I like pretty much every Night Lord design to some extent. None are perfect, all are good. Even the dumb bat ears have their charm.
Unless you want to be the belle of the ball. I personally likes bling bling ( skulls, flayed skins,chains,runes,red gauntlets...) And beside, ear wings in combat...that's some serious fashion statement.
Everything I've seen from Nightlords states otherwise. From the art, to the TT, they always have their iconic bat wings, and bat ears, lightning armor etc because this is part of their psychological warfare. Any sources to back up your claim? By the way, I thought this looked awesome.
Models =/= a source, not to mention to my knowledge those are simply surplus kits GW still sells to get rid of inventory. The Night Lords Trilogy, the premiere source on Night Lord fluff (pretty much the only one) states it's ceremonial and not often worn. Even then those giant wings never actually existed, the wings never got big. But these are proper Night Lord helmets.
The Bat wings were mostly on ceremonially occasions but a lot of members took to wearing them in combat. Xarl wore them in the Soul hunter series.
I agree with you, the way they're normally portrayed, the wings look stupid But they can look awesome, if done right. It'll all depend on how the design team decides to go.
Models and official art, are a source - as that's the only visual source we have - unless GW has stated otherwise? Why is it every SM, Tau, Eldar, Ork etc models are accurate sources of the visuals of a race and faction, but when it comes to Night Lords, that's not the case? Sorry, I don't buy it. As I said, every official piece of art I've seen from GW has portrayed Night Lords with bat wings (of some form) being worn, even in battle. It's part of the psychological warfare and terror tactics to appear terrifying and inhuman. That's not to say there's not variations of Night lord CSM that have different cosmetics (without winged helms), but there's certainly ones who wear them in battle as well. Anyhow, I'm curious to see if they will give Night Lords the crackling lightning effect for their armor, not only for the aesthetic effect, but for the practical combat purpose it serves.
