Hero of the Imperium or secret coward? Decide for yourself!
Ciaphas Cain has been a fan-favorite of 40k players and Black Library readers for many years. A reluctant hero of the imperium, Cain’s been providing a relatable view of terrible bosses and poorly planned work projects/doomed military campaigns across numerous books. Alongside attache, Ferik Jurgen, Cain has been in and out of trouble for the better part of three decades, and now he finally has a miniature.
Well, not quite. This is actually the second time Cain has had a miniature, but the original figure was an extremely limited run of 500 models as part of a Black Library special in 2005. Good luck getting your hands on one, though!
This new plastic kit is quite the glow-up. Cain and Jurgen can be based separately or together to form a mini-diorama and the models are just dripping with character. Cain features his signature mutton chops and superior smirk while Jurgen is busy preparing to fire his impressive meltagun. I think this is the first time a Valhallan has any kind of official release in many years, and his cold weather gear looks awesome.
The release of the new model will be accompanied by a new edition of the original Ciaphas Cain novel, Sandy Mitchell’s For the Emperor.
“I’ve been writing the Cain stories for around a quarter of a century now, but I never expected him to make the transition to the tabletop. o I was thrilled to hear that official figures for the two of them had been commissioned. Not to mention eager to roll a few dice and see how they perform against some of their antagonists from the books.
Not entirely the same, I suspect, as the ebb and flow of a skirmish in one of the stories is driven more by dramatic necessity than by chance and tactical skill. Then again, knowing Cain, he probably uses his own ‘lucky’ dice…
But whether you plan to add him to your Imperial Guard collection, or simply go on reading and listening to his escapades, I hope you have as much fun as I’ve had in his company over the last couple of decades.
AdvertisementMay the Emperor guarantee your saving throw. (Unless you’re playing against me.)
Author, Sandy Mitchell
Even better, the new volume is an illustrated and annotated edition. The author has added 130 annotations to the book and I’m dying to know if they will be factual author annotations or in-universe annotations in the style of the novels of Ciaphas Cain’s literary forbearer, Sir Harry Flashman…
Somone’s gotta die for the Emperor, but you can be sure it won’t be Commisar Cain.
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Simon Berman has been a wargamer since 1993 and has worked in the tabletop games industry since 2008 as a staff writer for the first three editions of WARMACHINE and HORDES. These days he’s the General President of the Brush Wielders Union, a worldwide organization of miniatures painters of all skill levels, a freelance games writer who has contributed to a number of roleplaying games like Eclipse Phase, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, and The Hammer and the Stake. He runs his own small-press publishing company, Strix Publishing, and paints more miniatures than he can keep track of. Simon lives with his wife in Tacoma, Washington along with a number of cats and a pack of savage wiener dogs.
Read more at this site