Jervis has just posted this in the E:A forum. Thought you may be interested, so:
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At present we're looking to get Chaos back into production in 2006 and the Tyranids back into production in 2007. I hope that the army lists for the two armies will be ready much earlier than that, but this will be the earliest we can make the two miniature ranges available again.
The armies will be based primarily on the model range from the last edition of Epic (Epic 40,000), rather than giving them a 'complete overhaul' as I'd originally planned, but we will probably be able to make a few new models to flesh out each range. For example, I pretty sure we'll be able to make the Defiler and Obliterators for the Chaos army, but the Deathwheel and Decimator are a lot less likely.
Please note that this doesn't preclude us from including the Deathwheel and Decimator in the Chaos army list. One of the benefits of of the new set-up for Fanatic is that the old rule that 'all units in the army lists needed to be supported by a Citadel Miniaature' has gone. This will allow me to _consider_ including Forge World models in tournament lists, and also allowing units you have to convert or scratch-built. However, if such units appear we'll need to be very careful to maake sure that they are not core units the army really needs to include, but are rather fun units to include if you want to but which are not vital or game-winning.
But I digress. Returning to the subject of when we'll release new armies for Epic, we're still working on how we'll deal with the Necron and Tau armies. There are a number of 'irons in the fire' with regard how to get them into production, and as soon as I know something for certain I'll let you guys know about it too. In any case, no matter what we decide, the earliest anything could happen is 2008.
Best regards,
Jervis Johnson Head Fanatic
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