I'm still not entirely certain how AoS factions even work... does this mean that for example Swifthawk whatevers will be entirely gone as a "range" (meaning that they might have rules for a while forward, but will never receive their own army book or new models until being phased completely out), or do people expect new ranges for these?
I'm not really sure the Swifthawk Agents ever really rose to the level of "faction." They were just an arbitrary grouping of old WHFB models that were running on a set of loose, provisional rules.
Personally, I'm bummed to see the High Elves getting slashed like this, since I've always loved those models and that aesthetic. I really hope the Realm of Light gets a new faction of elf-y looking guys riding giant eagles and dragons and such, because that is badass.
But looks more like Cities of Sigmar is going to be an army of cannons and halberdiers in their pajamas with the occasional dwarf.
Wouldn't go that far, there are still lots of different kits to be included in Free Cities, but I do agree with you that it blows to lose so many models at once.
Wildwood Rangers, Eternal Guard, Wild Riders, Sisters of Thorn, Shadow Warriors, Sisters of the Watch, all of the Dark Elves range aside from Witch Aelves, Phoenix Guard, Phoenixes, longbeards, hammers, irondrakes, ironbreakers, demigryph knights, greatswords, general / mage on griffon...
There's still a lot of good stuff in there. How it'll work exactly though, I'm not completely sure. Guess we'll have to wait and see, I can see though that a lot of people are already disgruntled by the loss of a good amount of models, some of which were absolutely surprising. Guess it cannot be helped.