RuneBrush

+++ MOD HAT +++ Think it could be time to take a deep breath before posting folks. Feels like the conversation is veering down the "less friendly" route. Always worth remembering that everybody is entitled to their own opinion even if it differs from your own. It's perfectly acceptable to agree to disagree on a subject. AoS is great because it's an all encompassing hobby that you can play in multiple ways, but this can result in people not agreeing on subjective matters like balance.

The Space Marine release schedule was messed up due to the pandemic. Under normal circumstances the Codex & new models would have come out over a couple of weeks.

Tbh, me and my brother have been talking about new Mortarch kits for a while and we weren't convinced due to the age of the models and that it would need LoN to be pretty much replaced. However I'd rule nothing out! From a background perspective nothing in Death is ever permanently destroyed - even Nagash being smashed by Archaeon basically created himself a new body over time, so there's no reason why we couldn't simply see new mortarch kits with newly created "Mega Abyssals" - the bonereapers have the technology afterall. It would also allow a bit more personalisation, I could see Nagadron being more feline and sleek and Ashigaroth being a lot more like a creature of the dark - plus it would give more options for a striking army centrepiece. I could see that over time we're going to see LoN be slowly but surely replaced with separate battletomes. Hopefully we'll still have that central "core" of skeletons, zombies and chainrasp but then the options will vary for each mortarch. It will also mean we'll start to see things like Grimghast only really appearing in Nighthaunt armies.

I've decided to be controversial and answer no 😁 My long answer (only 2 weeks after the question was posted) is that I absolutely agree with most of what's been said. Personally the mortal wound mechanic itself is fantastic - the proliferation of them isn't. The knock on is that many units now have some kind of ignore damage roll to counteract that proliferation - "naked duardin, aelf, oruk? Let's give them an ignore damage mechanic!" Certainly agree that mortal wounds really should be limited to heroes and mainly magical abilities. If I could have a magic wand, I'd love to see more things interact with rend e.g. the first round of combat a berserker improves the rend by -1. The problem with this is that it complicates the attack phase especially if its attached to the hit roll (you have to extract those dice into two pools). Attaching it to the wound roll would simplify this but would make some units really poor (spirit hosts would be pretty lack lustre). I also think a 40k system where models have two armour saves (one modifiable and one that isn't and you can only pick one for each attack) would add a lot more nuance with this type of mechanic. This could also add to the survivability of those low wound models - a heavily armoured Chaos Lord may have a 3+/5+ to represent his heavy armour and blessing from his god - mystic shield could simply grant a -/5+save roll.

Absolutely this. Ultimately if you didn't have a minority out in the community who leaked rules or tried to profit off GW's designs we'd likely still be in a situation where units would appear in books before they actually appeared physically. What I will say to this is that this isn't specific to GW. It's pretty common practice to keep future releases & special offers secret until you release them. Ultimately GW (and all businesses) want you to spend the maximum amount of money with them - it's a win win solution from a business perspective. You either buy the first release and not the second or you buy both 🤷‍♂️

I think that GW have really suffered due to numerous external (and some internal) factors, from the pandemic to shipping issues & trade deals. I can remember way back that there was a hope to be able to release "one off" models. So completely out of the blue we get a brand new character for an army. Where things have gone awry is that the release schedule is completely up the swanny so we're getting those models appear within less than a year of the relevant army release. That said, even before the pandemic there were a few questionable decisions made behind the scenes and I've had a feeling for a while that the people planning the release schedule aren't actually gamers. As you say it's really not on to have an army basically re-released within a year of it's initial launch.

Yup, the pause in releases is fairly welcome. Sadly I've not gained much additional time to hobby over the past year yet I appear to have gained additional hobby to do 🤣 I know one thing my local group has found over the years is that if you collect more than one system the release schedule is pretty relentless. One rumour I did hear is that GW are in the process of implementing a new ERP system (in simple terms a warehousing system that handles stuff like stock control) and there were a few grots in the gears which resulted in some third parties not getting their preorders on time last week. That combined with this month gap could suggest their new East Midlands Gateway warehouse may be coming online

OK, bit of an update having read a bit more of the rules. First off I don't think running a game with anything other than 4 characters will work. The whole game mechanics are based upon 4 unique characters being played and I think you'll be fighting with the rules quite frequently. That's not to say it isn't possible, but I'd likely want to play an entire campaign before I attempted to make such drastic changes. What you're suggesting could work although it does risk skewing a campaign a bit. What you have is 4 different missions (Journeys). 3 of these are "normal" journeys that you complete to either lower influence/fear or gain realmstone and gear. The other is a Decapitation Journey where you basically hunt after one of the main protagonists. These Decapitation Journeys also act as a level gating system, so until you've completed the level 1 Deliverance Journey "Fell Guardian" characters cannot gain any experience beyond level 1. The enemy groups on the table are always based off the highest character level, so if you have a level 1 in a party with a level 3 you're going to face 4 bat swarms instead of 3 - however you may also face Radukar instead of a Kosargi... Having the party within a level of each other is going to be pretty key to ensuring the lower level characters don't get wiped out - this actually leads into my last point that there is a rule that once 5 characters have died the game is over... Basically each character can only be played once in a campaign and there are only 8 characters (well 9 if you include the chap from the novel). Your idea of two characters carrying the rest of the party I'm not convinced will work because you need everyone pulling weight to complete journeys - they actually look like a challenge. That said having not played any games it may be possible. What I'd suggest instead is that you simply don't chose to complete the Decapitation Journey until all the characters have hit that pre-requisite level - so you and your wife's characters will simply not gain any experience whilst you're waiting for your friends characters to catch up. That should ensure that the difficulty of the journeys won't outpace people who play less often 😊 There isn't a healer class (unlike classic quest) because all characters are able to make recuperate actions. I'd say that having a Stalwart character in the group is fairly essential - these are your tank class who have a number of damage mitigation mechanisms in place once they start levelling up and start off with a good defence & vitality roll Hope that makes sense?

Cursed City uses the highest character level to work out how many enemies are placed on the board, so character level disparity will ultimately make quite a bit of difference if you're looking at more than a couple of levels different. Nothing in the box caters for more than 4 characters, however you could quite easily just increase the number of enemies generated by +25% for each character. You do have two issues in doing this for a party of 7 - firstly you would need to increase the number of miniatures you have available - so for 7 characters you'd want 21 skeletons for example (12 + 3 x 25%). That's not too difficult to do if you have a second box available, but the second issue is that the board sections will restrict how many models you can actually place. Less models in play will give the party a much easier time. If models are being placed on a board section that contains heroes then there's a risk of filling up the board and ending up inflicting 2 damage onto heroes as you try to place an enemy in their square. You would need to keep an eye out that one person doesn't end up killing too many things and gaining more than their fair share of inspiration points. Another issue that would arise is that larger parties are going to be loot starved because many of the quests use a preset number of mysterious objectives. Personally I would suggest you and your wife playing a standalone campaign with 2 characters each (involving nobody else), then running a second (and possibly third) campaign using different characters (but just one each) to cater for playing with your friends. Length of campaign will vary wildly because you have a choice of quests to go on each time you play. There's nothing stopping one of you taking a "GM" style roll either and being the person who moves the enemy around. If you're only playing with a couple of friends they could take over one of the characters you and your wife has been playing too.

The answer you don't want to hear is no - or at least not without quite a bit of work. As Sharkbelly says the "success roll" mechanic in Cursed City uses D6, D8 & D12 dice that have some single pip and some double pip on faces to determine if something has succeeded or critically succeeded (each dice shape has a different colour). Enemies have an AI system where you roll to see what they do each activation. Heroes also level up between games, gaining additional abilities which wouldn't translate directly onto Silver Tower heroes. You probably could use Cursed City heroes in Silver Tower although anything that modifies the success roll would require quite a bit of thought to get it working correctly as +1 to a D6 doesn't translate to +1 to a D8 Board sections are board sections in truth! No reason you couldn't play Cursed City within a Silver Tower or Silver Tower within the Cursed City or some Tzeentchian hybrid monstrosity 😁

I'm fortunate in that I've got my copy of the game now and have been reading through the rules and putting models together (the bats require the most amount of tidying up due to tiny claws and wings). Myself and a group of friends intend to try and play some games over Zoom at some point (current plan is the bank holiday weekend), so my comments are based upon theoretical rather than practical. The enemy spawns appear to vary depending upon the mission/quest you're undertaking. For The Hunt quests they spawn at a Lychgate furthest away from the player party for example. Kiting enemies isn't going to be easy because the board sections aren't particularly large! My biggest observation is that the player party really needs to work together rather than trying to run solo. The rules are written so that enemies favour the closest attackable target, so some coordination is required to make sure that ranged characters keep some distance and tanks are kept going. Initial read through makes it feel a lot more like an rpg rather than a traditional dungeon bash where communication is key to a good game. I'm not sure what reviews you've seen/read, what I will say is that the game appears to be written so that it's not over in a couple of sessions. Equipment doesn't drop in the same way as if you were playing a computer game or past versions of quest and is meant to feel like a bit of an achievement. It also requires the assistance of the whole party because one player might not gather enough realmstone on their own for an upgrade (and excess realmstone is lost between adventures). Once I get some full games in, I'm sure I'll have a better idea on how it works out. What I will say is that there's nothing stopping you house ruling things to make the game a bit more interesting (such as your stun resistance idea). I did this loads in classic quest and would be very surprised if it's not something that's done in this version too. Instant death is one that I'm currently not sure about in truth - I much prefer the idea that characters receive lasting injuries that slow them or some such so that players can continue using their favourite.

Bit late to the party with my comment here (sorry). The painting guides are purposely basic because they assume the reader is brand new to the hobby and only owns the items that have come through the magazine. As more paints are added, they revisit older models - so once you get Reikland Fleshshade they show you how to wash all that gold you've done and so on. I'd say the guides we're getting now are on par with the current WHTV videos. If you use them your army won't set the world alight, but you will have a very solid tabletop army there. Although the actual structure of the 'magazine' is lacking a bit, once built up it's a pretty reasonable collection of lore and background covering every faction within AoS - that includes newer factions like Lumineth and Mega Gargants too. The how to play section is pretty basic if I'm honest - however I've been playing AoS since pretty much when it landed and am certainly not the target audience. I'd say that an average teenager would be able to pick AoS really easily reading through the how to play. I actually quite like the battleplans that have been included. Many of them are predefined scenarios that list the miniatures to play with and the set up of scenery - in all honesty I'm actually looking forward to playing some of these when the circumstances allow as quick 30 minute games with minimal set up really appeals! If you're an existing player, the magazine isn't going to excite a massive amount from a gaming perspective, it's not really intended for us though. I've had a subscription from day one, so am into issue 60+ and collectively I've a ring binder full of faction lore, notable battles and named characters - certainly things in there that I don't know and I consider myself pretty well invested in the hobby. The miniatures are certainly the reason for buying though, giving a massive saving throughout. It is a massive commitment though, with 80 issues the amount of plastic that I've got so far is pretty intimidating . Once MR is complete I'll likely give away the how to play section to a friend with children who want to get into the hobby and go through the mass of plastic to work out what I want to keep and sell - it's certainly given me more than I could ever paint up (plus you have a new 40k version coming out in September)

+++ MOD HAT +++ Back on track folks rather than going off on tangents about sculpted armour

Sorry, didn't spot you'd replied! Confirmation was made during the New Years Open Day last year. In the AoS seminar, the design team were asked about involvement with The Old World and the answer given was that they know the same (possibly even less) than us and they're looking forward to it too. This was backed up by fact some of them were lurking at the back of the hall when Specialist Games did their seminar 😊. To my eternal annoyance I didn't even think about asking about scale until I was on my way home.

We're unlikely to see this happen. It's been confirmed that the main AoS studio don't have any knowledge on what's being done in The Old World, so the likelihood of having joint releases is super low. Humbly going to disagree with this one. With the right rule set the actual scale of your miniatures is secondary. You could very easily run a system which is 10mm and 25mm - one uses cm for measuring and the other uses inches.

As a completely random and off the cuff question - if you could have one brand new miniature or unit designed for an AoS army, what would it be? Do you want to see a vampire riding a giant bat? A unit of seahorse riding Idoneth? A Duardin Cogfort? Brand new ideas for existing armies please!

+++ MOD HAT +++ Right, time to nudge this thread back on target. Please can we move back onto rumours/reveals and associated discussion folks.

Read this and couldn't help but say, 3 years is a drop in the ocean... I can remember I had to wait 3 editions of 40k for a Space Wolves Codex 😉 I do agree though, I'd love Khorne to get a bit of attention - nice centrepiece model that's not a bloodthirster and make them actually scary on the tabletop

I think some of the reason behind Fyreslayers is that for years people had been crying out for a full Trollslayer army (in plastic) for WHFB. They arrived in the tumultuous early stages of the mortal realms being born and people didn't really know what was going on, let alone what to do with a load of half naked duardin who hammered runes into their flesh. Going a little off tangent, I'd love to see smaller games become more popular so that some of the forces with smaller ranges actually get to see the field a bit more. Of course that would also need a bit of work as I don't think all battletomes scale very well to cater for games that aren't at the 2k size)

+++ MOD HAT +++ Can I please remind everybody that we have a no leaked picture policy on TGA as per our Forum Rules. I've just spent far too long tidying this up... For new members who haven't read them or older members who need a reminder, here are those rules:

Largely think similar to many of you. I think the dead part of the reveal is going to be a Deadwalker update, so zombies etc. It would be amazing to have vampires there too as they did with one of the old Vampire Count Warhammer Armies books (Vlad?), but personally I'd rather have an entire Soulblight update so you can actually run a proper vampire contingent to an army. This weekend may only be an Underworlds/Warcry warband though. Divine I do think Warhammer Quest is going to be redone at some point, I'm not convinced that we'll get that revealed this weekend though.

+++ MOD HAT +++ Think we've veered pretty substantially off track now folks (the discussion on high vs low fantasy could actually go on for years). Not necessarily convinced there's much more discussion left to be had on the original subject either. I have noticed a number of newer members contributing to this thread too, which is great! Just incase you've not read it, here's a link to our TGA and You post where we clarify the base rules we expect members to follow such as being pleasant to other members etc.

All the VAT rules are in a bit of a state of flux and many changed at the end of December. When posting something to outside the UK a company now appears to be allowed to declare it zero VAT. This is something most third-parties have never had to deal with because GW's T&C prevents them selling outside the EU I'm not sure how GW is going to be handling it. It may be they can use distribution centres so that they charge at the local tax rate rather than it being a customs tax? I'm sure I read they have something in N. Ireland which they may be using to facilitate this?

Ouch, that's pretty rough! Have seen this before where companies basically pretend to have a presence in another country with a fancy website and charging the local currency, but it just gets shipped direct from wherever in the world they are. Lol, that's not necessarily a bad thing 😂 I stopped when I discovered I had so much Arcadia Quest & Rivet Wars that it wouldn't even fit under the spare bed...

Agreed. There's so many moving parts, knowledge of the actual legislation, the technical part of doing it on the website and like you say there's additional paperwork to do, which varies depending on how orders are being sent. I'm fairly sure that things will settle down, but unlikely to get there for a little bit.