The Fractured Imperium

Call the internet plumber for the leaks are out. Roboute Guilliman, the Primarch of the Ultramarines and having been in stasis for thousands of years, is back. With him comes a new Grey Knights (bore) Grand Master and much more excitedly, Cypher.

Cypher looks impressive, and it will be interesting to see where the story lies for these characters. In one of the leaked pictures from White Dwarf, Cypher stands next to both Guilliman and the GKGM even though he was once thought a heretic. The Dark Angels will likely still think this, but my narrative head is beaming with ideas. A couple of other pictures leaked held some very intriguing text. One mentioned that some in the Imperium would be incredibly suspicious that Roboute has been brought from the dead, while the Primarch himself is dismayed at the state of the Imperium. This makes me wonder... will the Imperium split? 

Think about it, not for thousands of years have the Imperium had a figure to look upon as a leader. The High Lords of Terra are mysterious, the Emperor is but a corpse held alive but machinery, who do they look upon? Roboute. However, with the Emperor being revered as a God Guilliman may not agree with many of the Imperiums rules, hence a possible civil war. Depending on rumours with how this Gathering Storm continues we could see the fracture of the Imperium of Man.

Cypher working with Roboute, is he trying to tell the primarch that the emperor needs to be killed to be reborn? Vulkan could be used as evidence and a potential future release down the line. However, due to the many cults and factions many will not allow this and I can see a brutal war breaking out amongst the Imperium. Rumours abound that the Gathering Storm after this third instalment could see Vect return, along with Mortarion in his Daemon Prince form and a new envisioning of Abbadon, which is well needed. Will they perhaps work together to create an even bigger divide of the Imperium, taking advantage of the inner turmoil? Perhaps Cypher even is creating this discord, its always been said he creates a lot of discord and would suit his character. 

The splitting of the Imperium would be huge. Space Marines no longer allying with other factions like the Grey Knights or the Ordo Hereticus, Imperial Guard could be stuck in the middle, Primarchs vs High Lords of Terra. Having the story arc for Warhammer 40,000 move along after so many years is exciting, so many possibly story lines could be closed, expanded and started that this time next year we could be talking about the fringes of the Imperium battling the empires of the Eldar, Tau and Renegades. Perhaps the Tyranids will evolve and become a republic, leading the other races into a new age of prosperity. Yeah, and Jokearo might fly out of my butt.

The Fallen Rise.

And so the Dark Angels have officially arrived. I've seen the leak pics, and I have to be honest I thought I'd best reserve my opinion until we get official pictures. They're finally here, so heres my thoughts.

Belial. A fair static model, but I think it shows off a commanding presence, and works pretty well. I'm not a huge fan of the bone armour with green robes... it looks a wee odd. Overall though a nice model, and I think a better colour scheme would improve.

Ah the return of Asmodai. A nice update, and I think DA fans will lap him up. 

The Codex itself, it'll be hard to have many thoughts on this until I've seen the rules and how the book looks and feels, but artwork wise the cover is pretty darn nice!

 Thsi first variant flyer. I really think this looks terrible. Why on Terra would you put stone like statues on a flyer? Absolutely horrible only made better by being able to make this...

 Now thats more like it. You can see the Storm Talon influence, but has an Imperial Guard feel to it too. Looks nice, and has no statues on it. Thank the Emperor! Missiles under the wings look good too. Also intrigued with the nose cannons...

Wowser. And I don't mean that in a positive way. One of the things that did appeal to me about the Dark Angels, was the Ravenwing. The idea of an army of bikes and speeders is always good, and like the white scars would be an impressive looking army on the table. Unless you have this speeder variant. This is horrible beyond even Nurgles doings. I like the idea about the rumoured rules for it, but this is just terrible. The gun point at the front is bad, the engines look pretty pap where they are... I just cannot stand this model.

This variant of the hideous flyer is only marginally better for the plasma cannons on top... but even those look unlike the usual plasma cannons of the Imperium.  Still a dire looking thing.

More bad colour scheme, but the models themselves look alright.  One thing that used to bug me about the 'watchers of the dark' is this... they're so mysterious, yet wear power armour. Look at the foot? A really odd choice that always confused me with Azrael's watcher.

Terminator command squad? I think these are kinda cool. The plasma cannon looks nice, and I'm jealous I can't use one in my Evandalists! The only negative I have for these is the banner. It looks daft on the top, how do you fit that in a Land Raider? I remember seeing one with a termie holding one, and that didn't look right either. I think they could have changed it to be holding a relic of some kind that had the same rules and purpose as a banner. 

So they are my quick thoughts on some of the new DA releases. Very hit and miss, I don't think many non DA fans will be turned but users of the Fallen will probably enjoy the new set of releases. What are your thoughts?

(All images property of Games Workshop)