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Source:

http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=179333&page=2&pp=15


...About 5 minutes ago.

He's down at UCC (my uni in Ireland) for Warpcon, and here's the few things I picked up:

*April among other things will see the release of Liber Apocalyptica, a regular release which deals with different sections of existing armies, then creates Apocalypse Datasheets for them. First up is Chaos with the Emperor's Children Noise Marines.

*There is currently a BloodBowl computer game in production for PC, Xbox 360, DS and Playstation (he didn't specify which one). It's going to be a blend of real time and turn based play, with different platforms having different combinations of the two.

*There are plans in place to implement the Chaos Legions in 40k. That means codex's for Emperor's Children, World Eaters, Death Guard etc...bear in mind this is pretty long run stuff.

*There's not going to be much in the way of Lost And The Damned as Jervis feels they're covered already and more suited to Apocalypse as it is.

*A new Imperial Guard codex is being talked about.

That's all I have time for, but I'll say some more stuff later.



Ok, day two at the convention and I just had an awesome chat with Jervis, who has to be one of the most patient guys around. Honestly, he sat for 2 hours answering numerous questions thrown at him by fans, and he's wandering around the hall with his son answering loads more, stand up guy.

The idea behind the Chaos legions is that he felt that the last book tried to cover every aspect of the Chaos forces, and did it badly. The way he saw Chaos was as this huge amalgamation of different forces serving the Dark Gods, each deserving their own army book.

The current Chaos codex is meant to represent renegade marines, not necessarily the ancient 10,000 year old servants of Chaos. He felt that while splitting up the different aspects of Chaos into their separate sections while at first painful (as shown by the displeasure at the recent codex) will, in the long run, do each component part more justice than a small 20-30 page footnote in an army book.

Epic will receive some more support, as he feels it's currently pretty under-represented. A Space Wolf codex is high on the priority list, and he revealed they're among his favourite chapters, purely because they actually care about the civilians, they're the good guys as he put it.

He wants to release a book of scenarios for 40K as he feels most of the complaints from people come from the fact that there are a limited amount of scenarios and mission types, and people can tailor their armies to excel in those limited confines, and as such win more easily. He feels a more varied aproach to missions and scenarios might help to balance the game, rather than a more kill things and have more scoring units than your opponent aproach.

Nagash will make a return to the fantasy world. He's not quite sure how it'll be done, but he feels he deserves a new model, and possibly an army based around him. Key word being possible.

By the way, when I say long term plans, Jervis made it quite clear that at the bare minimum long tern = back end of next year. The guy thinks ahead in huge amounts.

He also refused to comment on rumours of 5th edition.

He was however incredibly forthcoming on the fluff side of things, as I had about 15 minutes with him talking about one of (and his) favourite characters: Cypher.

Jervis revealed (and I can quote him on this) that Cypher is "absolutely NOT a Chaos Space Marine". The way he envisioned Cypher is as an avatar of redemption, that in some sense the fallen Dark Angels are the good guys, as they see their mistakes and learned from it, but the Dark Angels simply can't see past it, and instead decide to kill things to solve the problem. He also said that Cypher is not entirely human (or super human as the case may be) anymore due to the rend in reality that shattered Caliban, casting the fallen angels through space and time. He said there's a mystical aspect to his character. He also explained a lot of where he got the idea from, a Clint Eastwood movie called High Plains Drifter was his main inspiration.

If you guys have anything pressing you want to know tell me, as he's still wandering around and VERY open to questions.

Right, day two of Jervis bothering is over.

Chaos legions WILL be getting a full codex. His exact words were "if we're going to do things, we're going to do them right."

Dark Eldar are HIGH on the list guys. Alien hunters isn't on the radar, since the focus is on updating current army lists rather than starting new ones. This means Dark Eldar, Guard and Space Wolf players are going to be happy

Sorry for you armoured company guys, Jervis mentioned when I asked that they'd be ridiculously hard to manage balance wise, but they're throwing around the idea of giving Guard maybe 4 Heavy Support slots. He first said 6 and then when my eyes widened in shock he laughed and shrugged, "Well maybe 4...". He feels armoured company are better off in Apocalypse, and he might do a datasheet on them for it, but as far as 40K it doesn't look good.

Jez Goodwin (hope I spelt that right) is already throwing around some concepts for Dark Eldar plastics btw.

Update on Liber Apocalyptica. Based on what he said last night and today it's going to be a White Dwarf segment. The April edition contains a datasheet for an Emperor's Children Warband, with lots of juicy sonic weapons. I mentioned how your army got raped BA, which kinda led back onto the legions.

Basically Jervis sort of apologised for the Chaos codex. He said they regret not letting Chaos guys in on what the big picture was, and he feels they probably should have pushed that angle a little more (hindsight is always 20/20 though...).

Also Void Dragon fans don't hold your breath. I asked him if we're going to learn any more about it and it was the only question I asked to which he replied he has no idea.

Unfortunately I can't ask him any more. I'd like to but I've talked to him about 5 times with at least 3 questions per conversation. Sorry guys.

Still, a nice bit of juicy info there ............

AgeOfEgos wrote:Basically Jervis sort of apologised for the Chaos codex. He said they regret not letting Chaos guys in on what the big picture was, and he feels they probably should have pushed that angle a little more (hindsight is always 20/20 though...).

For someone who wants to make sure that evrything is spelled out in no uncertain terms what things are, and for streamlining, this quip really doesn't cut it for me.

It appears an apologetic excuse. Something I am seeing far too much from GW in recent history.

Night of the long knives...... its coming.

Glad to see the new Guard is coming. The extra Heavy Support slot won't be worth as much in 5th edition - but I'll still be nice to field another tank (most Guard players have a closet full of different heavy support options anyway).

I wouldn't hold my breath for the Chaos Legions. I recall about 4 years ago or so when the WFB Chaos book came out they talked about how plastic knights would be coming along with plastic sprue to theme the Chaos Warrior plastics for each god. Still waiting on those.

They're also unlikely for the same reason the Xenos Hunters isn't on the radar. I wouldn't hold my breath.

Still Dark Eldar, Space Puppies and Guard will be a nice string of releases.

*There's not going to be much in the way of Lost And The Damned as Jervis feels they're covered already and more suited to Apocalypse as it is.

The arrogance of that statement astounds. I'm sure Jervis is a nice guy but LatD are not covered and are just as suited to standard 40k as Imperial Guard or CSM.

Hellfury wrote:

AgeOfEgos wrote:Basically Jervis sort of apologised for the Chaos codex. He said they regret not letting Chaos guys in on what the big picture was, and he feels they probably should have pushed that angle a little more (hindsight is always 20/20 though...).

For someone who wants to make sure that evrything is spelled out in no uncertain terms what things are, and for streamlining, this quip really doesn't cut it for me.

It appears an apologetic excuse. Something I am seeing far too much from GW in recent history.

Night of the long knives...... its coming.

I bet the reason why they did not tell anyone their long range plans was that they did not want anyone holding back from buying the new chaos models and waiting for the legion codex.

Blackmoor wrote:

Hellfury wrote:

AgeOfEgos wrote:Basically Jervis sort of apologised for the Chaos codex. He said they regret not letting Chaos guys in on what the big picture was, and he feels they probably should have pushed that angle a little more (hindsight is always 20/20 though...).

For someone who wants to make sure that evrything is spelled out in no uncertain terms what things are, and for streamlining, this quip really doesn't cut it for me.

It appears an apologetic excuse. Something I am seeing far too much from GW in recent history.

Night of the long knives...... its coming.

I bet the reason why they did not tell anyone their long range plans was that they did not want anyone holding back from buying the new chaos models and waiting for the legion codex.

Thats not comforting, Blackmoor...

The one item that popped to me was:

They are just now throwing around ideas on plastics for Dark Eldar. Perhaps it's just my man memory kicking in...but it seems I recall several times over people stating on Warseer DE was in full swing. If they are just now considering plastic kit ideas though...hell what does that mean? Dex is finishing up with known units to put into plastic....dex not done..or...?

If you remember in the past they kept saying they were "hoping" to make 4 legion books. It looks like they couldn't confirm anything until now. Looks like they have the go ahead, which is good. Bad for the amount of time, good that it will come to pass.

If you have read the other rumour threads, it didn't sound like there was going to be a huge amount of Dark Eldar redesign. The plastics and some of the units, but mostly they stay the same with different rules.

Dark #$%^ing Space Elfs.

Retred of an army that's a knock off of a knock off and wasn't that interesting to start with.

(Hands around chocolate cake and glasses of milk.) Dig in boys! It's good!

*April among other things will see the release of Liber Apocalyptica, a regular release which deals with different sections of existing armies, then creates Apocalypse Datasheets for them. First up is Chaos with the Emperor's Children Noise Marines.

Looks like Apocalypse will indeed be the future and on-going home for miscellaneous stuff that GW wants to test, but doesn't want to put into "official" 40k. Works for me.

*There is currently a BloodBowl computer game in production

Meh.

*There are plans in place to implement the Chaos Legions in 40k. That means codex's for Emperor's Children, World Eaters, Death Guard etc...

And Thousand Sons. Cripes, don't forget them!

This is very good news, as it looks like they're moving from "a possibility of some" to "eventually all".

Of course, if you're MoCU (IW, NL, AL, WB), you get to wait longer. Oh well. I won't miss a return of IW.

*There's not going to be much in the way of Lost And The Damned as Jervis feels they're covered already and more suited to Apocalypse as it is.

Fair enough, and as expected. At least he's being upfront about it.

*A new Imperial Guard codex is being talked about.

Yay! Please let this be a good one, with cheaper Guardsmen and *much* cheaper, AV11-side Chimeras.

he's wandering around the hall with his son

He brought his son with him? Poor kid. :(

A Space Wolf codex is high on the priority list

No kidding. They're SM that still follow the 40k3 design!

He wants to release a book of scenarios for 40K

Cha-ching! No surprise here, either. Can we say "40k General's Compendium"? Yes? Done. Who wants to wager that this contains the "advanced" scenarios from the current hardback rulebook, reshuffled with 40k5 tweaks and die rolls?

Nagash will make a return to the fantasy world. He deserves a new model

It's a good thing I'm not huge on WFB.

Jervis revealed (and I can quote him on this) that Cypher is "absolutely NOT a Chaos Space Marine". The way he envisioned Cypher is as an avatar of redemption, that in some sense the fallen Dark Angels are the good guys, as they see their mistakes and learned from it,

I still like the EOT bit in which the Fallen are the Loyalists, and the current DA are the traitors.

Dark Eldar are HIGH on the list guys. Alien hunters isn't on the radar,

OK, show us!

Sorry for you armoured company guys, Jervis mentioned when I asked that they'd be ridiculously hard to manage balance wise, but they're throwing around the idea of giving Guard maybe 4 Heavy Support slots. He first said 6

All he needs to do is have Elite BS4 Tank Ace for 50 pts that takes a BS-based Russ (Exteriminator / Conqueror / Vanquisher). As long as it's not more Pie, nobody will care.

Jervis sort of apologised for the Chaos codex. He said they regret not letting Chaos guys in on what the big picture was,

Jervis said GW was planning to do Chaos Legion / Power Codices, but nobody wanted to believe him.

I prefer that each legion got 2-3 pages in the current codex because 1. We wouldn't have to wait 4 years and 2. GW may change their minds or end up not doing legion dexes anyway.

To me it sounds like a plan to sell more dexes. Now we need to buy Codex: CSM plus Codex:Legions to get all the Chaos rules, and throw in Codex: Demons if you want god-specific demons. But but .. the last codex had legions and god-specific demons! Sure parts of it were broken, but it doesn't need to be split into 3 or more codices!

Was at the Q&A. Was very cool, He handed around the Vampire Lord Spearhead so everyone could have a look at the new codex + models.

Also got to ask him my most pressing question. Turns out there will be no Ally system for CSM and Daemons, It has become the realm of Apocalypse. Not surprised just mildly disappointed.

Jervis is cool. Very common sense oriented. I like how he never blames anything on the bean counters, he just tells it how it is.

Cool that Guard is getting redone even if Alien Hunters/ Inquisition seems to be pushed back. Maybe they figure the interest in the Inquistion armies is already there and not going up or down either way.

Noisy_Marine wrote:I prefer that each legion got 2-3 pages in the current codex because 1. We wouldn't have to wait 4 years and 2. GW may change their minds or end up not doing legion dexes anyway.

Honestly you'd think they could do the big 4 in one codex anyway since they'd have just 2 troop types each and share a lot of units.

But that's not how GW does things anymore.

AgeOfEgos wrote:

The idea behind the Chaos legions is that he felt that the last book tried to cover every aspect of the Chaos forces, and did it badly. The way he saw Chaos was as this huge amalgamation of different forces serving the Dark Gods, each deserving their own army book.

The current Chaos codex is meant to represent renegade marines, not necessarily the ancient 10,000 year old servants of Chaos. He felt that while splitting up the different aspects of Chaos into their separate sections while at first painful (as shown by the displeasure at the recent codex) will, in the long run, do each component part more justice than a small 20-30 page footnote in an army book.

Renegade marines who use combi bolters, reaper autocannon,insane dreadnoughts, ect.?
Seems to be a bit of a contradiction to say that you can't represent all Chaos armies with the one book, then shoehorn Renegades into the Legion list.

winterman wrote:

*There's not going to be much in the way of Lost And The Damned as Jervis feels they're covered already and more suited to Apocalypse as it is.

The arrogance of that statement astounds. I'm sure Jervis is a nice guy but LatD are not covered and are just as suited to standard 40k as Imperial Guard or CSM.

I think this is where the lack of a champion inside the studio hurts LatD. Obviously what they did for Apoc doesn't help LatD players ("I have to build my army up to what points level?!?"), nor does it represent LatD forces. Sadly, LatD players have a better handle on and feel for the army than the designers.

Blackmoor wrote:

Hellfury wrote:

AgeOfEgos wrote:Basically Jervis sort of apologised for the Chaos codex. He said they regret not letting Chaos guys in on what the big picture was, and he feels they probably should have pushed that angle a little more (hindsight is always 20/20 though...).

For someone who wants to make sure that evrything is spelled out in no uncertain terms what things are, and for streamlining, this quip really doesn't cut it for me.

It appears an apologetic excuse. Something I am seeing far too much from GW in recent history.

Night of the long knives...... its coming.

I bet the reason why they did not tell anyone their long range plans was that they did not want anyone holding back from buying the new chaos models and waiting for the legion codex.

That's probably part of it. The other part is the lukewarm (at best) reception for the codex, so now they're saying "we'll fix things...someday." If they really had such wonderful long-term perspective and business plan for Chaos, we certainly would have gotten something a lot cooler than the current codex and a codex of daemons.

AgeOfEgos wrote:The one item that popped to me was:

They are just now throwing around ideas on plastics for Dark Eldar. Perhaps it's just my man memory kicking in...but it seems I recall several times over people stating on Warseer DE was in full swing. If they are just now considering plastic kit ideas though...hell what does that mean? Dex is finishing up with known units to put into plastic....dex not done..or...?

One thing about the designers is a constant...they always underreport where they are in the design process. I think it's their fave way of avoiding questions.

Noisy_Marine wrote:I prefer that each legion got 2-3 pages in the current codex because 1. We wouldn't have to wait 4 years and 2. GW may change their minds or end up not doing legion dexes anyway.

To me it sounds like a plan to sell more dexes. Now we need to buy Codex: CSM plus Codex:Legions to get all the Chaos rules, and throw in Codex: Demons if you want god-specific demons. But but .. the last codex had legions and god-specific demons! Sure parts of it were broken, but it doesn't need to be split into 3 or more codices!

Not true. The chapter specific codices (Black Templars, Dark Angles) are stand alone. You don't need any other codex to play the army. So if they release, say Codex: World Eaters, then that is all you'll need to run the army. You won't need to flip through 3 different books to find out just how many attacks your Bloodletters get.

I really like what was said here by Jervis. Dark Eldar have needed a new codex and new models for a long time and it's nice to see that they're finally getting them and most likely sometime this year. I figured Space Wolves were pretty close as that is the release schedule of the chapter specific codices. I'm actually a little nervous about the new Guard codex. I've said before that I think the current Guard codex is probably the most balanced book out there and I'd really hate to see them swing either way on the pendulum. It would be nice to see a couple new models for them and possibly even Valhallans redone. We'll see.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:

Noisy_Marine wrote:I prefer that each legion got 2-3 pages in the current codex because 1. We wouldn't have to wait 4 years and 2. GW may change their minds or end up not doing legion dexes anyway.

Honestly you'd think they could do the big 4 in one codex anyway since they'd have just 2 troop types each and share a lot of units.

But that's not how GW does things anymore.

This is complete speculation on my part but I would wager a model that the Legion specific books will allow legion specific demons.

First, as you pointed out, how many units will each legion specific book really warrant? Second, it will be an obvious tie in for sales.

Toreador wrote:
If you have read the other rumour threads, it didn't sound like there was going to be a huge amount of Dark Eldar redesign. The plastics and some of the units, but mostly they stay the same with different rules.

Yikes, there be some true uglies in that line. I always quipped that DE players were the most sporting of players, as anyone that would play that army obviously wasn't playing it for aesthetics .

/I kid!

gorgon wrote:The other part is the lukewarm (at best) reception for the codex, so now they're saying "we'll fix things...someday." If they really had such wonderful long-term perspective and business plan for Chaos, we certainly would have gotten something a lot cooler than the current codex and a codex of daemons.

We had rumors of stand alone Legion books long before we knew anything specific about the new Chaos codex. So, unless GW suddenly started to look for ideas on the internetz (and the treatment LatD got makes me think they don't) plans for different Legion books were set before new chaos codex came out.

As I said at warseer, this stuff sounds great, but it's all vaporware and powerpoint presentations. What are they WORKING on, not what are they PLANNING.

Tally up everything they are promising and 40K 5th will look like this:

Codicies:
Space Marines
Black Templars
Dark Angels
Blood Angels
Space Wolves
Chaos Space Marines
(Thousand Sons)
(World Eaters) -- Chaos
(Emperor's Children) -- Legions
(Death Guard)
Daemons
Imperial Guard
Tau
Orks
Necrons
Tyranids
Eldar
Dark Eldar
(with =][=, GK, and Sisters floating around in the late 3rd edition stuff)

alongside the main rules:
5th Edition
Planetstrike
Cities of Death
Apocalypse

I'd love to see their resource allocation, especially since LOTR and Fantasy are also taking up artists and sculptors.

I love the ideas, but I'd like to see their long range plan with work loads next to it. I'd be more likely to consider these rumors as more concrete.

Still, I'd love Legion plastics, so maybe we'll get lucky.

From what I've understood a codex for the legions is about 2 years away. Now based on the fact that for 40K they seem to get about 4/5 big releases a year (last year eldar, DA, Chaos, Apocolypse, and BA kind of)

This year we'll get Orks, Demons, Planetstrike, 5th Ed + perhaps one other codex. now i'm roughly guessing there are about 6-7 more codicies assuming the legions are in 1 book. So in theory end of next year it could all be done or near enough

I'm pretty confident that Space Wolves will come out this year too.

dienekes96 wrote:Tally up everything they are promising and 40K 5th will look like this:

Codicies:
MARINES x 10
Everyone Else x8
(with =][=, GK, and Sisters floating around in the late 3rd edition stuff)

alongside the main rules:
5th Edition
Planetstrike
Cities of Death
Apocalypse

It does seem that things could be even more one-sided than now with that arrangement.

Cool interview I really hope they do the legion books well.

Noisy_Marine wrote:To me it sounds like a plan to sell more dexes.

Yup. But note that C: World Eaters would be a stand-alone book. The attraction will be owning a full set of Codices for CSM, Daemons, Slannesh, Tzeentch, Nurgle, and Khorne. And LatD if that should ever rear its head again.

Tacobake wrote:Maybe they figure the interest in the Inquistion armies is already there and not going up or down either way.

They have Inquistors and Assassins, along with Sisters and GK to track Inquisition sales. I'm guessing that the lines don't sell that well, which is why GW now tracks a combined Inquisition block. This is going to be a long ways down the road.

gorgon wrote:

they did not want anyone holding back from buying the new chaos models and waiting for the legion codex.

The other part is the lukewarm (at best) reception for the codex, so now they're saying "we'll fix things...someday."

Lukewarm only among those who knowingly bought into CSM as a Tier 1 army. Those who were looking for more freedom in creating their own CSM force, seem to be quite happy with it. Repeated polls on Dakka & Warseer consistently show that the average player supports the new CSM book over its predecessor.

dienekes96 wrote:40K 5th will look like this:

Space Marines
+ Black Templars
+ Dark Angels
+ Blood Angels
+ Space Wolves

Chaos Space Marines
+ Daemons
+ World Eaters
+ Death Guard
+ Emperor's Children
+ Thousand Sons

Tyranids
Tau
Orks

Imperial Guard
+ Inquisition (3E)

Eldar
+ Dark Eldar

Necrons

5th Edition Rulebook
+ Missions
+ Cities of Death
+ Planetstrike

Apocalypse

I'd love to see their resource allocation

The pace can be quite manageable. With 19 armies, if they go to one Codex per quarter, that's a 5 year cycle, which fits neatly with the notion of a rules supplement each year. This is why GW is very unlikely to do a "reset" in 40k, because the game expands so much.

They haven't done one Codex per cycle (4 a year) in QUITE some time.

im hoping with legion specific codexes comes the return of legion specific demons once again. i mean now that we basiclly know that codex:demons isnt gonna be a mix of CSM and demons, i would like to have my plaguebearers back sometime down the road.