Forge World Catalogue 2018 surprises

I bought the Burning of Prospero box back when it was released and finished painting a 1000 point Loyalist Death Guard army ready last June. There was a small issue: no opponents to play with! But I have a friend who collected Forge World Custodians. With the hopes of playing the game some day, I bought the Age of Darkness rulebook when it came out. With it came the Forge World Catalogue 2018. It held some surprises.

Forge World Catalogue Surprise #1: Krieg Grenadiers

Death Korps of Krieg is one of the most outstanding of Imperial Guard armies. They’re a bunch of penitent clones (or so the rumor goes) who view the casualty rates of Imperial Guard as a great opportunity. You see, they feel the need to atone for their world turning traitor! Apparently, nuking their own planet and then destroying the traitors via hundreds of years of grueling tunnel warfare wasn’t enough.

Grenadiers are the elites of the Korps, going in where the fighting is toughest. Their carapace armor helps them last longer in the fight (not that they hope or expect survival) and their hellguns hot-shot lasguns are great for scything the tougher enemies. The only thing missing is… miniatures.

Krieg Grenadiers have been out of print – and the store pages – for years at this point. The only remaining traces are Grenadier weapon teams and an entry in the FW Imperial Index. Does this entry in the Forge World Catalogue 2018 mean the triumphant return of the Grenadiers? FW has resumed printing of Krieg Troopers At Idle last year, so anything is possible.

Even a Fires of Cyraxus release in 2018.

Forge World Catalogue Surprise #2: Macharius Heavy Tank

Macharius, Lord Solar, is the Warhammer 40,000 expy of Alexander the Great, down to his conquests collapsing in the wake of his death. He also had a fairly bitching miniature. The Macharius Heavy Tank is named in his honor and is considered (in universe) to be the poor man’s Baneblade. In our universe, it’s more expensive than the Baneblade, what with being made by Forge World.

Or at least it used to be made by Forge World. It disappeared from the store last year, with no explanation. Only its variants are still in production. However, once you open the pages of Forge World Catalogue 2018, you can clearly see it on the page, daunting you with its price.

Considering that Death Korps of Krieg is a fan of using these weirdo oldie tanks, this might hint at a Krieg book some time later in 2018. Of course, Forge World and Games Workshop being what they are, this might just be some miscommunication.

Or maybe it’s just Forge World Intern fucking up – again.

Forge World Catalogue Surprise #3: Eldar Corsairs

Eldar are the Space Elves of W40K, and the Corsairs are the light-sided pirates of the faction. Forge World had released their rules way back when, together with Corsair conversion kits for Guardians and Guardian Windriders. Suddenly, Eldar players had the option of making their pointy-eared militia dudes into bad-ass jetpack pirates!

But then Forge World dropped the main conversion kit. You can still buy all/most of the stuff released with the range – including Those Aspect Warriors That Appeared In Dawn Of Worst 40K Game III – but not the conversion kit. Heck, you can still purchase the Heavy Weapon and Jetbike kits. It’s like with the Krieg Grenadiers – only sad traces remain.

But maybe – just maybe – they’ll come back this year. And then, if the newly announced Kill Team turns out to be good – and gets FW support – I might just get myself some Corsairs and Grenadiers.

Forge World Catalogue Surprise #4: No More Free Peoples

The picture might be blurry, but it shows all of the Empire Free People stuff in the Age of Sigmar section of the Forge World Catalogue. Compare that image to this:

It’s a screenshot I took today. The Forge World Catalogue implies that the Empire kits are on their way out. I don’t know why the Carmine Dragon Wizard gets the exception: the other kits can still be easily used in the Free Peoples armies as proxies or to spruce up existing hordes. Heck, you can still use the Manann’s Blades and Ironsides to make Imperial Guard dudes.

On the other hand, Age of Sigmar is obviously gonna squat all the Legacy models (that don’t find a spot in the likes of Daughters of Khane) some time soon, and Free People are just ready for that.

Speaking of squattings…

Forge World Catalogue Surprise #5: Death Guard

Orks are probably the most iconic aliens of 40K, having appeared in new edition Starter Sets before. So when the 2017 release of the revolutionary (?) 8th Edition came, the new Primaris Bigmarines in the starter set were opposed by… Death Guard? Yeah, sure, Chaos Poop Marines were elevated into a new faction and received an entire range of new miniatures.

Which includes Death Guard miniatures that really break away from the regular CSM visuals. However, Forge World is still selling Death Guard Conversion Set and the Death Guard Terminator Conversion Kit. Neither of those looks in any way similar to the NuGuard and you get to pay premium for the privilege of fielding them. So there’s that I guess.

Forge World Catalogue Surprise Bonus Round: Astral Claws

Now that I mentioned squatting, I have to get back to my baby theory: Primaris Space Marines mean the squatting of the entire Space Marine range. The game is moving away from them, both in fluff and in the meta.

So this leaves the Forge World ranges dedicated to Old Marines in a strange spot. While shoulder pads and heads can still fit biglies (and Space Wolf Terminators can find place in 30K – God knows the actual SW 30K termies are atrocious), you really have no place for Astral Claws.

For those who don’t know/don’t care, Astral Claws is the Chapter that initiated the Badab War in the FW books of the same name. It was basically Space Marine civil war, and it ended with Chapter Master Lufty H. becoming Huron Blackheart, leader of the Red Corsair renegades.

Point is, this is an extremely historical 40K campaign, happening ages before the Big Marines and there’s no way in hell – in fluff sense – that Astral Claws are ever getting redeemed. So not burning the molds for these dudes is kinda strange.