I think I don't understand the second story. What was the purpose of teleporting those Grots to... Shyish I guess? In small groups so the dead just kill them swiftly? Seems pointless.
Hmm... yeah, maybe. I don't know much about Grots so I struggle to understand their way of thinking. That's a big hole in my knowledge about Warhammer. I don't know anything about Grots except how they look like, that they work with Orruks, that they build unreliable machines and that they are cowards.
This is true - there are several pieces of Warhammer art with giant mechanical dwarfs in the background. They're called Grudgebringers
Yes, me too ! If I remember correctly, we saw Order, Destruction and Chaos new champions. So still have to see Death ? And I hope that we will have some story with Seraphon !
Ok I read the first half of the Malign Portents book now. There are several pages telling the story of AoS up to this point, but it includes a bit more information about the Realms than earlier books, which makes it fit well together with the lore stuff that we can read on the Malign Portents website. I like it, the website really feels like a tie in to the book. The book references the website and vice versa. The German translation is well done, this is the first GW book I have read that doesn't have half a dozen typos on the first 40 pages. The only weird thing is that names aren't translated which causes a few w3ird sentences. But that's normal in AoS, you can find that in all German books. Then there is a part that tells us the background stories about the Heralds. Each of them has two pages. Those texts are not copied from the website but different, so again they complement each other. In between are a few pages that tell us about the four Chaos Gods and how they feel something is wrong with Shyish and how they act. Very atmospheric short texts. Then - almost as an afterthought - there is a similar looking paragraph in which the Horned Rat's view is described. It seems it is really not quite there yet, standing one step below the Great Four. But it is clear that it has its agenda running to rise even more in the pantheon. Very nicely done IMO. Next we can read through some pages describing what Nagash did in Shyish and how it looks there. And also how the troops of the three other Grand Alliances gathered and attacked Shyish. Nice to read. Unfortunately the Order forces are only Stormcast in this part of the story. Then there are a few pages that broaden the view a bit, we read short paragraphs about other stuff that happens in the Realm, Death attacking almost everywhere. We carch short glimpses of Aelves, Chaos Warriors, Sylvaneth, Skaven, Dwarves, Demons, Stormcast, Ogors, Dwarves, Grots and Freeguild fighting Death. Most of them don't make it. No Seraphon in the book, not even mentioned. But same goes for many others so I wouldn't see it as a bad omen. The stories center on peoples getting attacked by Death and naturally Seraphon aren't there. They live in Azyr and there are no Death forces there. Then follow a few pages with pictures of battles with real miniatures, like in the Battletomes, and some miniatures painted by the Eavy Metal team. With that ends the fluff part. I will read the rules part tonight.
Makes sense for the Seraphon not to appear much, what can Nagash do with some lizards that come from the stars? Seraphon mentioned on the community page only because they might tear up some Chaos along the way and because Sigmar said so because the pact they made but naughty GW for not mentioning them popping down to say high in the book Still need to read the book myself, waiting for my sister to bring it as she is picking it up for me.
Ok I just looked through the other part of the book. I think I like it. There are rules for playing in Shyish, which are pretty atmospheric. Extra attributes for the battlefield so to speak. Then there are more of them, based on whether (and how many) units died in a turn + d6. Interesting although a bit random. Mainly meant for narrative play. Next are the Portents. Every army chooses one Portent, and gets some points every turn to spend them on. In matched play the points are fixed and innopen or narrative play they are more random but also depend on what you have in your army. Wizards Priests and the Heralds add bonuses. Each Portent gives a list of abilities that you can trigger using the aforementioned points. Some are cheap, some more expensive, and they can be used in a wide range of situations. The book also contains a few battleplans (two narrative ones and two for pitched battles, and one for skirmish) and also rules for Skirmish games in Shyish and skirmish points for the new models. There is even a page with new Skirmish artefacts and command abilities. And then there are the Warscrolls for the Heralds and the Heralds also bring additional abilities to use the points on. Also interesting about Heralds: They can always be picked as allies regardless of allegiance, and they can even be the General. There are restrictions though, so if you choose the Lord Ordinator as General in a Seraphon army you cannot use command traits or artefacts on him. The warscroll for the Citadel and the pitched battle profiles for the Heralds are also in the book. Overall I think the book is pretty nice. A bit more focussed on the narrative side of the game but I think when playing pitched battles among friends those new rules can add some fun. On the story side I mentioned earlier I admit I had expected a bit more, but so think the story will mainly develop outside of the book, via the website or so. It definitely feels a bit like a soft reboot of AoS and the start of something bigger. The price of 20€ is OK for that IMHO.