#return to armageddon

[titanomancy]

We're going back.

[all-action-all-picture]

2000AD featuring Judge Dredd prog 188, dated 29 November 1980. 14p Earth Money. Return to Armageddon cover by Ian Gibson. Jesus Redondo provided the interior art for this strip and at first glance you can see a resemblance in the art between Gibson and Redondo. Rebellion.

[titanomancy]

Wazdakka is back! In Warlord form!

[titanomancy]

I don't know that I necessarily get Inquisitor vibes from Inquisitor Kroyle. Maybe a Rogue Trader. Maybe a Rogue Trader who conned his way into a rosette. Yeah, that tracks. It probably won't be that, but it would be cool if it was.

And played by Rahul Kohli, no less.

[titanomancy]

When they first showed Vigilence in a wide shot, I thought for sure it was actually an Arbites patrol wagon but, no, it's actually the personal transport of the new Return to Armageddon character Commissar Thenia Graves.

I've mentioned a few times about how Games Workshop's production pipeline works, and I can't help but shake the feeling that two named commissars in a single campaign supplement seems like rather a lot. It makes me think that, perhaps, just possibly, Yarrick's return was a relatively late decision - especially since it's been almost a full product development cycle since they killed him off, off-screen in 2022.

Like, I no longer think that they'd always planned to bring back the Old Man of Armageddon precisely because GW's production timeline is five years from conception to execution. Rather, I think that the negativity surrounding the IX Edition Codex: Astra Militarum and WarCom's subsequent handling of it directly contributed to an update that we may not otherwise have seen.

Although the poor reception to Ursarkar Creed's replacement probably didn't help, either.

I like her, though. It's a much better sculpt than the awful department store mannequin of a pose they came up with for the last generic plastic Commissar - but it is another bald woman. No word on the mind powers, though.

[titanomancy]

I'm not going to pretend like I had any foreknowledge, but I will say that this feels extremely reflexive. Like, I don't think that without last week's drama we'd be seeing a concept art teaser for a product that's not due out for two years.

Although two years does seem to me like they could be fast-tracking the release in direct response to the negative feedback. And they are clearly opening up some daylight with the original Panzergrenadier inspiration.

[titanomancy]

My feelings towards Dogmata Superior Intranzia Fraye and her Throne of Blame are decidedly mixed. It is extremely on brand for Sisters of Battle, yes, but it's actually bothering me how much this is just a not-Throne of Judgement... although it's probably a good thing that Inquisitor Karamazov hasn't been updated.

It also feels extremely duplicative of Junith Erutia's batte-abeyant, as far as the whole, "Sororitas Named Character Riding a Church" theme goes - doubly so that they're both Order of Our Martyred Lady characters.

[titanomancy]

Did you forget the Steel Legion? A few of you have commented already, asking about the Armageddon Steel Legion. Armageddon has been at war for generations now, and the world’s original Steel Legion defenders have been worn down to a fraction of their original strength. There are still plenty of them about, though they now represent just a fraction of the expansive Astra Militarum forces deployed across the world, supplemented by regiments from every corner of the Imperium.

You can always tell when WarCom has been thrust into damage control mode because they'll come up with the most mealy-mouthed post-hoc justification for a retcon when a simple, "we don't sell those miniatures, anymore, so they're not featured in the promotional animation for our new release," would suffice.

Fortunately, you can provide your own Steel Blitz Legion miniatures from Tiny Legend.

As an aside, for the historically illiterates that cry about Krieg resembling Nazis - no, these are the models that resemble Nazis and that's probably a factor in why GW isn't making them anymore.