I’ve been thinking this as well.
Basilea is almost definite IMO, since Ronnie mentioned in the latest Countercharge Episode that the mid year campaign will focus on the siege of a Basilean city.
I think Forces of the Abyss are the fourth since they’re the logical antagonist to both FON and Basilea, as per the current storyline. I’ve also heard that Ronnie confirmed Abyssals for the next book at some point, but I’ve yet to find out when/ where that was.
forces of nature need a major revamp and overhaul with their range. I’d like to also see novel fleshing out what’s going on, is there anything on the horizon where we might see what lore repercussions of the invasion? I can’t imagine the dwarves being in anyway a good position having burned themselves at both ends with a harrowing civil war; now having to deal with a full scale invasion. I know that the elves are being strained and pulled thin in every direction, but The goblins and orcs really haven’t had anything major since the rift-forged orcs saga. Does anyone know what happened to the regular orc line or have they just been completely replaced by the “super orcs”?
I’d also like to know more about the EOD since they’ve been real quiet and the undead for that matter as well. (I’m also excited because the updates we got for factions like the halflings and neritca faction have been great updates in their rules and model ranges.) the undead and eod desperately need new sculpts but i don’t think i’ve heard anything about them on the horizon.
Undead and EoD will likely be in the ‘Death’ book, which is the 6th iirc. Couple of years.
Was anything shown at Adepticon? Was expecting some teasers at least.
So here’s my prediction for which army is in what upcoming book…
Fractured: FoN, FoA, Ogres and Basilea (as per above)
Arogance: Elves
Ruination: Dwarfs, Free Dwarfs
Alliance: Varangur, Northern Alliance
Death: Undead, EoD
The rest are harder to pin down. Abyssal Dwarfs & Orcs will likely go together, since they’d both benefit from a new Orc sprue. Narratively I think they’d fit into Ruination or Alliance, as they’re natural antagonists to those other factions (either fighting the Dwarfs over the Halpi Mountains, or Jorden Talensen setting them against the Northern Alliance). I’m leaning toward Ruination, but that might depend on how many Dwarf armies Mantic wants in one book. 
Twilight Kin & Nightstalkers might also be in the same book thanks to a common model range and their common narrative. It seems like an easy win for Mantic to release a kit that works for both armies. But both armies are also pretty complete, so maybe there’s less need for that? In any case I suspect they’d go with the Elves in Arogance. But again, that’s alot of Elves for one book!
Kingdoms of Men is a tough one - releasing an army range for them would be a huge job. My guess is that if Mantic does that in this edition, they’d have to be in Alliance. But that assumes the Varangur will keep alot of model overlap with Northern Alliance. If Varangur become a full model range in its own right, then there’s just no room in the release schedule to do the same with KoM.
So that just leaves Goblins and Ratkin. And in a narrative sense, they’re endemic enough to Pannithor that they could fit anywhere. Personally I think they’ll be “gap filler” armies - they’ll be the 3rd or 4th army in whichever book Mantic needs to fill out.
Given that the Edition doesn’t end with the last Campaign book (though I guess we get a new version of the rulebook without the army lists) there is room to get some armies in after that and if KoM get their model line it might be with the new release cycle
that said, KoM is tricky not just for the release slot and the need for a lot of models, but also for theme they should follow
obviously it needs to be its own IP, so anything close to historicals will be out while at the same time anything someone else is doing is out
Medieval or early modern Europe with a twist won’t do it (AoS has their steampunk HRE, TOW the early modern HRE, early modern Spain&Italy, medieval China and medieval France)
yet being too far away from history might not work here as people have their expectations and something truly unique might connect
Going back into Late Romans might be interesting but also going beyond the 30 years war up to war of Spanish Succession or 2nd Turkish siege of Vienna
Late antiquity Romans/Gauls with black powder weapons or Steampunk elements would be something new with lot of possibility
Yet I am biased here but going with the military frontier (the border region between Habsburg territory and Ottoman Empire) after the 2nd siege of Vienna + Monsters and Magic would be an interesting theme as well and something that hardly anyone covered yet, even in historical wargaming (period is usually the 30 years war and soon after while the Turkish war focuses on the Imperial and Polish troops)
Doing something further away from the medieval or early modern theme would fit well given that the more traditional themes are covered already and another steampunk theme would not be necessary
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I’ll be very disappointed if they move away from KoM being a generic list. I’m fine if they do their own models and have that alongside the more historical options but getting rid of it entirely when they’ve always had it as a catch all, use your historical figures in KoW army would be a mistake in my view.
Though I’m sure mantic don’t really want to be a “use whatever miniatures you like” company any more, and perhaps in 5th edition we’ll see them shut the door on that. Ultimately of course anyone can use whatever miniatures they like for whatever game they like and the idea of official miniatures is silly, but you can see why companies that sell models and rules would want them bundled.
I’m curious if any insider knows when the next book will be released. Normally there are a couple of weeks for pre-ordering (mostly 4 to 6, depending on the importance for example ). And adding the time since the first book (counting from january) arrived, there should be some news the next weeks.
Or is 6 months just a rough time and it could last till late july, early august?
Obviously it’s not about the book only, but a couple of plastic sets and printable files (well, Salamanders were available month later). So it could take longer.
Agreed. I don’t have a KoM army myself, but the generic nature of it, and the fact that you can use just about any fantasy/historical humans range to represent them, is a big appeal.
What I’ve gleaned from the Countercharge episodes is that we’ll hear more about the contents of the book in May. I assume that’ll mean a June release, but I suppose your guess is as good as mine on that front l.
