I could live with that, as long as the Lizards still have a place. I wonder if each army will be included in the new book, or if it will only be the rumoured 6 factions. That's true.
Further Webstore Observations: The BRB is leaving (though that's not particularly surprising at this point). Some, of the scenario/campaign books are leaving, but not all! The Lustria, Northern Waste, Civil War, Deathknell Watch, and Skullvane Manse products do not have a departure notice on them. However, the Storm of Magic, Triumph and Treachery, Sigmar's Blood, and Mighty Empires ones are all marked as leaving soon. I've never used, or even read, these products so I don't know how to differentiate the two categories. What do you guys think? While Storm of Magic has a notice on it, the Scrolls of Binding products do not. I don't know what to make of that. I guess that's so they can still sell the monster models in the future? Anyway, moving on. Magic Cards are leaving. Normal and lizardmen. Even the Lore of Undeath (which is only on there as an eBook now anyway?) is marked as departing. I speculate that we're looking at overhaul of the entire magic system. The "Warhammer Counter Set" is marked as leaving. The "Universal Templates" set is not. That's all that I found with notices, but I also saw that the square/rectangle modular movement trays do not have a departure notice on them, so that's... a thing... Finally, as @Qupakoco noted, none of the models (at least, none that I clicked on - there are so many!) are marked to leave. Even End Times-specific ones like Nagash, Ungrim, Verminlord, the Glottkin, Stormvermin, Morghasts, and so on, appear to be staying. I suppose that's natural for a company that considers itself a miniatures company first, and a game company second. Anyway, that's all I have time for right now. Exciting/terrifying/enraging/stressful/confusing times ahead!!
My guess: all current miniatures become direct only from GW's web store. They are functional in next edition, but will receive no further updates and the rules will only be available in the current army book, meaning if you don't already own one then tough sh1t. Local stores will focus on new models. The new book will contain thr new models only. Come 10th edition and our armies will no longer be usable and considered phased out. It'll be a slow process to kill off the current armies without completly leaving people in the dust. Utter bullshit, but that's how I think it'll be. I can, however, be pleasantly surprised.
Another Note: The square and rectangular minis-bases are still for sale, and do NOT have departure notices. I wouldn't take that as confirmation of anything... but speculate away ^_^
Anything is possible! I could also guess GW will make new rules for all models, since they aren't expressly phasing any models out (yet), but then the new rules leaving old models inferior. Mildly Satirical Example: New (Parodical) Old-Model "Weakened By Centuries In Space" Saurus Rules: 12 points for a model with WS 3, T3, A1, S2, etc. New (Parodical) New-Model MarySueRaptor Infantry: 9 Points for a model with WS4, T5, A2, S4,etc.
They kinda did that with a fast and dirty low-powered set of lists once. Was it when Sixth changed to Seventh? (Remember the "get you by" army lists? Was it called Ravening Hordes?) But then they started cranking out books for a new cycle of power creep. Lizardhammer "...the armies, units and stats are all written simultaneously and the balance between armies actually exists..." This is what I keep suggesting we do for ourselves if GW can't be bothered. The most important stat being the point value. Start with the LM army and work our way 'outward'. Perhaps in the order each army appeared in the original game. Or some other order. Maybe go backwards in reverse order of released books. Or start with the army with the oldest, most dated, book: Dogs of War then Bretonnians ? <Shrug> We could work in batches: All three Elves, then the two Dwarfs, then the multi-tude of Humans, then the Undead, finally Chaos.
I don't want to imply that I have any idea what will happen, but that seems like quality middle finger material for people who swear on their souls that they know for a fact that AoS will be Skirmish only with round bases only.
Even know I said I will go into a paint mode until nearer the time, I can't help but to look up more rumors. Why GW? Why you keep so secretive?
Yep, it's not working. Me and my boyfriend have lost hype and started playing Malifaux and Hordes and of course going back to Warhammer but we have 0 hype at the moment. Pretty bored of suspense.
I hear you! I haven't bought anything significant from GW in quite some time. I'm waiting to see how all this turns out.
From Warseer: I had the chance to spend about 20 minutes with the upcoming book Age of Sigmar by A. Lanning (a novel, not the game) that deals with the aftermath of the end times. The prologue makes it very clear that Sigmar survives and the whole plot takes place after the end times. Nothing that I have read suggests that there is any time travel involved. It is just a continuation of the story on a much broader scale. I think it is safe to say that the game of the same name follows the story of book and doesn't establish a totally different setting. In the prologue Sigmar survives and pulls the winds of magics through the gap into the warp. In the process the pure untouched currents of the warp are tainted with the personifications of the winds - the Incarnates. This is the birth of eight new minor gods. But most of the book is not about sigmar or the incarnate gods directly, only three chapters as far as I could see were written from their perspective. The rest of the book is an ordinary fantasy adventure story. The book follows Martellus Mann, a reikguard quartermaster who was slain in the end times, but is reborn in Sigmarshall, the domain of Sigmar. I then skipped some hundred pages forward so I don't know what happened in the aftermath, but in the middle of the book, he has gathered a large party of heroes from many realms and realities in a quest for something called the spirit mill or soul mill or something like this. I know for sure that there are several worlds and that the protagonist can travel from one to the other but I didn't read a chapter where this was described in person and I don't know if this is part of the game world. In the middle of the books there is a huge betrayal, sigmarshall is under siege by the armies of the chaos gods. incarnate fights against incarnate and all are cast out from the warp. Mann starts a search for sigmar in the believe that he was reborn somewhere. The second half of the book is set on a world called Regalia. And here it gets interesting: Regalia is the only area/realm/world that has a map in the book. Regalia looks like the old world or earth and has very familiar regions and city names, etc. But there are some huge alterations: there is no Ulthuan, but a huge landbridge that connects Canada with Scandinavia. There are no elven or dwarven sounding cities or lands but strange sounding names in the Americas and Africa that don't fit any race of the old setting. There is no empire, but lots of different states in Europe and Asia - Nuln, Middenheim, etc are there, but Altdorf is not. There are more things you can deduce from the map if you assume that it represents the setting of the game, which I strongly think it does. Mann finally arrives in the city Heldenheim that is build in the Worlds Edge Mountains just in time to visit the crowning of emperor Karl Franz where he announces his plan to conquer the whole world. Mann thinks that he has found Sigmar and the book jumps to the epilog. Sigmar is chained somewhere and starts to dwindle, but then he smiles and proclaims that his great work to eliminate the chaos once and for all has only started. He vows to conquer the warp.
I really liked Triumph and Treachery. The way that it turns a game of Warhammer into a backstabbing fun-fest can be very entertaining. Also Storm of Magic can be fun at times. Bringing in big ol' bound monsters and whatnot, not to mention super spells. The other two I cannot comment on.
Incarnates of a certain color of magic? Travel between worlds and alternate realities? Sounds a LOT like Planeswalking from Magic The Gathering! Which is NOT a bad thing.
Could be quite interesting overall and reassuring to see the bubble hammer rumours are not being supported.