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Wow, I'm quite surprised the TK are going the way of the hellcannon. The Death grand alliance was already by far the smallest, and now it's being halved... I guess the introduction of this book means it is not being touched for a good while too.

We're making some (admittedly reasonable) assumptions here. Do you think there's any chance of some of the TK stuff defecting? i.e. Lingering TK animosity? Probably not as likely as getting chopped, though again- Tomb Guard and Sphinx kits are really pretty and kinda new...

I get them pivoting to focus on Order as soon as they can- most of Destruction, Death, and Chaos actually function pretty well with their current presentation.

Order needs the biggest "filling out" since they have a heavier number of factions formerly associated with more detailed states/societies (some exceptions existing- Hi there, Tomb Kings).

Elves have yet to be specifically seen, though I think they might have some mentions in those pseudo-timelines.

I don't put any of that out there to say people are wrong, just to note that we're running some risks if we start to treat our assumptions as facts (e.g. early rumors of Slaanesh getting cut out of the background).

Nagash's big rival in the TK did go over to Chaos, so that's a possibility there.

I think Settra going Chaos was solely a plot device to let him and Arkhan meet again, then to give him a heroic exit.

As a Tomb King guy, I'm obviously saddened. I loved my grave guard, my sphinx, and my pharaohs and khopeshes.

Im really really glad I took my Tomb Kings to the last 8th GT in Arkansas, Rock Wars. My dusty shamblers went 5-0, including..

A heroic victory over a Lord Croak led Lizard force, a hilarious romp vs all chariots beastmen, a nail biter vs a 100 shot wood elfs force, a steamrolling of some dwarves, and a grindfest vs chaos chosen.

I'm super glad I took them out one last time with no expectation to win and wound up with a fitting send-off for my favorite army.

 Wulfson_40K wrote:

RazorEdge wrote:
Damn it. This makes a cut out of other old model ranges very possible.

Yeah... about that... I may have been advised that if people wanted Bretonnian models it would be wise to take care of it right now and not later?... Just saying...

Sadly GW stopped selling the Perry Brets ages ago.

Considering the likelyhood of the Wood Elves being released under the Aelfs heading and the likely squatting of the Brets there could be room for TK in Order.

Wood Elves are currently called "Wanderers".

 Bottle wrote:

You missed out the plastic necromancer too (which will stay as one of the "deathmages" faction no doubt) that makes 30. Leaves 5 room for Formations perhaps...

The Chaos tome advertised 158 warscrolls. Have the book and going over the contents, that number doesn't count formations. So that leaves 5 entries for other models. Suspect they will include generic characters like Vampire Lord and Ghoul King on foot. Still, I would assume if it was resin, it's gone. So no more Blood Knights, Varghulf, or Black Coach.

Will have to see about getting my hands on a Krell model. That is too cool a fig to let disappear in the dustbin of history.

Honestly I was rather hoping for some tomb king info, still they were not big fans of the god of spooky. Not surprised that nagash would not bring them back. I mean the guy even bought back mortal necromancers from the old world he must really hate them. Still a sad day if tomb kings get squatted. Maybe because they were just not as popular as counts? I mean even Arkhan is filed under them now.

My local shop had a Krell new in clamshell sitting in the consginment case for 10 bucks.

Now I'm wishing I picked it up. Ugh.

I'm sure it won't be there next time either. Dammit.

There is a picture of Krell in the upcoming white dwarf. He is likely being repackaged as a generic Wight Lord.

 Thunderfrog wrote:
I think Settra going Chaos was solely a plot device to let him and Arkhan meet again, then to give him a heroic exit.

As a Tomb King guy, I'm obviously saddened. I loved my grave guard, my sphinx, and my pharaohs and khopeshes.

Im really really glad I took my Tomb Kings to the last 8th GT in Arkansas, Rock Wars. My dusty shamblers went 5-0, including..

A heroic victory over a Lord Croak led Lizard force, a hilarious romp vs all chariots beastmen, a nail biter vs a 100 shot wood elfs force, a steamrolling of some dwarves, and a grindfest vs chaos chosen.

I'm super glad I took them out one last time with no expectation to win and wound up with a fitting send-off for my favorite army.

There's always Empire of Dust in Kings of War at least. I still can't believe they're getting rid of one of Fantasy's coolest armies - even Beastmen kind of survived.

I doubt TK will be moving over to Order. What benefit would there be for GW? Death is already the thinnest of the grand alliances and Order is the thickest. Even if he elves, dwarves and humans get mostly gutted (and again, I am sure they won't). There doesn't seem much sense in moving the TK over to another grand alliance.

On the other hand, a skeleton is still a skeleton, no matter the armour (or lack of) he wears.

Same thing for grave guards, who are basically wights but with other looks.

Sure, the more specific units are gone, but I guess you can still play them as "count as" with other profiles. Or at the very least just picking the ones on the web.

More pics from White Dwarf 107

From Miniwars.eu - via Lordkane on GW-Fanworld.net

http://www.miniwars.eu/2016/02/grand-alliance-death-mas-imagenes-wd.html

Biggest surprise to me there is the mention of the Black Coach. Would have put good money on that sucker being phased out as an old, unlikely to be updated mini. Less so the Blood Knights- but still a little surprising.

Kinda disappointed that we still won't see new zombies. Take the quality of their recent plastic kits and that would be a pretty potentially impressive release.

 Kanluwen wrote:
Wood Elves are currently called "Wanderers".

GW tries to keep the IP's separated.

 Sarouan wrote:
Sure, the more specific units are gone, but I guess you can still play them as "count as" with other profiles. Or at the very least just picking the ones on the web.

Why would you have to play 'counts as'? The TK compendium still exists, its rules are still perfectly valid, even if the models will no longer be supported.

..........

That said, it is frustrating and dumb to see them not included in the GAoD. On top of that, seven units are being dropped from the existing vamp counts compendium (5 fewer warscrolls total, and from the description of the subfactions, ridden and unridden options on the terrorgheist and zombie dragon are getting separated into two different scrolls each, where in the vamp compendium those options were on single scrolls). Plus it only has half as many formations as the vamp compendium had alone. And, though Krell is pictured, he's not mentioned anywhere by name, including, from what I can tell (though it is blurry and hard to read) in the list of units included in the formation he's pictured with, which means my favorite Mortarch is probably being reduced to a generic version of himself, or, worse, a great weapon option for the wight king scroll (though again, there's no reason why I couldn't go right on using his existing scroll).

This grand alliance is neither grand nor an alliance.

If they weren't ready to give the undead anything new, and weren't intending to carry forward even half of what they already had to play with, then GW should not have put out a 'grand alliance' book. Battletome: Deathlords or the like would have given them an opportunity to get out the new fluff for what Nagash is up to, while building excitement in the Death faction instead of shutting it down.

GAoD, far from building excitement, is basically just a confirmation that TK are getting squatted and nothing new is going to be filling their place any time soon. It's depressing, is what it is. Only a single formation total, not even one per subfaction, is the cherry on top.

Chaos already had like, 4 times as many warscrolls as Death, didn't it? Kinda sad that they decided to shrink down Death even more than it was, already (and for no discernable reason that I can see, either, both plot-wise and resource-wise)

What if some choices will be consolidated into one? For example, instead of skeleton warriors for vampires and another version for TK, they combine both to one unit of skeleton warriors with all the options of both (Vampire Count skeletons with bows HO!). Or Grave Guard and Tomb Guard as just Grave Guard?

 Seneca wrote:
What if some choices will be consolidated into one?

That would require making new sprues. While we can't entirely rule that out it seems the least likely option. Simply dropping TK is the path of least resistance (and cost) for GW.

 Breotan wrote:

 Seneca wrote:
What if some choices will be consolidated into one?

That would require making new sprues. While we can't entirely rule that out it seems the least likely option. Simply dropping TK is the path of least resistance (and cost) for GW.

Considering that TK Skeletons(barring the Tomb Guard) are still using the "old" skeleton sprues, it's not beyond belief that we will see an updated kit at some point specifically designed for Tomb Kings or whatever they become in AoS.

 Breotan wrote:

 Seneca wrote:
What if some choices will be consolidated into one?

That would require making new sprues. While we can't entirely rule that out it seems the least likely option. Simply dropping TK is the path of least resistance (and cost) for GW.

What I meant was that the unit choices in the books get consolidated into one, not the actual physical miniatures.

Oh, I have no doubt that if this game manages to hold on for another two or three years that we'd see some new undead releases with the old tomb kings in mind. New style chariots. Plastic ushabti. A new-style skeltal archer kit. A sphinx kit re-tooled with new style riders. Maybe a new mortarch kit with the same dread abyssal steed, but with three new riders, including some specifically tomb kings themed ones (khalida in particular comes to mind). That plastic bone giant kit that supposedly has been done forever but has never been released.

But that would require the game to survive for two plus years first, and gain enough traction to justify new model production. I'm not a hater, I'd love to see that, it's just... I'm not especially optimistic about it, is all I'm saying.

After reading the Deathrattle blurb in the white dwarf leaked - I can definitely see lots of TK being rolled into deathrattle as just one example of the possible kingdoms of dust out there in the mortal realms. It will be a real shame if big parts of the range disappear.

 Bottle wrote:
After reading the Deathrattle blurb in the white dwarf leaked - I can definitely see lots of TK being rolled into deathrattle as just one example of the possible kingdoms of dust out there in the mortal realms. It will be a real shame if big parts of the range disappear.

It helps that a lot of the Tomb Kings already have 'Deathrattle' as a keyword That includes the Tomb Herald, Skeletons of all types, Tomb Guard, Necropolis Knights, Khemrian Warsphinx and Screaming Skull Catapult crew

They certainly could have been rolled in there, but that doesn't change the fact that they aren't being rolled in or included. 35 war scrolls total just doesn't leave room for it.

So I was checking the AoS thread on the French forums WarFo and multiple people there are reporting that Red Shirts have been warned by their higher ups that both Bretonnian and TK are about to shift to Last Chance to Buy.

So, looks like more confirmations are coming now.

It is sad to see these armies disappear, but this has been on the cards for a long time. Bretonnia even more than the empire is the most realistic warhammer army. This is something that AOS seems to be deliberately stepping away from. Tomb Kings have been on the way out since Nagash fist reappeared.

I think GW could make this a less bitter pill to swallow with a simple sale. Just marking down everything in the last chance to buy section by 10% to let people finish off their armies would be great.

Wasn't there artwork for Tomb Kings last month? Were not some people thinking it's a new mini? Not sure if normal size or Monstrous Creature size, so if Tomb Kings is going away, that picture will not be a mini then?

I thought there was lots of hype and excitement for that pic to become a mini.