2018 – In Case You Missed It

As the curtain falls on 2018 or (depending on where you are in the world and assuming you’re not reading this at the very moment of publication) the sun rises on 2019, it’s time to take a rambling look back at the year that’s past.

For fans of the various universes created by Games Workshop it’s been a packed twelve months. 40k has continued to grow into its post- Guilliman landscape and although at first I feared the impact a loyalist Primarch would have on the flavour of the setting I have to say I’m pleased with how things have developed so far. Guilliman himself, often maligned as the most boring of the Primarch (even by the other Primarchs), has developed into a strong character and may now hold the title of my second favourite loyalist (after the Khan of course). The reason this has been successful, in my view, is that GW have not forgotten the grim darkness which lies at the heart of 40k. Rather than allow Guilliman to become the super-heroic “good man” who saves the day at every turn, they’ve allowed the speck of light and hope he’s brought to the galaxy to emphasise how truly dire the setting truly is. 2016 saw the first Primarch making a return (the spectacular Magnus the Red), followed by two more in 2017 (Guilliman and Mortarion). 2018 gave us a bit of a rest, allowing us to become familiar with the new setting whilst turning the focus onto the dark corners and less explored parts of the galaxy, the shadows where Inquisitors roam and mighty heroes are few and far between. Thus, much like buses, after waiting thirty years for a Rogue Trader, this year we saw two of them come along at once, accompanied by a whole host equally interesting, but traditionally sidelined, characters; from mutants to death cult assassins, ratlings to navigators and beastmen to dogs. Who, at the start of the year, would have guessed that GW could reveal both a glimpse of the Old Ones and an actual Man of Iron, and what’s more do so to almost universal acclaim?

The only truly good boy in the 41st Millenium

My own relationship with 40k as a game remains complicated. Much as I love the setting, and building armies to fit within it, the game itself still fails to engage me. My heart as ever belongs to small-scale, “crunchy” games, which is why I’m being drawn ever further into the embrace of Necromunda. Thus the arrival of Kill Team did manage to excite me as a chance to engage with smaller, character driven, forays into the 41st Millennium, rather than the sprawling maths-fest of 40k proper. As yet I’ve not given the game itself a shot but the idea of creating some teams is certainly compelling, as is the opportunity to dip a toe into some of the factions which don’t engage me sufficiently to build a whole army around. For instance the likes of the Dark Eldar, Tau or Necrons have never really interested me but the chance to make a little Kill Team and see what I make of them could be a lot of fun.

A plucky band of heroes who could someday become an Imperial Guard Kill Team, if only that Catachan would get off the phone!

Speaking of games which sound like they might be fun to play this year saw new editions of both Lord of the Rings and Adeptus Titanicus. Lord of the Rings has always been something of an oddity for me. I grew up with the books, indeed some of my formative memories are of my dad reading me the Hobbit, and later Lord of the Rings, when I was a child, something which undoubtedly paved the way for my love of fantasy and science fiction. The Lord of the Rings films remain some of my all time favourite movies, and are amongst the few films I’m happy to re-watch on a semi-regular basis (less so the Hobbit films which were a little hit-and-miss, although when they got it right they too proved to be outstanding). Thus I do find myself wondering why, given my love of Tolkien’s worlds, and my even greater love of painting miniatures, I’ve never been that interested in painting Lord of the Rings’ models? Admittedly some of the sculpts are less than impressive but some are truly outstanding, and from everything I’ve seen and heard the game itself looks like a lot of fun to play, but beyond the occasional brief flash of enthusiasm the thought of painting any models for it rarely raises any more than a mental shrug. I do have a heap of goblin town goblins lurking amongst my hobby stuff, but in typical fashion I’ll be converting them into Necromunda mutants. That said I did recently receive a warrior of Minas Tirith as part of a bits drop sent by the inimitable IRO so who knows, this could be the start of something.

Adeptus Titanicus is another game that looks genuinely entertaining. After all have many of us not dreamed of piloting a titan, duelling like metallic Godzillas as buildings tumble around us, or simply stepping on your boss’s flash new car on your way into the office? Watching a few demo games online it struck me that this one could be a lot of fun, but luckily the miniatures have failed to really capture my imagination, probably a good thing as the cost is quite eye-watering. Instead I think I’ll stick to things like Necromunda and Blood Bowl, where one can start a new faction without needing to give up food or take up crime to pay for it.

Without a hobbit or a titan to my name, here’s a handsome unicorn instead.

2018 was also the year in which Age of Sigmar began to realise its potential, outgrowing the (frankly shoddy and underdeveloped) early years and tapping into the rich veins of creativity that the setting allows for. Morathi became perhaps the first of the established characters of old Warhammer to transition to the new setting without seeming jarringly out of place, a whole faction of ghosts were summoned (including some truly outstanding models) and GW even managed something previously thought impossible and created a faction of Stormcasts that seem genuinely interesting. In one of the standout releases of the year GW completed their elemental quartet, adding the watery Idoneth Deepkin to the firey Fyreslayers, earthy Sylvaneth and airy Kharadron Overlords (and proving at last that Fishmen would indeed get models before the Sisters of Battle).

As it stands I’ve yet to dip my toe into AoS properly. For me an interesting setting is one of the most important things when it comes to getting me into a new game and until recently AoS was almost completely lacking in this area. Like 40k the Old World had plenty of dark corners which you could make your own, and thus for me struck the right balance between the potential to develop your own ideas and still having a framework to work within. The “anything goes/make it up as you go along” blank canvass of early AoS was a little too intimidating and so I stuck with what I knew and kept my Skaven and Night Goblins firmly in the dank caves and filthy cities of the World That Was. The new edition however has reinvigorated my interest. At last the world has come alive and I’m finding myself drawn in. Over the last six months or so I’ve found myself increasingly tempted to sell my soul into Nagash’s service and recreate my Vampire Counts army in the Mortal Realms. I managed to get my hands on the ghosts from the AoS starter set when they were first released and I’ve enjoyed putting the first few together, so who knows – 2019 could be their year.

So what about the developments in my own collection? Tallying up the numbers I’ve discovered that, in 2018, I managed to paint a total of 277 models. This may not equate to  the same giddy heights which some hobbyists can accomplish but I’m still rather proud of this achievement, especially as I feel I’ve managed to achieve a reasonably high standard on all of them. It certainly beats (indeed it more than doubles) my 2017 output of 129, even if many of this year’s recruits were the (relatively easy to paint) Night Goblins.

Although I like to avoid deadlines as much as possible in my hobby activities I still took the chance to get involved in a number of challenges throughout the year, in addition to my self-imposed goal of “at least one Skaven per month”. Probably the most defining of these, in terms of my own output, were the monthly challenges organised by Azazel, a phenomenon which is fast becoming an institution amongst the blogging community, and which I’m pleased to hear is set to continue in 2019. Once again therefore Azazel deserves a huge “thank you” from me, and if you’ve not been following his blog, or getting involved in his challenges, I strongly urge you to do so. I’m not entirely sure how many models I painted this year that I wouldn’t have completed without Azazel’s challenges but there’s no denying it was a fair number, ranging from mighty centrepieces like the Screaming Bell to hordes of little Night Goblins. May, for example, was Neglected Model Month, aimed at encouraging participants to pick up that miniature which had been gathering dust and just finish the damn thing. With this as a spur I managed to complete this heap of chaotic characters, each of which had been abandoned on the shelf of shame for far too long.

Meanwhile February was renamed Femruary by Alex of Leadballoony which aimed to encourage us to add some female models to our respective collections. This year I took the opportunity to paint up this little group of 41st Millennium ladies, and I’m already thinking ahead to Femruary 2019, with a heap of unpainted women ring-fenced to tackle.

February also saw Big Boss Redskullz putting out a call for genestealer corrupted civilians to take part in the Nestorian Infestation. This ongoing project is the product of collaboration between Big Boss Redskullz, Echoes of Imperium and Wilhel Miniatures, and is set around a world overrun by genestealer cultists and the arrival of Imperial forces in the form of the Deathwatch.  The whole story has been a joy to follow and it was a real pleasure to be able to get involved. Here’s a few shots (courtesy of the guys themselves) of my models lurking on Wilhel’s beautifully grubby terrain, and probably only moments away from being casually murdered by the Imperium’s finest.

Meanwhile at the opposite end of the year Orktober continued the longstanding tradition of greenskin fans building up their collections. Despite being an Ork fan for over a decade now I’m fairly certain this is the first year I’ve actually participated in it, turning out this mob of new recruits for the Waaagh!

I’ve already shown you the current state of my Skaven army but I’m not ashamed to show it off again (although you can read the full story here).

Their dominance of the tunnels won’t go uncontested however as a green menace has begun to emerge in the form of a growing clan of rapscallion Night Goblins. Most of these were painted in September and October which goes to show what one can achieve if one put other projects aside and focuses one’s efforts. Speaking of Night Gobbos I’m sure it comes as no surprise to many of you that, having seen the latest previews from Games Workshop, I’m already planning to expand my greenskin horde in the new year.

They are not the only greenskins I’ve worked on either as, in the grim darkness of the far future my Ork Waaagh! continued to gather in strength. Since the end of Orktober I’ve only managed to add a single Ork nob to my collection so this image still shows almost the full extent of the army.

That said when I finished the aforementioned nob I also completed his squad and as I never took a group shot of them all together at the time here’s one now.

Greenskin fans will be pleased to hear that there are still plenty of Orks and Goblins on the painting desk waiting for attention so expect further additions to both collections in the new year.

Another army set to grow soon is my Death Guard collection. With the recent change in scale of the plague Marine models I’ve decided to retire many of my old models, whilst some of the others will be tweaked and improved upon. Expect to see this army growing larger and stranger over the next twelve months. Here’s a look at how it stands currently;

Of course whilst some of the older models have been banished to Nurgle’s garden a host of new recruits have crawled from the plague pits in the form of a growing hoard of poxwalkers – and you can definitely expect to see a lot more of them in 2019.

Faced with such a foul hoard it’s a good thing that the Imperium has received reinforcements in the form of a growing number of space marines, imperial guardsman and even a dog.

2018 has also been the year in which I’ve really started to take an interest in Necromunda. Regular followers of the blog over the last month or so will have seen me painting up a gang of Genestealer cultists with which to carve out a corner of the Underhive in the name of the four armed emperor.

Their foul xenos scheming will not go unopposed however, with the muscular men of the Goliath Irondogs gang standing ready to defend their turf.

The Ladykillers of House Escher are slightly further behind, boasting only six (exceptionally well dressed) ladies so far. Expect to see them undertaking a recruiting drive early in the new year.

Finally I also started work on a large terrain project for Necromunda. With each piece being so big this is taking me a while to produce but fear not, a desolate industrial hell will soon be revealed.

New Year’s Resolutions.

As noted above I don’t usually go in for setting myself strict targets when it comes to my hobbies, after all the aim of the exercise is to relax and enjoy myself. Deadlines are for work. That said here are a few things I’d like to do in the coming year.

…

Skaven; as mentioned previously I’m now at a point where I have pretty much everything I want for my Skaven army (unless of course Games Workshop decide to release some new models for the rats – no harm in hoping eh!). All that needs to be done now is to get them painted. Getting it all done by the end of 2019 looks quite achievable if I just knuckle down and get on with it.

Necromunda; this one almost goes without saying but you can expect to see plenty more of the denizens of the Underhive coming up. I’ve got another Goliath I want to finish, a few Eschers to work on plus various bounty hunters, scum and hangers on. I also have several new gangs planned, although I’m not sure which I’ll start with first but it’s safe to assume there will be plenty more of them appearing in the coming months.

Terrain; this is a big project and as a result slow going. Nonetheless I’m keen to crack on with it and aiming to get it done in 2019 should be the spur I need to make sure the project doesn’t stall.

Chaos Knight; speaking of larger projects, it seems that every year I think “let’s get the Chaos Knight done this time” and every year it gathers another layer of dust. This time though right, this time I mean it!

Poxwalkers; a hoard of part-built/part-painted plague zombies is currently occupying my painting desk. Wouldn’t it be nice if they were all finished instead?

Blood Bowl; I know I’m about 20 years behind everyone else but I do like the look of Blood Bowl, I’ve just never got around to painting a team. Will I do it in 2019? I’m sure with people like Faust to chivy me I’ll get something done!

Of course only time will tell how many of these goals I actually managed to achieve, or whether some of the other projects I have planned manage to seize the entirety of the limelight.

Lastly I’d like to wish all of my readers a very happy New Year (there really are an intimidatingly large number of you now!) and to offer a particular thanks to everyone who has commented, offered feedback or encouragement, or just appealed to my ego in 2018 – here’s to plenty more hobby shenanigans in the coming year.

 

2016 – For Anyone Who Missed It

2016 – what a year eh! In many ways it was actually a pretty bad year, particularly if you’ve been following political developments around the world – or just happen to be a fan of living on Planet Earth. A lot of celebrities also died although sometimes it felt like they were just checking out early to avoid the rush.

For me though it’s actually been a very good year; I’ve moved in with my long term partner, I’m no longer a nomad living out of a rucksack and my job situation has actually settled down into something which, for the next year or so at least, almost resembles stability. It’s also been quite an exciting year for our hobby with Games Workshop both plundering its past and setting up what looks to be an equally exhilarating future. In the last twelve months we’ve seen the Wulfen come howling out of the warp (not with the best models mind, but it’s the thought that counts), the genestealer cults rising from the deepest hives and, just a few weeks ago, the dramatic return of a Daemon Primarch – Magnus the Red – at the head of a legion of simply beautiful Thousand Sons. In fact the Thousand Sons enjoyed two back-to-back releases this year, the first being the Burning of Prospero which featured the legion at the start of its journey into darkness. Combing models from both releases, alongside the aforementioned Wulfen, has the potential for some great games, modelling and general storytelling to book-end the Imperial era.

Age of Sigmar has been equally packed, we’ve seen the (often maligned) Fyreslayers – the second race to join the game as a completely new concept, alongside other Old-World-Warhammer factions re-imagined in the new setting. These latter have included the Sylvaneth – a new race developed from the treemen and dryads that used to hang out with the Wood Elves, and the Ironjawz, developed from the old Black Orcs and Big uns. We’ve also seen the return of the Old World of Warhammer (the World That Was – Age of Sigmar kids) through Total War: Warhammer (a game to which, I have to confess, I’ve developed a considerable addiction and which has sparked my interest in Warhammer like never before). Meanwhile White Dwarf itself came back – Grombindal having realised that this whole weekly-pamphlet idea was a mistake and what we really wanted was a gloriously chunky magazine full of interesting articles.

Oh, and I finally realised a longstanding ambition and went to Warhammer World!

Excitingly, and for the first time ever, a side effect of having a proper house to live in is having all my miniatures in the one place. No longer must they lurk, lonesome and unloved, carefully packed in boxes. Instead they can stand proudly on a shelf built specially for them and that means we can have some group shots!

The largest part of my collection – by a long shot – are the Chaos Space Marines of the Beasts of Ruin. At the core of the army are a large number of marines, cultists and war-engines, dedicated to Chaos Undivided, and at the centre of that army is a host of Chaos Marines. Having completed my first 20-man squad of chaos marines late last year this year I started work on a second. Somebody told these lads there might be a Black Crusade on soon and as you can see they’re rather excited (they also heard conflicting rumours about a Penitent Crusade but luckily they don’t know what that is…)

Alongside them we have the pestilent servants of Nurgle. They too saw a boost to their numbers this year with the addition of a small squad of malodorous, yet still cheerful looking, terminators and a few boisterous Nurglings.

The worshippers of Khorne also saw a big boost this year, with plenty of berserkers, terminators and even an ogren, storming across the painting desk. Sadly Rannoghar Garran, the brutal Chaos Lord who will someday lead them, remains just a heap of bits. In his absence however Kharn the Betrayer was kind enough to step in and cover for him.

The Slaaneshi contingent remains a much smaller part of the collection but, thanks to Dreadtober (this year ably orchestrated by JoeB of the Broken Paintbrush), they have at least been bolstered by the arrival of a Sonic Dreadnaught.

As for the Tzeentchian element, well they remain the smallest  faction of all but who knows, with all those Thousand Sons now available 2017 might just be their year…

Of course, not everyone who worships Chaos wears power-armour, which brings us to the massed ranks of the lost and the damned themselves, the traitor guard. In the early months of 2016 they saw quite a lot of growth but progress has been decidedly slow since (read; nonexistent). Nonetheless the itch to paint more scruffy tech-barbarians hasn’t gone away so don’t imagine you’ve seen the last of them yet.

Over the last few months I’ve also put in a bit of work on my Orks. Some readers may recall that back in 2014 I set about repairing, repainting and generally ‘fixin’ up’ my entire Ork collection – with the result that by the time I’d finish I didn’t want to see the colour green ever again. Fast forward the best part of two years however and the call of the Waaagh was strong once more. Time to gather more boys and get ready to smash up the hoomie Imperium but good! Expect to see a few more of them in the new year.

Because of the sheer size of the Ork collection, coupled with a severe lack of natural daylight to work with, that picture probably isn’t going to win any prizes unless they’re giving out awards for causing eyestrain, so here’s a group shot of all the greenskins I added to the collection in 2016.

Last of all we have a scheming clan of man-sized rats. My Skaven have come on a great deal this year (they’re a whole different colour for one thing) but they’re still a long way from the chittering, scabrous horde I have in mind. The trouble is I’m not really an ‘army painter’. I admire anyone who’s able to sit down and batch paint hundreds of models, especially if they can do it to a high standard, but it isn’t me. At best I can manage two or three like this and that makes for slow going when one is painting legions of clanrats.

In an effort to set things right I’m setting myself a little challenge; every month in 2017 I will complete at least one model for my Skaven collection. Hopefully, by the end of the year, the army will have increased by more than just twelve clanrats but even if that’s all we see it will at least be a step in the right direction. Watch this space – and please, please do mock and shame me if I fail in this rather simple endeavour.

Other plans for the new year include more Orks (you didn’t think this was the only Meganob in the works now did you?) and getting my Slaaneshi gladiator painted up. Oh and then there’s this fellow, who’s going to be joined by a few friends…

Things I’m looking forward to in 2017:

Games Workshop have already announced that 2017 is going to be “bigger and better” than 2016 (although to be fair we never expected them to say “2017 will be slightly worse than 2016 and everything we have planned will disappoint you”). I’ve already waxed enthusiastic about the new models they showcased last week in their own review of the year but, having taken a few deep breaths and gone for a little lie down, here’s my slightly more considered thoughts on the year ahead.

 

Breaking the Habit

“For where two or three 40k fans are gathered together, there one will find a Sisters of Battle player complaining about how unloved they are” as Jesus could have said. Over the years many people have wondered what the origins of the “40,000” in Warhammer 40,000 is and at last Games Workshop have provided an official answer; it’s the number of years between each Sisters of Battle release. Perhaps they shouldn’t have put Axel Rose in charge of the project?

Personally I’m not even that interested in the Nuns with Guns but seriously Games Workshop, for the love of all that is holy, just give them their damn models! Over the last few years the level of fevered fantasising about nuns in bondage in the Wahammer scene has reached peaks normally only seen in the bar at the Conservative Party conference.

In the video which first revealed Magnus the Red (hiding in a bin because even the sons of the Emperor fall on hard times) the Thousand Sons were described as “coming soon”. The Sisters of Battle teaser at the end of the video featured Warhammer TV’s intrepid bin-raker Eddie commenting “cool – this isn’t released for months yet”. Yet the sages of the Internet gave it a good quarter of an hour after Magnus hit the shelves before deciding that the whole thing was a hoax. Games Workshop then upped the ante by including the Sisters in the Imperial Agents codex, alongside various other factions that don’t have plastic models and never will like the Grey Knights and Deathwatch. Deeply insulted Sisters fans frothed their rage up and down the Internet and Games Workshop responded by flashing this image at them.

For those lucky enough to have been on a penitent crusade lately this is Saint Celestine, who – early in the New Year, will be heading into the Eye of Terror to give Chaos a good kicking. (Why us? What did we ever do to her?) Now one would assume she’d be doing this at the head of an army of the Brides of the Emperor – but no, she’s taking the Black Templars instead. One can only imagine that the Black Templars fighting the Black Legion in the dark will be a painter’s delight. Personally I’m looking forward to the scene in which Grimaldus blunders into a table and barks his shin, and Abaddon trips over the cat.

Now one might assume that this drip feeding of releases allows Games Workshop to build up interest in a faction that has been under-represented for a long time, and helps to space out what might otherwise be a rather overwhelming tide of models. However it’s starting to feel a little bit like a tug of war; Games Workshop admitting bashfully that they have the models but still unwilling to give them up, the fans – desperate to have the ball thrown for them – simultaneously wagging their tails and growling. Frankly the sooner the Sisters fans are put out of my misery the better. It’s getting to the stage where Chaos fans can’t hear ourselves complain over the sound of Sisters fans complaining. Still I think we can all hope that by the end of 2017 Games Workshop will have finally relented and handed over the models. The Sisters, like the Dark Eldar before them, can then ride off into the sunset with their new range of shiny models, and the rest of us can breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Not that this will stop the Sisters fans moaning of course – they are creatures of habit after all…

 

It’s Chaos Out There!

Depending on who you ask there are two facts you’ll discover about Chaos. One; we never get any models ever and Games Workshop actually hates us. Two; every release is Chaos, we’re always hogging the limelight and should give the (insert name of anyone apart from Space Marines here) a chance. It’s all a bit confusing until you remember that the faction loosely referred to as Chaos encompasses four gods (plus generally treacherous undivided baddies) – covering both deamons and mortals, nine Space Marine legions, and two games systems. To a fan of the Emperor’s Children the release of some Blood Reavers for Age of Sigmar may be Chaos but it’s as much use as telling an Imperial Guard fan “what are you complaining about – they released Space Wolves the other month!” (This is not the Leman Russ you’re looking for).

It would be unfair to ask or expect the kind of expansion and revamp of the Chaos line that it so desperately deserves – unfair on GW for setting such an ambitious expectation, unfair on fans of other races who may be less than enamoured by seeing nothing but spikey marines for the next twelve months and unfair on us Chaos fans and our wallets (I for one prefer a drip feed of releases that I can get my teeth into). In time however it would be nice to see the other Chaos factions get the treatment that the Thousand Sons just enjoyed. Everyone’s personal wishlist is different but if there’s one thing I’d like to see this year it’s a Thousand Sons -eque expansion upon the Emperor’s Children. Nurgle and Khorne are in need of love too of course, the other Greater Daemons would be nice to see, Obliterators are just terrible and all of the cult marines (with the exception of the Rubricae obviously) could use an update but it’s hard to deny that no-one has been neglected like Slaanesh’s followers among the Chaos Marines. Come on GW – give the Prince of Pleasure a little love. Who knows – you might enjoy it…

Fulgrim – this could be you!

 

Not The End Times

So this year 40k turns 30, which many people believe makes it a fine time for it to have a mid-life crisis. There have always been a few voices calling the 40k timeline to be advanced, as though this was a novel and we’ve been waiting on a sequel to resolve the cliff-hanger ending for the last three decades. 40k however isn’t a novel, rather it’s a setting and the cliffhanger ending is the whole point.

Since the End Times event in Warhammer those voices have become a lot louder. Surely, they cry, it’s time for the same thing to happen in 40k! The problem is that a post-40k automatically invalidates the sense of doom in 40k itself. Based on the projections suggested by the current setting if a 41k existed at all it would mostly be about a post-apocalyptic version of the Tau throwing rocks at the last few genestealers, on a daemon world. The cornerstone of 40k is its spirit of apocalypse – a character which – sadly – is as familiar today as it was when they first designed it in the shadow of the Cold War. The forces which threaten to consume humanity at the close of the 41st Millennium are so vast, so terrible, that humanity’s insignificance is rendered in the starkest possible sense. That’s what makes it such great escapism – its potency is its mixing of the familiar with the alien. As a species we too have 99 problems – but at least the carnivorous swarms of the Tyranids aint one. It provides the comfort of action even if that action is ultimately futile – and have no doubt that for all the complaints that the Imperium wins every campaign those victories are fleeting and the wolves are at the door (not those Wolves obviously!). Unless something utterly unforeseen occurs to shake things up the fall of the Imperium is now inevitable and the galaxy of the 42nd Millennium will be a desolate place, scoured of life by the inhuman forces that have warred over it. There is no hand-waving our way out of this one and into an Age of Sigmaresque future. Any attempt to do so by Games Workshop will feel forced and will diminish the power of the setting they’ve already created.

Having said all that – and argued against the return of loyalist Primarchs – I’m still looking forward to seeing the setting progress, if not quite to the point at which Dante, Calgar and Azrael link arms and sing Auld Lang Syne as the bells ring for the closing of the 41st Millennium then at least getting a little closer to the moment of atomic midnight.

Ultimately that’s what we’re going to see and any suggestion otherwise seems like silliness. The End Times, much as many didn’t like their execution or outcome, now seem a necessary development for Warhammer. 40k has no need for such an event and perhaps never will. The road to that apocalypse is exciting enough without ever needing to reach the destination. There’s no point in wishing for the murder of the Golden Goose when the old bird still has so much life in her – but what a joy it’ll be to see the full might of the Dark Millennium’s forces clashing! Daemon Primarchs will walk, the Traitor Legions will return and all the races of the galaxy will be forced to escalate in return. The return of Magnus changed everything and the Imperium will never be the same again, but that doesn’t mean GW are planning to put a match to it quite yet.

Perhaps after another thirty years 40k will seem out of place, a bitter dystopian dinosaur in a more hopeful world. Our grandchildren will wonder what we saw in it and listen wide-eyed when we say “those were darker times kid, they shot a gorilla and the whole world went to pieces”. Then, and only then, can Abaddon tear his grandfather’s corpse from the Golden Throne as GW puts the old beast to bed. Until then let the galaxy burn!

 

The Siege of Terra

Lurching from one apocalypse to another the Black Library recently announced that after over a decade the Horus Heresy series is closing on the final battle. Some people complain that it’s too long, that there are too many books (42 so plus short stories), that it’s too damn complicated, that Horus fell too quickly (three books) and then advanced on Terra too slowly (he’d agree). Still it’s been quite the ride and the showdown should be suitable spectacular. Most likely it’ll take several (dozen) books to cover the siege itself, and that’s no bad thing, so we can’t expect to see the last shot fired before the end of the year but anticipate drama and destruction nonetheless.

That’s it for me for this year so there’s just time to wish all my readers and internet-friends a very happy New Year and a suitably miniature-filled 2017. Unless of course it all ends before then in a fiery nuclear holocaust and only Oldhammer players survive, shielded behind their walls of lead models. That really would give anyone with a substantial collection of Sisters of Battle the last laugh…