NOVA Open 2023 Preview: Teil 2 Age of Sigmar und Blood Bowl

Im Rahmen der NOVA Open 2023 hat Games Workshop wieder eine große Vorschau abgehalten, mit einem Ausblick auf kommende Neuheiten, heute mit Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Blood Bowl und Warhammer The Old World.

Nova Previews – Trugg, the Troggoth King

Have you ever fallen into such a deep and consuming sleep that an entire kingdom collapsed around you, and an altar of arcane power was embedded onto your back purely by accident?

Turns out that’s what happened to Trugg, the Troggoth King, one of the largest and most irate troggoths the Mortal Realms have ever seen. But now he’s awake, and he’s smashing stuff up like none before him.

Stirred into a state of semi-consciousness by Alarielle’s Rite of Life, Trugg was finally roused by the rambunctious caterwauling and clanging of the Rabble-Rowza Braggit Big-Talka. The arcane engine on his back sprung into action after he tried to dislodge it by smashing against a cave roof, and since then he’s been affected by the mother of all magical migraines.*

The altar’s magical powers are actually subtly influencing him, and he is being drawn inexorably along the magical ley lines that underpin the Mortal Realms, though to what end no-one knows. Trugg is only concerned with stopping this awful headache, smashing anything magical that he finds along his way.

Following this ornery behemoth are a huge horde of Troggoths: Fellwater, Rockgut, and Dankhold. He is only dimly aware of the hollering hordes that trail behind him, but Braggit has elevated this living wrecking ball to the status of a king with his tales.

You can find out all about Trugg the Troggoth King and his rampage through the Mortal Realms in the next instalment of the ongoing Age of Sigmar campaign series, Dawnbringers: Book II – Reign of the Brute, which continues the story of the Twin-Tailed Crusade as they wind their way forth through Aqsha and Ghyran.

Both are beset by brutish challenges in the form of Trugg and his entourage, a great stomp lead by King Brodd, and a Waaagh! spearheaded by pugnacious greenskins seen riding wild hogs of prodigious girth.

This book will also contain all the rules you need to support these three particular factions with Matched Play Armies of Renown, as well as an Army of Renown for the Kharadron Overlords themed around the Grundstok Expeditionary Force – a hard-hitting force of mercenaries who often work with other Order forces.

* Sounds like those Fyreslayer tall tales were all true…

NOVA Open Previews – An Avalanche of Ironjawz

In the just-revealed Dawnbringers II – Reign of the Brute, the focus falls on the rampaging forces of Destruction, and the Ironjawz are muscling right in on the action with a horde of new bruisers. What could be more fun than krumpin’ all those fancy new humies popping up everywhere?

Zoggrok Anvilsmasha

A legendary Ironjawz smith (and by the looks of him, an iron jaw-smith too), Zoggrok Anvilsmasha taps into the maelstrom of raw anarchic energy that courses through a Waaagh! to imbue nearby orruk weapons with sheer fighting power. Armed with this energy, a Brute can easily rattle the brains of a mighty Draconith or towering Mega-gargant with a single thunderous blow.

He’s accompanied by Klonk, a cantankerous rockbrow squig and ambulatory anvil, whose permanent headache can only be temporarily relieved by percussive blows to the skull. Zoggrok is happy to oblige as he hammers power into his own ward-smashing choppa, which he uses to shatter his enemies’ most powerful arcane protections.

He can also be equipped with a pair of Grunta-tongs, which he uses to further imbue the power of the Waaagh! into the weapons of nearby orruks.

Brute Ragerz

Orruk Brutes are a boastful bunch, but sometimes even these braggadocious thugs fall foul of their own outlandish claims. When a Brute suffers a particularly embarrassing defeat, they may wildly overcompensate by doubling down and becoming even more outrageously arrogant, discarding most of their armour and grabbing the biggest two-handed weapons they can find, so no-one could ever accuse them of not being the ‘ardest Orruk around. They move with terrifying swiftness despite their size, often surprising the unlucky targets of their latest, most audacious boasts.

Weirdbrute Wrekkaz

Sometimes an Orruk Brute can get so entangled in the anarchic energy of a Waaagh! that they go “proper wonky” and start vomiting green bile. Weirdnob Shamans hammer gruesome bone and iron masks into the afflicted orruks’ skulls, in an attempt to get the wonk out.

This painful medical solution turns them into maniacal killers known as Weirdbrute Wrekkaz. Through searing pain they see the world around them as a scorching mass of green flame, and their foes as particularly bright infernos to be extinguished by bone-shattering swings of their massive chain-smashas.

Ardboys

Ardboys are terrifying armoured shock troopers who are more than a match for the elite fighters of other armies. Each a hardened veteran with an insatiable appetite for violence, they maintain a veneer of discipline until battlelines are met, at which point they become a mob of braying thugs.

The Era of the Beast has seen Ardboys take up stikkas, which make it a laugh to ward off charges from mighty monsters – and give ‘em a good pokin’ afterwards. Even their shields are more a weapon than a defensive tool, a hulking slab of beaten iron covered in tusks and spikes.

Battletome Supplement: Ironjawz

All of these units and the Maw-grunta will receive rules in the upcoming Dawnbrigers II – Reign of the Brute alongside a supremely hog-heavy Army of Renown called the Grunta Stampede. Luckily for lovers of swole orruks, the might of the Ironjawz is irrepressible. They’ve busted free from the pages of Reign of the Brute and are barreling headlong towards release alongside a free online battletome supplement.

This will contain the rules for every single new unit shown here – and the recently previewed Ardboy Big Boss – designed to work alongside Battletome: Orruk Warclans. It also features a hot dose of Ironjawz lore and a gallery of ’Eavy Metal miniatures.

NOVA Open Preview – Dysfunctional Daemons and Determined Deepkin Duel Over Souls

The Everwinter has transformed Bjarl, a southern continent of Ghur, into a desolate frozen wasteland, utterly hostile to life. Those who know where to look have found openings in these gelid environs that give way to a warren of frost-bitten tunnels, cutting to the heart of Ghur itself. Welcome to the Deathgorge, the sub-zero setting for the next season of Warhammer Underworlds.

Frozen into this winding network of burrows and chasms are treasures from lost civilizations, waiting to be thawed out – as well as the imprisoned souls of dead warriors, ripe to be claimed by those who have the guts to battle not only the elements, but other avaricious warbands.

The inimical Everwinter makes spelunking into these rimy depths particularly dangerous. Yet despite the danger, many adventurous souls are drawn to its rime-frosted caverns – which is good news for fans of the ultimate competitive miniatures game, because it means even more tense tactical fights.

This box contains everything you need to get started with Warhammer Underworlds if you’re a brand new player, and loads of juicy warbands and cards for existing players. It contains two new warbands, four new Rivals decks intended to be played right out of the box, a rulebook featuring some slightly updated rules, plus all the requisite dice and tokens. So, let’s look at those warbands!

The Thricefold Discord are a trio of soul-seeking daemons of Slaanesh who absolutely despise each other, their constant feuding a source of irritation to any Hedonite unlucky enough to get involved with them. They’ve been punished for their endless squabbling by Syll’Esske the Vengeful Allegiance, and must work together to recover 666 souls from the frozen depths of the Deathgorge as penance.

These daemons are unlikely to learn the value of friendship along the way – fortunately, their internecine animosity only helps fuel their quest.

With such a fresh bounty of souls waiting to be hacked out of the permafrost, it was inevitable that the Idoneth Deepkin would send expeditions of their own to the Deathgorge. Dozens of these have failed, but now Cyreni’s Razors have broken into its glacial hollows.

Tidecaster Cyreni hails from the dark seas of Ulgu, and is no stranger to numbing temperatures. Accompanying her are two Namarti, hand-picked from the ranks of the Ionrach, plus her loyal spirit guardian Cephanyr, who lends a hand (or 10) by seeking out souls and clobbering assailants.

Each warband comes with its own Rivals deck that can you use to open, shuffle, and play games with straight away, but Deathgorge also contains two universal Rivals decks – Breakneck Slaughter and Force of Frost – which you can use with your warband of choice, or raid for cards to use when creating Nemesis decks.

NOVA Open Preview – The Gorger Mawpack Prepare To Make a Meal out of the Wildercorps

All is not well in the Gnarlwood. Despite supping on the flesh of thousands of doomed combatants drawn to the secrets it hides, the wood still hungers.  Terrible earthquakes rend the land and bring new treasures to the surface, as this deadly forest reforms over and over. Now the broken earth yawns open to reveal giant Mawpits, eager to swallow all comers into their grinding chthonic gullets.

These terrifying phenomena have drawn two new factions into the Gnarlwood, each seeking different ends. Who is truly the hunter, and who will be the hunted?

Warcry: Hunter and Hunted pits the rugged rangers of the Wildercorps Hunters in a fight for survival against a frenzied Mawpack of Gorgers – pallid ogor brutes afflicted with a curse of eternal hunger.

The feral fiends that make up a Gorger Mawpack are pariahs even amongst the hungriest heavyweights of ogor society. Cursed to never find relief from their eternal hunger, damned to taste no satisfaction in the feast, Gorgers are malformed, malicious, and malnourished beasts – quite literally gutless, at least by mawtribe standards.

Packs of Gorgers prowl on the outskirts of mawtribe camps, squeeze through the open caves where ogors discard their leftovers, and lope after their prey with appalling feral intent, led by mighty Clawbacks. They’ve been drawn to the Gnarlwood in unprecedented numbers by the eruption of the Mawpits, which they believe are a manifestation of the Gulping God.

The mortal citizens of Ghur’s settlements make excellent sacrifices for these holy hollow places, and when Gorgers begin snatching people from their beds, it’s up to the local Wildercorps to track them down.

Hunting such foul creatures takes a hardened veteran of the wilderness, which means the Wildercorps Hunters are perfect for the job. These expert scouts are no stranger to long weeks spent in the wilds of Ghur and beyond, and chafe at the pomp and formality of the Free Cities. They use their experience as trackers to survive perilous skirmishes, and rely on their loyal Trailhounds to keep watch in the hostile environs of the Mortal Realms – the Gnarlwood included.

Hunter and Hunted also comes with a brand new piece of terrain – a troublingly toothsome Mawpit, complete with a bone pulpit built over its fanged rim by worshipful ogors. These peristaltic potholes must constantly eat or else return to stone and dirt, and so consume anything that ventures near them, screeching and howling the moment they finish their meal.

This set also comes with Warband Tome: Hunter and Hunted, which is stuffed to bursting with background information and illustrations for the Gnarlwood, Gorgers, and the Wildercorps, as well as full rules, quests, and background tables for both warbands (and the Mawpit), a shared campaign arc, and a new battleplan generator.

NOVA Open Previews – Suck at Blood and Not Blood Bowl With the Drakfang Thirsters

Vampires have been playing Blood Bowl for almost as long as the cult of Nuffle has been around, and their physical superiority makes them a terrifying prospect on the gridiron. Lately these blood-sucking nobles have spent more time managing other Undead teams than hitting the field themselves, but that’s about to change – a brand new plastic Vampire Blood Bowl team is coming to a stadium near you, now with added positionals and an updated Bloodlust trait.

It should come as no shock that a sport with ‘blood’ in the name would attract players of the vampiric persuasion, and this team is loaded with them. A far cry from the grim and dour warriors of other Warhammer worlds, these vampires know only the finer things in life – billowing capes, frilly shirts, and delicate silk cravats.

The full-blooded Vampire players are a force to be reckoned with, able to sprint like an Elf, blitz like an Orc, and throw like another, different Elf. The Hypnotic Gaze skill is perfect for setting up explosive plays, and is shared by all of their Blitzers, Runners, and Throwers.

Despite their physical dominance and immortal experience, Vampires are still afflicted by their hunger for blood, and the casual violence of an average Blood Bowl game can whip their thirst to a fever pitch. Luckily, the team box includes eight Thrall Linemen, who run double-duty as handy portable snacks when their betters feel the urge – as evidenced by the bite marks.

Each miniature has a wealth of customisation options to make sure your players stand out, and the set also comes with four Vampire-themed balls – including a small gargoyle wrapped up in belts – as well as two coffin-esque turn markers and two double-sided coins.

NOVA Previews – Bow Deeply for Élisse Duchaard

The Old World project continues to gather momentum, with recent in-depth developer diaries covering the main factions at play and new rules concepts.

Today it’s time to reveal a brand new miniature for the Bretonnians! Lady Élisse Duchaard is a Prophetess of the Lady of the Lake, and a powerful Wizard who rides a muscular unicorn into battle alongside knights and peasantry.

The Handmaidens of the Lady of the Lake aid their allies with magical powers rooted in the natural realm. These blessed practitioners of the arcane arts occupy positions of high esteem in Bretonnian society. Accordingly, they are also granted the right to ride unicorns into battle, making them a potent threat in the whirling melee.

Élisse Duchaard bears all the symbols of her station – a golden grail, flowing robes of finest silk, and a mystical glowing sceptre. Her unicorn mount Ariandir needs no saddle, but is wreathed with vines and flowers that tighten his rider’s bond with nature.

This gorgeous resin miniature can trace its noble lineage back to previous Grail Damsels from Warhammer Fantasy Battles, though in the Old World Élisse Duchaard predates these characters, due to the time frame of the game.

Two older versions of Morgiana the Fay Enchantress, a hero of the End Times, from the 90s (right) and the 00s (left).

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar ist unter anderem bei unseren Partnern Fantasy-In und Minyarts erhältlich.

Quelle: Games Workshop