Grand Alliance Order - first inklings....

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Yeah it's all been order and chaos, itll be nice to finally see a new faction/models for Destruction. Curious how they look.

[Kirsten]

so the existing stuff has been reshuffled in to factions, but I wonder which factions will be updated? will all of those factions exist with new Age of Sigmar models? I fancy some Ironweld and Free peoples.

Looking at some of these factions it doesn't look like they are meant to be stand alone. some work fine, but you would struggle to field an Ironweld Arsenal exclusively, or a Phoenix Temple etc. I would love to see an engineering faction with some infantry and stuff. essentially Age of Sigmar Mechanicum...

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

so the existing stuff has been reshuffled in to factions, but I wonder which factions will be updated? will all of those factions exist with new Age of Sigmar models? I fancy some Ironweld and Free peoples.

Looking at some of these factions it doesn't look like they are meant to be stand alone. some work fine, but you would struggle to field an Ironweld Arsenal exclusively, or a Phoenix Temple etc. I would love to see an engineering faction with some infantry and stuff. essentially Age of Sigmar Mechanicum...

Yeah, I really hope they are all expanded on over time, theres a lot of potential with the new themes. The "metal" Duardin sound a bit like what might be AOS equivilent Mechanicum though, guess we'll have to wait and see.

Would be nice to see more diverse human factions too, it's all white dudes so far.

[Mr Mystery]

Reckon the more esoteric artillery will come with the Steamhead Duardin.

Which, despite normally loathing Steampunk (but to each their own!) I'm quite interested to see.

[Ben_S]

Seems strange that Swordmasters of Hoeth survived while some other nice kits, like Glade Riders, are gone.

They may be working on more fantastical Cavalry?

Maybe, or maybe they just want to sell Dark Riders (5 per box rather than 8 too), but my real surprise was the Swordmasters surviving, rather than the Glade Riders going.

I wish most of the plastic kits were staying actually, but Swordmasters are a) Finecast and b) somewhat redundant given White Lions, DE Executioners, and WE Eternal Guard. If they're not going now, it makes me wonder whether there will be a second round of culling sooner or later.

[Erik Setzer]

Looking at some of these factions it doesn't look like they are meant to be stand alone. some work fine, but you would struggle to field an Ironweld Arsenal exclusively, or a Phoenix Temple etc. I would love to see an engineering faction with some infantry and stuff. essentially Age of Sigmar Mechanicum...

Well, you're approaching it from a WFB or 40K mentality, where a "faction" is a complete army of its own. In AoS, factions are more like pieces of a whole, describing specialized parts of forces rather than entire armies. Like how the Stormcast Eternals have various Chambers broken off as factions, and while you could run them on their own, you know the intent is to mix the various types of Stormcast units together.

So you could have, say, an Ironweld Arsenal force using units hired from the Freeguild, or have an arrangement with the Dispossessed forces at large.

Heck, the Freeguild seem like the human engineering faction, for the most part.

But hey, if they want to ever make models and rules for those "Technomancers" they mentioned, I'm totally game for that.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

That is true, but I do hope they are expanded to at least stormcast/bloodbound/fyreslayer size model ranges in time. I'd be happy with that big as you can still do a whole army with that amount of stuff.

[Mr Mystery]

I'm actually kind of tempted by Swifthawk Agents - which is a new feeling, as I've previously been distinctly 'MEEEEHHHHH' about any non-Dark Elf.

I'm interested to see how these smaller factions affect the perception of average game size.

[Kirsten]

I do wonder why the glade riders have been taken away when all the other wood elf plastics remain

[Mr Mystery]

No idea.

Theory I've got is that they're going for more fantastical mounts in the future.

But then, Dark Riders....