Predicting the Next Age of Sigmar Battlebox

 Over the past week there have been two new rumor engine pictures released by Games Workshop .

From looking at these, I have a very strong feeling that the left picture is for Idoneth Deepkin and the right picture is from Fyreslayers. I mean the left picture is an almost identical match to the sword on the back of the Akhelian King.

While the second picture shares a lot of elements with various Fyreslayer bits and weapons. Now, none of the Fyreslayer weapons or bits I can find look exactly like the design or brazier holder BUT they are really similar in my eyes and more similar than any other flame components we have seen. 

With these assumptions in mind, I think this is pointing towards the next Battlebox for Age of Sigmar. They recently announced one for 40k, the Genestealer vs. Custodes box and AOS hasn't gotten one since 11/14/2020. Before 3rd edition dropped, we were getting 2 battleboxes at year. See belowor a breakdown of the release dates, prices, and contents. 

Additionally, IDK just got an Underworlds warband and there haven't been any other rumor engine pictures that point to either faction (which would indicate more than 1 model). You can check out Warboss Kurgan to make your own opinion, 

On average a Battle Box has 30 models in it and those models retail for about 320 USD, with a bundled saving average of approximately 146 USD.  If we apply this to the two factions in question, along with the current AOS environment of being based in Ghur and focused on monsters, I have come up with 2 potential model combinations for the forecasted box.

First up is a Fyreslayer army consisting of 10 Vulkite Berserkers, a character on Magmadroth, the 2 foot characters from the Magmadroth kit, and the new Fyreslayer character facing off against 10 IDK Thralls, a Leviadon turtle, and the new IDK character. This would end up being about $170 worth of Fyreslayer models and $208 worth of IDK models. This is a much higher model value than the average Battle Box, which has been around $320. It is worth noting that the last Battle Box was a value of right around $370. This does put 34 models in the box, which is slightly higher than the average of 29.8

Beyond the price, I don't think GW will throw 2 monsters in the box, that hasn't happened before. In fact, the largest models we have seen in a Battle Box are the Doomwheel, Warp Lightening Cannon, and Gunhauler.  Additionally, it gives the Fyreslayer force 4 characters, which I think is too much and confusing for a battle box, considering that a number of new players may pick it up to get started with a friend. 

Next is a Battle Box containing 15 Fyreslayer Hearthguard Berserkers or Auric Hearthguard (these are the same kit) and the new Fyreslayer hero squaring off against 10 Thralls, 1 IDK Allopex, 3 Eels, and the new IDK hero. This gives us $170 in Fyreslayer models and $180 in IDK models. It is a model count of 31 and gives some nice base size and height/size profile differences for the IDK side. The Fyreslayer side suffers from a bunch of infantry on 32mm bases, but that's already a problem with the army. 

I think this is a more likely option due to the combined model value of 350, there not being a bunch of heroes, it is a more similar style of box to the ones we have seen recently,

-Shadow and Pain had all infantry on one side vs small infantry, cavalry, and a chariot base on the other side. Aether War had the fewest models, all on larger 32 bases (maybe 40mm for the discs?) and a bigger Gunhauler base-

and it providing a decent monster centric narrative 

-the IDK have some monstrous beasts, even though they aren't keyworded as monsters, while the Fyreslayers have some units that have rules affecting monsters. 

The price point will go up to 200-210 USD (inflation, supply chain issues, model value increase, etc.) which would be right around the average savings of $146. I did think of guessing just 2 sharks and infantry or 2 sets of eels and infantry for the IDK but I don't know if they'll repeat kits like that (I believe Aether War is the only box that repeated newer non-infantry sized models). I would like more variety on the Fyreslayer side that what I am guessing, maybe 10 Hearthguard models, a Doomseeker, a Grymwrath Berserker, and the new hero?

To wrap this up, I might as well throw out a date (lets go with 1/23/22 as the reveal date and then 2/5/22 as the preorder date) and a name (Runed Souls, not sure how that narrative will work but one has Runes on their bodies and the other wants souls so there we go). 

Lastly, I think both heros are infantry sized, as all of the Battle Box new characters have been. Maybe we get something up to 40mm base size. I actually hope for this for the Fyreslayer side, just to give them more size variety in the range. 

Wolf Tide Coven

 With Holy Wars VII on the horizon for a lot of narrative people, I've been kicking around narrative army ideas that fit the army building requirements for the events. In short, the army needs to be built at the 1000 point level (no special characters over 400 points) with an additional 500 points of troops (no behemoths or heroes).

One idea that has stuck in my head is a Soulblight Gravelords army based on Radukar the Wolf when he was still a vampire with a fleet and the supporting cast of vampires and troops that he would have had on his ship. 

At 1000 points, you can take 3 leaders, so Radukar is the first, then why not add a Vengorian Lord and a Coven Throne? Going with a sea theme, it only makes sense to use the Vengorian Lord human torso parts and put them on a IDK deepmare to make a vampire lord of the deep. After all Radukar is on a ship, so there is a good chance some of his vampires take on animalistic aspects of sea creatures. 

For the Coven Throne, add the ship hull bits from the Mega Gargant kit to the back and then cut out the ghost horse riders and add in some Fenrisian Wolves. This keeps the sea theme and adds in the wolf theme that dominates Radukar's figure. This also lets you make lots of Sea Wolf references, which everyone knows already. 

With our Hero slots filled. We need 2 battleline units to make a legal list. This could be 2 units of 10 skeletons if you want to add in an endless spell or something small like fell bats. Otherwise you are probably choosing 20 zombies and 10 wolves or a unit of 20 skeletons and 10 skeletons. You have 260 points to work with. 

The real fun and thematic part of this list comes from adding in 6 Vyrkos Blood-Born. These would be Radukar's lieutenants or retinue aboard his flag ship. For these guys, lets use the Dark Elf Blood Bowl team, add in some undead weapons, either the Skeleton Warrior swords or Bladegheist swords and some Tree Revenant heads where needed. Last add on some greenstuffed fur to help carry over the wolf theme and I think you have some pretty good sea-worthy Blood-Born.

Now that we have a TON of vampires in this list. We can fill out the remaining 250 points of that extra 500 with 2 Kosargi Nightguard (gotta give Radukar his bodyguards) and 3 Vargheists. 

While this list isn't super competitive, it does have a very flavorful feel to it. Additionally, if you get Tactical Insight from the Coven Throne off on the Blood-Born, it gives them +1 to hit and wound and +1 to save, giving them 3 attacks at 2+/2+, -1 Rend, D3 damage and a 5+ save. Add in Radukar's Call to the Hunt command ability and they go up to 3 attacks each. Yes, he has to charge something and be in range of the the Blood-Born but thats a pretty nifty attack profile. 

 

Another Spell Bites the Dust

 Last week, I watched the Queen Sing Along on TV. One of the songs they played was "Another One Bites the Dust". Hearing this song intersected pretty much perfectly with an army idea that had been kicking around my head for a bit, Spell Hunters/Wranglers.

This idea has been percolating for a while, energized by a short story I read in one of the Inferno short story collections from Black Library (Inferno 4, I think) where some Freeguild spell hunters meet up with a dwarf spell hunter as well. I think they caught a burning head, it was quite good! The idea got brought back up when the ven Denst models were revealed with their anti spell abilities. 

Starting this army idea off with the Denst's, we get 2 heroes in the army and some good theme ideas for some infantry troops. 

Starting with Galen's model, we have a sword, pistol, backpack, boots, and long overcoat. Since the idea is spell hunters, this type of clothing and gear makes sense for troops out on a campaign or adventure to find some spells and put them down. The recent veteran guardsmen that come in the Octavius Kill team box have a lot of the same visual clues as the ven Densts.The backpacks and great coats are particular great to carry over this theme. Switching out the weapons and heads with Freeguild guard bits and maybe some Freeguild Pistolier weapons gives these models a great look of being out on campaign for a long time while creating an AOS feel. 

For these guardsmen conversions, there are a couple more difficult poses when it comes to conversions. The ones kneeling don't really translate well to sword and shield troops but could serve as the command models with some pointing arms, flags, or other bits making it looking like they are using a compass to find directions. The Luminark/Hurricanum kit has some of these hand bits that would work well. 

Doralia ven Denst has a crossbow, so lets theme a ranged infantry unit off of her. Looking for some more long coats or greatcoats led me to the Delaque gang from Necromunda. They have some sci-fi bits but most of that could be clipped or cut off.   Using either Freeguild crossbows or Sisters of the Watch weapons and Luminark crew heads should give this unit a look that pulls from Doralia with the long coats and weapons while also looking like they are some sort of minor wizards or scholars. The magical bows could be used if you are looking for a more magical looking unit, maybe using their limited spell power/knowledge to make magic arrows. I do have some concern over the arm bits fitting as I haven't worked with this models. 

That gives us two infantry units to go along with our two heroes. Next we need something for the captured spells to be transported in or held in until they are brought back to a collegiate arcane headquarters or something of that sort. Using the Luminark kit as the base, I switched out the top laser scope thing for a couple of options. First up is a warpstone bit from the Skaven cannon and then some of the bits from Skaven endless spells to make it look like there is magical energy coming out of the stone.  

The second idea just changes out the top piece for one of the Luminark endless spell gems. I like the second idea better, showing a floating crystal radiating some magical energy as well. For this one, I'd add some chains around it, showing that it is attached to the cart and would otherwise float off or escape on it's own.

This army idea needs at least one more unit, maybe some cavalry? The gryph-chargers/hounds pulling the new Stormcast chariot might be good mounts. They are sort of horse sized and already have a saddle. Maybe the dark rider bodies with Freeguild heads could go on top of them. You'd need 3 chariot kits to get enough mounts for 5 cavalry but it maybe it would give the appearance that the expedition is approved or sanctioned by Azyrheim and the mounts were a gift.

At the end of the, the best part of this army idea is probably coming coming up to the game table blasting Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust". I mean look at this model, and then just change a few of the words. 

She walks warily down the street 

With her brim pulled way down low

Ain't no sound but the sound of her feet

Crossbows ready to go

Are you ready hey are you ready for this?

Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?

Out of the doorway the spell fires rip

To the sound of the beat yeah

Another one bites the dust

Another one bites the dust

And another one gone and another one gone

Another one bites the dust

Hey I'm gonna get you too

Another one bites the dust

Tomb Kings Inspired Fallen Kingdom (with Spiders)

 Back in 8th Edition WFB my favorite faction was Tomb Kings. I was super bummed when they didn't make it over into Age of Sigmar proper but have found other armies to scratch my itches (look for a post on my Cities of Sigmar cog force a little down the road). Over the past year I've also started to flesh out my own little corner of Chamon (partially inspired by Mengel Miniature's Endless Desert area.)

Known as the Ironchaff Plain, this area has a City of Sigmar, Slivers, founded a couple of generations ago by a Dawnbringer's Crusade. The explorers and inhabitants of  Slivers have found a number of interesting locations and ruins in the area. One of these ruins is a series of ancient cave or tunnel entrances with carved columns and glyphs around them. No one that has entered these tunnels has ever returned but rumors of giant cave spiders and stunted armored cannibals are frequently repeated when these ruins are discussed. Think Petra, but spookier. 

As this setting has come into focus for me, the idea of an underground faction that is the remnant of a great civilization driven underground during the Age of Chaos came into focus. Pulling elements from Tomb Kings and Flesh Eater Courts, I am thinking the descendants of the survivors of this ancient empire still wearing rusted and pitted armor and weapons, worshipping the few remaining constructs (and the spiders are constructs, blame the Red Harvest teases that have been coming out and now the preview!) that were built and powered either through magic or eternal engines back in the hey-day of the civilization. 

Let's start with some hero units. 

The first idea combines Skaven, FEC, and Gloomspite components. If we take the head and halberd of the Gyrmwatch Underworld's warband and put it on Thanquol we get a nice looking leader type. While the angle of the models on the GW website doesn't do us any favors, I "think" the scale will work for a head and weapon swap. Next, throw this guy up on an Arachnarok Spider, just don't use any of the Forest Goblin bits, and I think we have a great hero on monster unit. Think of him as a cave-dwelling cannibal who still believes he is the leader of a great civilization and in his delusion thinks the cave spider he is riding is actually one of the constructs from the glory days. Base this on some of the Dominion of Sigmar ruins, paint it like neither has seen daylight in a long time and i think the theme would really shine through.

Speaking of constructs, what if there was an ancient surviving construct that still worked? At this point, it would probably be revered and worshipped by these crazy lunatics as a god beast. After all, this is inspired by Tomb Kings so it has to have some sort of construct!

Let's go with Necrons for our bits for this one. The Triarch Stalker and Canoptek Spyder are great starting points for all the pieces needed to build us a spider construct. This is a pretty popular conversion, a simple Google search will result in tons of images like the ones below. 

I think I would stay pretty main stream with this one, doing something like the image below, then adding a bunch of texture paint to either give the effect of old cracked stone/marble or tons of rust, this would hide a lot of the more high tech details and give it a really aged looked. The Necrons range also has the Canoptek Wraiths kit which could be used with the Canoptek Spyder legs (leftover from this conversion to make some smaller scorpion style constructs)

With two big monsters for this army, we can move on to some infantry. 

Our leader riding the spider is already tattered and hunched over so let's stick with Skaven for our infantry base. Taking the Clanrats kit, chopping off the heads and tails and adding some crypt ghoul heads should give us a great looking, hunched over, seen better days infantry option. Despite my best efforts at bad photoshop, I couldn't seem to get the models to work together with the angles on the GW webstore, but I think by looking at the two models side by side you can get a pretty good idea.  It does bring up a question of shields, the Skaven ones are just too Skaven. Ungor or Gor shields would work but I think the best fit, if you could find them would be the old skeleton warrior shields, it would really show a level of decay from civilization that I want with these troops. 

Heck, over on Gardens of Hectate, they used Lord of the Rings Goblin heads on the Skaven Underworld warband so I'm 98% sure this idea would work in terms of scale. See their conversion here.

We need at least one more infantry unit, let's go with a monstrous infantry sized idea. Down in the dark things have gone pretty sideways over the generations. Turning to cannibalism to survive some of these things have grown larger than the rest. Using the Crypt Horror model as a base size, let's try to give it a few more clues of a fallen civilization. I think either Orruk Brutes or Ogor Mournfangs have the best bits for this. Both have armor bits that could be attached to the Crypt Horror to show some clues towards past civilization. The Brutes torso may even work on the Crypt Horror legs. For weapons, I would lean towards the Ogor Stonehorn/Thundertusk rider weapons. Combine the Crypt Horror bone weapons with that bone trap thing and the crossbow would give some nice visual clues of a decayed civilization that is using what is left along with what the currently have. 

This is a really rough mock-up and I am not familiar with any of these kits so I do not know if the size works but if I was to build this I think I would go in the direction of getting the Crypt Horrors and the Brutes, seeing if the size worked and then trying to find some of the Ogor rider weapon bits and add them in. 

Adding more heros is fairly easy, for example, some ideas on a foot hero and wizard. 

To wrap this up, I really like the idea and lore behind this concept. But, it has some weaknesses too. There are some spider themes with the big units but they do not carry through to the smaller units. Maybe adding some of the small spiders from the Arachnarok kit onto the infantry would help. Also the larger infantry armor doesn't match that of the skaven base models used for the other foot troops. I think paint schemes and basing could help tie it together but it would need to definitely be considered to really sell this concept. 

Lastly, the recently announced Warcry Red Harvest box contains a spider cult that could go with this theme. Would they be citizens of a City of Sigmar that worships this decayed civilization? Do they replace the foot troops?