someone2040

So today I'm going to write about aesthetics and why the sub-faction break down was both a good and a bad thing for Age of Sigmar. Games Workshop at the beginning (and still is) in a tough spot when they decided to reboot the Warhammer Fantasy game. They wanted to create a world, where you could focus on a particular faction, or branch out and collect whatever you want. They wanted to create worlds where they could introduce new factions into the game, and wouldn't have to launch a huge product range at the same time just to put them up to par with the factions that had been out for 20 years. So what did Games Workshop do? They took each significant idea, each aesethetic they had created for the old world Warhammer races, and created a faction out of it. No longer was there a combined Empire, but there were the Freeguilds, the militaristic might of the humans. There was the Devoted of Sigmar, those with unflinching faith in Sigmar. The Ironweld Arsenal, a combination of both Human and Duardin engineering. And there was the Collegiate Arcane, those Humans who spent their life dedicated to learning the ways of magic. No longer one combined human force, but a diverse range of Humans following their own ideals and goals. And in future, if Games Workshop wants to introduce a new faction of Humans, lets say some techno-wizards from Chamon, or Barbarians from Ghur, they can do so. Because they're not trying to fit in those factions with the existing Empire, they're just trying to fit another smaller faction into a part of the larger world. The Free Guilds aren't the core of the Humans now, they are now their own faction amongst many Humans A lot of people complain about how the Aelf factions turned out. Instead of the cohesive and larger factions from yesteryear, they've been split into a dozen tiny factions. For many, a hero and a few units if they're lucky. But I would actually argue, the bigger sin isn't that they were split up, but how they were split up. There's a big difference between creating a world, and transitioning an existing world. Unfortunately Games Workshop don't have a blank slate to work from, they have an existing model range that they still want to make money off of, but they need to transition those ranges into the new realms. And this is where the Aelves come in. I'll tackle the High and Dark Elves separately. For the most part, the Wood Elves transitioned over pretty easily, the Aelf side stayed as Wanderers, while the Tree folks went into the Sylvaneth. A good and easy divide between the two different aesthetics the old army shared. Let's tackle the High Elves first. They were actually split fine for the most part. Yep, you're gonna yell at me. You're going to say stuff like "But they've got these tiny little micro-factions, how am I supposed to build an army out of one of those!?". And the answer is, you shouldn't, not yet. You see, the High Elves actually had some pretty distinct but shared aesthetics within their armies. This largely came from Games Workshop promoting differences in how the different units looked due to coming from different regions of Ulthuan. Dragon Princes, don't look that similar to Swordmasters who again don't look that similar to White Lions. Sure, they're all Aelves, they all have tall helms, and they all wear scale mail. But there are notable differences also. Dragon Princes wear Dragon helms and their armour is embossed with dragons all over the place, White Lions wear lion cloaks draped over their bodies, and have shorter scale to allow them to move around more easily. Swordmasters are largely the more boring of the lot, as they just have plumes and large swords. But you see what I mean, differences in aesthetics. Similar though they may be, they are very clearly different So now we get back to, not yet. Games Workshop have sadly been lacking on the follow through. They can't magically bring out new models for everyone, but other than the initial 'promise' of expanding these factions, they haven't acted on it yet. So we have these sub-factions like the Order Draconis, Eldritch Council and Lion Rangers that have the glimmer of that gem in the rough. Will they turn into diamonds? I certainly hope so. So where have the High Elves gone wrong if the split was actually good for them? There are two things I would like to point out, one minor and one a bigger disaster. The first minor one, is the Dragon Noble (and slightly the Dragonlord). The Dragon Noble kit has the issue in that it was supposed to represent a High Elf Prince originally, one that could've been from one of Ulthuans many realms. So while there's some Dragon Iconography in the kit, there's plenty that's not. I mean, there's a Phoenix Banner in there, what do Phoenixe's have to do with Dragons? Much better in the apt named Phoenix Temple faction huh? And that's a problem when transferring these kits across, they don't mesh seamlessly. You've got Dragonlords riding around shooting bows, just because they're an option in the kit. The second one is more of a tragedy, as there are lots of good models in the faction individually. I'm talking about the Swifthawk Agents. This faction is essentially a mish mash of everything else that they wanted to support in the game. You've got the Skycutter, cool model, makes sense they want to keep it around. Spireguard should've been recut already so they're not relying on the Spire of Dawn set, but sure, makes aesethetic sense with the Skycutter and Skywarden. But the rest of the faction? How do Shadow Warriors fit in with flying Sky Chariots? They're running around in the shadows. Why weren't they put into the Shadowblades instead? A faction that far better fits their aesthetic. The Reavers don't fit in with either the Spireguard nor the Shadow Warriors, only back in action due to the Spire of Dawn set again. And then you've got the worst offender of the lot, the simply named 'Chariots'. The only reason this kit is still around is because they want to use it for the Lion Chariot set. So hey, Swifthawk Agents are swift... lets just cram it in there. There's no place here for you my friend, but marketing says we need to keep you around It's a shamble of a faction, that has a super cool premise but at the end of the day it's this complete mish mash of Aesthetics. The only reason I can surmise they created this faction was they wanted to keep the Skycutter Chariot kit around, so built a hodge podge faction around it instead. Better to have retired some of these models and left them in the legacy Highborn faction. So that's the High Elf side of things done, so now, the Dark Elf side. The Dark Elves I think are fine, but they were split just one too many ways. There are some good splits, and some bad, so let's tackle the factions. The Daughters of Khaine, an examplar of a faction. They have a hugely distinct aesthetic due in part to basically being bare women. The only criticism I have is why put the Warlocks in this faction? The Daughters aren't exactly known for using magic. I guess because they're part naked? No, I think they would've been better off in the Darkling Covens. Next up, Scourge Privateers! Another great example of taking the Aesthetic and going with it. A faction that only has models in it that make sense. If I were to add anything, is that the War Hydra should belong to this faction, and not the Order Draconis. The handlers have the sea dragon cloaks that the Scourge Privateers are known for, the War Hydra looks pretty aquatic also due to sharing the kit with the Kharibdyss, a better match in my opinion. Examples of good splits, two factions that have a core identity Those two factions are the diamonds in the rough. A few more characters, a new unit or two, and they'd be great factions to collect and have strong aesthetics and thematic appeals to the players. So then where did the Dark Elf split go wrong? I'd argue by separating out the Darkling Covens, Order Serpentis and Shadowblades. A big part of this is aesthetic similarity between the troops of these factions. You've already got in game links between the Serpentis and Darkling Covens as the Sorceress' get Black Dragons from them (A thing so rare that they needed to create Drakespawn, but Sorceress' can just waltz in and ask for one huh?), but the problem is that the Drakespawn Knights armour, and the Darkling Covens infantry just don't look all that different. Then you've got the Charioteers on the Drakespawn Chariot also. Not only that, but again, you've got Charioteers using ranged weapons in a faction that shouldn't really have any. Not so different, these two So personally, I feel that the Order Serpentis should just be a part of the Darkling Covens. Perhaps they could've changed the fluff, so each Coven is led by a Sorceress and a Coven Master. The faction then, would be much more cohesive due to the factions shared Aesthetics, and a much more diverse faction also. You wouldn't have the problem where they have no leaders with command abilities, or the faction is made up purely of infantry. These two, bridge the gap and make the faction that much more interesting and balanced. Lastly I briefly mentioned the Shadowblades. I don't really see them ever becoming a fully fledged faction. I think they could've just been merged into the Darkling Covens also, especially since the Dark Riders are similar to the Darkshards also. I also mentioned the Warlocks, it's a lot easier to keep the aesthetics tightened up if boxed sets only belong to a single faction. It also means you can market that boxed set for that particular faction. I mean, Shadow Warriors/Sisters of the Watch have this issue where they're in two different factions, so do you market the box for Wanderers or Swifthawk Agents? A lot easier if they just belong to a single faction. So then, why didn't they keep Darkling Covens, Order Serpentis and Shadowblades as part of one larger faction? The only two reasons I can think of is they thought that there was enough identity for them to forge their own path, but also they didn't necessarily want to make it 'too' easy for a player to transition their older armies. Yep, money huh. If we look at all the other 8th edition forces, they all got split into multiple factions also. Especially the core parts of each army were split across multiple factions. Ogre Kingtoms were split between Gutbuster and Beastclaw Raiders. Orcs and Goblins by each different aspect of Grots of Orruk. If you had an 8th edition army, you could run your existing collection as a Grand Alliance army with less synergy. But it made you think, do I take one aspect of my army, and expand that instead to make a more synergistic army? Overall, I appreciate what Games Workshop are trying to do. I just think they need to follow through on some of their ideas. Show us it's not just a hindrance to us (Where before, we could run a synergistic Highborn or Exiles army). I want to play an army full of Dragon Armoured Aelf Warriors, but I don't want to play with just Dragon Blades and Dragonlords. I want to create a Phoenix Temple force, but I could use some mini-Phoenixes! I love the Scourge Privateers, so where's their flying skyship? Tons of great ideas that are just waiting for some awesome models and a battletome to go with. As a parting thought, I'll leave you with this. Did Deathrattle kill off the Tomb Kings? In some respects, you could definitely make the Tomb Kings work in Age of Sigmar (Likely as 2 separate factions). You can even get rid of a bunch of old kits like the older Skeletons. But was the fact that there'd then be two factions largely composed of Skeletons a problem for Games Workshop? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Objectives markers are an interesting thought. We know that the Generals Handbook 2017 is coming out soon (probably sometime in August), which would coincidentally be a time that makes most sense to release such an item, given that everyone will be rearing to get back into matched play to try out the new points. Terrain could also be interesting, as we haven't really seen anything since the initial kits came out close after the release of AoS. Perhaps some Shadespire related terrain to go with Skirmish.

So last Sunday was Southern Impact, the last schedule tournament for the year in South Australia. After a good turn out at Gobbocon (13 players), I was pretty confident in getting more players to Southern Impact. That being said, I was a little worried when I found out that Warhammer 40k was dropping in June. Would the new edition mean people weren't interested in playing Age of Sigmar? Luckily enough, my doubts were unfounded, as we got our largest turn out in years! We had 15 players paid up before the event, with another 5 guys saying they were paying on the day. In the end, we got 18 players, as 2 of the guys who paid up earlier didn't show. Still, a massive turn out, and the biggest a Fantasy tournament has gotten in South Australia since 2014. Sadly, there was a little less variety this time. Majority of the field was Order(7) and Chaos(7), with 3 Death and only a single Destruction list to round out the players. The only Destruction army at the event lines up against the Stormcast in Game 2 I also think that this time around the painting wasn't quite as good as Gobbocon. 8 out of 18 players didn't get the full painting score, while at Gobbocon, only 5 out of 14 players didn't get full. Definitely not terrible by any means, but certainly something that can be improved upon in future. A lot of people were definitely last minute painting their armies this time. Last minute painted Nighthaunts, but still pleasing on the table Finally, to close out the issues at the event. Sadly, one player was late and missed round 1. It was a bit of a nuisance, in the end I stepped in and gave the other player a game. At the time though, I ruled that because we played a game, the opponent could get a draw at minimum, or a better result if he earned it in game. It probably wasn't that fair on him, as in terms of 'results' he would've been better off not playing, rather than having a more rushed game. The Dark Master gets to come out for 1 game Also, it ended up that the player who was late was eligible for the Best Death General prize (As he won his final 2 games). I had to think for a while whether or not he should get the prize. On one hand, he didn't have a very good reason for being late. On the other hand, there was nothing in my pack that made him ineligible. In the end, I decided that since he had paid, did turn up and play in the end, that he was eligible for the prize. But I think in future event packs I may write some part in to make it so that you're ineligible for certain prizes if you don't play all your games. In a 2 day event, missing 1 game may be less of an issue, but in a 1 dayer where we're only playing 3 games, it's not really very good form. But now that we're past that ugliness, lets get back to the good stuff! It was awesome to see that we got a bunch of new players rock up to the event. Was good to see the Store Manager from GW Warradale show up again, and bring along some of his regulars. Also good to see some players bringing in their friends to the tournament. Just great to see that the scene is still growing, and hope that our next event gets even more players than this time. New player Jasper's Skaven faces off against the combined forces of Ogors and Moonclan It was also good to see, that while we moved up to 2000 points, there wasn't anything 'too filthy' running around. There were definitely some strong lists at the event, but nothing like what you hear about on the internet. I was a bit concerned what the power level was going to be like heading into the event, I know one guy was painting up a bunch of Vanguard Raptors for the Aetherstrike force. So it was good to see that there wasn't anything too over the top, as I think our scene definitely has a mixture of people who play more casually and those who take it more competitively. Ruining the opponents day? Not quite I also think that it was good to see that in round 3, there were 2 close games going on for the winner of the tournament. We had Tzeentch playing against Death, and Khorne playing against Nurgle for the position of number 1. 2 Awesome games going on, that were quite tactically tight. Even the Khorne vs Nurgle game ebbed and flowed, as it looked like early on Nurgle was just going to be steamrolled, then they came back, and then finally the Khorne army won the game. Khorne vs Nurgle, a battle between the Chaos Gods for the top of the tournament I think the only unfortunate thing was that the game between Tzeentch and Death had to be cut short at 3 turns. For a game that was deciding the fate of the tournament, it's always a shame to have to call things early. Overall, the tournament ended up with the following: First Place : Blades of Khorne Second Place : Daemons of Tzeentch Third Place : Skaven Overall, very pleased with how the tournament went, and looking forward to getting to play more of my own games in future.

So I was reading the July White Dwarf, and came across the section about the artwork of the Orruks. What struck me immediately, was how awesome the artwork was for the 6th edition Orcs and Goblins army book. You've got this big slab of Orc standing there, not armoured to the bone, but with a decent amount of metal and furs and the like. And in some ways, it got me a little inspired about the Greenskinz. At some point during 8th edition I aquired a whole bunch of Orcs, intending to run big blocks of Big 'Uns, Arrow Boyz and Black Orcs with a few regular Goblins stuff on the side, you know, a true Orc and Goblin army (Rather than the Savage Orcs or Night Goblin stuff running around). While I did end up with 2000 points assembled, it never really took off and has remained in their boxes/case ever since (and certainly high on my chopping list). But I do love thinking about what could be done for the Greenskinz. How to turn them into the shame of the Orruks they are now, and into a Green force to be reckoned with. How best to represent these guys in Age of Sigmar So here are my thoughts on the subject: Up the wounds: Greenskinz currently don't feel like proper Orruks (and are overpointed), because compared to all the other Orruks in the game, they're lacking a wound. Simple fix, give every warscroll an extra wound in the Greenskinz list. Bring back Rugluds Armoured Orcs: Traditionally, Orruks aren't very shooty, with the best weapon they've bought to the shooting game being an inaccurate bow. Putting aside the Savage Orruk Arrow Boys, and their poor rules (They should probably just have 1 attack base with their bows), I think it's a direction they shouldn't be afraid to take Greenskinz. You certainly don't want them to be too shooty (no doubling attacks or mortal wounds plz), but you want it as a supplementary force. I actually think they've already got that in Orruk Arrow Boyz (Which should be again, separated from the Orruk Boyz scroll for battalion purposes), and in fact, Rugluds Armoured Orcs. A perfectly serviceable unit made up of Crossbow wielding Orruks, let down by being overcosted. I think if they took the scroll and just renamed it Orruk Crossbow Boyz you've got a fine new unit in the list. Return of the Big 'Uns: Since the Black Orcs have departed for better pastures, Greenskinz don't have a more 'elite' unit now. Bonesplitterz have their Morboyz, Ironjawz have Brutes, but Greenskinz just have plain old Orruks. These fellas will be the biggest Orruks of the lot, should all have heavy armour and essentially come down to being your regular elite infantry. What I would like to see is some kind've synergistic rule on these guys, maybe similar to the Chaos Chosen's Slaughterleaders rule, where if the Big 'Uns do damage, they inspire the others around them. This would pretty much require a new kit, as I don't think you can make easily identifiable Big Un's from the Orruk Boyz kit. More Heroes: Obviously factions need more heroes, if only to give more options about how you design your list and who leads it. I think to start, should split out the more interesting options from the Orruk Warboss scroll. The Standard Bearer should be split into it's own scroll. I think it's actually a shame GW hasn't already done this all over the place, it leads to weird designs where units get to do multiple roles (Standard Bonus + Command Ability + Just as good at fighting). The next thing, is I think you want some mid-tier Orruk hero. Some kind've bully or big boss that sits below a Warboss, but gives you some synergy in the army. I think a great idea, is actually to steal some of the Black Orc Big Boss rules. Instead of his command ability, just make a similar regular ability where if a unit of Greenskinz fails a battleshock, you can deal a mortal wound to the unit to re-roll it. Great and thematic for the Orruks as you've got a bigger Orruk restoring order by punching some guys. New Boar Chariot: It's a bit of a shame, as I think for the most part it's still serviceable apart from the Boars. Maybe all you need to do is print a new Boar sprue to replace the old one, but it needs a bit of a refresher. Perhaps you can print an additional sprue for it that includes a Warboss or Great Shaman to ride around on the Chariot, but I feel that it may encroach on Brayherd territory too much to have the bosses riding Chariots. Bring back Animosity: I recently made a post about changing the GA: Destruction allegiance ability to be more animosity like. And perhaps, it wouldn't be great for Destruction as a whole, but I think for Greenskinz it'd add a load of character. I think if you made the rewards good enough, it'd still be alright. But then again, I never really played with Animosity, so I don't know how bad it really is. But I think if you had something like : At the start of your hero phase, roll a D6 for each GREENSKINZ unit not in combat. On a roll of 1, they may do nothing further this turn. On a roll of 2-5, it may move as if it were the movement phase. On a roll of 6, it may move as if it were the movement phase, shoot as if it were the shooting phase, or charge as if it were the charge phase. If a unit completes a charge, they may immediately pile in and attack as if it were the combat phase. You could have a another rule as part of the allegiance that any unit within X" of a HERO can re-roll animosity checks to reduce the impact slightly. I think it could be an interesting ability. Battalion Warscrolls: Obviously, any good faction is going to have about a dozen of these. I think the introduction of an Elite unit and an extra Boss though would add some interesting concepts that are available. Some examples off the top of my head: Big Boss + Big Un's - Restoring order style battalion. The Big 'Uns become immune to battleshock, and can pass on the Big Boss's Restoring Order rule as well. Boars + Chariots - Boar stampede battalion, benefits on the charge. Orruk Shaman + Arrow Boyz + Crossbow Boyz - Wyrd energy, where the Orruk Shaman infuses the Arrows/Bolts with Waagh magic. Some bonus as long as the Shaman is alive. Plenty of other options as well I reckon. Maybe something that boosts Wyverns if you take 3 of them. Or a more regiments Orruk Boyz + Other units style. Lots that can be done. So at the end of all this, what would the Greenskinz faction have Heroes(5): Orruk Warboss on Wyvern, Orruk Warboss (on Boar), Orruk Battle Standard (on Boar), Orruk Great Shaman (on Boar), Orruk Big Boss Units(6): Orruk Boyz, Orruk Arrow Boyz, Orruk Crossbow Boyz, Big 'Uns, Orruk Boar Boyz, Orruk Boar Chariots Not a bad sized faction. And something that could be solved with a few extra sprues and units.

Well, we're 4 more sleeps until Southern Impact now. My army is all finished, so figured I'd run through it and what I think of the units I plan to use. Note, I certainly don't strive for the list to be 'top tier', I work within my theme and do the best I can with it. I also will only be playing if we have odd numbers, so it's fine to have an army on the weaker side (Since I won't be able to win any prizes anyway). So without further adieu, here's the army: The Army in it's entirety I feel I've got a nice rounded list here. The two confirmed battle plans for the day are Border War and 3 Places of Power (The two scenarios that didn't end up being played at Gobbocon earlier in the year), with a 3rd scenario to be randomly decided on the day. I feel I've got a good balanced list, with plenty of models to contest objectives, including some fast units in the Chaos Knights and Be'Lakor to contest further objectives. For 3 Places of Power, I have 5 characters in total, although 2 are mages that don't really want to be up close. So let's run through the individual units now. First up, the big Daemon Prince himself, Be'Lakor. I really love this model, and prior to starting the army I had had the model for a while, waiting for the right opportunity to get him out and paint him. So of course, he's pretty core to my list. That being said, I'm going to have to be careful with him this tournament. Think there's going to be plenty of mortal wounds flying around. I'm also going to have to pick good units to make use of his special rule to cause disorder in the enemy units. I think a lot of the time I'm going to have to pick some critical shooting or combat unit to ensure they *hopefully* have issues dealing damage for a turn. My General is my Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount, currently named Naz'Ur'Ak, the Gloom Lord. I like his Command Ability as it gives the Chaos Knights that extra punch on the charge. Usually he is waiting patiently for the opportune turn to buff the Knights to go in and kill stuff. Otherwise, the plan is to be giving Lord of War to the Jezzails. This may prove tricky in 3 places of power, as I'm likely going to need him to contest objectives. Za'gul Darkblood, Leader of the Shadowborn is my Chaos Lord. Whether or not he's the true general is not really known, but certainly in these upcoming battles he's happy to let Naz'Ur'Ak take the lead. This guy was my flex pick in my army. I had the choice of him, a unit of Marauder Horsemen, or dropping the Godsworn Champions of Ruin and including a Daemon Prince. In the end, I think that having an additional hero may be useful, and I didn't have time to paint a Daemon Prince for the list, so he makes the cut. Let's hope his Reaperblade goes off! My Chaos Sorcerer Lord; Svaraz the Dark Seer, is a crucial piece in my force. Daemonic Power is an absolute beast of a spell, ensuring one of my units can do their job reliably. This usually goes on either Be'Lakor, the Chosen or the Chaos Knights, depending on whom I need to do most damage in the upcoming turn. Of course, he also provides the gift of foresight, if Be'Lakor doesn't get Daemonic Power, he's usually getting that to ensure his save is even more reliable. The Skaven are recent and new reinforcements for the Shadowborn. This contingent is led by Engineer Sniker-stab. This guy is mainly here to tie in the Skaven with the rest of the force. In a similar vein, he could be considered trading out, but hopefully he gets off a big Warp Lightning at some point. In the practice game however, all he managed to do was singe his own whiskers. The Twilight Kinband are the Marauders of the army. Their job is to hold the objectives, or be a buffer to stop the enemy units engaging my important pieces in the army. Usually they die in the battle, but that's their job. The most likely unit in my army to pass an Unpredictable Destruction roll The Shadowshields are the oldest unit in my army, the models that started it all way back when. Even if they are a bit pricey, a unit of 10 Chaos Warriors is tanky and can be tough to deal with. The hope is that these guys can tackle the enemy with mortal wounds rather than more fragile units in the army (Such as the Chosen). The Blades of Darkness are a more recent addition. Personally, I prefer the Shields as I don't feel that the hit re-rolls of the additional hand weapons are that useful on the unit, they still wound on 4's and have no rend. Still, as long as there aren't mortal wounds around, these guys can go in and deal some damage. I've only used them once or twice, so will have to see how they perform in battle. My personal favourite, the Darksoul Chosen. I really love buffing these guys up with Daemonic Power and rolling into something. Most of the time, that means almost every single attack is going to wound. The problem is, my opponents seem to be pretty good at rolling armour saves when they need to. I also don't get to use the buff as often as I want to (A lot of the time I forget also >.<). Sadly, a lot of people recognize the amount of damage these guys can output, and occasionally the Chosen are wiped out before they can really do much damage. Will have to see what kind've performance they put on. The Shadowbound are the shock cavalry of the force. Mixed feelings about these guys. I feel a lot of the time, they just sadly bounce as the rend -1 doesn't put a huge dent into armour. Still, when they are buffed up, they can pack quite the wallop on the charge. Afterwards, it tends to turn into pillowfights, with their saddest defeat being ripped down by Skeleton Archers which they just couldn't quite get through before they started regenerating. Lastly, the Shadowshots, expert Snipers to strike from the Shadows. I've always had issues with the lack of ranged attacks my army has had, and finally have some long ranged firepower of my own. They performed pretty well in my one game I've run them, where they shot down a Great Unclean One and a Maggoth Lord. But I do have some reservations, as I think there's going to be a lot of counter-shooting going around at the tournament. It's going to be a tough match up I feel, and it could end up with 280 points of Jezzails running away in the first turn due to being shot at before I can shoot. The final part of the army is the Godsworn Champions of Ruin battalion. This gives me the small perk of being able to attack in the hero phase if near a hero or monster. I honestly haven't gotten to use this yet (Not sure if it's come up, but I've probably forgotten to use it). It also gives me a second artefact. What I've been running recently is Chaos Talisman on my General to make him more survivable, as well as Crown of Conquest on my Chaos Lord. This means that when I want to buff the Chaos Knights, I can still put Inspiring Presence on a unit. Could be important in keeping those cowardly Skaven in line. And that's it for my list. In some ways, I hope I get the opportunity to play as I haven't gotten to play much since Gobbocon. On the other hand, it'd be nice to relax as the TO and take some good pictures of the battles going on during the event. Either way, it's sure to be a lot of fun.

In Australian, the Seraphon set isn't the wonder you hear about in the rest of the world. Carnosaur 100AUD Saurus Warriors 39AUD Saurus Knights 55AUD Total 194AUD, Start Collecting Cost 140AUD. Still a good deal, but it's more like the Saurus Knights for free rather than both the Knights and Warriors. I actually did the numbers on all the sets yesterday. Currently, the best value (considering money only) is the Ironjawz (42%) followed closely by the Khorne Bloodbound(41%). The worst value is the Greenskinz (20%) and then the Slaves to Darkness (21%). All based on AUD numbers, so may be different in your country. If the Fyreslayers truly do have a Magmadroth and 10 Vulkite Berserkers, it'll be the most valuable set at 50% price of buying the kits individually.

I'd love for the Fyreslayer one to be true, but it's like 50% savings over the regular kit. It'd have to be the most discounted set ever from GW at that kinda price or it's going to be priced at a different price point. The other two make sense, even if I think it'd be better to have a regular chariot and more Daemonettes. Hope that the Seekers get put onto the new cavalry bases and aren't on the old-style 40k ones.

The problem is the Magmadroth doesn't make a non-character variant. So the Magma is your 'character' in the box. I also think every box so far has at least a hero and 2 other units to make a somewhat 'balanced' starting force. I'm pretty sure it'll be Vulkites, Hearthguard and a Character. It might not have a stand out piece, but it's the only thing that makes sense with the current kits available and the current price range. I don't think GW would package a 'new unit' inside a Start Collecting box. I think they like to sit on models for a while, make full profit out of them before bundling them up. Cool to hear that the boxes are going up for pre-order this weekend. Same as you, hope it's with Path to Glory. Definitely don't need another filler week of releases (Which this basically is, as it's a 'no new model' week). One can dream that the GHB2 is the week after... but sounds a bit hopeful, more likely more 40k.

That's a good point! Didn't think of that one.

I don't think they'll do the Magmadroth only because the Magmadroth alone already costs as much as the entire contents of most Start Collecting boxes. Just analyzed a bunch of stuff, and I think these sets could conceivably make sense for factions that don't currently have them (and aren't one of the three we know are going to get them). This assumes that the price point is the same ($140AUD) and I made them based on Australian retail prices. Wanderers: Nomad Prince, 16 Glade Guard, 5 Wild Riders + 10 Eternal Guard. Nice selection of stuff, lands in the right ball park. Free Peoples: Freeguild General on Foot, 2 boxes of Freeguild Guard/Handgunners/Archers/Outriders, 3 Demigryph Knights Freeguild has a lot of options because a lot of the boxes are largely interchangeable being at the same price point. Dispossessed: Warden King, 16 Warriors, 16 Quarrellers, 10 Irondrakes/Hammerers A bit boring. I wouldn't predict them getting one, because they're all infantry. That being said, it's pretty likely that Fyreslayers would be all infantry as well... Possibly Hammerers are more likely as the Quarrellers already give you a ranged unit. Brayherds: Great Bray Shaman, 10 Ungor, 10 Gor, 10 Bestigor A bit boring also, it's a bit like their old battalion but with the Great Bray Shaman in there. Daughters of Khaine : Cauldron of Blood, 10 Witch Aelves, 5 Doomfire Warlocks Can do one with the plastic kits they currently have. Nice rounded set. I don't think they'd get tone though, as this contains all the models for the Daughters range. Devoted of Sigmar: War Shrine of Sigmar, 20 Flagellants Pretty simple set made up of the only stuff in plastic. I wouldn't bet for it though, as it's pretty boring and the War Alter can only make 1 thing. All the other 'centrepiece' models tend to be able to make different variants. Darking Covens: Sorceress on Black Dragon, 10 Bleakswords, 10 Executioners I'd probably bet on the Dragon over the foot variant, but in any case think it's unlikely. This is all the kits for the Darkling Covens (apart from Foot Sorceress) in one package. Scourge Privateers: Fleetmaster, 20 Black Ark Corsairs, Kharadribyss Interesting little set, I think personally I'd prefer the Chariot in there but it's already on the cheaper end when it comes to savings. I think it's unlikely as GW hasn't shown any sets that duplicate kits yet. Bonesplitterz: Savage Big Boss, 20 Savage Orruks, 10 Savage Boar Boyz Pretty doubtful set, there's just no variety available in terms of kits as Bonesplitterz is made up of 2 kits + characters. It ends up just being a load of Orruks. Compare it to Greenskinz which throws a Chariot in the mix (even if it's an old shoddy Chariot model). Gitmob Grots: Gitmob Shaman, 40 Grots, 10 Wolf Riders The most boring and uninteresting set ever. Sadly I think, given the age of the models, that Gitmob probably should've just been left behind when the Grand Alliance books swung around. I don't see them getting an update in the future, and I get the feeling they kept them because they have all the War Machines in Destruction. And that's about it really. Noticeable lack of Death stuff. They've pretty much exhausted their options of plastic battleline kits. You need to go into Zombie territory to make a new start collecting box I reckon. You could probably do something like Necromander, 40 Zombies, Corpse Cart or Mortis Engine, 20 Zombies, Corpse Cart, but I think it's unlikely for the same reason as the Grots, old aging Zombie models that people don't really want to buy. Also interestingly, even though Order is the largest Grand Alliance, it only has 3 Start Collecting sets (The same number as Death). Chaos has the most, mainly because there are 3 Daemon sets (this is likely due to the 40k cross over).

Good to see that new Start Collecting boxes are on the way. More keen to see what those are than Path to Glory to be honest, if only because it opens up more races to become affordable to collect. I'll certainly be tempted by Fyreslayers I reckon. The Slaanesh ones kinda just falls into place (Daemonettes, Seekers and a Chariot, with either Daemonettes or the Chariot doubling up). They could throw a curve ball and include the Hellstriders, but seems a bit odd to have 1 mortal unit amongst all the Daemons. Beastclaw only have 2 plastic kits in their entire range. Stonehorn/Thundertusk at 96AUD and Mournfang @ 4 for 110AUD. Slots in nicely, so that's what I'd expect. If I were to hazzard a guess for Fyreslayers, it'd probably be 10 Vulkites, 5 Hearthguard and 1 of the plastic clampack characters. Hopefully the Runemaster, as I reckon he's the more interesting of the 4. Also, one can hope there are a few more to come and not just those 3 indicated. Not gonna get my hopes up, but I reckon you could make some interesting Wanderers and Free Peoples Start Collecting sets.

Inspired a bit by @HobbyHammers 'This is how I brayherd' blog, I started thinking about my old Beastmen army, as by the looks of things, I could probably make a pretty convincing AoS army with them. This inevitably led me to start thinking, what would I do to expand the Brayherd faction into a fully fleshed out and meaty faction. What would it take to get these guys status to be 'back' And I think, there's not actually a huge amount of work that needs to be done! So let's get the ball rolling. Bring back some units back under the Brayherd banner The Grand Alliance books split some units odd ways. But I think the oddest choice was to send the Centigors to the Monsters of Chaos section. They've got Gor in their name! Why aren't they with the rest of the Gor? I also think that Warhounds and Razorgors should be bought back into the fold as well, these can be the 'hunting pets' of the Brayherds (As much as you can tame and call a big huge slab of mutated pig a 'pet' anyway). I think all 3 of these units make thematic sense in the Brayherds, and don't really double up on anything else the faction has to offer. Bring back some Compendium Scrolls Malagor has a great little scroll in my opinion, that could easily be rebranded into something more generic. Call him a 'Crowfather' or something, maybe have him synergise with the more 'beasty' things like the Warhounds in the list. In a way, he becomes the Icebrow Hunter of the Brayherds. I also think that the Wargor Standard Bearer adds a good little synergy into the Brayherd army, which would be a shame to lose. Which not having a model, leads me onto point 3... A (few) new models Brayherd as a model range, is actually pretty good at the moment. Most of their stuff (barring one which I'll talk about in a moment) is pretty new and still looks good today. But just like any army, they could do with a few new model kits to fill the gaps around the edges. Obviously the aforementioned Wargor Standard Bearer would need a model, but there are a few other kits I think would have potential... First off, a Chariot kit. The tuskgor chariot is a pretty old model these days, and I think it has great potential to be revamped. There was always a bit of wishlisting about a combined Tuskgor/Razorgor Chariot kit, and I think it makes perfect sense! In a similar vein to the Stonehorn/Thundertusk kit, I think you could actually squeeze a lot of warscrolls from the one kit. You've got a Tuskgor Chariot, Razorgor Chariot, and then Character(s) on either variant. I'd definitely want to see a Beastlord screaming around on one. Maybe you can even squeeze in another new character and a Bray Shaman on one would be pretty cool also. The other thing I hope is that, if you build say a 'vanilla' variant, you might get a free Razorgor and character on foot. Talk about good value! You could probably stop there, but I think the other thing to consider would be to replace the aging Centigor kit. I don't actually mind the kit actually, having 5 painted and another 5 in a box. But they are old metal nowdays, and a good opportunity to replace them and give them another weapon option or two. At least a Great Weapon variant, but perhaps a bow variant also (Although, Drunken Centaurs firing bows and arrows might not work out so well). The last thing to consider, is whether or not there should be a special character to 'lead the faction'. I don't think it's totally necessary to do this for all factions. Perhaps Brayherds being a bit 'faceless' and 'goaless' gives good reason either way. A good strong character could give them direction as to what they want to do in the mortal realms, but it may feel a bit too much like the 'Gordrakk' of Beastmen. And of course, a Battletome With new models, you'd want a new battletome. I think if they got the extra models, they have enough depth to have their own battletome without needing their Warherd pals on the side. I think Brayherds will get Allegiance Abilities with GHB2, but of course a Battletome would add in much needed Warscroll Battalions. With the extra units added in, I think you could create some pretty interesting battalions. I think a Beast pack type one with a Crowfather, Warhounds and Razorgors would be cool. With all the chariots flying around, a Chariot based one (perhaps with Centigors as well) would be pretty sweet. Tons of stuff. Thinking about the above... gets me really excited sometimes (and perhaps sets myself up for disappointment). But, it's really interesting to see how close some factions are to being fleshed out. Sometimes all you need to do is shift a few things into the right place and then come back with 1-2 character kits and 1-2 unit kits. For the record, if I did rebase my Brayherds, I reckon I'd end up with something like this: Doombull w Great Axe General Beastlord w Great Axe Wargor BSB Great Bray Shaman Great Bray Shaman 30 Gors with Beastshields 10 Gors with Additional Hand Weapons 10 Gors with Additional Hand Weapons 10 Gors with Additional Hand Weapons 10 Ungor Raiders 10 Ungor Raiders 10 Ungors with Mauls and Halfshields 10 Ungors with Mauls and Halfshields 10 Bestigors Tuskgor Chariot Tuskgor Chariot 3 Bullgors with Greataxes 3 Bullgors with Greataxes Wildstalker Brayherd The only models I don't actually own from the above is a Doomnull and I only have 5 Bullgors (Since I was converted one into Taurax, the Brass Bull which I suppose I could run as a Doombull). I'd also probably need to build up a few Gor for command models for the Additional Hand Weapons, as they're currently one unit. Pretty cool how an 8th edition army translate pretty cleanly to Age of Sigmar in this case.

The Grand Alliance books while great in some ways, aren't so great in others (Mainly in combination with Generals Handbook). In essence, all they did was reprint the Compendium Warscrolls (With some minor adjustments and keyword tweaks) that they wish to support models for while giving us some fluff for how they fit in the new mortal realms. So did the Grand Alliance books really do that much for us? Not really. And in combination with the Generals Handbook and how you build armies, the fact that there are 44 sub-factions, 35~ish of which are probably medium to small and hard to actually build an enjoyable force around is a bit of an issue. I think if you asked any High or Dark Aelf player, they'd probably prefer to use Compendium where they actually had synergies. And I'd say it's led to at least one High Elf player locally to give up the game a bit. I think though, it does come back a lot to GW being too slow with updating those factions. It's pretty shameful to say, that since Beastclaw Raiders/Bonesplitterz (Which got zero model support) dropped at the same time as the Generals Handbook, the only older faction that has been migrated in almost a year were the Tzeentch Arcanites/Daemons which pretty much stayed as is anyway. That's where redoing Stormcast continually gets us I suppose. In that time, we should have at least a few more battletomes of 'almost there' armies and I'd have hoped to see one of the small sub-factions expanded into a true faction. But it is what it is. It's my opinion that the GA books didn't actually do that much for the game overall. Other people are free to see differently.

Agreed. If I had to guess... I'd probably put about 6-7 of them being 'no model' releases. I think GW have learnt what they did wrong with AoS and the Grand Alliance books, and from a first glance, look like they're taking the right approach with 40k. Rather than focus on all the new factions first, it looks like they're going to get out codex releases for the factions that aren't going to change much. Then they can focus their effort on factions they want to split up (but importantly, weren't split up straight away in one big bang) and creating new factions/races as well. That being said, 40k gets the benefit of not having it's world destroyed, and having the critical mass of players where they can afford to do this. Support the existing players first, then entice them into new armies later.

So the next tournament is coming up swiftly for my local scene. This time, it's one called Southern Impact, and tradionally it is the larger warhammer fantasy tournament the club runs. This year will be no exception, while Gobbocon was a smaller 1200 points, this time we'll be going full sized matched play armies at 2000 points. This does bring some interesting challenges though. It's a one day tournament, so at 2000 points we can only fit 3 games into the schedule for the day, this may make finding an overall winner on the day a bit of a challenge. Different to Gobbocon, to hopefully split the pack up a bit more I've introduced a difference between a loss and minor loss, as well as adding in secondary objectives. The hope is, that some of this stuff will create more of a spread even if we only get 3 games in. Looking towards the armies. If I need to play to fill in the odd man, I will once again be taking my Chaos Undivided, the Shadowborn. At some point I'd definitely like to take my Free Peoples out for a spin, but I just haven't had the time to work on them recently. It's also been a bit of a slog trying finishing off the command for the Freeguild Guard unit. The most probable list I'm going to take is as follows: Be'Lakor Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount Chaos Sorcerer Lord Chaos Lord Warlock Engineer 10 Marauders with Hand Weapon and Shield 10 Chaos Warriors with Hand Weapon and Shield 10 Chaos Warriors with Additional Hand Weapons 10 Chaos Chosen 5 Chaos Knights 6 Jezzails Godsworn Champions of Ruin The only thing I'm considering at this stage is I could swap the Chaos Lord or Warlock Engineer for 5 Marauder Horsemen. I think a stronger choice would be to swap one and the Battalion for a Daemon Prince, but I don't think I'll have the time to paint up the Prince. I recently got the opportunity to try out the above list. We played this game at my local GW, as I was hoping to get a few more people interested (But alas, the store was not busy at the time we were playing). I played against another competitors Nurgle force. Was really cool to see two pretty much fully painted armies (Unfortunately, my Warlock Engineer was letting the party down!) on a table full of GW terrain. The game went pretty well for me, was pretty much in my favour. He took the first turn, but I got the double which was pretty important. My Jezzails almost finished the Great Unclean one off in one turn, but the double turn secured it. Also because I got the double turn, I was able to move my forces to get full control over one of the side objectives, while snatching the 2nd one away for a turn giving me the edge in objective points. From that point on for him, unfortunately the game was a bit lost. His forces were slowly being whittled down, and never was in a position to really contest my home objective to try and snatch back some points. We called it at the end of the third or fourth battle round. As a result of the game, I think it's kind've proven a feeling I've had for a while about the game. Strong shooting can be a really oppressive part of the game. This game really showed how I got to dictate the pace and having a strong shooting element in my Jezzails gave me control. That was only 280 points invested into it as well. I find it's really important to have ranged units in your toolkit, as I know I've felt frustrated being on the receiving end of shooting when my Slaves to Darkness didn't have any. And that was before all the hardcore shooting came out. It'll also be interesting to see how the scene takes some of the more 'filthy' lists. Gobbocon was a bit of fun at 1200 points, with a surprise Death list winning it. But at 2000 points, I know at least one Aetherstrike list is going to be showing up. That's a whole other level of shooting. It'll be interesting to see what other people are taking, and whether or not the scene as a whole are going a bit more competitive, or if perhaps we'll see only a few people taking 'top tier' style lists.

It's all done by a formula mate. Skink Priest in AoS cost more than a Skink Starpriest (80 vs 100), so it's going to cost more in Skirmish. I would assume he didn't do the Dwarf Engineer because it's actually superceded by the Cogsmith. In fact, I'd say it's more an error on GW's part to actually include points for the Dwarf Engineer.

He is saying that the flyer for the Generals Handbook 2017 is found inside Thunder and Blood. Not that Thunder and Blood booklet has that cover.

Yeah, that's pretty disappointing. I don't think an entire week of releases should be tied up with "Made to Order" things that won't even be delivered for like a month. It essentially means there is no release. I was expecting that Path to Glory might drop in this weeks pre-orders considering we heard about it earlier in the week. Now I'm not quite sure what to expect coming up, are we going to see a glimmer of light for AoS releases with Path to Glory, or is that something to come much later and we're gonna be back on the 40k train?

What has me most excited about Path to Glory is mentioning Brayherd Gors as being part of "Beasts of Chaos'. This to me, indicates a re-merger of stuff like Brayherds, Warherds and Monsters of Chaos in future. Probably not merged into a single faction with all the good synergies, but makes sense with the move to combined tomes for linked factions. It makes me interested what other factions they might combine into common groupings in future. The thing is, there's a huge difference between Stormcast Eternals or Khorne Bloodbound and a faction like Fyreslayers or Ironjawz or Freeguilds, just due to the sheer amount of different options Stormcast Eternals and Bloodbound have. So will they combine more related factions, or will they split say Stormcast into more themed warbands (Say Lord Aquillor, Palladors, Vanguard-Hunters, Vanguard-Raptors, Prosecutors). Could be an interesting release to shed some light on things to come.

I'm really surprised that they're not bulking up some of these repacks. Skeletons are a prime example of a kit that would make sense to come in 20's rather than 10's. That being said, they were already one of the cheaper kits I guess. The Duardin were already expensive when they came out (Elite infantry price gouging), and while it might not necessarily make a huge amount of sense for them to come in 20's being elite infantry... would've been nice from a price perspective!

All they're doing is splitting up the current starter set, and releasing some of those models independently. So I'm not so fussed about it being Stormcast/Khorne this time around because it's nothing new. I guess if anything, it's perhaps an indication that in future we might see some more special characters in future battle tomes. The problem I have is it takes up a week's release in the year. If I had to fathom a guess, it's because of new 40k. All their plastic production is probably churning out starter boxes and new marine kits. So we've had like a month of packaging up existing models in different ways. Skirmish boxes, splitting up the Escape from Goblin Town set, and now, splitting up the Age of Sigmar set.

So the thing of interest to take from this, is that we'll get to see whether or not the core Age of Sigmar rules are truly changing as this will be the first release since the Kharadron's came down without rules in the battletome. You'd think that if the rules are truly going to change, then it'd make sense to include a new version of the rules in a 'new' starter set. That being said... I'm not actually sure that this new set is better value? The play mat would have to be pretty decent quality and size to be worth the loss of Vandus, Korghus Khul and the Bloodsecrator for pretty minimal savings (Currently, the AoS starter is $150AUD compared to the start collecting $140AUD).

You would need to figure out warscrolls for them first. In honesty, you're better off just substituting existing warscrolls for the regiments (As most regiments were just fancier versions of things that already existed). e.g Mengils Manflayers could be Dark Elf Shades. A long time ago I did translate a bunch of Dogs of War/Regiments of Renown into Age of Sigmar Warscrolls if you're interested (But this was pre Grand Alliance/Generals Handbook, so things would definitely be different now). https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bezb_Tus-qENihNpked3Q4W0FGEiAliVeaxBmt7OBzA/edit?usp=sharing

I think the problem is in the titling of the thread, rather than the content in particular. This thread has always been about discussion of News and Rumours. I think it's quite worthwhile to speak about an upcoming novel for Age of Sigmar, there's certainly been a pretty huge drought on that front. Definitely keen to give this one a read. My understanding was that Grungni was missing also (I seem to recall something about him going missing after helping Sigmar make the Stormcast, but perhaps I'm misremembering), so interesting to hear if the book clears anything up on that front.

There are a few odd occurrences of things missing in the official renown lists. The Chaos Sorcerer Lord and Orruk Warboss definitely top candidates without any clear reason. I believe the reason why the Ogroid Thurmatauge, the Dracoth Lord and possibly even the Daemon Prince are missing is because they end up being more than 30 renown. If you notice, there is nothing in the game that costs more than 28 renown. So I believe these models weren't included on that basis (I think the Tzeentch Herald on Chariot also falls into this category).