Precedent of losing Special Characters

With the new Tyranids Codex dropping the Doom of Malantai, Parasite of Mortrex and to a lesser extent, the Ymgarl Genestealers, there is the (worrying) recent precedent of dropping special characters from a Codex if they don't already have models.

The thought of never actually getting a Duke Sliscus model and his Sky Serpents being condemned to a small blurb at the bottom of a page is almost numbing after spending so long championing him.

It could be said that we are in a better state than the Nids with regards to missing models but their release was mainly recutting or re imagining kits with one new kit and one providing a model for something from the old codex - we will probably see something similar with the Voidraven plus some new kits and some Finecasts going to plastic.

What do you guys think of this? I've included a poll of the special character that you could most live with out, Vect included but I'd be even more surprised if he left us.

At least it's unlikely Kruellagh will be brought back ... Well oh god I hope not

Who is the Decapitator?

facelessabsalom wrote:

Who is the Decapitator?

Kheradruakh.

Quote :

Kheradruakh.

Who?   

Poll doesn't surprise me

Anyway, lets go hunt down whoever voted for Malys! We can't lose her, she even got the award for best piece of fluff!  

Mngwa wrote:

Anyway, lets go hunt down whoever voted for Malys! We can't lose her, she even got the award for best piece of fluff!  

Malys is alright and that, but I've never been enamoured by her. I'm a man of tradition and Kheradruakh has been waiting since 1998 for his model.

I've got to vote for the Duke.

Despite how terrible the Decapitator's rules currently are, I still think he's one of the most characterful and interesting characters out there. He's intriguing and has decent fluff. All he needs is a good set of rules.
The Duke on the other hand, though pretty damn useful rules-wise, just doesn't cut it for me as an interesting character. At the end of the day he's just a decent Archon with one of two amusing stories. He's pretty two-dimensional when it really comes to it.

he is a DE version of Yriel but cooler

There already is a Drazhar model...

Thor665 wrote:

There already is a Drazhar model...

I know, I know. I included him out of the respect that his model is so old and of the old style and there is the possibility that he could be dropped.

I actually use malys, she carves up cwe like nothing else and also annoys their farseers... against any other army ive not tried her

I would be rather upset if we lost the decapitator
I've always been a big fan of the idea behind him, less so of his rules but that hasn't stopped me from making 3 different versions of him as my modeling skill has improved over the years.

On the flip side Malys has never really hooked me, I wouldn't too upset to loose her since she is basically the only one of the group that I don't have a model for

i'm fairly meh about the lot of them tbh. I like having a dark phoenix lord so drazhar can stay for me, but the rest are all no major loss (though not having hellions as a troop option would be a bummer from army design POV)

I think Vect, Draz, Sathypants, and Decapitator all have a bit of plot armor from being cut either through their position in the fluff, their longevity with the army, their functionality in a generic list building concept, or a combination of all of the above.

It makes a lot of sense to have the 'beefed up Archon' IC, the DE Pheonix Lord makes a lot of sense, the uber version of two other units (Mandrakes and Hellions) also make a lot of sense, and if any of those were cut...it seems like design would be, to a certain extent, obligated to create something to fill in the gap.

Malys has some interesting backstory and I'm having fun converting her, but what she really does in the codex is serve as 'Vect-lite' as far as army builds go.
Duke is in about the same boat, he fills a sort of 'more affordable Archon IC' role with a small grab bag of interesting rule effects and some pretty interesting fluff.

At the end of the day, if cuts are happening, I would expect it more from characters like them, who are fulfilling a rather moderate role.

Truth be told, probably Malys is the most uninteresting of them in a general rules context, and if I had to put money on it she'd be the one I expect to be cut even if, story wise, she's rather more important than Sathy or Sliscus. Also, story-wise, they could always have something happen with her to advance a bit of the plot in order to justify her lack of appearance. Though I sort of doubt they'd bother with that.

I think we may be jumping the gun, my pet farseer spies a digital edition for the different hive fleets that include said characters.

Then again I haven't fed him in a while.

We really need some fluffy specialist characters.

So I say keep the Decap

And we need a Scourge...

Thor665 wrote:

I think Vect, Draz, Sathypants, and Decapitator all have a bit of plot armor from being cut either through their position in the fluff, their longevity with the army, their functionality in a generic list building concept, or a combination of all of the above.

This hasnt stopped GW from making character cuts before. Look at Doomrider, Asmodai (pre 6th), Nuadhu, the C'tan, and probably a dozen other characters GW has just made poof because of "who knows".

I think Nuadhu is the only one that serves from that list as a reasonable counter to my thoughts. Doomie was as assured gone as, say Kruellegh, and the C'tan basically got Squatted because someone didn't like that fluff, which, I suppose one of our characters could get Squatted, but I'm not sure I see it happening. I think Asmodai supports my stance.

I'm certainly not claiming that GW won't 'poof' characters though - that is clearly something they're fine with

Oh Squats. How I miss my "DDDWWWAAARRRRVVVEESSSS IN SSSSPPPPPAAACCCEEEEE!!!!!!!"

facelessabsalom wrote:

Who is the Decapitator?

Crappiest special character EVAR!   
Can you tell how I voted?

Someone voted Vect....this Archon probably not valuing his life much.

Azdrubael wrote:

Someone voted Vect....this Archon probably not valuing his life much.

TWO people did.

Evil Space Elves wrote:

Crappiest special character EVAR!
Can you tell how I voted?

I must say I do disagree. His rules might be the most useless at the moment, but as a character I think he's the one with the most POTENTIAL for development. He COULD be seriously improved and be a really unique and interesting character. As it is he's already fairly unique, he just needs to be useful.

On retrospect, I would probably change my vote now for Lays rather than Sliscus, though I still say both are kind of boring.

I think that now we're seeing the monthly release schedule go to a weekly release scheduel that there is more hope for our missing characters. Mayhaps they will be released before the new codex drops, therefore making it unnecessary to leave them out of the codex.

I wouldn't care if Vect vanished, but I really doubt that they'd do that.

I've had fun using all the other characters in the book, even the Decapitator (that was in 5th, though). The two I'd miss most would be the Duke and Drazhar. I've only used Drazhar a couple of times and, even though he's the price of a whole Incubus squad, he is immensely fun.

(By the way, if this is on characters without models then Drazhar shouldn't be there.)

Out of all the special characters, even ones not listed on there, I wouldn't blink at Lelith vanishing.