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I'm going to need a way bigger bookshelf for my nids it seems because I've just ran out of space only barely managing enough for the kitbashed flyrant im working on dangit.. and those brainbirds look chirping wicked.
Anyway, considering I'm working with the Hive tyrant box right now I don't see anything new on that "emissary" unit, as its stabby arms are an option for either HT build and we all know HT's can be outfitted with whatever (including empty arms from kitbashes) and still count toward having all weapons.
So I'm with the opinion its simply a bigger HT (and therefor possibly a rerelease of a HT?)
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/05/25 11:18:58
"Why would i be lying for Wechhudrs sake man.., i do not write fiction!"
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.
The Dimachaeron is like... 10 years old, i'd not exactly call that 'recent'
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.
The Dimachaeron is like... 10 years old, i'd not exactly call that 'recent'
I'm getting older making time wibbly-wobbly, plus there's not many forgeworld sculpts newer for 40k?
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.
The Dimachaeron is like... 10 years old, i'd not exactly call that 'recent'
I'm getting older making time wibbly-wobbly, plus there's not many forgeworld sculpts newer for 40k?
The last part is sadly very true, there has been only a handful of 40k-specific sculpts from FW in the last decade. And practically none in the last five years, the Primaris Gravtank and not much else. Heresy train gonna keep a'rollin.
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.
The Dimachaeron is like... 10 years old, i'd not exactly call that 'recent'
I'm getting older making time wibbly-wobbly, plus there's not many forgeworld sculpts newer for 40k?
The last part is sadly very true, there has been only a handful of 40k-specific sculpts from FW in the last decade. And practically none in the last five years, the Primaris Gravtank and not much else. Heresy train gonna keep a'rollin.
AoS got a set of alternate heads for stormcast and then their entire line gutted over a few years to nothing. The recent sudden pass which pulled all the old demon models out (very sad over that one) was the last AoS stuff remaining.
But yeah FW hasn't made much for the 40K nor AoS lines in a long long while. A few things here and there, but as the recent removals shows; we are mostly losing FW stuff not gaining. I think in part its because 40K can do most of the models FW used to do in plastic now; at least in size. It's not until you get to Reaver Titans and such that FW comes into its own, but that's a super niche line.
We can hope that many of the kits get GW counterparts in plastic; heck sometimes they are pretty awesome plastics (even if they might lack some of the super fine details that resin can still beat plastic on). But its always a gamble.
And yeah the Dimachaeron wasn't super new, but it was the newest of the Tyranid range.
Got to admit it and the Malanthrope being removed were odd; possibly the most popular and affordable choices in the Tyranid FW line.
Again we can hope it means GW might be releasing plastic versions, but considering how long GW can sometimes take to release models and how sometimes their design is haphazard in what comes out (Tyranids really hsouldn't have boivores and lictors and pyrovores in resin today!) it could be years before we see them. Fingers crossed we see them!
This summary of the latest Loremasters episode might be of interest:
- A number of worlds in the fringe started disappearing. The two sectors these worlds were located in were being invaded by an Ork Waaagh! and obscured by a Warpstorm so that the Imperium didn't pay attention to worlds getting quiet, A fleet from the Adeptus Arbites was sent to enforce the tithe of these silenced worlds. It turns out it's Tyranids—lots of them. The Arbites fleet was consumed without being able to fight back properly.
- One of the sector's command suffered casualties when their high astropath was flooded with thousands of distress calls. He exploded into manifestations of screaming faces and claws that slew many before they were banished. Also, the sectors were invaded by a Votann force. This served to slow the Imperial response to the Tyranids.
- Leviathan isn't the only fleet threatening Segmentum Solar. Tendrils from the minor Hive Fleet Scylla and Charybdis are worming their way in the Segmentum
- Tales of Tyranids being easy to defeat spread in the Imperium for some reason. Even high figures consider the Tyrannic Wars to be minor. Attempts were made to refute these tales since, despite being morale boosters, they were dangerous misinformation.
- Imperials identified the threat as a new invasion from Leviathan. Two tendrils, one came from above, and the other came from below the galactic plane, that were coordinated and pushing eastward to Segmentum Solar
- News of the Tyranid advance was brought to the High Lords by Custodes spies. Custodes Valoris forced them to act.
- Despite the Imperium's resources stretched out by the demands of the Primarch's Crusade and the fight against Chaos, the High Lords ordered a great mustering of Imperial Guard forces to respond to the Tyranid threat. It would take some time to arm and marshal these forces, so the Imperials created the Solblades fleets. These warriors are meant to slow the Tyranid advance by surgical strikes and holding key locations.
- The Solblades were made from elite forces from the Space Marines, Custodes, Sisters of Battle, Admech, and Knight Houses. They were granted autonomy to pursue the agenda in whatever way they saw fit. Among the heroes that joined the Solblades are Lord Solar Leontus, Volaris, and Captain Agemmon
- The Solblades acted as both a spear thrust and a shield by creating anchor worlds that would serve as a bulwark against the Tyranid advance and resupply stations
- The Solblades achieved some success, but the emergence of the third Leviathan tendril overshadowed that and proved that the Solblades' efforts wouldn't be enough to stop the Tyranids. The third tendril came from below the plane to encircle some of the Solblade fleets and cut them from their supply lines. Several worlds, including one belonging to the Votann, were consumed by the Tyranids before the Imperium could react.
- In response to this development, Lord Solar enacted the Sanctuary protocol. The resources of the anchor worlds and the forces of the Solblades were ordered to be gathered in the Sanctuary systems.
- The Imperium wasn't the only faction to respond to the Tyranid threat. Xenos factions, both minor and major, fought back against the Tyranids; this included the Hrud, the Necrons, Aeldari from every corner of the galaxy, and forces from the Leagues of Votaan.
- Most of the Imperial Fist forces were deployed to support the Primarch's Crusade, and a single force was somewhere in the galactic north crusading. So the Imperial Fists couldn't commit anything but a few of their strike forces to the battle. However, the Fists fortified asteroids in the systems and named them Dorn's Wall, as well as committing the Phalanx to the war.
- The Imperials won engagement after engagement against the Tyranids in both space and planetside. However, each battle depleted the Imperial forces
- Relief finally came in the form of Solblades fleets carrying Valoris and the Custodes. Valoris engaged a colossal Tyranid bioform called a Norn Emissary. The creature was tracking the psychic scent of Lord Solar, seeking to hunt him down and assassinate him. Valoris slew the beast in single combat.
- Thus, Imperium narrowly avoided a horrific defeat. However, the Sanctuary worlds are infested with Tyranids. Waves of Tyranids continuously attack the Anchor worlds. The three tendrils continue their advance toward Segmentum Solar. The 4th Tyrannic War is far from over.
- Imperial scholar debate whether the Orks, Chaos or the Necrons are the greatest threat to the galaxy. Perhaps It's the Tyranids. The Tyranids are the most adaptive enemy faced by the Imperium with Leviathan, particularly swarming with novel deadly bioforms, and the recent invasion proves that the Tyranids are starting to encircle the galaxy. They are like the maws of a gigantic predator closing on the galaxy, intending to consume all life.
Dudeface wrote: That there is a strong hint that the rumours were correct and a big bug is on the way.
I think that is clear since we saw it (partially) appear in Artwork, that scene with Valoris killing it had art in the video, probably a cut-out of a larger artwork. It's in this thread, last page or the page before i think.
The Saurus Warriors are US $60, which is pretty standard for a 3-sprue kit. However, I did notice the older US$60 are £35. Looks like a bit of UK Inflation.
Valoris engaged a colossal Tyranid bioform called a Norn Emissary. The creature was tracking the psychic scent of Lord Solar, seeking to hunt him down and assassinate him. Valoris slew the beast in single combat.
Plot armor is all fun and games, but man that does the opposite of exciting me for any potential big bug release. New big, colossal, creature that can psychically scent characters and hunt them down as their sole creation purpose? Would be a shame that any schmuck could intercept it and solo it in combat wouldn't it?
Now Trajann is not necessarily your run-of-the-mill schmuck, but he's not some god-tier level guy either. If you are telling me that this is what can bring down the new "big beastie", then it's quite dire indeed.
GW has always been bad at creating tension for their characters, or the setting in general, but reading the above make it way worse. Maybe I'm just too invested in my Nids and I don't like them being those Saturday morning villains and stuff
Fantasy armies - Retired (Tomb Kings, Vampires, Empire, Chaos Warriors/Daemons, Dark Elves)
Tyranids army - Ever evolving, but about 10k pts
Custodes - 3,500pts (Fully painted yay!)
Thousand Sons - 4,000 pts
Eldar - 3,000pts
Valoris engaged a colossal Tyranid bioform called a Norn Emissary. The creature was tracking the psychic scent of Lord Solar, seeking to hunt him down and assassinate him. Valoris slew the beast in single combat.
Plot armor is all fun and games, but man that does the opposite of exciting me for any potential big bug release. New big, colossal, creature that can psychically scent characters and hunt them down as their sole creation purpose? Would be a shame that any schmuck could intercept it and solo it in combat wouldn't it?
Now Trajann is not necessarily your run-of-the-mill schmuck, but he's not some god-tier level guy either. If you are telling me that this is what can bring down the new "big beastie", then it's quite dire indeed.
GW has always been bad at creating tension for their characters, or the setting in general, but reading the above make it way worse. Maybe I'm just too invested in my Nids and I don't like them being those Saturday morning villains and stuff
If Trajann fights with the Shackle active for offense, he gets 12 attacks, 10 hits at S10 AP-2 D3.
That'll do 6-7 wounds to a Carnifex, failing 3 more often than not, for a not dead Carnifex. Sometimes he'll get a little lucky and one-round a Carnifex, though.
A Screamer-Killer, meanwhile, gets 10 attacks, 6-7 hits at S10 AP-2 D3.
That'll do 4-5 wounds, failing 2 saves usually for 4 damage after the FNP. But a little luck and the Carnifex kills Trajann in one round.
Screamer Killer is Output 1.
Trajann is Output 2.
Trajann with 12 attacks is Output 3.
Ka'tah are not accounted for, because I forgot about them till now.
Trajann is killed 22.73% of the time in one round. Two rounds or two Screamer Killers kill him 70.12% of the time.
Trajann kills only 5.42% of the time with 6 attacks, and 43.82% of the time with 12.
In other words, I wouldn't take this cinematic as evidence of any rules.
Clocks for the clockmaker! Cogs for the cog throne!
Recalculate that fight with Trajann being smart enough to give the Screamer-Killer a -1 to Hit until he is confident enough he will kill into switch to Lethal Wounds. I suspect the fight will quickly get close to a coin flip.
One downside of being a "faceless" army of infinite numbers is every time GW wants a character to look really tough - they go rough up a few Tyranids :(
Overread wrote: One downside of being a "faceless" army of infinite numbers is every time GW wants a character to look really tough - they go rough up a few Tyranids :(
I have an image of a battered hive tyrant and the avatar of khaine sitting at a bar, drowning their sorrows and commiserating.
On the other hand, he's the head of the Adeptus Custodes, and Custodes are a cut above everything except high-level Halris... and Trajann is their leader, and therefore better than even them.
If we're talking about power-house fighters in the Imperium, it's basically him or Primarchs that should be fighting threats like this 1-on-1.
Valoris engaged a colossal Tyranid bioform called a Norn Emissary. The creature was tracking the psychic scent of Lord Solar, seeking to hunt him down and assassinate him. Valoris slew the beast in single combat.
Worth pointing out here that this last line has been ad-libbed and is not a direct quote from WH+.
The narrator says that Trajann 'personally engaged' the creature, then there's no further details other than the artwork of it fighting several custodes. It then skips to a line about how the Imperium avoided defeat by the narrowest of margins.
It's left fairly vague and open as to what transpired in the fight. Perhaps Trajann killed this new bug singlehandedly, perhaps it slew 100 Custodes and Valoris was the only survivor.
Valoris engaged a colossal Tyranid bioform called a Norn Emissary. The creature was tracking the psychic scent of Lord Solar, seeking to hunt him down and assassinate him. Valoris slew the beast in single combat.
Plot armor is all fun and games, but man that does the opposite of exciting me for any potential big bug release. New big, colossal, creature that can psychically scent characters and hunt them down as their sole creation purpose? Would be a shame that any schmuck could intercept it and solo it in combat wouldn't it?
Now Trajann is not necessarily your run-of-the-mill schmuck, but he's not some god-tier level guy either. If you are telling me that this is what can bring down the new "big beastie", then it's quite dire indeed.
GW has always been bad at creating tension for their characters, or the setting in general, but reading the above make it way worse. Maybe I'm just too invested in my Nids and I don't like them being those Saturday morning villains and stuff
You're absolutely correct. The way GW writes lore about the Tyranids often has them come off as...annoying instead of deadly. Like I can just see the High Lords of Terra, upon hearing the news, let out out a dramatic sigh and react like a child hearing the news that they have to do their homework before they can watch TV that they now have to deal with the Tyranids again--didn't they just deal with them last week?
There's no back and forth, no subtlety or tactics from the Tyranids, it's just the Imperium winning every battle but whoops, Tyranids have numbers, so they just keep going. Which is fine, if those numbers are used smartly instead of like a noobie RTS player just attack-moving as many T1 units at a problem as they could. But just when it looks like the Tyranids might win and actually have an impact on the larger narrative outside of Iyanden, there's some psyker shenanigans neutering them, or a battleship exploding to take out their primary hive ship, some super awesome space marine and/or custodes taking out the biggest bug, or a galaxy spanning warpstorm showing up that just happens to ruin the tyranids' day.
Unfortunately, the narrative nature of the Tyranids is that they're either in the ascent--consuming, multiplying, and being a galaxy wide threat--or not, being mostly passive and annoying or hanging around for whenever GW needs an unambiguous badguy to show how awesome the good guys are. Tyranids don't hold worlds or territory; they just consume, so there's not a good way for them to be attacked strategically. Even Chaos Space Marines, with the bulk of their forces hiding in the Eye for ten thousand years like wimps, had worlds outside that could be attacked and sieged by the Imperium.
So it's kind of funny that even when GW looks like they'll be introducing a new super unit, they're pre-conditioning the Tyranid players to expect to lose.
You're absolutely correct. The way GW writes lore about the Tyranids often has them come off as...annoying instead of deadly. Like I can just see the High Lords of Terra, upon hearing the news, let out out a dramatic sigh and react like a child hearing the news that they have to do their homework before they can watch TV that they now have to deal with the Tyranids again--didn't they just deal with them last week?
There's no back and forth, no subtlety or tactics from the Tyranids, it's just the Imperium winning every battle but whoops, Tyranids have numbers, so they just keep going. Which is fine, if those numbers are used smartly instead of like a noobie RTS player just attack-moving as many T1 units at a problem as they could. But just when it looks like the Tyranids might win and actually have an impact on the larger narrative outside of Iyanden, there's some psyker shenanigans neutering them, or a battleship exploding to take out their primary hive ship, some super awesome space marine and/or custodes taking out the biggest bug, or a galaxy spanning warpstorm showing up that just happens to ruin the tyranids' day.
The opening animation to this edition is literally all about the Imperium repeatedly losing world after world to the Tyranids. Then they evacuate defenders from a bunch more worlds in order to barely stop one tendril and that's 'winning every battle'?
What specific impact do you expect Tyranids to have on the larger narrative, keeping in mind that:
a) they're never going to kill off any mortal named characters unless GW decide to discontinue the model (rip yarrick), and
b) they're not going to wipe out the Blood Angels, Ultramaines, or any other established group people actively buy models for
Even the best case scenario is that we destroy some major location like Cadia. But then GW still wants to sell Cadian models, so Cadian guardsmen are just recruited elsewhere and the narrative continues.
So it's kind of funny that even when GW looks like they'll be introducing a new super unit, they're pre-conditioning the Tyranid players to expect to lose.
The same situation just happened to the Imperium though. Their 'super-unit' Primarch returned, "killed" his brother to no effect because Angron always comes back, then still failed to prevent Chaos from achieving their main objective.
It's the nature of a setting like this where everyone has to lose battles. At a certain point Tyranids kinda... have to be stopped, or there's no more setting. The same applies to every other faction.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/05/29 22:25:09
As much as we joke (?) about everyone except Marines being NPC factions, the Tyranids truly are an NPC faction. They have no characters or personalities (and hopefully never will), and we never see anything from their point of view. The Hive Mind is supremely intelligent, malevolent even, but it is also animalistic and instinctual. It has a very firm goal and sets its entire being towards the completion of that goal. It doesn't compete against itself. There are no petty rivalries, jealousy, heroism, or politics. No Tyranid organisms ever struggle with self-doubt or fear, nor arrogance or bravado. The Tyranids have nothing to prove and have no concerns with revenge or wounded pride anything like that.
So, as a byproduct of that, they make a good foe to 'defeat' without any real consequences. Lion vs Angron was silly because obviously they weren't going to kill the Lion just as he appeared, and they set Angron up so he can be killed over and over again with no consequences. Having Ragnar and Ghaz kill one another only for them both to immediately come back was equally as dumb. Whenever you involve larger than life (and persistent) characters, having them get beaten over and over again diminishes their mystique, their threat-level, and how important they are to the setting, and it lowers the stakes. How many years did people call Abaddon "Failbaddon", for launching big offensives and then running away screaming "I'll get next time Gadget! Next time!".
The Tyranids don't have this problem. They can be defeated a thousand times over and just come back with a bigger wave. You can't diminish a prominent Tyranid as there are no prominent Tyranids. Even the Swarmlord isn't a singular entity. They are a true faceless enemy - an NPC faction - so expect them to be used as punching bags just as much as they overwhelm and destroy uncountable worlds.
And never forget that the fluff in 40k is arbitrary. It can be shifted, chopped and changed to fit whatever thing GW needs it to - the Doom of Malan'tai being perhaps the best Tyranid-related example of this - so they can turn around and make Tyranids hyper-effective tomorrow, and being beaten back en masse the next.
H.B.M.C. wrote: As much as we joke (?) about everyone except Marines being NPC factions, the Tyranids truly are an NPC faction. They have no characters or personalities (and hopefully never will), and we never see anything from their point of view. The Hive Mind is supremely intelligent, malevolent even, but it is also animalistic and instinctual. It has a very firm goal and sets its entire being towards the completion of that goal. It doesn't compete against itself. There are no petty rivalries, jealousy, heroism, or politics. No Tyranid organisms ever struggle with self-doubt or fear, nor arrogance or bravado. The Tyranids have nothing to prove and have no concerns with revenge or wounded pride anything like that.
This rubicon has already been crossed (stupidly). The Hive Mind has feelings now. I'm expecting worse lore to follow during the next few months/years of Tyranids being more face-forward in the grand narrative of the galaxy.
H.B.M.C. wrote: As much as we joke (?) about everyone except Marines being NPC factions, the Tyranids truly are an NPC faction. They have no characters or personalities (and hopefully never will), and we never see anything from their point of view. The Hive Mind is supremely intelligent, malevolent even, but it is also animalistic and instinctual. It has a very firm goal and sets its entire being towards the completion of that goal. It doesn't compete against itself. There are no petty rivalries, jealousy, heroism, or politics. No Tyranid organisms ever struggle with self-doubt or fear, nor arrogance or bravado. The Tyranids have nothing to prove and have no concerns with revenge or wounded pride anything like that.
This rubicon has already been crossed (stupidly). The Hive Mind has feelings now. I'm expecting worse lore to follow during the next few months/years of Tyranids being more face-forward in the grand narrative of the galaxy.
Oh? Are we expecting a Necron style cartoonification, then?
My condolences if so.
Nehekhara lives! Sort of!
Why is the rum always gone?
H.B.M.C. wrote: As much as we joke (?) about everyone except Marines being NPC factions, the Tyranids truly are an NPC faction. They have no characters or personalities (and hopefully never will), and we never see anything from their point of view. The Hive Mind is supremely intelligent, malevolent even, but it is also animalistic and instinctual. It has a very firm goal and sets its entire being towards the completion of that goal. It doesn't compete against itself. There are no petty rivalries, jealousy, heroism, or politics. No Tyranid organisms ever struggle with self-doubt or fear, nor arrogance or bravado. The Tyranids have nothing to prove and have no concerns with revenge or wounded pride anything like that.
This rubicon has already been crossed (stupidly). The Hive Mind has feelings now.
It was just one BL novel from mediocre writer (who BTW thinks that Custodes are morrons and can be slaughtered by everyone and their dog).
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