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I really like some of the new faces myself, they've made the hair look better. I also love the canoness one with the hood, what you can see of the face and hair look well sculpted and the overall look really comes together. I'm less of a fan of the other faces but I'm not gonna berate them, they're options I may or may not use. It's not like I walk outside and every woman looks the same anyway, variation in faces for male and female models is always welcome as why can't my heroes (or even rank and file) look different from one another? Edit: Also i may be misunderstanding (apologies if I am) but as someone who legitimately has confusion regarding their gender identity I'd much rather people not make comments about 'loud few on social media' as it makes it seem like poking fun at people who do have confusion regarding that aspect of their identity. Thanks.

This is a really nice point and one that I've never really considered but definitely bears worth mentioning. There's so much to learn from other cultures and viewpoints that it's honestly a shame that you don't always get as much cultural sharing or exposure as you should. Definitely a pity. Speaking of culture though one thing I have liked with AoS has been the different cultural motifs they've put into some armies, it's made for really nice and varied aesthetics.

I do really like the way they've done it actually. I plan to get a box of each myself to then create loads of D&D and mordheim models out of. I think it would be a pretty good way to go if GW decided they wished to address gender disparity in older kits e.g. if they wanted female stormcast liberators they could do a kit of them instead of having to go through shadespire to get a sculpt etc. One thing I actually kinda dislike with the sprues that have 1 or 2 females on them is they're actually really difficult to swap parts around on. This is in part due to the way modern GW kits sacrifice poseability for dynamics but for females it's an issue because they're generally made with smaller sculpted limbs meaning that for example with my idoneth eels if I want a female squad leader or a male musician it ends up looking weird because of arm size. But on the other hand I much prefer having that issue than having no female models at all for my elves.

But It's okay for you to claim we should impose "this must remain a male dominated hobby" on everyone? Because that's the general vibe I'm getting from your posts. Saying it will always be male dominated is a really silly statement because: Why should it be? And even if it does why does that mean we shouldn't be able to discuss representation like adults? Every time someone throws out 'sjw' as if it's a meaningful thing I have to roll my eyes a bit because It's literally only ever used for people to boo and hiss at equality (god forbid we all feel equally comfortable in a hobby huh?) The hobby is changing as It has been since the 80's in various ways and as it will continue to. Noone is forcing you to accept people into your group or to use female models or whatever but that should be no reasons to decide no one else can have them. I really like this response, everyone throws around SJW as a filthy thing because the internet has tried it's best to make pushes for equality look like a terrible man-hating shove into some matriarchy, same with the term 'feminist' which any real feminist will tell you is just a push for equality for both women and men (regardless of what word you choose to use for such) It's something that really irritates me because It's just people spewing misinformed bile and I hate that it's had to rear its head onto this thread (which otherwise has been quite a civil discussion for the most part) But yeah I digress. I like this response because I think wanting the hobby to be somewhere safe and comfortable for your daughters is a really noble goal and definitely kudos to you buddy. EDIT: Back onto topic of female miniatures I think armour wise the sisters of the thorn are a good example, pretty feminine in appearance but no massive silly boobplate. Also I love the long wild hair they & wild riders get. The sisters of the watch kit also have really nice light armour and as someone pointed out earlier are a great kit you can mix and match the bodies with (with a bit of work)

My harvester Is now painted! (Needs one or two small details still) Hopefully will get some further work on my deathriders & boneshaper tonight.

I absolutely love this view on chaos, I've always quite like the more tragic aspects of chaos and how damnation can stem from just trying to save people or from unintentionally veering toward it, which also is something that can make for super dark stories (fun fun) I think there's definitely a lot of scope for the underdog rising up to crush those who oppressed them with chaos.

I'm so mad I've run out of reacts today... this is 10/10 XD

I honestly wouldn't agree that the barbarians or khorne mortals are sexy, but that might just be differences in preference. Stormcast though definitely look like they're modelled to be attractive and well defined etc, which could be deliberate on sigmars part to make them look heroic and inspirational? But would be nice to see some new humans in general who aren't super jacked up bodybuilders.

I have run out of reacts today but honestly I really liked the points you made on this. I think there's a lot to be said for there being better (and far more interesting) ways to do dark and gritty than just throwing in sexual assault or other things that are commonly experienced enough to act as a barrier for enjoyment. (But that's a subject that would really take its own topic for discussions) I think the fact that there's a 'horror' series of novels shows that AoS hasn't lost any of its darker themes. I know there's also been mention of the hobby should be a male bonding space or safe space and honestly? No. That shouldn't be a reason to stop anyone from enjoying the hobby. You don't see stickers on Barbie toys saying "No boys allowed to play with these because they're for female bonding" (replace Barbie with any other traditionally feminine hobby). If you want to only play with your male friends then that is totally fine, you definitely go out and do that and enjoy yourselves but don't try and make the point that everyone should have to. The great thing about a lot of these models is you don't need to buy or use them but for those that want to it's wonderful to have the option and in this day and age I honestly think this shouldn't really be something we have to argue about, especially considering AoS is not a historical wargame. Once again, one persons opinion so take it or leave it etc. Edit: Honestly this is a pretty great point. And there's so much precedent for chaos being, following the strongest and toughest which seems to be a case regardless of gender or race, if you can kill anyone who tries to claim you're not fit to lead then you generally do quite well in chaos.

I guess the bows might be because they do their hunting on land for souls and stuff? (we'll avoid wondering how they managed to learn to use them effectively whilst living underwater ) Spearguns or harpoons would have been really cool though, I love the harpoon on the Alloplex.

GW better release some battle cucumbers or I will riot! Would definitely be nice to see more lovecraftian and deep sea horror injected into deepkin as opposed to just the current "Aelves but on eels and not horses!" vibe.

I like that idea, it's basically what northstar have done with their soldiers 2 set.

It has been nice to see more female models starting to get made, the only shame for me is that they are generally stormcast special characters (an army I do not play) but If stormcast are honestly shaping up to be a really nicely designed mix of gender thanks to their newest sequitur ranges and all the units from that chamber having generally a ratio of mixed genders which works great because stormcast are heroic individuals and why on earth should heroes only be male? I often see a lot of people not wanting female models for reasons of realism (aka in earths history we didn't have many female warriors) but considering this is a universe where people are traversing magic infused realms fighting green slabs of murder fungus and giant demonically possessed creatures fuelled purely by anger that's powerful enough to tear reality I think the idea of realism left a long time ago. Also most armies have a way to compensate any arguments of muscle differences, chaos are literally all empowered by unholy magic, stormcast are forged into perfect beings, kharadrons use guns and super strength harnesses, freeguild will take literally anyone because they are a militia of regular people fighting horrible abominations with nothing but gunpowder and determination, zombies literally don't care about muscle mass they care about weight of numbers and biting power. In worlds where war rages on eternally and people fight for their very survival it kinda makes sense to let every able bodied person fight, I mean If people have survived this amount of time of endless war then population amount surely can't be an issue else they'd have all died out ages back. Just figured I'd address that one early before it get brought up. Anyhoo I'd like to start seeing more units with females in (or conversion kits if GW really wanna scalp me of my money) than just special characters as I think having the gender mix amongst units really works a lot, especially for things like free cities who will likely take every able bodied person they can and chaos who the gods have shown they care nothing about gender as long as you get the job done (see Valkia or the models in the godsworn hunt / warcry boxes). I know there has been some use of the excuse of 'Warhammer is a boys and toys game' which honestly? Feels hella sexist and very gatekeepy to me, why should anyone want to stop anyone regardless of gender from getting into the hobby? Don't we all want to see it grow and flourish so we can keep having games of 'my dad plastic warriors are stronger than your dad plastic warriors' and as has been stated if you want all male (or all female) units then sell the models of the gender you don't want or swap them with a friend who also wants a single gendered unit but of the opposite gender. It shouldn't be a reason to prevent others from having things they'd like. I also do not think that a couple of elven units & DoK mean 'we have enough female models', it's still a large minority and there should be no real reason for any faction to be purely one gender (heck even DoK who are pretty sexist in lore managed to keep some men around and make it work well in the lore [Warlocks]) not to say I'm against single gender factions though, like if it works well lore wise then sure but it shouldn't be the majority of factions IMO. This is all one person's opinion so take it with however much salt you want etc but I'm honestly all for more diversity in models because more diversity means more models which means more sculpts and more cool looking stuff we get to pick and choose between. Also it's great for converters to have a diversity of models.

Also have a bonus pic of the WIP boneshaper who found a matching realmgate:

He's still a bit of a WIP but I get what you mean. Another drybrush coat of black over him and some more work on the bronze would definitely help for sure. I've tried doing the yellow in the recesses to help get the inner glow a bit but it's proving somewhat difficult so I might try and get some more in to make it pop a bit more. But I'll start with thickening the black first and see how that goes. Cheers for the advice. (I'll also try and get better lighting for my next photos so the colours look less blended as it looks better in person (always the way huh?))

So I've begun trying out the in-book colour scheme for Crematorium (though changing the initial yriel yellow for iyandan yellow contrast) and whilst it's a bit of a messy scheme it's quite quick and fun enough to paint. I'm pretty happy with how this big boy turned out and I'll have to see how the smaller stuff ends up but it's a good start

I pledge to paint: -1 Mortisan Boneshapers -1 Gothizzar Harvester (almost finished, started today) -5 Kavalos deathriders Stretch goals: -10 to 30 Mortisan guard -1 More boneshaper

I'd forgotten about that boxset! I'd been meaning to pick a set up for sure.

This! Just more female models for factions in general. It takes an awful lot of effort (and difficulty with lack of kits) for me to add some mixed genders within my units and especially for free cities where I get the feeling it becomes a case of every able bodied man and woman are more than welcome to sign up to fight (I mean if they have no issues with the elf females fighting in those cities why not the human and dwarf ones?) As for battletomes once everything is updated I think any new releases should be more split fairly amongst the alleigances (as much as I and many others all love elves it is a bit unfair to get loads of quick fire order releases when everyone else gets a new faction release/update either once a year or once every x years. I'd love love love soulblight to get a full update with plastic vampires because man I want to field a vampire heavy army, I'd also like to see zombies/deadwalkers get an update of sorts so they actually become viable (but this gets more into just wishlisting). I think adding small additions to forces is a great thing and easily done with warscrolls (that's how the heralds were introduced) I'd like to see not too many brand new factions made purely due to the standpoint of too many small armies could create a lot of game clutter (however releases new ideas and aesthetics that can be linked into existing armies would be super cool and easier than some might think, especially in terms of chaos [as demonstrated by the range of aesthetics in warcry])

So since dragon princes are gone now (and because the lances on mine keep snapping) what alternatives (GW or 3rd party) have people been using for their blood knights (and vampire lords, I'm curious to see) and do people have any pictures they can share? I presume chaos knights are now the go-to but I struggle imagining them as looking vampirey and not just chaosy.

It's the cost of heroes too that really hurts me. Especially the liege kavalos. I'm looking to convert my vokmortian into a boneshaper just to avoid having to buy 2 at their price lol (also would make them look different too)

My hopes as well. For the price of them it would be wonderful for them to be a very useful unit to have for sure. If they remove the battleline option it would be a really big blow for the everchosen fans for sure. And make them harder to include in archaon lists with having to balance battleline too.

I like building my Varanguard with lances, I recently tried them in a 6 man unit (no archaon but managed to get hit bonuses from generic chaos command trait and reroll 1's from unmarked shrine) and they did some damage for sure! Would have done more if I'd remembered about the pile in twice when I charged XD I haven't tried demonic weapons or ensorcelled but ensorcelled kinda looked better though I was building a demonic weapon unit because they look gorgeous so will have to try them with archaon sometime tbh. Honestly I think they have a decent warscroll, I'd like to see demonic blades get a buff for sure but the ability to get allegiance abilities with new slaves to darkness will really help them, especially if they can end up getting the buff from the chaos sorcerers spell (would need either std keyword or the spell to be changed to affect them too) I think they could maybe see a points drop but depends on how good allegiance is, they have a lot of potential for sure. Archaon I really want to see changed, currently the best thing he does for me is give +1 hit to varanguard (which really really helps their spear damage output hitting on 2's) and gives god keywords to varanguard (great for +1 attack from bloodsecrator on those charging lances) I'd like to see him made worth his high points cost or get a fair amount cheaper.

So whilst I know that petrifex in general will be far superior I'm not too worried about not having the best allegiance as my local club varies between just-for-fun friendly to a sort of casual competitive. But like I mainly wanna do crematorium because I really like the idea of the paint scheme (though I've also considered a similar one with green or purple for 'necrotic energy' instead of fire to make them more subfaction neutral) I think a harvester could be a good option for sure though and do eventually plan to get 2 of them for my 2K. Though if I really find crematorium to be a bit gimmicky / hard to build around I may opt for a more cavalry stalliarch list or something but that seems potentially costly £££ wise for all the cav boys.

1k list So whereas I have some ideas for my 2k list I'm thinking of this as a dropping it down to 1k sort of thing (also cheaper/easier start to it) Subfaction: Crematorium Liege Kavalos - 200 Boneshaper - 130 Mortek Guard - 260 Kavalos Deathriders - 180 Necropolis Stalkers - 200 This puts me at 970 points, might add the prismatic palisade or bone tithe shrieker to take me to 1k. This means that along with my feast of bones I'll need to buy a liege kavalos, box of deathriders and box of mortek guard (also possibly endless spells box) to get to this list. I may or may not need a boneshaper depending on whether I convert Vokmortian into one (something I'm currently considering as I don't plan to use ol' vokky)