Obviously it's just going to be decoration on the base of a chaos warrior or something But yeah, definitly a seraphon spear.
Fingers crossed. That would make it all the more bizarre that they released a Sylvaneth / Skaven boxset when they could have waited a few months and released an iconic Lizard vs Skaven matchup instead.
But there is another Chaos tome coming as well in the Autumn and Lizardmen vs anything Chaotic is still pretty thematic given all the battles the Lizardmen fought to protect the world from Chaos in Warhammer Fantasy (and presumably AoS as well). Personally I'm hoping for it to be Beastmen (Children of Chaos vs Children of the Old Ones) but it could be Tzeentch (A new plastic Slann vs a Lord of Change would be fun to have in a Battlebox) or Khorne (Saurus battling against Khorne Daemons would also be a good theme). Any of those would make a thematic match against Lizardmen.
A lord of change v.s. slann seems optimistic for a starter box. Then again, they did just dump a spirit of durthu in the sylvaneth box, so why not I guess. A new tome seems optimistic, I'd sooner expect a new underworlds warband or something equally minor.
I don't think an Underworlds Warband is likely, as they covered most of the Lizardman army with the Starblood Stalkers (a Skink Priest, one figure that could easily be a Skink Chief, several Skinks and a Saurus Oldblood), unless they make a Coalesced Saurus Warband with a Temple Guard, one or more Saurus with spears and some Saurus with clubs, but I would have thought such a warband would be superfluous given the Stalkers cover so much of the faction.
There's plenty of factions with multiple warbands. Also aside from SoB I don't think there's any faction still missing, and I doubt GW will stop pumping out warbands any time soon. So overlap between warbands is bound to happen eventually. Plus, the elaborate spear fits with underworld. Given that the models for warbands tend to be relativly fancy, even if they're relativly low ranked within the faction. And I'm just a bit sceptical of us getting a new tome this quickly. Given how long the last one took, and how long we had to make due with GHB updates. Especially as competitively we're doing "fine". So there's little pressure to release a completly new tome.
That is true, but each warband features a different aspect of the faction - the new Skaven one for example is Eshin whereas the original from Season 1 was Verminus. I can't see Lizardmen getting a second Warband because, as I mentioned above, most of the army is covered by the Starblood Stalkers. If the Stalkers had just been a Skink Warband I could see them releasing a Saurus one, but because there is a Saurus Oldblood there I'm now sceptical as to whether they would make another one when Saurus (or at least 1 Saurus) are already featured.
There's plenty of options left. A kroxigor band, a hunting pack band, a Slann + guard, a Saurus band, a full chameleon band The stalkers might be a generalized warband for our army, but it by no means covers every possible approach the seraphon could take towards such warbands. Are there faction specific warcry warbands? Only the shadow elfs right? Actually, did they already reveal the opponents for the hashut warband? Maybe we get a new startbox where it's seraphon versus them?
It does look very much like an updated Seraphon/Lizardmen weapon. However, based on current GW trends, a line re-fresh seems unlikely. Additionally, this spear looks pretty elaborate which feels more like a hero weapon. Again, based on current GW, IF we are due for a book update this year, if would likely be just a single new Seraphon hero (which I don't know that we need) to improve our foot troops (which we could use). I can't really think of a current Seraphon hero that could use an update and who wields a spear, unless GW changes one of our heroes. Like others have mentioned, I think Underworlds is possible b/c the models are more unique "one offs". Maybe Warcry, but that feels less likely just b/c armies have most of their units in there already. Of course GW could be baiting us, and it's just a decoration on some non-lizard model. Also, let's not forget that Rumor Engines can take a year or more to reveal. Wacky speculation: The lance of an updated Scar-vet on Cold One, at the head of new kit of updated Saurus Knights. The fancy prod of an updated Salamander/Razordon kit. The lance for an updated unit of Skinks on dino mounts (a la Tichi Huichi's Raiders). The spear of the Skink attendant for an updated Slann kit. A Necron spear.
Couldn't be this one, it's far too Aztec to be Necron. Necrons don't have the little glyphs that dangle everywhere like the Lizardmen do, and it's not Egyptian enough.
The Games Workshop Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some would consider to be unnatural
I think you mean Stormcast Hero, with an ability called I am your hero now! Can ride a carnosaur or cold one (sold separately)
Well, if you consider that the intro tells literally "Luckily for the Sylvaneth, Skrittat was always doomed to fail", you cannot say the box isn't true to its lore.
All very good points that everyone has brought up. Very likely a new foot hero or warcry band, or something to that effect. The optimist in me says - just like other forms of media, GW is hopping in the Jurassic World hype train and doing dinosaur releases near-to, or around, the release of Jurassic World Dominion. No easier way to promote dinosaurs than a Jurassic film. Guess we’ll see in the following months. I really just hope for Saurus and Saurus knight updates, so they actually look nice next to my Carnosaur and Stegadons.
I'm definitely thinking it's the typical "one new foot hero" that everyone's been getting with their new books. Most likely an updated Oldblood or Scar-Vet on foot. Will probably hand out some sort of buff that makes Saurus slightly better. Yeah, but you never know with GW. Some factions get multiple battletomes a year *cough*Elves*cough* But honestly, I kind of fear getting a new book so soon. Unless GW gave the project to someone who likes Lizardmen, it will probably be a "revenge nerf" book similar to Slaanesh that either nerfs our good stuff to the ground while not bringing up the bad stuff enough, or just over-costs everything in points so much that the army becomes unusable. I'll keep my fingers crossed...