So much of what made Warhammer 40K compelling to me was the fluff/setting. The models are cool, sure, but I got involved back in 2nd edition; The models were OK then, but not great. It was the fluff that held shit together, that made me want to act out battles between squads of stoic Dark Angels and a lithe and deadly strike-force of Eldar. There was a serious cool-factor to the idea of that universe: Humanity in a technological dark age, having lost technology they once had, superstition and mysticism prevailing, the empire crumbling under the weight of bureaucracy...
So tell me where this fits in?
Terminator armour was the end-all-be-all of the Space Marine arsenal. The technology to even make them was lost, making those they had left precious and holy. So what the fuck is this? Where did this come from? Did the Ultramarines just happen to have some of these just sitting around in some darkened corner of the armory, concealed by cobwebs? Did Marneus Calgar trip over one in an unused hallway and exclaim "Oh yeah, these things! How could I have forgotten?"
I feel disappointed, more than anything. I'd already basically walked away from GW, but I can't help but know that if I were still in, I'd be in a rage. My first army was Dark Angels, and often I felt that the DA get shafted in comparison to what inevitably came in the later 'vanilla' codices. I'm also willing to bet that any other chapter-specific codex to come out now will also include these, leaving the Dark Angels in the lurch. Some of these recent decisions at GW feel to me like they lacked thought as to how these additions/changes affect the setting as a whole; like they're forfeiting that compelling setting in favor of cool-toy-mode. It feels less like a decision made to evolve/refine the Space Marines and who they are in the setting, and more a decision to give SM a large mech because other armies had mechs. They made a cool mech for the Tau, then one for the Eldar (neither of which really made sense to me, either)... and now there's a Space Marine mech-thing. Only thing that could make it worse is if it were somehow larger than the Riptide/WraithKnight.
I feel like this is the punchline to a joke, rather than a serious product.
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| Yo Dawg, I herd u lik armor. So I put your armor in some armor, so you can wear armor while you're wearing armor |
Good use of Ludacris. Have to say I totally agree with you on the Centurions. They simply don't fit in with the aesthetic or fluff of the SM army. Terminators are the pinnacle and above them are dreadnoughts. After all terminators are meant to be mini-dreadnoughts i.e. Tactical Dreadnought Armour. What are centurions then? Mini titans?
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do see where the riptide and wraithknight fit in. Tau technology is constantly evolving so you could easily believe they'd have come up with the riptide. A lot of the Eldar fluff talks about giant wraith constructs. Now you could argue these are meant to be revenant/phantom titans but they could easily be wraithknights.
At the end of the day GW have to keep bringing out new models if they want to make money. They have 3 options here. Re-do existing models like the veterans and tactical marines. Introduce new units that need retcon into the fluff or else release an entirely new race which is costly and risky. Sometimes they miss the mark I suppose.
I believe the key to this is the idea of new model = more money. As far as the 'large mech' phenomenon, I think it started with the Trygon and GK Dreadknight and has just escalated from there.
ReplyDeleteI can see the reasoning behind the Tau's Riptide more than these Centurions, true, but I don't as much buy that the answer they would come up with was a giant robot as opposed to, say, a better gun. A different turret option on their tanks/Broadsides? ...but that wouldn't sell new models.
The Eldar are a whole different thing. They already had large robots in the Wraithlords! The Wraithknight just seemed superfluous at that point. Again, I think it comes down to selling toys as opposed to refining an army. The fluff is even weirder. Given how loathe the Eldar are to use their fallen in battle at all, these things require identical twins, one dead. How much MORE loathe would that one be to use his/her fallen twin? I know it's supposed to speak to the desperation of the Eldar in general, but how many of these can there possibly be? ...and fluff-wise, can you imagine the masochistic ass-hat Eldar who conceived of the idea in the first place? lol.
As much as it's a bad thing that they, somewhat cynically, release a new model to make money. It's ultimately what has to happen for them to survive as a business.
ReplyDeleteThe riptide could be justified in response to some of the monstrous creatures the Tau have to face. The earth caste could be trying to come up with a suit that can go toe-to-toe with these big things where the crisis teams can't.
I agree the wraithknight is a little harder to swallow but again retcon is always difficult.
Any fluff purist will always be at odds with a new GW release. If you look at the original fluff for all of the armies they struggle to match up with what we have today.
The Tau's advantage has always been their weapons. I'm not sure they'd go the Pacific Rim route and start making Jaegers instead of focusing on their weaponry... but I digress on that one.
ReplyDeleteIt's not change I'm railing against, it's the creative choices that they chose to implement those changes. I had no problem with the new tank variant that also came out in the SM codex, or the Eldar flier, or the Tau bomber. To me, they made sense in their armies...
They look like a kind of bridge towards the old Epic games. I always thought the titans were ridiculous themselves, but I have to remember they're canon as anything else, lol.
They had to make an exclusive new model to give the grav cannon to. They made these since they were out of ideas. I think they should have made a rapier kit with grav cannon option but since artillery has rules that you cannot just throw out this is what you get. Look I am better than a terminator, carry more weapons than a devastator squad, and am ugly as sin.
ReplyDeleteI've not picked up the new codex so not sure on the rules and all that jazz, but no doubt it'll be some bumf about a lost template found on x planet, the design studio could have done loads of really cool stuff with the advancement in the plastics (have you seen the net for the wyches for DE, very nice!) but these "things" get the green light!
ReplyDeleteBut I am surprised that marines didn't get a mega type walker like the GK & Eldar chaos got the dog thing and DA the flying church/flier.
I'm going to be looking forward to the Orks early next year according to the mutter from the gutter I'm just hoping that they don't go to OOT on the comedy factor or the orks and keep some darkness in there.
My fears on the DA getting a raw deal are as I thought, and no doubt the response I'll get from the more hardcore gamer at the local club will be use allies.
Kinda surprised they didn't go the big walker route myself, yeah.
ReplyDeleteand thus I invalidate both Terminators and Devastators... in one blow! bestofthebestofthebest mahreens!
ReplyDelete"You'd take Centurions in an effort to fulfill both Terminator and Devastator roles at the same time"
ReplyDeleteThis is what I was getting at, that this unit can fulfill both roles simultaneously (though at a points premium, yes). "Invalidate" was perhaps too reactionary of me.
The idea of Centurion armor filling the gap of depleting Termie armor is still counter to the fluff of the 40k universe. Mankind's technology is in a state of decline, forcing them to maintain ancient machines they no longer know how to produce; innovation is stymied. It doesn't seem right to me.
While that may be the case, don't forget that the Adeptus Mechanicus is always on the hunt for lost STC's. Additionally, even when an STC is found, it may take hundreds of years to get approval for general use as it gets shipped back to Mars and poured over by high ranking Magos to determine if it is heretical or not.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest complaint is these things suck at either role, and where a wholly unnecessary addition to the Space Marine arsenal. I have devastators and terminators, why would I even want one of these monstrosities??? What role could they possibly do better?
ReplyDeleteAdeptus Mechanicus finding an old STC would seem just as much of a weak excuse on the part of GW to ram it in to the fluff. I don't feel that it adds to the Space Marines thematically, and as you said in a separate comment, it doesn't add to the Space Marines strategically.
ReplyDelete