It’s Adepticon, and Games Workshop dropped a huge reveal show on us, with a host of new releases to drop in the coming weeks.This year’s update was particularly heavy on the three main games, with a ton of previews for Warhammer 40k, a new Kill Team release, and some upcoming Old World armies. As always, we’ve got a rundown of everything shown off and some thoughts on what it means for the games.
The Roundtable
- Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones
- Norman Greenberg
- “Contemptor” Kevin Stillman
- Can You Roll a Crit?
- Dan “Swiftblade” Richardson
- Thundercloud
- Emma Bee
The Chapter Approved Mission Deck sets the Stage for 2025-26 Competitive Play
Last year’s Pariah Nexus Missions deck will be replaced by the CHAPTER APPROVED 2025-2026 Mission Deck. In addition to new Primary and Secondary missions, this deck now includes three ways to play: 1,000-point Incursion, 2,000-point Strike Force, and Asymmetric War formats. Each has its own set of cards, with Incursion giving you restrictions on forces and deployment, and Asymmetric providing different primary objectives and asymmetric deployment zones.
Additionally, Secret Missions have been replaced by Challenger cards, which let a player trailing by 6+ VP at the start of a Battle Round choose between a free Stratagem or an additional objective for scoring VP as a way to catch up.
TheChirurgeon: Secret Missions are out, Challenger Cards are in. One of the biggest change this time around is that Games Workshop is once again swapping out their missions catch-up mechanic. We don’t have all the details yet, but what we do know is that this new mechanic gives you cards you can draw if you are trailing by 6+ VP at the start of a Battle Round, and the cards give you a choice between a special Stratagem (which costs 0 CP) or a mission, which gives you an additional opportunity to score VP to catch up.
Norman: Really excited to see some asymmetric play outside the crusade context. I also like the challenge system from what they showed off. In the article for it they show off some of them and it looks like you get some really easy objectives (do an action more than 15” away from enemies) to score a total of 9 VP, that is assuming you still pick in round 3. The stratagems being 0 CP has me a little worried but we’ll have to wait and see. I’m not sure how that measures up compared to Secret Missions but I’m happy to see those mechanics get refined.
TheChirurgeon: See I’m very much not a fan of these stratagems initially. Re-rolls to hit and wound of 1 for any unit in your army is wildly good in some armies – particularly those which don’t get re-rolls easily, like Emperor’s Children or Chaos Knights – and nothing on there suggests you can’t use these more than once per turn. 6 VP doesn’t feel like enough of a gap to me here and there are too many armies that will have no problem trailing by 6 in order to fuel an insane “Go Turn” if these are too easy to get and plan for. The fact that they’re cards gives me some hope they’ll be random, but I’m not a fan of randomness as a balancing mechanic.
Norman: Yeah that’s a good point, I don’t love the tiny margin that allows for these. I was wary about the same thing with underdog mechanics in AoS 4.0 and while most of them are fine there are some missions where you absolutely wanna trail on purpose and that always feels lame as hell.
Swiftblade: I’m really starting to wonder who the underdog mechanic is for, exactly. This will be the third iteration on the concept, and I’m going to take a bet right now that this isn’t method won’t stick just like the other two. It seems like Games Workshop really wants to come up with a way to keep folks involved in the game if they’re losing by making sure a comeback is always possible, but not so wildly effective enough of a comeback to snatch victory from the jaws of certain defeat. What they have now works best for games that were already tight, an underdog mechanic that works best when no one is really the underdog. I think GW needs to just either stop chasing this dragon, or accept that if they want a catch up mechanic to stick, it’s going to need to be influential on the game enough that people will likely win games they had no right to win, which does not feel good when you were winning until just two seconds ago.
Also props to the TO who runs the asymmetric missions only, and makes the lives of every player miserable as they try to measure out these deployment zones each game. That’s a real power move.
TheChirurgeon: I’m a big fan of asymmetric missions in the pack; they’ve been primarily relegated to Crusade books so far this edition, but that has a weird knock-on effect of meaning they’ve been tied to each campaign’s specific rules, like Strategic Advantage or Blackstone Fragments. Having them in a format where they can be used by anyone is a huge improvement. I’m also a big fan of making Incursion a real game mode again, even if it means we’ll have to implement another set of missions in Tabletop Battles.
Crusade: Armageddon Takes us Back for Round IV
The next Crusade release is Armageddon, a campaign book which covers Angron’s renewed attempts to take the planet. The book will let players take sides with one of three separate alliances, with a branching campaign that includes winner bonuses each round. New battlefield rules for Hellscapes give players a way to play on warp-choked battlefields while new Mighty Champions rules let you power up your Epic Heroes.
Norman: My biggest take away was the mention of rules for unbound daemons being NPC threats in some missions. These rules can be extrapolated for all sorts of homebrew rules and I’m looking forward to tinkering with them. As for the setting, I’m tired of this one planet mattering so much to be honest.
TheChirurgeon: This is fine. I’m not a fan of Crusade rules for Epic Heroes, and it seems like this book is starting what Nachmund did and moving Crusade books away from “general campaign supplements” and more toward “missions for historical re-enactment.” Which is an OK thing to have – I liked the books they did for Narrative play in 7th edition in that regard – but it doesn’t feel right for Crusade. That said, hopefully the new change to the 2025-26 missions pack will help on this front, by giving us missions to play in Crusade that aren’t tied to the campaign rules.
Thundercloud: GW have been setting up the return to Armageddon since the beginning of 8th, and we’re finally getting to the fireworks factory. It’ll be interesting to see what they do and compare and contrast it with the old Battle for Armageddon book.
TheChirurgeon: That’s totally fair, but I’m in Norman’s camp with the “this again?” approach. Especially since it looks like they’re just setting up the same conflict with Angron, Space Wolves, and Grey Knights again. It was cool the first time Grimnar got upset that the Grey Knights killed everyone who saw daemons, but not so much the second time, unless it leads somewhere narratively where I strongly suspect GW isn’t willing to go.
Space Wolves Return with a New Army Box
The Space Wolves are returning with an all-new army box that contains the Codex, datacards, and new kits for Grey Hunters, Blood Claws, Wolf Guard, a Wolf Guard Battle Leader, a Wolf Priest, and a new unit called Headtakers.
TheChirurgeon: The Blood Claws and Grey Hunters look fine – about what I’d expect, and I really like the new Wolf Guard models. But the stand-out model here to me is the Wolf Priest, who just looks incredibly sick both with and without his helmet. The cloak and stoles around his neck just look so cool. This is my favorite space marine model in a long, long time.
“Contemptor” Kevin Stillman: Well, I couldn’t hear anything because the audio in the Adepticon Hall was atrocious, but the new army box for the Space Wolves is a must-have for this Space Wolves player. I admit that I’m not super-excited by having to redo my bread-and-butter battle line units when there’s the new glorious Wolf Guard Headhunters, but the new Blood Claw/Grey Hunter bodies bring a lot of flavor that I don’t think the regular Intercessor kit provided.
Also, they gave us a pre-release model at the Preview, which I have vowed to finish before Adepticon ends.
Thundercloud: Space Wolves needed Primaris versions of Blood Claws and Grey Hunters that weren’t the standard models with Space Wold shoulder pads, and they needed Primaris generic characters.
The new unit with built-in wolf support looks great, and it builds on the Vylka Fenrica feel for the force rather than just throwing some tassels on the models. I hope this is developed further and the Primaris range ends up reminding us of the best bits of the 30k Space Wolf models (and if they don’t, that the pieces are compatible and we can DIY it).
I’ve already seen Blood Angels players getting salty about the Space Wolf players getting some nice stuff; Dark Angela players can’t be far behind. I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the range and what is happening with the Space Wolf Terminators.
TheChirurgeon: Yeah it’ll be interesting to see if Wolf Guard Terminators are a standalone box or an upgrade kit on the existing Terminators like they’ve always been.
Grey Knights have a New Baby Carrier and Codex
The new Grey Knights Codex will release soon – after Space Wolves and the Chaos Cult Legion books – and will come with a new Dreadknight model, complete with new weapon options.
Norman: They had an opportunity to fix the Dreadknight design and kinda wasted it. It’s by far the most controversial mini in the range due to the exposed pilot looking like he’s being carried to daycare and they had a chance to put him more encased in the mech. The weapons look neat, though.
TheChirurgeon: Yeah conceptually I’m just not a fan of the Dreadknight, and even though I think this looks a lot better than the original model, it’s still kind of dumb. I’m glad we’re not seeing something like Primaris Grey Knights here yet, as those wouldn’t make a ton of sense, though I suspect we’ll see them eventually as the plastic kits in the range really start to show their age.
Swiftblade: I don’t really want Primaris Grey Knights, but I would love to see that range get the modern scaling. The new terminators were a great example: just an updated terminator kit without the whole primaris bit straddled on, but the scale is so much nicer. The current GK terminators I think hold up okay, but the power armor bozos I think are in dire need of a glow up.
As for the Dreadknight, I have no love for these guys but I think the mace is fun. Very fitting aesthetically to the model, and it’s funny to imagine the pilot accidentally bonking himself with it while spinning it around.
Thundercloud: What I really wanted was updated GK Terminators, looks like I’m waiting till 11th edition.
Emma: I cannot stress enough how funny it is to me that the guy in the harness is presumably truescale, meaning the Dreadknight got truescaled before the actual main kits of the range. Chalk up another L for one of the “would have been a great Kill Team if you released them now” factions. That said, this is definitely a good modern kit, if a little bland.
Thousand Sons Automata Lumber into the Fray
The Thousand Sons Codex comes with new battle automata to assist the legion’s Rubrics and Sorcerers in battle when their new Codex drops this spring.
Norman: This is apparently a controversial take but, I really like the bird bots. I think all the chaos legions having a non power armor unit to distinguish them from other armies is important and there should be more focus on those. Plus I like that they’re funny robots.
TheChirurgeon: I don’t like them. Well, let me rephrase. I think they look fine – I just don’t think they work with the aesthetic of the other Thousand Sons units and vehicles. Some of this may be the paint scheme – having bone/marble armor feels really weird for an army that’s blue and yellow with gold trim – and I’ll reserve final judgment until I’ve had a chance to paint a few of my own. They also have a weird posture I might want to correct – of the Imperium/Chaos Vehicles, this and the Kastelan Robots are I think the only models which have a “standing upright” posture to them. Technically some of the dreadnoughts do but they feel so squat I don’t think it’s the same.
TheChirurgeon: The new Codex art absolutely slaps, however.
Contemptor Kevin: These guys give me major Stargate vibes. The original Stargate and its Horus Guards, not the Jaffa of SG-1. While I don’t really collect Thousand Sons, I am half-tempted to get these guys to add to the few Thousand Sons minis I *do* have. It’s an interesting experiment and I hope it is successful.
Plus I can see if there’s any Tomb King conversions here.
Thundercloud: Maybe a different paint job will make these look better, but these are completely new robots reminiscent of one of the Rogue Trader era robot sculpts, and it’s the armour on them rather than the general design that’s bothering me. If these were based on the 30k 1ksons robot (with another 10,000 years of growing tentacles in places robots shouldn’t) then this would likely have been a slam dunk.
They’re just a little too goofy, and either needed to lean into blank automata or demon engine horror, not neither. Thousand Sons definitely needed another non-Tzangor unit though.
World Eaters Have a New Eightbound Lord arriving with their Codex
World Eaters are also right around the corner, and will be getting a new leader for their Eightbound units, the Slaughterbound.
TheChirurgeon: This guy rules. I love his Mutilator-like arm, and the Eightbound units desperately needed a leader character who was not mounted on a Juggernaut. The World Eaters still need a lot of stuff, but adding this and the new Goremongers from Kill Team to the army will go a long way to helping flesh out a faction that still feels a bit threadbare. Now we just need Berzerkers on Juggernauts and a Terminator Lord for the army.
Thundercloud: A nice beefy character that accompanies the new cultist kill Team as the new additions for this codex. It’s nice but I feel World Eaters are pretty thin as a range.
TheChirurgeon: As long as they don’t axe all the vehicles for the army they’ll be OK. Having Helbrutes and tanks that can shoot is pretty important.
Emma: the copium from my fellow World Eaters is staggering, and understandably so, but this to me is actually kinda neat. Hoping for a big second release wave when the cases where we haven’t seen that substantially outnumber those where we have always seemed like a risky gamble, and now we get a cool meaty guy who will likely be able to pull off some cute tricks with resurrections? Sign me up. The delay to release really hurts, though, especially the perception of getting bumped for Space Wolves. They really need to ditch the roadmaps in my opinion – they’re unnecessarily constraining, and it was enough for years for us to just know that “x is coming at some point” with some cool models shown off.
TheChirurgeon: I have mixed feelings there – I like the roadmaps but they need to start underpromising and overdelivering with them. They’re doing a bit too much and while the hype is good, it’s way worse when they can’t deliver.
Death Guard Are Still Shambling Toward a Release
Hey this is still happening.
Norman: Not a ton to talk about here that we didn’t already know. A little sad to see them shuffled to the back of the chaos releases from where they were on the roadmap before, though.
TheChirurgeon: I want the new Death Guard book so bad. The new Power Armor lord is great, love his big sword, and it feels like this is when we were actually supposed to get his reveal (they likely moved it up to LVO after the model ended up in some Redditor’s hands by accident). And yeah, I agree that it feels like they’re currently going to be the last of the four.
Thundercloud: Death Guard are a pretty complete range but this is a very nice figure.
Kill Team: Typhon FINALLY Brings Tyranids to the Game
Kill Team: Typhon is the next release for Kill Team, giving us two new teams – Raveners and a team of Servitors led by a Technoarchaeologist.
TheChirurgeon: The thing I am most excited for here is new Tyranid terrain in plastic. It feels like we have been waiting forever to get plastic spore towers and spawning beds. That said, the rest of this box looks great – new Raveners are very welcome, and while I was expecting a box with Genestealers vs. Terminators like everyone else (I was really hoping we’d finally get Deathwatch in Kill Team), this is a cool replacement. Getting new Servitors for 40k and a new Admech weirdo is also always welcome.
CYRAC: Tyraaaaaaaaaaaanidsssssssssss yesssssssssssssssssssssss. As a big Tyranid enjoyer, I am most pleased. 5 new Raveners? In the Hyrdra scheme? AND Tyranid terrain? Amazing. The Battleclade are nice too. Unfortunately, Tyranids have already won the battle of hearts, minds, and miniatures. It’s almost ironic that Tyranids are the smallest kill team in the game at 5 operatives, and are also outnumbered by 10 Admech. However, the Raveners sound like monsters at 3APL, double fights, and likely being 18+ wounds. I can’t wait!
TheChirurgeon: Raveners as an elite team makes a lot of sense and the new models for them look really good. This team looks like it’s going to be almost all melee (with the Venomspitter being the one exception), and if 40k’s rules are anything to go off of, these will be incredibly fast and able to pop up out of the ground and just mess you up.
Swiftblade: Five models for Raveners really throws me for a loop, and I’m very curious to see where this team is going to fall in the grand scheme of Kill Team balance. Right now, elites are pretty good across the board, so if that gets pushed into even further with Raveners will they just be murder tornado death machines, or not have enough dudes to stick around? Only time will tell I guess.
Also excited to see the joint ops stuff get expanded with this release. I think there’s a lot of potential in joint ops as a concept, especially as a way to onboard new players into Kill Team. As it stands though, joint ops is a little too bare bones to really be a compelling game mode. My hope is bespoke NPOs with cool rules will be the shot in the arm the format needs.
JellyMuppet: Wading in as a Heresy fanatic, that Servo-Underseer and the Combat Servitors make an excellent proxy for Tech Priest Auxilia in the 30k Mechanicum list, a unit right now which is difficult or expensive to deploy and basically require converting. I’m glad 30k did get some previews after all! .
Thundercloud: This seems to be the equivalent of Hunter and Hunted for Warcry, one faction of five big monsters vs 10 little birthday boys.
I would bet the Raveners have an absolute heap of wounds that you have to get through but maybe not a great save. The mention of them tunneling is interesting as to the ability to bypass terrain in Kill Team is very strong. The models look great and I look forward to getting them on the table.
The weird little Servitor guys are exactly what I was after for admech. The techno archeologist is back from Blackstone Fortress (I wonder if you can sub in other types of techpriest?) to lead them and it’s a numbers and expendable guys team.
Transferring motive force between models sounds interesting but it could be balanced by the servitors individually not being great so giving one some extra APL doesn’t let you Rambo across the table.
Another highlight is the Tyranid terrain and new PVE rules, as specific Tyranid beastie rules are a welcome addition to get everyones Leviathan Termagant swarms on the table, and thematically Tyranid hordes make a great enemy for single player.
The 2025-26 Season for Age of Sigmar and Spearhead
Spearhead: Sand and Bone updates the game by taking it sanction to Shyish while the 2025 Generals’ Handbook takes Matched Play to Ghyran.
Norman: The new General’s Handbook can’t come soon enough for me. The game’s been feeling a little stale and I’m hoping the new rules are the shot in the arm the game needs. The WarCom article also gives some hints as to new battle tactics being “a series of sequential goals that you select as part of army composition” which sounds neat and I’m curious what it looks like. I just hope there’s not some trivial W’s with certain army/tactic combos.
TheChirurgeon: The update for Spearhead showed off four new teams – Cities, Seraphon, Ossiarchs, and Ogors – plus a new box that comes with some nice Garden of Morr-style terrain. It’ll be good to pick this box up to have extra cemetery walls and mausoleums, if nothing else.
Thundercloud: Great to see some of the Warcry stuff coming into AoS but a bit worrying for what’s happening with Warcry. Also interesting to see some Underworlds stuff added, and the Mantrappers have been highly sought after, ironically, for Destruction lists in Warcry.
The highlight for me is the Lizard box which is teeming with great and thematic models. Skinks, Lizardmen, a medium sized monster, little bird lizards and some beefy characters courtesy of the Underworlds set. For someone getting started it’s a pretty good start to a Lizardman army.
TheChirurgeon: For all the Deepkin perverts out there (looking at you, Raf), Deepkin are first up on the “Coming Next” part of the roadmap, and hopefully they’ll come with a little more range expansion rather than just a single character model. The Deepkin are a lovely army with some interesting mechanics but they could very much use a bigger range.
Our First Look at Grand Cathay in The Old World
We’ve known for a while that Cathay was coming to the Old World and now we finally got to see some of the new models for the upcoming release.
Norman: This is basically a rip of the Total War roster and that is far from a bad thing. All of these models look great and there’s not a spec of resin to be seen. I’m especially stoked to turn a sentinel into a chaos knight as soon as this drops.
TheChirurgeon: Oh my god these models are so fucking good. Every one of these is a complete banger. I’m not a big Old World/fantasy guy, but I can definitely appreciate what they’ve done here and it’s awesome to see a new army for the Old World fantasy setting, done in plastics, with modern design sensibilities. These are amazing.
Swiftblade: A while back, I remember writing a news bit for the industry roundup regarding rumors of Cathay and Kislev being quietly axed. Boy, do I look silly now.
Thundercloud: When they did Total War they statted up Cathay and now we finally get to see the miniatures.
The rank and file look good (though where are the crossbows?) but the highlights are the two centrepieces – the Terracotta Soldier and the Dragon Princess. This is a modern sculpting standards fantasy army so it’s great models that are all in plastic. This will get a lot of people off the fence and into The Old World.
TheChirurgeon: I don’t know if it’ll get me into the game but I’ll definitely look at buying some of the models just to paint.
Wood Elves and Beastmen Return to the Old World
Beastmen and Wood Elves are coming to The Old World, with returning plastic, metal, and resin miniatures.
TheChirurgeon: We’ve known this one was coming for a while, and this feels like why Beastmen were removed from Age of Sigmar. The release looks fine, but if you didn’t want to play Old World this isn’t going to make you feel any better about the upcoming loss of the army in Age of Sigmar. A lot of the Beastmen range still looks decent, except for the Tuskgors. The Wood Elves definitely feel a lot more dated in that respect, but their range has still held up pretty well, outside of the metal treemen, dragons, and a couple of more cringeworthy models.
Final Thoughts
Norman: This was undoubtedly a good reveal. Lots of meat for 40k fans, some real commitment to Old World not just being old content, and we finally have tyranids in Kill Team. If you play AoS… well I hope you like Spearhead. The free content drops sprinkled throughout the lead up to the new General’s Handbook is neat but the commitment of redesigning a warscroll per faction is just bizarre. I think every faction has one that can do with a second look, but what if an army needs more than just one? What if an army doesn’t? It’s just odd to call your shot like that. I would have much rather have seen new Battle Formations for every army considering almost every army could use another option but I suppose I’ll take what I can get.
I do want to take a second to talk about the roadmap for 40k, specifically how knights keep getting shuffled. I know they’re far from a priority army but it kinda stinks to see CK particularly get pushed back yet again considering every dataslate they have an opportunity to fix the non-functional army rule and homogeneous internal balance (I’m so sick of looking at my brigands and karnivores) and they don’t. I kept assuming this was because we were right around the corner because of the roadmaps but who knows at this point.
TheChirurgeon: Yeah the roadmap at this point is baffling. Imperial Knights were supposed to be “next” back in December, and now they’re nowhere to be seen – just nebulously “next” after the four big releases. Likewise World Eaters were being teased as arriving on “World’s Easter” back at LVO but now they seem unlikely to drop before a full Emperor’s Children release. I was impressed with everything they showed off today – it all felt interesting and substantial in a way that the LVO previews did not – but I don’t think I trust the roadmaps they put up any more. We got what felt like a substantial Grey Knights preview, but they’re after Knights/Chaos Knights?
Norman: There’s an interesting wrinkle there, the roadmap in the stream is different from the roadmap in the article. The one in the stream makes more sense with the reveals, putting knights after grey knights and templars considering both seem to be involved in the Armeggedon stuff. Like you said though, this all points to not being able to trust these at all anymore.
Thundercloud: The thing that’s made me happiest is Admech getting a Kill Team of weird little guys. I hope it doesn’t suck in the game.
TheChirurgeon: I continue to love the approach to Kill Team of releasing new and weird stuff for 40k and letting that trickle into the game when and where it makes sense. Having units like new Tankbustas and the Nemesis Claw in 40k is great and it adds to the excitement that your army can get new stuff even if they don’t have a Codex coming up.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
