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I just got the new Death Guard Codex and I noticed something weird.
In the datasheets section a lot of the units are lacking a picture by the symbol indicating the units type.
They appear to be mostly the older models in the range:
Death guard chaos lord
Death guard chaos lord in Term arm
Death guard sorcerer in Term arm
Helbrute
Death guard Possessed
Chaos Spawn
Chaos Land Raider
Chaos Pred, both
Defiler
Chaos Rhino

I can't think of any reason for them not to have a picture of these models in the datasheet. In the SM codex they have a picture for every unit, including the ancient finecast stuff, and they literally have pro painters to paint models to showcase them. So I can't see why they wouldn't get some of them to paint up these models in a Nurgle colors unless they are at a level of laziness and cheapness I can not understand.

Just checked the main site and they literally have a pic of the Defiler and Helbrute done in Nurgle's colors so there is no excuse for those at least.
Also I looked in the codex itself and was able to see pictures of Defilers and Helbrutes.

DG are not a major release this time around so they probably didn't have the time or manpower to paint some of those models up.

The Eavy Metal team is literally being swamped right now. They're having to paint to match GW's release schedule while also having taken on some of FW's paint responsibilities too.

Even in the Necron Codex, one of the actual big major releases of 9th, they've done stuff like paint only one Lychguard with Shield in the new scheme and only one of the old Lokhust Destroyers too. But this is on top of repainting basically the entirety of the rest of the range in the new colours too.

they probably didn't have the time or manpower to paint some of those models up.

Man, sometimes I wonder where all the money we keep sending to GW goes. Not into book presentation apparenty...maybe someone should tell corporations to be more responsible with their money, since they can't seem to be able to afford enough employees!

More employyes means lower profit margins

Yes, and I should care why? If you ask a high price, you should deliver product fitting that price.

Of course GW is the ActiBlizz of wargaming so in reality, it's to be expected.

tneva82 796073 11051850 wrote:More employyes means lower profit margins

Then use your monopol standing to force people, to do the job of two people. Works in most places in the world just fine. And if locals don't want to work like that hire people that will.

 Bosskelot wrote:
DG are not a major release this time around so they probably didn't have the time or manpower to paint some of those models up.

The Eavy Metal team is literally being swamped right now. They're having to paint to match GW's release schedule while also having taken on some of FW's paint responsibilities too.

Even in the Necron Codex, one of the actual big major releases of 9th, they've done stuff like paint only one Lychguard with Shield in the new scheme and only one of the old Lokhust Destroyers too. But this is on top of repainting basically the entirety of the rest of the range in the new colours too.

There are pictures of all DG models in both paint schemes in the old codex though?

Looking at the OP's list, those are all units Death Guard shares with the Undivided Legions. Is it possible they just didn't want pictures of "CSM" models in the new Death Guard codex? Did any shared units not on that list have a picture? Or is that all of the shared units? Because that's what it looks like to me.

 Gadzilla666 wrote:
Looking at the OP's list, those are all units Death Guard shares with the Undivided Legions. Is it possible they just didn't want pictures of "CSM" models in the new Death Guard codex? Did any shared units not on that list have a picture? Or is that all of the shared units? Because that's what it looks like to me.

Please stop making reasonable suggestions instead of just getting on a "GW sucks" soapbox. This is Dakka, we have a reputation to uphold.

The Eavy Metal team is literally being swamped right now. They're having to paint to match GW's release schedule while also having taken on some of FW's paint responsibilities too.

That's not it I don't think. The current release schedule is actually slower than what they would be used to, and the FW book didn't have pics for any of the units. Plus, some of those models did appear in photos in the previous book (in DG colors). Are we sure 'eavy Metal has taken on those responsibilities? Doesn't seem like there are more too many more new images of painted models on the site than at any other time in the past year or so. We know the GW rules team is now working on FW stuff, but I don't think anything else really "merged". It's not like someone from the studio is jumping up to cast a titan every time someone orders one now.

There are pictures of all DG models in both paint schemes in the old codex though?

For models, there is definitely a Defiler, Land Raider, and Rhino in DG colors. All the others are illustrations, but the 8th ed books were much heavier on illustration and lighter on photos.

Gadzilla666 wrote:
Looking at the OP's list, those are all units Death Guard shares with the Undivided Legions. Is it possible they just didn't want pictures of "CSM" models in the new Death Guard codex? Did any shared units not on that list have a picture? Or is that all of the shared units? Because that's what it looks like to me.

Why though? I'm not sure that makes much sense either. GW never misses a chance to sell a model. You would think, at the least, they'd have used some old art or recycled the photos of the models I mentioned above. If they're going to that great a length to separate those units, why bother including them at all?

I almost wonder if something happened in the production process (given covid and everything else) and they just ran out of time to do the shoot for those.

 Gadzilla666 wrote:
Looking at the OP's list, those are all units Death Guard shares with the Undivided Legions. Is it possible they just didn't want pictures of "CSM" models in the new Death Guard codex? Did any shared units not on that list have a picture? Or is that all of the shared units? Because that's what it looks like to me.

Pretty much this. None of the units listed are unique to Death Guard so GW decided to not have pictures of them, most likely to keep it potentially open for new models later down the line(which probably won't happen, but it is usually better to keep things open than closed).

Pretty much this. None of the units listed are unique to Death Guard so GW decided to not have pictures of them, most likely to keep it potentially open for new models later down the line(which probably won't happen, but it is usually better to keep things open than closed).

So, if they show pics of them, suddenly they can't ever have different pics of them? Still not sure how much sense that makes imo.

Karol wrote:

tneva82 796073 11051850 wrote:More employyes means lower profit margins

Then use your monopol standing to force people, to do the job of two people. Works in most places in the world just fine. And if locals don't want to work like that hire people that will.

Last time GW tried to use their "monopoly" was when people flocked away from their games and into the alternatives.

Tycho wrote:

Pretty much this. None of the units listed are unique to Death Guard so GW decided to not have pictures of them, most likely to keep it potentially open for new models later down the line(which probably won't happen, but it is usually better to keep things open than closed).

So, if they show pics of them, suddenly they can't ever have different pics of them? Still not sure how much sense that makes imo.

Not sure why it makes sense for them, but it is a conspicuous correlation. Did any Death Guard specific models not have pictures in their datasheet entries?

 Gadzilla666 wrote:

Tycho wrote:

Pretty much this. None of the units listed are unique to Death Guard so GW decided to not have pictures of them, most likely to keep it potentially open for new models later down the line(which probably won't happen, but it is usually better to keep things open than closed).

So, if they show pics of them, suddenly they can't ever have different pics of them? Still not sure how much sense that makes imo.

Not sure why it makes sense for them, but it is a conspicuous correlation. Did any Death Guard specific models not have pictures in their datasheet entries?

Everything that's Death Guard-specific has a photo. The only datasheets which have photos and are also usable in a regular Chaos Marine force are:
- Daemon Prince (using the metal Prince of Nurgle model)
- Plague Marines (obviously)
- Death Guard Cultists (using regular Cultists wearing green clothes).

Everything else shared between the two Codexes just had the artwork in place of the photo.

Yeah, seems to me like it's an exercise in reinforcing the idea of the DG as a stand-alone army by focusing on the unique units. Not to mention that the "shared" units don't really match the look of the newer DG stuff. Seems to me much more likely that it was a deliberate aesthetic choice than "lol we can't be arsed to take all the photos; that'll show those mugs who keep buying our books".

It is odd, and I noticed it as well. As to what it means, it's anyone's guess.

 Nazrak wrote:
Yeah, seems to me like it's an exercise in reinforcing the idea of the DG as a stand-alone army by focusing on the unique units. Not to mention that the "shared" units don't really match the look of the newer DG stuff. Seems to me much more likely that it was a deliberate aesthetic choice than "lol we can't be arsed to take all the photos; that'll show those mugs who keep buying our books".

I mean, "lol we couldn't be arsed to take the photos" is pretty much literally what happened with the Forge World Compendium so there's at least a precedent for that. They couldn't even be bothered to plug in photos they already had for that one, so I feel like this explanation still makes more sense than them, in some odd, ham-fisted way, trying to keep DG players from ... buying models ... Even if said models are not DG specific ...

Karol wrote:

Then use your monopol standing to force people, to do the job of two people. Works in most places in the world just fine. And if locals don't want to work like that hire people that will.

lol, wtf are you on now.
Forcing people to overwork themselves lead to one thing : them quitting.

The studio Death Guard army doesn't include any of those units.

There aren't any pictured in the studio colour scheme in the 8th edition codex either.

Tycho wrote:

 Nazrak wrote:
Yeah, seems to me like it's an exercise in reinforcing the idea of the DG as a stand-alone army by focusing on the unique units. Not to mention that the "shared" units don't really match the look of the newer DG stuff. Seems to me much more likely that it was a deliberate aesthetic choice than "lol we can't be arsed to take all the photos; that'll show those mugs who keep buying our books".

I mean, "lol we couldn't be arsed to take the photos" is pretty much literally what happened with the Forge World Compendium so there's at least a precedent for that. They couldn't even be bothered to plug in photos they already had for that one, so I feel like this explanation still makes more sense than them, in some odd, ham-fisted way, trying to keep DG players from ... buying models ... Even if said models are not DG specific ...

I don't think anyone was making the argument that they didn't include those units pictures because they didn't want to sell the models. Personally, I was just observing that all the units mentioned as lacking a picture of a model in the codex were those that were shared with the Undivided Legions. Why is anyones guess, as taking the pictures wouldn't even be required, considering they already have stock photos that they could have used. Same for the Compendium. It's both odd and confounding, but that's what they did.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Lord Damocles wrote:
The studio Death Guard army doesn't include any of those units.

There aren't any pictured in the studio colour scheme in the 8th edition codex either.

Really? I know I've seen both a Hellbrute and a Defiler in Death Guard colors in promotional pictures. Were those just photoshoped to have Death Guard colors?

The studio Death Guard army doesn't include any of those units.

There aren't any pictured in the studio colour scheme in the 8th edition codex either.

Pictured in the 8th ed codex are a Rhino, Land Raider and Defiler in DG colors.

Pages 93/4, 87, 74, 60/1, and a few other pages besides. Also, multiple DG Helbrutes can be seen throughout the photos ...

 Gadzilla666 wrote:

 Lord Damocles wrote:
The studio Death Guard army doesn't include any of those units.

There aren't any pictured in the studio colour scheme in the 8th edition codex either.

Really? I know I've seen both a Hellbrute and a Defiler in Death Guard colors in promotional pictures. Were those just photoshoped to have Death Guard colors?

They have a green Hellbrute and Defiler on the online store pages. They're not part of the studio army though - the green is a different shade, and the basing of the Hellbrute doesn't match the Death Guard army scheme.

I assume that they belong to members of the studio, or are individual units painted for different purposes. It looks like the base of the Hellbrute matches those of the Purge models from the 4th edition Chaos Marine codex.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Tycho wrote:

The studio Death Guard army doesn't include any of those units.

There aren't any pictured in the studio colour scheme in the 8th edition codex either.

Pictured in the 8th ed codex are a Rhino, Land Raider and Defiler in DG colors.

Pages 93/4, 87, 74, 60/1, and a few other pages besides. Also, multiple DG Helbrutes can be seen throughout the photos ...

...and they're not in the studio Death Guard colour scheme.

(which is probably why the green ones are all hiding in the background)

I mean, ultimately, who gives a toss? It's not like there aren't readily-available sources of images of those models all over the internet. Seems like yet another instance of people determined to manufacture a reason to be mad at GW getting themselves worked up again, if you ask me.

One thing also to note is that the GW model for the Chaos Lord is holding a thunder hammer, which DG lords for some reason can't have.

Yes, that bugged me until I realized that a plaguereaper has essentially become a better thunder hammer in the new codex, so you can just use the model as such.

Can a regular Lord take a Plaguereaper..?

 Jidmah wrote:

 Bosskelot wrote:
DG are not a major release this time around so they probably didn't have the time or manpower to paint some of those models up.

The Eavy Metal team is literally being swamped right now. They're having to paint to match GW's release schedule while also having taken on some of FW's paint responsibilities too.

Even in the Necron Codex, one of the actual big major releases of 9th, they've done stuff like paint only one Lychguard with Shield in the new scheme and only one of the old Lokhust Destroyers too. But this is on top of repainting basically the entirety of the rest of the range in the new colours too.

There are pictures of all DG models in both paint schemes in the old codex though?

Not for things like Terminator Lords and Sorcerers. The only Rhinos and Land Raiders in the old Codex are Pallid Hand ones and GW wants to keep a consistent visual look for the models represented; hence why every datasheet in the Marine book is an Ultramarine. The actual Eavy Metal Studio DG army does not have any Land Raiders, Rhinos, Predators or Defilers. Much less generic Chaos Lords or Sorcs.

as for the FW compendium that's pretty simple. How many of those actual models still exist and how many of them are actually painted? FW can't even manage to get generic colour schemes for a lot of their models on their own website and who's to say if the ones that are there are actually still able to be photographed and haven't been lost?

I just went to the Aeldari page on FW for an example and I can see that the Cobra and Irillyth do not have any pictures of them painted up. Not only that the rest of the models on there are about 5 different Craftworld colour schemes.

Tycho wrote:That's not it I don't think. The current release schedule is actually slower than what they would be used to,

These books and these models have all been planned and done at least a year in advance so the recent slowdown because of Covid would make 0 difference. The Eavy Metal team is probably currently working on models planned for release in 2022/3.

 Lord Damocles wrote:
Can a regular Lord take a Plaguereaper..?

No, but at this point the difference between a Lord of Contagion and a Chaos Lord is mostly academic.

 Jidmah wrote:

 Lord Damocles wrote:
Can a regular Lord take a Plaguereaper..?

No, but at this point the difference between a Lord of Contagion and a Chaos Lord is mostly academic.

Except for the Terminator Armour and the Plasma Pistol; which are pretty big differences...