40K Friday: Interceptors and Figuring Out the Next Thing

 

The Grey Knight Interceptor squads I was fixing last time have officially been finished and moved to the cabinet along with another Librarian. It feels good to have that done and it puts me at about 2500 points finished. That's roughly half of what I have so there is still some more to do but this is most of the infantry done and they tend to take more time than characters and vehicles in my experience. I'm happy to see this progress for the year. 

So the big question is what's next? There will be several answers here. For one I intend to keep working on the GKs as I do want to continue the progress. Next unit there will be a paladin squad and another librarian, then probably a techmarine because they are the closest to "done" right now. But I have made quite a bit of progress and I'd like to work on something else too and see some progress with one of my other armies. This is where it gets tricky.

Part of what I've been doing is going back and inventorying what's in each army and what state it's in - built, painted, etc. - plus adding in point values as I go. I used to keep this kind of stuff in a notebook but they way I work - getting super-interested for a few months or a year and then moving on - means that notebooks get shuffled around and buried and can be hard to find when I come back to a particular army after time away. So now it all goes into a spreadsheet. I still have the notebooks because  I like to scribble my thoughts at times like what I was thinking would be cool to try with this army or what other unit would be a good addition in the future. Going through the whole process though tends to re-ignite some interest in each army as I get to it and I have to fight the distraction. Focus!

So last night I dug into my newer Ork stuff and built the Warboss from Armageddon. He is bigger than the old ones but I may have some solutions. I'm leaning towards keeping Grukk as a Warboss and then making the Black Reach Warboss into Big Bosses since they're all on 40mm bases anyway. It means I wouldn't have to change anything and could still use them in old edition games. I feel bad for neglecting the Orks after doing some work earlier in the year but I figured it might be smart to wait for the codex since it will be along soon. 

I also spent some time with my Eldar after playing them last weekend. I have a lot of stuff painted and done but I have a lot of stuff not painted yet too so there is plenty of opportunity. Thinking about getting the low-hanging fruit here too and finishing a few things that are "close to done".

He's different-looking than most Custodes but I kind of want my leaders to stand out in the sea of gold armor this army tends to have

I also went through my Custodes force and counted them up and added it together and ... I really don't need much here. I need to finish some Allarus Terminators and make an Allarus Captain and I might pick up the standalone 300-looking Shield Captain as I never got one of those but it's a pretty complete force really. 

The new Dark Angels are still in play too. I'm trying to take them a unit at a time, not a whole army at one time.

Those are really the top 3 candidates for more attention. Of course there are plenty of others in the mix - I feel bad for abandoning the Praetorians for months, and the Iron Warriors, and my 'Nids. I just find I get more done focusing mostly on one army. They will all get a turn eventually.

End of the Line for Classic 40K Units

 

Seems appropriate on multiple levels

I mean, we all knew it was coming. 

Since the whole "Primaris" thing erupted in 2017 with 8th edition 40K we knew this would happen. Once they created the divide between the existing space marine line and the New And Improved Marines it was only going to end one way. I'm glad they left it all in this long at least. I figured I would give it a day or three before I posted my thoughts on it. The short version is that it's not really a surprise but it still disappoints me a little. 

Losing the infantry is not a happy occasion. I know no one was playing tac squads these days, at least not that you'd ever hear about , but that was a unit I built very early on and I ended up with somewhere around 20 of them altogether. To know they are going away, well, it stings a bit. It's the core marine unit! From the 80's-90's-00's-10's-and into the 20's! I've been building them for close to 40 years! All the different versions ... tears in the rain etc. right? Devastators were not quite as prolific for most of us I would say but I still had around ten of those across the various marine armies. And for both types that's metal, plastic, monopose, starter sets ... all of them. Declaring them Intercessors or Desolators, well, OK. Not sure I needed GW's permission to do that but if it helps the tournament crowd I suppose that's fine.

We even lost Pedro, leader of the Crimson Fists! I'm not too sad about that though because I am confident - and there are rumors - that we will get a new Kantor model. I would bet on it being tied to the 40th anniversary of 40K celebration next year. 

The vehicle losses might be worse. Multiple marine armies means those numbers get really stupid, especially when the current kit has been in production for 20+ years. My Crimson Fists have at least 13 Rhino hulls and that's the original version with the pipe stacks on the sides. With the rest I think I'm over 60 as of the last time I counted. Like I said ...

There are some replacement-ish options among the Primaris tanks - the Gladiator makes a reasonable Predator replacement. However the people trying to say the Impulsor is a replacement for the Razorback ... no. Sure, it holds a similar number of troops but can it mount twin lascanons? Twin heavy bolters? Has it ever know the glory of a charge across the table with twin assault cannons? No, it has not. The razorback has been a useful fire support vehicle for its entire life! The Impulsor has the missile launcher option and they did eventually add the multi-melta option too, but it's still not a Razorback. There is also no Primaris substitute for the Vindicator and the Whirlwind. So there's a gap being left for sure.

Oh and the Stormraven ... the only way to airlift a dreadnought! Gone! My Blood Angels have 3 of them! Painted! I have a few more in the others but being able to drop one of the Red Thirsty specialty dreads anywhere on the board along with some infantry while bringing some big guns along on the bird was a blast. It's going to be missed. I have some of the other flyers too and I'll miss them but this is the one that stings the most. Maybe they will let us put dreads in drop pods again one of these days - that would at least help. 

For now the Rhino and the Land Raider are not going away with this announcement which tells me  - along with the rumor mill for the past year - that they will be getting a refresh. GW has recognized that certain things are iconic so, like they did with the Terminator refresh in Leviathan and 10th edition, I expect them to look very similar but bigger and maybe better to build than the old kits. The mention that Rhinos will be able to carry Primaris marines around ... yeah that's some excellent news. Plus the Primaris line doesn't have a cheap 10-man transport option. The Repulsor is cool - and it might be the closest thing to a true Razorback replacement gun-wise - but it certainly isn't cheap. So I'm glad two of the big name classics are sticking with us. 

The over-and-under lascanons first appeared with Epic Armageddon in 1997 along with the new land raider look but they never did give us an official version for 40k.

To wrap up I will say that I doubt this is the last we will see of many of these squads and vehicles. Corporations love to bring back old favorites - see what Taco Bell has been doing recently for one example - and GW does love to tap into its heritage. I'd say there is a fair chance once those two primary kits are redone and released that we get some version of the others back. A Razorback is a pretty obvious adaptation of the Rhino especially. Also, I doubt these are going anywhere for the Chaos Marines. I suspect the current kits will soldier on for the rebels until they get a refresh because there's no Primaris over there. Beyond the new and upcoming there are always older editions of 40k and OPR among other alternative rulesets. It can be fun to dust off one of those and bring some old favorites back to the table regardless of the current state of the game.