The fans have asked for it and it seems that Games Workshop was listening. In a leak produced on the Bolter and Chainsword, a binary coded message in White Dwarf announced a new army coming in. As if the fact it was written in ones and zeroes wasn't enough of a clue, translated it stands for "All Hail Mars!"
Given that Games Workshop seems to have been aiming for smaller limited releases with minor armies, this could go one of two ways. Either it could be a small force of perhaps a few units, a number of specific elite forces with a few vehicles to their name but reliant upon bigger armies with more variety to back them up. The alternative is obviously a much bigger release, something on par with the original Codex: Tau or Codex: Necrons. Something with a core structure solid enough to start playing with but is more down to laying the foundations than anything else.
As for how it might interact with other armies though, that's going to be the interesting bit given how the Mechanicus operates. It might be a big part of the Imperium, but the force has been shown to merrily butt heads with everyone from the Inquisition to the Administratum at little provocation. It would be a shame to lose that aspect, but at the same time it's difficult to really consider just how this might be carried over beyond lore or background elements.
Still, this is just a start. We might get lucky and find out more info as we move towards its release date, the 28th of March.
After all the new army books I'm wary of this, if it IS a mechanicus codex, then while it's nice to see the Mechanicus being represented again I'm worried that it'll come off like a kind of cookie-cutter army, or that it'll have the very major problems that the Horus Heresy Mechanicus have (just look up the monster lists).
ReplyDeleteAt least they don't really have any excuse for keeping the army small this time, so I'm expecting at least a few units per slot on the Force Organization Chart, do you think they'll use the Horus Heresy models for the new Mechanicus if this is a new codes?
I'll still give them a chance at the end of the day. Games Workshop might have produced some real drek over the years, but they've had enough hits to keep me interested personally. That said, if this does follow the exact same format as Codex: Tempestus Scions and Codex: Harlequins, i'll definitely agree with you there on the cookie cutter problem. The lore was okay on both, but I was mostly praising them for managing not to produce another Codex: Blood Angels or Grey Knights at the end of the day.
DeleteWell, as for the Horus Heresy models, probably not. In all honesty, and this is just a personal opinion, I think they'll aim for a small release at first and then built it up. They'll probably do so by waiting until next edition and then releasing the book with plastic versions of some of the Forge World stuff or perhaps a few bigger tanks. At the moment though, given how little hype or info there has been, i'm personally thinking it'll be a small to moderate release to test the water. Could be wrong though.
I'd just like to add a little fear I've got, that they'll take the Mechanicus and make the fluff about how they're entirely unreasonable about their treatment of technology, essentially making how they maintain and operate it look like a joke, and their hoarding of it look really dickish, oddly enough one of the few places I've seen that summed up the Mechanicus and their treatment of technology really was was 1D4chan with these two articles:
ReplyDeletehttp://1d4chan.org/wiki/Adeptus_Mechanicus#Why_Everything_is_so_Grimdark
http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Adeptus_Mechanicus#The_Religion_of_the_Adeptus_Mechanicus
I realize the articles I respond to are odd, especially considering the most recent ones you've written, but I usually don't write something unless I feel I can add to the article, I started writing comments on the other articles, only to stop and delete it because all it did was reaffirm or summarize everything the article said without adding anything new, and I'm not sure that helps anyone.
Yeah, that's an understandable concern to have. 1d4chan itself might be a melting pot of fan rage, twisted ideas and favours a small faction who can scream the loudest, but that does reflect a big fan misconception. Really, it unfortunately is built upon a few flawed half-truthes more than anything else, especially when it comes to the subject of machine spirits or how technology has progressed. I'd answer this further, but there's actually a lengthy part in tomorrow's article which covers this exact point.
DeleteHey, just answer whenever and however you feel like it. In all honesty I do value seeing your comments as it's a reminder that people are taking the time to read this stuff, and feel its worthwhile to actually voice their own opinion. Whether you're in agreement or dissenting against what i've written, it's always good to see thoughtful replies. Compared with the single sentence statements or garbled insults, your comments are practically Hemmingway level literature by comparison. If anything I should be apologising for not getting the time to answer them more often.