40K: The Great 2019 Finecast Census
I’ve done some number crunching on every codex in the game to see just who really needs plastic kit upgrades. I was surprised!
Warhammer 40K is an interesting game. It is quite old by modern miniatures game standards (32 years old, and 8 editions), but is also is ever-changing with additions and a roiling meta that rarely stays static for over a month. With Psychic Awakening around the corner, I wanted to sit down and see exactly how many non-plastic kits each codex has, so we can see who most needs help.
With that in mind, I wanted to dove into the codexes and see exactly what we can glean from a stats breakdown.
The Finecast Census Rules
Here are some ground rules:
- The Census Timestamp is September 2019
- “Core” Codexes only (no indexes, or Forge World, Supplementals)
- We are counting units that have been formally announced by GW as being plastic, even if they are not yet released.
- Finecast models must be available for sale by GW right now.
- We are ordering the codexes from most Finecast units to least.
The 2019 Stats:
We are listing Finecast Units in the current codex, and the total number of units in the codex so we can get a decent ratio.
The Double-Digit Club
Eldar Craftworlds – 56 Units – 17 finecast (all those Phoenix Lords and Aspects add up fast)
Adepta Sororitas – 22 Units – 17 finecast (entire army about to be redone)
Blood Angels – 77 Units – 14 finecast (characters and marine finecast units)
T’au Empire – 38 Units – 13 finecast (characters, Kroot, etc…)
Necrons – 36 Units – 12 finecast (characters, Flayed Ones, C’tan)
Drukhari – 30 Units – 12 finecast (characters, retinue, beasts, etc…)
Dark Angels – 77 Units – 11 finecast (characters and marine finecast units)
Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) – 55 Units – 11 finecast (commissars, ratlings, advisers, etc…)
Need Help Club
Orks – 47 Units – 9 finecast (characters, kopta, couple of units)
Space Wolves – 77 Units – 8 finecast (characters)
Chaos Space Marines – 53 Units – 6 finecast (characters, etc…)
Grey Knights – 32 Units – 6 finecast (characters, marine finecast units)
Almost There Club!
Space Marines – 78 Units – 5 finecast (chaplains, techmarines, etc…)
Tyranids – 40 Units – 4 finecast (Lictor, characters)
Death Watch – 32 Units – 3 finecast (characters, etc)
Chaos Daemons – 50 Units – 2 finecast (Epidemius, Blue Scribes)
All Plastic Club!
Death Guard – 33 Units – 0 finecast
Genestealer Cult – 28 Units – 0 finecast
Thousand Sons – 26 Units – 0 finecast
Adeptus Mechanicus – 23 Units – 0 finecast
Imperial Knights – 12 Units – 0 finecast
Adeptus Custodes – 12 Units – 0 finecast
Eldar Harlequins – 9 Units – 0 finecast
Chaos Knights – 5 Units – 0 finecast
Notable Factions
Space Marines – The largest unit count and very old – but with a quite small finecast count. Of course, that is because all their characters have been shoved off into the Supplemental codex, but oh well. Some of their finecast units like techmarines are key as they spill over into all the other marine codexes.
Death Guard – The largest model-count army that is 100% plastic!
Sororitas – You can see why they had to get an entire army redo. They are the only almost entirely finecast army in the game, so GW had to do something drastic.
Craftworld Eldar – Very old large range, and at some point, the Phoenix Lord/Aspect warrior issue was going to come back and bite them in the ass. That time is now.
Chaos Marines – They are in a very good spot, with only a handful of finecast characters for such a large range.
Chaos Daemons – With only 2 characters left, I wouldn’t be surprised to see both of these done in Psychic Awakening to complete the range.
Tau – I was surprised to see so many finecast units. All that old Kroot business adds up.
100% Plastic Club – I was surprised that so many armies (8) are totally plastic. GW is chugging along, including several of the newest ones in the game.
~What did you find surprising about the 2019 Finecast Census?
