On Monday, Games Workshop revealed updated Warhammer 40k miniatures for the Chaos Mutilators, hulking warp mutants formed from a nightmarish melange of Chaos Space Marine, daemonic techno-virus, and so many massive melee weapons that even the World Eaters would be impressed. The previous Mutilator models went off sale back in 2022, and the new kits are one hell of an upgrade.
Mutilators are Chaos Space Marines who were particularly obsessed with close-combat weapons before they were infected with a warp virus. Now that the techno-virus has infected their body, mind, and soul, their form is a shifting mass of meat and metal capable of manifesting vicious melee armaments in a single violent thought, like Tetsuo the Iron Man if he never skipped leg day.
When they last appeared in tabletop Warhammer 40k they had broadly the same stats as Obliterators - slow, tough, deep-striking elite infantry - and were powerful in melee, provided you could make them connect. Looking at them, we have to assume they'll function much the same under the new rules.
According to the article on Warhammer Community that revealed these brutes, they will be available "within a few months or so" alongside the Eye of Terror narrative supplement. We're guessing mid April, on the basis that the 500 Worlds supplement dropped at the end of January, and the next one, Maelstrom, is due in early March.
The fact that Chaos Space Marines will be getting these new Mutilators, plus the new Warsmith special character and Iron Warriors upgrade sprue revealed last week, and more forces, alongside the upcoming narrative supplement, suggests that they aren't going to be one of the forces in the bumper launch box set for Warhammer 40k 11th edition. We had them pegged as a likely candidate, and this raises the question - which Warhammer 40k faction will face off against the Space Marines this edition? Answers on a postcard.
Or, come to think of it, answers in the Wargamer Discord community. There's no prizes if you guess correctly, but we will all be terribly impressed. And for a round up of the best new stories we publish each week, make sure you're subscribed to the Wargamer newsletter!