Rumors! Space Marines, Genestealer Cults and Forge World, Oh My!

Rumors for you, rumors for me!

So, some more rumors for us to pontificate upon. Perhaps even ruminate over! Other big words about thinking, yes!

So anyway, here’s the scoop. Our source hit me up this morning to let me know some more goodies he or she had been told from their source who works for a certain large miniatures manufacturer in some capacity (sorry to be so vague, just don’t want to lose the lead on good info). This source has proven to be very reliable in the past, telling us about Adeptus Mechanicus at FW before it hit, among others, most of which have turned out to be accurate. Some of what this individual has told us has also turned out to not be accurate, but with rumors it is hard to judge. They could be accurate at one point in time and then plans change, or they could be a version of the truth, etc. All I can say is that I trust this source as it is a person I go way, way back with. That said, these are just rumors after all folks, so salt and all that.

During the course of our conversation, we covered a number of topics, and this is a bit of a summation. For one, I was told that my guesses about possible “mini-dexes” for the Chaos Space Marines to further explore the Legions may in fact be true. What that means I can only speculate on as my source didn’t know anything else. Rules? Fluff? Art? All of the above? None of the above? I can’t say at this point in time, although I fervently hope it means legion specific rules. I think we will learn a lot from the Iyanden Eldar supplement that is coming out in mere days. What I have heard about that book so far is that it is both physical and digital, and that is has rules and fluff specific to Iyanden, which makes sense as GW just invested so much money into producing the Wraithknight, Wraithguard/Blades, Spirit Seer, etc. and woudl want to maximize profit for that release. I think that this book will be a good indication as to the future direction of these “mini-dexes” we’ve been hearing about since before 6th ed hit. We’ve had steady rumors on this topic now for over a year.

Which is a nice segue into our next topic! I was told that Genestealer Cults are indeed in the works. This is a rumor that has been corroborated by another source we have that is also a very trustworthy point of information and as such I am thinking these rumors are looking highly plausible. What I was told more specifically was that the IP for Genestealer Cults may not actually belong to GW, and that a company patented the idea/IP/models/something like that in the 90’s thinking that GW would buy the rights to the idea. GW did not and as such the idea has sat untouched since then.

As I was told, this patent expires next year….coincidentally right about the time GW plans to release Tyranids! So, GW’s plan as it was related to me, is to try to acquire the IP once the patent is up, or to release Genestealer Cult units under another name. That would be pretty cool and an Iyanden like supplement for them would be pretty awesome, IMO. Plus that means the bugs would have access to an entirely new type of build with, if it happens and turns out to be anything like the Genestealer Cults of days past, vehicles and…a mother f#$%(@n Limousine! Yeah buddy, the Magus rolled in style, son! I’f put a gold grille and spinners on mine, of course.

This lead into a talk about the Space Marine giant robot that has been rumored to be on the way. This has been repeated many times now by multiple sources, and seeing as how every army has been getting a giant dude/monster/robot on an oval base, I don’t think this is going to surprise anyone. As Space Marines are far and away the best selling army in any of GW’s game systems, making one of these would be like printing money. As to what it is, what I keep hearing is a “giant Contemptor Dreadnought.”

I asked if he thought GW would port over more FW units directly into the dex like we saw with IG, and he said he thought no. The reason stated is that he was told FW took a major hit on the Baneblade. Apparently it was one of the best, if not the best, selling kits Forgeworld had prior to the superior and cheaper GW plastic kit. The thought process was to introduce FW type kits to GW retail outlets and FLGS’ at a more affordable price point to increase awareness of FW style products. Apparently the idea backfired as it killed sales on the Baneblade. The end result was a major loss for FW’s bottom line with a relatively minor increase to GW’s. I was told as a result of this the acting CEO of FW at the time resigned/was asked to resign. I tried to verify this on Google, but couldn’t find who the acting CEO of FW was when the Baneblade was released. If anyone knows and could verify this, that would be great.

So at any rate, FW and GW are not overlapping models any more as they end of competing with themselves and cannibalizing sales from one another. As such, plans for a plastic Thunderbolt that were in the works were scrapped.

Speculation: if the above is true, that would explain why we have not, and likely will not see plastic T-Hawks, Warhounds, etc. What we are getting are these new, unique models such as the Wraithknight (anyone remember the frequent rumors of a plastic Revenant Titan that were floating around for years?). Could the Storm Raven be what became of the rumored plastic T-Hawk? It does look like a squished T-Hawk and with 3D sculpting on computers these days, I imagine it would be fairly easy to do for one with the appropriate skill-set.

I am of course just guessing here, but it seems very plausible to me that in an effort to not cannibalize their own sales–which makes sense–GW is instead using their ever improving plastic manufacturing capabilities, and predilection for retconning the fluff as needed to introduce new models, to get the best of both worlds. Big, new, relatively affordable plastic kits (compared to FW) that have proven to be popular in both 40K and Fantasy seems like an intelligent compromise. This leaves FW to do their thing, acting as the “Infiniti” to GW’s Nissan in the greater corporate brand. With the new version of Apocalypse rumored on the horizon, and it’s huge popularity upon release, it makes sense to me to make these big kits more accessible to GW’s larger consumer base.

What say you all?