Unified Warhammer Fantasy thread

The Null Myriad are really cool, looking almost like they got something cosmic about their Glowing Eyelights of Undeath. As with the new High Elf-equivalents, this is another example of where the standard colour-scheme for a faction looks too boring, leading to me judging the miniatures unfairly.This shows that the line is more appealing than I thought initially, even though I still prefer more common skeletons and other classic undead for the footsoldiers and spellcasters.

The Null Myriad also have quite cool lore. They have massively high magic resistance so they build their fortresses in places with such a high level of magic that most mortals can't survive there for very long, such as the edges of the realms (the ambient magic of the realms increases the close you get to the realm's edge).

I agree that the less focused on sub-factions seem to have the more interesting colour schemes for both AoS and 40K.

There's more with the Ossiarch Bonereapers, such as a focus on some of their new rules and a battle-report on Warhammer TV. Speaking of undead, there is also some backstory for Ivya Volga and rules for her. Looking at her, I am getting the desire to convert my own warband of Cossack-looking vampires.

In the 40-year retrospective they take a look at the Green Knight, which migt be among the finest mounted knight models ever made. "Controversial" it may be, but I could see him painted in autumn colours, or like a huge chess-piece.

I will admit that the Green Knight was always the only Bretonnian model I actually liked. It is beautiful.

A while ago I stumbled across some supposed concept art◊ for the Lizardmen from the closing days of Fantasy, but I've never been able to figure where it's from, specifically. Has anyone ever seen this before? If so, where did these images turn up from?

Neat. First thought that it'd be concept art from the RPG or something; but it's probably stuff they aborted to focus on land marines.

The art is dated from 2004, so a year after the 6th edition Lizardmen rulebook and the big update to the model-line. I think the main difference is that the artwork looks like a grungier take on the models we got, but a lot of these look very familiar, like slightly altered versions of what we already got with that initial overhaul and later on through Forge World. I can see vaguely familiar elements all the way until the End Times. The only thing completely new is that feathered serpent, which would have been pretty cool as a model.

Warhammer: Old World: Newly painted old miniatures and a Q&A about basing. Basically, the larger Infantry base will be the new standard, not because the models are getting larger, but to make them easier to rank up. This is probably a good thing as my Skeletons with spears used to be a right pain to put into ranks.

I genuinely was not expecting to see the lance formation back.

For anyone who was not in this hobby twenty years ago, it used to be that Bretonnian knights would form up into a big triangle to charge around, with a whole bunch of rules to deal with how this big triangle fit into a world where everyone else was either a rectangle, a blob that would form up into a rectangle, or a Night Goblin Fanatic.

Around the time I started getting White Dwarf via subscription in like 2004, the "triangle" lance formation was replaced with a narrower-than-usual rectangle to save the rules writers having to deal with every edge case resulting from the weird geometry going on there.

I wonder whether they've actually figured out an elegant solution for the clunkiness vs. being willing to keep clunky mechanics for the sake of nostalgia, the way someone designing a retro videogame might.

Nice seeing those Bretonnians again, because they are some fine representation of European soldiers in The High Middle Ages compatible with other games, even with some minimal fantasy-elements. I also really like that colour-scheme for the army. The red-and-black reminds me of Vampire Counts and gives me an idea to convert an army of undead Bretonnians, led by a Vampire Knight.

Bigger bases seems like a smart choice, partly because of the increased size and more dynamic poses in the most recent updates to the models. Another thing is that you get more artistic freedom to customize your bases.

Edited by Mara999 on Apr 15th 2023 at 1:09:05 PM

The figure positioning issue has always been a pain, my Chaos Dwarf warriors who faced forward always had to go on the end of the line to avoid shoving their axe into another warrior’s shoulder.

I was an Orc player, they only barely fit on 25 mm back then.

Especially with how bowlegged they are. Black Orcs would almost always have their toes sticking outside the rim of the base, but that would apply or most humans on 20mm bases.

Even with regular orcs it was "here are their weapons, if one of them is 1mm out of the ideal position this guy won't fit in the lineup"

Huh. Foot knights for Bretonnia. Color me rather surprised.

I seem to remember them having the option in at least one version of the siege rules (for obvious reasons). There were never any actual models for them, except the Bretonnian Knight◊ from the original Warhammer Quest.

There were at least models for Paladins on foot.

Seeing a Bretonnian foot knight reminds me of the thing that annoys me about the Vermintide 2 Grail Knight DLC—Kruber becoming a demigod but was too drunk to remember anything and it's treated as a joke.

I almost wish there had been a Bretonnian character instead, as much effort as that might have been. Because holy shit, Kruber experienced and achieved miracles on a journey the best knights fail at over decades. He's one of the most powerful beings in the world now, like he should be able to solo the game afterward. He could be the goddamn king if Leonceur died!

But nah, it's all a joke of a weekend. He might not have even done anything?

Man, I do love his interaction with Saltzpyre and his attempt at developing an accent though.

You mean pseudo-Elf, given who the Lady IS.

I dunno, I found it hilarious, as it mirrored something from Pathfinder (where a drunken adventurer took a bet to do a test that either killed the challenger, or made them a god. long story short, he won the bet but was too drunk to remember HOW he did it).

Sunday Preview with boxes featuring the new Lizardmen. I can't get over how gorgeous these are. In hindsight it is odd that I didn't start collecting Lizardmen back in the day, because I really like the Mayincatec-MagiTek spin on the faction, along with them having lots of Lost World dinosaurs as mounts. As much as I like these new sets, it's doubtful that I'll get the extra finances needed, so I think I'll focus on kitbashing toy-dinosaurs and cheaper proxies to make my own Lizardmen.

I do love the cover of the army box's Battletome. I was never much of a WFB Lizardmen, despite being a fan of the Mayincatec trope. I do really like the updated ones for Blood Bowl and AoS's Seraphon though.

Edited by SebastianGray on Apr 17th 2023 at 7:38:09 PM

I really liked already the 2003 visual update they got, but at the time the problem for me was that I simply couldn't buy from every faction with nice models in it. I had to be picky, so I stuck mostly with Orcs & Goblins, Ogre Kingdoms and Vampire Counts. Though I admittedly also sank quite a bit into whatever boxes could work with my insane Warhammer-to-LotR project. What is making me more strongly consider making a Lizardmen warband is that these days they are tweaked further to look a bit more draconic, with the Saurus resembling D&D Dragonborn and the Skinks becoming like more badass Kobolds.

Double-post: More on the new Seraphon/Lizardmen, with a closer look at their new raptor mounts. That's an interesting-looking atlatl that the Skinks are using for throwing, while I like even more the Magitek crystal-powered laser-staffs. It's like Star Gate combined with Jurassic Park.

I remember reading about atlatls in a book on weapons when I was a kid. It's a simple but effective thing that I haven't seen in fiction until now (that I can remember anyway). I do love this piece of art◊ from that article.

I've had The Old World on the brain these past few days, and I've been wondering: suppose that you could add one new unit to a roster of your choice — just straight up make shit up, understated or dramatic, lore tidbit or complete new invention, whatever — what'd it be?