AoS - 3rd AoS News Thread

[Sception]

Nice to see the forum back up, at least for now.

In the time since the last news post, we have seen a fair bit of death news in AoS - in particular Battletome updates for three of the four current death factions. I'm still absorbing the NH/FEC releases, but as for Soulblight Gravelords, the most important faction for this forum in particular...

Soulblight Gravelords saw their battletome arrive with a significant model range expansion, including new Vampire Lord on Nightmare Steed (finally!), new Black Knights (now Barrow Knights), new Grave Guard (now Barrow Guard), new faction terrain (mausoleums in the Garden of Morr style, functionally bespoke models for the old grave sites mechanical concept), new endless spells, a new mounted wight king (dual kit with a lesser version of the same, which was a weird choice, on top of a new mounted wight king at all being an weird choice when the previous model was pretty new and well regarded), new cado with friends (another weird choice as again the previous model was recent and well regarded) and new Prince Vhordrai on 'revenant draconith' (dual kit with unmounted revenant draconith, but NOT with a generic vampire lord on zombie dragon, which was maybe the weirdest choice of all). Pretty much all of the new models are fantastic, and the new black knights, grave guard, and vampire lord on nightmare steed are especially welcome additions, as the old wights were very much showing their age, and the lack of a cavalry vampire lord option to run with blood knights was a major gap in the range.

Several units are getting kicked to legends - mostly cursed city box set stuff (though oddly not radukar the wolf), plus old cado, the bloodseeker palanquin (good! never should have existed, imo), and frustratingly the generic vampire lord on zombie dragon. This is unfortunate, but kind of necessary (apart from VLoZD - again Vhordrai really should have had a generic rider alternate build, and it's really annoying that he doesn't) as the book was a bit overstuffed, and personally I would have preferred to see Kritza, Annika, radukar the wolf, and ivya all join them on the way out, with a note that you can still use the models as regular vampire lords even if their base size is weird. The stuff going to legends did get a pdf supplement, so at least the models will stay playable for another year.

Lore wise we frustratingly /still/ haven't had really any coverage of the civil war between Mannfred and Neferata, which IMO should have been the absolute thematic core of the faction in both 3rd ed and 4th ed, and now it feels like it'll never get the narrative attention it deserved. Instead the lore focuses on deathrattle kingdoms and on a new ret-conned backstory and motivation for Prince Vhordrai and his zombie dragon steed. Which I guess is fair enough as those are the new models, and the new lore for Vhordrai is a great change and a big step up from his previous characterization. So at least the new lore isn't bad... but yeah, it feels like the opportunity to do something cool with Neferata vs. Mannfred has been well and truly missed at this point, as the feud really can't last past the reintroduction of Nagash, and I can't imagine the big guy is going to sit out three editions in a row.

Mechanics are are a largely positive story with a few somewhat unfortunate asterisks. The book is strong, maybe not top of the heap but it's butting up a lost of good showings on the tournament scene, and with a fair bit of variety too. Vhordrai, the mortarchs, vengorians, wight kings, cavalry vampires, radu-beast, blood knights, barrow knights, even vargheists - a lot of units are seeing play in lists that are putting up good results at major events. So that's great. And the book's two 'Armies of Renown' are probably the best designed so far, being very interesting and thematic and just functional enough to be casually playable without risking displacing the main faction rules in competitive formats. Unfortunately, the shambling infantry hoard that is the iconic aesthetic identity of the faction and should be the go-to default mechanical build isn't really seeing much success that I've seen. I blame this more on the state of the current core rules & GHB season than on major flaws in the design of our infantry units themselves, but still it's sad to see. And this battletome did kind of mark a turning point away from the faction pack reprint jobs where previous battletomes were clearly written before 4e even released, it's still stuck with the overal design philosophies of 4th edition AoS faction rules - only 3 spells in the spell lore, only 3 artefacts, extremely minimal 'battle formation' rules fully separated from actual subfaction lore, which is kept completely isolated from the mechanics apart from armies of infamy. This approach doesn't hurt the faction in terms of overall game balance and playability, again the new book is doing very well competitively, with a healthy amount of internal variety. But the removal of subfaction rules for our legions/dynasties/bloodlines still hurts the ~feel~ of soulbight gravelords more than maybe any other faction in the game.

So mixed but on the whole very positive news for Soulblight Gravelords.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

As much as I tried I just couldn't get excited about the Soulblight Gravelords. There just doesn't seem to be enough interesting lore or development. That said, yes some amazing new models but ones in more likely to nab for the Old World.

The biggest glow up for me are the Flesheater Courts. I love the evolution there if insane vampires and ghouls who think they are noble nights etc. They are definitely on my to-do list along with some conversions.

 

[Sception]

FEC are definitely the stand out faction in Death ever since their late 3e facelift. They've got the best lore gimmick & the most interesting ongoing narrative, a great mix of grimdark pathos & goofy fun, & some fantastic minis. And their ruleset is pretty cool too.

Sadly there's still a fair bit of holdover jank in their range. As much as I appreciate the new soulblight models, I think FEC needed a 2nd wave more. Can't say I'm a big fan of the new 'falconer' guy either, at least not model wise.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Just had a quick look at the Falconer guy - yeah that's not working for me either. Something about it doesn't fit, it's better when they visibly look more monstrous but think they are nobility, and this guy doesn't cut it.

I've not looked through the full range in while, but maybe...maybe this could be my new little army. I do like blending non-GW models as well so could be a fun Plog, throw some conversions in there.

But first, I'm a lore man, so I think I'll have to turn my hand back to some writing...although I'm very very rusty!

 

[Sception]

The narrative hooks for FEC are fantastic. OBR are my boney boys, but I can't deny how juicy the core conceit of the Flesh Eaters is. They should make a great basis for new writing projects, and the trick of conveying their deluded point of view while still figuring out when and how to clue the reader in on what's really happening should be a fun and interesting challenge, with great opportunities for both horror and comedy. Model-wise, if you work out a good recipe for ghoulish skin then they should be pretty quick to paint up as well.

Sadly I can't really offer list building suggestions as I'm not yet familiar with the new battletome and am not likely to get any play experience with or against it any time soon. But FEC have been relatively popular since their 3e release, and reaction to their 4e battletome has been pretty positive from what I've seen, so it shouldn't be too hard to find advice on reddit or youtube.

And if you're looking for a place to start, there's always spearhead. If there's one thing I unconditionally approve of in 4e, that's it. Warhammer in general and AoS in particular has long had a problem with the introductory small game experience and Spearhead has almost entirely fixed that. It plays fast and fun, is surprisingly well balanced, and the core and unit rules are well tailored to the small game formate while remaining close enough to the 4e core rules that experience there does translate pretty well to the full game. The specific unit selections of the spearhead boxes may or may not build into proper competitive 2k AoS lists, but the AoS meta shifts significantly at least once a year with new matched play season rules, and even more frequently than that via pdf errata and balance updates, so when starting a new army it's usually not worth worrying about what units or even entire armies are or are not competitive, since that could change entirely within the next six months anyway.

Unfortunately GW, in what has become frustratingly standard fashion, has been pulling the older spearhead faction rules from their website whenever new battletomes with new spearheads are released. Which means that while FEC currently have two Spearhead forces to choose from, only the more recent one, the 'Charnal Watch', has rules currently available for free download from GW's website. For the other, the 'Carrion Retainers', you'll have to either find the old FEC faction pack PDF somewhere else, or grab a copy of the hardcover Fire and Jade book that was included in the 4th edition launch box but is NOT included in the separate Fire and Jade spearhead box, or you'll have to download GW's Age of Sigmar phone app which still has all the older spearhead rules available.

This is particularly annoying because, between the two boxes, I would personally recommend the Carrion Retainers. That box is entirely made up of newer AoS models, including the popular and cool Morbheg Knight cavalry unit. In contrast, the newer Charnel Watch box has two sets of the old Warhammer Fantasy Crypt Horrors / Vargheists, which are really showing their age at this point and are due to be replaced any edition now, especially since they're a cross-faction dual kit and GW seems eager to get rid of those if for nothing else than to make it easier to distinguish sales between model lines. The Charnel Watch also includes a box of the Royal Beastflayers Warcry warband, which are great models don't get me wrong, but the AoS rules for the first edition Warcry warbands all got kicked to legends in 4e along with most of the Underworlds warbands and more recently the Cursed City Soulblight stuff, so I wouldn't trust /any/ current boxed game releases to stay playable in AoS proper in 5th edition or beyond.

Within the context of current spearhead specifically the Charnel Watch is fine and cool, and I especially love the winged ghoul king 'Gorewarden' model leading it. But as the start of a new AoS army project? I just don't trust any of the models in that box apart from the gorewarden to still be playable and current three years from now.

...

On a more positive Spearhead note - the more recent Spearhead table box, Sand and Bone, is explicitly set in the Realm of Death, with spooky green/purple double sided game board, death magic themed mission cards, and terrain that fits in with the garden of morr aesthetic, including some very garden-of-morrish spiked fences, while being more un-deadish instead of just-deadish in feel, including a bust of Neferata and a sacrificial coffin/blood basin. The terrain isn't new, it's from an older Warhammer Underworlds starter box, but if you don't have it already it's a nice supplement to an undead collection.

 

[Oppenheimer]

What I'm frustrated by is that they discontinued the Wight King on Horse for a new one already. It's only a couple years old and looked great! I prefer it to the new one.

I did buy the new Sand and Bone set. It's frustratingly constructed as the large "fence" isn't see through according to the rules and the small wall is. This is just because they reused the terrain but didn't adjust the rules. I'm just going to have to use some old large walls and small fences as that kind of thing drives me crazy. Also the Neferata statue's rules are pretty terrible in Sand and Bone, basically you and your opponent can both gain or lose control of an objective, so it just adds randomness not strategy.

 

[Sception]

I also prefer the previous mounted wight king. Still have to re-base mine since the new one's base changed.

 

[Raven Torrid]

I kinda missed the fact that the previous one was discontinued, also prefer that one. Although it makes sense given the GW's newer policies where a new model for something means the old one is going away.
Don't know why would it be a problem to keep both, it's not like alt versions weren't a thing before. Glad I got it back when it was first released as a part of a Start Collecting. Great model and a great homage to the classic metal one.

 

[Seneschal]

I agree on the old wight being the better model, leaps and bounds better in my opinion. I also prefer the older versions of just about everything that was replaced in the last six months or so, varghulf, grave guard, dragon, etc.

 

[Sception]

Im with you on prefering the wight king (though o think the new one is also good), but not the rest. Imo the new grave guard are great, the new dragon is fantastic, etc.

But i do still hope the old range eventually returns to old world for those who prefer it.

in the mean time, if you prefer the ood black knights or zombie dragon, those models are still available for now as dual kits in other factions, since fec & nighthaunt haven't replaced their kits yet.

 

[The Sun King]

I love both models. I have painted the first one, and is a quite 'closed' model, whereas the new one looks more open, so I think it will easier to paint.

 

[Raven Torrid]

GW just announced four new AoS Battleforces, and one of them is Soulblight Gravelords/Vampire Counts:

I already have 10 Blood Knights but I will have to justify to myself getting 10 more.

Vhordrai is in there and I really like the model but it's bloody expensive on it's own so I wouldn't want to pass on this since those battleforces are usually great value.

Also, the Skaven one looks really good...

 

[Sception]

I can't get this one myself as I also already have 10 blood knights, plus 5 more on old world bases. Still, a nice looking box. Wish they found a way to squeeze the 'Vampire Lord on Nightmare Steed' in there, but still.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

I've swiftly changed my Christmas pressie request from my wife from just Vhordrai to this I do have 5 old metal Blood Dragons...which could be lethal weapons themselves with how heavy they are! This looks to be a good set of the price is right

 

[Oppenheimer]

The new dragon is nice and all but I'll stick with my old crew. The price point is a bit out of my budget and I don't need any more blood knights.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Just realised it has new bats in as well, last ones I had were the old pigbats So an added bonus there as well

 

[The Sun King]

Amazing box set! Damn I love the new dragon so much.

 

[Unas the slayer]

it's a solid set.
I've got only 5 blood knights and the new dragon is amazing.
I'm more into nighthaunts but this one's really tempting.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Dooooo iiiittt Unas the slayer Just think of that beautiful dragon on your shelf!

 

[Seneschal]

my next purchase for sure! Whoohoo!

 

[Count CocoFang]

I'm wanting to do something with the warhammer plus subscription model. If this guy's head is easy to change I think he'd make a great Necrarch vampire.

 

[Sception]

Looks like it might be a bit of a hassle to change, if it's the same bit as his collar. Not impossible, but you'd probably need to dig at it with a dremel after getting what you can with the clippers. Alternatively, you could do some light sculpting work - a speck of green stuff for some nosferatu fangs, another to put a point on the ear, and you'd probably be good to go.

I really like the model, the staff especially, but sadly I won't be getting one myself. I've been trying to drop as many subscriptions as possible lately, & unsubbed from warhammer plus shortly before this guy was revealed. He made it sorely tempting to sign back up for one more year, but so far I've held strong.

 

[Count CocoFang]

I thought about trying to green stuff the ears. I haven't tried something that small so I'm not sure how hard it would be, but worst case I waste a tiny amount of green stuff.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

A brilliant idea Count CocoFang - with the right paintjob that model could make a great Necrarch. That said Sception is likely right, that head is almost certainly molded into his pimpin' collar The other difficulty is getting old of Necrarch heads unless you have one - I think the old Necrarch's are all metal and so not the easiest to just use the head...unless you do 3D printing and that would then probably be might route of doing these. Otherwise as suggested, sculpting is probably your best bet. Check our articles on sculpting and using greenstuff.

I do have this model coming myself as well, it was too good to pass up for me!

 

[Count CocoFang]

I might just go the greenstuff route. I'll give those articles a read. I've done a little greenstuff work but still very much a novice.

I'm a sucker for alternate sculpts in general so I had to get this guy. He's got so much style I figured he'd make a fun character.