Minis Week in Review: New Grey Knight, Wrath and Hordes Models!
It’s been a week, and what a week it’s been for the Grey Knights! Black boxes seen in stores, Pre-orders and the like up, and everyone talking about the Dreadknight (for good or ill). And it looks like people are loving them: from the Dreadknight (whom we’ve already mentioned) to the +1 str that psyammo gives them and who knows what else.
And already the interwebs are rife with pictures of the next set of Grey Knight minis, including the Jokaero as well as Castellan Crowe. I have to admit that I have never thought of Space Monkeys, let alone space monkeys as part of the 40k universe, but hey that’s what continuity from the 80s will get you.
As a whole, I think the Grey Knights will be well received. Their rules are definitely crazy awesome, but the points costs should limit the model count to a minimum (then again, the Dreadknight seems like a steal). The models (as usual) are a technical marvel with the level of detail in the Grey Knights, and things like ball joints for the larger Dreadknight model. There wasn’t a huge jump in awesome sauce like the Dark Eldar or Blood Angels update, but well metal -> plastic is always a welcome change. I do however feel like some parts of the GK design feels a bit lazy: for example the teleporter bits on the Strike Squad look like they just stuck bits on the backpack and definitely not as cohesive as they could have been. Similarly, the Dreadknight also seems lazy: I’d have preferred either a much more angular look like the Marine walkers/vehicles or something even closer to the Space Marine armor, if GW wanted the ‘Giant Space Marine’ look.
Even so, I have to admit I was tempted by the Grey Knights, but well with 2 PP and 2 GW armies already, starting another one is probably a bad idea.
On to the PP side, we’ve also got quite a few pieces of news which I’m excited about. Of course, the first is that the Arcantrik Force Generator stats are finally up. I was checking with my previous guess, and while the first half was all correct, I seem to have been a really generous playtester, giving a range 16 AOE 5 weapon to the elves for 8 points, rather than a range 14 AOE – weapon for 10. I’m guessing that there are some more special rules on the back, because 10 points is a heavy investment, even for an RAT 7 POW 14 ranged attack.
Insider has also revealed some teasers for Warmachine: Wrath’s cover art, and I daresay it’s pretty awesome. It’s Cygnar vs Cryx, and it looks like the Morrowan Warcaster has her own personal warjack. Which makes me guess that there’ll be personal Warjacks for the new casters, together with the ones that were released during Gencon.
PP also has two more new releases and one resculpt. The House Shyeel Artificer is a cool floaty techy sculpt (something I’d love to paint if I had the time), and the Flameguard Cleanser UA looks as if he’s going to be bringing a lot more burninating to the table. Like we enemies of Menoth needed more of that. =p
What’s really gotten me amazed though is the new resculpt of the Gorax. It’s beautiful! Primal, savage and exactly like the new art, if I played Circle I’d grab 3!
Last but not least are the PP teasers for the new NQ. Considering Battle Engines are going to be previewed, it’s probably safe to say that we’ll definitely going to be buying it, but the previews this time round are a bit less than the ones we got two months back. Still, Storm Striders looking like something out of War of the Worlds is pretty awesome.
Back to GW for a bit (specifically Forgeworld) I’m glad that Warhammer Forge is expanding their Empire range. The Land Tank is a very beautiful model, and even if it’s somewhat silly it definitely fits into the Steam Tank sort of aesthetic, and the Ironsides are a great conversion for their riflemen.
And that’s it for this week’s minis week in review. I’m sure that by next week we’ll find out more about the Grey Knights, as well as (hopefully) new Battle Engine details.
