Incline Warhammer 40,000 Lore Thread

[BrotherFrank]

Why squats are so boring now? Is that because today's people are whiny whimpering weenies?

This one alas can be blamed on the warhammer ogs.

Spoiler

I know I shouldn't get drawn on this... but... can't... resist

Seriously, a couple of points just so you can have an informed debate based on the real reasons that Squats are no longer available. Be warned, it is going to be hard reading for people that like the Squat background.

First of all, Squats were not dropped because they were not selling well. There were then, and are now, plenty of other figure ranges that sell in the sort of % quantities that the Squats pulled down, especially when you look across all of the ranges produced by GW rather than just those for 40K.

No, the reason that the Squats were dropped was because the creatives in the Studio (people like me, Rick, Andy C, Gav etc) felt that we had failed to do the Dwarf 'archetype' justice in its 40K incarnation. From the name of the race (Squats - what were we thinking?!?!) through to the short bikers motif, we had managed to turn what was a proud and noble race in Warhammer and the other literary forms where the archetype exists, into a joke race in 40K. We only fully realized what we had done when we were working on the 2nd edition of 40K. Try as we might, we just couldn't work up much enthusiasm for the Squats. The mistake we made then (deeply regretted since) was to leave them in the background and the 'get you by' army list book that appeared. With hindsight, we should have dropped the Squats back then, and saved ourselves a lot of grief later on.

Anyway, the Squats made it into 2nd edition, and since we were doing army books for each of the races, we started to try and figure out what to do with them. Unfortunately we just couldn't figure out a way to update them and get them to work that we felt was good enough. The 'art' of working on an army as a designer is to find the thing that you think is cool and exciting about an army, and work it up into a strong theme. This 'muse' didn't strike any of us, and so, rather than bring out a second-rate product simply re-hashing the old background, we kept doing other army books instead, with stuff we did feel inspired by.

Now, while this was all going on for 40K, we were actually doing some rather good stuff for the Squats in Epic. On this scale there was a natural tendency to focus on the big 'hand-made' war machines the Squat artisans produced, and this created an army with a feel that was very different to the biker hordes in 40K. However, this tended to reinforce the problems we saw in the Squat background rather than alleviate them, underlining what we should have done with the Squats in 40K.

In the end (and it took years to really get to the roots of the problem) this led to a realisation that we were going to have to drop the Squats in their 'Squat' form from the 40K background. There was little point having a major race that we weren't willing to make an army book for, and their inclusion in the background meant that people kept asking us when we'd do a Squat Codex. Instead we decided that we'd write the Squats out of the background by saying that their Homworlds had been devoured by a Tyranid Hivefleet. This would give us the option in the future to return to making a race based on the Squat archetype for 40K. This race was given the name of Demiurg, and a certain amount of preliminary work was done to get a 'feel' for what the race would be like. At present the only hint of the Demiurg in 40K is the Demiurg spaceship for BFG. However, we do have this race 'in our back pocket' as a possible new race for 40K, or an interesting character model in Inquisitor, or whatever. So far the Demiurg have lost out to other projects, and it may be that their time never actually comes, as they will have to win through on their merits, not simply because we once made some Squat models in the past. At present, I have to say that it is more likely that they don't make the cut than do, as there is a certain prejudice these days to simply taking races from Warhammer and cross them over to 40K like we did in the early days, so it may be that the Squats/Demiurg end up remaining a footnote in the history of the 40K galaxy. Only time will tell...

I'll finish off by saying that whatever we decide to do 'officially', there is nothing stopping players with Squat armies from using them, either in Epic or 40k for that matter. There is no GW 'rule' against using old Citadel Miniatures, as long as you use them with existing army lists and in a way that won't cause confusion for other players. I recommend taking a positive stand by saying "Have you seen these cool old models? They're called the Squats and GW used to make them back in the late eighties/early nineties. I love 'em, so I count them as Imperial Guard and use them with the current rules..." Put like this I can't imagine that anyone would stop you from using your army.

Best regards,

Jervis Johnson Head Fanatic

Do find the new space dwarves boring af and would rather have kept squats even if they made a mockey of the noble dwarves archetype and disrespected short people everywhere or something but such is life.
Seriously though is there anyone here who genuinely loves the votann? I’d love to see an attempt to sell me on them because i really can’t muster anymore then bored indifference.

 

[Bohrain]

It's a shame that the more vague, non-partisan and mythical aspects of the lore that were apparent in the Priestley interview, were ditched to make more kewl models to peddle. I'd vastly prefer if the Horus Heresy was kept as a purely mythical thing instead of this gay superhuman drama where you already know the outcome. And it would make more sense for the primarchs to originally being a handful of strong individuals taken from around the galaxy, while the official explanation of them being emperor's vat babies teleported to random places being just propaganda turned to myth. And I dislike chaos being portrayed as this thing where you become irredeemably corrupted in body and spirit if it affects you. The way it was displayed in the old Kim Newman WHF books was more appealing. You had some unfortunate souls getting mutated, but it didn't necessarily affect you mentally and half of the threat was just the people at large treating you as a monster.

 

[Kalarion]

They only axed Fantasy because the entire line sold worse than some 40k armies. No way they're goint to kill their cash cow at this point.

I wouldn't be so sure. The lesson we (spectators) took from Sigmar was, "GW resurrected a dead franchise by flipping the table, it was a fortuitous combination of mass market appeal, bouncing from the bottom of the barrel and luck." It's very possible the lesson GW execs took from the WHFR reboot was, "look how much fucking money we made by ending the world, trashing everything and giving people shiny new sets of armor!! Just think of how much more we could make if we did the exact same thing to our flagship! Bring the Emperor back, start a civil war, make the Chaos gods manifest, throw the kitchen sink at it, print money! Fuck yeah!".

 

[Caim]

They only axed Fantasy because the entire line sold worse than some 40k armies. No way they're goint to kill their cash cow at this point.

I wouldn't be so sure. The lesson we (spectators) took from Sigmar was, "GW resurrected a dead franchise by flipping the table, it was a fortuitous combination of mass market appeal, bouncing from the bottom of the barrel and luck." It's very possible the lesson GW execs took from the WHFR reboot was, "look how much fucking money we made by ending the world, trashing everything and giving people shiny new sets of armor!! Just think of how much more we could make if we did the exact same thing to our flagship! Bring the Emperor back, start a civil war, make the Chaos gods manifest, throw the kitchen sink at it, print money! Fuck yeah!".

Shooting Fantasy in the dick and replacing it with Age of Sigmar did make them a whole lot more money, yes. But again, Fantasy wasn't making a lot of money compared to 40k. So even if the gamble had been an abject failure the losses would not have been that great. If they were to take the same gamble with 40k and it did fall on its ass, they just lost their primary source of income. Even if they let the shareholders decide between growing, sustainable income and a 50/50 shot at going broke, they'll take the former.

Plus, it's not like there's no changes happening in 40k. The Primaris Marines are slowly replacing the regular ones, with more and more old kits being phased out. Even recently with the Leviathan box three old kits have been axed in favor of their Primaris equivalents, and both the Marines and the Nids are getting new units. In Fantasy this kind of stagnated, because there's only so many variants you can do with "guy with polearm" for the Empire. This is why 8th Edition turned into a monster extravaganza, with every army getting themselves a big new centerpiece instead of a steady stream of new infantry.

The story in 40k can progress as well. The fight against Chaos can't really end, and even the titular Age of Sigmar is all about kicking Chaos and other nasties in the nuts. But 40k can still do stuff like this:

We're at two out of nine so far, only a matter of time before the rest of them make their return.

 

[NecroLord]

They only axed Fantasy because the entire line sold worse than some 40k armies. No way they're goint to kill their cash cow at this point.

I wouldn't be so sure. The lesson we (spectators) took from Sigmar was, "GW resurrected a dead franchise by flipping the table, it was a fortuitous combination of mass market appeal, bouncing from the bottom of the barrel and luck." It's very possible the lesson GW execs took from the WHFR reboot was, "look how much fucking money we made by ending the world, trashing everything and giving people shiny new sets of armor!! Just think of how much more we could make if we did the exact same thing to our flagship! Bring the Emperor back, start a civil war, make the Chaos gods manifest, throw the kitchen sink at it, print money! Fuck yeah!".

Shooting Fantasy in the dick and replacing it with Age of Sigmar did make them a whole lot more money, yes. But again, Fantasy wasn't making a lot of money compared to 40k. So even if the gamble had been an abject failure the losses would not have been that great. If they were to take the same gamble with 40k and it did fall on its ass, they just lost their primary source of income. Even if they let the shareholders decide between growing, sustainable income and a 50/50 shot at going broke, they'll take the former.

Plus, it's not like there's no changes happening in 40k. The Primaris Marines are slowly replacing the regular ones, with more and more old kits being phased out. Even recently with the Leviathan box three old kits have been axed in favor of their Primaris equivalents, and both the Marines and the Nids are getting new units. In Fantasy this kind of stagnated, because there's only so many variants you can do with "guy with polearm" for the Empire. This is why 8th Edition turned into a monster extravaganza, with every army getting themselves a big new centerpiece instead of a steady stream of new infantry.

The story in 40k can progress as well. The fight against Chaos can't really end, and even the titular Age of Sigmar is all about kicking Chaos and other nasties in the nuts. But 40k can still do stuff like this:

We're at two out of nine so far, only a matter of time before the rest of them make their return.

Goddamn, the Primarchs look like absolute PLAYAS.

 

[lightbane]

Do find the new space dwarves boring af and would rather have kept squats even if they made a mockey of the noble dwarves archetype and disrespected short people everywhere or something but such is life.
Seriously though is there anyone here who genuinely loves the votann? I’d love to see an attempt to sell me on them because i really can’t muster anymore then bored indifference.

This "they weren't fitting for the noble dwarf image" sounds like an excuse. They replaced dwarves with Tau, fucking space weaboos that do not even specialize on magic katanas, and that have felt like they do not really belong to the setting from day 1. They are annoying to fight in pretty much EVERY game that features them IIRC.

I'd vastly prefer if the Horus Heresy was kept as a purely mythical thing instead of this gay superhuman drama where you already know the outcome.

Tell that to the HH writers were they keep upping the ante, even though the ending is fixed.

but it didn't necessarily affect you mentally and half of the threat was just the people at large treating you as a monster.

This can still happen due "unrelated" mutations. Chaos corrupts your mind and is usually one-way street, but you can still go back if you're not too gone. The Imperium doesn't usually bother though.

The story in 40k can progress as well. The fight against Chaos can't really end, and even the titular Age of Sigmar is all about kicking Chaos and other nasties in the nuts. But 40k can still do stuff like this:

If more of the Primarchs wake up, then an ending kind of becomes necessary, as the 'marchs are OP by design. Not much can resist them for too long. Chaos CAN be defeated if you wipe out most of their armies and focus on neutralizing anything that the Warp throws at you, or going with more radical solutions such as separating the Warp from realspace as the Necrons want to do.
I don't know if there was much public with Age Of Sigmar, the starting rules were memetically bad and inane without being self-aware at all.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Why squats are so boring now? Is that because today's people are whiny whimpering weenies?

This one alas can bebblamed on the warhammer ogs.

Spoiler

I know I shouldn't get drawn on this... but... can't... resist

Seriously, a couple of points just so you can have an informed debate based on the real reasons that Squats are no longer available. Be warned, it is going to be hard reading for people that like the Squat background.

First of all, Squats were not dropped because they were not selling well. There were then, and are now, plenty of other figure ranges that sell in the sort of % quantities that the Squats pulled down, especially when you look across all of the ranges produced by GW rather than just those for 40K.

No, the reason that the Squats were dropped was because the creatives in the Studio (people like me, Rick, Andy C, Gav etc) felt that we had failed to do the Dwarf 'archetype' justice in its 40K incarnation. From the name of the race (Squats - what were we thinking?!?!) through to the short bikers motif, we had managed to turn what was a proud and noble race in Warhammer and the other literary forms where the archetype exists, into a joke race in 40K. We only fully realized what we had done when we were working on the 2nd edition of 40K. Try as we might, we just couldn't work up much enthusiasm for the Squats. The mistake we made then (deeply regretted since) was to leave them in the background and the 'get you by' army list book that appeared. With hindsight, we should have dropped the Squats back then, and saved ourselves a lot of grief later on.

Anyway, the Squats made it into 2nd edition, and since we were doing army books for each of the races, we started to try and figure out what to do with them. Unfortunately we just couldn't figure out a way to update them and get them to work that we felt was good enough. The 'art' of working on an army as a designer is to find the thing that you think is cool and exciting about an army, and work it up into a strong theme. This 'muse' didn't strike any of us, and so, rather than bring out a second-rate product simply re-hashing the old background, we kept doing other army books instead, with stuff we did feel inspired by.

Now, while this was all going on for 40K, we were actually doing some rather good stuff for the Squats in Epic. On this scale there was a natural tendency to focus on the big 'hand-made' war machines the Squat artisans produced, and this created an army with a feel that was very different to the biker hordes in 40K. However, this tended to reinforce the problems we saw in the Squat background rather than alleviate them, underlining what we should have done with the Squats in 40K.

In the end (and it took years to really get to the roots of the problem) this led to a realisation that we were going to have to drop the Squats in their 'Squat' form from the 40K background. There was little point having a major race that we weren't willing to make an army book for, and their inclusion in the background meant that people kept asking us when we'd do a Squat Codex. Instead we decided that we'd write the Squats out of the background by saying that their Homworlds had been devoured by a Tyranid Hivefleet. This would give us the option in the future to return to making a race based on the Squat archetype for 40K. This race was given the name of Demiurg, and a certain amount of preliminary work was done to get a 'feel' for what the race would be like. At present the only hint of the Demiurg in 40K is the Demiurg spaceship for BFG. However, we do have this race 'in our back pocket' as a possible new race for 40K, or an interesting character model in Inquisitor, or whatever. So far the Demiurg have lost out to other projects, and it may be that their time never actually comes, as they will have to win through on their merits, not simply because we once made some Squat models in the past. At present, I have to say that it is more likely that they don't make the cut than do, as there is a certain prejudice these days to simply taking races from Warhammer and cross them over to 40K like we did in the early days, so it may be that the Squats/Demiurg end up remaining a footnote in the history of the 40K galaxy. Only time will tell...

I'll finish off by saying that whatever we decide to do 'officially', there is nothing stopping players with Squat armies from using them, either in Epic or 40k for that matter. There is no GW 'rule' against using old Citadel Miniatures, as long as you use them with existing army lists and in a way that won't cause confusion for other players. I recommend taking a positive stand by saying "Have you seen these cool old models? They're called the Squats and GW used to make them back in the late eighties/early nineties. I love 'em, so I count them as Imperial Guard and use them with the current rules..." Put like this I can't imagine that anyone would stop you from using your army.

Best regards,

Jervis Johnson Head Fanatic

Do find the new space dwarves boring af and would rather have kept squats even if they made a mockey of the noble dwarves archetype and disrespected short people everywhere or something but such is life.
Seriously though is there anyone here who genuinely loves the votann? I’d love to see an attempt to sell me on them because i really can’t muster anymore then bored indifference.

Most of the people aren't even aware of their existence. GW, probably, made them as experiment and not promote too much.

They, dorfs, could be more interesting after visual revamp and few changes in their lore. For example, dehumanizing obsession about technology as a shield defending them from Chaos. It still sounds like Emperror-Chaos dichotomy, but with a bit of love GW could make of this something interesting.

 

[Storyfag]

the 'marchs are OP by design. Not much can resist them for too long

Ehh, Chaos Primarchs, Necrons, 'Nids, Ghazkhull... Already plenty.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

Jeez, they are bringing back Epic 40,000 scale (only for the Horus Heresy era, so far, however).



If only they could bring back my Holy Grail re-release - Battlefleet Gothic.

I imagine we would get Space Hulk and Gorkamorka before that however.

By the Imperial planetological classification guidelines, a Civilised World is one that has a population from 15,000,000 all the way up to 10,000,000,000 people and pays moderately high Imperial tithes. It may have large, sprawling urban areas but none have yet reached the level of population density or self-sufficiency to be considered a true hive city. Many Civilised Worlds may be equivalent in culture and population levels to Old Earth during the Age of Progress in the early 3rd Millennium.

That YouTube thumbnail illustrates something I feel is worth discussing about 40,000, which is that there should be more grassy battlefields. Like I mentioned before on page 10. Grimdark is fine, but sci-fi should be logical to create immersion. A lot of Imperial planets look more like something out of Battletech or Dropzone Commander. We have instead gravitated toward 100% concrete Hive Worlds, when you look at gaming mats, dioramas, Codex artwork, pre-made terrain, etc. Commie block high rises, forests, parks, motorways; roughly a 20th century living standard, but like living in a totalitarian state with "Xenos raid" drills, local high school teaching you about the Emperor, and with a few accutriments of the 41st milennium. Here is some old-style terrain I miss from earlier editions:

I miss Mexican Orks with their clean adobe architecture. Arriba! Arriba! Andale! Speedy Gorkzales was definatly a Bad Moonz snotling. Also Catachan Jungle Fighters fighting in actual jungles. Eldar Exodite worlds that actually look like the Garden of Eden, with guerilla Eldar riding xenos lizards. As an aside, I think you can tell who are the OG Epic 40,000 factions, by whether they have a Titan in lore from Epic scale or not; Imperium (Titans), Chaos (Chaos Titans), Orks (Gargants), Eldar (Eldar Titans), Tyranids (Bio-Titans). Dark Eldar, Necrons and Tau, coming later, have no Titan sized units, as far as I am aware.

EDIT:

 

[Fedora Master]

 

[Caim]

Looking at the limited options for Harlequins I decided to crunch some numbers to see what would happen if you tried to field 3000 points (currently the maximum in the rulebook) of mirth. Behold the Clown College:

- 3 Troupe Masters (one Warlord)
- 3 Shadowseers
- 2 Death Jesters
- 1 Solitaire (Epic Hero, can only have one)
- 6 11-man Troupes (having a Troupe Master Warlord makes them Battleline, allowing you to field 6 units of them instead of 3)
- 6 Starweavers (as Dedicated Transports they NEED to have SOMETHING embarked on them or they're destroyed at the start of the battle, but at a capacity of 6 they can't hold the Troupes)
- 3 squads of 4 Skyweavers
- 3 Voidweavers
- 3 Enhancements (Phoenix Gem, Fate's Messenger and Reader of the Runes) to be given to any non-Solitaire character (last one can only be given to Shadowseers).

This 96 model list list is exactly 3000 points. This might not seem all that interesting, but you need to realize that this is almost the maximum that a Harlequin army can field. This list is just one 70-point Death Jester short, and on paper the Troupes can be upgraded to be 12 clowns strong at 15 points a pop. This makes the murderous mirth maximum is 3160 points.

So don't play big games with the clowns, kids.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Looking at the limited options for Harlequins I decided to crunch some numbers to see what would happen if you tried to field 3000 points (currently the maximum in the rulebook) of mirth. Behold the Clown College:

- 3 Troupe Masters (one Warlord)
- 3 Shadowseers
- 2 Death Jesters
- 1 Solitaire (Epic Hero, can only have one)
- 6 11-man Troupes (having a Troupe Master Warlord makes them Battleline, allowing you to field 6 units of them instead of 3)
- 6 Starweavers (as Dedicated Transports they NEED to have SOMETHING embarked on them or they're destroyed at the start of the battle, but at a capacity of 6 they can't hold the Troupes)
- 3 squads of 4 Skyweavers
- 3 Voidweavers
- 3 Enhancements (Phoenix Gem, Fate's Messenger and Reader of the Runes) to be given to any non-Solitaire character (last one can only be given to Shadowseers).

This 96 model list list is exactly 3000 points. This might not seem all that interesting, but you need to realize that this is almost the maximum that a Harlequin army can field. This list is just one 70-point Death Jester short, and on paper the Troupes can be upgraded to be 12 clowns strong at 15 points a pop. This makes the murderous mirth maximum is 3160 points.

So don't play big games with the clowns, kids.

Yeah but how is it in a fight?

 

[Bohrain]

Yeah but how is it in a fight?

It's either good or it's a joke, which would be more thematical.

 

[Caim]

Yeah but how is it in a fight?

It's either good or it's a joke, which would be more thematical.

Some pointers:

- 4+ Invulnerable saves across the board with a 3+ for the Solitaire makes them much tougher than their T3 suggests, still that low Toughness puts that save to work
- A severe lack of high AP weaponry means that they need to drag Marines down through sheer numbers
- Almost all of their anti-vehicle weapons function through their Anti-Vehicle 4+ rule, so against monsters they will struggle severely
- Troupes require a character to actually make them good, but they're kinda expensive for what they do (235 for a dozen including the boss isn't cheap)
- Relatively low numbers paired with tax picks to fill out your numbers means that you will be even more outnumbered than usual. If you can pick the fights you want that's great, but you are even more vulnerable to being swarmed
- Do not forget the special abilities of your units! Skyweavers cause Lethal Wounds by flying over shit, Voidweavers can cause Battleshock, Charge your Troupes for that nice +1 To Wound, use your Shadowseers for defense and Troupe Masters for offense, and know when to charge your Solitaire into the enemy commander

Basically it might work, but there's a good chance to get clowned on by a list with actual choice instead of the "you must pick EVERYTHING" mentality.

 

[Borelli]

Does anyone else feel that the size of the empire in 40k goes against the worldbuilding.
I mean, when the empire in fantasy defeats yet another invasion, you feel that it was because they gave 110% of what they got,
while in 40k while reading the lore i always get the feeling that the writers gimp the empire on purpose just because it is so ridiculously big.

It's grimdark by incompetence.

 

[Caim]

Does anyone else feel that the size of the empire in 40k goes against the worldbuilding.
I mean, when the empire in fantasy defeats yet another invasion, you feel that it was because they gave 110% of what they got,
while in 40k while reading the lore i always get the feeling that the writers gimp the empire on purpose just because it is so ridiculously big.

It's grimdark by incompetence.

Several times where the size of armies is specified enough you can deduce how many soldiers there were, you realize that these armies are smaller than some armies in our history, if not smaller than individual forces fielded in certain battles.

 

[Zarniwoop]

2 entire sectors were burned in the Great Horde Heresy Incursion Crusade.

Now the remaining 999980 worlds must carry on the struggle, barely clinging to life.

In the grimdarkness of the far future, there is only war.

 

[lightbane]

In the grimdarkness of the far future, there is only writers that cannot into math. Or scale.

Fixed.
It may explain why the Administratum is so bad, if they're as good with logistics as the average WH40k writer.

 

[Tyranicon]

In the grimdarkness of the far future, there is only writers that cannot into math. Or scale.

Fixed.
It may explain why the Administratum is so bad, if they're as good with logistics as the average WH40k writer.

Scifi writers not being good at scale is as old as the genre.

At least with 40k it should be easy since everything is massive. Just inflate everything to 11 and you'll be fine.

Like with titans, just make them walking skyscrapers, like 2000 feet tall.

...What do you mean the largest of them is not even 500 feet? That doesn't sound very 40k at all.

 

[lightbane]

At least with 40k it should be easy since everything is massive. Just inflate everything to 11 and you'll be fine.

Reminds me of this:

Spoiler

 

[BrotherFrank]

Idc what some dumbass black library author says in one of his books, Imperator titans are so huge that the smaller titan classes can fit in the barrels of its weapons.

As an aside for those who didn't know, this channel is basically a cheat to watch the Hammer and Bolter episodes, of which the latest one just got released:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91PghSeqVik
There is his face in the corner and he sometimes pauses it to talk and skips like 1 or 2 minutes, but short of paying for warhammer + or going to a dodgy free streaming site that will infest your browser with cookies, this is the best way to view them.

Latest episode is ok but poor Exorcists chapter gets done dirty in this one, being made to look like absolute fodder.

 

[NecroLord]

In the grimdarkness of the far future, there is only writers that cannot into math. Or scale.

Fixed.
It may explain why the Administratum is so bad, if they're as good with logistics as the average WH40k writer.

Scifi writers not being good at scale is as old as the genre.

At least with 40k it should be easy since everything is massive. Just inflate everything to 11 and you'll be fine.

Like with titans, just make them walking skyscrapers, like 2000 feet tall.

...What do you mean the largest of them is not even 500 feet? That doesn't sound very 40k at all.

It's the rule of cool.
The rule of cool is above all in WH40k.
BrotherFrank I rather like the Exorcists. Very cool chapter. I like their practice of taking daemons into themselves only to try and resist them and later banishing them.

 

[Storyfag]

In the grimdarkness of the far future, there is only writers that cannot into math. Or scale.

Fixed.
It may explain why the Administratum is so bad, if they're as good with logistics as the average WH40k writer.

To be fair, most sf or fantasy writers do not have a sense of scale, not just the Warhammer ones. *cough* 1 200 000 strong Clone Army *cough*

 

[Borelli]

In the grimdarkness of the far future, there is only writers that cannot into math. Or scale.

Fixed.
It may explain why the Administratum is so bad, if they're as good with logistics as the average WH40k writer.

Apparently early WH40k was a 80s british satire hence the large incompetent bureaucracy. Which is fine but it leads to another problem, 40k doesn't know whether it wants to be taken seriously or not.

 

[Caim]

So the Oghram campaign is over, and here are the results:

Close Tyranid victory. As a reward, there's the reveal for the new models:

New Termagants that we're getting instead of the push-fit ones from the Leviathan box. Includes all three basic weapons, the new Shardlauncher that's a lighter version of what the Barbgaunts wield, and the return of two oldies from 2e: the Spike Rifle (right) and the unfortunately shaped Strangleweb. Box of 10, with a Ripper.

New Hormagaunts. No weapon options, but they are much more dynamically posed and hopefully less top-heavy than the old ones. Box of 10, and also includes a Ripper.

New Genestealers. Contains enough of the tentacled Ymgarl heads for the entire unit. Box of 10.

New Lictor, replacing the derpy metal one. Second picture is an alternate pose.

The Neurolictor, a new model built that may or may not be built from the same kit as the Lictor. Less capable in combat, geared towards causing Battleshock instead. Coomers have started to lust over this one because the post of its leg would be suggestive if a human does it.

Another look at the new Deathleaper model, who apparently has eaten enough people to cause it to evolve drip. Can't be your Warlord right now, but in an upcoming Detachment in the Codex it can.

New Pyrovore, which looks much more spider-like compared to the rest of the Tyranids. Doesn't sink into the grond on its thin, pointed legs because the Hive Mind wills it so. Currently the Pyrovore is once again the worst unit in the Codex (not as bad as it was in 6e and 7e where it could, with the right setup and astronomical luck, destroy every non-tank unit on the board in one blast).

New Biovore with Spore Mines, built from the same kit.

The big new centerpiece model: the Norn Emissary. Wanna know what this thing's job is? It's an assassin. Check the Warriors next to it for scale.

The Norn Assimilator, built from the same kit. The Wraithlord next to it is apparently some 10-ish centimeters tall.

More info here:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/07/15/warhammer-preview-a-shadow-descends-on-oghram/

Verdict: Penis guns/10, a fitting rating for the Hive Fleets.