RUMORS: Epic 40k Returning & More Forge World Going Plastic

By Travis Pasch | July 4th, 2023 | Categories: 40k News & Articles, Chaos Knights, Games Workshop, Imperial Knights, Legions Imperialis, Tabletop Gaming News & Rumors

Giant rumors are here for Epic Warhammer 40k making a comeback as Horus Heresy and Forge World Cerastus Knights releasing in plastic.

Before we go any further, just remember these are rumors! So take them with as much salt as you need, and nothing is 100% happening until GW confirms it.

With that said, these are some pretty wild rumors.

Command Legions Preview From Warhammer Fest (April 30th, 2023)

First up, we got what appears to be an apparent Warhammer Epic Scale preview from WHC. Starting out with the phrase “Command Legions” which already seems to suggest combat on a larger scale.

There’s not much to go off of, but with the stream chat exploding and some obvious hints, this is almost 100% a teaser for the return of Epic Scale games that were rumored here over a year ago.

Also, below is how White Dwarf used to do their battle reports for the game, with similar symbols and insignias, etc. This definitely shows Titans and troops but not aircraft… yet.

So it’s a bit of a throwback to those old battle reports and perhaps a huge hint at what’s actually on the way!

You can check out the short teaser below!

RUMORS: Warhammer Epic 40k Horus Heresy Starter Box Set Contents (April, 12th 2023)

Gary published these rumors on Faeit 212, saying it’s once again from a “solid” source.

The Box will come with enough Plastic sprues to represent 4 Legiones Astartes Battle Companies and Assets. This content can be use to build 4 small, 2 medium or 1 bigger Space Marine Army.

It’s interesting to give four Legions, as most starter boxes can only ever be split up among two people (well, only two armies, we guess you could split them as many times as you want). However, if you want to play truly giant battles, you can just keep the whole box for yourself!

Here is what is supposedly coming in the Epic Warhammer 40k / Horus Heresy box.

Marines:

36 Tactical Squads
7 Assault Squads
16 Heavy Weapon Squads
7 Biker Squads
8 Command Squads
8 Terminator Squads

Vehicles/Dreadnoughts:

40 Rhinos
16 Predator Tanks
16 Vindicator Tanks
12 Sicaran Tanks
12 Land Raider Proteus
8 Land Raider Spartan
16 Contemptor Dreadnoughts
8 Leviathan Dreadnoughts

This is actually a decent amount of stuff, especially with almost 130 vehicles/Dreads! We see how you could actually split this up four times for some pretty small armies, but if you just split this with one person, you get a pretty good army for both people. However, there is more in the box:

Rulebook, Istvaan III Campaign Booklet, Accessories, etc.

Decals to represent all 18 Space Marine Legions

The Box features all four Legions of the Istvann III Atroscity with rules. There will be no “Legion A vs. Legion B fighting on Istvaan III” Theme for the Box, and with the decals, you could represent every Legion but would need the Compendium to play other Legions than Sons of Horus, Emperor’s Children, World Eaters or Death Guard.

Apart from Plastic Sprues, there will be Resin Packs with Legion-specific stuff like the Primarch, another Command Squad, or Dreadnought Torso.

Interestingly, there are rumors about resin packs to make things Legion-specific, and not everything will be in plastic. Then, it will only focus on the traitors and no loyalists in the box. Overall though, it sounds like quite the excellent box with plenty inside!

Warhammer 40k Horus Heresy Epic to be Revealed at Warhammer Fest & Starter Set: (April 10th, 2023)

These come from Gary on Faeit 212, and they say it’s from a “reliable source.”

The official announcement will be now Warhammerfest at the end of April; GW will show the new EPIC Logo and Space Marine Legionaries in Mk4 Armour.

As we said, with 10th Edition revealed at AdeptiCon, GW will may something big for Warhammer Fest. This would get people pretty excited, and it feels like GW would have to do Epic, Space Hulk, or even Warhammer Old World to really get people excited for the reveals.

It would also make sense to show off what the Space Marines models will look like as they should, in theory, be 1:4 scale like the current Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica Imperalis and around 8-10mm tall.

Now, let’s check out the starter set rumors.

EPIC will be only a small release for the Start; Starter Set, separate Rulebook, Accessories, and 3 to 4 Boxes with Infantry and Tanks separate.

The new “Mk4” Power Armour Sprue will have the following content – note that every Squad also comes with a Sergeant option.

This is a little unfortunate in terms of a smaller release, but hey, better than nothing. Then, if it does well, we assume they would have to keep the releases going. Now onto the actual units coming in the starter sets.

Warhammer Epic Starter Sets Content

Forge World Thunderhawk & Plastic AI Thunderhawk in 1:4 scale.

Segment A/B (MK4 Line Squads)

- 44 Tactical Marines
- 11 Assault Marines with Jump Packs
- 11 Support Marines with “Anti-Tank Weapons”
- 11 Support Marines with “Anti-Infantry” Weapons”
- 4 Bikes

Segment C (Mk4 Command Squads)

- 2 (different) Praetors
- 2 (different) Centurions
- 8 Consuls of different types
- 33 Veterans (actual further Tactical Marines)

Segment D (Tartaros Terminator Squads)

- 1 Terminator Praetor
- 1 Terminator Centurion
- 4 Terminator Consuls
- 22 Terminators

It’s looking like there will be three actual boxes, but the first one is A/B (meaning two armies, possibly). It’s a decent amount of models, and we’ll see how big they are, as this isn’t a crazy amount of minis for Epic if it is two armies.

A and B are identical and have the dimensions of a common medium sprue segment. C & D are smaller “half” segments. Together all four sprue segments have the dimensions of a common GW Sprue in three parts

Three-part model for the basic Rhino.
Two parts for the lower hull’s both sides with tracks and the back hatch as part of one of them.
Third part is with the upper hull, front plate, and side doors.
Predator (and other variants) will then be alternative upper hulls with side weapons, turrets with different weapon options, using the Rhino two-part chassis.
Predator turret will be two parts with one being just the turret body/armour and another parts which include the weapon, the turret pin to fix it on the hull and the turrets backside.

Interestingly, the sets will have multiple options and multi-part sprues. This makes some sense with the tanks because they might not be the tiniest even though they are small.

Games Workshop Accidentally Previewed a New Edition of Epic Warhammer 40k: (March 14th 2023)

Let’s start with the picture from Warhammer Community that started it all, then get into some of the rumors.

This was in the initial post, and as you can see right away, the base is a little bit different, but we’ll get to the possibilities.

Then, about an hour later or so, they went back and changed the picture in the post to have the base cropped out. So, why would they go through the trouble of cropping the base out?

There are really two main reasons (to us, at least). First, this is a base for Epic (as it’s textured and thinner like other boxed games) or a third-party base that they didn’t want it in the post.

Let’s start with the less exciting possibility, then get to Epic.

You can see a little gap in the feet and the base, meaning they most likely just put it on the base with some blue-tac so it could be swapped to a familiar-sized Titanicus base. This still supports both theories, but let’s consider the possibility of a third-party base.

GW obviously wouldn’t want something custom in one of their studio pictures, which gives credence to the idea this was not shot in their studio. So, there is a possibility whoever took the photo and uploaded it didn’t think about the base, and when someone from the company saw the post, they had they take it out.

Or it was taken “in-house,” and well, this model was not glued to the base. Perhaps these are product shots for later on when the base may change.

It’s also worth pointing out that this model also appears to be on an “oval” base in this image, and not its standard 80mm round base.

A New Edition of Warhammer 40k EPIC?

Now, let’s talk about a new edition of Epic. First, we’ve heard rumors for a long time, so it wouldn’t be too surprising. Plus, we’re not the only ones thinking this either; some users have also chimed in on the B&C with similar theories.

But since there is a little gap between the feet and the base, it seems like the Warhound is only blutacked on the base, which would make sense if they want to switch between normal bases for AT and lower bases for Epic.

If you don’t remember, Epic had much thinner bases so that the tiny little models could fit on there easier. This is also a case where whoever took the photos could have just not realized the base was made for Epic and just took the photo with the swapped-out base.

RUMORS Epic Warhammer 40k Returning: (December 8th 2022)

These rumors come from Valrak, and he said he’s pretty certain about these ones! He’s been pretty spot-on lately, so just something to think about.

There are three main points for the return of Epic 40k rumors.

First, it looks like the game is set to make a triumphant return sometime after 10th edition 40k drops. He wouldn’t give an exact timeline, but from the sounds of it, 2024 looks like the most obvious date. Click here to see the other rumors on Epic we have been hearing so far.
Next up, there is a big chance this will actually be set in Horus Heresy (like Adeptus Titanicus). This is a shame for many 40k players as it cuts out a ton of Xenos factions, but with it being so far out, this could not be the case as well. Some people are also out there saying it is 40k, but we’ll have to wait and see about that.
Lastly, it looks like AI will either be moved to something else or somehow incorporated.

RUMORS 10th Edition 40k Rules Reset & Epic Returns: (August 8th, 2022)

The latest Chapter Master Valrak rumors on YouTube and B&C (edited for grammar) seem to indicate not only the return of 10th Edition 40k that pretty much everyone suspects but also provide a few scant details.

10th is apparently coming next year, and they will be resetting it, everything going back to indexes as we got with 8th Edition. Take it with all the salt you can consume.

Also, EPIC is coming back for the Horus Heresy, apparently.

Indexes were what Games Workshop used back when they reset the 40k rules set to 8th Edition back in 2017, with the promise of fewer books needed and only eight pages of core rules.

Each index featured rules for either the Imperium, Xenos, or Chaos factions as a quickstart way to get players up and running with the new 8th Edition 40k rules mechanics before each codex came out.

While the promise of fewer rules needed to play was a great idea then, it didn’t even stand up to the first major event of the 8th edition, with GW having to hot-fix scoring flyers after the 2017 ATCs spammed so many.

Unfortunately, the rules bloat mushroomed from there, unfortunately to what we have today with tons of supplement microtransactions and a Warhammer 40k army builder App that has never quite lived up to everyone’s expectations.

On the Epic 40k side of things, it seems like releases have slowed for both Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica Imperialis, so perhaps re-releasing Epic (small-scale games of 40k) would be a great way for Games Workshop to recycle these models in the new 1/4 scale to be used together with perhaps some unseen similarly scaled 40k models.

Here’s a great look at the differences in scale from the old 1990s epic scale, the new AI, and the current 40k sizes. The plastic AI Thunderhawk is a perfect 4″ long, exactly 1/4 the size of the Forge World one! The same goes for the Titans in Adeptus Titianicus compared to Warhammer 40k.

So the stage may be set for TWO new versions of Warhammer 40k, and regardless of which of these systems you want more, these are spicy rumors for sure.

RUMORS: Forge World Cerastus Knights Going Plastic

Now, onto the big models! Apparently, many Forge World Knight kits may start going to plastic. Cerastus Knights seem to be first in line for this, but this could also be a step towards all of the Knights from Forge World moving to plastic as well.

Existing Cerastus Knight From Forge World

If these rumors are true, it could hopefully mean a price reduction, an easier kit to build, and maybe the whole line moves to plastic. While Valrak doesn’t talk too much about which kits may go to plastic from resin, any would be sweet!

We’ve heard different whispers about Epic for a long time, and many people have been asking for it since Titanicus On the Knight’s side, people always want more kits in plastic, so perhaps we’ll see some combo kits for less than the MSRP on the Forge World Cerastus Knights!

Would you like to see Warhammer Epic make a comeback?

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