The new HQ choice is the only thing from this Army that looks remotely space dwarf to me at this point
I'll agree with that - why no Dwarf symbols GW? Surely the whole point of bringing back these was to restore the concept of Space Dwarfs? The Kharadron certainly look more Dwarven than these Midget-Marines do, why didn't GW just base their design off them? Or even make the Kharadron models usable in both AoS and 40K, as with Daemons?
I really welcome new factions for 40k but I think the Voltan are a big miss for GW. Don't like them at all.
Eh... The Leagues of Votann are as much a revisit of an old idea as they are nostalgia bait, much like zoats. I personally don't mind them as such, but that's also because I think it's a mistake to want them to be a one-for-one "Deep Rock Galactic (For Rock & Stone!)/DAWI IN SPESS" faction in 40k. There's definitely a time and place for that kind of aesthetic and theme (Feel free to modify the hell out of the Ironhead Prospectors gang for Necromunda if you feel strongly about it, as those are more egregious models), but I'd be hard-pressed to say that it's in vanilla 40k at all, especially if the goal is to make them visibly distinct from anything Imperial and yet still be grounded in designs that appear to be tried-and-true. The fact that a lot of their wargear looks a lot like something befitting a deep sea expedition or near-future Mars mission speaks volumes to that, even if people are more likely to holler about it all looking like a Starcraft knock-off (which likely took similar cues anyway).
What do we think of lizardmen in space? Too naff? I kind of think they'd be a bit like Tau or eldar but melee focused. They could be rely polished like Tau or really grim dark and grimey and be more like orks.?
Probably both. We already are a mixed army, so we would have melee monters ( similar to nids) and some elite melee troops as temple guards (with inv. save, similar to lichguard), then some antitank (bastiladons and stegadons), and skink support with light shooting. And finally strong psykers, that provides the essential buffs. I can easily imagine carnosaurs with a save 3+, with a sort of chameleon skin as defensive feature that gives them a -1 to be hit and a psy power that can give them inv. 5++
I don't think they're too bad but GW could have done a lot better with them. I've always considered GW to be a master at ballsing up good opportunities to develop something great. I honestly wish that GW had ditched that whole bit of lore about the Squats being ex-Imperium and having Imperial weapons (or evolved Imperial weapons in the case of the new ones), and just made them good old Space Dwarfs, futuristic Kharadron, with their own Dwarven weapons rather than Imperial ones. That's what everyone wanted, and what do we get? The original Squats were too much like Imperial Guard Dwarfs, the new ones are too much like Space Marine Dwarfs. I like the lore about the computer cores being an update of the Dwarf tradition of remembering stuff, the vehicles and Dwarf-Droids look good as something different from Imperium and the futuristic Saxon/Viking names are great, but I really wish they had given them more beards and more Dwarven knotwork to give them more of an aesthetic away from the Imperium. But then, that can be amended by using the Kharadron as alternative models and just using the Votann rules. I have heard others calling them Starcraft knock-offs, but Starcraft was a cheap knock-off of Warhammer 40K in the first place, so Blizzard is just getting a taste of its own medicine I plan to write rules for Lizardmen exactly as they are in 40K, though perhaps with the 'Seraphon' star tech added to their weapons that we see in AoS, with the lore idea that the Old Ones seeded loads of different worlds in the 40K galaxy with Lizardmen just as they did with the Warhammer World in Fantasy. Of course my rules will be in 6th Edition, because it's still da best regardless of what the kids say, but someone else can revise it for 9th Edition if they wish. As an army, Lizardmen would probably be a mix of Tyranids and Orks - more melee-focussed, with Saurus being tougher and more aggressive Ork Boyz that can't shoot, Skinks would be Scouts (pretty much 40K Vanguard) that can shoot a basic missile attack and have Hit and Run, Temple Guard would be buffed up Saurus that pass Look Out Sir! tests for Slann automatically. Saurus Cavalry would be a nasty hard-hitting cavalry unit in a game that needs more of them. Chameleons would be Infiltrators that can alternatively choose to Deep Strike (not scattering if they Deep Strike thanks to Chameleonic Skin) and have Stealth and Hit and Run. Carnosaurs would be the anti-monster Monstrous Creature, Stegadons would be anti-infantry with an improved Hammer of Wrath attack, Basiladons would be either shooty with the Solar Engine or able to replenish Serpent Swarms as per Canoptek Spyders and Tervigons. Terradon Riders and Ripperdactyl Riders would make good multi-wound Jump Infantry choices. Slann would be excellent psykers, Mastery Level 4 and able to choose any of the 5 Psychic Disciplines from the Rulebook, and perhaps a Powers of the Old Ones Discipline as well (though Tyranids would be able to thoroughly screw them over with Shadow in the Warp ).
If I was super-rich and lived in a castle, I would contemplate joining the club with a Hierophant Bio-Titan, but otherwise
Ehhhh, not yet? I have the parts to turn a toy into a Gargantuan Squiggoth, and plans to make a Gargant from scratch, but nothing yet.
Do both in fact! The presence of Xenos titans in that club is sorely lacking right now by the looks of their battles.
Eh, any titan is welcome but empire / chaos can count on a much wider amount of models. Which is a pity.