Baron Klatz

My money’s on FEC. Either Warcry leader with a huge back mane he treats as a king’s cape(skeletons in it regal ivory decorations)as he leads his noble soldiers from the Fanged Tower into th Gnarlwoods to hunt Chaos and monsters. Or due to the size it could be UnderWorlds FEC and the monsters we saw in the artwork opposing Hexbane. Having grown considerably bigger and madder from consuming Ulgu bones and whatever shadow daemon substances they found at the ocean floor. Would be fitting as from the first FEC tome one of the origin stories was a Ulgu prince that hid in shrouded caves during the Age of Chaos and contracted the madness by starving in the depths so began spreading it in the shadow realm from there.

It’d be awesome if a Realm of Metal Fyreslayer Lodge like the Greyfyrds got financial and tech-backing from the Skyports so they could get stuff like plasma axes and flamethrower jet-packs(aetherpacks). And alongside the Metalodroths they got a bunch of Aqshy salamanders & lesser drakes upgraded with Kharadron super-tech that plays off the creatures being so hot they generate their own Steam for advanced weapons to be powered on them but making it unsafe for any pilots save the Fyreslayers who are immune to the heat as the children of a fire god. A bunch of great examples can be lifted from Duel Masters(whose gone so niche that barely anyone outside Japan would notice) (gyrocopters eat your heart out) Also fun, looking up armored dragons I saw the Stormcast Stardrake heads the trope wiki page in it. Awesome! https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArmoredDragons Oh there’s rumor-mongers actually expecting the River Temple now? That needs a proper big release so I’m more than happy to wait a few more years for it than whatever scattered release we’d get now. Underwater lumineth priests, fast and agile water spirits and the massive pachyderm sages the temple venerates mentioned twice in the White Dwarfs now: I imagine a temple that does a little bit of both what Mountain & Wind can do (tanky elephant/hippo/tapir sages and speedy water wraiths) but doesn’t excel in one area because like water it’s supposed to be versatile(ice not as hard as rock and water flows not as fast as wind).

Yeah, I suspect the Dawn Crusaders will end up like the Maggotkin release that proceeded Malign Portents and Sacrosanct vs NightHaunt starter for the next edition so too will the Crusaders be the intro into Aqshy season of war before we get the next big Starter box. Would be fitting since their announcement trailer mentioned the Freeguild and “Storm God’s Crusaders” so to actually get Freeguild crusades would complete the cycle. (also I never noticed that tiny regular snail trailing beneath Horticulous as him and his daemon snail rode on the ceiling. Adorable)

I’m imagining you meant 4th shot of alcohol and all I can think is you waking up on a Monday hangover to Ogors rebased on hexagons.

Size of the Ghurian meat trees compared on Reddit. Dey big(must be the healthy diet of chaos tribes, Ghyran trees need to expand their menu) With the smooth tail it’s probably a Ghurian sub-species. Like most drakes the Realms they grow up in also affect their biology(like a Draconith in Ghur will grow more bestial and breath a torrent of molten amber instead of flames compared to a enlightened Dracothion born in Azyr that breathes flames wreathed in crackling blue electricity) Magmadroth examples in other realms: Magmadrakes: A lightning-spitting offshoot from the Realm of Azyr. Metalodroths: A metal-spewing offshoot from the Realm of Chamon. Mortadroths: A sulphur-fuming offshoot from the Realm of Shyish. Edit: oh, also 2+Tough has a video ready.

I’ll also take any retro pixel games they want to do for AoS like Warcraft 2 or Blasphemous. Just hire Steeljoe and we’re good: Or heck, there’s already 40k skins in World of Warships. Let’s get some cameos in other games like AoS gear in Monster Hunter. Just have events where the Palicos go through a rift and come back with new parts from their adventures in the Mortal Realms(Palico Kharadron & Bonesplitterz art)

Gencon’s right around the August corner and Soulbound will be there with glorious paper! https://cubicle7games.com/gencon-2022-preview-warhammer-age-of-sigmar-soulbound/ What’s on Offer? Believe it or not, since Soulbound launched during the pandemic, this is the first ever time it will be at the show! In those two years, we’ve released a lot of content for Soulbound, including the corebook, Starter Set, GM Screen, and a wealth of supplements. The big new release at the show will be Champions of Death, which is hot off the presses. Champions of Death allows players to create tragic, damned, and twisted undead characters for Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound! The book features new undead Species, new Archetypes, new Talents, and devastating new spells and Miracles. If that sounds like your thing, come by and pick up a copy! Here’s the complete list of everything we’ll have at the show. For more information on Soulbound, and where to get started, click here. Core Rulebook Collector’s Edition Starter Set Gamemaster’s Screen Champions of Order Bestiary Shadows in the Mist Steam and Steel Champions of Death.

Wait, why did you flip over to 40k hobbies when you were focusing on AoS being more popular than Wfb? Is it because their numbers are so barren that you couldn’t pull up a good argument hobbywise with the Wfb sub at only 57,000 subs, the Wfb lore sub at a pitiful 740 subs and even their main game subs of r/vermintide 95,000 & r/totalwarhammer 76,000 not coming close to touching that 180k? But the question doesn’t need to be asked because we know fully well why. Videogame popularity. Before the fantasy games launched the Wfb sub took ten years to just get 3000 subs and all the fan forums were dying ghost towns(I was a member of several back then). Let’s look at the Warhammerfantasy roleplay sub. Oh, 17,742, decent for a long running roleplay sub. What was it before the games yet around for almost a decade? Around 300 subs. When it sprung up to 15,000 subs and mods asked what happened what were the replies? “I played Vermintide and wanted to check out the rpg scenes.” Safe to say when AoS gets it’s time to shine in the gaming scenes it’s gonna explode to legendary proportions when compared to where it’s already at now without a big videogame carrying it. 🎆

I can’t wait to see the entries and winners. 2020 and 2021’s diorama game was intense! Also maybe we can petition GW to add this award for us painting challenged but earnest hobbyists? 😅

Oh yeah, the Bestiary was more focused on cramming almost every AoS model in for players to build around rather than fleshing them out background-wise. That’s why there was precious few actually new creatures instead of stuff already on the tables they wanted to make compatible in both systems. That said there was some sweet little stories in the book like the Magmadroth encounter: If you’re wanting some real juicy Slaanesh lore not in their tome then you’ll likely be waiting for the Champions of Chaos supplement for the devs to really dive in. On tome stuff for quotes though I’d like to point out the Fyreslayers stuff is very flavorful too and have a mercenary contracts section of tales.

Oh right and the Vulture Lord just came out recently too.(very fun for Death fans, just like “Dynasty of Monsters” is more than happy to put Order through a very different lens) This has actually been a good year for AoS books when you add them all up and it started out strong this year with Soulslayer’s announcement.

I’m looking through the new Fyreslayers tome and it’s only lacking points 1(obviously as it lacks named heroes besides the magazine and Warcry ones that get talked about in lore blurbs), 5 and 7(though it does have an interesting different take on the hostilities with their Kharadron example. In the Kharadron tome they’re mad about a Chamon mountain that contains both ur-gold and aether-gold the Fyreslayers won’t give up while in the Fyreslayers tome they point to a very recent development of war between factions as the skyport Barak-Mhornar has teleported itself to Ulgu and has taken over the Untold Peaks where aether-gold mingles with skyborne wisps of ur-gold causing them to cross blades in a vicious war with the Caengan Lodge who was there first). It’s hard to believe the Kharadron Tomes would be lacking when they’re noted to be the most lore-heavy tomes focusing on civilization BUT a problem might just be that. Just like their army is unconventional to others(being crewmen that don’t use banners and such) their tome being about aerial empires isn’t exactly going to focus on the ground stuff.

We need more Hamilcar! (And Gardus) I think we’re okay on releases though, just off the top of my head we got 5 like Kragnos and Godbane, 10 short stories(5 were free for a month) and we know the upcoming ones with the Hollowking vampire & Kharadron adventurer. They just got hit hard by the pandemic and the move from Chinese materials has made all the paper stuff on Black Library disappear. So just a tough time in general but I hardly think that’s on the book ends.

Of those I think only points 1, 5* and 7 have weight but that’s because they don’t want you to focus so much on what’s been established but maximum “Your dudes” in how they want more generic leaders, path to glory warbands and armies fighting strange mysterious entities so you can build inspiration in a setting without limits. Much more keeping things to AoS’ mythic scale than how the World-that-was focused on historical. The rest of the points are pretty much there between the battletomes starting with a “where are we now” history section dating from the Age of Myth to the current timeline and what they did, a faction map of where their major stations are in a Realm, short stories and quotes on personal levels, explanations on places and kingdoms they’ve established and army icons for the sub-factions. It’s just on different scopes to be much more open than a smaller, more connected, world would have which I think is your complaint deep down. They want to keep things expansive and nebulous. *on language there used to be a lot more with the various Chaos Battletomes depicting the Dark Alphabets. I think AoS’ only problem here when people are comparing the universes is just how new it is. Give it half a decade more time to expand itself into various fandoms and have larger established videogames so fans are throwing themselves to expand the wikis and lore and we’ll be set. They do at times but there’s plenty of Realmgate stories where they opened a gnawhole and charged in alongside the Nurgle forces to bust open a Stormcast shieldwall with pure numbers. Maggotkin tome even recounts how Skaven plague-priests can serve as advisors to Nurgle warlords. Similar situation as Clans Eshin are reporting to Belakor as their dark master to try and reclaim the Realm of Shadows.(which of course would be the 2 Chaos GA forces for that Realm) Yeah my hopes are certainly being raised. Looking at their resume’ I hope their Vindictus devs are working on it. That over-the-top style would perfectly fit Age of Sigmar and now the bikini mail would be justified with a Daughters of Khaine faction with Fyreslayers filling out the male side of that. 😁

Don’t forget to pass your votes on what novel gets a paper release: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/07/27/cast-your-vote-to-see-a-fan-favourite-novel-return-to-print-with-the-black-library-readers-choice/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=black-library&utm_content=blreprint I love Realmgate Wars: Warstorm because it’s three stories in one and goes over Thostos’ origins as a prince in a small kingdom of Ghur before his reforging sent him on mythological-sized adventures but gotta give it to my man Hamilcar Bear-Eater has the best chance of the AoS books winning this. Rally behind the Bear-Eater! (Link to fan-artist here: https://samwood.artstation.com/ )

Oh dang! Between that and Nexon recently getting a new CEO we might be rolling some of Tzeentch’s Destiny Dice for this MMO on it being a hit. 😮

Yeah, they’re in the God-beast campaign tome. If it’s in the Warhammer+ vault you should be able to read it and look at the pics. The Well of Eternity blog has a collection of AoS1 art per book they were in: http://wellofeternitypl.blogspot.com/2016/04/artworks-from-age-of-sigmar-vi.html?m=1 http://wellofeternitypl.blogspot.com/2016/04/artworks-from-warhammer-age-of-sigmar-iv.html?m=1

Yeah, that was how Archaon communicated with his commanders during the God-beast campaign as they were spread across multiple Realms and he had tasks for each to take on a different God-beast so he could enslave them. He took forms from flies, warp clouds and blood.

Nonsense. Clans Pestilens players are always looking for ways to bring Nurgle’s children in as allies and vice-versa. They’d be great for being the 2 Chaos Alliance lords in Ghyran. If I had to say the Lords there it’d be Horticulous for a slow and methodical gameplay in growing his gardens while Warpscreech from the God-beasts campaign is more high speed on getting those parasite engines up and running to drain the realmscape and appease Archaon so they can pull in more of his troops & daemons and unite with the chaos kingdoms there.

I mean, there’s three things there. 1. That kinda game is super far off if it even happens, easily between 2026 to 2030++ and farther if they don’t decide to do a Lord of the Rings game next. That gives plenty of time to address that as AoS is constantly pumping out new named characters between the main game, side games and now Black Library special models. 2. Total War usually ends up making the names famous if anything. Look at friggin’ Ghorst and the CA OC opera ghost with only one goal that exist! (And that’s not counting all the new stuff made from scratch for game 3) And then there’s the characters like DoW’s & Space Marine’s Gabriel Angelos & Titus who got their start with the games and became canon characters later too so the games can add to AoS like Stormground gave us Freya Skyhelm and the Lady of Ashes. 3. It could just be a Saga title and factions condensed into the 4 Grand Alliances so they wouldn’t need a lot of characters. They could just take a strip of each realm that stretches from edge to innerlands and put them together (like a cosmic pizza) with the rift system and have each realm represented by two big heroes per Alliance that have opposite playstyles. Like say the Ghur strip could have Yndraste and Krondys represent Order but Yndraste is super aggressive and wants conquest while Krondys is more reserved and spreads diplomacy as both try and unite the Grand Alliance by different means so gather up the Stormcasts, Seraphon, Fyreslayers, DoK, Sylvaneth and free cities “sub-factions” to form a diverse United army in that realm to win it over. The other 3 Grand Alliances do similar things there with their two opposing heroes each. That way there’s lots of content to cover everything by combining it all together(for a Saga title). But I’d also be happy to get a AoS version of Dawn of War, Stronghold or Age of Empires too(especially the last one. That new Royal Houses for AoE3 would be great as Realmgates for the eight realms to give upgrades and mercenaries from each as Kharadron trade ships go by.)

100% but back in the 2000’s Warhammer was so obscure and WoW popular that it was just popular consensus that Warhammer was the knock-off. Back then people on Reddit and forums would just agree “yeah looks like it” and move on because no one cared.(like seriously, googling “Warhammer empire” back then got you more Tau empire results than anything) Massively different beast compared to today’s internet thanks to TWW actually making people know the fantasy side exists. That’s why Age of Sigmar deserves it’s own break-out games like Dawn of War & Space Marine.

There’s the crux of it all. Nowadays that’s Fantasy 101 to go from extremely obscure to worldwide reknown in a month like the Witcher franchise which even when it had books, an rpg and it’s first videogame trying to talk about it was like teaching people an alien language.(I still remember some repulsed by it because the game had some sci-fi DNA menus in it that fantasy fans didn’t bother to understand and got vocal about). I’m rooting for Frontier but I’m hoping next year we’ll hear some announcements further down the line for an actual AoS RPG. If that can ever get nailed down then there will be something for new fans to really bite into. Going by that image I expect the classic 3 minute filler of the character running cross country as multiple vistas are shown to both give a vibe of the setting and it’s cheap to animate when it’s just beautiful still backgrounds being slideshowed. Not that that’s a bad thing if they do it wisely. A huge draw of Age of Sigmar is it’s crazy fantasy scenery so it’s good that they flair up people’s imaginations with what’s possible in the infinite: A good note is she’ll have that Deepkin companion so we could get some underwater sights too. I am happy they’re taking their time with the AoS animations. Hamilcar is widely praised as being one of the best animations on there and did a great job showing off the light-hearted side of the Realms with him and how he was able to barge his way into the Orruk camp and ask them directions to their boss plus the setting details of Ghur looking like even it’s rocky outcrops have teeth and the Lord-Celestant’s voice reverberating like thunder from his reforgings making him more Storm than human.

Okay this might be my all time favorite Orruk list. Not only is it insane but he kept it fluffy with the Drakkfoot’s being daemon hunting tribes from the Realm of Fire by bringing the burning head Endless Spell. “Bonesplittaz – Thomas Guan – One Ork dared to dream of a world where there was enough giant spears to kill every monster in Ghur. Thomas' List - Click to Expand Allegiance: Bonesplitterz – Warclan: Drakkfoot – Grand Strategy: Get Dem Bones! – Triumphs: Leaders Savage Big Boss (65)** – General – Command Trait: Great Hunter Wurrgog Prophet (150)** – Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz – Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry Wurrgog Prophet (150)** – Artefact: Mork’s Boney Bitz – Lore of the Savage Beast: Gorkamorka’s War Cry Battleline 10 x Savage Orruk Morboys (155)* 10 x Savage Orruk Morboys (155)* 10 x Savage Orruks (165)* – Chompas Units 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)** 2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80) Endless Spells & Invocations The Burning Head (20) Core Battalions *Hunters of the Heartlands **Warlord Additional Enhancements Artefact Total: 1980 / 2000 Reinforced Units: 0 / 4 Allies: 0 / 400 Wounds: 192 Drops: 20” https://www.goonhammer.com/competitive-innovations-in-the-mortal-realms-the-fly-in-the-ointment/

Always a possibility. Though I will defend the Maggotkin tome on my part at least that the snail farmer + Nurgle trees see quite a bit of play too. It might just be the Draconith syndrome of people taking the choicest bit and that becomes a meta norm because they don’t want to try other combos that can be just as valid but since the warscrolls aren’t bonkers not as immediately appealing. Whatever comes we’re sure to be Enlightened soon.

Even then we need to see how the tome shapes up with the sub-factions, traits and prayers/spells. Like right now Stormcast Vanquishers who started off super meh are making a nice dent with the Gallet rules, big units are super Killy with the combined rows striking while you can also have small Bounty Hunter units do work and Call for Aid holy command letting them do nasty damage, get wiped(which means more damage via reforge explosion + sub-faction extra damage stacked) and then revived go back and start chopping again. Since it looks like Alarith are getting buffed they might want more melee focused Lumineth so they can’t just sit back and ignore the season rules but get stuck in too and have to craft lists around new strategies.