The "New" Shell Game (Or What Comes Out Next???)

If you are a GW forum junky and or rumor monger you will be painfully aware of GW's tightening of the reigns rumor wise in recent years. True it has taken years for GW to turn the ship so to speak so that as a company they don't leak rumors and entire army lists like an old fishing net (I still fondly remember having the most recent ork list months before release). And while I do find this complete lack of information frustrating most of the time it has lead to interesting present day for hobbyists.

Dreadfleet and Ogre Kingdoms are a perfect example of this. While DF was seen coming, we had little solid evidence and no pictures until the preview day. Ogres was also seen as an upcoming release and yet many thought it was not next in line so to speak so when they DID pop up many (including this guy) were caught flat footed.

Now it has been widely speculated for some time that Wood Elves and Brettonians would be the next books in the Warhammer Fantasy cue (spelling?). All of a sudden in the last few days there have been a rash of rumors that Vampires, Dwarves and Empire could be next instead. Vampires and Dwarves do need a re"vamp" so to speak as their rules limit the way these flagship armies play. Vampires in particular need a major points tweek in their core troops points costs (and possibly rules) before skeletons and more to the point zombies are used on the battle field again with any regularity. Now speculation is that Vamps may be the next army out and that we will see the "Red Duke" return to the Warhammer world. While I would love this to be the case I do wonder... Why would GW release two new awesome dragon sized kits for the VC's without a new book to support them? Most of the VC kits are newish and look awesome (zombies and black knights aside). Makes me wonder.

Empire models have been spotted by people in the know... A new war alter, knights (possibly), characters etc... Could these be new models to support a new book's release or is it one of GW's mini releases to plug gaps in their product line?

Gamesday UK is usually a pretty good place to find out hintings and to see pre-release models... Not so this year (and the last couple of years) unless you take Forgeworld and Warhammer Forge into account. It is anyone's guess as to what is next. I think GW finally has us rumor wise where they have always wanted us... And I kinda like it. Feels a little like Christmas...

All we know is that the next issue of White Dwarf will have pictures of Necrons on the back cover... Or will it?