End Times 4: Skaven Incoming ! Veminlord sighted

So it is Skaven Next up! Verminlord in 5 incarnations sighted

First pics from the White Dwarf have leaked and advance order is open on the GW site:

Pete and Hamish lick your chops ! Verminlord options x 5, as big as Nagash. On the picture you can just make out Nagash's Sceptre and Spirit hots. That gives you an idea of the size of the Verminlord.

White Dwarf cover and the massive Verminlord, which is  one of 5 different builds from the Verminlord kit:

"Verminlords are living icons of ruin; towering figures possessed of raw power and feral savagery. As avatars of the Horned Rat they can call upon fell energies, manipulating the weak-willed into doing almost anything they will.

 Towering over the rest of the Skaven range, this is a fantastic centrepiece miniature that oozes menace.

 This multi-part plastic kit can be made one of five distinct Verminlords. Whichever one you choose to assemble, the legs and body are used as the core to then add the following details to:

 Verminlord Warbringer is armed with a doom glaive and punch-dagger and is notable for featuring a spiked helmet.

 Verminlord Warpseer is armed with a doom glaive and scry-orb.

 Verminlord Deceiver is armed with a doomstar (in the shape of the Clan Eshin rune) and a warpstiletto. It’s head wears a mask and hood to hide its features.

 Verminlord Corruptor is armed with 2 plaguereapers. It has a skull head with broken horns and a mane of long hair.

 Skreech Verminking is armed with a plaguereaper and a doom glaive and has a unique half rotten face.

 The Verminlord has 61 components and is supplied with a 60x100mm monster base.

....Now lets wait for the stats...

Images and description copyright GW, No infringement intended merely a fan...

The new Vermin Lord is as large as the Nagash model judging from the pics

The January release schedule is as follows:

10th (preorders Fri 2nd) is the new Vermin Lord

17th Thanquol End Times book and model

24th new unit, armoured rat ogres called Stormfiends plus clam pack Warlord and Grey Seer and re release of old Warlock Engineers

Stat Rumours ex Faeit 212:

Verminlord Deceiver is one of the builds from the new kit. He is a level 4 wizard that must have Skitterleap as one of his spells. Crazy number of rules. Immune to psychology, terror, scurry away, large target. He has a 5+ ward save, is a Rat Daemon with Daemonic Attacks, which makes all his attacks magical.

He can re-roll casting for skitterleap and all shooting attacks against him are at a -1.

He has a stiletto that is armour piercing and poisoned and a ranged weapon 12" that has poisoned attacks, quick to fire, and arced attacks, meaning he gets as many shots as what is in the first rank of the unit being targeted.

I'm sure you have seen the pictures by now, but he is huge with 6 wounds and a toughness of 6. Definitely crazy.

We saw the new cover art for End times 4. It's rat caster riding some Monster with a cannon. (Sorry not to familiar with skaven)

Plastic Vermin Lord to make 5 different kits: White dwarf 2 weeks from now will feature the release of a plastic vermin lord kit, will make 5 alternate models with different themes:

1. Eshin, 1 Grey Seer, 1 Warlord, 1 Moulder and one supposed "Vermin King".

Eshin one can be skitterleapt and gets re-rolls to cast skitterleap, grey seer one always gets 6 on the d6+1 part of warp lightning casts. No further information about the others or point costs, but allegedly he's going to be about the same dimensions as Nagash.

"Came the rules of the Great Deceiver infested, one of the five options of assembly for this new kit. Not everyone knows the rules in English, so let's see the translation.  Unfortunately there is a word not visible due to the reflection of light on the page, but it's just the name of a magic weapon, then you will not find a rule truncated."

English Tranlation (LOL: Google Translate, so you will need to "read between the lines" when the English gets wierd)

Great Deceiver Infested
500 Pts

M8 AC8 AB4 FO6 R6 FE6 I10 A5 D8
Type you Troop : Monster Character

A Great Deceiver Infested can be included in a Skaven army . His point cost falls within the maximum affordable for Lords .

MAGIC : A Great Deceiver infested is a Wizard of Level 4. One of his spells to be Agile Dodge ; the remaining can be generated by Knowledge Skaven Plague of Ruin or in any combination .

SPECIAL RULES : Immune to Psychology , Large Target , Terror , Street Racing (!) 

Demonic attacks : attacks made by a model with this special rule are magic . This includes any special attack , and draft Trampling .

Protection of the Horned Rat : a model with this special rule has a saving throw 5+ . Demon Rat : A Great Deceiver is a demon infested and is influenced by any rule , abilities , weapons , spells , etc. that affect the Demons . Can never be the General of the Army.

Wrapped in the Dark : enemy units that target the Great infested with a shooting attack suffer a -1 modifier to the attack roll , in addition to any other modifiers .

Walker in Darkness : A Great Deceiver Infested can repeat failed attempts to cast the spell Agile Dodge and can choose himself as the target of the spell .

MAGIC ITEMS :

Stiletto Warp : Magic Weapon . Attacks made with this weapon have special rules Armour Piercing and Poisoned Attacks .

??? : Magic Weapon . This is a missile weapon with the following profile : Height 12 " Force User Special Rules Death in Arco , Poisoned Attacks , Quick Shot

Death at Arco : a weapon with this special rule makes a number of attacks equal to the number of models in that range are in the front rank of the target unit .

In addition to the complete rules of the Great Deceiver infested , there is some small detail on other Great infest .

- All the Great infest have I10
- The third type of Big infested is called King of Worms Skreech
- The King of Worms Skreech always knows the Thirteenth Enchantment and repeated shots failed to launch it.
- The Great infested most expensive reaches 650 pts
Original Text (Italian)

Grande Infesto Ingannatore

500 P.ti

M8 AC8 AB4 Fo6 R6 Fe6 I10 A5 D8

Tipo ti Truppa: Mostro Personaggio

Un Grande Infesto Ingannatore può essere incluso in un esercito di Skaven. Il suo costo in punti rientra nel massimo acquistabile per i Grandi Eroi.

MAGIA:
Un Grande Infesto Ingannatore è un Mago di Livello 4. Uno dei suoi incantesimi deve essere Agile Balzo; i restanti possono essere generati dai Saperi Skaven della Rovina o della Peste in qualsiasi combinazione.

REGOLE SPECIALI:Immune alla Psicologia, Bersaglio Grande, Terrore, Via di Corsa!

Attacchi Demoniaci: gli attacchi effettuati da un modello con questa regola speciale sono magici. Questo include qualsiasi attacco speciale, da tiro e da Calpestamento.

Protezione del Ratto Cornuto: un modello con questa regola speciale ha un Tiro Salvezza 5+.

Demone Ratto: Un Grande Infesto Ingannatore è un Demone ed è influenzato da qualsiasi regola, abilità, arma, incantesimo e così via che influenzi i Demoni. Non può essere mai il Generale dell'Armata.

Avvolto nell'Oscurità: le unità nemiche che bersagliano il Grande Infesto con un attacco da tiro subiscono un modificatore -1 al Tiro per Colpire, oltre a qualsiasi altro modificatore.

Camminatore dell'Oscurità: Un Grande Infesto Ingannatore può ripetere i tentativi di lancio falliti per l'incantesimo Agile Balzo e può scegliere se stesso come bersaglio dell'incantesimo.

OGGETTI MAGICI:
Stiletto Warp: Arma Magica. Gli attacchi effettuati con quest'arma hanno le regole speciali Penetrazione dell'Armatura e Attacchi Venefici.

???: Arma Magica. Questa è un'arma da tiro con il seguente profilo:
Gittata 12" Forza Utilizzatore Regole Speciali Morte ad Arco, Attacchi Venefici, Tiro Rapido

Morte ad Arco: un'arma con questa regola speciale effettua un numero di attacchi pari al numero di modelli in gittata che si trovino nel rango frontale dell'unità bersaglio.



Oltre alle regole complete del Grande Infesto Ingannatore, c'è qualche piccolo dettaglio su altri Grandi Infesti.
- Tutti i Grandi Infesti hanno I10
- Il terzo tipo di Grande Infesto si chiama Re dei Vermi Skreech
- Il Re dei Vermi Skreech conosce sempre il Tredicesimo Incantesimo e ripete i tiri falliti per lanciarlo.
- Il Grande Infesto più costoso raggiunge i 650 P.ti.

The Winds of Change: FAQ; Glottkin and Monsterhammer (or shall I say Lordhammer/herohammer) coming our way)

FAQ, Glottkin sighted and the game turns into Herohammer (as predicted)

Behold, The behemoth! The Arms Race is on. 

Herohammer time!

As predicted in the ad campaign, Warhammer will never be the same again. 

Enter Herohammer, Monsterhammer and Monstermash.

Rules FAQ are out, and the rules now allow you to take 50% Lords and 50% Heroes. (Read combined stat monster/riders, as seen in the End Times Expansion.)

Welcome to the machine ! Ka-Ching! 

Somebody set up us the bomb!

All your  base are belong to us !  

You have no chance to survive make your time!

Ghost9494 on L'Astropate -

- "The Glottkin" box contains a sorcerer and a champion on a monster similar to a Nurgle giant;

- The English version of "Warhammer The End Times: Glottkin" is a set with two hardcover books, one for the story and the other for the rules;

- The Italian version is a softcover book with the rules and a reduced version of the story;

- "Warhammer The End Times: Glottkin" contains the story about the forces of Chaos (Daemons, Warriors of Chaos and Beastmen) invading the Empire.

Beasts of War:

"The miniature itself stands somewhere between a Orkanaut and Imperial Knight in size and looks absolutely amazing from this little shot we’re getting here. It comes with two riders with one a horned warrior and the other dressed more like a caster.

Interestingly the news of this new hero comes with the added information that the next End Times book is indeed a two book slipcase affair like with Nagash but a bit slimmer than the previous tome. Lots of fluff once more and the rules separate as always.

The big battle report coming in the next issue of White Dwarf is called The Fall of Altdorf so if that’s not a big bad omen for how badly things are going for The Empire I don’t know what is!"

NOW: add to this the new FAQ rule FOR THE GENERAL GAME (note no longer limited to the expasion); and Warhammer becomes Herohammer at the stroke of a pen.

Love the model, love the fluff, loathe what this is going to do to my multitude of armies. All I can see now is a monster/hero arms race.

Buy bigger and more expensive models as you go...ala 40K.

Is the End Times an age of accelerated obsolescence?

Maggoth Lords Statlines

Stat Lines for Maggoth Lords:

Archibald_TK from Warseer has the following information to add:
Combined statine again,

M6 WS8 BS3 S6 T5 W9 I7 A8 L9

- The character with the two axes is the leader, his axes give him +2S and poisoned attacks. If I remember correctly they all have S6 T5 as base stats, plus a load of W and A. See how ugly his face is?
- The wizard has a cloud of flies that attack units like a shooting attack and count as magical. Also he carries an item that give him +1 to something and -1 to the same thing to all enemy wizards within 12" so I suppose it's to casting checks or whatever wizards do in WFB. He's the one with the stone thrower attack. I'm also pretty sure he's the only one without a 6+ ward save.

- Morbidex Twiceborn is the one I was talking with the regen aura for Nurglings.

(Les) Maggot Lords: Tamurkhan is Dead: 3 Pretenders to the throne arrive

Maggot Lords bust out:The Maggot Lord is Dead. Three pretenders to the throne?

Rumours offa da net, and navel gazing/internet trawling insights

Alas, alack, Tamurkhan, the Original Maggot Lord is missing in action.He seems to have been swallowed by the void. He would have made a great maggot lord.

The Maggot Lord is dead?  Long live the (New) Maggot Lords...
Hey, where did Tamurkhan go? Forge World Site suddenly (more) sparse.

I went onto their website, and noticed that the already sparse fantasy offerings were growing thinner be the day. Tamurkhan is now also gone, as is the Slaanesh Greater Daemon. I have already remarked on the Empire models going in previous posts or comments.

I think the discounts on the Tamurkan book should have been a clue as tho what Nottingham was up to. Anyhow the King is gone, and in his place comes a corpulent pustule containing the (New) maggot lords. Must be the End Times, for sure. GW actually discounting something !

You've probably all seen the other leaked pics from the White Dwarf, so I'm not gonna elaborate. Pictures suggest a Daemon choice in DoC, not Chaos United in WoC, but the fluff will tell us eventually.

So what do we know?

" They all have 3+ armour save.
The puking one (Bloab) is a lvl. 3 mage and has a ranged attack st. 3(4) with 24 inch range That allows no armour save (vile bile) I think.

Morbidex Twiceborn has a 6+ ward save, fear, regeneration, mark of nurgle, eye of the gods and a st.6 range 6 poison attack, nurglings within 12" also get regeneration, 385 points maybe ?"
E60 price tag in EU, so with the GW special exchange rate for NZ somewhere between NZ $150 and $200

These appear to be DoC, no clear cross-over w WoC as yet, but likely some unholy alliance like tomb kings and undead in the wings

Speculation: 4 horsemen of the apocalypse deal, first death, now pestilence that leaves famine and war. Can we expect to see Archaon or Valkia leading the Khorne (War) release ?

A nagging rumour or aghast? Nagash is back!

The Boy is Back in town! Nagash surfaces!

Rumours running rife, and the first picture from the next White Dwarf surfaces. Nagash is back in town!
What will his stat line be? I note "phenominally powerful" and "terrifying in combat" is bandied about in the text. So the Darkness descends...

Absent for several decades, Nagash returns to a table-top near you! Second in what may be a string of bad attitude lords being re-released. Belakor came first, but flew under the radar for a great extent, as no new model was released, only the "Battlescroll"

Is this GWs attempt to stem the haemorrhage of players from WHFB to Warmachine ?
Are we to see a change in the game with the next edition that will allow you to field these "super-characters?

Will WHFB go the way of 40K? All monsters and overpowered lords? I sincerely hope not.

Have they considered cost and field-ability ? A 600 or 800 pt lord may be well neigh useless for most 2000-3000 pt games (Read 2400 comp). Or will this release indicate the start of the game changing ?

Can't say the first photo of the model rocks my boat. Judging from the only picture leaked, as above, I can see several spindly bits that will break off easily. The ghost toasties floating around him suggests that he's not made for ranking up, but I may be wrong on that account. Just a little too many echoes of Alien Brood Mother there for my liking. Or did he bump off some Tyranids along the way ?. Anyhow, no-one will be able to say he's spineless. He has at least 7 of those.

So, Nagash 101, boys and girls, for those of you who were not even a glint in your daddy's eye when he last walked the Warhammer World":

History:
Nagash is the First Necromancer and arguably the most evil character to ever curse the Warhammer Fantasy world. Ever. He is also a combat tank and will go in hand-to-hand combat with the likes of Sigmar.

(Nagash also happens to be the name of a town in Northern Ethiopia, Africa, sad, if that was your hometown. Blame GW, but then again they dreamed up a name like Heirich (ahem) Kemmler. Really? I know a lot of names are a it tongue-in-cheek, like Tik-Tak-To. But Kemmler's getting a bit close to the bone. But that's an aside...)

Background
Nagash started as a hierophant consecrated to the gods of Nehekhara while his brother was the priest-king of Khemri. This was because, in Nehekhara, the firstborn sons of the nobles were given to the temples as priests and the second sons became the kings. Miffed about this, he decided he to increase his magical power. Initially, his reasons also included that he thought his brother Thutep was a weak king, jealously over wanting Thutep's wife, and Nagash thought only he could make Khemri great again. Unfortunately for the Khemri, he got his hands on a Dark Elf sorceresses (or two) who'd been taken prisoner. She (they) spilled the beans.

From her(them)  he learned about the winds of magic and also figured out how to increase his own life expectancy and probably dabbled in magic much more evil than he initially intended. Regardless, when Nagash was done with the Druchii, he brutally killed them and consumed their souls. (When someone can out-evil and out-betray Dark Elves, you know they're pretty mean)(Well he didn't really out-evil them, he out-smarted them).

After many experiments which mostly demanded human sacrifice, and other sick stuff, Nagash created an elixir which allowed him to stay alive. This elixir would be the basis for the creation of the Vampire Counts.

Nagash killed his brother, and sorta mummified alive his wife and then started a war on Nehekhara which ended in the complete annihilation of all life there. Unfortunately for him the Skaven sabotaged his plans of world domination and he got chopped to pieces by the last king of his former nation. When Alcadizzar killed Nagash, it wasn't through any failing on Nagash's part. It was basically the ultimate sacrifice - killing Nagash cost Alcadizzar literally everything. His kingdom - the largest empire in the world - was killed to a man, his family died, his sanity was shattered and the weapon he needed to use to kill Nagash was so potent it killed the wielder as well. That weapon was created by the Skaven; the Council of Thirteen were so terrified of Nagash they stopped their in-fighting and co-operated (for the first time in Skaven history) to create it.

His story doesn't end here; he came back after a couple of centuries (the Skaven had vaporized his remains so it took a lot of time for him to reconstitute himself). After wiping out the Skaven who'd taken over his fortress, Nagash raised an army and attacked the newborn Empire of Man. During the final battle he fought in a duel with Sigmar and nearly defeated him. Sigmar, realizing what was at stake went on a holy rampage and finally crushed Nagash's skull with his hammer. The spirit of Nagash fled the battlefield and went back to his fortress were he recovered, having learned that the world now has powers capable to match his.

Even Sigmar at the height of his power only just managed to defeat Nagash, and even then only by wearing Nagash's own crown to protect him from Nagash's magic. A crown that had pretty much sent Sigmar insane the last time he wore it. No one knows for sure what's he gonna do next but considering his profile it won't be anything pretty.

Why Nagash is so evil

While most evil characters on the game have done their share of bad deeds Nagash has an special place amongst them, the following lists illustrates how sick this beggar is:

• Entombed his own brother alive and stole his wife.
• Turned said wife into an agony-ridden walking corpse and kept her that way for centuries. The process he used to accomplish this involved tricking her into drinking the blood of her murdered son; who also happened to be Nagash's nephew.
• Usurped Nehekhara's throne; then his reign was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people, and he nearly destroyed the kingdom's economy to build his Black Pyramid.
• Captured the spirits of his enemies and kept them in eternal torment.
• Started a war which destroyed most of the Nehekharan cities and killed even more of the population.
• Broke the covenant between the Nehekharan gods and their people, not only removing the divine powers of the Nehekharans but ensuring that after death they wouldn't be able to go to their gods and would have to stay in a nether dimension forever. Especially jarring if you remember that he used to be the High Priest of their religion.
• Indirectly corrupted some of the nobility of Nehekhara, who then became the first vampires.
• Turned a whole tribe of his followers into ghouls because they annoyed him several times by asking him to give them a promised reward.
• Used his loyal vassals as tools in a terrible incantation to make himself a magic set of armour and then, for the only time in any of his fluff, he does something nice for someone besides himself (he compliments them for exceeding his expectations). After complimenting them he devoured their souls as a thank-you..
• Started a new war against Nehekhara which cost thousands more lives.
• Used a horrible plague spell to annihilate the entire Nehekharan civilization after losing the war against them.
• Raised the Nehekharan dead, turning them into millions of undead minions with the idea of annihilating all life in the world.
• Almost destroyed the Empire and nearly crippled Sigmar in a duel by using a poisoned blade.
• Cursed the Vampires with a vulnerability to Sigmar's power after they were too self-absorbed during the war with the Empire to help Nagash out.
• Corrupted the dragon's graveyard and created the zombie dragons. (Are we to see the return of Zacharias too? Just askin')

While any of the deeds on this list could easily been performed by your average Skaven or Chaos Lord there is a basic difference between them and Nagash, the former usually do this either to advance their entire race, clan, tribe or to appease and/or promote their gods.

Nagash on the other hand doesn't care about anyone, despises the gods and has no empathy for his people. I suspect he gets this tendency from his Druchii teachers.

He corrupted his own nation and a large section of the world for his own personal gain and, so far as the fluff goes, he has never cared or done anything for anyone other than himself, with his ultimate plan being quite literally to turn everything into undead with no will under his command
(So he's basically the Emperor of the Dark side of the Warhammer Fantasy Universe) To be fair, he honestly and misguidedly believes this to be the best thing for the Warhammer world. And he might be right.
While Chaos has a hard time corrupting the undead, Nagash has already managed to steal one of Khorne's favoured champions (Krell).

Replacement Warhammer Fantasy Dark Lord?
All that said, Nagash is sometimes rumoured to be a knock off, attempting to one up the original Dark Lord, Drachenfels. He's not really evil, he's just trying too hard.

Drachenfels is much older than Nagash in the setting, while in real life, Drachenfels fluff dates back to 1989, Nagash's 1994. Nagash was introduced to supplant Drachenfels as the setting's 'dark lord' hence the trying to hard with his over the top evil. Though it may not be over-the-top evil to take Drachenfels out of focus.

You can have more than one 'dark lord' in a setting, otherwise why haven't any of the Everchosens of Chaos fought Nagash? Also, Drachenfels is a backseat kind of dark lord; a subtle manipulator out-living the opposition, going along, taking what he wants along the way. Nagash is intelligent, but also an aggressive, sociopathic control-freak who wants to rule the world.

Functionally, Nagash is Warhammer's big bad wolf to 40k's Abaddon. Except Nagash is notably more competent.
When Abaddon tried to conquer the galaxy, he tried 13 times and basically got nowhere read the lore, apparently the armless wonder had a plan and now all 12 crusades "achieved their goals" and the 13th is still ongoing).
When Nagash decided to conquer Nehekara, only one man survived, and even then it was because Nagash wanted him alive. When Nagash decided to raise up every person who had died in Nehekara over the past 1500 years, he succeeded.

In the Game (recent history)

Nagash was actually a special character back when it was just "Warhammer Armies: Undead" and all the dead boys were united in one armybook. Despite being described as "a pale shadow of his former self" he was an unholy rape-train - a statline with the lowest stats being 6's (init and attacks) and everything else being a 7. Add in a completely un-modifiable 4+ save against everything (including any and all spell effects), a sword that gives him +1 str and lets him use any wounds he causes to heal himself and being one of the most powerful mages in the game making him pretty much unstoppable. (Unless you threw a High Mage at him with Drain Magic and Banishment.)

No original statline easily accessible, but I found this:
Nagash :  650 pts.

M   WS   BS  S  T   W    I     A     L
4       7      4   7   7   4     6     6     10

If the stat-line remains the same, nothing short of the direct intervention of gods would stop him and even then, the world would be a graveyard (Nah, there are some who could arguably beat him: Sigmar, Kroak, arguably Morathi and Malekith, Aenerion; Teclis is described as being if not his equal, then close behind; First Spawning Slann would simply think Nagash out of existence, if they cared).

To keep that from happening, Games Workshop in the past chose to give him what might very well be the single most "derptastic" model to ever blight a tabletop with its presence, an unholy abomination of fail so ridiculous that it makes the Tyranid Biovore look like a towering monument of awe and might in comparison. Even the beardiest of cheesemongers thought twice before fielding it, knowing all too well that they would pay for it not only in army points, but in dignity and self-respect. (Vide supra)

The old Nagash had the nickname of the "Undead Clown" in some circles. His enormous hat, the shoulder flaps, boat like pointy shoes, uninspiring pose and the confused look on his face all contributed to this model not being particularly liked. Strange bthat this new model would appear to have a bit of the tyranid in its genepool...

(Pictures and text from blogs around the web, with some moderation and embelishment on my part. No copyright or such infringement intended. Happ to credit anyone. Just let me know)

Dark Elves: Waiting for the tide to turn

Druchii: Waiting for the Dark Elf Army Book

I have finally dusted off all of my Dark Elves, all have been magnetised, most based, and almost all have been fully painted. Still have to do the second Hydra, but patiently waiting for the New Army Book.

Sucked into the Arms Race that is Warhammer Fantasy (And 40K, for that matter, but have got rid of all of them critters...)

I have been spending most of my time expanding my WWII 20mm armies in expectation of Kursk later in the month, working on Soviets at the moment.

Had to clear away the half painted and partially painted DE's I had obtained as a cheapie off TradeMe in the process, so thought I may as well finish these and take a family photo:

So here they are, my Druchii Family:
(Click for full-size picture)

(LTR)

Back: 2 Repeater Bolt throwers, Dark Lord on Dragon, 2 x Cauldrons of Blood, 2 x Hydras 

4 x Sorceresses, Unit of 15 Witch Elves, 16 Cold one riders w mounted Sorceress and Malus Darkblade, 2 more bolt throwers

5 x Harpies Line-up of 8 characters, Unit of Shades, Unit of Dark Riders, 5 more harpies

Horde of Spearmen, Horde of Tower Guard, 2 Units of Executioners

Second horde of spearmen, Horde of XBowmen, another15 XBowmen, 2 Hordes of Corsairs 

Harpies

Corsairs

XBow Men

Spearmen 

So now we wait. What will the future bring? Likely monstrous cavalry, a monster or two, and flyers, if we can believe the trend. Probably a new Cauldron or similar boosting device, and new characters in fine cast - IMHO