GW News: LAS VEGAS OPEN 2025

Ptra be praised!

Here's to similarly gorgeous reinventions of the three main Skeleton kits down the line

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com...0oV5Ybmi4E7AcXnk-w_aem_qndATQeCIKWAFDlXSjRu9A sounds like DOW are returning in a kinda, sorta fashion. At least in spirit.

 

To be honest, I like it a lot better this way - an Army of Infamy that plays around with existing units and allows for fun combinations of different Mercenary units, but not being a whole separate faction when it hasn't the consistency of aesthetics or united background to be one, and being more fitting for the background of the Border Princes in consisting of the sort of rabble of Bretonnian and Imperial diaspora backed up by the odd Dwarf or Ogre that a petty king of those lands could afford to hire as his personal bodyguard and retainers. Very much in the spirit of an old army idea my young self had thought of a while back - 'The Rebels', based on the generic antagonist Rebels factions seen in Rome and Medieval II Total War that had similar mismatched armies formed from all sorts of random units.

And it also avoids entertaining the horrible 'loosely-Warhammer skin over Renaissance Italy' lore that has unfortunately been the 'best' GW could think of for Tilea over the decades of Warhammer's history.

 

https://www.goonhammer.com/warhammer-the-old-world-arcane-journal-the-war-of-settras-fury-arcane/ So less DOW of old and more the fan list, at least in regards to the unit flexibility of the core units and characters.

 

So, the gist I am getting based on a skim reading - the units are all blank slate build-you-own kits without them all being relegated to separate profiles entirely?

If I wanted to create the Renaissance Italy that @Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl hates so much, it's just a case of saying "whelp, this weapon with this armour and done"?

I'm... ok with this, if my initial assumption is accurate. Let's me fit the profile to any third-party models I so desire. That hypothetical army made up of Byzantine models from FireForge I pondered about a few months ago can work.

When I have a spare moment, I'll give a slightly more thorough looksie.

 

Thing is, pikes aren't an option, so you can't exactly do the old DOW style. You could replicate it kind of with making a unit of sellswords with heavy armor and thrusting spears or veteran sellswords with spears and full plate, giving your lord the might of Miragliano background then giving the sellswords the phalanx upgrade. Given that infantry with spears now fights in three ranks after that FAQ, you can kind of create a pseudo pike unit.

 

Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

New Warhammer Quest. Set in Age of Sigmar, yet that knight's greathelm gives me Lady Botherer vibes.

Which, to be fair... I am all for the spin-off games of Age of Sigmar showcasing the cultures and subfactions that don't fit into the main faction ranges. A random knight errant of some random province of the Realms instead of a Stormcast is refreshing.

But at the same time... I am left wondering why not set this Warhammer Quest in The Old World?

Eh, we'll see if I'm interested in the idea of getting this when we have more than the boxart to go off of.

 

Excellent, a much better-looking Warhammer Quest title that can replace the horrible Cursed City version that was birthed at the height of GW's renewed Vampire obsession.

It's funny how not one but two of those models are extremely Bretonnian - the Knight and the lady sorceress with enchanted sword next to him. Not to mention the Dwarf being very Warhammer Fantasy with a smidgeon of Middle-Earth Dwarf Ranger added in for good measure. How amusing it is that despite The Old World being a separate game and after AoS wanting to be separate from Warhammer Fantasy for so long, AoS is re-adopting more and more Warhammer Fantasy ideas and has become fed up with doing its own thing.

Looking forward to seeing what lovely Beastmen models appear in the box too (sounds like new Pestigor sculpts are on the menu)... it was odd to see Beasty Boys be removed from AoS entirely when they are still very much confirmed to be in the setting (I know people will give "inter-team politics" as the reason, but it's still odd), unless they're going to return as new models in a restored army later on.

 

No SCE Battlefiorce box this time around, that's a plus.

Grrr, !mrahil

 

Well that's no surprise, they still manage to fit them in wherever they can even now . They had to make yet another ass Vampire model as one of their celebratory ones recently as I recall.

Sylvaneth being the Order box is certainly no upgrade


The Skaven and Troll-themed Gloomspite ones are fun though.

Not that I care much about overpriced big boxes for AoS which I'll never play now that the game's chosen the mediocre path it has elected to tread

 

Being fair, with GeeDubs doing those Battleforce boxes as one for each of the Great Alliances, that doesn't exactly leave a lot of room for the Alliance of Death. It is vampires, it is ghosts, or it is ghouls that think they're chivalrous knights.

Because of their earlier fixation, the vampires are the ones with the most variety to them, so... yeah, I can see vampires being the choice from a logical point of view.

Wasn't it Cities of Sigmar last year? I can't recall the last time Sylvaneth had a Battleforce box... but then I may have just blanked it out because it wasn't important.

 

Yeah, it is true that GW have very much backed themselves into a corner with their desire to make Death just a whole Grand Alliance of Vampire Counts models, though I wouldn't be surprised if it's intentional from their point of view because they all seem to be massive fans of the dull, samey Gothic horror themes in the army.

I'm sure they have been the focus in earlier years too even if it wasn't last year. I just can't remember the exact year.

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com...ber_Warriors_of_Chaos_&utm_content=&utm_term=






Next Arcane Journal announced, and Norscan Marauders. I think these are new sculpts, but I'll admit that I'm not especially familiar with the old Norscan minis. My basis on the assumption is the following line from the article: This brand new plastic kit brings these warrior tribes to life, in the form of muscular barbarians clad in fabrics, pelts, and chainmail.

If they aren't new sculpts, well, I'm sure you all will inform me of my incorrect assumption.

Slightly annoying timing, a project I was working on could have used these chaps. As it stands, I used Frostgrave's barbarians instead. Ah well...

 

They are absolutely new sculpts... here are the old ones still around on the GW webstore after they were brought back for TOW:




On one hand, I am rather salty about how Warriors of Chaos get brand new Marauder foot and horse sculpts in line with a second WoC-themed Journal, when Tomb Kings only got a pair of plastic characters for theirs and have Core unit sculpts that are far more in need of rebooting (and are, certainly to me, the far more interesting faction). GW continue to show an irritating display of favouritism toward some factions over others in terms of model releases (though at least they're not as bad as they used to be with regards of favouritism in-game).

But, on the other hand, I can't deny those new Marauder sculpts do look good. Very good. I especially like how they've leaned much more into the not-Viking aesthetic for the new ones compared to the old sculpts, with more beards and shaggy hair and less clean-shaven heads that are either bald, mohawked or top-knotted, because these not-Conan aesthetics have already been updated in the recent AoS Darkoath models, and thus GW wanted to make the Warhammer Fantasy Marauders more distinct in comparison.

In any case, great to see TOW get more attention, and it certainly does show that GW were always intending to use the old Warhammer Fantasy models primarily as placeholders until they could be updated with modern sculpts. I'll be most interested to see how they manage to update some of the old metal and resin models...

I wonder if this is another reason why GW confined half the Warhammer Fantasy factions to 'Legacy' for the time being - as it's much easier to organise concentrating on gradually updating the model range for 9 factions than it is for 16.

To be honest though, the Frostgrave Barbarians are going to be much more wallet-friendly, more compatible with other 28mm models outside of GeeDubs, and probably more poseable now than these new Marauders... apparently GW say that each of these new models can only be assigned one of two different head options, which makes me scratch my head. Why couldn't they just make all the head joints universal to allow maximum customisability?

That is the biggest quality drop of recent GW models in my view - they're very much sacrificing poseability and customisability for aesthetic quality, and their models are much more for display than gaming now.

 

That's been the trend for a goodly few years, unfortunately. I got into 40k at the point when Primaris Marines first dropped (though due to constant issues never actually played) and from the off the Primaris were a lot let posable than the classic marines. That trend only seems set to continue.

There is that. I've also got an order of the Crewmen coming, and some cross pollination between the two shall be happening. Doubt I could do that with these new marauders with the same ease.

Hmm... that'd be ideal... though I know a few people will have their inner-Dawi grumbling at new sculpts replacing their classic ones. But I'll just ignore those people in favour of picturing modern Empire figures. Hopefully they'd continue to retain their landsknecht vibes, instead of trying to alter them into something "marketable" and "uniquely GeeDub's brand of fantasy". Which I can unfortunately see, especially considering it's easy for players to grab historicals to stand in as Empire state troops.

Being honest... I most certainly hope that's the case. Though they then opted to bring in new factions (I'm still operating under the assumption that Kislev will get a Cathay styled release). But I don't know how the designers workload works, maybe they're working on updating models in between designing new ones... or something.

 

The push fit kits are hilarious. But also good for young beginners... Or for applying a knife to for more experimental conversion ideas that you don't want to risk actually good bits and kits on.

 

hilarious.....not how I would put it.....