Faith comes in many forms. So welcome, believers, to the latest Warhammer Preview Online – Faith & Damnation.
Many of the beings we revealed in our last Warhammer Preview Online have their own unique ways of showing devotion to gods and worldly spirits – even if those ways include listening to a pet snake. Those we’ll be showing off today are no different.
Strap in and get ready for some incredible reveals from:
If you haven’t already, now’s the time to pop the kettle on because this hype train’s about to leave the station and our Tech-Priest forgot to bless the brakes.
You’ve seen what the dark ambitions of the Soulblight can do to one particularly unfortunate city, and sadly, for the rest of the Mortal Realms, their gaze stretches far beyond Shyish.
Leading legions of the undead in their conquest are the Vampire Lords, frighteningly powerful, immortal tyrants (and definitely not someone to cross in a dark alley), and their elite vampire Blood Knight cavalry.
With them march an endless regiment of fleshless soldiers equipped with all manner of rusting, chipped, and broken weaponry. The Deathrattle Skeletons form the backbone of many Soulblight Gravelords armies, lending the martial might of fallen heroes to the vampires’ dread ambitions.
While former warriors may have the dubious honour of rising again as skeletons, the corpse of just about anyone can make a useful pawn, provided it hasn’t completely fallen apart. Deadwalker Zombies, as you might imagine, aren’t the fastest or most skilled of combatants, but that’s scant comfort when thousands of the blighters are slowly shuffling towards you.
Of course, vampires wouldn’t be vampires without a few winged friends flapping around and making spooky shadows in the night. These giant Fell Bats are a dab hand at both. They’re also rather good at sinking their teeth into terrified foes, in case you were wondering.
You can find all the warscrolls for these units in the new Soulblight Gravelords battletome, packed with updated lore, battleplans, and more. It’s stuffed to bursting with a wealth of content for Nagash’s undead legions too, so budding generals of the Death grand alliance definitely won’t want to miss it. After all, Kritza, the Rat Prince isn’t the only vampire setting forth in search of victims – stay tuned to Warhammer Community to find out more.
As eagle-eyed followers will have noticed, many of these units look like they’d fit in fine among the cursed inhabitants of Ulfenkarn. Warhammer Quest: Cursed City will indeed be your first chance to get your claws into the new Soulblight Gravelords, and it’s opening its gates very soon.
But wait… do you hear that? It sounds like a rumble, coming from somewhere very, very deep. Almost like something terrifying has woken from a long slumber.
We don’t know about you, but we’re not sticking around to find out who that was. Let’s take refuge somewhere safe, like… ah yes, we have the perfect place.
Beastgrave isn’t that bad a place to hide out, right? Yes, it can get a bit hectic around Direchasm on a Friday night, but there are some perfectly friendly types down here too. Look, here come some now.
Okay, we were wrong. Sent on a mission by Nagash himself to collect a tithe of bones from the mysterious Silent People, Kainan’s Reapers are a humourless bunch adept at one thing above all others: killing everything that gets in their way. In fact, they even get powered up as they slay more and more of their foes.
That leaves only one more warband on our road map for the first half of 2021. Who could it be? While you’re busy speculating, we’re going to find our way out of this blasted mountain.
From the underworlds of the Mortal Realms, we travel to the underhive of Necromunda, where the local zealots are getting worked up about something.
House Cawdor has every right to be angry – they’ve seen the Goliath, Escher, Orlock, and Van Saar clans get their ‘House of…’ books, and they’ve been feeling left out. Fear not, for the God-Emperor provides for the faithful, and House of Faith is a very good book indeed.
This tome delves further into the background of House Cawdor than we’ve seen before, introduces new ways to play Cawdor gangs, and looks at their relationship with the outlaws known as Redemptionists.
Which reminds us, the Redemptionists are getting some new models along with the book (one of which you’ve seen already), making it easier than ever to spread fire and faith throughout the underhive.
These incendiary fanatics can be added to your Cawdor gang, but if you feel the underhive really needs a good purging, you can go all-in and muster an entire force of Redemptionists instead. With models as fabulous as these, we wouldn’t blame you. Looks like the Enforcers might need to start working double shifts to try and dampen things down once these zealots get started.
Speaking of getting started, Necromunda is also getting an amazing new starter set, called Hive War.
If you’ve ever thought about dipping your toe into Necromunda, now’s the perfect time as this box contains everything you need to get started.
Two Complete Gangs
Get going in the underhive with full 10-member gangs from the wild House Escher and secretive House Delaque, packed with customisation options to personalise each of your characters.
Incredible Terrain
Pack your table with 36 individual walls, columns, and barricades, and use a double-sided gaming mat to spice things up every now and then.
Updated Rulebook
A 104-page introductory rulebook is perfect for newcomers to the dark and violent underhive of Necromunda. It’s not just got the rules, though – you’ll learn all about the hive city itself and the Houses that inhabit it.
A Nifty Package of Accessories
The box includes range rulers, blast markers, flame templates (remember those, Warhammer veterans?), and everything else you need to play full games from the outset. There are also 16 bespoke Necromunda dice because there’s no such thing as too many dice.
Just remember, if you are new to the underhive or a hired gun shopping around for some extra work, tell the Redemptionists that you ARE a believer – they tend to get a bit hot under the collar if you’re not.
As the Forge World of Metalica comes under attack from a massive Chaos invasion in War Zone Charadon Act 1: The Book of Rust, the Adeptus Mechanicus are putting their best robotic foot forward to face the oncoming threat. We’ve already looked at what Metalica will face in that book, so let’s see how they’re preparing to fight back.
While it’s not uncommon for Tech-Priests to be as skilled at commanding their cohorts as they are tinkering with technology, an extra pair of hands can never hurt on a chaotic battlefield. For once, they’ve decided to give those hands their own body, rather than just welding them to their own spine.
Specialised in directing their troops from the front line and leaving the important plans up to their masters, the Skitarii Marshal makes an excellent lieutenant for the Machine God’s armies and will ensure their Rangers make the most of every shot.
They haven’t just been building a new commander, either. The entire range has been given the once-over by its Tech-Priest masters, and soon you can find the fruits of their labour in the freshly updated Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus.
As befits the Omnissiah’s servants, the Adeptus Mechanicus roster has been tweaked and added to several times since its first arrival, and now you can find every unit in one convenient place, from the venerable Skitarii Rangers to the ingenious Archaeopter Stratoraptor. With a host of improvements to their weaponry and rules, there’s never been a better time to exchange weak flesh for holy machine.
That’s not all – if you’ve ever wanted your Tech-Priests to rummage around inside other factions’ technology and create strange new artefacts, you’ll want to take your Adeptus Mechanicus force on Crusade. Keep an eye on Warhammer Community to find out more about that in April.
Their vehicle forges haven’t been silent in the meantime either.
The Adepta Sororitas, like us, are clearly fans of a good tracked tank and have decided it’s high time they had another. Being the pious sorts that they are, it’s called the Castigator, and there’s no doubt someone’s about to get severely reprimanded by that battle cannon on the turret.
Fans of the Immolator and Exorcist tanks will immediately feel right at home among the baroque stylings of the Castigator, with plenty of ornamental filigree adorning every surface – even the cannon barrel. We can’t wait to see whole squadrons of Adepta Sororitas tanks rolling out when these arrive on the tabletop.
The armies of Mankind might be relieved to see the arrival of their new reinforcements, but there’s no time to get comfortable. War continues to blossom across the galaxy, and wherever there’s a good scrap to be had, a certain green tide is rarely far behind.
Who are the Beast Snaggas? Was that a squig they were riding? Is the first narrator okay? We have an answer to at least one of these questions right here.
We’ll be finding out more about these boyz in the near future, so make sure you keep your eyes firmly trained on Warhammer Community and discover what you can do in the face of this new threat. Or, you know, join in and start stompin’ some gits.
That’s all we have time for today, which should come as no surprise as that’s rather a lot of reveals to chew through. As ever, make sure you sign up for our newsletter for all the latest information on these reveals and more besides – you don’t want to miss the tiniest morsel. As for us, we’re going to lie down and start getting ready for the next Warhammer Preview Online.