apologist

Much appreciated, @Mogger351 – and thanks @Inquisitor_Lensoven for sharing the video. Scout vehicles for Guard sound interesting. We've seen the Tauros Venator pop up in Necromunda – that would have otherwise been my guess for inspiration, so I'll cross my fingers for something new. +++ And as for the poor Steel Legion (ever the bridesmaid), I'll just say that it'd be nice to have Yarrick come with a command squad, don't you think? I don't think it's completely beyond hope, given the more recent IG character releases; but I won't hold my breath.

Anyone able to watch the video, and kind enough to provide a text-inload summary?

Rather than a Good–Evil axis – in which you start neutral and through actions become more or less good/evil, you might think of an Order/Chaos axis: on the one hand, pure, perfect Law – unchanging, closed, restricted – on the other, pure, perfect Chaos – ever-mutable. I think this is a better way of understanding life in the Imperium versus in the Eye of Terror/Chaos wastes: the former a boot stamping on a human face forever, as Orwell put it, where free thought and emotion are restricted, fettered and numbed; the latter such utter freedom that sanity and form themselves are lost. Within that, you've got the course of human life in the 41st Millennium – walking a tightrope between these two equally appalling conditions. It makes the attraction of Chaos (and the horror of the Imperium) make a bit more sense, I think. +++ + First steps + As @Karhedron puts it nicely – Chaos is inherently corrosive. Johannus Civitas, typical cog in the Imperial Machine, perhaps finds some enjoyment in some harmless hobby in the privacy of his hab-cell: playing music, smoking lho-sticks, watching a sports team. In itself these acts are not 'good' or 'evil', but it sets the seed for competitiveness; for passion; for secrecy – all of which can be taken to extremes. It's thus that the 'good' aspects of the Chaos gods make sense. If your loved one is terminally ill, you pray for stasis – that the illness will stop in its tracks. It's this hope that is the thin end of the wedge in Nurgle's domain. A warrior enjoys the bond of brotherhood and inter-reliance of his comrades: that's the first step on the road to Khorne worship. Does Johannus Civitias seek promotion or improvement in his life? These are the first thread towards Tzeentch or Slaanesh. What these acts have in common is that they're not 'evil', but they are an expression of free will, rather than total submission to 'Law/Order'. +++ + Eldritch intelligence + The other aspect that informs this discussion is that the warp is weird. The Powers of Chaos are one of those things that GW really got right early on, in how alien they are. Here's Realm of Chaos (RoC) on the nature of the Powers: While the Great Powers can be interpreted as personalities – gods like Zeus, Mars, Teutates etc. – that's not really the truth. Being of the warp, they're inherently not-understandable. They are at once involved with and unaware of the real world; just a sum of their smaller parts – and its these smaller parts; the individual daemons of a patron that then offer a good microcosm of this: each can have its own personality, which is at one and the same time part of the greater Power. Just as an eddy or gust is part of a storm: distinguishable, but not really separate in any meaningful way. +++ + Watercolour painting and the path to destruction + Let's look at Johannus Civitas again. Perhaps he's taken up watercolour painting (per Christopher Bowers' reddit post), and takes pride and pleasure in it. In some small way, his emotions ripple in the warp and feed Slaanesh – but it's not a reciprocal arrangement. If he enters a contest, his competitiveness feeds Khorne; his drive to win feeds Tzeentch, and so forth. Should his passion and desire for perfection escalate, his emotions will make larger ripples in the warp – to the point where, eventually, they impact and contribute to the larger storm that is Slaanesh. Civitas' passion is just a metaphorical ripple; but it's also particularly 'attuned' to the storm. The act of painting, or entering a contest, aren't good or evil – but driven to extremes, all acts become egregious. The passion curdles into obsession; the competitiveness into agression; his ambition into underhanded cheating. These, I think, can be called evil – and they'll certainly feed the storm/make bigger waves (whichever metaphor you prefer). Eventually, Johannus might find himself attracting the eye of the gods, who will take an active role in corrupting and driving him further along, granting gifts to further agitate and escalate the underlying emotions.... But this is another metaphor. It would be just as accurate to say that Johannus' emotions have become so attuned to the warpstorm that his soul is affected by the ripples from the storm – which, again, is really just made up of trillions of other beings just like him. To put it another way, Johannus actions in the real world agitate his 'space' in the immaterium, and move it towards other, similar movements, until he is part of a larger movement; a particle in a greater storm. But is it his movement (his actions in the real world) that's taking him – or is he simultaneously attracting the storm? What's the difference? +++ + Who falls to Chaos? Who submits to Order? + Either way, I agree with Christopher Bowers' point that the Powers always bring entropy and ruin. In 40k (and the Warhammer universes more generally), Chaos is only vanishingly rarely something anyone comes back from. And that's because 'falling to Chaos' is not really a case of will and intention (i.e. doing evil things to be rewarded by an evil deity), but rather the ability to express what's already there – to do what you would otherwise do, if you simply had the power. 'Good' people can fall to Chaos, doing 'good' deeds all the way – that's exactly how Inquisitors go rogue. Likewise you can do all the 'evil' things you like in 40k, and still remain unaffected by Chaos if your emotions are closely guarded and monitored – or you simply don't have a particularly rich inner world. In the Imperium, the authorities aim to keep most people as close as possible to perfect 'Order/Law' through highly restrictive laws, because all other paths inevitably lead to Chaos: a mono-polar setting. It's very human to chafe at such extreme limitations, hence why the Imperium is such a horrible place – the 'cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable' as Rogue Trader puts it. The best a human can do in such a world is to try to find an equilibrium between being able to exercise their will while applying their own restraints. Inquisitors, by the by, are a good rare example of Imperial figures who are empowered and enabled to exercise free will. Space Marines in general, and Grey Knights in particular, are examples of 'agents of Order' whose free will and emotional range is intentionally stunted; and thus why they are more resistant to Chaos: because they show little of what we'd call humanity. This way of looking at the Chaos/Imperium is one that offers a bit more meat for understanding why the Imperium is just as terrible as the forces of Chaos arrayed against it; and that if there are any heroes in 40k, it's the people who live in the cracks; as threatened by the totalitarian oppression of Law as the horrifying freedom of Chaos.

Catachans? Steel Legion? Either of the above would be spot-on for me, and – assuming something isn't seriously wrong with the sculpts – would be an auto-purchase. However, I've been hoping for both of these for literally years, so I can't bear to get my hopes up again! :D

An Armageddon-themed boxed set sounds like a lightning striking twice! The mixed armour Marines sounds good to me, and I’d be excited to see orks get centre stage of a boxed set again.

Your Green Templars caught my eye after reading that excellent short story you posted, about a Templar returned from the Deathwatch. I didn't comment there, so thought I'd make amends here by trying to help! Greens tend to be quite forgiving in application, but the eye is very sensitive to variation there. I recommend keeping the base-coating as quick and simple as possible, so you can spend your time on the fun detailing stuff. If you're after the effect of that first image (the warm, slightly metallic green with the helmet on), you could get a long way towards it by priming with Retributor Armour, then applying Ork Flesh Contrast over the top, avoiding the areas you want to remain gold like the pauldrons and right knee. That'll deal with the great bulk of your work in two steps, and keep things as smooth and consistent as possible. If you want the cooler green of the second image, try Terradon Turquoise over Retributor Armour. The ever-excellent Chaosbunker has this extremely helpful article on using Contrasts over different paints, which included these images from GW Chelmsford. You can see the effect of various greens on the bases in the right-hand column: If you want to see it on a marine, the example (not mine) through this link shows a Space Marine painted with Terradon Turquoise over Retributor Armour; which should give you a rough idea of how the cooler green would look.

True, but it's a business decision on which models to create. The commercial 'point' of special characters is to drive the ranges by showcasing particular archetypes or being an excuse for a cool model that says something about the particular range. None of that requires the character to be current in the setting. GW could happily sell a plastic (say) Wolf Guard Ranulf, or Maximus Thane, or Aun'Va, or Commissar Gaunt, if they didn't insist on all their characters being alive in the current timeline. Hell, there have been models who were always historical – Eisenhorn, Anghor Prok, Macharius, Old One Eye for example. There are also characters whose arc has been completed – Yarrick, Aun'Va, Tycho, Creed, Schaeffer's Last Chancers, the entire 30k setting... – but the vast majority of GW special characters are nominally alive in the current timeline. If you're set on an ongoing story, that causes problems for certain factions. Eldar, Necrons and Marines, being functionally immortal, aren't a problem – their archetypical characters can carry on as before, but it becomes increasingly awkward to have to come up with compelling (and different) ways for shorter-lived entities to survive. GW have come up with some fun ideas for this, like Tau engram chips, Imperial juvenat treatments and Tyranid respawning, but sometimes – and particularly for the 'smaller-scale' characters, it'd be nice just to have them cash their chips/retire/go out in a blaze of glory without that inherently meaning the model goes off-sale. Sevastus Acheran is a good example of an (arguably) mishandled commercial opportunity. They have a plastic model that matches the character. Re-release the model with a new label and a few free scenarios on Warhammer Community that take you through some of his famous battles, ending with how he 'historically' died, and let the players have fun.

On the specifics of benefits of each Rhino pattern, there's quite a bit of info scattered around the various Imperial Armour books. I can't vouch to its accuracy, but this link has the feel of a copy-and-paste from such books, and it notes: It's all rather complicated by the mixed up timelines introduced by the real-world/in-universe releases of 40k/30k! In case it helps your research, the current 30k plastic Deimos pattern Rhino is the 1c; while the current 40k Rhino and its various iterations are Mars pattern. This was released as the 'Rhino IIc' in 2022 (around WD issue 267/268), as this battered ebay box shows: (Absolutely killer art, by the way! Wish boxes still looked like this.) +++ The current background suggests that the Deimos pattern STC was lost (or otherwise compromised), presumably by the Martian Loss of Innocence and the events of the Heresy, but this is (I believe) not made explicit. It is for this reason, in-universe, that the Mars pattern one was dominant from M31–41. As for which is better, the link above gives the following info. If you're happy to accept it as accurately taken from the sources linked, you can compare the two. Mars on the left, Deimos right: Unfortunately for the discussion, you can see all the listed data are identical! +++ Not directly related to the Deimos/Mars pattern question, but something that might add to the discussion (or just be of historical interest!); this is how the Rhino was introduced in White Dwarf issue 103: GW's background often nods to the real world – the tongue-in-cheek reference to plastic, cardboard (compressed organic material) and plywood above are a case in point – and this continues to the present day. Unsurprising, as the Specialist Games team often show that they're holding a flame for the old days!

Yeah, they're awesome! That's the sort of dead stuff I can get behind.* * Wait, that sounds weird.

Pics from the Warhammer Official Instagram... feed? Reel? Uh... whatever the moving pictures are called. Some fun little bits here to keep us guessing – as to what's real, what's a red herring, and what the Instagram moving thingy is called, you can decide for yourself.

That's from Ian Watson's Space Marine; Dorn's skeleton is held in state: It's a very old bit of background, and much as I like it, I suspect that the more modern take – of Dorn going missing on a space vessel and only his hand being retrieved – is likely to be where GW pick up the thread, if ever they do.

Yes, this real-world progression was such a cool concept. We've also seen it a bit with Lysander, who's moved from being a sergeant in 3rd edition, to Captain of the 2nd, and then Captain of the 1st, but not to quite the same extent. Would love to see more of this – and for it to be balanced against some characters just properly dying.

Agreed – and the irony is that the commercial argument's not the solid case it used to be. I can understand 90s-era GW not wanting to kill off Character X because it would impact sales of Model X, but that was in a world of single-pose sculpts and where all of their releases formed a permanent part of their stock-keeping. Today, GW has a completely different approach to having everything available all the time, likely because their range is huge. There are: Core ranges, which appears in all their stores and is always available – Space Marines Intercessors, for example Ranges that are only stocked in larger stores – stuff like the current Boxed game and older or less popular armies like the Age of Sigmar Fyreslayers Direct Only stock – Adeptus Titanicus releases and similar material for older Boxed games (Specialist Games/Forge World in old parlance) Splash releases which are released once/periodially and not kept in stock – Miniature of the month, anniversary stuff etc. Since it apparently no longer makes commercial sense for GW to keep everything in stock, it strikes me that most special characters would be an ideal as splash releases that accompany the rules/lore/event books, with others (the 'Big Players') remaining part of core stock. That'd let them be a lot more fluid and flexible, and create much more interesting stories. Imagine if Lieutenant Titus had come out as a 'Miniature of the Month' to help promote and gauge sales of the 500 Worlds: Titus book; and the boxed set of the Captain version had come out at the same time as the book's release? The events of the story could then determine whether Titus lives or dies – and whether the box then becomes a Direct Only item (for people who come along later) or part of the 'larger store' stock. A similar hypothetical – the Gravis-armoured Marneus Calgar is released as a (substantial) splash release, with a story already in place for him to somehow lose it, and for the Terminator-armoured version to replace it as ongoing stock. Space Marines are always a bit egregious, so let's instead look at Minska Lesk, a character that has had three versions already. She's a great example of the approach I'm suggesting above: Make a character and give their 'low-level' version away free so people know who they are. Release a BL book alongside. Create a splash release of a later version to accompany a event/book release a couple of months later. At the end of the event, make the splash release Direct Only, and if they have proven particularly popular, make a version that goes into ongoing stock – or kill them off. Picture that with the upcoming Tyrant of Badab, Lufgt Huron; or Yriel, the Corsair Prince. This way we see narrative progression of characters that we know and care about, while the commercial side ticks over nicely. If nothing else, having a freebie version of a previously-unknown character would give people investment in events. I'd be much more inclined to buy 'Dheneb: Struggle for the MacGuffin' if I already owned Magos Norris or Striking Scorpion Syril to play the first mission with – particularly if the Archmagos Norris or Autarch Syril model looked cool. +++ Even ignoring all of that, we're in an era of multi-pose sprues these days. There are quite a few examples of sculpts that nod to particular characters – the Blood Angels Captain that has a set of options which make a pretty good Tycho is a good example. Why not make more of that? Have one set of options create a special character that's expanded on in a book, and the others be more generic. Ûthar the Destined is a build option in the generic Leagues of Votann blister; Nork Deddog is another example of a character that can be built using options on a sprue – are there more?

Yeah, absolutely agree with this. The rumoured Armageddon supplement is a perfect example of what could be a cool thematic look at the 2nd/3rd Aramgeddon Wars; one of the key historical events of the 41st Millennium, and one that I've got a lot of personal nostalgia and enthusiasm about. +The appeal of Armageddon+ There's a strong narrative: Ghazghkull's rise and attack, his first defeat and return; and his personal rivalry with Yarrick. A modern take on that could be amazing, with space for Orks, Imperial Guard, Space Marines (particularly BA, SW, UM, Salamanders and Black Templars), and also Leagues of Votann. Just picture it – character kits for Yarrick, Tu'Shan, Nazdreg and Mad Dok Grotsnik; Mark VII upgrade sprues and splash releases for Marines; kits for Steel Legion infantry and command squads... ... but as it is, I'm expecting the narrative to be slightly frustrating; retreading the broad strokes but not building on them, and focussing on stuff that's cool, but not really to do with the 'Orks versus the Guard on Armageddon'. I really like Yarrick as a character, and agree that his being killed off felt weird, but prefer that to him being reincarnated or dragged out a third time. He was pointedly an old man during the Second War of Armageddon, but he's a symbol more than a genuine threat to Ghazghkull – the Ahab to Ghazghkull's great white (void) whale. If you want a new Yarrick figure, build one properly. Look at how the character was developed, rather than dressing a new model in a corpse's robes. A talented Steel Legion character stumbling under the weight of expectation to 'be the new Yarrick' is far more compelling than 'that guy's son/daughter, who is just like that guy'. Apart from anything else, it'd be a great tongue-in-cheek nod to the audience – no-one's going to live up to Yarrick in-universe, so why not play on that out-of-universe for a bit of fun with the fans? The key thing is that there's still loads of room for innovation right in the material as already told – there was an entire orbital war that gets a few vague mentions. Ork Gargants fought Imperial Titans. The Officio Sabatorum and Templars Psykologis got their first (and so far only) mentions there. Ork Blitz Brigades and the innovations and advancements of 'Orkimedes'. There are entire continents to populate with warring troops and events. The Steel Legion, despite appearing in (presuamably) all four wars, have languished untouched since the days of white metal. How about a new Chimera – or a fleet of ork tanks? +Brave new worlds+ Beyond my personal hobby horse of Armageddon, I actually quite like the fact that the narratives usually trail off in GW's events like this. It's narratively unsatisfying not to know whether Cadia fell or the orks conquered Armageddon, but that's rather the point. GW's expansions used to live in a setting, where the expansions and events were a call for you to answer the questions of who won, what happened and how. Whether characters lived or died was down to us, the players. With an evolving timeline, that's not a good option. GW have proven with Age of Sigmar that an evolving setting can work (albeit with its own problems), but 40k seems caught in a situation where GW want to have their cake and eat it – and its this that's causing the lack of perma-death in 40k. Personally I prefer the setting approach, but I think the horse has bolted on that. For me, the best balance would be to have the expansions, events and supplements focussing on particular worlds or regions, with everything laid out like historical wargaming: 'such-and-such happened, so-and-so died – but here's your chance to see if you can do better, or explore what-ifs.' These would have their own unique characters – the sort of splash release which GW seems to do with things like the event exclusives or made to order – who you can use in other games, but are understood to have lived and died in one particular region and period. These special characters should emphasise the character, not the special. Prince Yriel, the Tyrant of Badab and (more recently) Haarken Worldclaimer and Titus are great examples of characters that feel like they can drive a world-shattering story, but don't really have a place in deciding the fate of the galaxy. Meanwhile, the ongoing 40k Grand Narrative should be less character-focussed, but provide a backdrop for these focal areas. Genuine immortals. mythic beings and galaxy-wide players like the Primarchs, Silent King etc. would have a good place here, but should stay largely out of the stories in expansions, events and supplements. They are 'big' enough not to need introducing in the same way as 'General One-world' does, and have an excuse to turn up wherever and whenever GW wants, and weather the storms of an ongoing narrative – just like the playable gods (Nagash, Teclis etc.) in Age of Sigmar do. They are great archetypes of factions, but overshadow anything that individual players or gaming groups do: you might kill Tycho, but you'll never kill Guilliman. Ghazghkull was a great character: an ambitious boss who may or may not have started hearing the voices of his gods after a bolt shell pulped part of his brain. He never needed to get bigger than he was on Armageddon. It doesn't improve or expand his character in a meaningful way – and the difference in narrative between Ghazghkull's earlier incarnation and his current one reduces his character to 'bigger and nastier'.

If the stories are just that – little short stories with no further implications – then I'd agree that the countdown is fun, but a bit thin. With that said, last year's, being fully rules-focussed, was of little interest to me either. However, never one to look a gift equid in the mouth, I think it's fair to assume that the stories are foreshadowing releases, and are functioning like a text equivalent to the rumour engine. Coupled with the various rumours floating around and pre-dating the calendar, I think we're in for a treat! I'll keep my excitement dampened until a wave of new releases is actually announced, but just off the top of my head the implications the stories have been giving are really exciting: A new Yarrick – and by implication more action on Armageddon Iron Warriors getting a series of new releases A new Yriel and possible Corsairs...