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The Hierodules are not, however. Hmm...

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
The Hierodules are not, however. Hmm...

Which could point that the dual or triple (with Dominatrix) plastic kit for them will not happen soon.

What's with desire to retcon dominatrix? Leave dominatrix be dominatrix and come up with new unit for 40k scale.

No more Malanthrope? :(

I wanted to get more of them in time. I hope its just a repackaging/Forgeworld glitch.

tneva82 wrote:
What's with desire to retcon dominatrix? Leave dominatrix be dominatrix and come up with new unit for 40k scale.

And who has desire to retcon it? Was there ever any GW statement about it? I am genuinely curious.

 Shadow Walker wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
What's with desire to retcon dominatrix? Leave dominatrix be dominatrix and come up with new unit for 40k scale.

And who has desire to retcon it? Was there ever any GW statement about it? I am genuinely curious.

GW has never said anything about it since Epic 40K.

Thing is GW never says anything about anything really unless they are going to make a model for it. Otherwise people debate and wishlist and hope and ponder.

 Overread wrote:

 Shadow Walker wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
What's with desire to retcon dominatrix? Leave dominatrix be dominatrix and come up with new unit for 40k scale.

And who has desire to retcon it? Was there ever any GW statement about it? I am genuinely curious.

GW has never said anything about it since Epic 40K.

Thing is GW never says anything about anything really unless they are going to make a model for it. Otherwise people debate and wishlist and hope and ponder.

So no official statement about the retcon, and it is still there in fluff (Correct me if I am wrong but I think it was in 5th edition codex?). Looks like it could either stay fluff only or suprisingly released with the 10th.

Dominatrix is mentioned in my old 3rd ed Tyranid book... so are Von Ryan's Leapers, for that matter.

 Shadow Walker wrote:

And who has desire to retcon it? Was there ever any GW statement about it? I am genuinely curious.

The original Dominatrix was a titan scale model.

You either retcon it into the super heavy scale (like it happened to the Hierodule and kinda to the Hierophant) or it simply won't fit in standard 40k scale.

I never got one but I'm fairly sure it was Reaver Height?

So yeah to bring it into 40K it would be a pretty huge model to put on the table.


So yep either you change it in size or just release something new.

Ok, I get it. By retcon @tneva28 meant it being changed to being more playable piece in 40k scale rather than (what I thought) to be erased from the fluff (thus Nids fluff being retconed).

 Shadow Walker wrote:
Ok, I get it. By retcon @tneva28 meant it being changed to being more playable piece in 40k scale rather than (what I thought) to be erased from the fluff (thus Nids fluff being retconed).

That's pretty much what happened to Hierodules and Hierophants, they got shifted a size class down basically from where they were in both fluff and epic-scale models.

Pretty sure the Hierodules got pushed down several pegs. Then again when they originally came out they were huge, its just stuff has scaled up so that they are now heavy support size instead of knight size.

And to be fair its easy to scale the Tyranid stuff down like that when you wanted it in 40K and there wasn't any Epic game to expand their mid to super heavy model range.

It's one of my hopes that either Epic returning or AT finally leaving the HH era would let us see the design team go wild making new larger biotitans for Tyranids

 Overread wrote:
Pretty sure the Hierodules got pushed down several pegs. Then again when they originally came out they were huge, its just stuff has scaled up so that they are now heavy support size instead of knight size.

And to be fair its easy to scale the Tyranid stuff down like that when you wanted it in 40K and there wasn't any Epic game to expand their mid to super heavy model range.

It's one of my hopes that either Epic returning or AT finally leaving the HH era would let us see the design team go wild making new larger biotitans for Tyranids

Yeah, at the time they were at the edge of what Forgeworld was able to produce; these miniatures are almost 20 years old if you include the pre-release design time. Later releases profited a lot from better technology, notably computer-augmented design, while the Hierodules (unsure about the Hierophant) were still made in the classic 3up process. There's 10 years of development and investment between them and the FW Warlord titan.

So Tau's Drones are now tokens. Will they do the same to our Spore Mines? Being untargetable is good by I prefer them to have stats.

 Shadow Walker wrote:
So Tau's Drones are now tokens. Will they do the same to our Spore Mines? Being untargetable is good by I prefer them to have stats.

They might go from things people never take to things people can't take!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Shadow Walker wrote:
So Tau's Drones are now tokens. Will they do the same to our Spore Mines? Being untargetable is good by I prefer them to have stats.

They might go from things people never take to things people can't take!

Yeah, with GW it could be possible BTW I think we are on our way to tokenology as Neurotyrant's little friends are sadly just that.

I could see them going either way. I liked the option to stand back and toss some shots into them to clear the path, but could accept that they are basicly one shot dangerous terrain markers that you eat damage if you get near.

I'm guessing this means the Tau "fleet of only gun drones" unit from the Fast Attack slot is no more, assuming it was still around in the last 'dex.

So the Orks focus tells about big mobs of 20 boyz, and the Leviathan/Combat Patrol gives us 20 Termas. My thoughts are that our broods are going to be smaller this edition.

In the new lore vid on warhammer tv is a picture artwork of a norn emissary fighting trajann valoris. Its actually a huge new unit. Hidden in plain sight. Its towards the end of the vid. 4th tyrannic wars. They callbit "colossal".

 Shadow Walker wrote:
So the Orks focus tells about big mobs of 20 boyz, and the Leviathan/Combat Patrol gives us 20 Termas. My thoughts are that our broods are going to be smaller this edition.

Yeah, I won't be surprised if it's squads of 10-20. Might be GW wanting to preserve the 'horde' feel, but limit how many eggs you can stack in one basket with respect to stratagems and buffs.

I think its also about not repeating one of the mistakes of Old World and constantly increasing hoard sizes until some armies have such a huge unit count it acts as a barrier to entry to newbies; or even if they do step in they burn out faster.


It's a balance and GW are in a robust position because they've heavily marketed Killteam and other smaller format games to soften the blow of big armies as a thing. However it doesn't hurt to adjust every so often.

That said it might be boyz are in mobs of 20 but things like gaunts and gits could still be in squads of 40. Ergo two boxed sets.

GW is very keen right now to pair rules to box contents like that.

Nagzahn wrote:
In the new lore vid on warhammer tv is a picture artwork of a norn emissary fighting trajann valoris. Its actually a huge new unit. Hidden in plain sight. Its towards the end of the vid. 4th tyrannic wars. They callbit "colossal".

Does this thing have a human(oid...ish) arm? I can see how a designer might include that as a creepy horror element but it'd be kinda weird.

It looks wierd absolutly. The arms are definetly humanlike. Also wierd head crest. If the emissary stands up, it must be quite tall.

Nagzahn wrote:
In the new lore vid on warhammer tv is a picture artwork of a norn emissary fighting trajann valoris. Its actually a huge new unit. Hidden in plain sight. Its towards the end of the vid. 4th tyrannic wars. They callbit "colossal".

Looks like a bigger HT. Not a fan of it, especially ''human'' hands, but need to see the entire creature to judge it properly. Was it officialy named ''Norn Emissary'' there or is it still a fan name given to some rumoured LoW level creature?

 Shadow Walker wrote:

Nagzahn wrote:
In the new lore vid on warhammer tv is a picture artwork of a norn emissary fighting trajann valoris. Its actually a huge new unit. Hidden in plain sight. Its towards the end of the vid. 4th tyrannic wars. They callbit "colossal".

Looks like a bigger HT. Not a fan of it, especially ''human'' hands, but need to see the entire creature to judge it properly. Was it officialy named ''Norn Emissary'' there or is it still a fan name given to some rumoured LoW level creature?

I'd take bets that it is a down-scaled, reimagined and PG13-ified take on the Dominatrix, and has some sort of brain-parasite or whatever on the back. They seem to go for the 'These are actually multiple creatures horribly fused together'-look in this iteration (e.g. Shirleygaunts, Neurogaunts), displaying that on a centrepiece/LOW would make sense.

 Overread wrote:
I never got one but I'm fairly sure it was Reaver Height?

So yeah to bring it into 40K it would be a pretty huge model to put on the table.


So yep either you change it in size or just release something new.

It's nowhere near the height of a Reaver. It's maybe 60% of the mass. It's only the height of a Knight, but it is fairly chonky by Tyranid standards, and a lot would depend on how much of that mass of armour panels was kept versus making it more spindly like the bio-titans.

I think it's still too big for a GW plastic kit (I'd consider it to be about the mass of a Thunderhawk or maybe a Warhound, but GW still seems to think that is too big to pull the plastic lever for - and a plastic Thunderhawk would definitely sell better), but we wouldn't be talking a titan really.

I'd struggle to describe making it smaller as a retcon - they are substantial, but the scaling on the old Nid Epic line is absolutely all over the place. Carnifexes and Trygons are enormous in comparison to the 40k range, and if you scaled by them a Dominatrix would be well within the range of a Baneblade sized kit.

 Shadow Walker wrote:

Nagzahn wrote:
In the new lore vid on warhammer tv is a picture artwork of a norn emissary fighting trajann valoris. Its actually a huge new unit. Hidden in plain sight. Its towards the end of the vid. 4th tyrannic wars. They callbit "colossal".

Looks like a bigger HT. Not a fan of it, especially ''human'' hands, but need to see the entire creature to judge it properly. Was it officialy named ''Norn Emissary'' there or is it still a fan name given to some rumoured LoW level creature?

Officially named Norn Emissary. It sounded like an assassin of some kind. With the ability to track down enemy leaders through psychic trailing. The assassin aspect sounds a bit like dimachaeron.

Nagzahn wrote:

 Shadow Walker wrote:

Nagzahn wrote:
In the new lore vid on warhammer tv is a picture artwork of a norn emissary fighting trajann valoris. Its actually a huge new unit. Hidden in plain sight. Its towards the end of the vid. 4th tyrannic wars. They callbit "colossal".

Looks like a bigger HT. Not a fan of it, especially ''human'' hands, but need to see the entire creature to judge it properly. Was it officialy named ''Norn Emissary'' there or is it still a fan name given to some rumoured LoW level creature?

Officially named Norn Emissary. It sounded like an assassin of some kind. With the ability to track down enemy leaders through psychic trailing. The assassin aspect sounds a bit like dimachaeron.

It would explain why the dimachaeron went oop despite being a recent sculpt.