
Originally Posted by
WhispersofTruth on DakkaDakka
One of the scariest rumours about 9th is undoubted that the mini ranges we know and love will be squatted, and this is correct, to an extent. The ranges will be getting completely revamped, some units will disappear into nothingness, new units will arise in wake of their fall and a select few may just survive the End Times. ...
The Chaos faction will be mostly Daemons, with a few tacked on units from the other two books. This of course means the Chaos faction will be the largest faction, but it will be joined by units which are firmly entrenched in the GW IP and as such can't be copied by other manufacturers. A certain aspect of Chaos is going the way of the squat for this very reason, Hint: The gods are still there. Due to the nature of the new world, or pocket worlds rather, where Chaos is everywhere, Daemons will form the bulk of the Chaos armies. Generic stuff like Warhounds won't be sticking around in place of units like Flesh Hounds.
All the Orc and Goblin concepts will be combined into singular new concepts. Savage/Orcs/Black Orcs becoming one type of Orc for example. I initially heard way back that two armies would be joining the O&G, one would replace trolls, the other would lend some of it's concepts to the new O&G while being squatted themselves. Although the nature of the rules would let you imitate that squatted faction in Newhammer. Squigs and other O&G beasties will be made more predominant in place of boars, due to their IP able nature. I also heard Orcs would become, "Orks", but I'm not entirely sure if that was a joke.
Alot of Undead units are very similar with the combined list and as such alot of units will be going away. Ushabti for example and the Casket/Black Coach which are fairly redundant in light of the Mortis Engine. The concept of constructs will stay around in some form or the other. The Morghasts for example.
Skaven keep their more tech and frankenstein-esque units to define the armies new look. Plaguey and sneaky Shaven take the back seat.
Warmachines in general will be mounted on other units, to again save shelf space, and also to suit the more mobile style of a skirmish game better.
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7 Champions and an army of light. No more Lizardmen, but still playable. No more Gnoblars/Skinks. They become Goblins. No more Beastmen. Elves become more Eldary, units take on aspects of their gods. There are some units like the Blood Knights that I expected to survive into 9th, but the events of the books have made me doubt this is going to happen anymore. They were due to be updated. Plus it fits with the new merging unit policy, not sure that's happening anymore though. Something similar happened to the Bone Giant, that being said I heard the Bone Giant was getting a redesign and a release some point in the future.