With pre-orders for the Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon box less than a week away, we caught up with the design team behind it all for some in-depth chats about miniatures, lore, and more.
In the first episode of this five-part series, Adam and Eddie sit down with Darren and Dom from the Warhammer Studio to talk all about the new Space Marines.
Here are some of our favourite insights, but watch the full 30-minute interview to get all the info!
Intercessors
Darren: As we were designing them, we gave them a soft name. So we had the "knife guy," the "grenade guy," the "sharpshooter." Obviously, we've got the Sergeant as well, and the Auspex guy. They've all got that narrative and character which we wanted to inject into the whole set.
So it wasn't a standard Space Marine in different poses, it was each one doing something completely different. Each one has a different armour and its own character, so he's kind of a named hero in the 10.
You'll notice that as you're painting each one, there are little Easter eggs through the units as well.
Vanguard Veterans
Darren: Again, we were injecting a lot of narrative and character into the unit, making sure that each one was doing something different and interesting within its own right – and then making them dynamic as well.
Quite often, we have Space Marines with Jump Packs that are flying, so they're in the air – but they're going to land, they're going to fight. So we wanted a couple of them in combat on the ground so that there's some rhythm to the unit and some height as well.
The guy with the superhero landing with his sword back, I think, is my favourite one.
Eradicators
Dom: On top of getting that sense of a place in time on the battlefield, we also wanted to have what we'd consider the three main tactical pillars of the Space Marines – one is the Tactical aspect, one is the Assault aspect, and one is the Devastator aspect.
That heavy Gravis armour gave us a real distinct unit silhouette. It's a 3-man unit rather than a 10- or a 5-man unit, so you get that nice pattern across the battlefield when you put the squads out.
It gave us an opportunity with the Sergeant to just add a little bit more flavour and narrative to it. The Sergeant being out of ammo, actually he's got his ejected heavy bolt magazine on the base, but that doesn't stop him. He's whipped out the bolt pistol, and he's still blazing while the guys around him are still laying down fire.
Captain with Relic Shield
Darren: The idea with him is pushing the pose as far as it could go, making him super cinematic. He's drawn his sword right back. He's got his scabbard behind him, and he's about to take on the fight with the biggest Warboss you've ever seen.
It was all about pushing that combative nature of him and making sure he had all of the elements that a Space Marine Captain should have, so that you know instantly he's the boss. And we had to do that – we had to keep pushing him because the Chaplain was standing out so much!
Dom: Where we can, we've put multiple head options in these sets to provide choice. The Captain's a really good example where he's got two helmets and a bare head. So, depending on what type of crest you want on his helmet or what mark of helmet you want, you've got some personal choice there.
Librarian
Darren: We wanted him dynamic, and like he is casting a psychic power, and paired with the Weirdboy, they create a small diorama.
Dom: It's one of the things you'll see when you focus on the Ork side of this as well, because there's a mirror to this. This side of the set wasn't made in isolation. It was quite the opposite, we planned all this together right from the start.
Darren: Yeah, having that interaction in the whole set together adds to that cinematic feel that we were going for.
Chaplain with Jump Pack
Darren: There's nothing more Warhammer 40,000 than a Space Marine with a skull helmet, so we knew we needed one of those in there. It's a super dynamic pose. He's got everything that a Chaplain should have with the crozius, the rosarius, the absolver bolt pistol.
Dom: A lot of people will talk a lot about the grim darkness of Warhammer 40,000, and the Chaplains are the absolute epitome of that. It's a really good balance of getting that grimness, and that tonal variation.
Ancient
Darren: So we got some inspiration again from art. There's a classic piece of art where the Space Marine's raising the banner up. Every time we've done a standard bearer so far, he's just holding the flag. With this, let's have him in the battle – it's really cinematic. It's a last stand sort of situation.
We elevated the status of the Ancient a little bit here as well. The ones we've done before have essentially been an Intercessor with a banner. With this guy, we gave him the surcoat, and we levelled him up a little bit to more of a veteran status.
Land Speeder
Dom: [The base] just looks cool, and it allows us to actually get the Land Speeder off just being level.
We've got a little bit of tilt in it too, and we wanted that idea that it's like careening around the battlefield, banking really hard, turning… It's really about how we add narrative and character to a vehicle.
Come back tomorrow as we swap our Studio guests with Matt and Seb for an all-access pass into the minds of the Mekboyz who came up with the Ork side of the Armageddon box.
