Baron Klatz

Agreed on Hashut followers in the upcoming Warcry reveal. Honestly expecting it and the future Slaves to Darkness releases to be all part of the ongoing civil war between Archaon and Belakor on who should lead. Belakor: “Haha, my Legionaries warriors & spies beat your Hashuts guarding the Catacomb mines and stole even more Varanite!” Archaon: “Well haha back! My new Chosen got enough mining upgrades and looted Stormcast bits to be as beefy as their new Annihilators! What do you got to match that muscle?” Belakor: “Well haha HA, I got my own Varanguard right-hand man now I gifted Stormcast immortality to making him closer to the real deal than your rip-offs!” Archaon: “Well I got Ogroids and Centauroids that make your daemons and daemon prince look like weaklings!” Belakor: “Well at least Daniel jr. has a prettier face than yours.” Archaon: “That’s it!” And lo a Slaanesh chain breaks from the god-tier D*** measuring contest. Also yeah, those NightHaunt leaks are soooo good. I was hoping for a Hallost sub-faction for the heroic ghosts that are helping Dawners but Elixia getting focus since 2015’s “Quest for Ghal Maraz” campaign is aces! 😍 Really wanting the boat ghost now and dreadblades. I’ve been experimenting on NightHaunt colors with my Stormground game and I wanna try this scheme with them: Lastly: @KingBrodd I remember how much you loved Mustori and just came across these awesome plushies.

Yeah my bet is it’s Ogors(and hopefully Beastclaws bringing in new fluffier Everwinter rules like the new Destruction Soulbound has with the Everwinter Blessings and how they follow even individual Ogors) but also would be cool and fitting to see Sons of Behemat since one new hero there is a BIG deal. as for new race possibility my hopes are: Silent People that scurried to Kragnos for new homes and protection.(tho I’m thinking Sylvaneth might get them as a sub-faction) Grotbag Scuttler sky pirates for grot kharadrons that treat the Gloomspites as Fyreslayers.(profitable allies but don’t trust them) the Sanskrit empire that’s appeared back in the Hamilcar books as a reptilian people empire(noted for their long knuckle claws) along the Sea of Bones that’s expanding under Destruction’s rise. or possibly non-Slaves to Darkness animal people that want nothing to do with Chaos after it turned their homes into hellscapes. StD are getting a full force of corrupted Ogroids and a Centauroid so some neutral versions that stay with Gorkamorka would be nice along with the animal people the Krondspine elemental is morphing mortals into and maybe even other races like the Aetar eagle people.

So happy to see NightHaunt players with big (rictus) grins about this. 😄 AoS3.0 is hitting it out of the park on marrying Matched play to the Narrative rules. Really liking the looks of all of this. (Boat ghost and tracking down some Soul Wars sets are probably in my group’s future) Also kinda an odd thought but I wonder if that AoS Stormground videogame influenced them a bit on Stormcast, Maggotkin and NightHaunt? Each feels like the game equivalent now of very MSU forces that heavy support, slow & corrupt and move quickly in multiples respectively. Most of all just giddy my hopes of the Silver Banshees of Elixia becoming a sub-faction have been realized! 😍 Loved the Elixia city lore since 2015’s Quest for Ghal Maraz and have been hoping with this book the NightHaunt could finally use the quicksilver ghosts and sentient flying swords from that haunted city. Edit: on the ally NightHaunt loses Ethereal thing I’d just head-canon that as the mistrustful Soulblight/Wightking binding the spirit to the physical plane so they can’t slip away.

Nah, all of the Khorne eight lamentations end with “-er” at the end like Crusher, Lasher, Slitter, etc. I recommend listening to the free audio extract from “War-claw” where Grungni chants their names(extra recommend because it actually is a bop and sounds like Zordon from the Power Rangers doing a rap 😍😞 https://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/eight-lamentations-war-claw-mp3.html Also why I’d say this doesn’t make those weapons obsolete so much as a much rarer and better weapon created by an Age of Myth people that didn’t like strange gods coming across the cosmos to colonize their lands and anyone can use is a safer option than the Khorne artifacts that can turn you into a god-killer by literally making You a weapon(the weapons become the handlers so even if you should be dead you won’t die until they’re severed from your body and can’t control you anymore) Of course that’s accounting for if this isn’t an elaborate set-up with a prize like that popping up all of a sudden… Could be. Going by the cover the theme seems to be air power between the Kharadron and Stormcast Tempest Lord who are all about their powers of flight(they even make the Angel units Battleline in-game). If the moon scythe isn’t pointing to Zaitrec Lumineth(which would fit too since they have connections to the magic moons and can go up and visit them like with their personal teachings by the moon spirit Celennar) then it could be Tyrionic with the Zenith Temple as Lumineth that can sail up to the Realmsphere’s cosmos with the cloud spirits along with the other two high fliers if that’s where the Godsbane’s hidden. Could be a floating sub-realm like that of Golgeth in the Realm of Metal if they’re going for a place hidden from even the gods: Atmosphere heavily saturated with caustic magic build-up making it unsafe to journey around while also causing gravity fluctuations and time to slow down and even pool there. https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Golgeth A Realm of Light version would be even crazier than the metal one. edit: forgot to say I adore the cover art. Looks like a cross between Age of Sigmar & Final Fantasy. 😍

Well just beginner Open Play fights with my brother-in-law new to the game but they’ve been really fun! He hasn’t assembled many Fyreslayers yet so for his Flamekeeper I shortened the rule down to 3 deaths needed to compensate our half-sized armies and even though my Deepkin hero carved through his double-axe Vulkites(really made him consider the sling-shields next time) it let his Flamekeeper get off that huge damage boost plus the Acid Rain Realm Rule adding additional damage which made him a terror Grimnir could give a smouldering grin to as he avenged his fallen. His Lodge theme is gonna be a mix of firey bodies but ice weapons and frost tip armor because the background is his Fyreslayer warriors caught the Everwinter curse from taking Ir-gold from slaughtered Beastclaw stomachs and now are known as far ranging wandering mercenaries with their flames keeping ahead of the blizzard and rotating between a number of smaller lodge-Safeways they circulate through to keep the frost from gathering in one place too much for the lava to handle. This is also why he’s stacking a bunch of weapons on his Vulkites to show they’re versatile travelers. In battles we pick which Vulkites warscroll they use before deploying. (Don’t worry about painting past the stacked weapons. It’s cheap glue right now for his first models so easy to remove plus there’s many more Fyreslayers on the way and these are practice. ) 1. Mostly to emulate their fire god father, Grimnir and his fiery foe Vulcatrix which some venerate since the Magmadroths are in an alliance to reassemble their god-beast as well. As for hair colors, it’s usually red and orange but there’s blacks, greys and even Ghyranite greens or Shyishian whites from covering themselves with the ash of the dead among whatever else you could want. 2. It’s a mix. Some have legitimate towering crests while others use helm crests.

Some are pointing to the Stormbringer Magazine having the Profiteers and Revenant Guardians which might be a reason for them keeping the warband in full production.(the magazines have the Ironskulls too but with the Orruks having another Ironjawz warband as well that might’ve been what did them in) Sylvaneth & Kharadron popularity along with the upcoming tree-people battletome and Kharadron being good Votann kitbash models could’ve affected it too. Kin are looking good for kitbash opportunities for a number of factions of the art is anything to go by. 👀 Also I want that Horus Heresy Praetor for some big Stormcast Retributor Hero kitbashes. Stormcast Apotheosis example I’m basing him on: (mad lad used a Protector’s glaive tip as a grand blade. Marvelous!)

That’s probably why they’re going towards Rivals format in both packed together warbands to sweeten the deal and a more Open Play system between the official and unofficial tournament versions to help new players in. ”From everything I've seen people seem to enjoy rivals more even. It makes it a bit more random, and far less consistent, but that also means the games can be in a way more exciting. The pendulum can swing in anyone's favor. It tests the strategy side of the game also. The other huge benefit is it makes the game a lot, lot more affordable for people. You like the Crimson Court but don't wanna buy everything direchasm to get all the hunger cards? No need to worry about that. You have what you have. The same is for pretty much any faction. As an ex "hardcore" card gamer, there's nothing more boring than meta on meta games. With one big exception. A custom format has been born that people like more than Rivals. Rivals+. It allows all the factions to play their faction cards with the use of the essentials pack if I remember correctly.” “It's the unofficial name given for the format of the Clash of Warlords Tournament that was held at Warhammer World a while back. You can get the official rules for that event but they're not all that necessary. All you do is pick a warband and their unique cards, pick a pre-built universal deck (the current options being Essentials, Silent Menace, or Illusory Might), and then build a deck using those two card pools.” Rivals+ seems to be getting a good crowd even at the big events.

Haha, a bit off-topic but that trapdoor part did remind me of a giant trap-mimic spider concept I saw on Reddit for Soulbound & DND.

Oh ho, sounds like a perfect match! (Just a few more days until my limited edition Thondia order gets here. They had to split my order up so I got my battletomes and models first but that’s taking extra long😭) Would really like it if the Grot Scuttlings made a comeback alongside the spider elemental to herald the Gloomspite’s spider factions on the rise with the Era of Beasts over the Moonclan who had their time in the previous Arcanum Optimar that saw the Endless Spells unleashed. They were even the antagonists of the really recent short Krenkha gorogna as they were the spider-like grotlings that had the Kharadron hero and his crew caught in their webs which begins the story. https://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-age-of-sigmar/featured/eshort-krenkha-gorogna-eng-2022.html The bird? Could try Warhammer Art I think. It’s under Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork.

Yeah, the new warbands seem a bit more useful and less gimmicky to be more attractive for AoS forces without being must-haves. Making them a bit hardier fits while the point sink keeps them in the realm of “probably not worth it but I’ll use them because they look really cool” which I say is fair enough balance. The extra wounds aren’t that hard to justify either. Electro-zombies are pretty obvious since they’re already augmented. Shadeborn honestly should’ve had 2Wounds since Warcry as both the Shademark and Shadow Daemons in them give them unnatural vitality and invulnerability(can justify it now that being in the Harrowdeep nexus unleashed that shadow power further for this small band) And the Eshin warriors can either claim they’re trained elites all going for the Deathmaster title so tougher than even the stormvermin OR for a funner explanation they’re all double wound because they use shadow clones for one free dodge like the original Eshin Deathrunner from Silver Tower who had 2 models for his shadow clone. Also on rumors, a buddy on the discords who hears some early stuff(like the recent Votann lore he already noted a few weeks back would be ancestor computers) said this: ”I heard there is gonna be another elemental incarnate looks like a giant spider.” “No it’s still a gurish one. Which is strange.” So looks like we may be staying in the Realm of Beasts this whole edition with different regional elementals used to flesh them out around the various continents. Gonna bet now, Krondspine is super offense as a wild hungry bone spirit while the spider will be based off the old Spiderfang empire that Archaon destroyed and be made of underground rocks and crystals to focus on All-Out Defense and “lay in wait traps” as a counter for some Elemental Kaiju battles. Hard to predict where it might come from. The spider empire had sprawling claims all under the Beast Plains and the middle of Thondia has a lot of crawling pits and crevasses it could originate from. https://ageofsigmar.fandom.com/wiki/Spittlegit

Well you heard ‘em, GW. Time to torch those Legends PDF’s. 🔥🔥🔥 But seriously that seems overblown. The UnderWorlds warbands have hardly ever seen much Matched Play use even with the current ones who have nicer rules, so it’s not like GW just made some meta void full of demand. Majority of players buy them for the sidegame, for new alternative hero models/kitbashes or just for a really fun painting session with the variety they have. With how relaxed that is them popping up every few years while UnderWorlds keeps cranking out even more warbands doesn’t really seem like a heel move here. More with what Overread said about the productions since the world’s topsy-turvy now and they had to find more vents for their older lines. 🤷‍♂️

It would be awesome if the tech the Votann’s stores included pre-Men of Iron schematics so even if they can’t have the genuine articles they could make robot prototypes like some of the Black Fortress guardians. ( and maybe not far off from the Kharadron Cogmonculus in being a bare-bones mechanical entity)

Whew, thanks for the heads up lads! Just now put in orders for those Stormcast warbands before they bolt back up to Azyr. Luckily already got the Chosen Axes last week with my Fyreslayers Battletome order. speaking of which makes me a bit more okay with this on a lore level since it’s part of the continuity that the Shadespire curse is over so these retired warbands can now back home after more than a century of battle. I do kinda hope Steelheart’s Champions will get a thunderstrike upgrade in the future for their next foray into Shadespire to collect more glass to help store lost souls. would love the stylized Liberators seen in the Orruks tome with the bigger fan-halo helms and spikier heads going with the baroque sculpture armor. Really feel otherworldly and their warband could be design Forerunners for the next edition wave as we see Grungni has more time to add the eccentricities back in like the first waves where he had 500 years to go ham on the details. Also not on the rotation list(probably because of the Tome incoming) but ordering Ylthari’s Guardians too for some Ghyran allies. Really love their look and hope we can see more Revenants with less humanoid forms.

They already kinda did. The purity of magic from the realms opposes Chaos on several levels. That’s why in the Age of Myth the Chaos denizens could only scratch and whisper at the realm-edges as the realms kept them out and even now they have a hard time moving through the realms without gateways because the winds of magic aren’t naturally chaos aligned without being corrupted and augmented by the Realm of Chaos first. ”The Great Horned Rat, like the other Dark Gods, was unable to send his agents to the Mortal Realms at first due to the purity of their magic and their ignorance of its natives about the Gods of Chaos. To gain access he tormented many Ghyranite tribes beset by verminous infestation with visions of baleful eyes in their dreams, turning them to his worship. They started to wear the pelts and tails of the largest vermin they could slay, and started dancing on their fours around the corpses of local rat-catchers. The next time the gravid moon rose green, the skaven were able to reach the realms and devoured these worshippers.” “The magic of the forces of Chaos is unique in that is granted by the Dark Gods using the dark and corrupting forces of the Realm of Chaos to augment the magics of the Mortal Realms. Tzeentch, Slaanesh and Nurgle embrace wizardry and imbue their daemons, their wills made manifest, with abilities that reflect their domains and all other forms of corruption. The Skaven focus their magic into decay-oriented powers and twisted alchemical sciences. Khorne on the other hand despises all magic.” “Realmstone, for the most part, is not malicious. Aside from realmstone corrupted by or aligned with Chaos, it is ambivalent about mortals as the mountains, rivers or skies.” (like heck, wealthy Aqshyians will crumble up Firestone and put it in their meals to enhance their vitality) Even mixing magic together doesn’t cause chaos or Dhar anymore like with the warlocks of the-world-that-was. That’s why average battlemages can bring their known magic to another realm and still cast stuff like Metamorphis in Ghur. The magic of the Realms and Aetheric Void is very independent of Chaos. This part is true. That’s why stuff like Ogroids, Fomoroids and Sphiranxes are part of the Slaves of Darkness since they were naturally animal peoples of the Realms(Ogroids served Gorkamorka, Fomoroids built empires at the All-Gates nexus, Sphiranxes worked for god-Teclis in gathering knowledge) before Chaos enslaved them. So are not anywhere noted to affiliate with the Brayherds as they’re not naturally born to Chaos like them but taken. However, we already have Reclaimed tribes of Marauders & Chaos worshippers who’ve been rehabilitated to live with Order again, Chaos Champions cleansed by Ghal Maraz that now make up brotherhoods of Redeemed Stormcasts and the main Deepkin novel mentions empires of daemons hiding under the seas that left Chaos(likely due to Realms Oceans being sinks of primordial magic that let them sever their connections to the Dark Gods). So the power of the Elementals making neutral Beastmen and even giving some an “Out” from being born to Chaos and forced to serve it are highly possible.(you could probably get the same outcome just blasting them with Azyr and Hysh magic to cleanse Chaos just like Teclis did to restore the Lumineth from Slaanesh or Sigmar did with the Redeemed/Slaans did to claim a piece of the Realm of Chaos by flooding it with Azyr magic) Though I doubt it’ll make cross-alliance Beastmen as Morghur will make sure they stay Beasts to Chaos under him it can cause a whole new(possibly Destruction) faction of turned mortals made into animal people from the realm magic, the natural beast spirits of Ghur being awakened and could call more realm-native beast people like the Aetar eagle people & Sanskrit draconians to that alliance that have no connection to Chaos but serve God-beasts like Behemat & Kragnos. A “Krondspine Realmbeasts” race would be the ticket for a lot of players who want animal-people without the taint of chaos or constant need to destroy and corrupt everything so they can make peaceful tribes and allies to any Alliance they want.

Thanks, friend! And yeah I already read some leaks from it and super excited. Those giant floating cactus ball herds that seek out any prey to impale and can even be used in terrain rules have me drooling. 😃 Also interesting to note the warbands are from the first Nethermaze art with Xandire? could those three artworks actually be a subtle roadmap? Edit: Also on the DoK + Malerion’s Shadowkin, I’d definitely say it’s a wait and see. If he’s a full new edition army then it does give him more reason to be a separate army(I think at this point it’s fans more than GW who are soup-obsessed) Even this article notes how power-hungry the new God-Queen is so it’s not like that’ll line up great with working with Malerion who keeps undermining her at every turn. But who knows? Circumstances can change and they might need eachother or they show how opposite they are to the light gods by working apart instead of with eachother.

People really need to set their expectations with rumor-mongers who keep making click back based on people’s wants like Malerion, Human warband starter or more infamously Chorfs based entirely on a reference line from hobgrots blown out of proportion. But anyway yeah, these look amazing and I love the lore blurbs to the light of Hysh being the literal light at the tunnel to escape the daemons feeding off fear, plus the new game rules of “map” & “domain” parts allowing you to change the battlefield is really cool. (And yeah not expecting Malerion until 4th edition or further. That army needs a proper build up) LUCKY Son of a Behemat! Still waiting on my pre-order of the Limited Edition Thondia tome to get here.

Indeed! On the 2nd page of “Soulbound is now live!” Thread I even linked the Cubicle7 article of the artist Rune Flynn behind the Trade Pioneer and their talk about the design process. Certainly worth a read among the other things on that thread.

Oh they’re wondrous natural creatures of the Mortal Realms regularly domesticated and used by adventurers, explorers and traders since their magical fur will mimic the celestial bodies of the realm they’re in and be used as accurate charts to determine the direction of the realm-edge. ”Mustori are creatures that originate from the spaces between realms, resembling small mammalian creatures. When they enter a Realm their fur coat mimics the celestial bodies of the Realm's sky with unerring accuracy, making them living star charts. This has made them popular companions among travelers. They are playful and mischievous creatures that can easily escape attempts at capturing by simply slipping through the veil between Realms. The fur pattern of any given Mustori will change to match the sky of the Mortal Realm it is currently in. Due to their fur patterns, Mustori make excellent travel companions and with one a traveler can never truly become lost. As simply looking at a Mustori's fur will allow a traveler to discern which direction is edgeward, toward the Realm's Edge, and which direction is coreward, towards the Realm's Core.”

Hmmmm, there is lore of some Skaven riding giant mole-rats that tunnel through dimensions for their gnaw-holes. Not anywhere as cute as the realm hopping Mustori: But their dimensional mole-rats get the job done on making army-sized tunnels through reality. If those things are akin to the same beasties then that could lean into the gnaw-hole improvement theories.

Well it wouldn’t really be a retcon at this point. They can easily write it in that’s just an overall side effect from Skaven being constantly in contact with daemons, the chaos realm and even the warping reality of the Gnaw-holes and eggs would just a mutation evolution of all that. That said I’m still thinking this is a new sub-faction and possibly Belakor using the Shadow Daemon creators to create daemon rats. True. But at least the Lexicanum guys will be happy “Dogs in AoS are rarer than horses. The lore has gryph-hounds, guardian god-hounds, supernatural cairn hounds, shadow hounds, clockwork hounds, wolves, venomous snarlfang wolves and dire wolves but never regular dogs anywhere.” That’s why there’s AoS articles on Cats and Horses but none on canines so this can open up that avenue too with what breed of dogs are in Ulgu.(of course they could be aforementioned Shadow Hounds too if those witch hunters are from Misthavn looking for what happened to the Stormcast-Errants)

That is a good point about albinos being important to Skaven. This could wind up a more “Ironjawz” release rather than “Kruleboyz” if it’s an elite white (possibly daemon) rat force that makes the elite the basics with a super elite on top(Megabosses & Brutes over ‘Ardboyz/Black Orruks). That would fit the smaller AoS schedule this year with hero and elite focused releases while also makin an opportunity for Belakor if he’s behind this by having an super albino army that can make the Skaven follow him since Grand Marshall Archaon and the chaos mortals are against his daemon-only supremacy plans.

Big agree to the Open Play ideas! open play “battalion” generator(random warband/force based on the core battalion archetypes), battleplan maker and a quick collection of past Open Play scenarios like the 2020 Aether Wars for flying armies(or those that get free access to the Arcane Tome flight spells) would be fantastic at encouraging some fun beer-and-pretzel matches with quick put together things like that.

Might be one of the Gardus books when he’s in Nurgle’s Garden. He turned out to be the giant silver knight speaking an alien tongue in the End Times and not the Kaldor cameo people thought it was.(made a lot more sense that it was all a foreshadowing of the Stormcast Eternals) Ngl, was hoping that was gonna be the surprise 9th lord for TWW3, Gardus Steelsoul and an army of 9-foot tall divine Hallowed Knights making their way through the Chaos Realm since the game is a non-canon “super smash bros” mash up anyway. Oh well, always potential TW:AoS in the future.

Well those are Skaven Greater daemons. Now could be the time we see the foot troop daemons.

Hmm, my theory of a new Skaven Clans that’s a mix of daemon rats to herald their new tome and closer ties to Chaos(seriously, we have a bunch of rat greater daemons so we need regular daemon rats too) is looking more likely. Could be even a “Kruleboyz” launch with a focus on the daemons as this year’s new faction. (also can totally see this being part of Belakor’s plan, eldritch Skaven can be made more loyal and maybe even master the gnaw-holes so they’re not completely random death traps)