Genestealer Cults fans rejoice! GW may have just revealed that Shadowsun and the Tau will be battling them in the Greater Good…
Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good is the next book in the series to hit the shelves. And since it has been mentioned, we’ve seen a new Tau model previewed along with a short story of Death Guard forcing the Tau into a tight spot. But there looks to be more than just the two factions in this book. Before we jump into the latest, it’s important to make sure you’re all caught up with the highlights from before.
Did GW Just Reveal Genestealer Cults Vs. Tau (and Death Guard) Next?
Latest Rumors On Saga of the Beast
Shadowsun & Psychic Awakening Rumors
O’Shaserra, better known as Commander Shadowsun, is getting an awesome new model!
Her newly up-gunned battlesuit now comes equipped as standard with an arsenal of weapons, from a flechette launcher to light missile pod, and the choice of tank-busting high-energy fusion blasters or Space Marine-melting dispersed fusion blasters. Shadowsun is also accompanied by her trusty pair of high-tech drones which bring with them a suite of handy tactical abilities.
Tau Commander Shadowsun Model for 2020
We had seen the teaser image from before, but we had no idea she’d be looking this dope and being able to lead any Sept.
Best of all, as befits this iconic hero of the empire, she can now lead any Sept, not just those of her homeworld, so she can take command of any T’au Empire collection***. We think she’ll look right at home at the head of a strike force of Stealth Suits and Ghostkeels.
Hobby heroes Fauxhammer and Garro were at the Warhammer 2020 Open Day event and shared some great pictures of the model as well:
The version in the case at New Years Open appears to be sans her hair from this angle.
It also looks from the official GW pics and these display case ones, there may be as many as three head variants as well!
These painted shots add more depth to the model, and from this angle, she appears a bit “squat”.
Pictured above are the box packaging, sprues, and concept art as well.
Shadowsun drops in alongside the release of book 5 of Psychic Awakening, titled “The Greater Good”, but we’ll have to wait a little bit longer before we find out who the T’au will be up against.
We would imagine she’ll be seeing a $40 price tag attached to her upon release in February.
Death Guard Fighting Tau in Psychic Awakening: Greater Good?
Warhammer Community’srecent short story featured Commander O’Shaserra battling an overwhelming force of Chaos Death Guard on the Imperium side of the Startide Nexus.
It seems that the lost Fourth Sphere fleet experienced an “Event Horizon” mishap as they transversed the Warp without psychic protection.
‘This is O’Shaserra speaking. I hope this message arrives in time for you to be warned. In time for you to act. We successfully traversed the Startide Nexus and established contact with our lost brothers and sisters of the Fourth Sphere. As suspected, they had suffered a failure of their AL-38 Slipstream modules but… we don’t understand exactly what happened yet.”
Shadowsun was warning the forces on the Tau side of the Startide Nexus that a fleet of Death Guard would be emerging from the portal. And that her forces would not be able to defeat the plague fleet.
“Thus,’ Commander Shadowsun spoke on, ‘I have come to a decision. We cannot stop the Death Guard this side of the Startide Nexus. After dozens of battles, our fleets are too damaged. Our strength has depleted to a point that we cannot halt this incursion any longer, if we still want to secure the expansion of the Nem’yar Atoll. We are now forced to choose, and we choose the latter. We are trusting in you, our comrades beyond the Nexus, to counteract the Death Guard threat.”
Unknown to the Tau, the Death Guard doesn’t need portals to access the Warp…
Could There Be Another Faction Tau & Death Guard Will Fight?
It’s important to note a trend we’ve seen from some Psychic Awakening books. Sometimes there are only two forces that clash against each other (Phoenix Rising and Blood of Baal). However, we’ve also witnessed that it’s not outside the realm of possibility for three factions to come inside Psychic Awakening books too. We’ve just seen this with Ritual of the Damned.
There’s a pretty good chance that Tau and Death Guard might also be stumbling upon a hidden faction in Psychic Awakening. Maybe one that slipped under the radar. (Pun intended).
With a snapshot coming from the recent reveal video for Shadowsun, you can see some GSC dudes trying to get in close. But why would GW reveal a new model for a specific lore expansion with other models that had nothing to do with each other? The real answer is that they probably wouldn’t.
We can make the case for Shadowsun pulling her forces away from the Death Guard only to stir up a Genestealer Cults uprising.
More Official Previews Show Genestealer Cults in the Next Expansion
Be sure to read the full story for yourself to get a better picture of everything that’s happening. But coming from Warhammer Community, they dropped another short story on some Genestealer Cults overthrowing an Imperial outpost. They killed an investigator and a few Guardsman in the story and left with a cold look into the GSC’s purpose:
There is a unity to which we can all belong, he read, a higher purpose. A greater good.
While there wasn’t any focus on the Tau or Death Guard in this short story, this could be a precursor to what the GSC went through before all three forces converge.- Something we have yet to see.
However, taking this story and combining it with the new Shadowsun previews using GSC models, it looks like we’ve just got our confirmed third faction.
It’s pretty awesome that GW would take three factions that do see a “Greater Good” in their cause for fighting and pile them into one book. While that title is a near dead giveaway for Tau. Death Guard and GSC were probably two forces that nobody really considered showing up.
Will the Death Guard have their 5+++ Disgustingly resilient rule added onto? What are some other Stratagems you’d like to see the Genestealer Cult get next?
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