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Well Fantasy always had 2 skeleton armies too.

 Gallahad wrote:
I think it is interesting how much they have toned down the "Uber mega high fantasy" style of AoS when it first released. They redesigned the Stormcast to be more traditional fantasy with armor that might actually fit a person, faces, etc. The soul blight, gitz, and flesh eater courts all sport designs that would have been right at home in WFB 8th edition.

It is pretty weird that they now basically have two skeleton armies in the game. But I don't think Ossiarch sold particularly well (for obvious reasons).

Either way, I'm glad to see them releasing things that are useful in other settings or games.

Bonereapers are one of the most popular armies in the game my dude. Their whole tax collector theme is well liked for the character aspect and the models have always been good.

The new Deathrattle could possibly be the Army of Darkness we dream of.

New Deathrattle is amazing. Bring Krell back to lead it!

I knew that leaked Mounted Vampire pic wasn’t a conversion!

Maleneth is underwhelming, but like mentioned previously it could be the paintjob, though the entire head and face sculpt is less than stellar imo.

Nah. We're long past the point of needing to recycle characters. Let's get the new in.

Well this is the best start of the year for me for the Undead!

New Grave Guard and Zombie Dragon are both outstanding and highly desired! I'm not surprised to see them split the terrorgast out of the kit unless they've just chosen to withhold showing it off - doing them separately lets them go to town on making both look really unique which is a big boon when putting those big models down on the table.

New Black Knights and king on Steed I didn't expect to see. Neither felt like they needed an update and the king only semi-recently got a model. I will not complain however as those new models look really outstanding and awesome! And the new King on steed stands out compared to the current so they can both easily appear on the tabletop.

New Skeletons is also up there in "didn't feel like it needed replacing but heck go for it!"

Overall a REALLY super set of Skeletons and I'm very pleased to see all the models.



AND HECK YES MALENETH GETS HER MODEL!

In regards to the roadmap images, I see Khorne and K.O., but my sleepy eyes can’t place the third bottom image.

 nels1031 wrote:
In regards to the roadmap images, I see Khorne and K.O., but my sleep eyes can’t place the third bottom image.

Flesh Eater Courts.

 Overread wrote:
Well this is the best start of the year for me for the Undead!

New Grave Guard and Zombie Dragon are both outstanding and highly desired! I'm not surprised to see them split the terrorgast out of the kit unless they've just chosen to withhold showing it off - doing them separately lets them go to town on making both look really unique which is a big boon when putting those big models down on the table.

New Black Knights and king on Steed I didn't expect to see. Neither felt like they needed an update and the king only semi-recently got a model. I will not complain however as those new models look really outstanding and awesome! And the new King on steed stands out compared to the current so they can both easily appear on the tabletop.

New Skeletons is also up there in "didn't feel like it needed replacing but heck go for it!"

Overall a REALLY super set of Skeletons and I'm very pleased to see all the models.



AND HECK YES MALENETH GETS HER MODEL!

The new black knights were inevitable. They had to split off the hex wraiths at some point.

 ImAGeek wrote:
Flesh Eater Courts.

Nice, thanks!

Finally some proper classic vampires, and they blow everything out of the water, too. The best AoS release for me in quite some time, maybe ever.

He’s not a bad model by any means, but not making a new Wight King on foot and holding course with the WHFB era mini is a strange choice, now that there are 3 variants(at least) of Mounted Wight King.

 nels1031 wrote:
He’s not a bad model by any means, but not making a new Wight King on foot and holding course with the WHFB era mini is a strange choice, now that there are 3 variants(at least) of Mounted Wight King.

Yeah it’s an odd omission.

True I meant to note that and forgot - its a very classic model and strange that they've kept it over others and redesigned the King on Steed again.

I'll be interested to see where they take the rest of Soulblight after this big update. We still have the Covern Throne model that's very out of sync visually with the rest of the army (short vampires; ghosts carrying it); then there's the corpse cart and necromancer that look too "old world serfs rising up from the dead graves" for a modern Soulblight army that's much more formal and out in the open.


I'm also curious if we'll see any of the Cursed City models return with updated models now that GW pulled that kit from sale. Which is one sadness for the new battletome as I suspect we'll lose all those models from the army. We might even lose a named hero or two from it even though they have their own releases.

I do actually prefer the new mounted Wight King, but it is weird to see the current one replaced relatively quickly.

oh that zombie dragon is gorgeous. good lord. rest of the kits, too, this is a fantastic release. i've always been a bit disappointed in Soulblight/VC not being enough of The Vampire Army, but this is a very strong sell for the skeleton part of the army

hearing that Idoneth is on the horizon after seeing this makes me hopeful about what they might do with that. Idoneth are, in theory and in theory alone, my favorite faction of AOS, but the models they have so far don't yet align with the fantasy they want to convey. hope it's not just a character!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Gallahad wrote:
I think it is interesting how much they have toned down the "Uber mega high fantasy" style of AoS when it first released. They redesigned the Stormcast to be more traditional fantasy with armor that might actually fit a person, faces, etc. The soul blight, gitz, and flesh eater courts all sport designs that would have been right at home in WFB 8th edition.

It is pretty weird that they now basically have two skeleton armies in the game. But I don't think Ossiarch sold particularly well (for obvious reasons).

Either way, I'm glad to see them releasing things that are useful in other settings or games.

Ossiarch have a different vibe. Soulblight skeletons are a shambling horde, Ossiarch are a combination of roman legions and mad science

 Gallahad wrote:


It is pretty weird that they now basically have two skeleton armies in the game. But I don't think Ossiarch sold particularly well (for obvious reasons).

Id love to know the "obvious reasons" why one of the most popular factions in the game "havent sold well".

Ossiarchs can also do loads of creative things that Soulblight can't. Walking living artillery; huge golem constructs; cat/dog beasts; centaurs etc... there are LOADS of things that the Ossairchs can do on a creative front that the Soulblight just never will touch on.

Plus the fact that Ossiarchs are all bone whilst Soulblight have vampires, werewolves (in all but name); wolves; bats and more.

 ImAGeek wrote:
I do actually prefer the new mounted Wight King, but it is weird to see the current one replaced relatively quickly.

Hm, i think i'll have to pick up the "old" one before he goes. He's still a fine piece.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Nah. We're long past the point of needing to recycle characters. Let's get the new in.

Who said anything about needing? Besides, there are still old characters I imagine will make their way in eventually. Malekith and Tyrion come quickly to mind...

Malekith still has a whole faction and army that's ruling one of the Realms that still hasn't had a single focus on it outside of some lore here and there.

 BorderCountess wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Nah. We're long past the point of needing to recycle characters. Let's get the new in.

Who said anything about needing? Besides, there are still old characters I imagine will make their way in eventually. Malekith and Tyrion come quickly to mind...

It's time to let the setting grow on its own. It doesn't need the brand name of more old characters. Even Malekith has been rebranded.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

 BorderCountess wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Nah. We're long past the point of needing to recycle characters. Let's get the new in.

Who said anything about needing? Besides, there are still old characters I imagine will make their way in eventually. Malekith and Tyrion come quickly to mind...

It's time to let the setting grow on its own. It doesn't need the brand name of more old characters. Even Malekith has been rebranded.

Kinda hard to do when the game is literally named after a legacy character. The whole setting is founded on the ashes of the Old World and its gods are all ascended heroes from the Old World.

There's no escaping the past...

So? It doesn't have to be bound by that. And it will probably hamstring itself if it does.

The only thing I think that holds back new characters getting established is the total absence of a proper timeline and dating system. Especially for any characters that aren't basically going to live for thousands of years. It's hard to grasp how to get invested into a mortal hero when you can't quite grasp how they connect with the politics of all the other factions around them because you aren't quite sure when certain things are or aren't happening outside of MASSIVE events like the Necroquake

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

 BorderCountess wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Nah. We're long past the point of needing to recycle characters. Let's get the new in.

Who said anything about needing? Besides, there are still old characters I imagine will make their way in eventually. Malekith and Tyrion come quickly to mind...

It's time to let the setting grow on its own. It doesn't need the brand name of more old characters. Even Malekith has been rebranded.

I agree to an extent, its just that the Undead stuff has the easiest "out" lorewise, in that anything that was built by Necromancy is a part of Nagash, so he can bring it back when he deems it necessary.

And Krell was a Mortarch at the end of WHFB, which are still integral parts of Nagash's plans.

I 100% get what you are saying though, and like I mentioned above I agree. Its mainly that the Krell model was an unbelievable sculpt and I'd love it to get a new AoS'd take.

Outside of the god-tier characters, I generally don't want anything to return from WHFB, unless its written well. Like the Light of Eltharion is amazing and its a call back to how Arkhan killed him in the End Times.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

 ImAGeek wrote:
I do actually prefer the new mounted Wight King, but it is weird to see the current one replaced relatively quickly.

Hm, i think i'll have to pick up the "old" one before he goes. He's still a fine piece.

Just ordered the old one. Nothing against the new guy (who I might still pick up) but I was on the fence for the old guy for a while.

Love the new vampire on steed. My old WHFB 5-6th army was “undead bretonion” themed, so it will feel good to have a vampire leading the charge with his knights again. Giant monsters are fun and all, but skeleton steeds are where it’s at IMHO.

Going to be a few other additions to the soublight horde, who knows how many though.

I wonder if the new skeletons are the same as the cursed city ones? IIRC they shared a sprue, but that could be re-tooled from the same files. But they went together really easy, and for ETB pushfits they were set up with interchangeable parts so it’s not pure monopose.

 nels1031 wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

 BorderCountess wrote:

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Nah. We're long past the point of needing to recycle characters. Let's get the new in.

Who said anything about needing? Besides, there are still old characters I imagine will make their way in eventually. Malekith and Tyrion come quickly to mind...

It's time to let the setting grow on its own. It doesn't need the brand name of more old characters. Even Malekith has been rebranded.

I agree to an extent, its just that the Undead stuff has the easiest "out" lorewise, in that anything that was built by Necromancy is a part of Nagash, so he can bring it back when he deems it necessary.

And Krell was a Mortarch at the end of WHFB, which are still integral parts of Nagash's plans.

I 100% get what you are saying though, and like I mentioned above I agree. Its mainly that the Krell model was an unbelievable sculpt and I'd love it to get a new AoS'd take.

Outside of the god-tier characters, I generally don't want anything to return from WHFB, unless its written well. Like the Light of Eltharion is amazing and its a call back to how Arkhan killed him in the End Times.

Fair point concerning Nagash. But i just feel it's time to make that clean break from the old.

It's so vindicating that the Vampire Lord on Nightmare Steed is a real model and not a cool conversion. I was worried when the first few models were skeletons and figured they'd have shown him off sooner.

Great models all around. Not sure we needed another skeleton king on horse, but I far prefer this one to the one covered in vampire count icons

 GaroRobe wrote:
It's so vindicating that the Vampire Lord on Nightmare Steed is a real model and not a cool conversion.

Indeed. I didn't partake in the convo a few pages back, but I did take a long look at the GW website on what it could've possibly have been converted from.

Also, kind of surprised that one of the mounted Wight King variants isn't a special character, as that seems like its been the modus operandi of AoS mounted mini's for some time.