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divineerdrick · 6 months

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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.

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divineerdrick · 4 months

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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.

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