RikuEru

Sidenote/Observation: Black Library Celebration hasn't been over for long aaaand... instead of delving into vivid discussions about newly announced books new or small this sub-forum was dead quiet (apart from 8 posts in this main thread) over the whole weekend. Wonder what might have caused that drop in enthusiasm for BL books... surely not the draught of releases and the shameful way they're dealing with the Special Edition Sales.

As Dan Abnett tried to hammer home in the last two books: Time has run out. Time has lost all meaning. There is no time. This is a timeless space. (I AM SORRY, okay!? I am already leaving...)

And that's a shame. And I'd say Robbie MacNieven was/is an absolut fan anyway. You knew he delved deep into a new faction every few weeks going by whatever he focused to repost in bunches on his blog (and admitted to go wiki-diving, as we all probably do every now and then) And that then materialized into stuff he wrote later on. Also one of the many authors who has/had an Account here. Too bad (for us) tho that like Reynolds and some of the others he moved onto other ventures.

Add to that, that this is absolutely contrary to what I myself experienced and have heard repeatedly on the Internet over the past two decades. The LotR model range and the corresponding partworks Magazine (distributed by DeAgostini over here in Germany) was what brought in a bunch of new customers into actual brick & mortar GW shops - and many of them where merely in their early teens. I know that all 4-5 stores in my closest vicinity were filled with teens in the years of LotR 'high tide' - and many of those branched out into 40k & Fantasy to get a "new" fix as they collected more and more LotR. (Dawn of War 1 and 2 probably also causing an influx of teen customers)

Probably. I hope they also do these Diorama Style Duels where two Primarchs face each other again, just new combinations. (Ideally based on book scenes) Russ with the Wolf Spear facing (the already existing model of) Ascended Horus? (Tho I presume his actual counterpart would be a model of Big E himself, someday) Mortarion vs Khan Vulkan vs Magnus Dorn vs Alpharius

I have to agree with this. A Chapter specific paintjob can go a long way to make a unified force. And not just for Wolves. EVERY Salamander clad in Dragonskin, carrying an Anvil and some Smith's tools would look ridiculous for a big force. Same for any Chapter and their "thematic". Many people opted to change the shields or swords on the Bladeguards for aesthetic reasons. But you don't have to. Mine still have the Indomitus-Towershields, but where painted with the black and yellow markings of the Wolfguard and Golden Trim. In -my- personal taste they look absolutely :cuss:in' baller. In general for a certain "logic" - of your own! - in a narrative, worldbuilding sense. Fresh Intercessors/Assault Intercessors probably have little when it comes to totems, tokens and medals - but their sergeant/pack leader might be a veteran for quite a while. Regular Reivers are probably carrying little decorum, for tacticool stealth and practicality reasons. Hounds of Morkai tho, probably carry some runic totems or have marks on their armor, painted on by a Runepriest. Same for Anything else in your Army. As you did for your Judiciar, I have done for ALL my Wolf Priests (Primaris Apothecaries & Primaris Chaplains of all Flavours - sometimes kitbashed to represent a mix) - They all got a Wolf Skull Helmet from the Deathsworn kit and carry one of the Vortex Grenades. (It's my Chapter's "Break Glass in Case of [Wulfen] Emergency") If your Company/Chapter/Warband/whatever is a bunch of Headtakers, aurely they all carry some extra knives and skull trophies - with the HQs carrying some Skull-Trophy-Racks from the Wulfen kit. If they are stuck in a long campaign on a feral world full of Tundra Forests and Swamps, maybe they all wear pelts, skins or even greenery (Like a Guilliee suit) for camoflage, to blend in and take the enemy by surprise. (Someone on Instagram did a - Bear-themed, I think? - force like that. Also with other animals as alternative Thunderwolf-mounts and the tanks loaded with extra supplies and the like) Maybe your Force is full of Heroes trying to carve out their own legends. No squad heraldry, they all wear personal heraldry on their right shoulder (or even both?). Or your men's Hunt has been lead by a Runepriest's Visions and they have all been adorned with extra runes (There's tiny brass etched runes easily available from various hobby suppliers you can just glue on - you don't have to freehand them) and various blessed markings on their armors, shields and weapons. Do whatever you like, battle-brother! These are your men to command! The only thing the Allfather demands is that you fight the good fight! Bring war to the traitors, hunt the Xenos and punish the heretics! (And never hesitate to ask for help, critique or ideas from your fellow fraters. The SW-Subforum especially is a good place in the bigger hobbysphere)

THANK YOU FOR THAT! That's what we've been waiting for. It nestly wraps up what we all felt over the last few months, with various iterations of the Queue system, with some kits sold out within minutes and even unavailable since release. (And let's not speak too much about Black Library releases and Limited Editions being scalped to Hell and back, else the Booklovers among the Frateri might have a breakdown...) In regards to your "Prediction": BATTLEFLEET HERESY!?! SPACESHIP!!! WARHAMMER SPACESHIPS! DUKING IT OUT! YEAAAAH! You are throwing oil into my fire with that. ...the old models still hold up REALLY WELL to this day. It'll be amazing to see what's doable with modern 3D renders, precision moulds, etc. (GW should look at some of the available well-produced 3D-printed modular battleships on the Third Party Market. Some amazing ideas there, even for individual modules - Frigatte Bays, Drop Pod hangars, TITAN Drop Pod Hangars, etc.) ...also reminded me of the model of the 20cm long Gloriana-Class "Hrafnkel" model I still have to paint... Sidenote: Yes, I changed my profile picture, to a Marine I drew myself. Thank you gor noticing :D

Imma say it for everyone: We will wait for N1SB's Analysis of the Annual Report. And the input of those who have actual knowhow like he does.

Mea culpa. I phrased it weirdly, due to lack of sleep. What I meant was: This one-off (for now) book is already set into a "Renegades" series -going by it's own header!- we have actually heard nothing about. Meanwhile the "Character" series has no header, which is why I didn't even realise Huron's book was part of it.

Then there is the odd case of "Renegades: Harrowmaster" With "Renegades" getting a special design on the cover, as if it was a new series. ...but not Huron, Luther, Cypher or any other "recent" Chaos book that could fit into that box (depending on interpretation, of course) were branded as such either. Weird...

Talking with Kelborn I cam up with potential filler (which I will consider a prophecy, until we get the book): What if Dorn escapes the Khorne-influenced vision of that desert, only to enter an oasis, a beautiful garden... only for Nurgle to try his luck, trying to charm his way into Dorn's heart, willing to grant him *true* resilience, etc. Or something similiar done by Tzeentch or Slaanesh (which could also try their hands on Valdor & Sanguinius, if you want to stall them too) Either way, something that shows that all 4 are trying a hands-on approach to influence the game in their favor now, to come out on top. (Foreshadowing their abandonement of Horus, later on, when they realize the game is 'rigged' and going tits up) I also thought the second book might end with the scene of that age old Artwork, the Emperor finally facing off against Horus, standing over Sanguinius' broken body. ...only for the Third Book to pick up the action on Terra, showing us the Carmage of the Blood Angels loosing their minds to the vengeful slaughter, after Sanguinius' Death.

I think this would be the way to go about it. And we can only hope that BL and the authors also are a bit tired of a HUGE intercomnected series yet. (Also we did see how well it played out even with the greatest coordination efforts between the authors ever... Tho I would say they shouldcontinue to work close together and in constant contact with each other, maybe with less of a pressing release schedule like the SoT books, the various authors can actually help each other to improve and -not- re-treat the same story beats twice) "Just" Scouring Era books would be quite limited, but books that can span over the whole 30k Era (for whatever topic) could give us a bit more context or (new) characters views on the change over time. Also - as much as I love the Primarchs - we should move away from them a bit and tell the stories of their Second-in-Commands and other exceptional Legionnaires and Humans (of all various organisations, new or old) that picked up the pieces after the Siege. Don't -directly- show us Perturabo or Dorn brooding/raging over the Iron Cage issue. Show us the perspective of their men and what it does to them. Don't show us Guilliman writing the literal Codex, show us the supporters and critics among the various Legion officers debating this and the various Orgs of the Imperium politicking (like in Wraight's Watchers of the Throne/Inquisition books) to gain favors with potential Second Founding Chapter Masters or trying to influence where Chapters could be settled, for their own benefits and such. DON'T give us big Primarch Smackdowns 2: Heretical Boogaloo. DON'T show us Dorn's last stand in explicit detail... DON'T show us Russ talking to his Terminator Elite how they need to find the tree of life... DON'T show us Jaghatai riding into a Comorragh sunset... (Or similiarly what the various Chaos Primarchs did for millenia, while seemingly chilling in the Eye of Terror.) ...or anything like that. Sure, seed some mysteries or show us the after effects of the Primarchs "leaving" and how their various Sons cope with that, both on the loyalist and traitor sides. Surely GW can not help themselves and -will- use this to leave the door open for basically every loyalist to return in the future or also hint at the yet-unreleased Traitor Primarchs. But give us vague, unclear mysteries with open questions we can ponder... Scenes from the perspective of a Primarch or direct dialogue involving them should be few and far in between. And only used for good effect, so it becomes something "special" again. ...also lessens the chance of them botching character voice or development.

Get a grip, man. You'd be happily mocking any Loyalist/Primaris "fanboy" if they turned up into ANY halfway-related discussion and produced similiar fiction of how a regular Chapter should kill BILLIONS of Traitors and TRILLIONS of Xenos with ease. ...also remember the Roots of said "Grimdark" universe and how mockery and persiflage of real life history is an intrinsic part of it. ... To get back on topic - The book itself: Mike Brooks might not be among the top contenders in the BL stable, but he did a decent job of it. ...and I bet a good Editor COULD have helped him to improve the "character voices". Most importantly tho, he probably was under time constraints AND he had a very narrow window of things he was able to include in the book. The Limited Edition Afterword contains no special twists or news but confirms a few things. Brooks was told he had to write the Lion "between sourcebooks" and that he was supposed to have him pick up some Fallen. Brooks explains that his major points were the Lions character development, setting up the Fallen and the references to King Arthur. That’s also where he got his idea of the Emperor as the bleeding king. To Quote: Also Brooks definitely did his homework on the Lion. He also luckily left the Watchers as mysterious as they should be! He -tried- to make the Caliban-Forestwalking just as mysterious, but that fell a bit flat. Maybe fleshing those scenes out a bit more, to make the Lion and/or the reader second guess if it was just an old Calibanite Arsenal he found the sword in, if it was the Watchers doing or even the Emperor's/Bleeding King's helping hand - WITHOUT giving a definitive answer - could have gone a long way. Also, in fairness, this should be compared to INDOMITUS and other books which are more closely related to the tabletop releases, instead of the Siege of Terra or the various book (trilogies/series) where the authors have more freedom.

Yea those soul-stone energy-pimples keed to go. Apart from that, great HD sculpt in a classic pose... he has an Axe, what more could I want!?

Welcome back! Had a BIG wave of Hobby-Motivation after Christmas til mid of January, got a huge deal done, both for my Wolves (which I haven't shown on the Forum yet...) and for the Slaves to Darkness I paint for a buddy (with Fel-green Lava bases, which I love SO much, I will have to do some Lava-Bases for my Wolves) I got into that zone were painting was actually fun and I could basically shut off the brain for hours. Haven't had rhat in a looong time. Obviously progress each day, however little, was a huge boon. I considered buying the Agastus Box to see how to make the Rocket Guys work, aesthetically (Also to properly decorate the Brutalis Dreadnought and make some Gravis Breachers), but then I didn't. But then I got hit by the Nurgly Blessings of the kids at work. And shortly after blood poisoning from a visit to the dentist. And then a week of *that* obnoxious Virus. I'd be lying if I said I was NOT considering to sell EVERYTHING Hobby-related and just cleaning the slate. ...and then last week my highly pregnant wife had to go to the hospital (just some check-ups and observation, just to be safe, nothing dramatic) until today. Work still being plague ridden with Scarlet Fever, Flu and various Colleagues MIA and the little Heir arriving sometime in the next ~8 weeks, I dunno how much time & energy I will have for Hobby stuff. Oddly enough tho, the Lion's Model reveal and the 10th Edition Trailer - the new&old Terminators being the core of it - rekindled my motivation. Enough of me, how did YOU fare?