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 -Loki- wrote:

 40kFSU wrote:
I don't think plastic steel legion is that far fetched. All you need is 3 new kits to start the line. Consider how many new players would go start a guard army due to the new models. I love IG, but I am Cadian/Catachan'd out. No more for me. Plastic steel legion would be like printing money.

The issue is it doesn't fit 6th edition release methods, which tend to be releasing any missing kits from 5th edition, moving a unit or two to plastic, and adding a couple of new units (usually a flyer and/or an oval base walker). Three new basic infantry kits isn't something we've seen since the Dark Eldar/Necron/Grey Knights releases in 5th, and those were complete line overhauls. Guard also still have a decent amount of stuff that needs releasing to fill up a 6th edition codex release wave.

The one thing that lends credence to the rumour is that the Guard infantry are, quite frankly, awful models. Cadians are passable, but Catachans are absolutely horrid. Catachans are also some of the oldest plastixs still in production, are they not? GW did re-release the Tactical kit, redone and spiffy (or rather will), that leaves some room for old kits to theoretically get updated. They may opt to remove the Catachans if the molds are near the end of their life, and make something completely new instead. Guard has had a few different aesthetics, they're nowhere near as fixed as other factions.

I don't think it's probable, or even likely, but it is possible. More likely a second wave once the other codexes are done, however, as Guard is, as you say, lacking a lot of their listed models, probably more than any other at present save perhaps Orks. They certainly have the most metal after Sisters still. A lot will need replacing over the next while.

I definitely understand your points about releases and established players not needing new models. In fact, you guys are also probably right. I was just thinking no matter how many cool new tanks, special characters, or elite units get kits, they are still Catachan or Cadian. I think a new line would create more interest. You have people willing to pay ridiculous sums for the old Mordians, Praetorians, Tallarn, Valhallan, on eBay. I know I am one of them.

Especially praetorians. I can't explain it.

 MajorStoffer wrote:
Catachans are also some of the oldest plastixs still in production, are they not? GW did re-release the Tactical kit, redone and spiffy (or rather will), that leaves some room for old kits to theoretically get updated. They may opt to remove the Catachans if the molds are near the end of their life, and make something completely new instead. Guard has had a few different aesthetics, they're nowhere near as fixed as other factions.

Tactical marines are old (1998 with a recut in 2004) and getting replaced, but are a core choice for the most popular faction that can also be used by 2 other books, potentially by 2 more at least as parts.
Catachans are a single unit for a single army, and if they withdrew them and replaced them, you would have a weird mess with the much newer Catachan HW team and essentially brand new Catachan command squad being out of place without a troop box.
A guard regiment in plastic now is basically made up of 3 linked plastic kits. You end up with odd results if you try to remove one kit of the three, and honestly there are far more things that need new or replaced kits before Catachans.

IG Codex. It would be interesting to see them get the Space Marine Treatment. Characters and rules being Army Dependent.
Catachan Vets get +1WS while Cadian Vets get +1BS. Cadians get Move Through Cover while Catachans get Stealth.
Only a Catachan Army can take Harker, Marbo, etc, while Cadians get Creed, Pask, Bastonne, etc.
If you take the Unique HQs (Straken, Al'Rahem, Yarrick, etc) then you are tied to specific USRs for your Army and can't take any of the Special Sgt characters.
No more Creed 24" orders with Yarrick's Ld10 bubble.
IG Supplements forthcoming with unique characters and units to create themed IG armies from those SCs.
Now is we can only get some effen models for our Dex choices.

I am really excited about the possibility of plastic Steel Legion. While I have my doubts (Reduce sales of DKOK on FW) the time table does make sense.

A Armageddon video game is set to come out Q1 of 2014. Also the Steel Legion metal range more or less disappeared from the GW website. (It is still possible to find via searching through alternative means)

While extremely exciting, I just spent like $400.00 on the metal range under the impression they would be gone forever. If the new mini's look amazing I will Time will tell I guess.

Commissar Benny wrote:
I am really excited about the possibility of plastic Steel Legion. While I have my doubts (Reduce sales of DKOK on FW) the time table does make sense.

A Armageddon video game is set to come out Q1 of 2014. Also the Steel Legion metal range more or less disappeared from the GW website. (It is still possible to find via searching through alternative means)

While extremely exciting, I just spent like $400.00 on the metal range under the impression they would be gone forever. If the new mini's look amazing I will Time will tell I guess.

Trust in your doubts. 3 plastic kits would eat massively into the sprue budget which already needs to cover a number of units without GW models so far.

And finding the ASL on the GW site is easy, go to IG _> troops.
Squad: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440249a&prodId=prod1140104
Heavy Bolter: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440249a&prodId=prod1130547
Lascannon: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440249a&prodId=prod1130548
Plasma gunner: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440249a&prodId=prod1140055

Meh, I find it hard to believe that someone knows GW's most guarded secrets but doesn't know the difference between Orks and Orcs.

 Jidmah wrote:
Meh, I find it hard to believe that someone knows GW's most guarded secrets but doesn't know the difference between Orks and Orcs.

that is needlessly pedantic. Judge the source on whether or not what he says is true, not on his spelling or knowledge of gw ip (ie confusing the empire with imperium, which mean the same thing anyway)

Also in defense of plastic Steel Legion is that Guard already have a plastic flyer and super heavy. The remaining tanks could easily be done in combined sprues for the already existing hulls.

What remains unplasticed is practically ignorable. stormtroopers are outclassed by vets. Ogryns, ratings and rough riders are all casual at best. Unless they massively fix the weak units in the codex, new troops would generate more sales then anything. Guard armies need s lot of troops after all.

I think GW missed an opportunity when doing Ogre Kingdoms, some good sculpting and sprues could've had dual use molds for an Ogryn box.

Assuming these rumours are true, since metal models for the ASL already exist, GW should have devoted resources to making plastic models for a different guard group. Plastic ASL is just so wrong! The Armegeddon STEEL Legion should stay metal! I mean, it's in their NAME for crying out loud!

(...besides maybe that first sentence, I'm not sure I'm serious)

TiamatRoar wrote:
Assuming these rumours are true, since metal models for the ASL already exist, GW should have devoted resources to making plastic models for a different guard group. Plastic ASL is just so wrong! The Armegeddon STEEL Legion should stay metal! I mean, it's in their NAME for crying out loud!

(...besides maybe that first sentence, I'm not sure I'm serious)

I hope you're joking. Those models are beautiful, but a pain to deal with since they're metal.

Now you too can own the STEEL legion's little plastic brothers!

...yes, I'm joking.

You argument might hold...if they were made of Steel.

the Pewter Legion doesn't have the same sound to it.

even worse? The Fine cast Legion.

I could see the Baneblade making it into the IG Codex. Just call it a second (or third) generation Baneblade, with a normal battle cannon on the turret, less hull points, and having to choose between firing the battle cannon or the demolisher cannon.
I just want the proper Vanquisher cannon back with it's two firing options (and the coaxial stormbolter would be nice, too).

No Fantasy releases from August (Lizardmen) to Feb (Dark Elves)?

I need gasmasks and trenchcoats in my army, my only problem is that DKoK is too expensive. I would buy a lot of steel legion if they ever came in plastic. Too bad that these rumous sound extremely unlikely.

Wait, maybe I missed it in the thread, but if SM are September, Nids are November, what do we get in October?

 streamdragon wrote:
Wait, maybe I missed it in the thread, but if SM are September, Nids are November, what do we get in October?

Depends on the rumor monger:

Natfka is all over the place:
White Scars
Orks
Big Box Game

Most others are saying Big Box is likely.

Yeah, I forgot about the "October Surpise" box we sometimes get.

Armageddon Rumors - August 2013
via an anonymous source on Faeit 212
there are no Catachans in sight, the Codex will Focus Armageddone and Cadia. The Ork Codex will Focus Armageddon and the Relationship to the Imperium of Mankind.

I think Goffs & Blood Axes will become the first Suppliments.
Codex Orks comes with a Blood Axes Suppliment.
The suppliment allowed Kommadoz as Troop-Choice und Alliance with Imperial Guard.

dkellyj wrote:
IG Codex. It would be interesting to see them get the Space Marine Treatment. Characters and rules being Army Dependent.
Catachan Vets get +1WS while Cadian Vets get +1BS. Cadians get Move Through Cover while Catachans get Stealth.
Only a Catachan Army can take Harker, Marbo, etc, while Cadians get Creed, Pask, Bastonne, etc.
If you take the Unique HQs (Straken, Al'Rahem, Yarrick, etc) then you are tied to specific USRs for your Army and can't take any of the Special Sgt characters.
No more Creed 24" orders with Yarrick's Ld10 bubble.
IG Supplements forthcoming with unique characters and units to create themed IG armies from those SCs.
Now is we can only get some effen models for our Dex choices.

If by "interesting" you mean "an absolutely horrifying idea that GW should never, ever, ever try", then yes I agree with you. If people want GW to take away our ability to counts-as, then they damn well better make generic HQs worth taking and give generic armies a way to change things up in the same way as the named regiments, because otherwise they're just doing the same thing they have with Marines - stunting people's creativity and options.

Aw man, still no signs of life in the Sisters. Dammit GW! However the list of new edition codexes to be released is getting shorter...we must get to them eventually, right?

Still, my bro plays Orks, so the possibility of a new codex and plastic crack will please him.

Do you see any irony there?

Doubt it is gonna be empire vs orcs in the 9th ed kit. They have done that already before. I hope they will make it wood elves or bretts or beastmen as they are the armies that are in painful need of an update.

Also thought Dwarves were getting done early next year....

Well IF the IG codex focuses on Armageddon, you can bet on plastic Steel Legion.

 Son of Landuin wrote:
Doubt it is gonna be empire vs orcs in the 9th ed kit. They have done that already before. I hope they will make it wood elves or bretts or beastmen as they are the armies that are in painful need of an update.

Mix it up! Wood Elves vs Beastmen! They hate each other anyway.

Plastic Steel Legion?

Don't get me wrong, if there were plastic steel legion, i'd replace all my Cadians in a heartbeat (I've got two squads of the metal ones, but they're kind of a pain in the arse), but there's too many reasons for GW to not do them.

They made the decision not to axe them with the rest of the specialist/collector stuff (along with Cypher and a few other doo-dads), so if they're keeping the metals around for the time being, the only change-over we'd see is Finecast, with all the attendant horror and price jump. Furthermore, they bear a strong aesthetic similarity to the Death Korps, which is one of FW's best selling products (the half a platoon to my left stands as testimony to that). GW is irrationlly paranoid at taking sales away from their own different branches, and while plastic overcoat/gasmask guys are what Guard players have been asking for since the Goodwin sketches appeared back in the 90s, GW doesn't want to kill their subsidiary's chief money maker, especially when FW and BL are currently the divisions driving growth in the company.

I suspect we'll see a new plastic Guard variant after the codexes have been updated, whether that be re-done Catachans or Cadians I couldn't say, but they're old designs which haven't aged well, and there's plenty of aesthetic niches with the Guard that haven't been filled. It's just not sensical to believe that'll happen with the main release when Stormtroopers, Ratlings, Ogryn, Rough Riders, Medusae, Bombards, Griffons, Hydras, Veterans and Penal Legion all still lack models. Precedent says we should expect a plastic Stormtrooper/veteran dual kit, an artillery multi-kit (basilisk remains unavailable for order for independent retailers), Hydra, and then the finecast treatment for the other metals (regimental advisers, ratlings, ogryn, standard commissars), with a plastic character or two, likely a commissar and captain.

Guard need a bit more done with them than most, especially given the prevalence of metal in the line still, so troop re-dos, while doubtlessly needed, are not the priority as of yet, when just getting the army "modernized" in basic kit production will already make it a larger-than-average release.

9th edition fantasy next summer would be soooo great. It is needed! Finally, flanking will matter again

This thread begs the question: Would current FW sales of any of their models or lines be more than the sales of that model in plastic?

If GW loves money above all else, eventually you would sell what people want in plastic. FW has the freedom to do what they choose. Take one model or line away (especially an older one) and they can move onto something else.

PS
And honestly the whole DKoK argument is invalid before you even get your mouth open. If that was the case, GW would have stopped selling the metal ASL models a long time ago to force more sales towards FW.