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Despite the neighsayers I think GW won't be getting rid of horses entirely, so IMO don't pony up all your earnings to get horse-containing kits just yet.

I'm definitely going to go ahead and pick up a box of Marauders (yes, I actually like the kit) and a couple boxes of Marauder Horseman before the Slave/Everchosen tome comes out just in case.

Well they didn't get rid of the Outrider/Pistoliers....so I have some time but I will have to make plans to get a box or 3...just in case

Some related quotes from GW's latest financial report:

"We will continue to review our core product range to ensure we have the right products in the right place at the right time."

"Range management - as discussed above we are reviewing our range to ensure that we are exploring all opportunities. The risk is that we don’t fully exploit all the opportunities that are available to us or that we have too much stock."

"To ensure we have the right product at the right place at the right time, we have been investing in our merchandising and logistics team throughout the period. This has enabled us to implement a product category approach and extend our range planning time horizon to support more effective product launches and to minimise waste. In August 2018 we implemented a new forecasting tool which is supporting improvements in customer service and product availability. This tool will help us to manage our stock levels better too, a challenge we have been working to address."

--

It's entirely possible that GW has reviewed their sales and made their forecasts and products that just came out too low in terms of both recent sales and forecasted future sales just have to be retired. GW is producing at capacity and if they need to take the tools out of the machines so many more times in a day to restock a huge variety of things that barely sell and then make sure GW's distribution centres have them on stock, then that's time and shipping and inventory storage they're not using on their more profitable products.

Part of it must be the direct result of them doing pretty much nothing to sell those kits. They largely left many of them in limbo. They appared a bit on their web store when they added Allies to matched play, but that's about it. It's entirely possible that had Firestorm not been some sort of odd hybrid legacy board game campaign system and instead was just Battletome: Free Cities, many of those kits would have sold well enough over the last year that they'd not be cut.

I think sales had less of an impact than people think this time around. See GW knows that sales will be lower for models which have no viable army and which are waiting on rules which everyone (esp since the start of the last financial year) knew were coming "at some point". I can bet Gutbusters are selling really badly at present as well (ok they might have picked up with the new model announced, but only since then).

I think for them it was about cleaning the aelves down a good peg to leave room to add more without making AoS the "game of Aelves". Some of the kits removed were odd choices, this leaves one to wonder if GW is replacing them or if there were other factors in the background.

Sales they imght have taken into account would have been more historical sales - though I'd wager things like the high elf dragon kit have been good sellers for years (one would hope).



It could also just be that GW wanted rid of things like "cone head helms" and some other design aesthetics that they don't feel fits with the AoS theme any more.

What I’m hoping for personally is that this book is just a ‘get you by’ for the next couple of years whilst they better organise the factions within. Then gradually, the factions branch off in their own. Yes, sadly it means that a lot of kits will be retired (and I’m genuinely surprised at what went) but hopefully they can build upon what’s left.

I'm more pessimistic in outlook I suppose, I believe this is meant to make space for new factions in the future. So Dispossessed will forever be relegated to the CoS with Freeguilds, but somewhere along the line we will see new dwarfs under Grungni, separate from the "dour and grudge-holding" dispossessed. Same with humans, we'll probably see a separate sigmar-inspired human army in the future that won't be the pajama boys of CoS.

I mean we really don't know what GW plans with it. I honestly do believe sales do have somewhat to do with it as the stuff that has remained for the Freeguild I always see "out of stock" when I check the site. SO it seems those kits are still moving at a brisk enough pace that it's worth keeping them.

Frankly we won't know anything until we start getting previews of the book and who knows when that will be. Just, PLEASE GW, give me a Start Collecting box! Properly starting a Free Peoples army will finally give me an excuse to buy those non-puffy sleeved soldiers to build a force with.

Freeguild != Free Peoples.

Free Peoples are the Elves, Dwarves, and Humans.

Freeguild are free peoples

but not all free peoples are in the guild

I didn't see any kits that I was sad to see go. A lot of them were really dated and there is a certain relief for me having it all 'cleaned up' so to speak and better organized. I guess it appeals to my OCD side. I will miss the dispossessed infantry kits, but I am aware that is nostalgia on my part.

So the book is coming within the next few weeks, I reckon it’ll be coming next, after Beastgrave, as there’s nothing else to come, apart from the last 2 marine supplements, but they’re rumoured to be coming in October.

 Tiberius501 wrote:
So the book is coming within the next few weeks, I reckon it’ll be coming next, after Beastgrave, as there’s nothing else to come, apart from the last 2 marine supplements, but they’re rumoured to be coming in October.

Orruks, Ogors, single blister releases of the Arch-Revenant, Archregent, Skaven Rocket Guitarist, and the Loonboss on Great Cave Squig all are potential releases--just on the AoS side alone.

40k side has the Manipulus and Kellermorph(the two Kill Team exclusive characters for AdMech and GSC respectively) and the Impulsor and Infiltrator/Incursor kit for Marines(if people have to wait till October--that's going to be an issue and just showcases how heavily dragged out this release was).

Hmm these are all true.

Not saying those are all guarantees, mind you. I'd think the single characters will likely be in November--as I'm personally speculating that the Sororitas Army Pack will be the 'initial' release with the full army releasing in January/February(as a big box is more palatable as a Christmas thing than a whole range potentially would be) but the Army Pack being able to get people playing right out of the gate.

This book will be a big factor on whether I get an AOS army or not. I'm very interested in having a Dwarf army. While I would no doubt have some Kharadron Overlords and perhaps some fire Slayers (very small amount), my favorite models are the classic dwarf units. Bringing the Dwarfs, Dispossessed, and arsenal under one banner with minimal squatting (preferably none) would be very attractive to me.

Has there been talk of Endless spells and terrain for this faction?

It was said they are not getting those.

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Has there been talk of Endless spells and terrain for this faction?

The news broke(to me at least) about CoS not having Endless Spells/Terrain in this video, made by folks who attended the NOVA event:

Warhammer Weekly Preview review:

Summary:

-Modular Rohan buildings(LotR scale , but could have a place in AoS due to modularity possibly)
-3 year plan of releases for Warcry
-not just Chaos monsters in the new supplement
-finally have a use for the Warqueen
-NOVA hotel is haunted!
-Mortarch has a unique Skarbrand style damage/attacks profile. If you attack him, scroll dude dies first, then bird guy, then standard bearer then Samurai Jack, then when they are dead, the Mortarch deigns to fight you and it gets bonkers.
-The Ossiarch Bonereaper range is bigger than what was shown.
-Not in preview article:
~Cities of Sigmar/Orruk tomes will not have faction specific Endless Spells or a terrain feature.
~Will have unique rules to counteract their absence.
~Both coming so soon that they didn’t bother with a preview at the seminar or in the article

At the end: expect an imminent announcement coming about how FW works, what it produces and how it will interact with GW going forward. Big changes. Attendees were told its a positive change and the seminar guys were excited about it, but who knows...

Well the one rumor I heard from someone who has supposedly seen the book is that they will get terrain piece, just not a new one.

now please take this with a HUUUUGE grain of salt but the Free Cities will get the Watchtower re-released as the cities terrain piece. But whether or not that is true...well...i'm not sure. Especially as some of the other rumors I heard from the same guy I'm not totally sure of.

Just throwing out what I've heard from my own source.

Interesting. What did the Watchtower look like?

This watchtower. One of the terrain pieces that was discontinued after AoS dropped.

I'd have to say... if the developer team specifically stated there were no terrain or endless spells, I'd have to believe them and chalk this up to someone's wishful thinking.

We heard a "its not the same as we've seen before" kind of reply. baring in mind that GW also marketed one of the Underworld warbands as "something we've never seen before" and it was 3 goblins on 3 wolves. So technically mounted troops in warcry; but at the same time whilst it was a very welcome sight it wasn't something totally out of sync with what we've seen for Underworld thus far.

So it could be that the Endless Spells, for example, are 4 spells one for each City or such. I'd be surprised at this stage if GW abandoned the terrain and spells since they are proven strong sellers to most customers and clearly a feature GW wanted to push and has even bled into 40K as well.

 auticus wrote:
I'd have to say... if the developer team specifically stated there were no terrain or endless spells, I'd have to believe them and chalk this up to someone's wishful thinking.

Perhaps, but at the same time ever other faction has an gotten and Endless spell and a terrain piece. Maybe the free cities wont but the idea that Ironjaws, one of the new factions made for AoS, will not get one when all the other ones have gotten one seems wrong.

I just chalk it up to word play. "Oh we're not making any new terrain pieces for them." *wink* *wink* *nudge* nudge*.

That could very well be. GW likes its obfuscation.

It could also be that the marketing team wasn't told and thus had to make something up a bit; even though they likely know what the answer should be; they might not have been "read into it" to know it for certain.

Sometimes its hard to tell what is a choice at GW and what is the result of inter-departmental isolation within their system

 Commodus Leitdorf wrote:
This watchtower. One of the terrain pieces that was discontinued after AoS dropped.

Think that was discontinued way before AoS, but I could be wrong.

The watchtower was available at my GW store about 6-9 months into AOS because I had bought a couple more for our second AOS campaign.

Yeah I believe it was a part of the First Great Culling of minis a few months after AoS dropped. Either way I do believe both books will get something, if not right away then perhaps in a later, staggered, release.

Like I said though, take it with a grain of salt like I have. Just thought I'd throw it out there as we got a picture of a book and no new information and I NEED MY FREEGUILD!!!!