Arkanaut Admiral

I really hope that we’re getting a 2.0 book. Also, I’ve figured out a way for Overlords to have a realistic summoning mechanic. I got the idea from a documentary about trawlermen in their boats, if you can believe that. The idea that overlord ships are about, following leads and tailing other ships in the hope of getting in on the action, and the spoils. Anyway, you can earn points every turn for each overlord character, frigate and ironclad you have on the board (admirals and ironclads earn more), plus some extra points for having your units in enemy territory or having enemy units in your territory. These points can then be used to buy units from a set menu. X points buy you a gunhauler, Y points buys you a frigate with either 10 arkanauts, 5 thunderers, 3 skywardens or 3 endrinriggers onboard, and Z points buys you an ironclad with 10 arkanauts, 1 other overlord unit (either 5 thunderers, 3 skywardens or 3 endrinriggers) and 1 character onboard. These reinforcements arrive embarked upon their ship within 6” of a board edge and 9” away from enemy units.

I've heard this rumor doing the rounds, that old elves and dwarfs are going, but I don't believe it for one second. There's way too much potential (and stock) to just 'throw them away'. And what about the GHB entries too?

Wardancers could be brought back in some capacity as a new unit. As could the rest, in some shape or form. If they want to make them more "high fantasy" than what went before, they could have units riding insects. Smaller versions of the Wardroth beetle and so forth. I can see it now; the two merged back together, with some new plastics (all finecast replaced with plastics, endless spells), with the current Sylvaneth and Wanderer allegiance abilities combined together, with command traits, artifact lists and spells for specific character types. In a way, think of Chaos books and how they split things between mortal and demon units.

Thank Valaya! This is excellent news actually. Not only will they stay as a stand alone faction, but they're getting their warmachines back! I was convinced the latter would never happen, but here we are! Question is, it the Dispossessed keyword replacing Ironweld Arsenal, or is it simply being added to their warscroll? I would hope it's the latter.

Is that credible, the rumours behind a big LoN style book? Because I’ll be honest...I don’t like it. 😕

Here’s a question; would you guys prefer to have a single Skaven super book, or for each of the clans to get their own book (with the master clan added on in each case) instead? If you went with separate clan books, I worked out that chaos could then match order for number of possible battletomes (11 each).

I love the Kharadron Code, but I'm wondering if it's time to rethink how it works? Like Honour Is Everything becomes a flat reroll for to hit and to wound rolls of 1 against heros and monsters for all units (because look out sir is a thing now). And footnotes become once per turn rather than once per game? Also, I'm one of those players who thinks that the named skyports should have fixed footnotes, to make taking your own skyport a more attractive option.

Quick question; I’m doing the rounds trying to find out what to do with the old aelf models, and I was wondering, are there any aelve units you could see sitting nicely in a free people’s book? Because although free peoples should be 98% human, I’m sure there’s room for some aelves and duardin? Looking through the range, I could see the swift hawk agents working well under the free peoples banner. The chariots and skycutters can be the messengers, but the shadow warriors could be like a sort of ‘special forces’ unit, being all ranger like and so on. And then there’s the assassin, who could be like a sort of inquisitional enforcer, hunting down and rooting out chaos and necromancers. What about the others?

Ah, so you support putting them back together under one battletome eh? That’s great to hear! It doesn’t have to be a recon of fluff. In fact it could even help reinforce it! Yes, the Everqueen and the Sylvaneth are still mad as hell with the Aelves for chickening out. She still can’t bare to let them back in. But, faced with death, destruction and chaos, and with some mediation with the other gods of order, she could agree to let them work at redemption. Maybe they can introduce a new named hero who made the plea to the everqueen personally and is the one overseeing the whole operation. A sort of aelf ‘knight’ on a quest from their ‘lady’. So the Wanderers go around fighting chaos, planting waystones and defending the forests in the hope of getting back into their good books. It may never happen, but they’re allowed to try. And merging the two together would be so easy. Literally just add them together; Sylvaneth keep all of their abilities, Wanderers keep all of their abilities from the GHB. Add endless spells, maybe replace a few finecast minis with plastics, and job’s a good one! If they did this, I can see AoS ending up with 5 very distinct aelf factions; the light aelves, the shadow aelves, these wood aelves, the sea aelves and the snake aelves. That’s surely a good thing yes?

Can I ask a couple of questions? First, what’s the general ‘lore’ of the wanderers? And second, what are the odds that they could rejoin the Sylvaneth in a joint battletome in future? One similar to the Gloomspite Gitz (ironically), split between wanderer and Sylvaneth in a manner similar to the Moonclan and spiderfang? Is it feasible?

Duardin Chariots then?

If you want the Duardin to have movement again, bring back Miners. Which could be called Pioneers or something else more trademark friendly: pioneers.pdf

I think we need to think outside the box for duardin. Look at the Middle Earth dwarves for example; big iron chariots pulled by big angry rams. AoS could take something like that and run to the hills with it! I wouldn’t advocate dwarf cavalry, but dwarf chariots.....maybe?

In the Old World, the Dwarves managed to build all their magnificent halls without steam power. In AoS, the Duardin could take this idea and run to the hills with it. Runic magic, ancestor spirits, golems etc. Again, leave the steam engines and guns for the Overlords and the Ironweld Arsenal. Let the Dispossessed stay traditional. @Dammaz You and I think alike! The Dispossessed can be the ‘Valaya’ faction of the dwarves. Yeah, it’s all coming together!

This is actually fantastic! Hear me out; let the Overlords and those Duardin working with the humans have all the guns etc. The stand alone Khazalid/Khazukan Kingdom dwarves can return to good old fashioned weaponary and runic magic. Crossbows, throwing axes and grudge throwers etc. Something to distinguish them, so they aren’t just a shorter, hairier version of the free guild. Although I’ve not read much of the fluff (sorry 😞) so I don’t know how much of a good idea this is.

What are the odds that the duardin ironweld units will be grouped with the dispossessed again come a future Battletome?

Woah I’ve been out of the loop. But I just realised today, that with some rethinking, the hammerer/longbeard kit could in theory provide for 3 units; warriors, longbeards and hammerers. If you used the hammerer bodies with the sheilds and hand weapons, or stuck with the great axes, they’d happily stand in for warriors yes? I’m just thinking that the older warrior kits are maybe a bit past it, and the Viking look is beat out too. I’ve been tempted to do this myself for a long time btw. Oh, and the theoretical ‘new thorgrim’ model? Make his throne bearers exact doubles of hammerers too.

It seems like every faction needs a sort of national hero (the Loonking for the grots for example) . I guess that means that naturally we need one. A king looking to rebuild the khazild empire and avenge all the grudges.

Yes exactly! That’s the type of thing we need for sure!

I didn’t know that they were flamethrowers either. That’s amazing! I was thinking about future dwarf kits. Those bucket helmets that the ironbreakers/irondrakes/hammerers have are the future aren’t they? I could see them replacing the pointy Viking style ones. Also, quick question about the hammerer longbeard kit; the great hammers fit onto the long beard bodies don’t they? I’ve often wondered what hammerers would look like with long beards, and what warriors would look like with bucket helmets.

I see a bad moon on the way!

I honestly still can't decide if the older dwarf plastics need retired or not. They are serviceable, with all options available, but I'm wondering if the viking dwarf look is a bit played out by now. Call me 50/50. If they aren't retired, they need to bump the sets up to 20 models for sure. Actually, if they did that, and returned the Anvil Of Doom, a Lord on a big chair, and a few other units, we'd be battletome ready! And the dwarven units of the Ironweld Arsenal? Return them to us as well?

I could be here all night explaining why the Overlords are in poor form. And yeah, Dwarves don’t do magic in the traditional sense, but what I envisioned is navigators using new advances in their tech to better manipulate the aether in the wake of the necroquake.

If I can jump in with some suggestions? This is what the Overlords could have for a themed terrain piece. A steam punk dwarven version of it at any rate. After all, I'm sure that those ships need to land at some point... Another point, I think it is time that we bit the bullet and allowed Overlords to use magic. That is to say, the Navigator could use magic. This is an idea I've discussed with my friends. If a navigator can manipulate the Aethergold in the air to block enemy magic, why can't he manipulate it to trigger magical effects? Using science to achieve the same ends as a wizard? Look at the Lore Of Metal for inspiration, with celestial effects too (Aethernadoes!) It's ironic I know, and it requires a massive rethink of everything we know about dwarves, but at the moment, the KO are bottom tier and deprived of two of the now key aspects of the game; terrain and endless spells, and that's not fair. Plus, the poor neglected Navigator might get a shoe in now if he's a 'Wizard'.

What do we think is the future of the current dispossessed kits? I can see the longboard/hammerer kit and ironbreaker/irondrake kits carrying on, along with the artillery and gyrocopter kits too. But don’t the characters come with square bases with moulded on details? And don’t the warrior/marksmen come in an odd number? 16, when they’re bought in batches of 10? That’s easily fixed of course (just cram in another sprue), but are they ‘up’ to current standards? And what about the characters too?