Warhammer: What We Hope To See At The NOVA Open Previews
The NOVA Open preview is tomorrow night. Here’s what we’re hoping to see from the Warhammer Previews!
This year’s NOVA Open has a Warhammer preview show. Be sure to mark your calendars and set your alarms. I had to do a double check on the date to make sure I didn’t miss it myself (thanks Abe).
There’s a whole lot of time zones on this sheet so make sure you’ve got yours all situated. With that bit out of the way, let’s talk about what we’re hoping to see.
Major Reveals?
We do know that GW is going to showcase new stuff for both Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and also for Blood Bowl. Those are the two game systems getting “reveals” as part of the preview. For Blood Bowl we can take an educated guess that it’s going to be a new team of some type. And possibly a new boxed-set or seasonal game.
The last team we got recently was the Gnome Team. I’m really not sure what other teams they could bring out at this point — but I’m hoping to be surprised. If you’ve got some theories let us know in the comments on this one!
As far as the Age of Sigmar reveals it’s going to be the new Stormcast Eternal range. After the firm shellacking the got during the global campaign it’s going to be their turn to get a preview. I’m really not sure how this one if going to be received regardless. To be blunt there feels like some bad blood towards the Stormcast Eternals online. Maybe it was because of the cuts. Or maybe it’s because the Stormcasts just don’t have the same appeal in AoS that Space Marines do in 40k.
And speaking of 40k and bad blood, there’s been a sense that GW poured a lot of the “modeling talent” into new Stormcast Range and then skimped on the Blood Angel’s because of that. I don’t really think that’s the case mostly because we don’t know who worked on which projects or even when they were sculpted. That’s some “behind the scenes” stuff that GW doesn’t get into.
Both sets of miniatures could have been worked on by the same people back to back. Or it could have been done by two completely different teams. And both sets could have been planned out years apart. The GW pipeline for miniatures can be a tad obtuse in that regard.
In any case, we’re going to be seeing some new Stormcast Eternals during this preview. I’m hoping they got some really great stuff to show off. Even if you don’t play Stormcast Eternals there are people who do play them. And personally, I want them to get cool stuff to play with, too.
Roadmaps Ahead!
The upcoming Roadmaps are probably the most exciting thing to me. I want to see a big ole chart for each of these systems with the plan for releases/teasers listed. It’s about time we got some new roadmaps, too!
For 40k, we’re basically on the back half of the new edition. We’ve still got a long way to go and loads of stuff to cover. Plus there’s always the possibility of a new army added to the game. I doubt that GW will drop that in a roadmap but at least we’ll get to see the next couple of planned releases for codexes!
Age of Sigmar just kicked off it’s new edition and while we do have playable Battletomes online it’s going to be nice to see them get rolled out with more updates and options. Players are wanting their new toys, too!
The Horus Heresy roadmap is going to drop in teasers for what’s coming next for them. We’re just now getting the Martian Civil War. I’m curious where GW is planning on taking these releases next. Perhaps we’ll get more Primarch revisions. I’m betting we get at least some new campaign books teased. We’ll have to wait and find out!
When it comes to the Old World, we’ve got some more armies on deck. The Warriors of Chaos are about to land this weekend and there are still quite a few other armies needing releases. I think we’re going to have some elves coming next. But I also wonder what else GW has in store for Old World players.
However you slice it the NOVA Open Previews for Warhammer are going to be important. We’re going to get a look at plans for the future releases and that’s going to be BIG. I’m looking forward to this one.
Wednesday night or early Thursday morning — be sure you tune in if you want to catch it live!
