A Zoat. Just the one..

[Spacecow]

So LVO reveals happened. For anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. They revealed the re release of a new model for Zoat... A zoat.

 

For those of you wondering what the big green thing in the picture above is, allow us to explain. Back in the distant past of Warhammer 40,000 they were a race of strange creatures who served as heralds for the Tyranid Hive Fleets before disappearing, seemingly forever. (We all assumed they’d just been eaten…)

 

 

I quite like the model, but I must be honest I’ve never heard of them either.

 

It’ll be a Blackstone fortress release but I’m curious if they might give them rules to play with our nids or genestealer cults. Or might even expand on it . :) who knows!

[Tichinde]

Love it! The ones I knew we're red back in the day, but I guess you can paint it what colour you like! Hoping for some GSC rules too :-)

[Spacecow]

Found this gem today on twitter

 

 

That is a very cool update but still very recognisable.

[Evil Eye]

Wow, I wasn't expecting that! That's great though, pretty much spot-on as far as an update could be.

[NTaW]

That's a classic right there. There's a more eloquent wording for their description I can't seem to find right now but here's the old box:

 

EDIT: Found the one I was thinking of.

 

Edited January 25, 2020 by NTaW

[Noserenda]

One could punch an armoured marines head right off in fact :) 

Given the techy gear on the model i suspect he may be a renegade rather than a zoat under Tyranid control.

[Guest Triszin]

I hope we get trules for him in 40k. I'd love to field one with nids and GSC

[Closet Skeleton]

Zoats have been implied to have been retconned as alien refugees the Imperium mistook for Tyranid advanced scouts so presumably the non-organic tech is in line with them not being Tyranids.

 

Wouldn't be the first retcon to the Zoats as the text NTaW published is from White Dwarf and contradicts the First ed Rulebook where Zoats were slaves rather than being a kind of Tyranid.

[N1SB]

Hi guys! Hope everyone is well. Haven't been posting for awhile and when I do it's usually Serious Business, but THIS stuff is what I'd much rather talk about.

I started young in 1st ed 40k back when it was called Warhammer 40,000: ROGUE TRADER and, as we've seen in that retcon in Brother Closet Skeleton above, 1st ed was really like the Early Access Beta version of 40k. It's still worth remembering because those early concepts do resurface (this happens A LOT in the Horus Heresy/30k/AoD content), as they leave little Easter Eggs, little loose ends, that give us extra material to draw ideas from for our own projects.

Executive Summary: This Zoat...to me and my other friend who also started in 1st ed...is like a Unicorn sighting, something we thought really extinct but also greatly desired, because, according to our recollection, it was one of those miniatures everyone kinda wanted but never got around to acquiring, for reasons I'll explain later.

As always, I want to be honest and factual with you guys, but it's hard, because in the unreliable narrative of 40k (that is NOT a dig at 40k, because unreliable narration is THE feature not a bug, like the ingenious Regimental Standard), so I'll focus on being honest. Not only is 1st ed 40k different from the now 8th ed 40k, even within 1st ed, it was constantly evolving, so early 1st ed and late 1st ed were already very different things. This is honestly not just our recollection, but our understanding, of Zoats at the time, starting with the main thing of what you pointed out and it's absolutely the right thing to observe:

One could punch an armoured marines head right off in fact

Given the techy gear on the model i suspect he may be a renegade rather than a zoat under Tyranid control.

> Zoats were WITH the Tyranids, but they were NOT OF the Tyranids (to our understanding at the time)

Brother NTaW's unit profile from an old White Dwarf (I had that one! It was awesome) described Zoats as "investigators". I remember them clearly described as "diplomats", and I think it was in Advanced Space Crusade, a skirmish game in the vein of Heroquest, similar to Warhammer Quest and Blackstone Fortress right now. I did believe they were "advance scouts" as Brother Closet Skeleton pointed out (and I'm trying to be honest if not factual here).

This is honestly our understanding at the time. The Zoats were already an existing race when the Tyranids came across them. They somehow managed to establish diplomatic relations with the Tyranids to convince them not to, y'know, eat them all. Instead, they agreed to serve the Tyranids as diplomats, to be their ambassadors. There was at least 1 sidebar story blurb where they were speaking Gothic to Imperium leadership figures, etc. To my recollection they seemed reasonable and not blatantly villainous like "our Tyranid overlords would like to have you over...FOR DINNER". And, of course, what the Zoats were really doing was either gathering information in the form of these diplomatic parties as a sort of spy, or they were just stalling planets to think the Tyranids were peaceful, seeking only safe passage with their slow massive hive fleet, until they got close enough to, y'know, eat them all.

Now this was our interpretation from that actual content. The Zoats, having managed to negotiate with the Tyranids, the Hivemind was actually so impressed that it said "you know what, you're so good at negotiating, you negotiate FOR me/us". The idea was the Tyranid Hivemind found other races' as alien to it as they did them, they couldn't even understand how to eat them properly. To bridge that divide, the Tyranids actually needed something a little bit independent of their Hivemind, that had their own independent thoughts, their own free will, which was why Zoats were not not DNAssimilated like other races the Tyranids came across.

That made the Zoats fascinating because they were the exception that proved the rule, "the rule" (not really a rule, but just the theme) of Tyranids consuming everything of value to them. But the Zoats' value was as these independent expert negotiators, that as soon as they got consumed, they lost exactly what made them so interesting to the Tyranids. It's to the Zoats' credit that they proved their worth to avoid that fate, yet also to the Tyranids' credit that they recognised their value.

This paradox that makes perfect sense is part of what makes Zoats such a Unicorn.

> Zoats were literally too far ahead of its time

In a very meta way, to my recollection the Zoat model was out long before the main Tyranid miniatures range came out...just as in the then lore Zoats were the advance party sent by the Tyranids.

At that time, we only even knew about the Ymargl Genestealer...which we didn't even know were related to Tyranids at the time. So we didn't know what to do with Zoats, precisely because they didn't really go with anything when they came out. It was already a true collector's miniature even back then. If you got it, you are a True Hobbyist, you bought what we considered to be a pretty expensive miniature by then prices (tbh our perception of miniature prices have changed dramatically, it's quaint to think about now). And I salute you, for you pulled the trigger on what the rest of us were squeamish about. I feel like I'm the guy who had a chance to invest in Apple or Microsoft when they started and didn't.

When the Tyranid-related stuff came out...it was a tidal wave because it wasn't for 1st ed 40k per se, but for very popular spin-off games, specifically Space Hulk, its expansions, and also Advanced Space Crusade. Space Hulk doesn't need much explanation here on B&C for you are an informed lot, but it gave us more plastic Genestealer models than I almost knew what to do with, then the expansion sets added even more Genestealers, alongside the original Cult Hybrids. Advanced Space Crusade was very much like what Blackstone Fortress is now, but instead of being inside a Blackstone Fortress...you're actually inside a Tyranid Hive Ship, hitting its organs and stuff, with a bunch of tall plastic Tyranid Warriors fighting you off. We actually played these way more than 1st ed 40k, which was normal back then.

(There WERE other metal blister packs for Tyranid-related miniatures, like the Genestealer Patriarch on a throne and even early Genestealer Cultists, but you could see how they directly tied into these other games whereas the Zoat didn't quite do so.)

Eventually, THIS glorious issue of White Dwarf Brother NTaW with the Tyranid army list came out, it was a breakthrough on multiple levels. For those of us that played more of these self-contained boxed set games than 1st ed 40k, OVERNIGHT we could take all those miniatures we accumulated for other reasons and become a horde army. It was AWESOME.

What this pic cannot show is on the back of it are the stats and points costs and stuff for the Zoat. Instead of a normal page with a portrait layout, this was a landscape layout, like you hold the magazine sideways. There were like 2 unit datasheets per page, you were supposed to cut them out and instead of flipping through a rulebook, you could lay them out for all the stats you need. And to be honest, I think many of us just had 2 units: Genestealers from Space Hulk and Tyranid Warriors from Advanced Space Crusade.

In effect, Games Workshop made Tyranids very accessible, playable with plastic miniatures that we already owned from their other titles. That's almost like what this White Dwarf was for, from our perspective. Zoats were only available in metal blister packs and were a little bit more expensive per model as a result, so it got overlooked, especially with this next and final topic I would broach this day...

> Zoats were actually competing with other Tyranid-themed units

By the time an option to really run Tyranids came out with the above White Dwarf, other things had also come out that directly competed with the Zoat.

A very relevant example for another metal blister that we would get was what we then called a Screamer Killer, what we now know as a Carnifax. That was the equivalent of a Dreadnought (Ferrum plastic boxnought designs would not come out until later editions), and it was a Bit of a Big Deal to own one, those were centrepieces.

Even lore-wise, Zoats had their role taken from them by Genestealer Cult Hybrids. Genestealer Cults were so cool at the time, they rode around in Limousines. Zoats were cool but just couldn't compete with these newer fancy things that drove around in their posh cars.

In effect, out of game there was some cannibalisation as people who may have been interested in Zoats turned to these other units instead. In lore, to my recollection, I think the Tyranids also cannibalised them by finally eating them all up, since their usefulness as diplomats were at an end.

TL;DR - many of us missed the chance to buy a Zoat when they were around, I don't want to repeat this mistake again, a must-get.

[Closet Skeleton]

 

This is honestly our understanding at the time.  The Zoats were already an existing race when the Tyranids came across them.  They somehow managed to establish diplomatic relations with the Tyranids to convince them not to, y'know, eat them all.  Instead, they agreed to serve the Tyranids as diplomats, to be their ambassadors.  There was at least 1 sidebar story blurb where they were speaking Gothic to Imperium leadership figures, etc.

 

Now this was our interpretation from that actual content.  The Zoats, having managed to negotiate with the Tyranids, the Hivemind was actually so impressed that it said "you know what, you're so good at negotiating, you negotiate FOR me/us".

 

That made the Zoats fascinating because they were the exception that proved the rule, "the rule" (not really a rule, but just the theme) of Tyranids consuming everything of value to them.  But the Zoats' value was as these independent expert negotiators, that as soon as they got consumed, they lost exactly what made them so interesting to the Tyranids.  It's to the Zoats' credit that they proved their worth to avoid that fate, yet also to the Tyranids' credit that they recognised their value.

 

Which is nothing like what you actually get on Zoats in the 40k: Rogue Trader first ed rulebook.

 

NTaW's post above shows the early add where the Zoats are brutish slave warriors, nothing diplomatic about them.

 

Zoats were stated to be genetically modified bioweapons, the galaxy's 'free zoats' being escapees. They were also not intended to be special, just an example of the various genetically modified slave races that lived on Tyranid ships. Problem is that when those other Tyranid bio constructs started appearing they were just Tyranids, which was also true of Zoats by the time of the last appearance in White Dwarf. Eventually Tyranid centaurs with guns would re-appear as Hive Guard.

 

The moment Tyranids were fleshed out this left Zoats in a weird place so you got the later first ed lore that mostly seemed to exist because 40k was Fantasy Battles in Space and Zoats were one of the few bits of original Warhammer IP back then.

 

Genestealers got limousines before the retcon that made them Tyranid scouts which is why they had chaos banners and possessed patriarch options, but after they were stated to be extra-galactic rather than from Ymgarl so I have no idea if Tyranids were also extra-galactic yet.

Edited March 23, 2020 by Closet Skeleton

[NTaW]

Another Zoat article with more details:

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Zoat – a word that brings out a flush of nostalgia to hobbyists of a certain age. Well, now they’re making a return, helping your explorers in the Blackstone Fortress, so we’re taking a look at what exactly a Zoat is and admiring its awesome new model.

Zoats have been in the Warhammer 40,000 universe since the very first days of the game, back when these mysterious creatures were thought to be part of the Tyranid Hive Fleets. With their six limbs and incredibly alien appearance, they certainly look like they could have been created by a Norn Queen. But where they really come from and what they want, no-one can say for sure.

One of the original Zoat models

The Zoat aboard Precipice is just as mysterious. No-one knew where it had come from or what it sought upon the Blackstone Fortress. Rumours abound that it had discovered the existence of a Zoat vessel believed to belong to an individual called the Forerunner. Known as the Archivist, it has already secretly enlisted groups of explorers to search for the ship of its kin, but now it must enter the fortress itself to seek the craft and to overcome the Dark Vortices.*

As you can see, the new model shares many of the design cues from the classic Zoat, including the centaur-like body, the breathing mask and a similar choice of weapons to the model above. Let’s take a closer look at the epic new model.

As well as being a retinue character in Blackstone Fortress, the Archivist also has rules for Warhammer 40,000. Yes, soon Zoats will return to the battlefields of the 41st Millennium!

Make sure you come back later in the week when we’ll be taking a look at some of the rules for the latest expansion.

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Now we have a better idea how big the model is. I kind of want one just to have and paint, but rules for 40k? I can dig it.

Edited March 24, 2020 by NTaW

[Brother Tyler]

All of this is very interesting discussion, and quite worthy of being pursued. However, the Kill Team rules for the Archivist in White Dwarf 452 give the creature the UNALIGNED faction keyword. While the Zoats were associated with the Tyranids in 1st edition, the information currently available to us would indicate a change in their lore, no longer associating them with the Tyranids. In fact, Tyranids are not mentioned at all in the article.

 

So I'm moving this to Amicus Aedes.

 

Admittedly, all we have right now is the Kill Team rules article. If we get later lore that re-associates the Zoats with the Tyranids as part of the Tyranid menace (including possible escapees), we can move the discussion back into the Tyranids forum.

[Panzer]

I wouldn't be surprised if they retcon them belonging to Tyranids. GSC kinda took over their role anyway.

Didn't read the whole thread, so forgive me if I just repeated something that already got discussed. ^^

[Gederas]

I wouldn't be surprised if they retcon them belonging to Tyranids. GSC kinda took over their role anyway.

Didn't read the whole thread, so forgive me if I just repeated something that already got discussed. ^^

They did. In the new White Dwarf it explains they're the remnants of an ancient empire and are a genetically unique species.

[Beren]

The latest regimental standard article conjectures that their dissapearance may have been due to an attempt to try and negotiate with the tyranids, though as usual anything from there should be taken tongue in cheek.

[mactire]

Love the way it's gun resembles one of the Rippers from the Tyranid range, very clever .

[Spacecow]

There goes my hope of a nids/ Zoat army.

Going to have to find a different excuse to buy them

[Dumah]

There goes my hope of a nids/ Zoat army.

Going to have to find a different excuse to buy them

Do it anyway! Head cannon = best cannon. You could make the Zoats Counts-as Warriors?