Clan's Cynic

Nothing. I'm guessing they'll be an LVO announcement at this point. Fyreslayer Vanguard will almost certainly include a Magmadroth, since you literally can't get it outside of the Start Collecting. After that I'd guess a box of Vulkites, a box of Hearthguard and maybe a Battlesmith. If they're feeling generous maybe x2 boxes of Hearthguard. Over on the 40k front, the Combat Patrols for lesser played factions appear to have some fantastic value (the GSC box is absolutely packed with stuff), so it may be the Fyreslayer Vanguard ends up being quite good, similar to how when the SC for Fyreslayers first landed you basically got the Vulkites for free.

Same, same. If the Squats absolutely have to be shoehorned into the Imperium, I'd like fighting between them and the 'mainline' to be a somewhat common occurrence just because by far my biggest frustration as a Guard player is that 90% of my tabletop games end up being against another Imperial faction, usually Space Marines. People like to say "Imperial infighting happens" but Cadians don't throwdown against the Ultramarines in half their battles and said infighting is usually very rare and tied almost exclusively to historical events or done by traitors who just turncoated five minutes ago. One of the things I like about AoS is that the vast majority of factions are given some excuse as to why they'd fight both members of their own GA and their own faction. Hell, even Stormcast vs Stormcast got the 'VR Simulator Arena' justification, which was a nice touch I thought.

GW seems keen to organise everything under Imperium/Chaos/Xenos these days, so I'd be surprised if they're not part of the Imperium. Plus they can sell them to all the Marine players as Allies.

I'd rather an updated design just modernise the old sculpt and therefore slot nicely into my existing army, rather than radically overhaul and look out of place next to both the other units and my existing version it's replacing. New units? Sure, go crazy. But an updated sculpt should be just that imo.

People would rather play a bad wargame than have no wargame at all. A lot of people only stick with 40k/AoS because you can take your models, walk into just about any gamestore in the country - or abroad - and you've a reasonable chance of finding a game, especially 40k. There are plenty of other rulesets to play from, but very few people take them up despite positive word-of-mouth and I think this is also why houseruling is looked down upon, because you can stumble into Random Joe and if you both know the 40k/AoS ruleset you can plonk down the models. You can put £500 into a new 40k army and know years from now you'll be able to use it. If you play anything else, whether that's Legion, Malifaux, MCP, Warmahordes, there's always the chance that a botched edition, a bankruptcy, players moving, whatever, can swoop in and kill your local community at any moment. The overwhelming majority of people get into wargaming with 40k, so whilst there's probably a good turn over of people there's always a steady stream of freshfaced newbies to replace them. If GW releases the worst edition of 40k ever you still know almost everyone is still going to be playing it - AoS less so, but odds are you'll still find far more players for it than non-GW games.. How many times have you looked at alternative wargames and thought, "Wow that looks cool. I'd love to try it but I don't know anyone who'd play locally" and that about sums it up. It doesn't help that when people do take up the flag for those other games, all of their hardwork to establish a community can be killed by nothing more than the latest edition of 40k sweeping up all the buzz for months and leaving the perception the other game is "dead locally." I think this is also why historicals tend to buck the trend, because Shermans and Tigers and Napoleon's Imperial Guard were real things and any company - whether it's got a turnover of millions or is literally a guy casting in his garage - can make models for them and therefore people/communities tend to be very flexible about rulesets, far more than what you see in fantasy and sci-fi communities. A Panzer IV is a Panzer IV, the only difference is scale and most systems are pretty agnostic about it for that reason, but there's only one IP an Intercessor Marine comes from. Wargaming isn't cheap - and no I don't want to hear any "hurr there are more expensive hobbies" - so it's understandable people don't want to feel like they're wasting money or that their chosen game could go over the edge at any moment. I think that's why there's so much excitement for The Old World even though if you talk to just about anybody who isn't welded to Games Workshop would tell you Mantic/Kings of War is a far better written game than anything GW will make; because ultimately TOR is likely going to ensure there's an active, consistent community by virtue of being a GW game.

I'd be surprised if LVO doesn't have a preview just because there's still a lot of the Eldar stuff to show off - a lot of which has been Potato Cam leaked now anyway. The Defence of the North stuff for MESBG still needs fully showing off and it'd be weird to wait until March, although they've had impromptu reveals of those at LotR events before so that's not a given for LVO. Underworlds is presumably due another Warband between now and March too.

Nothing AoS next week. Well, there's the Blood Bowl Rat Ogre if you wanted to convert I guess?

GW work... strangely, or should I say inconsistently. I don't think Tome Celestial is necessarily indicative of a Battletome not coming for a while. If you said "Lumineth will get their second Battletome in eight months" in June 2020 you'd probably have been laughed out of the thread.

I remember when there was an obvious typo for Neophyte Hybrids in 40k being something stupid like 120pts each and a lot of tournaments still insisted on them being run RAW. Don't hold your breath.

The 'dex has pretty much been entirely leaked as here's already physical copies out in the wild, presumably for influencers to go through so I'd be shocked if the Tau 'dex isn't going up to pre-order next Saturday.

So what's the expectation of Battletome reveals? Shown off during the week or at the LVO on the 28th?

All I can think is they didn't want to have to print out a separate card/page of Prayers and he'll get the keyword in the actual Battletome?

What makes it so frustrating is that in an army with literally 3 units, they still can't get the internal balance right and actually made it somehow worse. This isn't Codex: Space Marines with it's 464326432632 different units where you expect some slipup. It's not like Aurics, Vulkites and Berzerkers were all jockeying for first place. HGB were by far the most obvious option throughout 2.0 and the only real reason not to spam them was 1) Real-world cost and 2) Because you actually wanted a tiny bit of visual diversity. If HBG got nerfed into the dirt and everything else got slightly worse I could kind of see where they were aiming from. I mean I'd still be upset, but you kind of expect it. But whilst nerfed, HBG actually made it out of these Warscrolls better than everybody else. I mean what? "But they might change the Warscrolls, they might be different in the Battletome!" It feels like they've done too much work going over the cards to just be a copy/paste job. Too many little things have been tweaked. "But what about the allegiance abilities." That didn't stop Hedonites from being D-tier come the launch of their Battletome. Whilst I hope I'm wrong and this is more of a Soulblight situation, it's not as if there's much reason to be confident in GW's writing. Also we don't actually know if a Battletome is coming yet, or when. This isn't a Shadow Throne situation when both were announced at the same time despite delays. It seems highly likely of course, but the lack of any news is a bit odd. The only thing my gut tells me will be changed is the Flamekeeper lacking the <Priest> keyword in the boxset is because GW didn't want to have to print out a list of his Prayers to put in the box and he might have it in the actual Battletome, albeit at a higher price.

Clearly all of the old stuff is being made worse because they're going to release a giant wave of new stuff that will be brokenly OP. Right? Right...?

The whole thing definitely screams the writer overestimating the impact of the Throwing Axes buff. Flamekeeper at 80 might see him slide into some lists as a, "well I don't have anything else to take" option but him not being a Priest is really baffling just thematically. Aurics were undeniably nerfed and I genuinely don't know why. I could see the writer panicking that in a Monster-themed meta they didn't want a unit to very specifically benefit against Monsters or something? Maybe it'll become a Lofnir gimmick in the new Battletome. As for why they lost Sworn Protector... I got nothing because even in the fluff they're... well, sworn protectors. Still being 4+ to hit is also a pity. There's pretty much no reason to take them now unless you want a bit more visual diversity. Vulkites were obviously dominating the meta and clearly needed the Dual Handaxe nerf. Slingshields just giving a 4+ Save is obviously better than the convoluted "stay still and get +1 to melee attack Saves" but I don't think it was worth a 10pt increase.

Flamekeeper - 80pts Auric Hearthguard - 120pts (-5) Hearthguard Berzerkers - 135pts (+10) Dual Handaxe Vulkites - 160 Slingshield Vulkites - 170 (+10)

Namarti Reavers don't have Fire options anymore, 3+ Hit and Wound are just built in. +1 to hit when in within 9" of what you're shooting at but lost the Run re-roll. Allopexes have 3" coherency instead of 1". Thrallmaster - 110pts Allopexes - 165pts (+40) Thralls - 130pts (+10) Reavers - 170pts (+55) I don't play Idoneth so someone'll have to spot any other changes there.

Throwing Axes went to 4+ to hit and wound across the board. Aurics lost Sworn Protectors and +1 Damage against Monsters. +1 Bravery. Speed reduction is now just -1 instead of halved (lol). Hearthguard Berzerkers' lost their permanent 6++ and now just get a flat 4++ if a FS Hero is wholly within 9" of the unit. Vulkites are now two separate entries for Dual Handaxes/Slingshields which explains the 9th Warscroll. Dual Handaxes lost the reroll to hit, instead they get +1 to hit on the charge. Slingshields now just grant a flat 4+ Save. Flamekeeper is a Totem but not a Priest. Points Flamekeeper - 80pts Auric Hearthguard - 120pts (-5) Hearthguard Berzerkers - 135pts (+10) Dual Handaxe Vulkites - 160 Slingshield Vulkites - 170 (+10)

No Man Reads Book yet, but did nab pictures off BoLS. Changes Flamekeeper is a Totem but not a Priest. No other abilities but what we saw before. Throwing Axes went to 4+ to hit and wound. Aurics lost Sworn Protectors and no more +1 Damage against Monsters. Gained +1 Bravery. The movement debuff is now -1" instead of halved (lol). Hearthguard Berzerkers' lost their permanent 6++ and now just get a flat 4++ if a FS Hero is wholly within 9" of the unit. Vulkites are now two separate entries for Dual Handaxes/Slingshields which explains the 9th Warscroll. Dual Handaxes lost the reroll to hit, instead they get +1 to hit on the charge. Slingshields go to a 4+ save but are down to 1 Attack. Namarti Reavers don't have Fire options anymore, 3+ Hit and Wound are just built in. +1 to hit when in within 9" but lost the Run re-roll. Allopexes have 3" coherency instead of 1". I don't play Idoneth so someone'll have to spot any other changes there. Points Flamekeeper - 80pts Auric Hearthguard - 120pts (-5) Hearthguard Berzerkers - 135pts (+10) Dual Handaxe Vulkites - 160 Slingshield Vulkites - 170 (+10) Thrallmaster - 110pts Allopexes - 165pts (+40) Thralls - 130pts (+10) Reavers - 170pts (+55)

Problem is it's so situational. You need to lose x5 two-wound models and then have your HGB in a situation where they can benefit from the counter-charge. At that point, they've probably already taken the long way around or have already been charged themselves. The Flamekeeper is likely worse on Pizza Oven duty because his ability wants him to be in the thick of it to absorb the deaths.

If I take a huff of Copium(tm), it might be he has a personal Prayer in addition to his gimmick that makes him more viable. *Huffs again*

I only see him getting taken if Vulkite spam makes it's return from 1.0, since there might be enough bodies around to make his buff pop off enough. But he's probably just going to run into the same problem as the Runemaster. "Are his buff(s) better than Deep Strike and Reroll Wounds? No. Runesmiter it is. " Even if he's cheap, he's so tied to sitting among us units that he won't be manning the Pizza Oven either. At least he's generic enough looking you can proxy him as a Runesmiter/Runemaster I suppose?

Warhammer Community didn't even get his name right in the article title. That about sums things up I think. Edit: They changed it.

Fyreslayers shouldn't really be dying in droves, so getting to that 6 in the first place is probably an already bad sign for your plans. It doesn't really seem like you'd be getting those 6's all that often without being in a position where you don't have units with enough strength left to properly take advantage of things like the Charge. I only really see Grimnir's Vengeance being taken most of the time. The 'charge right away' is alright, but by the time you've got 6 points the combats are probably already joined anyway.

Flamekeeper article's up. Not sure about him if this is his only gimmick. Fyreslayers shouldn't really be dying in droves,