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I for one would be happy for a new zombie kit given the current one is basically unpurchasable, but am terrified at the notion of new skeletons. The current ones aren't perfect but have aged well and are cheap. Given that they are needed in great number, that price is important. A new kit at $50 for 10 would be more horrifying than actual walking dead.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I for one would be happy for a new zombie kit given the current one is basically unpurchasable, but am terrified at the notion of new skeletons. The current ones aren't perfect but have aged well and are cheap. Given that they are needed in great number, that price is important. A new kit at $50 for 10 would be more horrifying than actual walking dead.

They could always repack the old ones 5 to box with a price rise

Cronch wrote:
They could always repack the old ones 5 to box with a price rise

Or rather make 10 wonderfully detailed and unique Zombies in excellent dynamic poses that will look weird the moment you have more than 1 of each in a squad.

Meh, Warlord sells 90 skeletons for $80 and im sure I can find that box set for 40-50% off Warlord's price if I try hard enough. Not gonna cry if GW suddenly stops selling their current kit, but it would be a shame because they're good looking and have simple, generic design that works with other 25-28mm fantasy systems.

Glueing Warlord skeletons counts as self-harm.

I'm a fan of Oathmark's

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Glueing Warlord skeletons counts as self-harm.

I'm a fan of Oathmark's

They're also very specifically armed with ancient Greek weaponry; Oathmark seems far more fitting for a fantasy universe (although stylistically based on bronze age Celts I think, it's far less recognizable).

 Coenus Scaldingus wrote:

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Glueing Warlord skeletons counts as self-harm.

I'm a fan of Oathmark's

They're also very specifically armed with ancient Greek weaponry; Oathmark seems far more fitting for a fantasy universe (although stylistically based on bronze age Celts I think, it's far less recognizable).

You say that as if AoS doesn’t already have a clashing mishmash of nonsensical aesthetics

The good thing about Warlord’s skellies and some of their dark age Hail Caesar kits is that the weapons aren’t fixed to any of the hands, so you can easily swap the Greek weapons for Viking or Saxon weapons on your skeletons.

Or if you really want to go digging around you can try to find those plastic weapon sprues Reaper did during one of their KS campaigns and never released for purchase since.

Those had some fancier weapons on their if you want skeletons with bling.

Deadwalker Zombies article.

Interesting tidbits in there, about why there's the staked graves on them...

The grim truth is that the living dead far outnumber actual living beings in the Cursed City. The Shyish Nadir is so close that the magic of Death suffuses everything. This foul energy concentrates in places already associated with death – such as the mass burial grounds scattered around Ulfenkarn’s various districts.

These so-called corpse-gardens have attained a sickening sentience, a sort of dread hunger that seemingly employs undead bodies like puppets to seek out fresh souls. The Deadwalker Zombies roam the streets of Ulfenkarn, preying upon anything that gets too close.

Also this:

This baffling creature buries victims alive in the corpse-gardens and unleashes them later at his vampiric masters’ bidding. His massive Gravekeeper’s spade is just as good at creating corpses as exhuming them, and his bone mask and accoutrements of death leave little doubt as to his general disposition.

According to local legends, Gorslav never speaks – so nobody can determine if he was once a mortal man that’s turned into a glorified zombie-like his charges. In fact, it’s not even clear if the Gravekeeper is a single being or a gruesome order of necrotheurges. What’s not in dispute, however, is his mastery of the winds of death and his command over the Deadwalkers.

So the plank on the back is the brains of the operation and the zombie is a muppet like in Ratatouille?

That's what it's starting to sound like.

I don't know if it's terrifying or amazing as a concept.

the more I read about the lore the more awesome this all sounds.

I love that it's a new different take on "zombies" and don't give a rip about the zombies not being "normal zombies" for age of sigmar armies.

 Kanluwen wrote:
That's what it's starting to sound like.

I don't know if it's terrifying or amazing as a concept.

Definitely it is a hilarious one

I like it. You’re literally fighting the City.

Like how one appears to have part of a Mortsafe stuck through it

pretty cool

Pretty cool story. But they are still by far the worst models in the box

They'd be excellent zombie models if they were just regular zombies without the graves, but GW has to make everything unique and trademarkable. As a result we've got some contrived bs where the zombies are controlled by death energy possessing the graves on their backs as if the graves were a fungus or parasite, but other people have already done fungus and parasite zombies, so GW came up with this instead.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I like it. You’re literally fighting the City.

Right. Someone needs to convert one of the heroes into The Tick.

All this talk of the dead outnumbering the living in this cursed city.

Why are there normal people still living in this city!!!

"Honey! There are dead roaming the streets, the city guard are all skeletons, and the mayor is an evil Vampire. We need to move."
"But dear, the view we have from our house is incredible. And we're so close a great school district."

 zend wrote:
They'd be excellent zombie models if they were just regular zombies without the graves, but GW has to make everything unique and trademarkable. As a result we've got some contrived bs where the zombies are controlled by death energy possessing the graves on their backs as if the graves were a fungus or parasite, but other people have already done fungus and parasite zombies, so GW came up with this instead.

We should consider our selves lucky that they're still using the word "zombie" and not Gravewalker Soulsearchers or some other such nonsense.

And if they were just generic zombies, "oh GW just made zombies how boring".

Zombies, in fantasy settings, always have some element of "death energy has animated them". Ulfenkarn is supposed to be near the center of Shyish...even before the Necroquake you probably didn't just leave dead things laying around. They're seemingly dipping back to that well of a genius loci that they've given the Lumineth's Aelementari Temples by having foci of death energy gaining a kind of sentience.

It's the idea that there's sometimes just bad places in the world. The places that make the hairs on the back of your neck raise, that make you want to hurry past them as the dark settles in, or that folk used to make warding gestures as they went past.

It's the kind of place where folk tales of spirits and spooks grow up around. Where everyone has had something weird happen.

I'm 100% here for this concept. It's a kind of folk horror that makes a world feel lived in.

 Kanluwen wrote:
And if they were just generic zombies, "oh GW just made zombies how boring".

Zombies, in fantasy settings, always have some element of "death energy has animated them". Ulfenkarn is supposed to be near the center of Shyish...even before the Necroquake you probably didn't just leave dead things laying around. They're seemingly dipping back to that well of a genius loci that they've given the Lumineth's Aelementari Temples by having foci of death energy gaining a kind of sentience.

It's the idea that there's sometimes just bad places in the world. The places that make the hairs on the back of your neck raise, that make you want to hurry past them as the dark settles in, or that folk used to make warding gestures as they went past.

It's the kind of place where folk tales of spirits and spooks grow up around. Where everyone has had something weird happen.

I'm 100% here for this concept. It's a kind of folk horror that makes a world feel lived in.

No, if they do normal zombies the most likely response would be "Thank god they've finally updated that awful zombie kit.... shame they want $55 for 10 for them!"

The new Wight King on steed is fantastic..... because it's just a straight model update and they didn't try to re-invent the wheel. It's also proof that your evil Shyish death energy can resurrect corpses as they were without being some wankage involving possessing another inanimate object first, and then THAT object controls the corpse. I'd complain way harder if they said that his helmet is what's possessed.

I've said it before, but the new mounted Wight King is the most Warhammer Fantasy model GW have made in years and years. It's amazing, and totally not an AoS mini.

 Kanluwen wrote:
And if they were just generic zombies, "oh GW just made zombies how boring".

Nah I'm pretty sure people would be happy with a better looking zombie kit.

 Kanluwen wrote:
I'm 100% here for this concept. It's a kind of folk horror that makes a world feel lived in.

I don't mind the concept to be honest, but as long as it's something that stays within the context of the cursed city, and not Warhammer at large.

That's a shame for you then because it's all over the Mortal Realms.

Surely the lore suggests that these zombies are somewhat unique to the Cursed City, given that it's the city itself responsible for them, and that the generic AoS zombie is something else as well?

We've seen time and again with GW that miniatures in boxed sets don't necessarily update their mainline system counterparts, even when there's no reason not to reuse the files, to say nothing of when the designs straight up make no sense outside of their original context.

By all means, be disappointed in the sculpts themselves if they're not your flavour, but there's no need to be disappointed that they're the new norm for zombies when they're clearly not.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I've said it before, but the new mounted Wight King is the most Warhammer Fantasy model GW have made in years and years. It's amazing, and totally not an AoS mini.

Nailed it. I like a bunch AoS minis such as the Idoneth, pretty much all of the new Chaos mortals (spank naming conventions and monopose kits aside), and even the new skeletons within Cursed City, but that Wight King is just top notch and further cements my desire for AoS to return to more grounded, generic designs. Generic fantasy just looks better sometimes.

 Kanluwen wrote:
That's a shame for you then because it's all over the Mortal Realms.

*shrugs* Ok. I don't really care that much.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
All this talk of the dead outnumbering the living in this cursed city.

Why are there normal people still living in this city!!!

Might as well ask why people still lived in Sylvania...

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
All this talk of the dead outnumbering the living in this cursed city.

Why are there normal people still living in this city!!!

"Honey! There are dead roaming the streets, the city guard are all skeletons, and the mayor is an evil Vampire. We need to move."
"But dear, the view we have from our house is incredible. And we're so close a great school district."

The devil you know right. Picture this most likely of scenarios

The Smiths have a nice house..multiple generations of Smiths have lived there. The city has been...mostly safe. Chaos shows up to eat everyone. City is ..less safe. Vampire guys shows up..saves city from insane chaos people and the city is safe again...Kinda. Thanks Vamp lord guy. Slowly..city start to get worse. But its cool..we have jobs and our nice house. Plus the wilderness is bad, those insane chaos people live there. City has gotten far worse but your used to it now..you lock your door, arm yourself and ..mostly..everything is ok. City is super now has undead roaming around it. Well crap..lets leave. Pack your things put them in a cart..collect whatever money you have (there is no Credit cards or banks so you take your wealth with you) Maybe make it 2 miles out of the city before night falls and are ripped apart by either
A:chaos
B:undead
C: chaos undead

Hmm..maybe I'll stay in the city were I can lock my door in my nice house where I still (during the day) have a job. City is pretty awful...but at least we know how to survive here

H.B.M.C. wrote:I've said it before, but the new mounted Wight King is the most Warhammer Fantasy model GW have made in years and years. It's amazing, and totally not an AoS mini.

AoS is WHF+X. If you put every model or faction that wouldn't fit into the WHF setting to the AoS category - well, why not. Sure, this is AoS. And this? And as we're talking about dead people - the whole Nighthaunt faction would have had a place in the Old World - the Ossiarch Bonereapers rather not (though better than Sky Dwarves and Sigmarines).

Tim the Biovore wrote:Surely the lore suggests that these zombies are somewhat unique to the Cursed City, given that it's the city itself responsible for them, and that the generic AoS zombie is something else as well?

We've seen time and again with GW that miniatures in boxed sets don't necessarily update their mainline system counterparts, even when there's no reason not to reuse the files, to say nothing of when the designs straight up make no sense outside of their original context.

By all means, be disappointed in the sculpts themselves if they're not your flavour, but there's no need to be disappointed that they're the new norm for zombies when they're clearly not.

This. I doubt whenever GW updates their zombies they'll all look like these.