The Talons Of The Emperor Descend With A New Range For Warhammer 40,000
March 18, 2017 by brennon
We got a little bit of a heads-up on this set coming out due to some teasers earlier in the month but now the Talons Of The Emperor are available for you to pre-order this weekend by Games Workshop plus multi-part plastic kits for the Adeptus Custodes and Sisters Of Silence which are sold separately.
Inside this main set, you get a smattering of the core bits and pieces that you'll need to start playing with these warriors on the tabletop. As well as the units you see here and their accompanying vehicles you'll also get the rules for playing detachments of Adeptus Custodes in Warhammer 40,000...
...and Sisters Of Silence on the tabletop. They won't have the breadth of a larger force that you might expect but this allows you to bring their deadly martial abilities to the tabletop alongside other forces from the Imperium.
Effectively, we're seeing these warriors leaping out of the pages of history and doing battle during the current conflict alongside Roboute Guilliman. The chosen men of the Emperor and power anti-psykers sounds like a potent combination for dealing with a growing Daemonic threat from Chaos.
The Adeptus Custodes & Sisters Of Silence
As mentioned above, you can also pick up the different sets as individual kits too. Leading the way is the Custodian Guard Squad which can be armed in two different ways.
These warriors can be armed with the larger sentinel blades and storm shields or the guardian spears if you prefer bringing a gun-blade into battle. These models have come in for a bit of a hit from some folks as they believe the proportions look a bit off. I think that might be the case with the spear-armed warriors but the blades look just about right to me.
Matched alongside them we also have the Sisters of Silence with three different combinations on offer starting with the Witchseeker Squad who have, you guessed it, flamethrowers.
If you prefer to get up close and personal with your foe then they also have the Vigilator Squad here...
...and it can't have escaped most of you that these warrior women don't particularly look that Sci-Fi. So, why stop with Warhammer 40,000 when you could transfer these ladies over into Age Of Sigmar and use them as some Female Stormcast Eternals fighting alongside their heavily armoured counterparts?
You could probably even swap out these ranged weapons here for the Prosecutor Squad to give them the Boltstorm Crossbows that we saw with the Vanguard Chamber members.
But, instead of me dragging these miniatures into the world of the Mortal Realms these are a welcome addition to the range for use in Warhammer 40,000. They might not exactly be Sisters Of Battle (love those models) but they will do for now!
The mix and match nature of the Sisters Of Silence means you could work on a rather more in-depth force to use against your foes compared to the regular Adeptus Custodes.
What do you think of these golden offerings from The Emperor?
"As well as the units you see here and their accompanying vehicles you'll also get the rules for playing detachments of Adeptus Custodes in Warhammer 40,000..."
So we had the new balloon dwarfs which immediately made me think that squats were coming back to 40k. Now we have these sisters that look like something from AoS.
I am increasingly starting to think they might be going all warmahordes and merging the games when Age of the Emperor hits and they are paving the way by unifying the aesthetic.
I love those models and can’t wait to see how they fit into the Gathering Storm lore. Another interesting thing that I noticed is that this range seems to be ticking a lot of “diversity” boxes for GW. I’m not generally bothered either way by calls for diversity in miniatures however I do find it interesting that GW have recently started including a range of skin tones and now a range of sensible (within a 40k context) female miniatures. When you look at the changes in their approach to things in the last two years, it’s like somebody has awoken… Read more »
“gathering storm lore”. That half cooked mess seemed like tons of stuff happened way too quick but manages to do so without actually doing anything meaningful. It left me pretty disappointed lol. Kinda seemed like an even more transparent excuse to dump yet more overpriced models on us. However, your point about diversity is interesting, I think those sisters are the first time I’ve seen an official GW paintjob with black folks since I’ve been a player, which is pretty cool. Though I think it’s odd that they relegated the diversity to just the sisters with this release lol. Anyway,… Read more »
Hmmm. I think that ended up being more bitter than I intended. Lel.
Very salty indeed.
They haven’t limited to just the Sisters release, we have seen it in AoS too – the Excelsior Warpriest in Silver Tower was black as well.
Oh really? That’s cool. Haven’t really touched AoS since I’m much more a sci-fi fan, but I’ve heard surprisingly good things about it. Sounds like a much better system than 40k, though I haven’t looked deep into it.
I think it’s going to be slowly phased in over time. We will gradually start to see it, which is cool because although I don’t really care one way or the other for “diversity”, I do like seeing variety in skin tones, especially in sci fi and modern games because it looks more realistic.
New Eldar god and faction; destruction of a craft world, a Primarch returning to lead the Imperium, the story actually advancing, etc… all very hard to miss apparently.
But nothing actually changed, and all that happened happened so quick that nothing could be said about it. It’s like they moved from 5 minutes to midnight to 4 minutes to midnight. The ‘new’ eldar faction isn’t. It’s basically just a new detachment with even more cheese for craftworld that also lets them take dark eldar. The destruction of Biel-tan (it was biel-tan right? Have trouble remembering) meant very little with the way it was presented. Guilliman returning has/had potential for moving things truly forwards, but so many Mcguffins were used throughout the series that it’s hard to take any… Read more »
I suppose in order to avoid hyperbole the correct thing for me to say would be ‘very little actually progressed and meaningfully changed’
@dmgdmind
Nothing has changed yet. Yet being the operative word. If this is like the 40k End Times then nothing really changed during the End Times either, it was only at the conclusion of them that anything changed. I think you will see that with the 40k stuff although with the Gathering Storm being touted as a Trilogy but 40k 8th being scheduled for June/July then I wouldn’t be surprised if after the trilogy concludes that there is then a second series of books
realistically speaking GW couldn’t exactly have those events affect 40k in that scale without upsetting half the player base and doing to the setting what AoS did to WFB.
There is definitely something of a missed opportunity if you did like seeing the disruption have actual effect though.
But then I think a lot of players are glad it was of “limited” effect …
Yeah, that’s I was hoping they’d fill in the time between 30k and 40k! They could spend decades on that while still letting people have ‘your dudes’ in 40k. Not to mention being able to have big, real changes with real effects because they’re all ‘in the past’!
Boy that Vigilator squad looks stupid next to the others carrying reasonable equipment. Boltgun or claymore, take a pick .. hmm, tough choice there.
I really like the look of the boltgun sisters. I definitely get what you’re saying lol.
I don’t see why it’s any different to Space Marines having close combat squads
At least the marines have pistols 😛
And often also jump packs or terminator armour instead of just power pelts and a pair of legs. Melee units should have situational roles, not simply be a different but as good option as a shooting unit. I would be fine with the whole melee deal if the game had more rules for using hiding and cover to get close. And why would you want to get close? To prevent blowing up a highly explosive objective or grab a hostage. Because its cool and they like it is not a satisfying explanation for such a fluff rich universe as 40ks.
Imo 😉
Some do some don’t. There’s lots of pure melee units in 40k that have no ranged abilities at all.
Yeah its silly i know
Nice models. Now, if they would only drop the price by, say, 50%. To keep up with their ever expanding (and bloated) lines and attract me back yet again, they need to make their armies affordable, not make us pay for a squad what an army (or 2) should cost. Still, I have always liked their miniatures.
This is pretty much my only gripe with GW at the minute. Minis are great, books and content are great, WHTV videos are great, boxed bundle deals are great.
Prices on single squads and character minis are absurd.
Wow the troops look fantastic close up.
Is it just me or do the sisters look like modified Dark Eldar? The legs specifically are very Kabalite warrior.
I know what you’re saying, though for me the bare heads really give off that vibe with the topknot and smoothness.
good point, they wouldn’t look out of place on Wyches would they.
I do wonder how Elite either of these forces can still be after spending 9000+ years out of action.
Sure they can be training all along, but that’s not the same as the real thing.
Lovely minis, but prospero still remains best way to grab these in my opinion and not keen on the 40k transports, 30k ones much prettier.
2 separate codecies seems a bit odd though. Still waiting on 8th, to see if I will be returning to 40k.
But if they were in one codex then GW couldn’t sell you two 😛
They have sold me none, will wait and if 8th is reasonable play them in 30k, where they do have a combined army.
Those are solid looking models and they even include some vehicles with boxed set. That said two codexes do feel like overkill compared to having all those in single same codex instead.
I agree with @dmgdmind , in fact I want to write an article on my blog reviewing Gathering Storm Part 1 as it has a lot of rushed ideas and poor execution as a result of being a tiny, tiny book.
As for the two Codexes for the Talons of the Emperor? Not enough BLOAT! It should have been FOUR codexii! Wher’es my codex Contemptor Dreadnoughts!? And Codex Flying Rhino’s!? 😛
The sisters with swords have not a single thing on them that makes it clear they fit into a sci-fi setting. You really could put them into AoS and nobody would be the wiser. At least the other guys weapons have a bit of a sci-fi flare to them.
I intend to do just that and have a unit of Liberators who are basically these Sisters of Silence with their great swords.
Also is it really necessary to make an already powered weapon two handed ? I just cant stand some aspects of 40k sometimes :p im fairly certain it could still stand strong and unique if the techno fantasy bit was toned down a bit.
Having that big sword held with one hand supported by hydraulic arms would have made it look sci-fi and cool.
Interesting sisters of silence have no soul ! they all ginger !
I honestly feel slightly underwhelmed with both the Custodes and Sisters of Silence. Comparing the various artwork we’ve seen for the Custodes over the years, I’m just not a fan of what we got at the end. Like….shouldn’t they be bigger compared to normal marines? At least something to differentiate them from normal Marines at a glance, beyond ornate armour and weapons (which incidentally look too big for them). Sisters of Silence on the other hand, just seem really plain / boring. They also seem incredibly skinny (on par with Dark Eldar Wyches?). I don’t know if the paint scheme… Read more »
The custodes are a fair bit larger than a regular marine. They’re on 40mm bases so are closer to terminator / stormcast size.