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I'm kind of noticing a pattern with MEQ armies:
1. Grey Knights are updated, Draigo becomes a LOW
2. Space Wolves are updated, Santa Claus becomes a LOW
3. Blood Angels are updated, Dante & Seth become LOW

Using this, I think I can confidently make the following predictions:
1. Space Marines- Papa Smurf will become a LOW
2. Chaos Space Marines- Abaddon will become a LOW
3. Dark Angels, Azrael will become a LOW

What Do You Think?

I think SM will get more LOWs than just Calgar.

SM- calgar LoW, Lysander- LoW, and vulkan LoW.

DA- hmmm. I don't know, Azreal seems the best bet as he is the CM, but I could see them making Sammeal the LoW.

Chaos- Abbadon is def. a LoW,

 raiden wrote:
SM- calgar LoW, Lysander- LoW, and vulkan LoW.

DA- hmmm. I don't know, Azreal seems the best bet as he is the CM, but I could see them making Sammeal the LoW.

Chaos- Abbadon is def. a LoW,

Sammael won't become a LoW without them changing how you can run a pure Ravenwing Army.

Do you think Pedro Kantor will get the LoW touch too?

I'm hoping all this is moving towards the rules in 30k where there is a points limit on the LoW you can take, I think it's 25% so we will see more special characters and less Shadowswords at 1850pt games

doubtful, GW's current philophesy seems to be a "less restrictions the better" for their design. still I think a percentage base for LOWs would be a good way for TOURNIES to manage it. instead of banning all LOWs (which right now hurts some codexes more then others) they could simply impose a percentage on it. limiting LOWs to 20% of a 2000 point list would allow all special character LOWs to be taken, but limit super heavies to a very small handful.

BrianDavion wrote:
doubtful, GW's current philophesy seems to be a "less restrictions the better" for their design. still I think a percentage base for LOWs would be a good way for TOURNIES to manage it. instead of banning all LOWs (which right now hurts some codexes more then others) they could simply impose a percentage on it. limiting LOWs to 20% of a 2000 point list would allow all special character LOWs to be taken, but limit super heavies to a very small handful.

Just don't limit LOW. That's it.

I see Lysander and Calgar as LoW, but not any others. Vulkan isn't a Chapter Master. He's just some souped up Reclusiarch equivalent carrying around a bunch of old stuff.

Azrael of course in the DA version. But I honestly worry about Raven and Deathwing futures. The cutting of so many former Troop choices in the Blood Angel codex may make it a thing of the past. I wouldn't be surprised if they do more of an Archangel detachment type deal where it is 1 Named HQ of choice, 1 Captain/Chaplain (must have bike/Terminator armor) and ten units chosen from Deathwing/Ravenwing units. Dark Angels are going to change a lot if the recent codecies are anything to go off of.

Chaos, I wouldn't guess anything but Abbadon being a LoW. The White Dwarf Khorne release might give some insight on where they're bringing Chaos in general.

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
But I honestly worry about Raven and Deathwing futures.

Formations and dataslates.

I see DA going the same way. No termies or bikes as troops, but a dataslate with Ravenwing and Deathwing formations that comes out after the codex.

As long as azrael get ap2 sword and EW he'll be a really good Low

given the leaks we've seen of codex: Necrons I could see DAs being the first Marine army for GW to experiment with the whole "Formtachmech" system they've got going

SM to lose bikes as troops option. Bikes, TFC, Tigurius & Grav Cents to get a price hike. Grav Cannon maybe gets a reduction in shots by 1 instead. Termies to remain the same price. Tigurius to lose the re-roll on his powers. Shield Eternal to change EW to IWND. Calgar to LoW. A formation released to allow extra FA for ravenguard and white scars.

DA to lose RW & DW as troops options. DA flyer to get a points hike with missile lock added back in, DA termies to get a slight cost reduction, RW to get slight price hike. Azrael to LoW. Formation for extra elites (DW) and FA (RW) to allow -wing armies after codex has been out for a week or 2.

CSM to lose cults as troops options. Thousand Sons to get a price hike, blastmasters to get str 7 AP4, Plauge marines to get a better FNP and a slight points reduction, Berserkers come with chain axes as std, but increase by 3 ppm. Defiler to drop to 3 HP, price to remain the same. Heldrake changes Baleflamer to Str 6 AP 4 & slight price hike. Abaddon to LoW. Formation for Word Bearers released allowing them to take Daemons as a heavy support choice.

Drasius wrote:
Defiler to drop to 3 HP, price to remain the same. Heldrake changes Baleflamer to Str 6 AP 4 & slight price hike.

Defilers are hardly great nowadays considering their points cost. Heldrakes, as cheesy as they previously were, are now simply a decent choice, plus the Baleflamer is basically the only good weapon they have (Vector Strike is unreliable at best, you'll be lucky to get a glancing hit against most vehicles, even 1D3 hits against flyers guarantees you nothing). Nerf the Baleflamer and apply a price hike and they will simply disappear from gaming tables.

CSM currently suffer from a lack of competitive options across their range. Some of the problem comes from pure mediocre design (I love dreadnoughts with two close combat arms but rules-wise they're no good, and even too expensive, hell the chaos dreadnought in 3.5 with two power fists was cheaper than its current iteration and included the combi-bolters by default). The book is full of nice ideas but poorly executed rules-wise, and lacks internal balance (example: Warp Talons, cool design, but simply too expensive for what they can do).

Korinov wrote:

Drasius wrote:
Defiler to drop to 3 HP, price to remain the same. Heldrake changes Baleflamer to Str 6 AP 4 & slight price hike.

Defilers are hardly great nowadays considering their points cost. Heldrakes, as cheesy as they previously were, are now simply a decent choice, plus the Baleflamer is basically the only good weapon they have (Vector Strike is unreliable at best, you'll be lucky to get a glancing hit against most vehicles, even 1D3 hits against flyers guarantees you nothing). Nerf the Baleflamer and apply a price hike and they will simply disappear from gaming tables.

CSM currently suffer from a lack of competitive options across their range. Some of the problem comes from pure mediocre design (I love dreadnoughts with two close combat arms but rules-wise they're no good, and even too expensive, hell the chaos dreadnought in 3.5 with two power fists was cheaper than its current iteration and included the combi-bolters by default). The book is full of nice ideas but poorly executed rules-wise, and lacks internal balance (example: Warp Talons, cool design, but simply too expensive for what they can do).

I'm well aware. But given GW's hate for Chaos, this is what I expect. A SM rebalance to recent power levels, DA to remain about where they are, but still ending up as the poor cousins to SM and CSM to be the red-headed stepchild who can't have nice things.

More than hate, I'd attribute it to lack of foresight and incompetent rules design.

Lack of foresight because there's a lot to expand between Old Traitor Legions (Thousand Sons, Death Guard and co.), newer traitors (your average "heretical marines"), renegade chapters, lost and damned, renegade IG, etc etc. Some focus and love for recent heretics and overall renegades ("renegade" can mean many things, some renegade chapters do not worship chaos, some still consider themselves loyal to the Emperor but not to the Imperium, and all that) could even allow GW to sell moar spess mehreens boxes plus specific conversion kits.

Incompetent rules design because the current CSM book is not actually that bad when it comes to diversity. It does have quite a bunch of different choices... but sadly many of them are useless from a competitive point of view.

BrianDavion wrote:
doubtful, GW's current philophesy seems to be a "less restrictions the better" for their design. still I think a percentage base for LOWs would be a good way for TOURNIES to manage it. instead of banning all LOWs (which right now hurts some codexes more then others) they could simply impose a percentage on it. limiting LOWs to 20% of a 2000 point list would allow all special character LOWs to be taken, but limit super heavies to a very small handful.

Yes because it's perfectly fine to field 5 Imperial Knights, but god forbid any other faction gets to field a slightly larger SHW or 5 of their own.