Exo-Armour reveal and Discussion

[Brother Captain Arkley]

Exo-Armour.

Edited July 4, 2022 by Wolf Guard Einar

[Jukkiz]

is it just me or do they look pretty Starcrafty?

[Valkyrion]

They look ridiculous and not at all 40k, IMO. 

[The4thHorseman]

Not really liking these sets of models, maybe the vehicles will look better.

[Handsome Fred]

Dwarfish doom guy time

[Lord La sadies]

Sooo short star craft marines ?

Think its the best squats so far, but no hard pass for me, there's not much "dwarves" about them

[Lord Marshal]

11 minutes ago, Jukkiz said:

is it just me or do they look pretty Starcrafty?

Definitely where my mind went.

[Lvn-da-dream]

It's an interesting contrast to Terminator armor. A little more high tech.

[jimbo1701]

I always thought I would be excited for the return of squats whatever new spin they decided to put on them. Sadly of the 3 units they’ve previewed so far I rate none of them above the necromunda squats. 

[Blindhamster]

hmmmm, definitely also get the starcraft vibes, can see some commonality in certain design elements with marines, albeit limited. I honestly think that the paint job REALLY doesn't do them any favours though, a different colour scheme and they might look a fair bit better. Still not sure on them though, they just feel a little off, i think if they'd had more marine-like shoulders they'd feel more appropriate to the setting tbh.

[Scribe]

 Sure they can be dirtied up.

They are not going to be a grim faction, like BT, or Sisters, or even AdMech.

[Bryan Blaire]

These unfortunately seem to have so much bulk to them in the pauldrons that they look comical (and too much like an aping of StarCraft Marines) to me.  That definitely should have been done a different way to make them look good in my eyes (a multi-plate set that would heavily armor by slide past each other/bunch up, etc. would have looked better).

The rest of the model components look decent (although their pistol/carbines also look oversized), but I’ll never like dome helms.

[Triszin]

Love them.

 

I assume hammer will. Be str X3 on charge

[Valkyrion]

They look like good 3rd party alternatives that people might've used to play squats/space dwarves using space marine rules or something. They really don't look like GW IP.

Mind you, I didn't think Tau did when they first came out and now they have their own identity and are fully part of the 40k feel, so maybe these will get there and I'm just personally disappointed with the direction GW have taken 'squats'. 

[Marshal Reinhard]

Ah yes, the squat "terminator" equivalent

[Sete]

Hmm, I'm on the fence...

[SpaceDwalin]

The Elites have been revealed. 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/07/04/exo-armour-turns-leagues-of-votann-elites-into-mountains-of-muscle-and-guns/

 

[apologist]

Interesting to see the reveal, but my first impression is that they're a bit 'by the numbers'. As @TheVoidDragon very eloquently put it in this post on the Leagues of Votann thread, these figures suffer like the rest of the range from not reflecting very strongly the dwarfish tropes that the background is telling us about.

There are elements I like, but they're largely outweighed by niggly things. The underlying form is good and grounded, for example, but the shoulder pads and bulk of the weapons unbalance the silhouette, making it look top-heavy. The armour's bulk suggests weight and solidity, but the posture is erring on pigeon-toed and many of them look light-footed (rather than dynamic). I like the embedded runic/knotwork designs, but they feel tacked-on to an otherwise fairly unimaginative underlying form. 

I don't like being overly negative (particularly on preview images), and I suspect a lot of my critique boils down to having pre-conceptions of what the spiritual successors of the 80s/90s squats would look like. Even taking that into account, however, the fact that it's so easy to find comparisons with – as shown above – Starcraft, Doom, Halo, or other sci-fi properties kinda indicates that these models are missing some underlying '40kness' or 'Warhammer'-feel.

+++

Let me make it clear that I do like the look of the new standard infantry models in the range (though again I have some reservations); perhaps it's simply that I was hoping the elites would embody some of the more 'Warhammer' visuals, and thus act as a focus for the army. As it is, technically accomplished as it is, the range is starting to look like it'd fit quite happily in any other tabletop wargame to me. 

Happily, these are just first impressions. models tend to grow on me – particularly when 'in-hand', and even at this stage I can see adjustments and conversions that would help tailor things for my own taste. In short, slightly disappointed, but cautiously optimistic that a different paint scheme and minor converting will make for something I like a lot.

Edited July 4, 2022 by apologist

[Arkhanist]

a) starcraft squat homage, for sure

b) those shoulder bolt-on panels are serious shot traps, with several angles ricocheting shot straight into the helmet. 

c) the leg armour looks like short trousers. Not as bad as sailor boy reivers etc, but still.

Ugg. Not a fan.

[-DonCorleone-]

Not a fan of the models or the lore revealed for the Votann, they just don’t look “grim dark” enough. They look too much like Overwatch or generic western sci fi designs of the last decade. 

Edited July 4, 2022 by -DonCorleone-

[Lord La sadies]

1 minute ago, -DonCorleone- said:

Not a fan of the models or the lore revealed for the Votann, they just don’t look “grim dark” enough. They look too much like Overwatch or generic western sci fi designs of the last decade. 

Exactly , feel the same , the only thing that's 40K about them is the logo in the picture

[RedFox]

I really don't like the shoulder pads

 

maybe they would better with regular power armoured should pads...easy fix 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2022 by RedFox

[Wispy]

They look like Star Craft marines that are dwarf short and that is hilarious to me.

[firestorm40k]

I don't think the colourscheme is helping, but these don't do a lot for me - just as well, as I've enough armies to be building and painting, thanks very much 

Still, I look forward to seeing these on the table top and seeing how people paint them up 

[MARK0SIAN]

I have to agree with many that these don’t feel particularly 40K to me. Definitely Starcraft vibes but also if you told me they were from any generic sci-fi property then I’d have no trouble believing you. 

Not only are they not particularly 40K, they’re also not particularly embodying much of the dwarven theme either.