High Elf Arcane Journal - What do you want from it?

[Ielthan]

I thought it would be interesting to see what people wanted from the upcoming (probably within the next 6 months at least) High Elf Arcane Journal. All we really know so far is the Merwyrm is coming back, possibly indicating a return of the seaguard list, and a new High Elf Character (probably infantry, maybe Aislinn?). To be honest even if the merwyrm comes back, I can't really see it being competitive, as monsters that don't fly and can't take a rider are just pretty poor in this edition.

I'll get things started with my personal wishlist:

Maidenguard - there aren't many models/units that they can bring back for us, but these are one of them. A unit with gorgeous models that I would love to get back on the table. If they have the moulds still I think they're a real possiblity. Maybe 0-1 per Handmaiden similar to how waywatchers work. They seem like prime candidates for the made to order models, which have all had rules so far.

Tyrion & Teclis - My favourite characters, Teclis is a big part of the story so they might hold off on him though, and Tyrion I guess would be in Ulthuan during this time. On the other hand they were the first ever WFB Special Characters to ever get models back in the early 90's, and are huge fan favourites, so fingers crossed! Ungrim has come back, Galrauch too, so they're not totally averse to bringing back characters from WFB. I can imagine Eltharion is a possiblity too given it's such a classic model, and in Total Warhammer he starts in the badlands where some of Old World seems to be focussed.

Book of Hoeth - some form of this would be great, it's an iconic item that's featured in every book since 6th edition, would also serve to make our Archmage's the true masters of magic they're meant to be. I've no idea what it would be, maybe changes Lileath's blessing so it can be used on each spell cast rather than once per turn? It sounds powerful, but in my experience given it's only on a failed casting roll, it would make us more reliable at casting spells, but given the way dispelling works now, if the enemy level 4 is in range it's still a bit of a coin flip.

Ring of Corin & Ring of Fury - Elves and magic rings go together! Bound spells are also really good in this edition. I think making Ring of Fury cast Fury of Khaine like it always has would be very cool, it does something completely different to before, but would be great on Dragon Princes, who don't currently have any particularly good banner combinations. Ring of Corin could pretty much be excactly as before; casting Vaul's unmaking, which whilst a great spell has a high casting value and a short range, and is cast pre-movement.

Banner of Saphery - An iconic banner that could possibly even be swordmasters only. Perhaps grants wizards in the unit +1 or even plus d3 to cast, balanced by forcing you to take an infantry wizard in a combat unit. Also swordmasters don't really have any standout choices for magic banners at the moment, I usually don't bother with one on them.

An Always Strikes First Banner - This doesn't actually benefit too many of our units in a meaningful way, it is however a solution to making white lions viable whilst not overpowered (I6 is still only striking simultaneously at best vs most charging units). White lions are in a terrible place at the moment, so anything to make them viable is very welcome. It would be ok on phoenix guard, ok on seaguard and spearmen, though they are all already I6 on a turn they're charged and don't hit very hard at all, so the banner could be quite cheap.

Bow of the Seafarer - I'm not that fussed about this, but it opens up some fun (not competitve) scouting prince builds.

Forgeworld High Elf Waystone/Monolith - The model is featured in the photos, I've always wanted one, and I would love it if it even had came with some rules, like an immovable deployable warmachine that has some kind of magic benefits, probably to defence.

Something to make Shadow Warriors not utter garbage. I love them, even took them to a tournament with chariot runners, but they are frankly awful. If they had the option for an additional handweapon maybe they would be slightly more useful, or for the champion to take 50pts of magic items like the sisters so you could put ruby ring on them maybe, but it's hard to see how that could be written into the book.

In terms of the 2 army lists, I think they're very tricky to predict other than perhaps the seaguard list (which tbh I never liked anyway). I hope they go the way of the dwarf journal which I thought was brilliant, rather than giving us some bowline and a say a dragon army, I'd rather they are more creative and let us do more interesting tactical and themey things. I really like the idea of our army being tied to magic, it's always been a big part of the High Elf identity, so plenty of bound spell items and/or items to make our level 2's more viable would be lovely.

I do wonder as well if the book will be written with the comp they've just applied to the upcoming Throne of Skulls tournament at Warhammer World in mind. For those who missed it:

- No single model can cost more than 25% of the army (so 500pts at 2k)
- 0-1 level 3 per 1000pts
- 0-1 level 4 per 2000pts
*Named characters are exempt from these restrictions

Would love to hear what other people hope to see in the book.

[Axiem]

Year 20: Drake Riders

Rings, Bow of Seafarer, and a couple special characters and I'll be happy. Merwyrm was already spoiled as one of the pieces of the new Arcane Journal, so Sea Guard-themed seems very likely for at least one of the special armies. Hope the other one is Caledor or Chrace. I think "Intrigue At Court" was the other hinted item, so Caledor might make good sense.

EDIT: I went back to the article and found this:

Following a little while behind (delayed by some delicious intrigue at court) are the High Elves, Merwyrming their way back in with their own host of classic kits plus a nautical new character.

I didn't notice the "delayed" part before -- hopefully still means 2025.

Kind regards,

Axiem

[Ielthan]

Year 20: Drake Riders

Rings, Bow of Seafarer, and a couple special characters and I'll be happy. Merwyrm was already spoiled as one of the pieces of the new Arcane Journal, so Sea Guard-themed seems very likely for at least one of the special armies. Hope the other one is Caledor or Chrace. I think "Intrigue At Court" was the other hinted item, so Caledor might make good sense.

EDIT: I went back to the article and found this:

Following a little while behind (delayed by some delicious intrigue at court) are the High Elves, Merwyrming their way back in with their own host of classic kits plus a nautical new character.

I didn't notice the "delayed" part before -- hopefully still means 2025.

Kind regards,

Axiem

To be honest I've never really been a fan of drake riders as an idea outside the War of the Beard or some other ancient setting, even more so in the Old World where ridden monsters are already too good. I really hope intrigue at court as it was in 6th edition is not making a return! It was a terrible rule! I think they're fairly committed to 4 journals a year, so I would expect High Elves to be first half of 2025, althought that might mean June for the journal and late summer for the models.

I do wonder what they'll do with the merwyrm to make it interesting. I can see it being a bound monster so reliant on a spellcaster, but the aquatic stuff is of really limited value. Maybe some kind of "swallow whole" attack against infantry/cavalry sized models? Also will be interesting if it's just the merwyrm or the different variants that were in monstrous arcanum; the pagowyrm etc.

If they're going the specific province route for the army lists I would love to see a Saphery one which would let them shoehorn in rules for a Waystone. There's also sort of a precedent for it with Eltharion the blind's list which let you take a swordmaster unit in core, which would actually be fantastic.

[Morgen]

I'd like to see a naval themed Army of Renown to represent the naval forces that would be in the area at the time would be the main thing I'd like to see.

Some kind of high elf mage mercenary might be fun to see.

I would personally want to keep Tyrion and Teclis out of it. They don't make any sense given the era and the location of the setting. If they do show up it'd be a total re-write of everything and kind of sour me a bit of the old world. Finubar and Belannaer would make drastically more sense for this era for a warrior/wizard named character set in the region at that time, and they could us miniatures.

We should be safe from an Intrigue at Court because the high elves would be away from court at the moment in the setting.

Hopefully nothing with dragons or the like.

[TyrrenAzureblade]

My big hope is for some souped up infantry like improved White Lions, Swordmasters, and/or Lothern Sea Guard. I'm also hoping for some reasonably affordable +Strength magical weapon like the Star Lance. Our dragons don't need help, but I'd like for our mounted characters to be punchier.

I would absolutely love to see an improved Lore of Saphery or something like a True High Magic lore but that's an obvious longshot. Barring that, I hope for something that will make our casters really something impressive. I just played a game against a WoC army that had a wizard casting at +6. It was a little absurd trying to dispel anything, and if our vaunted Archmages are supposed to be practiced masters of the magical arts, they should have something for them to truly feel like that on the table.

The rumored Armies of Infamy (according to a consistently reliable source on the WHFB Discord) are Lothern and Chrace themed, which wouldn't have been my personal picks, but White Lions need a helping hand, and I do hope a Lothern Army of Infamy sees bolt throwers regain their reliability and potency. I miss putting them into my lists.

As for the characters, I'm betting Aislinn is going to be the nautical character mentioned in the article, or maybe something more generic like a Storm Weaver Archmage variant. I could totally see Tyrion and Teclis making an appearance, and I would love to see a modern take on their models, but something in my gut is telling me it won't be them. At least not both of them. If the other Army of Infamy is Chracian, a younger Korhil would make sense. Whoever they end up being, I hope they're at least interesting choices for our armies.

[Csjarrat]

Honestly I just want something that fixes white lions. They're such a garbage-tier unit at the moment, seems such a shame for something so iconic

[Ielthan]

I sort of agree regarding Tyrion and Teclis, although Teclis will definitely play a huge role as the story progresses.

I was thinking about the armies of infamy, and what might be cool is having the Seaguard list and a provincial list rather than a specific province. The provincial list would basically work quite similarly to how the handmaiden works now. So if your general has a specific honour, e.g. the white lion one, you can take 0-1 white lions in core, then the other non associated units like phoenix guard, swordmaster and dragon princes all move to rare. It's an elegant way to create a huge variety of themed armies.

Another way would be to have an army of the Outer Kingdoms and an army of the Inner Kingdoms, that's never been done before either.

As far as I can tell all of the journals so far have had at least 10 new unit entries including special characters, I'm curious to what they can bring to us as there aren't many things that have disappeared over the years for us. A mist mage with a different version of lore of saphery and new signature spells is probably likely, with no new model like the dwarf sappers. Perhaps merwyrms will be dependent on them like in 6th ed.

I'd love to see Belannaer make a return. I suspect it won't be Aislinn but some similar character.

I really think the fix for white lions is an ASF banner, but maybe it's asking for too much...

[Axiem]

I really think the fix for white lions is an ASF banner, but maybe it's asking for too much...

There's lots of possible fixes in the form of a banner or some unit upgrade:

- ASF;
- Multi Wound (2);
- Regen;
- Drilled;

The last one I think is the most likely: other elites have drilled but for some reason Lions don't have the option, while Phoenix Guard, Sword Masters, and Dragon Princes all have the option. Some way to give the unit Drilled, ideally innately but definitely cheaply, could bring it in line with the other choices and make it more viable.

Kind regards,

Axiem

[Morgen]

It's always like this. We've got the same three units and ones very suited to the current rules, one's okay and one ends up overointed for how the game works for the moment and isn't worth taking over the other two.

White Lions are a very glass cannon unit suitable for fighting infantry which isn't how they're being used in a lot of battle reports I think. They got to be insane in the step up horde days of 8th edition though, so they at least had that.

Honestly the journals have improved armies, supplies and things like that pretty well. Don't think we need to introduce a strikes first banner though...

[Csjarrat]

It's always like this. We've got the same three units and ones very suited to the current rules, one's okay and one ends up overointed for how the game works for the moment and isn't worth taking over the other two.

White Lions are a very glass cannon unit suitable for fighting infantry which isn't how they're being used in a lot of battle reports I think. They got to be insane in the step up horde days of 8th edition though, so they at least had that.

Honestly the journals have improved armies, supplies and things like that pretty well. Don't think we need to introduce a strikes first banner though...

I wish they were a glass cannon. They're really just a glass tumbler thanks to step up. Often times they won't get to hit first which means they won't get to hit at all. They will be reliably beaten in combat by clanrats and that's a low benchmark
Their axes are overkill against most infantry and anything they want to hit with their axes is higher initiative or faster than them so will charge them and delete the front rank.
ASF or some effect that gives an opponent ASL or significantly drops their initiative is the only thing that will fix them as a ranked unit imho

[Ielthan]

I really think the fix for white lions is an ASF banner, but maybe it's asking for too much...

There's lots of possible fixes in the form of a banner or some unit upgrade:

- ASF;
- Multi Wound (2);
- Regen;
- Drilled;

The last one I think is the most likely: other elites have drilled but for some reason Lions don't have the option, while Phoenix Guard, Sword Masters, and Dragon Princes all have the option. Some way to give the unit Drilled, ideally innately but definitely cheaply, could bring it in line with the other choices and make it more viable.

Kind regards,

Axiem

I was really hoping the white lions would get their different fighting styles back, maybe that's something that could come with the journal and would make them really viable again.

[Morgen]

I haven't read them all but I don't think they've revised previously stated units in them before. Doesn't mean they couldn't of course, but I think white lions are just the odd one out until a new edition.

Csjarrat - I don't think that solves their problem. It's the defense side that they're lacking on. Even if they had SF, they're still going to struggle to kill a rank of foes and be very unlikely to slay a monster. They just don't have the hits and combat resolution. Luckily they're stubborn so they can hold ground and still be useful.

[Ielthan]

They sort of have revisited units with say units gaining vanguard in the orc nomad list, or a different unit that uses the same models as we saw a lot with the dwarfs which opens up potential new profiles. Spearmen with a heavy armour option would be nice, maybe makes them slightly less rubbish... Really wish they had consulted with the 9th age crowd when writing the Old World.

I guess they might pull the nuclear option and finally give us drake riders, but I suspect not.

[neBen]

I'm mostly excited that we'll get more access to Sisters, Skycutters, Phoenixes and other models that were released towards the end. This should spice up the lists in itself.

Not going to happen but - I'd love to see some sort of monstruous infantry with multiple wounds. In that theme, expanding the province-centric army could be very nice
- ie Chrace with Wild Lions, Mounted Lions
- Knights of Tor Gaval (or any mounted flying cav, which could still somewhat fit the bill of multi wound unit and be seafarer themed)

Or having additional tools to make those elite units (SMM, WL, PG) usable.

[Prince of Spires]

I love te idea of an iner-kingdom and an outer-kingdom army list as the two types of lists. I doubt it's going to happen, but it would be cool.

As for making WL viable, I would personaly give them Monster Slayer as a special rule. They wouldn't improve against pretty much anyone, except against stuff they would fight according to the lore. It would keep them a niche unit, but they would have their own role to play, instead of simply being worse SM. Maybe add in that they can step up against a monster (so they actually get to strike...). Something like that.

I don't think we need more monsters. We already have 2 phoenixes that rarely get used because they're just not very good. Same with Great Eagles really. Monstrous infantry, monstrous cavalry, and war beasts on the other hand are categories where we have no options. Something in there would be nice and add more variety. On the other hand, it also risks making many of the models we currently have even more rare than they currently are. But there are plenty of options they could add to these categories. They can justify pretty much all kinds of beasts, saying they found them somewhere in the Annulian mountains. As it stands, we're the only race without any of those options. Everyone has either monstrous infantry, monstrous cavalry, or both. Which is frankly ridiculous if you consider HE to be the most magical of races.

As for other improvements, I would absolutely love to see Shadow Warriors improve (and of course get Alith Anar). They're not very good at the moment, and pretty much anything they can do is done either cheaper or better by other units. Even just making them 1+ would be great. Though I guess that's actually broken. It would mean your opponent can't really move anything anywhere unless it flies for most of the game. But give them something to make them stand out. I want to take them over archer darts, but that's hard to justify when they're almost 50% more expensive and not core.

Since the rumours are pointing at Chrace and some Naval theme, I am going to put my money on Finubar and the Everqueen as our special characters. They sound like the most logical options to me. They give us a fighting character and a mage character. They are actually the ruling king and queen of the HE. They fit with both rumoured themes. Finubar at least does. He fits both the maritime theme, and Chrace. They're his personal body guards after all. And I think HE are the only race who have never had their actual leaders as an option to lead their armies (as far as it goes in some cases of course...).

[Morgen]

Has the Everqueen of the era been to the Old World? I don't even know which one ot is in this year.

[Prince of Spires]

I don't think much is known about her movements, other than the few times she showed up for the king. So there's no reason she can't be there. It's their story. They can just write in a reason for her to be somewhere.

[bkevs84]

I love me a themed list, any excuse to make one more viable would be nice.

I wonder if GW is wise enough to realize that these arcane journals for all factions are a great way to release new content for each faction without redoing the larger forces of fantasy/Hordes of darkness books.

They could release every couple years different Dwarven holds, empire city states, high elf provinces, chaos war bands, wood elf forests, etc.

A license to print money getting us to re theme our lists every 2 to 3 yrs.

[neBen]

I love te idea of an iner-kingdom and an outer-kingdom army list as the two types of lists. I doubt it's going to happen, but it would be cool.

As for making WL viable, I would personaly give them Monster Slayer as a special rule. They wouldn't improve against pretty much anyone, except against stuff they would fight according to the lore. It would keep them a niche unit, but they would have their own role to play, instead of simply being worse SM. Maybe add in that they can step up against a monster (so they actually get to strike...). Something like that.

I don't think we need more monsters. We already have 2 phoenixes that rarely get used because they're just not very good. Same with Great Eagles really. Monstrous infantry, monstrous cavalry, and war beasts on the other hand are categories where we have no options. Something in there would be nice and add more variety. On the other hand, it also risks making many of the models we currently have even more rare than they currently are. But there are plenty of options they could add to these categories. They can justify pretty much all kinds of beasts, saying they found them somewhere in the Annulian mountains. As it stands, we're the only race without any of those options. Everyone has either monstrous infantry, monstrous cavalry, or both. Which is frankly ridiculous if you consider HE to be the most magical of races.

As for other improvements, I would absolutely love to see Shadow Warriors improve (and of course get Alith Anar). They're not very good at the moment, and pretty much anything they can do is done either cheaper or better by other units. Even just making them 1+ would be great. Though I guess that's actually broken. It would mean your opponent can't really move anything anywhere unless it flies for most of the game. But give them something to make them stand out. I want to take them over archer darts, but that's hard to justify when they're almost 50% more expensive and not core.

Since the rumours are pointing at Chrace and some Naval theme, I am going to put my money on Finubar and the Everqueen as our special characters. They sound like the most logical options to me. They give us a fighting character and a mage character. They are actually the ruling king and queen of the HE. They fit with both rumoured themes. Finubar at least does. He fits both the maritime theme, and Chrace. They're his personal body guards after all. And I think HE are the only race who have never had their actual leaders as an option to lead their armies (as far as it goes in some cases of course...).

I believe most of the named character they've added so far are pretty low ranked, having both (/eitehr) the King and the Queen of a faction would be very surprising.

[Ielthan]

Personally I'm ok without monstrous cavalry, I think there's too much of it in the game as is. I'm not a big fan of the aesthetic in a normal size game of warhammer; units like that should be pretty rare, and supported by huge numbers of infantry and cavalry. They tend to be very hard to balance in the game too.

I was thinking if they gave us drake riders I think it should basically be a noble on a sun dragon that comes out of rare, but then conversely we shouldn't be able to take dragon princes, so basically the war of the beard rules. I'm fine without them though, especially as there aren't specific smaller sun dragon models.

In terms of fixing white lions it's difficult, monster slayer is strong....but they're infantry so very easy to avoid for any monsters. Ideally for me they would get the different fighting stances back from 5th edition, I always loved those rules. The easy fix though is an ASF banne which would bring them a bit more in line with swordmasters, though tbh the I7 on swordmasters, and cleaving blow, and WS6, and drilled, would still make swordmasters better. It would at least make white lions useable though.

Shadow warriors are a victim of edition creep, they were ok in 6th edition because scout and march blocking were powerful mechanics, there were a tiny fraction of the big gribblies and flyers around, and terrain was much more punishing to movement. In this edition though they're horrendous tbh, I thought maybe giving them additional hand weapons would make them ok, but tbh they still wouldn't be very good. 9th age has given them additional hand weapons and a rule where if they wound pre-saves in CC or with shooting, the target suffers -1 to hit until the start of next HE turn....but even then they aren't a common sight in HE lists. It's such a shame, I love the 6th and 7th ed models for them, the theme and fluff, Alith Anar....but they are just so bad on the battlefield. I used them with chariot runners and feigned flight to screen my prince on lion chariot at a tournament, it didn't do much tbh but maybe against more shooting heavy lists maybe they would have been ok. They did prove very good in the watchtower scenario though as they scouted into the tower, and jumped in and out staying alive and taking it, but really pretty much any other scouting unit in the game would have done the same but better, and probably for cheaper.

[Prince of Spires]

I was thinking if they gave us drake riders I think it should basically be a noble on a sun dragon that comes out of rare, but then conversely we shouldn't be able to take dragon princes, so basically the war of the beard rules. I'm fine without them though, especially as there aren't specific smaller sun dragon models.

Thinking on it, being able to take a dragon mage as rare choice might be a fun option.

Shadow warriors are a victim of edition creep, they were ok in 6th edition because scout and march blocking were powerful mechanics, there were a tiny fraction of the big gribblies and flyers around, and terrain was much more punishing to movement. In this edition though they're horrendous tbh, I thought maybe giving them additional hand weapons would make them ok, but tbh they still wouldn't be very good. 9th age has given them additional hand weapons and a rule where if they wound pre-saves in CC or with shooting, the target suffers -1 to hit until the start of next HE turn....but even then they aren't a common sight in HE lists. It's such a shame, I love the 6th and 7th ed models for them, the theme and fluff, Alith Anar....but they are just so bad on the battlefield. I used them with chariot runners and feigned flight to screen my prince on lion chariot at a tournament, it didn't do much tbh but maybe against more shooting heavy lists maybe they would have been ok. They did prove very good in the watchtower scenario though as they scouted into the tower, and jumped in and out staying alive and taking it, but really pretty much any other scouting unit in the game would have done the same but better, and probably for cheaper.

It's hard to find a good role for them in the army without stepping on other units, especially now with sisters.

Their problem is that we don't really take them for their shooting. And then they get the expensive HE stat-line without actually benefiting from most of those stats. Their problem is that 1 WS5, S3 attack just doesn't do much (or alternatively, 1 BS5 S3 shot). You don't want huge units of scouts, since that ends up unwieldy and about to be charged by enemy units who can decimate them. And then their offensive power is simply lacking.

As I see it, there are 3 options to fix them (and none of them will happen I'm afraid):
- Make them hit harder. Either with extra attacks, or an option to take other weapons, or better shooting.
- Reduce their minimum unit size. As said, I think if you could take individual SW, they would be awesome and you would see a lot of them.
- Make the Shadow Walker honour better. If a Shadow Walker prince could get better protection and hitting power, then he would be a fun alternative. Maybe not the best, but he'd see play. And he'd bring a unit of SW along with him. Even better would be if all SW in a unit would be champions. So all could issue challenges and take items and such. That would be fun, Maybe not great, but fun.

[Velmates]

If I could wish for something, I would rethink the role of SW. Not everything needs to be focused on damage output - especially SW as their fluff won't fit anyway.T9A was going in a right direction: let them debuff enemies; especially if they interfered with movement would make them very powerful.

[Axiem]

Thinking on it, being able to take a dragon mage as rare choice might be a fun option.

This is what T9A did, and it made it an actually viable option. I would be equally happy if this was the result. I haven't heard anything Caledor-y related yet though, so at this point I'm not holding my breath for anything related to Drakes/Dragons, but I hope to be pleasantly surprised!

If I could wish for something, I would rethink the role of SW. Not everything needs to be focused on damage output - especially SW as their fluff won't fit anyway.T9A was going in a right direction: let them debuff enemies; especially if they interfered with movement would make them very powerful.

Agree. The SW Debuffing makes really makes them viable.

I'm also always somewhat hopeful for a Wizard Conclave. DE have Warlocks, WE have Sisters, HE have no non-character casters...as the Magical Elves! It's sad.

Kind regards,

Axiem

[Mark071179]

Im hoping for Sea lord Aislinn. I got 200 Sea Guard in 5 units to storm the beatches and the need there Commander.

I also cant wait for the Merwyrm they already spoild.
Fingers crosed that it get som decent rules.

I realy hope the make a Phoenix Guard like unit with a navel team. Mathlann Temple Priest of somthing with tridents and regeneration saves.

And last but not least a Storm Caster Mage

[Scubaelf]

As a magical race why don’t we have unicorns or Pegasus? Surely they have been around the same amount of time as the Elves? Should not be just down to the Bretonnians to have these creatures.

[TyrrenAzureblade]

As a magical race why don’t we have unicorns or Pegasus? Surely they have been around the same amount of time as the Elves? Should not be just down to the Bretonnians to have these creatures.

I'd also love for these to come back to the faction. There are some really old kits that would make for a great Made To Order run, although I'd personally love new plastic kits.

[Ielthan]

Having seen the Empire previews it's made me pretty optimistic, they have a ton of stuff coming back from various eras.

I'm a little surprised to see the Pegasus rider coming back, but it made me wonder will we get our Pegasus and Unicorn riders back? Newer players might not realise this but we used to have tons of mount options that have now gone. There really aren't many frankly interesting kits to bring back, it will mostly be a deluge of pretty new plastic kits from 6th to 8th edition, plus the Merwyrm. It's made me very hopeful maidenguard will come back, as they and the merwyrm are really the obvious rare things to return, perhaps as made to orders like the war wagon. I'm hoping for the Forgeworld waystone too, but that's perhaps a bit unlikely. I also wonder if Asarnil might make a return as a mercenary unit, we don't really have any units that could be mercenaries but he really stands out. I would love to see an eagle mounted character kit come out, but I think it unlikely, as so far apart from the release factions new models have just been a few infantry/cavalry characters. Tbh I'm not even sure we'll get those as we had multipart kits for both, perhaps a new Handmaiden model as the original was finecast?

So far though I can see the Empire release being a very expensive one for me, not that I even really want an empire army, just want those models! Teutogen Guard...*drools*

[MSD]

A few notes on the comments here with the context that I've continually heard Lothern and Chrace will be the two AoI.

- I've heard the Chrace army will get lions as an added unit. Makes sense since they already have models and GW hasn't been big on producing new unit models. I do wonder which army slot they'll fit into though.
- Asarnil would be a character if he came back, not a RoR unless they decide to retcon him. At this point in the lore he's still with the HE and hasn't had the tussle with the king yet. Wouldn't mind seeing him as a character though.
- One thing that could be interesting is to make Myrwyrms random movement. It gives a reason to take them given the large number of monsters we already have and I could see a lore justification.
- Fully agree with the comments that HE need serious magic buffs. It's a big part of the lore and the general vibe of the army in past editions. As it stands, they're middle of the pack in magic so I'd expect to see some significant boosts through magic items and quite possibly a new spell lore, since that's not unheard of in other books.