There are those who are familiar with long term "progress" as defined by GW. Much loved fluff background, units and special characters are retro-nerfed in the name of dollars progress. There are those who are familiar with the Spawning of Bob's efforts to make sense of the multiverse, through the medium of cartoon series such as Nerfed or Not? which was the response to the 8th Edition Lizardmen Army Book. There are those who know of both. In Venn Diagram terms, these are known as the "pointy ended ellipse of negligible statistical significance". Some of those may have lost hope, or even the will to live (don't deny it, @NIGHTBRINGER, your mastery of the Most Liked Tally is the last gasp of a beached leviathon) but I would like to assure them all (with the exception of @NIGHTBRINGER) (...and possibly @Crowsfoot. And @Bowser.) that, even though WE may not survive unscathed, WHFB has been littered with casualties over the years, and many have fared worse that we have. To this end, I wish to call your attention to the longest WIP yet (2 years) to this list of extinct races, individuals and concepts. Each one fell foul of the machine that we know as "progress" I shall illustrate with a perennial: Jungle Swarms fell from Core to Special between 7th and 8th Ed. They are gone forever with the AoS Seraphon Drop. Even the Old Ones, gods of the lizardmen are gone in all but name. And with the loss of Sotek, even his High Priest, Tehenhuan fell by the way. Even Veteran 8th Ed players and mighty generals have been side lined. Surely it seems to be a time for misery, but rather let us rejoice - others have fared FAR worse over the years. It is unclear whether the shower of warp dust which came with the Great Catastrophe did it, or if it was a work of magic by the Slann of Lustria, but the Caribbean Rastabarbarians copped it big time when the vegetation of the New World became more aggressive. Even within the Realm of Chaos, moderating influences, such as the Huggernauts of Khorne were expunged. As Chaos spread into the corporeal plane, there were other, unexpected casualties, such as Sensible Ladies' Clothing. Other innocents were lost along the way. Did you never stop to consider why there are No South Polar Bears left in proximity to the Antarctic Polar Gate? Other noble beings, such as the High Elvis were consumed by darkness. Multiple sightings have failed to allay fears that he has, alas, left the building. I have no doubt that I will be able to make up many others.
There are many racial subtypes which have proved to be evolutionary dead ends and thus are no longer present among the core WHFB races. As an example, Night Goblin Fanatics seem to thrive despite their ball and chain mediated attempts at mass suicide. The now extinct Dwarf Fanatics, by contrast, were just much more efficient due to their mastery of black powder technology as they hurled themselves at the foe. Indeed some Dwarf Fanatics were more enamoured of keeping their technology to themselves rather than sharing with the enemy. We also don't seem to see many Noble Skaven these days. We never seem to see Goblin Union Representatives these days either.
But the swarms do have rules. They just don't have Aos models. Check the last warscroll in the pdf. So the skink can cheer up, his Razordons food supply isn't gone yet...
If anything Bob, this was a marker for progress in your drawing style. Good progress. My poor swarmies though :'( That's the Lizardmen warscrolls created to help transition armies from 8th into AoS. The Seraphon warscrolls are the "official" army rules, including all the new units from Sunbloods to Starpriests, have no room for swarms.
Aw shucks. You are only saying that because I ripped the background from Business Raptor. And by marker, do you mean how I recycled 30% of the images? The sad news is that most of the "markers of progress" date from 9-18 months ago, but progress needed to wait for "got organised".
I must admit that this is spot on. Art that so perfectly captures the struggles of real life! (At least from my limited NIGHTBRINGERish point of view) Kudos @spawning of Bob
Legacy units are still able to be used, just harder to find. Skink chief didn't make the final cut for the book, but we still use him, he still brings a lot to the table. He os just on the app as a Lizardmen unit. Hanging out with Oxyotl and Tehenhauin babysitting his swarms. Forgotten but not gone.
@spawning of Bob, you just made me imagine a version of the children's book Monkey Puzzle with chameleon skinks. "Is this your mum?" "Um, possibly?"
Hah, reminds me of a conversation I once had of a Skaven version of A Christmas Carol where the 'ghosts': Queek, Skrolk, and Ikit are making Ebeneezer Thanquol give them all his warpstone. A deep and moving adaptation to warm the cockles of a blackened Skaven heart...
The dwarf fanatics didn’t go extinct. They just started doing sensible things like playing with fire and riding dinosaurs.