I find it even more funny because it happened twice. Like I pretty sure that black Templar and crimson fists are the most famous successors Edit: just remembered the Lamenters
The Raptors are a gateway chapter for military modelers. They are basically the US Army 101 airborne division, known as…the screaming eagles. A lot of modelers scrape the eagles and add tacti-cool gear, Pete the wargamer is a leading example. “Like Dust tactics and alt-history? Try ww2 American paratroopers in space!”
I was going to say the excact same thing! This has happened before! During the early days of Gundam kits, they were certain kits which were called RAMBU, or human forces. They hade a 1/35 push fit tank, as well as human ground crew, working on Gundam arms and legs. Like they were WW2 ground crew, repairing bombers. They did it to lure in the military modelors.
I honestly think the Astartes fan-film has something to do with this. People really liked the interpretation of Space Marines being silent, calculated killers as opposed to the shouting, zealous warriors of other interpretations. I like that Space Marines can be so diverse, the idea that you can have a Chapter of raving lunatics like the Black Templars on one side of the spectrum and a cold, professional Chapter like the Raptors on the other. The Ultramarines being the middle point between the extremes of fire and ice (lukewarm water if you will).
They're Imperial Fists successors right? They act roughly like I imagine Sons of Dorn to fight honestly. Efficiently and keep any chatter to the Unit vox
Which i find odd. If you want realism, warhammer is not the place. The whole gothic over the top style is what got me into 40k and not bolt action. But thats just me
@@colonelturmeric558Well I think you can have some type of realism or tacticool while still being really far out there and just making them look like modern soldiers that have space marine armor.
It's not unheard of for GW to juust really enjoy pushing a successor out into the spotlight. Happened with Black Templars, Flesh Tearers, Soul Drinkers, Sharks, ect.
Just adding to the list with everyone else here: The Wolfspear, The Crimson Sabres (who later fell and became the Crimson Slaughter), The Novamarines... Every Chapter we've mentioned here as even had an Index Astartes article published for them.
Yeah i think they fit the primaris aesthetic better/more than the other popular chapters which have their own visual language. Use the extra pouches and scopes that come in the kits and you have a Raptor army
Selling models is definitely a big part because it said that the raptors are not afraid to embrace new technology and don't mind getting new primaris marines from outside the chapter as long as they can follow the standard chapter tactics because unlike a lot of other chapters, they don't seem to have a big, huge dark secret that can get the inquisition to go and purge them. They probably just run the primaris through their own version of boot camp
Scouts and Phobos marines need selling, so they likely think endorsing the Raptors would help sell them. The “reasonablemarines” kind of allows a hobbyist to paint them in any colour scheme to match their battlefield as well. IMHO anyway… it’s marketing for sales the same as everything else.
I feel like same reason the death watch is so popular because even if you have monopose marines you can paint them differently from each other without the person you're playing against complaining. Like a whole squad can be in white armor and you can say it's for a winter assault and then you can put like classic camo splotches on another squad so they allow a painter to have a lot of freedom
@@klaykid117 Deathwatch is popular because they're competitively viable firstborn, which means that people can just field their old marines without getting fucked in the ass by netlisters.
I think because 1) they're the typical olive-drab that many associate with post-WWI military uniforms, and 2) there's too many black-colored chapters (Ravenguard, Iron Fists, Black Templars, Unforgiven/Dark Angels), so it makes sense to have a non-black successor fill in that spot to be distinct.
The raptors are one of the most popular successor chapters in the community and they've been including successor chapters more in the lore as of 10th edition so logically it makes sense to push the raptors a little bit. Also, as you point out, they're very easy to just make an army out of since they're very general in design/lore. Sure, lorewise they're not known for going in like crazy for melee because it doesn't make sense most of the time. However, if they need melee they're going to have marines in the chapter who specialize in it and therefore you can paint any model in the space marine range as the raptors.
It’s not only that the “realistic military” aesthetic is cool, but canonically they’re very much like the salamanders in that they’re a pragmatic and realistic take on a modern military. Salamanders protect their own as well as civilians because that’s what a military should do while using terrible weapons a of war against those they don’t care for. And the raptors (while still cold and callous around civilians) use very realistic and careful approaches around combat using long rifles, bombardments, and guerrilla tactics to conserve their waning numbers. This has made them excellent in battle.
The Raptors took part in the badab war. It's a real stretch but maybe they are headed in that direction. Yeah now I think about it, quite unlikely, but I can hope.
If they wanted to give a short break to HH instead of going right into the scouring doing some Badab War might be fun. Likelier answer is that they’re a unique color for SM and fit the scouts they just put out
I think part of it could be that raptors are kind of seen as something more like what they wish 40K was for marketing purposes. They're almost kind of saddled with the gothic, grimdark, regressive stuff because that's where the universe comes from back when creatives were running the show and what so many fans expect, but its not as mass marketable in some ways, its makes it not so much of an ideally frictionless and inoffensive property. At the same time, they're convinced the general tastes of the public anyway lie much more in tacticool, operator type military aesthetics. They look at Call of Duty and Halo and how stratospherically popular they are and wish the franchise they have to run was more like that, that it would sell better if it was. Raptors seem much more in line with that in both their lore and aesthetic, so they're pushing them to the forefront.
I still think GW is run by creatives. Reading the lore it is still as gothic as ever and I think they know that if they get rid of that they'll lose a lot of people. That is what makes 40k 40k, the tacticool gear and everything but with tabards and skulls and techpriests.
Helldivers 2 has dethroned Halo and it literally oozes 40K vibes. The CEO literally said as a joke if they were to monetize the game more it’d be to fund his 40K addiction hahaha. Halo died the moment it went overboard on the tacticool
So, it is not a theory, really, but more of a fact. GW cares alot about the presentation of the product and make sure that every bos has a matching color sceme, in other words, they try to make very side of the box to stand out and not blend with the terrain or the environment. It is visible in every box. Great examples are Kill Team boxes. For example they did Drukhari vs Exaction squad. But they made Drukhari blue, which makes them stand out and not blend with alredy similar looking arbiters. Hearthkyn savlagers are orange, a pain to paint, but it stands out perfectly. Latest release was raven guard vs scorpions. Scorpions are green as hell. The point is, colours has to match, each side has to stand out. Otherwise people wont buy. This is exactly why they like Ultramarines so much. Ultramarines are painted in Ultramarine color. Every painter knows that this color harmonizes with everything. You literally cant go wrong on Ultramarine color. They dont "like" Ultramarines as such, but they choose them because their color always stands out and always harmonizes with other colors, in that way they can put ultramarines against almost any other color (think of other armies) and it will allways look good. (Except other blue colours, for example Dire Avengers, i hope you see the pattern.) So what does it have to do with raptors? Raptors are another such color. The green they use is very neutral and kinda dim, and therefore harmonizes with almost any other color. This warm sandy green is perfect for any military camo in real life, and therefore often used in the military. It is dim, blends well, and dont cut your eye. Even striking greens will stand well beside it. That is why, the color of the chapter is perfect and can be paired with every other faction. And that is why they give it a shine. Plus, the base colors that are used to paint this chaper is castellan green, which is a Base paint, which means that it covers really well and therefore easy to work with. That is it. It has always been the colors that dictated which product, when and with whom. Yellow is another great option, but since it is a worst paint to work with, it has been dropped. Otherwise Imperial fists would have been chosen over Ultramarines. Hope it will give you a newer perspective on things. It also works wonders on box content predictions.
They fit the grimdark super SOLDIER asthetic more than any other space marine at the moment and attract a mil sim crowd. Also lile others have stated they fit the primaris asthetic best
I have to agree there is something really cool about a modern military paint scheme in this context. I also like the older more vibrant paint schemes of the past too.
I’ve noticed a few ravenguard successors being shown. The Iron ravens had a pretty large spread about them some time ago. Maybe they want to show off some chapters besides the first founding and the Ravenguard don’t have many so they some creative freedom to do what they want with them.
I run Iron Ravens as the transfers are the same as regular revanguard and i like the more metallic look. ultimately it means nothing from GW pushing successor chapters that are codex compliant as there is no unique models to add in.
You also didn’t mention that Pontus 51 3 years ago made a TH-cam video “The Raptor”, which received almost 5 million views. Of course, it was hard not to notice that GW began to pay a lot of attention to this chapter. To be honest, I thought that GW would release a series of books about them or make an animated series. Although yes, the reason may be simple: why support blue fists if ultramarines are already the most popular chapter. And yes, this is a chapter that doesn’t need any extras: tabards, candles, Gothic cathedrals on the back, knight’s helmets, etc. Just buy it and paint it olive green. And yes, demographics: for US clients, green warriors with a white eagle head.
As a Crimson Fists collector, I can confirm it sucks having gotten into the hobby recently, past the hayday of my chapter where official transfers and HQ's are scarce if not unavailable. I notice the Dark Angels Deathwing Assault Box has also come with transfers representing two of their lesser known successors, crossing fingers that we're just seeing GW put some effort into injecting much needed variety into their biggest faction and that they keep it up.
@@MrDrTJ Yes I will say I do get mine off of a third party shop on Ebay, and they are very nice. I also won't pretend we have it the worst as imperial fists shoulder pads are also usable as crimson fists shoulder pads, whereas with chapters with highly specific icons like the Lamenters or Charcaradons you're just shit out of luck.
you can just use imperial fists decals and just change the white to red with a steady hand and thined paints. will also look like you freehanded the whole thing andeveryone will think you are a painting god and only you will know the truth.
Pete's stuff is also at Warhammer world. His tank made out of the terrain was there last time I was there....of course peachy was there when I was there lol, so it's been a minute.
Maybe GW discovered how popular wargaming and 40k is in the US military? I mean it's not a stretch. Eagle symbol and army green on the tactical marine chapter? Adds up to me.
Honestly, i like the fact GW is supporting a lesser known chapter. No conspiracy theories needed... just happy they are giving some love to other chapters. Just my 2 cents.
I've noticed this too, it's strange for sure. I think the main chapters may have too much "baggage"? Like you said, people assume you can only paint it as Ultramarines etc. But also the lore, I think the Raptors are kind of safe and not-overly-evil compared to most? They just... do their missions and that's it? (I haven't read much of it though). Or it could just be that they want a dull green to balance out the chapter colours. Or maybe cash in on Call of Duty fans who want a tacticool army that isn't bright colours and gaudy. Or probably just that the designer likes them tbh, the individual preferences make it into the books all the time (former Army Painter team member Peachy came up with a bunch of the Imperial Guard regiments and one of the Necron dynasties just from playing around with his own paint schemes).
When I got my first space marine kits back in the 90s at the age of 8 or 9, I ended up accidentally making raptors/reasonable marines because that's just how I thought they should look.... decades later getting back into the game now, I realized they are indeed my favorite chapter.
Maybe it's because if they put something out with a blue, red or yellow scheme then people will assume it's chapter specific and NOT engage with it? Maybe it's just to make something stand out from their other content? Or it could be a really simple thing of someone at the studio just really likes the raptors? That's been the answer to why things often happen at GW from the beginning. Listening to interviews with some of the old school GW people, and even the peachy era the reasons for things happening the way they did is almost always far simpler than we think. Just some thoughts.
My theory here is that GW is just trying to broaden the number of transfers that are available, and are using the edition rotation of space marine units as a way to do that. Between the Leviathan boxed set transfer sheet and the new infantry and vehicle sheets, they've currently covered all the first founding space marine chapters except for the White Scars, plus the Imperial Fists transfers also serve as Crimson Fists if you're willing to paint red over the Imperial Fist white. Next edition, there'll be a new set of Space Marine transfers, and the Raptors may not be there, but this edition's transfer sheets will remain available via ebay resellers, and that puts Raptor transfers into circulation for a while. The real question for me is why Raptors and not White Scars, and the answer could be that the White Scars will be on 11th edition's transfer sheet.
i think they know theres a more 'tactical'/ generic soldiery market and i think they wanna show that space marines dont have to be space knights, they can also have that sorta generic military style
This past fall I painted an assault intercessor in the Raptor colors as part of a Warhammer Store contest. I searched everywhere and could not find a single Raptor decal. Then two weeks ago I purchased the new Terminator box and the Brutalis dreadnaught box and BOOM both boxes had decal sheets with Raptor decals.
3 Ideas 1 - trying to appeal to new players with the traditional military colour scheme look for Space Marines (biggest seller) 2 - someone in the design studio likes them so they are pushed, see 2nd edition Space Wolves for history of this. 3 - a significantly different colour scheme to the rest of the normal chapters usually shown, fresh tearers arnt vastly different to BA and Raven Guard black is very close to Black Templars + others.
This may sound dumb but a close mate of mine wrote in on the successor chapter black library submissions last year, I'd say he did a bang on job, it was on the raptors. Took 9 months of GW to get back to em saying they didn't need him at this time. Then suddenly Raptor transfers start popping up.
@@an0nycathonestly they might be a simultaneous release, like what they did the Lion and Angron (even though that's not exactly simultaneous, but you get my point)
I think this is neat, I think the Raptors also got a White Dwarf article as well? I really like the idea of more official supporting these successor chapters.
A lot of military people play at my LGS but although most of them play guard/chaos factions most of them have a raptor marine painted to an extend, my theory is that this is games workshops nod to the people in the U.S military? Very farfetched but this is always something I had on the back of my head 🤷♂️
for me personally, I actually recently painted a raptors infiltrators and the reason why I chose raptors in particular instead of my usual ultra marine, blood angels and dark angels was because it actually looks tactical and military like. warhammer 40k's fans love the whole overthetop technology mixed with actual futuristic military theme but raptor makes it even more believable. thats why i think raptors is getting such favors.
my main theory is that the overall ethos behind the primaris overhaul takes very deliberate steps away from "knights with guns" and towards more modern, real world military pragmatism. the primaris armour is modular to allow the 3 main roles of scouting, tactical and heavy support to be filled more easily and accurately. the single boltgun has been replaced with bolt carbines, bolt rifles and heavy bolt rifles. and if we lok at phobos marines speficially, there's been a definite drawback of imperial iconography with far fewer relics and purity seals, and much smaller chest symbols that allow for pouch and grenade webbing to be worn all this stuff plays perfectly into the raptor's "reasonablemarines" branding and embracing the move away from space knights towards space military will be helped by them being able to say "the raptors have always been like that, and they're cool right?" (and yes, they are :D )
The Raptors might be easier to paint due to being mostly green and not relying on lots of intricate details. I wouldn't be surprised if they start including them on the back of boxes as an example chapter from now on. On a side note I would be happy if the raptors were one of the main chapters, they are cool and ironically stand out among other chapters due to being less ornate and gothic. I think they should push Blood Ravens as well, would be nice to get some dedicated stuff for them.
one big reason maybe is that there are a lot of spacemarines and this guys don't have much of a story. they just pop out all of a sudden. and all their weapons aka modern of a standard towards spacemarines. while the dreadnaughts of old are more than 6000k-10k in sleep. in other words gone are the old
I own a raptors chapter while I do like the extra love I do think it's bullshit because there are many other chapters first founded or successors that deserve as much love as raptors strangely have been gained. Also raptors got got a crusade white dwarf issue
Yeah I found the raptors through Pete the wargamer. Love the modern colours of them so I just copied his painting guide and slapped dark angels decals on them so they fit in with the rest of the dark angels I’ve already painted up
With the push for Cavil to make a series, it would make sense to have a more current image of a space marine to attract new fans. Great marketing move.
Raven Guard and Raptor chapter icons both work pretty well for Bretonnian heraldry. Also looking at subreddit membership by typing in the urls, the Dark Angels one does seem interesting...
I love the Raptors, and I don't get why GW are suddenly putting a spotlight on them, but I'm not gonna complain. lol :) A little quick lore, if you'd like? :D The Raptors have a lot of lore going as far back as the Horus Heresy. After Istvaan V, Corax need to replenish his Legion, so he was eventually permitted to dip into the Vaults for a new improved gene-seed to get it done quicker. 10 random Aspirants were chosen to test this new gene-seed. One died during the process due to several heart failures because of the accelerated growth that caused enormous stress, which left them with 9 successful Initiates named "The First Nine" (no further lore, sadly). It was considered a success, and hundreds volunteered to become a Raptor. Rather than surgically implant vital organs that were needed for Legionaries, I think these were able to naturally grow aside the under Black Carapace, which still needed surgery. The Raptors would be better than the standard Legionary. The accelerated and improved gene-seed allowed them to basically bypass the Aspirants/Initiates going through the Scouts Phase, and straight into "Battle Ready" Space Marines. Lore in quite contradicting in implying that these were somewhat Primaris-like compared to a standard Legionary Astartes, BUT they were so much better and more advanced. One of the most popular Raptor characters is Navar Hef, although by the time he'd become a Raptor (and Raptors were exclusive to entire armoured suits of MKVI), Alpha Legion had infiltrated and corrupted the gene-seed, which later caused mutations that made their muscles and limbs squeeze and erupt through their armour. They were all imprisoned, but later freed by Vincente Sixx, the Chief Apothecary (and I think only Apothecary survivor of Istvaan V) to stop an Alpha Legion unit that had infiltrated Ravendelve, where they were imprisoned. Hef and his fellow mutated Raptors whooped the Alpha Legion Traitor, proving their unflinching loyalty. Hef and his Raptors would continue to serve until the end of the Horus Heresy alongside non-mutated Raptors. Whereas the Raptor would become a Second Founding under, I believe, the creator of their namesake, Branne Nev, it's said that the remaining mutated Raptors were "euthanized" by Corax, given the Emperor's Peace deep within the Vaults of the Ravenspire, I think, which left him depressed and guilt-ridden, blaming himself for the "monsters" he believed he'd created. Of course, if they're all dead, why do 1st Company Veterans guard the doors of these vaults during a remembrance anniversary to which ghostly and eerie howls can be heard through the doors?
They might want something simple, accessible and new gateway drug into the game. The colour scheme is interesting too. Back when I was a kid I painted Warhammer with friends and one of them painted his Blood Angels with some red paint he already had from non Warhammer kits. Most people will not notice if the colours are from the Army Painter or something and seeings there’s a load of that green in wargames it may be a way to make the figs more accessible and less of an investment. The gameplan might be to get someone to buy a box and leave the store because they have everything else from other model kits at home. Someone who’s on the fence about joining their friends wouldn’t want to buy paints, brushes, glue and etc. from the Warhammer store you know?
Its funny years ago I painted up some raptors and considering how easy they were to paint they looked great but recently I've started a Crsom fists kill team and the amount of edge highlighting ive had to do just to make them pop was surprising so I'm sure the easy painting contributes to there push
The thing that I immediately notice is that the Raptors are painted in something close to a pretty standard camo green. So my best guess is that they are pushing the Raptors colour scheme to attract people looking for a more realistic army - where realistic is contemporary armies, though also including the WWII period covered by the bolt action game. It's a long way from the older space marine background, of being painted in bright colours because they felt they had no need to hide, and so would intimidate the enemy, but it fits in well with the many newer infiltrating units like incursors, or whatever. Part of the design strength of space marines is that - with a thousand chapters - there is room to have a chapter to fill every design niche, and so they can easily foreground a chapter with a different aesthetic if they feel that is a helpful marketing angle that will attract more customers.
My theory is that as 40K is becoming more popular, they are pushing a more "military" aesthetic. I believe they are also cashing in on Halo's decline and the lack of other big name Sci-fi really competing in the industry. Raptors look like Spartans from Halo, at least in a roundabout way. When you pain intercessors, infiltrators, incursors, etc. in the Raptors' color scheme, you get a very easy mass appeal deign, while not deviating from any existing designs and having to come up with a reason for these Space Marines to look so different, or break tradition by letting the Astra Militarum take center stage. I personally like that they are getting some official support.
It is nice that GW is tapping more into the successor chapters like the crimson fist, flesh tearers, and even white templars as well. Perhaps even for the dark angels The Risen could be in that limelight too. Heres to hoping the 3 obvious worst off legions of the Iron Hands, Salamanders, and Raven Guard can be brought back into the setting with successor chapters as well
Can't deny that most of the primaris kits so far have raptors written all over them. Especially the phobos kits have the exact tacticool aesthetic that you keep seeing in raptors art/fanart. So getting people into raptors would be a good way to motivate them to buy some of those kits.
Probably the age old reason, the guy who designs the decals sheets like Raptors and added them in, the suits won't have a clue like in house joke maybe.
As someone with a raptors' army, I was super excited to see them on the official transfers, as to why they're being pushed, I think part of it is like you said, they're pretty standard in terms of looks and tacticool space marines isn't a hard sell. Another important thing about the raptors is that they actively use camouflage and while their official color scheme is OD green, that can really be any color you want them to be. Desert tan, snow-white, Mars red, black ops, some weird color to match the scenery of an alien planet, it doesn't really matter. Also, I'm really hoping for some cool new stuff for them. I'm surprised you didn't mention that they got a feature/index in a white dwarf issue as well with their own crusade rules and such as well, 494 I'm pretty sure.
Raptors have been my favorite for a long time; I've painted a full army before Primaris, and another of Primaris. I'm also a bit confused as to why they are suddenly on the map; they don't have a lot of helpful rules even.
I think they are planning to do something with the Raven Guard in the Leviathan narrative, they are mentioned as a prominent force in slowing down its approach
I think I am in the camp where I don't really care for the Raven Guard that much but I think the Raptors are one of my favorite chapters. Although I think Corax would be one of the more interesting options for a primarch to bring back considering what they've hinted at with him.
I'm down for some of the non first founders+ Black Templar. We need some more variety, especially with the lack of visual differences within the chapters. Tacticool can go hard, and does with these lads.
The Raptors are my main army, followed by the Crimson Fists. I love the bombastic approach of the space marines, head first attack, last man standing, do or die... The Raptors are pragmatic in their approach, preferring ranged, hit and move based attacks. Why waste a marine trying to punch an Ork Boss in the teef, if you can snipe and move, sow a bit of discord in the battle... Plus someone else said, they're tacti-cool 🤘🏻
They are an honestly interesting chapter in the lore, and their combination of the tacticool and ww2 US army aesthetics means they are also surprisingly cheep to source paint for while also being surprising unique in the 40k space.
I agree with the general sentiment here, it and a few other successors are plainly popular and GW read the room for once. Subreddit is indeed a bad gauge, as Raptors in particular don't have much to discuss, and their look isn't the flashy type to warrant posting about. I've been compiling cults3D files into collections, going through the various chapters search by search, and Raptors feature quite strongly. Mortifactors, Black and White Consuls, Wolfspear, they have more love than a cursory glance may suggest. Moreso than Iron Snakes, Mentors or Howling Gryphons much to my surprise.
I have some thoughts regarding this, it is mostly a theory but I feel it's quite sound based on what I had seen during all of this. So the image you posted at the start of the video showing off an entire raptors army is from a gentleman who owns a website/store called themightybrush where he sells decal sheets, one of those sheets was actually to do with the raptors chapters as that was the main reason for why he did them in the first place. He also did some other chapters such as the imperial fists, crimson fists, minotaurs etc. etc. but from what I can recall he had taken those decal sheets down around six or so months prior to 10th edition coming out. It's not confirmed if GW had spoken to him to take down these decal sheets that he was selling on his website but shortly afterward we would start to see the raptors chapter get more attention as far as decals were concerned. Again this is just speculation and conjecture so take it with a grain of salt.
You can see the transition away from the Crimson Fists as GW has made the Ultramarines the undisputed 40k poster boys of the last decade or so - there can be only one blue group of Astartes, and while my heart will forever be with those cool AF space marines from the cover of the 1st ed Rogue Trader book, they're going with the basic blue smurfs. I agree that the Raptors are meant to be for the historical gamer to enter 40k, though they'd really get people into it if they just brough back more IG units...Mordian and Praetorian would get so many eyes on the game, and it's no surprise how hot Krieg were when then came to plastic. Good for the Raven Guard to have at least some attention, and maybe Iron Hands and White Scars can also get a similar glow up now - together they three least attended to armies that are left.
I actually think they look quite nice, they look like a natural addition to a battlefield- unlike the bombastic, brightly colored chapters that fanboys wee over. May look into getting a squad of these.
I personally like the idea that space marines could be just like ,,normal military” -“rational marines” it’s ironically sound unique and logical. Especially in age of temporary rule of Gilliman.
Speculation: Raptor colour scheme is similar to Master Chief, looks a lot more mil sci-fi than other chapters. GW testing the waters to see whether giving this a bit of attention brings new people to the hobby who may have been put off by the "less realistic" schemes?
A lot of the appeal comes from the fact that if Spartans from Halo (or similar super soldiers from similar sci-fi) would be a Space Marine, it'd be the raptors. They prefer guns and tacticool engagements, but still have the strength, endurance, and reaction time to put the hurt in melee. They get along and will usually command squads of guard like an effective army. They can also do infiltration and lone ops missions comparatively well compared to the other chapters. They're broody, but not too a ridiculous point that would put others off. They also do logical things like, negotiations, treating the Codex as a guide not a bible, and not throwing away other people's lives, which is kinda a high bar in this setting. Also it's hard to mess up green paint schemes.
I think GW is showing more of the raptors as they are easy to paint and have no unique models as with having a large enough fan base for them. Ultimately I don't think GW is going to pull a Black Templars with this and make a whole codex and special model range for them as so many other successors get maybe a character model at best.
Probably because they're a bit more modern day military and tactical looking, they'll be like a replacement for the Ultra Marines as they're not Smurfs.
Honestly think they are a really cool concept that GW can work on. There’s so much range and diversity with Space Marines which I think is awesome, typically I play Blood Angels for their melee focussed tactics and their Knightly aesthetic, however I wanted a more shooting focussed army that was more Sci-Fi looking, Tau just wasn’t for me and I really like Space Marines. After watching the Astartes short film, I figured find a chapter that does just that fights like a more realistic unit of super soldiers would. I think that the concept of shooting focussed chapters is an easy win for GW and will get a lot of people into the hobby, plus it gives them something different to the more gothic/medieval vibe that a lot of Space Marines have. Hopefully they actually expand on it and release a book or two to build on their lore or even some chapter specific character or units.
This is so interesting as I only decided to get back into 40K a few weeks ago after 15 years. I originally collected Dark Angels and I actually avoided them this time around due to how focused they are and I'd prefer a slightly less-known chapter. Picked up a white dwarf, saw a terminator in Raptor gear and thought it was nice so looked up Instagram etc and saw a few pages dedicated to them and liked the look of the army so went with it. Now I'm thinking I was brainwashed to start a Raptors army. But maybe GW just need to sell some old olive green paints.
I think GW made a mistake in making so many special bits and bobs for chapters. As an old man I remember when basically everyone playing any marines used 80-90% the same models just with different paint jobs. Now they’ve split their chapters into almost entirely separate lines. Each with lots of speciality sculpts, etc… My first army was 2e Space Wolves and they were all bog standard marines with just sergeants and characters being “space Wolves” models.
Sensible marines have always had a niche interest and in general has been a popular idea That and the phobos pattern gear begs to be decorated in raven guard or raptor livery
The Raptors are more compatible with the new advanced tech look of the primaris or at least they were before GW were forced to go back a little bit on the space marine design by releasing new scouts terminators and sternguards veterans marines. It is only part of the attempt of GW to make primaris really distinct from firstborn space marines in order to prevent previous customers to use firstborns as proxies for primaris.
i think its partly down to the fact that the green they use and how to get it shaded using brown makes the army a lot simpler to look good than some of the other chapters like crimson fists or imperial fists. also the black and white colours for raven guard looks too similar to other chapters while also forcing you to use white on the black or spend forever cutting in black on a white/off white mini. I have noticed GW normally favour chapters with simpler colours to use now over the old armies they favoured. for exaple look at how they changed the colours of the son of horus and alpha legion for the new wave of plastic HH kits from the resin, and the fists are pretty much just contrast paint over a white/ off white and not 100s of hours working through every shade of yellow just to get a solid colour. i think we see this also with how they have changed bretonians from old world where they now all have the same heraldry over the old way of every unit being a riot of colours and creativity. they are aiming for simpler colour schemes to make new players get through finishing kits faster to buy more kits while also lowering the bar to entry for a tabletop ready looking army. dont get me wrong though i have always loved the raptors for the colours and ways they do things tactically without running at the enemy shouting to give the enemy where there location is.
Raptors are fucking awesome, they make more sense to other war gamers as far as tactics and looks wise to veterans and the like. I don’t know but I’m here for it because the lord for them is awesome. They’re also pushing lord for the space sharks as they should
Idk why they’re being pushed, but in my unpopular opinion, the 19th Legion should have been the raptors, with a company (and successor chapter after the heresy) being the Ravenguard, maybe the guys who guarded Corax a lot? Idk. It’s like how the Crimson Fists are just better than the Ultramarines as a blue chapter (though that gold trim goes hard), and Imperial Fists as sons of Dorn (and they have a better name) Basically way back in the day, I think some colors were easier to get ahold of and easier to paint, so some chapters got repeats and there was a lot of black red and blue and dark green and silver/gun metal.
I created My chapetr as "The 532nd Raptor Legion" based on a succesor From The dArk Angwls. If I used the Raptor Decal can I just base them on the Raptor chapter but use a different color scheme?
It’s curious how the new scouts come with RG sheets Overall the GW transfer support methodology is complete dogcheeks lmfao Also fun fact in the 2003 PS2 game Firewarrior has Raptors as the standard hostile marine NPC, before the UM’s show up and become allies
Everything GW does is usually already decided a year or two in advance, so the ravens being the default choice makes sense for the new model line starting in 10th. However with the growing awareness of the raptors it's possible they made a last minute to test the waters by pushing a different chapter which is easier to paint and more appealing to the growing demographic
@@TheHacknor Judging by the lore in the Heresy books and in the new series, we can say that GW has everything planned for at least 10 years in advance... 🤔🤔
As a Raptors fan and somebody that was drawn to them because they're stealthy I can only pray that GW is going to introduce functional stealth mechanics.
They're building up support for the Raptors, Raven Guard and other related chapters so they can eventually release Corax. Essentially they want to drag the perception of Raven Guard away from being a bunch of emo's so more people like them. It's also got a lot to do with RG's introduction of Primaris and modernisation of the SM's and GW wanting them to be seen as more than just Knights in Space. (No GW are not dumping the Knights in Space image, they just want people to realise that's not all Marines are.)
I'm just confused because I bought a box of Raptors(/warp talons) before Christmas that I need to paint but mine are blue and gold and these are navy green? Why'd they name a loyalist chapter after the jumpy chaos marines?
I like the Raptors and always have, the name is cool, so is the chapter icon, but I really like their colour scheme, the olive drab kinda colour scheme looks awesome and is perfect for a military organisation...
I have a sizable Raptors army and am personally happy to now get praticaly free transfers now haha. I will say the Raptors community's I'm apart of have been growing pretty steadily these last few years so I think their popularity is on the rise. But no real idea why GW are supporting it outside Pete the wargamer.
It makes sense for fans taking an interest into the Raptors since being a classic archetypical soldier Chapter of Space Marines is a rarity considering every other chapter are more like the warriors of the medieval/crusader period in an equally similar, and fanatical, society. So of course they’d stick out more since they’re the exact opposite. #ReasonableMarines
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Raven Guard: getting usurped by their successor.
Imperial Fists fans: First time?
Poor yellow boys. They got overshadowed by their successor even before the 2nd founding lol
Raven Guard to the successor: "Good job, brothers"
Imperial Fists: *mental fortress bluescreens*
Vorn Hagen and Vladimir Pugh died in less time than it took for GW to go from no primarchs to a BUNCH of them.
There would be more interest in the Raven Guard if GW gave them some love in terms of lore.
I find it even more funny because it happened twice. Like I pretty sure that black Templar and crimson fists are the most famous successors
Edit: just remembered the Lamenters
The Raptors are a gateway chapter for military modelers. They are basically the US Army 101 airborne division, known as…the screaming eagles. A lot of modelers scrape the eagles and add tacti-cool gear, Pete the wargamer is a leading example. “Like Dust tactics and alt-history? Try ww2 American paratroopers in space!”
Backing this up also there's the fact that Pete the Wargamer does a bunch of FoW, TY etc painting tutorials, it's literally his audience
I was going to say the excact same thing! This has happened before! During the early days of Gundam kits, they were certain kits which were called RAMBU, or human forces. They hade a 1/35 push fit tank, as well as human ground crew, working on Gundam arms and legs. Like they were WW2 ground crew, repairing bombers. They did it to lure in the military modelors.
I’d say they’re closer to the Rangers than the airborne but fair enough.
@@POSTGUITAR you say that, but he hasn't done any of that content for years
My guess too!
I honestly think the Astartes fan-film has something to do with this. People really liked the interpretation of Space Marines being silent, calculated killers as opposed to the shouting, zealous warriors of other interpretations. I like that Space Marines can be so diverse, the idea that you can have a Chapter of raving lunatics like the Black Templars on one side of the spectrum and a cold, professional Chapter like the Raptors on the other. The Ultramarines being the middle point between the extremes of fire and ice (lukewarm water if you will).
They're Imperial Fists successors right? They act roughly like I imagine Sons of Dorn to fight honestly. Efficiently and keep any chatter to the Unit vox
But the raven guard... 😢
you can also have silent killers in shiny armors
Iron Hands
i like Your theory
I think them just having a tacticool military look is an untapped niche for space marines and GW recognized that.
Fits the Primaris aesthetic well too since they've been leaning more tacticool, especially with more recent kits
Don't forget, with realistic shooter games, like, Ready Or Not, Ground Branch, Tarkov, Arma, Insurgency, people want more realistic minis.
For tacticool, join the Guard, son!
Which i find odd. If you want realism, warhammer is not the place. The whole gothic over the top style is what got me into 40k and not bolt action. But thats just me
@@colonelturmeric558Well I think you can have some type of realism or tacticool while still being really far out there and just making them look like modern soldiers that have space marine armor.
It's not unheard of for GW to juust really enjoy pushing a successor out into the spotlight. Happened with Black Templars, Flesh Tearers, Soul Drinkers, Sharks, ect.
Tome Keepers too, even got one of their transfer sheets
Or blood ravens. Hope they will something with them again
Iron snakes
crimson fists
Just adding to the list with everyone else here: The Wolfspear, The Crimson Sabres (who later fell and became the Crimson Slaughter), The Novamarines...
Every Chapter we've mentioned here as even had an Index Astartes article published for them.
Yeah i think they fit the primaris aesthetic better/more than the other popular chapters which have their own visual language. Use the extra pouches and scopes that come in the kits and you have a Raptor army
Selling models is definitely a big part because it said that the raptors are not afraid to embrace new technology and don't mind getting new primaris marines from outside the chapter as long as they can follow the standard chapter tactics because unlike a lot of other chapters, they don't seem to have a big, huge dark secret that can get the inquisition to go and purge them. They probably just run the primaris through their own version of boot camp
They definitely fit the Phobos aesthetic, which makes sense because they spam Phobos marines in lore.
Maybe they're trying to tap into the call of duty/mil-sim crowd
Maybe the UK army is needing troops 😆
a lot of guys at my tabletop club fucking love the spectre, and 28mm ops killteam sized hostage games. its 60usd for everything to play.
They're doing a collab with CoD soon actually, so this may have some merit lol.
They usually play guard in my experience
The got us with Dkok, and Cadia.
Scouts and Phobos marines need selling, so they likely think endorsing the Raptors would help sell them. The “reasonablemarines” kind of allows a hobbyist to paint them in any colour scheme to match their battlefield as well. IMHO anyway… it’s marketing for sales the same as everything else.
I feel like same reason the death watch is so popular because even if you have monopose marines you can paint them differently from each other without the person you're playing against complaining. Like a whole squad can be in white armor and you can say it's for a winter assault and then you can put like classic camo splotches on another squad so they allow a painter to have a lot of freedom
@@klaykid117
Deathwatch is popular because they're competitively viable firstborn, which means that people can just field their old marines without getting fucked in the ass by netlisters.
I think because 1) they're the typical olive-drab that many associate with post-WWI military uniforms, and 2) there's too many black-colored chapters (Ravenguard, Iron Fists, Black Templars, Unforgiven/Dark Angels), so it makes sense to have a non-black successor fill in that spot to be distinct.
The raptors are one of the most popular successor chapters in the community and they've been including successor chapters more in the lore as of 10th edition so logically it makes sense to push the raptors a little bit. Also, as you point out, they're very easy to just make an army out of since they're very general in design/lore. Sure, lorewise they're not known for going in like crazy for melee because it doesn't make sense most of the time. However, if they need melee they're going to have marines in the chapter who specialize in it and therefore you can paint any model in the space marine range as the raptors.
It’s not only that the “realistic military” aesthetic is cool, but canonically they’re very much like the salamanders in that they’re a pragmatic and realistic take on a modern military. Salamanders protect their own as well as civilians because that’s what a military should do while using terrible weapons a of war against those they don’t care for.
And the raptors (while still cold and callous around civilians) use very realistic and careful approaches around combat using long rifles, bombardments, and guerrilla tactics to conserve their waning numbers. This has made them excellent in battle.
Popular chapter in America so probably trying to appeal to that demographic
The Raptors took part in the badab war. It's a real stretch but maybe they are headed in that direction. Yeah now I think about it, quite unlikely, but I can hope.
I really doubt it. While they've been increasing focus for Raptors, Red Corsairs have been largely phased out.
If they wanted to give a short break to HH instead of going right into the scouring doing some Badab War might be fun.
Likelier answer is that they’re a unique color for SM and fit the scouts they just put out
Trouble is the badab war was pre primaris so they can't really push it. unless they change the date it happened....
@@troycoverskpopI think Red Corsairs may be the next focused chaos faction to be honest.
@@catcadev next will almost 100% be emperors children. i'd love to see RC get some love but i can't see gw doing much with them any time soon
I think part of it could be that raptors are kind of seen as something more like what they wish 40K was for marketing purposes. They're almost kind of saddled with the gothic, grimdark, regressive stuff because that's where the universe comes from back when creatives were running the show and what so many fans expect, but its not as mass marketable in some ways, its makes it not so much of an ideally frictionless and inoffensive property. At the same time, they're convinced the general tastes of the public anyway lie much more in tacticool, operator type military aesthetics. They look at Call of Duty and Halo and how stratospherically popular they are and wish the franchise they have to run was more like that, that it would sell better if it was. Raptors seem much more in line with that in both their lore and aesthetic, so they're pushing them to the forefront.
I still think GW is run by creatives. Reading the lore it is still as gothic as ever and I think they know that if they get rid of that they'll lose a lot of people. That is what makes 40k 40k, the tacticool gear and everything but with tabards and skulls and techpriests.
Halo?
Popular?
Have you been in a coma friend?
uh yeah, just because you dont play it doesn't make it not popular.@@Splozy
@@LikeZoinksGangWay on which planet 😂 you can check the numbers online, it barely pulls a few thousand at any given time. There's probably
Helldivers 2 has dethroned Halo and it literally oozes 40K vibes. The CEO literally said as a joke if they were to monetize the game more it’d be to fund his 40K addiction hahaha. Halo died the moment it went overboard on the tacticool
So, it is not a theory, really, but more of a fact. GW cares alot about the presentation of the product and make sure that every bos has a matching color sceme, in other words, they try to make very side of the box to stand out and not blend with the terrain or the environment. It is visible in every box. Great examples are Kill Team boxes. For example they did Drukhari vs Exaction squad. But they made Drukhari blue, which makes them stand out and not blend with alredy similar looking arbiters. Hearthkyn savlagers are orange, a pain to paint, but it stands out perfectly. Latest release was raven guard vs scorpions. Scorpions are green as hell. The point is, colours has to match, each side has to stand out. Otherwise people wont buy.
This is exactly why they like Ultramarines so much. Ultramarines are painted in Ultramarine color. Every painter knows that this color harmonizes with everything. You literally cant go wrong on Ultramarine color. They dont "like" Ultramarines as such, but they choose them because their color always stands out and always harmonizes with other colors, in that way they can put ultramarines against almost any other color (think of other armies) and it will allways look good. (Except other blue colours, for example Dire Avengers, i hope you see the pattern.)
So what does it have to do with raptors? Raptors are another such color. The green they use is very neutral and kinda dim, and therefore harmonizes with almost any other color. This warm sandy green is perfect for any military camo in real life, and therefore often used in the military. It is dim, blends well, and dont cut your eye. Even striking greens will stand well beside it.
That is why, the color of the chapter is perfect and can be paired with every other faction. And that is why they give it a shine. Plus, the base colors that are used to paint this chaper is castellan green, which is a Base paint, which means that it covers really well and therefore easy to work with.
That is it. It has always been the colors that dictated which product, when and with whom. Yellow is another great option, but since it is a worst paint to work with, it has been dropped. Otherwise Imperial fists would have been chosen over Ultramarines.
Hope it will give you a newer perspective on things. It also works wonders on box content predictions.
They fit the grimdark super SOLDIER asthetic more than any other space marine at the moment and attract a mil sim crowd. Also lile others have stated they fit the primaris asthetic best
I have to agree there is something really cool about a modern military paint scheme in this context. I also like the older more vibrant paint schemes of the past too.
I’ve noticed a few ravenguard successors being shown. The Iron ravens had a pretty large spread about them some time ago. Maybe they want to show off some chapters besides the first founding and the Ravenguard don’t have many so they some creative freedom to do what they want with them.
I run Iron Ravens as the transfers are the same as regular revanguard and i like the more metallic look. ultimately it means nothing from GW pushing successor chapters that are codex compliant as there is no unique models to add in.
You also didn’t mention that Pontus 51 3 years ago made a TH-cam video “The Raptor”, which received almost 5 million views.
Of course, it was hard not to notice that GW began to pay a lot of attention to this chapter. To be honest, I thought that GW would release a series of books about them or make an animated series. Although yes, the reason may be simple: why support blue fists if ultramarines are already the most popular chapter. And yes, this is a chapter that doesn’t need any extras: tabards, candles, Gothic cathedrals on the back, knight’s helmets, etc. Just buy it and paint it olive green. And yes, demographics: for US clients, green warriors with a white eagle head.
As a Crimson Fists collector, I can confirm it sucks having gotten into the hobby recently, past the hayday of my chapter where official transfers and HQ's are scarce if not unavailable. I notice the Dark Angels Deathwing Assault Box has also come with transfers representing two of their lesser known successors, crossing fingers that we're just seeing GW put some effort into injecting much needed variety into their biggest faction and that they keep it up.
I have no problem getting decals for my crimson fists. I feel very well cratered for by third party decal companies
@@MrDrTJ Yes I will say I do get mine off of a third party shop on Ebay, and they are very nice. I also won't pretend we have it the worst as imperial fists shoulder pads are also usable as crimson fists shoulder pads, whereas with chapters with highly specific icons like the Lamenters or Charcaradons you're just shit out of luck.
@@SickFigsMinis in the age of 3d printing you can pretty easily make or find any chapter symbol embossed shoulder pads.
you can just use imperial fists decals and just change the white to red with a steady hand and thined paints. will also look like you freehanded the whole thing andeveryone will think you are a painting god and only you will know the truth.
@@thorinwhitewolf1213 if you do that I'm contacting the authorities to have you sectioned.
Pete's stuff is also at Warhammer world. His tank made out of the terrain was there last time I was there....of course peachy was there when I was there lol, so it's been a minute.
Maybe GW discovered how popular wargaming and 40k is in the US military? I mean it's not a stretch. Eagle symbol and army green on the tactical marine chapter? Adds up to me.
Honestly, i like the fact GW is supporting a lesser known chapter. No conspiracy theories needed... just happy they are giving some love to other chapters. Just my 2 cents.
I've noticed this too, it's strange for sure. I think the main chapters may have too much "baggage"? Like you said, people assume you can only paint it as Ultramarines etc. But also the lore, I think the Raptors are kind of safe and not-overly-evil compared to most? They just... do their missions and that's it? (I haven't read much of it though). Or it could just be that they want a dull green to balance out the chapter colours. Or maybe cash in on Call of Duty fans who want a tacticool army that isn't bright colours and gaudy. Or probably just that the designer likes them tbh, the individual preferences make it into the books all the time (former Army Painter team member Peachy came up with a bunch of the Imperial Guard regiments and one of the Necron dynasties just from playing around with his own paint schemes).
When I got my first space marine kits back in the 90s at the age of 8 or 9, I ended up accidentally making raptors/reasonable marines because that's just how I thought they should look.... decades later getting back into the game now, I realized they are indeed my favorite chapter.
Maybe it's because if they put something out with a blue, red or yellow scheme then people will assume it's chapter specific and NOT engage with it? Maybe it's just to make something stand out from their other content? Or it could be a really simple thing of someone at the studio just really likes the raptors? That's been the answer to why things often happen at GW from the beginning. Listening to interviews with some of the old school GW people, and even the peachy era the reasons for things happening the way they did is almost always far simpler than we think. Just some thoughts.
I remember when Crimson Fists were the poster boys of the entire game, before they were usurped by the Ultramarines.
My theory here is that GW is just trying to broaden the number of transfers that are available, and are using the edition rotation of space marine units as a way to do that. Between the Leviathan boxed set transfer sheet and the new infantry and vehicle sheets, they've currently covered all the first founding space marine chapters except for the White Scars, plus the Imperial Fists transfers also serve as Crimson Fists if you're willing to paint red over the Imperial Fist white. Next edition, there'll be a new set of Space Marine transfers, and the Raptors may not be there, but this edition's transfer sheets will remain available via ebay resellers, and that puts Raptor transfers into circulation for a while. The real question for me is why Raptors and not White Scars, and the answer could be that the White Scars will be on 11th edition's transfer sheet.
i think they know theres a more 'tactical'/ generic soldiery market and i think they wanna show that space marines dont have to be space knights, they can also have that sorta generic military style
This past fall I painted an assault intercessor in the Raptor colors as part of a Warhammer Store contest. I searched everywhere and could not find a single Raptor decal. Then two weeks ago I purchased the new Terminator box and the Brutalis dreadnaught box and BOOM both boxes had decal sheets with Raptor decals.
3 Ideas
1 - trying to appeal to new players with the traditional military colour scheme look for Space Marines (biggest seller)
2 - someone in the design studio likes them so they are pushed, see 2nd edition Space Wolves for history of this.
3 - a significantly different colour scheme to the rest of the normal chapters usually shown, fresh tearers arnt vastly different to BA and Raven Guard black is very close to Black Templars + others.
This may sound dumb but a close mate of mine wrote in on the successor chapter black library submissions last year, I'd say he did a bang on job, it was on the raptors. Took 9 months of GW to get back to em saying they didn't need him at this time. Then suddenly Raptor transfers start popping up.
I honestly think, given that how evil GW is, they probably stole that idea, from your mate!
Corvus Corax might be the next primarch being “resurrected”.
After Lorgar? 🤔🤔😅😅
@@an0nycathonestly they might be a simultaneous release, like what they did the Lion and Angron (even though that's not exactly simultaneous, but you get my point)
I think this is neat, I think the Raptors also got a White Dwarf article as well? I really like the idea of more official supporting these successor chapters.
A lot of military people play at my LGS but although most of them play guard/chaos factions most of them have a raptor marine painted to an extend, my theory is that this is games workshops nod to the people in the U.S military? Very farfetched but this is always something I had on the back of my head 🤷♂️
for me personally, I actually recently painted a raptors infiltrators and the reason why I chose raptors in particular instead of my usual ultra marine, blood angels and dark angels was because it actually looks tactical and military like. warhammer 40k's fans love the whole overthetop technology mixed with actual futuristic military theme but raptor makes it even more believable. thats why i think raptors is getting such favors.
my main theory is that the overall ethos behind the primaris overhaul takes very deliberate steps away from "knights with guns" and towards more modern, real world military pragmatism. the primaris armour is modular to allow the 3 main roles of scouting, tactical and heavy support to be filled more easily and accurately. the single boltgun has been replaced with bolt carbines, bolt rifles and heavy bolt rifles. and if we lok at phobos marines speficially, there's been a definite drawback of imperial iconography with far fewer relics and purity seals, and much smaller chest symbols that allow for pouch and grenade webbing to be worn
all this stuff plays perfectly into the raptor's "reasonablemarines" branding and embracing the move away from space knights towards space military will be helped by them being able to say "the raptors have always been like that, and they're cool right?" (and yes, they are :D )
The Raptors might be easier to paint due to being mostly green and not relying on lots of intricate details. I wouldn't be surprised if they start including them on the back of boxes as an example chapter from now on.
On a side note I would be happy if the raptors were one of the main chapters, they are cool and ironically stand out among other chapters due to being less ornate and gothic. I think they should push Blood Ravens as well, would be nice to get some dedicated stuff for them.
one big reason maybe is that there are a lot of spacemarines and this guys don't have much of a story. they just pop out all of a sudden. and all their weapons aka modern of a standard towards spacemarines. while the dreadnaughts of old are more than 6000k-10k in sleep. in other words gone are the old
I own a raptors chapter while I do like the extra love I do think it's bullshit because there are many other chapters first founded or successors that deserve as much love as raptors strangely have been gained.
Also raptors got got a crusade white dwarf issue
Yeah I found the raptors through Pete the wargamer. Love the modern colours of them so I just copied his painting guide and slapped dark angels decals on them so they fit in with the rest of the dark angels I’ve already painted up
Imo Badab wars are going to be the next saga of books now that the HH is over with, and they're now just setting up one of the main army's.
With the push for Cavil to make a series, it would make sense to have a more current image of a space marine to attract new fans. Great marketing move.
Raven Guard and Raptor chapter icons both work pretty well for Bretonnian heraldry. Also looking at subreddit membership by typing in the urls, the Dark Angels one does seem interesting...
I love the Raptors, and I don't get why GW are suddenly putting a spotlight on them, but I'm not gonna complain. lol :)
A little quick lore, if you'd like? :D
The Raptors have a lot of lore going as far back as the Horus Heresy. After Istvaan V, Corax need to replenish his Legion, so he was eventually permitted to dip into the Vaults for a new improved gene-seed to get it done quicker. 10 random Aspirants were chosen to test this new gene-seed. One died during the process due to several heart failures because of the accelerated growth that caused enormous stress, which left them with 9 successful Initiates named "The First Nine" (no further lore, sadly). It was considered a success, and hundreds volunteered to become a Raptor.
Rather than surgically implant vital organs that were needed for Legionaries, I think these were able to naturally grow aside the under Black Carapace, which still needed surgery. The Raptors would be better than the standard Legionary. The accelerated and improved gene-seed allowed them to basically bypass the Aspirants/Initiates going through the Scouts Phase, and straight into "Battle Ready" Space Marines.
Lore in quite contradicting in implying that these were somewhat Primaris-like compared to a standard Legionary Astartes, BUT they were so much better and more advanced.
One of the most popular Raptor characters is Navar Hef, although by the time he'd become a Raptor (and Raptors were exclusive to entire armoured suits of MKVI), Alpha Legion had infiltrated and corrupted the gene-seed, which later caused mutations that made their muscles and limbs squeeze and erupt through their armour. They were all imprisoned, but later freed by Vincente Sixx, the Chief Apothecary (and I think only Apothecary survivor of Istvaan V) to stop an Alpha Legion unit that had infiltrated Ravendelve, where they were imprisoned. Hef and his fellow mutated Raptors whooped the Alpha Legion Traitor, proving their unflinching loyalty.
Hef and his Raptors would continue to serve until the end of the Horus Heresy alongside non-mutated Raptors. Whereas the Raptor would become a Second Founding under, I believe, the creator of their namesake, Branne Nev, it's said that the remaining mutated Raptors were "euthanized" by Corax, given the Emperor's Peace deep within the Vaults of the Ravenspire, I think, which left him depressed and guilt-ridden, blaming himself for the "monsters" he believed he'd created.
Of course, if they're all dead, why do 1st Company Veterans guard the doors of these vaults during a remembrance anniversary to which ghostly and eerie howls can be heard through the doors?
Love it thanks!
It’s like new modern comic book characters they have easy to cosplay costumes. So this chapter is super easy to paint.
They might want something simple, accessible and new gateway drug into the game.
The colour scheme is interesting too. Back when I was a kid I painted Warhammer with friends and one of them painted his Blood Angels with some red paint he already had from non Warhammer kits. Most people will not notice if the colours are from the Army Painter or something and seeings there’s a load of that green in wargames it may be a way to make the figs more accessible and less of an investment.
The gameplan might be to get someone to buy a box and leave the store because they have everything else from other model kits at home. Someone who’s on the fence about joining their friends wouldn’t want to buy paints, brushes, glue and etc. from the Warhammer store you know?
Its funny years ago I painted up some raptors and considering how easy they were to paint they looked great but recently I've started a Crsom fists kill team and the amount of edge highlighting ive had to do just to make them pop was surprising so I'm sure the easy painting contributes to there push
The thing that I immediately notice is that the Raptors are painted in something close to a pretty standard camo green. So my best guess is that they are pushing the Raptors colour scheme to attract people looking for a more realistic army - where realistic is contemporary armies, though also including the WWII period covered by the bolt action game.
It's a long way from the older space marine background, of being painted in bright colours because they felt they had no need to hide, and so would intimidate the enemy, but it fits in well with the many newer infiltrating units like incursors, or whatever.
Part of the design strength of space marines is that - with a thousand chapters - there is room to have a chapter to fill every design niche, and so they can easily foreground a chapter with a different aesthetic if they feel that is a helpful marketing angle that will attract more customers.
The guy who did astartes dropped something about Raptors at the end didn't he? Maybe it's ready to roll out on the Warhammer app.
My theory is that as 40K is becoming more popular, they are pushing a more "military" aesthetic. I believe they are also cashing in on Halo's decline and the lack of other big name Sci-fi really competing in the industry. Raptors look like Spartans from Halo, at least in a roundabout way. When you pain intercessors, infiltrators, incursors, etc. in the Raptors' color scheme, you get a very easy mass appeal deign, while not deviating from any existing designs and having to come up with a reason for these Space Marines to look so different, or break tradition by letting the Astra Militarum take center stage.
I personally like that they are getting some official support.
It is nice that GW is tapping more into the successor chapters like the crimson fist, flesh tearers, and even white templars as well. Perhaps even for the dark angels The Risen could be in that limelight too. Heres to hoping the 3 obvious worst off legions of the Iron Hands, Salamanders, and Raven Guard can be brought back into the setting with successor chapters as well
Can't deny that most of the primaris kits so far have raptors written all over them. Especially the phobos kits have the exact tacticool aesthetic that you keep seeing in raptors art/fanart. So getting people into raptors would be a good way to motivate them to buy some of those kits.
I think it’s either the tacticool crowd or Geedubs is planning a campaign.
Probably to appeal to wargamers that don't want their army to look like a spilt bag of skittles.
Probably the age old reason, the guy who designs the decals sheets like Raptors and added them in, the suits won't have a clue like in house joke maybe.
As someone with a raptors' army, I was super excited to see them on the official transfers, as to why they're being pushed, I think part of it is like you said, they're pretty standard in terms of looks and tacticool space marines isn't a hard sell. Another important thing about the raptors is that they actively use camouflage and while their official color scheme is OD green, that can really be any color you want them to be. Desert tan, snow-white, Mars red, black ops, some weird color to match the scenery of an alien planet, it doesn't really matter. Also, I'm really hoping for some cool new stuff for them. I'm surprised you didn't mention that they got a feature/index in a white dwarf issue as well with their own crusade rules and such as well, 494 I'm pretty sure.
Raptors have been my favorite for a long time; I've painted a full army before Primaris, and another of Primaris. I'm also a bit confused as to why they are suddenly on the map; they don't have a lot of helpful rules even.
I think they are planning to do something with the Raven Guard in the Leviathan narrative, they are mentioned as a prominent force in slowing down its approach
I think I am in the camp where I don't really care for the Raven Guard that much but I think the Raptors are one of my favorite chapters.
Although I think Corax would be one of the more interesting options for a primarch to bring back considering what they've hinted at with him.
I was just wondering why a week ago why their transfers were everywhere for space marine stuff alongside first founding
I'm down for some of the non first founders+ Black Templar.
We need some more variety, especially with the lack of visual differences within the chapters. Tacticool can go hard, and does with these lads.
The Raptors are my main army, followed by the Crimson Fists. I love the bombastic approach of the space marines, head first attack, last man standing, do or die... The Raptors are pragmatic in their approach, preferring ranged, hit and move based attacks. Why waste a marine trying to punch an Ork Boss in the teef, if you can snipe and move, sow a bit of discord in the battle...
Plus someone else said, they're tacti-cool 🤘🏻
They are an honestly interesting chapter in the lore, and their combination of the tacticool and ww2 US army aesthetics means they are also surprisingly cheep to source paint for while also being surprising unique in the 40k space.
I agree with the general sentiment here, it and a few other successors are plainly popular and GW read the room for once. Subreddit is indeed a bad gauge, as Raptors in particular don't have much to discuss, and their look isn't the flashy type to warrant posting about.
I've been compiling cults3D files into collections, going through the various chapters search by search, and Raptors feature quite strongly. Mortifactors, Black and White Consuls, Wolfspear, they have more love than a cursory glance may suggest. Moreso than Iron Snakes, Mentors or Howling Gryphons much to my surprise.
It'd be cool if we got some actual releases for raptors, maybe 1 or 2 characters or a special unit?
I have some thoughts regarding this, it is mostly a theory but I feel it's quite sound based on what I had seen during all of this. So the image you posted at the start of the video showing off an entire raptors army is from a gentleman who owns a website/store called themightybrush where he sells decal sheets, one of those sheets was actually to do with the raptors chapters as that was the main reason for why he did them in the first place.
He also did some other chapters such as the imperial fists, crimson fists, minotaurs etc. etc. but from what I can recall he had taken those decal sheets down around six or so months prior to 10th edition coming out. It's not confirmed if GW had spoken to him to take down these decal sheets that he was selling on his website but shortly afterward we would start to see the raptors chapter get more attention as far as decals were concerned.
Again this is just speculation and conjecture so take it with a grain of salt.
You can see the transition away from the Crimson Fists as GW has made the Ultramarines the undisputed 40k poster boys of the last decade or so - there can be only one blue group of Astartes, and while my heart will forever be with those cool AF space marines from the cover of the 1st ed Rogue Trader book, they're going with the basic blue smurfs.
I agree that the Raptors are meant to be for the historical gamer to enter 40k, though they'd really get people into it if they just brough back more IG units...Mordian and Praetorian would get so many eyes on the game, and it's no surprise how hot Krieg were when then came to plastic.
Good for the Raven Guard to have at least some attention, and maybe Iron Hands and White Scars can also get a similar glow up now - together they three least attended to armies that are left.
They also had a 12-page section in WhiteDwarf a couple months back. I use their decals for my white consuls (only on the knees, over blue)
I actually think they look quite nice, they look like a natural addition to a battlefield- unlike the bombastic, brightly colored chapters that fanboys wee over. May look into getting a squad of these.
I personally like the idea that space marines could be just like ,,normal military” -“rational marines” it’s ironically sound unique and logical. Especially in age of temporary rule of Gilliman.
Speculation: Raptor colour scheme is similar to Master Chief, looks a lot more mil sci-fi than other chapters. GW testing the waters to see whether giving this a bit of attention brings new people to the hobby who may have been put off by the "less realistic" schemes?
Hopefully this is just the start of them supporting successor chapters more in the future
I'm just happy to see anything other than "It's A Boy!" blue.
A lot of the appeal comes from the fact that if Spartans from Halo (or similar super soldiers from similar sci-fi) would be a Space Marine, it'd be the raptors. They prefer guns and tacticool engagements, but still have the strength, endurance, and reaction time to put the hurt in melee. They get along and will usually command squads of guard like an effective army. They can also do infiltration and lone ops missions comparatively well compared to the other chapters. They're broody, but not too a ridiculous point that would put others off. They also do logical things like, negotiations, treating the Codex as a guide not a bible, and not throwing away other people's lives, which is kinda a high bar in this setting.
Also it's hard to mess up green paint schemes.
I think GW is showing more of the raptors as they are easy to paint and have no unique models as with having a large enough fan base for them. Ultimately I don't think GW is going to pull a Black Templars with this and make a whole codex and special model range for them as so many other successors get maybe a character model at best.
Probably because they're a bit more modern day military and tactical looking, they'll be like a replacement for the Ultra Marines as they're not Smurfs.
Honestly think they are a really cool concept that GW can work on. There’s so much range and diversity with Space Marines which I think is awesome, typically I play Blood Angels for their melee focussed tactics and their Knightly aesthetic, however I wanted a more shooting focussed army that was more Sci-Fi looking, Tau just wasn’t for me and I really like Space Marines. After watching the Astartes short film, I figured find a chapter that does just that fights like a more realistic unit of super soldiers would. I think that the concept of shooting focussed chapters is an easy win for GW and will get a lot of people into the hobby, plus it gives them something different to the more gothic/medieval vibe that a lot of Space Marines have. Hopefully they actually expand on it and release a book or two to build on their lore or even some chapter specific character or units.
Surprised you didn't mention FW, at least from a historical context. They've been featured in multiple Imperial Armour books.
This is so interesting as I only decided to get back into 40K a few weeks ago after 15 years. I originally collected Dark Angels and I actually avoided them this time around due to how focused they are and I'd prefer a slightly less-known chapter. Picked up a white dwarf, saw a terminator in Raptor gear and thought it was nice so looked up Instagram etc and saw a few pages dedicated to them and liked the look of the army so went with it.
Now I'm thinking I was brainwashed to start a Raptors army.
But maybe GW just need to sell some old olive green paints.
I’ve been wondering all the same things.
I think GW made a mistake in making so many special bits and bobs for chapters. As an old man I remember when basically everyone playing any marines used 80-90% the same models just with different paint jobs. Now they’ve split their chapters into almost entirely separate lines. Each with lots of speciality sculpts, etc…
My first army was 2e Space Wolves and they were all bog standard marines with just sergeants and characters being “space Wolves” models.
GW could make a whole army out of raptors, like black templars
Sensible marines have always had a niche interest and in general has been a popular idea
That and the phobos pattern gear begs to be decorated in raven guard or raptor livery
The Raptors are more compatible with the new advanced tech look of the primaris or at least they were before GW were forced to go back a little bit on the space marine design by releasing new scouts terminators and sternguards veterans marines. It is only part of the attempt of GW to make primaris really distinct from firstborn space marines in order to prevent previous customers to use firstborns as proxies for primaris.
i think its partly down to the fact that the green they use and how to get it shaded using brown makes the army a lot simpler to look good than some of the other chapters like crimson fists or imperial fists. also the black and white colours for raven guard looks too similar to other chapters while also forcing you to use white on the black or spend forever cutting in black on a white/off white mini. I have noticed GW normally favour chapters with simpler colours to use now over the old armies they favoured. for exaple look at how they changed the colours of the son of horus and alpha legion for the new wave of plastic HH kits from the resin, and the fists are pretty much just contrast paint over a white/ off white and not 100s of hours working through every shade of yellow just to get a solid colour. i think we see this also with how they have changed bretonians from old world where they now all have the same heraldry over the old way of every unit being a riot of colours and creativity. they are aiming for simpler colour schemes to make new players get through finishing kits faster to buy more kits while also lowering the bar to entry for a tabletop ready looking army. dont get me wrong though i have always loved the raptors for the colours and ways they do things tactically without running at the enemy shouting to give the enemy where there location is.
Raptors are fucking awesome, they make more sense to other war gamers as far as tactics and looks wise to veterans and the like. I don’t know but I’m here for it because the lord for them is awesome. They’re also pushing lord for the space sharks as they should
Idk why they’re being pushed, but in my unpopular opinion, the 19th Legion should have been the raptors, with a company (and successor chapter after the heresy) being the Ravenguard, maybe the guys who guarded Corax a lot? Idk.
It’s like how the Crimson Fists are just better than the Ultramarines as a blue chapter (though that gold trim goes hard), and Imperial Fists as sons of Dorn (and they have a better name)
Basically way back in the day, I think some colors were easier to get ahold of and easier to paint, so some chapters got repeats and there was a lot of black red and blue and dark green and silver/gun metal.
They were one of the more popular of the Badab War chapters, along side Red Scorpions and Minotaurs.
I created My chapetr as "The 532nd Raptor Legion" based on a succesor From The dArk Angwls. If I used the Raptor Decal can I just base them on the Raptor chapter but use a different color scheme?
Absolutely you can. You can do whatever you like!
It’s curious how the new scouts come with RG sheets
Overall the GW transfer support methodology is complete dogcheeks lmfao
Also fun fact in the 2003 PS2 game Firewarrior has Raptors as the standard hostile marine NPC, before the UM’s show up and become allies
Everything GW does is usually already decided a year or two in advance, so the ravens being the default choice makes sense for the new model line starting in 10th. However with the growing awareness of the raptors it's possible they made a last minute to test the waters by pushing a different chapter which is easier to paint and more appealing to the growing demographic
@@TheHacknor Judging by the lore in the Heresy books and in the new series, we can say that GW has everything planned for at least 10 years in advance... 🤔🤔
As a Raptors fan and somebody that was drawn to them because they're stealthy I can only pray that GW is going to introduce functional stealth mechanics.
as a Cadia fangirl, I would like he raptors to stop horning in on my colour scheme.
They're building up support for the Raptors, Raven Guard and other related chapters so they can eventually release Corax. Essentially they want to drag the perception of Raven Guard away from being a bunch of emo's so more people like them. It's also got a lot to do with RG's introduction of Primaris and modernisation of the SM's and GW wanting them to be seen as more than just Knights in Space. (No GW are not dumping the Knights in Space image, they just want people to realise that's not all Marines are.)
Because it might sell some Phobos marines
I'm just confused because I bought a box of Raptors(/warp talons) before Christmas that I need to paint but mine are blue and gold and these are navy green? Why'd they name a loyalist chapter after the jumpy chaos marines?
I like the Raptors and always have, the name is cool, so is the chapter icon, but I really like their colour scheme, the olive drab kinda colour scheme looks awesome and is perfect for a military organisation...
I have a sizable Raptors army and am personally happy to now get praticaly free transfers now haha.
I will say the Raptors community's I'm apart of have been growing pretty steadily these last few years so I think their popularity is on the rise. But no real idea why GW are supporting it outside Pete the wargamer.
It makes sense for fans taking an interest into the Raptors since being a classic archetypical soldier Chapter of Space Marines is a rarity considering every other chapter are more like the warriors of the medieval/crusader period in an equally similar, and fanatical, society. So of course they’d stick out more since they’re the exact opposite. #ReasonableMarines
Pushing Raven Guard Successor.... Carcharadons: Crying in the corner with Tyberos being sent to legends jail