BREAKING: The Long Plot of the Duardin Reveal Part 1

*Glee!*

So the new Duardin have dropped, and damnned if they refused to hit the ground! The traditionally under-mountain Dwarfs in their halls of stone have turned into metal clad sky-pirates, riding sky boats, and even having jump troops!


This is the first part of a double post, and gives the initial impressions of the models and the reveal video. The second post will look at what clues we had leading up to this reveal.


Whilst I'm still holding out hope for dwarven mecha, I'm more than happy to throw money at Games Workshop for these new models (pictured below).

Arkanaut Ironclad - The big ship

Arkanaut Frigate - The middle ship

Grundstok Gunhauler - The fighter jet?

The ships look straight out of steampunk fantasies, and still retain a bit of their old dwarven flair. We haven't seen the points for these ships, but I wonder if we can expect to see these as flotillas rather than center-piece models. These are probably the most unique of the models (at least in the context of Warhammer), and I'll be grabbing one just to keep on my desk at school.


Here are the boots on the ground:

Arkanaut Company - The Tactical Squad

Grundstok Thunderers - The Devastators

Skyriggers - The Assault Marines

I have somewhat presumptuously labelled these as Space Marine counterparts... but look at them! Full plate armour, pauldrons and what appear to be back-pack power generators. I have absolutely no problem with this, but it appears the Stormcast Eternals have been out-Space Marined by the dwarfs! Furthermore, can you believe it? Dwarfs in power armour? The Squats have returned!


On another note, the Skyriggers appear to be trailing some floating bombs. I wonder what that's about...

Brokk Grungsson

The first of the character types, I think this is the closest I'm going to get to my desired steampunk robot suit. This beardy lad rocks the chainsword and bolter format of your typical space Marine, except he appears to have a canon strapped to his back as well.

Aetheric Navigator

 This Navigator could go two ways. The first is something similar to the Stormcast Eternal Vanguard compass wielders, allowing outflanking. It could also be a hero giving some special divination style command abilities.

Aether Khemyst

I think this will be a dwarven pyromaniac... and there ain't nothing wrong with that! The stand out feature, apart from the great big hose looking devide, is the non-metallic material on the arms. For a race billed as 'head to toe in armour', this is unique.

Arkanaut Admiral

 Duardin Lord. With mighty hammer. And enormous back pack!

Endrin Master

Techmarine, but for some reason with an anvil on his back. I'm dubious as to whether carrying around a great chunk of iron for keeping metal bits secured whilst you hit them is a good idea, but presumably he stops fighting every now and then to forge a new weapon.


Looking at the naming conventions, we can see that the ships and crew are part of the Arkanauts group. I think this is the rank and file of this new race, with the Grundstock being the elite wing. As the only named character is Brok Grungsson, we can probably guess that he's the head honcho of the faction, and that the Grundstock are his personal guard.


One final little bit of speculation; these new Kharadons seem to be closely tied to ship and naval combat, and the doors they have on the boats heavily implies that they ride them. We might be looking at the first transport using faction in Age of Sigmar, which certainly provides them unique approach to mobility across the battlefield.


I've been looking for an Age of Sigmar faction to collect, and haven't been too inspired by the magic heavy nature of the other factions. I think I might give these guys a look!


Also... I think they'd proxy well as Squat Space Marines. That's be whole heaps of fun!





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