Warhammer 40K: Blackstone Fortress Baddies
The Blackstone Fortress is introducing a new batch of enemies with the upcoming expansion – what does this mean for 40k?
Get ready for a new batch of bad guys to invade the Blackstone Fortress as Games Workshop has announced the new expansion coming soon. Blackstone Fortress: Escalation does offer some new explorers to use, but perhaps more importantly, the forces of Chaos are also getting some reinforcements. These new cultists have a new look and offers some clues at what could come after.
These new Chaos Cultists are all new sculpts. They certainly share some similarities to what came before:
Now, maybe it’s the pictures, but the new Blackstone Fortress models do seem a tad larger. The lore from GW says “their bodies are swollen with infernal power” so maybe that’s the reason they are larger. But at the same time the scale of 40k has been slowly creeping up over time anyhow. Heck, look at Primaris Marines vs Classic Marines or the new Chaos Marines vs their older heretic brothers. Everyone is just getting bigger and more dynamic looking.
Games Workshop has been rolling out more and more of these little one-off units for Chaos via Blackstone Fortress. Look at what else is in the core set of Blackstone:
- New Chaos Marines – which recently got a new Codex
- Chaos Beastmen for 40k
- Chaos Daemonhost/Heretic Astra Militarum Psykers
- Heretic Astra Militarum Units
- Nega Volt Cultists – Dark Mechanicus
- other random creatures in the Blackstone Fortress
Oh and then there was the Chaos Ogre and Commissar from the Blackstone Fortress Traitor Command box:
At this point, it’s starting to seem like it’s only a matter of time before these “mortals of chaos” get their own sub-faction, right? At least GW has been providing rules for all these models in 40k as they have been released. At the same time, you can’t really make an entire army out of these units…yet. But it’s not like this is a new concept either.
Old Vets will remember the Eye of Terror codex which had rules for an entire Traitor Guard army. And those same Vets probably know “that one player” in their group who has been dreaming of the return of this army – or maybe they are that guy. That’s the hope anyways. GW has been slowly building up these models of the Traitor Guard line. Plus these new cultists mean they are still actively developing stuff for Non-Chaos Marine Mortals. Eventually, there is going to come a tipping point where there will be enough of these types of “one-offs” to constitute a new army. Unfortunately for fans of the Traitor Guard, that time is not now.
At the minimum, these new Blackstone Fortress Escalation models make for an update to the Chaos Cultists models. Moving forward, we’ll see what GW does and which direction they push these Chaos Mortals. Are more Traitor Guard models on the way? Perhaps more Chaos Cultists-type models? Hey – why not both!
We’re no longer looking at the tip of the iceberg. We’re now just waiting to see how big this sucker will become.
Which direction do you think GW will go these Chaos Forces? More Cultists, more Traitor Guard or both?!
