A couple of years in the past, Video games Workshop lastly begun taking some unprecedented steps to replace the fashions of one in all Warhammer 40,000‘s hottest factions: the ranks of the Aeldari, the lithe, elven aliens who’ve been a part of the tabletop sport for almost 40 years. However even with these important updates, the road of Aeldari fashions was nonetheless house to a few of the oldest miniatures that Video games Workshop nonetheless bought… however subsequent yr, that’s lastly going to vary in an enormous method.
As a part of a special preview event forward of the upcoming Warhammer World Championships, immediately Video games Workshop revealed the upcoming revamp of the Aeldari’s rulebook for the latest, 10th edition of Warhammer 40K. Alongside the up to date rulebook shall be a swath of latest miniatures specializing in one of many distinctive components of Aeldari tradition: the Facet Warriors, clans of specialised elite operatives devoted to particular faculties of martial thought, and their fabled, legendary leaders within the Phoenix Lords.
Though these items and heroes are key elements of Aeldari lore—and sometimes basic pillars of an Aeldari military—gamers of the faction have spent literal many years operating these Facet Warriors with the identical fashions whereas watching Video games Workshop discover ever-increasing methods to promote individuals a new Space Marine. Up till comparatively just lately, many key fashions within the Aeldari had been primarily based on sculpts that been round for the very best a part of 20 years. Among the oldest amongst these fashions had been these of the eight foremost Facet Warrior archetypes: the Howling Banshees, Placing Scorpions, Swooping Hawks, Dire Avengers, Warp Spiders, Fireplace Dragons, Darkish Reapers, and Shining Spears. Many of those fashions had been so outdated that they had been nonetheless solid in metallic or finally resin, and Video games Workshop took its candy time updating them little by little through the years. The Howling Banshees obtained a mannequin overhaul in 2019 (changing fashions from 2006), whereas the Darkish Reapers and Shining Spears had been up to date as a part of that 2022 line overhaul (changing fashions from 2006 and 1999, respectively), and the Placing Scorpions had been up to date this yr via the smaller-scaled skirmish sport Kill Crew (changing fashions once more, from 2006).
In the present day’s information brings nearly each different Facet Warrior class to modern plastic miniature commonplace. The Fireplace Dragons, Swooping Hawks, and Warp Spiders will all obtain up to date plastic multi-part fashions to interchange metallic and resin kits from 2006, 2000, and 1994, respectively. Alongside these mainline squads, the corporate additionally unveiled updates for his or her accompanying Phoenix Lords—the elite hero items which might be the heads of every Facet—within the type of Fuegan (the lord of the Fireplace Dragons), Baharroth (the Swooping Hawks), and, for the very first time in miniature type in any respect, Lhykis, the lord of the Warp Spiders, alongside the Dire Avenger lord Asurmen. Placing Lhykis apart as a model new character, these different miniatures all changed “present” fashions from 1994.
It needs to be harassed that Video games Workshop charged for these virtually historical miniatures with the identical sort of pricing that any of its modern miniatures would command, regardless of their ever-increasing age—and Aeldari gamers had been merely speculated to cope with it and look on as different factions obtained common new miniatures and refreshes. As a life-long participant of the faction, it’s been wild to me in my off-and-on journey with Warhammer 40K as a grown grownup has been performed with the identical miniatures I may purchase as a 10-year-old entering into tabletop gaming for the primary time. And it’s taken most of that life for that to vary!
However in the end, it now could be. There’s nonetheless some Aeldari fashions which might be displaying their age—among the many Facet Warriors at the very least, Asurmen’s Dire Avengers haven’t been up to date since 2006 both, and the Placing Scorpion’s chief, Karandras, is now the final remaining un-updated Phoenix Lord sitting at 30 years outdated (and counting). Hopefully with the brand new guidelines for the faction coming a while in 2025, it gained’t take that for much longer to see these remaining alien legends get the shiny new plastic therapy they deserve too… and hopefully these new fashions, as beautiful as they give the impression of being now in 2024, aren’t nonetheless on cabinets by the 2060s. In spite of everything, within the grim darkish way forward for the twenty first century, there should all the time be new plastic troopers to buy.
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