Is it time for a C'tan model revolution?

 

When you've been collecting a particular faction for as long as I have, you start to get an idea of which models require an update and which ones you can kind of still get away with as I'm sure any long term Aeldari player can testify. It would seem that after many years of somewhat neglecting their range that even Games Workshop have finally cottoned on to this idea too given that the latest codexes they are releasing seem to actively be doing away with a large number of the old finecast kits - indeed we shall long remember and pay respects to the fallen nobles Zahndrekh, Obyron and Anrakyr for their unfair dismissal by lack of plastic kits. 

However, some finecast kits, particularly in the Necron codex that have somehow survived the culling initiated by Games Workshop, three to be exact. One of these is Trazyn the Infinite who, despite having rules so bad that I had to go ahead and house rule him to be useable, is so immensely popular amongst Necron fans (including myself) that, let's be honest, there would be an absolute riot were he to be removed, however it is the other two I really want to focus on today - the C'tan Shard of the Nightbringer and the C'tan Shard of the Deceiver.

I just want to give credit to the YouTube channel Planet 40k here as I was inspired to write this article after recently watching their video on the best C'tan to use in 40k, specifically regarding the points they make about how the C'tan Shard of the Void Dragon has an (arguable) advantage due to its larger base size as well as the relative inaccessibility players have to own the Transcendent C'tan model (more on that in a bit). It has really bugged me for a while now how the Deceiver and the Nightbringer are, not only finecast (which I despise) but are much smaller than their anti-vehicle counterpart despite being similar in power. If the Void Dragon wasn't split up into shards as per the original lore then I could kind of understand, however it is now a shard too so its size and power should be scalable with at least the other unique shards in the army, right?

When you look at the C'tan models side-by-side the actual difference in scale and quality becomes laughable. The Void Dragon's model is utterly breathtaking and oozes godlike qualities, it just looks how you expect a piece of a star munching space diety to look. The Nightbringer and Deceiver on the other hand, though they were comparatively epic models when they were first released look little more than a couple of chads attending a house party in togas by comparison.

And then, as I touched upon earlier in the article, we get on to the Transcendent C'tan, and whilst I don't think the model itself suffers quite the same shortfalls as its finecast cousins it does have issues of its own. The base size isn't as big an issue here (though 32mm is absolutely ridiculously tiny for what it is) as the Transcendent C'tan don't have the Epic Hero keyword and as such aren't as high profile as the Nightbringer, Deceiver or Void Dragon so you can kind of get away with a smaller base size as having three of these on 80mm bases might get a bit silly. The aesthetics aren't so much of a problem either as it looks sufficiently godly and even sizewise the body of the model itself is actually comparable to the Void Dragon when you remove all the voltaic energy and the wings and whatnot. Heck, it's even plastic and not finecast. So what's the issue precisely? Well to get one you need to buy a Tesseract Vault/Obelisk kit at £105 a pop just to get one of these guys, and when there's a chance you'll field three of them, that's a whopping £315 altogether, and you're left with three Obelisks that will probably be left unassembled for all eternity. Given how competitively viable these guys are Games Workshop are just pricing themselves out of the market with this kit as hobbyists of all kind will just look to third parties for their spammy C'tan shard goodness.

You're gonna need to raid a vault to afford three Transcendent C'tans

Given all this I believe now is the time for a C'tan model revolution, a real focus on these star gods from Games Workshop. This would be an absolute win-win situation for both Games Workshop and the community. The hobby enthusiasts love the Void Dragon's model (with good reason, it is gorgeous and mine is even the centerpiece of my army) and match player/tournament fanatics are regularly fielding pretty much all the C'tan (except the Deceiver admittedly) so they would absolutely get snatched up by the wider community, and that just means more money for the company, especially with the Transcendent C'tan because buying three of those at a lower price looks much more tempting than three massive kits you're not going to use most of. Heck, Games Workshop could try to mitigate any loss of revenue they might suffer from making a new Deceiver model by just making a Void Dragon sized kit with the parts to build either a Deceiver or a Nightbringer, they both have flowing cloth and similar adonis-like bodies so throw in a choice of arms, heads, weapons and a few robe style options and you'd be golden I'd reckon... well, unless you're building a Nightbringer, he's more dark greyish-blue...

Games Workshop could even go really all out on the C'tan and create a multi-option Transcendent C'tan kit that emulated a multitude of different star gods to truly make each and every one of them feel and look unique, afterall there are tons of C'tan that could develop into transcendent shards all with different looks and quirks. You could then keep the Tesseract Vault/Obelisk kit as is and maybe throw in a new sized base for good measure so you can still get a different Transcendent C'tan model if you choose to make an Obelisk - think how the Annihilation Barge/Command Barge kit gives you a free Overlord when you build the former for example.

Ahhhh... I like to dream...

Anyway that's my thoughts on the matter, do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments below!