Surprise, first it was a new Adeptus Mechanicus Archaeopter Flyer (I know right?), and now there may be new Heavy Infantry called Hephaestons coming soon!

It’s been a busy year for Games Workshop. From releasing book after book and handing Primaris units out like candy, it’s an exciting time to be an Imperium player. And even though Marines have eclipsed the releases, the Ad Mech have also got a particular amount of love as well.

But there might still be another unit we have yet to see. Check out these rumors spotted from Bolter & Chainsword.

Just remember to take it all with a pinch of salt, guys.

Ad Mech Rumors: Hephaestons- New Heavy Infantry Unit

These rumors were first spotted on Bolter and Chainsword with multiple users chiming in. In short, there was a new heavy infantry unit mentioned for the Ad Mech that had some early sketch ideas seen as far back with the Skitarii Duneriders.

On the topic of Ad Mech support in 8th, a user named Marshall Rohr said:

I got the sense that both it [the Skorpius Dunerider] and the Astartes’ Executioner were bumped up from their slots as part of support waves in 2020 so that GW could pretend they actually had some tie-in products for the Apocalypse release. The Executioner was really a square peg among this year’s Vanguard releases and the Skorpius could very well have been planned for release alongside the Archaeopter and the Hephaestons, plus whatever else.

Replying to Marshall on Hephaestons, Lord Nord said:

Heavy Skitarii, according to the designers’ sketchbook which was shown alongside the Skorpius model. They were stated to take up twice as many slots in the transport as regular Skitarii.

Now that the Hephaestons were mentioned with the Skorpius Dunerider, a user named Burni posted up some early sketch designs of the Hephaeston weapons that were compiled with early Dunerider concept art.

You can see in clear handwriting “Hephaeston Ranged Weapons” with what looks to be like medium-level firepower. Similar to Kataphrons, one design thought shows to be thinking that the weapons will be mounted directly to the shoulder joint.

Were Hephaestons Originally Supposed to Join Other Ad Mech Units?

As GW has been sprinkling Ad Mech releases into the game without any new rules supplements, some hobbyists in the community are beginning to think that they used their new models to help hype other releases like Apocalypse earlier in the year.

It is a little odd that we haven’t seen a big rules move for the Ad Mech in a hot minute, however, GW continues to funnel new units into the faction that are popping up out of nowhere.

Did GW have a plan for all these units to release at once with a new supplement? Has GW decided to just use their units as supplemental hype for other releases in 8th? Will the Hephaestons be a Troops choice or something like a Heavy Support?

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