Baron Klatz

Likely why Andy talked about other races like Brets having outposts in Ind alongside that part. Araby 2.0, they’re on the map but everyone else is in their house.

Age of Myth stuff is a big win in my book. That’s why I loved “Pantheon” with a closer look at the gods interactions when Chaos was still scratching & whispering at the edges of the Realmspheres trying to get in. I’d absolutely love more with so many teases of the past golden glories like cities of learning in Ghur that had both human and Orruk scholars in them, the Chamonian sky-domes of Djeb’dah of crystal plateaus with duardin and grot nations built on soaring bridge-ways in the clouds or the Azyr city of Nordrath that connected straight to the underworld trade cities in Shyish and had a strong worship of Nagash as Deathrattle kings and Soulblights would come up to their celestial city and tour the wonders of Azyr with the undead knights & kings having friendly jousts on bridges of starlight. So many lost wonders and alliances that can be explored as a goal to fix and bring back to the Mortal Realms again.

So just like the Border Princes then. They’re still in the early stages of development and years off before anything can happen so it’s basic stuff we already knew(which tbf can’t be helped here because they already gave everything for CA to show off) but they slap a barely mentioned icon on the far edge of the map to get people’s hopes up. Meh. 🤷

My personal opinion is AoS artillery should continue to be about mobility rather than pure firepower so it’s never a “sit back and gunline/castle” build which are usually boring especially in dynamic magic & melee games like this. Mobile and more active artillery very accurate to the lore too between the crazy magic in the Realms making static positions an Endless Spell death-trap and just the constant changing and shifting nature of the realmscapes meaning you have to be ready to move at all times. All the modern artillery accommodates this trait with the Kharadron airships, Ossiarch crawler legs, the various monster-back weaponry and the Stormcast, Lumineth and Kruleboyz ballistas all being noted as light and easy to disassemble & reassemble quickly as shown with their high movement values of 5 and 6(only the Stormcast being slow at 3 despite it’s lore of being easy to break into two parts for fast travel because it’s still very slow heavy armored Stormcast carrying the parts. But now have the Knight-Judicator and his enormous longbow as mobile artillery at 6 movement to compensate). I support this design philosophy and would be more than okay with unique artillery pieces that are monster-back firing platforms that also charge, heroes with massive ranged weapons & large-moving warmachines like Cogforts and steam-crawlers that carry the hybrid roles of artillery and monster units to keep pace with melee-centric game and how the Mortal Realms armies have to adapt to eldritch battlefields that are unstable at the best of times.

I grin a bit with Anvils because I called exactly what they’d do with it. They’d make it much less useful and more flavorful* but niche because the narrative shifting from Death to Beasts focus. *(I do enjoy how the Deathly aura is useless against Daemons & Death because they obviously can’t be frightened by the afterlife.) At least it does go in-hand with running Sacrosanct Anvils to counter that with shutting down Chaos & Death resurrections and how Anvils are usually ghost hunters anyway. Though they do get the top places in the aesthetics awards. But now is the time of Astral hunters and monsters! Preach! 🙌 They have such cool lore. ”They chase passing meteorites and shooting stars for sport, headbutting them between one another. Though if they find a more interesting target, such as Mustori and astral projections of Lord-Arcanums, they will knock the meteorites toward them. Lord-Arcanums that survive this game with their spirit intact and join in by sending the meteors right back again can win the respect of these beasts, this is often the method used by Lord-Arcanums to convince Tauralons to become their mounts.”

It’s stayed pretty much human only. Slight exceptions being Anvils of Heldenhammer & Lord/Knight-Relictors as they’re reforged from undead and necromancers which includes ghosts, deathrattle, deadwalkers and even some vampires that the God-king deems honorable enough. Back in 2015 to early 2016 it was supposed to any race but the higher-up devs waved that away so they could just focus on the human element. Josh Reynalds and others have put breadcrumbs here and there like Helios from “Soulwars” being implied a reforged aelf and some nudges at even Skaven warp-lightning going wrong and sending their souls his way. But you know, infinite realms means infinite possibilities. You can easily handwave it as a chamber he’s been keeping ready to unleash and they had the Human keyword removed so go wild. 😛 Shout-out to Vincent’s Ratcast project for Celestium powered rodent heroes:

Soon(tm). ”Ulfenkarn: City at the Edge of Death is expected to release in PDF in Q1 of 2022, and in stores Q2.” https://cubicle7games.com/aos-soulbound-looking-ahead/

Josh Reynolds and basically everything he touched but Huge kudos to “Spear of Shadows” and “Soul Wars” along with him bringing the always kind but epic Gardus Steelsoul to life. My favorite Stormcast pieces would be “Hammers of Sigmar” by Darius Hinks, “Blade Storm” by Guy Haley and “Fist of an Angry God” by William King.

Asked on a AoS discord about it: ”Their February production update from a week or two ago said champions of death has only just started shipping” So a bit longer wait before you can unleash Nagash’s Soulbound “heroes”.

My bet is some heroes get cheaper to match the Flamekeeper. That way the hero-heavy army can play more into either this edition’s herohammer or monster mash with cheaper Magmadroths they’ll probably be able to deploy as battleline ala Sons of Behemat(maybe the cover of the Soulbound Bestiary was a sign? )

Haha, there’s a nice poetic irony here of the destroyers of civilization/buildings needing to safeguard a structure in the first place. I really like this though and hope more factions have to be more concerned about their terrain as a keystone of their strategies to balance out that it’s free. That also gives the rampaging monsters more value and fits the current narrative theme of settlers & invaders huddling around their places of safety in new lands outside the innerlands teeming with stampeding giant horrors and wild forces of nature wiping out everything in their path.

I think they can add some nice flavorful rules to Vulkites to make them stand out. Just give them a Knights Excelsis-type Lodge that gives them a boost depending on what weapon they wield. Vulkites with Fyresteel Handaxes: “The fiery warriors of this Lodge relish battle with many ancient tales of outnumbered oathsworn Fyreslayers turning the odds for a contractor by their heated blades alone.” If an enemy unit within 1” of this unit has more models then give the unit +1 Attacks & +1 damage Vulkites with Fyresteel Warpicks: “With mercenary guile and a few lava runes turning the Warpicks molten, these warriors hack effortlessly through the realmscape before emerging to hack through the foe with hideous effect.” Vulkites can do Magmic Tunneling without a Runesmiter and gain 1 mortal wound on 6’s when rolling to Wound. Something like that.

Honestly don’t look that hard to kitbash into city aelf Privateer Corsairs. You could kitbash Kharadron bits on them to justify the tech with a steampunk flair as an Ironweld Corsair theme or lean into the back banner and high helms by going a unique Lumineth Privateers force route. From Alien-ninja-pirates in space to Aelven-Samurai-pirates from the Sun. Would fit really well with a Wind Temple army since: @Gecktron did an excellent deep-dive into inspiration for them(and could go nicely with Deepkin allies sea theme with the upcoming tome) ”Some informations on the Lumineth fleet and Seaport Matah. Matah has been a center of trade and economy during the Age of Myth, also protecting the heartlands of Ymetrica. Matah survived the spirefall. Beaten, its wall cracked, but not broken. Since then, Matah has turned to war. Some Hurakan mages have made their home in the towers of the city. Suppressing their nomadic nature to commute with the spirits of the winds raging across the sea. Directing them to either give a speed boost to aelf ships, or to hinder the ships of the enemies of Hysh. Should this fail, the fleets of Matah set sail. Manned by Vanari, and armed with starshard balistas. (The german article mentioned "oars powered by sunstones", but im not sure how to translate that)” Shout-out to his homebrew naval stuff based on them “I hope im not interupting anything, but here my take on what a Lumineth ship from Helon could look like. Called the Wave Song class, each ship of this class from Helon is connected to the wind and sea spirits of Hysh. Catching their attention with colourful flags and banners, these spirits power the ship. Reaching acceleration rates far above almost every other ship in the realm of light. The light frame sits on a large blade-like foot that elegantly cuts trough the water, while two smaller feets help with stabilising the ship during rapid manoeuvres. While the ship mainly trusts in their speed and agility, its compliment of Starshard balistas, and skilled Helon archers allows it to punch above its weight class”

Oh sweet! It’s got the collection of narrative campaigns from their website like “the Purge of Anvilgard”, “Forlorn Hope”(the BR Lumineth defense against Ossiarchs) and the Ulfenkarn treasure trove: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/02/24/relive-the-fall-of-anvilgard-in-this-free-warcry-campaign/ https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/04/28/bring-the-lumineth-to-warcry-with-free-fighter-cards-and-a-new-campaign/ https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/04/01/hunt-treasure-in-the-cursed-city-with-this-free-4-player-warcry-campaign/ Love that they’re putting them all in one place like that and not forgetting about them. This already sounds like the go-to book for Warcry players.😍

Could just be pointing to a heavier focus on co-op battles since the multiplayer aspect is kinda the highlight of the article(that Dreadhold shot of 4 different warbands going at it is gorgeous! GW’s team that make these cinematic pictures are always amazing 😍). I like it though, Warcry sieges can tie in handily with Dawncrusade, Ulfenkarn and Red Harvest/Catacomb narratives with all that terrain about. Also an excellent opportunity to see the lore of Carngrad expanded as a big central gladiatorial city in Eight-Points. There’s not a whole lot of info on it yet but the name’s are certainly eye-openers: ”Locations: Water Hill” Oh that sounds alrigh- “Locations within Water Hill: the Aquaduct of Pain.” Ohh…

Exactly. The armywide buffs and overhaul of mechanics like making sub-factions more versatile can be huge for making Fyreslayers a fun army to play. Like just giving them armywide bodyguard would be enough to turn them into a hero focus army with pricey troops that the Flamekeepers store up for a climatic boost to turn the tide. Fitting for a Realm of Fire people who are all about burning bright before turning to ash. It would be cool to see a allegiance trait split like Scions vs Stormkeep with the Fyreslayers having something like Mercenaries vs Ancestral Flames so they can either go coalition heavy and focus on buffed up heroes “going merc” or Ancestral flames boosting the Magmadroths and fire abilities instead(making them too hot to handle for allies). On top of that the Seasons of War having a chance to change to Aqshy could do things to help Grimnir’s children same way Era of the Beast sent Sons of Behemat from low tier to top tier. Fury of Deep already favoring the Aqshyians could be a good sign. Plus there’s still these rumor engines that might end up Fyreslayer surprises. That gold paint-job is fire! 😍🔥 Also really like the metal job you did to make the warpicks and sling shield match-up. Nice bits of blue to give a color contrast too. 👌

More time to slip in some new models at least. Rumor mongers said Deepkin in February and Fyreslayers in March(which is when Winter ends) so the predictions may be spot on.(same predicters that said they saw the playtester with new models for both armies so hopium floweth!) Also loving those Warcry sets, gonna be great for Lumineth and DoK fans. Was a little iffy on Stormcasts being so low count but this line: “The imposing Thunderstrike Stormcast Eternals can call down falling stars to damage even the mightiest of foes” Has me content for celestial orbital strikes in Warcry. Lastly, feeling more confident this year is gonna be Aqshy Realm Rules focused. Had a shower thought not only Fury of the Deep is set there but Arena of Shades is the NightHaunt besieging Har Kuron which was the former major Anvilgard port in the searing seas.

Could be, there’s that stone throne with a hand holding a skull and ghoulish hand on a sword rumor engines still floating around. If the madness is twisting their bodies further it could explain the strange hands and fit the court theme with a jolly performer to complete the Court look of a new king and guard if those aren’t daemon fingers.

I do wonder if Skaven might surprise us as the new army this year similar to Kruleboyz being a new twisted take that are totally different from Ironjawz and other Orruks. With Fury of the Deep it’s kinda looking like this year will shift focus to the Realm of Fire as well and that’s where Clans Shrykt disappeared: “The Disappearance of the Clans Shrykt In the Age of Chaos, the entirety of one of the Great Clans dug an enormous gnawhole in Aqshy, before vanishing into its depths. Neither the Clans Shrykt or the gnawhole were ever seen again.” https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/02/26/26th-feb-lore-of-the-skaven-gnawholes-101gw-homepage-post-2/ If they got completely twisted into daemonic rat-horrors in the void and then got freed by the Realm of Life spreading it’s cosmic roots across the realms for the recent Life Flood then that would explain the Sylvaneth vs Skaven box with them realizing they unleashed a new horror unto the realms by mistake and are trying to contain it. Trying to get to the root of the problem by killing it at the roots. Might explain why this didn’t go to Nurgle if it’s for warped up Skaven daemons

I’d honestly prefer Warcry to become more wide-ranging like UnderWorlds is than to try and become one location(The Eight-Points itself is already an entire dimension on itself). The scenarios they made so you could do Warcry in Ulfenkarn after a Vyrkos’ treasure, the battle scenario in the Realm of Light to simulate the Teclis campaign there against Ossiarchs and even the fall of Anvilgard was really neat. So I’d say put it on a Dawner’s Megalith that got charged with too much god energy and now flying around on it’s own with the city on the orbiting land mass having to survive, fight off intrepid warbands trying to take over from the parts of realms it collided with and the city leaders regretting naming their city WarKrye. Edit: (Would make fun warband teaser heralds too. “Attention citizens of WarKrye! We are now entering Hyshian Aetherspace and approaching a vast mountain. Prepare yourselves for boarders from Zenith Temple Zephyr-skimmer airships & the “noble” ghoul courts of that mountain!”) But that said I expect the 3 year cycle to not hold this time with Red Harvest only a few months out and still so much in the Catacombs we’ve not touched yet with all those other icons.

Haha, I was about to comment on that. The Logister Chamber was made back in the Age of Intrigue(2017 after the Seeds of Hope campaign re-established cities in the Realms) for pretty much that goal. Would be great for an edition starter that focuses on the Realm of Metal. Ordinator engineers, new mobile artillery & Stormcast flying vessels to navigate the mercurial realm’s shifting lands and sub-realms while trying to help it’s central realmgates recover and aid the Dispossessed’s efforts of building massive railway systems across the continents(mentioned in the Corebook) to help with the trade situation so Kharadron don’t get a monopoly on it with their vast air power. (Also just love the comic, great art!)

Tbf, the Hedonites tome did confirm that to be a humonculous like the other small deformed humanoids in their army. It also mentioned Slaanesh Duardin that crafted flesh golems which is really cool. As for Harrowdeep I’m not surprised as the realms already have countless bizarre races like Aetar eagle people, Valay squid smiths, insect Silent People, empire-building sand reptilian Sanskrits, shadow daemons from the Ulgu & Azyr moons and Cogmen but with how that bit coincided with Kruleboyz I wonder how much was a wink to “the Hobbit.” For anyone inspired by it though remember the Bloodbowl halflings with some Gryph-hound & Gloomspite Gitz kits can make amazing troops for your Freeguild cities. https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/09/19/army-spotlight-halflings-of-the-mortal-realmsgw-homepage-post-2/ Would fit the hungry lands and ragtag armies for a Realm of Beasts free city or very desperate Dawner party.

I’ll take anything with a glorious campaign book of the advancing plot lines in the Mortal Realms attached. Possible River Temple lithe aelven water wraiths and sea spirit pachyderms a big bonus. But yeah, Sylvaneth is my guess with those “Lady of the Vines” rumors. Hoping for insect cavalry with the bug leg rumor and since it’ll likely be against Skaven maybe we can get those winged revenant units from the background of this art vs the Skaven. (and no, not the Arch-Reverant. You can see more winged ones in the far background on the right)

Doubt, only knife ears get that kinda rollout. That’s what they get for being so speedy without proper runic or aether-sealed protection. 😛 But that’s also the thing, I don’t think we have to worry about unjustified soup again like Bonesplitterz and Ogors got because that was just consolidating outdated armies to bring everyone up to speed. Since then GW have been pretty good at making the lore match the release like Soulblights replacing Nagash’s Legions because he fell in Broken Realms(their white dwarf update even notes vampires make a toast to god-Teclis for the freedom) and Kruleboyz got heralded by the coming of the Earthquake God who leads all the Destruction armies together. So in that light we Should expect they’d give a proper story, big model release and campaign to justify the soup if it ever happens and that it won’t just be dropped on us out of the blue.

I just hope they’re looking to shake up the army compositions away from Berzerker spam. If the Warscroll nerfs are to go along with tome armybuffs and more unit-focused Lodge traits so depending on your army build you can build up the units to be more versatile options(similar to Stormhosts focusing on units like Paladins, redeemers, draconith, etc) then that’d be fantastic!