Upcoming releases discussion

[apologist]

I started working on a Salamanders force while I waited for my big box to arrive, and have only just got round to trying to write an army list. Blimey! The big box plus an extra infantry box only comes to about 750ish points, so looks like there's going to be quite a bit of painting to do.

 

As I'll be working through the models I've got for a while, I'm in no great hurry, but rather than try to write a 3,000pt list using only what's currently available, I thought I'd open a discussion for vague plan for expanding to the suggested game size of ~2,500–3,000pts. 

 

Annoyingly the list in the rulebook is incomplete, so this is largely guesswork, but there are both confirmed releases and some we might be able to work out through past trends.

 

Confirmed upcoming releases

* indicates an unconfirmed detail – such as name of box or number included. 

Prices of all are unconfirmed, but based on the other boxes, it's likely all except those noted will be £30.

 

Legions Astartes

Legiones Astartes Fast Attack box

• 32 miniatures
• 4 Javelin Land Speeders
• 4 Proteus Land Speeders
• 6 six bases of Scimitar Jet bikes, (2 jet bikes each)
• 4 bases of Outrider bikes, (3 bikes eachs).

Pics:

 

 

 

 

 

Legiones Astartes Support box

• 16 miniatures
• 4 Leviathan Dreadnoughts
• 4 Deredeo Dreadnoughts
• 4 Rapier batteries and crew
• 4 Tarantula Batteries.

Pics:

 

 

 

 

 

*Legion Astartes Spartan Assault Tanks

• 4 Miniatures
• 4 Spartan Assault Tanks

 

*Legion Astartes Land Raider Explorator Tanks

• 6 Miniatures
• 6 Land Raiders 'in the Explorator configuration'

(Wording in the article implies that this kit is distinct from the 'Proteus Carrier' version – but no word on whether the Carrier will be released.)

 

*Legion Astartes Drop Pods

• 4 Miniatures
• 4 Drop Pods that can be built as Legion Drop Pods (for infantry) or Deathstorm Drop Pods

 

*Legion Astartes Dreadnought Drop Pods

• 4 Miniatures
• 4 Drop Pods that can be built as Legion Dreadnought Drop Pods (for infantry) or Legion Palisade Drop Pods

(The language used in the articles makes it a little unclear whether the Drop Pods are separate boxes of 4 each, or a single box of 8, with 4 of each. Since the articles are split, and given the size of the models, I'm erring towards them being two separate boxes, but this is not confirmed.)

 

Legion Astartes Terrax pattern Termite Assault Drill

• 8 Miniatures
• 'The Termite Assault Drills will be available soon, with eight of them to a box.'

 

+++

Solar Auxilia

Solar Auxilia Support box

• 28 miniatures
• 12 Rapiers and crew (4 quad launchers, 4 laser destroyers, 4 mole mortars)
• 12 Tarantulas (6 lascannon batteries, 6 hyperios air-defence missile launchers)
• *4 Cyclops Demolition vehicles

Pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Solar Auxilia Artillery box

• 8 miniatures
• 8 vehicles that can be assembled either as Medusas or Basilisks.

Pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Solar Auxilia Stormhammer

• *2 Miniatures
• *2 Stormhammer tanks

 

*Solar Auxilia Dracosan Transports

• 6 Miniatures
• 6 Dracosan transports

 

*Solar Auxilia Malcador Heavy Tank

• 4 Miniatures
• 2 Malcador Infernus
• 2 Valdor Tank Destroyers

 

*Solar Auxilia Leman Russ Strike Squadron

• 8 Miniatures
• 8 Leman Russ battle tanks

 

+++

Titans

*Dire Wolf Scout Titans

• 2 Miniatures
• 2 Dire Wolf Titans with weapon options

 

Price likely to be £45, based on Warhounds price.

 

 

+++

Supplements

The Great Slaughter supplement (confirmed in White Dwarf)

 

+++

Unconfirmed upcoming releases

Models for these exist, so they're near-certain releases. Box sizes are based on sprues and similar boxes.

*Legions Astartes Predators

• 6 Predators

 

*Legions Astartes Sicarans

• 4 Sicarans

 

*Solar Auxilia Malcadors

• 4 Malcadors

 

Unnamed supplement

• Existence implied by wording in various WarCom articles, including the Termite one: '*You may have registered that rules for the Termite aren’t available either in the main rulebook or in The Great Slaughter – hopefully you can put two and two together here!'

+++

 

Conclusions and discussion

Given the delays, we might see a bumper release, but since there are 7 (confirmed or likely) upcoming boxes for the Space Marines, 5 for the Solar Auxilia and 1 for Titans, I'd anticipate their release being spread out into three waves looking something like this:

 

Wave 1: Legions Astartes Predators and Sicarans plus Solar Auxilia Leman Russ and Malcadors

Wave 2: Great Slaughter supplement (see below) plus Dire Wolf Titans

Wave 3: Legions Astartes Support and Fast Attack plus Solar Auxilia Support and Artillery

Wave 4: Legions Astartes Spartans, Drop Pods and Dreadnought Drop Pods, plus Solar Auxilia Stormhammer

 

The Great Slaughter supplement is an interesting one – the name evokes the Beta-Garmon Campaign, which was Titan-heavy. I would anticipate this being a book including rules for both Legions Imperialis and Adeptus Titanicus, and accompanying the Dire Wolf box. 

 

The book will contain a themed campaign and Army Lists for both Legions Astartes and Solar Auxilia including the releases we've seen so far.

 

This period will see the first resin releases, which will be themed around Sons of Horus and Blood Angels. I think it likely we'll see both Warmaster Horus and Sanguinius featured in this supplement, and get more of an idea of how Legion-specific stuff will be handled.

 

Active in the Beta-Garmon campaign were:

• Traitors:
  • Sons of Horus
  • Iron Warriors
  • Word Bearers
  • Emperor’s Children
• Loyalists
  • Blood Angels
  • White Scars
  • Imperial Fists
  • Salamanders

 

It may be that we see some or all of these featured. Eight seems a lot to cover. My instinct is that we'll see perhaps six, as this would mean that all the Legions could be covered in three similar supplements over the coming years. My guesses as to the most likely to feature are in bold above, based largely on popularity.

 

This will really depend on how much each Legion warrants – six seems quite substantial, and perhaps three might be more likely, resultung in more supplements. In that case, I'd expect Sons of Horus, Blood Angels and one other in Beta-Garmon.

 

If my prediction of book supplements comes to pass, I'd take a stab at something like this:

• Beta-Garmon – Sons of Horus, Blood Angels and Emperor's Children
• Shadow Crusade – Ultramarines, World Eaters and Word Bearers
• Tallarn – Iron Warriors – but mainly Solar Auxilia
• [???] – Alpha Legion, Space Wolves and Dark Angels
• [Shattered Legions-themed] Salamanders, Raven Guard and Night Lords
• Siege of Terra – Imperial Fists, White Scars, Thousand Sons.
• Another book, featuring Death Guard and Iron Hands (based mainly on the fact they're front and centre of the box art)

 

+++

 

Further into the future, Chaosbunker did a great rundown here of what we're currently missing from the Legions Astartes when compared with the Age of Darkness list. This was done on release, so I've crossed out items listed that have since been previewed:

• Infantry
  • Close Combat Terminators
  • Destroyer Squads
  • Breacher Squad
  • Recon Squad
  • Scout Squad
  • Seeker Squad
• Transports
  • Drop Pods
  • Dreadnought Drop Pods
  • Deathstorm Drop Pod
  • Dreadclaw Drop Pod
  • Kharybdis Assault Claw
  • Termite
• Vanguard
  • Outrider (bikes)
  • Sky-Hunter (jetbikes)
  • Javelins
  • Land Speeder
  • Sabre Tanks
• Armour/Artillery
  • Predator (Flamestorm Cannon, Plasma, Hvy Conversion, Magna-Melta, Graviton, Volkie, Neutron Blaster)
  • Sicaran Arcus
  • Sicaran Venator
  • Sicaran Punisher
  • Land Raider
  • Vindicator
  • Land Raider Spartan
  • Whirlwind Scorpius
  • Arquitors
  • Damocles Rhino
• Superheavy Armour
  • Cerberus
  • Typhon
  • Glaive
  • Fellblade
  • Falchion
  • Mastodon
• Flyer
  • Sokar Stormbird

 

Edited April 11 by apologist

[Mandragola]

This is a useful thread. I think there are a few more units we've seen, like Land Raider Explorators (apparently as a separate kit to carriers), Dracosans and recently some Malcador variants.

 

It's striking that you only get 4 drop pods per box - equal to the number of Spartans or Kratos you get. I guess that's what happens if you need 5 individual doors per pod.

 

There are some hints in the rulebook that more units are coming. For example, Imperial Fists give benefits to infantry guns that don't currently exist, which strongly implies we'll get either another infantry sprue or perhaps some resin stuff. There's a "Precise" rule that no units currently have, whose effect implies some kind of sniper unit(s).

 

One of the things I'm most looking forward to are 32mm bases to put objectives on. I've got tons of spare bases that size from 40k etc. but they're too thick and it's really annoying. Sadly there's no suggestion this will be fixed any time soon.

[apologist]

Thanks, @Mandragola – I've updated the post to reflect your notes, and to order the list of missing stuff a bit more clearly.

 

A few stray thoughts:

• The Predator turrets would make a great deal of sense as upgrades, rather than a full separate kit.
• Of the infantry still outstanding, it wouldn't surprise me to see a sprue with Devastators and Support marines with different weapon types (e.g. heavy bolter and flamer), Breachers in place of Assault Marines, and Assault Terminators in place of Terminators,

 

[Black Cohort]

I think the first kits we will see are the ones that have rules in the core rulebook, which is the support boxes from each faction.  It makes no sense to hold them back and honestly I was kind of surprised we didn't see them in the first wave.  And I think everything we have seen previewed to date will come out relatively soon, it makes no sense to sit on models you have previewed when at this scale it is fairly easy to 3D print stuff.  Telling people those things are 100% getting rules just encourages them to be prioritized to be designed by 3D modelers.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

I really hope we get all four battle tanks in the first wave which are locked right now in the core box.

[Valkyrion]

Given that Drop Pods are 4 to a box, and Rhinos are 10 to a box, I've abandoned (or at least long term postponed) the idea of a Drop Pod army in favour of mechanised assault.

Plus, the thought of gluing together an armies worth of drop pods so the doors open legit gives me the heebie-jeebies. Gluing the exhausts to rhinos was frustrating enough, but at least my £30 got me 10 of them.

 

@apologist you've missed the Sicaran Punisher and Damocles Rhino.

 

I think the Arcus, Punisher and other predator turrets could be either resin upgrades sold in 4's/6's, (so you drop big money for little quantity that you want) or come on plastic upgrade sprues like dreadnought weapons (so you drop medium money for high quantity that you might not want).

But I think the suggestion of an infantry box with the breachers etc in it will be somewhat accurate, maybe including a chaplain and/or librarian and/or techmarine instead of the current 3 HQ models. 

 

I could see the Damocles and a *new* command Land Raider* being some glitzy Forgeworld release, ala warhammer worlds command tanks coming as a twin pack, but otherwise its hard to see a Damocles ever being released - it doesn't fit well in either of the remaining rhino chassis kits, and it's not something you'd want half a dozen of. 

 

There's also the redheaded step children of Legacies of the Age of Darkness - epic scale Caestus would be well up on my must have list, attack bikes less so, but tiny castraferrum dreads? I'd have a dozen!

 

*did the Prometheus get 30k 1.0 rules?

[Black Cohort]

I think we could easily see a new astartes infantry kit that has something like:

 

command squad with different models (techmarine and librarian maybe)

Breachers

Recon

Destroyers

new support weapon

new heavy support weapon

[apologist]

Images of the Leman Russ box have emerged – I’ll update the original post with the proper name:

 

[malika666]

I wonder if the Thunderhawk Transporter will also be making a comeback…

[Interrogator Stobz]

I doubt that one.

If it isn't in 28mm HH we likely won't see it.

Still, plenty of toys yet to come.....

[Red_Shift]

I’m hoping they will do Shadowswords at some point.

 

Sabre tanks would be nice also

[tinpact]

20 hours ago, Interrogator Stobz said:

If it isn't in 28mm HH we likely won't see it.

My biggest lament for LI. The old smallscale games had all these wacky war engines - I'd like to see them make more models of stuff they couldn't do in 28mm - crazy Ordinatus machines and landships and whatnot.

[eastern barbarian]

Thank you for compiling all this stuff. Very useful and a lot to look forward to.

[malika666]

On 12/23/2023 at 3:40 AM, Interrogator Stobz said:

I doubt that one.

If it isn't in 28mm HH we likely won't see it.

Still, plenty of toys yet to come.....

Plenty? I guess, but if it’s purely an shrinkage of what we already have in 28mm it’ll be rather disappointing. Even though there was a 28mm version of the Thunderhawk Transporter. 
 

I’m just hoping we’ll be seeing more interesting stuff.

[Karhedron]

On 12/23/2023 at 11:07 PM, tinpact said:

My biggest lament for LI. The old smallscale games had all these wacky war engines - I'd like to see them make more models of stuff they couldn't do in 28mm - crazy Ordinatus machines and landships and whatnot.

 

I want these but I am not holding my breath. 

 

[apologist]

Wouldn’t surprise me to see a modern Leviathan Command Centre or even a Capitol Imperialis for the Solar Auxilia – both feature in modern novels.

[Pacific81]

If you want to play Squats/space dwarves:

1) Download some free rules; either NetEpic or Net Armageddon will do. If feeling flush, purchase a used classic copy of Ork & Squat Warlords.

2) Visit Onslaught Miniatures and get their proxy/modern equivalent of the above. Again if you had a rich aunt who passed away without any other family and bequeathed you her life savings, you can get the classic originals from eBay.

 

I honestly think there is as much chance of God and the devil joining forces as there is of a 40k epic being released and new Squat/Votann line with the above stuff (other than perhaps a Capital Imperialis or similar) - so if you really want to push that stuff around on the tabletop think that's your option! (And if I was being facetious, it's probably half the cost and with a better set of rules..)

[Karhedron]

@Pacific81 Alas I would need to find opponents willing to play old/community rulesets. Most of my gaming club prefer to stick to current official rules for ease of play.

[Pacific81]

Yes that is possibly most important item number 3 there @Karhedron !

[Black Cohort]

1 hour ago, Pacific81 said:

If you want to play Squats/space dwarves:

1) Download some free rules; either NetEpic or Net Armageddon will do. If feeling flush, purchase a used classic copy of Ork & Squat Warlords.

2) Visit Onslaught Miniatures and get their proxy/modern equivalent of the above. Again if you had a rich aunt who passed away without any other family and bequeathed you her life savings, you can get the classic originals from eBay.

 

I honestly think there is as much chance of God and the devil joining forces as there is of a 40k epic being released and new Squat/Votann line with the above stuff (other than perhaps a Capital Imperialis or similar) - so if you really want to push that stuff around on the tabletop think that's your option! (And if I was being facetious, it's probably half the cost and with a better set of rules..)

 

I can attest to the quality of Onslaught Miniatures 6mm line.  There is none of the  excess material that needs to be trimmed, but a lot of the units only have a few poses.

[Dark Shepherd]

1. Awesome post/thread so nice work

 

2. Given the ammount of 'bulky' friendly marine transports to come out I think we might see a Terminator sprue or Terminator variants come out

 

[Noserenda]

There are some stls of Leviathans around already, i grabbed a couple a while back to print a Leviathn to command my Alpha Legion armour

 

[malika666]

I guess we can expect that Solar Auxilia Light Walker that was previewed on the Warhammer Community site to also get a LImp scaled version

[Black Cohort]

it would probably need to be in a kit with a few other units, like the 4 unit packs that both astartes and solar auxilia are getting with dreadnoughts, rapiers and such.

[Captain Idaho]

As much as I would love entirely new factions to be introduced into the game, I suspect we'll see expansions of Space Marines and Solar Auxilia first and for a year or 2 at least.

 

Not only are we missing their full bestiaries, we're likely due expanded Legion specific forces before a new faction.