(The text at the bottom is supposed to be for an image below it)
Whitehot on Bolter and Chainsword has joined the images up:
New box leak:
[url]Image from the Open Day:
--Older News--
I've gotten permissions from the mods to start up a new Horus Heresy news and rumour thread so the old generic Forgeworld thread can be closed off. To start us off, here's the Arquitor Bombard:
The Legion Arquitor Pattern Bombard is a heavy artillery platform designed to operate at the forefront of the Legiones Astartes' advance. Equipped with a reinforced chassis and brutal short-range firepower, it is called upon to break the most stubborn of fortifications or to annihilate massed enemy infantry and armour.
Available to both Loyalist and Traitor forces, the Legion Arquitor Pattern Bombard can be fielded in units of up to three vehicles. The spicula rocket system is able to remove any obstacle to the advance of your Space Marines army in a series of devastating explosions. You can also add even more firepower to your indomitable artillery platform in the shape of sponson-mounted heavy bolters or autocannons. If you need to add mobile heavy firepower to your force, the Arquitor Pattern Bombard is ideal.
Also, here's a repost of the the Road to Thramas article:
Last time on the Road to Thramas, we took a first look inside The Horus Heresy Book 9 – Crusade and some of the new units contained within. Now, we’re taking a look at a new Elite option for the Dark Angels Legion.
Thramas was one of the most brutal war zones in the entire Horus Heresy. Where the fighting was most intense, Lion El’Jonson would unleash his elite Inner Circle Knights Cenobium. What’s a Cenobium? Good question! It’s a temporary cell of warriors from an Order of the Dark Angels, assembled on the eve of a mission that requires their unique skills.
Clad in the finest Cataphractii pattern Terminator armour, the cenobites* of the Inner Circle could easily weather the storm of shrapnel and flame produced by the terrible weapons of the Great Crusade with limited risk. Armed with the best weapons that the Legion could provide, they would bring the fury of their assault into the heart of enemy formations.
The models to represent this squad are truly stunning. They are covered in the symbols and heraldry of the First Legion and you can see the similarities with the Deathwing Knights 10,000 years later, with their hoods** and Dark Angels iconography.
The squad are all armed with a Terranic greatsword and a plasma-caster. The latter is a weapon that’s unique to the Dark Angels and is a smaller version of regular plasma weaponry, fitted into the vambrace to allow the Inner Circle Knights to fight unencumbered in combat.
Before a game begins, you can select the Order that your Inner Circle Knights are from – each one is dedicated to a singular creed of war. Each different Order provides the unit with a special rule for the duration of the battle that enhances their specific fighting style.
Whichever Order you induct your Knights into, they are going to prove crucial in the conflicts across Thramas, Triplex and beyond.
The Inner Circle Knights Cenobium will be available later in the year, as will The Horus Heresy Book Nine – Crusade.
Nostromodamus wrote: I’d like one for my Death Guard. Wish they could take phosphex...
Well, we do have the Graviton Charge Cannon to come:
Not too much of a stretch to give it Phosphex launchers. Though, I have a feeling that's become a bit of a Taboo subject in FW. They've probably had endless e-mails about the annoyance of Phosphex.
I actually like these little "minitanks". For some reason they remind me of the "tick tanks" from Tiberium Sun (yes I'm aware that they have no relation what so ever to the tick tank - but they are tick-tanks for marines )
I like the autocannon sponsons, but not a fan of the rocket battery. Just don't like that style of mortar rockets on this, or the karaktos batteries on admech stuff.
Gadzilla666 wrote: Just to reiterate from the old thread. It has one entry point and obviously must have a crew bigger than one. That equals death trap.
The hatch is just to give the Tech-Priest access so he can make repairs to the hardwired Servitors anyway, isn't it?
Das_Ubermike wrote: Isn't that tank just a sicaran with its hull facing the wrong direction?
Do you doubt the will of the servants of the Omnissiah from the holy forge world of Kris Kross!?! Do not underestimate the magos duo of Mac Daddy and Daddy Mac.
Yeah, pretty much. I anxiously await the HH twerking dreadnought variant that goes butt first into combat.
That tank is such an odd duck. It’s AV12 in front, but it has 4HP. It’s weapon has a 24” range, but it’s Heavy, so it has trouble crossing the battlefield to get in range. It’s got a nice Autocannon sponson option, but its main gun is ordnance, so those are snapfiring (maybe useful if you rocket barrage yourself out of ammo?). Its gun is Str 7, but it has Sunder and Wrecker. As far as I can tell, it will never use Wrecker, because it can’t glance buildings (they’re all AV14). The slow speed and short range will also make it hard to get side armor shots, which it needs because it only has Str 7. It’s also direct fire only.
Maybe as a Castellax/Daemon hunter? It’s at least pretty cheap. Maybe with some screening it could really mess up Daemons and Cybernetica, and FW put Sunder on there in case you happen to be facing a more common army? Wrecker is just bad on this.
Gadzilla666 wrote: Just to reiterate from the old thread. It has one entry point and obviously must have a crew bigger than one. That equals death trap.
Why obviously a crew greater than one? Looks designed for a single marine crew, maybe hardwired servitors for the guns if not autotargeters. If a single human can crew a knight, a single marine can run this far more simple vehicle.
I don't like it. I really don't like it at 95 quid.
The rework of the old Sabre concept into the minitank series was pretty cool, but these artillery vehicles just feel kinda...lazy? If they were going to reuse the CAD assets from previous vehicles, I'd prefer they'd kept the tracks the right way around and done a heavier redesign of the main chassis to accommodate the new weapon systems, rather than just flipping them around and hanging the gun off the back.
Yodhrin wrote: I don't like it. I really don't like it at 95 quid.
The rework of the old Sabre concept into the minitank series was pretty cool, but these artillery vehicles just feel kinda...lazy? If they were going to reuse the CAD assets from previous vehicles, I'd prefer they'd kept the tracks the right way around and done a heavier redesign of the main chassis to accommodate the new weapon systems, rather than just flipping them around and hanging the gun off the back.
agree it's waaayyyyyy too expensive.
Not to defend the new minitanks, but this is totally reasonable thing for the Mechanicum to do. The chassis is proven, so just flip it around and bam, you have a new platform & a happy new Magos or Fabricator.
RiTides wrote: It's funny, I love it . This is a very polarizing tank, it seems! Is there a size comparison photo for this, or for a tank with the same chassis?
It’s the same size as the Sicaran. Much bigger than the sabre
Erren wrote: That tank is such an odd duck. It’s AV12 in front, but it has 4HP. It’s weapon has a 24” range, but it’s Heavy, so it has trouble crossing the battlefield to get in range. It’s got a nice Autocannon sponson option, but its main gun is ordnance, so those are snapfiring (maybe useful if you rocket barrage yourself out of ammo?). Its gun is Str 7, but it has Sunder and Wrecker. As far as I can tell, it will never use Wrecker, because it can’t glance buildings (they’re all AV14). The slow speed and short range will also make it hard to get side armor shots, which it needs because it only has Str 7. It’s also direct fire only.
Actually RAW the rocket's special rules only requirement is that the target unit or point on the board be in range, makes no mention of requiring line of site and it gives you the full methodology for who to resolve the attack in the paragraph itself. This leads to a lot of problems because all the language around shooting only refferences targeting units and not point on the battlefield, so you get problems with jink saves, problems with the sponson weapons not being able to shoot if the main gun targets a point and not a unit. It needs clarification for sure.
Look at the rocket's special rule, place template within range, scatter, if the template touches a unit it does the corresponding number of hits.
I believe forgworld is going to clarify and explicitly state it doesn't need los. They need to clarify a lot of things if they're changing targeting unit to points on the board, like, how does that interact with terrain, is the third level of a ruin a point on the board? Also, because you can't target points on the board with the sponsons, it means you'll never even be able to snap fire along with the main weapon.
My simple reasoning is they call it an artillery tank and the weapon axis is clearly rather high, even with 22.5 in each direction you won't have much in your los if that's how it is intended to be played
timd wrote: Would be nice if the thread title was not all abbreviations... Perhaps: "Forge World: Horus Heresy/30K"?
Or maybe something like "forge world news and rumors 2020" more obviously covering all the non specialist games releases?
I agree with this.
Having a thread per game type is nice and all, but FW releases are slow.
This would mean most of the threads just rot for long periods of time.
Even a blanket coverage of all FW releases can be slow at times.
timd wrote: Would be nice if the thread title was not all abbreviations... Perhaps: "Forge World: Horus Heresy/30K"?
Or maybe something like "forge world news and rumors 2020" more obviously covering all the non specialist games releases?
There hasn’t been any AoS or 40k Forgeworld releases for at least 1 and a half years and Horus Heresy are getting regular releases. Considering 30k is its own game now it makes sense to have its own thread like Blood Bowl, Miiddle Earth and Titanicus
timd wrote: Would be nice if the thread title was not all abbreviations... Perhaps: "Forge World: Horus Heresy/30K"?
Or maybe something like "forge world news and rumors 2020" more obviously covering all the non specialist games releases?
There hasn’t been any AoS or 40k Forgeworld releases for at least 1 and a half years and Horus Heresy are getting regular releases. Considering 30k is its own game now it makes sense to have its own thread like Blood Bowl, Miiddle Earth and Titanicus
A LOT of 30k models can be used in 40k. Pretty much all the infantry can easily be used without any rules modification. And if fw does happen to release any 40k or AOS models then changing the thread to being 30k specific means discussion of those models will be relegated to their own limited threads. We already have a full 30k only forum if you only want to talk 30k.
timd wrote: Would be nice if the thread title was not all abbreviations... Perhaps: "Forge World: Horus Heresy/30K"?
Or maybe something like "forge world news and rumors 2020" more obviously covering all the non specialist games releases?
I agree with this.
Having a thread per game type is nice and all, but FW releases are slow.
This would mean most of the threads just rot for long periods of time.
Even a blanket coverage of all FW releases can be slow at times.
I don’t really get why it matters is news and rumour threads are quiet if there’s no news and rumours for a while? Or why HH/30k is less deserving of its own thread than Necromunda, Blood Bowl, AT when if anything it’s been getting releases more often than those.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Size comparison of the Arquitor to the Rapier (from Warhammerworld via Facebook):
FW really should do more photos like that on their product pages to give a better idea how big things are. Some of their "size comparison" photos just don't do justice to the size of a model.
Since it's listed in their 40k section, I'm betting that it will be getting rules there soon. Since, you know, 9th Edition is coming this year or next, so I'm bettign we'll see some regular 40kFW action as well.
Both of those kits were for 30k and the main studio happened to release 40k rules, the warlord having them in the index for quite some time, The last full true 40k release was for the Seraptek in Oct 2018. Nothing wrong with posting those rules in the 40k thread if and when they are released.
Don’t see why 30k having its own thread is causing such a ruckus. It’s its own game system and rule set.
Edit - to save argument, suggest you PM a mod to see if you can start up a separate 40k Forgeworld news and rumours thread for when a 40k release happens.
Edit - to save argument, suggest you PM a mod to see if you can start up a separate 40k Forgeworld news and rumours thread for when a 40k release happens.
I already have and suggested either that or this thread be merged. I mean, seriously, with 9th and the SoB release you think there aren't going to be FW releases for 40k in the extremely immediate future?
I already have and suggested either that or this thread be merged. I mean, seriously, with 9th and the SoB release you think there aren't going to be FW releases for 40k in the extremely immediate future?
No, I really don’t think that we’ll see anything more for 40k or AoS from Forgeworld directly. Forgeworld have been pretty much slowly reducing the pure 40k and AoS ranges through last chance to buys and the occasional disappearances. What you’ll probably get is the occasional get you by rules for a 30k unit when enough people make noise at the 40k team.
Thanks for everyones input on the thread name and content, but can I ask that any further discussion on the matter take place in Nuts and Bolts and not in this thread?
As it stands I see no issue with how things are currently presented, if a 40k only release happens it can go in here with out causing the end of the universe, if lots of 40k releases happen it can have its own thread and if lots of dual releases happens then it will take some thinking about.
Thanks,
ingtær
Bad news - looks like some Legion shoulder pads are now marked with the dreaded No Longer Available. These aren't in the bags and are the new style blisters:
I'd suspect that pretty much most, if not all, Legion pads will be going away. Same reason the doors and previous pads went I reckon - they don't sell enough, etc.
Automatically Appended Next Post: In happier news, this image turned up (Thanks to kenbian from Heresy30k) from the Open Day:
Looks like some sort of heavy plasma burner for the Dark Angels Legion.
Damn. Guess I better load up on Night Lords shoulder pads before they hit the chopping block. I can't understand how they can't sell enough. Am I the only one who likes my legion to have the right iconography?
Gadzilla666 wrote: Damn. Guess I better load up on Night Lords shoulder pads before they hit the chopping block. I can't understand how they can't sell enough. Am I the only one who likes my legion to have the right iconography?
For me at least, it's a price thing. Would I prefer my armies having their special shoulder pads? Yes. Am I willing to spend extra money on that? No.
Again, wish UM and IH were getting the love that Dark Angels are. Don't like them in the fluff, but it's getting hard not to start a force of them thanks to models like these.
zedmeister wrote: Bad news - looks like some Legion shoulder pads are now marked with the dreaded No Longer Available. These aren't in the bags and are the new style blisters:
I'd suspect that pretty much most, if not all, Legion pads will be going away. Same reason the doors and previous pads went I reckon - they don't sell enough, etc.
Not sure where you're getting that conclusion from? Emperor's Children still have Mk4 pads available, while both IW and DA have Mk3s.
Considering DAEC, and IW are usually stereotyped as wearing armor from those remaining marks, I doubt the discontinued pads were selling in a significantly higher quantity to entice GW to keep making them.
It seems like for a while now that they've been reducing redundant SKUs for things like upgrades and detail parts. However, every legion as far as I can tell still has an available set of helmets, tank doors, and shoulder pads in at least one armor mark.
Jack Flask wrote: Not sure where you're getting that conclusion from? Emperor's Children still have Mk4 pads available, while both IW and DA have Mk3s.
Considering DAEC, and IW are usually stereotyped as wearing armor from those remaining marks, I doubt the discontinued pads were selling in a significantly higher quantity to entice GW to keep making them.
It seems like for a while now that they've been reducing redundant SKUs for things like upgrades and detail parts. However, every legion as far as I can tell still has an available set of helmets, tank doors, and shoulder pads in at least one armor mark.
It's my supposition based on what Forgeworld has done previously. For example, around the time the entire Mk II range was binned along with pads, the cataphractii pads were also scrapped. And last year, a load of door upgrade sets were removed. They were probably intended as an extra to purchase when buying the bigger kits to push people over the free shipping threshold. But, the Transfers are a nice alternative and for a few quid more you can get a sheet of those and that'll pretty much do your entire legion.
As mentioned, this is my guess on what's going on. I suspect they don't sell all as well as hoped and we will see the other pads slowly disappearing over time. Its why I posted it - give people notice that this is a potential future and get any remaining pads before they do vanish.
The only confirmed ones are the ones currently No Longer Available. But come on, we all know they’re not getting rid of just some legions’ shoulder pads. If you want some, get them while the getting is good.
As a hibernating Blood Angel player (admittedly 40k and not HH), I think those look like crap. They look more appropriate for pre heresy Emperor's Children to me. Ymmv.
I personally love those new blood angels troops, mainly cos they look like this old bit of Rogue Trader artwork that I always loved:
(the helmets specifically, but they have jump packs and twin pistols too)
but I can see why people say they don't quite look right for blood angels - I actually kinda wish they were generic troops rather than legion specific myself tbh
Erren wrote: Also, people on B&C have emailed customer support, who confirmed they’re getting rid of all of them as stock winds down.
That's rare, normally all you get it as "watch the site just in case" which is basically what I've had asking FW twice (on separate occasions) as they started to strip AoS models from the range without warning (or much warning - esp considering that once on last chance most vanish within a few days - its not like you've a month or two).
warboss wrote: As a hibernating Blood Angel player (admittedly 40k and not HH), I think those look like crap. They look more appropriate for pre heresy Emperor's Children to me. Ymmv.
Our local Blood Angel player thinks they look more Death Guard (mainly due to the shoulder pad)
The heads look very EC like with the screaming look to them.
While the plain armour is better than pure clutter, some form of detail is usually nice.
Really don’t look all that BA to me.
Considering the rest of the BA stuff, this ones a no from me.
Doesn’t help we’ve seen some amazing DA stuff either as it casts a big shadow.
As far as jump infantry goes they certainly aren't Night Raptors. But then the best jump infantry models should obviously belong to the best jump infantry legion.
warboss wrote: As a hibernating Blood Angel player (admittedly 40k and not HH), I think those look like crap. They look more appropriate for pre heresy Emperor's Children to me. Ymmv.
Our local Blood Angel player thinks they look more Death Guard (mainly due to the shoulder pad)
I'm not very familiar with HHDG myself so can't comment. The reason I said EC was because they have oversized shoulderpad wings in previous HH legion releases plus the helmets remind me of screaming speaker noise marines (or raptors to a lesser extent). YMMV.
The earlier BA releases looked pretty good, but this round looks embarrassingly bad. The painting style doesn’t help either. Completely different from earlier HHBA.
Honestly, these are the ones that normally don't go well with their legions.
From my experience, I've very rarely seen MKIII Sons, MKIV Hands/Sallies/Fists - these legions just look so much better in MKIII/MKIV.
Night Lords mark 3 shoulder pads are gone from the fw sight. That makes sense seeing as how they're one of the two legions featured in the upcoming Thramas Crusade.
Elbows wrote: Phew...that is a terrible special character.
That face is..... wierd.
I think it's the paintjob. For a lot of the bare-headed models I've felt the same, until I see the unpainted version on the website at which point I realize it was just painted badly.
I honestly think it's a great model. The helmet is neato. It has some very interesting and cool details without feeling too cluttered.
It's weird, Forgeworld used to be one of the most exciting and news-worthy releases from GW, but it's all a bit samey now, with yet more marines, and with much more exciting stuff coming from the main studio.
grahamdbailey wrote: It's weird, Forgeworld used to be one of the most exciting and news-worthy releases from GW, but it's all a bit samey now, with yet more marines, and with much more exciting stuff coming from the main studio.
~~Complains about the studio almost entirely dedicated to HH releasing only marines~~
grahamdbailey wrote: It's weird, Forgeworld used to be one of the most exciting and news-worthy releases from GW, but it's all a bit samey now, with yet more marines, and with much more exciting stuff coming from the main studio.
~~Complains about the studio almost entirely dedicated to HH releasing only marines~~
Okie dokie buddy
There used to be the Imperial Armour books and quite a bit of Xenos items coming from Forge World . Also, there's generally no new Solar Auxilia now either (besides that one tank they had a while back).
Now there's no more Imperial Armor (with the upcoming one being in development for a long long time) and the guy who did Solar Auxilia is gone. I think there aren't as many Custodes and Chaos vehicles and beasts or Dreadnaught stuff as previously too but maybe that's just confirmation bias or something. Feels like most of it's been Marine infantry lately.
The thing is, Forgeworld's thing used to be making stuff that the main studio couldn't. With the main studio now able to turn out plastic titans, Forgeworld needed a new direction.
And, quite frankly, I suspect that Heresy marines sell considerably better than most of their previous releases.
MajorWesJanson wrote: There is also a backlog on parts for titans, and no new mechanicus/mechanicum stuff in a while.
The lack of new Mechanicum models is a particular annoyance, because I can't shake the sense that the reason we've not had any more is the main Studio told them to stop so their whackadoodledoo 40K range would have a free run.
FW fails so bad. 11:33 and they still can't sort their website nonsense. Maybe that's why they are getting rid of sculpted shoulder pads. Transfers for everyone!
yeah, that is clear ... but clicking on the button is still not successful ... so we do not know if there are other new transfers on top of the three you mentioned
Gadzilla666 wrote: Aarrgghh! I don't want transfers. I want my legion's shoulder pads damnit!
You had that option for literally years, did you not want it then?
Well I didn't stock up on a lifetime supply. I still like to add models to my army. Did you buy enough to last you? Or do you just never intend to expand your army?
insaniak wrote: The thing is, Forgeworld's thing used to be making stuff that the main studio couldn't. With the main studio now able to turn out plastic titans, Forgeworld needed a new direction.
And, quite frankly, I suspect that Heresy marines sell considerably better than most of their previous releases.
Why I think some of us ancients are bitter is that the Imperial Guard in particular used to be one of the best-served Forgeworld ranges, with two complete model ranges with drastically different playstyles and variant army lists (three if you want to could the Vraksian renegades), plus countless tank variants from Cyclops to Stormblades. Most of those models are gone now, and it's been several years since the last new one was released (and the impression I have is that no more will ever be released, either).
Forgeworld did make things the main studio couldn't do. But now they've stopped, and for the most part those things are no longer done by the main studio either. If it was important to GW, we would have gotten plastic Death Korps by now. And I haven't seen plastic titans around either.
Some of the Death Korps figures have been released by FW, maybe there is hope for the rest.
I think insaniak meant the AT titans. Although those are done by Specialists Games not GW main studio.
So far in the Road to Thramas, the Dark Angels have had things their way. That ends today, as it’s time to take a look at the Contekar Terminator Elite from the Night Lords Legion.
Contekar Terminator Elite
When the VIIIth Legion needed butchers and murderers of the highest calibre, they unleashed the Contekar Terminator squads. With recruits taken from Nostramo’s ruling elite, they would only fight for leaders they deemed worthy of their attention. In fact, the Contekar would often be dispatched to wrest control from Night Lords whose commanders thought them unfit for the Legion.
Armed with heavy flamers or volkite cavitors and Nostraman chainglaives, they are going to bring abject despair and destruction to the Thramas system. The Nostraman chainglaive, in particular, is going to slice through a lot of Loyalist Space Marines.
You can take full advantage of the Contekar Terminators by fielding them as additional Elites choices as part of a new Night Lords unique Rite of War – The Cross of Bone.
With new Rites of War, new units and new characters, The Horus Heresy Book 9 – Crusade will allow Night Lords players to persecute their war of terror across the galaxy on an unprecedented scale.
Legion Arquitor Bombard with Morbus Heavy Bombard
This Horus Heresy campaign book also adds extra units for both sides in the bitter civil war. We’ve already seen the graviton-charge cannon version of the Arquitor and the spicula rocket system has been deployed. Now, it’s time to show you the standard* version of the Arquitor, armed with the devastating Morbus heavy bombard.
Be sure to pick up an Arquitor for your Legion before the Death Lord gets his daemonic hands on it…
The Horus Heresy Book 9 – Crusade will be released later this year, as are the Contekar Terminators and Arquitor with heavy bombard.
Marshal Loss wrote: The description for that unit reads like plagiarized Atramentar.
FW replied to a comment on their FB page stating that this unit is evidently part of the Atramentar.
They’ll probably have one of those red boxes that explain that the most renowned Contekar unit was the one under Sevatar called the Atramentar
It’s the other way round.
‘Hey Joseph - Atramentar describes the entire first company of Night Lords and this is a specific unit within that. So basically, these guys are both!’
Nah Man Pichu wrote: I like the gothic-looking window motifs around their collars. It looks like a darker reflection of what we've seen on the Dark Angels releases!
Nah Man Pichu wrote: I like the gothic-looking window motifs around their collars. It looks like a darker reflection of what we've seen on the Dark Angels releases!
I like the idea that the Aquilor Bombards eventually end up inspiring the Death Guard. Like the link between the Vultarax and the Blight Drones, that kind of thing always makes me happy.
Marshal Loss wrote: The description for that unit reads like plagiarized Atramentar.
FW replied to a comment on their FB page stating that this unit is evidently part of the Atramentar.
They're missing the iconography that denotes them as being members of the Atramentar. I wouldn't be surprised if FW's FB team is just reacting to criticism by lumping them together in this fashion. Glaring omission aside, they are lovely models
Love the chain weapon on the volkite. Also notice their in Tartoros pattern armour just like the Praetor? But why do they describe them as being armed with Nostroman chainglaives when neither model is?
Love the chain weapon on the volkite. Also notice their in Tartoros pattern armour just like the Praetor? But why do they describe them as being armed with Nostroman chainglaives when neither model is?
Rules have been edited to be "Nostraman chainblades" now. No +1S
I like those termies. I dont think the weapons look very night lordy though.. maybe have to convert them. another minor thing that bothers me is the VIII on their belts.. I feel like the top and bottom horizontals would look better solid rather than seperated. will have to see how they look in the flesh.
queen_annes_revenge wrote: I like those termies. I dont think the weapons look very night lordy though.. maybe have to convert them. another minor thing that bothers me is the VIII on their belts.. I feel like the top and bottom horizontals would look better solid rather than seperated. will have to see how they look in the flesh.
Glad it's not just me. Something about it just looks....off. Not bad tbc, just off. It looks like something that wouldn't look out of place on an Ultramarines model, which is about as far from NL as you can get.
The closest analogy I can think of is writing a whole document in Ariel and then signing off in Times New Roman. It just doesn't fit the rest.
Otherwise fantastic models, glad they got the love they deserved.
Just looking on the FW site (UK) for Malevolence and it seems to have disappeared. Anyone know if it's just temporarily out of stock or if it's gone now until they get round to a paperback release? I know it's been out a while but the hardback HH books normally hang around for a bit longer than that.
Tavis75 wrote: Just looking on the FW site (UK) for Malevolence and it seems to have disappeared. Anyone know if it's just temporarily out of stock or if it's gone now until they get round to a paperback release? I know it's been out a while but the hardback HH books normally hang around for a bit longer than that.
FW refuse to give us any info about the books. They won't even say definitively that they are planning to do paperback versions of all the existing releases. It's infuriating.
Those DA look very tempting ... BA Raldoron is already waiting in my cart for quite some time ... same as the DA praetors ... it might finally be time to hit the buy button
Looks at those rules, looks back to my pheonix guard terminators. Feelsbad
so for 10 points more than my pheonix guard,Terminators they get
-ranged attacks at 2 shots each ap 2 ignoring cover
-adamantium will
-stubborn
-higher ws on their champ and all of them get ws buff for using swords, with options for hammers
- a choice 7 specialist buffs they choose at start of game to tailor to enemy
-2 wounds on their champ
-EVEN THEIR GRENADE HARNESS IS 5 POINTS CHEAPER
in return pheonix terminators get
-ap2 on charge
-can auto win draws
- can spend 15 points for shriekers for a-1 ws buff on enemies which doesn't work against certain legions
Orodhen wrote: So they can re-roll failed hits during Overwatch, but Cataphractii armour can't Overwatch...
There’s a chance the orders will be available to other models, due to some of the wording in the rules. ‘ ...in which it, or a unit it is part of’ and ‘...for a unit that includes this model’ are quite redundant if this unit is the only one with access to them. They imply to me that there might be characters who use them too or something.
Orodhen wrote: So they can re-roll failed hits during Overwatch, but Cataphractii armour can't Overwatch...
There’s a chance the orders will be available to other models, due to some of the wording in the rules. ‘ ...in which it, or a unit it is part of’ and ‘...for a unit that includes this model’ are quite redundant if this unit is the only one with access to them. They imply to me that there might be characters who use them too or something.
The rules also state "Before the start of play each unit of Inner Circle Knights must be assigned an Order". Note that it doesn't say "Inner Circle Knights Cenobium". Could be nothing, but to me this implies there will be one or two more units that will be "Inner Circle Knights *something*" that will also have access to these Orders.
Would play into a lot of the speculation that Dark Angels will make up for their lackluster baseline rules by having lots of customization options through RoW, and now these Orders.
Makes sense for the First legion to be highly adaptable.
My first impression of these Cenobium was that I really liked them. But now, the more I look at them, the less I find myself liking them.
I find them to be a bit too busy for my tastes. My eye doesn't seem to land anywhere in particular. And at first I thought it was just because of the colours used on them, but even the unpainted pictures still keep the eye wandering. Can't even put it down to the usual sloppy FW paintjob, as these are quite well painted.
Snrub wrote: My first impression of these Cenobium was that I really liked them. But now, the more I look at them, the less I find myself liking them.
I find them to be a bit too busy for my tastes. My eye doesn't seem to land anywhere in particular. And at first I thought it was just because of the colours used on them, but even the unpainted pictures still keep the eye wandering. Can't even put it down to the usual sloppy FW paintjob, as these are quite well painted.
I think that if they didn't have the banding on the thigh, and maybe a different, less Templar-styled helm, they would be excellent. Making the legs more plain would give a visual break, allowing the shins and chest to draw more attention instead of blending together. And everything else on them is wings and arches, but the helm is suddenly a straight templar cross under a hood. Single characters can get away with being this busy, the terminator praetor looks good. But when it is a full squad, it just jumbles together.
Still, good looking models, even if the execution is just a tad off. Would love to see the same sculptor do a pass on Ultramarines, Iron Hands, and Black Templars.
Since the Daemons of the Ruinstorm were unleashed in The Horus Heresy Book Eight – Malevolence, Space Marine Legions have been searching for a way to deal with this new threat. Fortunately, Greg Dann from the Imperial Truth Podcast is on hand with some advice on how to deal with the Neverborn.
Greg: The Daemons of the Ruinstorm army offers a unique challenge in the Age of Darkness, with new rules that combine elements of play that appear in other armies individually. On top of this, each unit in the army can take at least one of the Emanations of Horror,* meaning that between two opponents each unit choice might have a completely different role.
Much like when the Legions first encountered Daemons, it can take a while to adjust to this new threat, and in the meantime they can be daunting to face. Here are just three areas of consideration when taking on the forces of the Primordial Annihilator.
Hard to Kill
Where a Space Marines army might find its resilience in heavily armoured vehicles and 2+ armour saves, a Daemons of the Ruinstorm army brings high Toughness, multiple Wounds and a 5+ invulnerable save. As a result, you’re going to need different tools to deal with them.
The humble autocannon is an example of a weapon that can be overlooked in Legion armies, but it comes into its own against Daemons. It provides 2 shots that ignore the base armour save of all but Ka’bandha and Samus and reliably wounds the majority of unit choices. Doing all of this from 48” away makes a very attractive alternative to much more expensive weapons.
Another way to get around these challenges is to make each hit really count, and nothing works better at that than the Instant Death special rule. This might come in the form of a weapon profile like a Paragon blade, but can also be achieved by the Strength of the weapon being double the Toughness of the target. Strength 10 weapons can do this to Lesser Daemons from the first turn, and by turn five they can even take out Greater Daemons.** Of course, even with the best planning, it’s still possible that the Dark Gods will bless your opponent and they’ll pass all of their invulnerable saves!
Finally, never forget that quantity is a quality all of its own. Most Legion armies are dripping with bolters and, combined with a well-timed Fury of the Legion attack from your Tactical squads, can bring down even the biggest of targets.
Combat
The Assault phase is where most Daemons of the Ruinstorm armies pose the greatest threat. While they have a limited number of shooting attacks and can pump out a LOT of psychic powers, when it comes to killing, they do it best up-close and personal. Dealing with this threat is very similar to taking on any assault-based army.
Avoidance is the most obvious solution – if they can’t charge you then they can’t kill you! Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. Finding ways to slow down the enemy is key, and one way to achieve this is through the valiant sacrifice of a unit. A well-placed Rhino can force a unit to move sideways rather than forward in the Movement phase, and while they can still charge, you can restrict them to only charging that Rhino. By sacrificing a small number of points and some of your own manoeuvrability you can hold up a deadly enemy unit, buying yourself some time and another crucial round of shooting.
If you have access to Fearless or Stubborn units you can take the initiative and charge the enemy yourself, pinning them into position. This allows your other units to tactically withdraw or to concentrate on the remainder of the enemy force.
Of course, Space Marines are no slouches in combat themselves. For example, Firedrakes will give any Monstrous Creature pause, as they have the potential to absorb their attacks and deal the damage back. A World Eaters Rampager squad is a threat to a unit of Lesser Daemons due to the sheer weight of attacks they can bring to bear at a decent Initiative. Speaking of Initiative, one other thing to remember is that Cor’bax is the only Daemon of the Ruinstorm that counts as being equipped with assault grenades – make the most of your terrain in these combats.
Missions
Never take your eye off the mission! Obviously this is true for all games, but it has a different feel when playing against Daemons. Each Aetheric Dominion*** has the ability to ignore the mission that was rolled and play their own. This means you might be trying to hold objectives while your opponent can choose to ignore them completely.
Whether your opponent receives victory points for units destroyed by psychic powers (as with the Maddening Swarms Aetheric Dominion) or by causing enemy units to fail morale checks (as with the Lurid Onslaught Aetheric Dominion) should fundamentally change the way you approach the game. In the face of a Crimson Fury list, for example, where the enemy wants to see units (friend or foe) killed in combat, you may have to resist moving forward onto objectives until later in the game even though it feels counterproductive. If your usual plan plays into the strengths of your opponent to the extent that you do not think you can win, then you need to adapt.
Daemons of the Ruinstorm can be a challenge to face, but if you choose your weapons wisely, pick your combats and never take your eye of the mission, then you’ll be able to carry the day.
Thanks, Greg! If you’d rather fight for the Ruinous Powers rather than against them, make sure you pick up a unit of Ruinstorm Daemon Brutes.
* Emanations represent the vast number of mutations and manifestations of Chaos evidenced by the minions of the Warp and offer individualisation on a huge scale to Daemons of the Ruinstorm armies.
** The Daemons of the Ruinstorm have a special rule called Tides of Madness that symbolises how hard it is for Daemons to remain in realspace. In turn five, they suffer a -1 penalty to their Strength and Toughness.
*** Each Daemons of the Ruinstorm army is drawn from a Warp power, and these powers have their own agendas and goals. The six different Aetheric Dominions provide rules that represent the influence of those Warp powers.
Cenobium got a stealth update. They can now overwatch, are all characters, the leader can take digital lasers and two of the Order rules got buffed a bit. Nice update and made me get off the fence. I really like them now. With Thunder Hammers mostly.
I quite like them. I already picked up the Contemptor and the Praetors which are lovely.
I think the bit I really like is how thin the cloaks are - no thick ugly clumps of resin on those guys - its almost plastic cloak thin - which must be a furst for FW.
Mothman wrote: Looks at those rules, looks back to my pheonix guard terminators. Feelsbad
so for 10 points more than my pheonix guard,Terminators they get
-ranged attacks at 2 shots each ap 2 ignoring cover
-adamantium will
-stubborn
-higher ws on their champ and all of them get ws buff for using swords, with options for hammers
- a choice 7 specialist buffs they choose at start of game to tailor to enemy
-2 wounds on their champ
-EVEN THEIR GRENADE HARNESS IS 5 POINTS CHEAPER
in return pheonix terminators get
-ap2 on charge
-can auto win draws
- can spend 15 points for shriekers for a-1 ws buff on enemies which doesn't work against certain legions
Don't Phoenix also gives some morale thing to friendly dudes around them?
But yeah that's an example of the early writing problems some of the Heresy models have.
Crablezworth wrote: Really hoping they fix the spicola rockets soon. An artillery tank that needs line of sight but can't draw line of sight.
Spoiler:
Why would you drawn the line of sight in that direction? Just draw it in a straight line from the tip of the rockets to the point you are firing.
Because that's not what the rulebook says to draw line of sight or arc of fire. They forgot to give an artillery tank the barrage rule, very tough for it to fire given its hull mounting and the axis its mounted on.
*feths up rules link in the first place.
*Fixes, but adds rules for different load out.
*As an insult adds "For rules to use this unit in games of Warhammer 40,000, download the free PDF datasheet below.".
It looks like all they can do is write stupid puns for products that sell for 100+ euros.
Yes - and there's a third variant with a 'conventional' mortar coming as well (Morbus heavy bombard).
Automatically Appended Next Post: And the new rules are up (Graviton-charge cannon 24" * 4 Ordnance 1, Barrage, Large Blast (5"), Concussion, Graviton Pulse, Haywire)
This version is the first one they previewed, in the first Road to Thramas article. The first one they released had a missile cluster at the back instead.
So here's one, they gave the grav weapon barrage but updated the spiccola rocket system to spitefull say it need line of sight... on a artillery tank with a hull mounted weapon pointing up. So its an artilelry tank where only one of its two weapons is barrage... or can even shoot really.
Alpharius wrote: We’ll just have to wait for them to FAQ and/or errata things - and until they do, let common sense prevail!
The joke is they're previewing rules for a book that will likely ship with errors, errors that likely won't be addressed unless there's another printing or ever. There is a very real sense that whoever is tending the ship at forgeworld on the 30k front may not fully understand the game they've been tasked with. The re-writes come off pedantic and even passive aggressive, instead of fixing the problem they double down. Case in point the recent dark angels terminators, given a special unique weapon they can't fully make use of because they're in cataphracti terminator armour that doesn't let them overwatch. Forgeworld's fix was basically this:
zedmeister wrote: Typical current Forgeworld. Gorgeous models and dubious rules. 9" range on the heavy plasma burner when it moves. Not sure about that.
I was more about rolling a single D3 for the whole unit, instead of usually clustering around an average of 3 shots, it's going to vary equally between damp squib, average roll, and lighting the target up like the 4th of July.
I like how Forge World has so few original ideas these days that they just copied Hellblasters wholesale
Speaking of Hellblasters, 10 models of bad anatomy FW squatblasters cost 84£. A squad of Hellblasters (purely for guns), Mk III plastic squad, and Dark Angels Upgrade Pack costs 73£, and that's without even considering FW will throw tons for shipping on top of it, three plastic kits can be had 20% off in local game store, and you can use leftover Mk III guns to arm Hellblasters as Intercessors with variant pattern guns as freebie. And that's pessimistic case, you can try to find DA Hellblaster box which had DA pad sprues thrown in for free. Gee, I wonder which one is a better deal?
Why, yes, squatblasters have extra metal bar on their helmets. Something that needs seconds to make out of greenstuff, even for amateur hobbyist. That is surely worth paying 3x the price
"Copied Hellblasters" - lol. You mean like Hellblasters copied Legion Support Squads, but less interesting?
Also, we have some late breaking news here at the Obvious News Network; Forgeworld have released a unit with an expensive pricetag. Tune in at 11 for more on this absolutely stunning and unprecedented development.
To be fair, it would make sense that the idea for Hellblasters didn't spring into Roboute's head out of nowhere when he was outlining the Primaris Codex with his BFF Belisarius. Having a 30k-era predecessor to the unit isn't the stupidest thing in the world.
In fact, haven't 30k marines been able to take entire squads with plasma guns before now? I could've sworn that was where the idea first came from.
Agamemnon2 wrote: To be fair, it would make sense that the idea for Hellblasters didn't spring into Roboute's head out of nowhere when he was outlining the Primaris Codex with his BFF Belisarius. Having a 30k-era predecessor to the unit isn't the stupidest thing in the world.
In fact, haven't 30k marines been able to take entire squads with plasma guns before now? I could've sworn that was where the idea first came from.
EDIT: Curses, foil'd by Yodhrin!
Holy crap! I just realized that Rievers are rip offs of Terror Squads! Infiltrate? Check. Terror troops? Check. FETHING SKULL HELMETS? Check.
Fething loyalist scum. So why the feth can't Night Lords have Terror Squads in 40kgw?
This month, The Road to Thramas looks at a new unit for the Dark Angels Legion and their glorious models. Get ready to protect your Characters from the worst that the Night Lords can throw at them.
The finest warriors from the Deathwing compose the ranks of Companions, honour-bound to form the personal bodyguard of Dark Angels officers. Each has taken an oath to lay down their lives before letting harm come to the one they are tasked to protect.* Any among the Companions that took a death-blow meant for their charge and survived would be granted the right to wear bone-white armour in recognition of their selfless devotion.
Equipped with the finest artificer armour and armed as standard with either a Terranic greatsword or Calibanite warblade, the Deathwing Companions also have access to a unique item of wargear – the Cytheron pattern Aegis. This provides the bearer with a 4+ Invulnerable save against Shooting attacks, and a 5+ Invulnerable save against attacks in Melee. Alternatively, the Aegis can be deployed to give the entire squad those Invulnerable saves, and any enemy models engaging the squad in assault suffers a -1 Initiative penalty.**
At the time of the Horus Heresy, the Deathwing were known as elite line breakers that shattered enemy formations, creating openings for other units. As veterans of battle, they were also able to go toe-to-toe with any hostile threat, as represented by the Companions’ Scion of the Deathwing special rule.
This dovetails nicely with the Companions’ Chosen Warriors special rule, which allows them to fight in a Challenge as if they were a Character.
The Deathwing Companions will be out later in the year, as will The Horus Heresy Book Nine – Crusade, which features more rules and background for the Dark Angels and the Night Lords. In the meantime, pick up a Dark Angels Praetor for your Companions to accompany into battle.
* In fact, a force of Deathwing Companions provided the garrison force for the inner citadel on both Caliban and Gramarye, charged with the safety of Lion El’Jonson himself.
** However, this does require two members of the squad to be equipped with an Aegis, and those carrying them can neither shoot nor fight in close combat while they’re deployed.
Does this constitute a retcon to the Deathwing's backstory? Namely about why and when they adopted the bone colored armor. I thought it was done post-heresy to honor the noble sacrifice of some terminators... uh, somewhere. The details escape me now.
Loving the helmet wings. I've been considering getting the recent Master Lazarus model and some of the HH 30k line to convert into my custom Winged Hussar chapter.
Agamemnon2 wrote: Does this constitute a retcon to the Deathwing's backstory? Namely about why and when they adopted the bone colored armor. I thought it was done post-heresy to honor the noble sacrifice of some terminators... uh, somewhere. The details escape me now.
I think so - Deathwing were exclusively Terminators, and only bone coloured after a confrontation with a Broodlord on a recruiting world (originally a lone Librarian, later a squad). But that might be covered in the new fluff - "Each has taken an oath to lay down their lives before letting harm come to the one they are tasked to protect. Any among the Companions that took a death-blow meant for their charge and survived would be granted the right to wear bone-white armour in recognition of their selfless devotion."
DA have had one of the most consistently great model reveals so far for their 30k lineup, makes me wonder what the Lion himself will look like given the roll they're on right now.
Agamemnon2 wrote: Does this constitute a retcon to the Deathwing's backstory? Namely about why and when they adopted the bone colored armor. I thought it was done post-heresy to honor the noble sacrifice of some terminators... uh, somewhere. The details escape me now.
I think so - Deathwing were exclusively Terminators, and only bone coloured after a confrontation with a Broodlord on a recruiting world (originally a lone Librarian, later a squad). But that might be covered in the new fluff - "Each has taken an oath to lay down their lives before letting harm come to the one they are tasked to protect. Any among the Companions that took a death-blow meant for their charge and survived would be granted the right to wear bone-white armour in recognition of their selfless devotion."
Its more a retcon of a retcon, the Terminators were old school native american themed dark angels which have been abandoned for a long long time, the tale of two heads talking has them go to their homeworld and find a genestealer cult, two heads talking dies fighting a genestealer patriarch (now called broodlords), in honour of his death the deathwing repaint their armour white (bone now).
So the story is
the Dark angels return home after a long campaign
they find their own people have turned against them
they destroy the enemy
they lose their leader in the process
the plot points are the same as
The Dark Angels return home after the heresy
find their people have turned against them
they destroy them
they lose the lion in the process.
So its an in universe allegory for the betrayal and is likely the first story on the path to the inner circle with other stories revealing more and more of the truth.
and when they reach the inner circle they're told they really found a shipment of brand new terminator armour actually intended for the white scars, but kept it rather than passing it on,
Agamemnon2 wrote: Does this constitute a retcon to the Deathwing's backstory? Namely about why and when they adopted the bone colored armor. I thought it was done post-heresy to honor the noble sacrifice of some terminators... uh, somewhere. The details escape me now.
I think so - Deathwing were exclusively Terminators, and only bone coloured after a confrontation with a Broodlord on a recruiting world (originally a lone Librarian, later a squad). But that might be covered in the new fluff - "Each has taken an oath to lay down their lives before letting harm come to the one they are tasked to protect. Any among the Companions that took a death-blow meant for their charge and survived would be granted the right to wear bone-white armour in recognition of their selfless devotion."
Its more a retcon of a retcon, the Terminators were old school native american themed dark angels which have been abandoned for a long long time, the tale of two heads talking has them go to their homeworld and find a genestealer cult, two heads talking dies fighting a genestealer patriarch (now called broodlords), in honour of his death the deathwing repaint their armour white (bone now).
So the story is
the Dark angels return home after a long campaign
they find their own people have turned against them
they destroy the enemy
they lose their leader in the process
the plot points are the same as
The Dark Angels return home after the heresy
find their people have turned against them
they destroy them
they lose the lion in the process.
So its an in universe allegory for the betrayal and is likely the first story on the path to the inner circle with other stories revealing more and more of the truth.
The Dark Angels spend so much time revealing the REAL STORY of things that by the time you reach the Deathwing the conversation goes like: "Now you've reached the Deathwing, we can reveal the truth of the XXX to you."
"Oh not again. Now what!? Is Caliban still around somewhere!? Is the Lion still around!? AM I THE LION!?"
Hahaha that is so true PM, I've thought that a couple of times, poor Azrael had to go through literally everything only to have cypher reveal the super dupa mega ultra truth for reals this time
Fantastic looking models. FW continues to hit it out of the park with the First Legion. The Dark Angels will be one of the most striking armies on the tabletop in 30k.
As for the Deathwing, I don’t see it as a retcon. The Deathwing of 30k were much different than 40k. Did the Deathwing keep the bone white pieces of armor after the Heresy? Was that exclusive to the Conpanions and stopped? Did the DA slowly forget about that tradition? Did the Deathwing Terminators paint their armor all bone white in remembrance in honor of their leader and in keeping with the old traditions? It was several thousand years after the Heresy at that point and the DA are all about secrets so who knows what was forgotten or changed by then.
Gadzilla666 wrote: More Dark Angels? The Road to Thramas is looking pretty fething one sided so far. Nice models though.
This is the Dark Angels first proper showing in the Heresy. The Night Lords will have less stuff than them, seeing as they already have a handful of units and characters.
While I have a passion of hating DA, their heresy line is some of the best marine sculpts there are IMO.
Everything about them just fits and looks great.
Probably alone here but I am so so sick of reused CAD in the newer heresy models, these companions totally miss the mark for me being MKIV armour rather than MKII, they look like 40k Dark Angels not 30k ones, too much bling, if terranic greatswords do not change its another unit that hard counters deamons of the ruinstorm a force that is in desperate need of a buff to even be able to play.
Long time ago since I made a FW order ... still missing Raldoron of the BA ... hopefully after Deathwing Companions a DA character series model comes out as well ... then I have a huge cart to checkout
Well the latter may already be a plastic model in the form of Cypher? Who knows. And don’t joke about the former as what with primarchs and stuff in 40k it may one day happen!
beast_gts wrote: Updated rules. Not sure why you'd choose the Carcass shells over the Explosive shells - against Mechnicum Battle-automata perhaps?
Daemons, Militia and Solar Auxilia I'd reckon. Ignore's Cover, AP4 and Fleshbane seem perfect for that
Yeah, but what in that list isn’t wounded in a 2+ by S10 anyway? Or at least I believe that’s the point being made.
So realistically the only benefit is ignoring cover, which is kinda marginal (or irrelevant on some tables). At least it’s a built-in function rather than a thing you have to pay for.
beast_gts wrote: Updated rules. Not sure why you'd choose the Carcass shells over the Explosive shells - against Mechnicum Battle-automata perhaps?
Daemons, Militia and Solar Auxilia I'd reckon. Ignore's Cover, AP4 and Fleshbane seem perfect for that
Yeah, but what in that list isn’t wounded in a 2+ by S10 anyway? Or at least I believe that’s the point being made.
So realistically the only benefit is ignoring cover, which is kinda marginal (or irrelevant on some tables). At least it’s a built-in function rather than a thing you have to pay for.
Yep - not sure why you'd take a Morbus over a cheaper Vindicator.
beast_gts wrote: Updated rules. Not sure why you'd choose the Carcass shells over the Explosive shells - against Mechnicum Battle-automata perhaps?
Daemons, Militia and Solar Auxilia I'd reckon. Ignore's Cover, AP4 and Fleshbane seem perfect for that
Yeah, but what in that list isn’t wounded in a 2+ by S10 anyway? Or at least I believe that’s the point being made.
So realistically the only benefit is ignoring cover, which is kinda marginal (or irrelevant on some tables). At least it’s a built-in function rather than a thing you have to pay for.
Yep - not sure why you'd take a Morbus over a cheaper Vindicator.
Very much this.
Looks better, but rules wise I’d rather stick with my pair of vindicators for value.
I've love to think they're hanging out here with us but...I don't think they are.
Yup, the frustration is, this is the third iteration of that pdf, been communicating the problem since the first. All they did was add the words line of sight, which doesn't address the mounting and arc of fire. It's extra weird because the other two weapon options are barrage for obvious reasons.
It does seem really odd that there would be a weapon on that carrier that isn't indirect fire, especially when it's modelled in a similar fashion to another indirect launcher.
H.B.M.C. wrote: It does seem really odd that there would be a weapon on that carrier that isn't indirect fire, especially when it's modelled in a similar fashion to another indirect launcher.
Exactly, it almost looks like they started with that one in cad and modified it, but ya they're almost identical.
pretty much the lion that we've seen. Lion is a bit of a beast:
The Road to Thramas – Part 5: The Lion
We’re sure you saw the reveal of the incredible Lion El’Jonson model at the Warhammer Preview Online on the 28th of March. If not, just take a look. We’ll give you a minute.
What a model, eh? Now you’re wondering about his rules, which will be in The Horus Heresy: Book 9 – Crusade. What does the Lion Sword do? Should you choose the Wolf Blade instead? How will the Lion’s fearsome combat prowess be given life? Most importantly of all, how does he match up against his nemesis, Konrad Curze? Fear not, sons of Caliban, the answers are here.
The Lion’s profile is broadly in line with his brother Primarchs.
His Weapon Skill and Initiative stand out, as befits a renowned duellist, and they’re backed up by a pair of rather nifty Special Rules that bolster his abilities considerably.
A potential seven Attacks that’ll never need more than a 4+ to hit sounds great – but which weapon do you want him to be hitting with? He has a choice of two, and it’s not an easy decision as they’re both pretty awesome.
The Lion Sword turns Jonson into an absolute monster whether he’s duelling enemy heroes or carving through vehicles. The Fleshbane and Lance rules, coupled with AP1 and a re-roll to hit (always on at least a 4+, remember!) with Master-crafted mean there’s little that won’t fall before him.
The Wolf Blade relies more on raw, brute power, making the Lion Strength 10. Coupled with Shred, which lets him re-roll failed wound rolls, this makes it a tempting choice. Add in the Fearsome Ruin rule and the Wolf Blade is the perfect choice for scything through entire squads of infantry – and with AP2, even Terminators won’t be safe from the Lion’s wrath.
The rest of the Lion’s equipment bolsters his prowess. The Leonine Panoply gives him a 2+ save and a 4+ invulnerable save, which can be re-rolled once per turn. For shooting, the Fusil Actinaeus is an archaic plasma weapon that can render enemies blind – if they survive its blistering salvo.
Lion El’Jonson also has the usual Primarch rules and can be accompanied by a squad of Deathwing Companions as part of his Lords of War choice, making a unit to fear and respect.
But will the Night Haunter be intimidated?
That’s something you’ll have to find out for yourself when the Lion hits tabletops – we’re sure there’ll be many recreations of the infamous duel from Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s short story ‘Savage Weapons’. Keep your eyes peeled for more about when you can get the model and for more sneak peeks at Crusade, coming your way soon. In the meantime, head to the Forge World Facebook page and get theoryhammering about how the Lion will fare against his traitorous brothers!
That Night Lord has the potential of being the equivalent of the fleeing peasant (or Johann... yes, I kind of enjoy the Roll Models stuff) for large 30k models.
Dryaktylus wrote: That Night Lord has the potential of being the equivalent of the fleeing peasant (or Johann... yes, I kind of enjoy the Roll Models stuff) for large 30k models.
Oooh, that's who he's supposed to be. Now it makes sense.
I'm still waiting to see Volkite NL's face. The question will be whether it's a regular MK IV helm, or a special skull one. Especially since GW claims "You can paint the dead marines in whatever colorscheme you want"
Grot 6 wrote: The Primarchs are pretty impressive. Is there going to be a model of 30K Deathwing terminators, as well?
Probably not. We have three unique units already, which is about the average (there may be one or two more in the book) and one of them is Deathwing already, and there's 6 wings. I don't see them doubling up.
The Cenobium Terminators are pretty much 30k Deathwing Terminators in all but name. And I’m sure you’ll be able to take them in a Deathwing list.
As for Lion El’Johnson, he is damn impressive so far. The Lion Sword and Wolf Blade are pretty similar though, with the Wolf Blade edging out the Lion Sword a bit from what I can tell. Both are really good though.
tneva82 wrote: point cost for the two weapons would be nice to know. Wolf blade is likely more pricey option.
Yeah, that's what I would assume too. Wolf blade is definitely better overall, just because S10 means you're wounding on 2's for most things anyways (with instant death no less for majority of infantry units), rerolling failed wounds and against vehicles it's better than S7 with lance. The Lion Sword is only good when you manage to roll damage table results with AP1 and being slightly more consistent with hits.
Odd, a primarch that doesn’t eat armour.
Having the lance rule is nice but he lacks the strength to do much with it.
As long as he avoids certain things he’s fine.
Would be amusing to watch him get charged by cassian and be helpless.
tneva82 wrote: Hopefully not. That would be GW main studio level of stupidity to have better weapon and worse weapon same price.
They've done it before with more obvious cases than the Lions swords.
They have also had differing points for ferrus depending on his weapon.
Ferrus & Perturabo are different because one profile has them without a weapon, using their fists, and the other has them one with one. Not at all the same as having two choices as in this case
Forgeworld are up to their old tricks. They're currently retiring tons of product. There heresy line is getting hit with a few surprsing models vanishing. Grab what you want as what goes next is anyone's guess. A few DKoK models and a load of other 40k stuff has also vanished. Here's a list of Heresy specific models that have gone:
Terrain Realm of Battle Mars Pattern Imperialis Landing Pad
Realm of Battle Necron Tomb Citadel
Realm of Battle Space Marine Castellum Stronghold
Imperial Emplacement
Realm of Battle Imperial Primus Redoubt
Realm of Battle Imperial Strongpoint
Realm of Battle Industrial Sector
Realm of Battle Genatorum Nexus
Realm of Battle Manufactorum Sector
Realm of Battle Cityscape Concourse Sector
Realm of Battle Cityscape Generatorum Sector
Models and accessories Space Wolves Mk IV Shoulder Pads
Raven Guard MKIV Shoulder Pads
Thousand Sons Achean Pattern Armour Upgrade Set
Death Guard Legion Land Raider Doors
Alpha Legion MKIII Shoulder Pads
World Eaters Legion MKIV Shoulder Pads
Vehicles Mechanicum Ordinatus Sagittar
Aurox Armoured Transport
There's also a rumour swirling that the Forgeworld store is to be rebranded as Warhammer Forge and merged with the main GW website. There's a thread on B&C where someone spotted a banner and heading for a few minutes. There's also this link and search results image:
The end of "Forge World" as a brand? Sad tidings indeed. It feels like only yesterday they kicked off this bold new venture on the then-wild-and-lawless Internet.
There is also a lot of stuff being removed without going to 'sold out' - for example the landraider prometheus and chimera spaced armour packs were available a couple of weeks ago and are now just gone.
I asked forgeworld "Would it be possible to get a list of items that are being discontinued in the coming months?".
They replied quickly... by hiding my post.
A.T. wrote: There is also a lot of stuff being removed without going to 'sold out' - for example the landraider prometheus and chimera spaced armour packs were available a couple of weeks ago and are now just gone.
I asked forgeworld "Would it be possible to get a list of items that are being discontinued in the coming months?".
They replied quickly... by hiding my post.
They did go Sold Out last week and were visible for a few days until they were removed on Friday.
zedmeister wrote: They did go Sold Out last week and were visible for a few days until they were removed on Friday.
Not wasting any time with it are they.
I searched around and spotted a list that was being kept of the purge. 86 items as of today, not including scenery/tiles. Mostly vehicle upgrades and shoulderpads - oldmarine/heresy scale stuff, excluding it seems the GK landraider as they aren't yet primarised. And i'd guess the rest is just poor sellers.
zedmeister wrote: They did go Sold Out last week and were visible for a few days until they were removed on Friday.
Not wasting any time with it are they.
I searched around and spotted a list that was being kept of the purge. 86 items as of today, not including scenery/tiles. Mostly vehicle upgrades and shoulderpads - oldmarine/heresy scale stuff, excluding it seems the GK landraider as they aren't yet primarised. And i'd guess the rest is just poor sellers.
zedmeister wrote: They did go Sold Out last week and were visible for a few days until they were removed on Friday.
Not wasting any time with it are they.
I searched around and spotted a list that was being kept of the purge. 86 items as of today, not including scenery/tiles. Mostly vehicle upgrades and shoulderpads - oldmarine/heresy scale stuff, excluding it seems the GK landraider as they aren't yet primarised. And i'd guess the rest is just poor sellers.
Could I get a link to that?
Joe on B&C has compiled a full list here:
Spoiler:
===== WARHAMMER 40,000 =====
== IMPERIUM ==
Aircraft Punisher Cannons
Black Templars Terminator Storm Shields
Blood Angels Chapter Repulsor Doors
Blood Angels Rhino Doors and Frontplate
Cadian Command HQ Squad
Cadian Hostile Environment Command Squad
Cadian Hostile Environment Troops Conversion Set
Cadian Hostile Environment Troops Melta Squad
Cadian Hostile Environment Troops Plasma Squad
Chimera Armoured Skirts
Chimera Autocannon Turret
Dark Angels Chapter Repulsor Doors
Dark Angels Rhino Doors and Frontplate
Death Company Rhino Doors
Death Korps of Krieg Equipment Set
Death Korps of Krieg Mars Alpha Pattern Leman Russ Executioner
Imperial Fists Chapter Repulsor Doors Set 1
Imperial Fists Chapter Repulsor Doors Set 2
Imperial Fists Rhino Doors and Front Plate
Imperial/Crimson Firsts Terminator Shoulder Pads
Inquisition Land Raider Doors
Inquisition Rhino Back Door
Inquisition Rhino Doors
Iron Hands Chapter Repulsor Doors
Land Raider Helios
Land Raider Prometheus
Land Raider Reinforced Armour
Minotaurs Chapter Repulsor Doors
Minotaurs Marine Shoulder Pads
MKIIC Rhino Dozer Blade
MKV Mortis Dreadnought Autocannon
MKV Mortis Dreadnought Lascannon
Purity Seals
Raven Guard Chapter Repulsor Doors
Raven Guard Rhino Doors and Front Plate Set 1
Raven Guard Shadow Captain Korvydae
Raven Guard Space Marines Upgrade Pack
Razorback Lascannon and Plasma Gun Turret
Red Scorpions Chapter Repulsor Doors
Red Scorpions Marine Shoulder Pads
Rhino/Predator Reinforced Armour
Salamanders Chapter Repulsor Doors
Salamanders Marine Shoulder Pads
Salamanders Rhino Doors and Frontplate
Space Marine Air Defence Missile Launcher
Space Marine Character Conversion Set
Space Marine Heavy Weapons Set
Space Wolves Chapter Repulsor Doors Set 1
Space Wolves Chapter Repulsor Doors Set 2
Space Wolves Rhino Doors and Front Plate
Space Wolves Terminator Conversion Set
Ultramarines Chapter Repulsor Doors
Ultramarines Rhino Doors and Frontplate
Ultramarines Rhino Rear Door
Ultramarines Terminator Shoulder Pads
Vanquisher Stygies VIII Conversion Kit
White Scars Chapter Repulsor Doors
White Scars Rhino Doors and Frontplate
Cadian Infantry Squad Upgrade Pack
Cadian Infantry Squad with Respirators Upgrade Pack
Death Korps of Krieg Lascannon Team 3
Raven Guard Chapter Land Raider Doors Set 2
Iron Hands Land Raider Doors
White Scars Land Raider Doors
== CHAOS ==
Chain Axes
Death Guard Land Raider Doors
Death Guard Legion MKIV Shoulder Pads
Death Guard Rhino Doors
Nurgle Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer
Sons of Horus Land Raider Doors Set 2
Thousand Sons Rhino Doors
World Eaters Rhino Doors
World Eaters Terminators Conversion Set
== AELDARI ==
Phoenix
Wasp Assault Walker
== ORKS ==
Ork Killkannon
Ork Trukk with Enclosed Cab
== T'AU ==
Shas'o R'mr's Battlesuit
== TERRAIN ==
Realm of Battle Mars Pattern Imperialis Landing Pad
Realm of Battle Necron Tomb Citadel
Realm of Battle Space Marine Castellum Stronghold
Imperial Emplacement
Realm of Battle Imperial Primus Redoubt
Realm of Battle Imperial Strongpoint
Realm of Battle Industrial Sector
Realm of Battle Genatorum Nexus
Realm of Battle Manufactorum Sector
Realm of Battle Cityscape Concourse Sector
Realm of Battle Cityscape Generatorum Sector
===== THE HORUS HERESY =====
== LOYALIST LEGION ASTARTES ==
Space Wolves Mk IV Shoulder Pads
Raven Guard MKIV Shoulder Pads
== TRAITOR LEGION ASTARTES ==
Thousand Sons Achean Pattern Armour Upgrade Set
Death Guard Legion Land Raider Doors
Wolf Rats went LCTB back in December 2019, so they've either had trouble shifting the last of the stock in most parts of the world, or they just haven't removed them from the site for eight months.
Disappointed to see more Solar Auxilia stuff disappear. I know it was a pet project from someone who no longer works there, and the guy who took over from him also left, but it's definitely some of the best Horus Heresy sculpts they made. Might have to bite the bullet of the Australian rate if the infantry even come back.
Tim the Biovore wrote: Disappointed to see more Solar Auxilia stuff disappear. I know it was a pet project from someone who no longer works there, and the guy who took over from him also left, but it's definitely some of the best Horus Heresy sculpts they made.
This. I was thinking about getting another Aurox on payday this month, but nope, it’s gone for good now! a little bit of heads up would’ve been nice!
Such a shame, they really are the nicest looking range they do imo, but evidently don’t sell that well...
Might have to pivot to a leman russ incinerator on payday instead, just in case that disappears soon as well...
I can't speak to the other items in the list but i got hold of a primus redoubt last year and had a discussion with FW about the lack of quality in the main tile (sagging roof, air holes, curves where there should be straight edges, etc) and they said that what i received was the best you were going to get.
When i was pushing them on whether another tile was going to be any better they let on that when they do a mold for the tiles they produce tiles until the mold breaks or the quality of the final tile is not good enough.
They told me that they had a pile of them left last year and after they sold them they would re-assess if they need to make a new mold or not.
Was really disappointed to hear that because the fluff says they are literally all over the place on recently compliant worlds.
And with a tile as sub-standard as this while claiming it to be solid gold, i don't think anyone was going to buy multiples; i was planning to, but the lack of quality control made me start work on an STL for the bunker annex instead.
So glad I picked up the castellum and emplacement now... seems like they only want one set of shoulder pads per legion too.
Kinda makes you a bit disillusioned with Forgeworld though, whats the point in buying from them at all if the models won't be usable in games after the current edition?
I want a terror assault list for 30K, but what sane person would start an army for me to play against at this rate...
It does "freeze" the system and models in time though, which is kinda cool. Good luck to any new collectors finding one of my "ancient, rare and fantastic" MK2 Night Lords shoulder pads now!
I do wonder what the future holds for forgeworld outside of the specialist games, 40k seems to be largely a dead line for them these days, with hardly any new models released during 8th edition.
30k has seen fairly regular releases though. But the focus seems to be fully on the specialist games rather than anything else.
Sad to see the realm of battle boards disappearing, I always thought I’d get some at some point. Same with the old Zone Mortalis stuff. But I guess that’s available in plastic now (albeit in a much smaller size.)
General Kroll wrote: I do wonder what the future holds for forgeworld outside of the specialist games, 40k seems to be largely a dead line for them these days, with hardly any new models released during 8th edition.
30k has seen fairly regular releases though. But the focus seems to be fully on the specialist games rather than anything else.
Sad to see the realm of battle boards disappearing, I always thought I’d get some at some point. Same with the old Zone Mortalis stuff. But I guess that’s available in plastic now (albeit in a much smaller size.)
If the rules dam has broken we might see more from them. Supposedly new 9th edition FW rules are coming.
General Kroll wrote: I do wonder what the future holds for forgeworld outside of the specialist games, 40k seems to be largely a dead line for them these days, with hardly any new models released during 8th edition.
30k has seen fairly regular releases though. But the focus seems to be fully on the specialist games rather than anything else.
Sad to see the realm of battle boards disappearing, I always thought I’d get some at some point. Same with the old Zone Mortalis stuff. But I guess that’s available in plastic now (albeit in a much smaller size.)
I think the business mix seems clear enough just from recent history.
- Specialist games
- Heresy releases for 'whales' - new special units, vehicles, characters, titans, etc.
- Reduced 40K catalog, limited (no?) new releases
There's a method to madness of the shoulder pad removals now I look closely.
If you look, all legions which traditionally have MK IV pads still have them on the store. What's more, the ones which are out of sale are marked as 'Temporarily Sold Out'. In other words, they're coming back and just out of stock.
Meanwhile, all legions with MK II and III armour types still have their MK III pads available under the same premise as above.
In other words, they've kept available the closest appropriate type of pads for each of the legions that fits the two plastic armour kits they make (MK III and IV). They've ditched all the MK II pads completely though.
In a way, that's something of a spoiler as to future releases. If they'd kept MK II pads only available for White Scars, World Eaters, etc; we'd know that plastic MK II was on the cards at some point. The fact that they're basically just shrugging and only providing MK III pads for them tells us that plastic MK II isn't envisioned for any point soon.
Very interesting if that's the case Ketara, since the Repulsor doors are all gone now too.
If Forgeworld are ditching primaris specific items, it might mean that not only will primaris not be one of their new focuses, they might be ditching 40k entirely, fitting in with what Gorgon said.
General Kroll wrote: I do wonder what the future holds for forgeworld outside of the specialist games, 40k seems to be largely a dead line for them these days, with hardly any new models released during 8th edition.
30k has seen fairly regular releases though. But the focus seems to be fully on the specialist games rather than anything else.
Sad to see the realm of battle boards disappearing, I always thought I’d get some at some point. Same with the old Zone Mortalis stuff. But I guess that’s available in plastic now (albeit in a much smaller size.)
If the rules dam has broken we might see more from them. Supposedly new 9th edition FW rules are coming.
Supposedly.
They're definitely being pretty tight lipped about them. Hope it isn't because they're bad.
zedmeister wrote: There's also a rumour swirling that the Forgeworld store is to be rebranded as Warhammer Forge and merged with the main GW website. There's a thread on B&C where someone spotted a banner and heading for a few minutes. There's also this link and search results image:
Well this was shared on local 30k chat. No real reliability validation possible. Otoh seems weird, otohfw has been on such a slowburner wouldn't be weirdest move.
the first image is too small/indistinct for me to read, any chance of trying again?
that said it's been quite clear GW has been cross promoting staff out of FW for a while,
I think it also used to be where senior staff ended up when the couldn't work with gw corporate any more but neither didn't want to leave and do their own thing,
but now things are more relaxed these folk are probably not moving over any more
so it wouldn't surprise me if they've ended up in a place where they don't thing they can support an ongoing game especially as the audience is more and more going to have to learn it as a new game (having never played 7th)…
and since GW had apparently(?) taken the rules responsibility for the 40K stuff off FW that either they're not up to the job of writing 9th ed rules (or have too small a team to do so in a timely fashion) so updating the whole of HH is probably not feasible for the at the moment
Also known as 'Flagging sales due to us pricing everything at such an extortionately high level that a bloke in a garage in China operating an email only list can undercut us by 80%'.
Although to be honest, I don't believe it anyway. I just think Heresy is certainly on the downswing, and that they're compacting the range. Only one shoulder pad per legion, cut loose the lowest selling elements (big mechanicus items, solar auxilia, etc). It also wouldn't surprise me if the odds and sods 40K stuff went the way of the dodo (the dark eldar craft, for example).
But being dropped altogether? No. They've invested far too much time and money into it to drop it out the blue. Cutting it down to the essentials to maintain high turnover and free up shelf space/casting time is a good idea.
If you want Solar Auxilia though, now is probably the time to grab them. They dropped the medic character after one very poor sales run, tank crews went ages back, and now their one of their transports is gone. Given their faction (i.e. imperial army/renegades) in 40K can be easily played/represented by half a dozen ranges in plastic, I don't see them surviving much longer. They're just too expensive to sell much (i.e. £72 for a command squad).
or due to the fact that they've dropped a bunch of stuff, and now Calth & Prospero are out and on the second hand market there's an alternate legitimate supply of stuff far beyond what was around when HH was all resin
if they could re-release either I bet they'd still sell pretty well
As I've said before, HH is insane as a business pitch -- from the lavish coffee table books to the 15+ year release span to the extremely expensive miniatures to the unavailability at GW stores and FLGS. Huge kudos to Mr. Bligh for getting that fever dream off the ground. But if this is the end...it's kinda understandable.
Having said that, it still seems to me that the whales still buy a lot and that it might make sense to keep that fire alive. So I'm not sure if I buy it.
Also known as 'Flagging sales due to us pricing everything at such an extortionately high level that a bloke in a garage in China operating an email only list can undercut us by 80%'.
Although to be honest, I don't believe it anyway. I just think Heresy is certainly on the downswing, and that they're compacting the range. Only one shoulder pad per legion, cut loose the lowest selling elements (big mechanicus items, solar auxilia, etc). It also wouldn't surprise me if the odds and sods 40K stuff went the way of the dodo (the dark eldar craft, for example).
But being dropped altogether? No. They've invested far too much time and money into it to drop it out the blue.
They don't have to drop it completely. HH is basically Space Marines: the Space Marine-ing. They can still get money out of the existing casts until they wear out, selling various bits and bobs of SM things to 40k collectors who want them. But wrapping up the book line and not doing new stuff? That quite possibly is a money and time investment that may not be worth it anymore.
"Lagging sales from recasters". lmaooooo, as if they have any way to actually quantify the number of recasts out there+ distinguish a lost sale from a sale they never would have gotten in the first place (ie someone with enough money to buy recasts but not enough to buy FW proper).
Such a bold statement that I'm almost inclined to believe the whole thing is fake. Or rather, the guy is just making the same educated guesses all of us have been making.
If I could afford FW resin I’d rather it over the recasted due to quality concerns... in America the pricing of this stuff is atrocious and beyond any common consumer. I have been tempted by recasters before though
Yeah "it's all the ebil recasters fault" seems like a pretty petty way of acknowledging their prices are too high, their releases are too slow, and their range is too small because they keep dumping stuff from it.
The "they won't change the rules to 8th" thing is also a red flag to me, because as far as I can tell that's a very minority position among HH fans(which, again, because this comes up every time, means people who play HH using HH rules for the sake of playing battles in the HH setting with their HH armies - wanting to use a Legion list to play 40k with your mates is not HH gaming, sorry), and GW surely have to know that.
That said, I don't think it's impossible the walnut brains in corporate would decide it's not worth the bother based on a spreadsheet somewhere where one number isn't quite as much more as another number than they'd want - that's why WHFB died afterall, there's no indication it ever stopped being profitable, it just wasn't profitable enough for people who's mentality was everything should be doing at-or-near Space Marine numbers or it's worthless.
I don't get why they would just get rid of it though, because they already know what a "successful" Heresy setup looks like: the one they started with - hire one incredibly invested bloke to do 90% of the writing, give him part time access to one of the editors, and let the sculptors from the rest of the "subdivision" do HH stuff as extras and side projects. You can't tell me there's *nobody* out there among the company or the fandom who couldn't match Alan Bligh at least in terms of output if not quite quality.
Heresy is struggling because it's a larger-than-40K-size wargame made almost entirely of expensive resin models. They should never have *tried* to make models for almost everything in the first place unless they were willing to take it plastic.
My tongue is only partially in my cheek when I say I lost any interest in HH when the RRP crept so high that it meant that even the recasts priced me out.
Azreal13 wrote: My tongue is only partially in my cheek when I say I lost any interest in HH when the RRP crept so high that it meant that even the recasts priced me out.
Which is funny and shocking at the same time.
Fortunately the sound of my 'Nooooooooooo' at the lost opportunity over the scenery tiles that were always wishlisted but I never got around to buying is cancelled out at my wallet's sigh of relief and my overcrowded spare room's praise to the heavens.
I also will never have to suffer the Paddington stares from my wife as yet another large package arrives.
Really surprised they havent considered licensing out at least the smaller bits to other bits places
Palming the blame onto recasters is nonsence, as I understand their prices are based off % of GW rrp but FW prices are so excessive that just buying for example a legit stock rhino or a demios from a recaster comes in at the same without the morality or quality issues but all GW sees is FW stuff not selling
The "they won't change the rules to 8th" thing is also a red flag to me, because as far as I can tell that's a very minority position among HH fans
But that is of course because at this point only the people who are willing to tolerate an antiquated and kludgy system are are left. A lot of people just quit when it turned out that HH was not moving to the 8th.
(which, again, because this comes up every time, means people who play HH using HH rules for the sake of playing battles in the HH setting with their HH armies - wanting to use a Legion list to play 40k with your mates is not HH gaming, sorry), and GW surely have to know that.
I really do not see a practical difference. It is marines fighting marines. That's what HH is.
When I first hear that they would be staying with the 7th I said that it would be a death sentence. But hey, I guess this is better. Now HH can die while remaining 'pure', and not be tainted by the hated 8/9 edition rules or all those people who would play it wrong...
Sticking in 7th was a death sentence. Know quite a few players who bought into HH because they could double-field the armies.
Ultimately a lack of clear plan is what killed HH in my opinion, something that was inevitable with the passing of Bligh.
I think GW could do better with the HH line and turn things around, but it would require a change of perspective and approach. Such as:
* Make 9th edition rules for the game. This would entice potential 40k players to invest in 30k out of curiosity that could lead into a full blown 30k addiction.
* Make foundation SKU plastic kits. They were kinda doing it with the Calth and Prospero boxes, but they could have taken it further. It would however require them to plan a line around it which iis not GW's forte.
* Make FW more of a Third-Party bits developer with the occasional mega item(Titans). Recasters thrive mostly on the larger kits because FW makes them so darn expensive. With smaller items such as shoulder pads, doors, and weapons the margin of difference become less and less as even recasters need a minimum wage.
Ultimately I get the feeling FW will just let HH die a slow and painful death with recasters picking up the slack for those who want to finish their armies. Sad really, but GW/FW gonna GW/FW.
Don't forget when the original creator and power behind HH and a lot of FW died without much warning that, I think, sapped a lot of the drive and power out of the department.
I really hate to see FW stuff go as whilst plastic has come a long way, resin still beats it. That said I do agree that FW has had enough trouble selling regular deluxe kits, HH was a deluxe army of a deluxe range.
That said I'd hope a good number just get rolled over into the regular marine listings - drop the 10001 alternative shoulderpads ,but keep the vehicles.
I'm often surprised that GW has never just made marine shoudlerpads and doors as part of plastic upgrade kits rather than resin.
A multi-million pound corporation that can't replace one man either fails at both basic recruitment and training (which we know isn't true), or decided that they simply don't want to. No ifs or buts.
Games Workshop has hundreds of thousands of fans of the lore, and access to a huge pool of talent. Bligh was never replaced because they didn't want to replace him. It's that simple.
The slow speed at which stuff has rolled means that their short-term plans under Bligh became their mid-term plans, and their mid-term plans got discarded altogether in favour of the long-term plans.
I don't buy that Heresy is going to vanish altogether, but it's clear that the company has moved on. They can't even be bothered to tell off a game designer to sit down for a few months to update the rules. Forgeworld is obviously being slowly merged with the main company and the other specialist games are providing much higher margins for much less investment.
Horus Heresy meanwhile, is providing diminishing returns due to expense, lack of playerbase (aka customers), and their own slowdown of interest. So they're finishing off the last few signature pieces (primarchs, praetors, and contempors basically) whilst slimming it down. Cutting all the poorly selling giant pieces, and stuff that's easily converted or unnecessary.
I wouldn't be surprised to see just one book for the Siege of Terra, wrapping it all up. But I don't put much weight on the source saying it above. It just makes sense.
Honestly I think the idea of recasters causing them to shrink the range is totally backwards. Me and my gaming group mainly play horus heresy and all own multiple 4k+ armies. We buy the majority of our stuff legit but end up going to recasters for the things we cant actually get from FW like the ever dwindling packs of weapon options, mk2 armour, oop characters and heads/shoulder pads. The more stuff gets discontinued or the price goes up the less we will spending on them and the more goes into 3rd party, recasts or ebay. A better option would be to release upgrade kits in larger sets (say 30 heads/60 pads/15 torsos or 10 man armour packs) so the manpower per item packed and shipped is lower, so they could sell at a slightly lower cost per individual peice. The vureent strategy though is pushing current purchasers out with lack of kits and putting new people off with incomplete ranges and rediculous prices.
The ruleset isnt an issue. The 7.5ed heresy rules are really good and while a bit more in depth lead to faster and more pleasing games than 8/9th ed.
Bobug wrote: Honestly I think the idea of recasters causing them to shrink the range is totally backwards. Me and my gaming group mainly play horus heresy and all own multiple 4k+ armies. We buy the majority of our stuff legit but end up going to recasters for the things we cant actually get from FW like the ever dwindling packs of weapon options, mk2 armour, oop characters and heads/shoulder pads. The more stuff gets discontinued or the price goes up the less we will spending on them and the more goes into 3rd party, recasts or ebay. A better option would be to release upgrade kits in larger sets (say 30 heads/60 pads/15 torsos or 10 man armour packs) so the manpower per item packed and shipped is lower, so they could sell at a slightly lower cost per individual peice. The vureent strategy though is pushing current purchasers out with lack of kits and putting new people off with incomplete ranges and rediculous prices.
The ruleset isnt an issue. The 7.5ed heresy rules are really good and while a bit more in depth lead to faster and more pleasing games than 8/9th ed.
Then again here recaster is the norm. Which is why i dropred out of gaming here as i don't want to support recasters.
Bobug wrote: Honestly I think the idea of recasters causing them to shrink the range is totally backwards. Me and my gaming group mainly play horus heresy and all own multiple 4k+ armies. We buy the majority of our stuff legit but end up going to recasters for the things we cant actually get from FW like the ever dwindling packs of weapon options, mk2 armour, oop characters and heads/shoulder pads. The more stuff gets discontinued or the price goes up the less we will spending on them and the more goes into 3rd party, recasts or ebay. A better option would be to release upgrade kits in larger sets (say 30 heads/60 pads/15 torsos or 10 man armour packs) so the manpower per item packed and shipped is lower, so they could sell at a slightly lower cost per individual peice. The vureent strategy though is pushing current purchasers out with lack of kits and putting new people off with incomplete ranges and rediculous prices.
The ruleset isnt an issue. The 7.5ed heresy rules are really good and while a bit more in depth lead to faster and more pleasing games than 8/9th ed.
Then again here recaster is the norm. Which is why i dropred out of gaming here as i don't want to support recasters.
Well, let’s not count out the rise of 3D printing either. Just like recasters, the quality of 3D printing is improving and getting more common place. With a $200 Ender 3 Andrew a $20-25 spool of filament I was able to produce enough terrain to cover a 4’x8’ table. If I were to look at all the free .stl files out there for 40k (30k or any of the games) it might take a while, but I could build a whole army for much cheaper. So focusing on their main line where people would prefer the HIPS plastics which is cheaper to manufacture with fewer flaws is a better plan then trying for the resin niche market.
I believe the death of HH is just a normal consecuence of the death of FW.
FW as we knew it this past 15 years Is not gonna last very long. They are being repurposed as the specialist studio guys, doing core games with plastics and then resin add-ons. I believe GW just doesn't want that much resin production, I suppose the manpower and the costs aren't just as profitable as mass produced HIPS plastics .
Agreed. I think FW did its job over the years - premium resin products for all of GWs game lines, huge centerpiece models, and in many cases 'vanity projects" of things that the sculptors wanted to do, but main GW wasn't going to produce.
Now with GW doing huge premium priced centerpieces in plastic, there is less of a need for FW. They might keep the Titans and a select bunch of models, but I wouldn't be surprised if GW picks up the slack and releases some of the 30k/40k crossover stuff in plastic - with a FW pricetag.
The death of 30k was a perfect storm of events, which is a shame. That being said, I might go back to it, and re-learn 7th, rather than play 9th, which has to this point not impressed me at all. So if I do ever play 40k again, it'll be an older edition, or Index 8th with my son.
Crazyterran wrote: I would like them to move HH to 9th so that the firstborn can keep a place and army focussed around them in the Primaris future. [/quote
.The much better solution to that - cut out the silly primaris rubbish
That would be incorrect, chapter upgrades in plastic have sold incredibly well, black Templars is still a solid seller despite its age, they never had a lot of luck with metal upgrades .
Also known as 'Flagging sales due to us pricing everything at such an extortionately high level that a bloke in a garage in China operating an email only list can undercut us by 80%'.
Although to be honest, I don't believe it anyway.
I do. Your first sentence is spot on. I have an embarrassing number of bagged up, unopened Contemptors and FW Primarchs, Acastus / Cerastus Knights, Ad Mech vehicles, piles of stuff spanning pretty much the entire 30K FW range, all due to the fact that a Chinese guy makes them as well as FW does but sells them for 35% of the price that they do. I find it entirely unsurprising that they're feeling the burn. Considering that FW is high price, low volume product, it isn't hard for me to believe that a few thousand people with similar purchasing habits to mine can severely effect their bottom line in a way they never could with the 40K / AoS stuff.
Meanwhile, regular GW kits are on par these days and some are more expensive.
There are also other resin based miniature companies that are around the same price and higher.
Yes, prices are plain stupid these days, I don’t defend that.
People pay it though.
I’ve dipped out of 30k but that’s due to getting tired of having options go out of production constantly.
Most recent for me was the Aurox, which kinda hurt as I had 4/7 I needed for my militia.
There are also other resin based miniature companies that are around the same price and higher.
Yeah I noticed a while ago that boutique miniature companies tend to base their prices on the most expensive mainstream competitor (GW/FW) as their benchmark these days. It seems absurd to me, considering that the GW alternative is most often a superior product (imo) but it might well be the most profitable thing for them to do.
The "they won't change the rules to 8th" thing is also a red flag to me, because as far as I can tell that's a very minority position among HH fans
But that is of course because at this point only the people who are willing to tolerate an antiquated and kludgy system are are left. A lot of people just quit when it turned out that HH was not moving to the 8th.
It's kind of cute that people have actually managed to delude themselves into believing 8th is a masterpiece of modern game design or whatever nonsense. It caters to a different set of preferences, but plenty of people consider that school of design plenty "kludgy", and of course new and better are not synonyms. And I still don't believe this assertion that loads of Heresy gamers suddenly quit upon discovering HH wouldn't be going 8th, because what earthly reason would they have to do that? If your objective is to play games set in the Heresy, the rules self-evidently still permit you to do so. If they could tolerate 7th-based AoD before, why are they suddenly now repulsed by it? It's not like other game systems - many of them considered superior by some people - didn't exist before 8th as a point of comparison, but nobody was quitting Heresy in outrage over the fact it wasn't more like Bolt Action or whatever.
The only reason I can see for someone to quit Heresy when it became obvious it wouldn't be transitioning to 8th was if playing Heresy was never the primary objective in the first place. They were 40K players who liked a Heresy army list for their 40K games.
(which, again, because this comes up every time, means people who play HH using HH rules for the sake of playing battles in the HH setting with their HH armies - wanting to use a Legion list to play 40k with your mates is not HH gaming, sorry), and GW surely have to know that.
I really do not see a practical difference. It is marines fighting marines. That's what HH is.
No, Horus Heresy is a set of rules for playing in the Heresy setting covering the titular events. It really isn't that hard to grasp.
When I first hear that they would be staying with the 7th I said that it would be a death sentence. But hey, I guess this is better. Now HH can die while remaining 'pure', and not be tainted by the hated 8/9 edition rules or all those people who would play it wrong...
Unironically yes. Fans of a thing should never want the needs and wants of non-fans of said thing to be the driving force behind how it's run, because that's a one way ticket to the thing changing to be something the fans didn't want. There's a version of the Heresy created for fans of the Heresy setting that's entirely sustainable, but GW chose to discard that to chase after 40K player and whale money. The fact is the version of "Heresy" you want is Heresy in name only, and I'd far rather they finish things up under the current system and leave Heresy fans with a fully functional "dead game"(a truly ridiculous concept peddled by people who seemingly can't fathom how to wargame without Daddy GW to spoonfeed them opponents and content) to play and enjoy.
Meanwhile, regular GW kits are on par these days and some are more expensive.
There are also other resin based miniature companies that are around the same price and higher.
Yes, prices are plain stupid these days, I don’t defend that.
People pay it though.
I've stayed away from playing 40k the last couple of editions and was surprised that the primaris characters have reached $45 USD when I wanted to buy one for RPG character conversion. I find that price for a monopose single character with limited options (as opposed to the old $25 captain that had over a dozen optional bits) to be ridiculous... but it pales with FW's $70+ USD for smaller sized figures on ridiculously big and unnecessary bases.
I'd consider that price to be reasonable as a luxury purchase for a centerpiece model for a full army like a primarch but not a "normal" 30k marine character. I'm sure there are people willing to pay that as you said but there are also others that won't and will find alternate methods to achieve a similar result (whether illegal recasts or legal 3d model home prints analogs). I used to be willing to pay the forgeworld prices years ago when they were the equivalent of today's GW plastic ones but they've broken me like Ivan Drago. I can afford it... but I choose not to. YMMV. Regardless, I wish them well and understand why they've (i.e. GW/FW) priced themselves out of their own business model.
Jackal90 wrote: Comparing regular generic characters to the HH character series isn’t even close.
Use something closer like legion praetors, centurions etc.
Using their top display models to try and make a point, while comparing it to generic characters just invalidates the argument.
I'm comparing 40k special characters like Mephiston and Lazarus to some 30k special characters. But if it makes you feel better to pretend otherwise to keep you from altering your world view then so be it.
Jackal90 wrote: Comparing regular generic characters to the HH character series isn’t even close.
Use something closer like legion praetors, centurions etc.
Using their top display models to try and make a point, while comparing it to generic characters just invalidates the argument.
I'm comparing 40k special characters like Mephiston and Lazarus to some 30k special characters. But if it makes you feel better to pretend otherwise to keep you from altering your world view then so be it.
You’re not comparing like for like though. Mephiston is a plastic, mass produced product. The model you’re comparing it to is primarily sold as a collectors display piece. Sure it’s expensive, but it’s not filling the same niche as Mephiston.
Jackal90 wrote: Comparing regular generic characters to the HH character series isn’t even close.
Use something closer like legion praetors, centurions etc.
Using their top display models to try and make a point, while comparing it to generic characters just invalidates the argument.
I'm comparing 40k special characters like Mephiston and Lazarus to some 30k special characters. But if it makes you feel better to pretend otherwise to keep you from altering your world view then so be it.
You’re not comparing like for like though. Mephiston is a plastic, mass produced product. The model you’re comparing it to is primarily sold as a collectors display piece. Sure it’s expensive, but it’s not filling the same niche as Mephiston.
Both are characters used for a game. It seems exactly the same niche. (Resin models, by the way, aren't some hand-crafted, unique objects. They're mould-cast pieces as well.)
You can stick either one in a case and call it a 'display piece' as well, if collection is all you want out of them.
Yodhrin wrote: The only reason I can see for someone to quit Heresy when it became obvious it wouldn't be transitioning to 8th was if playing Heresy was never the primary objective in the first place. They were 40K players who liked a Heresy army list for their 40K games.
Nah. Its actually more simple. Its hard enough to remember all the bespoke rules, special interactions, unit rules, etc. for one game, then to try to keep them separate when you hit the table. "How do challenges work? Is that the 8th edition 40k rule, or the 7th rule, let's look it up." Takes time. "Can you do that? I think that vehicle exception is in 8th, not 7th." It can get confusing at time, especially for us older players who don't play every week, but do play HH, and do play 40k (with 40k armies, I might add, not 30k armies).
Our group dropped HH because the early 8th edition rules were simpler (with Index), made for a quicker game, and breathed fresh life into the game, without the kludge. HH not following along is what did it in in our group (and no one in our group used 30k armies in 40k). Although, with the way 9th is rolling out, and all the new kludge 8th brought, I'm going back and play HH under AoD/7th, because it'll be the only "40k" game that I'll be playing.