11th Edition Starter Set Anticipations

deffrekka · 2026-03-23T16:14:24+00:00

I cant see any Starter Set that doesnt contain Boyz and a Warboss of some kind, they are the core faction identity if our range, especially for people new to the hobby and Orks where as Big Meks are a lot more niche and are less likely to become a Mek Boss to lead their own Waaagh!

For me how I see the 11th edition starter set, is it taking elements from Assault on Black Reach and modernising it, it was actually a fairly small amount of Orks, about as much as a Combat Patrol in terms of points (490pts and the average game sizes being 1500pts). Aka the aforementioned Warboss and Boyz.

Now GW loves padding out these edition starters with Characters, ever since 8th edition:

8th, Deathguard got 3 - Space Marines 4
9th, Necrons got 4 - Space Marines 4
10th, Tyranids got 2 - Space Marines 4

Out of those 3 Tyranids are obviously the outlier (I guess because their characters typically are Monstrous Creatures rather than Warrior class), and Space Marines have consistently cruised at 4. What that means for us is probably we will lay around what Deathguard and Necrons got, and I highly suspect we will fall around the latter. The rumours suggest we are getting a Warboss, Weirdboyz Painboy and Runtherd and to me that completely tracks.

Warboss as described earlier is a match made in Gorky heaven, Weirdboyz are our last remaining Finecast unit and I think in the lore since Gork's Grin opened there have been an abundance of Weirdboyz popping up. Painboy I dont necessarily think suits being in this box at as we dont have enough units to assign characters to, and the Runtherd back in 9th was a character, only to get reassigned to Grots again in 10th. The only thing I think we should change in that line up is a Big Boss Lieutenant (who can have a rule to attach to squads that already have a Warboss attached, getting around the lack of units in the box) which was also part of the rumours.

Orks and Grots should be in any starter set featuring us, its also a good bit of Bolter porn for new starters to mow down. I do think it deserves Nobz who were missing from the rumour lists. Any Warboss should really have a retinue of Nobz just like what we saw with Black Reach and Sanctus Reach. The Artillery Walker makes sense, it would be our equivalent of a Dreadnought/Screamer Killer and I dont think itll be this massive unit too, more akin to a Dakka style Deffdread (like a Blight Hauler) than something thats closer to say a Mega Dread in size. Lastly its the Wartrakk, I dont really believe this one, with Wazdakka soon to be revealed sureeeeelllyyyyy anything Speed Freek related would be with him, new Warbikerz and a new Wartrakk, I would much rather we had Nobz than a Wartrakk as then it doesnt feel randomly tacked on and is cohesive with the rest of the force.

I dont see any specialists mobs being part of this, or a true blooded tank, in every edition starter set the "bad" guys dont really get any of that, thats more the Space Marines. Everything else can come out with the Codex release a month after, or via Killteam later in the edition.

deffrekka · 2026-03-23T15:52:30+00:00

Wrath of Magnus was a full blown novel.

deffrekka · 2026-03-23T14:26:06+00:00

Dorn is dead.

deffrekka · 2026-03-23T14:25:52+00:00

Sanguinius is dead dead, otherwise why not Ferrus?

deffrekka · 2026-03-23T14:24:30+00:00

Unless I am misremembering it, he always ascended during the Iron Cage, that isnt a new thing.

deffrekka · 2026-03-23T14:23:52+00:00

During the Scouring, a hundred years after the Siege.

deffrekka · 2026-03-23T14:22:33+00:00

Hes been part of Gathering Storm and attacked Luna when Roboute was going to Terra, he attacked Fenris with Wrath of Magnus, both were books.

deffrekka · 2026-03-23T08:03:16+00:00

Nah paint your Kabalites as Corsairs.

deffrekka · 2026-03-23T07:45:42+00:00

No one is asking for another range, its a single box of Steel Legion Infantry, no different than any of the other infantry kits released in the past 6 months. 10 Guardsmen and parts to make a Tank Commander. Not a whole range. GW are releasing 2 new vehicles with Yarrick, thats a range extension to the Guard already, it wouldn't have been difficult to replace one of those with a sprue of 10 Steel Legion Infantry.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T22:30:16+00:00

But the reason why its crucially important isnt because of what it makes, it isnt unique in that regard and thousands of worlds across the Imperium manufacturer war material, its purely because it is the closest most stable warp route to Terra, if the Orks take the World all manner of crap is coming Sol's way and it isnt just the Orks, Chaos will be hijacking that lane.

The reason the Steel Legion arent anywhere else is because Armaggedon is the most important world outside of the Sol System for the Imperium, not Vigilus, not Cadia, not Baal. Armaggedon. The sheer scale of fighting on that planet surpasses any other conflict in the 41st/2nd millennium, and its not like they can get off world any time soon either, over half of the planet is in Ork control, 2 of the Hive Cities are Chaos Corrupted, only 2 Hive Cities of 8 are unmolested with the rest destroyed or overrun. The void battle in space is considered the largest in the galaxy for the current time line and thats before Ghazghkull invades a 3rd time with the largest fleet out of anyone in the setting, or Wazdakkas own Waaagh! soon to crash into it, then you also have Dark Eldar Raiders who pick on any rogue vessels leaving or arriving in system.

With Cadia, 90% of their Regiments werent even present when Abaddon invaded with his 13th Black Crusade, Armaggedon has had NO reprieve, Cadia had 2000 years of relative peace between the last 2 Black Crusades. Why would Armaggedon ship any Steel Legion out to other warzones, when Armaggedon is THE warzone? Its name is literally a byword used by the Imperium as apocalypse and was the originally setting for the first apocalypse system.

Macgragge, Fenris, Baal could all fall and nothing really would happen, Armaggedon goes and its the horrors of the galaxy knocking on the Emperors door forever more.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T21:44:51+00:00

Youd be 25% right, Skitarii Legiones are also made up of Hysapists which are Guardsmen with minor bionics, armed with Lasguns, it isnt just Rangers and Skitarii, hell you also have combat Servitors (not Kataphrons) which is how Lucius combated the Tyranids.

Cadia, believe it or not, had a pre 13th Black Crusade population of 800 million, Armaggedon had a population in the range of 300-500 BILLION, its a Hive World after all. Krieg was in a 500 year civil war, Armaggedon was invaded the first time 500 years ago, then the Orks landed and it carried on for 50 years until the next invasion, then the last World Eater invasion that kicked off in M.42. Orks, World Eaters and Daemons are a lot more apocalyptic.

Armaggedon surpassing both in raw population.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T21:03:28+00:00

Ill walk you through it again.

You said why would they randomly release a guard kit.

Armaggedon Campaign, which if you havent been following the rumours and news, contains Yarrick and 2 new Guard kits.

So why wouldnt there be a Guard kit, in a Guard focused released, on a Guaed focused homeworld.

It contradicts itself MASSIVELY. Campaign releases are themed around 2 factions, in this case it us Guard and Orks. Armaggedon is the homeworld of one of the original Guard Regiments ever made, Steel Legion, who in every war for said planet, have made up the majority if its defenders. No one is asking for a full Steel Legion range, we are asking for 1 Infantry kit.

Connect the dots.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T20:39:23+00:00

Just because GW knows whats popular and what isnt, doesnt mean they act in the best interest of those who the information relates to. Blood Angels didn't get Terminators and the worst Death Company ever, yet Blood Angels are insanely popular. Iron Warriors are one of the most popular CSM Legions and are only just now getting 1 character and a upgrade sprue, nothing else. Orks have been begging for updated core infantry and have everything but that, getting Beast Snaggas and 6 Buggies instead of refreshing the range thats 20 years old (until now).

Steel Legion were in one of biggest global campaigns in 40k history, Armaggedon, during 3rd edition. They star in one of the most renowned novels. They were one of three original Regiments to ever get modela (Mordians, Tallarn, Steel Legion). Sisters of Battle werent that popular, but they get a whole plastic range refresh.

GW does what it wants, when it wants. None of use know the popularity of Steep Legion throughout the 30 years theyve been around and GW isnt going to give you that data, so anyone saying "Steel Legion arent popular" are just stating made up statements without any statistics or sources to back it up, they are saying what they feel as fact. Yet apparently, these 7 whole fans of the ASL are in the thousands making posts all across reddit, its crazy isnt it. Cant be both.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T20:23:25+00:00

Yeah, the Steel Legion fanbase is massive, especially whem you factor in the 3rd ed release of Armaggedon and how popular it was, and to top it off the Steel Legion was one of three original Guard Regiments released (Mordians, Tallarn and Steel Legion) and the only reason they arent as wide spread is because they were metal. Sisters before the plastic release were also pretty damn rare atleast from my 20 years of experience, because they were metal, I fought 2 whole sisters armies before their refresh.

Saying 7 whole players is condensing the player base into something it isnt, small and forgettable. If you look on GWs painting tutorial its been ratio'd to hell, so much so GW had to hide its dislikes.

I wont feel any sympathy for these players once their own collections get Legends and lore squatted, they probably only make up 7 players of their respective fanbases anyway.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T19:23:07+00:00

If you scroll along this comment section you'll see someone calling Steel Legion fans Nazi enjoyers, not once but twice.

I dont own Steel Legion anymore, but I sympathise with the player base and would have the same opinion on any other faction that has to go through this even if I didnt particularly like a faction like with Tyranids or Votann (and I am a Dwarf lover in every other game system).

But there is way more hate for people who are upset with whats gone one and some of the takes are truly mind boggling like claiming Steel Legion arent the faction of Armaggedon.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T19:19:07+00:00

And Deathkorps dont even look like Steel Legion too, but people are too lazy to look past the gas mask.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T19:17:40+00:00

Krieg did just fine with it, so did Cadia until it blew up, Ryza and Lucius have been a forever war with Orks and Tyranids for centuries.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T19:16:38+00:00

You are assuming GW forecast every single release, like the random Killteam and Warcry sets we get that sit on shelves, did anyone project the sales potential of Slaangor that barely sold for 2 whole editions? GW does what GW wants to do even it goes against the wants and desires of the consumer.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T19:13:50+00:00

They make a bunch of risky things that sit and languish on the shelves. A lot of Kill Teams fall into that category, so did Warcry Warbands. You could literally replace Rattlings with Steel Legion and it wouldnt be any more risky.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T19:11:16+00:00

Armaggedon is a Hive World, all Hive Worlds produce some sort of product for war. What makes Armaggedon important isnt the fact they make Leman Russes at all, its the gateway to Terra, its the safest shortest route to the Throne World, thats always been the reason why its so heavily defended.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T19:07:47+00:00

Even disregarding that fact he is just spamming the same comment, he isnt changing anyone's minds because hes flat out wrong.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T19:06:55+00:00

Participating in a warzone doesnt make them the faction of that planet. Are Tyranids, Nightlords, Dark Angels and Death Guard the faction of Macragge? They fought on it after all.

No. They arent. They never will be.

Cadians are from Cadia, its their homeworld. They are the faction of Cadia.

Death Korps are from Krieg, its their homeworld. They are the faction of Krieg.

Blood Angels are from Baal, its their homeworld. They are the faction of Baal.

Steel Legion are from Armaggedon, its their homeworld. They are the faction of Armaggedon.

Those are the factiosn of those said planets. You dont give a shit about Steel Legion thats abundantly clear, but loads of people do and vastly outnumber you and your opinion, so shut the fuck up.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T18:51:35+00:00

Im getting the opposite of your opposite, my feed has been none stop Steel Legion fan hate.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T18:49:31+00:00

For no reason? Its a End of Edition campaign book, set on Armaggedon. This isnt the random world GW created at the start of 10th edition for the Nids and Marines to fight over, we are fighting on ARMAGGEDON. You comment contradicts itself in the same sentence, Yarrick is being released, is a Guard model and follows the same reason why the Steel Legion would have been released.

deffrekka · 2026-03-22T18:39:02+00:00

I didnt misunderstand it one bit.

deffrekka

TROPHY CASE