40k ASKEW: Please Sir…Can I Have Some More?
The year is drawing to a close and I have no time to look back – looking forward is where I want to go.
I want to look forward to the Great Devourer’s glorious return and get my hands glued together as my Mawloc takes shape. I want to look forward and drink from the blood soaked goblet of Sanguinius’s children. I cry myself to sleep waiting to reenter the dark reaches of Commorragh and the return of the Fallen. Perhaps my nightmares will be filled with the Star God’s servants as they continue their designs to extinguish all life from the Galaxy.
I look to the future and dance like a 12 year old school girl at the thought I will never have to to replay the same three missions over and over. I wait to read Dan Abnett’s run on sentences as the epic retelling of the Horus Heresy continues, inching ever closer to the eternal question: why in the false emperor’s name did Horus bring down his shields – and will we have an entire book dedicated to just that question? At the very least we get some cgi epicness trailer for Ultramarines…I wonder who is going to play Gargamel?
Chaos Rises may be the closest thing to a CSM codex to be delivered to us from THQ for Dawn of War II. Then by the end of the year THQ breaks all the rules with thunder hammering jump packing Marines descending from the sky to bust some Ork skulls with Space Marine. This is what we know is coming! What about all the figures making the jump from metal to plastic? What about GW annual mystery releases like the past year’s Space Hulk or Planetfail? What about Forge World and the next must-have expensive resin model you been dreaming of de-flashing for two weeks will be?
Then there is 40k’s older brother Warhammer Fantasy. Be ready to run from the hills as the mutated minions of Chaos stomp their cloven hooves down on your our heads. The Beastmen are slated to show us the first tantalizing clues to what changes will be made when Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition comes out next summer. Will both systems move ever closer? Will Nerd Rage spill into the streets? Let us assume yes to both those questions as more checker pieces enter Fantasy’s beloved chess game.
What other army books will make it in 2010? The signs point to Orks and Goblins getting a 40k Ork style redux returning them to the rightful place as one of the better armies in the game. How will the year end for Fantasy? Signs point to the sands of Nehekhara and if we are super lucky Dwarves with silly hats might make a reappearance of some type.
Then there is GW handing us the keys to the tournament scene, letting us the players determine who is going to Las Vegas in a year in and half. So the future for the Game Workshop looks bright, as our hobby is bigger than ever. We are not looking at one release, we are looking at a glorious bounty spread forth to feed every portion of our wargaming loving souls. We may be looking looking at one of best year ever. Don’t believe me? I will let the Undying Emperor be the judge…or at least until GW gives me a price hike lump of coal for Christmas.
What are you looking forward to next year from Games Workshop Universe? Will 2010 be better than 2009 and why? Visit more of my ramblings at www.bloodofkittens.com
