Lucentia

A lot of the elven cavalry would probably work so long as their fancy pants fit in the seeker saddles. Personally I've been using some converted centaur style hellstriders using the sisters of the thorn kit which fit the bill if you're looking for a more sleek/less spiky aesthetic.

If DoK and Slaanesh are both to receive new models in the coming year that seems like a prime candidate for a dual-army box to me, could be just a new hero for each, or something more like Feast of Bones where we get new Slaanesh mortals for one half, or whatever.

And a Sister of Slaughter. Other than being a pot of gore none of the other design elements really match up with any of the current DoK range, as much as I would love for some new models in that regard! The support brackets being so similar to Syll'Eske's back vanes swing it towards Slaanesh for me, but I wonder if it might be a 40k thing? Fulgrim is presumably a pretty likely candidate for a model release, perhaps alongside some other themed emperor's children kits, I could see a gory incense burner like that as some sort of basing detail on a large model.

From the card art (which is not always accurate, granted) we have seen a Blood Stalker, Blood Sister, Sister of Slaughter, and two Witch Aelves on one card, another card shows a Witch Aelf with a goblet of blood, so I'd guess the hero will be a Hag Queen rather than a medusa.

They've said they're showing something for Underworlds at Adepticon, which basically has to be the DoK warband at this point, unless it's a curveball of some kind.

It's been a while, painted warbands thread, I wasn't sure if I was going to jump into Beastgrave or not, as I haven't had that much time to play in the other two seasons, but then someone got me the core box for my birthday last year so the decision was made for me! Here's some warbands:

I would note that a slaughter master conversion doesn't necessarily have to have a cauldron, anything suitably gory and magical would do the trick, I've seen people use elements of the corpse cart kit, for instance.

I haven't played against them yet, but I agree with your napkin assessment, we're probably also one of the few armies that can reliably grind through Horror tarpits with hero phase activation and combat buffs. The main concern would be just how much ranged offense they can kick out with Flamers, even though Hagg Nar defense I don't think it would be that tricky for them to just remove any units which don't have Blessing of Khaine up.

If I remember correctly the Knights didn't get a codex of their own until the other kits were released though, right? They were just available to imperial factions as a stand-alone piece before that?

Whilst I don't have specific rules in mind it would be neat if the Daughters of Khaine versions could be cast as either prayers or spells, with the spell effects being basically empowered versions of the prayers (that can be dispelled/unbound as normal) to fit the army theme of a religious cult controlled through shadowy magic.

Depends on the wording of the rule, by default a model can only make a pile-in move when it is within 3" of an enemy model (or if it made a charge move in the same turn) no matter how long it's pile-in movement distance might be. However a lot (almost all) of the units/rules which allow for a longer pile-in move will also say something like, 'This unit may be selected to make a pile-in move when within 6" of an enemy unit, and may move up to 6" when it does so,' or similar, which would overrule the default 3" rule. So it does depend on the specific unit in question strictly speaking, but almost all of them have an exception of this kind allowing them to pile in at 6".

I've run 10 Lifetakers before, mostly as a reaction to Skaven coming out and needing something fast and fairly cheap that can dip in and wipe out a chaff screen where necessary. Mostly they're fine to start on the board and just use their strong movement to get in, a lot of the time opponents will neglect to target them even if they're sat at the front, but with Witchbrew, Mindrazor and Catechism they can put in some work, they only issue is they don't do much work at all without all of those buffs! Unfortunately they are a little unreliable, you can't always get them where you really want them with their big bases and minimal attacks, but when everything goes right and they swoop in, take out a screen, bounce out their 6" and clog up an entire flank, it's good stuff!

Looks similar to the shoulder guard of the Thundertusk to me, which also uses re-purposed shields from other factions.

It is stackable, yes, and can be used to some good effect, though even en masse frostsabre attacks aren't very reliable (especially with their base size and the CA range restriction).

I haven't played against them, but I've played with them. Be aware when planning out Mindrazor plays that anything with the Ogor keyword gets +2 Bravery whilst within 3" of an enemy model, so against a lot of stuff you won't be able to get the bonus damage (which might prove troublesome given the number of wounds you have to chew through!) If you can fight on your terms it's not an army with a lot of good armour saves, so traditional weight of attacks should work, but they can be quite fast (averaging an 8" move on most actual Ogor models). Stonehorns function as both relatively quick combat monsters and one of the more durable pieces in the book (3+/5++ often with ethereal), and they count as 10 models for stealing objectives, also be aware that one of the sub-factions adds a CA which lets monsters fight at their top profile regardless of wound count.) Erm, probably most competitive Ogor lists will be using an ambushing hunter + cats in some capacity, obviously watch your backfield objectives, but also note that the cats get +3 to charge and a stackable CA gives them +1A each, their attacks aren't incredible, but enough to take out an unprotected Hag Queen.

Hah, I did a similar thing for my own vortex! (It also works well with my Daughters of Khaine scheme...) And sitting the pot on a base like that looks great!

I feel like you'll hit diminishing returns pretty quick mind, LoC are hardly combat or shooting powerhouses, and you can't cast the same spell twice (plus they are summoned after the hero phase.) Of course the new book may feature enough good spells or other supplementary rules to juice them up.

Yeah, just the 6 Khainite prayers are limited to once per turn, you can throw out Rune/Word of Khaine or the avatar awakening as much as you want (though, granted, for the most part you won't need or want to!)

That would be a decent change, certainly. Though because they always activate from round 3 onwards you can deploy them in cover for a 2+ save (with Blood Shield) and use them to protect your backfield in the late game even if you don't get the activation prayer off when you need it. And if I recall you can pray to activate them multiple times per turn I think? So it's not so bad.

The points changes on under-used units aren't unwelcome, but it's still basically a choice between an Avatar or a Medusa, or Blood Stalkers over 10 more infantry bodies. But still, at 140 I'll toss an Avatar into a for funsies list, it's an entertaining piece in that sort of format.

They are the same size bases, yes, if you are happy using Gruntas then Mournfang are very similar, though there are fewer buffs that can be stacked onto them so you ideally want more models in attacking range to actually do the damage you need.

Hah, I find four mounfang unwieldy in a lot of cases, eight would be quite something to see! You could charge the entire enemy force with one unit I guess... I feel like mournfang should have their own interaction with the mawtribe battletraits, counting as 3-4 models on objectives, or causing mortals on a 5+ instead of a 6+ (or even 4+ from a unit of four or more) or something, they're in a weird middle space at present where I feel the model isn't quite represented by the rules.

Oh, the core book, sorry. The new book I dont know for sure, reprinted stats for the non-chaos factions I think they've mentioned? I'd expect the stats for the chaos bands to remain bundled with the models.

The warcry book does not contain the stat blocks or ability tables for any of the war bands, you would still need to pick up one of the warcry branded warband boxes to get those cards in order to play.

You can mix them just fine, most of the buffs in the book can be applied to either BCR or Gutbusters, the restrictions tend to fall in terms of unit type rather than faction keyword. The Frostlord on Stonehorn is a solid combat monster that can slot into most lists that can spare the points, the various Thundertusks I would not personally consider to be that valuable right now, but that may change with points adjustments down the line. Mournfang are interesting as their damage output can be quite weak, especially if they don't get the charge, but they are faster than infantry ogors, and I find two model squads with Ironfists quite a valuable tool at times.