Some info for the 40k seminar, as well as whatever I can piece together from my chicken-scratch notes on the new
SM sprues:

- First things first - Mark Gibbons is back with the company!
Mark's done a lot of concept work for the new Codex: Space Marines, and his art is used for the final versions of
each of the special characters in the new book. They are in-freaking-credible. I'll get back to some of Mark's stuff
later on.

- there were NO SQUAT QUESTIONS at the seminar!!! Yay!!! (get out the record boks folks!)

- Morale test required to charge a Monstrous Creature.

- New missions will all have a difficulty rating (IIRC: 'Alpha', 'Gamma', and 'Omega', for 'easy', 'normal', and 'hard'). The
difficulty of a mission is based on the number of special rules and their complexity (harder = more complexity and
rules).

- Two new mission rules: Concealment - units that don't move in the first turn are 'concealed', and the enemy must
roll night fight to shoot them. Escalation - both players start with infantry on the board, but big stuff comes in from
reserves (put in to help mitigate the first-turn win ability of some armiesm particularly in high-point games).

- New packaging will have codex icons to indicate which boxes are for which army (good for beginners and parents!),
and will feature photos of the models in the box. The photos will have some cool gunfire and smoke effects, much like
the pics that FW does for the IA books (some funny stories about the 'special' effects ).

- Space Marines, Tyranids, Eldar. Confirmed.

- Work on Tyranids has already begun, but NO details could be given - the project is in super-stealth mode right
now... at *least* ten questions were answered with: "I can't talk about the Tyranids today mate, sorry."

- Codex: SM release notes: 4 NEW boxes, 7 NEW blisters, 2 metal boxes, 4 (?) revisted plastics boxes (more on that
later!).

- Many new Psychic powers for Librarians (bringing the total to 6 IIRC), including one that lets the Librarian reroll
EVERYTHING (!).

- New plastic attack bike is super-cool. Not much different from the current one, but the sidecar is more built-up, and
there are lots of extra saddlebags and such on the sprues. This is from some partial-assembly pics, and those may
have been from a WiP.

- New Terminator Assault Cannon (again, WiP) rocks!

- Assault Cannon confirmed: Heavy 3, Rending. Thus spake Mr. Kelly.

- New Techmarine: 2 body styles, with 1 harness that fits both bodies. The Servo-Harness has two powerclaws, a
tl-plasma pistol (plasma cutter), and a flamer! Sounds super-pokey!

- Techmarines confirmed to be Elites.

- Lots of new Servitors to go with your new techmarines - Gun (HB or MM), Combat (PF), or repair (tools = + to
repair rolls).

- New Whirlwind will have been worth the wait. Radar array similar to current / old-style. Rockets on the pictures of
the finished model that were shown had two large mounts (one to either side of the central support), with two big
rockets (top and bottom) in each mount. New Codex entry has options for different ammunition types... mentioned
were the 'Castellan' minelayer rockets.

- New Ravenguard commander model is great. As mentioned before twin LC, and a really cool jump pack. Don't recall
anyone saying before that he has a set of frag launchers built into the jump pack (right above his helmet) - very
cool.

- Imperial Fists Terminator Captain Lysander model is even better than the RG captain. Huge Thunder Hammer with
Fist icon at the top of the shaft, fantastic pose. Mark G. did all the concept art for both of these guys and the
models are really a success.

- More new Veteran models. Mk. 6 with a drum-mag stormbolter, high-crested (like the DA exarch) vet with power
weapon, vet with twin LC. These models look way cooler in person than the pics indicated.

- On the subject of Veterans... Vet squads and Terminator squads can take Veteran Skills. Skills mentioned by name
were all from C: CSM (tank hunters, furious charge, etc.).

- New Marneus will come in a boxed set with his two Honour Guard (the concept art blew me away... serious
cool-factor here). Since the HG are in ornate power armour, and marneus has to be bigger than his guards...
MARNEUS WILL BE IN TERMINATOR ARMOUR! The concept art for the New Marneus rocks!

- Chaplain Cassius model is very awesome. The 1st Tyrranic war veterans was a big part of Mark G.'s concept work.
Though it couldn't be confirmed, Phil and Mark thought that a Boxed set of 1TW veterans was very likely (otherwise
they'll be blisters).

- Speaking of 1TW veterans... Mark had done a couple of pieces for a 1TW veteran Librarian called a 'Hive Mind
Psyker'. The idea was that in order to better hunt the Tyranids, and to gain insigt into their plans, a Librarian would
take the severed head of a slain Tyranid, hook it up to some crazy life support system (either incorporated into his
power armour ior on a staff) so that it could continue to recieve hive mind signals, allowing a properly-trained
Librarian to telepathically 'tap-in' and interpret what the Hive mind was communicating (like a one-way biological radio
transciever) . Very creepy and zany, but really cool. Mark could neither confirm nor deny that these guys would ever
see the light of day with rules and models. Cool idea though...

- Commander Sprue. Small boxed set with 2 plastic sprues:

1 set of legs
A few heads (including helmeted and bare-headed, and one baldy with his captain's rivets!)
A couple of chest plates
6 (?) shoulder pads
Combi-Plasma (RH)
Combi-Bolter (RH)
MC plasma pistol (scoped) (RH)
Bolt pistol (RH)
Power Sword (LH)
Power Fist (LH)
CCW (LH)
Lightning Claw (LH)
Backplate w/cape
Plain backplate
Iron Halo
Terminator Honours
Purity Seals (lots of little parchmenbt tubes etc.)
Fancy Backpack (eagle-headed)
A few tabards

- Command Squad Box. Boxed set with 2 sprues:

The new Command squad / Devastator leg sprue.
5 sets of legs, including 2 new ones - kneeling (sweet!) and a more straigh-on pose (not as 'leany' as the current SM
tactical legs). A few new bits (mostly Purity seals and parchments).

Command Squad sprue.
Plasma Rifle
Lots of unique and ornate shoulder pads
Plastic Apthecary bits (Nartheicum, Reductor, Backpack doo-dads, shoulder pad)
Standard bearer bits (standard, laurel wreath)
Company Champion* bits (knightly helm, baroque armoured shoulder pads, and assault shield... with bolt pistol hidden
underneath)

*Note: The Company Champioon is a new Command Squad character. Maybe he's replacing the Emperor's Champion
for non-Templar forces?

Power Fist (differnt form the Commander PF) (LH)
Power Sword (same as the Commander PS) (LH)
A few Back banners
Heads
Extra bits (terminator honours, some shoulderpads with the crux terminatus, purity seals, etc.)

- 'Revisted' boxes include the current range of SM power-armoured plastics. All will get a new sprue to replace one
that they currently have. Assault squads were mentioned as getting more dynamic running poses, and maybe a new
weapon or two (along with the obligatory new purity seals and parchments). Devastators get the (duh) Devastator /
Command legs sprue... I can't wait to make a kneeling lascannon sniper!

:: whew ::

I think that just about taps me out for now...

Oh wait!

Phil Kelly has got to be one of the nicest people I've ever met (Mark Gibbons was super-cool too!), he was really cool
to chat with and was really great about answering all kiinds of crazy questions all day long. I chatted with him a little
bit about the Eldar (just in general, no specifics), and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the new Eldar book
is in GREAT hands.

:Edit:
Added note about Company Champions.

interessant interessant kann ich da nur sagen