As I'm sure you're aware Gamesday UK 2009 was held yesterday. I followed the event via Twitter, Facebook and Warseer throughout the day so I thought I'd bring you a condensed news and rumours blog entry now.
Tyranids
As I mentioned in my post yesterday, the Tyranid codex was confirmed for a January 2010 release. It was reconfirmed on the Games Workshop website today here. We are almost certain to see the Trygon which was seen in the Apocalypse book, and this will take up one of the three new plastic kits. There will also be three new metal kits.
White Dwarf...in space
On the link above you can also view the new White Dwarf magazine subscriber model which is a 40k version of Grombrindal.
Space Wolves
There were no Space Wolf codexes at Gamesday, much to the consternation of many. There were lots of the new models, though.
Daemons
There were pre-production resin versions of the long-awaited plastic Daemon Prince model and Daemonettes riding Seekers. Still no release date revealed for either.
Necrons and Dark Eldar
Forge World confirmed that they want to do a Necron book but because GW have not locked down the Necron background yet they can't. This means that a Necron codex is a long way off - probably after 2010. They also have to wait until the Dark Eldar are out of the way which has led some to speculate that the pointy-eared gits will arrive in the next twelve months.
Imperial Guard
Trainee sculpter Giorgio Bassani's Tallarns were spotted but will probably never be produced. Most of the juicy stuff came from Forge World, though.
Forge World
The new Lord of Change resin model was finally unveiled, replete with huge wings. FW are currently working on Elysian models for IA8 and we saw a six wheeled all terrain vehicle with roll cage. Rumour has it that a modified Valkyrie will be able to carry it into battle. Speaking of the Valkyrie, FW has also sculpted a row of resin Elysian passengers to sit inside.
The Space Marines got some love in the form of a prototype skimmer assault vehicle which can reportedly transport between ten and fifteen marines.
A fully painted version of the Chaos Reaver was present too.
Black Library
Copies of Blood Pact were on sale, but apparently in limited numbers. Richard Williamshas confimred he is working on a Pretorian Imperial Guard novel for black library, another Caphias Cain book is on the way and Gav Thorpe is working on an Angels of Darkness prequel.
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: Forge World Waaagh!
Forge World have unveiled several new Ork kits ahead of their next Imperial Armour book which is a fight between Elysian Imperial Guard and Orks. Below is an extract from their latest newsletter.
Our new Ork releases are:
Big Trakk — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin tank model) —This heavy Ork transport can also be used to carry Big Gunz into battle. A brutal-looking machine, the Big Trakk comes with twin-linked big shootas, a massive gas-turbine engine, and ramming tusks. To see images of the Big Trakk click here.
Enclosed Trukk — Designed by Will Hayes and Phil Stutcinskas. (a hybrid resin and plastic model using the Ork Trukk kit). —The model makes for a great alternative for your Trukk fleet as well as an excellent base for your own conversions. Its enclosed cab can also be used to represent the Armour Plates upgrade on a trukk. To see images click here.
Flakk gun — Designed by Phil Stutcinskas (full resin Big Gun with three grot crew and an Ork gunner) —this is a quad-barrelled elevating cannon platform that can give the Orks some much needed air-cover as well as rip apart light vehicle squadrons with ease. To see images click here.
Gretchin Crew — Designed by Mark Bedford (eleven resin grots) —some wonderfully characterful grots to crew your big gunz or use as riggers for your vehicles, and generally make a nuisance of themselves! To see images of the crew on vehicles click here.
Big Zzappa — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin Big Gun with three Grot crew) – this marvellous looking `death ray` is adorned with all manner of strange-looking gubbinz and is as dangerous to the enemy as it is unreliable. To see images click here.
Killkannon — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin Big Gun with three Grot crew) —able to blast apart even heavily armoured troops as the Orks advance, the Killkannon easily lives up to its name and adds heavy firepower to your Waaagh! To see images click here.
Big Lobba — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin Big Gun with three Grot crew) —this somewhat crazed-looking gas-powered bomb launcher is used to lob explosive shells high in the air, and possibly the occasional grot with it! To see images click here.
Supa-Kannon– Designed by Mark Bedford (full resin really Big Gun with three crew, available either on its own or as a compete Battlewagon with Supa Kannon using the plastic Ork Battlewagon kit) —This giant artillery piece looks just as ramshackle and brutal as you might expect from the Orks, and can be used to smash enemy defensives, shatter bastions and fortifications so the boyz can get stuck in. To see images of the Supa-Kannon Battlewagon click here. To see images of the Supa-Kannon click here.
Many of these kits are designed so that in true Orky style you can mix and match between them and particularly in the case of the Big Gunz you can fit them to Trukks, our Half Trakk, Big Trakks, Gun Wagons, Battle Wagons and your own custom models. We also have some great new grots to crew your vehicles and weapons. Each of the new Big Gunz comes with its own crew, and you can also buy the full set of eleven models separately! A quick note on the Supa-Kannon as well, this is a huge gun intended to be mounted on a Battlewagon, Big Trakk or something equally as large! Look out for more Ork releases in the near future.
All of these models are available now for immediate release, and experimental rules for them can be downloaded under the Big Trakk rules Here.
Looks like I picked the right time to collect an Ork army!
Forge World have also updated their rules from IA1 and IA2 to bring them in line with 5th edition 40k. This is the link to the Forge World download page. There are typos of course, but it is better than nothing.
Imperial Armour VII has also just been released, and I'm currently reading it now. It concludes the Siege of Vraks campaign and ups the ante with the Inquisition meeting the Chaos Daemons head on.
Don't tell me how it ends!
Our new Ork releases are:
Big Trakk — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin tank model) —This heavy Ork transport can also be used to carry Big Gunz into battle. A brutal-looking machine, the Big Trakk comes with twin-linked big shootas, a massive gas-turbine engine, and ramming tusks. To see images of the Big Trakk click here.
Enclosed Trukk — Designed by Will Hayes and Phil Stutcinskas. (a hybrid resin and plastic model using the Ork Trukk kit). —The model makes for a great alternative for your Trukk fleet as well as an excellent base for your own conversions. Its enclosed cab can also be used to represent the Armour Plates upgrade on a trukk. To see images click here.
Flakk gun — Designed by Phil Stutcinskas (full resin Big Gun with three grot crew and an Ork gunner) —this is a quad-barrelled elevating cannon platform that can give the Orks some much needed air-cover as well as rip apart light vehicle squadrons with ease. To see images click here.
Gretchin Crew — Designed by Mark Bedford (eleven resin grots) —some wonderfully characterful grots to crew your big gunz or use as riggers for your vehicles, and generally make a nuisance of themselves! To see images of the crew on vehicles click here.
Big Zzappa — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin Big Gun with three Grot crew) – this marvellous looking `death ray` is adorned with all manner of strange-looking gubbinz and is as dangerous to the enemy as it is unreliable. To see images click here.
Killkannon — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin Big Gun with three Grot crew) —able to blast apart even heavily armoured troops as the Orks advance, the Killkannon easily lives up to its name and adds heavy firepower to your Waaagh! To see images click here.
Big Lobba — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin Big Gun with three Grot crew) —this somewhat crazed-looking gas-powered bomb launcher is used to lob explosive shells high in the air, and possibly the occasional grot with it! To see images click here.
Supa-Kannon– Designed by Mark Bedford (full resin really Big Gun with three crew, available either on its own or as a compete Battlewagon with Supa Kannon using the plastic Ork Battlewagon kit) —This giant artillery piece looks just as ramshackle and brutal as you might expect from the Orks, and can be used to smash enemy defensives, shatter bastions and fortifications so the boyz can get stuck in. To see images of the Supa-Kannon Battlewagon click here. To see images of the Supa-Kannon click here.
Many of these kits are designed so that in true Orky style you can mix and match between them and particularly in the case of the Big Gunz you can fit them to Trukks, our Half Trakk, Big Trakks, Gun Wagons, Battle Wagons and your own custom models. We also have some great new grots to crew your vehicles and weapons. Each of the new Big Gunz comes with its own crew, and you can also buy the full set of eleven models separately! A quick note on the Supa-Kannon as well, this is a huge gun intended to be mounted on a Battlewagon, Big Trakk or something equally as large! Look out for more Ork releases in the near future.
All of these models are available now for immediate release, and experimental rules for them can be downloaded under the Big Trakk rules Here.
Looks like I picked the right time to collect an Ork army!
Forge World have also updated their rules from IA1 and IA2 to bring them in line with 5th edition 40k. This is the link to the Forge World download page. There are typos of course, but it is better than nothing.
Imperial Armour VII has also just been released, and I'm currently reading it now. It concludes the Siege of Vraks campaign and ups the ante with the Inquisition meeting the Chaos Daemons head on.
Don't tell me how it ends!
Monday, August 17, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: Space Hulk
There were two big Games Workshop related news stories over the past week.
The biggest as far as I'm concerned was the announcement that the mystery box did indeed contain an updated version of Space Hulk. Here's the blurb from GW:
My first impression is wow!
There is a lot of stuff in the box. I think it represents decent value for money. Given that a box of Terminators now costs £25 for five models, the eleven Terminators in Space Hulk pretty much accounts for the whole £58 game price. Then you get the twenty two Genestealer models, Broodlord, objective models, map tiles and counters on top.
It's particularly great for me personally as the Terminator models are Blood Angels, dripping with Blood Angel iconography. Talk about good timing!
I do however understand that making generic models for an unspecified chapter would have given them a wider appeal - I still have ten models from the Assault on Black Reach set that I'm wondering how to fit into my Blood Angel army.
The models look superb. The Terminators in particular are wonderfully sculpted with very fine detail. The Genestealer are very dynamic, crawling all over terrain and even bursting through the floor. This, coupled with the fact they are not mounted on slotta-bases, means it might make it tricky to fit the models into a standard 40k army. Still, with a little creativity I'm sure I can make them work.
The rules sound like they are largely based upon the first edition of the game, rather than the second (which I never played), including rules for a timer, large flamer templates, regular six-sided dice and even a C.A.T. There have obviously been some changes though - there is a Librarian and a Broodlord for a start. I just hope the psychic rules are balanced unlike the Genestealer expansion for first edition.
Overall then, I am stoked about this release. It stands alone as a stellar game in it's own right and with a little work could prove very good value for players of Blood Angels and Tyranids in 40k. It pushes the nostalgia button in me too, as Space Hulk is one of my favourite ever games and it shows some love for the Blood Angels. I just hope the rumours of a 2010 codex release for the Blood Angels are true (Tyranids are also rumoured to get a codex update next year).
Soon after the Space Hulk game announcement Black Library advertised their tie-in novel, written by Gav Thorpe. At just £3 it seems like it will be a novella in the same vein as the Assault on Black Reach book.
The other meagre news came out of Gamesday Germany. Rather like Baltimore this sounded like a bit of a let down on the news and rumours front.
The Forge World Chaos Reaver Titan was on display as was the Ork Big Trakk with a giant Kill Kannon. Presumably the Ork vehicle will feature in the forthcoming Elysian v Ork IA book.
Nothing exciting was spotted regarding Space Wolves despite them having an October release date.
The biggest as far as I'm concerned was the announcement that the mystery box did indeed contain an updated version of Space Hulk. Here's the blurb from GW:
From the depths of space an ancient vessel drifts slowly towards the Imperium of Mankind - a space hulk. Within its confines, untold thousands of Genestealers slowly emerge from hibernation. The Space Marines must enter the cramped corridors and tomb-like chambers of the ancient ship to defeat this alien menace.
Space Hulk is a board game for two players, recreating the battles fought between the Space Marines and Genestealers. One player commands the Space Marines as they carry out deadly missions in the ancient Space Hulk, and the other commands the horde of Genestealers opposing them. Space Hulk's fast-paced rules simulate the tense atmosphere of a mission deep inside the cramped confines of a derelict space hulk, where split-second decisions are needed for victory.
This boxed game contains: a 23-page Rulebook, a 47-page Mission book and 35 finely-detailed, plastic Citadel miniatures, including: 11 Space Marine Terminators, one Space Marine Terminator Librarian, 22 Genestealers, and one Broodlord.
Also included are: 105 gaming counters, 24 corridors, 10 rooms, eight crossroads, eight T-junctions, six corner sections, four dead ends, four end pieces, 20 doors with plastic stands, one mission status display, and three plastic mission objectives, including: a dead Space Marine on throne, a Blood Angels artefact and a Cyber-Altered Task Unit. Plus a sand timer and five bone-coloured dice unique to this game.My first impression is wow!
There is a lot of stuff in the box. I think it represents decent value for money. Given that a box of Terminators now costs £25 for five models, the eleven Terminators in Space Hulk pretty much accounts for the whole £58 game price. Then you get the twenty two Genestealer models, Broodlord, objective models, map tiles and counters on top.
It's particularly great for me personally as the Terminator models are Blood Angels, dripping with Blood Angel iconography. Talk about good timing!
I do however understand that making generic models for an unspecified chapter would have given them a wider appeal - I still have ten models from the Assault on Black Reach set that I'm wondering how to fit into my Blood Angel army.
The models look superb. The Terminators in particular are wonderfully sculpted with very fine detail. The Genestealer are very dynamic, crawling all over terrain and even bursting through the floor. This, coupled with the fact they are not mounted on slotta-bases, means it might make it tricky to fit the models into a standard 40k army. Still, with a little creativity I'm sure I can make them work.
The rules sound like they are largely based upon the first edition of the game, rather than the second (which I never played), including rules for a timer, large flamer templates, regular six-sided dice and even a C.A.T. There have obviously been some changes though - there is a Librarian and a Broodlord for a start. I just hope the psychic rules are balanced unlike the Genestealer expansion for first edition.
Overall then, I am stoked about this release. It stands alone as a stellar game in it's own right and with a little work could prove very good value for players of Blood Angels and Tyranids in 40k. It pushes the nostalgia button in me too, as Space Hulk is one of my favourite ever games and it shows some love for the Blood Angels. I just hope the rumours of a 2010 codex release for the Blood Angels are true (Tyranids are also rumoured to get a codex update next year).
Soon after the Space Hulk game announcement Black Library advertised their tie-in novel, written by Gav Thorpe. At just £3 it seems like it will be a novella in the same vein as the Assault on Black Reach book.
The other meagre news came out of Gamesday Germany. Rather like Baltimore this sounded like a bit of a let down on the news and rumours front.
The Forge World Chaos Reaver Titan was on display as was the Ork Big Trakk with a giant Kill Kannon. Presumably the Ork vehicle will feature in the forthcoming Elysian v Ork IA book.
Nothing exciting was spotted regarding Space Wolves despite them having an October release date.
Monday, August 10, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: A blizzard of books
I didn't bring you any news or rumours last week as I was busy finishing off my Blood Angels army. I didn't miss much anyway because there wasn't much going on. I still don't have anything terra-shattering but I at least might have something of interest for you.
Black Library
Some of you may already be aware, via Gav Thorpe's website, that he is writing a series of Eldar books for Black Library. This is a significant development as BL had moved away from non-human perspective books for some time. The first book is entitled Path of the Warrior and I have linked to the cover art below (which is superb in my opinion).
The book is due out in 2010.
Other BL products on the horizon include two audio books; Thunder from Fenris, a Space Wolf book written by Nick Kyme and Raven's Flight, again by Gav Thorpe. This is the blurb on Amazon:
After the horrors of the Dropsite Massacre, the Raven Guard are trying to survive in the caves and mountains of Isstvan V. Their plight is desperate, and escape from the roaming Chaos Legions seems impossible. Meanwhile Colonel Valerius of the Imperial army begins suffering terrible dreams, believing the Raven Guard to be in trouble. But he faces obstacles of his own in attempting what he believes will be a heroic rescue. Can the decimated Legion hold out against the forces of the World Eaters long enough to reach an unlikely salvation?
There are also a raft of other books I can't recall hearing about before:
I got the latest Forge World newsletter on Friday and it revealed that The Siege of Vraks part 3 (IA7) was up for advance order. It will be released on 24th August and will come with a slip cover for all three Vraks books. You can flick through some pages of the book here.
I ordered the book and also ordered the Anphelion Project, IA4, while I was at it. It's been on my 'wanted' list for a long time now so I thought I'd take the plunge while I was on the website anyway.
Black Library
Some of you may already be aware, via Gav Thorpe's website, that he is writing a series of Eldar books for Black Library. This is a significant development as BL had moved away from non-human perspective books for some time. The first book is entitled Path of the Warrior and I have linked to the cover art below (which is superb in my opinion).
The book is due out in 2010.Other BL products on the horizon include two audio books; Thunder from Fenris, a Space Wolf book written by Nick Kyme and Raven's Flight, again by Gav Thorpe. This is the blurb on Amazon:
After the horrors of the Dropsite Massacre, the Raven Guard are trying to survive in the caves and mountains of Isstvan V. Their plight is desperate, and escape from the roaming Chaos Legions seems impossible. Meanwhile Colonel Valerius of the Imperial army begins suffering terrible dreams, believing the Raven Guard to be in trouble. But he faces obstacles of his own in attempting what he believes will be a heroic rescue. Can the decimated Legion hold out against the forces of the World Eaters long enough to reach an unlikely salvation?
There are also a raft of other books I can't recall hearing about before:
- Helsreach by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
- Flesh and Iron by Henry Zou (There are reports of an uprising on the planet of Solo–Baston. Indigenous forces are rebelling against Imperial rule, led by the mysterious ’Dos Pares’. Amidst the conflict, the 31st Riverine Imperial Guard are dispatched to seek and retrieve a vital piece of weaponry, but find themselves beset on all sides by hostile forces. And what they originally thought was simple tribal warfare soon reveals a much more sinister activity. Henry Zou’s latest novel serves as a prequel to Emperor’s Mercy and delivers non–stop action and mystery in the grim world of Warhammer 40,000.)
- Redemption Corps by Rob Sanders (An Imperial Guard novel)
- The Chapter's Due by Graham McNeill (Another Ultramarines novel)
- Enforcer by Matthew Farrer (Presumably another Shira Calpurnia novel)
- The Hunt for Voldorius by Mitchel Scanlon (A Space Marine Battles book)
- Waiting Death by Steve Lyons
- Nemesis by James Swallow (a Horus Heresy book)
I got the latest Forge World newsletter on Friday and it revealed that The Siege of Vraks part 3 (IA7) was up for advance order. It will be released on 24th August and will come with a slip cover for all three Vraks books. You can flick through some pages of the book here.
I ordered the book and also ordered the Anphelion Project, IA4, while I was at it. It's been on my 'wanted' list for a long time now so I thought I'd take the plunge while I was on the website anyway.
Monday, July 27, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: Chicago Games Day 2009
Games Day Chicago took place over the weekend and some news and rumours have since emerged.
On the 40k side of things:
In general news GW will be producing regular podcasts in the future.
There was some grumbling on Warseer about the lack of meaty rumours coming out of this and previous Gamesdays. Harry, a trusted rumour source on Warseer, had this to say:
I feel quite sorry for Jervis (and all the guys in the studio) in all of this.
They are put in a dreadful position. They can't talk about the super secret mystery release. they can't talk about the next 40K release or the next fantasy release ... what can they talk about?
I have no doubt they would love to be talking about the stuff they are working on.
There is often a real buzz in the studio when the creative juices are flowing and the art guys are coming up with new concept work and the sculptors are knocking out great sculpts and the devs are thinking up great rules and background ... projects pick up momentum and soon everyone (in the studio) is talking about a a particular project and getting sucked in by the collective enthusiasm and building and painting in preparation for the release.
Now personally I feel it is a real shame that they are not allowed to share that excitement and enthusiasm with us so that we got caught up with that wave and we started building and painting like mad for a future release. I know it works for me like that. I certainly start buying and painting in anticipation of new releases even if they are 12 months away. I have been building Nids and Wolves for a while now .... and I don't even play 40K.
I honestly don't see how it hurts to say .... 'X' army is coming and no reason you shouldn't start painting 'X' troop choice because you know were still going to be including those and we have no plans to change that plastic kit. Etc.
I understand not wanting to tip their hand to the competition but are they really so bothered about the competition? I understand wanting to keep everyone focused on the stuff they have just released but I think it is a dreadful waste of the energy and enthusiasm generated within the studio to not let some of it 'seep out' into the community.
Fine, tighten up on rumours but let the creative folks in the studio talk to the customers about whatever they are most enthusiastic about ... let them infect us with their enthusiasm and generate the same excitement in the community that exists in the studio. They are currently wasting one of their biggest assets as a company. That being the very fact that everyone in the studio are mad keen hobbyists and are as excited about this stuff as we are.
If that risks one or two competitors getting a head start ... fine, let the legal department slap them around a bit.
If some customers hold off buying some stuff because they want other stuff that's coming are they really going to spend less in the long run? Most of us spend what we spend on our hobby every month regardless. (Usually more than we should!)
What do I know I have never run a business. I guess they must have numbers.
I am also not even sure that being excited about the next army stops us spending on the current army. I think it might work on the same principal as "There is no such thing as bad press". All excitement is good excitement. It is all part of being in an exciting, vibrant creative hobby. Something I am not sure the suits fully understand.
Being excited about the future is what makes us excited about the stuff that is in front of us right now. Why else would the rumour boards be So busy??? It is not like we have not all got plenty of stuff to paint. We come here to read rumours and find motivation for our current projects.
Till then .... the odd little snippet never did any harm.
I'm currently Building Space Wolves, Tyranids and Terminators for 40K
I have also started to collect another 40K army and it is not Dark Eldar OR Necrons.
Make of that what you will.
EDIT: I risk nothing. I don't work for GW and don't know anyone who does. (beyond chatting to anyone and everyone at events). I hear stuff because I listen. A scrap here a snippet there. Put it all together with a fans understanding of who everyone is and how they work and I have some idea of what is going on and in what order things are happening.
I have pulled back a bit recently on talking about stuff that is happening a ways off because I was asked not to.
But not talking about anything at all!!! ... seems bonkers to me.
On the 40k side of things:
- Chaos Reaver Titan is being worked on
- Legion specific Chaos Space Marine codexes still a possibility
- Larger super heavy kits being explored
- Trenches and rivers being looked at for RoB board
- More plastic regiments of Imperial Guard planned
- Dark Eldar and Necrons are still being worked on with DE arriving first
In general news GW will be producing regular podcasts in the future.
There was some grumbling on Warseer about the lack of meaty rumours coming out of this and previous Gamesdays. Harry, a trusted rumour source on Warseer, had this to say:
I feel quite sorry for Jervis (and all the guys in the studio) in all of this.
They are put in a dreadful position. They can't talk about the super secret mystery release. they can't talk about the next 40K release or the next fantasy release ... what can they talk about?
I have no doubt they would love to be talking about the stuff they are working on.
There is often a real buzz in the studio when the creative juices are flowing and the art guys are coming up with new concept work and the sculptors are knocking out great sculpts and the devs are thinking up great rules and background ... projects pick up momentum and soon everyone (in the studio) is talking about a a particular project and getting sucked in by the collective enthusiasm and building and painting in preparation for the release.
Now personally I feel it is a real shame that they are not allowed to share that excitement and enthusiasm with us so that we got caught up with that wave and we started building and painting like mad for a future release. I know it works for me like that. I certainly start buying and painting in anticipation of new releases even if they are 12 months away. I have been building Nids and Wolves for a while now .... and I don't even play 40K.
I honestly don't see how it hurts to say .... 'X' army is coming and no reason you shouldn't start painting 'X' troop choice because you know were still going to be including those and we have no plans to change that plastic kit. Etc.
I understand not wanting to tip their hand to the competition but are they really so bothered about the competition? I understand wanting to keep everyone focused on the stuff they have just released but I think it is a dreadful waste of the energy and enthusiasm generated within the studio to not let some of it 'seep out' into the community.
Fine, tighten up on rumours but let the creative folks in the studio talk to the customers about whatever they are most enthusiastic about ... let them infect us with their enthusiasm and generate the same excitement in the community that exists in the studio. They are currently wasting one of their biggest assets as a company. That being the very fact that everyone in the studio are mad keen hobbyists and are as excited about this stuff as we are.
If that risks one or two competitors getting a head start ... fine, let the legal department slap them around a bit.
If some customers hold off buying some stuff because they want other stuff that's coming are they really going to spend less in the long run? Most of us spend what we spend on our hobby every month regardless. (Usually more than we should!
) What do I know I have never run a business. I guess they must have numbers.
I am also not even sure that being excited about the next army stops us spending on the current army. I think it might work on the same principal as "There is no such thing as bad press". All excitement is good excitement. It is all part of being in an exciting, vibrant creative hobby. Something I am not sure the suits fully understand.
Being excited about the future is what makes us excited about the stuff that is in front of us right now. Why else would the rumour boards be So busy??? It is not like we have not all got plenty of stuff to paint. We come here to read rumours and find motivation for our current projects.
Till then .... the odd little snippet never did any harm.
I'm currently Building Space Wolves, Tyranids and Terminators for 40K
I have also started to collect another 40K army and it is not Dark Eldar OR Necrons.
Make of that what you will.
EDIT: I risk nothing. I don't work for GW and don't know anyone who does. (beyond chatting to anyone and everyone at events). I hear stuff because I listen. A scrap here a snippet there. Put it all together with a fans understanding of who everyone is and how they work and I have some idea of what is going on and in what order things are happening.
I have pulled back a bit recently on talking about stuff that is happening a ways off because I was asked not to.
But not talking about anything at all!!! ... seems bonkers to me.
Monday, July 20, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS:
I have loads to report on this week as I have received the latest issue of White Dwarf in the post today, and I have also gotten newsletters from GW and Forge World.
Planetary Empires
This is released on 15th August and contains 48 tiles, 96 banners, 48 other map pieces (12 power stations, 12 command bastions, 12 shield generators, 12 manufactorums) and a campaign booklet.The Hive city tiles are available separately from GW mail order and are £5 for two. They look suitably large compared to the other map pieces.
Jervis has created some strategy cards for use in Planetary Empires which will be published on the GW website.
There are two major features on Planetary Empires in WD and quite a few ideas for painting the tiles. I particularly like the Ice World version.
Planetstrike
The Strongpoint boxed set of two Bastions and three Aegis lines came out on Saturday gone, as well as the Blastscape craters. I picked up one of each as well as a landing pad. That little lot should keep me occupied for quite some time.
Space Marine second wave
Of less interest to me were the new Space Marine Land Speeder Storm, Ironclad Dreadnought, Vulkan and Khan. None of them are available to my Blood Angels so I just walked straight past them in the store at the weekend.
How to paint Citadel tanks
Released on 1st August this is a 96 page book full of modelling and painting advice. I'm a little wary of this as I'm sure I've seen some of the sample pages in WD and on the GW website previously. I'll have to have a closer look when it is in the shops.
Hellhound and Demolisher
Both tank kits are released on 1st August. The Hellhound kit also includes the parts for a Bane Wolf and Devil Dog while the Demolisher kit allows you to construct an Executioner and a Punisher.
Black Library
The Ravenor omnibus by Dan Abnett is on sale now and contains all three previously released novels and a short story.
Emperor's Mercy was written by Henry Zou and has been pushed heavily by the Black Library; there is even a short extract in WD. I'm not sure why GW have changed their advertising strategy for this book. Is Henry Zou a new writer who needs a helping hand or are BL simply impressed by the book? I shall look out for reviews elsewhere in the blogosphere to find out.
Forge World
The latest newsletter contained information about the Ork halftrakk which will have rules in the next Imperial Armour book after the Siege of Vraks part 3.
You can also pre-order an Ork transfer sheet and a Vulture/Valkyrie transfer sheet. Everything mentioned above will be released on the 27th July.
White Dwarf
Games Workshop announced a welcome addition to their website in the form of the White Dwarf archive - a collection of PDF articles culled from the pages of old White Dwarf magazines.
And that's more than enough for one week.
Pilgrim out...
Planetary Empires
This is released on 15th August and contains 48 tiles, 96 banners, 48 other map pieces (12 power stations, 12 command bastions, 12 shield generators, 12 manufactorums) and a campaign booklet.The Hive city tiles are available separately from GW mail order and are £5 for two. They look suitably large compared to the other map pieces.
Jervis has created some strategy cards for use in Planetary Empires which will be published on the GW website.
There are two major features on Planetary Empires in WD and quite a few ideas for painting the tiles. I particularly like the Ice World version.
Planetstrike
The Strongpoint boxed set of two Bastions and three Aegis lines came out on Saturday gone, as well as the Blastscape craters. I picked up one of each as well as a landing pad. That little lot should keep me occupied for quite some time.
Space Marine second wave
Of less interest to me were the new Space Marine Land Speeder Storm, Ironclad Dreadnought, Vulkan and Khan. None of them are available to my Blood Angels so I just walked straight past them in the store at the weekend.
How to paint Citadel tanks
Released on 1st August this is a 96 page book full of modelling and painting advice. I'm a little wary of this as I'm sure I've seen some of the sample pages in WD and on the GW website previously. I'll have to have a closer look when it is in the shops.
Hellhound and Demolisher
Both tank kits are released on 1st August. The Hellhound kit also includes the parts for a Bane Wolf and Devil Dog while the Demolisher kit allows you to construct an Executioner and a Punisher.
Black Library
The Ravenor omnibus by Dan Abnett is on sale now and contains all three previously released novels and a short story.
Emperor's Mercy was written by Henry Zou and has been pushed heavily by the Black Library; there is even a short extract in WD. I'm not sure why GW have changed their advertising strategy for this book. Is Henry Zou a new writer who needs a helping hand or are BL simply impressed by the book? I shall look out for reviews elsewhere in the blogosphere to find out.
Forge World
The latest newsletter contained information about the Ork halftrakk which will have rules in the next Imperial Armour book after the Siege of Vraks part 3.
You can also pre-order an Ork transfer sheet and a Vulture/Valkyrie transfer sheet. Everything mentioned above will be released on the 27th July.White Dwarf
Games Workshop announced a welcome addition to their website in the form of the White Dwarf archive - a collection of PDF articles culled from the pages of old White Dwarf magazines.
And that's more than enough for one week.
Pilgrim out...
Monday, July 13, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: Awooooooo!
The big news over the last week is official confirmation from Games Workshop that the Space Wolves will be released this October. I got an e-mail newsletter direct from GW yesterday with the following image:
The additions look characterful and rather nifty to me although I'm not too sure about the haircut!
The e-mail links to a blog entry on the GW website. I have reproduced the brief text below:
The Space Wolves are the most fierce and barbaric of all the Space Marine Chapters. Each Space Wolf is a noble and proud warrior, who has inherited the battle-lust and heroism of their ferocious forebear; yet their actions are tempered by cunning, just as their raw strength is augmented by power armour, boltgun and frost axe. They are the warriors of myth, the Sons of Fenris and of Leman Russ and in their wake legends are born.
This October, the enemies of the Imperium tremble at the coming of the Space Wolves. One of the most iconic and best-loved armies ever to grace the battlefields of Warhammer 40,000, the return of the Space Wolves has been eagerly awaited by hobbyists everywhere.
This stunning Grey Hunter is just one of the incredible new releases that will be arriving in a Hobby Centre near you in October! If you want to learn more about the new Space Wolves releases, check out White Dwarf Magazine for more information.
BDJV is running a rumours thread over on Warseer. The salient points are:
The additions look characterful and rather nifty to me although I'm not too sure about the haircut!
The e-mail links to a blog entry on the GW website. I have reproduced the brief text below:
The Space Wolves are the most fierce and barbaric of all the Space Marine Chapters. Each Space Wolf is a noble and proud warrior, who has inherited the battle-lust and heroism of their ferocious forebear; yet their actions are tempered by cunning, just as their raw strength is augmented by power armour, boltgun and frost axe. They are the warriors of myth, the Sons of Fenris and of Leman Russ and in their wake legends are born.
This October, the enemies of the Imperium tremble at the coming of the Space Wolves. One of the most iconic and best-loved armies ever to grace the battlefields of Warhammer 40,000, the return of the Space Wolves has been eagerly awaited by hobbyists everywhere.
This stunning Grey Hunter is just one of the incredible new releases that will be arriving in a Hobby Centre near you in October! If you want to learn more about the new Space Wolves releases, check out White Dwarf Magazine for more information.
BDJV is running a rumours thread over on Warseer. The salient points are:
- The Space Wolf codex has been written by Phil Kelly.
- Lightning Claws are called Wolf Claws in the new codex, you can choose to either re-roll to hit or to wound.
- Canis Wolfborn is the new SW SC; He's riding a very big wolf in a not so weird way as that sounds. Let just say those bloodcrushers look like grots!!! Also Canis is power armoured and has 2 wolf claws. The wolf has some cybernetic bits on it. IIRC taking Canis also allows you to take two cav choices, 1 can be SW mounted on wolves, the other is just wolves.
- Njal Stormcaller returns to the Codex with a new model, holding a gnarled staff out before him.
- Bjorn the Fellhanded returns to the codex.
- All special characters have been resculpted.
- Wolf Scouts will remain the same and they also have the option be mounted in a Land Speeder Storm.
- There will be 2 main plastic kits, however 1 of them can be used to make pretty much every SW troop choice by combining the oooodles of spares on the sprues with normal vanilla marines kits (e.g. a box of devastators plus the extra from the sprues will make your Longfangs. IIRC there are around 30+ heads on the sprue!!! there may also be a special vehicle, but I'm not sure if it's a complete kit or if there will be an upgrade sprue to add to the existing kit.
- There's also a funky new way of kitting out your characters called Sagas, it is similar to the Vampiric Powers used by WFB Vampire Counts, but IMO much more fitting for SW, and very fluffy, in fact it is IMO one of the best ideas GW have had in ages. You choose "sagas" for your characters, perhaps someone with Saga of the monster killer (I made that name up by the way) may be better at killing monsters (high strength things) in some way, although there could be drawbacks to this as he may need to kill so many of such things per game to continue his saga......
- Space Wolves gain access to an Assault Cannon Land Raider variant.
- The current options for jump packs are going to change. BTW Jump Pack marines are called "Skyriders" in SW Codex.
- Plastic Wolfguard Terminators; they are ambidextrous, ie they will have right and left handed weapons options like Stormbolters.
- When asked about Pack/squad size, Brimstone says that Space Wolves will be even less Codex Astartes than they were before.
Monday, July 6, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: The Khorne Identity
I don't have anything to report on regarding 40k given that Planetstrike was launched at the weekend, so I guess it'll be a week or two until the next batch of rumours surface. I bought the Planetstrike expansion on Saturday and read most of it on Sunday. I'll finish it off shortly and then start making my nefarious plans. Bwa ha ha!
Ahem.
I have heard a few things about Black Library books, though.
I'm most excited about Blood Pact by Dan Abnett. The good news is that after some delay he has finished writing the book. According to his blog it is a more character driven, espionage type novel than Only in Death and he has jokingly subtitled it The Khorne Identity. The book is expected to be ready by late September for Games Day UK.
Dan also talks at length about his forthcoming Space Wolf book Prospero Burns which is a tie in with Graham McNeill's A Thousand Sons. I'll simply quote him here rather than paraphrase his words:
So, now, as the temperature pushes into the thirties, the cats are flaked out like discarded draught-excluders wishing their fur coats were un-zippable, and Roddick and Federer fight it out to the bitter end, I’m girding my loins for the next big project. Yes, folks, it’s Prospero Burns (Mongomery’s less-well known brother).
Stop me if you’ve heard this, but, originally, I was going to tackle the Thousand Sons side of the deal, and Graham was going to handle the Space Wolves. The reason for this - and I really do understand that the following revelation is such a heretical statement that Eisenhorn might have to come and shoot me through the lungs - is that I don’t really like Space Wolves.
All right. Stop yelling. Stop it. Stop. I KNOW, okay? I know. Let me explain. I think the Space Wolves are great. They are a great, vivid, visceral element of 40K, great to play, great to collect. But for use in fiction they are, to me, too on the nose. They too obviously resemble the source of their inspiration. Think of it this way: I could write a novel about a chapter of space marines, who originated on a tough, unforgiving world of high plains and grassy savannahs. The chief way of life was as drovers, driving the million-animal herds of gigantic, and often very dangerous, grox across continents. This work bred men who were tough, weather-beaten and wily, relentless, dogmatic, reflective, but mercurially fast. They evolved quick wits and cunning, and quick reflexes, but they could also sit in the saddle for days, biding their time. They were almost empathically connected to their loyal steeds. They knew how to chase, hunt, defend the herd, bring down a big bull. And the very toughest and most promising of these drovers were selected by the mysterious warriors, who lived in their isolated fort on the isolated mountain, to be inducted into their ancient order of space marines.
Sounds pretty reasonable, doesn’t it? Sounds like a decent basis for a chapter, right?
Now what if I said the chapter was called the Six Shooters? And that their armour design included chaps, a bandana and a ten gallon hat? Oh, and spurs? And they were famous for their trademark ‘two-bolt-gun’ holsters?
You see what I mean?
The inspiration is fine. The Thousand Sons are Aztecs. The Blood Angels are goth vampires. The Imperial Fists are Romans. The White Scars are a mongol horde. The Iron Hands are robots. The Ultramarines (and, hell yeah, the Iron Snakes) are Greeks. The fact is that all of them have taken the point of inspiration and run with it. They’ve put the background idea through some kind of creative filter to make it both richer and less obvious. But the Space Wolves are exactly what they appear to be, with no filter and no remove, which makes them giant fun on the gaming table, and a giant pain in the arse in a novel.
So anyway... I finally suggested to Graham that I should take the Space Wolves, because it would force me to find a way into them. I’ve already seen the work he’s doing on the Sons, and, oh my god, it’s mouth-watering. His book, which will be called A Thousands Sons (one of those instances where the legion name is so good, you don’t need to invent a better book title), is going to be packed with great ideas. We’re knocking stuff back and forth, and a momentum is building. For my part, I’m filling my workspace with all things Norse and Viking, and Icelandic and barbarian. You wouldn’t believe the sources I’m going to. I want the Space Wolves to be ABSOLUTELY the Space Wolves all of you out there love, AND YET something you’re not expecting; something that’s gone through a filter; something that makes you all go “Christ in a longboat! I have never thought of them like that!”
Another snippet of news from the Black Library is that Steve Parker has handed in the first draft of his Crimson Fists book Rynn's World. According to the Black Library the book will be released in February 2010.
I also spotted some advance orders in the painting and modelling tools section of the Games Workshop website. They are the water pot, which looks like it has spaces to hold brushes upright in the water, and a mixing palette. I'm not sure I'm sold on either of these items but at least they come cheap at £2.95 each.
That's all for now - I'm off to pick a planet to invade!
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Ahem.
I have heard a few things about Black Library books, though.
I'm most excited about Blood Pact by Dan Abnett. The good news is that after some delay he has finished writing the book. According to his blog it is a more character driven, espionage type novel than Only in Death and he has jokingly subtitled it The Khorne Identity. The book is expected to be ready by late September for Games Day UK.
Dan also talks at length about his forthcoming Space Wolf book Prospero Burns which is a tie in with Graham McNeill's A Thousand Sons. I'll simply quote him here rather than paraphrase his words:
So, now, as the temperature pushes into the thirties, the cats are flaked out like discarded draught-excluders wishing their fur coats were un-zippable, and Roddick and Federer fight it out to the bitter end, I’m girding my loins for the next big project. Yes, folks, it’s Prospero Burns (Mongomery’s less-well known brother).
Stop me if you’ve heard this, but, originally, I was going to tackle the Thousand Sons side of the deal, and Graham was going to handle the Space Wolves. The reason for this - and I really do understand that the following revelation is such a heretical statement that Eisenhorn might have to come and shoot me through the lungs - is that I don’t really like Space Wolves.
All right. Stop yelling. Stop it. Stop. I KNOW, okay? I know. Let me explain. I think the Space Wolves are great. They are a great, vivid, visceral element of 40K, great to play, great to collect. But for use in fiction they are, to me, too on the nose. They too obviously resemble the source of their inspiration. Think of it this way: I could write a novel about a chapter of space marines, who originated on a tough, unforgiving world of high plains and grassy savannahs. The chief way of life was as drovers, driving the million-animal herds of gigantic, and often very dangerous, grox across continents. This work bred men who were tough, weather-beaten and wily, relentless, dogmatic, reflective, but mercurially fast. They evolved quick wits and cunning, and quick reflexes, but they could also sit in the saddle for days, biding their time. They were almost empathically connected to their loyal steeds. They knew how to chase, hunt, defend the herd, bring down a big bull. And the very toughest and most promising of these drovers were selected by the mysterious warriors, who lived in their isolated fort on the isolated mountain, to be inducted into their ancient order of space marines.
Sounds pretty reasonable, doesn’t it? Sounds like a decent basis for a chapter, right?
Now what if I said the chapter was called the Six Shooters? And that their armour design included chaps, a bandana and a ten gallon hat? Oh, and spurs? And they were famous for their trademark ‘two-bolt-gun’ holsters?
You see what I mean?
The inspiration is fine. The Thousand Sons are Aztecs. The Blood Angels are goth vampires. The Imperial Fists are Romans. The White Scars are a mongol horde. The Iron Hands are robots. The Ultramarines (and, hell yeah, the Iron Snakes) are Greeks. The fact is that all of them have taken the point of inspiration and run with it. They’ve put the background idea through some kind of creative filter to make it both richer and less obvious. But the Space Wolves are exactly what they appear to be, with no filter and no remove, which makes them giant fun on the gaming table, and a giant pain in the arse in a novel.
So anyway... I finally suggested to Graham that I should take the Space Wolves, because it would force me to find a way into them. I’ve already seen the work he’s doing on the Sons, and, oh my god, it’s mouth-watering. His book, which will be called A Thousands Sons (one of those instances where the legion name is so good, you don’t need to invent a better book title), is going to be packed with great ideas. We’re knocking stuff back and forth, and a momentum is building. For my part, I’m filling my workspace with all things Norse and Viking, and Icelandic and barbarian. You wouldn’t believe the sources I’m going to. I want the Space Wolves to be ABSOLUTELY the Space Wolves all of you out there love, AND YET something you’re not expecting; something that’s gone through a filter; something that makes you all go “Christ in a longboat! I have never thought of them like that!”
Another snippet of news from the Black Library is that Steve Parker has handed in the first draft of his Crimson Fists book Rynn's World. According to the Black Library the book will be released in February 2010.
I also spotted some advance orders in the painting and modelling tools section of the Games Workshop website. They are the water pot, which looks like it has spaces to hold brushes upright in the water, and a mixing palette. I'm not sure I'm sold on either of these items but at least they come cheap at £2.95 each.
That's all for now - I'm off to pick a planet to invade!
Monday, June 29, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: Going renegade
I received the latest Forge World newsletter over the weekend.
The models that had me salivating were the Renegade Heavy Stubber Team.
I still have faint hopes of reviving my Renegade Imperial Guard project; indeed I still have many models squirreled away. The heavy stubber team would make a great addition to my forces and are very characterful.
My only concern is that the models are so distinctive. I don't think I could include more than one of them in an army. It is good to see new models for the army at all, though. I hope there are more to come.
Forge World has also revealed that the third Siege of Vraks book has been sent to the printers. The release date has not been set but I'd certainly hope it will be on sale at UK Gamesday in September at the latest.
In the same newsletter the Mars Warhound titan weapons are announced. There is a turbo laser and inferno cannon which can be used in either hand. I'm sure this news will be exciting to some but I don't own a titan and it's unlikely I ever will!
The models that had me salivating were the Renegade Heavy Stubber Team.
I still have faint hopes of reviving my Renegade Imperial Guard project; indeed I still have many models squirreled away. The heavy stubber team would make a great addition to my forces and are very characterful.My only concern is that the models are so distinctive. I don't think I could include more than one of them in an army. It is good to see new models for the army at all, though. I hope there are more to come.
Forge World has also revealed that the third Siege of Vraks book has been sent to the printers. The release date has not been set but I'd certainly hope it will be on sale at UK Gamesday in September at the latest.
In the same newsletter the Mars Warhound titan weapons are announced. There is a turbo laser and inferno cannon which can be used in either hand. I'm sure this news will be exciting to some but I don't own a titan and it's unlikely I ever will!
Monday, June 22, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: Def Rolla, painting tanks, Straken and more. Oh my!
On Saturday night I got an e-mail newsletter from Games Workshop informing me that an Ork Battlewagon upgrade pack would be available from the 1 August. Apparently this was unveiled at Toronto Gamesday.
The bitz pack contains a few of the more popular upgrades missing from the original battlewagon boxed set such as the Def Rolla, lobba, killkannon and a Grot rigger.
As it's a bitz pack I assume it will be mail order only but it is very cheap at less then £8 for the sprue.
I think this will be virtually essential for every Ork commander and I'm sure to pick it up myself when I revisit my Orks in the near future.
New on the horizon, to me at least, is that Games Workshop will be releasing a 'How to paint tanks' book at the same time. Some people have complained that the Imperial Armour Model Masterclass did the same thing but I disagree - I think that book was for very advanced modellers while this one will be aimed squarely at the less experienced. I'd guess it will also use standard GW products rather than the airbrushes, oils and floor cleaners found in the Forge World book. It'll be cheaper too coming in at £15.
I also saw that anselminus posted photos of the Catachan special character 'Iron Hand' Straken on Warseer. He is a country mile ahead of the original and looks great. Again I'd be very tempted to add him to my future Catachan army.
More news is leaking out about the Planetstrike terrain, which I've already started to mentally plan my purchasing for. GW are going to re-release the crashed Aquila lander from the Battle from Macragge boxed set as a standalone terrain piece. There are also more blastscape terrain pieces which include wrecked rhinos and even Land Raiders.
I won't need the crashed lander as I have the Macragge version just waiting to be painted but I will need to have a look at the wrecked vehicles closely before deciding whether to buy them or not. I would think the July issue of White Dwarf which is due out shortly will give us quite a bit of confirmation on these rumours and maybe some more besides.
Phew! That's all I can think of for now...
The bitz pack contains a few of the more popular upgrades missing from the original battlewagon boxed set such as the Def Rolla, lobba, killkannon and a Grot rigger.
As it's a bitz pack I assume it will be mail order only but it is very cheap at less then £8 for the sprue.
I think this will be virtually essential for every Ork commander and I'm sure to pick it up myself when I revisit my Orks in the near future.
New on the horizon, to me at least, is that Games Workshop will be releasing a 'How to paint tanks' book at the same time. Some people have complained that the Imperial Armour Model Masterclass did the same thing but I disagree - I think that book was for very advanced modellers while this one will be aimed squarely at the less experienced. I'd guess it will also use standard GW products rather than the airbrushes, oils and floor cleaners found in the Forge World book. It'll be cheaper too coming in at £15.
I also saw that anselminus posted photos of the Catachan special character 'Iron Hand' Straken on Warseer. He is a country mile ahead of the original and looks great. Again I'd be very tempted to add him to my future Catachan army.
More news is leaking out about the Planetstrike terrain, which I've already started to mentally plan my purchasing for. GW are going to re-release the crashed Aquila lander from the Battle from Macragge boxed set as a standalone terrain piece. There are also more blastscape terrain pieces which include wrecked rhinos and even Land Raiders.
I won't need the crashed lander as I have the Macragge version just waiting to be painted but I will need to have a look at the wrecked vehicles closely before deciding whether to buy them or not. I would think the July issue of White Dwarf which is due out shortly will give us quite a bit of confirmation on these rumours and maybe some more besides.
Phew! That's all I can think of for now...
Monday, June 15, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: Brush up your painting
Games Workshop have announced that they are in the process of rebranding their paint brushes. They will be released on 18th July and the set will cost £33.10.
According to the GW website there will be 10 brushes in the set:
The Citadel Brush Set contains one Citadel Fine Detail Brush, one Citadel Detail Brush, one Citadel Standard Brush, one Citadel Basecoat Brush, one Citadel Large Brush, one Citadel Wash Brush, one Citadel Stippling Brush, one Citadel Small Drybrush, one Citadel Medium Drybrush and one Citadel Large Drybrush.
The stippling brush is new, I think, as is the wash brush and it seems like the tank brush has disappeared altogether.
The major change as far as I can see is an aesthetic one as GW have added colour coded handles on the brushes. I'm not sure how useful this actually is as no-one would store them upside down, surely?
I'm a fan of GW brushes and at about £3 per brush they are good value. Many people I know insist that cheapo brushes bought at their local art supplies store are just as good but funnily enough I find that they don't usually have very well painted models. At the other end of the spectrum I have heard that some painters think GW brushes are sub-par and use very expensive brands instead.
I have used GW brushes extensively and been largely happy with them but over the past two or three years I have experimented with other types of brushes, mostly the Winsor and Newton range. I tried Cotman's, Series 7's and the Galeria brushes and I'm yet to be blown away. Even the W&N brushes I am using now have curled tips and I know I look after them correctly, but some of my GW brushes I've had for years are perfectly straight. I just fail to see why I should pay more for a product which I find harder to source for negligible improvements.
So I'd recommend this GW set and if you look after them I guarantee that you'll still be using some of the brushes in many years time. In fact I might just splurge on a set myself.
According to the GW website there will be 10 brushes in the set:
The Citadel Brush Set contains one Citadel Fine Detail Brush, one Citadel Detail Brush, one Citadel Standard Brush, one Citadel Basecoat Brush, one Citadel Large Brush, one Citadel Wash Brush, one Citadel Stippling Brush, one Citadel Small Drybrush, one Citadel Medium Drybrush and one Citadel Large Drybrush.
The stippling brush is new, I think, as is the wash brush and it seems like the tank brush has disappeared altogether.
The major change as far as I can see is an aesthetic one as GW have added colour coded handles on the brushes. I'm not sure how useful this actually is as no-one would store them upside down, surely?
I'm a fan of GW brushes and at about £3 per brush they are good value. Many people I know insist that cheapo brushes bought at their local art supplies store are just as good but funnily enough I find that they don't usually have very well painted models. At the other end of the spectrum I have heard that some painters think GW brushes are sub-par and use very expensive brands instead.
I have used GW brushes extensively and been largely happy with them but over the past two or three years I have experimented with other types of brushes, mostly the Winsor and Newton range. I tried Cotman's, Series 7's and the Galeria brushes and I'm yet to be blown away. Even the W&N brushes I am using now have curled tips and I know I look after them correctly, but some of my GW brushes I've had for years are perfectly straight. I just fail to see why I should pay more for a product which I find harder to source for negligible improvements.
So I'd recommend this GW set and if you look after them I guarantee that you'll still be using some of the brushes in many years time. In fact I might just splurge on a set myself.
Monday, June 8, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: Planetstrike advance orders
Games Workshop have put up pretty much all of the Planetstrike buildings and terrain on advance order on their website.
You can check out decent photographs of the blastscape craters, shrine of the Aquila (which is now confirmed as a previously unseen building NOT the Dark Angel fortress), the resin mines, bombs and booby traps and the strongpoint, defence network and outpost combined sets. The hoped for trench board to add to the realm of battle gameboard never materialised and the it turns out that the outpost and defence network just come with the basic gameboard.
There are also some second wave Space Marine models in the shape of the Landspeeder Storm (which the Blood Angels can't get - boo!), Ironclad Dreadnought and two special characters - Vulkan He'stan and Kor'sarro Khan.
I'm eyeing up the Imperial strongpoint (with two bastions and three Aegis defence lines), the landing pad, the blastscape craters and the mines, bombs and booby traps which will pretty much fill up my planned trench table.
Bring on the 4th of July!
You can check out decent photographs of the blastscape craters, shrine of the Aquila (which is now confirmed as a previously unseen building NOT the Dark Angel fortress), the resin mines, bombs and booby traps and the strongpoint, defence network and outpost combined sets. The hoped for trench board to add to the realm of battle gameboard never materialised and the it turns out that the outpost and defence network just come with the basic gameboard.
There are also some second wave Space Marine models in the shape of the Landspeeder Storm (which the Blood Angels can't get - boo!), Ironclad Dreadnought and two special characters - Vulkan He'stan and Kor'sarro Khan.
I'm eyeing up the Imperial strongpoint (with two bastions and three Aegis defence lines), the landing pad, the blastscape craters and the mines, bombs and booby traps which will pretty much fill up my planned trench table.
Bring on the 4th of July!
Monday, June 1, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: Gamesday Spain
Games Workshop have done it again!
Three weeks ago following Gamesday Baltimore I bemoaned the lack of news and rumours regarding the forthcoming Planetstrike expansion, as well as Planetary Empires and even the next codex. I was sure that something exciting would emerge from Gamesday Spain but apparently not...
Wolf's Bane on Warseer reported this:
Hi all folks!! I've been in GD Spain this morning. I've been in a presentation made by Robin Cruddace, the new Imperial Guard codex writer. In that presentation, he told about the new things in 40K / fantasy (even a Bloodbowl miniature new launch) until Agoust.
After the presentation, a man from the public ask him about Wolfs. He didn't wanted to say a word about the date launching but what he did tell, was they are working not only in Wolfs but in Blood Angels and Black Templars together other codexes. After the presentation, I asked him personally about the progress level of the Dark Eldar. It was in that moment when I begun to cry. He told me Jess didn't finish his work, so IF the push them into production right now, AT LEAST, they are a year far.
Before leveling up hopes, he didn't told me anything about the progress level or even a possible date on Blood Angels, Dark Templars, etc. I didn't asked him directlly, but he didn't mention anything about Grey Knights.
So, in a summary way ... he told about
1. Dark Eldar. At least one year from now. Probably more.
2. Bood Angels / Black Templar. In works right now.
3. Wolfs. Codex finished, send to some translators. (this one didn't told me him)
4. Necron and Tyranids in works.
5. Legion Codexes. They have talk about them, but with no result. Not on the planning.
6. Legend & Heraldry of Imperial Guard. Maybe if the new book for Imperium Legend & Heraldry has good acceptance.
I think I'm not forgotting anything. PD: I cry very much about my Dark Eldar / Grey Knights bad rumours.
The nugget of good news in there from my perspective is the unexpected possiblity of a new Blood Angels codex. I'd love to see my Marines get an update over their woeful PDF.
No photos of new models came out of Spain which has to be a first, I think. It's all the more surprising then that I got an e-mail from Games Workshop announcing the new Hellhound kit which is coming in August.
The kit includes three variants; the Hellhound, Bane Wolf and Devil Dog.
Although there have been some grumbles about the aesthetics I have to say that I'm a fan and will almost certainly be picking up a kit or three for my Guard armies at some point.
Hot on the heels of the Hellhound announcement pics of the Demolisher kit surfaced.
Both kits are fully plastic and will sell at £30.
Three weeks ago following Gamesday Baltimore I bemoaned the lack of news and rumours regarding the forthcoming Planetstrike expansion, as well as Planetary Empires and even the next codex. I was sure that something exciting would emerge from Gamesday Spain but apparently not...
Wolf's Bane on Warseer reported this:
Hi all folks!! I've been in GD Spain this morning. I've been in a presentation made by Robin Cruddace, the new Imperial Guard codex writer. In that presentation, he told about the new things in 40K / fantasy (even a Bloodbowl miniature new launch) until Agoust.
After the presentation, a man from the public ask him about Wolfs. He didn't wanted to say a word about the date launching but what he did tell, was they are working not only in Wolfs but in Blood Angels and Black Templars together other codexes. After the presentation, I asked him personally about the progress level of the Dark Eldar. It was in that moment when I begun to cry. He told me Jess didn't finish his work, so IF the push them into production right now, AT LEAST, they are a year far.
Before leveling up hopes, he didn't told me anything about the progress level or even a possible date on Blood Angels, Dark Templars, etc. I didn't asked him directlly, but he didn't mention anything about Grey Knights.
So, in a summary way ... he told about
1. Dark Eldar. At least one year from now. Probably more.
2. Bood Angels / Black Templar. In works right now.
3. Wolfs. Codex finished, send to some translators. (this one didn't told me him)
4. Necron and Tyranids in works.
5. Legion Codexes. They have talk about them, but with no result. Not on the planning.
6. Legend & Heraldry of Imperial Guard. Maybe if the new book for Imperium Legend & Heraldry has good acceptance.
I think I'm not forgotting anything. PD: I cry very much about my Dark Eldar / Grey Knights bad rumours.
The nugget of good news in there from my perspective is the unexpected possiblity of a new Blood Angels codex. I'd love to see my Marines get an update over their woeful PDF.
No photos of new models came out of Spain which has to be a first, I think. It's all the more surprising then that I got an e-mail from Games Workshop announcing the new Hellhound kit which is coming in August.
The kit includes three variants; the Hellhound, Bane Wolf and Devil Dog.Although there have been some grumbles about the aesthetics I have to say that I'm a fan and will almost certainly be picking up a kit or three for my Guard armies at some point.
Hot on the heels of the Hellhound announcement pics of the Demolisher kit surfaced.
Both kits are fully plastic and will sell at £30.
Monday, May 25, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: Planet-tastic
A day late and nothing earth shattering to report on, at least from my point of view, but we do have some official confirmation of both Planetstrike and Planetary Empires.
Planetary Empires
Planetary Empires is mentioned in the latest White Dwarf (UK 354). It contains 48 plastic hexagonal tiles which are very similar to the Mighty Empires set for Fantasy. The tiles include ruined settlements, roads and spaceports. Hive cities will apparently be available from GW mail order. While not mentioned specifically I can also spy factories, fortresses and cities which can be placed on the tiles.
Although not mentioned specifically in WD I understand the set will cost £30 and will be released in July.
Planetstrike
This is trailed in White Dwarf and will be covered in depth next month, but the GW website has lots of new terrain up for advance order. The Planetstrike book will be £15, the landing pad is £23.50, the Bastion is £17.60, the Defence line is £11.75, and the limited edition mines, bombs and booby traps are £11.75. They will all be available from the 4 July along with the Shrine of the Aquila and the Space Marine second wave models.
The Blastscape craters will be released two weeks later on the 18th.
I plan on buying just about all of these models upon their release.
Bring it on!
Planetary Empires
Planetary Empires is mentioned in the latest White Dwarf (UK 354). It contains 48 plastic hexagonal tiles which are very similar to the Mighty Empires set for Fantasy. The tiles include ruined settlements, roads and spaceports. Hive cities will apparently be available from GW mail order. While not mentioned specifically I can also spy factories, fortresses and cities which can be placed on the tiles.
Although not mentioned specifically in WD I understand the set will cost £30 and will be released in July.
Planetstrike
This is trailed in White Dwarf and will be covered in depth next month, but the GW website has lots of new terrain up for advance order. The Planetstrike book will be £15, the landing pad is £23.50, the Bastion is £17.60, the Defence line is £11.75, and the limited edition mines, bombs and booby traps are £11.75. They will all be available from the 4 July along with the Shrine of the Aquila and the Space Marine second wave models.
The Blastscape craters will be released two weeks later on the 18th.
I plan on buying just about all of these models upon their release.
Bring it on!
Monday, May 11, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: Baltimore Gamesday
Baltimore Gamesday took place in the USA over the weekend and I was expecting some details regarding the Planetstrike expansion to emerge given that it is due to be released in early July. However, little concrete information was forthcoming.
dienekes96 attended a seminar held by Matt Ward and the Perry twins and reported the news on Warseer. Other posters chipped into the thread and I've combined everything below.
'No codexes would be left behind.' Any books less than five years old are unlikely to get a release soon but the older books are being worked on.
Planetstrike supposedly has a metal kit and a plastic kit that we haven't seen yet. The new plastic craters may include destroyed vehicles such as the rhino seen in the recent IG codex.
Imperial Armour 8 is definitely confirmed as Elysians versus Orks. The IG will get a Commissar and maybe a light assault vehicle or tank with a Valkrie transporter. The Orks are getting the Battlewagon and Trukk conversion kits which have been rumoured for a while.
Kor'sarro Khan was the only brand new miniature on display and although he looks pretty good he comes without a bike.
Tyranids will definitely not get a codex in 2009.
Not a great deal of ground breaking news there I'm afraid.
Righto, I'm off to the match...
dienekes96 attended a seminar held by Matt Ward and the Perry twins and reported the news on Warseer. Other posters chipped into the thread and I've combined everything below.
'No codexes would be left behind.' Any books less than five years old are unlikely to get a release soon but the older books are being worked on.
Planetstrike supposedly has a metal kit and a plastic kit that we haven't seen yet. The new plastic craters may include destroyed vehicles such as the rhino seen in the recent IG codex.
Imperial Armour 8 is definitely confirmed as Elysians versus Orks. The IG will get a Commissar and maybe a light assault vehicle or tank with a Valkrie transporter. The Orks are getting the Battlewagon and Trukk conversion kits which have been rumoured for a while.
Kor'sarro Khan was the only brand new miniature on display and although he looks pretty good he comes without a bike.
Tyranids will definitely not get a codex in 2009.
Not a great deal of ground breaking news there I'm afraid.
Righto, I'm off to the match...
Monday, April 20, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: Games Day France
Games Day France was held over the weekend and with it came confirmation of a lot of Planetstrike rumours. This is a 40k expansion book, much like Cities of Death, which changes the fundamental way of playing the game by monkeying about with missions, terrain and force organisation charts.
The book itself was available to leaf through and GeekyLouis on Warseer posted photos of some of the pages here. The Ironclad Dreadnought is in there, as well as lots of pics of the new terrain kits.
These include the landing pad (which has moveable pieces), the Imperial bastion and the Dark Angels fortress.
Brusilov provided a very comprehensive write up of his experience at Games Day much of which I've reproduced below.
I had a long chat with Mr Phil Kelly (thanks for your kindness and patience Phil), here are things I can remember on top of my head:
- Planetstrike is coming to a store near you next July ;
- all the bunkers including the tower are coming in plastic and will be modular. Phil explained to me that you could easily build a tall fortress wall out of the tower ;
- there is a massive fortress somewhere in the book (don't know if there is a pic somewhere) with a Dark Angels theme. From what I understood, it's coming in plastic too! It's basically a three-part citadel...
- the FOC are indeed different : the only compulsory choice for the attacke is one HQ. He can have up to SIX (yes, six!) Elite Choices. Defender has standard compulsory choices (HQ + 2 Troops) but gets to pick SIX HS choices (Imperial Guard here I come!)
- Phil gave me a rough outline of how the game plays : equal points for each side, opponents agree on a number of stratagem points (like in Cities of Death or Apocalypse). Defender buys fortifications with these points (as well as a few tricks : like a back exit to your bunker to charge the enemy in the rear). Attacker picks nasty tricks. Weapons mounted on fortifications can obviously fire upon the enemy (cannot remember if it's only in the first turn, may be so). Defenders appear to get a free round of shooting before the game starts. Two stratagems I could remember are 1) basically throwing an asteroid at the enemy 2) Dark Eldar trick : some form of sonic attack that reduces the Ld of the enemy by -1 every turn (don't remember if it applies to the whole board)
- Speaking of Dark Eldar (nice transition is it not?), I quizzed the man about everyone's favourite pirates. Apparently Phil himself is writing the book. They're redesigning the whole thing from the bottom up : minis, background (he specifically mentioned fleshing it out, which is pretty nice). He would not give me a date (said things get shifted around as development progesses) but we might hope to see it in 2010 (don't quote me on this, it's just personal opinion and in no way endorsed by Phill Kelly) ;
- in other news, I asked him about the Guard tank variants. He said that they'll get around to making them all (couldn't get a confirmation as far as the Deathstrike goes), but the Russes seem to take priority. When I mentioned the artillery (Manticore and such like), he said FW makes very nice models for those. So kits for artillery are a thing of the far future ;
- I questioned him about plastic longcoat guards (with the cover of planetstrike and all that). He basically said they'd love to do it and might get around to do it. When I mentionned the greatcoat Cadian officer, he did admit he looked rather nice. What I get out from this, it's no longer technically infeasible (as was argued a few years back), it's more a question of opportunity ;
- There is a very nice Space Wolves versus Tau picture in Planetstrike. When I asked whether our favourite Space Puppies were coming back, Phill answered with a definitive yes, but without a date
- They're also working on the Necrons. But Phil would not give me details, as it seems he's not directly involved in the projet (and it seems less advanced than the Dark Eldar from what I could infer) and not a date, but they're working on them.
-Thinking about FW, here is some stuff I can remember from a discussion with a FW representative
-The new IA on the Siege of Vraks will include rules for the FW Brass Scorpion (dubbed Greater Brass Scorpion, it has 3 SP) and the Slaughterers (those are nasty : FA 13, fleet of foot, rage ...).
-I asked whether there were another Chaos machine in the works and there is supposed to be one (couldn't get details though) and it's not in the new IA (which makes me dubious as to its existence)
-The Lord of Change is supposed to be released for Christmas (you can thank Santa Tzeentch).
-The next IA after Vraks pt 3 will be about Orks versus Elysians (but I don't think that was news).
-There is no further plan for Krieg release in the pipeline (there may be an odd release or two in the distant future).
That's basically all I can remember ATM.
I'm really looking forward to this game expansion. It should come inbetween finishing my Blood Angels and starting my Orks so I might just be able to finish my trench board as the kits are released. This would be unheard of for me as I usually have so many projects lined up that I'm two years behind the times.
Fingers crossed.
Which is better, Daemonhunters or Chaos Space Marines? There's only one way to find out...FIGHT!
As I mentioned in yesterday's blog I was working on another pictorial battle report. I finished it off today so I thought I'd share it immediately. This was a game played a long time ago, in 3rd edition or maybe the very early days of 40k 4th edition, so long ago in fact that I can't remember who I played against. Most probably it was against Gary, but the models on both sides are from my collection so perhaps it was my sister, a friend or maybe it was one of the rare solo games I played.
Anyway, it looks pretty with all those photographs (even if some of them are quite small) and there is a lot of background fluff written into it too. It's a game including Daemonhunters and Chaos Space Marines using a mission from the Daemonhunters codex; Stop the Ritual.
Check it out here.
The book itself was available to leaf through and GeekyLouis on Warseer posted photos of some of the pages here. The Ironclad Dreadnought is in there, as well as lots of pics of the new terrain kits.
These include the landing pad (which has moveable pieces), the Imperial bastion and the Dark Angels fortress.
Brusilov provided a very comprehensive write up of his experience at Games Day much of which I've reproduced below.
I had a long chat with Mr Phil Kelly (thanks for your kindness and patience Phil), here are things I can remember on top of my head:
- Planetstrike is coming to a store near you next July ;
- all the bunkers including the tower are coming in plastic and will be modular. Phil explained to me that you could easily build a tall fortress wall out of the tower ;
- there is a massive fortress somewhere in the book (don't know if there is a pic somewhere) with a Dark Angels theme. From what I understood, it's coming in plastic too! It's basically a three-part citadel...
- the FOC are indeed different : the only compulsory choice for the attacke is one HQ. He can have up to SIX (yes, six!) Elite Choices. Defender has standard compulsory choices (HQ + 2 Troops) but gets to pick SIX HS choices (Imperial Guard here I come!)
- Phil gave me a rough outline of how the game plays : equal points for each side, opponents agree on a number of stratagem points (like in Cities of Death or Apocalypse). Defender buys fortifications with these points (as well as a few tricks : like a back exit to your bunker to charge the enemy in the rear). Attacker picks nasty tricks. Weapons mounted on fortifications can obviously fire upon the enemy (cannot remember if it's only in the first turn, may be so). Defenders appear to get a free round of shooting before the game starts. Two stratagems I could remember are 1) basically throwing an asteroid at the enemy 2) Dark Eldar trick : some form of sonic attack that reduces the Ld of the enemy by -1 every turn (don't remember if it applies to the whole board)
- Speaking of Dark Eldar (nice transition is it not?), I quizzed the man about everyone's favourite pirates. Apparently Phil himself is writing the book. They're redesigning the whole thing from the bottom up : minis, background (he specifically mentioned fleshing it out, which is pretty nice). He would not give me a date (said things get shifted around as development progesses) but we might hope to see it in 2010 (don't quote me on this, it's just personal opinion and in no way endorsed by Phill Kelly) ;
- in other news, I asked him about the Guard tank variants. He said that they'll get around to making them all (couldn't get a confirmation as far as the Deathstrike goes), but the Russes seem to take priority. When I mentioned the artillery (Manticore and such like), he said FW makes very nice models for those. So kits for artillery are a thing of the far future ;
- I questioned him about plastic longcoat guards (with the cover of planetstrike and all that). He basically said they'd love to do it and might get around to do it. When I mentionned the greatcoat Cadian officer, he did admit he looked rather nice. What I get out from this, it's no longer technically infeasible (as was argued a few years back), it's more a question of opportunity ;
- There is a very nice Space Wolves versus Tau picture in Planetstrike. When I asked whether our favourite Space Puppies were coming back, Phill answered with a definitive yes, but without a date
- They're also working on the Necrons. But Phil would not give me details, as it seems he's not directly involved in the projet (and it seems less advanced than the Dark Eldar from what I could infer) and not a date, but they're working on them.
-Thinking about FW, here is some stuff I can remember from a discussion with a FW representative
-The new IA on the Siege of Vraks will include rules for the FW Brass Scorpion (dubbed Greater Brass Scorpion, it has 3 SP) and the Slaughterers (those are nasty : FA 13, fleet of foot, rage ...).
-I asked whether there were another Chaos machine in the works and there is supposed to be one (couldn't get details though) and it's not in the new IA (which makes me dubious as to its existence)
-The Lord of Change is supposed to be released for Christmas (you can thank Santa Tzeentch).
-The next IA after Vraks pt 3 will be about Orks versus Elysians (but I don't think that was news).
-There is no further plan for Krieg release in the pipeline (there may be an odd release or two in the distant future).
That's basically all I can remember ATM.
I'm really looking forward to this game expansion. It should come inbetween finishing my Blood Angels and starting my Orks so I might just be able to finish my trench board as the kits are released. This would be unheard of for me as I usually have so many projects lined up that I'm two years behind the times.
Fingers crossed.
Which is better, Daemonhunters or Chaos Space Marines? There's only one way to find out...FIGHT!
As I mentioned in yesterday's blog I was working on another pictorial battle report. I finished it off today so I thought I'd share it immediately. This was a game played a long time ago, in 3rd edition or maybe the very early days of 40k 4th edition, so long ago in fact that I can't remember who I played against. Most probably it was against Gary, but the models on both sides are from my collection so perhaps it was my sister, a friend or maybe it was one of the rare solo games I played.
Anyway, it looks pretty with all those photographs (even if some of them are quite small) and there is a lot of background fluff written into it too. It's a game including Daemonhunters and Chaos Space Marines using a mission from the Daemonhunters codex; Stop the Ritual.
Check it out here.
Monday, April 6, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: Forge World open day
Yesterday Forge World held a free open day at Warhammer World. Although I couldn't get there in person I did follow the coverage over on Warseer with some interest.
Orks, Chaos and the Imperial Guard seemed to be favoured armies.
The Orks are getting a load of Trukk kit upgrades, while the Battlewagons will be getting Big Lobbas, Kill Kannons and Supa-zappas.
The Chaos forces will have to wait for a year or so until they receive their Reaver Titan. They also got a Khorne Daemon Prince with Herald, a Khorne Daemon Engine, a Nurgle Daemon engine and a Renegade Militia heavy weapon team for the Siege of Vraks III.
Speaking of Vraks it was confirmed that the third and final instalment of the campaign will be released at Games day 2009 in September. Apparently the Krieg IG army list will be very tank heavy to allow Krieg players to field something other than a siege company. Chaos Space Marine warbands, loyalist Space Marines and Grey Knights will also feature.
More Imperial Guard kits come in the form of upgrades for the Valkyrie. There is a Vendetta conversion kit and a Vulture with two punisher cannons. Yikes!
One thing I wondered about with the release of the new IG codex is the Renegade lists in the first two Vraks books. Supposedly FW will be releasing PDF's to update those lists in line wih the new IG rules. I hope they do as I still plan to finish my Renegade list at some point.
The next IA book after Vraks is rumoured to involve Orks (Goffs, Evil Sunz, and Death Skulls) and Elysian IG.
Ginormous battle report
I've just blogged my latest battle report over on my dedicated blog. It's big in all respects; it was a 2000 point game with my Imperial Guard taking on Gary's Chaos Space Marines and it's a big report, with five photographs coving deployment alone. Check it out here.
Orks, Chaos and the Imperial Guard seemed to be favoured armies.
The Orks are getting a load of Trukk kit upgrades, while the Battlewagons will be getting Big Lobbas, Kill Kannons and Supa-zappas.
The Chaos forces will have to wait for a year or so until they receive their Reaver Titan. They also got a Khorne Daemon Prince with Herald, a Khorne Daemon Engine, a Nurgle Daemon engine and a Renegade Militia heavy weapon team for the Siege of Vraks III.
Speaking of Vraks it was confirmed that the third and final instalment of the campaign will be released at Games day 2009 in September. Apparently the Krieg IG army list will be very tank heavy to allow Krieg players to field something other than a siege company. Chaos Space Marine warbands, loyalist Space Marines and Grey Knights will also feature.
More Imperial Guard kits come in the form of upgrades for the Valkyrie. There is a Vendetta conversion kit and a Vulture with two punisher cannons. Yikes!
One thing I wondered about with the release of the new IG codex is the Renegade lists in the first two Vraks books. Supposedly FW will be releasing PDF's to update those lists in line wih the new IG rules. I hope they do as I still plan to finish my Renegade list at some point.
The next IA book after Vraks is rumoured to involve Orks (Goffs, Evil Sunz, and Death Skulls) and Elysian IG.
Ginormous battle report
I've just blogged my latest battle report over on my dedicated blog. It's big in all respects; it was a 2000 point game with my Imperial Guard taking on Gary's Chaos Space Marines and it's a big report, with five photographs coving deployment alone. Check it out here.
Monday, March 30, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: Plastic Trygon
40k
I came across a new thread on Warseer early last week confirming the sighting of the plastic Tyranid Trygon. Apparently the model has been out in the public domain for some time and you can check out the photo in the Apocalypse rulebook - it is in the fold out Battle of Cold Steel Ridge game report. Brimstone has also confirmed that the model will be released at the same time as the Tyranid codex, not with the Planetstrike expansion due in the summer.
This leads on to further speculation as to whether the Tyranid codex will be released late this year or early 2010. The 'Nid codex would also possibly to tie in with the rumoured Space Hulk release before Christmas. That would give us a release list of:
One rumour I like the sound of, but don't really believe, is that the Blood Angels codex will be released alongside Space Hulk. Veteran gamers will know that the Blood Angels featured heavily in the very first edition of Space Hulk. Wishful thinking? Probably.
Battle reports
It's finally here - the last of my regular Imperial Guard battle reports. This game was played against Gary Warriner, the local GW store manager, and his well modelled and painted Necron army. Gary is a good painter and great with conversions, so much so that one of his armies actually featured in White Dwarf a long, time ago, a Dark Angels force with lots of Necromunda ratskin conversions. Anyway, I enjoyed the game and I hope you enjoy reading about it.
Now that my bog standard, text only reports are all ported over all I have to convert now are the pictorial reports. They will be trickier because I need to find the photographs on my hard drive amongst all the others on there, so they may come by a little less often. Still, I am motivated to blog them because it means I'll be completely up to date with my battle reports. Come on!
I came across a new thread on Warseer early last week confirming the sighting of the plastic Tyranid Trygon. Apparently the model has been out in the public domain for some time and you can check out the photo in the Apocalypse rulebook - it is in the fold out Battle of Cold Steel Ridge game report. Brimstone has also confirmed that the model will be released at the same time as the Tyranid codex, not with the Planetstrike expansion due in the summer.
This leads on to further speculation as to whether the Tyranid codex will be released late this year or early 2010. The 'Nid codex would also possibly to tie in with the rumoured Space Hulk release before Christmas. That would give us a release list of:
- May - Imperial Guard
- June/July - Planetstrike
- August/September - Space Wolves
- October/November - Space Hulk
- December/January - Tyranids
One rumour I like the sound of, but don't really believe, is that the Blood Angels codex will be released alongside Space Hulk. Veteran gamers will know that the Blood Angels featured heavily in the very first edition of Space Hulk. Wishful thinking? Probably.
Battle reports
It's finally here - the last of my regular Imperial Guard battle reports. This game was played against Gary Warriner, the local GW store manager, and his well modelled and painted Necron army. Gary is a good painter and great with conversions, so much so that one of his armies actually featured in White Dwarf a long, time ago, a Dark Angels force with lots of Necromunda ratskin conversions. Anyway, I enjoyed the game and I hope you enjoy reading about it.
Now that my bog standard, text only reports are all ported over all I have to convert now are the pictorial reports. They will be trickier because I need to find the photographs on my hard drive amongst all the others on there, so they may come by a little less often. Still, I am motivated to blog them because it means I'll be completely up to date with my battle reports. Come on!
Monday, March 23, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: Planetstrike
40k
I've been following the rumours on Warseer that The Dude has been posting regarding planetstrike. It seems to be a Cities of Death type supplement for 40k which will be released by July at the latest. The missions are rumoured to be attacker and defender split with the defender choosing the board edge and possibly moving the terrain and making it dangerous by booby trapping it and the attacker getting to place craters and the chance to use outflanking and deep striking, etc.
Games Workshop look to be continuing with their plan to release a new wave of models for a range of armies at the same time. The Space Marines seem to be getting the Ironclad Dreadnought and Land Speeder Storm along with Vulkan He'stan the Salamander special character. Further models are yet to be confirmed but the plastic Thunderhawk rumour has resurfaced again. Other rumours mention Eldar jetbikes, the Chaos Daemon Prince, plastic stormtroopers,
There will apparently be new terrain in the form of bunkers and fortifications. Speculation says that we have already seen some of them in the 5th edition rulebook. There is apparently a bunker on page 230 and a landing pad on page xiv.
I just got my latest edition of White Dwarf through the post and all of the above seems to tie in with the snippets of information which has been fed to us about Phil Kelly's latest studio campaign which seems to mention fortifications and even trenches. It is also clear that this is something in the very near future.
I'm looking forward to this one...
I've been following the rumours on Warseer that The Dude has been posting regarding planetstrike. It seems to be a Cities of Death type supplement for 40k which will be released by July at the latest. The missions are rumoured to be attacker and defender split with the defender choosing the board edge and possibly moving the terrain and making it dangerous by booby trapping it and the attacker getting to place craters and the chance to use outflanking and deep striking, etc.
Games Workshop look to be continuing with their plan to release a new wave of models for a range of armies at the same time. The Space Marines seem to be getting the Ironclad Dreadnought and Land Speeder Storm along with Vulkan He'stan the Salamander special character. Further models are yet to be confirmed but the plastic Thunderhawk rumour has resurfaced again. Other rumours mention Eldar jetbikes, the Chaos Daemon Prince, plastic stormtroopers,
There will apparently be new terrain in the form of bunkers and fortifications. Speculation says that we have already seen some of them in the 5th edition rulebook. There is apparently a bunker on page 230 and a landing pad on page xiv.
I just got my latest edition of White Dwarf through the post and all of the above seems to tie in with the snippets of information which has been fed to us about Phil Kelly's latest studio campaign which seems to mention fortifications and even trenches. It is also clear that this is something in the very near future.
I'm looking forward to this one...
Monday, March 16, 2009
NEWS AND RUMOURS: 40k Grand Tournament results
The Warhammer 40k UK Grand Tournament was held this weekend at Warhammer World. The top ten, via Prophaniti on The Warhammer Forum and Mad Larkn on Warseer, were:
1: Ugo Oliveti, Eldar (Seer council on bikes)
2: Di Tomaso, CSM (double lash, 5 oblits, LR with zerkers, plague marine and MoD marines )
3: Urban Knight, CSM (2 lash, 4 oblits and Land raiding berzerkers)
4: torgoch, Eldar (2 Seer Council Eldar)
5: Scott Young, Orks (4 Battlewagon + Ghazgul)
6: James Mcglough, CSM (Chaos, Abbadon, Kharne and 2 Land raiders)
7: Phil Walter, Tyranids (Nidzilla)
8: Gary Percival, Orks
9: Falces Imperatoris, Witchunters (canoness, priest and celestians packing 3 eviserators and with double flamers) in a rhino, Two Rhino mounted sisters squads packing double flamers, One Foot sisters squad with double meltas, A little squad of 5 seraphim with inferno pistols, 2 exorcists, A squadron of 2 Penny engines)
10: SpikyDavid, Orks (4 trucks of boys, a warboss, a mek, and several squadrons of buggies)
Out of the top 50 there were:
14 Orks
12 Eldar
7 Chaos
4 Daemons
2 Witch hunters
2 Tyranids
2 Space marines
2 Space wolves
1 Necron
1 Blood angel
1 Dark eldar
1 Guard
1 Tau
Here's the link to the full results sheet.
1: Ugo Oliveti, Eldar (Seer council on bikes)
2: Di Tomaso, CSM (double lash, 5 oblits, LR with zerkers, plague marine and MoD marines )
3: Urban Knight, CSM (2 lash, 4 oblits and Land raiding berzerkers)
4: torgoch, Eldar (2 Seer Council Eldar)
5: Scott Young, Orks (4 Battlewagon + Ghazgul)
6: James Mcglough, CSM (Chaos, Abbadon, Kharne and 2 Land raiders)
7: Phil Walter, Tyranids (Nidzilla)
8: Gary Percival, Orks
9: Falces Imperatoris, Witchunters (canoness, priest and celestians packing 3 eviserators and with double flamers) in a rhino, Two Rhino mounted sisters squads packing double flamers, One Foot sisters squad with double meltas, A little squad of 5 seraphim with inferno pistols, 2 exorcists, A squadron of 2 Penny engines)
10: SpikyDavid, Orks (4 trucks of boys, a warboss, a mek, and several squadrons of buggies)
Out of the top 50 there were:
14 Orks
12 Eldar
7 Chaos
4 Daemons
2 Witch hunters
2 Tyranids
2 Space marines
2 Space wolves
1 Necron
1 Blood angel
1 Dark eldar
1 Guard
1 Tau
Here's the link to the full results sheet.
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