Predicting the contents of future waves is a solid past-time of X-Wing community members (and probably any other expandable game out there). I've been pondering the unreleased factions for a while now, trying to imagine what a "core" army will look like for them. Here are my best guesses.

With the core factions, we have 1 hero, 1 siege piece, 4 trays of infantry, and 2 trays of a specialty piece (cavalry or archers). So let's fill those in for the other two factions, starting with the Latari Elves.

The Latari elves are pretty exciting. In Runewars and Rune Age, archers are their cheap, spamable units. I think it would be pretty neat to see them have 4 trays of archers and 2 trays of sword-wielding warriors. Or, instead of warriors, they could have 4 trays of archers and 2 trays of cavalry, riding those sweet Leonx beasts. It would make them feel very different, but I'm just not sure how well it balances with point costs and all that. What about the siege unit? Unfortunately, the Latari Elves never got the BattleLore treatment, so we don't have as many unit possibilities for them as we do for the other factions. But even looking at Waiqar's army, we see that FFG still wanted to make something new (the Carrion Lancer), so I think we'll see something new for the Latari as well. It could be the Forest Guardian, but I doubt that because the Forest Guardian should be HUGE. I suspect they will make some huge figures later on for the Barrow Wyrm, Forest Guardian, Chaos Lord, and something else for Daqan (maybe the Roc Warrior or Siege Golem, but since Rune Golem is a siege piece in this game, they would probably name the Siege Golem something new). And lastly, there is the hero, we only know of one hero (heroine, rather), Lana, and she rides a Leonx, so while we might see her as a "core" hero, I think it's more likely we'll see her as the first hero expansion that has a mounted and unmounted model. But then again, if my inferences about the Organized Play poster are accurate, she should be the first hero figure for the Latari.

So I predict the Latari looking something like this:
1 new hero (or maybe Lana on a Leonx)
1 new siege piece (maybe Forest Guardian, but probably not)
2 trays of Leonx cavalry
4 trays of Deepwood Archers

This army would be all about mobility and range control, melding two different aspects of the core set armies into something new.

Let's move on and explore the Uthuk Y'llan. I think we'll see the standard 4 trays of scythe-wielding infantry for this faction, but it's possible we'll see something more akin to the Berserkers from BattleLore (which, incidentally, are much more like the Berserkers from Rune Age than the Berserkers of Runewars). For the 2-tray slot, I'm really torn. I am a huge fan of the Viper Legion from BattleLore, but Flesh Rippers have always been a huge component of the Uthuk Y'llan armies. I think that shooting vipers from bows is probably a little too cartoony for what FFG is trying to do with this game, so I suspect we'll see Flesh Rippers as cavalry units. I think it would be neat if they went back to the original Runewars from some of the design on the Flesh Rippers. They were a little more skeletal and less muscular, making them look more other-worldly and demonic to me. I would love to see them combine the aesthetics of the BattleLore and Runewars Flesh Rippers. For the siege unit, the Chaos Lord is the obvious choice, but as with the Forest Guardian, I think it would make for a good huge piece later on in the game's life. In the mean time, I would like to see something reminiscent of the Doombringer (burrowing demon beetle) or the two-tailed scorpion that Malaana rode in BattleLore: Command. The lore has mentioned from time to time that the Uthuk Y'llan inhabit a scorpion-infested wasteland, so I would love to see giant scorpions become a thing for this faction. The problem with this is that Waiqar is already using a worm for the siege piece, so using an insect or scorpion for the Uthuk may make the factions feel too similar. In that case, I think it might be neat to see something inspired by the Chaos Lord, but save the Chaos Lord for later. For the hero, I'm 100% convinced it will be Ravos.

So the Uthuk "core" army could look something like this:
1 Ravos the Everhungry
1 new siege piece (hopefully some demon-arthropod monstrosity)
2 trays of Flesh Ripper cavalry
4 trays of Berserker/Blood Harvester infantry

This army is basically the evil mirror of the Daqan, but we can expect a lot of self-sacrifice in this faction, which will make it feel different. Additionally, I'm hoping for poison abilities either through the siege piece or through Viper Legioin archers in the future.

They had a mounted and unmounted version of the 2nd/3rd wave Daqan and Waiqar heroes at Gencon. Those are probably going in the pipeline before Latari and Uthuk. Also, I know there was an earlier thread that had all of the item numbers and speculation about what they would be, including some that were predicted infantry expansions for the two starting factions.

I think the Latari we could see more flexibility on the infantry or archer idea. The Reanimate Archers -do- have a melee attack option, its just really bad. I bet we see something for the Latari core soldiers that are a formation of 4 trays that do a little of both, like archer/swordsmen. Another idea might be if they had mounted archers as cavalry on leonx. I would like this in the option of keeping them a mobile, ranged army. Constantly you go to charge and they shift out of reach, then shoot you the next turn while you are spinning around. (Edit: or charge to leave your formation pinned for a siege unit to crash in on the other flank). Maybe give their hero a power that allows them to shift a greater distance if they are within a certain range of her?

I don't know if Uthuk is going to be just a cavalry/infantry/monster mirror of Daqan. I bet they might put something else in the place of cavalry, perhaps introduce something cool like the first flying units, or perhaps some kind of heavy infantry (small unit trays, small formation sizes, expensive and powerful?) I don't know the lore well enough to speculate from that (I've only played Descent before) @Taki do you have some ideas?

The latari core is always archery, we've seen this in discwars, rune age, and runewars the miniatures game. While I would like new characters for the faction, as we only have half a dozen, I also think that the Leonx rider character is going to be Lana (though it doesn't have to be). If I had to guess at what we'll see in their box, and assuming similar distribution of models, they'll have 4 trays of archers, 2 trays of warrior, a hero on Leonx, and a Pegasus rider. This is the classic latari force. In the boardgame, the built in combo is archers are decent at doing damage, and good at target selection, and the warrior, while going late in the initiative chain, have a heroic strike that destroys wounded units, they also have much higher damage output, but lower model count than other regular infantry. The faction also always has fast and flying units, more than any other faction with Pegasus riders featuring prominently in each game.

So recap, Latari, expect lots of speed, cheap infantry to be archers, melee infantry to be harder to kill but in low numbers, lots of mobility and speed, but low model count

For Uthuk, I agree that there will be lots of sacrifice plays. Most of their skills and abilities will probably let you kill your own models to kill enemy models. If I had to guess at their starting 'classic' faction I would say 4 berserkers, 2 flesh rippers, if they go with Ravos he'll be their large unit, and a tray of blood sisters. The reason I say this is that the Uthuk are often deviant from standard battle lines; they're very likely to have the monstrous sized hero unlike other faction. The blood sisters, we know are a wizard unit, unlike most wizards in the setting who are individual or single model. Flesh rippers and berserkers are classic (the same way for the latari, daqan, and undying with their two units showing up in every example of faction in the various games), what I expect is that they'll be able to spend surges on damage.

20 minutes ago, drkpnthr said:

They had a mounted and unmounted version of the 2nd/3rd wave Daqan and Waiqar heroes at Gencon. Those are probably going in the pipeline before Latari and Uthuk. Also, I know there was an earlier thread that had all of the item numbers and speculation about what they would be, including some that were predicted infantry expansions for the two starting factions.

I agree that those will come out before the Uthuk Y'llan or Latari Elves. I do think, though, that the next two factions need to come out together instead of sequentially like they did with BattleLore. And yes, the current product numbers indicate that we should get individual packs of each unit from the core (except heroes) before we get any new factions. But I just can't wait until then to start talking about the Uthuk Y'llan!

Those mounted and unmounted heroes at GenCon are why I think the Leonx-riding elf hero may not be a "core" hero because it is more similar to Lord Hawthorne and Vorakesh for the Daqan Lords and Waiqar the Undying. But they may not make a "core"-like army for the other two factions, in which case, they could just start with a hero that is both mounted and un-mounted.

If the Uthuk need a calvary unit they could have scorpion riders with Malaana as a command upgrade.

4 minutes ago, Orcdruid said:

If the Uthuk need a calvary unit they could have scorpion riders with Malaana as a command upgrade.

that's the flesh rippers

@Taki based on scale the flesh rippers look more like pets than mounts. They seem like they'd be more an infantry unit. When I say calvary I mean mounted unit. They don't have to play the traditional calvary roll of move fast charge hard.

2 minutes ago, Orcdruid said:

@Taki based on scale the flesh rippers look more like pets than mounts. They seem like they'd be more an infantry unit. When I say calvary I mean mounted unit. They don't have to play the traditional calvary roll of move fast charge hard.

The flesh rippers as depicted in art are about the size of a pony, and they are massively fast and damaging. Rest assured they will be the Uthuk equivalent to cavalry in function and offensive capabilities. As to mounted units, that's rare to the point of non existent for the Uthuk. But this is a new game, anything could happen.

Yeah flesh rippers were the only cavalry the uthuk had in battle lore

I'm hoping for Flesh Rippers as they are my favourite unit. However, I have a feeling we'll get two trays of Obscene's as a heavy infantry instead to further differentiate the core sets. I just hope we don't have to wait long for new units/factions.

4 minutes ago, Muz333 said:

I'm hoping for Flesh Rippers as they are my favourite unit. However, I have a feeling we'll get two trays of Obscene's as a heavy infantry instead to further differentiate the core sets. I just hope we don't have to wait long for new units/factions.

Including heavy infantry does make a lot of sense, but I am soooo sick of Obscenes. If they do Ravos as the hero, why can't we just be good with him representing the Obscene aesthetic? If they skip Flesh Rippers and go for heavy infantry, I'd much rather see an updated Grotesque. They have crazy-cool spines and stuff and shoot bone spurs out of their arms. That's way more cool than obese cannibals, in my opinion.

2 hours ago, Budgernaut said:

Including heavy infantry does make a lot of sense, but I am soooo sick of Obscenes. If they do Ravos as the hero, why can't we just be good with him representing the Obscene aesthetic? If they skip Flesh Rippers and go for heavy infantry, I'd much rather see an updated Grotesque. They have crazy-cool spines and stuff and shoot bone spurs out of their arms. That's way more cool than obese cannibals, in my opinion.

Oh don't get me wrong, I'll die a little inside of Flesh Rippers aren't available with the release of the Uthuk Y'llan. They'll surely need to have the command packs on release to keep parity with the Daqan and Waiqar factions as well.

2 minutes ago, Muz333 said:

Oh don't get me wrong, I'll die a little inside of Flesh Rippers aren't available with the release of the Uthuk Y'llan. They'll surely need to have the command packs on release to keep parity with the Daqan and Waiqar factions as well.

Yeah, I didn't mean to sound harsh. I was trying to commiserate with you. Flesh Rippers are such an icon of the Uthuk.

On the other hand, it would be quite funny to have Obscenes be the first heavy infantry units. Maybe you meant it that way the first time, but I just put that together now.

I like the idea of a flying pegasus as the large unit for an elf starter army, especially if it sort of acts as a flying light siege unit. Great mobility, decent surge/accuracy damage, they fly around like snipers covering the flanks and charge in when needed to demoralize enemies with flanking when they pin your archers in melee. I could see that being a defining unit as a skirmisher, harrying the enemy and acting to inflict morale or kill uniques even when it doesn't do a lot of total damage.

I wonder if Uthuk might have a unit like freshrippers where we might see a special rule that goes against the norm where it has 'humanoid' officers leading monstrous creatures (from the rear) and allows you to remove casualties from the front trays instead of the back , with the focus that they also have really fast initiative charges when the officers are included. Turn 1: charge in and demoralize the enemy, even if it doesn't do a lot of damage. Then, the enemy attacks back, and you remove the trays in contact as losses. Turn 2: Charge again, before a slow enemy can run from your charge. (This may be just the Skorne player in me from Hordes coming through).

Here are some potential units from the other games in the universe

Daqan: Yeoman Archers, Citadel Guard, Lancers, Ironbound and other automatons, Riverwatch Riders, Rocs

Waiqar: Barrow Wyrm, Wraith, Black Knight, Death Knight, Banshee, Bone Horror, Barghests, Dracula

Elves: Warriors, Archers, Leonx Riders, Forest Guardian, Pegasus Riders, Sorceress

Uthuk: Berserkers, Grotesques, Blood Sisters, Viper Legion, Doombringer, Blood Harvesters, Flesh Ripper Brutes, Obscene

I'm probably missing some but looks like plenty of options for everyone.

In fact, I wonder if we'll ever get neutral units as mercenaries. Like the Mountain Giant, Razorwings, Dragons or Beastmen.

About neutral units... having spotted them in the Battlelore products line, I was a bit uneasy with it. i mean, I play a faction for itself not for bribed hamstring-cutters. Well I've always had a complex about mercenaries...even in that old Cossacks European Wars.

About Latari, I don't know if they are kind of druidic guys in the other games because seeing a unit with wolves and bears... or a druid hero that can transform into an animal.

But all you said is more plausible about them. They will stay in an eflish fashion of introducting their Latari. Archers, wild animal cavalry...let's see.

1 hour ago, Elrad said:

About neutral units... having spotted them in the Battlelore products line, I was a bit uneasy with it. i mean, I play a faction for itself not for bribed hamstring-cutters. Well I've always had a complex about mercenaries...even in that old Cossacks European Wars.

About Latari, I don't know if they are kind of druidic guys in the other games because seeing a unit with wolves and bears... or a druid hero that can transform into an animal.

But all you said is more plausible about them. They will stay in an eflish fashion of introducting their Latari. Archers, wild animal cavalry...let's see.

Beastmen and razorwings are easily mind controlled and used by more... civilized?.. advanced? peoples. They are often found in other armies.

Latari live as one with nature but are more the animal companion types not the transformation types

I, personally, agree with @Elrad that I'd rather not see neutral units for this game. We will want as much diversity as possible at tournaments and if a neutral unit is good enough to include in one's army, it's likely to be included in all armies and that could get stale. I'd like to see the factions stay distinct. I'm a bit disappointed that Kari can take Latari units for that same reason, but I suppose the lore behind it will help me turn a blind eye.

36 minutes ago, Budgernaut said:

I, personally, agree with @Elrad that I'd rather not see neutral units for this game. We will want as much diversity as possible at tournaments and if a neutral unit is good enough to include in one's army, it's likely to be included in all armies and that could get stale. I'd like to see the factions stay distinct. I'm a bit disappointed that Kari can take Latari units for that same reason, but I suppose the lore behind it will help me turn a blind eye.

I don't mind Daqan getting 1 elf unit if it includes a specific unit (Kari). Once we start getting more heroes or choices, it won't matter as much. If neutrals are done correctly then I wouldn't mind them either.

I think it would be pretty cool if they introduce the Orcs as a "neutral faction" where a large majority of their units could be used in any faction, but then they have would have also upgrades specific for their faction, units specific for their faction, and so forth. Would be a really neat way to expand the roster for existing armies while also adding a new army.
Neutrals can be balanced in a specific way where they are strong but not used in every list. If you develop each faction in specific ways/play styles they will also be defined by what they lack, and mercenary style units can be a way to fill that void if your list needs it.
A purely hypothetical example would be Latari Elves could potentially not have durable heavy infantry and a neutral unit would be a multiwound/high armor formation of orcs.
If a Latari player wanted a heavy infantry unit they could recruit the orc unit.

I personally prefer this then Latari Elves get a durable heavy infantry unit that is strictly worse then every other factions heavy infantry because it's their weakness.

This creates a better experience game design wise as it becomes easier to give each faction their own distinct styles of play which you can make equivalently fun/good, compared to making all factions good.

There is one major caveat to this style of design; when you run the neutral faction by themselves they tend to do worse against any of the main factions that are trying to invoke a similar strategy. I do think that Runewars is perfectly poised to combat this with the army specific upgrade cards. This can allow them to modify a units power level as if the unit was in the self contained vacuum of its own faction rather then a neutral for all armies.

Is there a good website that I can go to and get the history of all the different races/factions, world, etc? The background of this world seems really interesting and I know nothing about it. I hate to admit it, but I've never played any FFG game...hope that confession doesn't get me banned from this forum...I just suck.

You don't suck. You are welcome here!

I highly recommend finding a pdf of the rules for Rune Age. A couple pages before the end of the rules, there is a half-page summary on each of the 4 main factions. Also, @Toenail has written some lore summaries on these forums and on Boardgamegeek.

I think the four factions should be diverse enough to keep us all busy for quite a while. One of the things that bugged me with warmachine was how some of the neutral units became so popular that the have now evolved into independent factions. There shouldn't be a need for a fifth 'mercenary' faction. I could see some cross-faction units just because ffg might sell one to all players later on in the game, but hopefully they will be uniques and there would be limits on how many you could take

Thanks Budgernaut...I'll check it out.

The only reason I jumped on the Runewars bandwagon is because I saw an add with a picture of the carrion lancer...I'm a model builder/miniature painter. Haven't played any real games since OD&D (yeah, I'm old). But reading this forum and listening to all of you is changing my mind...need to start building my 3'x6' table...