Heresy & Heroes

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Sorry. For those of you who aren’t up on your binary, the above simply says ‘All glory to the Omnissiah’ for he is come and we can soon expect to see the red robes of Mars billowing across far more battlefields of the 41st Millennium more than ever before (you can read all about the clues on BOLS here). Yes, Martians abound and we need to know what to expect to see bounding mechanically towards our armies in the coming weeks and months. Ergo, here’s my unfounded and ever-so-slightly wishlisty guesses regarding what we might see coming our way.

The Troops

The one big, glaring, red-eyed omission (or should that be ‘omnimission’?) from FW’s range of Admech minis are the much storied core units of the Skitarii – the stalwart troops of any Martian force. Though the term ‘Skitarii’ refers to nearly all the Admech’s military forces, the Tech-Warriors or Hyspasists are essentially Mars’ equivalent of the Imperial Guard, so expect a ten man core unit with lasguns and maybe a few stranger special weapon options replacing the flamers and grenade launchers that the Astra Militarum favour. I’m expecting this box and maybe it might include options for creating a different unit too, or possibly including an option for a Praetorian (would prefer a separate five man kit for this) or Sagitarii, the elite and heavy weapons choices for this army respectively.

The Clam Packs

Oooh, plenty of options here. Skitarii troops are led by Tribunes so it’s likely one of those will come in the box, but beyond that, we’re bound to have a Master and/or Magos. With any luck, we may also get a character as well, but the Admech have loads of options for this sort of thing and of course FW have already supplied a couple of these.

Vehicles

This is where it gets a little trickier to predict or, frankly, even guess. One or two variant kits are sure to be the options here, and I’m guessing some sort of walker (with a couple of variants), maybe along the lines of sentinels or war walkers for size, and a transport/shooty tank kit as well. Those two kits alone could create a strong, variable army with the above choices.

Alpha Legion and Dark Mechanicum assault the loyalists of Mars.

What I Think We Won’t See

Legio Cybernetica. I think Forge World has got this covered and has done such an amazing job with it, GW won’t tread too heavily on those toes and it might encourage people to spend money with the sister store. What’s more, this could be a great way to get FW into the GW stores, an idea that has been bandied about a little in recent weeks.

What’s Already There

There are already a number of kits that suit the Adeptus Mechanicus. Many Knight households are sworn to Mars and indeed Mars maintains its own Knight constructs too. The Mechanicum is also responsible for many divisions of Superheavy Tanks, so the Baneblades, Stormhammers and more can be counted with them. Tech Marines train with the Mechanicum and are sworn to keep the secrets of Mars, so it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to see Thunderfire Cannons and Servitors accompanied by Tech Marines walking into battle alongside the Skitarii forces. And they’re bound to use Chimeras and maybe even Turox and Rhinos, so if GW wants to make a big codex list from a small release window, there are options already there.

It’s Not Long Until We Find Out

And to that end, I propose a little game. These are my predictions based purely off what I know of the Admech (less than some, more than others) and as I am oft want to maketh such predictions on this here blog, I thought that this time, I’d list these and we (and by ‘we’ I mean ‘I’) can cross them off as the release window goes on. If I don’t get a single one correct, I will listen to my readers for suitable punishments. Here’s the list then:

To Be Released:

• Hyspasists/Skitarii Box

• Praetorians Box

• Magos Clam Pack

• Master Clam Pack

• Vehicle (Walker)

• Vehicle (Tank)

To Not Be Released:

• Legio Cybernetica Units

To Be Included in Codex:

• Knights

• Superheavy Tanks

• Servitors

• Chimeras

• Tech Marines

On that note, it’s up to you to start dreaming up suitable punishments and add them into the box below. Even if I just get a couple right, but over all am way off, I may concede to some sort of hobby punishment akin to a light flagellation but with painting – we shall see. I for one remain quietly confident.

What do you want to see in this release? Will you be starting an Admech Force? Do you venerate the Omnissiah? Comments below please!