Marshal Loss

The more I reflect on the importance of statuses, the more excited I get about the revamped Hereticus EC rules. Stupify feels like it is going to have some serious utility in 3.0.

Enjoyed the article. Any thoughts on chainaxes vs chainswords on assault squads?

Pacifist Gal Vorbak wasn't on my 3.0 bingo card

There's a new 'resin restocks' category on the GW website now (link is to the UK store, but it's also on AUS, etc). They seem to have done a mass restock for Salamanders, Iron Warriors, Iron Hands, and World Eaters. Bad luck if you're hoping for something from another legion to come into stock for now.

It's resin - there are no deimos-style circular doors at the front like the new Fellblade chassis

Yeah really hoping they're done as a separate kit or as part of a melee weapons 2.0 at some point. I've got a mass of Mark VI assault I could use chainaxes on.

Was bound to happen eventually. Hopefully they've learned some lessons from the way the heresy novel series was managed. Beyond ecstatic that Wraight it kicking it off though. He's brilliant.

While I don't like e.g. Tartaros losing fists (come on...), I'm largely pleased with the article and announced legacy PDF contents. I'm still baffled why they didn't decide to preemptively publish this article or one like it last week before the reviews and leaks came around. Sure, they aren't obliged to acknowledge people leaking their products before release, but reviews were always going to (and did) highlight the issue on preorder day, their products almost always tend to leak early, and it doesn't take a genius to predict that the reaction to those without knowledge of the extent of the legacy PDF contents was always going to cause a firestorm. I really want 30k to do well and this release was not well managed by whichever part of the company plotted out the game's announcements. At least now I can go into what will hopefully be an exciting preview for yet more plastic heresy later this week without this cloud hanging over the game.

Aw. Not many new colour plates? Had hoped that the absence of 'man reads book' videos would mean I'd get a pleasant surprise with some colour plates

They have said that they will (eventually):

I understand where you're coming from, but the answer is because it's not that simple for most folks. Not everybody has a nearby group or a FLGS with a reliable community they can come to agreements like that with, and relatively few are as tuned in to what's going on and the global state of the community as the kinds of people having discussions here. It isn't a case of people being hypnotised by the GW machine, it's just that it will be easier for people to go with what's currently being supported.

Yeah this just occurred to me as well. Things like contemptor torsos and deimos doors have been out of stock for every legion worldwide (as far as I know) for like 6+ months. They didn't do any accompanying legion dice or anything this time around either I think this is the most delicate yet firmly worded summation of 3.0's issues I've read yet. Where is our seasoning, GW

That's my initial experience as well after a couple of hours of playing around with lists. Detachments offer fundamentally nothing that people weren't essentially able to do already via the existing force organisation chart and rites of war. There are some small wins for me if I compare something like a 3.0 list to a 2.0 3rd Company Elite list (e.g. Kakophoni can now score), but that has come at the expense of most of the flavour. No mass augments, no warlord trait, and so on. The combination of restrictions and bonuses offered by rites were what made something like Kakophoni being moved to troops feel significant in the first place. My lists look the same in model terms but feel boring in comparison. Maybe an Emperor's Children journal in who knows how long will add things that change that picture, but I'd prefer not to wait years and have to pay more money to get back something that I already had and which the faction had already had for nearly a decade.

Need to parse over things with a fine-toothed comb, but Emperor's Children look alright to me, they're definitely not terrible. Their respective LA:EC & LH:EC traits largely stayed the same with Stupefied becoming much better I think, mainly as a result of other legion traits often getting worse and tactical statuses - rather than just pinning - becoming far more important and common (even if we still have to be shot before getting permission to be degenerates). I definitely think the Stupefied of 2.0 was the 3.0 trait shoved into the wrong edition of the game as an interim option while they were working on the new edition. Some initial thoughts: Palatine Blades are now armed with...Palatine Blades (aka super special charnabal sabres)! Though they can swap those for spears, so if you had rapiers/sabres, no options lost. I am relieved that I will not have to think hard about what weapon my unit is armed with, and I hope that in the future every unit has a weapon named after themselves. Glorious. Both Fulgrims are, I think, better, but with a bit less flavour which seems to be the norm with Primarchs in 3.0. Fulgrim Transfigured is significantly scarier. Most sad for me is that the Legion's Apothecarion influence is far less prevalent than before. From 3 surgical and 3 debased augments we are now left with two (shriekers & sonic lance), which can't be spammed, they're Command/Champion only. No 3rd Company Elite, no special Apothecary wackiness. Kakophoni are a little better. Their weapons have stun, like the concussive resonator on the Saturnine Dreadnought. They're still going to be more dangerous to themselves than most scary targets though. As alluded to above and in previous posts, detachments offer nothing near the flavour that the rites of war of 1.0 and 2.0 did. Overall I stand by my reaction to the first loyalist leaks. There's definitely things I like but I don't agree with the broader direction (detachments over rites, general loss of options - e.g. so long, massed sonic lance augments). But I'm lucky that my legion seems to have emerged from the 2.0 transition largely unscathed, both in terms of unit model options and efficacy.

This chap has the traitor book and talks about the NL/AL rules in the video (no pictures, just has the book in front of him), if anybody is interested enough to listen.