The 14th saw the Warhammer Day 2023 Preview. In this post I go over the handful of items that caught my eye and got me excited.
In a trend I aim to continue, this post isn’t going to be a regurgitation of the Warhammer Community article which admirably contains everything that was shown off in the preview. Instead it will be me talking about reveals that I liked and the reasons for it.
New Adeptus Mechanicus Codex
With 10th edition Warhammer 40k now firmly in place, we’re starting to see updates to Codexes and one that will appear in the next few months is for the Adeptus Mechanicus. I’ve always had a soft spot for this faction, there’s something really appealing about a group who are doing their best to remove every trace of humanity, yet human emotion such as greed and anger influences their actions all the time. From a miniatures perspective they’re a modellers dream too because within the Imperium they’re “allowed” to modify things, resulting in some amazing conversions and really bizarre models.
Alongside the new book, we also got a preview of a new miniature, the Sydonian Skatros. The model has received a very mixed reception to put it mildly! I think the key issue most people seem to have is that it’s pretty impractical from a gaming perspective, with fragile antennae on the top and stilt like legs at the bottom. Broadly I quite like the model with my usual disclaimer that it’s too busy and stuffed with so many details that they all blur together. As I understand it, this is a character model, so you’re not going to have many in your army.
Ionus Cryptborn on Cthorak
I believe this is coming out alongside the next Dawnbringer campaign book for Age of Sigmar and sees the miniature of Ionus Cryptborn reimagined. This character was first seen in the first Age of Sigmar box set which makes them amongst the longest established characters in the game.
This release has piqued my interest for a number of reasons. The new miniature has been designed to shown Ionus some time on from the Realmgate Wars which was the setting for the initial game, he’s gone off on his own now, teamed up with a Draconith called Cthorak and got a very lovely armour upgrade. Rather sinisterly he’s travelling the realms preventing Stormcast from being returned to Azyr for reforging if they’ve been reforged too many times and become broken. I think this progression is great and I’m hoping we might see more miniatures get developed like this – if we’re lucky we might even see this treatment of some of the Khorne miniatures in that original box (afterall where’s my Khorgorath!).
The other thing is that this new model is amazing! It’s a really unique sculpt and doesn’t feel like a random model plonked onto a dragon. I can see this being a painters dream, mixing hard and soft surfaces and being a great opportunity for some funky OSL and NMM.
Striking Scorpions
More specifically, a new Kill Team box that sees two units received a very long overdue update. We’ve got upscaled Space Marine Scouts and (finally) plastic Striking Scorpions for the Aeldari (Eldar to us greybeards). Out of all of the factions within Warhammer 40k, I think Eldar are one of the most underrated with how important they are within the game and I’d argue that they’re as recognisable as a Space Marine within the fantasy/sci-fi world. From a design perspective they haven’t really changed in over 30 years from the original ideas Jes Goodwin drew – that’s because they’re so good they don’t need much changing! Seeing parts of this range get updated to plastic is brilliant and I really hope that all of the gaps get filled to make it viable to collect fully in plastic.
It is also nice to see the scouts get an update, though I’ll be more interested when we see Space Wolf Scouts receive a refresh 😉
Bretonnians of the Old World
T
he last preview that caught my eye was that we seem to be seeing some real progress on The Old World, with a good range of the upcoming Bretonnian force being revealed. Now this is an interesting mix of miniatures, containing old and new plastics and complemented by resin – needless to say this got the usual mixture of responses from people (who likely never had any intention of picking up any of those models anyway) – there may be a musing soon on resin vs plastic.
Regardless, the new miniatures that were shown, look fantastic and not particularly out of place alongside the old models. There is a rumour that we could be looking at a February release for The Old World – so watch this space!
And with that, I’ll bring this post to a close. I did feel the preview wasn’t quite as large in comparison to some, however I also believe that there is another preview planned for November time (which puts pay to my thought that NOVA was the last one of the year), which I’m expecting might contain the Christmas battle boxes.
But enough with my ramblings, what did you think? Do you agree with my comments or was there something that for you just leapt out as your number one pick?
