Collection of Empire rumours (summary first post)

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**Kroothawk**

Harry posted this updated summary of Empire rumours on 13th/14th March:

Harry wrote:So .... I have narrowed things down a bit from all the rumours we had at the start of the last thread
That thread was a compilation of everything I had seen posted before the end of last year.
This thread is the stuff that seems to have a bit more corroboration from different sources.
This is just my interpretation of the rumours ... I could have got stuff wrong and others may have got things right that have now been left out of this round up.

I will try and keep it updated as we hear more.

... and remember ... these is STILL just rumorz!

Rumours about the Timescale:

There are rumours of the Empire being released in April 2012
A date of the 7th of April has been suggested.

Rumours about the Book:

Nothing solid ... not even who has written the book ... but Jervis has been suggested.
The book is expected with the first wave of models in April.

Rumours about the army:

Nothing solid on army wide changes

Rumours about models:

Empire will get 4 plastic kits and 2 plastic one piece characters. (6 Plastic in total)
Also at least one new sculpt in finecast as well as some old models being redone in finecast.
This will see The Empire become the first fantasy army that can be all plastic.

Rumours of Characters/Lords/Heroes

I heard something about a mounted Wizard..... as a mount option for the Griffon. (Amber wizard)
Also something about a Jade wizard
I heard something about an engineer. I heard it was plastic and a very nice sculpt.
I heard something about a plastic Captain ... also very nice.
Marius Leitdorf will be re-released in Finecast.

Rumours of Karl Franz OR Lord/Hero on Griffon.

There are rumours of a plastic Lord/Hero on a Griffon that could 'pass' as Karl Franz. (Harry)
There is a rumour that it IS Karl Franz. (which is an interesting development as this is the first time we have seen a special, named character as a plastic kit). (Harry and Hastings)
“The new plastic Empire hero on griffon is also supposed to be very nice” (hastings)
Griffin, which to be honest is a bit of a let down. It's big, Manticore sized, and looks almost like an update of the Deathclaw mini only a bit more static, oddly it was painted a deep ruddy brown. (Darnock via birdy)

As you see opinions vary ... I heard it was BIG and the paint job and the camera angle have not done it any favours. So I shall wait until I have it in my hands before passing judgement.

More importantly I heard it has the option of KF a generic lord/hero or an Amber wizard.

Rumours of a plastic War Altar (and something new?)

There are rumours of a dual plastic kit which makes a War Altar and something else. (Harry, hastings, malladin.ben)
It is rumoured that the War Altar can be customised to make Sigmar, Ulric or Morr. (ghost21)
There is a rumour that it makes a War Altar and a “College of Magic wizardlordmobile”. (NatTreehouse, Harry)
A war altar combo kit with a wizardy casting platform thing which had lots of globes almost like a celestial model. (Darnock via birdy)

Have heard that whilst working from the same chassis these may be two seperate kits.
Nice little rumour from Kyte that the War Alter may be pushed into combat by Flagellants rather than pulled by horses.
I have heard the iconic statue of the griffon remains. (This pours water on the customise for different religions rumour. I feel like I would have heard 'you can have a Griffon like the last one or a big wolf' ... Didn't hear that. )
Have heard it is a two headed Griffon. So not exactly like the old one.

Rumours of new Warrior priests:

There were lots of rumours of new warrior priests early on.
I think that any new priests will be done for the plastic War Altar.
(Rather than an additional kit or individual sculpts)
But I get the impression there is more than one priest with the kit .... extras left over for a Preist on foot.

Rumours of Demi-Griffon knights.

There are rumours of Demi-Griffon knights. (Eldargal and others )
Don't expect the same as the Forge World one ... expect something a bit different.

Rumours of knights:

So many conflicting rumours about Knights I don't know what to make of it.
I have heard nearly nothing about new Knights .... so I assume that is what is happening. (Nearly nothing. )

My guess is sprues have been seen/heard about for demi-griff knights...and conclusions have been leapt to.

But see what you can pick out of this lot.

Rumours of Inner Circle knights:

There is a rumour of a new box of inner circle knights with lots of options for different orders.(ghost21)
This is the reason for no new knights. (ghost21)
There is a rumour that the Inner Circle Knights and Demi-griffon knights are the same dual kit.

Rumours of new Knights:

No new knights. (hastings)
Rumour of the sprue re-cut for the knights. (ghost21)
Rumour of individual Knightly Orders rather than redone generic set. (eldargal)
Rumour of new Knights of Morr. (Mirbeau)
Rumour of more packs like the blazing sun bits pack to customize the existing knights. (ghost21)

Rumours of a Nuln Siege Cannon:

There were rumours of a BIG cannon ....

I have heard nothing about this .... so I assume this isn't happening.

There are rumours of some things back from 4th edition:

Rumours of Halflings:

There are rumours that halflings are back in the book BUT as I have not heard about new halfling plastics and I have heard the whole army can be done in plastic I am not convinced.
On the other hand it follows that IF they are in the book then there MUST be a halfling kit in the works.

Rumours of the War Wagon:

There is a rumour the War Wagon is back in the book with a combat, shooty or mixed option.(ghost21)

I have heard about a model of a War Wagon which looks like the warmaster wagon with a bunch of handgunners in the back BUT it could be this is just a scratch built conversion or it could be a new kit?

Either way I am not expecting it with the first wave of models. But then if it did exist I wouldn't be expecting it with the first wave but a few months after as they did with the Skaven kits so they didn't compete for sales.

But again we will know when we get the book because if it is in the book it must exist as a kit for the all plastic army to be possible.

BRING IT ON!

**Snrub**

Thanks for posting these Kroothawk. I've been wanting an excuse to start an Empire army and a massive Nuln siege cannon might just be the excuse i need.

**kenshin620**

WE and Bret players, leave now before your eyes implode on themselves

Great, more cannons! I feel sorry for all those poor large monsters/war machines people have

Hmm quite interesting the variety of rumors though. Some of them sound a bit "out there". The stuff about Ogres, Kislev, and Dwarves sound too fishy

I really hope by then (if empire is getting an update) Perry gets their mounted men at arms up and running.

And for the love of Sigmar, make detachments worth it.

**Kroothawk**

Harry wrote:
eldargal wrote:Oh, I did hear a little rumour about a female sorceress, unsure if it is just a model or SC.

I wonder if this is the same mini as the rumoured priestess of Myrmidia?

.... Now I wonder if that rumour is wrong and this is correct ... A female battle wizard could easily look like a priestess of Myrmidia. Equally this could be wrong. Someone could have seen a sculpt for a priestess of Myrmidia and assumed it was a female battle wizard.

**RossDas**

I'm liking the sound of this - especially the idea of units/chars removed from 4th edition making a return.

Given the trend of recent additions to army books can we safely assume that a multi-option huge kit is a given?

**Void_walker**

kenshin620 wrote:
Hmm quite interesting the variety of rumors though. Some of them sound a bit "out there". The stuff about Ogres, Kislev, and Dwarves sound too fishy

Sounds a bit like Ravening Hordes list (can't find my book atm but think most was in that) with a twist of DOW. Might even be to do a Border Princes army.

I'm excited anyway

**Flashman**

Meh... you can keep your wingless griffon cavalry and big arse cannons. Just give me Empire State Troops where the halberds and spears point upwards.

**RossDas**

I'd like to see a plastic regiment kit with the option of making either Reiksguard foot-soldiers or Greatswords. I reckon it would be fairly easy to make satisfactory models for each of those unit types, plus command group material.

**His Master's Voice**

I'll take a plastic War Wagon, thank you. Not really interested in anything else, unless they do new Knights.

And who wants to bet on the Griffon being sculpted by Trish again, instead of whoever who did the brilliant IoB griffon?

**kenshin620**

Meh, I couldnt give a darn about Griffons unless they actually make them worth taking. Heck they'll have to make an Empire general worth taking anyways

**automatonsleuth**

Re the plastic Elector Count/ Karl Franz on griffon: I'd be very surprised if it actually were a plastic special character, much more likely to be a generic count which could pass as Franz if you use certain of the bits within the kit. I'm basing this assumption off the Dark Elf Black Dragon kit, which contains, among other things, a helmet which looks almost identical to that of the Dark Elf special character Malekith.

**Dysartes**

RossDas wrote:Given the trend of recent additions to army books can we safely assume that a multi-option huge kit is a given?

I'm pretty sure the rumoured War Altar/something-else dual kit will fulfil that part of the release schedule.

**Erasoketa**

So are we sticking to the same old knights? :\ It's cool if there is an "inner circle" new kit. But if it's supposed to be the same kit that demigriffons... well, I would spect plastic demigriffons to be 2 or 3 per kit. 2 or 3 plastic inner circle knights per kit? It's not to be crazy happy. Knights in kits of 5 at least, please :(

**rockerbikie**

kenshin620 wrote:WE and Bret players, leave now before your eyes implode on themselves

Great, more cannons! I feel sorry for all those poor large monsters/war machines people have

Hmm quite interesting the variety of rumors though. Some of them sound a bit "out there". The stuff about Ogres, Kislev, and Dwarves sound too fishy

I really hope by then (if empire is getting an update) Perry gets their mounted men at arms up and running.

And for the love of Sigmar, make detachments worth it.

I'm not suprised. I also think Wood Elves will be replaced by Cathay, which will make me sad. Wood Elf fluff will be overun by Beastmen and used as their *toys*. That's GW, they have always hated Wood Elves.

**Kid_Kyoto**

rockerbikie wrote: I'm not suprised. I also think Wood Elves will be replaced by Cathay, which will make me sad. Wood Elf fluff will be overun by Beastmen and used as their *toys*. That's GW, they have always hated Wood Elves.

Y'know I think if there was even a whisper of a hint of a rumor of Cathay I'd have heard it.

Besides Fantasy has THREE elf armies and just two human ones so I don't think another human army would be so bad. Elfs get enough love.

**Kroothawk**

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Elfs get enough love.

Wood Elf player would like to have a word with you

Anyway, copied from the release speculation thread:

Mirbeau over at Warseer wrote:Right, empire first (dwarves a bit later) for fantasy. Thing is, both seem to be split releases - a big thing with some characters, followed by the book and more a couple of months later.

**Kid_Kyoto**

Kroothawk wrote:
Kid_Kyoto wrote:Elfs get enough love.

Wood Elf player would like to have a word with you

Why not just play them as High Elfs or Dark Elfs or whatever other elfs have army books?

I mean an elf is an elf right?

**fox in a box**

OMG just about to start an empire army based around morr then i see this it's like heaven!!!

**crimsonfist832**

FINALLY, my Altdorf army can succeed and look better. Perfect news.

**Kroothawk**

Kid_Kyoto wrote:I mean an elf is an elf right?

But a treeman or dryad is no elf.
Until then use bretonnian knights as samurai: Humans are humans, right?

**TBD**

Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Kroothawk wrote:
Kid_Kyoto wrote:Elfs get enough love.

Wood Elf player would like to have a word with you

Why not just play them as High Elfs or Dark Elfs or whatever other elfs have army books?

I mean an elf is an elf right?

They are all interchangeable just like the British, Americans & Australians

**Talarn Blackshard**

Crap ... always been a fan of the Empire ... maybe this will pull me back into Fantasy ... Local gamers permitting...

**boyd**

about time. Maybe they can get to High Elves, Wood Elves, and Bretonians next. Not in any specific order but get to these races soon.

I'll be a big fan if they make a couple of new scuplts that compare to the Vampire Counts.

**Kid_Kyoto**

Kroothawk wrote:
Kid_Kyoto wrote:I mean an elf is an elf right?

But a treeman or dryad is no elf.
Until then use bretonnian knights as samurai: Humans are humans, right?

Funnily enough the only Fantasy army I ever planned was samurai who count as elfs. After all what are samurai famous for, archery, and really sharp swords. Sounds like an elf army to me!

Anyway I do wish all Green Elf players the best, I hope you don't have to count your army as White Elfs or Purple Elfs.

**chaos0xomega**

Some of this sounds too awesome! I'm kinda disappointed that Stromfels/Manaan doesn't seem to be getting any love in the waraltar, etc.

**rockerbikie**

Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Kroothawk wrote:
Kid_Kyoto wrote:Elfs get enough love.

Wood Elf player would like to have a word with you

Why not just play them as High Elfs or Dark Elfs or whatever other elfs have army books?

I mean an elf is an elf right?

There should be 1 Army book then, Empire for humans, A human is a human, chaos worshipper or not.

**Kroothawk**

75hastings69 wrote:I'd almost forgotten about this thread. I can confirm the the empire griffon kit makes a generic lord/hero on griffon or KF as it has bits to do so. This will be a big deal as it's the first time a named special character has been made in a plastic kit.

**KoganStyle**

Are you going to strip out all the Ghost21 rumours in light of recent events??

**Gridge**

Flashman wrote:Meh... you can keep your wingless griffon cavalry and big arse cannons. Just give me Empire State Troops where the halberds and spears point upwards.

This is one of the things that is important to me as well. Plus the fact that I really just don't like the models for state troops or gunners. Rebuilding my Empire force could be cost prohibitive though. It takes a lot of minis for me to fill out the points with the way I like running my army.

**Breotan**

I have a TON of those two-piece, 5th edition spearmen.

But, yea, you might want to edit out all those Ghost21 rumors.