Baron Klatz

Pretty sure these are his replacements. Also check out Goonhammer for a good review of them. I really hope this is the case. Not only for meta but it'd multiply the army flavors. Like people with chaos gargants could do the Chaos Menagerie mercenary again but this time as a force and the menagerie is twisted Living Spells. Also also, people using imperial knights as Mega-gargant armor is gonna look swag.

GW made a good article for that: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/07/22/lumineth-realm-lords-our-models/ "I wanted the bases to really contrast with the bright, warm colours I had used on the models, so I used Astrogranite, Astrogranite Debris and layers of PVA glue to create a cold, barren shoreline. " This would be great for your "Spartaneths" to hold the shores of Hysh's continents as they fight to reclaim their nation innerlands from invaders. "The aetherquartz on the bases is another simple trick, as it’s just spare flying stands snapped into shards with clippers. Be super careful when you do this – it’s well worth covering the end of the clippers with a hand to stop bits flying off. When you get the hang of it, you’ll have some striking bases to compliment your high-contrast model, all nice and swift. Just how the Lumineth like it!" This is good if you want lots of aetherquartz to show they're defending their homelands or magically shifting another realm's lands to be like their home in Hysh. Another cool one was this: Making the wheat into green plants and rocks & ruins into bright sun stones gives off a good vibe of how the Lumineth are healing and restoring the brilliance of the lands with their light and realm spirit communion. They should, Death has several buildings that shift around the realms already and more than half of the faction scenery operates the same way like the Fyreslayer forge forming from flung molten metal, the Flesh-Eater Throne growing from the remains of the Ghoul king's enemies, the Khorne Alter rising from the soil that sacrifices are laid on, the Deepkin shipwreck manifesting on land from the aether sea, etc.

Fyreslayers are fine. They're a popular top tournament army that sees frequent updates and new rules in the White Dwarf and huge story presence in the lore. They're assured future expansion at some point even if it's more warbands.(really it's only if you don't get either scenery or Endless Spells that you should worry) For CoS we will have to see how they make actual Freeguild armies. If they end up being based on the Warcry realm army releases then we could get stuff like Ghyran humans mixed with Living City aelves that Wanderers could proxy into or Ulgu cities for new shadowy humans & Scourge pirates. Back in 2017 GW did say they wanted realm focused Freeguild which the creator of both Warcry and CoS may have had a hand in since they started both, the cities getting a book and mixed warbands from each realm that are composed of humans, aelves and duardin. Even then though, a CoS army is a still a very good thing for Order players to get into as it's an updated Grand Alliance Order tome that'll let them build and branch off multiple armies for the future with their current list. Better to have it and be able to mix in some jumping off points like Fyreslayers or Sylvaneth(with some old models to proxy) than have to restart an army from scratch.

Where buildings are realm-based i'd say just double down on that concept as it does in the lore. Ghur houses like those in the Excelsis port are made of monster bones, mud and dung, homes in Hysh lit by gemstones that are graceful and perfectly symmetrical and the metallic buildings of Chamon have seals or coverings to protect from the deadly rust storms or alchemical gases of that realm. There's wilder stuff too naturally that doesn't have to be realm-based like cities that live on the backs of giant monsters that have hollowed out the back hairs for homes like the Crawling City does, living places built in the sides of gargantuan skulls or the backs of Aglorexi's mechanical constructs fallen in Aqshy during the Age of Myth or homes built on floating rocks that can range in textures from anything like the traveling volcanoes in Ghyran or the Sky Oaks in Ghur. Another fun element is time period as you can focus on tribal homes during the Age of Chaos or Age of Hope with crude huts and signs of villagers worshipping daemons, God-beasts or defiantly worshipping Order and have natural defenses like Ghyran spike hedges, Ulgu toxic serpent-like plants or Aqshy fire stake trees grown around them. Then more on the Age of Hope there's ramshackle architecture of quickly built places where the more solid constructs of the Stormcast or Duardin haven't touched yet as was/is the case of the over-expanding Hammerhal. And then flash forward to more current set-ups where the Kharadron have established good trade and construction of sky ports throughout the realms and your buildings can be much more magical or metal looking thanks to all the imported realm materials. The new Soulbound art is a great example of what it's down for Brightspear city.

That's half of it, the battletome was because of the Warcry dev who used to be the creator of a lot AoS fanworks which focused on the mortal stuff before GW hired them. The other reason is because they are human focused where we have had named characters before like the Candlemen leader from the Godbeast campaign: But therein lies the problem. He survived and helped win that campaign to free their homeland of the Tauroi archipelago in Aqshy even as it floated in the void shores with floods of beastmen coming down from the volcanoes. He still died though because that was well over a hundred years ago by the current Soul Wars. Same problem with any human, they live too short when the setting jumps a century to keep up with the plots of the gods, demigods or just to encompass the time passing through all the vast realms. So the immortal Stormcast are better to build around that with the ages nature in mind.(the longer lived Duardin and city aelves don't have characters simply because they're placeholders for more upgraded armies like the Kharadron and Lumineth) As has been said though it's not that big an issue because though named characters are tough they are far less versatile. The best ones are living gods like Archaon or Nagash which only makes sense, named characters closer to mortal scales usually get switched out for custom characters in meta since they can't compete with that on a pure power scale.

Haha, would explain all the little Hyrule nods like the Moonclan warband with a shroomsniffer sprite that looks like Navi and that symbol that looks like the Triforce on the Seraphon Realmshaper. But yeah, I love that aelves, duardin and even other races like Sanskrits of Ghur and underwater daemons in the big Deepkin novel show they're expanding races and empires that are flourishing alongside humans who are just carving out kingdoms again as colonists or recovering tribes in contrast.

Frost titans along with other magic gargants do appear in the lore. During the Realmgate Wars when the Hallowed Knights were taking Alarielle's vulnerable form (as she had not transformed into her war aspect yet) away from encroaching chaos forces a huge Frost Jotunn aided their escape by freezing a lake so they could cross. The lore for the Sons so far does some very good things for people not feeling these designs. One is that it's making clear that though Behemat was a life god-beast he had more connections to Gorkamorka and Ghur as a rival and champion so these gargants represent that by being more brutish and even having a Waaagh effect when around Aleguzzlers who sober up and fall in line as Mancrushers. That makes these a clear Ghur variant and in Behemat's background he saved his siblings from the stomach of their father so this would account for the different gargants mentioned in the lore as they spread out after that. Making different varieties like the Storm Gargants in Azyr that helped God-king Sigmar or the disciplined Aqshy Steppe army of Gargants whose barrier magic and massive spear ranks behind their gatehouses stopped the endless hordes of Khorne for a time before he decided to just break reality and punch the Khanate bastion with his continent-sized fist. So it's very possible this is holding the door open for more tribe sub-factions, as they're doing with the Lumineth, as we discover the Sons of other God-beasts in the realms that escaped with their brother Behemat.

First a reiteration that the art is phenomenal. But was posting to parrot Cubicle7 showing a review and then a youtube vid by our boi. http://polaroidsandpolarbears.co.uk/tabletop-gaming/game-reviews/review-age-of-sigmar-soulbound/ "AoS is also a lot more inclusive than most fantasy worlds, and I appreciate that fact. Really it’s just an approachable game with an approachable setting. And now it’s got an approachable RPG. A great one." Rules overview vid:

That many would look incredible (and may the Gods give onlookers the strength not to use the over 9,000 meme). The Cabal would be fun to convert into Silver Tower messenger/scout Tzeentch crows but how will you go about the Ogroid? Make it too Tzeentch and it'll become it's mage cousin in appearance. Also a neat idea for a shieldwall could be to hunt down some Silver Tower tiles and convert them to shields.

Feels like it's heading that direction with the Kraken-Eaters. Their intelligence is boosted by aelven artifacts, they read books and already employ a magic net. It'd be very AoS to have the Order-aligned titan tossing spells by being associated with all the nautical & aelven elements that make up the grand allegiance (not only stuff like Deepkin and Kharadron shipping but that the fishing industry is vital to all the free cities in the realms for clean food sources). Edit: thinking on it that would emulate the magic-user Gargants in the lore like the Azyr storm gargants with Sigmar and Aqshy Khanate guardians.

It can go either way. I personally think we're past the soup period as that was done to get everything up to date fast. With the Lumineth release they hinted in the articles that's the way they're moving forward so we could either get soup or see the older undead lines disappear and replaced by a new theme and sub-faction releases. Personally hoping for Soulblight and Deadwalkers mix to be "Cities of Nagash" as they imitate the living cities with the vampire courts, worshippers and undead townsfolk we see in the lore for the realm of Shyish. (plus new zombie models and it'd tie-in to that possible Death Warhammer Quest) I love the bitten in half shark(bottom left) for Kraken-Eaters. Interesting the Gate Breakers are the main hatred for Civilization because of Behemet's death. I wonder if they'll get lore that's why they work with undead and Shyish in hopes of finding his soul in the underworlds of that realm?

Maintenance and replacing the molds is a huge part of it and major expense which is a big difference to cheaper chinese manufacturers who will keep using the broken molds making poorer quality models. Biggest costs still though is the upkeep for over 500 GW stores around the world (crazy how big they've grown thinking back to when they celebrated their 100th opening ) and a thing i've seen no one mention in either discussion is that GW are still in the middle of building a second factory. That's a massive undertaking for plastic models to support (and likely built on the shoulders of Gargants ). Interestingly that is the price of large tournament armies. A top Slaanesh one costs just a bit more. Great article on it (and further helpful for people looking for a budget army ) : https://ageofminiatures.com/warhammer-army-cost/ Ooh, are you talking about AoS Hinterlands? That was great and should be noted the creator of it went on to work for GW and made Warcry.

I see what you did there. Also surprising amount of Fyreslayer posts today on reddit. Shout-out to these two:

Oh yeah but it's what it can possibly represent that's got me worried. We still need to see the whole list of their abilities but them able to affect other units like that really threw me. I was expecting three battering rams, not commanders.

Feels like that's only in the bigger circles and tourneys. A lot of battles I've seen for beginners and majority of casual play that people have talked about on breaks or while their significant others went upstairs to chat is 500-1000 points for AoS' fun quick games. That's a big boon about AoS besides all it's cheaper entry points, it's got a great scaleable gateway people can set for themselves instead of being purely forced into go big or go home. Yeah it's like I mentioned earlier, GW know their audience and to many of them price isn't a barrier. They just see units of elite armies worth the same as Stormcast or Deepkin infantry but double as wizards along with more viable abilities. It's little different than back in AoS1 with pricey elite armies everywhere and hobby store groups pooling money together to buy the huge Dreadforts. Just now we have way more avenues to get that stuff cheaper, have lots of updated viable alternative armies and know that GW will pump out better options down the road as the hype settles and the impulse buyers slow down.

Welcome to the 40k Imperial Knights club: fleshier version. Where we buy $200 minis in bulk and go to their Facebook's to ask for bigger models that cost $1000(no joke). Yeah, they're already damage sponges that can lay a nasty rend-filled beatdown but that Chuck Rocks command scares me if they'll end up mobile command towers empowering their allies and troops. It's one thing to fight titans that just charge forward but ones able to synergize and pull of combos is a newlevelbof of horror. Also I guess the Gatebreakers flavor text answers the question who they blame for Behemat's death. I hope that includes Skaven parasite engines & chaos forts into the civilization hate. Eep.

Whoa Nelly this is awesome! https://mobile.twitter.com/groje/status/1313542132578295809 "jörg frey @groje "Sorry but I cannot wait for next #miniaturemonday to show you my just finished Stoneheart King! I guess this was the most challenging but also most rewarding miniature I painted so far #ageofsigmar #paintingwarhammer #WarhammerCommunity #luminethrealmlords" And it looks like his next project might be the Mega-gargants. What a mad lad. "I am sorry but I guess I will be busy painting Gargants next. Or my second cow. Let’s see"

They're interesting because on the outside their brutish appearance and war focus makes them dead ringers for Khornites who were big on creating Aqshy Forge Kingdoms during the Age of Chaos to keep supplying their wars through realms. However that their base of operation is in the Realm of Metal is a big boon for Tzeentch who covers the malleable realm and it's alchemies while the Iron Golems use stuff like chained down sun dragons to forge their metals instead mundane means. A focus on alchemy and finding more magical means to create their weapons and expand to tools and temples of knowledge like the Tzaangors do by creating their own libraries would fit well with Tzeentch's love of Chamon.

Honestly that sounds fantastic. Their short story gave me huge Tzeentch vibes so it seems a natural combination to me. https://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-age-of-sigmar/featured/the-method-of-madness-ebook-2020.html "Of the many warbands who lurk amidst the madness of the Bloodwind Spoil, the Cypher Lords are ever the most mysterious, their motives and methods of war shrouded in secrecy. When Thrallmaster Vignus Daneggia enters Carngrad, a city of Chaos wracked by constant warfare, his goals are unclear – perhaps even to those who serve him. " I'm a chaos neophyte at best but that sounds like a dead ringer for Tzeentch worship. I really like the Silver Tower angle too. Since the Cypher Lords hail from the realm of light a Silver Tower hidden among the magical gleaming silver mountains would blend in well with a Sphiranx posing as a Moon spirit like Celennar to misdirect people and pilgrims towards the tower looking to enhance their wisdom.

Yeah, the realm of beasts is actually known for it's great deserts and wastelands. In the Realmgate Wars novels the Stormhosts in Ghur usually deal with finding civilizations around it's Sea of Bones, an impossibly vast desert of sinking sand and bone dust which Ironjawz traverse with giant Scrapcogs. Massive iron fortresses with paddle wheels to sail through the sea of sand while shamans cast forcefields over them to protect against Grindworms which are big enough to swallow an Ironjawz and his mount whole. Around the edges of the Sea of Bones are places like the marble city of Jercho whose soldiers wear leather armor and fight with monster bone weapons like Grindworm-teeth arrows due to the realm's lack of metals and the Sanskrit empire with it's reptilian race of people noted for their vicious claws that extend from their knuckles that battle the other civilizations for control around the bone sea.(with your gecko people idea you could even add they traded with the Sanskrit for them as fellow reptiles) This as EccentricCircle said is one of numerous biomes you can build on as Ghur also has arctic tundras, hungry forests, vast mountain ranges with tribes on the towering peaks as well the labyrinth canyons below, colossal trees which Fyreslayers have carved lodges into like mountains and sky-realms that are a mix of bridged continents to even floating sky oaks kingdoms are built on.

Nice! And a gargant too you say? Is your free city going to be based in the realm of life or narratively proxies somewhere else like Ghur with it's famed Gargant tribes and monstrous bear-like creatures?

That's the main point of it really, just avoid the new expensive stuff. It's made to bait the players who don't care about prices and just want the new hot shiny thing or the competitive edge. GW know those guys get burnt out eventually so we're already seeing an Underworlds Lumineth Warband(which I'm excited about with it combining their Alarith lore with calming Beastgrave's sentient hungry moutain) and you know a Lumineth Christmas battlebox and Start Collecting are in the future for players whose wallets didn't let them make the jump. It'll likely be the same with Mega-gargants, huge impressive kit now and by next year or so they'll announce the titans get boxes seperated into cheaper individual kits like they've done with heroes. Rinse and repeat until we all can get a piece of the pie.

Pretty much the same answer with the rising prices of the videogames industry. Budget. Stay with smaller armies or warbands(or cheaper older ones like Stormcast or Beastclaw Raiders) for awhile and play AoS at 500 to 1000 points and slowly build your forces overtime. It's a hobby, no reason to rush. Plus more time to finally slay that army of grey in your backlog. And of course keep an eye out for sweet deals like Christmas battleboxes and yearly starter sets they pump out. Then there's good ol' retailers and stuff like the Mortal Realms magazines. Basically just don't jump on the shiny new hook that comes into the water unless you're absolutely sold on the army. As time goes by that army loses hype and GW keep putting out cheaper ways to buy it in bulk with Start Collectings, warbands, magazines or battle sets. If you're feeling priced out then patience is certainly a virtue.

Yeah, though legacy they haven't been made Matched Play illegal yet like Dark Elves. When that happens they'll get a Legends compendium on the community site. So you can use them for now (the AoS app shows that too by placing them under the "Dwarf" section as the Duardin that didn't make it to Cities of Sigmar). When they do eventually go there then give the Fyreslayers a look. The Auric Runesmiter channels lava into the ground so him and a unit can do a similar tactic to miners with the added bonus when they surface he buffs up their ur-gold strength. If you don't want to go full Fyreslayer then you can just proxy your miners as the runesmiter and a fyreslayer unit. Just call them mercenary miners from the realm of fire that picked up a few tricks from Grimnir's kin and maybe spruce them up a bit for the narrative like more candles and magma rocks.

I definitely prefer To Hit & To Wound. The simplicity is a breath of fresh air after trying to get my friends into Wfb 7th & 8th edition and see them quit because of the smoke coming out of their(and my) ears with all those variables. Having tiny daggers kill dragons is great too because it keeps the battleground equal without a major pay-to-win wall in place, everything is a viable threat. AoS1 was great to see because you had vets and beginners bring in a group of chaos warriors vs a beginner's Grot force and the results ended up 50/50 instead of a stomp. It's all made to be beginner friendly and casual which is a huge boon for the game and why it has such a flood of beginners and old veterans who took a decade long break joining in everyday. Lastly is the realistic argument which I personally chuck out the window when the battlefields are realmscapes on the backs of living continents that mate with eachother and every blade of grass or ingot is inherently made of magic from the realmcrust that formed them as physical gods walked over them. You don't have to say Grots killed Archaon by stabbing his ankles. Their simple blades could have resonated with the realm magic they're made from and caused the living earth to open up and eat him or Gorkamorka/Da Bad Moon empowered the Grots leader to cleave through Archaon's chest plate as their power & magic grew strong from the battle turning and stirring up the realmsphere, like the battles do to the aspects of the gods sometimes causing them to change as well. Like this art showing Grimnir changing into a bloodthirsty aspect side thanks to Death turning the tide against his children. It all just blends so well together for that over-the-top fantastical and malleable magic realms feel Age of Sigmar has. You can make adjustments to stats and trait rules to keep balancing things out but the core rules are perfect as is by me.