The Cadian Gate is ash. The Eye of Terror stands wide open. And now, as the fires of the Long War burn brighter than ever, the Omnissiah answers with steel.
The reveal of Thulia Ghuld, Archmagos Terminus of Mars, alongside the brutal new Hastarii, is easily one of the most aggressive directions we’ve seen for the Adeptus Mechanicus in recent memory. And if that closing teaser about “basking in the shadow of armoured glory” is anything to go by… we are not even close to done.
Thulia Ghuld is not subtle. She is not diplomatic. She is not interested in incremental gains or political maneuvering.
She is a siege engine with a soul.
The sculpt reflects that perfectly. Towering, layered in dense mechanical augmentation, and built like a walking weapons platform, she visually distinguishes herself from the more “arcane tinkerer” vibe of other Mechanicus characters. There’s a brutality here that leans heavily into the Ordo Reductor identity, thick armor plating, brutalist design language, and a silhouette that screams “frontline commander,” not backline engineer.
Compared to characters like Belisarius Cawl, Ghuld feels stripped of ornamentation and excess experimentation. She looks purpose-built. Optimized. Weaponized.
From a collector standpoint, this is one of those centerpiece HQs that will anchor an entire force visually. She’s imposing without being cluttered, and she carries that rare quality of looking both ancient and unstoppable.
If Ghuld is the hammer, the Hastarii are the anvil that crushes everything beneath it.
These aren’t just “bigger Skitarii.” The design language shifts dramatically. Bulkier frames. Stabilized weapon arms that feel permanently grafted to destruction. Massive backpack generators that sell the weight and power requirements of these guns.
The Exterminators look built for brutal close-range purges, those eradication casters projecting expanding waves of devastation feel like the Mechanicus answer to heavy flamers dialed up to apocalyptic. Meanwhile, the Fusiliers bring surgical lethality, visually communicating precision anti-vehicle power.
What stands out most is how cohesive they feel within the faction. They don’t look like an afterthought or a retrofit. They look like a natural escalation, the logical endpoint of Skitarii evolution under a war-obsessed Archmagos.
And narratively? They fit perfectly into a post-Cadia galaxy where escalation is no longer optional.
“Bask in the Shadow of Armoured Glory”
That final line isn’t throwaway marketing fluff.
When Games Workshop teases something that heavy-handed, it usually means one thing: something enormous is coming.
Thematically, we’re already seeing:
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Siege specialists (Iron Warriors)
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Industrial war cults (Ordo Reductor)
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Heavy infantry platforms (Hastarii)
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Reimagined daemon engines (Defiler)
What casts a shadow over all of that?
Knights. Titans. Super-heavies. Mass armored formations.
Given the scale creep in recent expansions and the clear industrial warfare theme, it would not be surprising if we’re heading toward large-scale armored conflict — potentially something that brings Imperial Knights, Chaos Knights, or even larger war engines into narrative focus.
The phrase “shadow of armoured glory” feels deliberate. It evokes towering silhouettes. Massive war machines blotting out the horizon. The kind of models that dominate not just the tabletop, but entire display shelves.
If that’s where this is going, we’re looking at an expansion that embraces the biggest, loudest, most steel-heavy side of Warhammer 40,000.