What to expect from GW 40K releases over the next few years.

Having seen a staggering 3 codex releases so far this with a 4^th the end of last year and a 5^th only a few weeks away, GW are really churning out the material at the moment. Smaller scale releases and the absence of waves area aiding this process and mean we should be seeing (at this rate) a 6^th edition update to all codices by the end of 2015. We have also gained insight into exactly what they are releasing alongside book – psychic cards where applicable, a single plastic mini, flyer and updated models usually in multi-part kits with new units. In this article I will venture some educated guesses and speculation on how the release schedule is likely to go for the next few years.

2013:

Dark Angels, Chaos Daemons and Tau are already updated, with Eldar and Space Marines rumoured.

I have posts on Eldar and Space Marines already on my blogs and so won’t dwell on these. What is interesting is a potential apocalypse revamp also, suggesting we will see some new models and maybe a trend with an expansion every year with new models in. (allies?)

2014:

Rumours pointed to Tyranids, Orks and Imperial Guard. I personally don’t think we will see a year without Space Marines and so would also put the most out of date codex in here – Black Templars. Finally, and to continue the 5 releases a year trend, I think end of 2014 (or beginning of 2015) will be when we see Sisters of battle make a welcome return with a new range in the same way Dark Eldar did. In no particular order:

Tyranids

Codex and psychic deck.

Genestealer broodlord plastic mini.

Doom / Parasite FC models.

Harpy multi-kit

Mycetic spore

Thrope kit – venom/zoan/new - 3 models in one plastic kit

Guard kit – Hive/Tyrant/new - 3 models in one plastic kit

Vore kit – Bio/Pyro/new - 3 models in one plastic kit

These all make some sense and would fit with the multi-kit trend and still give 4 new units in the new book as well as eliminating a lot of finecast from the range (7 kits)

Imperial Guard

Codex

Medusa/Colossus/basilisk 3-in-1 kit

Hydra/variant

Griffon/Salamander

New regiment kits – command / infantry / heavy weapons

Finecast penal legion

I don’t honestly think we’ll see that much new stuff in an Imperial Guard release and to be honest, with several outdated FC/metal kits still kicking around and a lot of Codex slots still without GW models (many of them have FW equivalents), I think we’ll see mostly those units releases (assuming they don’t get a wave/apocalypse release before then). What I hope they release, and in honesty think they need to release to pique peoples interests, is a new plastic regiment. Now the old metal models are finally going the way of the dinosaur, GW need something to make new collectors interested and for the sake of 3 kits you can encourage people to buy a whole new army, even people who already have an IG army. It also removes the need for a lot of new, fancy units and would add a wow factor to the release.

Orks

Codex and psychic powers

Plastic single mini (warboss?)

WaZdakka FC box

ZOgwort FC blister

Meganobs/alt build

Flash gits / alt build

Deffcopters and alt build/options

Wartrack/buggy/scorcha set

Big set (squiggoth?)

Second flyer (copter?)

At first glance there appear to be many sets from the ork range that are old and in serious need of an update. Some, such as the Deffkopta and warboss, have gone from having a plastic kit in the starter set to yet again having nothing.  I think this is fairly representative of what we will see – more kits getting an update and a few alt builds and new releases added in, in a similar fashion to the Dark Angel release.

Black Templars

Who knows with these chaps. A chance to update some of the older, more generic space marine kits (assuming this doesn’t happen with the SM release) is always a possibility. I hope they use the opportunity to make Templars a more divergent army with units that simply wouldn’t suit a regular SM army. (large siege engine crammed with hordes of infantry please!)

Sisters of battle

The gals of 40K will no doubt need an entire revamp dark-eldar stlye. I would imagine a much larger scale release involving at least 6 plastic kits, all with multi-builds. A standard £25 kit of 10 sisters with a few options, then a £20 kit with 5 sisters and lots of weapon/command/robes/banner bits etc. A vehicle kit for a rhino/immolator, another for an exorcist/alt build, then a penitent/alt build and a flyer kit. And this is just the bare minimum that would be needed, to say nothing about repentia, seraphim, ecclesiarchy and furthermore new units. Would be great to see another revamped army along the lines of dark eldar / necrons though.

 

2015:

This year will be a mixed year I suspect. On the one hand we may get sisters rolled into this year. On the other we will be seeing a lot of power armour updates from the end of 5^th edition and hopefully the completion of the entire range of 6^th edition books. If GW slows their release schedule, this may well be stretched out into 2016 but who knows. I won’t add details to these armies as, seeing as they are mostly up to date and completed, they could go in any direction with them. The only standouts are the addition of missing special characters to Dark Eldar / Grey Knights and flyers to Space Wolves / Dark Eldar.

Space Wolves

Grey Knights

Blood Angels

Necrons

Dark Eldar

That about sums things up. I guess after this there’s nothing left but new books and new edition again. I personally hope not as having all books updated for a while would be nice for the hobby and 6^th edition is a good, more balanced edition than its predecessors. I would love it if GW re-released the starter set every couple of years, but without redoing the edition, to give a host of new minis and enthuse new starters. Don’t think it will happen but it’s a thought. New races and allies are always a possibility also. We live in an era of change for GW where they seem to have radically altered their way of doing things. This means anything could be on the cards potentially.