New 40k - initial thoughts & robo-skellies

Wait - isn't this an AoS blog? Well, most of the content so far has been, but since it's not the only game we play (or even system we collect models for/from), I thought I'd put a post up, given I've been painting some 40k stuff as a slight break from AoS Chaos.

So, a new version of Warhammer 40,000 was revealed a week or so back. Not particularly surprising, I think, as everyone had got their codex, or in the case of some, multiple codices (I'm aware that GW maintain it is codexes. I don't care - to me they are still codices), and the Psychic Awakening books were building towards something like this.

Everyone and their dog (or other animal, if you don't like dogs, I guess) will have already expressed their opinions on this - good, bad, etc. I hadn't originally planned to add to the whirling maelstrom of internet opinion - originally, I only planned to show some pictures of Necrons that I'd painted, inspired by all the lovely new models that I'm sure we've all seen by now. I've copied the picture in below, in case (a) you haven't, and (b) because they're lovely.

 This is GW's pic - not mine. They've even kindly written all over it to point out some shiny things. 

On the whole, I'm looking forward to the new edition. I actually really like the current version of the game - if I thought about it for a while, I could probably come up with things that I believe could be better, but since GW are doing that for us, I may as well wait until the new version is out, and form an opinion then. I've played 40k since 2nd edition, and there have been so many different types of rules that it all becomes a bit blurred sometimes - particularly in the late 3rd to 7th edition versions. All versions of the game have had pros and cons (some more cons, admittedly - I'm not sure how much of 4th - 7th was actually fun for me, if I'm honest, but it is a while ago).

All signs at the moment point to what I'd class as good changes, or ones I'm indifferent towards. Tanks being able to fire out of combat - sounds fine to me. I can't say I've ever been terribly concerned about this myself, as many of the tanks I use can fly, and therefore tend to just float away and shoot things anyway, but I have used this against other people in the past, and it clearly can be irritating for them, so fine. The command point changes sound pretty good as well - GW have played around with CPs a bit over the last few years, so it will be interesting to see if this works a bit better. 

I'm also interested in seeing what the new terrain rules are - though I suspect I'll forget most of them, unless they are fairly simple. I tend to forget about the AoS ones, if I'm honest. Hopefully a nice balance will be struck between something basic ( +1 save, slowing charges, blocking line of sight in some cases, etc), and interactive rules. I suspect it'll swing further towards the interactive things than I'd personally like, and potentially even into the "rules for rules sake" kind of thing. I expect I'll be happy so long as we don't end up with two many different types of slightly different effects, but there's little point in worrying about it until we actually see the rules. So long as we get something sensible for tanks & cover, rather than the weird thing we have now!

Right - rules stuff & speculating over, for now at least. The main reason I started this post was because I've painted a few Necrons up (and more coming). The first lot are a group of 10 Necron Warriors. I know there are new ones coming, but I had a bunch of these sitting around, and if the glowy tube is painted, I don't think it'll be too noticeable. New ones will clearly be a bit more dynamic...well, zombielike, rather than doing the GW squat pose that seems to be so common, but I don't see that it's a reason to replace these models. 

The colour scheme is actually one I'd started using an edition or two ago - I can't remember exactly, but I have a number of characters painted up like this, so figured I'd continue. I've simplified the steps slightly, and it's actually a mix of GW and Wargames Foundry paints that are used, but that happens a lot across my models! If interested - the colours are below:

Red - based with Khorne Red. Shade with thinned down Gal Vorbak Red. Drybrushed with Khorne Red then Foundry Bright Red A, followed by a layer (over most of the flat areas) of Bright Red A, and an edge highlight of Bright Red B.

Blue/Black - base with black of some kind, then painted all of the flat areas (leaving the recesses black) with Nightlords Blue. Highlights are Macragge Blue and Calgar Blue (sparingly).

White - Grey Seer base, layered with Corax White, leaving some Grey Seer visible on the sides, underneath and round the jaw. Edge highlights of White Scar 

Glowy blue - this is just three steps of the Foundry Triad Teal Blue (A, B, C) - which is probably my favourite colour. I have a small Tau force painted this colour with hot pink details. Not joking. 

The metal is just picked out with Screaming Bell

And that's it - nice and simple, and should be doable across units pretty quickly. The idea is to have a core of warriors, immortals and characters (plus a few other things like Praetorians) painted up ready for the new edition - which I'm guessing will be July, or sometime this summer, in any case. So long as the world continues to get better, COVID-19 wise, rather than worse...

Aside from the Necrons, I've got a bunch of chaos models that I'm working on and the next batch of Mortal Realms magazine models have also turned up, which will need doing before another set turn up (or I'll start falling behind, and that was not the point with this project!). Shouldn't be too much of an issue, as there aren't too many models.