Warhammer Fest 2018 News!

Holy Buckets, guys!

I’m still trying to digest the amount of news that happened this weekend around Warhammer 40k, Age of Sigmar, and specialist stuff from Forge World. It’s just too much! Well, is there really such a thing as too much good stuff? Anyway, there was so much awesomeness coming out from Coventry that it’s taken me a while to process.

Where to begin? Well, let’s talk about new Stormcast stuff:

These guys were the bomb for me back when Age of Sigmar launched. True, they were new and shiny and all that, but I had an absolute blast painting up my Stormcast army as Lions of Sigmar, and to this day, I think some of my proudest work can be seen in this very Liberator:

They’ve had more guys over the last few years, for sure, and I can’t say as I was a big fan of the weird lizard-riding Scout-like guys, but now we’re getting Stormcast wizards in bona-fide wizard garb, and I think I love it! I’ve been dormant with Age of Sigmar for a long time now, but I think I may well be tempted to pick some of these chaps up when they arrive. The temptation is real!

Before that, however, it looks like we’re getting some super awesome looking new Nighthaunt models to go alongside Nagash and his Mortarchs, and these are also proving to be a temptation too far! I’m trying to remind myself how fiddly and difficult it was to put those Spirit Hosts together back in the day, but even so, they look beautiful!

That’s not all though, as next month, just three years after the game first launched, we’re getting a 2nd Edition of Age of Sigmar, which sounds like it’s taking on a lot of the fan feedback from these last few years, and could be pretty much amazing! The new edition is coming with gaming aids and objective markers and terrain that sounds very much like the Dark Imperium launch from last year, and it looks as exciting as all hell! I’m still somehow resisting getting myself back into fantasy gaming, as I feel like I’m too heavily invested in 40k at this point, but I’ll certainly be keeping a very close eye on the proceedings!

Moving away from fantasy and Age of Sigmar, let’s take a look at what’s happening in the grim darkness of the far future…

Well, they did say they were starting! This is a preview of the first Sister of Battle model that will be made available as a kind of vanguard for the main releases, and she does look pretty damn awesome. The detailing is incredible, and I love that scenic base! I’m 100% sure that I’ll be picking these girls up to add to my Imperial force once they’re ready. Cannot wait!

I know I can’t not mention this, as so many people are chomping at the bit, but I’m really just not that interested in Titanicus. It looks like it’ll be a fine game, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not that bothered in Knights in general, so can’t say as I’d want to play a game devoted solely to these big guys.

What I am excited for is the next gang for Necromunda, however! I still need to do a blog on this game, but it continues to excite me with every release, and having just picked up my Van Saar pre-order recently, I’m already excitedly looking forward to the Cawdors coming to join the fray! I love how the game has been expanding, and I can’t wait for more!

We’ve also seen the announcement of the next Horus Heresy book, featuring rules for Blood Angels and White Scars among others, and we’re getting a few Alpha Legion models, including the big man himself, who looks awesome, and I’m still seriously considering picking him up soon!

I wasn’t expecting this, however – and I think I’m still pretty amazed at the fact we’re getting a Necron Titan! The thing looks immense, and I’m not sure I have the house room for it, let alone the budget!

I’m trying very hard to resist a lot of these things due to gaming budget, however something that initially passed me by late last week is going to very much be an instant purchase, and that’s the Rogue Trader skirmish game that’s coming out later this year:

I mean, this thing looks just beautiful. I don’t mean the gameplay, I just mean the models. Its subject matter is just so weird and out of left-field, I saw the blurry leak photo and wondered if it’s not just some weird knock-off thing, but it turns out that it’s very real, and it looks incredible!

Those Nurgle beasties could easily be used for Drukhari Grotesques, but I think this is another game that could very easily be kept as a game, something I think is almost a bit weird with a lot of these GW games that aren’t Blood Bowl or Necromunda. I mean, how many people bought Deathwatch: Overkill because they wanted an actual board game? I’m still wondering if there will be a way to use the Rogue Trader part of this force in regular tabletop 40k, and I’m sure the Nurgle stuff will either get rules in the same way, or you’ll be able to use things like the cleaver-guy as a Beast of Nurgle or Herald of Nurgle, or whatever.

But the fact that it’s Rogue Trader says so much about how far GW has come lately. There’s such an air of nostalgia around the products they’re bringing, along with a determination to do their own past justice with stuff like the Genestealer Cults, Necromunda, and now this. It’s not just the fifth or sixth re-release of the same Space Hulk game, but they’re pouring effort into things because, I can only assume, it’s now clear that people actively want to see this stuff, and will buy it up like nobody’s business, and will clamour for more until the cows come home. The Nurgle stuff looks gross, as it should be – some of the models manage to capture the perfect essence of creepy and cartoon grotesque-ness that Nurgle is all about, for me – while the Rogue Trader contingent looks fancy as all hell, and exactly like Rogue Traders should look. Man, it’s making me want to read that Omnibus now!

I’m finding myself genuinely excited about this, and I’m loving the fact that we seem to be getting a regular stream of board games from GW around Christmastime. It’s awesome to see how many games they’re producing now, and I really hope that it’s a success and sees further support down the line!