Warhammer: Age of Sigmar

"That Was Then, This Is Now."

-S. E. Hinton

"Legend tells us one thing, history another. But, every now and then, we find something that belongs to both."'

-(Samuel Jackson as) Nick Fury

Goldmongers VS Ragemonsters. It's like poetry, it rhymes.

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar (which has been called by fans many names such as New Warhammer, Nuhammer, Sigmar and Friends, Sigmarines vs Chaos Warriors [guest starring WFB special characters], Warhammer Light, "Fucking Bullshit", Skub: The Wargame, Age of Smegmar, Sigmar's Big Day Out, Age of Skubmar, Warhammer 40k: In Fantasy!, Age of Shitmar, Skubhammer 40k: Age of houserules ,Warhammer: New Coke, and so on) is a beer and pretzels skirmish-level wargame set in the new Warhammer Fantasy setting that was formed after the world-sundering events of the End Times.

According to Games Workshop it is a product that will remain supported and updated using a "living document", meaning it will be constantly updated rather than re-released as a new thing each time (for example, version 1.2, version 1.3, version 1.4, and so on). The initial rulebook only consisted of four pages which can be found for free online, with additional updates to come (yeah right). Every model in the older Warhammer (or at least the models still in production when it was released) receives stats through a "Warscroll", a downloadable stat card. On July 3rd, 2015, the Games Workshop main page was altered to have Age of Sigmar rather than Warhammer Fantasy as its category. You can still click to view models by their 8e army, although now another sorting option shows armies by race and the new four factions.

As for the Warscroll Compendium released online for free, it did what it was prophesied to do and basically made it so your prior investment in Warhammer miniatures isn't completely worthless. But then again, this was the bare minimum they had to do to prevent people from razing their HQ down to the ground. So, while the good news is that you can use your old collection with no hassle and there's the probability that fan favorite characters will make an appearance in some form in the new world(s), the bad news is that there's still no balancing or points mechanic.

Much lulz was had when the actual rules were seen and revealed to be written in the unhinged style of Magic the Gathering. The actual rules include bonuses for wearing a hoodie (Night Goblins) having a bigger moustache than your opponent (Empire), admiring yourself in a mirror (Slaanesh), bribing your opponent (Ogres), etc. These clauses are mostly there for flavor and actual games will not require you to scream "FOR THE LADY!" while downing a goblet of wine, unless your opponent really sucks. Skubfights reignited when the Warhammer World (now an ironic name) Newsletter released rules for playing in the Realms, such as metal models rerolling save rolls of '1' in the Realm of Metal, players wearing red, yellow, or orange rerolling To Hot Hit against their characters in the Realm of Fire, and bringing a picture of your pet giving a unit +1 To Hit in the Realm of Beasts, which proved the "silly rules" were not a one-time thing. Yaaaaay.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck...

Games can be played on a MUCH smaller scale, although there is no upwards limit on the size of the match. In fact, the second page of the rules state a player can literally field everything you own, until you run out of space on the field. One would hope that most people will not actually do this unless their opponent does the same, though if your rule system relies on hoping and praying That Guy doesn't act like That Guy, you've already lost. Older players feel it is harder to make a game fair between both players than to win. There are various homebrew rules that attempt to provide a point system for those who want it. Thus far, the desire for a points system and concerns for balance has been a sticking point for many long time WHFB players.

As a skirmish game round bases will be primarily used, although Games Workshop specifically pointed out repeatedly in the corresponding White Dwarf release that any base size or shape is viable as now measurement will be made from the model itself. As base size no longer matters, models no longer are made to rank up. Games Workshop claims formation does not matter, and bringing ranked models on square bases on movement trays is still viable.

Despite the actual end of End Times indicating only one figure survived, Age of Sigmar allows any character to be fielded; in fact, some such as Grimgor who had confirmed deaths are still playable, and as time goes on more reveals of survivors have come steadily. The tagline in fluff states "Not all perished in the destruction of the world. Hidden in shadow realms, alternate dimensions or protected by fell magic, they endured the darkness of the void and emerged once more. Warhammer Age of Sigmar reintroduces these legendary heroes and notorious villains, though not all will come back as you remember them." So expect new models.

The names of every classic Warhammer race was changed, most likely for maximum copyright.

The pre-order date was set for July 4th, and release July 11th.

The game now has only four factions, grouped into different races. Despite this, there are NO limitations on models AT ALL. In a vanilla game you can put any model in the game into your force. You can field an army of half Aelves and half Duardin, with a few characters from Daemons and Tomb Kings. Stormcast Eternals and Savage Orcs, WAAAGHing it up against the Blüd God and his army of Treekin. Want to have an airforce of Gyrocopters, Screamers, and Dragons? Go for it. How about Cyclopean Giants Gargants and their Goat(man) herds? Maybe a plague army of Bubonic rats and Nurgle's best with some Fanatics and Witch Elves Aelfs to spread the rot? Go for it.

Notable about the game now is that since any player can take any model from any faction and Games Workshop continually shuffles the factions, renaming or combining or breaking apart, the game is an absolute fucking mess to try and organize and write about.

Setting

This is your new setting. Apparently, Skaven have chewed through reality itself via giant rats the size of Realms (making them apparently larger than Slaanesh if not all beings), creating the Fantasy Webway.

The new setting is made up of nine Realms. Each Realm represents a magical Wind and its properties (The Realm of Aqshy (fire) has volcanoes and the people tend to be aggressive and determined, the Realm of Hysh (light) is a bright and verdant world with symbolism in everything, the realm of Azyr (Heavens) is Sigmar's personal domain, and so on), and Sigmar ruled them all initially. Unfortunately, the ninth Realm is basically the Northern Wastes from the Old World, and is Chaos incarnate. The Realms are connected through gates called "Realmgates".

On the upside, with the power of the Incarnates, they can now win lasting victories against Chaos. On the downside the setting lacks originality (even moreso than Warhammer Fantasy); it can be summed up as the lovechild of Norse Mythology and the Stargate franchise.

After the End Times

Sigmar floated through the void of nothingness after Chaos's destruction of the Warhammer Fantasy world, clinging to the metal core of the Old World. Some time later, he made friends with some Luck Dragon space-drake named Falkor Dracothion who was made of stars and saw that core sparkling in the nothingness. He revived Sigmar with his breath and let Sigmar ride on his back, then he showed Sigmar hidden paths leading to each of the Eight Realms.

(This whole next paragraph is very sketchy - where did they get all this cloud of souls business from?) He named it Mallus and befriended Sigmar, then revealed his role as the being who restarts realities before gathering the magics of the old setting and creating the new one. It drew the souls of thousands and more of beings who had survived the destruction wrought by Chaos, who saw Sigmar and Dracothian as their leaders. They forged the light around them into a new city, Azyrheim which surrounds Mallus and includes a halo of floating buildings. Every race was present in the cloud of souls, and each of their ideals and styles went into it (one can assume the Orcs just painted stuff). Eventually the spirits grew new bodies just like their old ones where they rebuilt the past cultures or formed new ones, reproduced, and mortal life began again although exactly how long souls kept reincarnating for is undefined; language used hints this is an ongoing process rather than a one-time thing. Some souls were reborn within the winds (translation: YOUR DUDES, WHOEVER THEY ARE, SURVIVED EVEN IF THE CHARACTER YOU LIKE HAD A DEATH SCENE IN END TIMES AND FURTHERMORE ANYTHING NEW YOU WANTED TO TRY BUT COULDN'T FIND LORE JUSTIFICATION FOR EXISTS TOO). Although it is stated all races were present in the could, it is also stated that no Elves could be found until later, so there is a minor lore disconnect that may mean only Half-Elves were in the cloud (as a compromise between the two statements) to instill Elfish architecture in Azyr. In time, the city was crowned by a MASSIVE statue of Sigmar which forms a fortress called Sigmaron (Sigmoron).

The Age of Myth

After finding the eight Mortal Realms, Sigmar then sought out the other beings who survived, such as former Incarnates once bound to the Winds of Magic, and found various creatures and races living in the different realms. He went around smiting monsters with his dragonbro and drew various human tribes to his side, going on to create a 'Great Alliance' of all the different gods and races across the Eight Realms. Great civilisations were established and chaos incursions were repulsed. It was a golden age, a brief utopia.

Grimnir and Grungni were chained to a mountain in the Realm of the Fire Wind, and refused to give any information to him about how they got there. After freeing them they both pledged themselves to his service. Grungni, who is now a crippled smith god (gotta love that GW creativity), taught the various mortals metalworking and brought their general technological level back to the point where it had been prior to AoS. He then gathered the Dwarfs, now called Duardin, to himself and forged a new mountain Hold called the Iron Karak for them to dwell in. Grimnir on the other hand wanted his debt repaid immediately, so Sigmar requested he fight Vulcatrix, the Mother of Salamanders (with Salamanders themselves apparently being the origin of ALL FIRE, EVERYWHERE) for some reason. Both of them were destroyed in the conflict by shattering into thousands of pieces that rained over the Realm of Fire (while Grimnir's beard was on fire). The fragments of Vulcatrix created the volcanoes that dot the Realm of Fire (which apparently for some reason didn't have any prior and needed an explanation to exist), while the fragments of Grimnir- *THIS INFORMATION HAS BEEN CENSORED BY ORDER OF SIGMAR, ON BEHALF OF THE DUARDIN: LONG LIVE SIGMAR, LONG LIVE GRUNGNI, HONOR TO GRIMNIR* It's unknown if he was the original Grimnir or Gotrek, but either way killing the mother of all fucking salamanders is a pretty badass way to leave this world.

Sigmar then found Tyrion and Teclis. Tyrion is a god proper, the Lord of Light and is the one who actually holds domain over the Lore of Light. He is blind, and can only see through Teclis's eyes. They attempt to find Elf mortals, but are unable to and eventually give up to join Sigmar's pantheon of Order.

Malekith somehow fused with his dragon Seraphon during End Times, and woke up as the god of the Lore of Shadow who called himself Malerion, completely alone. He searched for other beings and eventually found his mother Morathi, who has "changed" and has the companionship of Daemons made of pure shadow. Eventually they too joined Sigmar (no word on if they're taking back up the old family practices).

Alarielle awoke alone, although she still had magical seeds from the old setting. She planted them everywhere and created Fey beings as well as new treefolk, and although she did join Sigmar eventually she nonetheless shunned others in favor of her pod people.

Gorkamorka, the merged Gork and Mork (or is it Mork and Gork?) was found by Sigmar trapped in sapient amber named Drakatoa that had claimed the Realm of Beasts for itself. Sigmar smashed it open, and Gorkamorka acknowledged him as his Warboss (cue O&G players seeing green... and red).

Nagash was kicking back in the Afterlife, and there's no word on how Sigmar found him or secured his assistance. All that's know is that Nagash took over control of the various Afterlifes again, becoming the god of all (most likely human) Underworlds. He also brought back his right-hand man, Arkhan.

Many, MANY years after End Times Sigmar has gathered most of the mortals left in the Warp together, and has created a full pantheon that includes many of his fellow Incarnate gods, lesser gods, demigods, and even some strange and random monsters and beings willing to cooperate. Initially, all went well; Nagash formed a proper afterlife that does not include any Chaos soul-eating and had Undead do the bulk of the construction efforts. Grungni continued teaching mortals of technology and smithing, and although Gorkamorka was EXTREMELY bored and irritable Sigmar appointed him to the task of hunting and killing things bigger than himself, which kept the greenskin god entertained.

When Chaos rediscovered the Winds of Magic and found that instead of water/wind-like magic they are now different dimensions, they assaulted the world to reclaim their might. But the new pantheon was strong, as were their servants, and Chaos found it difficult to beat them. Alarielle abandoned the defense of the Realms in favor of only fighting within her own Realm, the Realm of Life, to defend it from Nurgle using guerrilla warfare and ambush tactics. The efforts of Order were further weakened when Tyrion and Malerion left during the battles against the Four's armies to find Slaanesh, who had eaten so many souls during the End Times that he had become bloated and unable to even move in the small cave he had been hiding in. Then, Slaanesh's forces suddenly railed, sensing the disappearance of their master, and despite 7/8 of the Realms having been taken by Chaos they fled the battles to launch in pursuit while Khorne (at Tzeentch's manipulation) attacked them from behind which prevented them from saving Slaanesh. What exactly happened to Slaanesh is not known, although the souls of the Elves that Slaanesh has consumed from the old world suddenly appeared in the new one (given that the Island of Blood main character, Prince Althran, now has an End Times Warhost it is suggested they simply popped out of Slaanesh as they were similar to the Greek Gods popping out of Cronus after Zeus cut his stomach open [in one version of the legend]). The reborn Elves are now called Aelfs.

Gorkamorka, entirely SICK of Sigmar's sissy "civilization building", broke from the pantheon by forming a one-god WAAAGH through all eight Realms and the Warp, then embarked on a return trip the same way until Sigmar broke him back into Gork and Mork (or Mork and Gork?) where they settled into the Realm of Beasts.

The Age of Chaos

Finally, at the battle for the location containing a Realmgate to each Realm, Nagash backstabbed Sigmar and the rest of Order due to the (unspecified) manipulation of Tzeentch and Archaon, then fucked off in a mad dash back to the Realm of Death. Sigmar chased after him in anger before realizing "OH FUCK, THE BATTLE!" and returned to see Chaos has laid siege to each Realm. Sigmar, disgusted, called on Tyrion and Malerion to take a moment from kicking Slaanesh in the tummeh help him and the mortals forge a magical barrier preventing Chaos from entering Azyr (or the all-seeing Tzeentch from seeing past it), then shut the gates to the Realm and began preparations to defend against the incoming siege. Nagash returned to the Realm of Death thinking he's won only to find the fucking Skaven had blown up his Black Pyramid. AGAIN. Archaon appeared and killed Nagash, although Nagash's soul survived (he controls the afterlife now, where the hell would he go, Detroit?) and began reforming his body (so Nagash was reset back to pre-End Times, although he can actually appear on the battlefield now if he wants to).

Chaos laid waste to all eight Mortal Realms and ruined all the civilizations built up during the Age of Myth, leaving only hidden strongholds and fugitive enclaves. Sigmar gave up fighting them and retreated to Azyrheim to build his army of Stormcast Eternals.

Running out of things to kill, Khorne then attacked the ENTIRE REST OF CHAOS, allowing the inhabitants of the realms a bit of a breather. NB. The Great Horned Rat is now a chaos god. The other three Chaos Gods thought very little of him, although Skavenblight was allowed to become a section of the Realm of Chaos (due to the mistakes of the Skaven however, it half sunk back into the material plane which in turn gives Skaven the ability to appear in any of the Realms at will). Even Archaon believes himself above the Skaven among the Chaos faction, and he spits in the face of the Great Horned Rat directly.

The Age of Sigmar

The player-driven story of the game starts as Sigmar creates the Stormhosts, reforges (no pun intended) his old ties with the other forces of the Great Alliance, and sends their combined forces through the Gates of Azyr to beat some Chaos ass with the ultimate goal of taking the fight to the Warp itself. Vanguard forces of Stormcast Eternals can RIDE THE STORM from Azyrheim to the mortal realms, deep striking on bolts of lightning, but have to capture Realmgates to get back again and allow larger armies to join them.

It has been a very long time since the End Times ended, and many, MANY generations of mortals have lived and died in the Eight Realms. Nothing remains of the Old World aka the World Before Time, apart from its core, which sits in the Realm of Heavens, surrounded by Sigmar's city.

In the first battles of the post-release story, Sigmarines battle Chaos in four locations.

• Hammers of Sigmar VS Khorne's Goretide (starter box factions) in the Hellfire Brimstone Peninsula of the Realm of Fire: Jacos, a Lord-Celestant of the Stormhost, is killed by the leader of the Goretide Khul while another Lord-Celestant named Vandus called down lightning in a suicide attack to destroy Khorne's Realmgate to the mortal Realms. Relictor Ionus then blew up Khul's skull pyramid, preventing him from ascending to Daemonhood. Jacos was lost in the Warp, Vandus was Reforged.
• Celestial Vindicators VS Tzeentch in Chamon: CV's intially attack to reclaim Ghal Maraz, and discover Tzeentch was going to absorb the Realm of Metal into his own and the ritual was interrupted 99 days early. Tzeentch's forces hold them off and capture many CV souls to prevent Reforging, forcing the Stormcasts to regroup. This event leads then to the Silver Road to find the bulk of the Duardin race, although Tzeentch's forces also discover it. The Sigmarines seemed doomed until the inevitable Tzeentchian backstabbing conga and layers of plans and pawns finally come into play, made worse then the Changelords and Kairos Fateweaver got involved. During the thousand-man villain monologue cacophony the Sigmarines were able to reach Ghal Maraz, and when one of them touched it Sigmar was able to bomf his army and sacred weapon back home before unleashing a Thundernuke on the fortress. Meanwhile, the Lions of Sigmar were sent to find the Metal Duardin but found something "far darker" (theorized to mean Chaos Dwarfs Duardin). Sigmar then decided that since he had his favorite toy back, it was time to get directly involved in the war again.
• Hallowed Knights and Astral Templars plus Sylvaneth vs Nurgle and Great Horned Rat plus Beastmen: A Lord-Celestant collapsed Nurgle's Realmgate from within, and is trapped in his Garden now. After the Order forces mop-up the Chaos, Alarielle's crazy treefolk befriend the Sigmarines and they begin to reclaim the Realm of Life. But not after a great unclean one pollutes the last pristine lake in all of Gyrhan. The war ends with the Sigmarines barely scraping a victory due entirely to the Celestant-Prime arriving and defeating the leader of the Nurglites, Torglug The Despised, at the cost of the lives of Alarielle and her daughter, the Lady of Vines. The Sigmarines plant a seed containing Alarielle's soul in the ground where many of them died in hopes she'd be reborn Human as a warrior queen of rapetrees rather than a totes cray-cray queen of gardening.

With the resolution of the above plots, the following wars were established.

• The Anvils Of Heldenhammer Stormhost are sent to make a truce with Nagash, and discover Neferata defending her kingdom of New Lahmia Nulahmia against Slaaneshi invaders and rush to her aid.
• Archaon, sick of being on the sidelines, heads to Mount Kronus in the Realm of Fire to kill Vandus and the Hammers of Sigmar.

The plot will supposedly keep advancing after this using scenarios, just like Warmachine and Hordes. Scenarios specify what models you must have, meaning that its more likely GW will sell specific sets simply because updates will revolve around you having specific things to get the most out of them (the next step in evolution of the "every new update overpowers the faction so powergamers will buy a whole new army" theory).

The Four Grand Alliances

Order

A God Emperor who DOESN'T suck.

The factions united under Sigmar, interested in beating the shit out of Chaos and... well, just kind of surviving. Races are no longer homogenous; Dwarf, Elf, Human, even some Undead live and dwell alongside each other with all previous conflicts forgotten. Some cultures from the past world survived, and new ones have appeared as Sigmar united the mortals from many settings lost in the Warp.

The map of Sigmar's Realm.

Unfortunately Sigmar cannot keep the other Incarnates in check. Nagash and Gorkamorka fucked off to make their own factions, with blackjack and hookaz, half of the Dorfs Duardin bound to Fire need payment to do anything and are barely loyal, and the three factions of Elves Aelfs keep taking off to do their own shit.

On top of that, Sigmar intervened when he saw Warriors Mortals torturing a maiden (unspecified race) and refused to leave her. He carried her like Hunter Elmer and Brünhilda Buggs to Sigmarheim where she was fully healed of both physical and mental scars by his eunuchs Aelfs. He failed to notice she has two shadows... fans speculate she is anyone from Slaanesh to Isha or Lileath to the Sisters of Twilight remerged; given the shadows and the state of the Realm of Shadows it's possible Morathi has a hand in it.

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  The God Emperor meets with his Thunder War-wait a minute...

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  The Light Side Of The Moon.

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  This reminds me of something...

Stormcast Eternals

Sigmar forged his Realm out of Azyr, Wind of Heavens, into the realm of Azyrheim and took small mortal tribes which had been hiding from Chaos in the Warp and with the help of Grungni forged them into Demigods, more metal than man within armor immortal beings of flesh and blood clad in armor made of a pure refined metal called...Sigmarite. These beings were dubbed the Stormcast Eternals (prepare yourself for facepalm lore writing, as the Stormcast Eternals storm things stormingly with their stormhammers just as much as Space Wolves wolf things wolfishly with their wolfguns, and even worse is coupled with GW's boner for fauxus-Latinarium), and were created to be the perfect defense against Chaos. These warriors are truly immortal, as upon dying Sigmar can reforge them back to life. Each time they're reforged however, their soul is weakened like brittle metal; they lose intelligence, emotions, and memories in small increments. Additionally, it is possible for their souls to be lost to the Warp if a Relictor is not there to reclaim it. Furthermore, Sigmar has a limited amount of supplies within Azyrheim to forge new ones or reforge veterans (which takes much longer, and only gets more difficult as they grow in strength) with, and must make gains against Chaos in order to keep the war going. Chaos likewise can renew their own servants, although only particularly useful ones are; Khorne for example will simply reclaim lost Bloodletters and form entirely new ones, a task with mortals Sigmar either can't or won't do. Of course, as Gav said: "There's as many Elves as the plot requires".

Each group of the Stormcast belongs to one of the Stormhosts, which we don't know exactly how many there are. although it seems there are more than 8, since each realm is unimaginably vast, and only 3 Realms have been covered so far. Unless Sigmar is ignoring those Realms till later... Each Stormhost is analogous to a well-known 40k chapter of Space Marines. Foremost amongst them are the poster child faction, the Hammers of Sigmar who bear the regal blue and gold and were the first Stormhost. They are followed by the Astral Templars who are the monster-killer Stormhost, the cursed and brooding figures called the Anvils of Heldenhammer who were forged in a really depressing state and were born as a faction of emo kids, the Hallowed Knights which are the spiritually consecrated warriors immune to Chaos and so horrifically mangled they were battle-scarred at birth underneath that armor, the Celestial Vindicators who sport a spiffing turquoise armor which somehow ties into their role as Sigmar's new Witch Hunters, and the gold with purple Lions of Sigmar whose power is that they are dreadfully mysterious and can maybe cut guns in half with their mind if the rumor is true.

According to Josh Reynolds the Eternals were not all human men, and were forged out of all mortals Sigmar found. Under the armor could be a woman, an Aelf, an Orruk(ok maybe not, but it would cool though!), anything not aligned to Chaos or a Daemon. So if anyone asks you about Female Space Marines from now on, give them Stormies and female miniature heads. Furthermore, uou can have your lore-friendly Ork Space Marines. Although this does raise few intresting questions, like red Stormcasts being faster than the others...

Only Undead Sigmarines seem to serve as "Relictors", flag-bearers who draw slain Stormcast souls back to Sigmar. In one story, a Relictor hears Nagash's words "A tithe for a tithe, a soul for a soul" during a battle which suggests the Skelepope has something nasty up his sleeve for the Boltboys. Perhaps Nagash is involved in the Relictor's soul retrieval to try and stick his skeletal fingers in Sigmar's pie by taking control of some Stormcast Eternals. In a later took he explains that it's Nagash who is the one that causes the issues with the reforging. You see, Nagash doesn't like the fact Sigmar is taking souls that should go to him to make his little Sigmarines and tries to grab them, with the lost of memories and emotion the parts Naggy is able to nab. Relictors, being Undead, don't suffer any loss.

Laboratories within Azyrheim and the mysterious Six Smiths labor night and day to improve Sigmar's forces.

They travel from Realm to Realm via lightning bolts that strike the ground, destroying a small chunk of the surrounding area before they appear in a brilliant flash of light.

Thanks to their bulky appearance, massive fucking bodies, and design that's obviously meant to get the attention of Space Marine players, they are known to most of the fanbase as "Sigmarines".

The Stormcast Stormhosts are all led by the "Celestant-Prime", a former righteous king who was granted part of Sigmar's own essence upon becoming the first Sigmarine and gifted with Ghal Maraz once it was reclaimed. He is stated to "slay a Daemon with one blow, setting the spirit within free to make its way to Azyr". The implications for this are interesting, the most obvious being Sigmar is recruiting Daemons by purifying them Saint Cuthbert style. As if you didn't know it already, he comes in the blue/gold/white color scheme. There are a few theories as to the past identity of this figure, the most likely being Karl Franz. Before anyone says "but he was EMPRAH, NOT KING!", the Stormcast Eternals battle tome refers to Sigmar's old empire as a Kingdom, and thus would consider Franz to be its King. It's probably NOT Settra, since Settra was an egotistical, tyrannical dick who would be the big bad of the setting if it weren't for bigger dicks like Malekith, chaos, the skaven, the vampires and Nagash... maybe Settra's not so bad, but he's still probably not the Celestant-Prime.

Sigmarines are heralded by two special troops among their number. Knight-Vexillors carry flags bearing the words of Sigmar. Rather than just granting a slight morale bonus, or a little bit of magic resistance, these banners call upon the power of HATRED that all non-Chaos beings have for Chaos which causes the flag to cause hurricanes and bring down whole fucking stars on anything Chaos nearby it. Knight-Heraldors blow trumpets that sound like thunder peals with enough force to obliterate a Chaos fortress to dust.

Although it is (very) easy to hate on them, it is only fair to say GW may have had "good" intentions regarding their purpose in the game. They appeal to 40k players, yes, but also have maximum "your dudes" options while also not requiring going into very much detail or put in a lot of thought ("These are the (two words, from a thesaurus) and they are (two colors). They (basic behavior) and originated (cool quirk, or favorite race/faction from Fantasy)"). In fact, so long as they have that bulky armor and praise the sun Sigmar while hating Chaos you are fully in acceptable range of plausible lore. They are easy to paint, and their immortal nature means there is not a sense of picking a losing or dying out race. Furthermore they give non-villain sides a faction to whom death is laughable. Only the similarity to 40k with the fact they came bundled with massive changes to existing lore and disappointing rules cause the hate to really pile on so easy. That and the fact the word storm has lost all meaning to those reading their fluff anyway. Had they been introduced in 8e or End Times, it's possible they would be much less scorned among the general fanbase.

Despite many fans and critics saying that the Stormcast eternals are carbon copies of the Space marines, Black Library author Josh Reynolds had this to say otherwise:

"Well, for starters, Space Marines are chosen as children, tortured by SCIENCE!, and then drafted into an eternity of being monastic murder machines whose sole purpose is to hold up the crumbling foundations of an omnicidal dystopia in the name of a rotting carcass that eats psykers like chiclets. They're emotionally stunted orphans who were brainwashed and weaponized before being unleashed on a galaxy where EVERYTHING is trying to kill them. They never even had a chance to be people before someone turned them into a gun instead. Stormcast, on the other hand, are dead heroes, chosen for their valour and faith, resurrected and sent to free the Mortal Realms from the abominations currently running the show, on behalf of a benevolent God-King (Though benevolent is seriously up to debate). They're traumatized heroes who had lives, personalities and histories prior to being crammed into primary colored hulkbuster armor and filled full of lightning so that they could go save their descendants from the eldritch horrors of a nightmare dimension. They endure death after death, losing a bit more of their soul each time, in order to prevent anyone else from suffering the fate which befell them. One group are so far removed from humanity as to be utterly alien. The other group are so human it causes them pain. One group feels little in the way of emotion, the other group feels emotion as strongly as they did before death. One group hates and fears the alien. The other group allies regularly with space-lizards, skeletors and green monster-men. One group is the personification of the grim future in which they live. The other is a thing born of hope. The similarities are cosmetic: big guys in easily paintable armor sell better than little dudes with fiddly bits. But the context for those cosmetic similarities is quite different. Think of it this way...Space Marines are Batman and Stormcast are Captain America. Both are super-heroes, both wear costumes, both punch bad guys, both save people. But they ain't the same, are they?" Really makes you think.

It's noticeable that with more muted metallics, they are not as unappealing. Dull silvers or coppers with dark washes and earth tones appeal to many more than the gaudy gold and high-contrast coloration and many have taken advantage of the "any race" lore to clip off their Persian 300-style helmets and replace them with Dwarf, Orc, Elf, and skeleton heads.

Don't worry if the stock look doesn't appeal to you, GW is more than happy to come up with reasons for you to buy $20 worth of alternate pauldrons.

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  Hope you stocked up on gold, blue, and white paint because you don't really need any other colors.

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  They're Sigmarines alright.

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  SIGMARINES, HO!

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  .

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  Looks about right

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  Silly Sigmarines, you don't need to be in formation! Just run at them and start flailing, that's how real war is fought.

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  Forgesworn Eternals: the first /tg/-approved Chapter Stormhost.

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  BEHOLD, MY SIGMARECTION!

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  Not pictured: the unit musician playing the guitar solo this album cover goes with.

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  Because it isn't a victory unless you destroy the entire countryside with lightning before the fight even begins.

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  They ride wingless dragons like horses and use wingless gryphons as dogs...

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  ...because they kept all the fucking wings to themselves, the selfish fucks.

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  Now where have I seen this before?

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  This is definitely their plan.

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  Nothing like saying "fuck you" to Khorne like having a man with a skull for a head carry your standard. Note how the Khorgaron's arms have switches places. They're the opposite on the model and in other pics.

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  Here's some SIGMARINES!!!

The Empire

The former Empire, and likely the other old setting cultures as well given the vague blank check descriptions, who reside mostly in the creatively named realm of Sigmaron. Whether as reincarnated defenders who were killed during the fall of the old world or descendants and reclaimers of their lost ancestral culture Fallout-style, they still exist in their old forms and State Troops with Warrior Priests can be seen fighting alongside Sigmarines.

Prior to the birth of the Stormstormst Stormstormals the Humans played a pivotal role building civilizations and fighting in Sigmar's name. They labored to build the Tzeentch-proof wall, and follow Sigmar's vision in their own unique ways.

They're also a bunch of mustache-fetishists, as the rules seem to indicate.

Bretonnia

Bretonnians still exist, although since the entire old Elf pantheon is gone they likely worship either Tyrion or Sigmar. A fate many Bret players have decided is worse than Squatting.

Dwarfs

The new Dorfs are called "Duardin", who dwell in the Realms of the Fire and Metal.

Steamhead Duardin

Grungni helped forge the Stormcast Eternals for his bro Sigmar.

After the initial falling out of the pantheon of Order, Grungni was the first fellow god Sigmar sought out and he found the Duardin living in a land called Anvrok where they had established mountain Holds and..."cloud mines" (the author of this article feels dirty having typed that). The Duardin who worship Grungni are absolutely loyal to Sigmar, although they rarely venture out of their own lands unless summoned as the race as a whole have taken to hermit-like lifestyles.

The Celestial Vindicators (teal metal (however that works) with gold trim, white details, and reddish leather) are the Sigmarine faction assigned to dwell with the Steamheads, and were Sigmar's emissaries to them.

There are Duardin in the Realm of Metal as well, although the search for them us a current plot.

Fyreslayers

The Fyreslayers (formerly known as the Red Slayers, the name midway though production likely so it's easier to copyright; note how the impossible to copyright "fire" is spelled with a much more patent-friendly "fyre"), are a faction for Order that doesn't even really pay lip-service to it, unlike the Exiles (Dark Elves). They're mercenary Dwarfs, formerly the Slayers, that worship Grimnir instead of Sigmar's buddy Grungnir and won't help the Sigmarines and friends out unless paid in gold. So, in a world that was ripped to shreds from the sphincter out, these guys only care about gold. "Ur-Gold", specifically. Fyreslayers believe Ur-gold is made up of the shattered fragments of Grimnir, something fans predicted as soon as the lore dropped despite it being held as a reveal months later. Ur in German means old or ancient, and given the fact Keepers of Secrets who think they can become the new Slaanesh call themselves the "Ur-Slaanesh", the word Ur seems to be synonymous with divinity or godhood in Age. It is worth mention that in a 40k Black Library book and the 4th edition Ork Codex that an Ork character named Kaptin Badrukk's false teeth were made of Ur-Gold as well. To quote, "[his teeth] are plated with an alloy of adamantium and priceless ur-gold stolen from the Palace of Undying Light" causing mass speculation once again that 40k and Fantasy Age will crossover in the future.

Fyreslayers were created by the battle between Grimnir and Vulcatrix, and aggressively spread throughout all of the Realms to bring the gift of volcanoes and Grudges. They are now divided by Lodges rather than Holds, and each Lodge is essentially led by a supreme leader called a Runefather and his many, many MANY sons. Its ultimately up to each Runefather to decide who the Lodge fights, who they ally with, and who is lying about not having gold. Every single plane a Lodge is established in changes it greatly; the generic Slayer-like Fyreslayers hail from the Realm of Fire, but Fyreslayers in the Realm of Shadow are more like Dwarf Dark Elves while those in the Realm of Death would be like stunty Nehekharans.

Zharrgrim is the name of the religion of the Fyreslayers, Auric Runemasters are the priesthood . They are personally responsible for the gold madness of their kin. Auric Funefathers command the Runemasters. The Runefather's children are the Auric Runesons, who rule in his name as the nobility although only one can replace him if he dies; the rest must either become ineligible to ever become a Runefather (so no Dorf Hamlet) or strike out on their own to form a new Lodge, like Dwarfy queen bees. All subgroups within Lodges are called Fyrds which are each led by a Runeson, and represent the models you will be putting on the table. The entirety of the Fyrd militaries of a Lodge are called the Grand-fyrd and represent the thousands of Fyrds assembled (so to be a Runefather, you need to be quite fertile). It falls on the Runefather to dispense gold to his people on a personal basis, as too little or too much will drive them mad. They also have GeeDubs trend of spamming theme words as the fiery Fyreslayers fire things with their flaming firestaffs just like the storming Stormcast with their stormy stormhammers and the wolfy Space Wolves with their wolfish wolfguns.

So Fyreslayers are stupid, and dicks, but they're Sigmar's stupid dicks...except they aren't, because they'll work for Chaos against Sigmar too if given a better counter-offer. At any rate, the previous gold fever of the Warhammer Dwarves is now magnified tenfold; Duardin may give no fucks about the lures of Chaos, but gold corrupts them and drives them to outright madness now. Grudges no longer mean anything once gold is involved, nor does concepts of brotherhood or debt. Honor is measured in Ur-Gold.

So yes, Warhammer Duardin are now Dwarf Fortress Dwarves if they have red hair and lava blood.

Runes are far more important now, and are often forged directly into the skin of Duardin using Ur-Gold.

Fyreslayers seem to have taken the often shirtless quality of the Slayers to an extreme. They now prefer thongs and aprons as attire.

One thing to note is that despite there being two Incarnates of Fire in The End Times, one a dwarf and one an elf, there's no sign of any fire-elves fire-aelves. Yet...

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  More epic than 40k will ever be.

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  "Fuck honor, this is about the gold!"

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Aelfs

The new Elves of the setting, made up of three elf subfactions (Highborn, Exiles, and Wanderers) from the previous world. All Aelfs were trapped within Slaanesh's belly while he hid in a cave trying to digest them like some creepy fucking porn you'd see on the internet until Tyrion, Teclis and Malerion captured the Dark Prince and made him/her/it spit them out.

High Elves

The Highborn are on Sigmar's side, and are led by Tyrion (along with Teclis, who somehow managed to come back to life). Tyrion's power over light somehow managed to render him permanently blind; as a result, he's dependent on Teclis to help him with basically anything that requires sight. No word on how Teclis feels about this.

Dark Elves

By contrast, the Exiles give only token lip service to Sigmar; their true loyalty is to themselves and Malerion (formerly Malekith- his name was changed due to copyright issues, also the fact that he fused with his dragon). After forming a new body for himself using nothing but his own bitterness and reuniting with Morathi (who somehow managed to survive being dragged into the Warp by Slaanesh, and then made it to the realm of Shadow like Malerion did), he agreed to work with Sigmar as part of the forces of Order. Even as a god, Malerion/Malekith seems doomed to be stuck living with his mother.

Wood Elves

The Wanderers are just...there. Most likely they will rejoin Alarielle and become Wood Elves again, although Alarielle has gone a little crazy and now is more Drycha than Snow White.

Where Morathi fits into the Aelf politics isn't known, seeing as she has shadow Daemons who apparently like to party now. Regardless, she stayed loyal to Sigmar and remained at his side during the fight against Chaos.

Seraphon

The Lizardmen reached the new setting with their flying magical pyramids, following the trail Sigmar's tears left until he reached Azyr, when the Lizardmen disembarked in "High Azyr". Their new Slann caste, "Starseers", began scanning everything that exists and formulating a Great Plan to change the rules of the Great Game. New weapons and armor made of stars were forged, and the Slann recreated the environment of Lustria using their minds to return DINOSAUZ to existence.

The lizards must also have made a stop at the Mushroom Kingdom on their way to the Nine Realms, because they’re loading up to the eyeballs with STAR POWER (Playing the Star Theme when fielding Seraphon is optional but recommended)! Seriously, there’s enough star and celestial references with the Seraphon that they can join Khorne, the Stormcast Stormternals, and the Space Wolves in the Chronic-obsession-with-sticking-their-theme-words-into-everything club.

They are described as reptilian warriors made of Azyr who appear out of nowhere, making them the other Order Daemons alongside the Stormcast Eternals (except the Seraphon have the 'daemon' keyword on their warscrolls, The Sigmarines do not). The Slann can summon in the Lizardmen troops as if they were Daemons as a result, and whenever Chaos-aligned warriors try to call upon their masters through Realmgates the Seraphon can reroute it to their Realm and assault the supplicating edgemasters.

They are the only faction to get a Warscroll that changes their fluff without making it fucking stupid in the process. It seems that they will survive relatively unchanged from a fluff perspective, as theirs is the only rulebook with reasonable fluff and none of the silly rules (but you have Skinks who teleport ANYWHERE and shoot and you can summon UNLIMITED copies of ANY warscroll, so it seems the Lizardmen cheese-fest is here to stay). Contrary to Whineseer rumors stating that the lizardmen were getting squatted, Seraphon are the first old army to get their own Battletome and are mentioned in the other factions fluff far more than they did in WHFB.

Its worth noting that previously, Seraphon was the dragon mount of Malekith. It is unclear if in setting if anyone remembers that was her name, or who Malekith even is at that matter. Weird flipping reskinning has happened in /tg/. (i.e. 4e D&D Archons). At any rate, whoever wrote Malekith's AoS war scroll remembers, since it specifically mentions his dragon mount by name and Malekith can use her breath weapon.

Seraphon got their first important lore in AoS when, in a White Dwarf battle between Be'lakor's personal army and Seraphon, Terradon Riders managed to kill him with rocks. Read that again; as revenge for End Times, Lizardmen made rocks fall until Cuck Undivided himself died. Although there's dispute on canonicity, any actual conversation on the topic usually results in a heavy Skubfest between Lizardmen and Chaos Taco'bel fans (although its worth noting the most likely explanations are it really was him or that Changeling had taken his form again; either way, Chaos got rocked rolled defeated most humiliatingly).

During their first proper lore, Lizardmen are portrayed as almost angelic beings who appear from the stars. Of particular interest, a mummified Slann with a golden mask rained down meteors from the sky using his mind, wielded the powers of a god, and whose soul is more ancient than the first Daemons. While they fought, the stars rearranged into the grinning face of a frog with red eyes.. FUCK. YES. Nurgle Warriors Mortals awaited a Realmgate opening to Nurgle's Garden, which instead opened to the Lizardmen. When the warband leader managed to kill one, it exploded into a flash of light which cleansed ALL the incurable diseases from his hand and removed their rotted immunities to harm. Even better, a watching Skaven was plagued by horrific nightmares of Lustria, Skaven being sacrificed and all the horror the Lizardmen inflicted on the ratmen through the ages. It seems that Sotek kicked the Horned Rat's ass so bad during End Times that the new Skaven instinctively remember and fear the Lizardmen.

As at the end of October 2015, the Seraphon/Lizardmen were mysteriously missing from GW's website... only to return a week later with round bases, Age of Sigmar boxes, and a new Battletome. Said Battletome states that Vampires can't feed on the Lizardmen as they have Light magic in their blood, and that the Slann hatched a new Great Plan which involves taking advantage of how the Chaos Gods are incapable of learning or changing their motives. With omniscient view of the Realms (something the Chaos Gods don't, as it mentions this gives the Slann a look "many moves" ahead of their enemies), they now have their own Great Game which involves sending their forces to the exact spots at the exact times needed to weaken Chaos, Death, and Destruction (plus any uppity Order) to ensure that THIS TIME the Chaos Gods will die. tl:dr Slann have out-Tzeentched Tzeentch.

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  Dats racist.

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  Almost everything GW ever did to Lizardmen is forgiven. Almost.

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Sylvaneth

The Sylvaneth are forest spirits of the Wanderer Aelfs. Led by the goddess Alarielle, the new treefolk were made from "Soulpods" she created. After Sigmar retreated to his realm, she considered herself a free agent, opposing Nurgle who seeks to claim the Realm of Life as his own.

Later, the Sigmarines aided the Sylvaneth in eradicating a Nurgle infestation they were having leading to them rejoining Order.

The damage Nurgle managed to deal was permanent and his forces were sure to be back causing Alarielle to let out a scream which rang through the Realms, letting all beings know "NATURE WILL TREEFUCK YOU!" in a call of eternal war without surrender.

During the Age of Chaos, Alarielle cut off her hand, growing a new one then cultivating the hand into a new Branchwraith Demigod, the replacement for Drycha called The Lady Of Vines. The LoV is Alarielle's favorite daughter (dawww), created in summer and despite any corruption or defeat she burns away the taint to bring optimism and youthfullness despite now being ancient in her own right. LoV led the bulk of the Sylvaneth. Then, one book after being introduced, the Lady of Vines was killed. This is why we can't have nice things.

Although Alarielle lost the Ariel portion of herself during End Times, she retained the Wood Elf season shifts and everything about her changes as the Realm of Life does. After dying, Alarielle survived as a seed (don't ask questions you know you won't get any answers to) and was planted by the Sigmarines in a place where many of their own died in the hopes of making her a warrior queen, despite, you know, her already being one.

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  Goddess of Life, Alarielle prior to her death. Looks like someone's got a case of the Mondays!

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  The Lady of Vines. The essence of lazy summer days of beating up fat kids until one of them brings a gun and shoots you.

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Death

"THEY DO NOT BELONG TO SIGMAR. SIGMAR THE DECEIVER. SIGMAR THE BARBARIAN. SIGMAR THE TRAITOR. WHO ALMOST COST AN UNDYING KING HIS KINGDOM."

"WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP TRYING TO WRECK MY SHIT? ALL I EVER WANTED WAS TO KILL EVERYONE AND MAKE THEM MY UNDEAD SUBJECTS"

The spooky side of things. Same goals as Order, but they don't play nice and their secondary goal is ruling over the survivors after Chaos is gone. In the war-torn Mortal Realms, the unquiet dead are plentiful indeed. Some have the power to bind the slain to their will, from the most bestial corpse to the most kingly of spectres. Their revenant armies walk abroad in every realm, grave-cold blades hacking into warm flesh whenever their masters seek dominion over the living. They all originate from the realm of Shyish, formed from the Afterlives of this setting and the wind of death. Shyish is considered the best-defended realm after Azyr because;

• Being the Afterlife for this setting means any mortal who dies and don't get taken by Sigmar or Chaos go here since Shysh now is "every Netherworld that ever was, or will be" where the Winds of Magic themselves die. Theoretically this gives them one of, if not the, most numerous army, with the dead of seven realms plus their own.
• Undead don't need rest or nourishment
• They can pop up anywhere at anytime with necromancy.
• Their ranks are bolstered every time one of their enemies falls in battle
• Bonus points for being spooky.

Three guesses who rules this faction... no undead, and very few otherwise, can rival Nagash, the Great Necromancer – even Sigmar himself has cause to fear his name. Nagash came back with the Wind of Death, took control of the Afterlifes in the new setting and formed the realm of Shyish. He allows living mortals to remain in his realm, but they must worship him (probably to provide blood for the vampires to feed off too). This departure from his "... turn the entire world into a kingdom of death, where no action would be taken except when he willed it" plan suggests he may have learned something from all his experiences. Nagash also brought back some of his Mortarchs; Arkhan (obviously), Neferata and maybe Krell. Mannfred was stripped of his title of Mortach and exiled to a place of constant decay due to his End Times betrayals of Nagash. Nagash has no mercy or regret in him, and has less than none for Mannfred; yet strangely Mannfred still got to keep his Dread Abyssal (didn't think Nagash gave severance packages) and was later promoted back to Mortarch. He's not allowed in parts of the Realm of Death as Arkhan gives him a warning before blasting him when he attempted to bring Sigmarines for a peace meeting.

The Realm Of Death, where the Zombie Dragons and Terrorgheists swim majestically in the swirling vortex of green with the playful random tentacles.

Ignoring his epiphany about teamwork from the End Times thanks apparently to Archaon and Tzeentch realizing they could not defeat a united Death and Order and slipping stupid pills into his...well, not even that makes sense...whatever they did to make him go full retard, he fights the forces of Chaos alone, and ended up getting defeated personally by Archaon. Still unwilling to accept defeat and too proud to accept a place in the forces of Order, he is currently in the state he always seems to be in: gathering power, just about to return. Some things never change.

Nagash still has the same old goals:

• Destroy everyone else, rule those willing to bow down to him.
• Eat Chaos, become supreme god of spooky. Because that worked so well the last time he tried it.

Despite his betrayal, he still allowed some Undead to remain in Sigmar's service. However Nagash DOES NOT LIKE what Sigmar is doing with the Stormcast Eternals. Nagash sees those souls as his, but is unable to stop them from returning directly to Sigmar in order to be reborn unless Nagash personally kills them himself. He's also the one behind the degradation of the Stormcast Eternals; each time they die Nagash tries to grab their souls but only manages to grab and take parts of them, such as emotions, memories and experiences. Sigmar still holds out hope Nagash will rejoin Order, and sent Sigmarines to aid Neferata in defense of her section of the Realm Of Death, Nulahmia, against invading forces of Slaanesh... of all the Chaos armies... because apparently some Chaos Lord wants to try Mortarch minge. That's quite a thing to sneak past the kiddies, GW!

Death has a nifty new special character it could also feasibly share with Order, technically just a named human Banshee called The Silver Maiden from the Realm of Metal. In life she was Celemnis, a Swordmaiden of the Argent Sisterhood. Daughter of a powerful Wizard and one of the greatest heroes of a region called Anvrok, she used her own hair to create magical swords that could even harm incorporeal foes like spirits and Daemons. When Tzeentch's warbands invaded, they slaughtered the citizens of the city and brought her to their leader Ephryx. For refusing to fuck him, she was boiled alive in silver, causing her and many other spirits wielding her swords to remain in the Shattered City, bringing misery and death to anyone who doesn't belong. Spoooooooky.

Then the Sigmarines came and their undead chaplain convinced her they were the good guys and that it was pay-back time, so she proceeded to chop all the Tzeentchies down and show the Stormcasts where Ghal-Maraz was, swell gal.

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  The Silver Maiden. In the story, she's cool towards dudes in gold.

Vampires

New Vampire Counts, minus the skeletons (but still with Grave Guard and Black Knights).

Vampires are technically now called "Soulblight Vampires".

The word "Zombie" seems to have fallen out of favor in the new setting. The fleshy, non-Vampire Undead are now called walkers Deathwalkers and Deathshamblers while Crypt Ghouls are now Flesh-Eaters. Ghosts and Spirits are now Nighthaunts, Necromancers are Deathmages. Arbitrary renaming, thy name is Nagash.

Mummies

The only thing that went from less to more generic (apart from perhaps the setting itself, with its Norse mythology copy-pasting of Thor/Sigmar and nine realms). Tomb Kings minus the uniqueness (which is stupid of GW, as they're so litigious with their intellectual property yet they're making one of their more original and unique ideas bland, generic and easier to copy), which some were quick to wince at the perceived disregard from Games Workshop for the Tomb Kings, although Nagash was originally one of them. Only time will tell. Arkhan the Black survived, as he is seen in new artwork fighting alongside Nagash against Khornates. It's unknown whether they serve Nagash as willingly as the Vampires, since the new Warscrolls list Nagash with the Vampire Counts but not the Tomb Kings.

Although playable like any other old model there's no sign of Settra in the new fluff. Which is especially disappointing considering what we last saw of him in The End Times. One theory is that Settra is the Celestant-Prime, as the latter is described as "A great king and guardian of men even in mortal life." just as Settra was.(and Karl Franz, Valten, King Brit dude etc etc)

Skeletons

Now apparently their own faction (no they are not a faction but a race). Initial images of this army were of Vampire Counts skeletons that bore a purple scheme with one very grim image; a white Fleur de Lis on a tattered banner borne by a skeleton knight. Some were quick to wince at the perceived insult from Games Workshop at the Brets, although others were quick to point out the other symbols from the same army are the heraldry of Noctilius the vampire pirate from Dreadfleet and that Noctilius's ship was made up of a castle on an island with a boat made up of several smaller wrecked boats forming one functional one (somehow), making it possible he is Bretonnian and survived both his own death at the end of the Dreadfleet narrative AND End Times to lead an army in Nagash's name.

Despite the faction being called "Skeletons", they are now called "Deathrattlers"; likely so they can be trademarked and copyrighted.

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  "I'm back! And this time, it's personal."

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  Nagash and Mini-me/Arkhan

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  "I find your lack of faith disturbing, Mr. Whiskers."

Destruction

The forces uninterested in beating Chaos, or more specifically not caring about who it is that they beat.

Orcs & Goblins

The Orcs & Goblins, led by Gorkamorka, the two-headed combined form of the old gods Gork and Mork (or is it Mork and Gork?), who separates back into the two when greenskins fight each other. Confirmed that Gork is the brutal one while Mork is the sneaky one, though that has been implied if not outright stated for years with any implication otherwise being a joke. He was intially interested in Sigmar's plans until he got bored and led the savage elements of the reborn world on a massive reality spanning WAAAGH and finally settling to his realm made of Ghur, the Wind of Beasts. Now they're predictably trying to get in as many fights as they can, and don't really give a fuck about exactly who it is that they're fighting.

Orruks

The Orcs, with a new name.

Their Shamans are now called Ju-ju Doks, and are exclusively Savage Orruk.

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Grots

The Goblins of Orcs & Goblins, same lore as above.

Gargants

Giants. One of their units known as an Aleguzzler. How that works with only one model is anyone's guess. Aleguzzler's fluff implies that they get absolutely wasted and then stagger into the enemy lines, causing drunken destruction.

Troggoth

Trolls.

Ogors

The Ogre Kingdoms reborn. Baba booey.

Chaos

Archaon the Everchosen was tested once again by each of the Chaos Gods following the End Times, as they wanted him to turn to them as their new supreme champion. Once again he defeated their challenges without feeling any real loyalty towards them, and each granted him new powers until he was a demigod, and Incarnate of Chaos itself. Great Horned Rat attempted to give him a blessing upon joining the pantheon, but Archaon refused it and spat in GHR's face. Demigod Archaon has been given the title of "Grand High Marshall of Chaos" (so much for Chaos being Chaotic), and basically has free-reign to do whatever the fuck he wants for whatever reason (everything Be'lakor wanted but could never have). Interestingly, this creates an entire new position in Chaos hierarchy without it being clear if Archaon can command Chaos Gods who are not part of the Great Game, if he has supreme authority over all of the Daemon Princes, and so on. As a side note, Dhorgar changed from a Daemon horse to a $100 Daemon dragonish thing.

Slaanesh gorged himself on souls during End Times until he was so bloated he was unable to move (just like those creepy porn comics you've read about), and spent post-End Times (before or after Archaon's second ascendance isn't clear) hiding in a cave while digesting. Tzeentch manipulated Khorne into attacking the armies defending him, which allowed the Aelfs Tyrion and Malerion to kidnap him which removed him from the Great Game while enabling them to retrieve all the souls of Elves killed in End Times and possibly even before then (some have taken advantage of the undefined explanation of exactly who the Aelfs are to say Eldar have come to a Warhammer Fantasy setting). Slaanesh's forces, who are justifiably freaking out that their god(dess) is missing, are currently invading Ulgu in search of Malerion for clues as to where their god(dess) is. To quote White Dwarf, "THE FORCES OF CHAOS HAVE ARRIVED... BUT WHERE IS THE DARK PRINCE?" The other Chaos Gods are actually happy he/she/it is gone, but the Chaos Gods have always hated each other so that's to be expected.

After the end of the old world and his ascension, Archaon spent his time obliteratibg universes and slaying kings. He recieved a vision from his (apparently now un-smashed) third eye which foretold the events until the release of Age of Signar, with the final vision being Archaon finally killing Sigmar (although Order fans that were unamused with ANOTHER "Chaos wins" spoiler ending to this universe noted that in Archaon's vision, Slaanesh was still gone). The Chaos Gods sent a Champion each (Tzeentch, Nurgle, Khorne, Great Horned Rat) to kill Archaon but each was defeated, with Dhorgar feasting on their souls which resulted in a Khornate head, a Tzeentchian head, a Nurglite head, and the two tails that Great Horned Rat's servants have.

Once Chaos had taken 7/8 of the Realms, with Sigmar as the only holdout, Khorne basically screamed "WILDCARD, BITCHES!" and blitzed his way into Nurgle's Garden and Tzeentch's Maze, allowing the other factions to reclaim their lands (although the Daemon-wrought damage now makes them resemble something out of Brütal Legend). Archaon's Chaos armies only defeat came at the hands of Morelion and Morathi in the Realm of Shadow, a place which now fascinates him.

Chaos continued its Saturday Morning Cartoonification when Be'lakor was killed by Seraphon, more specifically; Skinks riding pterodactyls dropped rocks on him until he popped. Although this happened in a White Dwarf battle report, and Be'lakor's model was only used to represent a generic Daemon Prince, others have defended it saying that White Dwarf has access to all Warhammer models and thus had no reason to use Be'lakor unless it was Be'lakor in narrative and a weaker model on the tabletop for balance reasons. Others have suggested it was only Changeling, pulling the same trick he did in End Times. Regardless, the Seraphon still managed to close the portal. See: Skub.

It's been theorized that Nurgle's almost single-minded obsession with the Sylvaneth is because he wants to claim Alarielle as his new waifu. No word on whether this means he'll keep her as is or make her the Poxfulcrum; who was retconned from Isha to Shallya in End Times, then secretly replaced by some elf wizard called Kalara in Araloth's Realm of Chaos excursion.

One of the confirmed tribe names for Chaos humans is the Gjallervolk, obviously the direct replacement to the old Warriors

Same old, same old. So to recap: Khorne wages war on Sigmar. Nurgle is obsessed with Alarielle, since she's sexy feral Isha. Slaanesh is missing, his forces are split between those trying to find him/her/it and those trying to replace him as "Ur-Slaanesh", the main contender for which is a Keeper of Secrets named Luxscious (no, seriously) and Archaon since 'Everchosen' briefly touches on majority of Mortal and quite a few Daemon worshippers are using him as a 'go to' figure for veneration. Tzeentch is still fucking around everywhere being an annoying shit, but Games Workshop is finally letting him get shit done; he arranged for Slaanesh's capture and tricked Sigmar into losing Ghal-Maraz (Sigmar got it back but that's still something). Horned Rat is now Great Horned Rat, a Chaos God. Archaon is the top dog in charge of all Chaos, hates and is hated/loved <3 by everyone else oh and will kill that damn Rat thinking it's one of the Gods.

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  Say goodbye to Slaanesh kids, daddy/momma is goin' bye-bye.

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  "The Ultra-Lux; it'll Keep your Secret."

Daemons Of Chaos

Furies, Soul Grinders, Daemon Princes, Be'lakor. Unloved in their own faction.

Daemons Of Khorne

Khorne gets his own Daemon faction. Everything Khorne and Daemon.

Daemons Of Nurgle

As you would expect, all Nurgle Daemons.

Daemons Of Tzeentch

Tzeentch's Daemons, moving on.

Host Of Slaanesh

Since Slaanesh has been demoted, his faction is now all of his Daemons and exclusive mortal followers. Note that Sigvald is now a generic model Chaos Lord Of Slaanesh, with no special rules.

Khorne Bloodbound

Khorne has his own faction, essentially just the Warriors of Chaos with Khornate theme and the new Age faction models. Their Blood warriors look like Worldeaters. Oddly enough, theirs were the only miniatures to receive approval from the Warhammer Fantasy fanbase although many have complained the new Daemon resembles something from 40k, with a hint of Alien except with a skull in its mouth. Said Daemons are the "Khorgoraths" who are mortal men so infused with Khorne's magic their skin becomes like liquid boiling blood with skulls bubbling within, and in time they come to resemble Khorne himself not unlike how Great Unclean Ones resemble Nurgle.

In all of reality, the Bloodbound only respect one foe; the Sigmarines. Nurgle, Aelfs, Orruks, nobody is worthy except the Sigmarines to face the Khornates. Whether this goes as far as Khorne respecting Sigmar isn't known. (Warrior Gog VS Warrior God - got to have respect there and many manly chest beating to boot)

The Bloodbound (or at least some Bloodreavers) are cannibals, and consume the flesh of their foes almost exclusively (preferably while the meal is still alive interestingly enough, as it goes against many of Khorne's common themes of killing on the battlefield). Doing this, they believe, imbues them with the divine power of Khorne. This actually makes sense if you know your shit regarding the spirituality of cannibalistic practices. In fact it's rather similar to a pre-Islamic Turkic practice that held that drinking from the skull of your enemies allowed you to devour their souls and gain their power.

Khorne's initial army (in Aqshy, anyway) was led by a warlord named Khul, who wanted to become a Daemon Prince and constructed a giant pyramid of skulls in order to earn the highest possible position. He had planned to cap it with a Sigmarine skull, although in the actual battle with the Sigmarines he was not able to actually secure the skull despite killing the Sigmarine while a Sigmarine skeleton ironically blew up the pyramid. He kicked Vandus Hammerhand's gold-plated ass pretty well in Nick Kyme's War Storm, so kudos to him for knocking the Sigmarines off their high fucking perch, albeit temporarily. Archaon in 'Balance of Power' did a number on Vandus by virtually cutting him in half and killing him outright which he laughed about it later after massacring the rest of his stormhost 'The Hammers of Sigmar'.

The Bloodbound mortal humans are specifically a Khornate-flavored addition called Bloodreavers. It has been noted that the Bloodreavers seem to have a mixed-race feel, suggesting the Mortals are no longer just not-Björk-Björks and not-Mongols anymore. Nonetheless, they have fair hair, vaguely Scandinavian-sounding names like "Skargan", "Hroth" (which, depending on what you read, either means "gore" or "fame" in Old Norse), Volundr, and use patronymic naming conventions, so they are basically Norscans from the Old World. However, some argue that the presence of dark-skinned people in the Bloodreavers ranks points to them being ethnically diverse. These people forget that the WoC of the original setting also had non-European people among their ranks - the Kurgan and Hung - and that this did not change the fact that the Warriors of Chaos were basically Death Metal stereotypes about Vikings. So it will likely have as much bearing here as it did there.

The bearded Blood Warrior miniature has been lauded throughout the intrawebs as the best miniature in the starter set due to having the largest beard of any mini GeeDubs has ever put out.

Khorne's new warriors all have names alluding to their deity's blood and decapitation fetish.

• Slaughterpriest
• Bloodsecrator
• Bloodstoker
• Skullgrinder
• Deathbringer
• Red Headsman

• 

  This man's beard is the longest beard in all the nine realms. Weeeeell, now another red guy got bigger.

• 

  Still miss the 90's?

• 
• 

  LUCHA FOR THE LUCHA GOD, MASKS FOR THE MASK THRONE!

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  Standing fast against their homogeneous foes - the Stormfront Eternals

• 

  A blade-bearded Blood Warrior, sculpted by someone who had no fucking idea what beards fucking look like

Nurgle Rotbringers

The OTHER guy who gets all the new models also has his own faction, although it mostly just consists of Nurglite Warriors of Chaos Mortals and the Glottkin and their pox maggot-riding friends. Appeared in Black Library book Ghal-Maraz (which actually is two novellas) messing around with the realm of life, sadly for them they got most of their story getting kicked by the Stormcasts, but then again, in the End Times these guys nearly wipe out the Empire all by themselves and in the beginning of the novella they had just conquered most of the realm of life, besides they put a great fight against Alarielle, forcing her out of hiding, so all in all they are not that incompetent.

• 

Tzeentch Arcanites

Tzeentch's Warriors of Chaos characters.

Everchosen

Archaon, the Varanguard who are Chaos Lords who renounced their (insert faction God) to be one of Archaons chosen in forever service to him and him alone.

Games Workshop FINALLY decided to give the often-neglected Tzeentch some love throw Tzeentch a bone with the new Gaunt Summoner models (which look like techni-color Hellraiser-style Cenobites). According to GW; "Originating from deep within the Realm of Chaos, the Gaunt Summoners are powerful daemon sorcerers of Tzeentch. Archaon exerts an iron grip upon their souls - they are not only favoured by the Everchosen for their abilities, which are prodigious, but for their helpless devotion to their masters’ twisted whims. Able to twist reality with their dread incantations and engulf whole armies in deadly warpfire, the Gaunt Summoners were responsible for some of the most horrifying atrocities committed during the Age of Chaos. Only nine of these bizarre, faceless creatures exist at any one time, and it is an exceedingly rare event to see more than one appear at any time."

Slaves To Darkness

All the generic Warriors of Chaos, plus the Daemon Prince.

Monsters Of Chaos

What the name is on the tin. Centigors, Mutilath Warp Beasts, Cockatrices (Cockatrix?), Chimeras, Razorgors, Chaos Warhounds, Harpies, Slaughterbrutes, and Jabberslythes.

Thunderscorn

The Dragon Ogres Ogors.

Warriors of Chaos

All the misc things from the old setting, partitioned into one faction. Named characters and the Hellcannon plus all the shit nobody bought like the Lammasu, Chaos Familiars, Forsaken, Chaos Trolls, the Great Taurus, and Chaos Ogres.

Brayherds

They're Beastmen. Shocking, isn't it? No word on if they've managed to master the art of poopsmithing to improve their culture yet.

Beastmen

The Beastmen characters.

Warherds

Beastmen monsters, basically anything not a goat.

Chaos Gargants

Yep, Giants are their own faction.

Legions Of Azgorh

Chaos Dwarves.

Tamurkhan's Horde

Pretty much every Forgeworld Chaos model not in Legions Of Azgorh.

Skaven

They still exist. They are still aligned with Chaos and are still backstabbing little shits.

The Great Horned Rat ascended as the God of Blight (no doubt annoying Nurgle since that's supposed to be his job) and the fourth major Chaos God after Slaanesh's disappearance, but only the Skaven worship him (although any rogue insane humans who consider it would probably be turned into Skaven, making it a self-fulfilling rule) and the other gods (along with Archaon) look down on him, seeing him as a scheming usurper rather than a true equal. He's hoping to get more power, and the Skaven do remain numerous as all fuck.

The day Horned Rat was accepted into the Four, Chaos drew Skavenblight into itself as a fifth realm in the Daemon-controlled Warp, which was renamed Blight City. In true Skaven fashion however, they dug their burrows too deep and accidently sunk Blight City halfway back into the material plane. This turned out to be a blessing as now Skaven can travel anywhere from Warp to material plane at will and bring anything Chaos friendly with them at the moment with.

Skaven thus far have only been seen supporting Nurgle militarily. But "the Great Horned Rat" will rise; given that the Great Horned Rat's M.O. is scheming and treachery and that, with Slaanesh MIA, Nurgle's the weakest of the original Chaos gods, Nurgle getting backstabbed may happen in the future.

It's also possible that, given the treacherous nature of Skaven, they may fight other chaos factions. Could this mean the Great Horned Rat is GW's attempt at a second Malal?

The old Warhammer Fantasy Skaven Clans are now types of Clans; what was once Eshin is now tens of thousands or more of Clans just like Eshin. Because there are as many Elves as the plot demands.

Skaven as a faction are only generic characters, Skaven Slaves, Thrott The Unclean, Packmaster Skweel Gnawtooth, Tretch Craventail, Lord Skrolk, Queek Headtaker, Deathmaster Snikch, and Warlord Spinetail.

• 

  D'AAAWWW!

Skaven Pestilens

The plague rats in Clan Pestilens. They are shown to be working a lot with nurgle rotbringers into taking the realm of life.

Skaven Eshin

Sneaky motherfucker Skaven still. Formerly Clan Eshin.

Skaven Moulder

Yep, ClanMoulder are still monster makers. Also have the ordinary Rat Swarms.

Skaven Skryre

Clan Skryre. Rocking the magitek hard.

Skaven Verminus

The Skaven warriors. Clanrats, Stormvermin, Warlords, and the Verminlord Harbinger.

Skaven Masterclan

The former Gray Seers. Basically the Skaven Priesthood.

The Realms

Ulgu (Shadow)

Grey. No word on perpetual pendulum being there too...

Shyish (Death)

The realm of the dead and home to the afterlife of the mortal souls not dedicated to Chaos. From excerpts in the fluff, it seems to be run by a hierarchy of "soulblight" Vampires who worship the works of Nagash. It also seems home to a number of mortals along side the dead and tombkings (now mummys) somehow fit in here somewhere too. No descriptions of exact location or geography but based on army themes it's probably made up of spooky deserts and forests.

Ghur (Beasts)

In the far north of Ghur is a series of icy mountains called the Ice-Kingdoms of Gjoll, where Nordic-themed humans dwell.

Chaos (Derp)

Same shit as before. Still has the Eye of Terror, still has Kaldor Draigo and the mad mapmaker plus possibly Oxyotl running around inside it.

The former underground city of Skavenblight is now a part of it, and thanks to the Skaven somehow tunneling through the bizarre geometries in the endless void they sunk themselves halfway through to reality in some mindfuckey way that adds a metric fuckload of questions which get handwaved as "Its Chaos, you can't explain shit". Skaven can use it to access anywhere they in reality at any time, and have an entrance leading into Sigmar's throne room of all places. Derp.

Archaon has a fuckhuge fortress as well. Little else is known of it.

Scenery

New

• Baleful Realmgates are all over the Realms. Each has a twin, and based on the tabletop stats many have their twins so close they are on the same battlefield. Why exactly something that only transports you a mile or so away is important isn't exactly clear, but hey! Those fuckers, your shit! Beyond that, those entering it run the risk of being eaten by Daemons rather than transported (even actual Daemon armies of the Four suffer this, with...interesting implications), and like old scenery Wizards can channel magic from it.

• 
• 

• Ophidian Archways are things that survived the previous Warhammer world, and they are...mysterious. Apparently there's a bunch of them, each is covered in images of Sigmar (which is apparently the new "skulls errywhere" design) as well as screaming visages in horror (not actually found on the model). Any being who passes under them while feeling fear has their soul sucked out, added to the images. Those same spirits sometimes come to life and attack those who pass under it. Once again, why the fuck anyone would want to control these is unknown, especially since this one doesn't even boost the magic of Wizards around it. GW advertises it as "modular", meaning you can combine them.

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  You could buy it. Or you could just buy an incense burner and paint it better. Your choice.

• Numinous Occulums are Sigmar's special structures that are directly connected to the Winds of Magic carved with symbols of Sigmar such as gryphons and Mallus as well as scenes showing the destruction of the old Warhammer setting. They consist of a walkway leading up to a gilded cage showing celestial bodies, and it appears to have once been part of a larger building. Wizards can spin the cage portions to access the future and past in order to change both (basically granting just any old asshole the powers belonging to Tzeentch). As a result, these can be assumed to be EXTREMELY FUCKING IMPORTANT.
• Dragonfate Dais is a magical site with a boiling pool of...something surrounded by glowing runes, with a stairway leading to a circle surrounded by three statues of Dracothian crowned with bowls of burning skulls. The entire thing is covered in symbols of the members of Sigmar's pantheon, and beings can use them to attempt to contact and request aid from any divine being from Tyrion to Great Horned Rat.
• Chaos Dreadhold is a category of scenery rather than an actual single set (no, seriously, it has its own category under "Scenery" on their website). Depending on how many components you own, it is either the Malefic Dreadhold, Ironskull Bastion, Direstone Redoubt, Magebane Wall, Skullcoven Forge, Octadic Dreadhold, Summoner's Helgate, or Infernal Realmfort which each have different rules (behind a $20 paywall to even know if you don't want to buy all the models and get them). The full fortress, called "Fortress of Grim Corruption", is a whopping $1,120 'murrican and £680. Note that although this is supposedly a generic Chaos fortress, every single piece of advertising and fluff relating directly to the model makes an allusion to Khorne only.

• 

• • Malefic Gates are two short wall and rampart sections with a small bridge piece to form a gate if desired covered in the Chaos stars, skulls, and spikes in a lovely bronze and black rustic color scheme sure to bring in potential buyers looking for a home away from the city.

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  "Because we own, we owe."

• • Skull Keep is a lovely triangular two-story home with cozy features such as a Realmgate in the living room and a sacrificial altar on the veranda. The kids will love playing with the hatch on top leading to the roof, while the exterior will match its neighborhood with Chaos stars, skulls, and spikes in a bronze and black color palette sure to evoke memories of growing up.

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  Khorne's huge nose revealed.

• • Fortress Walls can be used to enhance a feel of privacy for those who want to get a feel of solitude for relaxation in the courtyard. With its incredible height, you'll never even have to know who your neighbors are as you sunbathe naked with only the Chaos stars, hundreds of staring and judging skulls, and spikes in your sight. Go bold with a unique bronze and black color scheme to really say "I'm unique, I'm the edge, I'm special". Please be sure to check local zoning ordinances before putting up Fortress Walls.

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  Doesn't that unmatched edge and unpainted interior make you wanna run out and buy five?

• • Overlord Bastions can take a home from whim to whimsical as its three-story height with a welcoming brazen awaken your inner child. With a connection and single wall section, you'll easily be able to make it your entire budget by using your uniquely triangular home as a foundation for other improvements. You'll be the talk of your block with its unique Chaos star, skull, and spike aesthetic enhanced by a daring bronze and black color palette.

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  Because nothing says "Lord's Manor" like having the exact same tower everyone else has, but a walkway up to it.

Old

• Witchfate Tor: It's still around, with some magical upgrades meaning the tower somehow survived the destruction of the old setting. Or is the Tardis, since GW may as well steal that too at this point. Still out of production.

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  Witchfate Tor is sick of your edgemaster shit.

• Garden of Morr: Morr may be gone forever, but Nagash stole his shtick as the new god of death. Gardens of Parties of Morr Nagash are now simply a naturally occurring part of the landscape in the Realm of Death and basically kept their 8e rules with minor alteration. Unlike most of the other old scenery, the Garden is actually still being made and is available to purchase.

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  Hotel Sylvania. Bring your Master/God-King and get a free complimentary breakfast!

• Sylvaneth Wyldwood/Citadel Forest: Yep, it's the same old overpriced aquarium/railroad trees on a base you've come to...know exists. Still in production unfortunately.

• 

  Photos are for illustrative purposes only. Image may vary from actual product.

• Dreadfire Portal: Now just freshly out of production, just in time for the first time it actually makes sense to use.
• Eternity Stair: As above.
• Magewrath Throne: As above.
• Balewind Vortex: As above.
• Fortified Manor: Its been out of production for years, but still has rules. Due to the...more elaborate architecture of the new world, this most likely somehow survived intact from the old one.
• Chapel: As above, another hard to find model from the old setting.
• Watchtower: Yet again, unlikely to exist in the world of Sigmarines and giant golden moonbases. Still out of production.
• Skullvane Manse: Slightly more likely to exist now. Possibly in Nagash's Realm. Still out of production.
• Walls and Fences: Actually still in production. Although who the hell are they going to stop?
• Temple of Skulls: Yet another model that actually fits into this game more than the last, but is still now out of production regardless.
• Realm of Battle: Yep, they still think you'll want to buy this. Now with a special Age of Sigmar variation.

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  Gee Bill! How come your mom lets you have two mortgages?

Rules

The good news? The rules are free and simplified in 4 pages. Now to the real meat...

It is entirely possible to create an interesting and challenging ruleset with a minimal set of core rules that you could fit on four pages. However, this is not an example of that. This seems to be an example of 'what's the least amount of work we could do to create a ruleset that might sell fantasy figures'.

You have scrolls defining units, which seems like an interesting idea until you actually see they lack any limit on unit size. There's no army composition at all except apparently build whatever you want and count the number of figures you have. The only token nod to balance is the Sudden Death rule, but will result in games that suck. Either you'll get smashed by a superior force OR you'll get lucky and pull off the Sudden Death objective in which case all the figures your opponent has bought are irrelevant. Not to mention that 'a third' less figures could be a few figures, or hundreds.

The biggest flaw is the lack of points costs or substitute. It's not the same issue that 40k had with Unbound lists, where you could just choose not to play with the asshat who brings seven squads of Honor Guard on bikes. No, Age of Sigmar has absolutely no way to judge whether two armies are even remotely evenly matched without extensive trial and error. You could be actively trying to make a balanced, even army with deliberate weaknesses, and still table your opponent by complete accident because you didn't realize cavalry had been buffed into the stratosphere. The lack of points also comes with another side effect, one that should have been obvious: rules-as-written, there is no reason whatsoever to take weaker troops that used to be less expensive. Say you're running Lizardmen, you have no reason whatsoever to run Saurus warriors when you could be running Temple Guard. Similarly, Skaven have no reason to take Clanrats when they could just have Stormvermin.

For army structure there is none but the limitations of the mind and overall theme you as the gamer, are aiming for as freedom is the one key point that make a lot of things awesome and story driven but the balancing factor for 'vanilla' rules is what is know as the 'Sudden Death' mechanic. The overall rule is that if your opponent brings more models than yourself can field then you can claim one of four choices:

Assassinate - Kill an enemy hero/Wizard/Priest/Monster keyword and win the game. Blunt - Enemy player nominates one of their units and if you kill it you win the game. Endure - Have a t least one model survive six turns and win the game. Seize Ground - Grab a patch of land and hold it for four turns and win the game.

Again with this rule it can be used in an abusive way such as having less than a third of your opponent which could be made up of few figures but then you would be 'that guy/gal' which will stigmatize yourself and make it very hard to find pick-up games.

Terrain now have war scrolls with its own rules set which give an extra layer of strategy and complexity in addition to the introduction of the "Times of War' theme rules set that can be also taken in addition towards all other rules and war scrolls plus adding scenarios into the mix adds to an insane amount of rules to remember and complexity IF you wanted to use it.

There are also special formations located in the respective APP factions/battle tomes/purchased army set, adds flavor to the formation.

Now to get the matter that divided the community when Age of Sigmar came out was that lack of points system which understandably upset a lot of dedicated fans during Warhammer 8th and previous editions but the community as many comp packs that address this issue and is recommend to have a look into it but for what it's worth, narrative and scenario based games is where the balance truly shines. With the lack of points towards all war scroll units, gamers have been scratching their heads wondering why they should bring a unit of X Skeleton warriors rather than a unit of X Blood knights? Rules-as-written shows that the Blood Knights are the clear winners but in combining abilities of the warriors and having a 'Death Hero' near by it can make that 'mediocre' unit into a mathhammering wonder smasher of butthurt proportions - seriously look and the combos you can make and go wild with it. (Gods it's Magic the Gathering all over again!)

Note GW is still testing some rules stuff in Warhammer World Events. They actually set up a 40K-like victory points (now "Laurels of Victory") system for Throne of Skulls' "Clash of Empires" thing, that also partially resolved the no-comp issue by multiplying the scores of the underdog proportionnaly to the opponent's wounds-on-the-table superiority.

The roll system, at first, looks to be of a simply a flat 'to hit' and 'to wound' at face value per weapon application that is until applying the modifiers AFTER the roll(s) which is far different to the old style of applying modifiers BEFORE the roll(s). Using magic and abilities to effect the outcome of such rolls from both you and your opponent during the battle makes for a very entertaining game indeed.

Over all the rules are great way to bring in fresh blood into the fantasy realm with its quick and easy starting rules set which can quickly escalate to an epic complex game if they so choice to do so with literally only needing one unit of what-ever-the-hell-you-like to use to boot.

The rules' implications

While none of the miniatures have yet been released, the 4-page ruleset seems to imply with but a single line, "Measuring from a model's base" that Age of Sigmar is apparently going to be more like 40k. Hell, there's even Space Marines in Fantasy, and they're fucking named after the 40k space marines. All of this pretty much points to the following:

• Games Workshop started by making Fantasy Battles

• Fantasy battles was its own thing

• GW made Warhammer 40k. At this point it's essentially "Like Fantasy battles, BUT IN SPESS"

• 40k Went along and gradually became its own glorious awesome thing, and completely set the tone for gothic scifi for over 30 years.

• 40 years later Fantasy Battles is completely dead. The few remaining players are experiencing an End Times.

• Games Workshop creates Age of Sigmar, which is hailed as "Like 40k, BUT IN FANTASY!"

• Space Marines In fantasy, but minus the space?...

• 40 Years from now: Warhammer 40k will be dead, and the cycle begins anew where it must be reborn as "Like Age of Sigmar, BUT IN SPACE!" where you will gain dice rerolls by putting your finger to the side of your opponent's head and shouting "BLAM HERESY". That or GW will go out of business; they wouldn't squat 40k unless they were balls-to-the-wall desperate.

In Conclusion

Once more, anon speaks the truth with his particular brand of candidness.

The community is split. No accurate census has been conducted, primarily because Games Workshop actively divided its community into small pockets through wiping out their forums years ago. However, the community outcry is loud enough that it is easy to get a read.

There's few moderate voices in regards to Age of Sigmar (as anyone reading a forum, scanning reviews on youtube, or checking the edit history of this very page can see). Either it's the worst thing ever made by anyone ever and anyone who likes it is a traitor with shit taste, or it's awesome and everyone who says otherwise is a bunch of whiny little fucks who can't see how it's just Fantasy with all the parts that suck removed. Skubwars have made a very defined split in the Warhammer fanbase with many people either selling their collections in eBay (to the delight of those who approve of AoS that can pick up armies cheap) or sticking to 8e (or some fan-created The 9th Age) and swearing to never give another dime to Games Workshop. AoS on /tg/ will probably go the way of /wst/ if the last 12 months are anything to go by.

Call it shit. Call it great. Just don't call, because GW ain't home.

Gallery

• 

  The common OP pic for General threads on /tg/.

• 
• 
• 

  Well, at least it's better than Spess Mehreens.

• 

  Oh, snap!

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  Give us the monies!

• 
• 

  Without peripheral vision, they may spend days like this without realizing it isn't their comrade next to them.

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  At least 75% of this artwork has to just be the Khornates and Sigmarines.

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  GW may not even be aware there are other Chaos Gods.

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  Only true Stormmasters know that a boop with the end of the handle of a hammer deals more damage than a smash with the head.