Tankpot

The announcement of Warhammer: The Old World has got spirits up among the folks who still pine for blocks of infantry, fantasy Frenchmen and a time when ‘Orruk’ was only three letters. I can understand why. AoS represented the first time I could find myself engaging with Games Workshop’s fantasy line, but there’s a lot to like about the classic, Tolkienesque tones of the original Warhammer Fantasy Battle. AoS removed entire armies to fit the new setting, and while I love the soft reboot of Bretonnians as Flesh Eater Courts, some, like I say, still want those lance formations and grubby peasantry armed with billhooks. What’s more, so many of the video games based on Warhammer Fantasy still take place in the Old World, not least the wildly popular Total War games. The reality is, if someone were coming to Warhammer from the outside, because of games like Total War: Warhammer and Vermintide, Age of Sigmar would seem very unusual. Who are these big gold folks with hammers? Why are those e...

When I first raised this idea on Twitter, I got a lot of positive comments, even a confirmation of my reasoning from a Black Library author. I also had a few folks not quite follow or misunderstand what I was trying to express, and that's fine, because Twitter isn't necessarily the best place to get a point across. Regardless, it was probably worth writing it up in full anyway. One thing that has always bothered me about the Eldar, specifically Craftworld Eldar, is a certain incongruity in their lore with regards to gender. They are described as making no distinction between genders societally, so why are one of their Aspect Warrior shrines so overtly female in form and membership? Why are there no male Howling Banshees? I am aware that the lore states mostly female, but that's still a cop-out in a species that doesn't view one's gender as a meaningful barrier to opportunity. It's an awkward way to write around edge cases and doesn't actually do justice...

Sisters of Battle are coming! They’re almost here! I’m excited. I’m excited because its an army I’ve always wanted to collect and play, but by the time I had the wherewithal the first time round the old metal range had lost its lustre. And had become prohibitively expensive. So a new plastic range is super exciting! The models look amazing! They have upped the detail and approached the range with a more respectful eye. The Repentia look less fetishy, the boob-plate power armour is less… booby. The faces on the new models reference a range of ethnicities and ages. In all, if this new range is going to be the main example of female representation in 40k, well, it’s certainly not awful. Could be better, obviously. But certainly not awful. I know that I’m not the only person excited, too. There’s been a lot of people looking for a cheaper and easy to collect range of Sororitas, and people who’ve wanted the warrior aspect to be brought forward, and the sexy aspect toned down. These...