40k New Archon, Lady Malys & Codex: Drukhari

[Evil Eye]

To be honest, even assuming consumer grade 3D printers weren't a thing, the "you can only build what's in the box" thing is absurd given how farcically easy it is to just use spares from other boxes (or bitz trades); even without cutting a single piece of plastic, building options not contained in the box is often as simple as "put the leftover Carnifex devourer on the Hive Tyrant". Or hell, if they really want to avoid people swapping parts between boxes, just do what they did with Horus Heresy and release weapon upgrade sprues. Put a cross-sell in the instructions/on the box saying "Upgrade your Marines/Boyz/Kaballites further with the [X] sprue, sold separately!". Can't even make the "oh well new players might not realize you can do that" excuse then, unless they honestly think so poorly of their consumer base they assume they can't read.

 

I've said this before but GW's big mistake with the only-in-the-box/no-model-no-rules thing is assuming people are only using third party models and parts (be they printed, cast, pilfered from unrelated kits/toys, recasts or whatever) because GW doesn't make it, and not because these players just don't want to give GW their money, either because of the overinflated prices or the way GW has treated them. If GW wants to win them back, they have to actually win them back rather than trying to cajole people into only playing their way. Even if GW were somehow able to shut down every avenue of getting hold of aftermarket parts, they wouldn't suddenly have people flocking back to them admitting defeat- they'd just abandon Warhammer altogether and go to another game, and GW would lose a tonne of customers who were only still buying their product at all because it could be supplemented with extra-GW material.

 

Simply put, GW's attempts to crack down on any aftermarket parts (even bitz traders selling totally legit GW parts!) are only going to be losing them customers. The "lost" customers weren't going to be convinced to rejoin the fold by GW doubling down, and people who have already invested time and money into their collection finding their models are no longer game-legal are going to understandably be less than impressed by this and potentially become lost customers themselves. And whether GW wants to win back former customers or accept them as a lost cause, the best course of action is ironically much the same, which is to stop the oppressive pruning of options in their foolish attempt to avoid people buying non-GW parts and course-correct from that route. Doing so would keep existing customers happy, make new players more likely to engage and stay engaged, and possibly even win back some old customers. Continuing down the current path has created a vicious circle where GW's attempts to combat a perceived problem has actually made the problem far, far worse, and GW reacts to this by doing the thing that caused it to get worse in the first place, ad infinitum, until eventually GW will be forcing everyone to use the same pre-written army list with the same table layout and the exact same scenario to try and remove any possible variables that the aftermarket could potentially exploit.

 

The "hobby trumpet" phenomenon has been brought up before, but even putting aside the IMO fundamentally flawed nature of the business model (eventually you will run out of new and uninformed customers), the current attitude towards customizability- or lack thereof- is shortening and narrowing the trumpet to the point it's more of a hobby kazoo. Existing players are reaching the "GW are not offering what I want" point faster, and newer players are being more quickly turned off from getting into the game to begin with either by the offputting elements themselves (high prices, increasingly poor utilization of the modelling angle of what is a modelling-based hobby etc) or by customers already forced through the trumpet/kazoo warning them about it and pointing them elsewhere.

 

I dunno. At least to me, I would have thought that the absolutely microscopic "loss" in sales of people buying extra heavy bolters from bitz traders to outfit their Havocs with would be completely eclipsed by greater overall sales and customer retention, not to mention consumer good will, but then again shareholders and the people attempting to please them are notorious for not properly comprehending long-term thinking as a concept and being obsessed with instant results and trend-chasing (see how countless short-lived social or technological trends are pounced upon by big companies only to lose them a huge amount of money in the long run; speaking as a nerd whose interests expand outside of Warhammer, a friend of mine explained to me the 90s Comic Crash brought about by trying to chase the collectible-comic market and how it more or less torpedoed the entire industry. Or for an area I have more knowledge of- toys- app integration, "toys to life" and NFTs all being fads that quickly outstayed their welcome and ended up with mountains of unsellable crap clogging liquidator stores for literal years).

 

That...went a bit longer than I intended. TLDR: GW's reasoning for limiting wargear options to box contents is fundamentally flawed and will probably bite them later down the line if they don't course-correct, not to mention what it does to us as hobbyists.

[Ulfast]

Its little bit sad that space marines just got several really good new models (no hate on them) but we seems to only get two new models while at the same time losing many of our older units that should have been updated. It seems pretty clear that GW don´t like us drukhari players as it´s been so many years now we only got some updated unit (like mandrakes) and almost nothing new since our released for 15 years ago. At the same time more or less every other army has got loads of new stuff and we still linger in the back. 

 

I´m sorry, didn´t meen to sound so negative. I just love this army and would like to have something new and something to look forward to. I just love Skari that can still be optimistic and bring out the best of drukhari. 

[Xenith]

On 9/8/2025 at 2:56 PM, Lord Marshal said:

Girls on tour.

 

 

 

 

Yeesh, I'd definitely be using the veiled face there, that face is so bland - is it just me or can you tell a particular sculptor through their female faces? This bland pouty one is pretty common across ranges - I'd put £10 on them being the same sculptor:

 

 

 

Then compare them to whoever did the battle sister heads etc, so much more expression. 

 

  
 

[Evil Eye]

3 hours ago, Xenith said:

 

Yeesh, I'd definitely be using the veiled face there, that face is so bland - is it just me or can you tell a particular sculptor through their female faces? This bland pouty one is pretty common across ranges - I'd put £10 on them being the same sculptor:

 

 

 

Then compare them to whoever did the battle sister heads etc, so much more expression. 

 

  
 

To be absolutely fair, some of the Sisters heads look very...mannish. Though granted I wonder how much of that is the utterly atrocious paintjobs they got from the studio (the Retributor Superior being particualry poorly done with what looked like stubble painted on), as the unpainted sculpts seem to look fairly decent.

[Dr. Clock]

6 hours ago, Ulfast said:

GW don´t like us drukhari players

I try not to attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.

 

The rules look fun and cool. The 2 models they're releasing ARE good. I agree that the optics of announcing more Ultramarines for no reason than Drukhari for their Codex is really bad, but their hand is also being forced by the leakers to no small degree. It's not new information that other armies and factions will get more than 2 character minis for their releases, but I totally understand that it's a badfeel moment when the poster boys show up to add rain to an already meager parade. 

 

I do think this is largely down to scheduling and capacity, and that this is certainly not the last we'll see of Dark Kin, just that we're going to remain in the wilderness for the edition... This definitely happens sometimes, and it's one good reason to also have a Space Marines army for the times when your true fave drops too far from James' favor. I'm an OG Eldar stan so I've already made a decent meal of this edition... and while a Drukhari dessert would not be unwelcome, I'm okay saving the money for other things.

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[Wolf Guard Dan]

There's a reason Dark eldar were last updated. GW knew they weren't going to support the resin sculpts so dark eldar were saved for the end of the edition. Losing the resin units hit hard. I suspect we will see grots and urien next edition. Beastmaster and Court are less likely. Both would make great kill team releases! Being able to scout with hand of the Archon fills that beastmaster role minus the combat efficiency. Would have been neat to be able to split the Hand unit with a venom.

 

Malys getting too much hate. We are judging the wrong face. What's with that face broach the archon is wearing? Looks like harlequin jewelry.

Kidding about Malys. I actually agree with the Malys face critique. I think Yrvaine's face fits much better with Malys. May use the veil. Makes her unique looking.

 

Worried about the points costs and pain token economy.

[Alby the Slayer]

42 minutes ago, Wolf Guard Dan said:

 

Kidding about Malys. I actually agree with the Malys face critique.

 

 

 

I think as always the main problem is the painting. In this case the lips are the same colour of the face or too overwhelmed by light and there is no contrast.

 

As some of the Fraters already did, with the right paint it can be a pretty interesting face.

 

Also maybe violet hair like the previous model?

[ursvamp]

6 hours ago, Alby the Slayer said:

 

I think as always the main problem is the painting. In this case the lips are the same colour of the face or too overwhelmed by light and there is no contrast.

 

100% agree.

As usual, people are judging a model based on the paintjob and photography (even though we’ve had the face leaked half a year ago, and know that it looks fine).

 

6 hours ago, Alby the Slayer said:

Also maybe violet hair like the previous model?

 

Previous model?

Edited September 16 by ursvamp

[Alby the Slayer]

3 hours ago, ursvamp said:

 

Previous model?

 

I'm sorry, I was thinking about this model

 

 

who it was used also to represent Lady Malys, when she didn't have a model .My bad.

[ursvamp]

5 hours ago, Alby the Slayer said:

 

I'm sorry, I was thinking about this model

 

 

who it was used also to represent Lady Malys, when she didn't have a model .My bad.

To be fair, I use that as a fantasy vampire lord xD Never seen it actually used as a Drukhari Lhamea =)

[ThePenitentOne]

I painted mine with the INTENTION of using it as a Lhamaean, however because I ended up playing in a Boarding Action League before I was able to fight the battle between my two Wych Cults to determine who becomes the Succubus, I've been using her AS the Succubus. In my army's background, she is the Patron (Matron?) of one of the Cults. I've explained away the Combat proficiency as the use of a particular potent cocktail of combat drugs that will see her sit out an equivalent number of games once a Succubus has been elevated to take her place.

[Evil Eye]

Was that model ever available in metal or was it released in finecast first? It's a very nice sculpt but the MTO one I had was horrifically badly cast, to the point where the £8 Chinesium one I bought when all hope seemed lost of getting an official one was overall better quality- and that thing kinda sucked too!

[Progenitor]

When I had it it was Failcast, can't remember if it did have a metal one before hand. Her sword was a miscast stump, but I ran her as my Archon as I liked the sculpt better. 

[ThePenitentOne]

Mine was also failcast, but I had an okay model, so I was lucky.

 

However I think the court has been with us for long enough that at some point there would have been a metal version?

[ursvamp]

12 hours ago, Evil Eye said:

Was that model ever available in metal or was it released in finecast first? It's a very nice sculpt but the MTO one I had was horrifically badly cast

Finecast was introduced between the first wave of the 5ed Drukhari rework and the second. Meaning that only the first wave of metals (which I believe was the Archon, Incubi, Mandrakes, Lelith, and Urien) was released in metal. However they were most likely all sculpted with the intention of being cast in metal.

[Laurence]

On 9/18/2025 at 11:23 AM, Evil Eye said:

Was that model ever available in metal or was it released in finecast first? It's a very nice sculpt but the MTO one I had was horrifically badly cast, to the point where the £8 Chinesium one I bought when all hope seemed lost of getting an official one was overall better quality- and that thing kinda sucked too!

IIRC, it actually debuted in the WD issue where finecast was announced, one of the very first examples of its kind.

[Evil Eye]

Well, darn. That is annoying.

[Zoatibix]

Drukhari are up for preorder next week.

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/wdmije41/sunday-preview-the-drukhari-sharpen-their-blades-in-anticipation/
 

 

Edited September 21 by Zoatibix

[ZeroWolf]

So are the wracks presented just the old box doubled up? I was a biy confused to see their inclusion on the preview article

[Zoatibix]

2 minutes ago, ZeroWolf said:

So are the wracks presented just the old box doubled up? I was a biy confused to see their inclusion on the preview article

I presume so, yes.

[CL_Mission]

Glad we're not waiting too long after the reveal for our pre-orders.

[Wolf Guard Dan]

Interesting that we are getting 10 wracks to a box but unit sizes are 5, 8, and 10.

wonder if there will be a discount compared to what they were selling 5 for times 2.

[Laurence]

27 minutes ago, Wolf Guard Dan said:

Interesting that we are getting 10 wracks to a box but unit sizes are 5, 8, and 10.

wonder if there will be a discount compared to what they were selling 5 for times 2.

There better had be!  It's ridiculous, the third core 'troops' choice for the Dark Eldar costing twice as much as the others!

[Halandaar]

Wracks going to a ten model box is a good change, should see the price come down a little, but also the reboxing hopefully means they'll be available to third party stockists again. They've been direct only for years now so even if the new box is just 5-man box RRP x2, they'll still be cheaper to get than they were before.

[ThePenitentOne]

It's likely that unit sizes will be updated to reflect the change as well; I think units of five will not be with us much longer.

 

It's a bit awkward for me- I have five wracks, but I'll never be able to buy just five models to convert that to a 10 man unit, so it's likely that I'll always have five perfectly good Wracks sitting out. Not a huge deal- I am happy about the switch to selling as a 10-strong unit. I'll probably be in a position to buy the first Coven Combat patrol I see on a shelf.