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 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Overread wrote:
Clearly a new Tyranid Lord of War model - holding the remains of some fallen Chaos sorcerer in its huge jaws. Crushing the tainted life out of them as part of a huge Anti-Chaos Tyranid Campaign.

You've basically summed up why Rumour Engine pics are all but worthless.

Well its mostly a bit of fun and marketing.

But yeah sometimes they are super teasing. Eg the time they showed scales and everyone thought it was a new lizard and it turned out to be a dead lizard skin on a marine; or the new tyranid head that turned out to be a dead tyranid on an IG base (though I've got her and she's darn well going to be a genestealer cultist one day)

 Overread wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Overread wrote:
Clearly a new Tyranid Lord of War model - holding the remains of some fallen Chaos sorcerer in its huge jaws. Crushing the tainted life out of them as part of a huge Anti-Chaos Tyranid Campaign.

You've basically summed up why Rumour Engine pics are all but worthless.

Well its mostly a bit of fun and marketing.

But yeah sometimes they are super teasing. Eg the time they showed scales and everyone thought it was a new lizard and it turned out to be a dead lizard skin on a marine; or the new tyranid head that turned out to be a dead tyranid on an IG base (though I've got her and she's darn well going to be a genestealer cultist one day)

IMHO the rumour engine pics are just too few and far between and too thematically disjunct to get any excitement going. It rather have them scrap the weekly drip-feeding of a single nonsensical pic in favour of stuff like the 'Advent Engine' or 'Easter Engine' or whatever every couple of months with a lot of pictures in a shorter timeframe. But I guess the marketing dept. has numbers on what works the best, or more importantly numbers they themself need to match. Clicks for the click god, Unique User Interactions for the Unique User Interaction throne!

They generate enough interest that most forums/groups/clubs/websites active with GW stuff tend to report/chat about them when they come out (this thread is living proof of that).

 Overread wrote:
They generate enough interest that most forums/groups/clubs/websites active with GW stuff tend to report/chat about them when they come out (this thread is living proof of that).

Yep. Like it or not I rather have this approach than the one that we had, with no news about anything for months.
Men complaining about food when they have the belly full XD XD

 NAVARRO wrote:

 Overread wrote:
They generate enough interest that most forums/groups/clubs/websites active with GW stuff tend to report/chat about them when they come out (this thread is living proof of that).

Yep. Like it or not I rather have this approach than the one that we had, with no news about anything for months.
Men complaining about food when they have the belly full XD XD

It's an interesting conundrum to be honest. You are right, it was painful when GW never did a real preview and refused to acknowledge they were making anything new. By contrast we now get rumour engine pics that are either clearly related to something that has already been previewed on occasion, or near release. Sometimes they're really vague and generic, to the point it could be nearly anything (like this one, although no the worst example). In other previews they tease a teaser for something that they've already told us about, like the tarot cards being the arks of omen books, which are a monumental waste of effort.

The rumor engine is a funny gimmik thing that is not really supposed to give any hard information.
I just enjoy the fellow posters casual wit and knowlege about the setting.

No need to get riled up about.

Tsagualsa wrote:

 Shadow Walker wrote:
Chaos? Dark Mech?

It's a chaosy banner or something like that, and pretty obviously 40k or 40k-adjacent with the bionic eye on the skull. Seems to be rather small, perhaps a back banner or icon, not overtly god-specific. Do we have rumors about the content of the 10th edition starter set?

Nothing yet but the new chaos bikes kit from the BigLeakTM are still unaccounted for.

 Shadow Walker wrote:
Chaos? Dark Mech?

Commissar Yarrick.

 Dysartes wrote:
Definitely something Chaos, I'd say - the general structure is too much of an eight-pointed start to be anything else.

I don't see it as a World Eaters component, though, which does leave me struggling a little to place where it is likely to crop up.

Potentially a banner, or the top of a staff, if we assume the angle of this picture doesn't line up with "down" for the model?

down for the model isn’t down for the staff, if he’s holding it at an angle.

I think that's a sword pommel. It's definitely something on something largish's back at that angle.

Standard topper for a traitor guard command squad

The just revealed boxing day miniature solves some engine pictures that have been long in the tooth:



Source: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/12/12/this-years-boxing-day-miniature-has-a-next-level-party-hat/


From April 2020


From May 2020


From June 2021

Credit to: https://warbosskurgan.blogspot.com/p/rumour-engines.html

Makes me wonder if it was originally a model for a Cursed City expansion. There was a location on the original map that sounded like a ghoul lair.

 Dryaktylus wrote:
Makes me wonder if it was originally a model for a Cursed City expansion.

This again?

First, it's a vampire, not a ghoul. Yes, the kind that usually has ghouls as lackeys, but I can't see him sharing the city with normal vampires. Aren't they supposed to hate each other? And why wouldn't it be Slavic themed like the others? Second, if this mini is push fit, maybe it was expansion, but I can't see it. Isn't the base too big for CC grid?

Has anyone thought to train an AI/ML algorithm on official GW images, and then feed it Rumor Engine images to see what it identified them as?

 Irbis wrote:

 Dryaktylus wrote:
Makes me wonder if it was originally a model for a Cursed City expansion.

This again?

First, it's a vampire, not a ghoul. Yes, the kind that usually has ghouls as lackeys, but I can't see him sharing the city with normal vampires. Aren't they supposed to hate each other? And why wouldn't it be Slavic themed like the others? Second, if this mini is push fit, maybe it was expansion, but I can't see it. Isn't the base too big for CC grid?

The original map had a location for each Nighthaunt and Ghouls (yes, I know the differences between ghoulish vampires called ghoul kings and ghouls...). Looking at the age of the Rumour Engine pics, it's a bit of a surprise to see this model as a Boxing Day-miniature in 2022.

Don't know if the base is too big - could be the same as the Vargskyr. Btw I doubted, the rat guy and Annika were made for CC, because their bases were too long (havn't played the expansions yet so I don't know how it works). And he's as slavic as the vampire spawns - I mean, he's half-naked.

And I was just wondering. Nothing more.

 Dryaktylus wrote:
And he's as slavic as the vampire spawns - I mean, he's half-naked. And I was just wondering. Nothing more.

Don't forget the first Vampire Counts book had Strigoi. I always felt the Flesheater Courts were a callback to that

Well. That’s an Axe (note the ‘e’ )

And a Votann one judging by the haft.

It looks like it could be both s-f and fantasy. Maybe new Cities of Sigmar?

Now with that design and haft.

Sigmar stuff tends to be a bit fancier, especially if it’s a Dwarf.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Well. That’s an Axe (note the ‘e’ )

And a Votann one judging by the haft.

It looks slightly less high-techy than other Votann stuff - looks like we get more Hernekyn units, rangers and the like, in a future wave, or perhaps as a kill-team or something like that, judging by this axe and the shotgun backpack from a few engines back.

My gut feeling is that its something for the humans for Cities of Sigmar in AoS. Honestly considering all the heavy armour, thick hides and scales you'd imagine that hammers would be super common as a weapon in the Mortal Realms - way more than swords. Why try or bother cutting armour when you can smash it with a hammer

There is a similar axe with a cover on the Hearthkyn Warriors sprue.

Steve

Definitely Leagues of Votann. Looks like we are definitely getting a scout unit, which is awesome.

 Olthannon wrote:
Definitely Leagues of Votann. Looks like we are definitely getting a scout unit, which is awesome.

That’s pretty much identical to the current accessories on the votann stuff. It’s a nice hint of more units coming. No hi t as to what they are though.

 Overread wrote:
My gut feeling is that its something for the humans for Cities of Sigmar in AoS. Honestly considering all the heavy armour, thick hides and scales you'd imagine that hammers would be super common as a weapon in the Mortal Realms - way more than swords. Why try or bother cutting armour when you can smash it with a hammer

Eh, swords remained common sidearms historically even when armour was at it's absolute zenith in Europe. They are very versatile weapons- against armour you can use them as a tool to aid grappling or a lightweight mace in a reversed grip. We know, for example, that hard-bitten veteran English knights of the latter Hundred Years War typically wore longswords as sidearms, suited as a backup weapon for their favoured style of infantry combat. They did this expecting to bear the brunt of fighting against enemy men-at-arms in heavy armour.

What is wierder is the relative lack of polearms as primary weapons and corresponding prevalence of shields with heavy armour, although I think the obvious answer is that shields look cool and provide a great modelling opportunity for heraldry etc.

 Haighus wrote:

 Overread wrote:
My gut feeling is that its something for the humans for Cities of Sigmar in AoS. Honestly considering all the heavy armour, thick hides and scales you'd imagine that hammers would be super common as a weapon in the Mortal Realms - way more than swords. Why try or bother cutting armour when you can smash it with a hammer

Eh, swords remained common sidearms historically even when armour was at it's absolute zenith in Europe. They are very versatile weapons- against armour you can use them as a tool to aid grappling or a lightweight mace in a reversed grip. We know, for example, that hard-bitten veteran English knights of the latter Hundred Years War typically wore longswords as sidearms, suited as a backup weapon for their favoured style of infantry combat. They did this expecting to bear the brunt of fighting against enemy men-at-arms in heavy armour.

What is wierder is the relative lack of polearms as primary weapons and corresponding prevalence of shields with heavy armour, although I think the obvious answer is that shields look cool and provide a great modelling opportunity for heraldry etc.

Shields also make the miniatures more useful as game pieces, because you can easily make different types of otherwise same-ish models distinguishable by giving them optically different shields, have the Abysshome Spearduderinos have round ones and the Crevicelair Manstabbers have diamond-shaped ones and so on...

Andykp wrote:

 Olthannon wrote:
Definitely Leagues of Votann. Looks like we are definitely getting a scout unit, which is awesome.

That’s pretty much identical to the current accessories on the votann stuff. It’s a nice hint of more units coming. No hi t as to what they are though.

I mean, it actually seems pretty much actually identical..

Danny76 wrote:

Andykp wrote:

 Olthannon wrote:
Definitely Leagues of Votann. Looks like we are definitely getting a scout unit, which is awesome.

That’s pretty much identical to the current accessories on the votann stuff. It’s a nice hint of more units coming. No hi t as to what they are though.

I mean, it actually seems pretty much actually identical..

Perhaps it's a asset that has been recycled for another sprue? A standardized piece of equipment would be quite in-character for the industrial efficiency theme the Votann have going. It could also be a two handed variant with an identical axe head, but a longer haft.

Andykp wrote:

 Olthannon wrote:
Definitely Leagues of Votann. Looks like we are definitely getting a scout unit, which is awesome.

That’s pretty much identical to the current accessories on the votann stuff. It’s a nice hint of more units coming. No hi t as to what they are though.

Which kit is it from? Because if it’s the hover bikes, I reckon we will be seeing at least an Anniversary Model coming in the same vein.