(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 ?

Never the same again: Nagash leading the Charge for Herohammer, Chaos, Skaven, Men and Dwarves to follow?

Changed Forever: Nagash leading charge into The End Times: Four books (and kit releases) coming

Prophetic words ? or just publicity?

Interesting days ahead. So the rumour drums are drumming. 

So if there's a smoke signal, is there a fire?

It appears that GW has finally woken to the fact that they are not making enough of their fluff, and definitely not enough sales out of the Lord and Hero level characters. They've taken a page out of 40K (not that I know enough about it to pass comment any longer, as GW lost me with the release of the last 40K rules update and nerf of my armies.) Have they changed everything? Forever? Can we believe the poster above?

Rumour has it  we'll be getting 4 WHFB books in the End Times. Undead/Tombkings/ Nagash  this Saturday. VC and Tomb Kings rolled into one, allowing you to field more Lords points and greater freedom of choice w magic. Monstrous Cav/Flyers. Every Wizard and necromancer being able to raise the dead (?) or only those on the Dark side (?).

November's rumour is a Chaos-focused book. This fits with the rumour of plastic Greater Daemon kits.I also wont be surprised if we see an Archaon along the lines of Nagash, swiftly followed by kits of other notable fluff lord and hero level models at $200 a piece.

December - nothing as yet, but hey, who wouldn't want Nagash or Archaon in their stocking by then?

January is rumoured to be Skaven focussed. The fourth book will be in March. Scant details as yet, but "races not covered prior"  Most likely Empire, (Lots of juicy lord level characters there! Can we expect to see Sigmar and Valten or a redefinition of the Knightly Orders? Please GW, go this way, not more monstrous cavalry or infantry!)

Brets, Dwarfs and Greenskins may well feature. It would of course be hard not to bring some Uberhero on the "good" side into the fray. Aenarion, maybe? I think Sigmar (or Valten) more likely. Or will be see a pure magic wielder ? I think not, he'll have to be a cannon. What do the stunty lovers suggest? I'm not that well versed in Dwarven lore. Likewise with the Brets. The Lady on a monstrous base ? She's too much of a target at present.Slann? Lord Croak or Mazdamundi beefed up? Not cannon enough.Malekith (sorry, Dark Side) My money's on Sigmar Heldenhammer.

Summer (in the UK and US) 2015 will likely see 9th Edition. Are we to see a change in force composition? Not sure if this is what is indicated by the direction GW is taking with the End Times  Lord/Herohammer. And yes, big expensive kits are more lucrative than $50 a packet rank-and-file.

More questions. What will this mean for the (Non-GW supported)  tournament circuit? Will it too become Herohammer? Speculation? We'll know by next week this time.

Exciting times ahead?  I'm still torn about it all. As much as I love the fluff, do I want to embark on this path?
Still adding the $$ in my head, and it seems to be getting worse by the moment.

Not sure whether it is my Dutch or Scots ancestral blood, but something is cringing at the thought of it all.