234. Design Breakdown: Mutilators, Defiler, Thulia Ghuld, Hashtarii & Knight Destrier

Philip takes us on a design deep dive, looking at the latest Warhammer models to be previewed and discussing their history, design origins, and speculating on some of the strange sources that might have inspired these minis. We take a look at the Mutilators, Defiler, Thulia Ghuld, Hastarii and Knight Destrier. Watch on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtfwKkCzkF8

TIMESTAMPS: 
0:00 - Into
2:08 - Chaos Mutilators
19:58 - Chaos Defiler
41:30 - Ad Mech Thulia Ghuld
1:02:05 - Ad Mech Heavy Hastarii Infantry
1:18:57 - Imperial Knights Destrier
1:50:14 - Outro

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Hello, my lovely people. It is episode two hundred and thirty-four of the Lookout Full podcast. My name is Philip. I'm joined by myself. I hope you're listening. Whatever you're doing, I hope you're having a good time. Uh, we're gonna rapidly get into this episode. We've got an action-packed episode lined up for you. I did tease what it might be in the last episode, and this is unfortunately not that. But in this episode, we're talking about the reveals the Games Workshop has shown us over the last month or so. And I'm doing a design breakdown talking about those models, the histories of those models, and the model ranges that they might have been a part of, and looking at some of the evolution and inspiration behind the designs. So it's my favorite bit of Warhammer discussing the design, but it's cranking it up to 11. So the models that we're going to be talking about for Chaos, we've got the new mutilators as well as the redesign definer. For Scatari, we've got the new character, who's the new Arch Magos, as well as the Heshite Heavy Infantry. And then lastly, we've got the Knight Destria, which is the Bellustrous class. And I have to say, Games Workshop are absolutely mad for giving us all these crazy, near impossible names to pronounce. So thanks Games Workshop for making my life that little bit more difficult. So with that all said and done, let's get on with the show. We're gonna bring back the transitional noise, everyone. Let's head it. Transitional noise. Hello, and in this part of the episode, we are doing a deep dive into the Chaos Space Marine Mutilators. The new minis that Games Workshop previewed a couple of weeks ago, maybe it was like a month now. It's been a while. I really am a bit of a fan of these, and I thought there was a couple of interesting design nods from other kits and some history of the models. So I thought it'd be quite interesting to do a real deep dive into the evolution of the Chaos Mutilators. So here we are. So we're gonna start off looking at the actual new images that Games Workshop have put out there for us. So initially, we can see these three here. If you are watching along on YouTube, fantastic. If you are listening along on the Lookouts podcast, you might struggle somewhat because I'm gonna be talking about images. But I guess what I'll be doing is what I've always done, and that's just describe what they are. But you are welcome to follow along if you can find the Warhammer Community article, or you can watch this episode on YouTube as well, where it's all laid out looking very lovely. So, yeah, we've got three new mutilator designs in that classic Black Legion paint scheme, nice black armor with that kind of dirty gold trim. There's three new minis, very similar to the obliterators. They've got a mixture of armour and kind of grotesquely steroided muscles poking out from some of their armor. There's some tattered cloth and a couple of like strange mutated heads, what looks like some sort of puses and like horns growing out from the models. But most notably, each mutilator has an arm that is carrying some form of weapon, or the arm has literally mutated into a different weapon. And if I remember rightly from the law, much like the obliterators, these have the ability to manifest different weapons at will, and their bodies can literally grow and manifest different weapons. I don't know if that's still going to be the case, but it's a cool concept. Maybe it doesn't necessarily hold up to the more modern scrutiny of uh kind of Games Workshop's law. It feels a little bit too fanciful in terms of what it would be, but maybe, maybe, just maybe, it's still going to be there. So that will be interesting to see. Um I think we're gonna see these models and the rules and law for these minis in the campaign book that will be coming out shortly, probably around time this video comes out, knowing me. So I thought it'd be worth looking at the current model in relation to its original model. Now there haven't been that many versions of the mutilator. The first and only models came out in sixth edition, which would have been around I think 2014, 2013, that sort of time. Uh 6th edition, I think, was around. So quite some time ago. And if you look at the old model, you can see the hallmark elements there. They sort of look like Terminators, but they are grossly deformed, they've got a very skewed, fleshy face, and they more have more like claw arms rather than weapon arms that we see now, with lots of growths and appendages coming out of them. So very similar in terms of concept, but a much better reimagining is what we've now got. So let's take a look at some of the individual elements from the mutilators and pick out where Games Workshop might have found some inspiration, in part just to be inspired, but I think a lot of it is a kind of design framework where what they want to do is tie this model in with the rest of the chaos range, but also maybe take inspiration from other elements. So maybe there's a historic model that this is based on, and this is like an evolution from that. But also there's a lot of kind of cross-pollination between technology. So, for example, you might see similar design elements within the wider space marine range, and that they've taken elements from just different bits to bring them all together. So it looks like a realistic world lived-in environment because that is ultimately how technology works. Things get borrowed, there's design frameworks and patterns that are repeated. So there should be a lot of uh similarity in some of the elements that we see. So some of this might be repeating itself, and it's worth noting that these are the things that I found or I think are quite similar. It's not an exhaustive list, and this will apply to all of these kind of evolution videos that I want to do. So, yeah, there might be things I've missed out or gotten wrong. And feel free to let me know in the comments if that is the case. So the first thing I wanted to point out was the Mark 7 helmet, a much older mark of Space Marines, the last, well, the second to last one before Primaris came along, because obviously there was Mark VIII, and then Mark IX got completely skipped out in favour of the Mark X Primaris. So the Mark 7 has the classic grill faceplate, and there are many examples within the Chaos range, but I thought the most fitting and most up-to-date version is the Red Corsair's Reeve Captain. He also has Mark 7, and similar to this mutilator, the helmet isn't really that mutated or chaosified, sort of harkens back to that much more traditional uh unchaosted space marine helmet. Then we've also got the contempt to dreadnought. So there's two elements here that I want to reference. One of them is the mounting, but the helmet goes within. And this is again referenced below by the Chaos Terminators that we see, and also the Indomitus Terminators as a whole. So on the mutilator, you've got this arch going over the head where the helmet is recessed in. And that looks similar to the contemptors and the terminators. And I believe the contemper was designed deliberately to be a nod to that sort of Terminator Indomitus pattern design. And then the other thing that's worth noting with the contemptor is the overall sort of torso shape, especially the top, the sides, and the back. And that's why I've included a picture of the mutilator, the same one, but this time painted as Iron Warriors. But you can see it more from a side-on view. And here you get a sense of that top torso looking very similar to Contemptor. It's got that real boxiness vibe to it. And even the overall pose that this mutilator is in has a very contemptor feel to it. It actually looks very similar to one of the contempters in terms of the ones I've built and how I've posed it. And then even on that Iron Warriors mutilator, if you look at its wrist, again it feels very reminiscent of a contemptor dreadnought when it's got the fist option in. So it does feel like they've taken some of those elements from the contemptor and put it into uh this, which sort of makes sense. It feels very much like it's a sort of heavier pattern of Terminator armor or just power armor in general than the standard Space Marine or Chaos Marine armor. So it feels like it would make sense that they would be referencing something like the Contemper. I guess to me, also is worth highlighting here is it feels like it could be a perfect replacement for the Centurions. Now the Centurions is a terrible kit, but this feels like what we've got with the mutilators, what could have been a chaosified version of a Centurion kit. And if Games Workshop ever gets around to redesigning the Centurions, I would much rather they reference Chaos Mutilators and use that as a basis for the Centurion design. Basically de-Chaossify the mutilator completely, take out all the fleshy bits, just make it fully armoured with the black carapace on, and I think this would work so much better for a design of a space marine centurion. So that's just something I've thought about now, and I thought I would reference it. Next up, we've got the elements of armor and flesh, and in this mutilator you can see much more like bulbous undulating flesh poking out from the armor, just bursting out basically. And obviously, this is a much closer reference to the obliterators, which I've given an example here. But it does feel like the obliterators is a really dated kit now, even though it's probably like five years old. It's a relatively new kit in the grand scheme of the Chaos Space Marine range. When they first started doing the range refresh and Abaddon came out, um, the obliterators were around that time as well. But it just doesn't seem to hold up to the modern sculpts in quite the same way. And the mutilators, I think, is a much better imagining of what these two sort of kits could like. I'm a little bit surprised that the mutilators isn't a multi-part kit that could have included a re-sculpted obliterators. But I could see maybe that being a bit too difficult for them to do. But it doesn't seem too impossible from the way Games Workshop works. And actually taking the mutilators and just giving them some like ranged weapon options feels like a totally viable thing that they could have done. Or for people that don't like those obliterator kits, a worthy kitbash for someone to put together. Similarly, there's armour elements with flesh and armor with Vashtor. Obviously, he's the demon of technology now, so it would make sense to reference him as well. And then we've got some older kits in the form of the Mouler Fiend, which would also include the Forged Fiend and also the Hellbrute. Both of them are classic but quite old chaos kits that have that fusion of flesh and armor together. And even the Hellbruot that I found, which is a Nurgle Hellbruot, has a very similar looking face to the mutilator that I've got here. Although the modern mutilator has a very strange looking mouth that also seems to encompass his nose. So it's certainly a more creepy vibe than the Hellbruot head. Then for the armor styles, obviously we've got the obliterators, which I've not included here because that's sort of sort of given. But it feels like it's worth mentioning the Chaos Terminators because that feels like the go-to for referencing some of the kind of classic standard Space Marine armor styles. You've obviously got the Legionnaires, Abaddon. I mean, there could be a whole bunch of kits that I could have referenced here, but I picked out the Chaos Terminators because they are heavier armor than the standard Legionnaire kit. A lot of the trim, a lot of the designs of the legs, like the Greaves, is quite similar here to what we've got with the mutilators. Similar with the Moulafiend, again with the trim, the armor plating. And then we've got this kind of groin armor, which is like these layered platings. And this is very similar to what we have on Vashtor. And if you look at the design of the trim and the sort of thinness of it going down, is very similar to Vashtol's, but also it even references things like Nork Deck Dog because he's got it as well. It does feel like it's a bit of a shorthand for like elite infantry or more heavily armoured units. And even the new Scatari hashtag have it as well. So there's plenty of references for where this kind of layered plate appears. And then the biggest thing about the mutilators is the fact that their arms are also weapons, and some of them it feels much more like it's a traditional piece of armor with a weapon attached, and then others you've got basically the hand has literally been fused to a weapon, in this case a drill, or maybe the hand has been cut off and a weapon has grown out from it. So there's very kind of grotesque in terms of body horror. But there are lots of references within the wider non-chaos world where this exists. One of them's the Charonite Ogrins from the Heresy range. They are very similar in terms of they're these larger elite units that are kind of dual-wielding weapons, or part of their body has been removed and then been replaced with a weapon. So those ogrins are very cool, albeit non-chaosified, and they have things like drills, cutters, and claw type weapons. And then also we've got the squat prospectors from Necromunda, both the Exokin, which is like the old Exo Armor, and the ExoDriller, which is a much more larger version. They both are dual-wielding combat weapons. The driller has like this claw, which looks very similar to the mutilator claw, but then the other weapon's a bit of a flamer. And then the Axokin has a circular saw type weapon, which again is quite similar to the mutilators and a power fist type weapon. At least one of those weapons feels very akin to what the mutilators have. And even the general aesthetic of the slightly curved torso at the top and the extra wide stance that they're in, and the arms being sort of out to their sides and up slightly, like just the silhouette of those two feels very similar to the mutilators, which is why I wanted to include it here. And then lastly, you've got something like the new defiler with those claw arms, which feels very similar from a design language to the mutilators. They've obviously been designing these together to make sure that that kind of weapons and technology and the way the rivets and the joints all look, all have a similar feel for the Chaos faction. So there's a very similar aesthetic to them. They don't look like they're from the AdMec faction or Space Marines, they have a distinctive chaos feel to them. That was a quick tour of the mutilators, its history, very briefly, and also some of the design inspirations for some of the elements to them. Do I like the new kits? Um, in short, yes, I think they're very good. The one that is that you can see on the right hand side of this image that has that more contempt pose and is less chaosified, I personally prefer more, because the other two have a lot more of that flesh change element happening to them, the grotesque flesh popping out beneath the armor. And I like those slightly less, but overall I think they're very cool. I think there's going to be a slight downside in terms of the fact that yes, you can change the weapons between them because there are alternative sculpts, although I suspect that is just to allow you to go from a three-man unit to a six-man unit, and the rules will be the same and be consistent throughout. Um it doesn't make a difference what they're actually visually looking like because the idea with the mutilators is that they're constantly changing their weapons to fit the purpose. So I suspect there'll be maybe a fixed profile for them. Um but actually I do not I don't even know what the mutilators currently have. Let's hold that for while we take a look. And of course, I just checked and I forgot because I remembered learning this. Mutilators aren't in the game anymore. They currently don't exist. You can't buy them, they haven't been in the game for a while, and there are no rules to compare them to. Well, other than much older editions, I guess. Um, so they might have just a flat generic profile, but what I suspect they might have is maybe a couple of alternative profiles, a bit like sweep and strike that you can pick from. It might be one that's more anti-vehicle, an anti-monster, and then one that's more with dealing with heavier infantry, perhaps. So that would be interesting to see if they gave you those kind of options to represent the fact that the weapons are ever-changing and can change to suit the environment and the things they're fighting against. That would be quite interesting. Feels like, regardless of what those weapons are, the poses are very thick. So the torso piece, the head is all kind of static. Um, if you can swap out the heads at the very least, that would be some variation other than just the weapons on itself. But I do feel like these might be a little bit too monopose, um, even though there are some flexible options there. But otherwise, I think these are cool. When I've been thinking about Red Corsairs Army, I would want to throw these in just for the cool factor. So yeah, these are pretty cool. And with that, we will hurriedly go on to the next section. Transitional noise. So in this part of the episode, we're talking about the Chaos Dephila, the new Chaos Dephila replacing the very old Chaos Dephiler. It looks very different. And if you want to know what my opinions are, stick around to the end where I will reveal all. So in the first image that we're going to look at, it is the new Chaos Defiler painted up in the Iron Warriors colour. Armed with two twin las cannons, one on each arm, and then it looks like a sort of demolisher cannon or battle cannon style weapon in its central bull mount turret. So it is worth noting that the body now is this sort of bull mount with a tiny head that is in fact an Iron Warriors helmet at the very top, and then you've got this kind of spindly thin waistline to another bulbous bottom, and then you've got four giant crab claws for its legs. So you can see the inspiration behind the original. But we're gonna look at some of the photos, then we're gonna look at the history of the defiler and also some of the design inspiration for some of these features. So we've also got a nice image of the side view where you can see the exhaust, what looks like a I think it's a Reaper autocannon, it's like a twin linked autocannon, and then there's another version of the Defiler where it's got a plasma cannon in the center, what looks like a missile rack, and then for the other arm, it's a bit hard to make out. I don't think it's another missile rack, but some esoteric weapon that is shooting once more. So lots of different weapon options, lots of different head options. And speaking of head options, not only do you get like a sort of generic defiler head for Iron Warriors one that they've also previewed, but you can also See that you get one specific to each chaos god, and it's also worth noting that not only do you get a head for each chaos god, you also get slightly different armor panels as well that you can clearly use. So one of them has the trophy rack that goes on top, which is very similar to Abaddon. One of them also has the eight-pointed chaos star as well, and then the other two have been left blank, but one has got a slanesh symbol uh painted on, maybe, but it could have also been a transfer. So plenty of design options, and then also you can just about notice that one of the front armor pieces is also slightly different as well, that also includes what looks like a sort of eight-pointed chaos star symbol in it as well, whereas the other one just has these kind of chevron arrows. So yeah, it feels like not only will there be lots of weapon customization, but there'll be lots of armor panels, heads, and extra gubbins that you can use to decorate your defilers and make them all very unique. There's definitely between the two photos that I've seen, one of the sort of front pieces of the body is much more fleshy, and then the other one has some armor covering up that as well. So, yeah, lots of ways to convert up these defilers. And here you can see that extra esoteric weapon on the left-hand side, and it feels like it's going to be some kind of flamer type weapon. So let's look at the current model. Again, you can see those fleshy bits that are a bit exposed that I was mentioning, but let's compare it with the old model, which is the third edition defiler. So it's worth noting that this kit has been doing some work. It's been around for seven editions, basically. It's been here a long time. It's got more of a kind of classic look where it's got more of a boxed top piece with weapons just attached, and then it's got its six legs versus the new fours. And it's worth pointing out that these are all mechanical constructs. There is no flesh elements to the old school defiler, and I kind of like it. It is a bit silly looking in terms of it's a bit mad, but it does sort of feel like it has history alongside a chaosified Lehman Russ in terms of the turret weapon, but it's like a walker. I would imagine trying to build one of these being an absolute nightmare just from how fiddly it is. Yes, it still has like an odd head at the top, which I do think is a little bit odd. To me, it feels more like this is what a demon engine should be, because I always felt like a demon engine was a normal mechanical machine that had a demon sort of fused to it or trapped inside it in a way that wouldn't manifest it in any physical way. Or maybe you would have like the body of a person that is then possessed by a demon, and that sort of flesh melds and moulds itself into the vehicle, but it is ultimately still a mechanical vehicle for the most part, but you just have this kind of demon-infused corpse controlling it, and that's how it takes it over. So to me, that's how I always imagined it. But now it feels much more like the demon element is the entire construct, and it's this weird growth monster that's got armor on it and is part mechanical, part creature. So that is definitely a distinctive design change from the original. It's me from the future. So I'm busy editing this episode, and I had another thought about the history of the defiler. I'd already mentioned it came out in third edition of 40k. The actual third edition Chaos Space Marines Codex didn't come out until October 2002, and the kit for the defiler didn't actually come out until August 2003. But what inspiration might have occurred prior to this? And it reminded me of the film Toy Story, where the character Babyface, who is effectively a Micano crab, spider type construct, that was by far the scariest thing in the entire movie, and it had a decapitated baby's doll head on top. Had some front claws with pincers as well, and was scuttling around. And this actually came out in 1995. So it's definitely possible that this was the original source and inspiration for the Defiler Mini. And if you both think about it on a meta level, they are both toys that will be scuttling around. So I think if you had them side by side as actual objects, they would look probably quite similar. So yeah, that is my idea about where the original Defiler came from. Let me know if you think this is mad or not. But yeah, we're going to get back to the rest of the show. And here we've just got some artwork from the older editions where we're showing off the defiler. One's very kind of corn-based and one looks much more Nurgle-based. You can see a bunch of different weapons on them. One of them's got this kind of whippy flail for an arm and an autocannon. And then the other one looks like it might have a similar thing, but it's got uh, you know, two guns and that kind of big central battle cannon as well. And I always kind of like that element to it. It felt much more akin to a tank with a turret rather than the monster that we've got now. But yeah, that's the original sort of design of the Defiler. It's also worth noting that one element that I really liked when the Dunecrawler from the Adeptus Mechanicus range came out, so Viona de Dunecrawler felt like it was designed to be a precursor to the old Defiler Mini from third edition. So I've got another image here, which clearly was the model used to inspire that Cornate artwork, because it's got the same weapons with the whip and the autocannons, and even the same helmet on it as well. But it felt like the Honored Dune crawler could have been the precursor to the Defiler, and then when the Honodu Dunecrawler is corrupted by the Dark Mechanicum, it effectively grows bigger legs and it grows an extra set of legs. But you've got this kind of turret-mounted area, even the positioning of the also cannons is in the same place and looks visually very similar. Obviously, where you've got the turret with the lycopola on top of the Honor Jujune corner, that's sort of now being replaced with another weapon on the defiler. But that kind of weird, creepy, crawly legs that the Honor Dujune Corner has feels very much similar to the Defiler. And I like it when Games Workshop retrospectively add in history and evolution to their miniatures. They've done this very well with Heresy, where a lot of the classic miniatures from 40k have been reverse-engineered into the past to give them a precursor to that miniature. So you can see how it looked like in the Heresy era and how it's then since evolved in their technological terms into the 40k version. So I like this retrospective design that I thought they were doing with the Honored Jujune Cooler with the Defiler Mini, but that seems to have now been lost with the new Defiler. And it might be that this is all still technically correct. Maybe the Honored Jujune Cooler was the inspiration for the third edition defiler, and that the 10th edition one is just an evolution of the third edition one. So maybe the defiler still was a JuneCrawler at one point, but now thousands of years more in the future, the third edition defiler has become much more mutated, and more of the demon engine has taken over the construct itself. And um that would be cool as well. That would work in my mind, but it feels very much like it's almost a completely separate thing now, doing its own thing and separate from the original Defiler Mini. So let's take a look at some of the design features. And again, I'm calling out things that I see are very similar, but not an exhaustive list. I might also be wrong. But call me out in the comments and let me know what you think, whether I'm correct or wrong. So, firstly, the armor shape, right? So the top turret has gone from this very blocky thing to this very bulbous round ball turret, almost akin to what you would get on the bottom of a B-17 bomber, that kind of gun turret style design. And to me, it just resembles the Venom crawler. That kind of big spider bum makes sense for the Venom crawler, and it feels like they're nodding to that here, which on one hand I can understand the logic behind it, but at the same time, the Venom crawler works because it's trying to represent a big spider. The philer is not trying to do that. So the fact that it is referencing a spider's bum on the venom crawler just feels a bit odd. Then you've got also the general armor patterning, which is similar to the mutilators. You could call back to anything, really, in terms of that kind of chaos armor with the trim design. But I wanted to call out the Lord Discordant on Hellstalker here, in terms of the mechanical legs, the sort of the way the legs are shaped, is very similar to the silhouette of the crawler's claws and armor pieces. But that in itself is also very similar to the brass scorpion, the forge world piece, which was utterly huge in terms of its scale. But you can see the front two arms, not only do they have kind of like claws, but the armour extends all the way to the back and has these kind of goes to a little point, and that is very similar to what we now have with the Defiler as well. Although the front claw is exposed and not under armour, whereas on the brass scorpion, there's an armor piece going all the way down covering the claw as well. But you can see they've definitely taken elements from it and included it here, which is good, I think, that they've included not just Games Workshop Citadel miniatures, they've also looked back at some of the Ford World ranges and tried to incorporate some of them there. And then we've got that central cannon area, which sort of is a battle cannon, a bit like a demolisher. So for that you could reference anything, but it is also quite similar to the brass scorpion's jumbo cannon that forms its gaping head or mouth. I'm not really sure what it would be on a brass scorpion, but that has a giant cannon and it looks quite similar to the way it's been positioned on the defiler as well. So let's point out some of the other features. So obviously, it references the old model. So the defiler has those old claws and it has like a kind of a twin claw system, very much like a uh mechanical crushing claw or cutter that you might see that the fire service has, for example. Real like industrial style of cracking open metal. And they've clearly kept that reference in there from the old kit to the new kit, which is really good to see. You can also see it's got a stack of exhausts on its back, which is very similar to the Forge Fiend and the Mauler Fiend. That was something I noticed in the Warhammer preview when they were just showing snippets of the defiler before it was actually out. And then you've got the rack at the top. Now it's not quite a trophy rack because there aren't any trophies on it, but it's trophy rack potential, and that is similar to everything from Aberdon to what I've selected here, which is the Lord Discordant on Hellstalker, that kind of rack with spikes on. But both the Lord Discordant, Hellstalker, and the Defiler doesn't really have any trophies on them. Although it might be worth noting that potentially both do if there's an alternative piece in the kit, but I've not seen any with photos. And then similar to the Hellbrut, we've got one of those, I think it's a Reaper autocannon, a twin-linked autocannon. Very similar design, and both seem to have a little blade underneath as well. Also, very similar position in terms of the muzzle brakes on the barrels as well. So great to see that they've referenced that old Hellbruot. Hopefully, the poor little Hellbruot kit will get an update at some point as well, because that's really needed too. Speaking of other kits that really need an update, we've got the soul grinder. I thought I would include a picture here of it. The other sort of variant of the Defiler, the Soul Grinder has effectively a giant demon riding on top of the Defiler leg chassis. He's got on one hand a giant claw, the other a giant sword, and very much like a greater demon star body. It's a very mad kit, it's a very old kit. It would be great to see this get the same level of love that the defiler has got. Now, do I actually like the Defiler kit? I'm a bit on the fence with this one, to be honest. There's elements to it that I like, and there's elements to it that I don't like. So the bull turret, I'm not a huge fan of. It feels like in some photos that the bull turret plus the legs can be positioned in a way where it is a very towering, top-heavy model. And in fact, the photo I've selected, you can see that being done very much where the foreground defiler, the legs are spread out and is a bit more lower to the ground. But in the distance, the legs feel like they're almost vertically positioned. So you're definitely gonna be able to model this to an advantage to an extent. Although I'd potentially argue that gaining a few inches in height might not be that beneficial in the grand scheme of things based on the terrain rules. And also, as it comes on a base, it doesn't really matter the width of the model. There's one thing that I do find the waste portion a bit odd. Because it's no longer on a traditional turret, you are physically limited in terms of how much that top piece could actually pivot around. Before it was like a tank turret. It could spin 360 degrees to its heart's content and shoot in every direction, whereas now it's much more like a human body and would only be able to pivot slightly around. And it does feel like it's got some sort of piston element incorporated into the design as it's melding that fusion and flesh together. But it just feels like a very fragile piece of the model from both a design point of view, but also like as a gaming piece. It feels like that bit is the bit you're going to be shooting at with the big target, and in this version, it's a big fleshy piece with a tiny little bit of armour covering up its what is essentially its nether regions. Um I sort of feel like that piece there where it's all flesh, I would really love that to be a human body or a space marine body, like just the torso and the head stuck on, because I do want it to sort of represent an actual human that has been possessed and then has slowly grown into controlling and taking over and mutating into the defiler. So some element of body horror of what the thing maybe once was would have been nice. And I feel like, especially in the one I've shown on the video, there's a perfect bit of space where you could do that on the mini. So I would be tempted to get one of the kits where there's like a space marine corpse, add that on, and make it really grotesque. And similarly, the head element I've never been that keen on on the defiler, both in the original and in this one. It would be interesting to see the head removed and just covered up so it's more tank-esque. That would be quite interesting. The claw aspect I think is really cool. It's a shame they don't have six, but I think six would just be too much from a sort of building and painting point of view. So turning it into a four-legged creature feels like a sensible decision on Games Workshop's part. It just feels overall a little bit too round, especially in that top turret portion of the defiler. And I sort of wish it wasn't quite as bulbous and maybe had like a bit of a flat top, felt more like a sort of lehman rust turret, sort of being a bit inspired by that element rather than the just sort of harking back to that venom crawler. I think that getting the defiler to work and look really good is a hard task because it's such an obscure, mad concept piece. It isn't representing a tank, it's not representing anything really within the real world. It's sort of like a giant scorpion. And the brass scorpion does that well, but it does it from a very mechanical point of view. Yeah, potentially what I would do, I would have that more fleshy human element into the exposed bit of flesh. I would potentially remove some of that waste as well and drop that ball turret down a bit lower so it feels more like a dome top rather than an actual ball stuck on another ball. Um, and then potentially also somehow encase the helmet and the head so you don't really see that, and maybe trim that top piece off as well so it lies a bit flatter. So it's got a few more hard angles in the kit as well. I'm a big fan of hard angles, especially for the Ashtramilitarum. I can understand the chaos is embraced much more, you know. It's embraced for curves, basically, in its design, but I feel like that top piece is just a little bit too much for my liking. So that is it for the defiler and the chaos portion of this video. So we can now move on to the next thing. Transitional noise. So in this part, we're talking about the reveals that Games Workshop have shown us in relation to the Adeptus Mechanicus. We're starting off with Fulia Gold, the Arch Magos Terminus of Mars. Now, this is really cool to see that we've got an interesting new character for the Adeptus Mechanicus. Apparently, she's a veteran of the Auto Reductor, which is a subcult that is all basically about destruction and war. And she doesn't like Belisarius Cole, who hates the concept of diplomacy and experimentation, and instead is much more about blowing people up. So this is a really interesting character. So, as always, with these deep dives, take a look at the character, look at some of the history, specifically around the ranks of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and also pick out some of the key characteristics and design elements that have been taken from some of the other elements from the Warhammer universe. So, first up we've got Thhulia Gould herself, a front view and a back view. So she's really interesting. She's got a big hat, she's got a lot of like carapace-layered armor, she's got a tiny arm holding a little cube of some kind, several arms holding a staff, and then a big kind of laser gun. Although I'm not entirely sure what that's gonna be called. Couple of little feet, uh, some at the front look very different from the little legs at the back. There's a different design element there, and then she's got two little servo skulls busying around her, one holding a scroll, which does look a little bit like a toilet roll holder, and then the other one has a little like cell in its claw, which is clearly reloading on the staff. I think it's worth pointing out that this model feels very similar to the Necrosaur Amentar, who was the latest Necron character to come out of 500 Worlds. And I'm assuming Thulia is coming out alongside the next campaign book, which will feature the Cadian Gate. What's kind of cool is that they're both similar size models in terms of it being probably on the same base size, but also interesting characters. I've called them here subleader, but it's basically a Person that's a step down from the supreme leader, so another named character, potentially a leader of a sub faction. Although, as she's based on Mars, she's gonna be from the same faction as Belisarius Cool, but very similar to Farsight, off doing their own thing, clearly in opposition to the leader of their actual current faction, which we get quite a bit in PK. We often get characters that are almost antagonists to their own faction doing their own thing. Cypher is another good example. He's kind of going off rogue, doing his own thing. Farsight's the classic one as well. And I like the Necrosaur Mantar is clearly a new character for the Necrons, and Thulia Gold is going to be one for Adeptus Mechanicus. And it helps flesh out the world, it makes it a bigger place. I don't want every ad mech army to have Belisarius cool. That just gets a bit boring, especially when everyone is taking a Primarch level model, and that's the sort of direction that they're pushing the game in. So if to give us a kind of category of characters just down from that that are really good and interesting and gives us lots of variety, gives us more subfaction choices within an overall faction, I always think that's going to be really good. So let's look at the Arch Magos rank and the corresponding models that Games Workshop has produced. So Fulia Guild is obviously the latest iteration, but who else is an Arch Magos? Well, Belisarius Cool is one, he is an existing model that's been out for some time now, since the end of 7th edition, in the form of the Gathering Storm series that we got that led into the beginning of 8th edition. And then much more recently, we've got the Archmagos Prime, which is a new model for the Horace Heresy, for the Adeptus Mechanicum, not the Adeptus Mechanicus. This model I think came out just this year, or maybe at the very end of last year. Overall, a relatively new miniature and has some similar design similarities, but we will get into those shortly. A few other models I wanted to highlight, again, mostly from the Forge World range for Horace Heresy. So we've got a named character, uh Drekovac, who was also an Archmagos, and also just could be taken as an Arch Magos as well. I believe the very first iteration of the Archmagos Mini. Interestingly, he's not wearing red, but he's on a podium that's covered with servo skulls. He has got one of those traditional engine seer style axes, but this one looks much more like an actual axe, whereas the other Archmagos from the 40k line have much more of a ceremonial sort of staff that has elements of an axe in it. He's also got an interesting skull helmet or skull head, uh, and then hair that is basically mechadendrites. So a very interesting character. I believe one of them that was designed more for the dark mechanicum rather than the Adeptus Mechanicum. And then similarly, we've got an Arrakis Scoria, who's a Magos Dominus, so a slightly different rank, I believe a rank down, again tied with the Adeptus Mechanicum, has lots of scorpion spider elements in terms of these weapons coming up from the back, creating a scorpion's tail, but lots of tiny little legs, almost as if they're a mini defiler. And maybe that was something I should have referenced in my defiler video. And then lastly, we've got the Arcutia Magistratum, who is actually a female Scutari, and again, Thulia Guild is a female Archmagos, so I wanted to include another female character in here for comparison, even though it's not quite the same ranks. Interestingly, this is Judge Jury and Executioner for Tech Heretics, one of my favourite minis from the heresy range, and one I picked up purely for the little scribe that is accompanying her. I thought that'd be an excellent miniature to have in Necromunda. And obviously, the Arcutia is just a cool model in general and be really good to convert up into an interesting character, probably in some form of inquisitorial character as well for 40k at some point. And then looking at the more humble ranks of the Adeptus Mechanicus, we've got the standard ranks. And these are covering the games workshop models. So we've got the Tech Priest Engine Seer, which is quite an old model now. I believe it came out in 7th edition. I think it was around 2017 that it came out. We've then got uh a few more recent models that have come out, the Tech Priest Manipulus, which is the Shusha, as I like to call them, uh, because that's the pose that they're doing. Uh, and they seem to be, I think they're floating rather than actually walking. And we've got the techno archaeologist, who I was thinking originally appeared in Blackstone Fortress, but I think it was actually in Combat Arena, because that is where you also got one of the more interesting Rogue Trader models. I'm not 100% sure which it was, but I uh I think it might have been Combat Arena that was produced. That was quite a small game that came out um about five or so years ago. And then lastly, we've got the Tech Priest Dominus, which is again another more recent mini from Games Workshop. So a vast array of ranks within the Adeptus Mechanicus. They've obviously got lots of classical features, whether that's servo arms, axes, which are also sort of starves, um, servo skulls, the red robes obviously is very iconic, and then often this sometimes beetle bug style armour that's either on their backs, sometimes it's on their fronts in the belly in the form of the manipulus, and then they also seem to have an array of a bunch of different bits of technology and gubbins on them as well. So let's look back in time and see where some of the original designs might have come from. One I think is definitely more recent than the other. So on the left hand side, I don't actually have a date for this, but I know they're both John Blanche pieces of artwork. So on the left, we've got a tech priest in red with red carapace armour and a yellow pointy hat with some modules sticking out their back, carrying a staff, which is something we've seen on some of the tech priest minis. And then again, you've got those classic servo skulls and mechadendrites on them. And then we've got one of my other favourite John Blanche pieces of concept work, especially surrounding the Adeptus Mechanicus, and this is Belisarius Cool, where if you look at the image, you can see just how big he was actually originally meant to be, because you've got a person in the foreground walking past him. And not only was he meant to be cleaning much bigger, but he was also meant to be much longer, he was meant to be like a centipede, so you can see him trailing all the way back, and I just love this as a concept. When I first saw this bit of artwork, I really wanted to convert our Belisarius call to like this and just increase the length of his body. But a lot of him you can see from the torso upwards is basically the same as it appears in the model. You've got that beetle-backed body armor, you've got the top bar, like the antennae, and then you've got the axe, staff, the weapons, and all the little legs and arms with the different weapons on them, and that kind of classic power pack on that sketch. So it feels like, with the exception of the size and the centipede elements to him, a lot of that artwork has been faithfully recreated in the model. So let's take a look at some of the design elements. So that large, pointy hat that's got a slight flat top to it is clearly inspired by two elements that I've managed to spot. So, firstly, that John Blanche piece of artwork where it was painted in yellow. That hat is very similar. It's got the kind of ear flaps draping down around it. It gives it a very sort of medieval hat sort of vibe. And then likewise, we've got that Arch Magos Prime model from the Heresy range quite recently, where he similarly has a tall hat with that top cap. Both the Magos Prime and in the artwork, it's interesting to note that they've got this kind of trim on it at the top in that kind of cog effects, but in uh Thulia's Mini doesn't, and that's just plain. Although I guess you could paint it on if you wanted to try and be consistent with those other pieces. But Big Hats clearly are a thing for the Adeptus Mechanicus, at least in some of the minis, and they clearly want it to potentially denote something of some description. Then we've got the Omniscian Axe, which feels like it's a command staff or a tech priest engineers axe. So we've got lots of images to reference here showing off the vast variety of designs. So we've got the Tech Priest Dominus, which has a relatively simple one. Similar, the Tech Priest engine sear has quite a plain one, and then the more complicated designs in the Tech Priest Manipulus and Belisarius Cool has equally complicated ones and more bits coming out of them and more spikes. Um, similar to Culia Guild's one, Belisarius Cool is the most similar because I guess they are of equal rank, so they have taken those elements of it. And in fact, if you look at them now, you can almost see that hers is almost identical to Cool's, with the exception that hers has been rotated around 90 degrees. So instead of Cool's, which looks like it's an axe, uh, her axe head portion that is a cog design is actually pointing upwards, and then the sort of nodal spikes that on Kohl's is facing to the back is actually facing downwards on hers, and then the spike that was on the top of Kool's is off to one side. So yeah, it feels like they basically took his and shifted it around to 90 degrees. Because the ranks should be the same, it makes sense, but because they want to make them look different, because they wouldn't be exactly the same. Each Arch Magos will have their own spin on things, and they will have custom equipment, so it makes sense. Then we've got the belly armor, which I've sometimes referenced as like a beetle back because it's this layered carapace elements, it's kind of big and round. Hers is really lovely in terms of it's painted red, which is similar to how Cool's is painted in the John Blanche artwork, and also in the other piece of John Blanche artwork where it was just Tech Priest or Magos of some kind, both featuring red armor there. But if you look at the Tech Priest Manipulus and Belisarius Cool in terms of the actual model, where they've got that kind of belly armor at the front, they're actually just painted in silver with gold trim. And I actually think hers being painted in red looks better. Yeah, so very similar. That's where they've referenced that element. It's nice to see. I personally prefer some of the Forgeworld ones where it's on their backs. Um, it was hard to get some decent bits of artwork for that because they were the really old Forgeworld sculpts, not the more modern plastic ones. Um, but they also had that kind of beetleback element to it, and they were more like hunched over models, whereas the Games Workshop design style tends to have these yeah, belly armor is the way I've described it. And then we've got her legs. So her front two are very similar to the On and June crawler. That felt like an easy reference to spot. Her back two actually look a little bit more like Belisarius call's little legs. I just didn't include a picture here. And then similarly, the power cell at the back, the back armor, that Beetle armor that I was talking about, and the what I'm calling the command antennae all are referencing Belisarius Cool and all look very similar. So the command antennae is similar to the Chaos Trophy rack, where it is a curved arching rack over the top of the armor, but this time it's got a cog design rather than spikes. I don't actually know what it is, and I tried looking it up to see if I could find if it had a technical term, but I couldn't anywhere. So if anyone does know what it is, uh please let me know down in the comments or message me. I'd actually be really interested to know. And yeah, the power cell is almost a one-to-one for cools, as is the armour, although I think hers is designed slightly more spaced out, whereas Cool's feels a bit more tight-knit together, but that just might be a difference in the size of the models. And then it was kind of at the end of this research, but I did just come to the conclusion that Solia Gould is actually just based on that John Blanche artwork that I couldn't find what it was meant to exactly be representing. But if you look at it, it is just so similar. So obviously, you've got the square-topped tall hat, you've got that body armour along the front, and also the little legs. But it's a bit difficult to see on the artwork, but in the artwork, the character is also holding a little cube, and that's exactly what one of the hands that Thulia Gould is carrying. It's a little puzzle box of some kind. Then also in the bottom right-hand corner of the artwork, there's a little servo skull that has these little pincers, and on Fulia Gould's model, there's a servo skull with some pincers swapping out one of those power cells. Obviously, the artwork has more mechanendrites, and then at the back of the model, it looks more like they've got a sort of fabric cloak thing rather than necessarily armour. But that rounded sort of silhouette behind her, whether that's armour or a cloak, is kind of represented in that beetle back armor that I've been talking about. Now, in the artwork, she does have a cane, which I think cool has, so obviously that's where that went. But instead, she's got a big giant gun instead. So they've swapped that out. And it's also worth noting that she does have, I think it's like sort of, I can't tell if it's necessary meant to be representing one of her breasts, but around her chest is a big giant um cone that then has a big tube coming off of it, which I guess is one of those mechanendrites that isn't featured in the actual Studia Gold model, but that kind of element is a trope in a lot of John Blanche's artwork because I created my own model inspired by one of John Blanche's pieces of artwork, and it had a similar thing, basically. I think it had a servo skull attached to it, if I recall. So yeah, it is something he likes to include in his drawings. And yes, there's a another servo skull added to the top, the toilet roll holder guy is what I'm going to call him. But obviously, he's a scribe of some kind, really. And then obviously, you've got that command antennae that's been added on, as well as the omnisian axe. That makes sense because even though they're very heavily referencing the John Blanche artwork, you do still need to tie in with the existing model range. So having a couple more servo skulls, having the omnicine axe is a very important signifier to tie in with the rest of the range. So just having a staff on its own wouldn't really work for the person of rank that they've made her. If she was going to be a Tech Bis Manipulus, for example, then perhaps a small cane would have been more than enough. So do I like the Thulia Gould Mini? Yeah, I think she's really cool. I like the concept of it. I like the idea that they're adding more flavour to the entire line, and that they're giving you kind of opposing characters that you can have. So if you're not a huge fan of cool, you could have someone like her, and perhaps that would maybe give you a different kind of detachment or a way of building your army thematically that would be different from someone else. I do love the idea that you get interesting characters that aren't just the supreme leaders of the entire faction, so that's great to see. I think design-wise, she's very good. My only kind of criticism really is that she sort of has too many arms and is a bit clustered in terms of detail. I would say that's probably my ongoing criticism with a lot of the more modern Games Workshop sculpts, though. But that also feels very appropriate for Adeptus Mechanicus to just have a bit too much stuff on them as well. But yeah, overall looks very cool. Now we're gonna go on to the second half of the Adeptus Mechanicus range with a quick transitional noise. So next up, the other set of Adeptus Mechanicus minis that were revealed was the unit of heavy Hashtari Infantry. It appears to be five models in a unit, probably upgradable to ten, with two different variant weapons that you can take. Very similar to Skatari, but bigger, scarier maybe, uh, but more heavily armed and armoured. So let's take a look at the minis. So they are very similar to Scatari in style, but definitely a bit bigger, wider, and you can see that they've got one arm that is permanently mounted to a gun, and they have another hand stabilizing it and holding it upright. And then you've got what I assume is a prime model who's the leader, who's just carrying a sword instead. They've all got backpacks on, which are generators to power the weapons that they're carrying, and they've also got these little shoulder-mounted cannons as well. So it looks pretty interesting. So the most obvious comparison with the Heshtari is the Vanguard unit. Both the Heshtari Alpha and the Scatari Vanguard Alpha have very similar design aesthetics. They've basically got the same carapace style armor over their robes. They've both got the red robes on, they've both got robotic legs. Uh the helmets are the same in terms of the uh kind of command crest, although on the alpha for the Skatari Vanguard it's horizontal, whereas on the Hashtari Alpha it's going back to front, basically. So one of the two different variations you see on the crest on Space Marines, they've just done that. Uh they're also both carrying swords, so again, very similar. They've obviously both got the Adeptus and Mechanicus symbol on their chest, although it's in a slightly different position. I guess the most notable difference with the Hustari is they've got that armored kind of groin plate armor, which if you saw the chaos portion when I was talking about uh I think it was the mutilators, that they use this kind of armor for code word for elite infantry. Things like the Krieg engineers and grenadiers have it along with things like Norg Deck Dog from the Ogren line as well. You also notice that the Alpha on the Hashtari has one eye that's like Bionic, and this is specific to the Scatari Vanguard Alpha as well. But for the Hashtari, all of them have that uh from what I see, or potentially it's relating to the weapon. I think in one of the pictures they don't have it, but for the vast majority of pictures, they all have it, whereas in the regular Skatari Vanguard um they don't have it, it's just like a normal helmet without that extra kind of bionic eye uh implant. And then even some of the weapons look a bit similar to the Vanguard's arc rifles, it's got that kind of power cell coil to it uh as well. So, yeah, lots of similarity. They do just feel like an embigified or an enlarged version of the Vanguard, which personally I think is slightly lazy, but we will talk about that more in the wrap-up at the end when I give my view on whether I like these minis or not. So let's look at some of the design elements and where they might have come from. I wanted to call out Jez Goodwin's Imperial Robot 2 sketch. So I've got an really old 40k art book called Forgotten. Anvil Eldritch and it features loads of artists from the Warhammer 40k studio. And I knew this one was in here, so I wanted to take a photograph of it and show you. So this is Jez Goodwin's Imperial Robot 2. So I thought uh if you're watching along on video, you can see it. But it is an Imperial robot, but more modernized from the ones that we saw in Rogue Trader. The helmet has clearly been reused in the Skatari Infiltrators, but it does feature two similar items, which is the shoulder-mounted weapon as well as an arm that has a gun attached to it. And the reason why I wanted to call it out on its own because I thought it would be really interesting to show you that entire piece of art in its own right rather than later on when I'm just giving you little snippets of what the art or the model is being in comparison to. So yeah, so I just wanted to show it here up front first in full, and it's available on Google. Like I could have pulled an image online, but I had the book, so I wanted to take my own photo of it to put into this presentation. But yeah, if you're listening along on audio, I'm pretty sure if you just searched Jez Goodwin Imperial Robot, it would come up so you could take a look at it. It's definitely not a one-to-one copy for the hashtari, but it feels like the hashtari has been heavily influenced by this illustration. So next up, let's call out some of the items that the hashtari has and where those callbacks might have come from. So obviously the majority of it's going to be from the Skatari range, which is quite large, but there isn't many historical models for it to be uh based on or to or to call back to, because with the exception of the Tech Priest engine sear, every single model in the Adeptus Mechanicus line is still the first iteration of that model. There haven't been any re-sculpted kits. So firstly, as I've already mentioned, the helmet, the helmet is very similar to the vanguard Skatari. And here I found an image where actually the hashtari don't all have the Bionic eye, and they have some that are just the plain visor, which again references the standard infantry of the Vanguard Skatari, not the Alphas. So again, there is options that are similar. Then you've got that shoulder-mounted weapon, which is very similar to the Castellan robots that have their sort of off-centered shoulder-mounted gun, although I think it's technically more mounted on their backpack. And likewise the Jez Goodwin Imperial robot, which even has the same mounting point if you look at it with the bolt going through on that Euclip. And that is a one-for-one exact replica. I could have also perhaps called out some of the Imperial Inquisitor characters who also have shoulder-mounted weapons, because that is a sort of iconic element of 40k that's been going back even further. And Inquisitor Covenant is probably the most famous named character to have a shoulder-mounted weapon. And then lastly, we've got the backpack generator, so very similar to the Fulgerite Electro Priest with an almost cylinder element to it, which actually also appears on a lot of the terrain kits and pieces, as well as that big Adeptus Mechanicus symbol on the back as well. Then we've got that gyroscopically stabilized gun arm, which originally I didn't actually think had much precedence in 40k, so I dug around the model range to see what I could find. And I discovered that we've got the Thallax cohort from the old Heresy models. They appear to have a gyrostabilized arm. And I need to be very specific here when I talk about this. It's an arm with a gun attached to it, but it isn't freestanding. It requires a normal arm on the other hand to be holding it, which is very specific because a lot of units, like the Catathron Breachers, and Destroyers, most Tyranids, for example, are either carrying guns or they have a gun arm, but it is just freestanding. It doesn't require another hand to hold it up. So it feels like it's quite unique here. And the ones I found were the phallax cohort from the old heresy range. That appears to be a gun permanently mounted onto a hand. We've obviously got that Jez Goodwin Imperial robot model. And then the only other one in terms of the entire 40k range that I could think of is the Tyranid Hiveguard, which again appears to have a model with an arm with a gun permanently attached to it, but still requiring another regular arm to hold it up. Whereas a lot of the Tyranid range tends to be holding a completely separate gun, it seems. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this gun arm concept. It does feel very odd, and it probably explains why I've only been able to find a few rare instances of it. Because in my mind, if you're going to have a gun arm, it should be able to hold its own weight up. So yeah, it just feels a little bit odd. Next up, we've got that layered plate armor. Again, similar to what we saw on the Havocs for the Chaos, but this time I'm taking a look at it from the point of view of the Imperium. So actually, we've got Thulia Gould herself, she has that armor going down her body. We've got the Catahron breaches, where it's kind of going up the body in reverse, so it feels upside down in comparison to all these other examples. We've got the very latest Indomsis Terminator kits, the Primaris ones, if you want to call it that, although they don't have many plates, it's just two. And then we've got Norc Dag Dog as well, where he's got that going all down his body. And with the exception of Thulia Guild, these are all kind of elite heavy infantry. So my point about it being shorthand for heavy elite infantry seems quite correct. So lastly, I've got a few points that I want to make and look at some comparatively similar units within the game. One's in the 40k range, which is the Catafron Destroyers, and then the other is a more recent addition in the Heresy range, which is the Myrmidon Destructor host. The heavy Hashtari infantry feel like they're meant to be elite units carrying very large guns. And it feels like that's what the Catahron Destroyers already are. And the Catahron Destroyers are doing it sort of better. One, they're servitors, they're a bit more mindless. Their guns are a little bit bigger, but they're doing it in a more efficient way by the fact that they're being on these little tracks. So they're driving around, they don't require arms to carry the heavier weapons, and it feels like a much more distinct and iconic unit that's got its own design. For hashtag just feel like bigger versions of Skitari doing a job not as efficient as how the Catafron Destroyers are going about it. And then in comparison, you've also got the Myrmidon Destructor host, which in my mind look phenomenal. I love the design of them. And they're doing a similar thing where they're carrying around big giant guns. They're slightly bigger, a bit like the Catapron Destroyers. They've got the heavy armor, they've got the giant power cell on their back, and they're carrying the guns freehand, and it feels like they've got each arm as a weapon arm, and then some cool mechamendrites and stuff as well. Now, my one design critique of the Mermdon Destructor host is they've done that cliche thing that Games Workshop do, where you have these plates of armor and chess pieces just attached to robes that are below. Very much like you see with a lot of the space marine range where you have armor on top of robes. It doesn't really feel that practical, especially when there's no straps attached uh holding the plates up. It's not like you've got some fabric underneath and then a chess piece strapped on top. They just feel magically stuck on, which obviously seems a bit odd, but is very 40k. So I'm gonna let it slide. Uh personally, I really like the Memden Destructor Host. I think the models are phenomenally cool. So we're gonna take this as a little excuse to go look at those models. So I've got up all the images from the original Games Workshop article showing all the different head options. You can see the chest pieces for the armor is all unique and different. There's clearly a bunch of different weapon options, they've got these really heavily loaded robotic legs, and yeah, overall, they're just really cool looking. They look scary, they look awesome, they look intimidating, they feel like they're getting the job done in the way that they should be, but I just feel like the Heshtari fall short of that because they just look too similar to Skitari. And then lastly, we've got for comparison that actually you get a similar number, you get six for the Mermadon Destructor host, and you get five in the Heshtari. I think the Mermdon Destructor Host is going to be slightly bigger models on bigger bases. I've got no doubt about that. If I was at all able to run Myrmidon Destructor Host as Hashtari, I would totally do that if it was possible. Um, to an extent, I do think the Myrmidon Destructor Host is a unit that generally wants me, that is calling me to go and have a heresy Adeptus Mechanicum army, because I think this unit is so cool. They just feel so grimdark, realistic and grounded and kind of gritty. Where hashtari just look a bit cartoony in comparison, and there's no grimdark elements to the hashtari. They're kind of just like cartoony robots and bigger versions of Scutari, which ultimately feels a bit lazy. So yeah, we're at my final wrap-up and summary, and I feel like it's kind of obvious. The hashtari, I'm not a huge fan of. The gyro stabilized gun arm as a concept has grown on me since I've done a bit more research into it and to see that it does exist within the 40k universe. But it feels like such a stupid concept. If you're gonna have a gun arm, that gun arm should support the entire weight of the gun. Or the other hand is a completely dedicated gun mount for that arm as well. There's no point having a free hand because it can't ever go and do anything, it needs to constantly be holding up um the gun. Yeah, it just sort of logically falls apart much more easily than the rest of the mad 40k rules and logic that we have. And yeah, it's just too similar to the Scatari. I can see why they've wanted to keep it as a similar unit but bigger and tougher, but it feels like having a much more bespoke, uniquely designed unit would have made much more sense, especially within the Adeptus Mechanicus range, where pretty much every single unit is a completely bespoke mad concept, and there is very little cross-pollination in terms of similarities in the overall sort of design scheme. So, yeah. Do I think this unit is great? Unfortunately not. But if you like it, by all means enjoy yourself. I think potentially it is one of those models that might grow on me over time, and it would be quite interesting. Um but yeah, I think for me it doesn't quite hold a candle to that Myrmid and Destructor host, which had the unfortunate timing of coming out just before this one, stealing the Hashtari's thunder effectively. So with that, we can now go on to the next section. Transitional noise! And in this part of the podcast, we are doing a design breakdown for the Knight Dostria, the newest Imperial Knight, and also a new class of Imperial Knight, which is the Ballastus class. Interesting, the Dustria means war horse. Fun fact for you. Like with the other videos where I've done these design breakdowns, for the preview minis, we are going to look at the official Games Workshop photos. I'm going to give you a bit of a history to do with the knights. So in this particular one, we're going to look at the knights through the ages, all the way back to Epic. Look at all the different classes of knights as well for a bit of context for this new chassis of knight. And then we're going to look at some of the design inspirations that I feel are most appropriate for this new mini as well. So I'll give you my full take at the very end of this section. But my initial reaction to this was, what on earth is this? And I think it was because it looks very much like a Questorus Knight with the chicken legs from the Armadures. And I assumed it was just a redo of the Questorus Knight kit, and that they had updated it, and they just amalgamated some of the weapons Serastus kit in terms of the Lancer weapon. So I was a bit underwhelmed and a bit weirded out when I very first saw it. But then when I scrolled down, read the article, discovered that it was brand new knight, and it was a different scale from what we had seen. I started to warm to the idea of the knight quite quickly, and it didn't take long, I think, after a few hours, and definitely the next day I was a lot more keen on the knight. But with that as sort of an initial reaction, we can get on and look at the rest of the mini. Like I said, it does look like a classic Questorus knight, but with the legs of the Armager or even the Chaos Knights. And then the two main weapons that we're seeing here is we've got a Scatling gun, it's got a heavy stubber as its shoulder mount, and then it's got a lance weapon as well. And then from the side view, you can see that lance in a bit more detail where it clearly has an ability to like thrust forwards. So it'll be interesting to see on the kit if that is actually posable, if you could have it going to the front as well as sort of rammed backwards as it currently is. They put out it has some thrusters built into the back, which I don't really show off very well, but you can just about see them in the image. And then there's also some counterweights on the legs as well, which you don't really see on any of the larger knights from what I remember, but they are on the armager. And I think the idea with the thrusters or boosters that it's actually going to be a lot more mobile than the existing knights. So that will be quite interesting to see. It's cool that you can open it up and you get a pilot inside. And I'm pretty sure you don't actually get a knight pilot in the existing Armager or Questorus kit either. I think the Serastus might have it, and obviously the Titans have had it as well. So it's really interesting that they're giving it to us in this smaller kit. And it does make me think that maybe we'll be getting an updated Questorus kit at some point, but I will speculate more on that in the end. You can also see some variants with the helmet. Um, so there's a more traditional knight helmet is one of them, and then the second one is some vertical slits going down. Again, these two aren't particularly anything like the existing uh heads for the knights, so it's interesting they've gone in a very different direction here. And with the back banner at the top, it does give it a very knightly feel to it, uh, leaning more into the concept of knights being medieval knights versus them just being robotic constructs. There's also some different weapon options, so there's a frag cannon, there's also a chainsaw option as well, similar to the Reaper Chainsaw that we've got on the other knights. And then the other weapon that I forgot to mention is the Gatling Canon. They've also given us a bit of a size guide for the Armadur, the new Ballastus class, and also the Questorus. The Questorus silhouette is a little bit disingenuous because the top bit looks like it's the hatch that's open. The silhouette's basically looking larger than it actually is, but noting that the Questorus can also have a top missile rack of some kind or weapon option or the new void shield dome. So actually it sort of is reflective of what its potential height is, but not its default height. And it's interesting that the hatch can be open because it clearly is posed here, which makes me think maybe there is a pilot in it, but I've looked online for photos and of the sprues, and it doesn't seem like you get an option, but maybe you have an option for having the hatch open. So let's go down memory lane and talk about where Imperial Knights first appeared. So obviously Titans first appeared in Adeptus Titanicus. Imperial Knights didn't appear back then. But Space Marine in 1989, I think might have had some, but they definitely appeared in Space Marine 2, which came out in 1991. And then the two editions that I remember getting involved in, which was Epic Titan Legions in 1994 and Epic 40K in 1997, and that's when they basically left the genre of heresy and space marines, and it became much more set in the generic 40k setting, with Venos taking part in it as much as the Imperium. Then there was a brief stint in 2003 where Epic Armageddon got a redo as part of the specialist games, and I think that was Citadel Journal, but I could be wrong in stating that. So from doing a little bit of research, the first mention of Imperial Knights was in White Dwarf 126, which came out in 1990, which was the first edition of Epic Space Marine. Noting that the first version was only around for a year or so. So if you're watching along on the left-hand side of the screen, I've got a bunch of the very original Imperial Knights, which I do believe was from second edition Space Marine. They're a little bit hokey, they're all very different sort of designs. On the left hand side, you've got lots of different knight lancers, which is obviously a name for the knights that we've now got. But we've also got some very odd-looking knights as well, very elder-looking ones, and then one that is even a horse, which we've definitely not seen, and also one that is tracked as well, which is sort of actually reminiscent of the Lord of Skulls. So I wouldn't be surprised if that's where the inspiration for that kit came from, was and then in the middle we've got some slightly more up-to-date versions of Imperial Knights, which I think was the later editions of Warhammer 40k Epic when it moved away from Space Marine. And here you can see they had the Knight Paladin, Crusader, and Errant classes, which is very much synonymous with the current Questorus model range. And then lastly on the right hand side, we've got the Knight Command units, which are basically the ones with the back banners. Then I've managed to find some very old Imperial Knights artwork. You can see they do look quite similar to the Questorus Knights in terms of the armor plating. You've got that classic kind of battle cannon, a Reaper Chainsword, and then obviously you've got things like the back banners, which haven't really made it into a lot of the current model range, with the exception of the new Knight Destria. And then, as I briefly mentioned before, Imperial Knights came to Warhammer 40K with actual models in plastic. This came out in 2014 as part of 6 edition 40k. So with that little history lesson out of the way, let's take a look at all the different classes of Imperial Knights. Obviously, Titans is its own character. Category, so I'm not looking at them, we're just focusing on the knights. We're also looking at the Forge World as well as the Games Workshop Knights. Now, using that initial size guide that they gave us for the Armager, the Ballastus, and the Questorus, I've tried to sort of replicate roughly the size difference between all the different classes, but this isn't to scale. So we got the smallest, which is the Armager class, and then we've got this new Ballastus class before going up to the original kit, which is the Questorus, which is sort of the oldest Imperial Knights kit that we've got so far, but also the one that's been the most frequently updated. I think it's had like three, maybe even four, updates over the years. And originally the different Knights Paladin Crusader errant classes kind of had different kits and were sold separately, and then they've all been merged into one. Then we've had the named character knight get bundled in and become its own thing, and then you've got the first time a Questorus Knight for the Imperials is able to dual world weapons, whereas before they pretty much always had one ranged weapon and one melee weapon. Then going up to the largest of the K plastic knights, we've got the Dominus. Then we've got the next size up, which was originally Forge World, but now specialist games. And this was originally in resin, which was of the Serastus class, but that's been recently redone in plastic as part of the Heresy second edition that came out a few years ago. And then we've got the Acastus, which is the largest knight type, and is now the only knight that's in resin as well. And that one literally towers over the Serastus, which was already quite a big kit. And in terms of the Akastus' size, it's so big it's almost as high as a Warhound Titan, but not quite. Also, here some of the different leg designs. So originally the Armager, I think, was the first one that had this kind of chicken leg style design. Uh the Sarastus had it as well, and I can't exactly remember which one came first. I feel like it was the Armager, but I could be wrong. Um, and then the only other knight, in addition to the Armager and Serastus, to have it was the Chaos Knights, because the Armagers and their version of Questorus also had it like the Rampager. So they had the chicken leg style as well, which is odd because that was the equivalent of Questorus, but Questorus had this more sort of standard traditional pose. So it's interesting that now with the Ballastus coming out, that most of them have this kind of chicken leg design. It does make me wonder if Questorus will get it as well in an update to bring it in line with the Chaos one, because I do think it looks better. However, with that being said, it is nice that there is a bit more of a visual difference between the Imperial Knights and the Chaos Knights. And then if that was to happen, it would just be the Dominus and the Acastus that doesn't have that design. And I quite like that because they are like the real heavy walkers, they're not meant to be very mobile, they're meant to be more plodding, even though the Serastus is bigger than the Dominus, the way it's much more leaner and sleeker, and is much more kind of combat focused than the Dominus. I like that sort of distinction. I like that there's a couple of like heavy styles, even if they're both not at the extreme end of the scale for the knights. So let's look at some of the design elements of the new knights. So we've got this top banner. Now, this is very reminiscent of the old epic knights, which is why I wanted to do a lot of the preamble about the history of the knights and where it came from to show you that this exists and harkens back to them, both in the model range for the Knight Command, but also the old black and white artwork. Now, banners have existed all through the Imperial range. The Questorus has it hanging down from its groin. The Seras models have it hanging off the weapons as well in slightly different areas. So I was building a Knight Dominus a while back and that project stalled. One of the reasons why was I wanted to add some cool banners to it. One of the areas I wanted them to go was to be in the armpit area of the night because I felt like it was missing some detail or armor there. So I was going to have these banners draped down, and I just never got around to doing it. And uh yeah, I really should go back to that project. And I think seeing this is sort of encouraging me to get back into doing some knights. Next up, we've got that top carapace. Now it's super easy this one. This is obviously referencing the Questorus knights, and also to a slightly lesser extent, the Armager, because the Armager is based on the Questorus. So you can see with these three knights together, there's a really nice evolution in the size of it while still keeping the design very consistent. They've all got that top hatch for the pilot to go into as well. Although, as I mentioned, I'm pretty sure the Armager can't open, and I'm assuming that the Questorus one can, but I'm not entirely sure about that one. It's interesting also to note that the Armager has a little top mounted weapon that you can have. The Questorus can have a top weapon, and it feels like the Destria can't, but the only thing it's got on the top is the banner. So, you know, rule of cool, it's just trying to, you know, aura farm and look awesome. It's also got a small little tilt shield, so it's gonna be able to rotate its ion shields, and then it's also got a little heavy stubber, which we'll get on to shortly. Now, the other big thing that I talked about very briefly is the legs. Obviously, this is inspired most by the armager, and as I mentioned, the Serastus style knights as well. And as you can see from the side view, it's got these counterbalance weights, which you see on the Armadures. I'm pretty sure you also get them on things like the Sentinel as well, and the Sentinel also has that sort of chicken walker leg design. But I also wanted to reference the Adeptus Mechanicus Iron Strider Balastar because they also have them, and it feels like they are referencing a lot of Mechanicum style look and feel to them, because obviously the knights would have originally been built by the Mechanicus, or whoever predated the Mechanicus, is the same sort of family of technology. But I think what this is really harking back to is the second edition of Space Marines Knight Lancer, where you do have this kind of chicken design, it's even got a chicken head, and it also interestingly has a top-mounted weapon. So actually, looking at it together, you can see that the armadure feels very inspired a little bit by this lancer, even though the lancer name was taken for one of the Serastas Knights. And then lastly, the Ruinator, which is the Questorus equivalent of the Chaos Knights, again has the chicken legs. So it feels like they're moving in the direction of the chicken legs being much more of a thing for the majority of the night range. Personally, I think the overall pose that the knights are in with the chicken legs and the potential posability of them just look a lot nicer than the current Questorus knight legs. They're just a bit too static and kind of remind me of the problem with the old space marines where they were in this very like squat-down pose and looking very static. So, some other things we can talk about is the weapons. So things like the heavy stubber, the position of it, and sort of the style looks very similar to the Crusader and the Questorus knights that have them under their underarm. Interestingly to note, it feels like the cow mounting around it, like the armored protection bit where it joins the knight on the Questorus' round, and here they've done it square, which actually looks very similar to the mounting for the Chastiser Gatling, which we'll be able to see a little bit better in the alternate weapon pose when it's the frag cannon. That's also very square. So it feels like they deliberately designed it to be a bit different from the Questorus Knights. But you can also see the similarities between the Questorus Gatling Cannon and the Destria version, very similar in design, but they don't have the big shield that the original ones have. And I always felt like the shield was a bit of a crux for mounting all the different weapon options on, and depending on which weapon it was, it just looked very odd sometimes and it didn't quite work. Whereas I feel like this version blends in the weapon and the mounting a little bit better. Then we've got the Thundershock spears, it's also referenced as being a power lance as well, and you can see that this is very much aping the Night Lancer and Castigator's weapons. The Castigator also has a Gatling Cannon, but it's it's like a dual-barreled one, so I thought it was closer in design to the Crusader Gatling Cannon. But the main weapon is the Lance, and that looks very similar to the Lancer's Lance. The Lancer's one is mounted forwards as if it's just fired, and the Destria one is it's mounted backwards, ready to shoot. What is worth highlighting is if you look at the spear tip on the Destria, it actually resembles the sword of the Knight Castigator. It's got that kind of hollowed out blade. Both are very similar. So it feels like this new lance is a combination of the lancer and the castigator's weapons, taking the tip of the sword from one and attaching it to the lance, and that's how they've got it. So one thing I'll try and remember to discuss at the end is the fact that we've got the Tsarastus weapons on this smaller kit, potentially a way of giving us these kits so the Trasterus kits can forever go to heresy and be phased out of decay. Something we'll hopefully get to discuss at the end. So next up is the alternative weapons where we've got the frag bombard and the reaper chain sword. So here with the frag bombard, you can see that much squarer mounting point that was hidden by the Gatling Cannon, which does look similar to the existing heavy stubber mounting as well. And then when we look at the chainsword itself, obviously references is the Questorus Knight in the form of a gallant and also the Armager Warglai's both have chainswords and slightly different designs as well. So the warglave one, the chainsaw goes most of the way around, but not all the way around. But the design of it feels very much like it's designed to only be a downwards thrust, much like a classic space marine chainsaw where the blade is mostly on one side. But this one, it goes all the way around, and the chainsaw's tip is double-edged, looking more like a traditional sword, which to me references possibly my most favourite chainsaw design, and that is from the Space Wolf upgrade kit where the teeth go all the way around the chainsaw rather than just being on one facing. I think some of the chaos chainsaws also have this sort of design to it, but this is by far my favourite and looks the most similar to this new design for the Night Destria. And then lastly, we've got that frag cannon design. Now it might be possible, and I forgot to check this out, that it would be similar in design to the Deathwatch frag cannon because they do have a frag cannon. But to me, visually, in terms of vehicles, it most looks like the Lehman Ross Demolisher cannon. You've got those big side mountings, and you've got the kind of holes that go around the barrel for the gas releases, because the demolisher is based on an old tank from World War II, which was actually effectively a kind of mini rocket that it needed to expel lots of the air. It wasn't a traditional shell, and I guess that's why they've got a similar design, even on the Frank Cannon. So it is lobbing a miniature rocket more so than a shell that is being fired traditionally, hence why you've got those perforations around the edge of the barrel. And then lastly, we've got the faceplate designs. These look very different from every other faceplate design that we've had for the Imperial Knights. All of the different knight classes have a very different sort of style. A lot of them still have robotic faces or very like armoured faceplates. But this is a first time where it feels like it's really leaning into the medieval nature of them, and they feel much more like actual medieval knights. And there isn't many references I could find from Games Workshop themselves. The closest for the design on the left-hand side, which is the main image, where you've basically got the traditional eye slits, and then you've got these breathing holes on the cheeks. That is most similar to the Britonian battle standard bearer. I think there was also a named character that also had a similar design. But that is the most sort of classic style knight I could find within the games workshop range. And to be honest, I think these are just referencing more likely military armour or slightly fantasy armour. And then the next knight's face plates just has these vertical slits all the way down. But it's also worth noting at the top and the bottom, they've got this kind of wedge shape design as well, which is very similar, after a bit of Google research, of this character called Alvert from Dark Souls. I've not played the game, so I don't know for sure, but it does look very similar. And then I saw someone else online discussing that design and saying it very heavily seemed to reference a knight called Sir William Herbert, who features in a book all about the Royal Armouries, which is a museum in Leeds, if I'm not mistaken. And again, they both have that vertical slit, but the Alva design is the only one that goes down all the way, is one big piece, and also has at the top and bottom that kind of wedge shape. So it does feel like the design is heavily referenced. This knight character in particular. One thing worth noting that the Sir William Herbert original one that potentially was inspiration for Alva is that from the side view, the helmet bulges out really far to sort of over-protect the nose, which you can't appreciate in this front view. I appreciate that. But the Alva character doesn't have that, and it's got a much more sort of traditional sort of design that we see on the night, where there's no need for a nose whatsoever. So yeah, that was my thoughts on nose. Interestingly, it feels like it's the first time I couldn't find a reference from within Games Workshop's own history for models as self-referencing. But if you have seen a night mini which looks like this second night mask, do let me know because that would be interesting to see. So we can wrap this up. Do I like this knight? Yes, I really do. Initially I was a no because I thought it was replacing one of the existing kits, which I do still have a worry about, but it is not the Questorus Knight, and it just felt like a very odd-looking Questorus Knight. Do I like the Lancer weapon? Not really. I liked it on the old Serastus knight, but I don't hate it. It just feels odd that they've reused and repurposed one that exists already. Which sort of makes sense, you know. But it felt like the armages had unique weapons specific to them. The Questorus ones have weapons specific to them, and the Dominus chassis has specific weapons to them that don't exist in any of the others. The Chainsaw being the one that kind of goes throughout all of them, which I don't mind. So I like the fact that the Lance was specific to the Serastus class, and that the Gallant Cannon was specific to the Questorus class. So it's a shame that we're getting a new class of knight, but is giving us a rehash of weapons and not something particularly new. So that's kind of my one criticism. There's elements to this design that I really love. I love the back banner, it just seems very cool. And I do feel like the knights do benefit when they have banners on them. In fact, the top banner does look a lot better than the banners hanging down between the legs, which really works well on Titans and on the Lancers, but less so on the Questorus Knights and anything smaller. And I also really like the leg style, and I think this gives me a clue that this would also work really well on the Imperial Questorus Knights. I think they could do with an upgrade kit or a redo. This almost feels a bit like the Rogal Dawn in my conspiracy theory that it's going to one day replace the Lehman Russ. It feels like they're giving us a replacement for the Questorus Knight without outright replacing it. In that weird way that Games Workshop seems to do things, they don't want to just give us a redo of something, they want to give it a slight twist. So it's similar enough, uh, but it is unique and it has its own data sheet and is a reason for people to go out and buy a new version of a knight. Because if it was just a redo of the Questorus Knight kit, no one would buy it because they already own a million of them. However, no one owns this type of knight, so knight players will be encouraged to go out and get it. Now that is a bit of a tin hat moment because I don't think they're gonna replace this with the Questorus Knight, but it does feel like there's an element to it. I do still suspect that the Questorus Knight could get a upgrade screw where they just swap out the sprue for the legs and give us these kind of chicken walker legs, and I think that would actually be a really genuine improvement to that kit, because it's not invalidating the old kits whatsoever. You've got some with slightly worse looking legs, and ultimately I think that's the one part of the kit that the design is let down by, whereas the top half is all fantastic. Although saying that, having seen this amazing top banner that flows backwards, I would love to see that on some of the larger knights like the Questorus Knights, or even some of the armages if you're not running that top weapon. That would also look really good. Now, my other concern is that this is going to replace the Serastus Knights because Games Workshop has a real history of taking heresy units and removing them from 40k. We've had it with the contemptors and the Leviathan dreadnoughts for heresy. We've had it basically for everything in heresy, with the exception of Imperial Knights and Custody. Now, this year it will be really interesting because we've got a brand new Heresy Custodies range, which could be compatible with the 40k range, but not completely, because things like the new captain with the Melter Lance and the Blade Champion won't have models in the heresy range, and the design does look actually a bit different. So, with the exception of that, it feels like there's a bit of cross-pollination, but with this new design of kits, they might go, Great, this is now the heresy range, and the 40k custody range is its own thing. Now, with this new Ballustus class, they might go, yeah, we've given you the things that look very similar to the Lancer and Castigator and the other Serastus class knights. You've got your Lance, you've got your Gatling cannons, and you've got things like the Frank cannons and chainsaws, which don't completely line up, but who knows? And it feels like this is going to be a faster version than the Questorus Knight, based on it talking about the counterbalance weights on the legs and also the thrusters at the rear where the power cells are. So it feels like this could be a really good replacement for the Trastous Knights. The Trasteris Knights goes off to heresy where they will live forever, and this is your replacement for them, even though it's a smaller unit rather than a bigger one. Now, is that a complete conspiracy theory? Possibly, but it's my theory at the very least. Could it happen? Possibly. Games Workshop has a real habit of doing these things, and they've really held off for doing it for knights and for custodies, because they are so popular. And the Forge World units have been propping up those ranges. But now with this extra kit, maybe there's less of a reason that they need the larger knights in the game of 40k. So that's my deep dive into the knight destroyed. Austria, let me know what you think of the model down in the comments, or drop me a message over on Instagram or Facebook. We now get on with the outro of the show. Transitional noise. If you've made it this far, welcome to the outro ramble. Now, normally I would probably start this off with a five-star review, but actually this week I'm going to skip the five-star review because I have just two left to do. And we all know what happens when the five-star reviews run out. I pack up shop and we end the podcast for good. So says the agreement that we made many a years ago between myself and Dan and you for listener. So yeah, I don't want it to end just yet. So there's no review this week. I'm going to conveniently forget about it. However, if you are so able to leave a five-star review, I would greatly appreciate that because I haven't had a single one since I've been doing this on my own, which is rather offensive. Come on, people, make me feel good. Although, to be fair, that's more of a damn thing. So I'm modest enough to not need one, but it would be helpful to have a few more reviews to keep the show ticking along. Likewise, if you would like to support the show in other ways, you can like it, you can share it, you can leave comments on YouTube. You can also see the merch that we've got on Rev level. And also if you're extra, extra nice, you can support us over on Patreon, which helps fund the show, pays for the lights in the studio. No, it doesn't really. It basically pays for the software that I need to edit and produce the podcast. And it will also go towards the books that I'll be purchasing for review, such as the 500 Worlds book that will be coming to an episode shortly. And with that little plug out the way, let's get on with talking about a few things. So in the last episode, I mentioned that I was most likely going to talk about the Red Corsairs army and how I built my Thunder Warriors and Minor Tools. And that was my plan originally, with the option of talking about some of those reviewed models, which is what I ended up talking about. And originally I wasn't going to do it, I was quite deep into preparing for talking about Red Corsairs, how I was planning the army, and we were going to look at some models, talking about how I would research the project. And then Tim kindly mentioned that Adepticon is coming up, reminded me that there probably is going to be a preview show relating to Adepticon. And if that's coming out next episode, I should really get all the other reveals that Games Workshop have been talking about out of the way first, because that's sort of time sensitive. Whereas actually discussing Red Corsairs is something that I could do at any point. So that will be for a future episode. Hopefully, next episode after this, I will be talking about a reveal show if there is one, although Games Workshop hasn't actually announced one yet, which is a little bit odd because they would normally announce it by now. So who knows with that one? Um if it does, I've basically got one day to film and edit a reaction. So hopefully it will come out on time, but there is a small chance it might be delayed by a couple of days just because the production time, as I mentioned in the last episode, is increasingly longer when it comes to editing these episodes. Although hopefully a discussion about the reveal show will be a lot quicker than an episode like today where I had to do loads of prep work for it in terms of collating all the files and artwork together to form a little presentation. Yes, I've done some hobbying, but not a lot. But speaking of presentations, what I have been going to is going to the local school in Oxford in the UK, giving a talk to the kids at that school, talking all about Warhammer. Basically, one of the teachers asked me to present because they get guest speakers in as part of their assembly. So I had to give a 20-minute presentation all about Warhammer, briefly going through what is Warhammer, what is the setting, what are the differences between 4K and Age of Sigma, how to play the game, how to get into the hobby, kind of covering everything as much as I could in a short space of time. It seemed to go down well. The school is talking about potentially doing a Warhammer Club, or some of the kids are going to go down to the local games workshop or as it's now called, Warhammer store, and pick up at least a couple of freebie miniatures. So that was a really positive thing to do, and actually that took up a lot of my time that I would normally be spending preparing to do the podcast. So the last few days I've been quite mad trying to get this episode planned, put together, and now recording and tomorrow editing. So that was really fun to do. I was really happy with the presentation that I did, and I'm probably gonna record that as a standalone video. It doesn't really feel appropriate for Lookout Sur, because most of you listening know what Warhammer is, but if people are interested, I will put it on Lookout Sur. But I'm mostly gonna record it as a standalone video for my Beyond the Tabletop channel, and it will sit there on YouTube for people to access as a short 20-25-minute presentation. I've added to it slightly because I wanted to go a little bit more in-depth in a couple of areas which I felt like I'd maybe missed out in the presentations of the kids. So hopefully it will be a great kind of beginner's guide for people wanting to just learn what Warhammer is all about, but mostly still keeping it in the flavor of the presentation that I gave. In terms of actual hobbying, over the last few weeks, I've managed to play some games. So myself and Tim played our final game of the boarding actions 500 Worlds campaign that we were doing. The last time we met up, we managed to do two games. I won the first game, but Tim won the second. He, as the Necrons, is attacking my Thunder Warrior flagship, and we were finally able to meet up and play that final game to see who wins the campaign. Now I can't remember the exact name of the mission. It was the one after lockdown, effectively culminating on a battle on the bridge. I had changed up my list slightly because I wanted to thematically make it all about the bridge. So instead of having a blade champion, I took Trajan to be my ultimate warrior, still represented by a different blade champion model, because it was quite suitable, I thought. And then instead of having my wardens, which I've been having throughout the campaign, I decided to go for my unit of Aquilon Terminators, along with my regular unit of Custodian Guard, the Thunder Warrior Guard, I guess. So it was a very interesting match. Trajan got locked into combat with some immortals, I think they were. And basically, they could not kill Trajan for quite some time, but I also couldn't kill the immortals. We were just locked in combat. And due to Tim's being able to constantly resurrect them through the Necron protocols, and also the resurrection orb just kept them all alive for so long. And ultimately, he ground Trajan down to the final turn where he succumbed to his wounds. But over the other side of the battle, my Terminators and my custodian guard rinsed through the rest of Tim's army, meaning I successfully defended the bridge and was ultimately the campaign victor sitting off for Necrons. That was a great little campaign, and we've both been enjoying the boarding actions campaign. Sadly, though, in terms of 500 worlds, that's the only one we can really play with the terrain that I've got, because the other two campaign systems require technically the Necron terrain as well, because one is standalone to Necrons, and then the other one is a mixture of the classic boarding actions terrain plus the Necron boarding actions terrain. And I assume you could probably get away with just using the regular terrain, because I assume the pieces are similar and will fit together to make the layouts correct. It just won't be themed exactly correct. So we could do that, but I do have an entire book of boarding actions with all the Arcs of Omen campaigns in. So I think we're going to play through one of those next. And I said I would stop using the Thunder Warriors because the custody's rules overall seem a bit strong. Or Tim just hasn't lent into units that can deal with them. If he took more immortals, I think he would do it do a great job because I really struggled with them. At least when they were going up against one guy as opposed to an entire unit which can have a bit more punch. So I think next time I would probably try out my Minotaurs. So I've got some space marines. The other option is to lean more into Astramilitarum, but I kind of like the excuse to use some of my space marines because I haven't used them in a while. So I think that's what I'm going to do for that next time we meet up. And then the other games that I've been doing is more 500 worlds, but this is the 500 worlds campaign that I've been taking part in. This time I played Richard with his knights and Dan with his blood angels. So the game against Richard and his Chaos Knights, I was attacking him as the proactive player attacking his homeworld to try and reduce the power level on that world. So it was quite surprising. I didn't expect to do well because Richard has a lot of Volkite. He had two knights, one of which is a Forgeworld knight, and one is a regular knight that both have Volkite, which which, while AP dash is high strength and also three damage each, which meant each failed save I would be doing would be a dead custodies, and also it can do devastating wounds. But thankfully he never seemed to roll very well when he was doing the wound roll, so he never really got off for devastating wounds. And he charged me a couple of times in combat, which I think was his undoing because I just seemed to outcombat him in the combat phase. So it took a few turns, but I did eventually table him. But then when it came to the rolls to determine how much damage I did to the planet, I rolled terribly, so I didn't actually do that much or gain much from the campaign. I think basically we went up one campaign point, but we could have taken the Chaos team down by two points, but I failed to do that. And then my game against Dan, where he was the aggressor and I was the defender. I got absolutely smashed by Dan's Blood Angels, in part because Dan's got a good list, but also he's a good player. Um but basically a lot of his army has jump pack infantry, so it's really mobile, and he can just screen out my army from combat. He is also a combat army, and he can just dictate the terms of the pace of the game. He can charge into me, but he can position himself in a way where I can't really ever get a charge off on him, but then he can get a charge on me because his movement is just so much bigger. But I think I learned some good lessons from that game. I think I need to deep strike against him and just hope I get lucky on some of the charge rolls. With a blade champion, I can do that because I at least get a free reroll. And I do have a unit of three jump pack custodies that I could use. And while it's only three guys going into a unit of five, either Sangary Guard or Death Company, it's still better than nothing and does give me a bit more manoeuvrability to counter his manoeuvrability. So I probably need to do something like that in the next game. Again, thousand points lists are a little bit skewed because people can lean into one particular playstyle over the other. They would probably accuse me of doing the same because I have a very combat heavy army, but I have so far lost in my two campaign games against the other two combat armies in the entire campaign. Whereas when someone's got more shooting or a mixture of shooting and combat, I've done okay so far. So yeah, there'll be more updates on that campaign as it goes. So Spike, who's the campaign master, is throwing us a few freebie bonuses to each person's army. So Dan has a master of ordinance style ability for his Space Marines where you can do an orbital strike, much like in 9th edition Space Marine Army. Richard has a knight that can, I think, re-roll the charge rolls, but if he rolls doubles and fails, something horrible will go wrong. Both of those have a stipulation that that model needs to be painted up to gain the benefit. I have gained an Inquisitor model for free, assuming I build and paint up a Inquisitor model. So I've got the Inquisitor model Erasmus Cartavolnus, which actually you can see here, although the front is very faded, the back has got the actual colour because the front has sun damage on it for some reason. So I've been building him up, and the idea is I wanted to convert him up because the original model has him with a sword plunging it into a book because he's Auto Malleus and the book is flaming out. But what I really want to do was give the Huron Blackheart Squad with the apothecary model, where there's a space marine on his base. So I've managed to get that one model from a bit site, and the idea is instead of stabbing a book, he's going to be stabbing a space marine with some demonic flames coming out of him because he's obviously going to be a heretic. So that is my plan for the kitbash, which has kind of been on hold for the last couple of weeks just while I've been trying to source these bits. It finally arrived in the post today. So hopefully, if I get some free time to hobby over the weekend, I will get around to building that Inquisitor and I can get on with painting it soon as well. Fingers crossed that I get to do that. And one last thing that I got that was quite exciting. I purchased some Warhammer art from the Warhammer Art website to adorn my walls, hopefully along the back here. Now I do have some very old posters that I think I got in White Dwarf that are very large. I think they're maybe A2 in size, but trying to source frames for that might be quite difficult. Um, but I stumbled across the Warhammer art website, found a couple of pieces that I really liked the look of. So one art piece was a John Blanche Inquisitor one, although I also really liked his Sisters of Silence concept art as well, which I was so close to also getting. But instead, I opted for my second piece, which was the Horus versus the Emperor black and white illustration from 1990, because to me that is just iconic artwork. I think there would have been other pieces I would have loved to have gotten, like the John Blanche Battlefleet Gothic art piece. Unfortunately, a lot of the interesting and iconic pieces from my childhood have all gone because they are limited runs. So sadly, I couldn't buy them. But if they were to ever redo them, I probably would pick a couple of pieces up. So I opted for the unframed options because that was a lot cheaper. The framed versions are exceedingly expensive because weirdly they're not uh the standard sort of A4, A3 size that you would get in Europe. They're slightly odd sizes, so all the framings I think are custom sizes as well. So what I've done is I've got some IKEA frames that I managed to buy, and I'm hoping that the mounting piece will suitably frame the artwork. And I think basically I'm losing a tiny percentage of the actual artwork size because obviously the frames are designed for A4, the images are slightly wider, I think. If you're in portrait, they're slightly wider. So I'm gonna lose a little bit of the pieces of artwork, but I'm also saving, I think, about£75 per piece of artwork by not buying the official framed pieces. Fingers crossed it works. If not, it's gonna be a hideously expensive waste of money, potentially. But I'm sure I work it out eventually. And maybe, just maybe, if you're watching along, next time there'll be some lovely art appearing in the background of my shed. That's it for this episode. I hope you've enjoyed it. Next time, fingers crossed will be a reveal show. If not, it might be Red Corsairs. But sometimes the warp has other things for us, and we are destined to end up not where we expected. That's it for now. Bye bye, everyone. Bye bye.