Dear Mr. Art Director

(Or, RTFF - Read The F@cking Fluff)

The next Horus Heresy novel "Cybernetica" is coming on the 24th of July!
<insert sound of cheering>

Wow, I'm pretty excited to read the novel of the Astartes versus the corrupted Dark Mechanicum on Mars!  But wait, what is that in the background there??




Okay, so I get it,  the artists don't need to be experts in the 40k fluff.  But the Art Director had better be!!  What the heck are THESE things doing in that image??

  Okay, so if you are having a hard time, those two are Ironstriders, which at least according to the fluff in Codex Skitarii, didn't come around until M33.  But hey, I'm not one to call the bluff of the Black Library writers, so I hope those walkers are the predecessors to the Ironstrider. (but I doubt it.)  Maybe the technology to make the Ironstrider without a servitor is present pre-Heresy but is destroyed in the cleansing of Mars... (that will be my story, and I'm sticking to it!)
 

So why does this have me all hot and bothered?  Well, GW was pretty clear to draw a distinction between the pre-Heresy Skitarii and the "reinvented" Skitarii that are in the 40k universe.
I think that artificial distinction is more about keeping the Mechanicum parts of the Forgeworld 30k line and the GW 40k lines separate.  (Which really makes no sense to me).  Heck, say that the baseline Skitarii are the same, and offer some Dark Mechanicum upgrades from FW, or offer more arcane weapons upgrades for the 30k Skitarii.  I don't think that Horus Heresy gamers are going to lose their minds over someone having plastic Mechanicum on the battlefield!! (But I might be underestimating the neck-beards out there.)

   Anyway, I'm rant complete.  So Dear Mr. Art Director, know your fluff better and don't let your artists put 40k Skitarii on the cover of a 30k novel! (even if it is the back cover.)