ASTRAL
PROJECTIONS

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RUMOURS

For more rumours with more detail, check out Portent.

40K

Land Raider with Four Sponsons?

10-9-01  

There is a rumour floating around of a possible modification of the Land Raider with four single sponsons instead of two twin-linked lascannons, made possible due to the compatability of the new Predator's sponsons which are single-mounts.  No word on if this is true, but if it is expect to see rules either in White Dwarf or Imperial Armour 3.

WHFB

"Dark Shadows" Campaign

3-30-01  

Following on the heels of the successful Armageddon3 campaign for 40K comes the Dark Shadows campaign for Warhammer Fantasy Battles!  This will be a major worldwide campaign this summer with a website containing background, new units, and more, similar to the Arm3 campaign.

40K

The Hunt for Ghazghkull - Upcoming BatRep!

3-30-01  

An upcoming battle report in White Dwarf will pit Matthew Sprange's Black Templars against Andy Chamber's Ork horde in "The Hunt for Ghazghkull".  This should be an interesting read, so check it out!

40K

White Scars Army List

3-30-01  

The White Scars are going to be featured in an upcoming Index Astartes, complete with their own army list.  They will apparently have some rules similar to Fleet of Foot, but it's not clear right now whether this is an army-wide rule, specific to units, or tied into some piece of wargear.

40K

Codex Release Dates

3-30-01  

More news on the codex release dates!  The Tau and Kroots will be released shortly before Christmas, with the Sisters of Battle coming right after Christmas and the Harlequins have a release date of Spring 2002.

40K

Upcoming Forge World Kits

3-30-01  

Forge World is going to be doing some more kits for the Eldar soon.  The three kits being produced at the moment are the Cobra, Night Wing, and Vampire Raider.

40K

Feral Orks Army List

3-25-01  

The Feral Orks are going to be getting a Chapter Approved list in the future, but it's unlikely that they will get their own codex.

INQ

Forge World Inquisitor Support

3-25-01  

Forge World is expected to be doing a lot of stuff for Inquisitor.  Already planned are a Genestealer, Eldar Warrior, and Chaos Cultist.  More figures are being planned.

WHFB

New Undead Regiment of Renown

1-11-01  

GW will be releasing an Undead Regiment of Renown called the Cursed Company.  The leader wields a magic sword that adds anyone he kills in hand to hand combat to the unit.  Colin Dixon is sculpting new Orc Skeletons and Zombies for the regiment.

WHFB

6th Edition Chaos Armies

1-11-01  

Gav speaks about Chaos armies in WHFB 6th Edition:

"Right, here's a Chaos update. There will be two Chaos books - Chaos (warriors, marauders and daemons) and Beastmen. The Chaos book will allow Daemon-only armies to be fielded. I am currently looking at the way in which Daemon armies work, and want to make them more daemonic and chaotic. I also want to devise a suitable system to allow the two books to work together with allied contingents from the other list, although again the exact details of this remain to be sorted out. (Gav)"

WHFB

Bone Giants in Warhammer

1-11-01  

Bone Giants are likely going to be showing up in the Khemri army book for Warhammer.  The models should be quite interesting.

40K

Chapter Approved Book

1-11-01  

The next book to be released after Codex: Tyranids will be Warhammer 40,000: Chapter Approved, a collection of all of the Chapter Approved articles in White Dwarf to date.

40K

Squats Making a Return?

1-8-01  

Apparently the Squats made a return in the fluff as a race called "Demiurgs" in WD 241, page 27.  According to various people, this has been confirmed and unconfirmed as the new name for Squats.   But even more interesting, Pete Haines had a few words to say about the subject:

"Codex's and their supporting model ranges are scheduled carefully - GW cannot develop everything simultaneously. In that context the Squats are in a queue with a number of other armies such as the Sisters of Battle and the Necrons, both of which seem to have more popular support than the Squats.
When and if the Squats get to the front of the queue the objective will be to develop a characterful and distinctive army. Without prejudging how this might be done all I can say is that the new Squats MAY be substantially revised from their previous format. This may not happen but everyone should be aware that the priority will be continued development and improvement not a slavish homage to the old army.
I suppose the questions are: -
[1] Should Squats be moved up the queue relative to the Necrons, the Sisters etc?
[2] Are people just looking for a list to let them use their old models or for the Squats to be redeveloped and improved?
Pete Haines, GW 40K developer."

40K

Inquisitor Nears Completion

1-5-01  

Inquisitor, the 54mm skirmish game, is nearing completion and should be released in or around April/May.

WHFB

Chaos Dwarfs

1-5-01  

Chaos Dwarfs will be getting a full army book, but it's still a long way off.  They will also be getting new models then, but until now you'll have to order them from GW Mail Order.

40K

Cityfight

1-5-01  

News straight from GW regarding the 40K supplement:

"Cityfight is underway at present and is due out for summer 2001. The book covers rules for fighting in urban terrain, special equipment, scenarios and cityscape modelling projects. It is a general 40K supplement so it isn't race-specific (although some armies, like Imperial Guard, do fight very well in cities) and it is intended to fill the same niche as the Warhammer Siege rules but within the 40K universe."

40K

Codex: Horus Heresy

1-5-01  

GW speaks about Codex: Horus Heresy:

"Codex Horus Heresy is a proposal for a campaign book something like the Armageddon Codex and campaign. We have no definitive release date for it as yet and just what its contents will be is still very much open to debate!"

40K

White Scars Army List

1-5-01  

The White Scars aren't going to be getting a full-blown codex, at least not any time soon.  They will, however, be getting an Index Astartes article with an alternate army list and special rules.

WHFB

Plastic Cold Ones

1-5-01  

There will definitely be plastic Cold Ones released with the Dark Elves.  This gives hope to Dark Elf players for plastic Cold One Knights!

WHFB

Plastic High Elves

1-5-01  

The plastic High Elf regiments set for release with the army book include Unarmoured Archers, Spearmen, and Silver Helms.

BFG

Tau and Kroot Fleets

1-5-01  

Fanatic is set to do a Tau and Kroot Fleet(s) for release around the same time as the codices for both are released.

40K

Tyranid Transport

1-5-01  

Fanatic is working on a large Tyranid that will also double as a Tyranid transport.  Look for it in spring or summer.

WHFB

Army Book Schedule

1-5-01  

The WHFB army book release schedule for the next three books is as follows:

Vampire Counts
Dark Elves
High Elves

40K

Plastic IG

1-5-01  

GW is working on three new IG regiments in plastics, with the most likely to be released being Cadians.

40K

Plastic SM Dreadnought

1-5-01  

The plastic SM D

WHFB

Necrons

1-5-01  

Info straight from GW regarding the Necrons:

"Contrary to some rumours flying around the net, Necrons aren't going to be scrapped, far from it. There will be a Codex: Necrons released after the Tau, so hold on until then for some brand new models, troop types and extra bits and pieces that you'll love. Lurking in the Special Character section of the Codex you will indeed find the C'tan. There will be a full range of plastics to support the new codex and the Necrons will have access to all sorts of funky new stuff and that includes a brand new heavy support choice."

WHFB

Sisters of Battle Codex

1-5-01  

Info straight from GW regarding the Sisters of Battle Codex:

"Codex Sisters of Battle will be released in Spring 2002, and is written by Gav Thorpe and Pete Haines.
The army is intended to be expanded beyond the pure Sisters list in 40K to include Martyrs, Redemptionists, Archo-flagellants etc. for more of a Crusade feel. We're also hoping to do a box of plastic Sisters."

WHFB

WHFB6 Info From Tuomas Pirinen

7-28-00  

OK, I thought I'd jot down a few notes about new WH and my design principles.

Firstly, I cannot comment on release schedules, prices etc. for legal reasons, and like I always said, I NEVER had any influence over them. No creative staff ever has. Never confuse Studio (creative dept), and nice people like the customer reps (Tyranid Tim etc) with the sales executives (and there are nice salesmen, too). GW is not a single entity. It is a company with 3000 employees, each individual.

Now to my guiding principles:

As for the rehaul of Warhammer rules: I knew that there would be moans and groans, but rather than shy away from my responsibility as a designer to produce a balanced game with real longevity I looked what genuinely needed to be done. The army selection system needed a major overhaul, as did the rules for flyers, chariots, magic clarity and presentation of the rules...
My aims were:

1) Consistency, clarity and rules which were unambiguous.

2) Restore the balance between RNF and characters. Yes, characters and monsters are still mighty. But not utterly untouchable like before.

3) Keep the colour, flavour and excitement of the WH background, and build it further.

4) Add new, exciting things to the army list.

5) Create real depth and genuine choices in army selection and Mis.

6) Weed out the gross imbalances of magic and army selection, but still make sure the players are playing fantasy game, not a historical one.

My real responsibility was to the gamers and the game in the long term. This is, after all, how a designer builds up his reputation.

Also remember that even as the head of the games dev, I did not have free hands. Lots of rules were laid down for me by the senior management. Having said that, I did address most of the problem areas. But there are still things that I would have done differently.

Now few details (the thing you all are most interested in anyway) :-):

Armour saves: 1s always fail. No more 100% immunity from shooting for ANYONE.

Troops that outnumber their enemies gain additional CR bonus.

Magic spells will be less powerful but a bit more frequent.

Large targets will be named on the army books to avoid arguments.

There are only 2 types of saves now Ward (UM) and armour saves.

Then answers to some of the most frequent question I get:

Yes, there are still plenty of things to come from GW that I have written. Before I left I gave Gav and others as much help and advice I could. Have faith in them.

4 Chars in 2000 points: In RH we had very few pages to detail rules. Each individual army book will have tailor-made selection system to balance the lists.

Yes, I will do more stuff for GW on free-lance basis, provided we can agree on few things (like recompensation :-) )

All army lists had basic development done simultaneously, to ensure balance as we could compare them against each other. But no, no power on earth could have finished all (or even most) of the army books for the time of release of the game. Resource required for that would have been enormous.

Comparing 6th ed lists to 5th ed lists, or making comments about armies before seeing (and especially playing!) the new rules is pointless.

I hope this helps,
Tuomas

General

Warhammer 40,000 Action Figures

7-28-00  

Looks like we'll be seeing the 40K "action figures" sometime in 2001 after all.  There will be a Dark Angel, Blood Angel, Ultramarine, and Space Wolf figure.  For more information check out the following link:

Action Figures News

40K

Terminator Saves

7-22-00  

Terminators will be gaining a 5+ invulnerable save in White Dwarf 250.

40K

Dark Eldar Revisited

7-17-00  

Apparently, there will be an article in White Dwarf in the mid-250s that will be titled "Dark Eldar Revisited".  It will contain changes to the Dark Eldar codex army list, including vehicle upgrades and changes to some of the units.  All the changes will be considered official.

WHFB

6th Edition

7-16-00  

WHFB6 is being released in September/October.  It will contain all the rules in one box (including magic), and will contain plastic Empire and Orc figures, including war machines.  The magic system will now be a dice pool system, as was rumoured.

WHFB

New Lines

7-16-00  

With the new Warhammer coming, three entire armies are getting the makeover: Orcs, Empire, and Dark Eldar.  The new Orcs are being done by Brian Nelson and Juan Diaz.  The new Empire are being done by the Perry twins.  The new Dark Eldar are being designed by Chris Fitzpatrick.

40K

New Tyranids

7-16-00  

The entire Tyranid line is being redesigned in anticipation of the new codex.  The new Nids cross a Starcraft Zerg look with HR Geiger.  There will be three plastic boxed sets: Termagants, Hormagaunts, and Tyranid Warriors.

40K

Kroot and Tau

7-16-00  

The Tau will apparently be a technologically superior rate with non-Warp FTL travel.  They wear battlesuits with TONS of weaponry.

The Kroots are apparently slaves of the Tau.