It would appear that lists dropping in the main rulebook, for 4th, are somewhat “temporary lists”, albeit they could last several years.
I say that because we’ll have a consolidated dwarf list, but we know Mantic’s intention is that when the turn of the Dwarves come around for a book, Matt said they would split them out again.
And it appears that many units which are currently gone could be worked back in (same pdocast).
But I guess I have in mind that Mantic must surely be intending “the Twilight Kin treatment” for a number of factions, for example Forces of Nature and Elves…
I would be disappointed if the Elves we get are just conventional ‘high fantasy’ Elves, with the usual tall helms, white cloaks, leaf-adorned armour and whatnot. I don’t know that they can radically change the way Elves are, based on existing lore, but give that we know the narrative is going to jump forward a considerable number of years, potentially you could have something like… Elves driven from the homeland, reduced to a grimy shadow of their former glory, a sort of nomadic locust-like society forced to desperate measures by the pressure of the Xirkaali? Perhaps to the extent that they forge ties, again, with their Twilight Kin brethren, against a common enemy?
When it comes to Sylvan kin, tricky to reboot them or make them a unique IP. Hard to see how to flip the “wood elves” trope - which, in fairness, goes back beyond GW and into folklore.
I’m not saying they have to be that, just making the point if Mantic want to create a “Mantic elf IP”, they’re gonna have to come up with at least some kind of new spin on things.
For the Forces of Nature, it’s a little easier, because the main option they can take is just to decide that it’s not a smorgasbord of units from many different factions, and just lean heavily into Herd and magical creatures of nature.
Curious what Mantic do with dwarves eventually, too. The consolidated dwarf list will probably look a lot like 3.5 dwarves… But what might the dwarves of the future look like, when Golloch’s activity has fundamentally impacted the nature and fortunes of the Imperial Dwarves?
