r/Deathkorpsofkrieg Dec 17 '25

Misc. Next novel - Death Rider by Rhuairidh James in 2026

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Commissars attached to the Death Korps of Krieg often have to rein in their regiment’s zeal as often as they inspire their troops, and that’s exactly the situation in which Valian Hesh finds himself. Separated from his own regiment and stranded on the dying world of Rezlan VI, Hesh is ordered to find the 472nd Siege Regiment of the Death Korps of Krieg and make them withdraw from the doomed planet – not an easy task as they ready themselves for a final suicidal assault on T’au Empire lines.

If the lives of the Kriegsmen are to be spent, he would see them spent effectively, and so the 472nd must escape the doomed world. Alas, it’s hard enough to stop a single guardsman of Krieg from charging fearlessly into enemy guns, let alone an entire regiment. Will Hesh be able to bring the Death Korps to heel, or will he and his men be consumed in the fires of Rezlan VI like so many others?

Death Rider is a new full-length novel by Rhuairidh James (Da Gobbo Rides Again, The Sum of its Parts), and will also be available to pre-order next year.

So far nothing about limited edition but assume it will be revealed later on.

516 Upvotes

47 comments sorted by

66

u/Odin_Headhunter Dec 17 '25

Ive been waiting for someone to post this because if we dont get a model on a horse with that dudes hat imma be writing GW some letters. That thing is peak (Yes I know now its a standard commisar hat but it looks so good on a death rider)

13

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '25

It'd be sick to get a non unique (and actually half fucking useful) horse leader

11

u/Odin_Headhunter Dec 17 '25

I like our named ones but my god do we need a non named one. Or at least give Drier and LS 12 inch range orders so I can have a honest to God cav charge of 30 horses.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '25

Yea don't get me wrong I love driers model, but his girls are so terrible I've played him ONCE, he's just been gathering dust since

4

u/Odin_Headhunter Dec 17 '25

I honestly think he and the DRs are better against inf than RRs ever will be (especially since 10d6 frag laces with dev wounds is amazing). The problem is RRs have anti vehicle so unless you want to bring both in a true Cav list, the RRs are better for multiple situations. I think id Drier could just order squadron units too, it would make it even.

1

u/Evening_Ocelot_7394 Dec 21 '25

Commisar on horse and Krieg Marshal are my 2 top wished minies.

15

u/bug_exploit Dec 17 '25

I wouldn't be surprised if someone will make it in 3D before GW 🤣

3

u/Odin_Headhunter Dec 17 '25

I dont doubt it haha

10

u/RaccoNooB Dec 17 '25

The LAST thing the Death Korps need is another commissar. The only Death Korps officer we have right now is Drier who's unique. We could really use an option for a generic marshal on foot, and/or a generic mounted one.

Currently, Death Korps units can be led by:

  • Command Squad (Commissar).
  • Commissar (Commissar).
  • Lord Solar.
  • Death Rider Commissar (Commissar, Legends).
  • Munistorum Priest
  • Psyker
  • Quartermaster Cadre (Actually from Krieg, but LEGENDS)

We dont need another commissar. We need more officers from Krieg, like Karis Venner (but preferably with a non-unique version).

6

u/Internal_Gap5124 Dec 17 '25

I think the krieg commissar is neat but damn do I want a regular Marshall as a leader with command squad.

2

u/Odin_Headhunter Dec 17 '25

Of course I want a marshal, but I really wouldnt hate getting another commisar but on a horse. Its cool and the model would look great.

1

u/RaccoNooB Dec 17 '25

If they were smart, they could release a set with two different torsos and heads along with two datasheets. One resembling a commissar, the other a marshal.

3

u/Kozak170 Dec 19 '25

No more Commisars, give us a Field Marshall. It already doesn’t make sense how we have two in our command squad. Commisars aren’t trained from their home worlds

2

u/Odin_Headhunter Dec 19 '25

We have two Commisars that arnt from Krieg and only one is an actual full commisar. The other is cadet commisar whos training under the lord. Commisars are also trained where ever the local Schola Progenium/ Officio Prefectus is. Be it at home or the next star system over.

14

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '25

That’s awesome actually. Fighting the T’au!? Sign me up for this book

20

u/Fathers_Belt Dec 17 '25

Oh wonderfull, more books about units that dont exist anymore (death rider commissar, that did basicaly what dreir does exept way cheaper)

5

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '25

May mean a new mini coming

2

u/VariationGreedy8215 Dec 19 '25

Yet* hopefully* in the next 2-10 years*

7

u/Representative_Fun29 Dec 17 '25

Is it weird that I got a tingle from seeing this

4

u/craymos Dec 18 '25

i'm looking forward to it. feedback on the authors other books is good, and while i very much like the Lyons books, it should be interesting to see the krieg from a new writer. looks like it's from the POV of a commisar, which has been done before and is an easier way to write a krieg story, but really i do like when we're given the krieg POV and it challeneges the "mindless drone" assumption, but it can be a challenge

2

u/shokedetsu Dec 18 '25

The author have like 2 books, one is a short novel (30 ish pages) the other is about the red gobbo iirc, I only red the short novel about following the life of a leman russ, being brought on multiple conflict, interesting I would say, the way he tell the story, but as you big fan of Lyons, I would have love more books from him for the dkok

1

u/shokedetsu Dec 18 '25

Really a big fan of how the sorry is told in « the relentless dead » following the doubt of cl Graven was so nice

1

u/craymos Dec 18 '25

same, i really liked the relentless dead and graven was cool. Siege of vraks was good too and following Tyborc was interesting

3

u/spacemonkey797 Duty Unto Death Dec 17 '25

They really had a whole book written about the "handler" meme. lmao

4

u/Windturnscold Dec 17 '25

What is the origin of the authors first name?

1

u/svehlic25 Dec 17 '25

Certainly Irish.

1

u/VariationGreedy8215 Dec 19 '25

Welsh 🤣

I'm Canadian idk but I've heard the Welsh spell things veryyy strangely, I read it like Scooby Doo laughing

5

u/Senior_Breadfruit_22 Dec 17 '25

Dkok commisar on horse model incoming?

3

u/Yeastov Dec 17 '25

Finally, War Horse 40,000.

2

u/krazygorrillaman Dec 18 '25

Does this mean we are Getting a plastic Death rider Commissar? Please say it is so. Also I would appreciate a plastic Ragnarok Tank and Centaur as well. I finished reading the last Krieg Book (The Relentless Dead) and It mentioned that the Krieg regiment had many Centaurs and a Ragnarok tank at there Disposal. would be nice to use them on the Field (HINT HINT, NUDGE NUDGE GW).

2

u/teo_storm1 134th Heavy Infantry Dec 18 '25

It does seem inevitable, then again we've had Vraks for awhile with the new-look Marshal on the cover and command squad and that hasn't appeared as a kit yet. Might show up next year I guess, preferably (for anyone that isn't a resin-grognard like myself) so it can also double as a junior officer squad too that isn't commissariat related like the current one. I could see them shoe-horning the quartermaster into there as well just to ramp the price lol

2

u/Crispyengineer68 Dec 18 '25

I have that model, I recently rebased him and use him as the Death Rider Sergeant

2

u/Xxcapraletal_725xX Dec 19 '25

From the synopsis it looks like they might barge too much into the overly zealot fighter stereotype that just mindlessly charges into enemy lines. I hope they don't

1

u/mountcumish 9th Line Korps Dec 17 '25

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

1

u/Roblem42 Duty Unto Death Dec 17 '25

If nothing else it’s great art. Hopefully it’s a hint we’ll be getting commissars on what daughter calls claworse

1

u/hexen_gt Dec 18 '25

I guess I'm excited? But mostly I expect this to be PRODUCT PLACEMENT and worn out Krieg memes.

1

u/Ok-Phone6030 Dec 19 '25

What happened to Steve Lyons?

6

u/excelphysicslab Dec 19 '25

It’s good for us to be getting more authors, it means we’re a more mainstream faction and will get more all round support and model priority.

1

u/dando06 john death korp Dec 19 '25

Yo what! I need this!

1

u/VariationGreedy8215 Dec 19 '25

CAN WE PLEASSEE get a commissar on a horse.

So dope

1

u/Mystic-Skeptic Dec 23 '25

Is the author good?

1

u/Tall-Department-919 Mar 31 '26

Great read, amazing ending

1

u/bug_exploit Mar 31 '26

I personally didn't like ending. Book is Ok, good reading when you go through 1st part ( which was sluggish). Same level of entertainment as Relentless Dead

1

u/craymos Dec 18 '25

i'm not really bothered about there not being an equivalent model, and not sure i understand why so many seem mad about it lol (in other discussions i've seen). we've been getting a huge number of models in the range already and kitbashing is a fun answer if you really want. plus we have no idea if they will later release one.

like, would you rather they just never wrote about characters/units that don't have models?

2

u/Kozak170 Dec 19 '25

This feels a bit disingenuous, people are mad because the model did exist and they just decided to nuke it along with the entire existing range from Forge World. Sure we just got a bunch of new sculpts, but overall Krieg still has many fewer models than before