"Steel giants with the souls of killers" ?

Cal'mihe · Post by **Cal'mihe** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 11:51 am

Browsing through the yummy parts of the new rulebook, one passage springs to mind when looking at the Dark Elf background entry.

In the sections briefly talking about the different troops, there's a reference that Malekith has learned to use sorcery to create "armoured steel giants with the souls of killers".

Some of the other races also have similar entries, the dwaves making big steam powered war engines and such.

Random background ?
Hints of new units ?
A teaser of the WFB Apocalypse expansion we all suspect must come ?
Warhammer Mecha ??

Mr. anderson · Post by **Mr. anderson** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 12:11 pm

Well, for starters there has been some of that in the white dwarf (remember that Zeppelin "bristling with guns" floating above one of the gaming boards?). The reference to dwarves building steam powered war machines isn't all that new. They have steam ships, and they've had them for quite a while, too. Exactly what is meant by the reference to malekith's steel monsters I can't think of (it's a rather poor choise of words to describe a black arch, so I'm guessing that one is out).

Timz · Post by **Timz** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 3:02 pm

... Cauldron of Blood?

Vulcan · Post by **Vulcan** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 3:54 pm

Supposedly every army is getting a new 'super unit.' I would guess that is the fluff for ours.

Giant steel robots. Yay. :roll:

Swab · Post by **Swab** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 5:02 pm

I hope its not giant robots....

That would be the worst idea ever unless it was golems then maybe....

B1B · Post by **B1B** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 5:29 pm

Just curious where this little tidbit comes from?

Vulcan wrote:Supposedly every army is getting a new 'super unit.' I would guess that is the fluff for ours . . .

Dangerous Beans · Post by **Dangerous Beans** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 1:11 am

I think Id much rather a more 'organic' or bestial creature found in the hearts of the Ironfrost glacier (eg. giant medusae??) than Giant Robots/Golems - I think someones been playing a little too much Heroes of Might and Magic 3 if so...

Maybe we've learnt how to summon Juggers?? But sorry to say but thatd be rubbish too IMHO...

Darktan · Post by **Darktan** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 7:44 pm

Dangerous Beans wrote:I think someones been playing a little too much Heroes of Might and Magic 3 if so...

my bad

jokes aside, i wouldn't say an 'organic' creature would be better per se as that might imply natural, and we tend not to leave our war beasts untamperd with, some of the larger magically enhanced creatures around might be a better fit.

on the other hand, other elves deal near exclusively in more 'natural' beasts and nothing mechanical, the dwarves purely deal in mechanics, chaos deals purely in magical creations. perhaps it is right and fitting, we, the masters of all, should use both large war-beasts and magically enhanced creatures of steel.

our black arks/fleets are just so, some forts/ships mounted on large sea-monsters, with magical enhancements/protection armed with the mechanical delights, the reaper bolt throwers / repeater crossbows and the like.

Varaken · Post by **Varaken** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 10:24 pm

Considering how close we are to the Chaos Wastes it could be that we get literal giants which have been clad in Dark Elf Armour? Or a new beast "newly discovered" by the Druchii in either the caverns that run under the continent or in the mountains? It's not unheard of for DElves to armour their beasts, the howdah like structures on the backs of some of our sea-creatures being an example of this. Just a couple of ideas.

Eolelfslayer · Post by **Eolelfslayer** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 10:55 pm

Sounds much like whfb eldar avatars and, you know what? It would not be so inappropriate, after all.

Bitterman · Post by **Bitterman** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 11:26 pm

The same piece of text also mentions Chimerae and a number of other beasts that we drive into battle, alongside the Hydras. Should we expect the next rendition of the DE book (whenever that may be) to sprout millions of different large monster types? It wouldn't surprise me completely.

I'm not buying the armoured giant robots, though. Maybe that might work for Chaos Dwarfs, it's not a Dark Elf thing at all.

Masked jackal · Post by **Masked jackal** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 2:44 am

EolElfslayer wrote:Sounds much like whfb eldar avatars and, you know what? It would not be so inappropriate, after all.

That would be very cool if they could pull it off properly. I want a fiery Avatar of Khaine as our super-unit!

Eolelfslayer · Post by **Eolelfslayer** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:46 pm

Masked Jackal wrote:That would be very cool if they could pull it off properly. I want a fiery Avatar of Khaine as our super-unit!

Glad to know i am not the only one to like it!

Tethlis · Post by **Tethlis** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 7:37 pm

I don't imagine there will be anything mechanical about them. I expect we're talking about empty suits of armor that's animated by Dark magic. Something similar to the Thousand Sons chapter, where their power armor is empty but continues to be driven by the souls of the former occupants sealed within the armor and given direction by sorcerers. "Steel Giant" doesn't mean a clanking robot, it just means it's big and there's metal involved.

Desert icon · Post by **Desert icon** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 8:23 pm

Exclusive new picture of our new super-unit! Get it here while it's hot!

Get it here

What? What do you mean that's for 40k? Isn't that what we're playing?

Darigaaz · Post by **Darigaaz** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 8:31 pm

This is something similar to what me and a friend talked about a while ago, basically, the statue of Khaine from the cauldron of blood being animated by dark magic to take to the field.

It was a cool idea but didn't sound 100% fluffy.

Duke daedric · Post by **Duke daedric** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 8:54 am

Or maybe it is just a CHAOSBEAST merged with just the right amount of sharp steel tips and interlocking plates of uber cool DE armour.. ccc

))

Aeth · Post by **Aeth** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 9:13 am

Sounds like we are stepping into Warmachine here

Eolelfslayer · Post by **Eolelfslayer** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 11:32 am

Duke Daedric wrote:Or maybe it is just a CHAOSBEAST merged with just the right amount of sharp steel tips and interlocking plates of uber cool DE armour.. ccc ))

No, no, no chaos beat here. Manticores, chimeras and scaled horrors from the deep get mentioned after that so, i'd say, they are ruled out. An animated statue of Khaine would rule! At least modelwise...

Bitterman · Post by **Bitterman** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 12:33 pm

So long as it's better than the crappy statue on the back of the CoB model, maybe.

An instant candidate for "replace with the Eldar Avatar model" if ever there was one.

Fuzzydeath · Post by **Fuzzydeath** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 4:51 pm

Aeth wrote:Sounds like we are stepping into Warmachine here

We can only hope... that way every faction would get an update every year

Post by **Drainial** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 5:29 pm

EolElfslayer wrote:
Duke Daedric wrote:Or maybe it is just a CHAOSBEAST merged with just the right amount of sharp steel tips and interlocking plates of uber cool DE armour... ccc ))

No, no, no chaos beat here. Manticores, chimeras and scaled horrors from the deep get mentioned after that so, i'd say, they are ruled out. An animated statue of Khaine would rule! At least modelwise...

Manticores and Chimeras and probably scaled horrors (difficult to say as that is a kind of broad term) are all Chaos beasts just like Hydrae and Cockatrices not to mention basilisks, giant spiders, giant scorpions and any number of other creatures used in non chaos armies.

Lord_caerolion · Post by **Lord_caerolion** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 9:30 am

I would have thought that the possible Dark Elf unit, if they're going to add it, would be some sort of sea monster, given the mentions of Dark Elves bringing them into battle, and the new rule "Sea Creature", or whatever it is.

Eolelfslayer · Post by **Eolelfslayer** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:23 pm

Well, i'd say a sea creature or two are to be expected. But, probably, something more will be added. I noticed almost every army gets several giant sized beasties, could be the trend. As i said before, a huge walking statue would be cool (sounds like it might be coming), and chimeras are for sure.

Killerk · Post by **Killerk** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:56 pm

I'll be quick.

Iron giants/golems, NO, NO, and NO.

It's stupid enough that we have tank's and helicopters in fantasy battle. If I waned walking machines I'd play battletech.

More monster's hell, yes! Can you imagine a canosaur in our list's :twisted:

. Beautiful model, used like hydra, or something. ANy ither large creatures, Stegadons (only if they change the blob model, in my eyes it's kind of pathetic, love the old model thou) and any other big monsters would be nice.