The Tribes of the East expansion is the star of the day with previews in three majors gaming sites.

1UP tells us that the standalone game will retail for $30, roughly the same as Hammers of Fate when it came out. There is also a cryptic reference to a bonus for owners of the first expansion: "If you have Heroes V or Hammers of Fate, Tribes of the East will allow you to increase the level of your old characters by an extra ability point. It's not quite the same as adding brand new characters to the old games, but it's a nice bonus if you're attached to your previous armies."

IGN has a summary of the Orc campaign: "The campaign follows the Orcs as they finally decide to shake the impression all of the other races seem to have that they're pawns to be used at a whim. It turns out they just want to defend Mother Nature against the other races. The best way to do this apparently is to soak the ground with the blood and guts of their enemies. The first on the list is the Raven Duchy of the Griffin Empire who made the error or raiding the Orc lands to collect slaves. This angered the self-declared Khan of the Steppes Orcs."

GameSpot was allowed to see Blood Rage in action: "As long as a unit is attacking, its blood rage builds and its attack value increases over the fight. However, if the unit sits still for a round (perhaps you want the enemy to come to you), the blood rage cools and the attack value might dip. The orc heroes can aid in this with their blood rage spells, as they can temporarily boost the blood rage in various units, provided they have enough mana to cast the spell. We saw one orc unit go from an attack rating of 10 to 25 with blood rage cast on it."

All three sites refer to a September release. On the official forums, there are rumors of mixed neutral stacks. That would be so nice.