To use a very annoying piece of Warhammer 40k gameplay jargon, Games Workshop's Armageddon box set reveals have been a bit "uppy downy" so far. The new Intercessor and up-armed Ork Boy went down well enough, and the Weirdboy is delightful; but our long awaited new Vanguard Veteran was a real whiffer, catching a lot of hate for looking too similar to the existing jump assault intercessors. Well, as of Monday, the Warhammer 40k 11th edition clap-o-meter is about to leap back up, because the new Jump Chaplain is far more interesting.
Revealed via GW's Warhammer Community site on Monday, the new Chaplain With Jump Pack (his official title) is the third Space Marine miniature to be revealed from the upcoming Armageddon box set - the launch product for Warhammer 40k's new 11th edition cycle.
We don't learn a lot from GW's reveal in terms of rules - this is a slow drip-feed of info to keep us primed for the big 11th release in June, remember - but it does confirm the jump chappie will give Vanguard Veterans "+1 to wound"; i.e. it's keeping the Litany of Hate rule from the current datasheet.
The sculpt is what's giving us so many happy chemicals (and so many more than the vanguard vet), though. The pose is angry, aggressive, and mobile while still being readable. There's enough armor bling to mark him out as a Special Guy (unlike the poor, bland VVs), without an overabundance of distracting, hard to paint gewgaws. The distinctive skull helm with tight, in built Iron Halo is just right.
And, after years of fans turning to third party bits makers to get their space marines airborne, GW has put its fancy new sculpting tech to work and given the chaplain a Tactical Smoke Plume (TSP) to show him zooming towards the ground, ready to pound. This is a properly cinematic mini.
It's also easy to see the direct inspiration from the previous, Blood Angels exclusive Jump Pack Chaplain released in 2016, at the tail end of 7th Edition.
Unlike that classic, though, GW confirms the new kit "has no Chapter-specific markings, meaning you can paint him to match any codex Chapter". GW's Monday announcement makes no mention of the original Death Company model, which at press time is still for sale on the Warhammer webstore.
At the tail end of GW's announcement, we get a hint that next week's Armageddon box miniature reveal will be "something smaller" - and Wargamer puts it to you: what could that mean but Gretchin? Something grotty this way comes, we think - and after that, Warcom says, it's "very close to revealing ALL of the contents of the box".
For a swift, unbiased breakdown and analysis of all that news as it comes, keep it locked to Wargamer; and you can stay up to date with our coverage easier if you join our free Discord community! It's a cool place full of cool people, and you should really be one of them.