I think "huge" and "bulky" were the design keywords for the Torchlight Sectorial. The Space Marine vibe is absolutly here. But I also see Warmachine loans. Definitly not my sectorial (as I don´t even play O-12 but I like most of the O-12 design including Omega S5 HI and some of the cool Defiance casts) neither design nor fluff wise. I have grimdark at home (IW and EC) but its been a long time ago I venture in this universe. Okay here we go step by step: Silverstar Rovers. I kinda like the helmets. The backpacks look very space marines but the weapons tell me they are still Infinity. Linetroop HI reminds me of Zuyong and Shang Ji (which should have a promotion to elite or veteran). At some point you will miss the status for COs. Hellblazers (who came up with this names? Hellblazer, Silverstars, Optimus Prime ;-) they differ a lot from more or less normal Infinity unit names) - are too much power armour sword swingers. The shields are cool, the swords are definitly not. As a CQB unit it is assumable that they will get decent CC-stats. The swords are just too huge. And why the hell swords - everywhere in the newer releases are swords. This is a scifi game! Morats swords, Sisters swords, now O-12 swords ... and between a lot of non-cc units with very big swords - hello Swissguard. Leave the swords for the Knigths and cyber samurai ninja robots. Anyone see some RL soldiers running around with swords? I like Maximus new incarnation, but this guys ... meh ... Nimrod - yep he looks cool, like preparing his gun. The cape could be a hint for camo, the armour looks almost MI. Yellow Jackets - they are blue and they wear no jackets ... but they still carry the bulky look Striders - maybe the screenshot is a bit unlucky. Head looks a bit Magneto ;-) Silverstar Prime - here I think they mixed in a hint of Warmachine and a portion of SM Terminator. I kinda like the cleaver like sword thing and the four arms. He is realy a big guy. Not bad, but Infinity? KotHS did the job better. Overall I think they will find their customers. Maybe they are designed to lure some 40K players, maybe the designers went out of ideas. Maybe the XXL US market is the target. But I still not get it, why they still hang to the swords on every available mini but not on CC units like the new Myrmidons ... Gladius Reinforcments: See they still can deliver. Cool box, cool minis, nice poses (somehow even tactical holoboard, that should be in a command room). I like the Mind a lot even with the drawing sword pose ... CC 17 Para CC-3 ... The two other ladys are nice and have straight poses and the Jackboots a solid guys with a purpose. The ABH is nice with the cap, but don´t put him near the KoJ from the MO box...
TB design is not my cup of tea, even if there is a market for that kind of aesthetic. I just wished CB wasn't going in that direction and had overhauled one of the suspended sectorials instead.
MMR in reinforcements, MSR outside of reinforcements. Since it's the reinforcements box it's a MMR. I agree with the majority here: Torchlight leaves me cold (though I'm sure they will find a big audience; people gobble up space marines, they will love this). Gladius team is hot. Too bad Jackboots have useless profiles, the minis look great. But hey, you can use them to proxy the ugly Silverstar Rovers :D My favorite is the Vidocq MMR as well. Seems like in the grim darkness of the far future, there are only giant tactical iPhones. She'll probably be the only mini I'll try to get, since it's the only profile I'm interested in trying out (so far). I'm excited for the Torchlight profiles and will definitely try out Torchlight with my existing O12 as proxies.
Considering Starmada has been hugely buffed, I tend to agree. And considering the Bolts are back on the menu via the reinforcements I cannot be the only that would have instead preferred a NCA box with Sniper and ML bolts, one Auxilia, the Uhlan and a Hexa. And the same can be said about QK Which by the way would have certainly bolstered the reinforcement pack sales.
I am impressed you managed to fit in a discussion about US vs EU different ways of living... I would rather not see that discussion expanded... On the actual discussion, there is nothing "Grimdark" about the models or their design, "Grimdark" is a specific set of deliberate design choices and aesthetics that have and invoke a specific visual theme, there is nothing "Grimdark" in the Torchlight Brigade aesthetics, Personally I like their design (and the reinforcements design) shift over the initial O-12 design, some small subtle changes that make the design better and more homogeneous in my opinion. The "Oh they want to tap the Space Marine market" I have seen and hear so many times before been said, primarily whenever Military Orders are involved but as is the case today when bulky HI models are present, as I said I do not see them as copying said design, and if people like bulky HI why not give to people what they want?
I agree there is nothing grimdark about them. The SM comparison is still apt in some ways, not just because the are HI, but also because of the large backpacks which are otherwise atypical for infinity. Maybe they are AD or Zero Grav troops, which would explain it to some extent. Also because of the half masks in combination with the metal studs at the temple. I'm not saying it's a copy, the design is clearly distinct, but it evokes a rather similar "air". That being said, it's not the only complaint, just a common one. A design can just look bad to people, which is something that can't be explained away. Let's not take the SM argument as an excuse to dismiss genuine criticism.
I also agree that they're not grimdark. What brings to mind SM is the bulkiness, overly massive pauldrons, backpacks, scifantasy swords, Silverstar helmets (especially Rovers with their centurion helmets immediately bring Ultramarines to mind), the overall design of the Prime, including Heavy Flamer... I know little about Warmachine, I'm sure people familiar with it would be able to list few things of their own here. I was always a fan of bulky HI. I really like the design of YJ ones, they're the best. Azra'il (excluding the Ref one) are stellar and made me thinking about starting QK at one point. Redesigned KotHS is amazing, as are most of the modern PanO HI. Morat HI (previous ones, as the newest Morat redesign is a pass for me, though ironically I like Kaitoks) are what got me into Morats in the first place. Gamma is also awesome... and now go and compare designs of Gamma and Prime. One looks very much in place in Infinity, the other one simply does not fit Because it's not about the idea, but about the execution. As I've mentioned above, I really like bulky HI as well, but I like them when they're designed well. HMG/Feuerbach Azra'il are awesome. New one is meh. Previous O-12 HI looked great. These look Out. Of. Place. And since Gladius force keeps the previous high standard, it means that this uniqueness of TLB was a deliberate design decision. I've mentioned Morats before, and I just realised what these units remind me of. New Suryats. They're not bad models per se. They're cool, characterful, well posed and painted. They just don't fit - for me - with established theme of the game.
Morats bring in a good point though, I have heard as many people liking the new design and not liking the old design as I have liking the old design and not liking the new design.
And I fully agree that new ones have lots of things to like about them. Older ones were just better ;) And new Suryats are actually the distilled issue; they have very nice power armour, but also beards to make Warhammer dwarfs jealous, incredibly weird helmets, and huge CCWs - on a unit that has no business being in CC (though the latter is a long-standing Infinity tradition, old Yaogats or Sogarats have them too, so that one might actually fit with established aesthetics :P ). Ultimately - not bad models, just not fitting with professional soldiers vibe most of MAF has. They fit more with units like Oznats, Tyroks, Krakots, Daturazi - those following Warrior, not Soldier archetype. And this ultimately brings more scifantasy elements into the game.
The problem is that Torchlight Brigade are probably a storyline continuation of/tied into Gladius team. CB have gone for a roman theme for their reinforcements and kinda fucked up because they've done it for a Blue/Gold power armour faction. Roman theme Blue/Gold scheme Power armour You can't do that and then not expect people to start comparing you to Ultramarines, it was very much their look first. Even the poster boys before them, Crimson Fists, were blue in colour too. So yeah, O-12 have some goofy ass looking discount Ultramarines now. They'll probably be less on the nose if they're done in a different colour scheme at least. Gladius team looks great though at least.
The fact that O-12 didn’t already look quite Roman was an exercise in restraint from CB. I mean, Section Spatha, Gladius Teams, etc.? Of course, when you have a massive classical and medieval history major driving the fluff, from Spain, it was going to happen eventually.
In some way I am interested in O-12 reinforcement box. I like nealy all miniatures there. More or less. Especially ment (it is still funny, because in our country ment in a slang name for a policeman. And there are not much respectbin it. But in a distant future some words could become less negative. So, this is just funny) That only moment is, that I am not going to use them for Infinity. For other systems like stargrave or space station zero may be. And only if I would decide to get some very expensive miniatures.
It gets worse. Thanks to Bugs Bunny "Nimrod" isn't used as its historical roots anymore it just gets used to call someone an idiot.
And they picked ‘nimrod’ specifically to use with Elmer Fudd, to get that extra little frisson of irony.
I am so excited to paint up these bad bois and gurls! The more I rewatch the video the more I like everything. Except the strider’s open face helmet. But that’ll be easy enough to fix. Is the sword shape on the Hellblazer my absolute favorite? No. But small swords bend and snap off so if having a bigger sword means that I don’t have to deal with that heart break later, I’m okay with it. I agree with everyone here though. That nimrod is the bee’s knees.
I have all MO including the old needle-bearer-Konstantinos that I significantly played with. Nothing ever snapped. Either that's a legend to justify a stupid trend, either people have two left hands...
It's literally impossible to not make a direct comparison. Anybody that says "I don't see anything related" is a just a big liar... Any person that has the slightest knowledge about W40K has had to think "oh wow, this makes me think about the Ultramarines" upon seeing the Rovers for the first time
…..I was born with a pretty weird mirroring birth defect where my thumbs are on the right side of both my hands……..
