The 40k Year in Review - 2014

[Mr Mystery]

Afternoon, and How Do?

So we're just over a fortnight away from 2015, and it seems fairly safe to say no major releases will be coming in the next couple of weeks (but never say never). So I thought it safe to start a thread about the 40k year.

And hasn't it been a busy one? I've actually lost track of what came out and when, but if I'm right in thinking, it kicked off with Tyranids this year, and of course rounded off by Blood Angels.

Highlight of the 40k year for me has to be Imperial Knights. I love 'em. Old time Epic player (dabbled with Adeptus Titanicus, got going properly with 2nd Edition Space Marine and Titan Legions) so I've secretly hankered after 40k versions for a long time. And now I've finally got them.

Say what you like about their role on the battlefield, because that's not my main interest. My main interest is the kit. It's lovely. A really well turned out piece. I've only recently coughed up for some (doing a Questoris army for Heresy) but loving that kit so much right now.

We've also had 7th Ed hit seemingly out of nowhere (though it was rumoured, I for one didn't believe them), and on top of that...6, maybe 7 Codecies (more? Nids, AM, Knights, Orks, Grey Knight, Space Woofs, Blood Angels, Dark Eldar....blimey, that's 8 by my count?). Busy busy busy. I'm normally one to keep up with the book releases, because I'm a completist, and I've failed quite abjectly this year, missing as I am Grey Knights onwards (End Times for Warhammer is eating my budget!)

So yeah, preamble done, over to you for your thoughts.

[40kGamer]

Space Woofs

Freudian slip mate? My puppies are getting riled up!

I started collecting as a teen back in RT days and I can not remember a codex update year like 2014. There have been an unbelievable number of updates (not to mention the supplements!) And we are also seeing a continuation of the "big model" trend in 40k and fantasy.

Putting on my 'pure speculation' cap I would say GW feels they have advanced the base kits to a level where they cannot easily redo them and generate sales or possibly that the market for base kits is saturated. Whatever the reason, the introduction of big kits has been truly Epic! (Pun intended)

Speaking of Epic... My gateway game to the hobby was Adeptus Titanicus and the first edition of Space Marine. I'm like Mystery in that I love seeing the Epic Knights fully realized and detailed with modern technology. It's really like seeing an older movie reimagined with modern effects!

My favorite aspect of 2014 though has to be that we are essentially done with the codex update cycle. So now I have a tremendous amount of hope for what we may see in the future.

[StraightSilver]

Yep, I used to buy pretty much every Codex and supplement religiously throughout all editions but 7th has left me waaaay behind!!

After people saying GW were too slow with their releases this year it has gone insane but I don't think that's a bad thing, we really have been spoilt.

If I was going to bemoan one thing though it's the limited nature of the supplements that has bothered me, as well as a lot of stuff being in digital format only.

I would love to see something along the lines of the old Citadel Journal/Compendium or Chapter Approved that combined all the data slates into one place.

I also think it's been a great year for weekly White Dwarf, I just wish I could subscribe to it in physical format as I simply can't get to a GW every week.

In terms of models etc we really, really have been spoilt but I agree the Knight is by far the best kit GW have produced in a very long time. It wasn't until I built one that I appreciated how beautifully designed it was, and it really was designed with painters in mind.

There have been some howlers though, the Taurox was 2014 right? However that was in my opinion more than made up for by Tempestus Scions and Ogryns finally in plastic.

Yep, it has been a bumper year for 40K, but I have to admit I can't keep up as I get paid at the same time every month which means I miss out on pre-orders and would like to be able to spread my spending out a bit more. I am hoping the rumours of paperback editions of those limited supplements is true, but you know what, after moaning about the cost I do now kinda prefer the hard back versions....

[Mr Mystery]

Odd funding can be sorted by e-vouchers, if you have no objection to ordering straight from GW.

I'm going to keep a stock of £100 worth going forwards. If I use them, I replace. If not, they're still there!

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

The Knight is the standout for me too, something that's properly new to 40k (not new to the setting of course) - basicly gave 40k a new "army" and did something different. Also liked that recent Tyranid release, my main complaint with nids was they werent alien enough, but that release gave them loads of weird floating tentacled stuff, which is of course totally my thing (allthough I cant help wishing they brought those kits out under Enslavers instead ) - wasnt too impressed with the codex releases (I mean the models that came out with them) - nothing bad but nothing exciting.

I'm more looking forward to next year - necrons, and what is after that is anyones guess - as we will have all the codecies up to date, so I'm curious to see what they will do. Personally i'm hoping to finally see Sisters of battle, and probably more on the wishlisty side but id love to see some new xenos.

[Mr Mystery]

It is looking interesting.

As well as a shift to weekly releases, we've seen quite a shift in the type of releases.

First up, limited run boxed games. If we count 7th Ed Dark Vengeance, we've had three this year. Each of course featuring a flavour of Maureens (DA, BA and Woofs) but also some 'baddies' - Orks, Chaos and Nids. Notably, two of these have not been comprised of push-fit models, but regular kits.

Two of these have tied into campaign sets. Now, narrative campaigns from GW are nothing new, but these have included expansion rules - Cities of Death and Planetstrike. This I kind of approve of, even if it's taken me a while to twig and realise I can now ditch my old Cities of Death and Planetstrike books.

We've also seen a promising random release of Nids - stuff not included in their Codex, but very welcome all the same from what I can make out. As Asymmetrical Xeno has mentioned, these are proper gribblies, and mostly new units. Sadly as the year draws to an end, it remains for now an isolated glimmer of cool - but I'm confident we'll see more.

And for Warhammer, we have End Times. For my ha'penny worth, I cannot praise these releases enough. Each entry is comprised of a full on background book, chronicling major shifts i a now advancing background, and a book of new rules, not just for dead 'ard characters and units, but new game and scenario rules for general play, alongside set piece battles representing those found in the background volumes. So far the only downside I'm seeing is the tendency for the new volumes to sell out stupidly fast. I'm lucky enough to not have missed a single volume, and to also have a set of the magic cards for Nagash and Khaine (though this does now mean I'm locked in to complete the set, as I'm weird like that).

What comes next? Who knows. 40k wise, we have two armies yet to get a hardback - Necrons and Sisters of Battle. Necrons seem to be coming in January, SoB still up in the air. After that? That's release schedule Numberwang. Other than further campaign sets, I have no idea what to reasonably expect. I'm hoping beyond hope that we'll see Chaos Knights. There's plenty of not terribly subtle hints they are out there in the 40k Universe, and even if not 40k, Forgeworld seem bound to cover them to some extent, as the Heresy series hurtles into the gribblier reaches of that part of the background.

And speaking of Forgeworld.... Heresy continues apace. Great if you're into that (I am), not so great if you're a filthy little Xenos - though Tau are getting sporadic love, which is better than the massive pile of nowt other Xenos have had. We've also seen, at long last, the Mechanicum take to the field of battle. Really, really nice kits - if you have long arms and short pockets. At least with the Legiones Astartes you can use the 40k range if you're not fussy about aesthetic accuracy. Mechanicum? Either Forgeworld, or get converting (latter not necessarily a bad thing)....

Finally - Games Day seems dead and gone, instead replaced by Warhammerfest. There's quite a difference. I really quite enjoy Warhammerfest, in no small part because we managed to abduct Mr Edkins from parent duty for the day and give him a good old fashioned nerdy day out. But also it was a smaller affair. Less people, and some really good content if you're hobby daft (as in painting and modelling aspects as opposed to mostly gaming). FW lads apparently organised it, and they were very happy to chat to you about all sorts. I even egged on Rob MacFarlane, sculptor of Archo Magos Draykavac to go even gribblier with the Mechanicum stuff. Suffice to say, I'm very pleased with his take on what's to come when the Dark Mechanicum get going properly (for flavour, see those Tech Thralls? Yeah, the body donor is fully aware of what has happened to them, and what's going on around them. They're not lobotomised, but have no control over their body. And that's sanctioned stuff.....)

Overall? Far more hits than misses in my opinion. Some stuff has been odd or disappointing, like the dropping of various special characters. But the stuff that went well has been very, very impressive.

[Mr Mystery]

Oh, and one more thing, which is more general than just 40k - looks like we'll be all plastic before long!

[Wolfshade]

The big stand out thing for me was the pace of releases, not just that it was high, but it has been consitently high throughout the year. At the start of this accelerated release pattern I was concerned that it would be a once a month splash with dataslates being supplementary.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

I wonder if we will see a new pattern emerge, with the more conservative/obligatory kits come out with the codex, then the new and exciting stuff coming later down - *like we have seen with Tyranids - which I should add readded the spore pod and doom of malantai albeit in new forms, meaning we could see a similar thing happen for say for example, Dark eldar who lost a LOT of characters.

Yeah, campaign sets are a great idea - I am surprised they didn't do stuff like that before. Not everyone plays dark angels or chaos marines after all, and this kind of fixes that sort of.

I also hope we see more of these fringe/mini armies in the Knights/Tempestus style. Those sort of armies redefine what an army is, allowing for smaller factions to emerge but without the full-on support a "mainstream" army would need. Opens the possibility for things like genestealer cults, demiurg, kroot mercs ect

*Just saw rumours of on Faeit of a post-necron dex campaign with new stuff (even though its just a rumour, it is the sort of thing I am hoping for)

[Gleipnir]

The other big stand out was the absence of Finecast all year