There’s slightly bittersweet news for Warhammer 40,000 fans today, as some long-serving miniatures will be retiring from the range – both classic Space Marines, and a selection of Forge World kits.
Last Chance to Buy: Space Marines
The upcoming Leviathan box is packed with new Space Marines and Tyranids, including fantastic updates to some iconic units – Terminators, Sternguard Veterans, and a Ballistus Dreadnought. The arrival of these three in particular means certain older miniatures are entering Last Chance to Buy on the Games Workshop webstore – the Space Marine Dreadnought, the current Sternguard Veterans, and the current Space Marine Terminators.
Those who own these classic models needn’t worry – they can still find a place on the battlefields of the new edition of Warhammer 40,000, representing kits that are still supported (like the new Sternguard Unit). Specialist flavours of Dreadnought – such as the Librarian Dreadnought, the Wulfen Dreadnought, or the Venerable Dreadnought kit – aren’t going anywhere either.
Importantly – and despite what heretical elements in the noosphere might be claiming otherwise – the humble Tactical Squads (as well as many other classic kits) are not being retired. In the new edition of Warhammer 40,000 you will still be able to play a Space Marines army without deploying so much as a single Primaris Marine, if you so choose.
Legends in 10th Edition
The good news for long-time collectors is that you will still be able to use many of your older miniatures in games of the new Warhammer 40,000. The new edition will support these units with comprehensive Legends rules, which will be available to download free online around the game’s release.
These are 100% official rules, with points, and we actively encourage you to use them in your games at home, in stores, clubs, and campaigns. Your classic units and characters are still awesome, and they deserve to see the battlefield every now and again.
Legends rules will not however be actively balanced* going forwards, so our recommendation is that these rules would not be suitable for competitive events.
Forge World: Last Chance to Buy
Talking of Legends, there’s also a bit of a shake-up happening to the Warhammer 40,000 range from Forge World. Quite a few classic resin kits will be entering Last Chance to Buy, and for those units that don’t have a contemporary analogue, they will also get Legends rules.
Leaving the Range: Imperial Units
Leaving the Range: Chaos Units
Leaving the Range: Xenos Units
Already Left the Range
Certain Forge World products have already left the range – but people who own them will still get to use them with updated Legends rules.
There will still be Forge World units for Warhammer 40,000, but the focus for them will be on the really big stuff – like Titans, and other kits that we can’t reasonably produce at that scale (yet!).
When we add new units in future, they will almost always be in plastic – and there are a lot of plastic kits on the way over the next few years!
* By “actively balanced”, we mean for example, seeing their points change in seasonal matched play updates where needed. This happens in line with army performance, as we have done in the previous edition with Balance Dataslates.