GW Reclaim their Heritage

This week Games Workshop have released a whole slew of tickets for events - seven of 'em in total - all at Warhammer World this June. What caught my eye was the Vidar's Fate: Praedis Zeta campaign weekend, which features this classic image from yesteryear:

The image is from the early nineties, when Genestealer hybrids were one of the most imaginative and weird armies available for collection. For me, the period from the latter years of Rogue Trader through to Second Edition were the most fertile and creative times in Games Workshop's history. It coincides with my first innings with 40k, so perhaps a little nostalgia has crept in(!) but from that era we have the Freebootas and Waaagh! The Orks books, the Realm of Chaos book, Titan Legions morphing into the Epic / Space Marine game, Necromunda and, slightly later, Gorkamorka. All of them were chock-full of well-written, clever and funny background fluff (especially the Orks books) and the army lists were full of imaginative and interesting units.

 

One of those armies was the Genestealer Cult. For those not in the know (or not born... it was over twenty years ago) Genestealers infiltrated all societies and used their telepathic hypnotism to exercise control over those in control. Quickly, a cult would arise around the Genestealer and the puppet politician it controlled, with the Genestealer implanting (exactly how was left to our imaginitions I believe...) it's spawn into host bodies. When born, these creatures were part-Genestealer, part-human (or Ork, or whatever the parent host was). First-generation hybrids were a real alien/human mix, with subsequent generations becoming more and more human. Those born in the fifth generation were once more purestrain Genestealers.

 

The Vidar's Fate: Praedis Zeta event at Warhammer World seems to have been designed by Nick Bayton, one of the main guys down at GW-HQ and a friendly, decent guy too). Nick obviously knows his heritage, as the campaign he has devised allows units of Genestealer Hybrids to be taken. I doubt that this is a precursor to GW releasing either a codex (highly unlikely) or even an Allies supplement (of which I've read a lot of internet wishlisting about) but rather a fun throwback to GW's younger, more carefree and creative past.

 

If however GW did want to reclaim their heritage (and intellectual property, let's not forget!), then here's a few things that I would love to see return - either as a White Dwarf codex, a full release or as part of an Allies supplement:

 

 

 

 

 

I think that the Adeptus Mechanicus would make for an awesome new army/race in modern 40k. GW owns the intellectual property, the structure of the army and units thereof exists already, and the fluff sets them apart from any other race currently in the universe, so that a full codex release would be an original and totally different proposition to anything else currently out there. Of course, there are plenty of fandexes already in existence (the Tempus Fugitives version foremost amongst them), but a proper codex release with a full set of models would be most welcome.  

 

 

Of my other suggestions, the Eldar Exodites are a very intriguing proposition. Some suggest that their race is (in fluff terms) too small to warrant a full codex or range of models, but I would counter that by asking how many of you haven't faced up against Grey Knights in the last year or so? For a secretive and ultra-elite chapter, there seems to be more than enough of them to go around! The Exodites are a back-to-nature branch of Eldar, and would feature a mix of pre-fall Eldar technologies, natural psychic abilities and beast-riding knights. It is this latter point that some think mark Exodites as in some way 'not 40k' - that in the fortieth millennium, it should all be about spaceships, robots and big guns. Of course, those things are all very cool(!), but I think there is space for some earth-lovin' pixies Eldar too, right?  

 

Anyone who has read this blog, or my sister-blog Rogue Trader (on which I have slowly been posting my fandex creations) will know that my true love in 40k is Squats. I love the fluff, the old-school models, I love the whole vibe of tough, down-to-earth engineers building their own unique vehicles to survive in the most inhospitable worlds of the galaxy. Again I think that, along with the Adeptus Mechanicus and Exodites, Squats could make a positive return to 40k.

 

 

Just like the Exodites and the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Squats have their own unique feel and style, and their own iconic range of vehicles. These could be translated very easily into modern 40k, and would make - in my opinion anyway - a most welcome addition to the races currently available to collect in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.