use my photos as guides to see what you're looking for and judge if the quality is up to your own standards.” GW should NOT be looking at anything they’re doing except as cautionary tales to avoid.

I think they’d do fine on it. Already got creative shape-shifters like the Dove maidens of Neos in Ghyran (Looking back at the older Corebooks I appreciate how much world building they did that the current tomes use like the new Sylvaneth map references those mentions like Erosia and it’s sap volcanoes )

See? The joy of PR boosted by imagining the best outcomes compared to insiders like Hastings saying it’s gonna be 95% resin. (And I mean come on, if LotR is still getting resin then this will too) Lends credence why they don’t want to put a fine point on anything yet.

Oh my envy is undying looking at this. 🥲👻

Well insider rumblings aren’t great. There’s talk that the project lead Tony Cottrell left. Personally wouldn’t be surprised if they kept this on a slow burn for several years just to take advantage of the PR with older fans. Like right off the bat we know it’s a small team and even the Forge World ads put it on the bottom of their lists: “As Digital Illustrator you will be originating, designing and producing high quality digital artwork that will feature within the pages of the Specialist Design Studio range of books; such as The Horus Heresy, Blood Bowl, Necromunda, Adeptus Titanicus, Aeronautica Imperialis, and going forwards Warhammer – the Old World.” but now with how much global prices have risen across the board since they first planned it… well you look at a Forge World dwarven army and what even a “sensible” 6th edition rank-and-flank force is and I’m sure a lot of hype will turn to ash when those details fill out compare to now when there’s people imagining anything. That plus resin and it’s not exactly set to come out blazing. So I can imagine why they’re going heavy on dripping the information out as long as possible.

Oh siege doesn’t mean destroy it but just contain the defenders. Similar to Katakros besieging the Eight-Points that became a stalemate as Death just establishes footholds there. It’s got those massive rings of trenchworks that spread out for miles. More than enough area for the other 3 Alliances to capture and build their fiefdoms among the trenches and take advantage of the land’s defenses. (possible Ogor mercs the settlements want could account for new Maneaters too)

If Order wanted them they could mix it with the current Ghur magic causing some people to go feral and mutate and mix with how the Vanguard Stormcasts got their wind & teleport powers: “They are imbued with the death cry of Ulfdengnarl, the Great Wolf of the Howling Winds, a godbeast slain by Sigmar in the Age of Myth whose final wail was encased in crystal. As Stormcast Eternals, they continue their hunt for enemy officers, whilst demonstrating all of the Great Wolf ’s instincts for pursuing and destroying prey.” -Champions of Order supplement. Have then mutate into golden armored Blaidd’s as demigod wolves And Death already has werewolf vampires with the Vyrkos and their bloodline sire the God-beast Hrunspuul, Hound of the Cairns: “Age of Myth In Shyish ancient legends claim that the Vyrkos Dynasty of Soulblight was not created by a vampire, but instead created by the undead Godbeast Hrunspuul after the woman known as Belladamma Volga made a pact with it, becoming the first of the Vyrkos.” So they already got wolves covered. I agree though Destruction needs more neutral beast people after Slaves to Darkness took so many like the Ogroids. God-beast children ranging from wolves, double-headed sharkfolk and the Aetar great eagle people who live on the highest peaks of Ghur with their avian forms covered in armor & jewelry would be great break-out factions to go alongside Kragnos & Sons as something more than just Ogors & greenskins. Probably unpopular opinion but I’m okay if it comes out with the other Tomes next year. If they line it up with the Season of War going on to siege the great Gutfort north of Thondia then they could do a proper meaty update of siege Ogors defending their bastion.(with the gnarlwoods design video noting it’s been in the concept pipeline since the Realmgate Wars I’m hopeful that means the giant shield-wall Ogors that appeared in the books too show up as mobile fortresses)