In the early hours of Saturday morning, we were treated to the latest batch of previews from Games Workshop. In this post I pick a handful of reveals that caught my attention and give you my take on them.
As ever, if you wish to look at all of the reveals head on over to the Warhammer Community article on this.
This November preview was done alongside the World Championship event that Games Workshop recently ran – as I understand it, you could win a ticket to this at various GT events over the past year. I’m guessing they chose the US to host this event due to having access to better facilities than we have in the UK, but it meant that we got yet another preview at the completely ridiculous UK time of 3am – the third this year with Adepticon and Nova being the others.
At the risk of going off at a slight rant I really think that a bit more thought needs to be put into the timings of previews. Although I do appreciate that Warhammer is a world wide hobby, this preview was at 10pm EST and 3am GMT – not great times for either either countries. Conversely, previews shown in the morning in the US will be in the afternoon in the UK – a much better arrangement.
Anyway, back onto toy soldiers!
MkVI Assault Marines
The first on my list we knew were coming, but we have been waiting for so long I felt they were worth highlighting. The MkVI Assault Marines for Horus Heresy (or more accurately Age of Darkness). I really like the design on these, with a hardened torso and jump pack that feels like a cross between the 40k Chaos Raptor jump pack and the classic two-booster one from 2nd Edition 40k. The items on the close combat sprue are also worth a mention because they include a load of combat shields – something that until now we’ve only had available singularly. Will be interesting to see the breakdown of the close combat sprue soon.
Necromunda Enforcer Tauros
The Tauros was a vehicle that we’ve seen before, having been created by Forge World for the Elysian Drop Troops and released in resin. This model got removed when the army was shelved some time ago. In recent Necromunda releases though, we have seen the Tauros being shown in artwork being used by Enforcers, so suspected we were going to get a re-release. The surprise has come from the fact this is a plastic kit rather than a reworked resin one. This opens up a lot of options to field this vehicle in other Necromunda gangs or even in Age of Darkness militia lists (and beyond). I’ll be honest and say although my local group don’t currently play Ash Wastes in our games, I’m going to have to pick one of these up – twin concussion canons just sounds brilliant to play with.
The Old World Tomb King Bone Dragon
I think I speak for many people when I say that we were expecting a larger Tomb King reveal for The Old World – something more akin to what we got with the Bretonian range. However, I also don’t think we were expecting a brand new unit in the form of the Bone Dragon. This is quite an interesting kit too, able to have a Tomb King or Tomb Priest – giving us the possibility of having the other one on foot.
It’s an interesting design for the model too and a little marmite where some people don’t feel it fits the aesthetic of the army and others thinking it’s amazing. It’s massive too, very much a centrepiece to sit alongside the Necrosphinx. Special note to the undead cat which I suspect will be a very popular piece.
Ushoran The Summer King
The preview images that Games Workshop showed and the various hints we’ve had over the past month or so were very suggestive that Flesh Eater Courts were getting an overdue range update. With unsurprised enthusiasm, many people cried “we want Ushoran” and we actually got him to most people’s surprise.
To fill in a little bit of background, Ushoran is a Vampire from the World that Was, brother to Neferata and the first Strigoi Vampire – the more feral vampires who were unable to control their curse and rather than keeping humans as cattle to drain as they require, a Strigoi would be more likely to messily devour them.
When Age of Sigmar arrived, the old vampire blood lines got a big overhaul where the Strigoi side of largely became the Flesh Eater Courts, who’s consumption of flesh had turned them delusional and believed themselves to be noble knights. When Nagash reformed, he brought some of his loyal servants back to life (yes he is that powerful) in the form of Mannfred, Neferata and Arkhan the Black. It would appear that he has also done the same for Ushoran and made him the Mortarch of Delusion.
I’m torn, to to have yet another character be brought back from the world that was, feels a little lazy. However the miniature we have for Ushoran is spectacular, and I really love the hunched but menacingly powerful vibe the model has going on. Potentially this also opens up the option of having Vlad and Isabella return, however I really hope we don’t see that and instead the remaining mortarchs are brand new.
That was broadly the highlights of the previews for me. As ever there were loads of things I really liked the look of, the new Night Lords look great as do the new Flesh Easter Court models. I suspect we may get one more preview before the year is out as a Christmas present – likely with an expanded Tomb King range. As ever, feel free to leave a comment if you agree or disagree with my ramblings!
