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So the NOVA Open reveals have come, and with it has a ton of new models from Games Workshop. And honestly it was one of the better reveal shows that I’ve seen from Games Workshop even if the actual models weren’t my favorite. One problem that Games Workshop has with these reveal shows is that they tend to drag out for a long time: they announce a product with a video, show some details of the product, and then have boring banter about “What is the chat saying?” This time they just cut to the chase every time and I thought it was much better.

But, the models were a mixed bag. Some gorgeous models, some big misses, and some get-my-hopes-up-and-then-disappoint-me models.

So let’s dive into the NOVA Open reveals and see what they have:

The NOVA Open reveals showed a lot of Space Marines, which I don’t mind at all (though I do feel bad for non-Space Marine 40k players who didn’t get anything). But my favorite of all were the Space Marine Company Heroes. These have so much character. I love the banner bearer, even though I’m miserable at painting banners. I love the bionic arm. The sword bearer. They’re all terrific. These are definitely Space Marines that I’m going to be adding to my army.

My second favorite Space Marines at the NOVA Open reveals show were the Jump Pack Intercessors. These have been a long time coming, and were the only model released last night where I (in the evening in a quiet house watching the reveal show on my headphones) said out loud “Finally!”

Now, I’ve heard people say that new Space Marine reveals, as Ninjon did last night on Warhammer Weekly, that Space Marine reveals are like playing Where’s Waldo; you look at Space Marines and try to figure out the tiny thing that differentiates these Space Marines from other Space Marines. And while I can see that with things like the Infernus Marines (who I don’t like) I think that the Jump Pack Intercessors look sufficiently good independently. Definitely another addition to my Space Marine army.

These guys, the Space Marine Sternguard Veterans, however, were not my favorite. And if I would have said that to myself six months ago I would be upset with myself, because I have always loved the Sternguard Veterans. But we just got Sternguard in the Leviathan release, and while I recognize that these guys are multipose figures with a lot of different bits, it did kind of seem like Games Workshop was recycling old material to show off at the NOVA Open reveals show. So, neat, but I just got five Sternguard with Leviathan and I don’t think I need more?

I’m not as excited about the Space Marine Scouts as a lot of Space Marine players are, and I think that’s because even back before Primaris when Scouts were still a viable unit, I just never used them and didn’t really like them. They don’t fit in the Space Marine world, in my mind. Space Marines are all about being one-man armies, with amazingly tough armor that can deflect almost anything, and while YES, I KNOW THE LORE, I just never liked “tough humans in cloth armor”. Space Marines have never struck me as being short on cash, and I think they could afford to kit their younger brethren out in a decent suit of armor. But that’s just me.

They showed off this Terminator Captain, which, eh, cool, I guess. He’s a really awesome model, I admit, but we just got a Terminator Captain. I like him, but not seeing a need to buy him.

This guy, on the other hand, is someone I’ll definitely be adding. I collect every Chaplain I can get my hands on. I even have already kitbashed the Leviathan Librarian into a Terminator Chaplain (it was a very minor conversion, just giving him a Crozius instead of his Axe). But I love the skull mask they give this guy (not pictured here–I prefer the full mask to this half mask). And I especially love giving the Chaplain a relic shield. I think there could have been more done with the ribs to be more suitably boney-ribcagey, but this was good.

Anyway, I think that’s all of the Warhammer 40k stuff? Again, I’m disappointed that there were no other 40k reveals besides Space Marines, but I guess we’ve been expecting Space Marine reveals ever since they announced the additional Tyranid reveals a couple months ago.

Now onto the Horus Heresy.

I’ll be honest: I love me some Space Marines, and I love me some Horus Heresy, but there’s nothing about Mark III armor that really has me clamoring to buy these guys. They’re cool? I guess. It definitely will add variety, and I love the IDEA of different armor variants, but I’ve just never thought that Mark III armor looked particularly good.

(Will I still buy the new Battle Group? Probably, because a fool and his money are soon parted, but I don’t love them as much as I like the beaky marines.)

Of the three Horus Heresy Dreadnoughts, this comes in the middle for me. I like it better than the Contemptor but not as much as the Leviathan. This is, for all intents and purposes, a gun platform on legs. And if you’re cool with that then this is perfect for you. No one is expecting to meet the Deredeo in hand-to-hand combat: you should be dead before you ever get that close to a Deredeo. Does it look a LITTLE BIT silly? Yes. Is it still cool? Also yes.

And, as had been rumored, they are going to be releasing a new Horus Heresy battle box, the Legiones Astartes Battle Group. 30 Mark III Marines, with heavy weapon options (nice addition, IMO), a Land Raider, and a Deredeo Dreadnought. All in all, a good box. These are all things that I don’t have yet, and, as mentioned in the NOVA Open reveals live show, adding this box to the Age of Darkness box essentially gives you a complete 3000 point force. And if you can get a fully kitted out army for ANY Games Workshop game buy just buying two boxed sets, that’s pretty good. Even financially, knowing that the Age of Darkness box is hovering around $254 USD on Amazon right now and that this box will be at least $200 USD, it’s still cheaper than buying virtually any army piecemeal.

Onto the Mortal Realms of Age of Sigmar:

Now, I’ve said that I’m going to probably be picking up some of the Space Marines, but this model is the first one in the NOVA Open reveals show that I said “I NEED this model.” I have always loved Troggoths, and anything Gloomspite Gitz. But the idea of coming up with an all-Troggoth (or mostly-Troggoth) army is too cool to pass up. And this model is gorgeous. The idea that he’d been buried so long that he has ancient Slaan ruins built on top of him and cave paintings drawn on his skin is awesome, and I love the rules they talked about where he both hates magic (because the ruins give him a magic headache) and also uses magic (because those ruins can do neat things).

In sum, a really terrific model that I think will definitely see a lot of representation at the Golden Daemons.

Now for the Ironjawz. I’ll be up front with you here: I don’t love the Orruks. I didn’t like the Kruleboyz, and I’ve never really loved the Ironjawz. I don’t think I’d ever want to play this army, but dang if they didn’t come up with some really gorgeous models.

If I have one complaint about the Ard Boyz, it’s that they seem a tad on the busy side. There’s just so many different layers and panels to their armor that I have a hard time with their silhouette. And that’s unfortunate, because they have so many good things going for them. I love the face masks with the tusks, and I love the sheer brute force that they seem to exude. They’re definitely good models. They just look hard to paint.

These Brute Ragers, on the other hand, are much more of my jam. They’re incredible-looking models, with their big bulging muscles and their massive weapons. The lore that accompanies them–that they’re Orruks who backed down from a fight and therefore they got shamed into going beastmode on the enemy, seems off. They seem much more ferocious and mean to be reformed cowards. But the models are still very, very cool, and like I said, I don’t play Ironjawz, so I can just enjoy the models without having to worry about my lore quibbles.

These Weirdbrute Wreckas, part of a multi-part kit alongside the Brute Ragers, are also very cool. Cooler, even. The only real difference is the face masks and the weapons, and while I don’t love these weapons as much as the Brute Ragers, these facemasks are awesome–especially the bird skull over on the right. Really amazing work.

Now we’re on to Warcry, and this is the other thing, aside from the Troggoth King, that I decided I needed to get. I had already decided that I was going to get the Wildercorps when they were announced a few weeks ago. I am going all-in on Cities of Sigmar, and these guys are really too impressive to not include in that. And honestly, if Games Workshop learned anything from the crab, it’s that their models need pets. The Elvis-haird squig, the Underworld squid that’s coming up, and these doggos are all really great additions to the game. (I especially like that the Cities of Sigmar dogs are just regular dogs, not Gryphhounds or something like that. Yes, I’ve seen the little mini dragon thing that comes with the command squad, but these dogs are just good dogs.)

But the star of the Warcry show was the Gorger Mawpack. The hungriest of all the hungry Ogors, these are some super impressive models, and they really made me decide to dip my toe back into Warcry waters. I honestly love the look of almost every Warcry warband–I think they’re some of the best models that Games Workshop is putting out right now–but they’re also very small and fiddly, relatively. It’s hard to go from painting big bulky models to painting the Corvus Cabal, for example. But these Gorgers are chonky boys and I can definitely see myself enjoying painting these. Combine them with the Wildercorps and this is a terrific box set.

(The paint job on these Gorgers, however, is not doing them any favors. At a glance they look like Flesh-Eater Courts models, not Ogors. So much more could be done with the paint job than just pale white.)

And then, to disappoint all of us at the NOVA Open Reveals, there’s this Mawpit in the box. Maybe you like more Gnarlwood Terrain, and this is admittedly better than more meat trees, but at some point Warcry just needs to calm down about all the terrain. I want the two warbands–I don’t want to pay an extra $60 for this thing. Is it cool? I guess. Do I feel like it weighs down the box? Yes.

Blood Bowl has some vampires now, and they’re kinda cool. I’ve never gotten into Blood Bowl (other than the video game which I quite enjoy), but while I 100% appreciate the silliness of the game and enjoy the puns, it’s just not my cup of tea.

Speaking of things that are not for me: Underworlds. And not just Underworlds, but Slaanesh vs Idoneth Deepkin. Now, I love me some Idoneth Deepkin–for the sea creatures, which means I love the squid (see below) but the standard Idoneth elves are nothing special. I will 100% admit that these Slaanesh models are quality–I just don’t like the Slaanesh vibe. I’m not into body horror, which isn’t always Slaanesh’s thing, but it definitely is the vibe with these models.

The question is: had they already planned this great squid before the great crab was such a hit?

This is an amazing, beautiful model, and it just confirms to me that Warhammer The Old World is going to be a dud. If Games Workshop really had some Old World units to show us we would have seen them by now, but all we’re getting is either black and white renders of bits or resin models (yes, this model is resin). I honestly am out of faith that Games Workshop is going to do anything other than resurrect 20 year old Warhammer Fantasy kits and sell some fancy resin Forge World models to accompany them. It does not appear–at all–like this is ever going to be a core game.

This, in my controversial opinion, is not an enormous deal. It stopped being a core game because it wasn’t making any money. And while I think that a huge range refresh across the board could breathe new life into it, I honestly don’t believe that square-based rank-and-flank games are ever going to be as popular as the alternative.

Yes, there is more interest in The Old World since the release of the Total War Warhammer games, but I don’t think it’s enough to carry an entire massive (because it would have to be massive) product line.

And then we got a super exciting model that everyone lost their minds about–including me–and we all oohed and aahed over it until they said “Er… it’s resin, and it’s for Horus Heresy.”

Think of all the money they could have made in 40k by launching a Fulgrim daemon prince in plastic.

Those wings though–in resin… that’s going to be a pain in the butt.