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Not sure if this has been posted before(can't find any mentions), but they've consolidated quite a few of the factions. All Aelf stuff that is not Idoneth, Daughter, or Sylvaneth are now under the Aelves category. All Skaven are now under Skaven f.ex.

Wondering if this is a hint of things to come.

From Facebook:

Warhammer Age of Sigmar wrote: Robin's got this in one, Stephen - we've redesigned the layout of the webstore to offer a better experience for people using it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Oh, that is a shame. They should redesign the game for a better experience for those using it and consolidate some of the ludicrous mini factions into something more playable.

Yeah, I was a bit excited seeing free peoples gathered all together like that! Still hoping for a book for them, some day, some day.

Whether this is a preview of upcoming battletomes (doubtful) or just GW simplifying the web store (most likely), it's definitely a good thing. It makes it more obvious that most of the mini-factions aren't necessarily meant to function as standalone armies and makes it a lot easier for newcomers (and existing players) to search for models. I do think that at least some of the consolidated categories (especially Free Peoples and Skaven) could warrant a LoN/BoC-style consolidated battletome. Some of the others (like Grots and Aelves) seem like a temporary home for some of the factions until they get a Sylvanth/DoK-style expansion.

Yep this is a good move! It makes AoS a lot more understandable and easy to get into for any doing web research and looking at potential armies to field and buy. Whilst its still not perfect it at least gives a good base line to build from as GW releases more Battletomes! Here is to hoping for a big AoS year after the 40K year we've just had.

Agreed the store looks a lot cleaner now, and I feel like it'll give us a good idea of how GW envisions what the game and Mortal Realms will look like going forward. The only one that really surprises me is Dispossessed not being joined with Free Peoples. With Ironweld parnering up with the human factions, it would make sense to me if the rest of the Dawi joined up, too.

Like the Aelves, I think that the Free Peoples is just a general dump section done on the keyword. I'd fully expect to see them split up those groupings somewhat as GW comes to pay attention to them.

That's not to say Freepeoples won't happen, they are solid in the lore and I'd wager we will see them without a doubt at some point as the general human army - or at least one of the first human armies.

Dwarves I can see nearly split into 3 - you've got your flying dwarves, your mining dwarves and your insane berserker lava dragon riding dwarves.

I agree that it might be a single dumping ground for specific models. Hell, the dwarf cannons and Organ gun are in Free People when it probably would fit better in Dispossessed.

I personally hope they do end up consolidating this a bit like this. Can't stand the amount of factions that just have 3 units or less and probably will never see a battletome ever.

I don't mind if GW keeps a few factions small like that, provided that they specifically identify them as allied factions. It strikes me that groups like shadowbloades would be ideal as a faction with a very small roster of units, perhaps more leaders and elite style troops; with the specific intention of them being there as an alliance pool for other factions in their alliance grouping.

As long as that faction is identified as, say, a Dark Aelves Mercenary faction it would be fine.

Battletome: Creatures of Chaos confirmed.

A side note: Someone one on reddit pointed out that the new categories seem to line up with the preview articles WarCom posted leading up to 2.0.

There are a few armies (Like wanderers) I think that just need a few new kits and a battletome, for a pretty large army.

I think a lot of other units we will see consolidated into battletomes. For instance, I think we will see Troggoths, and all the grots consolidated into the Moonclan grots battletome. At that point Destruction is pretty much cleaned up except for Ogors.

Hopefully this year will be the AOS year, and we see a mix between brand new armies, and releases a la DoK that combine new and old to consolidate and get more battletomes out.

We know for sure Hosts of Slaanesh and MoonClan are coming. I think we are also due for another Aelf book and some re-releases of older tomes (Like Fyreslayers). I am banking on at least 4 brand new battletomes this year though.

I'd hope for way more than 4 and a closer release schedual to like what 40K had even if it means some factions don't get any new models right now. At least getting a battletome makes them a clear army choice.

There's also something going on with the Darkoath faction. I don't know whether it will be a new faction or a rejiggering of Slaves of Chaos, but it was one of the champions during Malign Portents and a warband in Nightvault.

I'm hoping that by including Kharadron Overlords and Sylvaneth in the Nightvault releases, this means they are due for a new battletome release at the same time. They're some of the older ones and could use it.

Dark Oath also got their own Novella book too - there's certainly something going on there!

Personally I'd rather see GW get armies with no battletome done first; at least if your army has a battletome you know its reasonably certain it will remain and how it works. Without one there's no idea what the future is for it nor even if it has a future. Though I do very much agree some older battletomes are getting woefully out of date. Heck the grand alliance tomes are very out of date!

I'm just glad all the Empire models were put back together onto the same page. Makes buying an army a lot less annoying.

I doubt AOS will ever get the same treatment 40k got. I would expect 3 or maybe 4 books in 2019 total.

 Overread wrote:
Dark Oath also got their own Novella book too - there's certainly something going on there!

Personally I'd rather see GW get armies with no battletome done first; at least if your army has a battletome you know its reasonably certain it will remain and how it works. Without one there's no idea what the future is for it nor even if it has a future. Though I do very much agree some older battletomes are getting woefully out of date. Heck the grand alliance tomes are very out of date!

I kinda want to hope that Darkoath, Slaves to Darkness, and Everchosen get all crammed into one faction. Darkoath and Slaves tend to share a lot of units(plus Slaves to Darkness just got a Battleforce + soon Underworld release) and Everchosen are just too few to ever make a new faction unless they start making a lot of new kits.

I would also be happy if they gave us a staggered release. A battletome with new kits for a faction without a tome one month, and then the next they'd update an old tome.

auticus wrote:
I doubt AOS will ever get the same treatment 40k got. I would expect 3 or maybe 4 books in 2019 total.

Why so few? GW has proven that they can turn out more, heck 2018 had Stormcast, Nighthaunt, Daughters of Khaine and Idoneth and possibly one or two more earlier in the year that I forget about. And that was a year where 40K was taking centre stage in having new books pushed out like mad.

They don't have that next year. 40K only needs 2 more Codex (Genestealer Cultists and Sisters of Battle) and then the ENTIRE range is done; save for any new armies that GW chooses to add. That leaves a huge block of time to potentially devote to their other main game.

I very much see AoS getting a lot more than just 4 books over the whole year. In fact I'd argue that it needs more than 4 to keep doing well. If GW want to hit it with Skirmish and hit it with major marketing then having a huge chunk of models unuseable for most newbies is not a good approach. Huge chunks of Destruction are not currently with a Battletome; there's no pure human faction; well over half of Skaven are missing; Slaanesh is missing; Aelves have vast gaps and nothing at all for the High Aelf side of the block.

AoS also needs more "normal" factions even if they end up getting some signature GW treatment. As fun as DoK, Idoneth, and Kharadron are they do not resolve the itch many people have for more basic factions. Some of the local AoS players are currently collecting older factions that have rules such as Dispossessed because these are factions that adhere to their ideal fantasy factions instead of going for the high fantasy ones GW is currently churning out.

Hell, I'd probably end up on a fourth AoS army if they made the High Elf/Dark Elf range into a useful Battletome Faction.

 Da Boss wrote:
Oh, that is a shame. They should redesign the game for a better experience for those using it and consolidate some of the ludicrous mini factions into something more playable.

Wat a lovely sentiment that would be!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Eldarsif wrote:
AoS also needs more "normal" factions even if they end up getting some signature GW treatment. As fun as DoK, Idoneth, and Kharadron are they do not resolve the itch many people have for more basic factions. Some of the local AoS players are currently collecting older factions that have rules such as Dispossessed because these are factions that adhere to their ideal fantasy factions instead of going for the high fantasy ones GW is currently churning out.

Hell, I'd probably end up on a fourth AoS army if they made the High Elf/Dark Elf range into a useful Battletome Faction.

Yes please. Flyish fish armies and space dwarves aren’t tickling most.

 Overread wrote:

Why so few? GW has proven that they can turn out more, heck 2018 had Stormcast, Nighthaunt, Daughters of Khaine and Idoneth and possibly one or two more earlier in the year that I forget about. And that was a year where 40K was taking centre stage in having new books pushed out like mad.

Maggotkin of Nurgle, Legions of Nagash, and Beasts of Chaos were all released this year as well. Also Malign Portents if we're counting campaign books. This was a banner year for AoS, really.

Why so few?

Because they have never really ever given fantasy or AOS the primary spotlight...ever. In 20+ years. Sure they *could* produce a bunch of books.

I think they need to put books out for ALL of the factions missing books currently because its a big kick to the groin for those people that love the factions that have now gone several years with nothing.

But will they?

I always bet on what a company shows me through their actions, and GW has never pushed their fantasy line over their 40k line ever. I don't see 2019 changing that.

Just reminding you that this last year, we saw twice as many AoS books as what you're predicting for next year, and this wasn't anticipated to be an "AoS year".

I'm aware. I'm sure we'll have another stormcast book or two in the mix in 2019 lol.

We can bet on the goblins getting their book. We know slaanesh will likely get their book. There's some children of chaos (skaven?) something something thats likely coming out. I'm sure there'll be something no one expected like a new faction. Maybe a #5 will drop... likely a consolidation of say elves or something into one book. And likely something related to yet more stormcast.

Thats my own personal guess of what i'd expect in 2019.

I'm fairly sure we'll see at least one new Aelf faction - either the "dark" or "light" ones. Personally I'd wager the light since that gives the old "high elf" block of alliance Aelves a functional army to tie themselves too (currently the old Dark Elves can ally up with Daughters of Khaine and Deepkin).

After that I agree Moonclan are confirmed and Slaanesh is a very strong contender.

I'd like for GW to not have abig Stormcast release; they already have a huge roster of models and the army isn't in need of any new options. A few new characters/leaders can fit in, but it doesn't need any more standard troops. It's already tripping over itself trying to fit itself together and its somewhat glaring when one faction has more listings on the GW store page than nearly some whole Grand alliances.

Don't get me wrong I like stormcast, but I don't want to see GW oversaturate the market with them too much. At least not without pulling a lot of other armies up first.

There have also been rumors about Darkoath for some time now (I'm assuming Slaves to Darkness and possibly Everchosen will be rolled in with them). My guess is we'll see Slaanesh, Moonclan (both more or less confirmed), Darkoath, probably some Stormcast, and at least one expansion of an existing faction (this may be what Moonclan will be) and probably two consolidation battletomes (Free Peoples and Skaven?). That would be 6-7 new battletomes in addition to any campaign books they want to release.

Hmmm I wonder what kind of stormcast will show up in 2019?

Will it be the deathcast? Nagash has been toying around with the idea after all. Or will they go full 40k and have a horus heresy and splinter the stormcast into chaos-stormcast?

My guess is the deathcast on that one.

Or like one popular alternate reality - they go full bore 2nd legion (one of the redacted legions) and start mixing in 40k?

Horsecast Eternals.

While i quite like the steampunk dwarfs I am ready for ordinary humans