What does it mean to be a Beastmen player at the moment?
Well after my last post about what the army is like in 'General' I thought I'd speculate about the future. Now I'm not spreading lies about GW's release schedule here I'm simply using my experience of working and playing with their products to formulate an argument. So sit back and read quietly you horny lot!
Now the Goats aren't doing too badly at the moment, as each 8th Edition book has been released the Beastmen have seen their book brought back into the fray. Effectively, as I summarised yesterday, the Beastmen could be viewed as the first 'unofficial' 8th Edition book - so alas it seems we're getting better!
Unofficial? What about an 'Actual' 8th Book?
Well here's the thing. I think we'll be lucky to receive and new book before 9th Edition hits, I'm not usually a pessimist, however I think that the way the 'Rumour-mill' is running at the moment, we'll have a new edition in the summer. Now due to GW's tight lip release schedule, I can't confirm or deny whether or not we'll have a new book, and I can't confirm when 9th Edition will be out.
'IF' 9th is in 2014
I doubt we'll see a book, with the new White Dwarf schedule I'd cautiously suggest that we might get a release or two before the summer, however I'm not going to bank anything on it. The likelihood in my opinion, seems extremely low, however I don't think we need to worry particularly much as the book is standing up fantastically against all of the new editions. But depending on the changes that 9th brings, our book potentially could be outdated extremely quickly.
'IF' 9th is in 2015
Which certain 'Rumour-mongers' are suggesting then I believe we may get an 8th Edition book - but it won't be a big release... My reasoning behind this harks back too current affairs, the Dwarfs have been waiting for a new release for 8 years, and after all of that time it seems GW could only justify releasing 3 plastic kits, creating a measly 2 new unit entries. Unfortunately, I think the Beastmen will get a similar treatment, especially when you consider that they have a host of good plastic kits already. The bonus to being released nearer the end of an edition, as we've already found, is that the book gets tooled for it. And due to the fact that we'll probably be one of the last books released we'll get this treatment again.
What to Expect?
Well unless the Beastmen are in the 9th Starter Set (it's anybodies guess) I think we'll see the GW minimum of 3 plastic kits and a range of clampack characters. After a bit of deliberation with mates and online, I think the ideal candidates will be the following:
Tuskgor Chariot / Razorgor Chariot - Combination Kit
Centigor / New Unit Entry - Combination Kit
2 New Entry - Combination Kit
Beastlord - Clampack
1 -2 Special Character - Clampacks
These are by no means right, however I think they may be an educated guess by looking at the kits other armies have recieved. The low popularity of Beastmen definitely puts them in a low release slot, but I hope I'm wrong - however after seeing the unimpressive Dwarf release unfold after presuming we'd get a lot more, a small release is on the cards.
Sorry to spread the bad news Beastmen players, chins up!
If we get a new centigor dual kit I really hope that it will give options for a fast cav and a heavy cav version. That would add a lot of versatility to the army. With some chariots added it might even make an all 'mounted' beastmen army viable. Especially if we would get a centigor hero/lord option as well! (yes I know I'm wishlisting ;-)
ReplyDeleteAlso, personally I don't believe we will see 9th in 2014, I think it will be 2015 so we might see a new Beastmen book still for 8th.
That's a good idea, hadn't thought of that. Perhaps a Bestigor-esque Centigor unit would be fantastic, something that can hit like a ton of bricks and have a bit of longevity. Ghorros is fun, but a Hero level Centigor and Ungor would be useful, guess only time will tell.
DeleteGot my fingers crossed for a hardback book, getting fed up of my flimsy piece of junk!