War Engines are still there.
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No different to how they deal with CoK I guess.
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I knew they werenāt going but I āve just not seen much mention of them in your articles around 4th. Which have been brilliant from the start.
Wondering if and how they might be tweaked. Not that Iām expecting you to say.
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Since the xirkaali have a pair of them, war machines are both in the game and will have appropriate rules.
Iād expect them to be viable shooting units in v4. The tweak to shooting/nerve means they could be made pretty heavy hitters without unbalancing things.
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Pretty much the same as they were.
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Not had a chance to go through thisas yet, but couple of points from people who have:
1 - Ogres in 2nd book
2- Elves āin the middle ā Book III Arrogance??
3 -The Companion āwe have confirmation that when they mean āfree rulesā it means ābut behind a paywall like nowā. (he said special rules, magical object and so behind a paywall)ā
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So its useless without the subscription.
There should be a way to āunlockā the full rules in the companion app even without a subscribtion if you buy the book.
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Balance between what people can get free and what people paying for it (Companion sub or buying book etc) can is biggest issue.
The ābuy the rule book/starter set and get a code for Companion subscription ā is a good idea.
Okay so Ogres book 2 interesting.
That could actually fit with the title, I can see the Xirkaali trying to hire Ogres which results into a split among the Ogres about if it is in their interest as mercenaries to support the invasion.
Given that the Xirkaali want to conquer and their attitude towards magic I can see some Ogres being against taking contracts from them.
Iām still hoping The Halpi mountains and Abercarr plays a role (ergo me really hoping dwarves get their turn for a refresh) but that would leave the question on who are the two other big players are if that is the case.
Would be between the Abyssal Dwarves, Ratkin and Goblins.
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Having listened to it I think dwarves might be a bit later in 4th, there was no confirmation but I think 4th book got mentioned in a suggestion.
Said some of the models are 15 years old I think that was a talking about dwarves and elves.
I now think fracture relates to the rift increasing in size so it could be Basilia as a lead (brothermark land totally disappears)
Ogres I think are well covered for models in the store so i think will be one of the lesser factions in the second book.
I think i heard info about book2 is coming out in December.
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Lets make a simple list of Armies and HIPS boxes with the current armies and possible upgrades
Using the current lineup in the shop as this might be already adjusted for the upcoming rulebook lists
- Abyssal Dwarfs, 1 kit (China)
- Basilea, 2 kits (China, EU)
- Dwarfs, 4 kits (UK), 1st Wave
- Elves, 4 kits (UK), 1st Wave
- EoD, 2 kits (China/UK) +1 shared one (UK)
- Nature, 1 kit (EU), +2 shared ones (China)
- Abyss, 4 kits (China?/EU)
- Goblins, 2 kits (China)
- Halflings, 1 kit (China)
- Nightstalkers, 3 kits (China/EU)
- Northern Alliance, 3 kits (China/EU) + 3 shared ones (China/UK)
- Ogres, 1 kit (EU) + 2 shared ones (China)
- Orcs, 3 kit (UK/China) +1 shared one (China), 1st Wave
- Ratkin, 2 kit (China)
- Salamanders, 1 kit (China)
- Trident Realm, 3 kits (China/EU), + 2 new ones
- Twilight Kin, 4 kits (EU), +2 shared ones (EU)
- Undead, 5 kits (UK) - 1st Wave
We know in the first book, Xrikaali being new with 3 new kits, Trident get 2 new ones for 5 total, Halflings get something and Salamanders get their 1 kit as STL making the full army available as such. We also āknowā from Ronnie that Varangur are coming with their own model line.
This means not all 1 kit factions are becoming full STL armies and there is a also a good chance that those armies that have a lot of kits but no digital sculpts like Undead are up for a full re-work
From my point of view:
- Abyssal Dwarfs, Ratkin, and/or Orcs would make sense going to STLs (Army D)
- Nature, Elves, Dwarfs, Undead, Varangur for the full re-work (Army A)
- Basilea, Ratkin, Abyssal Dwarfs, Abyss, Goblins, Orcs, Northern Alliance, Ogres would need 1-3 new plastic kits (Army B)
- EoD, Northern Alliance (depends on future shared kits), Ogres, Nighstalkers, Abyss, are also good with āsomethingā (Army C)
- Twilight Kin, Nightstalker and Ogres would also be good with nothing (Army D)
of course some armies being doubled as there are several possibilities and depending on what is already digital, how much PCV is still there and what kits coming from China running low (we donāt know how easy it is to get a 2nd print run from the older kits, so that might be also a reason to either go digital or for a full re-work in EU/UK)
Orcs being a good example here as it might be the better option to add the design new regular Ocrs as STL only and add Riftforge Orcs base models as STL too than designing new base Orcs to go to plastic that might not be compatible with the Rift forged ones
Ratkin also have shared kits with Firefight and a lot of Resin/STL models already, so adding a base infantry as STL similar to Salamanders while replacing the FF models with more fantasy designed ones would be one way to go, but also adding 1 new plastic kit with multiple options like for Ogres would be possible. Similar situation with AD.
Ogres while already in a good spot have simply just 1 kit and several old Resin models or upgrades. A Berserker/Hunters double kit would be good, while it would also work to add those as STL (not good for me as I converted both units from the current and older plastics to avoid the metal/resin ones), could be anything.
Abyss being similar, they are fine but given that Hellhounds are still metal, a new plastic kit while unlikely would be nice, so they also fit multiple spots
In addition there is another part of the puzzle that we cannot solve now and this is the Core Units.
Those are the units you need/want most of, as they are the minimum requirement so in an ideal care those are the ones that need to be HIPS to go into the army boxes. Specialist would also be good to be covered in plastic while Support units that are 4 in total donāt really make much sense unless they are part of the multi part core kit
From that point of view, a new plastic kit would cover Core and Specialist choices or 2-3 Core units while support being only plastic from previous older kits.
So once we get the army lists, combined with the information from above, should give us a good hint on what to expect
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Nice breakdown.
Donāt xirkaali have 4 plastic kits - dog soliders, monks, scouts and berserkers?
Personally i wouldnāt be overly happy with too many armies going down the full stl route. Getting extras for the plastic kits that way is nice (Iāve used AD/NS bits), but fully 3d limits access and unless you/mate has a printer itās not the cheapest option and rules out 3rd party sellers.
Weāll really see their intent when some of the legacy armies gets redone, with dwarfs earlier in the list than elves, orcs or undead.
A couple of armies are pretty close to completion - a foot/cavalry kit for the sisters (like the halfling one); possibly plastic, but more likely stl eholi and a chariot (which stylistically could also be used by elves?). Berserkers/hunter kit for ogres rounds them out.
with what I have currently seen and heard it looks like the Berserker and Rangers of the Xirkaali are a double kit, though not sure of it is multi part one, so makes 6 Berserkers or 6 Rangers, or a shared one that only has parts for 3 of each.
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the bodies are the same, my guess is the wildfang head has all the neck and shoulder fur, and the plainstalker heads have the hoods, then itās just different arms
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I would have assumed that sales / popularity is also a driver of which armies get multiple new hard plastics, and also which are earmarked for going STL (Which I am assuming effectively means they are then a niche choice that only a minority of players will have access to, either printing or buying print on demand). No point in completing ranges or giving armies refreshes just because they havenāt been done in a while, I presume Mantic have to have an eye on what will actually sell?
Interesting to see Abyssal Dwarves only have 1 current hard plastic kit- I think because theyāve got a decent range available, I assumed it was more. Iām hopeful, now, that they might be 1-2 more on top of that, and metal options become available in resin. Theyāre an army Iāve always said I would buy if they got a refresh, and my sense is that they are popular enough.
Regarding STL print on demand, whether Salamanders or anything Mantic intend to offer according to this modelā¦ Itās fine, but my assumption is that it would be relatively costly, at least based on what current local norms are here.
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With AD there are 4 dwarf infantry units and the kit (plus upgrade parts from retail/vault) deals with 3 of them - leaving only the berserkers. Mantic normally like plastic kits to be dual use, so unless there is a new unit on the cards - or they do one as a mix of dogs/handlers/berserkers - canāt see one that way.
Halfbreeds, Grotesques and OGs are left - excluding slave orc units [ and that is a whole different kettle of fish]. Mantic doing a plastic Earth elemental/OG kit might make sense; the Grotesques are in the vault [Ā£32.50 resin, Ā£20 from mantic licensed printer] so doubt theyād change.
Plastic Halfbreeds would be nice, as the pvc efforts are v dated and like most of this style kit, a pain to build.
Donāt know whether Mantic would go down the line of a fairly generic war engine set, but if the AD ones end up the size/price of the xirkaali artillery (or the GW ones) Iām staying 3rd party.
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Mantic have started dishing out some army info to various people to talk about.
The Trolls have got some Salamander info, chatting about changes, army building, command orders etc.
Countercharge will shortly do doing a little dive into FoA.
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Death By Dragons (by Steve) has putcput a 4th BR on Youtube. We learn that indivuduals got flanks, some of the TK/EoD units.
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I liked the series of articles (Road to 4th edition), and the release video and unveiling of the Xirkaali worked wellā¦ But TBH Iāve now tuned out from the next wave of information thatās come out in the various podcasts.
Itās quite fragmented, and at this point Iād rather now just wait for the full rules.
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