Topic: New Edition of Age of Sigmar on its Way

[Lord of Winter and War]

There is one today! Hosts of Slaanesh!

Flesh eaters have command abilities, but they are all summoning abilities, so currently not too useful, especially as I never take a ghouls King as my general lol.

[Myen'Tal]

So here's a quick question for you guys: So is the new edition rulebook for Age of Sigmar like an evolved version of the General's Handbook. I understand we're getting new lore and rules for the game itself and other faction mechanics. But can we expect any point changes this time around? Would be nice if we saw some price cuts to battalions and units for the various factions that need them (or an increase adjustment too).

[Lord of Winter and War]

It's completely seperate to the handbook. It's an update to the core rules.

The handbook is the book for ways to play. They did say a new handbook will be coming out at the same time.

Personally, I think it's important that battalions are expensive. They were too good in handbook 1,as they were auto-includes. Now, you have to actually weigh the cost of the battalion, to the rules you get out of it. They couldd go down 25-50pts though. 

[Myen'Tal]

Oooh, alright thanks for the information, Squid !

I know the Idoneth Deepkin only released a couple weeks ago, but I'm already hoping for a few adjustments, at least on the Eidolon, Aspect of the Sea and the Leviadon . Maybe they won't happen, but I'm still hoping lol.

On another note, I'm personally interested in how GW will handle lore in the new edition. My problem with the current lore is not even that there is not much available at the moment. I guess I just don't really how they focus each and every faction around a particular God Aspect and theme everyone around the AoS pantheon.

Stormcast Eternals: Warriors blessed by Sigmar, clad in sigmarite, and hail from the capital of Azyr, Sigmaron.

Tzeentch Arcanites: Mortal cultists and beastmen who worship the Great-Changer, whose magic is all-based around transmutation (burning, withering, mutating, etc), and whose warriors clad themselves in Change metal (lol).

Sorry, I'm rambling . I love the AoS models and the actual game, but I feel like the lore provided in each battletome could use some individuality outside of the Gods that lead the factions and whatnot. I feel like Warhammer Fantasy has more of an edge over Age of Sigmar in that department.

Hope that makes sense in some way. Still cannot wait for the new edition!

[Lord of Winter and War]

Well, the game is only three years old, so it's not going to have the same level of background as other games, like 40k, which have been around for three decades lol.

I think you'll be hard pressed if you want the game to not be revolved around Gods, as they play an integral part to the lore. Not all the factions are as invested. The two factions you chose are pretty much 'the most' invested in the Gods, as one is litterally the followers of a God, and the other is created and lead by one.

Factions like Kharadron Overlords, Free Peoples (and many other Order factions), most of Destrction, and Flesh Eater Courts could happily exist without the Gods mucking around.

[Myen'Tal]

What you say about the factions I chose is true , but I am an elf devotee so I guess I'm kind of a hypocrite lol . Maybe I should read some of the Black Library books on some of the Aelf factions, maybe I could find more of what I'm looking for in there? It's not that I do not like the gods, I think some of them are really great. I just don't like that the factions that are centered around them just breathe in the philosophy of their deity and don't really think about much else for the time being, according to the lore we have so far.

You're probably right though, once the lore gets fleshed out over the next couple years I'm sure it'll much more satisfying .

[Lord of Winter and War]

Well, Chaos and Death are pretty much all about their Gods. Besides the Flesh Eater Courts, who do their own thing.

For Destruction, none are directly lead by a God.

For Order, only the Stormcast and Sylvaneth (out of those released so far) are super dependent on Gods.

Some Aelf lore for you. Nothing has been known about them until the Deepkin and Daughters of Khaine book came out.

Aelves are in a funny place with all this. When the wory-that-was, was destroyed, Slaanesh absorbed all the souls of the Aelves that died. So, when the Aelf gods arrived to the Moral Realms, they couldn't find any Aelves anywhere.

But, long story short the Alf gods tricked and captured Slaanesh, and have been leaching the Elf souls from it to create new Alves, with mixed results. Both the Daughters of Khaine, and the Deepkin are a little..broken.. from being inside a Chaos God.

Morathi (who is not a God), stole too many souls, which sort of revealed where Slaanesh is to other parties. Nagash is now angry with the Aelves, for taking the souls of the dead, and Slaanesh for the same reason.

Since the realms of Light and Shadow are more or less the two main realms that the Aelves inhabit, and Slaanesh is trapped between them, I can see the Hosts of Slaanesh beginning to discover where their God is trapped and trying to get it back.

There is apparently another faction of Aelves yet to be revealed who inhabit the realm of light.

Long story short, I can see the conflict between the various Aelf factions and Slaanesh Hosts to start picking up in the lore soon.

[Myen'Tal]

Cool stuff, Squid, I'm especially anticipating those Hysh Aelves of Tyrion and Teclis, though that won't be for a while I think. Malerion also has his own faction of Aelves too, if I remember correctly. Morathi and him seem completely separated faction-wise, so I think they would be interesting too. Good thing GW wasn't like, "You know, what if we updated all of the Aelven factions this year!?!? ".

I find the Daughters of Khaine lore intriguing because Morathi isn't really the Herald of Khaine, and that Khaine is really dead, but could be resurrected, etc. That's the kind of political intrigue I would like to see fleshed out a bit more. Morathi still remains an interesting character and how she handles the Daughters of Khaine armies is really interesting.

I also think we'll see some Slaanesh stuff around the winter season I think. Once the Dark Prince finally breaks free of the cage, I agree that I think things will kick off in a really cool way.

I think of all the factions that aren't really devoted to the gods, I like the Ironjawz the most out of all of them. Might become a second phase army once the Idoneth and Daughters of Khaine are out of the way. Or not, Sisters of Battle or Dark Eldar are competing for that spot lol.

[Calamity]

Look Out Sir! comes to AoS, and Faction Focus: Maggot Of Nurgle too.

Shooting those Stormcast heroes isn’t getting any easier. 

[Lord of Winter and War]

I do like it though. I'm glad it's just a negative modifier, rather then a true 'look out sir'.

Stormcast have good shooting, so it'll hurt them too 

[Calamity]

Endless spells and Skaven.

Living spells becoming monsters of a sort with wizard bounty hunters trying to dispel them is an interesting bit of fluff.

[Irisado]

Endless spells are a much better idea than the mysterious terrain that was introduced for Warhammer.  I quite like the idea behind them and it does fit with the world that has been built for Age of Sigmar.

Regarding the Purple Sun of Shyish (The Purple Sun of Xereus in all but name), it looks suitably menacing for my undead force, but the rules for End Given Form seem a bit confusing to me.  Are they saying that units whose models only have one wound, but number more than six models, will suffer the more damaging effects of the spell as well?  If so, that is potentially very nasty for large infantry units.

[Cavalier]

The more I see of AoS the more I want to play. These endless spells look absolutely sick. I love stuff like this. While I'd like something a bit more "Planescape" than He-Man (both of which I love to death) the bizarre nature of the game is what really draws me in. These living spells take that to 11. Its only a matter of time before I dive in.

[Wyddr]

The more I see of AoS the more I want to play. These endless spells look absolutely sick. I love stuff like this. While I'd like something a bit more "Planescape" than He-Man (both of which I love to death) the bizarre nature of the game is what really draws me in. These living spells take that to 11. Its only a matter of time before I dive in.

Ditto. I'm going to have to spin-up the propaganda engines to sell it to friends. Nobody I know plays. 

[Cavalier]

@Wydrr- Same here bud. I'm probably gonna get my brother a get started set and maybe try to find a Silver Tower box to get some other people interested. Something about 40k screams you have to have 2000pts and a big huge army! But AOS is such that I can imagine a lot of battles being small inter-dimensional raids and being just as thematically satisfied.

Sort of a tangent... but what I like about it is that its still as over the top as ever but also super bizarre which is one of the more underrated elements of all the GW stuff. To me it feels MUCH more bizarre than 40k in terms of models (stuff like the Deepkin Reavers and the Tzaangors which I love)

[Myen'Tal]

I hear you guys, being in Mississippi for the last couple of years, I could never find anyone that was interested. I was just going to build an army and hope to move out to a locale where wargaming is more popular. Now that I've moved into Nashville, TN, there's a Games Workshop store about 20-30 minutes from where I live. A friend and I have decided to get into Age of Sigmar with the new edition. Just purchased 3 units of Akhelian Guard and the Akhelian King for the Idoneth Deepkin. Cannot wait for the new edition to come out!

Do we know the release date of the 2nd Edition? I know it's sometime in June, but haven't been able to find much. I thought I saw 12th of June as a rumor, but I'm not sure if that is from a credible source? Doesn't really fall in line with GW's release schedule.

[Irisado]

Rules Preview: Summoning, For Free! - Warhammer Community

I really like the changes to summoning.  The previous rules about having reinforcement points really didn't work very well in my opinion, so this is a much better idea.  I think that tying it to the way in which different armies play also adds a narrative dimension to playing the game which I find very interesting.

[Calamity]

Finally the Overlords are the focused faction.  The Thunderers Retreat ability is going to be useful, but I'm more interested in the points reduction.  We need those, badly.

[Lord of Winter and War]

80pt drop on the gunhauler takes that model off the shelf, that's for sure. Kharadron Overlords are a fairly mono-build faction at the moment. A points drop would do wonders to fix that.

I do see thunderers getting a new lease on life, as they will be one of the few missile units you can't tie up in combat.

I'm going to need to think on how I can get outflanking units into my force to big down artillery and missile units *cough* judicators *cough*

, but the rules for End Given Form seem a bit confusing to me.  Are they saying that units whose models only have one wound, but number more than six models, will suffer the more damaging effects of the spell as well?  If so, that is potentially very nasty for large infantry units.

The larger effect is for units whose individual models have a wounds characteristic of 6 or more. If the models have wounds of 5 or less, then the better effect is applied.

[Lord of Winter and War]

So, the new starter box was officially announced today.

Soul Wars Announced - Warhammer Community

Ho-lee-amphetamine parrot This looks amazing! I recommend watching the trailer. It's really cool.

I love both of the miniature lines. I might need to pick up this box for my second faction!

I'm also a big fan of the box for endless spells, and I'm glad all the rules for them are in the box.

The Handbook 2018 will be the same as other books, so invaluable.

The Objectives and Dice all seem cool too, but not things I'll be gunning for Day 1.

Looks like for me, the new Rulebook, Handbook, and Sorcery box will be day 1 buys for me. I can't wait for my Ghoul King to use some of these endless spells!