... and not only because we saw the same models two weeks ago. What's fresh? They seem to me the classic cliches with a modern overblown aesthetic. I'd argue they still don't do the look better conceptually than the Terminator Robots in the Future Wars range at Copplestone Castings, or even the otherworldly Ute'wehi from ZombieSmith.
I'm guessing GW thinks so too, and that this is the reason for the secrecy and the big splash, with the idea being to translate an initial unreflective excitement into pre-orders.
As for the force content, especially the transports, I gave my opinion here back in May; teleportation via weird monoliths and the like is surely more individual than recognisable vehicles carrying troops or weapons, something so many other 40K factions do already.
Looking at the skeletal design cues in particular, these are now spread across so many GW ranges it's gone for me beyond a burlesque motif into unconscious détournement.
Anyway, if you like a bit more variety in your robots, try the ALEPH range for Infinity, a game with a lot of variety in miniatures in general. For more aliens try these minis via Eastern Empire or the forms being developed for the wargame Primeval Abyssian, here.
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I'm guessing GW thinks so too, and that this is the reason for the secrecy and the big splash, with the idea being to translate an initial unreflective excitement into pre-orders.
As for the force content, especially the transports, I gave my opinion here back in May; teleportation via weird monoliths and the like is surely more individual than recognisable vehicles carrying troops or weapons, something so many other 40K factions do already.
Looking at the skeletal design cues in particular, these are now spread across so many GW ranges it's gone for me beyond a burlesque motif into unconscious détournement.
Anyway, if you like a bit more variety in your robots, try the ALEPH range for Infinity, a game with a lot of variety in miniatures in general. For more aliens try these minis via Eastern Empire or the forms being developed for the wargame Primeval Abyssian, here.
7 responding:
I have to agree; the transports seem a great deal interesting than the old teleportation effects. Then again, I was never much of a fan of the Necrons; I still think of them as Space Crusade Chaos Androids.
My first question is why Necron vehicles need pilots; why would they not be autonomous? The Hunter/Killers from the Terminator movies and the newly designed Cylon Raiders from Sci-Fi's Battlestar Galactica are sentient. Why would a machine pilot a machine?
I agree that teleportation is a much more iconic and novel means of troop transport.
All good points.
The teleportation does look to have been left in of course, but having the mix of both teleportation and transports could mean those transports looking even more out of place. Moving instantaneously from point to point is appropriately menacing, and might be expected to be the standard for such an advanced faction.
The pilots on the cresent-shaped barges actually remind me a little of muppets, and Elmo especially. In the case of the longer vehicles, the arks, the approach seems all the sadder for the feeling I have that the Dark Eldar raider update was a terrible missed opportunity, and that it would actually look better built around the arks' ribbed structure. At any rate, I see a strange overlap between the DE and the new Necrons.
The mention of Space Crusade has me thinking a group of simpler androids could actually make for a fun faction, Chaos or not, possibly with a more utilitarian design as a refreshing change from all the embellishment we see these days.
But then of course, building on the question of why a machine would pilot a machine, we could ask why the base machine needs to be humanoid? Why not have all kinds of form, with the base being more like the Necron scarab, plugging into larger machines, maybe with those machines modular themselves. If the faction really has to be based on something we can recognise, and symmetrical, then to avoid the insectoid crustacean Tyranid look it could be a worm-like form. And why not go really high-tech and have the teleportation allowing in-game transformations, or a shielding that keeps the bulk of the machine protected in a buffer? That's assuming of course miniatures need to be made and the faction can't just be energies.
Somehow the concept as whole feels less 'advanced sentient constructs meet ancient Earth civilisations' than The Terminator meets Stargate.
At any rate, I see a strange overlap between the DE and the new Necrons.
This was my impression, too. My first thought was that the Necron transports looked too much like DE barges.
But then of course, building on the question of why a machine would pilot a machine, we could ask why the base machine needs to be humanoid?
Excellent point. Necron warriors are pretty obviously based on Terminator chassis, which had a logical reason for looking humanoid: they were trying to masquerade as human. Necrons have no such rationale. I really liked the machine aesthetic in The Matrix, particularly the squiddy-looking ones with the mechanical tentacles that resembled Dr. Octopus' arms.
Somehow the concept as whole feels less 'advanced sentient constructs meet ancient Earth civilisations' than The Terminator meets Stargate.
This is especially true of the Crypteks, which have those goofy-looking stylized Egyptian beards for some bizarre reason.
It's too bad. I could really have gotten behind the Necrons if they had put a little more effort and creativity into them.
My feeling too, and it would be great to be able to get behind something official more fully again.
Tyranids and Orks come close for me these days, mainly for the mystery in the origins of the Tyranids, and the sense of the Orks as a travelling ecosystem and force of nature. Then again, the older conceptions get me more excited than the current, like the early ancient nautical feel of the Tyranid ships, and the mood of the knowledge-gathering mission in Ian Watson's Space Marine. Even the Hive War reboot for Epic seems fresh and bold now. In the case of the Orks, the rusty junkyard look might have gone a bit too far.
Heh, I had to look up detournement, glad you linked it! So what you meant was everything in 40k is covered in skulls, and now the Necrons are made of skulls they have become a caricature of 40k?
I really don't like the design of the transports. I think they want it to look like a ribcage but it just looks to me like a norse longship, which is horribly dissonant with the look of the passengers. It's all gone a bit Flash Gordon I think.
Very interesting concept that detournement. I'd say it's more than just the Necrons, and a lot of what GW produces. I was watching a game of Dreadfleet yesterday and even given what that product is, the skulls stood out for me as a major mistake, and a damaging one.
I didn't see the longship till you mentioned it, but it's there. Could it all be some kind of private joke?
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