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The most sad news, and a lovely post by Trish Carden too. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EPHA8uywi/

Over the last several years we have had a number of [former] moderators retire from their duties. However, I have been remiss in my duties, not announcing those retirements. The moderators are essential to the health and welfare of the site. Like you, they are hobbyists who enjoy the hobby and the community. They sacrifice their hobby time to perform moderator duties, and many of these members have served in this capacity for years. You don't always see the work that they do because much of it takes place behind the scenes, whether it's discussion about how to improve the site or how to deal with problems (and we try to take care of discipline privately, so you don't always see those actions). We are all indebted to each and every member who performs moderator duties. Over time, however, we all drift away from the hobby and the community. Sometimes hobbyists lose interest in the hobby; sometimes they find that they have less time to devote to the hobby/community; sometimes there are other reasons to retire. Regardless of their reasons, we are always appreciative for their contributions to the site and we wish them the best. The following members of the community have retired from moderator duties. Some of them are recent retirees, while others have retired over the last few years (and I've been a terrible slacker in not recognizing them before now). They are listed here in alphabetical order: @Brother Cambrius @Canadian_F_H @Claws and Effect @Commander Dawnstar @Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch @Dusktiger @Eddie Orlock @Iron Father Ferrum @Johanhgg @Khulu (you may remember him as Tyriks) @Lord Ragnarok @Mandragola @sal of manders @schoon @Seahawk @TiguriusX @toaae @TrawlingCleaner Triszin Please join me and the rest of the staff in thanking each of these members for everything they've done for the hobby and the community - the B&C is better for their contributions. And now I'll submit myself to the Pain Glove in penance for not thanking these very deserving members in a more timely manner.

heed not the whispers of the abominable intelligence

I'm pretty sure that Eldar scene is based on this second edition codex image.

Taste like crab, talk like people. With the God Legion head options Valrak mentioned:

The most powerful move in Warhammer is to cross over to your opponent's side of the table and see from his point of view. It is in the spirit of taking you to the opponent's edge that I share how stock traders and the media that covers them think. As of this writing I've not yet found the Dragoneye report. I'll go see if any of my old network has 1; it's like if you have Warhammer+, you can just invite a friend over to come watch with no extra cost to you, it's like that. These are literally called "brokers' circulars" colloquially because they circulate amongst us. Players That Never Played A Game Most stock traders, investment bankers, equity guys, etc., are like 40k fans that've never played a game. That's different than if you're not currently playing; I haven't yet played 11th ed myself. But the market is this abstraction of the economy, in the same way that 40k is an abstraction of war, played by analysts who studied every YouTube tactics video, saw all the MEQ (Marine Equivalent kill ratio) charts, but don't know what securing an objective feels like. The analogy I would make might be slightly outdated, but it's an All-Eradicator Army. In previous editions, Eradicators (Melta Marines) were rated as Top Tier because of how well it kills, very high MEQ ratio. A new player who only knew YouTube tactics videos would see all these Tier Lists with Eradicator at the top. He would go to the store with this in mind, and we would advise him he needs some cheaper Intercessors/Troops to cap objectives or simply Transports to bring his short-ranged Eradicators to bear. Those obvious things, he would not simply "get" beforehand. But...but...the MEQ ratio... That's what equity guys are like and there IS a flaw in this analogy; at least the YouTube tactica are made by players, equity guys read "brokers' circulars", these cheat sheet/cliff notes reports written by OTHER people who ALSO never played the game. During my time, they were basically fancy book reports at a MBA level. These days, they don't even look like a MBA-level book report, but a marketing brochure trying to push a company's stock. Now that you understand how they think, let's see how they work, to see how they collectively affect share price. Not Buy & Sell, But Entry & Exit Sir Terry Pratchett (of Discworld fame) wrote, "A bad hunter chases. A good hunter waits." You guys get this, but when I explain to young guys, I have to tell them the stock market is not what they see in media. It's not a bunch of guys that run around shouting, "Buy! Sell! Buy! Sell!" In fact, if you look at the famous stock exchanges, the trading floors have a few computer kiosks and no people. It's because it's all automated. Investment organisations set an Entry Point and an Exit Point. An Entry Point is like waiting for Games Workshop stock price, which was too high, to fall below a certain price, to automatically buy. An Exit Point is if that stock went to a high price to sell at a profit, or too low, so just divest. Sometimes people ask me when AI will take over the stock market, I tell them 30 years...in the past. Everything was automated in the '90s. In Warhammer terms, it's like deciding how many points a unit is worth to you BEFORE a Balance Dataslate comes out. Like if a unit of 3 Eradicators fall below 80 points, then I'll Buy more or expand my squad to 6. If it gets a points hike to 110, I might as well replace them with a Vindicator. A few points up or down, I'll hold. I'm told professional gamblers have a similar system. They decide in advance, to avoid getting swept up by emotion. UNLESS there's some accounting discrepancy found, this Dragoneye report that caused a sell-off should not have much effect. Edit - You see the idea here? We'd have used historic financial data to model our own forecasts. Unless Dragoneye found the numbers that GW itself put out are wrong, I wouldn't change my model. So it's NOT Buy & Sell, BUT Entry & Exit, then...Wait & See. The question is the calculation, the equation they use, what goes in it? Price/Earning Ratio & Growth Rate & Adjustments This is SO NOT Econ 101, nor is it a platitude like "corporations maximise profit," it's more like "Two Thin Coats"...which I know is outdated. The purpose of buying a company stock is not like collecting a rare comic book or, heaven forbid, some meme coin. A company's stock pays YOU money regularly. It makes profit, you share in that, based on how much of it you own. But a company can grow over time, and there are outside factors that might affect it, so: You have a Stock Price over Earnings Ratio, like 20. You buy it today, it pays you yearly, in 20 years you make it back. Calculated. Compound Annual Growth Rate, like a company regularly grows, in 30 years they'll be double the size, or whatever. Forecasted. Then you can make "adjustments". How well do you think a future Amazon series will grow GW miniature sales? Subjective. These ratios are like MEQ, meaning you'll never see the official 40k rules say "a Marine Equivalent Ratio", it's just a shorthand we use we all get. So you can imagine somewhere there is a spreadsheet ALREADY made, they just plug in new numbers whenever GW releases financial figures in much the same way we wait for a Balance Update comes out. Here's the clincher...they're all written in a way that sees only 1-year or 3-month cycles, which means... "Year-On-Year" You'll hear this a lot, "Year-On-Year." Everything is based on this year compared to last year to predict next year. (If anything, it's even shorter now. The holding period of a stock used to be a year, now it's mere months.) When you have something that is multi-year, the stock market is very bad at it. It undervalues or overvalues. Example: Electronic Artists, then Electronic Arts, now just EA, the video game publisher. It's where game studios go to die, but why? Most video games take years to develop. EA, however, got used to EA Sports: NBA, Madden, etc., just every year they churn out a game worse than the last. So every game studio EA acquires is called up in a meeting, why haven't you put out a game this year? Look at the Madden team, they kicked a game out the door! What's wrong with you? Your studio is closed down. EA now no longer sells games in the same way you don't buy movie DVDs anymore, they sell EA play subscription of games like Netflix...it's much more fitting to how the stock market sees things. On the other hand, with something like AI companies now (dot-coms back then), they overbet, it's too big for them to conceive. I don't know the exact history, but it's basically all financial institutions are based on this tradition of calendar years or something. Congratulations, you made it through the hard part, let's go straight to how it applies to GW, get this over with...because it'll seem very familiar. How It Applies to GW I've mentioned this before, but to review, "New GW" post-2016/2017 had this "bunny hop" in revenue and profits. (I previously showed this graph to my Warhammer Store WhatsApp, they're just like us. The Warhammer Store manager used the term "stone steps" in Cantonese, because after around 2016/2017, they kinda look like it. But it's also a comment on his hard work, he's always having to climb higher and higher stairs.) It generally goes like this, a 3-year cycle, like if GW was a world, it'd have 3 seasons: A 40k year of rapid growth, that's their Spring An AoS year of moderate growth, that's their Summer into Autumn A gap year now filled by 30k, that's their Winter, everything plateaus It's hard to think of being on a weird planet where there's 3 seasons that stretch over 3 years, isn't it? Exactly my Year-On-Year point above. I mentioned before, I can't find the post, the best time to buy GW stock is after 30k results before 40k results, it's exactly this reasoning. The worst part is that these recent seasons, there was this crazy El Nino effect, went something like this: A 40k year of rapid growth, the Spring, that was normal The AoS year also had Space Marine II licensing, HUGE impact on profit, a 2nd Spring A typical 30k year, the Winter...but it feels especially harsh 2 Springs in a row Now go back to how these 40k fans that have never played a game, who only see the world in 1-year windows. They overhyped the last 2 years, assuming EVERY YEAR you get a new 40k edition, EVERY YEAR you get a Space Marine III, Space Marine IV, Space Marine V, etc...or Space Marine Equivalent. So in a This Year vs. Last Year tunnel vision of the world, the lack of a new Space Marine video game license revenue...they want their Space Marine Equivalent. GW DOES Have Limitations And what is GW's real problem(s) now? Re-using the system I mentioned earlier: Stock Price over Earnings Ratio: Earnings don't have another Space Marine II game to fill in last year's massive success Compound Annual Growth Rate: 30k was a slow growth year, lots of growth was a one-off from Space Marine II bump Those One-Offs are a legitimate limitation. Space Marine II doesn't have an immediate sequel this year because it takes time, and I think we did have a bump of new tabletop players from Space Marine II. It's unlikely there will be a similar bump until another major event, like people seeing 40k in an Amazon show, etc. Then... Some adjustment from an external factor, and it is JUST as when I 1st joined B&C, Marshal Rohr helped me: It don't know what's sadder, that as a child I didn't understand why people went to war over oil, or that as an adult now I do. Any financial organisation, from investment to insurance, would make an adjustment. I'd've had a colleague in the Energy Office come down to me maybe and tell me something like "there's an explosion in the Middle East, adjust anything to do with petrol, shipping AND PLASTICS 10% down for now." You see what's happening in the world. I've been talking about this forever. Miniatures are plastic, a petroleum byproduct, that needs lots of energy to melt down and the furnace never shuts down. GW's plastics are especially high quality, harder, thus takes even more energy. I'd have cranked up the adjustment myself. What should GW be priced at? I'm not one to say, but let me give you a frame of reference below. GW Now Priced Like Google, Not nVidia Disclaimer: I'm not giving investment advice, you should always talk to someone serious, like a doctor diagnosing a patient. But I just want to show you some Price/Earning Ratios, because it's like seeing points values for the 1st time, to compare with: P/E ratio of ~10: old, reliable industries, like Toyota or Honda P/E ratio of ~20: growing companies, like Alphabet/Google P/E ratio of ~30: nVidia, what we used for our graphics card, now taking over the world via AI P/E ratio of ~40: Apple, overpriced, this used to be how dot-coms were valued, too high P/E ratio of ~60: Tesla, so overpriced it's a meme, you buy this stock for political reasons GW went from a P/E ratio of 30+, where nVidia is now, to only 20+, above Google. Yes, GW's so bad now, it's a Google. How many UK companies hope to be comparable to Google right now? But let's have a real look at GW's share price: This Dragoneye report that wiped out £480 million, like GW's worst day in the history of forever. Well, what happened on June 26, almost 4 months ago? That's a much bigger drop. This was just a quick Google search, that looks a LOT more precipitous than the last few days. Why was no one talking about that then? My gut instinct when I 1st saw this is like those YouTube videos that said Gorkamorka bankrupted GW, when we all know now it was GW's expansion following the success of LotR AND the Eye of Terror campaign that reached a peak around 2004, that lead to an expansion they could not pay upkeep costs on. This is really weird...sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy or the world has. You see what I see, right? This isn't even the biggest drop. Not Just the Market, But the Media To be clear, it was The Times that published the story, but an older FT Blog post highlighted the real issue here: It's not so much about GW as it is how GW doesn't try to court media. The media, used to being wooed...well, you can read between the lines. GW isn't suppressing journalism (in fact, "FTAV didn't bother contacting them for this piece," why not, isn't that your job?) GW publishes all relevant information...even more than I'd expect...publicly. I share it with you guys as a way of thanks for all the things you taught me. Have you noticed no press goes into that level of detail? Whatever the Dragoneye report says, this "quirk" of not GW, but the media who expects GW to fete them WILL affect their reporting. I Want To Read This Dragoneye Report Disclaimer: I actually have a professional connection to Dragoneye Research, like finding we're distant cousins. I'm as shocked as you. They may have more data, either actual or inferred by looking at 3rd party resellers, for example. They can do stuff like that, it's good. The ONE thing that surprised me was how there was this sudden growth in the Trade i.e. FLGS channel, with the GW CFO citing Asia, when I know their Hong Kong colleague was let go from his job. I described that then as like receiving a phone call from a dead man. If there's some accounting discrepancy, it'd be there. However, the problems that Dragoneye supposedly cited, like how GW cannot sustain its licensing revenue every year, is EXACTLY what GW itself said: The worst part is, as you saw, GW's share price came down since late June, which is when investors wouldn't gotten an Annual General Meeting, so GW disclosed everything to them 1st; that is normal. This might all be a hit piece using this confidential report no one can see as an excuse, a dodgy dossier, but why? Edit - to be clear, I don't think Dragoneye Research putting out a paper is wrong, nor do I even question their alleged findings, because GW and I have said the same things. The spin The Times seem to be giving it might just be sensationalism, an editor altering a journalist's reporting with a shoddy headline, but it's odd. Conclusions & Takeaways Congratulations, in 1 post, I honestly condensed like a short MBA module on how the stock markets work: It's not "Buy! Sell! Buy! Sell!" It's Entry Point & Exit Point Price/Earning Ratio and Compound Annual Growth Rate, with adjustments, is all you really need GW's 3-year business cycle does not fit the 1-year tunnel vision investors are used to GW's doing so bad it's no longer priced like nVidia but Google, isn't that terrible I honestly think this non-crisis is a bit of a media creation, but I don't know why this Until I saw the actual stock chart, I thought this was a real story. I'm keen to learn if Dragoneye found something we didn't, will let you know if there is. Edit - to sum up, GW share price was going to go down after the financial report, when investors finally realised there was no Space Marine III this year. This Dragoneye Research team recently released a report, which the Times drummed up like the cause of a share price rebalancing that was ALREADY happening.

Damn GW works fast when ultramarines are in question

For you sir ! One Alpha Legion upgrade sprue !

Wow, the old Aquila Lander crossed the rubicon primaris too?

I'm afraid someone showed me this and I can no longer unsee it. "That's it! Cheese, Grommyt! We'll raid somewhere where there's cheese!"

Hello Wargaming Youtuber, I see your retention numbers are down. It's time to release a bi-yearly 'I'm FINISHED with 40k' video. No this does not mean you will stop producing 40k and certainly not GW content, but we advise you miss one or two videos while you soak in the extra views from the clickbait and subs from the 'I hate GW but I would never, ever, ever, ever stop talking about them' audience. After 2-3 months you should be good to go again on 40k content, with or without a 'Did GW just SAVE 40K???' videos. Furthermore, we would like to inform you that Trench Crusade content is on a downward turn and would now advise a temporary shift into 2-3 months of Starcraft videos. Thank you for using Lord Marshal's Content Creator Services!

The classic GW author Ian Watson has passed away. now we must all dissolve our left hands in acid and scrimshank on our skeletons!

Whoever at GW did last week's "ork" teasers article must have the biggest, smuggest grin on Earth right about now.

No. I'm merely pointing out how this topic was nearly derailed multiple times by overt toxicity which isn't productive to a good discussion. And when it finally seemed to have ended we get some more toxic baiting, from a mod no less. Let's put things into context - this is a topic about a funny series of joke videos that GW have released. The videos are OBVIOUSLY jokes, and are filled with funny/witty comments and winks towards the 40k setting. If anyone thinks that these videos are justfication for actual anger, then those people need to re-evaluate their mental wellbeing. I'm not even joking about this.

Sigh, so we’re going to do this*? I find this annual whinge deeply frustrating for two reasons. 1. I’ve been around this hobby since RT and 1990. It was always better back in the day. 3.5e was dreadful until it wasn’t, the Black Crusade a waste of time until it’s held up as a global example, WD was better when it carried World of Darkness articles. And the insidious culture on the internet that demands instant opinions that must always be right is just exhausting. 2. GW is a Great British Industrial Success Story. We should be celebrating them and expecting the rest of our industry to be like them. I admire the innate small c conservatism that sees them put 3 months of cash away for a rainy day of no sales. The fact they invest in capital upgrades without becoming highly leveraged. That they’re not based in London, and pay relatively well. That they seem to have a pretty flat structure. They know what their USP is, how to hold onto it and sustain it, whilst meeting all their other cultural aims. I say this genuinely, I’d love to work for a company like GW. *yes, Hamilton, sue me.

"GW wasting money on unfunny slop like this is proof the soul of Warhammer is being sucked out by modern corporate ghouls. Why don't they spend it on making Glup Slime-o in plastic?! This makes me glad I only spent £10,000 on GW plastic this year. Disgusting."

A couple of terminators from my Raven Guard successor chapter, The Storm Crows.

like many people that collect Exorcists I often incorporate Grey Knight wargear and iconography to emphasise the daemon hunter aspect of the chapter, but at the same time don't just want red grey knights. I really wanted to paint the upscaled terminators when they were first released but wanted to make them a little bit different for my Exorcists. I found some 3d printed guardian spears online and that reminded me of the Rogue Trader Grey Knight Terminators that I really liked when I was a kid, and I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed that a couple of the new terminators had very similar poses to those old models. So here is an image of my Grey Knight inspired Exorcist Terminators. There are some pretty serious gaps being hidden by purity seals and tilt shields, and the religious icons are a bit floaty but overall I'm pretty happy with how these turned out. Eventually I'll turn it into a five man squad and hopefully learn from some of my mistakes. There are some more images of these guys in my gallery. I just noticed this photo isn't great.

The miniature is her. The portrait is her social media avatar from her peak days in high school.

*Opens the mighty Tome of Grudges* *Cracks knuckles, licks quill nib* *A few thousand years later....*

God I hate rule lawyering and honest sometimes I feel this kind of exploits are the reason why we can't have nice simple written rules.

I was just at a My Chemical Romance concert in Wembley. About two thirds of the way through the concert, the band in between songs said something along the lines of "A great artist passed away a few weeks back. His name was John Blanche..." They then mentioned about his work with 40k. Was a bit of a surreal and pretty cool moment. They then dedicated the next song to him.

Gets an awesome new ork, thread descends into space marine chat... :p

My Shield Captain was featured on WHC, which is nice. It’s in there with some fantastic NMM versions but I wanted to do a scheme that could be replicated on ~30 models. Happy overall with how she came out. it’s a bit odd they upload them on a transparent background but there are probably good reasons for it.

Well it appears the rumours were indeed, correct.

It's not just a ban; it's a fatal throttling of expression. This is not a time for making uneducated decisions; it's a time for reflecting on art. Here's some- oh screw it, I can't even continue with the bit. The less AI slop I have to see, the better.

For those who either can't or don't want to sit through a 45 minute video for the answers, transcript below. I tried to leave it mostly verbatim, just cleaned up a bit.

Here's the newest

Because: What it offers is: Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

I like this place, I just dislike you

The members of the staff were recently approached by a member who has used artificial intelligence (AI) / large language model (LLM) technology in the process of generating hobby content, asking if it was permissible to submit that content to the site for others to enjoy. This forced us to consider some things. Anyone who hasn't been living under a rock is no doubt aware that AI/LLM technology has proliferated across diverse industries/sectors. It was inevitable that tabletop miniature wargaming hobbyists would find ways to incorporate AI/LLM into their hobby pursuits. Similarly, it would be both a fool's errand and tyrannical to attempt to prevent any AI/LLM-created content from being submitted to the community. While there is significant controversy over the impact of AI/LLM (and I tend to stand with John Connor and Serena Butler on this issue), there are certainly ways in which hobbyists can enhance their enjoyment of the hobby with assistance from AI/LLM. After all, hobbyists might use AI/LLM to generate content such as avatars, signature images, etc. The converse of this, however, is that we participate in this community to celebrate our own efforts, not those of AI/LLM. Our mission statement: The Bolter & Chainsword exists to help the members of a global hobby community to better understand, engage in, and enjoy all aspects of the Warhammer 40,000 hobby through constructive discussion and the sharing of hobby-related content. (emphasis added) AI/LLM are tools, not "members of [the] community." These tools might be used by members of the community, but it is the creativity, skill, and dedication of the members that are to be celebrated, not the effectiveness of the tools used by the members. To be fair, some level of skill/knowledge is important in maximizing AI/LLM output, but AI/LLM are capable of producing products that might be far beyond the abilities of many hobbyists. Other members should know that AI/LLM is used so that they may give informed reactions and feedback. The members of the staff are working on additions to our community rules to address the use of AI/LLM in developing content that is submitted to the site. Members of the community are welcome to provide suggestions that support the basic principles identified below: Members of the community are allowed to submit content that has been developed with the assistance of AI/LLM. AI/LLM use will be clearly mentioned in a disclaimer so that other members aren't misled. The level of detail about the extent of AI/LLM use is up to the content creator. Content will be locked/hidden if it is determined that the content was created using AI/LLM and the content creator deliberately misled the community. Content creators may be allowed to edit content to add the required disclaimer if the omission was an oversight, but each member will only be granted this mercy once (i.e., we'll give you the benefit of the doubt once, but repeat offenses are suspect). Comments/replies to such content should not dwell on the fact that AI/LLM was used. We don't need to turn every such discussion into bellyaching about the use of AI/LLM. If you don't like it, you can simply ignore the content. Disruptive responses, including reactions, will be removed and may result in disciplinary action. If you believe a content creator is deliberately misleading the members of the community, you should REPORT the content. You don't need to harass the member, however (see #4 above). I doubt we'll attempt to be legalistic here. We'll provide common sense guidelines that rely on members being ethical and exercising good judgment, meeting the intent and being honest with the members of the community. The staff members are not going to be the AI/LLM police (we have much better things to do with our time), but we'll deal with disruptive/deceptive behavior as necessary. In the meantime, the interim guidance provided above should suffice for now. If you have questions/suggestions for the fair use of AI/LLM here at the Bolter and Chainsword, you are welcome to provide your input as a reply to this discussion.

Call to Arms is returning for 2026!! I’ll be running it again this year, so you can expect it be largely the same as last year. Only one big change - in addition to standard and Jobs a Bigg'un vows, there is a new "Rapid Deployment" vow. We've all had that instance where there's something we suddenly need to paint RIGHT NOW. A Rapid Deployment vow will allow you to make an Emergency Vow that you may work on immediately, out of sequence with the standard vows. Unlike Job's a Bigg'un, it must be completed before completing any other vows in that Stronghold. WHEN: 15th June to 15th September 2026 The Stronghold threads will be posted and locked for two weeks prior to the Event to allow everyone to familiarize themselves with the rules and points value for the Event. WHERE: Work in Progress Forum in the Forge The Strongholds will once again be located in the WIP Forum in the Forge. Rally Points will be located in each Forum for that Faction and will contain Faction specific points values. These are also intended to act as hubs for strategizing and organizing the Forum's efforts with a Stronghold. WHAT: For those who didn't participate previously, each model is assigned a points value, based on it's size, complexity, and time it takes to paint (generally). For example, a Primaris Intercessor is worth 1 point, but a similarly sized Primaris Captain is worth 5 points, this is because typically the Captain will have more detail, and generally be painted to a higher standard, taking more time. Models MUST be pledged to their Stronghold, designated by the Forum's location within the B&C's structure: Astartes, Imperium, Chaos, Xenos and Heresy. Any models that fall outside of the Strongholds, such as Necromunda, Blackstone Fortress, terrain, etc, may be pledged to ANY Stronghold. You may participate in as many of the Strongholds as you wish, having 5 Vows per Stronghold: 3 Vows that must be completed sequentially, 1 Jobs' A Bigg'un Vow, this is for models worth 10+ points that may take the entire event to complete, and 1 Rapid Deployment Vow, described above. All Stronghold vows are "all or nothing" - you must complete all models in all vows for a given Stronghold to score for that Stronghold. For the duration of the Event, the Strongholds are competing amongst their consituent Rally Points to pledge and complete the most points worth of models, with Badges and bragging rights going to the Victors. Once the Event has concluded, the Stronghold will be measured against one another, for fancier badges, and ultimate bragging rights. As I'm not very good at arranging such things, I don't have any actual prizes lined up - should that change, we'll let you know. Here are the five Strongholds from the 2025 Event for you to peruse to get a better idea of how it all works. ASTARTES | IMPERIUM | CHAOS | XENOS | HERESY Feel free to contact me, @Dr_Ruminahui, if you have any questions.

Hey chaps, just passing on some whispers I've heard. - NEW Intercessor Squad (Mixed Armour, Same bolt weapons) - NEW Vanguard Veterans - NEW Jump Chaplain Boxset is apparently called 'ARMAGEDDON' Will keep updating you if I hear anymore, also did a good waffle on it this morning for those interested:

Maybe unpopular opinion but Id rather see them focus on actually finishing the updates for the mainline Heresy first, i.e. tartaros terminators, MK4/5, destroyers, recon, etc before putting out MK7, characters, etc for the Scouring. There's still a ton of stuff they havent finished updating, and the Heresy team doesnt have a great track record of multitasking Rules is whatever

Whilst I'm sure I'd agree with him on this, I will never find out as I refuse to give that scumbag (who cheated on the mother of his twins with his assistant) any views.

1st Update: it came out maybe hours ago, I (and apparently Brother Waaagh)'ve been reading it since: https://assets.ctfassets.net/ost7hseic9hc/6nI9MLA7hoRBfs2OA1oE5R/5b0fef99d81995ba1cdf872887f6cbe6/Results_Statement_2025-26_FINAL_v2.pdf How time flies. We've broken down GW's financials for a decade now, when GW hockey-sticked up around 8th ed 40k's launch. As always, we enter with a mindset of "you oughta know where your food comes from" as a U.S. Midwestern farmer once told me. Keep in mind this report measures from the time of Horus Heresy 3.0 to JUST BEFORE 40k 11th ed. I haven't even played 11th ed yet. PREVIEW: we are using their last Half-Yearly Report as an indicator, I will ADD NEW POSTS once the Full-Year report comes out. +++ Preview: TOP-LINE RESULTS +++ You always hear about "the bottom line", meaning (operating) profit, because corporations "maximise profit," "line must go up," etc. While it's true the spice must flow because the economy is built on having some forward motion, "top-line", or revenue, is more interesting to us as a proxy to the popularity of The Hobby. It's a measure of people x how much they're willing to spend...because they have spent it, the ultimate test. We can preview the Full-Year results from the Half-Year results: Core revenue means GW's own stuff: miniatures, games, paints, etc. Licensing revenue means royalties from video games and JoyToys, etc., NOT GW's own stuff FORECAST: GW's Full Year revenue should be around £700 million, a bit more than 2x GW's Half Year, because there's always a Christmas bump. To compare, Magic: the Gathering annual revenue is $1.72 BILLION, almost double GW. WotC prints money, and props up all of its parent, Hasbro. Fun Fact: unless you get a Space Marine II or something, licensing revenue is consistently around 5% of GW's core revenue. It's like if The Hobby itself is in good shape, video game companies will license 40k. Here, the horse is leading the cart: if GW wants to grow its licensing revenue, they should focus on popularising its OWN offerings (by making better miniatures, games, stories, etc.), then the licensees will come. This year was a Horus Heresy launch year, so was HH 3.0 the "hero" that drove core revenue growth? Turns out it was something different... +++ Preview: Where Was the Growth, Pricing Update Red Flag +++ The following is from the Half-Year report, and it'll be interesting to see how much it'll change by Full-Year, will update: Trade means 3rd party sellers like Friendly Local Gaming Stores or non-GW online stores Retail means Warhammer Stores Online means GW's own online store So if it was a product (or general growth) that drove sales, you'd see the same growth across sales channels, because it's the same product everywhere. So if HH 3.0 was really that popular, you'd see it drive sales in Trade (like FLGSs), Retail (Warhammer Stores) and Online (warhammer.com) all around the same level. Instead, we saw Trade grow by +25% while only around 5% (basically just inflation) elsewhere. I expect an explanation from the Half-Year report: Welp, thank you for the explanation, Miss Group Financial Director! GW increased 3rd party Trade vendors BY 500 to 8,600 (thx Rusted Boltgun for correcting me), but now I wonder how does that about 6% increase translate to 25.2%? Like I guess existing trade outlets might be buying much more, but that seems off, doesn't it? I guess THIS is a factor of Warhammer's popularity from other sources, like Space Marine II or Amazon shows. Here it's a bit of the cart leading the horse. For those that said video games/streaming will drive The Hobby, it turns out the main thing they drove is 3rd parties to carry more Warhammer products. The thing we're watching for is the core gross margin. GW expects a core gross margin of 70%: you buy $100 of stuff, it cost GW $30 to make, $70 is profit. That's only for that box of miniatures, paints, etc., and would not include the costs of running the Warhammer Store you bought it from, etc. (and what that $70 pays for). Fun Fact: there's a Director in GW whose job is to keep the core gross margin at 70%...thus keeping prices low. That job sucks right now, because geopolitical events have driven costs up, from the the plastic that is an oil-related byproduct to the energy costs of melting said plastic into molds to form miniatures. Last year, I mentioned tariffs from the U.S. would be passed onto Hobbyists worldwide, as tariffs are paid when a product enters a country, before it's sold to the consumer. That decrease of -1.8% suggests the US market is about 18% of GW's business. (Bolt)gun to my head, I'd've estimated 20% before, as I knew North America was about about 40% overall, like US would be half of all NA. Turns out it's a little bit lower than that, which was interesting to me. The last pricing update came in October 2025, before the Half-Year report. How the core gross margin drops will be a red flag on how big a price hike to come. +++ Preview: Factory 4 and Why Change Drop Pods/Baneblade +++ The most confusing thing to me as of late is, why change the Drop Pod and, recently, the Baneblade. The Baneblade could be some shady profit motive, but why bother? It's not something everyone buys and what they did is take out certain weapon options to sell separately, so GW won't make much from that. The Drop Pod was the really confusing one and was a red flag...it's like they're just looking for ways to make them faster. A new cast for something like the Drop Pod isn't costless, it should be within £100,000, so it's like a hard-thought/fought decision. I think it's how GW production has trouble keeping up with demand. GW has kept its same 3 Factories...with improvements...but is producing 5x more product. The most precious resource in GW right now is time on the factory floor. GW hasn't really addressed it yet, and likely they'll spin it as increased efficiency, but I wanna know. +++ Preview: We Await the Full-Year Report +++ It should come with this week, maybe next week at the latest, because GW has increasingly more money to count. The main interesting thing is how licensed games like Space Marine II drove sales mainly by making 3rd party partners interested, and I expect that Half-Year's Trade's (i.e. FLGS) 25% growth to grow even more by the Full-Year. It's about growing The Hobby from the OUTside, not just upselling to existing players/painters. The bad thing is I expect GW's costs to have ballooned, just all of ours have, and they'll have to increase their own prices to keep up. So I'll be back in this thread, updating this post, reading your replies, later this week or early next...should be.

@Lord Marshal made a great point about people's nostalgic memories and the actual models, and I believe people miss the artwork more than the reality. Here is a take on a funny meme I remember from some years ago: And...

Veteran Sergeant is complete!

That right there is Begging to be converted into an Adeptus Arbites 'Riot Van' for Necromunda/Kill Team Urban environment games.

Fans: the Black Books were great but are out of print and were super-expensive and unwieldy GW: <makes bit of Black Books available for free> Fans: GW why you treat me so bad?

All in favour of calling it Warhammer New World?

Dear lord, some of you need to look up "hyperbole" and "self deprecation." Yes, GW are poking fun at both themselves and their customer base. This is, generally speaking, a very British thing to do. I appreciate that some other parts of the world don't always get British humour, but this is basically how we get by on the drizzly rock. If you look at GW's current production pipeline and release schedule... it's bonkers. Yes, a large tranche of UM models in a short period of time is a bit vexing, but let's not pretend it's been All Marines All Year - we've had massive waves of Aelderi, Krieg, the Emperor's Children release, Space Wolves, Votann... all of which have been significant releases. Half a dozen KT releases, including new Deathwatch, Necrons, Tyranids, World Eaters (ok, cultists) and T'au. We've got the Wolf Scouts back. Heresy has received a host of new kits, and AoS has had a boatload of stuff. New Blood Bowl, new LI units including Dark Mechanicum. But no, the community has decided that having what, 4 Ultramarines kits (Calgar, Victrix, Titus and Sicarius) is utterly disproportionate and unfair. And GW is lightly poking fun at that (and selling some merch at the same time.) Honestly, well played by them.

He went down on an away mission with the only 2 men he could spare and got himself killed?

So, I thought it might be interesting to make a thread where we could discuss what appeals to us about 40K (other than just the game). Engaging with each others' posts and discussing what makes us tick is perfectly fine of course, but it is my hope that people will stick to what they like and refrain from telling other people they're wrong about their preferences (which includes framing your own preferences negatively "i.e. I like the old 40K because it's not stupid like the new 40K that only appeals to stupidheads" or the like). Both because it's more productive, but also because it's less likely to get the thread closed - but ultimately this is just a request, as I can't force anyone to do/not do anything With that out of the way, here are some of the things I can say with certainty that I like about 40K - although there is probably lots of less quantifiable things I like too. - I like the grim darkness of the far future and how the future portrayed is somehow an "old", crumbling and decaying future. I know it can come off as ott to some, but it just speaks to me as clearly today as it did some 30 years ago. - I like how the factions are all "evil" from a normal, modern human perspective, but still varied and nuanced and, most of all, possible to identify with, when you look at the universe from their pov. I also like how individual characters can be heroic, even admirable, despite their overall faction or cause being "objectively" despicable. I know this comes off as weird to some, but I find it a far cry from portraying real world evil as "cool". - I like how they have managed to incorporate references (of varying subtlety) to so many things from history to architecture, to pop culture in a way that should come off as goofy, but somehow made it work. Tastes obviously differ on this and maybe not all of it works equally well, but I think it works overall - and I think it somehow actuallymakes the universe feel more real, even though that honestly doesn't make a lot of sense... - I really like Space Marines. I like how they are at the same time one, very futuristic, thing (genetically engineered super soldiers with high tech armour and weaponry), but at the same time are also a vehicle for so many different concepts and references. I sort of think of them as "the pizza of 40K"; it can be anything from a somewhat generic dish, to a highly personalised (and perhaps rather weird) food, and so, it manages to appeal to a great many people in very different ways - even if some of those ways might be disgusting to people who prefer another flavour of pizza/space marine. - Continuing on from the above point, I like how the universe is a big place (that will not miss you or your little dudes) and how that leaves room for you to create your own stories, without having to write entire novels from scratch (although I absolutely also love that you can do that too). - I love the artwork. Especially the John Blanche stuff, but he was far from alone in capturing the strange and beautifully ugly essence of the 41st millennium. It's just a very powerful aesthetic that has spoken to me since forever and (I hope) always will.

Re terrain not being fair to certain unit types trying to score objectives, that used to be the point. Back in the day, one of the inherent ways that punished lopsided builds was that if you took too many monsters, cavalry and vehicles your opponent could just put objectives on the top floors of ruins and you wouldn't be able to contest them (or score if your plan was to dump troops out of devilfish or serpents). Now I know being penalized for making wrong decisions is a big taboo these days (see heavy weapons giving the extra bonus even if you still move up from literally can't do anything if you move of the past), but maybe not everything should be viable for every occasion?

The void isn’t in the rules. It’s in our hearts.

#1 - Raptors Eliminator #2 - Iron Hands Intercessor #3 - Angels Sanguine Assault Intercessor #4 - Imperial Fist Heavy Intercessor #5 - Storm Giants Intercessor #6 - Brazen Claws Intercessor #7 - Omega Marines Captain #8 - Commander Dante of the Blood Angels #9 - Salamanders Infernus Sergeant #10 - Deathwing Terminator Here are the first 10 I will drop another set soon.