Ravage Magazine 33

The latest copy of this French magazine arrived while I was away. Reading the tag line, "le Magazine des jeux de strategie fantastique", I'm reminded of a story my father in law told me about his being in a French restaurant and asking for instructions about how to eat snails. "Avec sentiment, m'sieur", responded the waiter, "avec sentiment!". In French, you have to read this stuff with feeling.

News

Most of this stuff we already know, although in some cases only from the last few days (Zut. Missed out on le scoop). So I'll stick to what I didn't know, in fragments:

- Rezolution Wave 6 - less models than preceding waves. Two new female Ronin minis, and a large Stomper Warbot.
- Wargods Wave 10 - will be Typhon (children of Set), same format as previous waves though (various sets and a limited edition special)
- Ilyad - coming after the greens we've seen, a Brown Orc Champion in February, and in March a new Commander Parsifal sculpt, a new Imperial Centurion, Vorag Barbarians with two handed weapons, Shaman and Killer (already seen) Barbarians. The howling crest barbarians we've already seen are meant to be the first tribe of three that they'll bring out, as well as various slaves. Also planned - Barbarian Minotaurs, more Brown Orcs and Grey Orc Lancers.
- GW - apparently the City of the Dead stuff will be accompanied by modular, hex-based, plastic terrain. Heroscape, anyone?

The rest

I need time to sit and read some of this in more detail. As you can see there's a lot to the magazine. It's great on a long plane ride - the text is very dense, and the page format is quite large. It helps to get a sense of how various games work, whether they're exciting or not. So forgive me if the following isn't particularly detailed, I've pretty much skim read it at this point.

- Privateer Press Hordes preview. Nothing new I think, though a) I'm not as familiar as I'd like to be with the Hordes stuff and b) I need to re-read in detail. IF you have a pressing question you think might be answered in this article, mail me or post a comment.
- GW Dwarfs preview
- Urban War - Junkers article. A couple of sample armies. These new Junkers legionnaires, in particular, have skinny legs. I'd say, by the way, that their models are some way behind their concept art, which is superb.
- Racer Knights of Falconus. Not interested.
- Mechwarrior, Age of Destruction. Ditto. I play heroclix and MK1 with the kids occasionally.
- Blood and Gold - Part 2 of an article about Warmachine mercenaries. Privateer in particular gets a lot of coverage in Ravage, partly because they have to have some way of getting their rules out in French. So a bunch of this is translation of rules and cards. In return, Ravage gets a great cover, which is basically Hordes artwork.
- Infinity - supplementary rules. Again a translation.
- GW Mercenaries in Warhammer. Nice article on background and collecting. And a complete list of where to find all the rules for each of the Dogs of War. Not so difficult is it, GW?
- Confrontation Army Lists, part 3 - Dwarfs of Mid-Nor and Tir Na Bor. For each army, a theme, a tactica and some painting tips.
- Rezolution Battle Report. APAC vs CSO. I know next to nothing about this game. I'm not so impressed with the minis.
- A Campaign for Freres d'Armes (which I think is Fenryll)
- Scenario for Chroniques de la Lune Noir (Ilyad)
- Brothers against Brothers - A scenario for Starship Troopers - basically bugs vs bugs. Looks like a gardening documentary.
- Painting Guide - sponsored by French retailer StarPlayer. This is part 1, preparation. Very nice article. Includes a piece on stripping metal models. An indication of why Rackham models don't have slots in the base, in the article they just clip the slots off.
- Painting Guide - a masterclass on painting the Fenryll limited edition serpent hunter, seen previously on this site. The paint job in question is fantastic. I note in his paint list he still has enough of the old GW Orc Flesh Wash left to use on this model.

After this, a collectors price guide for clix (hmm, Mage Knight one, don't give up the day job) and some articles on computer games.

And that's it.

White Dwarf (UK) 314 Highlights

Just before Xmas I calculated that I was buying White Dwarf sufficiently regularly that I might as well subscribe. It being just before Xmas, and feeling (not unusually) generous to myself, I took out the offer of a years subscription combined with the Chapel of Sanctuary model, all of which kind of got discounted, but in the end I lost track of whether it was very much. The Chapel arrived earlier this week, it's a chunky resin pre-painted model, quite evocative, but with the Imperial aquila stencil painted on the chapel floor it's unlikely to pass muster in a 30 Years War recreation. Not disappointed though as despite the persistent voice at the back of my mind I'm at least a quarter convinced it was a free gift. Kind of.

The unlooked for advantage though, is you get the magazine a week early. Normally it goes on sale from our local independent on the last Friday of the month, and hits GW the day after that. Mine arrived yesterday, however.

So the only disappointment is a distinct loss of form. Partly this is because "what we are mainly trying to sell you this month" is Lord of the Rings, a game in which I'm not a stakeholder (though these new models are mighty tempting, I have to say); and partly because the magazine seems to be hurtling towards being far more of a catalogue than it's been in recent times. Accordingly, there's rather a lot of "why you should buy this package" and not a lot of "what to do after buying them", although admittedly this mainlines directly into the psyche of the average miniature buyer (me included).

OK, OK, you want to know what's in it.

New Releases

- LotR: A Shadow in the East. Rulebook, £8, released 11/2/06 (dates are European format. Can't please everyone)
- LotR: Easterlings, box of 20, £15, Perry Twins sculpts (8 bows, 8 swords, 4 spears), 11/2/06
- LotR: Easterling Kataphrakts, box of 5 mounted, Michael Perry, £20, 11/2/06
- LotR: Easterling Kataphrakts, blister of 1 mounted, Michael Perry, £5, 11/2/06
- LotR: Cirion and Madril (Gondorian heroes), blister of 2, Michael Perry, £10, 18/2/06
- LotR: Murin and Drar (Dwarvish heroes), blister of 2, Michael Perry, £10, 18/2/06
- LotR: Khamul the Easterling, blister of 2 (mounted and unmounted), Steve Saleh, £12, 11/2/06
- WFB: Dwarf Cannon, box of 1 cannon and 3 crew, Michael Footitt and Tim Adcock, £12, 28/1/06
- WFB: Dwarf Thunderers, box of 16, Colin Grayson and Aly Morrison, £18, 28/1/06
- WFB: Dwarf Bolt Thrower, box of 1 bolt thrower and 3 crewmen, Tim Adcock and Seb Perbert, £12, 4/2/06
- WFB: Dwarf Lord with Hammer and Shield, blister, Felix Paniagua, £6, 28/1/06
- WFB: Dwarf Slayers, blister of 3, Aly Morrison, £6, re-released (note) 28/1/06
- WFB: Dwarf Slayer Lord, blister, Aly Morrison, £6, re-released (note) 28/1/06
- WFB: Dwarf Slayer Command, blister of 2, Aly Morrison, £6, re-released (note) 28/1/06

Later, in the LotR section, some further releases are mentioned, due around the time of WD 315. Beyond those already on pre-order (see the previous article on this blog, there are):

- Dwarf Command, presumably 2 figs, £6
- Khandish Charioteer, metal boxed set, presumably also includes the chariot and something to pull it, £12
- Eorl the Young, Rohan warrior, mounted and unmounted, £12

News and Previews

- The Giant being previewed in various places will be designed to be set up in 4 variants - Orcs and Goblins; Ogre Slavegiant; Dogs of War; Chaos. Or mix and match. And since it can be taken as a Dogs of War you'll all need one.
- Preview of the Fall of Medusa V global campaign
- Warhammer Historicals - Vlad the Impaler. Very small picture and barely enough room for the title. Pity, as I'm quite interested.
- Sabertooth - some (again a bit small) previews of some forthcoming Warcry art.
- Black Library - two new pendants. Back to the golden age of the first 10 issues of White Dwarf when pendants and belt buckles must have made up more than 50% of the ads
- Forge World - Tyranid Trygon
- Price Changes - has its own department now, and may at some point be the 4th game in the magazine. Anyhow, 40k tanks go from £20 to £25; 40k APC sets go from £18 to £20; 40k bikes go from £5 to£6; and paint goes from £1.75 to £2. What?!! And on the same day I discover my local model train shop stocks Vallejo MC. Hmm.
- Mordheim - still exists. Yes really.
- BL publishing - previews Inheritance, Faith and Fire and the Art of Warhammer 40k. But not at any great length.

Lord of the Rings

- Out of the East - Meant to be Designer's Notes, but it isn't. Mainly pictures (with prices against each one) with some very brief comments from Mat Ward, written up as news.
- Servants of Sauron - Various Easterling armies, one of 250 points and three of 500 points. With (natch) prices. You're going to be paying around £1 to £1.20 for every 10 points, basically.
- War in the East - Battle Report. Gondor (including Aragorn) versus Khamul (is it just me that thinks this is a hokey name) the Easterling. Regaular readers of White Dwarf, used to seeing "the army they now want you to buy" against "the army they previously wanted you to buy" will not need too much help to guess the winner. Apart from, the article doesn't make it particularly clear what the victory conditions were.
- Murin and Drar - painting guide.
- Easterling Castle - terrain. Not very good. The final product, with models, looks like a siege of a sewing machine. And I've noticed that suddenly WD articles in the main don't name their authors.
- Defenders of the Realm - collecting a Minas Tirith army. No prices. Kind of OK. I've noticed, increasingly, that the painting guides assume you can't particularly be bothered. The basic army is drybrushed, including the faces, boltgun metal on black. So you're going to have them looking like the army of the dead.

Mordheim

Start of a three part series. Mordheim (Witchhunters) and Necromunda (I'm a Cawdor man) are probably my favourite GW games. This article sets the scene for the campaign (which will then necessarily be squeezed into the next two issues). It's set in the "Death's Head District". A page of fluff (scene setting fiction), a page of background + house rules. The campaign calls for each warband to be randomly allocated a particular Priest of the death god, Morr, so two more pages of fluff covering the background of each of these characters, and a rules profile which effectively covers all of them. Then two more pages of the delighted WD staff introducing their warbands, and in each case 50% is more fictional intro. So the non-fluff bits are basically "I've always liked Dwarfs, and they're still one of the armies we'd like you to buy, so ..."

I'm semi-expecting a Tau warband to turn up as special guest stars next month.

Now, I do like WD, otherwise I wouldn't have subscribed ("free" terrain notwithstanding) but this is a self-indulgent waste of time and space. I want to read about the games and everyone's jockeying for a book deal.

Pah.

Warhammer

Being mostly Dwarves. Sorry, Dwarfs.

- Secrets of the Runes - Decent article by Gav Thorpe about rune magic in Dwarf armies. Some price-free example armies.
- Out of the Mouths of Thanes - three dwarf players (Paul Sawyer, Nick Kyme, Rik Turner) talk about how their armies are affected by the new rules. Brief but decent.
- Fire Power - making and painting dwarf cannon. Mainly pictures. Not bad. Author not listed, I'm guessing it's a US article
- Painting Workshop - Slayers. Per previous comments, the painting tips are no longer 'eavy metal impossible, the stuff looks more like made-in-Shangai clix stuff. Either they are suddenly feeling threatened by Rackham and feel that they can differentiate by being less threatening, or maybe these are going to be used as briefing notes when GW goes into the pre-painted plastics space. As they surely will.
- Unbreakable - tactica on dealing with unbreakable troop types (slayers, flagellants, etc)
- Warhammer Chronicles - revolt in the Moot, 2502. Haven't heard from halflings in WFB for quite a while, they probably said, so this is a chance to reintroduce them. Little sidebars on the halftank, the hot pot and lumpin croop's fighting cocks. Finishes with the admonition "ORDER YOUR DOGS OF WAR FROM GW DIRECT!" (their capitals and exclamation mark).

40k

- Marshals of the Black Templars - an opportunity to just go through the entire BT line again, mainly pictures, and then show some conversions with associated fluff. A bit too picture heavy (a common failing of the current incarnation of WD, part of the issue being that the pictures are mostly of the regular models and could be pretty much box art. And the number of painting, conversion and gaming articles are going down - it's mainly box art and "how much to expect to spend to get the army in the picture". Not including paint at £2 a pot).
- Creature Feature Revisited - the British show that conversions are best left to GW US. A sequel to an article in WD 292 where various conversions were dreamed up as potential alien creatures. They all look pretty weak to me, maybe with the exception of the Siltwalkers of Jalgrax V (unfortunately, this and the one that I'd place second, the Grox, don't come with any information about the actual conversion process involved). Then some missions for the creatures.
- Necron Tactica - given the lack of troop choices this takes two pages, containing only two paragraphs of core text.
- Tau Preview - just the models. You'll have seen them already if you've been tracking the GW sneak peeks
- Seeing the Light - showcase article for Victoria Lamb. Some nice conversions and ideas

Other stuff

- Convershun Klinic - Exalted Demon. Fraid I didn't like it very much.

... and then significantly increased coverage of stores and clubs, as well as a restatement of recent releases.

Advance Orders

The magazine runs ahead of the website:

Following will all go on the system on 28/1/06 released 11/3/06

- Tallarn Squad £20
- Tallarn Officers £6
- Tallarn Special Weapons £6
- Tallarn Troopers £6
- Tallarn Rough Riders £5

Following will all go on system 4/2/06, released 18/3/06

- Dwarf Lord with pistol and axe £6
- Dwarf Thorgrim Grudgebearer on Throne £20

Following will all go on system 11/2/06, released 25/3/06

- Eorl the Young, mounted and unmounted £12
- Khandish Charioteer (who has indeed a chariot, and two horses, and a big hat) £12
- Dwarf Command (LotR) £6

Next Month

The Tau ... Battle report will be the Dark Eldar versus the Tau. I don't hold out much hope for the Dark Eldar on that one.

Big crowd of Tau on the back page, fighting off a very small incursion of Black Templars. Has beens ...

Minis News 21 Jan 06

I didn't go away, at least not completely. I've been in California, then New York. Back now, for a week at least.

Fair amount of stuff to catch up on. Starting with the various minis news since last time:

Black Hat Martian Cephalopod Preview

For their Martian Empires range. 240mm high, designed to fit on a 120mm square base, and due for release in February. "the Tripod will be joined by Cephalod Infantry, artillery and a handling machine in due course."



Infinity February Releases

- Ariadna: Uxia McNeill Boarding Shotgun, Special Ariadna Service.
- Yu Jing: Zhanshi Hacker
- Yu Jing: Invincible with Multi Rifle
- Yu Jing: Ninja with Combi Rifle, previously only in starter pack
- PanOceania: Knight Hospitaller (pictured)
- PanOceania: Fusilier Hacker (pictured)

 

And the first Haqqislam figures are expected in March. Here's a preview:



More Ilyad Greens

... from their barbarian range:

- Trencher (??)
- Killer (pictured)

... and from the Chronicles of the Black Moon range, Knight of Justice (also pictured)

 

New Rackham Models

... for French release in February:

- Sulphur Master (pictured)
- Sessair Centaurs
- Soïm
- Wind Warriors 2
- Behemoth Mountaineer
- And another Behemoth Mountaineer



Privateer Press Previews

More stuff for the very promising looking Hordes release in April ...

- Hoarluck Doomshaper
- Archdomina Makeda
- Prophet of Everblight
- Baldur the Stonecleaver

All except the last pictured below, in that order.


 

Freebooter Green

Available at the beginning of February for E11.50, 40mm high, Long John, PIR 004, a rather nice pirate figure.



GW news

I have the latest UK White Dwarf (314), I'll post a review tonight hopefully. In the interim, at sneak peeks:

- Tau Sky Ray Missile Defence Gunship
- some uninspiring Giant Spiders

New on UK Advance Order:

- WHFB - Novel - Inheritance by Steven Savile
- 40k - Novel - Faith and Fire by James Swallow
- 40k - Graphic Novel - Imperial Gothic - collection of Dan Abnett's comics stuff
- LotR - Cirion and Madril, £10, blister of 2 figures
- LotR - Murin and Drar, £10, blister of 2 figures
- LotR - Khandish Horsemen, £20, box of 5 figures
- LotR - Khandish Horseman, £5, blister of 1 figure
- LotR - Khandish Warriors, £6, blister of 3 figures
- LotR - Khandish Chieftain, £10, blister of 2 figures (mounted, unmounted), pictured
- LotR - Khandish King in Chariot, £18, boxed set



and, as Tabletop Gaming News points out, the French site now has the Tau Army Deal on pre-order. Contents:

- 1 commander in exo Crisis armour
- 2 exo Crisis armour
- 3 exo Stealth armour
- 16 Kroot warriors
- 12 Fire Warriors
- Sniper Drone team
- 6 Vespids
- 1 Hammerhead
- 1 Limited Edition Ethereal with Shield Drone
- 8 Gun Drones

Hasslefree Previews

Some Kev Adams goblins, in his distinctive early Citadel style, a goblin archer (pictured) and a goblin with two-handed sword.



... and from the other Kev, an equally distinctive old and crusty barbarian. And also (phew) released this month, "Signee", as well as some the greens you'll have seen previously.

 

Perry News

You know the drill. Fantastic miniatures (possibly the best historicals on the market), slightly obscure era. These from the Sudan: a British Stretcher party and a Mahdist Command group. From the Miniatures Page: "The next release will be ready for the end of this month, which will include Highlanders and British cavalry for the Sudan, the first seven packs of Napoleonic Nassau and four packs of AO's, a Melee pack, two foot comand packs, and a Men-at-Arms pack."




Olley's Armies Dwarf World

Bob Olley posted news of the availability of the first castings from his Dwarf World dwarven villagers series, previously seen here as greens. £9.99 a box, with a resin base coming from Simon Harris (also seen at Hasslefree and Forge World). I like the first set (pictured), less so the second.



Forge World Releases

Mostly new Tyranids ...

- Tyranid Malanthrope (pictured - impressive but I have a lot of smaller ones to paint).
- Tyranid Ripper Swarms
- Tyranid Rippers
- Tyranid Brood Nest
- Black Templar Brass Etch



Mongoose B5 miniatures

I've studiously avoided knocking B5 and concentrated on dismissing SST. However Mongoose are going into the B5 infantry market with a group of Minbari, who look more like they're staging a demonstration:

Minis News 11 Jan 06

Ilyad pics

All earlier seen as greens - the orky thing looks a little less questionable when painted up though:


 

Hasslefree Second Birthday Limited Edition

The montage picture's a bit too large to put here, but I strongly recommend you take a look at it. A limited edition version of their Mjolnir model with a choice of heads, available from Hasslefree right now. Just bought mine.

New Reaper Greens

At (unsurprisingly) Reaper's greens page. All a bit ho-hum, I'm afraid:

- Dust Devil by Jason Wiebe, pictured
- Half Dragon Warrior, Jason Wiebe
- Lamia, Ben Siens
- Archmage, Julie Guthrie
- Giant Ape Lord, Jason Wiebe
- Orc Shaman, Jason Wiebe



Black Scorpion works in progress

Visible at their workbench page:

- marine command (Iraq line, pictured)
- marines checkpoint (Iraq line)
- musketeer dog (umm?)



Olley's Greens

Some Goblin Riders added at the Olley's Armies workbench page

Games Workshop Profit Warning

Yesterday GW issued a profit warning to the London stock market. This is basically saying, we told you what we expected to make (because as a publicly traded company they publish such things), you bought our stock on that basis and we just realised we're not going to hit our targets. The stock proceeded to drop 15% and some analysts (effectively stock pickers who publish high priced newsletters) downgraded their advice on the stock from "hold" to "sell" which will probably have longer term impact on the GW share price (the analysts, by the way, are likely experts on retailing rather than games, games isn't big enough to be a category).

Ultimately, the management at GW answer to their shareholders, and they're going to have to come up with a plan to fix things or else the shareholders (typically dominated by "institutional" investors like pension funds and banks, rather than being a large mob of people with pitchforks and one share each) will want new management. As a public company they're measured on profit, so the answers are to sell more stuff (assuming it's profitable) or to cut costs. GW's "plan" (I put this in inverted commas since I'm sure there's more to it), in their statement, is to open more retail outlets and introduce more people to their games.

The blame, by the way, has been placed squarely on the Lord of the Rings, and a fall-off in interest in the associated games. This doesn't mean the LotR games are a disaster, just that they're not making as much money as they used to make (these crises and judgements are based on the likelihood of whether the company can continue to grow and justify a premium on its price, not whether it's likely to lose money and go bust). Unfortunately for GW, this provides a great angle for journalists and as an example the Independent business pages have a great picture of a Mumak and some infantry miniatures.

In fact, GW is still making a profit, albeit barely - £119,000 for the first half of 2005 (their profits for 2004 were £7.7m). Sales for the second 6 months of 2005 up to November, were £57.1m, down 20% . Unfortunately, those shifts are big enough to attract news.

I guess a bunch of people will see this as a well-deserved poke in the eye for the "evil empire". Personally I like to see GW, given their sponsorship of some great models and some great games, do well and I hope they can turn it round without damaging "the hobby" through mass cost-cutting and more price rises. The stuff about more retail outlets makes me think they're still more obsessed with price protection than with selling more stuff, though.

By the way, the Reuters article linked at the top of this post lists GW's portfolio (in addition to LotR) as "the classic Warhammer, the simply-titled Epic and other games including Battlefleet Gothic, Blood Bowl, Inquisitor, Necromunda and Warmaster". Given that the journalist is also probably a retail expert rather than a games enthusiast, he probably got this from a publicity pack somewhere. The mention of the "specialist/fanatic" games may just reflect their files being out of date, or maybe someone in GW marketing realises their game portfolio is really a bit too small for a company their size? If the analyst community realised that they actually depend on 3 games, 2 of which are called Warhammer, then they might realise that a significant shift in one of them (by all accounts the most successful) is going to seriously destabilise the business.

Minis News 6 Jan 06

OK. Sorry about the long layoff. First a catch up on the news (and suddenly there seems to be a lot of it):

New Freebooter Model Available

We saw the green just before Xmas, now the actual model is available from the Freebooter store. DUN 006 Ath´Celah, Darkelf Priestess - 6 parts, total height 49mm. Price from Freebooter is E11.50.



Games Workshop News

New sneak peeks at the GW UK site:

- Glorfindel, Lord of the West (LotR)
- Tau Ethereals

New advance orders:

- Empire Greatswords - I assume this is a repackaging (of 10 for £20) rather than a new set of models. These are great models but I'm guessing you can do better on eBay.
- LotR A Shadow in the East
- LotR Easterlings - 20, presumably plastic
- LotR Easterling Kataphrakts (pictured) - 5, presumably metal
- LotR Kamul, the Easterling, a Ringwraith.



Reaper 1000th Mini

Congratulations to Reaper on reaching their 1000th miniature release, #03000, Kyra and Lavarath. Kyra, the rider is sculpted by the always reliable Werner Klocke, of Freebooter fame, and the dragon is by the equally reliable Sandra Garrity. You can substitute the wings from Ebonwrath (note the wings are also separately orderable) if you want them fully extended.



Copplestone January Offer

... is the rather attractive Gobi Expedition for £38 - some gun-toting archeologists and their Chinese escorts, a great pulp starter army. Recommended.

Starship Troopers Light Infantry and Bugs, other Mongoose stuff

At last some nice (very nice) miniatures in this line, and nicely priced too. The metal light infantry promised by Mongoose when the plastics failed to meet expectation. Out in January.

Also (and I like none of these, but bear in mind I don't like the concept)

- control bugs, due in February
- spider bugs, due March
- cliff mites, due April

And, on a thread at the Frothers Fora, Mongoose confirmed they have a license for the great classic RPG, Runequest, complete with minis:

"And yes, we have the RuneQuest licence, coming out this Summer. It is mainly the RPG, but we have a line of miniatures following it. We already have masters of Broo, Ducks and Trolls/Trollkin. . ."

Also, Conan stuff will likely happen in conjunction with the next film.



Ilyad Work in Progress

A "sylvan enchantress" and a slightly off the wall "berserker grey orc".

-  

Heresy Greens

Several works in progress from Heresy, over the Xmas break. Firstly a couple of halflings, Norko the Magnificent and, umm, Ghonad the Barbarian.

 

Also, a new sci-fi captain (this is kind of like starship troopers - I absolutely loved Serenity and Firefly but I'm not that interested in exploring the backstory in miniatures) and, while we're pushing back the envelope on intellectual property rights, a "dwarf dark lord" called Va'Durr. Both pictured below. And in addition, an armoured blood(like) bowl player and a dungeon bug-thing he calls a waspquito.




Darksword Update

More top of the price range releases from Darksword, both dragons - the first one (pictured) is based on art by Jeff Easley, sculpt by Dave Summers (who seems to have gone some way to sorting out the dragon's dodgy arms). The second is based on Keith Parkinson's classic Northwatch Dragon painting, sculpt again by Dave Summers. I don't think the sculpt quite catches the original, but I'm not sure why.



Deep in Madness Zombies

French mini manufacturer Deep in Madness have released new zombie minis to complement their, erm, afro funk gangstas. General slightly cartoony feel to all their miniatures makes them somewhat sui generis. Warning ... background music (da fonk, presumably) on website, don't open it in the office.



Infinity Releases

For January, from the (godawful) Corvus Belli site. Most of them have been previewed already at the (overdesigned) Infinity game site (not sure how this relationship is meant to work either). Lovely minis though.

PanOceania:

Akali Sikh Commandos (2 miniatures in blister) - pictured
Dronbots (2 miniatures in box)
Orc Troop with Multi Rifle (1 miniature in blister, same as the Starter Pack)

Yu Ying:

Tiger Soldiers (2 miniatures in blister)
Guijia (TAG in box)

Ariadna:

Line Kazak with Missile Launcher (1 miniature in blister)
45th Highlander Rifles (2 miniatures in blister) - pictured

 

Conquest Greens

More accomplished models of American Indians - Tecumseh, the Prophet and Simon Kenton (the first and last are pictured below):

 

New Gamezone Releases

More spectacular models from the Spanish "GW alternative" manufacturer. In this case for the pictures and given the generally rubbish images on the gamezone (and affiliate) sites I've done something slightly different to my normal practice, which is to link directly to the original manufacturer photos. A (link to a) zip file of some Spanish forum images was posted to the frothers forum, and I've uploaded that in turn to a Flickr account. The links below are the ones at the retailer Battlefield Berlin (as posted on the frothers thread):

- Chaos Chariot (pictured)
- High Elf Chariot
- Dark Elf Chariot (also pictured)
- Important Harpie
- Harpies 1
- Harpies 2




Perry Miniatures Previews

Most of the stuff here seems to be fantasy, so a sideline to mention some of the forthcoming Perry stuff, more detail posted at the Miniatures Page.

New highlanders, Black Watch and hussars for Sudan; new Agincourt to Orleans models (pictured) and new Napoleonic Nassau troops. As usual an excellent standard.



Rackham release schedule for first half 2006

As posted to the Rackham forums - the following's a straight cut and paste.

JANUARY 2006

BLISTERS :
Jadharis clones. Blister of 3 miniatures
Air Elemental. Blister of 1 miniature
Warriors of the Wind. Blister of 2 miniatures
Tumahk, The Voice of the wind. Blister of 1 miniature

BOXES:
Templar war-staff. Box of 5 Miniatures
Cynwall war-staff. Box of 6 Miniatures

FEBRUARY 2006

BLISTERS :
Valkyries of Alahan 2. Blister of 3 miniatures
Valkyries of Alahan 3. Blister of 3 miniatures
Sons of Ogmios 1. Blister of 1 miniature
Sons of Ogmios 2. Blister of 1 miniature

CARDS PACK:
The revelations of the Beast. 16 cards.
The Goblin Clans. 16 cards.

BOXES:
The Horned Raiders. Box of 3 Miniatures
The Warriors of Stone. Box of 3 Miniatures

MARCH 2006
Cry Havoc, issue # 7, new format, new price
Catalog supplement 2006. 80-page book

BLISTERS:
Selsÿm kestrels. Blister of 3 miniatures
Ninja goblins 1. Blister of 2 miniatures
Ninja goblins 2. Blister of 2 miniatures
Ophidian archer. Blister of 1 miniature

BOXES:
Grakkha, Kamahru's Champion Box of 2 miniatures
Nefarius clone 1000th Rackham miniature! Box of 1 miniature

APRIL 2006

Dog's of War rulebook.
Serum. (the novel, including Limited Miniature of Serum)

BLISTERS:
Mercenary Ogre (Cadwallon Limited Edition). Blister of 1 miniature
Warriors of the wind. Blister of 2 miniatures
Mountaineer of the Behemoth. Blister of 1 miniature
Mountaineer of the Behemoth. Blister of 1 miniature
Ophidian warrior. Blister of 1 miniature
Soïm. Blister of 1 miniature

CARDS PACKS: Dogs of War pack. 16 cards

BOXES:
Sessairs centaurs. Box of 3 miniatures
Master Sulfur and Red Troll. Box of 2 miniatures

MAY 2006

CRY HAVOC 08. New format (80 pages)

BLISTERS:
Paladin of Alahan 2 . Blister of 3 miniatures
Paladin of Alahan 3 . Blister of 3 miniatures
Chthonian of the Abyss 1. Blister of 1 miniature
Chthonian of the Abyss 2. Blister of 1 miniature
Chthonian of the Abyss 3. Blister of 1 miniature
Mercenary officer. Blister of 1 miniature

CARDS PACK:
Army pack: The Orcish Tribes. 16 cards

BOXES:
Dragon of Lanever. Box of 1 miniature (a special Titan version will come in August )

GEN CON 2006. Kelt mercenary Shaman. Blister of 1 miniature.

Bolt Action Miniatures Italian Paras

Bolt Action is a World War II miniature specialist, producing 28mm figures. Newly announced - a range of Italian paratroopers (that's what I call a specialist). Pictured - the command group: