The GREAT 40k thread

I personally don't like it, because the Horus Heresy is the worst possible setting for such a game when they could have just rebooted Epic 40K. I see they're still making the same mistakes they they made when creating the rebooted Adeptus Titanicus.

The only good thing this does is that it brings the hope that, if TOW is a success, they'll bring back Warmaster for it.

 

Eh... it's a thing of all time. Until we see the rules for the game however, I'm cautiously optimistic about its delivery being anything more than yet another attempt at milking nostalgia-fuelled hype for a quick buck before leaving it to languish from lack of support.

Outside of that, there's a few things that stand out to me with this reveal:

• The AT Warhounds that will be part of the starter box will be coming with a different weapon sprue than the ones currently available for AT - that is, a sprue specifically for weapons previously only available through FW and a shiny new add-on in the form of that missile pod;
• The regular astartes infantry appear to be using a scaled-down version of the same CAD file used for the 28mm Mk VI marines available for Horus Heresy. This may not seem particularly noteworthy, but it could be inferred that the command squad featured is a teaser for the Mk VI command squad and weapon options that have yet to be released for Horus Heresy; and (by that same token)
• Epic/AT-scale Solar Auxilia in plastic might mean that plastic SA Infantry will be coming to Horus Heresy in the near future, along with a plastic Malcador.

Of the lot, I personally don't care about the warhounds (even as an Adeptus Titanicus player), and Mk VI isn't particularly interesting to me short of a Raven Guard or Alpha Legion collection. Still not sure how I feel about the Solar Auxilia either, though being in deep need of plastic infantry model support hasn't helped their case for a long while.

 

Me too, that´s why I have prepared only two printbeds full of models so I have something new to paint

 

Here's the biggest piece of retarded bullshit from GW I've seen in a long time:


GW are ditching the Xenos aircraft from Aeronautica Imperialis to turn it into a Horus Heresy game. This makes me worried that GW haven't learned from the mistake they made in ditching factions when Fantasy was turned into AoS after all. How have they not understood that taking away factions actively reduces customer interest in a game, and thus reduces profitability? And how can they not see that Horus Heresy is a niche Forge World game because it's such a dull and limited setting compared to 40K? Has their sales department been taken over by chimps?

@Killer Angel I certainly doubt that they'll consider making a 40K version of their new Epic Battles game after doing something like this.

To be honest though, GW never gave the 40K version of Aeronautica Imperialis a chance anyway with their abysmally slow release schedule for it, and changing it to a Horus Heresy game will only further its decline as more people stop playing it due to losing support for their factions.

I look forward to seeing it die a slow and tragic death for this insult. A shame because it was a cool idea to do a 40K answer to X-Wing with models you could paint in your army's colours, but sacrifices deserve to be made to try and change GW's mind on this folly. This new obsession with a moronically dreary setting, that was only created to excuse the 80s moulding department not being able to afford to make a second model for the original AT boxed game, is going too far.

 

And that's saying something!

 

Keep in mind that this is the same company that will be rolling out your much anticipated TOW!

 

Haven't you heard? GW clearly wants you to buy more SPESS MUHREENS otherwise you're playing the game wrong!

Even still, GW has also been pissing off a lot of Horus Heresy players with their boneheaded decisions ever since Alan Bligh passed away. That it's still alive and kicking as a supported game is largely despite GW's meddling, coupled with several waves of ex-40k players migrating over from vanilla due to GW's handling of 7th, 8th, and 9th Edition.

What annoys me more than GW making the new Epic just another Horus Heresy spin-off that cribs from two previous games that they couldn't be bothered to support properly is that their overall laziness with how they're going about it doesn't even come close to excusing how they're promoting it. They're plainly using the same CAD files shrunk down to a quarter of the scale, which is pretty damn trivial for a pre-existing portfolio of some 10+ factions worth they already produce at the 28mm heroic scale for 40k alone.

 

And of course the Aeronautica last chance stuff went out of stock almost immediately.

Sigh.

 

It's also near-as-damn it the same company that made and then killed off 8th Edition, and the flaws of that game are enough to still make me watch TOW with some hope that it will be better. Like you I have nothing to lose as if it fails I will still keep playing 8th, but I'm still keeping a look out for any potential gain that could come from TOW.

 

That doesn't surprise me in the slightest, the only reason they're doing it in the first place is to compete with Warlord Games' growing Epic Battles franchise, that's recently expanded into Pike and Shotte with Hail Caesar well on the way, and the fact that they're not even willing to use one of their favourite settings (AoS and 40K) for it and limiting it to a far more limited setting shows how much they're willing to half-arse it if it means giving them some quick £££s.

I wouldn't be surprised if it also receives minimal releases like Aeronautica and is quietly retired after a couple of years.

 

Not to mention other miniature companies like Warlord Games have really been ramping up their quality (it's quite something that a lot of the non-Citadel miniatures i've been building/painting this month have been as high if not higher quality than GW.)

Honestly though, Aeronautica dying off isn't that surprising. It was an awesome concept with really nice models...but did not have a massive amount of continual support and pushing and it seemed like very few people were playing it. My store barely stocked it and after a year or so just stopped displaying it. Moreover no one I spoke to there had bought/built/played the game.

That's been the problem with Specialist Games (yes, i'm calling it by it's old name) and Warhammer Historical (great, now i'm really showing my age), the concept, rules, and models were brilliant...but a lot were never really picked up enough (except Bloodbowl and I guess Necromunda) and were eventually ditched. I lament that smaller me only ever managed to get the starter set for BFG and a couple frigates/destroyers before the game was circulated out.

 

I love how the introductory 40k 10th set is 10 termagants and a ripper swarm against 5 marines with flamers. Woe betide little Timmy who has to play as Nids.

 

Fake 'new' 40K has done away with Flame Templates so perhaps it'd be more balanced than we think, but certainly I wouldn't put it past GeeDubs to swing the balance into the Marines' favour.

I've also noticed how meagre the model content in that introductory set is compared to 9th's Recruit Edition, which had a character for both sides plus a couple of additional swarm bases for the Necrons. It'd better not be the same price or more for that reduced content.

But the Ultimate Starter Set this time round I would argue is better than the old Command Edition, as the new one adds a second character for Marines and an additional unit for Tyranids to the content of the standard Starter Set alongside scenery, whereas the Command Edition for 9th was literally the same set of models as in the Elite Edition but with just a load of scenery added in.

 

I haven't been following it, was the "newness" promotion nothing more than a sales stunt?