I've read some of the new Daemons of Chaos army book and by the time I read Skarbrand's entry I realized the Warhammer setting is really getting serious. So you've got a uber-killy special daemon character, all right, but back in 6ed a standard Greater Daemon was really something. Now there's a guy who has FRIGGING HIT KHORNE THE BAD-ASS HIMSELF and then expelled personally by the Blood God. Khorne threw him down from his Brass Citadel and since then the greatest Bloodthirster ever, blinded by Tzeench to turn his rage on his master, has slain, maimed, hacked, slashed, killed and destroyed in the name of his unforgiving master. You can field a model who in fluff has been stated to actually tried to hurt a Chaos god. Plus, the book goes to great detail describing the Realms of Chaos where as before there has been no such depth and concrete information. In this light, I can really see why the armies are escalating in power as the world itself darkens even further... We undead and them mortals are in a heap of trouble against these increasingly horrible daemons!

I unfortunately don't think the escelation has to do with fluff, as much as it does with selling figures. The daemon army is the worst example of this, and I think the developers perhaps underestimated how effective the army would be. Lizardmen and Warriors of Chaos at least seem a step back from this.

Well yeah, not directly of course but it was interesting to read new fluff and then look at that light the new books.