#age of sigmar 4th edition

[paint-pot-pete]

Got a Warhammer magazine with a Skaven Clanrat and one of the updated Stormcast Liberators last week and decided to get this warrior of Sigmar battle ready as quick as possible (he’s surrounded by Bonereapers on my shelf 🤣).

Had a lot of fun painting this; I think this would be the colour scheme I’d use if they were my army - more fun than the “standard” combo in my opinion 😁

[divineerdrick]

Adepticon Reveals for March 21, 2024

I've almost recovered from COVID, so I'm going to actually watch the livestream for Adepticon and catch the reveals! Whoot!

Before we start, let's try and make some predictions. First, the easy one. We're probably going to get the reveal for Age of Sigmar 4th Edition, though they'll probably just call it the next edition. Everyone's calling this one, since we're currently wrapping up this edition's narrative campaign and GW seems determined to keep to their 3 year cycles. It's practically a gimme.

We know we're only getting teasers for Heresy and Necromunda, so I don't have much to say there. For 40K, we're probably going to see something Chaos. I'm not exactly sure where we are on the roadmap, but that teaser definitely feels like Chaos. I don't think they'll reveal our mystery Codex just yet, but I'm ready to be wrong there.

For Warcry I'm guessing we'll be getting a new box announced. Same for Kill Team, though I don't think we've seen all the previously announced boxes released yet. I'm betting we'll see something similar for Old World, since they seem to be bringing armies back a box at a time. They've been talking green skins, so maybe they'll show us a full box set for them.

For Underworlds I'm going to go a bit further. They'd mentioned new ways to play some older war bands, so I'm guessing they'll be announcing some new rules or expansions to breathe some life into older Underworlds sets.

With those predictions pinned for me to suffer or celebrate, on to the show!

IMMORTALITY IS A CURSE

That's the heading we're beginning the show with. Okay then!

Just Lewis today, then? Okay! Hello, Lewis! What you got for us?

Okay! So they're going to have various presenters talking to people to do the reveals. That's new! Let's see how it works out.

Yep. Those are some spikey boys.

Dread Talons! Oh hey! We've got the Chaos Lord with Jump Pack back! Definitely some new sculpts there. After the show, I'll go through the articles and take a look at what exactly is new.

We got Nick and Simon for this part of the reveal! They definitely look like they're ready to have some fun! Oh! And we've got both Stu and Josh today!

Oh wow! We're getting two new CSM battle forces! Interesting!

Mentioning Vashtorr, I hope he gets a bit of a glow up. I really like him, and it would be nice if he got rules that make him feel like he the Lord of the Soul Forges.

They're announcing eight detachments for CSM. Couldn't let the slaves of the corpse emperor have all the detachment fun! This is definitely going to be a sticking point considering Tau players just got their hands on their codex and it only has four. While I'd prefer fewer, more well balanced detachments, the way GW has been dishing them out to each faction is kinda weird. I'm expecting to hear some grumblings about this.

Okay, so they're trying to go for kind of an interview style feel to this presentation. But it's feeling very scripted. Like . . . really scripted. WarCom's purpose has always been to be the hype train for GW. But even with the obvious restrictions on how they'd interact with chat, there still felt like there was a little bit of genuine interaction. This feels very phony to me. Not sure I like this new way of doing presentations.

And, of course, they're suggesting all the CSM fans should run out to grab both boxes. I'm curious how this will turn out. On the one hand, this will allow someone still collecting their army to pick the box they think will serve them best. On the other, that's even more FOMO boxes coming out. And again, can't help but note that Tau only got Kroot in their box, so Tau players that wanted to actually play Tau didn't get served very well. But CSM is getting quite the spread it seems.

Wow! Even the way that cut off felt abrupt and forced. Geh. Really not liking this so far . . .

So apparently that's not it for 40K. They really want all the 40K fans to stick through the entire show and maybe find something they like from the other systems. For now, it's time to visit the Mortal Realms. Don't think it's AoS yet, but let's see what we get.

It's Warcry! And it's a new boxed set! Looks like an Osiarch warband verses an Idoneth warband! Those are gonna be some interesting miniatures! Of course we already saw those new hounds teased.

Just Nick and John this time.

Oh! I was wrong! Looks like it's Sylvaneth, not Idoneth. I got a more Idoneth feel, but these look like they're both oddballs for their factions. The Osiarch warbands are exiles. And the Sylvaneth have been infected in some way.

Warcry isn't going to smaller box sets yet it seems. This boxset will contain both warbands and the terrain.

Oh! Moving right on to Underworlds it seems! Let's see what's up!

Underworlds often gets the craziest warbands. We've got a Death warband, and I think a Chaos warband? It's honestly hard to tell, they've got kind of a torture asylum kinda vibe to them.

So this is our new box and season. Oh well. Maybe there will be more, but it was a swing for the fences prediction.

So our Death warband is Flesheater courts. The delusion for this band is that they're all gourmet chefs getting ingredients for their lavish banquets. Yum!

The Brotherhood of the Bolt are crazy flagellants that have at some point been struck by lightning. And so they believe they've been chosen by Sigmar! Like I said, Underworld warbands are fantastic.

Now we're back to get a little bit more build up for the full AoS reveal. What could it be?

Oh! Getting teased by some Chaos boys! This dude looks badass!

Looks like Cities of Sigmar verses Slaves to Darkness.

Oh! Dudette! Abraxia, Spear of the Everchosen! Really awesome model with some really cool lore behind her.

From here, we're moving on to the next chapter of the Dawnbringers. I'm not caught up on this lore, so I can't comment much here. As I keep watching and listening though, I can't help but be reminded of how well the AoS lore has developed. I really loved my read of the Dominion book and of Morathi. There just isn't enough space in my life for both setting and systems to receive equal attention.

Teaser time!

Dune. Arrakis. Desert Planet.

Oo! Something Mechanicum this way comes!

The little post teaser chat has me thinking this is Mars and that we might be doing something with the war there. It would be nice to get a campaign for the Martian Schism with rules for both Mechanicum and Dark Mechanicum forces.

And now Dwarves! Looks like they'll be getting our next Old World box set! Dwarf players rejoice! Most of these are looking like older sculpts still, though I think that one champion might be new.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's a new Dwarven champion. And he looks awesome! We're also getting a new Dwarf King that can be fielded either on Shield Bearers or on foot.

Oh! I see GSC!

Yes! I'm finally getting my GSC kill team! And they'll be up against an all new Votann Kill Team! Unfortunately, it doesn't look like my Kill Team is all new miniatures, as we've got part of the Broodcoven here. I was kinda hoping for something more bespoke. It's not like we've got a large variety of units.

Votann, on the other hand, definitely needs new units. So I'm glad they're getting some much needed love. These are Hernkyn Jagers, and are part of the advance forces for the Leagues.

Rotlock Negotiation! Heh!

"Anyone else want to negotiate?" "Wh-wh-where did he learn to negotiate like that?" "I wonder . . ."

Oh! It's specifically a Brood Brother Kill Team! Veteran Brood Brothers! Very nice! Looks like it is at least a little bespoke!

And I think this is our Necromunda teaser. Hah! Well that was quick!

Alright! Time for that "just one more thing."

Got quite the badass taking on some Tzangors! Oof! Really intense depiction of how harrowing being a Stormcast must actually be!

Woah!

That's one way for the Skaven to begin their assault! Bloody 'ell!

And yeah, they're just calling it New AoS, the New Edition. We can count guys! You realize we're only up to 4, right? There are Orks that can count to 4!

Alright! We're going to get into rules here! It sound like we're getting a full, proper Edition change along the lines of 40K 2nd to 3rd, 7th to 8th, or 9th to 10th. Wonder if they're going to try what they did for 10th and give us some free rules.

"Opening up the game to more players than ever."

. . .

Guys. You realize that AoS was already the simpler system, right? How much more simple are you going to go? I'm okay with streamlining, but you can go too far. There are parts with 10th Edition 40k where I feel you slimmed down too much. While I do think there is potential fat to trim in AoS, there's some things they slimmed down in 10th I don't want to see happen here. For example, I don't want to see AoS go to a 10th Edition style Enhancement system. They went to lean with that system, and I hope they expand it in future editions. Kitting out your heroes is an integral part of any fantasy setting. You can't do that if you've only got three Enhancements for your entire army!

He's literally using the same language Stu used for 10th Edition. I'm all but waiting for him to say "Simplified, not simple."

But! One thing I think AoS could use, is something like Combat Patrol. If they took the Vanguards and made them standalone buy and play armies, that would be good! I'm hoping that's more how they're planning to get newer players in, not by greatly "streamlining" the game.

D'oh! Combat range is gone. I know one AoS fan in particular that's not going to be happy about that. That was such an elegant way to do different size weapons without Rank and File. Oh boy, this is turning into my anti-hype . . .

Oh! Here we go! Spearhead looks to be the AoS version of Combat Patrol. There's the claim from 10th, that it will be the most balanced game. We saw how well that worked . . . I'm trying not to be down since this is still good. But I hate hearing the same marketing hype that we already saw fail to play out.

We're getting more USRs, so that's definitely good. I'm a big fan there!

Okay, there's another one they claimed for 10th that I please, please, PLEASE want them to actually have followed through on! Stu had talked about how in 10th they tried to make it so that when you look at unit, you know roughly what to expect from that. But 10th just has no consistency as to how strong or tough weapons or models are. I'm really hoping that when Ben says they lined models up and tried to assign stats to them, they really actually did it.

Okay! They're doing free rules at launch. That definitely helps things!

And with that, that's the end of our reveals. And we're back to that banner, "Immortality is a Curse." Which is incidentally, one of the reasons why corporations suck!

Final Thoughts

Okay, my initial plan is that I was going to go through the reveal show, and then take a closer look at miniatures. But I think I'm going to make that a Part 2, since I'm seriously running out of gas. The 4E reveal really didn't help.

What is it with fantasy settings and fourth editions?

I'm trying not to be to anti-hyped by this. There were cool things in this reveal show. Let me TL;DR my sticking points.

I don't like this new style of presentation. It's too staged and controlled and there's no opportunity to get more information or clarifications live.

Two FOMO boxes for CSM is maybe too much. On the one hand, I like the idea of having more purchase options. On the other, I can't help but feel this is them seeing if they can sell more big boxes.

Eight Detachments for Chaos. Fluffy, and puts them on par with the divergent Space Marine chapters, but also makes anyone who got five, or even only four detachments feel even poorer.

They're selling the Broodcoven again! Did they just make way too many of these? Chances are if you play GSC, you've already got this. It greatly reduces the value on this box set. I hope we can get those Veteran Brood Brothers by themselves.

All those selling points for 4E are the same ones we got for 10th. And they really failed to deliver on them. That doesn't mean they won't succeed with AoS. But taking weapon ranges away is a bad start.

Other than that, those were some great reveals with great miniatures! Abraxia looks absolutely sick! We've got Mechanicum teasers for Horus Heresy! Dwarves are one of my favorite classic Warhammer armies! And the new warbands for Warcry and Underworlds are all awesome!

I hope we get real livestreams back. I hope those boxes are just what CSM players needed. I hope they do more with the detachments in the future to bring more balance and parity. I hope I can get those Veteran Brood Brothers sooner rather than later. And I dearly hope that all my fears for Age of Sigmar 4th aren't justified.

I'm gonna try and catch the livestream for Grinding Gear Games tomorrow, so I'm gonna go to bed for now. I'll try to spend some time drinking in the cool minis sometime this weekend.

[feyd-rautha-apologist]

Hey, uh. GW.

What the fuck are the chaos dwarfs doing underwater

[fiendishneko]

Over-analysing Stormcast Eternal character design

So we've gotten a good look at the new AoS starter box, right? No? Well you should, because for even those 40k die-hards among you, there's some absolute gold here.

Now this is coming from someone who's been into Stormcasts conceptually since the first edition, but seeing the "flawed forging" narrative come to fruition is SO SATISFYING!

(Very big, mostly coherent post under the break)

So first off, I'm going to show you the main character models from the 1st and 2nd edition AoS boxes: Vandus Hammerhand and the Lord Arcanum:

So I don't think it's much of a stretch to say these characters are both "Hero Coded"; gleaming gold armour, weapons held aloft and sat atop a fearsome, yet noble looking steed. Hell, paint them entirely grey and they wouldn't look far removed from actual statuary we have in our world.

At this stage in the AoS timeline, the Stormcasts are still these nigh-impervious heroes, champions of Sigmar and civilisation itself, the flaws of their construction being apparent only to their creator himself. There's an underlying tone of something uncanny though, the human looking, but eyeless helmets feel familiar, but a little off...

Ah well, nothing to worry about, here comes 3rd edition, and champion of Sigmar, Yndrasta, along with it!

So that's different. She's certainly brandishing her weapons, but her armour is dull and tarnished compared to the gold of previous editions (this is due to her being of a different stormhost, but the lack of gleaming gold IS of note here). Additionally, not only does she not have a steed, but it's her counterpart in the box set, the Orruk Kruleboss that comes saddled up, almost aping this cliche hero pose we've become used to.

Add onto this how Yndrasta is characterised, not as a proud leader or wielder of magic, but as a hunter prone losing herself in the act of slaughtering her prey and dumping their severed heads in Sigmar's throneroom. And to put a cherry on top, here's how she is depicted in art form, gorgeous, radiant and FUCKING TERRIFYING.

So that leaves us at 4th edition, the Stormcast Eternals who have been killed and reforged so many times as to be nothing but a shadow of what they used to be are being called back into service against the Skaven. And who leads them this time?

Oh.

This is the Lord Vigilant. His weapon is lowered, his armour a dull, battered silver and his steed... oh his steed...

The side by side of this guy and the Lord Arcanum is pretty shocking to me. The mount of the Lord Arcanum is a Gryph Charger, and incorporates elements of horses and birds of prey like hawks and eagles. It reads as noble.

The Lord Vigilant rides a Gryph Stalker. It doesn't rear up like a knight's heraldry come to life, it stalks, hell it looks like it's staring you down through the screen! (Good job photography team, btw!) Like, I really need you to understand when I first looked at that thing, I was drawn straight to it's eyes and I got chills.

The use of colour here also feels like a natural conclusion. The bold colours have faded and worn, the armour's gold plating has been chipped and broken away from years of war, even the Gryph Stalker looks washed out.

Anyway, that's about as much as I can write on this subject without wanting to smack myself for being a pretentious art nerd, but there is a whole (half) box set of interesting model designs I'd be down to analyse if that's what you folks are into?

[farsight-the-char]

They have priestly escorts, Memorians, Mortals who sometimes their descendants or otherwise connected to these nearly-lost Stormcast, meant to help ground them in reality.

The Parchment Texts upon these Stormcast, are used to list the Heroic Deeds of their long life.

Grimdark.

I like the axes tbh.

....

"Remember you are Mortal"

"Remember you once Lived"

[valiantbionicrope]

Well. I been out of hobby for a bit. Time to get back into it!

Gotta say I adore these Sketchy art pieces in main book

[cobalt-owl]

So I've been putting together a vampire count/soulblight gravelords army (most bought before that bs price hike) and wanted to show off my color scheme. I hope my skeletons look good, I wanted something quick but looked nice (hence the lack of highlights). Each skele is about a forty minutes, maybe thirty if I don't keep overlapping paint

[genshingorlsrevengeance]

Still here!

Apologies for the lack of posts everyone! Work has been absolutely kicking my ass lately, and my hours are only doubling down from here.

(Plus, Warhammer Age of Sigmar's 4th edition is too fun, and Dwarves just re-released for Fantasy so there's them to blame too)

I'll be back soon (hopefully) but have this in the meantime!:

M4A1 to MOD3 (aka why in my posts she went from super demure to the depressed raifu you see now)

(Source: Ping_sama on pixiv)

[tzeentchdaemonsart]

The beginning of Tzeentch. In this post I will explore where Tzeentch came from, and his earliest mentions and depictions, and his likely inspirations.

Realm of Chaos Book 1, 1988, picture of Tzeentch.

This is the earliest depiction of Tzeentch I've been able to find in the history of Warhammer publications.

Prior to this only Khorne and Nurgle were described in Warhammer fantasy roleplay 1986.

The earliest list of the Chaos gods names (and therefore the earliest printing of the name 'Tzeentch') I've been able to find, is from Warhammer 1st edition, Forces of Fantasy 1983 (first paragraph at the top of page 40) though it gives no description or depiction of them.

'... worship a documented god (Khorne, Slaanesh, Nurgle or Tzeentch at the time of writing)...' either Rick Priestley or Bryan Ansell in 1983

The image of Tzeentch appears to be kept consistent in modern editions as seen in this picture from Age of Sigmar (1st ed 2017, Disciples of Tzeentch)

And the description given of Tzeentch in the realm of chaos book is repeated in the Warhammer armies Chaos 4th & 5th edition, liber Chaotica Tzeentch, codex chaos etc. (pictured below is the description from the liber Chaotica (2005) followed by the description & adjoining picture in the realm of chaos book 2 (1990)

The face of Tzeentch is even given as a champion upgrade in the realm of chaos (1990), showing a cut of this much larger picture found elsewhere in the same book.

To definitively conclude this: Tzeentch is a big horned horror. Just like a big pink/blue horror, with two main arms, & two horned limbs right above his main arms, and two great big sweeping horns from above his brow which look more like moving snakes with faces on the end. He has a main face around his shoulder level, two smaller faces below on either side, and a large face across his belly. Any other faces are presumably transitory.

'Tzeen' means 'change' in the dark tongue, and 'neth' or 'leth' mean 'lord'. Hence Tzeeneth means Change-Lord. Its common form in the language of the empire or Imperium is Tzeentch

The inspiration for Tzeentch are most likely gods like Arioch, of Micheal Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone saga, and Nyarlathotep of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos.

The 2nd Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles has a dedication to Michael Moorcock, Phil Barker and Donald Featherstone.

Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone saga (1960s) creates the Chaos - Law paradigm, where there are two sets of opposing Gods. Arioch is the main Chaos God and his relationship with Elric is highly characteristic of how Warhammer would go on to depict the relationship between a chaos champion and their god.

Whilst Chaos and Law appear superficially attached to evil & good, this becomes questioned as Moorcock eventually presents the idea that progress is only possible with a balance between chaos and law, as to live in a world of pure law and tradition would allow no change, and a world of pure chaos would live every day as if it was the first never progressing past it.

This likely inspired the early Dungeons and Dragons writers as well and is probably the reason Chaos & Order exist on a perpendicular axiom to Good and Evil on alignment charts in D&D. The early Warhammer writers were reacting towards D&D and inherited much from them (1st ed citadel miniatures from white dwarf issue 12 were 'advanced dungeons and dragons' minis).

The Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone is also likely the source for the idea of mutation in the Warhammer sense, and is likely the inspiration for the idea of Daemon Weapons, and Sentient Weapons.

Lovecraft is better known these days than Moorcock and probably needs no introduction. It's clear the eldritch ancient horrors of the Great Old Ones and their endless conspiracies to find a way (back) into reality and take it over, also inspired the idea of 'chaos' in both dungeons and dragons and Warhammer. The madness which comes from the Necronomicon and knowing it's secrets, echoes the madness followers of chaos might expect when learning more about the warp and their god. Stories like the Dunwich Horror could as easily be describing a daemonic incursion in the Warhammer world with little alteration needed.

The fusion of Moorcock's and Lovecraft's lore appears to be the inspiration for Chaos. They define the concept of a god without it being all powerful, and foreshadow the different relationships that are created between mortal followers of chaos and their gods. They introduce the themes of mutation and madness which characterise Chaos, thereby appearing to be the ingredients of what became Chaos in the Warhammer sense.

Khorne appears little more than a classic war god in this Warhammer-Chaos veneer, and likewise Slaanesh is clearly inspired by a unification of Astarte, Dionysus, & succubi/incubi in a manner reminiscent of the Christian Devil. Perhaps considering Khorne's image and that of his blood letters, one could conclude that both Khorne and Slaanesh look heavily towards the Christian Devil for inspiration, albeit in different ways.

Nurgle is loosely presented as a death god, and one day I'll look into his inspiration properly. Similarly Tzeentch is presented as a god of sorcery. It's suffice to say here that neither Nurgle nor Tzeentch draw as much from ancient mythology, as unlike Khorne and Slaanesh, their personalities are utterly antithetical towards the personalities of the ancient gods of death and magic which they would nominally be attributed towards. It is my opinion so far in researching this that both Nurgle and Tzeentch draw far more heavily on Moorcock & Lovecraft than the other two, uniting the themes of mutation and madness in chaos and more purely attempt to capture the very essence of Chaos itself. It seams as if Nurgle is the abundant manifestation of chaos and Tzeentch is the distilled essence of chaos.

[attemptingwarhammer]

Week #26: He's a lizard...man

So as some of you may know if you've been following my silly little ramblings these past 25 Weeks, I was able to get my wife into being interested in Warhammer. She's more a fantasy person. So she had been looking forever at and showing interested in Age of Sigmar. I also have some interest in potentially getting in AoS, but I'm not 100% there yet when it comes to my decision making. I definitely want to give it a shot at the very least.

My old Warhammer store actually lost its manager for some reason and they've been clearing out the back of the store. Apparently there was a bunch of stuff back there that just never made it to the main store area. One of those things was a still sealed Seraphon Refresh Army Box with the new Slann Starmaster and premium Battletome. I know that AoS 4th Edition is coming out. So while the Codex itself isn't as useful, the entire boxset was exactly what my wife was looking for. It had a ton of variety when it came to her choice of models and she already really liked the concept of Lizard People riding Dinosaurs.

I stole one of her Saurus Warriors to paint them in the scheme that she's interested in painting them in. It was a little different to do since this is technically skin(?) and I'm used to painting armor. So I did my best and I think it looks pretty neat. She's not too worried about all the warriors looking the same since she kinda wants to have some varity of color for her army which I agree with. They're lizards they should all have fun colors. I hope when she evetually paints all of her models and that she's happy with how they turned out. I know she's gonna do some really fun stuff with them.

[exonia-robin]

We traveled....

We saw.....

We played....

We absolutely loved it!

4th edition Age Of Sigmar has left us feeling awesome! Our hopes and dreams continue to live on for Age Of Sigmar, whereas the ones for 40k are dying off (more on that another time...)

Whilst at the holy site of all warhammer, where hobbyists and Wargamers gather in a horde like fashion, we had the chance to play 30 minutes of 4th edition AoS and and FULL HOUR of Spearhead! Below you'll find our opinions!

4TH EDITION:

As mentioned we play 30 minutes of this in teams of 2. Our two opponents were absolutely lovely during this game and very friendly. We took the side of the stormcast whilst they got to use the Skaven.

The Models

Warhammer Community does not do these models justice at all. They are much better looking in person!! The stormcast have been given a fresh look, bringing them further away from looking like the Sigmar equivalent of space marines whilst the Skaven have been given some love this edition and have better looking, well, everything.

The models that stood out amongst the rest for both factions in the Skaventide box are:

- The Lord-Vigilant on Gryph Stalker

- Clawlord on Gnawbeast

Both of these are striking centre pieces for both of the respective factions and their armies. The supporting heroes for both are good, but these.... These are another level.

The Gameplay

The most important thing to mention here is that you can REACT to your opponent during their turn, making a turn rather interesting. While this was kind of a thing in 3rd edition with certain command abilities in certain phases, this has been expanded and improved upon, even allowing players to invoke the power of the gods through their priests in the enemy hero phase! Certain heroes also have the ability to react to themselves or friendly units around them creating a bit more of a synergy between outlying heroes that operate alone and the main forces.

Most of the core system remains the same as the previous edition, with changes to certain parts of each phase to make things easier and simpler. Each phase is now colour coded to allow players to easily find abilities that are usable in those phases.

In person the new warscrolls for each model/unit work well as well as being easier to read and find the abilities you are looking for. Ward saves are now a keyword so these will be found at the bottom of your warscroll.

One staple of 3rd edition may not be in the new edition. Heroic actions. These were game changers if used at the right time, however when we played 4th edition, there was no mention of heroic actions anywhere. It remains to be seen if these will return or not.

SPEARHEAD:

This was purely amazing. We cannot fault the spearhead game system at all. Literally there is nothing we can find bad with this.

We were able to play out 2 battle rounds in the time, and once again were in teams of 2. This time however we got to use the Maggotkin Of Nurgle Spearhead versus the Sylvaneth Spearhead. Both forces are literally the contents of their respective Vanguard boxes, in fact every army that was used to teach Spearhead was a Vanguard box....

Now, we are very excited if Spearhead gives any indication at the rules for the armies in the main game (we would hope there is some similarity between them)

Maggotkin didn't have contagion points in Spearhead and could only gain disease points for the ARMY. These were used to inflict mortal wounds to a unit that your in combat with, by rolling a number of D6 equal to your total disease points (max 7) and each 4+ was a mortal wound.

Sylvaneth had the ability to teleport a single unit across the board for free. This hurt. Teleporting Kurnoth Hunters is not fun for the opponent.

The game itself is highly tactical and is a good middle ground between Warcry and AoS. The uncertainty of which battle tactics you may have for a turn combined with how balanced the spearheads were, make this a game that simply comes down to a players tactical ability. Not army strength or ridiculous rules, but a players tactical mind. Spearhead is also brilliant in the sense that the random battle tactics teach you to be more tactical in your decision making, as each card contains a battle tactic and a command ability. Now you have to choose between these, either sacrificing a VP in order to kit your opponent harder, or maybe sacrificing a unit in order to score a VP.

You don't ever reveal your battle tactics to your opponent until you activate a command ability from one, or your score the battle tactic, meaning neither player will know what the other is trying to achieve at any one time. Though play with these cards enough and you'll soon learn from heart which your opponent will be trying to achieve through watching how they move their forces around the board. This aside, Spearhead is definitely something new, fun and definitely outclasses the 40k variant of it, Combat Patrol.

THE ROUND UP:

If you do love Age Of Sigmar as much as us, the new edition is for you. Whether or not you play Stormcast or Skaven the Skaventide box is definitely a worthwhile investment as this contains literally everything you could ever need for AoS to begin with including the matched play rules for the first season, a whole book dedicated to spearhead and the AoS rulebook, terrain and all the accessories needed to play Spearhead. Though we do see Spearhead taking off very quickly, so expect the decks, battle mats and terrain for this to be released separately at some point.

If your are not sure on 4th edition, then play Spearhead. Spearhead allows you to take your current Vanguard box out for a game so you can see what your army does, and play the core concepts of the new edition without buying into anything (let's be honest, someone you know will have bought the box...)

Lastly. We noticed a little thing at the top of the warscrolls we had to use for 4th edition, "July 2024"

This seems to be a potential release window.... (with the store Dawnbringer campaigns ending towards the back end of June and the new 2 week preorder's we are expecting early July)

[talenlee]

Decemberween '23 — The Poorhammer Podcast

I don’t play Warhammer. I don’t have the little miniature boys, I don’t have the equipment for painting them, I don’t have the space to paint them, one of them cool little lamps for making them look good while you paint them. I can’t really identify the mechanical differences between Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar and what the point of the play experiences are and how they differ one from another. If I’m sitting down at a table with at least one friend and some miniatures and hours of investment, I’m going to play 4th edition D&D —

— the best edition of D&D —

and not the heavy metal gameplay experience that is Warhammer Of Some Variety. None of this is to say, however, that the game lacks appeal, and like a gawker on a roadside attraction, I still pay attention to the space. Mostly, however, through the podcast Poorhammer, which is about getting into the game while spending as little money as possible.

The Poorhammer podcast have a couple of threads of content, as many variety podcasts do. The conception of budget as it applies to Warhammer is an interesting one because the budget is not equally divided in the game mechanical system; there are expensive units that aren’t good, and there are good units that aren’t expensive, but also, there are definitely the inverse, and there are ways that your army can be constructed that reach a game state (minimum points required) that don’t necessarily represent a chance to play the game in a fun and balanced way.

They talk about it.

And it’s weird.

The $500 40K Army Challenge - How many factions can still be called AFFORDABLE?

Watch this video on YouTube

It’s one of the things that Warhammer has as a game that makes for a weird comparison to Magic: The Gathering. Like, you can take the cheapest cards for Magic: The Gathering, put them together, they’re pre-built, and play them against one another. They’re perfectly good, operating play devices and sure, players don’t have to play with them, but they work.

Warhammer is a strange thing where you can build an entire army and construct it and then the rules can change and your army is not only not valid, but it might not even be able to interact with another person and that’s after you invested labour in it. It’s not just ‘this hobby is expensive’ but rather ‘you can make errors in operation that involves extremely expensive pieces of hardware that wind up not being appropriate for you to use at all, and they don’t have much resale value.’

That’s what I find interesting about this podcast: In this episode, they talk about the idea of making a functional army for $500, from a newcomer’s perspective. And that’s $500! That’s a pretty expensive hobby for a kid! Or well, for an adult, but I don’t know what I spend on hobbies.

Finding Warhammer 40K's most expensive (and CHEAPEST) faction.

Watch this video on YouTube

(Really, I don’t.)

This vein is however something that generates data and the Poorhammer crew are willing to crunch it. I like this episode, with its heavy focus on breaking down every army into its numeric value and scale. It’s really interesting to me to see the way that an army can be treated as its component parts in a truly mathematical breakdown. This gives you a cool insight into the armies as they relate to one another, which can make it interesting to consider the kinds of things you want to build an army around.

(I have a bunch of nids in a box, forever unpainted, and they’re probably not ever going to be good, based on how I engage with them.)

Of course that doesn’t tell the whole story of what an army is, because they’re also a task to do – you know, you have to build the army, you have to plan around it, then you have to paint it.

(Well you don’t have to paint it, but you got into the hobby to paint things, right?)

The PAINting Tier List - Ranking Every 40K Faction by Painting Difficulty

Watch this video on YouTube

That’s where this kind of episode comes up. The hosts have hands-on experience painting a variety of armies. What’s more, they build armies based on the things they want those armies to do, which means that it’s not a hypothetical kind of conversation about the challenges of painting an army.

I couldn’t actually, like, execute on this information, but I think it’s really interesting to hear people talk about the material skills of painting. Plus, there’s ideas of different tools, which they expand on – this podcast has episodes about using photoshop to test out particular aesthetics, building paint techniques, and even how to avoid being ripped off by Games Workshop’s paint prices.

Particularly what I liked about this is the discussion of how the aesthetic of an army created a play experience. The meditative experience of painting your little dolls – which is part of the play – is a creative experience (paratextual to the game itself) – is a play experience they’re examining in terms of how it rewards adventure, how it lets you play.

The Infinite and The Divine - Book Club & Review

Watch this video on YouTube

Then there’s the other thing this podcast does, which is long form conversations about the lore of Warhammer 40k. In this case, I recommend this episode about The Infinite and the Divine, which is an example of a Warhammer book that is

Apparently

Good?

Like there’s an actual story about characters in the universe and they make choices and they have motivations and also they’re all skeletal death robots. In this case, the hosts made a reading club ahead of time, put a bunch of notices out so when they were going to start reading the book, and when the episode was going. That meant there was a sort of communal experience of people taking notes and sharing discord notes with the hosts, and then the hosts incorporate that into the episode.

This is how I engage with Warhammer 40,000. I check in, time to time on a podcast and see if it’s doing anything interesting. It’s a cool show, it’s well edited if you watch the Youtube videos, and it’s a fun time if you’re interested in a game with a huge demand without actually having to engage with the demands of that game. You don’t need to track the game, you don’t need to understand the game’s mechanics, but you can still understand how they talk about the ideas and ideology of the game’s world.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[divineerdrick]

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Reveals From the Dallas Open 2024

Alright!

When Age of Sigmar 4th Edition was revealed, I was a bit down on it. Part of this was just hearing regurgitated marketing from 10th Edition. Part of it was I didn't like the way they did the reveal show. Part of it was I didn't like the Stormcast half of the cinematic trailer (the Skaven half was awesome!). But, I've been following the reveals for AoS4, including Vince Venturella's Warhammer Weekly podcast. And, with some exceptions, I like what I've seen. I'm still worried, especially for another "buggy" launch, but I do like what they've shown. Tonight, they're doing a big reveal show from the Dallas Open, and I'm hoping to see more.

What I Expect

As almost everyone does, I'm expecting to see the launch box revealed in full. I'm pretty sure we'll get a nice presentation of all the new plastic coming, the new cover of the new rule book, and maybe a few other noteworthy inclusions (got my fingers crossed here.) I'm also expecting to see a few more rules teasers, probably unit profiles for some of the new models. And honestly, that's all I'm actually expecting to see. That's basically what we got with the full Leviathan reveal, and I think that's probably most of what we'll get here too. If we're lucky, we might get to see the two new Spearheads for Stormcast and Skaven, as they're probably in the box.

What I'm Hoping For

However, they need not stop there. First, let's talk inclusions for that big box. I'm hoping it will come with a Battle Tactics deck similar to the Leviathan deck for 40K. We've already seen that the basic Battle Tactics module for AoS4 is pretty bad. But the Battle Tactics deck coming with Spearhead looks awesome, and is very reminiscent of Leviathan. I really want there to be something similar for core AoS.

Next, it would be really nice if they actually put some terrain in the box. This is a reach, since they haven't boxed up any terrain for some time now (outside of ultimate starter sets.) But with new terrain rules it would be nice to see some new terrain. This is very much not likely, but we might see some new Skaven terrain pieces that will be sold later or possibly in some ultimate starter set.

Finally it would be nice to see a roadmap for AoS4 releases. The releases for 40K have been coming nice and fast. I'm hoping they're planning something similar for AoS.

The "Live" Show

D'oh! I it looks like another prerecorded show!

And there's all our shiny new Stormcast!

Love this Lord-Vigilant on Gryph-Stalker!

Yep its prerecorded interviews on the couch . . .

At least it feels like we're getting more of the minis this time, with multiple views and angles and even different lighting. That's an improvement at least.

"More to come." Better be more, we still got Skaven.

And here are the rats!

Yes! Rat Ogors! They look awesome!

We've already seen the Jezails and the Engineer.

Finally our big rat on a big rat!

Love this warp blaster! I'm just all about this.

And back to the interviews! "Yes, players. We here at GW also are constantly waiting for our ranges to get refreshed!" I don't know if this is all the models, but it doesn't feel like enough Skaven for the amount of Stormcast we saw. Like, I feel like there should be a lot more Skaven.

Okay, so with this book reveal, that's probably the box. But they say they're more announcements coming. Let's see what they have planned.

Looks like this box will come with a separate campaign rulebook.

Oh nope! It's the rules for Spearhead games!

And back to the couch! Here are those marketing points again . . .

Okay, these second and third points are actually new. We know they were building up interactivity in AoS 3rd, but they're trying to keep that going. And from the previews, that seems to be true.

The final point about keeping games close with lots of back and forth moments makes me hope again that we'll get some kind Battle Tactics deck. I'm always a little leery of there being too many catchup mechanics. Again, sometimes the right answer is to shake hands and rack up again. I don't want games to feel like they're scripted. It stifles strategy and can make games predictable.

Oh! We're getting a simplified version of the Generals Handsbook!

Okay, we already knew about Spearhead, but here are the Skaven and Stormcast Spearheads. As expected, you can make them out of the launch box.

Sneaking in some new ones too, or at least teasers for them.

Looks like they're going to try to keep the stats the same, even if the rules are unique, so it's somewhat easier to go from Spearhead to the core game. Already had a little difficulty taking new players from Combat Patrol to 40K.

Don't know if these are from the Vanguards but we've got images of some Nurgle vs. Seraphon.

Okay! We still have some more! Maybe I'll get some of my wishlist tonight!

So here's the full boxset reveal.

Yeah, 24 Stormcast to 50 Skaven doesn't quite seem right. That is a lot of minis though. These are just all fantastic models. We'll be going through those on their own in a bit.

Wow! There is a bit, even if only a little bit, of terrain in the box! I'm honestly surprised!

And with that! Hi Adam! Hi Paul!

Okay, other than some Spearhead teasers this was honestly just the boxset stretched out into a 30 minute show. We did get a lot of looks at the miniatures this time, but that's basically it. There were a couple of different tidbits in the interviews, but honestly nothing we haven't already gotten from WarCom.

This really was just 30 minutes of one box.

Oh well, the WarCom articles should be up soon and we'll go through them one by one.

The Miniatures

While the show was honestly stretched out a lot, and didn't really have anything new other than the box contents, there were a lot of miniatures. And we got some loving shots of them this time!

Lord-Vigilant on Gryph-Stalker

Absolutely fantastic piece! While Stormcast helmets can be kind of bland, the crown is nice and the Gryph-Stalker looks incredibly regal.

Lord-Veritant

They Gryphs don't stop though! Here we have a kind of blind seer look. Again, this model drips character. And there's something about that Gryph-Hound that looks like they are done with your nonsense.

Lord Terminos

The model for our perspective character from our new cinematic looks absolutely fantastic. They look like they're waiting in silent meditation, along with their attendant, for that moment that Sigmar determines they're needed. I love the details on the cloak too.

Knight-Questor

Another model that left the helmet at home, this one has a very grizzled veteran look that goes well with their lore.

Reclusians

Some of our line Stormcast, also with mortal attendants. Again, amazing amount of detail on these miniatures.

Prosecutors

Here we get my first miss. Most of this is the faces. There's something about them that has kind of that exaggerated, Dredd style faces I've never been particularly fond of. Also the flames coming out of the wings aren't working for me. It feels like they were trying to depict feathers made of magic flame, and I just don't feel they got there.

Liberators

On the other hand, the Stormcast mass melee has never looked better! These models look absolutely fierce!

And with that, those are our Stormcast models. Now let's look at our rats!

Clawlord on Gnaw-Beast

Look at him! Look at him! He just looks so awesome and that gnaw-beast looks so nasty! I would not want to get bit by that! Just glorious!

Grey Seer

I absolutely love this, but I'm having trouble coming up with why. There's a very sinister aspect that's definitely helping. But then I see those rats coming out of the cracked bell. Absolutely awesome!

Rat Ogors

Possibly my favorite new models. What can I say? I love my big monsters. But seriously these look epic!

Ratling Warpblaster

I love steampunk, and Skaven tech (as well as Kharadron) have a very nice steampunk aesthetic. The goggles and his intense aiming also remind me a bit of WoW style Gnome/Goblin engineering. And it's all contrasted by the absolute raggedness of the Skaven pushing the machine.

Warlock Engineer

And here's one that's a slight miss, emphasis on slight there, but I honestly can't tell you why. I think maybe they look just a bit too dignified? I'm really struggling to explain why this isn't working for me.

Clanrats

And here they are! Our new clanrats! And they're an appropriately motley crew. Lots of fun here!

Warplock Jezzails

I've seen these already too, and I still love them. I like the design of the shield and brace. And I absolutely love the sinister expressions on these rats, befitting a sneaky sniper assassin.

Final Thoughts

So this was all box and miniatures, as I said, stretched out over 30 minutes. We really didn't get a lot of new info, save for some teased Spearheads and the surprise of a Spearhead book and GHB in the box. Oh yeah! And somehow I got my wish for a handful of terrain for this launch box!

Miniature wise we're a little bit more than Leviathan, though there were a handful of really big kits in that box. We technically did get two books in Leviathan, as the Leviathan book included the Leviathan Crusade book. The hardcover Spearhead book will be nice, though I'm pretty sure that will be available free online.

But Skaventide is also including a lot of play aids, including cards for both the Warscrolls and GHB rules. On the balance I think they'll be mostly comparable boxes.

And I love Skaven! I love villain factions that are full of character and personality, and Skaven have it in spades! And I really do love the new Stormcast models too. But I'm a little sad that GW has decided to keep using Stormcast as their launch faction. I know they're the poster child for AoS, but I feel that things like this have a huge effect on how factions are perceived. New factions in launch boxes experience spikes in popularity. Where as if one faction is constantly focused on, well just look at all the Ultramarines memes.

Tomorrow we go back to the grimdark future. But I don't feel like reacting to another of the prerecorded shows. I think I might, emphasis might, watch it, but then just look at the miniatures on WarCom. I want them to go back to actual live shows with at least some audience interaction.

[feyd-rautha-apologist]

Having some weird issues with the Age of Sigmar website. I'm trying to input my code for the Hel's Crown campaign, but the stupid fucking "this website uses cookies" pop-up won't go away, so I can't do anything on the site. If anyone has a solution to this it'd be greatly appreciated

[micecakes]

hmm age of sigmar 4th edition gnomes army I think

[tinyorcenthusiast]

You know, I gotta say. I do love how loosey goosey Warhammer lore is, both Age of Sigmar and 40 Kay.

Like, in Age of Sigmar, with 4th Edition rolling around, there's bound to be a LOT of lore shake ups. But it's beautiful to see my lovely green Orruk sons running around in Shyish kicking over graves and beating up skeletons to "fight da boney boyz" (referring to the Ossiarch Bonereapers) when in reality they're just harassing a bunch of Deathrattle Kingdom settlements and doing nothing to mess with or disrupt the Bonereaper's agenda.

Or in 40,000 where I can have a gang of Queer Space Elf Pirated in a gang war with a group of Blood Axe Kommandos in the background of a Dwarf (I mean Kin) and Genestealer Cult war while the Tyranids are devouring the Galaxy around them.

I just really love how you can just do that. I know you could do it in other things and stuff, but having physical tokens helps my brain fester with nerd stuff.