Betrayal at Calth - New pictures

Box Art. Ultramarines vs Word Bearers. Lets hope the models are not specific to the two legions...

Plastic contemptor with what appears to be Multi Melta and Keres Assault Cannon

The game itself is rumored to be an adaption from the popular Space Hulk. Its apparently designed to be an entry into the 30k Heresy era conflict.

The box set is played on tiles just like any other stand alone game. A few rumours are circulating talking about further or future releases of plastic Heresy era kits dependent on demand.

This looks to be an easy sell to many, and I can see why many people think the plastics will be released in the future as seperate kits. It makes a lot of sense when you look at the releases from Forgeworld recently focusing on upgrade kits for Mk III & IV marines.

The Mk IV armour frame pics leak a few months back show an equally complex kit in grey plastic not unlike the Mk VII kits, as opposes to the snap fit and coloured plastic often found in stand alone boxed sets.

This may well be my first GW purchase in 4 months. Just when you thought you where out... (Forgeworld addictions not included...)

Betrayal at Calth - New GW Horus Heresy Game!

Pre orders on the 7th, released on the 14th

Its official, the new boxed set this year is Betrayal at Calth.

Betrayal at Calth

Black Library announcement

We are delighted to announce today, the biggest thing to come out of Black Library since the Horus Heresy: a new event series on a galactic scale the like of which no Warhammer 40,000 series has ever approached before. 

Clear your reading list for 2016, because ‘The Beast Arises’ is going to be huge.
Follow the links below to learn more about the upcoming event, set your reminder for the new series, and even pre-order the eBooks of the first few volumes from iBooks. 

http://www.blacklibrary.com/the-beast-arises.html 

https://itunes.apple.com/WebOb…/MZStore.woa/…/viewMultiRoom…

 Sounds interesting... The Horus Heresy is a tough act to follow.

Total War: Warhammer Dwarfs vs OnG game play

As release day gets closer, The makers of Total War have released some pre Alpha game play of the Dwarfs gaining a narrow victory over the Orcs and Goblins.

I can see myself losing several months of hobby time exploring this game. 

It still does my head in that this game is being released after Games Workshop canned WHFB. There was a large influx of 40k players from the Dawn of War series, and one would expect that Total Wars offering would have had a similar effect... 

Oh! My bad. I forgot that Games Workshop don't make games, its a model company...

Classic Tui add there.

Games Workshops new Airbrush Paint range...

The rumors where true, Games Workshop is releasing a range of 51 airbrush paints... in their stupid flip top pots. WORST MOVE EVER!

Who in there right mind made this decision? Dropper bottles are a (well almost it seems) a no brainer when it comes to airbrushing. Controlling the amount of paint in the brush is essential. 

It seems increasingly odd coupled to the new marketing approach (with AoS) alienating all the existing older fan base, essentially the ones who would own or use an airbrush. I can't imagine many 14 year olds. Must be aimed at 40k tanks...

And it seems according to the blurb the paints are "great for base coating" your models. The wastage that will be seen from using pipettes is obviously the plus side for GW, as they will sell more. Marketing genius! 

We recently seen Forgeworld go down the same route introducing an airbrush paint range aimed at their 30k line, once again in flip top pots. I have actually purchased a few of the clear paints to cover some gaps in my selection, but promptly put them into dropper bottles.

With such a huge range of airbrush paint available already in dropper bottles aimed specifically at the scifi/fantasy gaming community such as Vallejo Game Air and Badger Minitaire ranges, which are developed by airbrush professionals, the market appears saturated.

Not to mention the even larger range of 'true colours' aimed more at historical gamer's, model kit builders and dioramas from industry specialists such as Vallejo Model Air, AK Interactive and MIG productions. 

All these well established brands make excellent paints. I have tried all of the mentioned ranges and can recommend any of them for quality, consistency and price (it works out about half the price for the same volume). The Vallejo Model Air metallics are some of the best in the market, and I use much of the paints I have for brush work as well as air.

Vallejo also do an extensive primer and auxiliary range in sizes from 18ml to 200ml containers, including polyurethane primers, airbrush cleaners, acrylic thinners, flow aids, masks, varnishes etc

And guess what, all of them are in dropper bottles...

Games Workshops new range will need to be a cut above the rest to make up for the shortfall of not being in dropper bottles, not to mention double the price...

Celestant Prime pictures leak + hobby update

The Celestant Prime, first among Sigmars warriors, wielding Ghal Maraz his very own weapon, and the Celestial Rod which turns him into Teto'eko on steroids!

Love it or hate it, AoS is receiving a lot more love these past few months than most other games do in years. Now if only Games Workshop would actually write a decent tactical game with a balancing mechanism.... don't hold your breath, they hate us. They don't want us recruiting new players into the hobby for them anymore...

In other news, White Dwarf has gone digital on an iPad app, and can now be had for less than half the cost of a paper copy. $3.79 per weekly issue or $10.99 for a 4 week subscription.

Warhammer 9th age is starting to get some traction, with the usual culprits involved with ETC/Swedish/various comp systems having input into the first draft (version 0.1). 

Warhammer 8.5 and other various renditions seem to wax and wane dependent on the time of day, with many attempts at 'fixing' 8th already being tried. The question begs to differ, if it needed so much fixing, then why where people not already re-writing it? Short of comp nothing of the sort really had effort thrown at it.

Around the globe, several AoS events have had their time in the sun, with Clash an example being held in the UK this past weekend with 60 in attendance. No real word yet on the scope of its success from a competitive perspective but word on the street was games tended to be decided on the first double turn swings.

A little closer to home, my blog has been a bit quieter this past month not because of lack of interest, but more due to work and a little computer game called World of Warships taking up far too much time. Seriously good fun cruising around in a Yamato class Battleship!

Also, hobby room (well, man/wardollie cave) 2.0 is nearing completion. Just awaiting a few more paint racks and book cases to arrive. Pictures to come. One thing for sure, I have way to many paints...

Not enough SKULLS

Just when you were thinking there where not enough skulls, GW fixes that for you....

While you where sleeping, Forgeworld updated their Webstore

While you where sleeping, Forgeworld updated their Webstore into a format similar to the Games Workshop store, making it a lot easier to navigate.

In among all this is a nice new limited edition Legion Centurion in Mk III armour!

In addition to this for the next 6 weeks every order over £100 will get free shipping.

I hope the £100 threshold becomes a regular feature, as the existing £200 puts people in my country into the expensive duty, taxes and fees range...

All your base belong to me - GW releases AoS bases

Games Workshop will be releasing all the odd shaped bases this weekend for pre-order that match up with my basing chart.

It includes:
60x35mm
45x75mm (46x75mm)
90x50mm (90x52mm)
70x105mm
80mm
160mm
100mm
130mm
32mm (100 pack)
25mm (100 pack)

I will be updating my chart to version 2 to include the specific sizes and change a few to more suitable bases specifically the 90x52mm size for previous Monstrous Cavalry models on 50x100

Latest Rumours and Pictures from Age of Sigmar

This weeks Age of Sigmar leaks look towards revealing some more of the lore...

So it is indeed the Great Horned Rat that has ascended to become a true fallen God

And the Prince of Chaos, He is missing, his throne left vacant...

I never trusted those Dwarfs. Greedy little buggers...

But aparently they finally get some sort of cavalry. They ride Lava Beasts now...

The contents page of this weeks AoS Campaign book.

And finally some pictures of the new scenery frames. Note how they are in frames, and not cut out, indicating they are cast by GW themselves and not the cheap China stuff

 

Forgeworld & Black Library Webstores under construction?

We live in interesting times...

Proposed basing conversion chart

I thought I would post up the easy part of the WHFB to AoS conversion.
Here is the base sizing chart I have created as something to potentially be used in creating tournaments or even just transferring your old square bases to new rounds

The idea behind this is there is a standard table to convert square bases to the closest equivalent round bases manufactured by GW, and that a Hero model will use the next size up base to represent their influence on the battlefield. Moving forward, I anticipate there will be a standard rule that you will measure from the base, not the model.

I am currently working on the full conversion chart for the existing GW model range that has warscrolls. 

After that I have a draft rules errata to make AoS playable as a competitive game, and a points formula so there is at least a place to start from for purposes of balancing.

Getting past the Rage: Whats good about Age of Sigmar?

I know I may be coming across rather negative lately over Age of Sigmar, but to be fair, there is much valid criticism to be had over this new game. 

But I digress, and in the first sentence! This is going to be difficult... 

SO how about we take a quick look at what is good about this new game, and don't get me wrong, there are several good things about the Age of Sigmar if you overlook the rules.. done it again...

First lets look at the new models.

A new aesthetic has been introduced for the first new faction in Age of Sigmar. Many have labeled it as Space Marines in fantasy. Fair enough, but credit where credit is due. The models themselves are technically superb. They are simple to assemble, dynamic and characterful, all in a starter boxed set. They are simply put, the best starter models produced in any box set by Games Workshop to date. And they already have a reputation for producing the best plastic miniatures in the world. 
The style is a Greeko-Roman full body plate armour, something you would only ever find in a movie or a fantasy setting. The style is decisive and up until now a love it or hate it thing. Personally the more I look at them the more I like the sculpts. Its a matter of personal taste but those Prosecutors look amazing. 
The broad flat areas and the hard edges on the armour are a painters dream, allowing much greater "personality" to be applied to each individual model. 
There is also a lot of yawn, I mean Khorne stuff. As per usual. How about some Tzeentch stuff for a change (lol) ?
I think I am also one of few who think the increase in scale is a good thing, but that might have more to do with my eyesight being not as good as it use to be. 
There are some amazing paint jobs being posted on social media of the free miniature from White Dwarf, inspiring even

Round bases you say? I'm of the opinion it dosn't really matter. Square, round, dodecahedron... its all the same. What I can say is the models previewed so far look great on round bases. The extra room to pose or display the model is a hobbyists dream. There is a theme forming here...

Next up I think would be model count. Yup, I think its a positive that we have the ability to field less models than previous. Sure you could create small armies with 8th but it was always difficult for many races to make a 600 point spread without critically hamstringing your army. Lower model count also makes it more realistic to do multiple armies, and far far easier (cheaper) for new people to get into the game/hobby. Hell you currently don't even need much more than the starter box to have an effective force (at least, at the moment). When was the last time you could say that? No longer do I need to paint up units of 40 to make effective hoards of infantry (20 seams to be the new magic number for hoard bonus). 

Now I am going to say that there are some positives to the RULES here. They are not all terrible, well at least in the context of the rules themselves.

No more "10 from the back" !!!! this makes me so happy! Monster rules look good to, and I especially like the diminishing returns to be had as they get wounded. The high number of wounds models can achieve now compared to 8th is also great, In 8th, 6 wounds on a Bloodthirster made it necessary to tool them up to make them as survivable as possible (10 from the back!) but now with 14, they can take a few hits and still be viable, and are not overwhelming as they get diminishing returns as they take wounds.That's almost balance!

I also like the idea of "battleshock" tests in a way. It could get very messy managing fleeing units all over the place, and some 8th edition builds simply allowed no chance of being broken and/or fleeing at all, making the grind very difficult, and some match ups impossible! Now with the battleshock mechanic, attrition is no longer absolute. Models are removed piecemeal in a rather similar fashion to unstable in 8th. There are downsides to this however that's not for this post! There are a few other examples of rules for the better, and no doubt some more that will be revealed in the future.

And last but not least I would like to mention the realms in the perspective of the hobby side. The new background story of 9 realms to fight in leaves amazing scope for the future. I cannot wait to see what the realm of metal will look like on the table, or how about the realm of shadow? The scope for scenic base modelling, for display boards if tournaments survive the transition and the tables themselves is just incredible. Rules be damned this is the one thing which Age of Sigmar really has going for it. The combination of 9 realms and the larger individual basing makes this a hobbyists dream theater. Moving on from that the battlefields will look amazing. We have all ready seen the teasers of the new terrain which look superb, and putting them in the context of a board based on the realm of light for example. There are no limits. So if you are the creative sort, I can see more effort going into the setting of a fight than the models themselves.

So if you are not feeling this game from the rules perspective, then take a look at the hobby side. It could still be for you. I can see, moving forward, that potential tournaments will be scenario driven and have a larger hobby aspect to them than previous.

I haven't really mention much in the way of background story as to be honest, there is not a lot of it out there yet, and it would not be fair to prematurely judge it. I expect good things. If the art work is anything to go by!

Don't worry, I'll be back in full swing in the next few days and I will post my first draft of "fixing" the rules. 

WD 77 cover leaked already

Looks like we get the new lord and his pet Demigriff

This weeks White Dwarf & AoS release pictures

We have picture from the latest White Dwarf. Unfortunately they are in German, of which I read very little of.

This week we see themed dice cups, a hardcover AoS book which I assume to be the scenario/fluff/background plus the 4 pages of rules (BRB replacement) as well as a limited edition version. 

We also get the Lord model pictured above, as well as a box of 5 Stormcast Eternals with options to make the following:

shield and blade two blades hammer and shield two hammers 1 grandblade 1 grandhammer

Oh, and not a 40k model in sight...