NTaW

Are you talking about the keywords at the bottom of the unit datasheet? For example, VEHICLE, FLY, CHARACTER, INFANTRY.

I'd take anything that adds a bit of grit back to vehicles. Flyers specifically could use some increased durability and movement flexibility.

For what it's worth, this looks a lot like the force halberd that was on the old BA Librarian Dreadnought. That was a totally loose bit that could be glued in place at any point along its haft. I'm torn on this model. Fits the lineup, but I'm not totally sold on what niche it will fill. Rocket boosters are cool, but the whole army moves pretty fast already? I do really like the spear and frag cannon. Might end up with a couple depending on the real world cost.

In addition, Cawl has several factions within the Adeptus Mechanics that do not agree with him and want him stopped. I believe in the previous book, Genefather, we essentially get a list of potential adversaries out of the group which oppose him. I just can't recall their names. Either way, definitely a plot hook to move forward on. The previous Fabricator General wasn't exactly on the up and up (Vaults of Terra) so I imagine their replacement is also quite full of schemes. @Lord Nord in Gravis Armour not sure how I missed your response to me above, but thanks again for the breakdown! There's a line at the end of the recent 500 Worlds campaign book intimating the Primarchs are going to get together, I'm hoping we'll see some releases over the course of this year that fill in these retcon gaps around Devastation of Baal and Son of the Forest. Also I read Lazarus and it was great I really liked it. Thank you for putting it on my radar even if the story itself was apart from this greater plot.

Upon finishing the Pariah Nexus Crusade book, I realize there's no doubt about it preceding The Silent King. There is a comment that Vashtorr makes to themself on arrival to the Nexus regarding real space and the flow of time there being more regimented, and that some things have or haven't happened there. The implication I'm taking is that GW is embracing timey-wimey warp stuff for this, and that Vashtorr's timeline weaves through the Imperium's timeline as required or written. I do think there is some plan that GW has here that we'll see nudged forward through the end of 10th campaigns, though I don't think that it will be the focus of the books much like the one liner tagged into the end of the 500 Worlds book I put in a spoiler. I'm hoping that we see another couple novels released alongside these campaigns or at the release of 11th edition that pull the threads a little closer together. It sure seems like Archmagos is the "newest" book, but it leaves a gap of Guilliman crossing to Nihilus since he's off-screened to be there after Godblight. Not really looking for a play by play from GW, really. Just some consistency that we can get behind.

Wish I had seen this thread instead of having this conversation in the 500 Worlds thread. I finally caught up on the Arks of Omen books. Turns out I had read at least the last book but getting the others for context was helpful. I'll put this but in spoilers since Archmagos is a pretty recent book. Given the conversation in the 500 Worlds thread where we established the original Nihilus trips' references in the Dark Imperium books 1 and 2 were removed, I think that Devastation of Baal happens sometime after Godblight but before the Son of the Forest>Arks>Archmagos lineup. Perhaps SotF and AoO happen in tandem, with the stories lining up for the last book. None of this really helps with the placement of Vashtorr in the final act of the Pariah Nexus crusade book, though I only read a synopsis of that one and have now found a person on YouTube straight reading the books for better context. Is it possible that chain of events goes Dawn of Fire book 1>Indomitus>Dawn of Fire book 9>Pariah Nexus? If the Crusade book continues the story after Guilliman's brief foray in The Silent King, it may offer the timing required for Vashtorr's appearance. That theoretical heavily relies on Guilliman's exit back to Ultramar being closer to the beginning of the crusade book though. As always a healthy dose of timey wimey goodness will be involved, and GW can and will change it to whatever they want at any point. I did read a synopsis of the new 500 Worlds book and apparently it ends with: Which doesn't exactly help anything at all and only posits more questions about Guilliman's Nihilus trip to Baal. Seems GW has created a fairly mysterious bubble of time with this retcon that they themselves haven't quite sorted out (or rather, released) just yet.

From today's preview article. Guess they want more Biovore models looming from the table over: Preview pic:

I saw there was new Operations missions in WD 520 so I checked it out, and it's got 4 missions and datacards for Thousand Son adversaries. Lots of cool stuff! At this point, this minigame has enough rules to be a standalone release if GW wanted to push it. Oh, I just looked at next week's releases and see more content in next month's issue for Operations.

I recall that disembarkation used to be measured specifically from exit points on the model, and that having the sponsons moved back created a larger bubble out front to take advantage of assaulting out of the Raider. It's a hazy memory at this point. They definitely look better in the forward position to me as well.

I've tried to tempt some of the older heads around me to play older editions, but I can barely get most people to acknowledge Legends as being allowed in games. At least there's still occasional space to do away with terrain footprints and prescribed layouts (I don't play tournaments). Latest edition, latest FAQ/errata. At least the app now manages the late-edition bloat now. It really helps me out. I'd play 5th again for sure, maybe 6th/7th as well depending on how many Heldrakes my opponent wants to use.

@Captain Idaho it's like GW knows our plans. Taken from their website:

3rd edition may have been fun, but the thing I remember clearly is having models removed from squads to become Death Company at the start of games with my Blood Angels. Also their surge move every turn on a 1 made heavy weapons potentially useless. While I appreciated how thematic that would be it sucked. I couldn't count on having my units as selected or on having a useful DC squad, and if I recall correctly you had to have DC models in abundance enough to use (not that friends wouldn't let me put my lascannon Devastator marine in when I ran out). I do miss the aesthetic of the time. I don't have any issues with the current aesthetic but I find myself more drawn to the earlier artwork, even if the proportions were a bit wacky at times. I also miss the amount of lore in the old books, but I wonder if perhaps I "know too much" after 30 years digesting vast swathes of the setting and if newcomers get that same feeling of wonder reading over the lore of their faction. No many players I've met over the duration of 10th edition have been too interested in the setting, if quite intent on playing as much as they can, so perhaps there's been a shift. Pretty small numbers to judge by, but it's my surroundings anyway.

Thank you for looking into that! Google was not being helpful. After listening to/reading about 30 books in the last year I'm sort of glad I don't have to go back to the drawing board with my theory I haven't read Arks of Omen, but have found readings of it on YouTube now so plan to rectify that. Have you read Archmagos? It's a pretty recent book so I don't want to get into specifics, but it may help clarify at least one aspect of your (heck, all of our) confusion on this one. Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2 tied into the meta plot at the time, and offered unique endings for the factions that tie up or continue the Great Rift narrative. From what I remember it was nice that it was relevant, even if you have to take the endgame for your faction with a grain of salt. It would be real cool to see SM3 tie into the 500 Worlds.

This was my understanding before reading more of the lore since the timeline change. I've tried a few times to find digital copies of the re-released Dark Imperium books to see what was changed, but I don't want to buy doubles of physical books. These quotes come from the original release for sure and I'd love to know if the re-released ones say the same because I'm unendingly curious about the 40k setting. I do agree there's a couple years where we don't know what Guilliman is up to, and it's absolutely possible he was up to a trip to and from Nihilus before The Silent King. Here's a couple things that changed my mind about Guilliman's initial trip to Nihilus, or at least put context into the amount of time available for it. Gate of Bones, Dawn of Fire book 2, has the Imperium receive its first news of Nihilus so they haven't been there yet. In The Silent King, Dawn of Fire Book 9, Guilliman mentions that Nihilus is in rough shape but it doesn't seem like he's been there yet. From TSK, a conversation from Guilliman to Messinius: To me this seems like he still hasn't been there, and that all they've done is communicate (not even necessarily two-way) since Gate of Bones. The end of TSK has Guilliman heading to Ultramar to deal with the events of the Dark Imperium trilogy. I'll skip to Godblight due to my ignorance of the edited versions of DI 1 & 2. In Godblight Guilliman speaks a few times about his upcoming crossing to Nihilus, and the book even ends with the same style name drop that TSK ended with, but now with Nihilus. One of several quotes of Guilliman speaking: Again I think the implication is that he hasn't been there yet, but that context comes from my preceding quote. In a world of open minds I suppose this could also imply a preceding trip through Nachmund, but I still think the timing for that would be hard pressed if true. Not like GW can't say whatever they want over our conversation here anyway in future releases anyway Yes, but also maybe not? In Genefather, we see Cawl send the last of the Torchbearer Fleets out to Nihilus with Qvo-88 accompanying. I think this takes place concurrently with or shortly after Dark Imperium. Archmagos follows Genefather and is definitely after Godblight, since Guilliman is off-screened to be already in Nihilus by that point and needing a safe passage back. I think that the loose end of Devastation of Baal we're talking about here will be fully swept into place after the events of Dark Imperium in the retconned timeline with another few releases. Guilliman will have connected with the fleet including Qvo-88 sent ahead of him by Cawl in Nihilus and saved Baal, leaving only a wrong-numbered Qvo and some odd aging comments in Darkness in the Blood post-retcon. Guilliman's trip to Nihilus post-Godblight will be his first, and maybe we'll even get so lucky as to see the Lion catch up with him before he heads back over the Attilan Gate. To tie this into something at least alleging context for this thread, I think that we'll see something about Guilliman's whereabouts as he hands the torch to Titus to retake the 500 Worlds. I also think it's very possible we could see Guilliman in Nihilus as part of this end-of-edition campaign series.

We all do our best with how timey wimey all of GW's offerings have been, that's for sure. While the events have absolutely been altered via retcon and rerelease, I'm not sure where Guilliman's first trip to Nihilus would fit in while also running back to Terra almost instantly from his resurrection, then moving through a shortened Crusade of 12ish years before the 2nd trip. Godblight is the only time I've heard of him leaving for Nihilus, with Cawl set to the task of stabilizing the Attilan Gate at the end of TSK and into Archmagos. Devastation of Baal happens at least concurrently to...I guess...all of these events, since the Rift opens over Baal during the book. This at least makes -slightly- more sense for DoB since it's no longer 100 or whatever years, but still a little wacky since in the followup, Darkness in the Blood, Dante comments on how Karlaen's face has aged 70 years (or something to that effect). I'm always willing to read more. Do you happen to have those references?