Category Archives: Articles

Rumours: Will there be a new Avatar?

Posted on by

The on-line community is very confused over what we are going to see in the next Eldar release. I can’t sit back and stay silent any longer. The ChapterMaster needs to speak!

So far there have been rumours of

  • Avatar
  • Farseer (Model spotted)
  • Warlock
  • Jet Bikes
  • Falcon/Cobra
  • Flyer
  • A large walker
  • Plastic Wraith Guard
  • A new aspect
  • Storm guardians
  • Two new exarchs

As any Chapter Master who is worth his salt know’s his enemy and his allies.  I’m going to try some prediction though patten here. If we look at the last few releases we should be able to get a feel for what GW has budget to develop and then apply that to the list above.

Tau had 2 large plastic kits with daul builds/option and two smaller plastic releases as well as re-boxed team. They also got 2 large  and 3 small finecast releases.

Dark Angels had 2 plastic vehicles, two plastic squads and 2 finecast models + the contents of Dark Vengence

Chaos has 2 plastic vehicle kits, a plastic sqaud, a plastic model, a fincast squad and a 3 finecast models, plus dark vangence and a bunch of fincast conversion kits.

So it’ appears there is space for at least 8 new releases for the Eldar. With at least 2 new vehicle kits.

It’s therefore reasonable to believe there will be the

  • new plastic flyer
  • the new plastic falcon/cobra (we may see the new walker in the Apocalypse release)
  • The plastic Farseer (already spotted)
  • Either the new jetbike (similar to the one below) or the Plastic Waithgaurd
  • The guardians re-boxed with the arms for storm guardians included
  • A new warlock (Finecast) Character?
  • Two new Exarches (Finecast) Characters?
  • Leaving space for one more Finecast model. Could this be the Avatar. The current model is shocking so I hope so. I preferred the look of the MK1 avatar although it was too small. This really would be a big move for GW given the Forgeworld Avatar is their most popular Eldar line

So there you go. You know everything that’s coming up. If only it was that simple! I’m sure GW have some lovely surprises in store for us and can’t wait to see what they pull out of the bag. I hope you have enjoyed reading this article, which hasn’t really changed nothing, achieved nothing and just stolen valuable painting time from both of us. Which is why I hate rumours.

Chapter Master Jackson Over!

The Original Avatar

Plastic Farseer

Avatar Design Concept

 

 

New Plastic Jectbike

Tau Ultramarine Battle

Posted on by

I managed to get in a game against Tau at the weekend. Rather than write a full battle report I’m going to post a few pictures with some explanation every day this week. So here goes.

We rolled a diagonal deployment and Mission 2: Kill points. Each enemy unit killed awards 1 victory point. There are also victory points for first blood, kill the warlord and line breaker.

marine deployment

Ultramarine Deployment: I made a defensive line using my Devastators, armed with 2 las cannons and 2 missile launchers and a Tactical squad armed with a las cannon. The tactical squad would also be firing the Quad gun.  I placed a tactical squad armed with a multi melta and a flamer on the flank. Behind the tactical squad I placed a bike squad armed with a Multi-melta and Melta gun and a Landspeeder armed with a Multi Melta and flamer. My scouts armed with a heavy bolter use infiltrate to advance to the ruins.

IMG_5568

My plan was to advance towards the Tau using the bikes speeder and tactical squad. I held a Storm Raven, Tactical squad in drop pod, Captain with jump pack and two assault squad in reserve. Intending to reinforce the flank attack.

Tau Deployment, tau riptide

Tau Deployment: A firewarrior and path finder squad deployed in the centre of the Board. The Tau Riptide deployed behind the trees and two broad side teams deployed around the ruins. The rest of the Tau force,  a path finders team, 2 fire warrior teams, a Crisis team and a Hamerhead were placed in reserve to re-enforce the line where required.

tau riptide, Tau, Ultramarines

Click for turn 1

The Thunderhawk Parting shot – How much longer will we be fooled?

Posted on by

I was somewhat baffled by the frenzy that surrounded the Thunderhawk picture on the back of the April White Dwarf. Do we really still take any meaning from this parting shot picture. Last month it was a picture of Space Wolves vs Nids. The only SpaceWolves in this months White Dwarf were in golden daemon. The Tyranids featured in the battle report. Two  month earlier it was Goblins in the parting show. They turned up in a battle report against the new Chaos Warriors army. If this patten follows either the Thunderhawk or Ork flyers will feature in the the May White Dwarf battle report. Who they will be up against is anyone’s guess. If the rumours turn out to be true this will be an apocalypse battle report, from the new Apocalypse Expansion; but we all know how much I hate rumours…

Ben

More on the plastic Thunderhawk

Posted on by

Another source in GW has confirmed there is no plastic Thunderhawk planned as the margins on it are too small. I’m actually a little surprised at this statement. I didn’t think there would be any margin on it. GW has a very good handle on what we buy and how much we will spend. They also know exactly how much it costs to produce a new plastic kit. While the material costs of plastic are very low, the cost of designing and making a mould big enough to make a Thunderhawk are not. For the same cost they can make a number of other plastic kits. It also takes GW a long time to recoup to costs of plastic kits. They have to know they will sell lots. This is one of the reasons why they sell so many duel purpose kits like the ork flyers and make no special characters in plastic.  The Thunderhawk is of coarse something many people would like to own. The biggest obstacle to GW selling them is not cost. I’m sure I’m not the only person who owns more than one Storm Eagle. The biggest problem with a Thunderhawk is the amount of space it takes up. Both on and off the game broad. The Storm Eagle doesn’t fit in a standard G.W. case.  It’s hard to imagine many people buy 2 or 3 of these.

What ever nice new monster kit G.W. put out for the next Apocalypse expansion needs to be able to sell 1-3 units to the majority of collectors. The Baneblade worked well for them because Imperial, Ork and Chaos players all bought the kit. The Ork Stomper only appealed to only Ork players, the Shadow Sword only to Imperial Guard players. G.W. Need something that can cross the codex boundary once more. Something that could appeal to a Space Marine, Choas and Imperial Guard collectors alike. Something like a little Titan.