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I figured this would be helpful to new and experienced players alike in keeping track of how the state of the game generally is and a track on what is likely to come in the near future from what GW has officially said.

GAME EXPANSIONS

Note I've listed this as expansions, however several of them are so widely used that they are considered core to the game in many play areas.

Malign Sorcery. Endless spell components are considered to be core to the game. Use of realm specific rules varies region to region, though generally quite well accepted in most places.
A single boxed set that contains:
rules for Realm Spells, Realm Artefacts and Endless Spells.
14 warscroll cards
13 endless spells (Balewind vortex is the "missing" Endless Spell model as it has its own box)

Forbidden Powers. Another expansion boxed set like Malign Sorcery. Endless spells and new terrain feature are generally considered core to the game. Mercenaries and new terrain feature rules vary region to region, but generally good uptake. Note set appears to contain less than Malign Sorcery, however most of the models in this kit are much larger.
Rules for Greyfyrd Lodge Fyreslayers and Tenebrous Court Flesh-eaters - both mercenary company bands.
Model and rules for Penumbral Engine terrain feature
4 New Endless spells
Warscroll cards for new models and several new terrain sets (as listed on the GW store page)



Older expansions. These are often still valid to play, however as they were generally linked to time-limited events run by GW they are often not so widely used after their general campaign period. Model stats presented in them are likely very out of date though and I believe some battleplans have been reprinted in latter publications. The books can sometimes have lore in them which is often an engaging read for those after a bit more depth and understanding of the world and story of the Age of Sigmar

Malign Portents - mostly a campaign book with battleplans and some narrative battle systems. The rules for models are now present in the respective armies in the Battletomes; whilst the terrain feature is no longer sold by GW. Note currently GW only sells this in e-book format.
Skirmish - a rules set for playing smaller games with far fewer models. Whilst most new battletomes have details for their army for Skirmish within them, the original book is now out of date. GW reprinted updated rules in a White Dwarf issue in 2019 (need to edit in when I find which one) - note this WD might be a bit tricky to get hold of. It's hoped/expected that Skirmish might get its own updated book in time - however Warcry has somewhat jumped into its slot of the smaller format game right now.
Realmgate Wars - some of the first campaign books to be released for the game. The story lore from them is already sold in books by Black Library. Meanwhile the stats and many of the rules are now very out of date. GW only sells these now as ebooks.
Path to Glory - much like the Realmgate Wars this is another very early publication in the AoS timeframe and is now quite out of date.



BATTLETOMES


Note:

Old Battletome = earlier editions which have lore and warscroll cards; but have no allegiance abilities, pre AoS 2.0 rules
New Battletome = more recent release with AoS 2.0 rules, includes more depth and allegiance abilities and other extended content.
No Endless Spells = army with new battletome, but no unique endless spells
Unique Terrain = army has unique terrain feature as part of their collection

Current count (note includes all announced Battletomes)
No Battletome - 0
Old Battletomes - 0
2.0 compatible Battletomes- 24


Grand Alliance Order:

Free Cities - combines Free Peoples, Dispossessed and Aelves - New Battletome, No Terrain, No Spells (however all universal Endless Spells get realm bonus as default)
Daughters of Khaine - New Battletome, No Endless Spells
Fyreslayers - New Battletome announced along with Endless Spells and Terrain feature
Idoneth Deepkin - New Battletome, No Endless Spells, Unique Terrain
Kharadron Overlords - New Battletome
Seraphon - New Battletome, Unique Terrain
Stormcast Eternals - New Battletome, Unique Endless Spells
Sylvaneth - New Battletome, Unique Endless spells, Unique Terrain
Lumineth Realm-Lords - BRAND NEW army reveals in proper began at the LVO 2020 event reveal

Grand Alliance Chaos:

Beasts of Chaos - New Battletome, Unique Endless Spells, Unique Terrain
Blades of Khorne - New Battletome, Unique Endless Spells, Unique Terrain
Disciples of Tzeentch - New Battletome, Unique Endless Spells
Slaves to Darkness - New Battletome, Unique Endless Spells
Hedonites of Slaanesh - New Battletome, Endless Spells and Unique Terrain
Maggotkin of Nurgle - New Battletome. Unique Terrain
Skaven (All Clans) - New Battletome, Unique Endless Spells, Unique Terrain
Legion of Azgorh (Forgeworld Chaos Dwarves) - New Battletome
Tamurkhan's Horde (Forgeworld Nurgle) - New Battletome - WARNING Tamurkhan has been removed from sale from FW - army status at risk

Grand Alliance Death:

Flesh Eater Courts - New Battletome, Unique Endless Spells, Unique Terrain
Legions of Nagash - New Battletome, No Endless Spells
Nighthaunt - New Battletome, Unique Endless Spells
Ossiarch Bonereapers - New Battletome, Unique terrain, Unique Endless Spells

Grand Alliance Destruction:

Ogor Mawtribes - New Battletome, Unique Terrain
Orruk Warclans - New Battletome - no terrain - no endless spells.
Gloomspite Gitz - New Battletome, Unique Endless Spells, Unique Terrain


Forgeworld Armies - downloads for Rules found here : https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-GB/Downloads#warhammeraos


Removed armies: Note these are armies no longer listed on the GW store for sale, they might have Generals Handbook rules, or they might have been consolidated into other Battletomes/armies.

Brayherd - No Battletome, Allegiance Abilities GHB2018 - However army replaced now with Beasts of Chaos as unified force.
Greenskinz - No Battletome - all models removed from sale
Gitmob (goblins) - No Battletome - all models removed from sale
Aelves - general listing (includes most of the old elf model lines and aelf lines from AoS) Now majority rolled into either Free Cities or removed from sale. 
Darkling Covens - GHB2019 rules only - however model line is in Free Cities 
Wanderers - akin to aelves above. 
Beastclaw Raiders - now part of Ogor Mawtribes
Gutbusters - now part of Ogor Mawtribes
Everchosen - now rolled into Slaves to Darkness

Consolidated future Battletome release rumours/hints:

Lumineth Realm-lords - Revealed at the New Years event, release in Spring 2020 https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/01/04/reveals-from-the-new-year-open-day-2020gw-homepage-post-1/
Sons of Behemat - shipping manifesto seen with their name on and teased in a GW video, but no actual photos nor details yet.



WARNING = products likely and actually on last orders 

Forgeworld models - FW has removed quite a lot of AoS models recently and might well continue to remove more in the short term. Keep an eye on them and buy any you want (even popular ones like the magma dragon, warpfiredragon and wolf rats have gone!)

Realm of Chaos: Wrath and Rapture  - all models within are now on individual sale - very likely this box will vanish. 



Other Age of Sigmar Games:

The following are other games set within the Age of Sigmar:

UNDERWORLD:

A card and board format game which features small warparties of warriors adventuring and competing over small battlefields. The game features core packs which update every so often with a new edition (Beastgrave is the current edition). These contain boards to play on as well as warbands to play with. Many races feature their own unique styled warband which is sold with its own cards and rules. Launch periods often have custom card protectors and dice for newly released factions.
A minor negative point is that many universal cards (can be used by any force) are often sold through different warbands so there's a bit of a "collect them all" aspect to the game.

The models released in this have full rules for the full AoS game and can be used in it. Those which had battletomes published after the release of a warband will have the rules within the battletome; otherwise the rules will be included in the box and on the GW website under the rules tab for each warband on their store page.

NOTE The GW store often shows two listings for many of these warbands. One on the "Underworlds" tab which has a slightly higher price and will have all the Underworld cards included. The other is on the army page for the warband under Age of Sigmar and will feature a slightly lower price but also no cards. Note some warbands do fall out of production when it comes to card supply; however the models remain on sale under their respective army page. Sometimes you can find "out of production" warbands with cards in retailers (3rd party and GW stores).



WARCRY

A skirmish game format which features its own unique set of rules and boxed game. The game works by using small warbands of warriors, either unique chaos themed ones or regular models from all current GW armies for the game.

The game is sold through terrain packs which contain terrain features in plastic as well as card boards to play the game on. The terrain positions and design vary depending on randomly drawn cards which detail the setup of the game; the position for starting for both players; twists (unique variations to the rules/stats which can include wandering monsters such as chaos furies).

Players roll dice and make choices on how to play through the battle. Games are short and brutal aiming for a quick to setup and quick to play game ideal for new people with limited budgets and for any gamer with limited time or after a different scale of combat.

All models can be used in the regular AoS game (most Warcry unique models are all from the Slaves to Darkness AoS army

I personally don't consider all of the 2.0 battletomes to be in the same field as each other.

For example: nurgle. That book is not a trash fire, but it pretty much will never stand up to Skaven or FEC if the skaven or FEC player is fielding hyper optimization powergamer build.

Thats just to head off how the whole game will therefore be balanced and everything will be great discussion that tends to follow.

However, on the plus side if they can bring by the end of 2019 75% or more of the factions into 2.0 rulebooks, it will in fact bring a lot of player satisfaction back if they keep the books at the same power level as goblins and khorne (both books I find fun and well written without glaring WTF power builds staring at you once you crack the cover))

I do consider nurgle book vs khorne book to be an entertaining game with a slight nod to khorne in power but player skill can compensate and the insidious double turn can artificially make the game win / loss at least more balanced regardless if you find it fun that the game is won or lost by a double turn (another discussion that has been had a billion times that doesn't need repeated here)

I also think that if they get the game to a near complete state it also helps to clarify a lot of uncertain things for gamers. Factions with a 2.0 book are likely to stick around long term which is going to encourage people into the game. Plus it also removes the whole "where are my rules" question for some who have rules in bits and drabs dotted in the generals hand book or only have warscroll cards on the GW website.

I can agree that there are some balance questions here and there, but also once everyone is on 2.0 books and functioning the same it also opens up to GHB being able to make adjustments to the mechanics rather than making new rules and systems.

I think books that are 2.0 compliant such as Nurgle and DoK are more likely to see "Revised editions" like the new CSM codex rather than a big release. A revised edition to update points and maybe add Endless Spells into it.

There are 3 x 2.0 compliant tomes in all(ie. compliant but released before official 2.0 launched)? Maggotkin, DoK, and Idoneth.

Thing is GW doesn't have to release an updated Battletome for those factions. They can just release the Endless Spell and Terrain boxed sets and put the cards in a pack/in the box and its job done. They don't need to reprint all the books just to add 4 warscrolls to them. Heck even more the case now since GW publishes all the Warscrolls for AoS free online on their webstore.

I'm a little bemused that they're looking at second releases for the Fyreslayers when stuff like Free People haven't had anything yet...

Crispy78 wrote:
I'm a little bemused that they're looking at second releases for the Fyreslayers when stuff like Free People haven't had anything yet...

True, but at the same time don't forget many of the first generation Battletomes were little more than lore and warscroll cards. They had new alliance abilities and other such things which have become core components of the AoS system. I also think that those tomes make an ideal target for updating as GW can just release book and endless spells and terrain - all overseas production that doesn't put additional strain on the GW factories (esp since I don't think their new factory is even finished nor online yet).

Also remember it's due to the models that are made. You won't see a free peoples tome if there's a chance of an updated model range until the updated model range. Of course otherwise they could do something like just put out a quick tome with existing models (like with Skaven).

I think 2.0 is already suffering from GW once again adding new design paradigms midway through.

Good on you for making this Overread!

Good work, Overread. It'd be nice if a mod could sticky this. Be a nice thing to be able to refer new posters to. As a couple have mentioned, I would put DoK and Nurgle in their own category since they're both "1.75e" tomes. They were created with the new design philosophy in mind, but still used some post-GHB elements as well. DoK seems to be competing just fine, but Nurgle kind of suffers from First Codex Syndrome. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see one or both of them see a small revision (more than just points adjustments, but not enough to justify a whole new book) before it's all said and done.

 Overread wrote:

Crispy78 wrote:
I'm a little bemused that they're looking at second releases for the Fyreslayers when stuff like Free People haven't had anything yet...

True, but at the same time don't forget many of the first generation Battletomes were little more than lore and warscroll cards. They had new alliance abilities and other such things which have become core components of the AoS system. I also think that those tomes make an ideal target for updating as GW can just release book and endless spells and terrain - all overseas production that doesn't put additional strain on the GW factories (esp since I don't think their new factory is even finished nor online yet).

It is also good to keep in mind that many of the tomes that are being updated are most likely going to be low-hanging fruits: easy money for GW while they update an existing faction as they will not get many models or much new. I mean, it seems that the Fyreslayers release - with the exception of endless spells and that forge - is pretty much barebones as far as we can tell.

 Eldarsif wrote:

 Overread wrote:

Crispy78 wrote:
I'm a little bemused that they're looking at second releases for the Fyreslayers when stuff like Free People haven't had anything yet...

True, but at the same time don't forget many of the first generation Battletomes were little more than lore and warscroll cards. They had new alliance abilities and other such things which have become core components of the AoS system. I also think that those tomes make an ideal target for updating as GW can just release book and endless spells and terrain - all overseas production that doesn't put additional strain on the GW factories (esp since I don't think their new factory is even finished nor online yet).

It is also good to keep in mind that many of the tomes that are being updated are most likely going to be low-hanging fruits: easy money for GW while they update an existing faction as they will not get many models or much new. I mean, it seems that the Fyreslayers release - with the exception of endless spells and that forge - is pretty much barebones as far as we can tell.

Aye, whilst I'm sure GW would like to add models and update many as well they have a limited production capacity at their Nottingham factory and their new factory isn't yet online. As a result they can't just pump out new models for every force. At the same time there are still players of those armies who are playing and who are current customers. So GW can do some spells and terrain and an updated book which all use design staff in-house and then overseas production which GW can increase by hiring more factory space overseas. So its very easy for them to scale up and keep that going without it impacting their main factories. And lets not forget their main factories are still pushing out new models at a very fast rate.

It's surprising that a small army like Fyreslayers didn't get a release in the schedule, but I think GW is simply reacting to the fact that people who dont' get into AoS are often citing the confusing rules situation with some armies on old battletomes and some without them etc... So I think they are fixing that first and models will come later.

I'm really ok with no models being released right now so long as the external and internal balance is being upgraded so that all of the factions are viable and that internally multiple builds are viable.

It's surprising that a small army like Fyreslayers didn't get a release in the schedule, but I think GW is simply reacting to the fact that people who dont' get into AoS are often citing the confusing rules situation with some armies on old battletomes and some without them etc... So I think they are fixing that first and models will come later.

It is due to this that I wouldn't be too surprised if they try to consolidate all leftover models into tomes or cancel certain models by the end of the year or sometimes early next year. It must be weird for new players to go to the GW website, see a ton of models(there are A LOT) that don't have official tomes or don't really belong to a proper cohesive force.

To be fair the "tonne of models" is mostly now consigned to Aelves. Most of the rest are at least visually a coherent army/force with a unified appearance and style - more or less.


Of course the other big change was at Christmas where they stripped out a LOT of fringe factions, heck there were several factions with only one or two models to their name (death had one faction which was just one of the ghost ark variations and nothing else). No models (far as I know) were lost but it made the store FAR more accessible to new and even experienced people as to what was what.


2019 is the year of cleaning the heck out of AoS to get it back to a sensible structure.

My point was more that we currently have these model ranges without an official tome or properly updated rules and each contain a plethora of available models.

- Aelves 44
- Dispossessed 10
- Free people 34
- Creatures of Chaos 17
- Everchosen and Slaves to Darkness - 27
- Gutbusters 20

and for some reason Australia still has Greenskinz with only the Orruk Warboss available as Direct Order...

But overall these are a lot of models(152) that haven't had any love or attention for a long time except for token gestures in the last General's Handbook. The only complete Grand Alliance is Death and interestingly enough that's the only Grand Alliance Book no longer available. Basically a quarter of all the available models are those without any support and I can't imagine that's helpful for new players/customers visiting the website.

I really really want to expand my Gutbusters (Normal ogres army) but after the greenskin genocide I'm very afraid they'll go the same route.

The plastic kits are old, specially the normal ogres, etc... but they are still very good looking even for today standards. Of course that was also true for Boar Boyz and look how that ended.

Until they receive a battletome I can't bring me to buy anything.

Nice overview.

I don't have a crystal ball, but there a few factions I wouldn't start right now (the ones I believe have the most uncertain future):

Any aelves who are not deepkin/daughters.
Freeguild
Greenskins/gitmob.

I think the rest are pretty safe (including ogors).

If it feels like your army is taking a long while without any rules coming out for them: I'm expecting a heavy Gloomspite Gitz style revamp for:

Ogors (with more suneater stuff).
Freeguild (more rough mercenary style warriors, less 17th century infantryman, like in the lore books).
Shadow and light aelves (pretty much stated, so not much of a prediction).

I still maintain that greenskinz and gitmib are coming back, with new miniatures.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I still maintain that greenskinz and gitmib are coming back, with new miniatures.

Oh, I'm not denying that... Gitmob in particular gets a specific mention as those gobbos worshopping the evil sun in stead of the bad moon. So a link with firebellies is even possible. Same with Greenskins and ironjawz being a potential combo if you ask me...

I'm just talking about a "you are almost surely buying outdated models with those factions" point of view, not a rules/gaming point of view.

I was hoping the duardin update would combine fyreslayers, overlords, and dispossessed into one book. Individually, each faction is very thin in model selection and play style. In contrast, the other AoS models I collect, Khorne, has a wider range seemingly then even if the 3 books were combined.

I am glad that they did not combine them, since they are still very different armies with different synergies, play styles, and feel on the tabletop. I feel there's no need for each army to have the same number of options.

What I would like to see is a GHB allegiance for mixed Duardin, Aelves, Grots, etc. Something like the free cities rules where it is based off the generic grand alliance but with a little extra for sort-of specializing.

I think(or perhaps it is more like hope) that the next GHB will shed some light on what they are planning for the remaining factions.

Note for any Slaanesh and Khorne players - the pre-release prices for Slaanesh show that the two new models in Wrath and Rapture duel box are going up for individual sale as well. This means its all coming in one big pre-release wave this coming weekend. As a result its very likely that Wrath and Rapture is totally out of production and will now only sell on remaining stock. With both armies now equipped with tomes its likely that stock will run out reasonably to very fast. So if you want them get a hold of them now. It's a great saving and even if you don't want the "other side" it should prove easy to sell half of it off.



Also remember any metal/finecast models for Slaanesh are likely to go out of production without warning. Keeper of Secrets in metal is already gone in several territories (as expected). The Masque is also a pretty much guaranteed to be gone model. The Hero on mount and herald have a big questionmark over them. The herald has appeared in photos of armies in community posts on the GW site and there's no direct replacement for it in the line up so it could be hanging around; whilst the lord on mount has appeared in some big artwork, but that's no guarantee it will remain.

The lord on foot nothing has been heard of so could also vanish.



Basically if its metal or finecast and you really want it best to grab a copy now if you can; in my experience finecast stuff doesn't turn up as much on ebay whilst metal tends to quickly climb in value once its no longer produced.

I expect Free Peoples, Aelves and Dispossessed to go the same way as the Greenskins. They have Stormcast as the moar awesomer version of humans, daughters of khaine and deepkin as moar awesomer elves, and fyreslayers and overlords as moar awesomer dwarves. Ironjawz are their version of moar awesomer Orcs, and so normal Orcs had no place in the game and were removed. I figure they will just stagger it to reduce fan backlash.

Very happy to be proved wrong.

Free People's certainly won't. They're far too ingrained story wise and appear in artwork too often to simply disappear. Same with Dispossessed who feature quite a bit in the new Fyrelsayers book. Aelves we'll have to wait and see as we're still waiting for the light and shadow aelves release which has been teased since the beginning. We'll have to see how the current ranges are ingratiated into those and then see what's left over.

Greenskins were part of the story, and they are gone. Cathay was part of the story of the Old World, but it never got miniatures.

I figure they are just running down the stock and will get rid of them eventually. As I said, happy to be proved wrong.

Greenskinz never got books or stories written about them. (unless I missed any, which is possible). But we have had books about mortal witch hunters, adventurers etc. Cathay is irrelevant to the discussion.

I think with Free People's specifically, they just need to get a unified theme with them. With Aelves in particular, I could quite easily see the Eldritch Council, Dragons etc wrapped into the light aelves and things like the Darkling Covens and assassins folded into Malerions shadow aelves.

Free Peoples are 100% Staying, some models might be lost, move around or get remade, but the concept of a pure human faction is going to stick with AoS. Remember Stormcast are just the elite warriors and, far as we know, they either cannot or don't reproduce. In addition they don't "live" a normal life. They are pretty much forged for war and that's about it. Heck in the Realmgate Wars they march for days on end with little food or water and still manage to fight through several armies of Chaos at the end.

Free Peoples are all the mortal humans of the Realms. Indeed in time I would expect GW to add at least one more human faction or fragment Free Peoples with model supported subfactions to represent different human subcultures.

At present there's the oddity that Aelves in the setting are no more numerous than humans (early lore suggests they were significantly under populated, but by the AoS period its fairly even populations); but the Aelves have a glut of factions whilst humans have not even had one with a proper Battletome yet.



Aelves we've no idea what GW is going to do They might roll them into existing forces (it strikes me odd that Idoneth didn't take Scourge Privateers and that more of the other Dark Aelves didn't join Morathi's force); into the new armies in some form or even just into a united Aelven Alliance. It might als obe that early on if they do form a united alliance it won't "look right" until GW gets a chance to revise the sculpts on many.

I am pretty skeptical. The game has been out for ages now, we have had loads of battletomes done, some factions are on their second battletome. GW have had ample chance to do something with normal humans, but they have done nothing with them. That to me suggests a lack of interest.

In my 20 years or so paying attention to GW, a lack of interest from the Design Studio is the kiss of death for an army. That is what happened to Brets - no interest in them in the design studio, so no one bothered to update them after 6th edition Fantasy despite them being pretty popular. They have done the same with various factions tonnes of time, because the design studio is very ill disciplined and sloppy. Never seen a game company so unprofessional when it comes to supporting stuff.

So Free Peoples not getting an update in the first edition of the game to me reeks of "we do not care about this, none of us are excited about it". Having normal humans in books and so on is just a function of the need for a relatable narrative, but does not mean they will definitely keep the Free Peoples as they are. They might, but it is just as likely that they scrap the Free Peoples as they are (a bunch of Holy Roman Empire knock offs) and do something different when someone in the Studio has a lightbulb moment.

Again, I would be happy to be proven wrong. I hate it when factions are squatted (another example of a faction where no one in the Studio had any enthusiasm for them, so they just had them unceremoniously eaten by the Tyranids between editions).