The Workshop
An ignorant person might be forgiven for thinking this meeting took place in the Liberation Palace. At the head of the (circular, but it was also facing the projector screen) table was a muscled man dressed in the parade uniform of the USA. People dressed in the elite outfits of Change and Joy were scattered around, and both a Borg and a Valahallan officer were present. Yet, this was not a meeting to decide the fate of the Liberation.
"Gentlepeople," the USA officer opened, "today's agenda is to decide the fifth faction to be produced as a collectible miniature army by The Workshop. And if anyone suggests Decay, I have a pistol and am not afraid to use it."
Nervous laughter fills the room. There were already four separate cases of model sculptors foolishly attempting to sculpt Decay; fortunately, the wise decision of the founders of the coop to place a USA officer in charge ensured minimal casualties.
"I'll reiterate where The Workshop stands now, so that we all can approach the coming presentations with the right mindset. Most of these are stuff you already know, but best to jog your memories; all that research has probably left you all a little out of time. The Workshop is the number one toy coop in Slawkenberg for six years running, but we aren't going to rest on our laurels. Our commitment is to accurate and realistic translation of real warfare onto the tabletop. We may be a toy company, but the tactics and strategies we're teaching may one day save - or doom - real lives. As such, our initial growth has been into armies we were able to fully capture the performance of. Naturally, the USA and Valhallans are the most detailed of our armies. Between footage captured from the invasion, eyewitness testimonies from the various Valhallans," here, he nods at the lady Valhallan, who returns it, "and detailed reports and recordings of the remainder of the Ork army when they went to ground and started their fungal reproduction, we have a fairly good handle on both the regular and savage Orks. Finally, footage, Lady Malica's contribution and the recordings of that attack on Adumbria suffice to make the Drukhari fleshed out. That said, Slawkenberg has to be prepared to take on all comers. We sure as hell didn't have any knowledge of the greenies or the raiders until they hit, nor did Adumbria of the Reavers or Decay. So keep all that in mind for this fifth faction. First presenter?"
A bubbly young woman with a blue feather in her hair walks up and loads her slides. "So! We were thinking of where we're going to get accurate images of a new faction, when we realised we already have one! The Zoo has tons of potentially combat ready animals, so we thought we could make them into a full faction! Here, you can see the sculpts of an Ambull, an Althak and a Diabolodon - "
"Sorry to interrupt, but are you proposing a faction of nothing but animals? I know the Drukhari use warp beasts to support their attacks, but those are mainly infantry killers. What happens to your faction if I roll a Chimera up front?" The USA officer cut in.
"W-well, Cruorians are supposed to be able to topple war machines-" "Denied. Sorry, but while the concept is interesting, it doesn't serve the needs of making a faction that's actually worth fighting. " He hesitates when seeing the teary eyes of the presenter. "... look, the idea has merit for a more infantry focused concept. We'll keep that in mind for that, but not for a full faction. Next!"
"We have two items here. Or, well, one failed prospect and one actual item, but we thought it would be better to show our work." The Borg and another man came up next. "First, the Angels of Death. Through interviews with Lord Hektor, we've managed to reconstruct the forces of the Legion Astares at their most pure, before Decay set in."
Indeed, the slides shown were wonderfully done. Full force organisation charts, notations on weaponry and common hotswaps, it was a work that could put even the Valhallans to shame. "Unfortunately, there's a slight snag." The slide moved over, to show the silhouette of a tanks with a large question mark inside. "That is to say, we don't actually know how any of these look like. Frankly, we can barely even shape the arsenal of the modern Angels of Death, degraded as they are, by which we mean we can make a Rhino figure and a Whilwind and Land Raider that looks, to quote Lord Hektor himself, 'close enough if you squint'. The fact we know exactly how many Arquitors are deployed for what purpose with which armaments doesn't matter if we can't even sculpt one! So we went back to the design board."
"Fortunately, Lord Hektor offered a compromise. The Angels of Death that serve the Powers have been subject to attrition and the curse of Decay, so their armour and vehicles are hardly exact anyway. With the aid of top daemonologists, we were able to reconstruct a sufficient army for those who serve War, as well as those who serve all the Powers." The next slide shows sculpts divided into categories. "Cult Warrior", "Blooded" and "Jakhal" fill the human section, the Space Marine section has the regular option, "Terminator", "Berzerker" and "Eightbound", and the vehicles section had the aforementioned Rhino, Whirlwind and Land Raider festooned with spikes.
"From a military perspective, it is highly likely we will come into conflict with our fellow Servants of the Powers. Lord Hektor has noted that without the light of the Liberator, many such warbands he joined were confined to raiding for growth, and it's likely they will come into conflict with us. Moreover, the forces of Decay might field such a force, making this a sufficent proxy to fight against. We have not quite plumbed the depths of Lord Hektor's reports yet; not only do Change and Joy also have their own Angles of Death, there are many more neutral Servants than we have seen, including, I've been told, some impressive war machines." They ended the presentation to thunderous applause.
"Very good, very good. Now, may the next presenter step up?"
"While my colleagues have discussed the difficulties of sculpting mechanical forces based off eyewitness accounts, I have taken a different tack. The beings known as the Tyranids are surprisingly well detailed and disseminated, and due to their biological nature sculpting has more tolerance for lack of details..."