MiniBlogster

Minis News 6 Feb 06

2006-02-06T21:53:00.000Z

Right then, back to square one ... God this is annoying.

Copplestone Castings Evil Characters

New pack for Mark's 10mm Warmaster-alike range. £5.25 from the Copplestone site.

Games Workshop News

Based on the UK site ...

New sneak peeks:
- Erestor (LotR elf)
- Tau XV25 Stealthsuits
- Orcs & Goblins' Warhammer Giant

New advance orders:
- Dwarf Thorgrim Grudgebearer on Throne (18/3/06, pictured)
- Tallarn Officers (2 figures) (all 40k 11/3/06) ... these Tallarn figures are basically repackaged existing IG figures
- Tallarn Rough Riders (1 figure)
- Tallarn Desert Raiders (3 figures)
- Tallarn Assault Weapons (2 figures)
- Tau Empire Army Set (English)
- Tallarn Imperial Guard Squad (10 figures)
- LotR bitz now on pre-order

Additionally, previews from various game shows:

- Dwarf Beer Cart
- Forest Goblins from the forthcoming Orcs and Goblins refresh
Troll, ditto
Dwarf miners
- Vostroyan guard in City of Death terrain
- Basilica Administratum terrain
- Sanctum Imperialis terrain
- Manufactorum terrain
- New Biovore (me no like much)

New Privateer Previews

Various Hordes packs:

- Blighted Nyss Archers
- Wolves or Orobos
- Skorne Praetorians
- Trollkin Scattergunners (pictured - this is the only one I like)

And since I wrote this post the first time, Everblight Seraph.

Perry Previews

- For a forthcoming Waterloo 1815 line, French Infantry components
- ... and Nassau volunteer Jaegers

Eureka Indians

Powhatan Indians, from Eureka Miniatures. From the site:

Designed & sculpted by Alan Marsh
Figures in brackets denote the number of variants. Variants are supplied randomly.

100POW01 Powhatan Chief (1)
100POW02 Powhatan Shaman (1)
100POW03 Powhatan Warrior (8)

Very nice too.

TAG Turks

From TAG's Renaissance Turkish range, a group of officer figures. I won't include pictures since the site takes so long to load:

- Officer with Mace 1
- Officer with Mace 2
- Officer with Sword
- Kazan (group with cooking pot)

Ilyad Previews

Parsifal v3 and Brown Orc Champion. More pictures here (Parsifal has with and without helm options) and concept art here.

New Forge World Stuff

For February ... more Cadian stuff. Wish I could afford this (on the up side, I don't have to paint Cadians):

- Sabre Defence Platform (pictured)
- Cadian Vehicle Crew
- Searchlights

Gripping Beast Ancients

Spanish Command and Ligurians here (pictured), here, here and here.

Arghhh

2006-02-06T21:48:00.000Z

Having been away for a couple of weeks, I wrote up a decently long update tonight (honest!). However, as is becoming more and more frequent, blogger.com fell over in the middle of it, and lost the lot. Before you start mumbling "idiot!" I do run other blogs, notably at work, and do use a client - MarsEdit. I just hadn't got round to using it for this blog. By the way, there's a scheduled downtime for blogger.com later tonight.

Anyhow, this is exasperating. I'll try and write up a slightly shorter version of said update now. But I'm also investigating taking this blog off of blogger and putting it somewhere safer.

Ravage Magazine 33

2006-01-21T23:54:00.000Z

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

2006-01-21T22:22:00.000Z

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

2006-01-21T17:29:00.000Z

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

2006-01-12T00:19:00.000Z

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

2006-01-07T11:16:00.000Z

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

2006-01-06T21:51:00.000Z

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:

Minis News 26 Dec 05

2005-12-27T00:13:00.000Z

First off, and quite astonishingly, my Hasslefree order arrived on 24 December, which means it was either posted before I ordered it, or about 4 seconds afterwards. As I remember I made the order around 8pm 22 December and paid on 23 December. I'm stunned.

I have a pile of stuff to review, and will hopefully start over the next few days. Included are the Confrontation Initiation Set, the Urban War Starter Set, some terrain stuff and some of the recently-purchased individual minis. I may also get round to some of the recent GW purchases as well.

Just doing news for now though:

Dark Age Announcements

Out of the blue, Dark Age announced three Warband boxed sets for Genesis - one each for the Bane, Coil and Strike factions. Each contains a unit leader and five troopers. The Bane and Coil warbands also include a special edition mini, "exclusive to these boxsets" (I'm kind of assuming this is one of your six models, difficult to tell). Available in the US from early January and priced at $26.99 each.

New Reaper Minis

New on the (recently revived) Reaper site (all models 28mm unless specified otherwise):

- Celebration Sophie (72mm sculpt by Bob Ridolfi, pictured)
- Kharg, Reven Sgt (by Ben Siens)
- Athak, Crimson Knight Sgt (by Adam Clarke and Kevin Williams, pictured) - don't like the model so much but love the shield ...
- Reptus Clutchlings (by Dennis Mize, no less ... pictured)
- Lupine Rager II (by Ben Siens)

Olley's Armies Combo Preview and Xmas Card

... is a mountain troll, out for some cross country skiiing. Available from Bob in the new year:

GW Preview - Eldar Rangers

From Warseer, apparently the new Eldar Rangers will be available around the time of the City of Death (CityFight follow-on) codex:

White Dwarf (UK) 313 Highlights

2005-12-23T21:08:00.000Z

This goes on sale in GW, I suppose, tomorrow. I went in to one of their stores a few weeks ago on a Friday evening and stuff (Black Templars, I think) was being put on the shelves. "Ya can't buy any of this" snarled the customer-friendly assistant. "Oh".

Anyhow, independents get it on the last Friday of the month, these days, and for them there seem to be less active enforcement of the embargo. Issue 313 is up to the usual standard for this very professionally produced magazine, although the format has once again changed. Maybe there isn't a format, really, but it always looks as if there ought to be one, it's just different from issue to issue.

Anyhow, as to the contents:

New Releases

Being mainly dwarves:

- Dwarf Battalion, 28/12 £50
- Dwarf Army Book, 28/12 £12
- Dwarf Warriors, 7/1, £18
- Dwarf Runelord (2 versions), 14/1, £6
- Dwarf Lord with Great Weapon (oo-er missus), 21/1, £6
- Josef Bugman, 21/1, £6
- Dwarf Grudge Thrower, 7/1, £18
- Dwarf Master Engineer (4 varieties), 14/1, £5
- Direct Sales Only Dwarf Lord with Great Weapon (2 varieties), 21/1, £6
- Black Templars Chapter Upgrade (2 squad upgrade sprues and a vehicle upgrade sprue, useful if you bought the BT battalion box, which turns out to contain a vanilla, non-BT Rhino vehicle), 7/1, £15
- Limited Edition Castellan Draco, BT special character, 7/1, £6
- Battle for Macragge Hobby Set (original set, clippers, glue, sand, brushes, some paint), £50

Previews

The usual tour to show that everybody is up to something, at least:

- Tau Empire. One page including pictures of the Codex cover, Commander Shadowsun (with drones), plastic Stealthsuits, sniper drones and controller. "Stealth armour, Sky Ray and Piranha in plastic", effectively replacing Forge World resin counterparts (an interesting trend).
- LotR - "Fantastic News", repeatedly trumpeted elsewhere - you can now buy LotR components. I also read somewhere that you can also use LotR components and models in non-LotR tournament play, but I think this fact (if true) has yet to appear in any official announcement.
- Wood Elf Lord on Stag - very nice looking character model I hadn't seen elsewhere. The associated verbiage says that a second wave of Wood Elf models are in the pipeline.
- Warhammer Mark of Chaos computer game, small preview. Due for release in late 2006 so shouldn't worry us unduly at this point.
- ForgeWorld - Hellhound tank, seen previously here.
- Black Library - a new print and some camouflage pattern apparel
- Warhammer Historical - new release of Warhammer Ancient Battles
- Black Library novels - Dan Abnett's Horus Rising, previously mentioned here and on preview at amazon. By the way, I just checked on amazon and volume two of the multi-author trilogy, by Phil MacNeill, is also on preview.
- LotR - some pointers to online errata for the new LotR rulebook. They're here.

Other General Sections

A review of GamesDay 2005. Makes me wish I'd been there. Hang on, I was. Not much to report on this.

Konvershun Klinic - World Eaters Terminators

Warhammer FB Section

Oath and Honour - Dwarf Designers' Notes. Most of this is I think already known. From a format point of view I think most of the "pull quotes" in the article are direct renditions of Powerpoint slides being shown at GamesDay 2005. Longbeards can be made out of the basic Warrior set. Longbeards can be further upgraded from the same set to Longbeard Rangers. Quarrellers (Crossbowmen) and Thunderers can be made from the Thunderers set, so the two basic sets give you all the core choices for the army. There's a fairly complete overview, in pictures, of what is available on the sprues for these two sets.

Ancient Ancestors - Retrospective on Aly Morrison's various dwarf models over time.
Into the Valley- 3000 point Battle Report for Dwarfs vs Ogres. I won't tell you who wins or it will spoil the suspense.

By Axe and Gun - some 2000 point example dwarf army lists by Gav Thorpe. One of them is based on the army deal plus the battalion, so these days £175 buys you 2000 points (best case, since the battalion boxes are the best discount to get with GW bundles), if you were wondering.

Warhammer Chronicles - Tactics for 500 points games. Sample armies for Skaven, Tomb Kings, Orcs. Nice article by Jervis
Johnson

Bretonnia Land of Heroes - building a 500 point army from the Battalion boxed set. This re-uses material from the recent US articles. I haven't seen US-WD 312 (just out) so there may be more overlap. Anyhow, similar examples for Wood Elves and Orcs.

Painting Workshop - Metal Techniques. Good article, focuses very much on metallic paints though, in case you thought you might get some Rackham style goodness.

Warhammer 40k Section

Chapter Approved - Daemon Worlds. Rules and terrain building tips.

The Death of Golia VII - fiction

Rise to Glory - tracking a Black Templar through different career stages, along the lines set forth in the codex. Basically fluff, but a short scenario as well at the end.

Tactica: Black Templars - what it says on the tin. Various tips and tricks, plus a page for Orks, Chaos, Eldar and Tyranids on fighting BT.

Dragon Slayers - Overview of a nicely built studio Imperial Tank Company.

Castellan Draco - Rules for the special character

Lord of the Rings section

A Shadow in the East - more Easterling previews, of the book and of the models. These are very nice indeed (Perry, I think), and not particularly LotR centric.

Return to Dwarrowdelf - Additional rules for games set in Moria, plus some modelling tips (you'll need styrofoam and lots of it).

The Misty Mountains - part 2 of a set of campaign rules, again with scenarios. A pity I can't get worked up about the LotR stuff because the models and the support are both excellent.

Other Stuff

Most of the advance orders to be listed are LotR Easterlings. The Dwarf Bolt Thrower is on Advance Order 24/12 for 4/2 availability. Next month's issue leads with the Easterlings; the Warhammer coverage is mostly Dwarves (with some additional stuff on halflings); the 40k coverage includes articles on BT Marshals (presumably Helbrecht comes out around then), a creature creation/conversion article and tactica for necrons. In the introductory feature it also mentions there'll be the studio Mordheim campaign kicking off as well, I very much hope this is the case.

Minis News 23 Dec 05

2005-12-23T20:48:00.000Z

And a merry Xmas to all. Probably the last one before the holidays. I have some various unopened boxes to review during the break, when I get the chance (or more likely, I opened them, shook my head sadly and closed them again). My main projects over the break are terrain-building, we'll see how far I get. To put my money where my mouth is, I ordered some stuff from Hasslefree, Freebooter and Copplestone, all of which I expect to arrive in the new year. I'd have ordered from Perry also if I could decide on the range. Of course, you can also get older Perry sculpts from Foundry, if you look outside their main GW employment.

I'd also add that the new UK WD arrived in some stores today (I'll read it later, haven't even taken it out of the bag at this point) and also the latest Harbinger fell through my letterbox this morning. So expect to see some stuff on those.

Anyhow ...

New Ilyad greens

More Howling Crest big barbarians ("Vorag Barbarians") with mohicans sculpts, 2 models (3 views of each at the link):

Magnificent Egos

... have a new webstore (the Frothers fora rightly commented it isn't very good) and some new greens:

- Baldorf (pictured)
- an impressive mounted blackguard
- second wave of Iron Heroes line (one model pictured - there are 3 in all)
- Nazchryst, Planar Warrior

'

Games Workshop News

3 new sneak peeks at their UK website:

- Orcs and Goblins giant (another variant on the sprue, presumably though a lead in to some Orcs and Goblins previews)
- Sauron, the Necromancer
- A heavily (but not particularly helpfully) photoshopped Tau Piranha

No new advance order items by the look of things.

Warmachine Previews

From the Privateer website:

- Cygnar Hammersmith warjack
- Khador Spriggan warjack

There's also (this is late, I wasn't going to play it, but while we're on the subject) a preview of No Quarter 4.

'

Wargames Journal

A downloadable PDF magazine, very nice and nicely done. I won't summarise what's in it, since it is free to download (be warned, if you don't have broadband - 10MB plus). Two issues:

the December issue and a taster issue, made available previously.

Hasslefree Greens

Some excellent new stuff from Hasslefree, keeping up a consistently high standard.

- Viktor (the latest Kev Adams goblin, a better picture than previously)
- Libby, a kind of female fantasy football space marine (I think)
- Suzi, machine-gun armed Japanese schoolgirl
- Dionne, a catsuit wearing werewolf hunter

'
'

Starship Troopers Burrower Bug

What it says on the tin. Still don't like the line, really, so I'm not the best person to ask.

Pulp Heroes

Some new Pulp Heroes greens (just a sample below) ... Very nice too. My Copplestone purchases were in this genre so this may well be a good match.

Forge World New Stuff

Fair amount of new stuff from the premier GW spin-off.

- Cadian Infantry Squad with Respirators Upgrade Pack (pictured)
- Cadian Infantry Squad Upgrade Pack (pictured)
- Cadian Hardened Veterans Upgrade Pack (pictured again)
- Imperial Navy Arvus Lighter
- Tyranid Aerial Spore Mines
- Tallarn Sentinel

Collectors Guides and the GW website

2005-12-19T23:58:00.000Z

A while ago I bought and read the Tyranids Collectors guide, and mentioned it was next to impossible to buy the collectors/classic items in the guide (which is meant to be a catalogue for such items) from the GW website. Tonight, ordering some of the direct sales only items, I had another go. And then out of interest I tried the non-UK sites.

Three experiments as search terms:
- "patriarch" - you should get, according to the collectors guide, two genestealer models, the enthroned patriarch (99110106053) and the classic genestealer patriarch (99060106054)
- "hybrid" - you should get 2 models, hybrid 1 (994701060512) and hybrid 2 (9947010604511) (sad to say, there were originally 14 of these, at least).
- "magus" - 2 models, the advisor (9947010604507) - which is also part of the enthroned patriarch set - and the magus with staff (9947010604513)

The advisor, the enthroned patriarch, the classic patriarch and the magus with staff (as "magus with staff 2") are all visible here, as well as the magus with laspistol who will shortly be making a guest appearance. By the way, Familiar 1, from that page, is also still available according to the collectors' guide.

You'll get some other models as well (e.g. Balthasar Gelt, although even this is country dependent), but narrowing down the search is problematic as you seem to have to type in straight SQL. Also, if a search returns no results, it tells you it returned one result (the null result). All models should also be accessible from the tyranids collectors page, I would think, but that is obviously hoping for two much - by and large none of these models are available from those pages.

Anyhow, les resultats:

- GW USA - both hybrid models. Magus with staff but no advisor. A magus with laspistol also turns up (72557-7). No enthroned patriarch but the classic patriarch (under the code 72596-7) with associated arms as separate bits.
- GW UK - No hybrids. Arms but no body for classic patriarch. No enthroned patriarch. Magus with laspistol only. This is the market for which the collectors guide should be valid.
- GW Canada - No hybrids (Inquistor conversion parts only), no patriarch, no magus. Images on any search are broken (whoever wrote it mixed up the item addresses and the image addresses)
- GW France: 2 hybrids (type in "hybride"). No patriarch. Only one of the genestealer magi (type in "magos") - the staff. Tyranid homepage in store gets mangled in Safari.
- GW Australia - none of the models. I get the impression that Australia gets a subset - there are no classic/collectors pages. Same broken search issue as Canada.
- GW Italy - both magi and both hybrids. No patriarch. I notice the site is selling the English edition of the Tyranid collectors guide.
- GW Spain - Both hybrids. Both magi, plus the one with the laspistol, but the advisor is sold under the name of 'patriarca'. No patriarch.

And there you have it. Two conclusions:
- The collectors guide series either reflects a state that is going to come to pass in the future (or which existed at some point in the near past, but this guide has only been out a few weeks), or is just plain untrue
- GW seem to have multiple web storefronts, none of which work, sometimes to a frankly embarassing extent. And the UK is one of the worst.

[ update ... I was just about to put the collectors' guide back on the shelf, when I noticed a picture of one of the hybrids (note - the hybrids) on the inside front cover. Next to it, it says "Collectors' Models (like the Genestealer Advisor, pictured right) ..." Maybe the reason that they can't get the right items on the web store is that they don't actually recognise them. ]

GW Release Schedule for First Half 06

2005-12-19T22:16:00.000Z

Taken from dakkadakka forum. Judging by the White Dwarf numbers these must be the US release dates:

12/19/05
*WHITE DWARF 312
*DWARF BATTALION

01/02/06
*DWARF ARMY BOOK

01/09/06
*DWARF RUNELORD
*DWARF WARRIORS

01/16/06
*DWARF MASTER ENGINEER
*DWARF LORD WITH GREAT WEAPON

01/23/06
*DWARF JOSEPH BUGMAN
*DWARF GRUDGE THROWER

01/30/06
*DWARF LORD WITH HAMMER AND SHIELD
*WHITE DWARF 313
*DWARF CANNON
*DWARF THUNDERERS
*BLACK TEMPLARS CHAPTER UPGRADE

02/06/06
*DWARF SLAYER LORD
*DWARF SLAYER COMMAND
*DWARF SLAYERS Blister
*DWARF SLAYERS Box

02/13/06
*DWARF BOLT THROWER
*WOOD GROVE PACK

02/27/06
*DWARF LORD WITH PISTOL AND AXE
*DWARF THORGRIM GRUDGEBEARER ON THRONE
*WHITE DWARF 314

03/13/06
*TAU ETHEREAL CASTE
*CODEX TAU EMPIRE

03/20/06
*TAU CRISIS BATTLESUIT COMMANDER

03/27/06
*TAU PATHFINDERS WITH RAIL RIFLES
*WHITE DWARF 315
*TAU SNIPER DRONE TEAM
*FALLEN GIANT TEMPLATE (TENTATIVE)
*TAU PIRANHA

04/10/06
*GIANT

04/17/06
*TYRANID LICTOR - DEATH LEAPER
*VOSTROYAN PLATOON
*TYRANID BIOVORE

04/24/06
*TAU VESPID STINGWINGS
*TAU VESPID STINGWINGS
*TAU AUN VA , MASTER OF THE UNDYING SPIRIT
*WHITE DWARF 316

05/01/06
*FALL OF MEDUSA FIVE
*TAU SKY RAY
*IMPERIAL GUARD VOSTROYAN FIRSTBORN
*TAU COMMANDER SHADOWSUN

05/08/06
*VOSTROYAN LASCANNON TEAM
*IMPERIAL GUARD VOSTROYAN COMMAND SQUAD

05/15/06
*VOSTROYAN MORTAR TEAM
*VOSTROYAN OFFICERS

05/22/06
*VOSTROYAN ASSAULT WEAPONS

05/29/06
*ORK KOMMANDO WITH BURNER
*RAZOR WIRE
*CITIES OF DEATH BATTLEMAT
*40K BUILDINGS: IMPERIAL CITY
*40K EXPANSION: CITIES OF DEATH
*WHITE DWARF 317
*URBAN BASING KIT

Minis News 19 Dec 05

2005-12-19T21:11:00.000Z

Rackham links

Links to images of some of the Rackham new figures from yesterday:

- Selsym Sparrowhawk
- Goblin Ninja 1
- Goblin Ninja 2
- Ophidian Archer
- Grakha, Champion of Kamharu (pictured, the elemental is in the same pack)
- Clone Nefarius

Rezolution Wave 5 Previews

Better than previous:

- Dravani Bagger Leader Pack
- The Cardinal & Sister Carmine (pictured)
- Dravani Baggers
- Dravani Volkoda

Crunch-Waffle Greens

I kind of ignored the announcement of this new company, and I'm still not keen on the stuff (which is somewhat off the beaten path, but anyhow the website is as good as or better than many larger companies can boast, and they now have some new greens to look at. Have a look and make up your own mind.

New Crusader Stuff

And after the fantasy and WWII stuff, some other historicals, links are to pictures where available.

- ANR010 Unarmoured Roman Cavalry (pack of 3)
- ANR011 Unarmoured Roman Cavalry command (3) (pictured)
- ANR012 Republican Roman Cavalry in Chain (3)
- ANR013 Republican Roman Cavalry in Chain Command (3)
- SYP002 Prussian Musketeers Lapels & Prussian Cuffs Command , Seven Years War (4)
- SYP011 Prussian Grenadiers Lapels & Prussian Cuffs Command (4)
- SYP022 Prussian Fusiliers Lapels & Swedish Cuffs Command (4)

More Fenryll

Firstly an alternative paint job for yesterday's Club Fenryll snake hunter.

And, some more new minis:

- a 120mm giantess (yech)
- dwarves of the north here, here and here (first two pictured).
- various animals

Minis News 18 Dec 05 - part two

2005-12-18T21:41:00.000Z

Infinity releases

This is from the Frothers fora and also at Creafigs, trying to gauge announcements for the Infinity game is a question apparently of looking at the images at the Infinity website and mentally differencing them from previous versions. The Corvus Belli site New Releases page now contains Infinity material but presumably has only stuff on general release.

Anyhow, here are the clues:

- Ariadne - highlander and line kazaks
- Yu Jing - tiger soldiers and guijia
- PanOceania - sikh commando

Below, a picture of the green for the sikh commando:

Shadowforge works in progress

Take a look a the workshop page of the Australian company. A limited edition Xmas special and some female BloodBowl-alike Orcs. Not keen on any of it, quite frankly.

New Urban War minis

Released in January, for VASA: power suit and (2) suppressors, all pictured.

Fantization 2006 Special Mini

Per the title, Fantization's a 32mm elf sculpted by the ur-sculptor Tom Meier. Choice of 2 heads and various weapons means, apparently, up to 18 possible versions:

Starship Troopers large bug

I've said before I'm not keen on this line, and though this model is very similar, at least, to the ones seen in the movie, I don't like it either. I think it comes down to whether you think the backstory is interesting on some of these games (Babylon 5, equally, leaves me cold, so Mongoose aren't on a good run from my point of view). There's an interesting discussion of the model's background by the sculptor, Steve Saunders about it in a thread on the frothers fora.

Crusader Miniatures new models

Some new sculpts from Crusader ...

- German riflemen in sidecaps
- German Assault Engineers
- Urko - Half Ogre (pictured)
- McCoy - Gnome Fighter

Some disparaging remarks on the Frothers' fora but I kind of like the half-ogre, at least (and I can take or leave the WWII stuff - don't like the gnome much though).

New Perry Dutch/Belgian Napoleonics

Cavalry casualties and cavalry command, both pictured. Fantastic, although I'm not sure how many dioramas are being made from the range (since I personally don't use casualty figures in wargames).

New Greens at Conquest

Some excellent greens of Native American armies which kind of makes me have a yen to get some skirmish warbands for the French and Indian war (but who would I play?). Anyhow, just a couple of pictures - far more on the site. The new ones are the Sauk and Fox Pack B (at the top).

Conquest are also running a Christmas sale (visible on their homepage) so you can (and I may if I don't stop myself) buy rules and models cheap.

Club Fenryll mini

A new mini for Fenryll's collectors club (which gets you a quarterly special edition mini, a catalog and some other stuff) - Nahiri the Serpent Hunter (for fourth quarter 2005). You can also see the green for the mini (or pair of minis, in fact) for first quarter 2006.

Dwarf Wars War Mammoth

What it says on the tin, a War Mammoth for Dwarf Wars from West Wind, just in time for the GW Dwarf releases. Resin model priced at £45.

Rackham January Releases

Bloody Rackham. Website doesn't work on Safari. January releases announced in the form of a poster.

Anyhow:

- Dogs of War (Confrontation expansion)
- Ophidian Archer
- Goblin Ninjas (2 sets, each blisters of 2 models)
- Clone Nefarius (special edition 1000th Rackham figurine)
- Grakha, Champion of Kamharu
- Selsym Sparrowhawks (I have that right? Need to check the catalog ... anyhow blister of 3 models)
- Cry Havoc (next issue is 7? Goes to bimonthly, price drops to E9.90)

Also, their exclusive model for the next Rackham open:

Minis News 18 Dec 05 - part one

2005-12-18T21:06:00.000Z

Hmm. I've given up trying to make excuses, but I am still here, at least:

Copplestone Castings News

Return of the K18 Polar Encampment accessories pack for the pulp line, previously withdrawn due to moulding problems. Find it on this page.

2 new 10mm packs in Copplestone's Warmaster-alike line, to be found here:

TM5 Half-Orcs with Swords - 1 x command strip plus 5 x Half-Orc Sword strips. 11mm tall. Strips supplied as random variants.
TM6 Orc-Wolf-Riders - 12 x Wolf-Riders. Strips supplied as random variants.

Freebooter new model

DUN006, Darkelf Priestess Ath´Celah, will be available in January, and can be pre-ordered now from the Freebooter site at a price of E11,50.

Games Workshop News

Some new advance orders on the site, not previewed in the recent white dwarf 312:

- WFB Dwarf Lord with Great Weapon
- WFB Dwarf Thunderers
- WFB Dwarf Cannon
- WFB Dwarf Slayer Command
- WFB Dwarf Slayers
- WFB Dwarf Lord with Winged Helm (Direct Sales only) - pictured
- WFB Dwarf Lord with Horned Helm (Direct Sales only) - pictured
- WFB Dwarf Lord with Hammer and Shield
- Fell Cargo - new WFB novel by Dan Abnett
- Vermintide - WFB novel, Bruno Lee
- Dark Adeptus - 40k novel, Ben Counter
- Death or Glory - 40k/Ciaphas Cain novel, Sandy Mitchell
- Xenology - 40k background book
- Fleshworks - Necromunda Book, Lucien Soulban (yeah right)

They also "discovered" some unsold Dwarf army deal boxes.

New sneak peeks on the site:

- chaos giant (looks fantastic)
- commander shadowsun (ditto)

Reaper New Additions

New miniatures, and a lot of new paints. Just the minis listed here:

03004: Dorva, Female Dark Elf
03005: Cavern Dragon
03007: Egyptian Cat Statue
03008: Egyptian Jackal Statue
03010: Silas, Male Cleric (pictured)
03014: Nightstalker Assassin
14230: Sir Daman, Mounted Sergeant
14226: Sir Danel, Mounted Hero
14231: Crusader Heavy Cavalry, Adept
14236: Neb'nesew Ne'pet, Nefsokar Warlord (pictured)
14237: Senet Net'merew, Nefsokar Mounted Warlord

Minis News 10 Dec 05

2005-12-10T15:17:00.000Z

Back from my travels, catching up again.

Ilyad green

Another strong model from Ilyad, following on from the previous Howling Crest (Crete Hurlante) virago - a Howling Crest Champion, modelled by Jacques-Alexandre Gillois.

Fantasy Warriors re-releases for December

Merliton continue to roll out their recasts of the old, classic Grenadier models. New for December:

- Dwarf with spear command group (pictured)
- Dwarves with axes on bears
- Dwarves with spears on bears
- Dwarf bear-rider drummer
- Dwarf bear-rider hero
- Dwarves on giant bats
- Jumak the Destroyer (orc)
- Brenn IV, Dwarf King and Army Command Group
- Dwarves with axe on bears Command Group

ebob Mongol Cavalry

Some beautiful 28mm mongol cavalrymen from ebob, based on his equally excellent horses. In the time between the announcement coming out and me making this post, the first castings have sold out, but more are promised.

Carolingians and Late War Germans from Artizan Designs

Carolingian period infantry (pictured) and cavalry (the latter using ebob's horses, and late period WWII Germans in winter gear.

Eastern Front Studios greens

Despite the name, these are fantasy models. The images are really too big (even for me) to include in here, you can get to them via this link. Eastern Front Studios are here.

Another Hasslefree Orc Preview

Yet another, and keeping up the high standard.

Spyglass

Sadly, Spyglass say they're going to be winding down in terms of the models they release, with the possible exception of the specialist zO line. Disappointing, and illustrative of the good reasons for supporting independent/smaller manufacturers.

Darkson Designs new models

Some new/upcoming releases for Darkson Designs' alternative WWII universe, greatcoated germans and American NCO (again the images are too big to include here).

GW news

Games Workshop UK now have the promised Dwarf characters on advance order, up to Josef Bugman (pictured below). I acquired the Dwarf army deal, and so have the new Army Book (or had it waiting for me on my return, I haven't actually read it yet). They also have a Tau ethereal on their sneak peeks section. Also pictured below, the 2006 limited edition games day mini, now being advertised on the GW-US sites.

Mail order company Alliance Games by the way has the following advance orders, for further clues on the Tau and other releases (hmm, a new biovore):

GAW 47-34 Warhammer 40K: Imperial Guard Vostroyan Platoon $90.00
GAW 51-13 Warhammer 40K: Tyranid Lictor Death Leaper $25.00
GAW 51-14 Warhammer 40K: Tyranid Biovore $20.00
GAW 56-15 Warhammer 40K: Tau Sniper Drone Team $25.00
GAW 56-18 Warhammer 40K: Tau Aun Va Master of the Undying Spider $30.00
GAW 56-19 Warhammer 40K: Tau Piranha $25.00
GAW 56-20 Warhammer 40K: Tau Vespid Stingwings Command $30.00
GAW 56-47 Warhammer 40K: Tau Vespid Stingwings

New Mongoose B5 game?

From DakkaDakka - Mongoose to release a Babylon 5 ground combat game, "War without End", 15mm format, due April. Yech.

Minis News 4 Dec 05 - Part Two

2005-12-06T04:19:00.000Z

New Hasslefree Models Available

As previously mentioned, but with some new pictures of the castings. Seen here, Zombie Ray and one of the new Kev Adams multi-part metal Orcs, in the old Citadel style.

New Models from MSB Toys

Some spectacular sculpts, both new models and greens, for their Monkey King range. Shown here, crazy Frog Guard and Warrior Fish.

TAG Renaissance Range greens

From a post to the Frothers' Fora, Ottoman command for TAG's forthcoming Renaissance range. More pictures if you follow that link.

Minis News 4 Dec 05 - Part One

2005-12-05T15:21:00.000Z

Travelling again ... I'm going to use some downtime to try and catch up. There's a fair amount to catch up on so this is going to take a few sessions:

Black Scorpion New Releases

Black Scorpion, despite starting as a 28mm specialist, seems to be going down the path of being an Andrea style large model for display cases vendor. After being quiet for a while, three new items for December: an impressive 54mm (60mm to top of head) Achilles, a less impressive 54mm female model called "Ramona" and a 40mm Bob Dylan model (a useful folk singing squat for my Inquisitor warband).

Brigade Aeronef Releases

Brigade announced some new models for its Space 1889-style ship to ship game, Aeronef. Specifically, a Turkish fleet (Turkey for Xmas, geddit?). The new items can be found here. Look for:

VAN-2001 - Turkish Dig Battleship (pictured)
VAN-2002 - Turkish Battlecruiser
VAN-2003 - Turkish Dig Cruiser
VAN-2004 - Turkish Dig Destroyer
VAN-2005 - Turkish Fast Torpedo Dig
VAN-2006 - Turkish Patrol Dig

Also new for Aeronef is VAN-007 - Austro-Italian starter pack. And take a look at some of the nice Brigade Xmas offers available.

Copplestone New Stuff

This entry a somewhat liberal rephrasing of the regular update Mark sends out:

Firstly, this month's special offer is on a Lost World theme inspired by the upcoming King Kong movie - a mix of 1920s characters (pulled from the Back of Beyond and High Adventure ranges) and dangerous creatures.

Secondly a new pack, FW44 Band on the Run (pictured), a re-working of a pack Mark originally made for Grenadier way back. Next pack - Bodyguards in Bikinis.

Thirdly, some new 10mm fantasy - TM7 Orc Archers and TM8 Giant Wolves. Orc Wolfriders and Half-Orcs with Swords out next week.

Corvus Belli website changes

A note to say that Corvus Belli's website now includes the Infinity new releases. Given that news isn't properly dated at the site it's still difficult to tell when new stuff is coming out, but it's a little easier than at the Infinity site.

Dark Sword new releases

Dark Sword have 8 new Visions in Fantasy available on the website.

DSM7101 - Visions in Fantasy - Male Fighter with Sword and Shield - $5.99
DSM7102 - Visions in Fantasy - Male Wizard with Staff - $5.99 (pictured)
DSM7103 - Visions in Fantasy - Male Cleric with Mace - $5.99 (pictured)
DSM7104 - Visions in Fantasy - Male Rogue with Sword and Dagger - $5.99
DSM7105 - Visions in Fantasy - Male Elf Ranger with Bow - $5.99
DSM7106 - Visions in Fantasy - Male Beastmaster with Sword -$5.99
DSM7107 - Visions in Fantasy - Female Mage - $5.99
DSM7108 - Visions in Fantasy - Female Warrior with Sword - $5.99

They also have some new greens at their sneak peeks section, for Elmore set 8, sculpted by Dennis Mize. Dark Sword's sculptors are very skilful but I'm not keen on either the original art from which the sculpts are derived, or the paint jobs their studio painters have done, so not for me, I'm afraid.

Freebooter Xmas Miniature

Freebooter have their Xmas miniature for 2005 available at the store, WEI 006 Christmas Miniature 2005. A limited cast of 1000, this figure is one of three Xmas-themed queens, with plans to release one more at each of the next couple of Christmas holidays. Another nice sculpt from Freebooter, and a lovely paint job.

Games Workshop sneak peeks

Three new sneak peeks at the UK site:

- Dwarf Quarrellers for WFB
- Madril, Captain of Ithilien for LotR
- Tau Sniper Drones for 40k

GW's online store also has an advance order posted for a limited edition Black Templar, somewhat unexpected (picture below). Also note that the Dwarf Army deal has sold out.

Rackham December Releases

DRCR02 - Drune Minotaur (x1 fig) - $19.99
GBCH07 - Ozhon - 2nd Incarnation Box Set (x2 figs) - $32.99 USD
GBFI02 - Hoosu Uzo - Goblin Zealot (x1 fig) - $12.99 USD
OPCH02 - Ayane - Opidien Female Champion (x1 fig) - $11.99 USD
OREM01 - Orc War-Staff Box Set (x6 figs) - $29.99 USD
SCTR02 - Dirz Crossbowmen II (x3 figs) - $11.99 USD
RKHSET01 - Confrontation Starter Kit #1: Wolfen vs. Scorpions Box Set - $29.99 USD

Minis News 29 Nov 05

2005-11-29T20:13:00.000Z

More Hasslefree Greens

Here's a niche market. World War I hobbits. Appealing to alternative ratling market (although, having thought about it, anyone who read the book Tolkien and the Great War might see some irony in the choice:

Also December releases, including some of the previously seen greens/WIPs:

- HFA012 Amoy, young zombie hunter with skateboard and katana
- HFA013 Mad-dog, ill-prepared zombie hunter
- HFL006 Sci-fi human & halfling guns
- HFO003 Borak, Orc Champion with axe & shield, by Kev Adams
- HFO004 Mikal, goblin with scimitar and shield, also by Kev Adams
- HFZ210 Zombie Ray
- Xmas 2005 Figures - SW2005 & SL2005. Sally & Sarah

Celtos "sampler" pack

Tis the season of starter packs. Here's a Celtos one from Brigade. 9 elves, 9 gaels, a rulebook and some dice. £20. Sigh, and today I shelled out for the Confrontation Initiation set; I'm a sucker for these bargain packs. And this does look like a bargain - 18 excellent metal sculpts PLUS a rulebook ... for £20? Sign me up.

MSB Toys withdraws franchise from Apocalypse

French manufacturer MSB toys, has, according to a post on the Frothers forum, taken over/back exclusive distribution of its miniatures, previously held by Apocalypse miniatures.

Splintered Light Miniatures

A new company, Splintered Light, is supplying a range of 15mm fantasy miniatures - 6 races - Leonines (a race of felines), Hyenamen, Halfling Ranger types, Badgermen, Bearmen, and Wolfhounds.

Magnificent Egos Greens

New metals and painted models can be seen at the Magnificent Egos homepage. Trying to work out which mini is which is next to impossible on that page. As far as I can make out there are some new paints for Monte Cook's Iron Heroes and some new metals, danged if I know what the metals are meant to be. The web store is however, down for maintenance right now, so enlightenment may not be so far away. Don't take this as a warning against their models, which are generally of a high standard.

New Olley Scrunts

Ever wonder what happened to Squats? Look at Bob Olley's Scrunt models. 5 new models on the site, I think this makes 17 available in all.

Rebel Minis new models

From Rebel Minis World War 2 fantasy range (another niche market) - fantasy allied elf and fantasy allied dwarf by well known sculptor Bobby Jackson:

Eureka napoleonics

Australian manufacturer Eureka announced a new range of post-1812 18mm napoleonics.

18mm POST 1812 NAPOLEONIC FRENCH INFANTRY - NEW RELEASE
Designed & sculpted by Alan Marsh
Figures in brackets denote the number of variants. Variants are supplied randomly.

300NFR01 Fusilier, marching, campaign dress (6)
300NFR02 Fusilier, marching, in knee gaiters (3)
300NFR03 Grenadier, marching, campaign dress (4)
300NFR04 Voltigeur, marching, campaign dress (4)
300NFR05 Grenadier, firing and loading, campaign dress (4)
300NFR06 Voltigeur, firing and loading, campaign dress (4)
300NFR07 Mounted Officer (1)
300NFR08 Dismounted Officer (2)
300NFR09 Drummer (2)
300NFR10 Eagle Bearer (1)
300NFR11 Deuxieme Portaigles, in helmet (1)
300NFR12 Deuxieme Portaigles, in bearskin (1)

Perry's Update

More Perry stuff, from the Miniatures Page (go there for the full story):

Alan writes:

"I've been beavering away at the 1815 Dutch/Belgians to rap them up. Next, there'll be cavalry casualties and cavalry high command, followed by a limber and maybe one or two other things. Then onto the Nassau Contingent (about 14-15 packs), which shouldn't take too long. Early next year, I'll be embarking on the French for 1815. Don't worry - I'll be dipping into my other ranges whilst working on these.

Michael's working on more British in Indian service dress, as well as the first of the Highlanders (which will be ready next month)."

AO 19 Pavesiers standing £6 GBP (these seen previously)
AO 20 Pavesiers advancing £6 GBP (ditto)

Napoleonic/Dutch Belgians 1815:

DB 38 Dutch 4th Light Dragoon command £7.50 GBP
DB 39 Dutch 4th Light Dragoons galloping, swords drawn £7.50 GBP
DB 40 Dutch Volunteer Light Dragoon command £7.50 GBP
DB 41 Dutch Volunteer Light Dragoons galloping, swords shouldered £7.50 GBP

British Sudanese:

SB 19 Gatling gun and Naval Brigade crew (gun + 4 crew) £8 GBP
SB 20 British dead and wounded (Infantry and Naval Brigade) £6 GBP
SB 21 Foot command in Indian service dress advancing £6 GBP
SB22 Infantry standing firing, Indian service dress £6 GBP
SB23 Infantry at the ready, Indian service dress £6 GBP

Really an excuse to show more Perry pictures:

Copplestone Xmas Model

Forgot to show this - Santa and assistant, £4.

GW Rumour update

2005-11-29T19:30:00.000Z

I just posted this to the Frothers forum (hence the similarities) and I'll cut and paste here:

From DakkaDakka forum and Bolter and Chainsword, based on people speaking with Games Workshop at a recent event (Sabbat Crusade Weekend) at Warhammer World:

40k

Next few codices after Tau:
- Eldar
- Cityfight replacement (City of Death)
- Dark Angels (2007)

Eldar:
- Autarch
- plastic Wraithlord and War walker kits
- new Dark Reaper exarch

Cityfight
- new IG regiment "Volostian guard" - cossacks in space - these are the "greatcoated" space marines previously mentioned, and they seem to be metals

Also on my previous post - the plastic catachan battleforce is no longer on the GW UK website but it is still in the printed 2006 catalogues.

Also
- Lucius the Eternal
- Daemon Prince of Nurgle
- Plastic scouts with sniper rifles

There's also some mention of Orks - since we don't expect a codex these might be to go with City of Death also.

Warhammer Fantasy

"The set contains Dwarf hand gunners, dwarf warriors, dwarf miners, a dwarf cart, dwarf hero, goblin spearmen, goblin spider riders, troll, some more goblin stuff (which I can't recall). I also heard that plastic slayer/s would be in the box although this sounds outrageous!"

- Orcs and Goblins around Autumn/Xmas
- New plastic goblin spider rider miniatures
- New plastic stone trolls
- new Azhag (with Wyvern)
- new Skarsnik and Gobbler

So Dwarfs, not Empire.

Next Few Codices for 40k/GW Rumour Round Up

2005-11-27T20:18:00.000Z

Someone wrote to me and asked, what are the next few codices for 40k and WFB?

The rumour going around the various fora is that the following are due for release next year, for 40k:

- Tau (obviously)
- Cityfight follow-on (City of the Dead)
- Eldar
- Dark Angels codex

Assume a quarterly roll out. DakkaDakka reports the Tau codex itself will be out March 1, so maybe those earlier reports of February model releases are correct. I'm guessing a new plastic Imperial Guard set, per previous rumours, around the Cityfight follow on. My bet's on Steel Legion, since they can then introduce and sell a bunch of tanks also, but we'll see. Notably, they've retained Steel Legion and Valhallans in metal, plus the black library stuff (Schaeffer/Gaunt/Tanith) but killed Death Korps, Mordians and Praetorians, and given Tallarns to Forge World. I also note the Catachan battleforce isn't on the online store any more, and the codex is a free downloadable (not a good sign, Rambo fans).

There are also longstanding rumours of an Eldar/Dark Eldar/Harlequin consolidation in a single codex.

What needs refreshing? Right now, for 40k, the only "race" without a plastic battleforce box is the Inquisition (Daemonhunters/Witchhunters - notably merged into a single category in both the US and UK catalogues). There were longstanding promises of a third Ordo book, for the Ordo Xenos (Alienhunters), but that seems to be deferred, long-term. For WFB, GW did take advantage of Lustria to consolidate some of the lines with plastic battalion boxes without a codex, per se, but I can't see them doing that in this case.

The Dark Eldar models, if you take a look round, are the ones probably in most need of a refresh, but I'm still not sure we'll see the comprehensive Eldar codex given the logistics involved (2 new battleforces, 1 army deal, various additional squad boxes and a new Harlequins line?), certainly if GW are still bringing out new LotR lines, as seems to be the plan. The Necron could certainly do with a couple of new units, to my mind. But ... the apparent reason behind the Tau next has more to do with the popularity of the Tau line than a requirement for more Tau.

On the WFB side, the general consensus seems to be Orcs and Goblins, after the Dwarfs. After that, it's still unclear. In this case, those races without their own battalion box include:

- beasts of chaos
- hordes of chaos
- dark elves
- dogs of war (unlikely, as a premium line)
- dwarfs (on its way, already on advance order)
- vampire counts

There's also chaos dwarfs, still to come (apparently the chaos dwarfs in the Storm of Chaos hellcannon set were there as a kind of placeholder, to tell us they hadn't gone the way of squats), but equally rumoured to be a long way off. And there's a new release of WFB due in the early Summer, which if it goes the 40k/Macragge route would be Empire vs Orcs and Goblins, so probably look for an Empire refresh around then also. So my betting is O&G followed by Empire, followed by, umm, some form of chaos undivided refresh. I also think if GW thought they could get away, production/logistics wise, with 5 new armies next year, they'd do it.

Anyhow - mostly conjecture at this point, or repackaged conjecture from the various forums.

Minis News 28 Nov 05 - Part deux

2005-11-27T17:07:00.000Z

Whoops, a couple of things I missed earlier:

New Reaper Minis

They can be found as the featured items at the Reaper store.

02998: Dorian Starbrow, Elven Hero (pictured)
02999: Sister Kendra, Cleric (also pictured)
03001: Phoenix
03002: Gar Ironhorn, Dwarf Warrior
14224: Lady Jehanne, Mounted Crusader Warlord
14228: Isarah, Mounted Priestess,
14229: Hospitaliers (3)
14232: Templar Justicars (3)
14233: Ivy Crown Light Lancer
14234: Guardian Beast
14235: Nai-Khanon, Reptus Champion
75067: Talisman of Scrying Life Counter

Urban War November Releases

Now on the Urban Mammoth site. Most have already been previewed here.

- 23905-Urban War Issue 4 £6.00 €9.00
- 13601-Convict Auxilia (4 different designs) £8.00 €12.00
- 13602-Convict Legionaries (4 different designs) £8.00 €12.00
- 13603-Legionary Decurion £3.00 €4.50
- 13604-Legionary Sandrunner, Lance attention £8.00 €12.00
- 13605-Legionary Sandrunner, Lance poised £8.00 €12.00
- 13606-Praetorian with combat blade £3.00 €4.50
- 13607-Lictor £3.00 €4.50 (pictured)
- 13608-Exosuit with Cestus & Chaingun £6.00 €9.00
- 13609-Legionary Heavy Chain Gun Team £6.00 €9.00

Terrain - Windows from Freebooter

These are new, according to the Miniatures Page. Bullseye windows, nicely detailed, for your building projects.

White Dwarf (UK) 312 Highlights

2005-11-27T15:39:00.000Z

This came out Saturday (actually if you go to an independent you can generally find it on the Friday).

New Releases

As previously mentioned on the website advance order list, and no surprises:

- LotR Balrog with whip
- 40k Space marine scout squad
- 40k BT Marshal Helbrecht
- 40k BT Grimaldus and retinue
- 40k Terminator Chaplain
- 40k BT Rhino
- 40k BT Sword Brethren Squad
- Dwarfs army deal (the standard bearer is indeed a LE)
- Water effects (there's an article on this in the hobby supplies section at the end - apparently it's water rather than resin based)

Previews

- Vespid plus concept art - still can't work out whether I like these. The concept art "amateur comix" feel doesn't come over in the models, mainly the head area lacks character and the legs should be more bug like. This may be the colour schemes in the paint jobs we're seeing, but surely they saw the concept art as well?
- N-Gage Glory in Death game preview. Not much about it, which is a good job as I'm not interested (there was a stand devoted to it at UK Games Day, wasn't interested then either).
- WHFRP "Paths of Nuln" scenario (Feb 06) and "Knights of the Grail" Brettonian sourcebook (Spring 06)
- Macragge repackaging
- Forgeworld - Warhammer Giant (this is different, I think, to the one being previewed on the main site, which is slightly annoying for FW - 210mm high resin model), etched brass imperial eagle sets (they had these at GD)
- "Vlad the Impaler" historicals sourcebook slips to Spring 2006
- Books - Fell Cargo (novel, WFB, Dan Abnett, Feb 06), Alien Autopsy (background book), the Art of Warhammer 40k
- Sabertooth - "War of Attrition", new base set for WarCry CCG

Articles

Righteous Victories - Black Templar conversion article, building your own Black Templar crusade. Notably first in the list is a crusade against the Tau (expect the Tau to take stage front between now and their army release). Nice article with 6 different examples and associated background fluff. The nicest (in my opinion) is Mark Bedford's set of terminators, using Cadian/Catachan heads and using storm shields made from Forge World Rhino doors. Easier for Mark Bedford to do as a Forge World employee of course. But it highlights the fact that the shields on the new assault terminator set are too puny for the models.

Black Steel - building the land raider crusader, using the BT upgrade sprue. I have one of these; I don't like building or painting vehicles and I'm not really looking forward to it. Alternate paint schemes for the other "Codex" (in the sense of having one, as opposed to in the sense of orthodoxy - UM, BA, DA, SW) chapters are provided.

Accept any Challenge - Matt Hutson's BT collection. He's painted his latest ones with white "cross of malta" motifs on the fronts of their helmets, and the scouts get black warpaint in a similar pattern on their faces. Don't like it personally - it means less facial detail on the scouts (and the scout heads are, for GW, weakly detailed anyhow) and as a result they all look like eagle-eye action man.

Armageddon - background article with scenarios for 40k Armageddon

Target Acquired - modelling BT mission objectives. Taken from the US WD 310 ...

Index Astartes - Space Marine Scouts background article

Search and Destroy - Scouts modelling and painting article. Examples for Ultramarines, Blood Ravens, Iron Knights, Dark Angels, Black Templars (Matt Hutson's army again) and Space Wolves. The Space Wolves ones look pretty nice (possibly because Simon Grant uses the Space Wolves heads rather than the supplied Scouts ones. Hmm.

Behind Enemy Lines - tactica, but also a cry for help along the lines of "buy lots of scouts please". Four example army lists emphasising their use. The pictures, by the way, have them facing off against Tau.

Tournament Play - set of articles about GW Grand Tournaments

Grudge Bearers - WFB Dwarfs preview

Shrine of the Sorceress - WFB battle report. High elves versus Dark elves. I'm not sure I can remember the last time either of these appeared in a battle report. Also Jervis Johnson runs the dark elf side, so it really is a blast from the past. It also has the distinction of being about the worst board I've seen in one of these articles for a while. Having said which, we've been through a phase where the battle reports have been, for various reasons (mainly mucking about with the format), not particularly compelling, and this one is a little more back to the gold standard.

Conversun Klinic - written by the staff of WD US (just to bear out my theories) - Undead Wood Elves. The first of the two (spirit hosts - basically you can see the clothes but not the elves) are pretty good.

The Shape of Things to Come - LotR concept art and model previews for the "Shadow in the East" set and another one beyond that called "Fall of the Necromancer".

Victory for the Free Peoples - Campaign report for the War of the Ring. There's a clue as to the result in the title.

Misty Mountains - LotR multi-part campaign, part one.

Battle Companies Redux, part 2 - updated campaign rules for LotR Battle Companies.

Treacherous Terrain - the LotR Ruins of Middle Earth terrain pack. And a scenario - Valley of Shadows, to encourage you to buy it.

Descending into Darkness - collecting and modelling Moria Goblins. Painting articles for the goblins themselves and for the Cave Troll.

Painting Legolas - see the title. I think this is meant to be a speed painting article, since Adi Wood is a decent enough painter but the results here don't look too enticing.

Modelling Showcase - highlights of GD Baltimore and LA - first time I think I've seen the international GDs highlighted in the UK magazine, albeit the entire article is only one page.

Advance Orders Coming Up

All except the Bugman model are previewed in the Dwarfs article.

From 26/11:

- Dwarf Warriors
- Warhammer Armies: Dwarfs
- Dwarf Battalion
- Dwarf Grudge Thrower

From 3/12

- Dwarf Master Engineer
- Dwarf Runelord

From 21/1

- Dwarf Lord with Pistol and Axe
- Dwarf Josef Bugman

More Specialist Games Confusion

2005-11-27T15:01:00.000Z

So that's all clear then. A further clarification on the specialist games site, additional to the Inquisitor clarification. The only part of the original post that was true (or rather, wasn't mostly a repackaging) was the Warmaster part"

"Necromunda: The Caller, Redeemer and Kal Jericho will remain available as Boxed and set and Blisters only. The other models listed in Tuesday’s blog are being retired as previously stated.

BFG: Good news for Gothic players, you actually gain a code! The Dauntless class will now be sold as separate torpedo and lance variants.

Blood Bowl: The Ogre team will remain available as a blister and team box only, no components.

Mordheim: The Freelancer, Ogre, Johann, Halfling Cook & Thief, Town Cryer, Elf Mage, Pit Fighter Ogre, Road Warden, Highway Man, will remain as blisters only. The Plague Cart and Stage Coach will remain as boxed sets only (you can’t purchase the components)."

Minis News 28 Nov 05

2005-11-27T13:56:00.000Z

Ilyad WIP

A "complete resculpt" of Fratus Sinister, "one of the signature characters for Chronicles of the Black Moon". Up to their usual standards (meant to be praise by the way). Pictures with and without mask.

Hasslefree WIPs

Don't think I posted them before, they had been referenced I think on the Frothers boards, but now they're on Creafigs as well I probably ought to take note.

- Zombie Ray
- Young zombie hunter (pictured)
- Mad Dog, the ill prepared zombie hunter
- male American police officer with shotgun (I'm guessing this is very much in progress, just to set your expectations - it's interesting to see how the sculpt is built up though).
- Kat

There'll be some further updates tonight, apparently (per the Hasslefree forum)

New Bob Olley Greens

More greens, this time from the galleries at Olley's Armies.

- Minotaur
- Another minotaur
- Dwarf world set 1 (pictured)
- Dwarf world set 2
- Alien

The Dwarf World project, which looks like being an ongoing one, would seem to hark back to the late 80's when it was difficult to browse through blister packs for Citadel/Games Workshop (Bob's sometime employer) without having a rack of Dwarven Villagers fall on you. I like the first set, less so the second.

New Starship Troopers stuff

- Roughnecks (pictured) ... based on the cartoon (there was a cartoon?)
- Guard Bug (also pictured, since it looks like the movie)
- Infiltrator bug green

Wyrd casts now in

Following on from the greens, the models are now in at Wyrd. They have a 10% discount sale running through November 30.

Also, they have a scale comparison - GW, Freebooter, the Wyrd swordmistress and not sure on the fourth one, but excellent paint jobs all round.

Rezolution female marshall

New preview. Not keen.

New terrain announcements

- a new sci-fi fortress tower, additional to the fortress range at Tablescape (the website doesn't seem keen on letting me cut and paste a precise link ... click on the news section).
- "stalwart" bunker complex at Antenociti's Workshop (pictured). Price is £125, commission only. Not sure I'm keen on the inside, though the parts they sell (guns etc.) are far cheaper than Forge World (as for that matter is the complex, though the quality doesn't look as high).

Goodman's Dungeon Crawl Classics

Goodman have announced availability of their new range of miniatures, I would guess more aimed at the RPG market.

- Glyn Trollbane, Human Sorcerer
- Ynnen "Chitter-Chatter," Kobold Rogue/Ranger
- Loros Truebow, Human Ranger/Cleric (pictured)
- Oddwit Silverheel, Gnome Fighter/Bard
- Ubo Gutrot, Dwarf Barbarian (also pictured)
- Veriander Lyras, Half-Elven Cleric/Rogue

To my mind, they're not very good (the dwarf's probably the best one), and if you want this kind of thing you're probably better off browsing the Reaper catalogue.

Minis News 24 Nov 05

2005-11-24T20:24:00.001Z

Privateer Press Previews

Two new boxes, Stormguard for the Cygnar faction and Exemplars Errant for the Menoth Protectorate. I don't like either, frankly.

New Perry Announcements

These guys are good. I'm seriously tempted by the medieval stuff.

- from their Agincourt to Orleans range, pavisiers standing and charging ... both pictured.
- from their Sudan range, various painted Mahdists and English here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here
- from their Napoleonics range, Dutch Belgian Light Dragoons, here, here and here.

Runic Miniatures

Famed Golden Demon winner Jakob Rune Neilsen has started his own miniature line, Runic Miniatures. First examples are Seer, Anya and Lisa - all at 28mm scale. The first two are pictured below.

New from Essex Miniatures

A bunch of frankly not very good models from Essex Miniatures:

C EXR9a Heavy Cavalry Officer (H56)
D EXR9b Heavy Cavalry Standard Bearer with Vexillium standard
A EXR11 Numidian Javelin/Spear, assorted poses (pictured)
A EXR12 Numidian slingers (two poses)
A EXR13 Numidian archers, 2 poses
A EXR14 Legionary, early 1st C. AD, mail & shield, throwing pilum

Models EXR15-18 are ‘Legionaries, mid 1st century AD, segmenta armour, pilum & shield’, plus:

A EXR15 Plumed helmet, throwing
A EXR16 Plumed helmet, pilum upright
A EXR17 Plain helmet, throwing
A EXR18 Plain helmet, pilum upright
C EXR19 Officer, Mid 1st Century, breastplate
A EXR20 Legionary archer (western), firing

GW News 24 Nov 05

2005-11-24T19:56:00.000Z

Specialist Games end of lines

From the Specialist Games site, the announcement of a large number of model withdrawals:

"The following models will be on sale until the 10th of December.

Blood Bowl: The Marauders (old human team), Blood Bowl Ogre Team.

Necromunda: old metal Orlocks, old metal Goliaths, old metal Scavvies, old metal Ratskins, The Caller, the Redeemer, Kal Jericho and Scabs, Rapier, Necromunda Farseer and Fire Dragons.

Warmaster: Kislev range, Alt Empire Knights, Storm of Chaos Characters, Teutogen Guard, Chaos Wizards, Chaos Spawn, Winged Daemon Prince, Old Slann Mage Priest, Undead Giant Scorpion, Alt High Elf units, Alt Dwarf units.

Inquisitor: Simeon 38X, Techpriest Tezla, Damian Bloodhound, Fabian, Yanvan Yastobaal, Bravus, Karshak, Servo Skulls, Chaos Henchman, Imperial Guards, Kroot Mercenary, Weapon Boosters, Talon, Toothpick Murke, Genestealer and Magus, Unbound Daemonhost, Sister Repentia, Tau Watercaste, Inquisitor Scarn, Crimelord, Citizens.

Mordheim: Freelancer, Ogre bodyguard, Johann the Knife, Halfling Cook, Merchant, Town Cryer, Stagecoach, Highway Man, Road Warden, Halfling Thief, Plague Cart, Averlanders, Ostlanders, Kisvelites, Elf Mage, Pit Fighter Ogre."

That's most of the (not particularly well populated) Inquisitor line then. But then, later the same day, it turns out that the Inquisitor stuff is really just a rationalisation of the line:

"Simeon 38X, Damien Bloodhound, Mutant Emissary Fabian, and Lucrezia Bravus have all been added into the original boxes that they are made from giving the customer the option of doing Damian 1472 or Simeon 38X for example. The Chaos henchmen have just been renamed as Chaos Henchman Conversion Pack. The Kroot mercenary has had the contents changed to contain a complete normal kroot. Not the merc with the funny hands and helmet. The weapons booster and servo skulls will be only available loose."

Still some withdrawals though, in fact a fair old number. It turns out that the UK has released its Specialist Games guide this week, while the US one (the one to buy, folks, if you can) is now on advance order for December. So this seems to be associated with the catalogue sort-out. Presumably the Mordheim withdrawals are mostly the groups and the Ostlander youngbloods (for example) are still available separately.

GW advance orders now available

From the UK site;

- WFB Dwarf Battalion, £50, 28/12
- WFB Dwarf Army Book, £12, 28/12
- 40k Space Marine Terminator Chaplain (choice of 4), £7, 3/12
- 40k BT Marshall Helbrecht, £9, 26/11
- 40k scout squad (got one), £10, 3/12
- 40k BT Rhino, £18, 10/12
- 40k BT Grimaldus and Retinue (got one of these too, beautiful models), £15, 10/12
- 40k BT Sword Brethren, £6 (blister of 2), 17/12
- 40k Limited Edition Codex Space Marines (hardback, in case), £20, 26/11
- LotR Balrog with Whip, £35, 3/12

You can also now see, with the aid of zoom, a Tau Army on GW's Sneak Peeks pages.

Black Gobbo 53

The latest issue of GW US's online mag is now available:

- Painting and converting the Black Templars' Emperor's Champion - usual very good conversion stuff from GW US
- Retrieve the Champion - Black Templars scenario
- How to fight against Wood Elves - tactica
- Watcher in the Water and Balin's Tomb - more linked scenarios for Lord of the Rings, continuing to trace the plot of the first book.

US stores, White Dwarf (US) 310 and The GW US Catalog

2005-11-20T22:56:00.000Z

On my recent trip to the US west coast I went into a couple of stores while in Palo Alto - DJ Hobbies in Campbell and Games Kastle in Santa Clara (both near San Jose).

Both stores had a respectable range of miniatures. DJ Hobbies is a kind of hobby superstore, with far more on, say, model railways and dolls houses than on minis. As a result of the layout many of the models were behind glass, including the blisters, which made browsing problematic. They had good ranges of Reaper (a lot of Reaper), Foundry, Copplestone, Rackham, WarMachine, WarGods, Iron Wind, Rezolution and Magnificent Egos. For GW they had boxes but as far as I could see no blisters. They had some smaller historical brands such as Old Glory on special offer. I probably missed some stuff but in general if they stock the range you're looking for and you have a good idea of what you want, it's a good store (and parking is easy).

Parking was a bit more difficult at Games Kastle, a far smaller store hidden behind a gas station. I've still no idea if I parked in the right place. It's a more traditional RPG and minis store, with a similar set of manufacturers to DJ (no Foundry or Copplestone or obscure historicals, but add I-Kore and FOW). Anyhow, I'd recommend both, but with the caution that a decent minis store in the UK would probably have a similar range (excepting Reaper, which has awful distribution in the UK - try Orc's Nest in London is my best suggestion).

One difference is the availability of slightly different GW product. I picked up White Dwarf 310 as a comparison, since it has similar material to UK 311. The main cultural difference between the UK and US teams (more on this in a second) is that the US guys seem more conversion-happy. There's an excellent article about using the Black Templar models and sprues for other (mainly custom) chapters, which you won't find in the UK edition (and, since we now have the UK 312 table of contents, we know won't appear. Also, the Direct Services section in the back includes some suggested alternate models (ie conversions), with bitz order numbers; a good idea and substantially more than the half-hearted UK Convershun Clinic. As of US311, they are offering this section as a downloadable PDF.

Less good is the idea of going through a bunch of the battalion boxes and suggesting army lists around them, with bigger lists to show you how to expand. Great idea. But it feels like a catalog view and the points scores for the less efficient packages (WFB empire and 40k imperial guard) are entirely absent.

Other differences - the greater geographic distribution means more (and more local) Games Days, and more Golden Demons. So instead of charging you for the GD highlights as a separate volume, they get regular coverage in WD. Missing from US310 compared to UK311 - Index Xenos/Dark Eldar, Spirits of Athel Loren (painting WE tree spirits, but I think this came from the US in the first place). On the other hand, the US WD doesn't seem to use GW's fantastic art for covers, preferring instead model shots.

To my mind the US edition wins by a very slight nose.

Finally, a discovery - it's not often that something from GW can be counted as good value (actually I don't recall using this combination of words together before), but I do recommend getting hold of the Complete Catalog and Hobby Reference for 2005-2006 for $30. This 670 page hardback has a list of every orderable item for mainstream GW lines, by catalog number. Strangely, it doesn't have the US prices (these are downloadable as a separate item), which leads me to believe it was produced as an international deliverable.

In addition to the models (painted and unpainted), it includes brief tactica on each army and showcase sections, as well as the "alternate models" suggestions as per White Dwarf.

The main downside - it isn't complete. In two respects - firstly it stops after the Wood Elves, so no Black Templars and no previews of the Dwarves, the Tau or anything else likely to be delivered in 2006 (for WFB, I understand it's Orcs and Goblins next). Secondly, it doesn't include the classic/collectors/archive or (except for a passing mention) specialist lines (now all merged into one, as far as the SKU numbers are concerned). They're covered in a separate catalog, available shortly (and referenced in 310US, which describes this catalog as "complete" in inverted commas - same old GW then, just as we were warming to them). But, it's far more complete than the laughable UK catalog, which not only doesn't list the various part numbers but actually doesn't show the alternate sculpts for particular blister models. Anybody remotely serious should get this guide instead, and treat the non-purchase of the UK catalog as an effective $8 discount on the real one. Additionally, if you get the forthcoming specialist catalog as well, you can avoid the cost of all the "Collectors Guides".

I asked a UK GW employee why this wasn't available here. Difficult, as he wasn't aware of it and when I started to describe it he immediately assumed the only explanation for the size was the inclusion of the specialist stuff - "the US players are far more interested in the specialist games than in the mainstream stuff" he bluffed, gamely. So, an additional point, if this is true. In that case, why has GW all but killed their specialist line, and allowed the emergence of numerous competitors in the US and Europe for skirmish tabletop gaming? Maybe they're as badly run as I thought. A while back another (different) GW employee told me the reason for the death of the specialist line was "they take the best sculptors away from the more profitable lines". I could kind of buy that, from a business point of view, if it wasn't for the case that a) GW recently announced a profit warning (worried about the decline in the LotR franchise now all the films have been and gone), b) their employees are basically telling me that they aren't investing in the main game in the largest economy where they sell goods and c) Mark Bedford, to take a random example of a specialist games sculptor, is now at Forge World.

Whatever, I don't run their business. And I suspect if they want to raise profits back to where they previously set an expectation what they really need to do is find a new franchise to ride, not roll the Mordheim rock up a hill. But ... gah. Anyhow, if you want a GW catalog, buy this one.

Ravage Magazine 32

2005-11-20T21:23:00.000Z

Ravage is a French-language games and miniatures magazine published by Histoire & Collections, who also publish the historical wargames magazine Vae Victis, the collectibles magazine Dixième Planète, and a new CCG magazine called Mana Rouge.

The magazine's tagline is "the magazine for fantasy strategy games". As such they choose, unlike Harbinger, to include collectible miniature games like Mage Knight, Star Wars and D&D miniatures, in which I have merely a passing interest (Mage Knight and HeroClix I bought in job lots from eBay; Star Wars I haven't tried; D&D I had a fair few but gave up when they went to the uncollectible and ugly "huge" sets). They also have a little coverage of computer games and books (too much to my view but the extent of the other content is sufficient to forgive them slightly). They also have a little coverage of boardgames, which doesn't quite fit their remit but is generally OK with me.

The page count is similar to Harbinger but, since the advertising page count is far lower, the magazine runs at a larger page size, the text is significantly smaller and the pages are better organised, Ravage containts significantly more actual content. Albeit it's in French. Another difference from Harbinger is that they quite rightly treat GW as just another miniatures/games company.

Articles and Content:

News covers Mongoose, Aberrant/Rezolution, Urban Mammoth, Dark Age (it points out that the new minis previously previewed here are the only ones in 4 months), Privateer, Wizkids (Heroclix, Mechwarrior, Pirates and High Stakes Drifter), Fenryll, Ilyad's Dungeon Twister boardgame, White Wolf's hybrid Car Wars/Pirates constructible game Racer Knights, Ilyad's miniatures line, GW, and Rackham. Previews of a couple of boardgames: Fantasy Pub (a new edition from Tilsit) and Mission Planète Rouge from Asmodèe, a new game by Bruno Faidutti.

Preview of Corvus Belli's Infinity. Every time I see this it looks more interesting. A combination of an interesting sci-fi background, excellent miniatures and manga overtones. It remains to be seen whether the introductory game provides as smooth a learning and collecting curve as, say, Confrontation but I'm beginning to look forward to it.

Preview of Wizkids' Rocketmen game, aka Pirates in Space. Although the article says the new game isn't just a future version of Pirates and for that matter is positive on the game.

Preview of GW's Black Templar Codex for 40k. I now have one of these, so I'll come to a review separately. Points out that the BT force has a weak command score (absence of veteran sergeants) combined with interesting element of vows. Anyhow, more on this in a different article.

Preview of Rackham's Dogs of War expansion for Confrontation 3. I hadn't seen this before. It replaces the old Incarnation system for C2, which allows for an adventure mode (effectively a campaign system) which saw characters evolve and change from skirmish to skirmish (yes, just like Mordheim and Necromunda), a kind of halfway house between Confrontation and the forthcoming Cadwallon RPG.

Preview of the Star Wars Universe booster packs. As I said, I've not been attracted by this. Presumably WotC have managed to sort out the quality issues that made their previous huge sets (those sets containing "huge" models) so dire (and for that matter uncollectable). Anyhow, until I see otherwise I'll leave this well alone.

Preview/review of Robogear. Saw it in a store in the US. Miniature quality seems poor. Not interested. The reviewer recognises that people are going to be agin it, but likes it nonetheless. If I have a criticism of Ravage, it's that they never give anything a bad review (OK, maybe occasionally the odd model gets faint criticism. Actually my other criticism is that the page size is so big that the staples don't support it). Anyhow, I suspect in this case he's reviewing the gameplay rather than the miniatures, which look like a cheap Airfix kit (actually this is because it is precisely that). The included terrain, by the way, is the same as that being sold by Urban Mammoth for Urban War.

Article on Urban War group tactics. There is, by the way, a French Urban War site with its own new releases page, which I ought to include in the template for this site.

Article on Warmachine mercenaries, with French translations of the cards, rules and backgrounds (from PP's No Quarter 1).

Suggested army lists for Confrontation - Griffons and Scorpions. Two army lists each of about 400 points strength, with notes on theme, strategy and painting.

Cloaks and Shadows, a campaign for Lord of the Rings battle game. Designed as a series of "commando style" missions for Gondorians operating behind enemy lines. Yes, there's even a reference to Tom Clancy.

Fall of the Temple Cities, a scenario for Warhammer Fantasy Battles, set in Lustria, designed for Lizardmen versus demonic Chaos armies.

Poste 627, a scenario for Rezolution. Note there's also a French website for Rezolution but it's as bad as the English one.

Blood and Sand, a scenario for Confrontation, designed for Griffons and Scorpions (there's an advisory as to how to use alternative armies though).

The ruins of Utgar, a scenario for Heroscape. I've heard decent things about the game, as a game, but generally regard it in the same vein as Robogear.

A guide to choosing colour schemes for miniatures, written by Starplayer, a Paris retail store (and therefore an advertiser), but the editorial origin/sponsorship is at least clearly marked. A decent article on colour theory. My recommendation though is to start with the one in the Darksons Design Painting Guide, as this one's a bit abstract for an introduction.

Then 4 pages of collectible price guide stuff, which I just ignore.

The gallery includes the manufacturer studio pictures of new models, not the publisher's studio or other contributors. So it's not really comparable to, say, the Harbinger showcase. You'll have seen most of the pictures on this site already (or else they preceded its existence).

Finally, 2 pages of book reviews and 3 of computer/console games (one news page and then reviews of Fable for the PC and Dungeon Siege 2). As I said, I'm not keen. My general view on these things is that they grow until someone has the bright idea of movie reviews, which means that they've lost interest in the core subject.

Anyhow, hopefully this gives you a flavour of the magazine. If you can read anything from high school French to better (and reading is easier than speaking), I'd recommend it whole-heartedly. The French retail price is E6.35 per issue; a subscription in France is E33 for 6 issues and outside France is E40 for 6 issues, so not bad.

Harbinger Magazine 23

2005-11-20T20:04:00.001Z

This is the latest issue of Harbinger, a magazine published by Griffin Miniatures, a sometime miniatures company (their current focus is mainly the magazine, although they do provide promotional miniatures for subscribers and collectors).

Before going on , I think the magazine is generally pretty good, though slightly expensive for what it is, and to back that up I do have a subscription. The main negatives are that, for the price, it's light on material, much of the content is written by the advertisers and the production values are, at best, semi-professional.

The front cover advertises Harbinger as "the only independent miniatures gaming magazine". Maybe the only English one, if you agree with the independence comment ... it's not a house magazine as such but much of the article content is actually supplied by the advertisers. It also claims to be "certified - evil empire free". Setting aside this somewhat immature characterisation of Games Workshop, more than half the miniatures in the gallery section are actually GW. Typically the news and reviews sections have also covered GW material (and rightly so, speaking as the consumer). The cover also advertises an article on painting "Rouge Trooper" (sic) and you can find further basic sub-editing failures in the inside content (as you can on this site, before anyone starts ...).

Articles:

News section includes new releases from Dark Sword (Elmore masterpieces, whoever did the paint jobs needs to work on faces), Crocodile (the Tethru, mentioned elsewhere), Urban Mammoth, Aberrant (Rezolution Wave 4), Eastern Front Studios, Wizkids, Mongoose, Rackham, Privateer and Magnificent Egos. Almost all of these entries are written by the companies in question, to the extent that they use "We" to refer to themselves, and the UM one includes a reference to "insert picture", presumably as an instruction to the editorial team.

Savage Worlds skirmish rules. I can't really comment on this article; I don't particularly have an interest in the game. The article is written by Shane Hensley, SW's creator.

Battleground scenario. Battleground isn't a miniatures game, it's a card game (it claims to be a "miniatures game without the miniatures" - as I write this article I'm drinking a gin and tonic without either gin or tonic but with some additional tea). The cards, judging from the full page advertisement on page 4, use weakly rendered Poser art. More than half the scenario is White Dwarf style fluff. The article is written by Chad Ellis, designer of the game. Awful.

Confrontation - introduction to the new Confrontation box sets. Written by Graham Clarke, of Simple Miniatures, the game's UK distributor (and if you're in any doubt, an advertisement for them immediately follows the article). Despite this, Graham is a regular contributor and the introductory articles he writes on the game are consistently very good, as is this one. The starter and initiator boxes include elements for the Wolfen and Dirz factions, the starter being at 150 points and the initiator set being at 200 points. After half a page on what good value these sets represent (a subject occasionally returned to) it's actually also a good article about army building. There's then a scenario, written by Mark Lankham and Jamie Roberts (who are actually on the Harbinger staff) for Sessair vs Drune.

Wargods - an article by Marike Reiner (a Crocodile employee) on painting a Basti Heroine (WGE-133) in the style of a Siamese cat. Great article, by someone who knows what they're doing. Followed immediately by a Crocodile advertisement.

Full Thrust - again a scenario for a game I don't know (in this case a starship miniature game. Again, half the two page scenario is fluff. They really need to crack down on this.

Masterclass Painting - excellent article on basing. I believe this is a Harbinger commissioned article - Tammy Haye, a well known painter and the article's author, freelances for them occasionally. This is followed by another masterclass, on painting a Foundry Rogue Trooper model, written by Kevin Dallimore (Foundry's house painter). Unsurprisingly he uses Foundry paints. You can find an advertisement for his new painting book at the end of the news section. A decent article, about a model I'm extremely unlikely to buy.

Spotlight - a regular feature on manufacturers is in this case an article written by Darkson Designs' Crystal Kingery. Pretty much a puff piece for their AE-WWII line. On one hand, I didn't know this line particularly well, so I now know a little about why it exists. On the other hand, I'm still not that interested. A pity, since Darkson's painting guide is actually the best on the market (I haven't read the Foundry one to compare, having said that).

The Showcase section has painted images from Rackham (3 miniatures), GW (6 - referred to as Games WQorkshop at one point, probably to cover up the evil empire link), Reaper (1) and Trifon Miniatures (1). Trifon is an Argentinian miniatures company that I hadn't previously heard about - the Goblin Quixote model shown is pretty interesting. As throughout, the production values get in the way, but in this section it's probably worse. Harbinger really needs to think about how it presents images and text for readability, and less about keeping their production staff interested. White backgrounds, simpler headlines, consistent look and feel and more content, please.

Finally, the Reviews section, written in house and generally to a high standard, covers Darksword's Elmore Masterworks set 7, Elmore Mountain Giant, Tactical's Narcotics team, and a number of Urban Mammoth's miniatures, all in good depth. Same comments on production values as the showcase though.

All this may read as negative. It's not meant to be (or not overly so). We do need an independent gaming magazine, or at least one which isn't beholden to a particular manufacturer. And it needs to be economically viable. On the other hand we also need the content therein to be as useful to the reader as it is to the advertiser. Which means better content, better design, better production, and a little more genuinely independent editorial.

Minis News 20 Nov 05

2005-11-20T16:11:00.000Z

November Urban Mammoth stuff

From the i-kore fora, out later this month, all for the Junkers faction.

Convict Auxiliaries (pictured)
Legionnaires
Sand Runner and painted version (pictured)
Pretorian
Exo-suit (pictured - quick someone call Games Workshop).

Still waiting for my UM stuff to arrive, though apparently it's shipping.

New Ilyad Models

Spectacular "Virago Crete Hurlante" (a reference to the mohican, I guess), more pictures here. Plus a painted version of the earlier WIP.

Privateer Catch-Up

Forgot to mention the other new Hordes faction, Legion of Everblight.

New Fenryll Dragon

What is says in the header (OK a dragon mummy). Some disdainful comments on the frothers fora, I suspect the issue is the paint job and the photo rather than the sculpt. In fact, the image has been on the Fenryll sites for a while, I just don't know their line well enough to know what's new:

New Olley Minotaur

Keeping up his burst of new releases, a new minotaur at Olley's Armies. Seen here as a cast and painted.

Wargods December Releases

Crocodile have a new French site. I'm not sure whether this reflects the changing balance of power in the minis world but the December previews are available there but not, as far as I can see, on the "proper" US site. The Tethru are the new Ibis faction, associated with the god Thoth.

WGE-153 Tethru Hero (with baboon servant, no less)
WGE-218 Harbinger of Thoth
WGE-155 Tethru Master of Words (with rack of scrolls)
WGE 154 Priest of Thoth (with sacred ibis)
Limited Edition Tethru Scribe - they're all nice but this one's the nicest - see picture.

I've upated the list with the numbers I got from Harbinger 23 (see separate review). There's also a WGE-018 (Tethru Warriors Booster), a WGE-318 (Tethru Warriors Unit) and a WGE-908 (Warband Starter Set, which includes 153, 154, 155, 218, 318 and the LE scribe).

Hazgaard

Never heard of them before, but this company seems to publish minis based on French comic books (worth a blog in their own right). They have some new sculpts based on a comic strip ("BD" = bande desinee) called Donjon (pictured). There's another set here based on another strip, Lincoln. Nice, but one step away from action figures, and I probably won't speak of them again.

Brigade Games - German Asia Korps

From the US company Brigade Games.

BG-WIEG30 German Asia Korps Infantry I
BG-WIEG33 German Asia Korps Maxim Team

That's it for now. Coming attractions - I have a pile of the latest magazines to review (US WD310, No Quarter 3, latest French Ravage and UK Harbinger), a bunch of recent acquisitions (Black Templars and Wood Elves), the Lizardmen collectors' guide and the US GW catalog, something of a discovery. Will try to get to them today or tomorrow.

Minis News 17 Nov 05 - Part 2

2005-11-17T21:12:00.000Z

So, a couple of coffees later, on to part 2:

Rackham - new for December

Drune riders (pictured), behemoth orcs and the previously mentioned valkyrie (but here's the card. And the starter paint set (if the differentiator for Vallejo/Reaper over GW is the droplet mechanism, these aren't worth the switch - they're fliptop, like GW).

Fenryll

After the preview of the thief etc., a painted version, also one of a troll joker and a war troll (pictured). Too cartoony for me, by half.

and Goblin Forge

Speaking of which, an ogress and prey from Goblin Forge (better known for their bloodbowl type stuff)

Minis News 17 Nov 05 - Part 1

2005-11-17T20:14:00.000Z

Blimey. Travelling again the last few days (got back this afternoon) and another big backlog to go through. Let's go - no particular order.

Magnificent Egos Greens

From the ME fora, greens for their limited edition Bull and Dungeon Denizens. Not that keen on any of them, to be honest (ask your browser to view the images, to see them at full size).

Privateer Press previews new Hordes Faction

The Skorne. That address should also show the breaking news on Hordes as they add further stuff.

Delays to Starship Troopers Mobile Infantry

Mongoose's Light MI figures have slipped to January. There'll be three army books in January - Light MI, Roughnecks and Arachnids. The Pathfinders are still set for December. Here's a picture of their Arachnid Mantis Assassin model:

Newbold World Antiquity Guard greens

Some works in progress for the Newbold World setting - Antiquity Guard cavalry. I'm not a fan, frankly:

Wyrd Miniatures greens

An excellent market entry by new company Wyrd Games. Four models - Bishop, Baby Kade, Killjoy and Victoria.

You can see some painted versions here and here.

Olley's Girls with Guns

Five new models available from the website at £2.50 each or £9.99 the lot. You can see them here, here, here, here and here.

Gripping Beast Hannibal and Punic Wars

More release for the Warhammer Ancients rules, this time from Gripping Beast.

Spanish Advancing
Spanish Attacking
Spanish Command
Spanish Cavalry
Spanish Cavalry Command
Carthaginian Elephant casualty
Celt-Iberian Warriors (2)
Celt Fanatic Command
Standing Italian Allies
Painted kneeling Triarii
Allied Italian Cavalry Command
Allied Italian Cavalry Troopers

Games Workshop Giant preview and Forge World news

Another preview of the Games Workshop giant, this time painted. You can also now see it at the website, under their sneak peeks. Note the different use of the sprue.

ForgeWorld has a Tau broadside figure, some tyranid warrior wings, and a 145mm space marine model.

GW Previews from Montreal Conflict

2005-11-14T14:59:00.001Z

JeanFrancois at DakkaDakka's forums has posted a set of pics he took of the previews GW showed at the recent Montreal conflict, including previews of the Black Templars (subsequently arrived, mostly), Dwarf and Tau:

Tau/Dwarf artwork
more Tau/Dwarf artwork
Tau artwork
plastic Warhammer Giant (marked April 06)
plastic Warhammer Giant
plastic Warhammer Giant sprue
another plastic Warhammer Giant sprue
Dwarves
Dwarf warriors (marked Jan 06)
Dwarf war machines
LotR Khandish chariots (April 06)
LotR Easterling Kataphrakt (Jan 06)
Plastic Space Marine Scouts
Black Templar Grimaldus
Black Templar Sword Brethren
Tau Sniper Drone Team (Feb 06 ... hmmm)
More Tau
More Tau
Tau Vespid Stingwings (April 06)
Tau Commander Shadowsun (May 06)
More Tau - big transformer type robot

I think Feb 06 is unlikely for the new Tau, but what the heck (a GW person I asked the other day said "Spring", but he was in unhelpful/miserable mode, as they mostly seem to be these days). The giant also makes me think that new lines (excepting the gradual drip drip of new space marine codices) will all include a big plastic "mega model" similar to the Carnifex. Good.

Don't much like those Stingwings, whatever way they're painted.

Minis News 13 Nov 05

2005-11-14T05:13:00.000Z

I should have mentioned it before. I travel a fair bit for work. Hence the gaps in coverage. Currently, I'm sitting in San Francisco, wavering from jet lag. And, having vowed not to fall behind, I have some catching up to do.

New Dark Age Announcements

Four new announcements since my last post:

DAG2022 Dragyri Frostbite #1
DAG2023 Dragyri Blizzard #1
DAG1035 Forsaken Coil Leader
DAG1036 Forsaken Strike Leader

New Freebooter Minis Available

We previously previewed the greens, now the actual minis are available from the Freebooter site.

CHA 002-V Chaos Demon, winged variant (total height 64mm)
GOB 003 Pumpkin Nagg (total height 40mm)

Magnificent Egos Greens

From the ME fora, a pirate and a kind of female rogue. Don't much like either, at this point.

Privateer Press: Cryx Harrower Helljack

Previewed from issue 3 of No Quarter Magazine. Since I have a copy of said magazine, I can also tell you that December's releases include:

PIP 33035 Khador Warcaster Vladimir, the Dark Champion (sculpt: Kev White)
PIP 31033 Cygnar Warcaster Major Victoria Haley (Bobby Jackson)
PIP 34037 Cryx Warcaster Wraith Witch Deneghra (Gregory Clavilier)
PIP 33035 Protectorate Warcaster Grand Exemplar Kreoss (Bobby Jackson)
PIP 33038 Man-O-War Demolition Corps (John Winter) - the unit box was already previewed here

Privateer have also issued a preview of the hordes models. Here are 2 of the 6 previews:

New Numidians at AandA and Renegade

Coincidentally (or maybe not, considering the relatively new Warhammer Historical Hannibal supplement includes a Numidian list), a couple of historical releases for the same epoch from A and A and Renegade.

A and A need to find a better way of photographing stuff than to bung it in a flatbed scanner, but they have:

Archers
Slings
Foot Command (pictured)
Cavalry Command

Renegade images can be found here:

Numidians 1
Numidians 2
Numidians 3
Numidians 5
Balearic Slingers

Olleys Armies Alien

New model at Bob Olley's site, very nice too:

Ilyad Preview

Difficult to collect news from Ilyad, they are sitting with Iron Wind in the relegation zone as far as useful websites are concerned (although Rackham's store still doesn't work on Safari, to be fair). Anyhow, a work in progress:

That's it for now.

Minis News 4 Nov 05

2005-11-05T00:01:00.000Z

Warmachine Previews

Khador Man O'War Demolition Corps - Red Robotic Sumo Wrestlers, from the forthcoming Warmachine: Superiority expansion, previewed in the latest No Quarter Magazine.

Rackham Previews

Couple of new models, a Valkyrie and a giant Son of Ogmios (Kelt). Rackham please make your site work on Safari. Thanks.

Spyglass Releases

The previously previewed Dot and munchkins from the land of Zo are now available, as well as the 54mm Kruge. Some painted examples of the munchkins below:

Tom Meier Preview at Thunder Mountain

A 54mm diorama from G. R. R. Martin's a Song of Ice and Fire, by Ur-Sculptor Tom Meier. Two knights, Robert and Rheagor, fighting at Ruby Ford (hopefully this means something to fans of the series). To be released by Testors as a numbered limited run of 750, price $120. Personally, it doesn't do anything for me.

Indian Civilians from Eureka

Australian manufacturer Eureka has released a series of, 28mm Indian civilians, sculpted by Alan Marsh. The following sets are available:

100CIV19 Indian Rope Trick – boy climbing rope, basket, and 4 spectators
100CIV20 Indian Bed o’Nails – man resting on bed of nails, and 4 spectators
100CIV21 Indian Yogi – with 4 admirers
100CIV22 Indian Snake Charmer – with snake, basket, and 4 spectators
100CIV23 Male Indian Civilian Set – 4 figures
100CIV24 Female Indian Civilian Set – 4 figures
100CIV25 Indian Children Set – 8 figures

Minis News 2 Nov 05

2005-11-03T01:20:00.000Z

Foundry Special Offers

Another set of special offers to try and grab your Xmas dollar:

- any 2 collections/hordes from Xmas collection for £80, 3 for £100
- both catalog volumes £20 in hardback (hmmm)
- warhammer historical rulesets £10 each
- transfer packs £4 each
- full paint set £250 (189 paints, but in fliptop jars - not so good)

Also, for the hordes/collections, additions include British Napoleonic, Late Roman Infantry and Picts.

And ... return of the previously OOP Celtic Chariot models:

Alpha Forge previews

Designed to be used with the forthcoming "Star Mogul" game from Alpha Forge, two vehicle previews - the Gorgon reconnaissance fighter and the Salvage Dog cargo truck. Should both be available before Xmas.

Hasslefree New Releases

Continuing a run of new releases from Hasslefree - a new multi-part Dwarf, Alyx (multi-part female youth) - both pictured - some new arms and a conversion pack for their Jotun model.

Fenryll Greens

From the Creafigs website:

- wild animals
- dwarves of the north
- the thief and the troll

Return of Grenadier dwarves

From Frothers Unite - at the Lucca Games 05 festival in Italy (Lucca is a delightful town in its own right and highly recommended) Mirliton, now owners of the rights to the old Grenadier models, announced the re-release of Grenadier's dwarves to add to their Fantasy Warriors line - 28 packs in all, mostly sculpted by the great Nick Lund of Chronicle fame.

Black Hat announces Napoleon in Egypt range

OK, I've abandoned my "no historicals, oh ok then" policy and I'll just let the historicals through. Dammit. And probably buy some. Anyhow, Black Hat, already producers of the "Martian Empires" 18mm victorian science fiction (i.e. Space 1889 type stuff), are releasing a historical range around Napoleon's campaigns in Egypt.

So, anybody that collects 18mm, put your hand up. Ahem. Moving swiftly on then, 12 packs initially, each with 8 models, priced at £2.50/pack:

NE01 French Infantry Advancing
NE02 French Infantry Marching
NE03 French Infantry Firing
NE04 French Infantry Command
NE05 French Elites Advancing
NE06 French Elites Marching
NE07 French Elites Firing
NE101 Egyptian Fellahin with Swords
NE102 Egyptian Fellahain with Muskets
NE103 Provincial Militia Advancing
NE104 Provincial Militia Firing
NE105 Ottoman Command

Minis News 1 Nov 05

2005-11-01T23:07:00.000Z

Copplestone Castings New Offers

A new special offer for November and some previous ones made available once more for the discerning Xmas shopper:

- Mob War - 16 1920s gangsters - £27
- To Bolshevik Victory - 52 foot figures, 12 mounted figures, 1 gun and crew plus 1 HMG and crew, Bolshevik forces from the Russian Civil War period, £85
- Man versus Machine - 40 near future figures, Scavengers and Robots, £50
- Ngoni Invaders - 40 african tribespeople - £35

Aberrant Games/Rezolution DT News

There's a new release schedule for the rest of 2005 at the Aberrant site, and "Wave 4" of the RezolutionDT miniatures is now available, of which a couple of pictures below:

Preview of Hasselfree Terrain Piece

Apparently this will retail for £25. More details at Hasselfree.

Also, a number of figures are due for release from Heresy in early November - Vincent Ruddock, hard nut and Werewolf number 1 (pictured) will be available on 7 November, AND they're also taking pre-orders on the no-doubt very-challenging-to-build Netherlord II model for shipment mid-November. More details at the Heresy web site.

New Models from Bob Olley

Another well known ex-GW sculptor. Some new undead models, a poltergeist and a zombie now available at £2.99 each. Details at Olley's Armies.

New Preview Figures for Infinity from Corvus Belli

Taken from Frothers Unite, in turn taken from the French Creafigs site, I'll just post the links, with the names of the new models to look for, as there aren't distinct pictures on the sites:

- additional veteran Kazak
- Yu Jin Shaolin Warrior Monk
- Croc Man (a new faction)
- PanOceania Armoured Cavalry

Maidenhead Feral Elves

Australian company Maidenhead Games has added the Feral Elf Line Infantry to its "elven babe" line of Feral Elves. 9 new miniatures - 3 command, 3 with hand weapons, and 3 with two-handed weapons. The picture is of MMLNFO5, the rest are here - note the distinction between Line and Light Infantry. UK importer is Artemis Blacks, US is FozzBozz.

Rackham Limited Edn Figure for US Confederation Members

Phew. What it says in the title - the federation in question rejoices in the name of the North American Confederation of the Red Dragon, or NACORD. Like other Rackham fan groupings, it has access to limited edition figures. The picture is taken from TMP, who at least cropped the figure (those Rackham guys like their blue backgrounds).

Character is:

ERHŸL THE DEER
Skills : Survival instinct. Scout. Regeneration/5.
71 P.A.

Mixed Bag

Jeff Valent Studios have added a sixth model to their Heroes of the American Frontier Western line, outlaw with loot.

Martin Moonlight Miniatures has added a couple of pirate skeletons to their range of 34mm Moonlight28s, priced at $3 apiece:

That's it. Better not leave more gaps like that again!

GW News 1 Nov 05

2005-11-01T21:08:00.000Z

Firstly, apologies for the lack of posts over the last couple of days; it means I have some catching up to do. So, let's go.

A couple of news emails from Games Workshop to kick off:

Firstly, as trailed in my previous entry, the Dwarf army deal is now available, priced at £120. Contents: 1 Dwarf Lord, 1 Dwarf Runelord, 1 Dwarf Engineer, 1 Dwarf Army Standard Bearer, 32 Dwarf Warriors, 16 Dwarf Thunderers, 10 Dwarf Slayers, 1 Dwarf Cannon and 1 Dwarf Grudge Thrower plus the new Warhammer Armies: Dwarfs. I'm assuming the standard bearer is a limited edition model per the other army deals, but this isn't explicitly stated.

And, from GW UK's Inquisitor newsletter:

- (WFB) Article on converting Treemen ancients.
- (LotR) Rules for White Wargs
- (LotR) Linked Scenarios for the Fellowship of the Ring.
- (40k) Arming for the Sabbat Crusade - part 2 of a set of articles on GW's forthcoming event, plus an attempt to sell you a poster.

New sneak peek on the GW website - the Dwarf Grudge Thrower, which you can find in the aforementioned army deal.

And on computer games - one that kind of passed me by - there's a new MMORPG inde development for WFB (not the Warhammer Online that kind of fell apart last year), by Mythic Entertainment, creators of Dark Age of Camelot. Look for it in 2007. Plus, announced a week or so ago, a Real Time Strategy game in development, also for WFB - Warhammer: Mark of Chaos.

Then, from the GW US web site, Black Gobbo 51:

- converting Treemen ancients (as above but with better formatting)
- Black Templar designers' notes (extract of same material in White Dwarf UK 311)
- Fellowship scenarios 7 and 8 (as above, I assuming the US team is actually writing them)
- Winter of Woe 3 and 4 (linked Wood Elf scenarios)

From the UK online store, the following advance orders now available, in addition to those mentioned in the previous post:

- Black Templars assault squad £20 19/11
- Black Templars starter bundle (battleforcce + codex + glue + clippers) £72 19/11
- Black Templars High Marshall Helbrecht £9 26/11
- plastic Space Marine Scouts (long overdue IMHO) £12 26/11
- Black Templars Rhino £18 10/12
- Black Templars Sword Brethren Squad £15 10/12
- Black Templars Chaplain Grimaldus and Retinue £15 10/12
- (LotR) Balrog with whip £35 3/12
- and the release date of the "mega paint set" mentioned in the earlier post has now slipped to 26/11

White Dwarf (UK) 311 Highlights

2005-10-30T15:10:00.000Z

In France recently I took a look at their White Dwarf and noticed that content gets staggered between the different editions. Some of the content there I saw a while ago - other stuff, such as the Dawn of War preview, took a while to filter through to the UK edition.

I'll concentrate on the news stuff here.

Anyhow, 311 isn't quite as good as 310, but is closer to that level of quality than to most of the issues that came out during the weaker period that preceded it (the end of a Tale of Four Gamers probably helped). Probably part of this is that the WD development team merged with the website team as of 310, and in fact Owen Rees of the website team takes over from Guy Haley as WDUK editor as of next issue.

New releases this month concentrate on the Black Templars, the list includes the Battle Force (£50, 5/11 release), Codex (£12, 5/11), Crusader Squad (£20, 19/11), Assault Squad (£18, 19/11), Command Squad (£20, 12/11), Chaplain (£6, 12/11, 4 variants). The Battle Squad includes the following components:

- BT command squad
- BT crusader squad
- regular SM combat squad
- rhino

One thing, it doesn't mention, but which is in the 2006 catalogue, is that there'll be a space marines upgrade kit, containing the additional new sprues, released 7 Jan at £15.

Additional releases include the Terminator Close Combat squad (£20, 5/11), Wargear book (basically a mini-codex which summarises all the wargear information from the other 40k codices), Orion (£18, 29/10),the Lizardmen collectors guide (£5, 19/11) and the "modular gaming hills" (£15, 5/11). In this last case, you get 2 quarter hill pieces for your money, which "slot together in two different configurations" - maybe I'm being a little dense but I can only see one configuration if you only have the one (£15!) half-hill.

Anyhow, for LotR - Goblin Captains (£6 for 2, 12/11), Lurtz with Bow (£5, 19/11), Evil of Isengard Battleforce (20 Uruk-Hai, 18 Warg Riders, £40, 12/11), Valiant Rohirrim Battleforce (18 Riders, 24 Warriors, £40, 12/11) and a preview of the upcoming LotR Easterlings supplement, with some concept art and a couple of sculpts by the Perrys.

Hobby - the Mega Paint Set (complete 72 pot paint range, 7 brushes, flocks, labels (put them on the paintpots in the first place, dammit), glue, carrycase, £150!!!!, 5/11, if you're going to spend this kind of money buy 2 cases of Vallejo VGC is my advice), Master Brush Set (Wooden case, 5 "masters" brushes, soap, cloth, a brass waterpot, wooden case, £75!!! that's £15 a brush!!!), Army Figure Case (twice the size of the regular one, otherwise the same (£50, 5/11), Tank Figure case (the regular one but with a different foam insert, £30, 5/11). As to the brush set, the most significant improvement I've made to my painting is to stop using GW brushes - I use the Pro Arte acrylic range, available from most decent art stores for about £2 a brush.

From Forgeworld, the Phaeton outpost, Imperial Armour update 2005, Keep of Secrets greater daemon.

Black Library - Dawn of War: Ascension (by C.S. Goto, second in that series, 40k), The Broken Lance (Nathan Long, second in Blackhearts series, WHFB), the Vampire Genevieve (Kim Newman writing as Jack Yeovil, repackaging of the Genevieve four novels in one volume, WHFB), Realms of Sorcery (WHFRP). Preview of next Ciaphas Cain novel (Death or Glory).

Warp Artefacts - 13 new prints by John Blanche.

Sabertooth - Dawn of War battlebox for Dark Millenium (basically a fancy packaging exercise).

Warhammer Ancient Battles - Vlad the Impaler supplement.

And as for the actual content:

40k - Black Templars designer notes
40k - Black Templars battle reports (3 linked batreps - first versus Dark Eldar, second two versus Lost and Damned
40k - painting Black Templars (clue - use black). Actually a good and detailed article.
40k - preview of Wargear book
40k - modelling weapons damage (another good modelling/painting article, something of a feature of the last two issues)
40k - Index Xenos - article on the Dark Eldar, illustrated by some decent models. Basically a trailer for the new Eldar/Dark Eldar collectors' guide, which is presumably now out.
LotR - (this section is now in the middle, as of last issue it seems the LotR this section is going to float around in the same way the others do) Alternative Scenarios for Mines of Moria
LotR - updated rules for Battle Companies
LotR - scenario - the Ringwraiths vs Fatty Bolger (somewhat one sided)
LotR - painting Elrond and his High Elves
LotR - 2nd Age mini scenario
WHFB - Return of the Lichemaster campaign part 3, includes a Lichemaster Battle of the Cairns army list
WHFB - painting Wood Elf tree spirits
WHFB - Wayfarer's Companion, a guide to Hell Pit, stronghold of Clan Moulder. Hell Pit army list, plus some decent conversions
General - an article on brushes, and why you should pay £15 for one
Konvershun Klinic - Lustrian Heroes

Advanced Orders (some of these are now up on the website)
Black Templars Rhino (from 29/10)
BT Sword Brethren squad (from 29/10)
BT Chaplain Grimaldus and Revenue (from 29/10 - it's this set that's persuaded me to do a BT army)
Dwarf Army Set (!!!) (from 29/10)
Specialist Games Catalogue (from 1/11, and it will be interesting, given how little SG content has been released recently, to see if this has changed from last year. I guess it will have the 10mm LotR content.)
BT Sword Brethren blisters (from 6/11)

By the way, the letters page says they'll be running the house Mordheim campaign in WD, hopefully a little better than the Necromunda articles - the best articles of this type recently were the Battle Company ones, which almost got me to go out and start buying LotR stuff ("must ... resist ...").

Minis News 27 Oct 05, Part 2

2005-10-28T05:44:00.000+01:00

Some more stuff, which I didn't have time to post earlier:

Forge World Tyranid Trygon

This was being shown at Games Day, it's just made it to the new stuff area on the Forge World website - a tyranid trygon, retailing at £75 (!!!), in case the really expensive Tyranids they make are beyond your reach and you only want one at about the price of a bottom of the range new settee from Ikea. A nice model but not that spectacularly better than the regular ones, I seem to remember it's 4-5" high.

New Terrain from ESLO

Some new announcements from the German terrain maker, 28mm items:

0162 School €49.95 EUR
0163 Ranch €49.95 EUR
0164 Bushes Set €11.95 EUR

Privateer's Katrina Aid Model Shipping

As an update to the previous news on shipping models, Privateer's alternate Vladimir model, in aid of Katrina Hurricane relief, is now slated to ship on November 9.

Keith Parkinson dies, aged 47

Famed fantasy illustrator Keith Parkinson, an artist very much associated with illustration for D&D during the later TSR era, has died at the age of 47. Latterly, many of his illustrations had been converted to miniature form by industry master Tom Meier. More details at the Dark Sword Miniatures site. My sympathy to Mr. Parkinson's family.

Minis News 27 Oct 05, Part 1

2005-10-28T00:12:00.000+01:00

Urban Mammoth Boxed Sets available on pre-order

This now includes the starter set, as well as Full Force 300 sets (packaged 300 point armies) for each of the factions. Go here. Always one to be easily panicked by a short term special offer, I ordered a starter set and some of the builder sets. I'll let you know how it goes.

GW news

... from their latest newsletter. Not much really - a repackaging of Battle For Macragge (original box plus glue, sand, brushes and 10 paints (but not the £5 add-on scenario book) - and pre-order for the new plastic space marine scouts.

New Ilyad models

The Ilyad site (see sidebar) is next to impossible to navigate, even if you speak French, partly because it's not really a site in its own right, but rather a subsite of Asmodee Editions. Anyhow, buried in the difficult to find news section (I have the Frothers Fora to thank for this), a new Necromancer (or whatever the feminine of necromancer is), two Knights of Infortune (only the first is pictured, for the second just an illo is available), and Goum and Pepette, two "signature characters" for Ilyad's Chronicles of the Black Moon.

Elsewhere on Blogspot - Para Bellum

2005-10-28T00:09:00.000+01:00

A new blog, around the construction of an army for Warhammer Ancients. Looking forward to following it. I'll start an area in the sidebar for interesting blogs as I find them. Main qualification is that they should be focused on miniatures and/or gaming, rather than where the writer eats out (real gamers don't get the time).

Para Bellum, building a Warhammer Ancients Roman Republic Army

Another one, by the way, and with a similar brief to miniblogster (and far more established) is Tabletop Gaming News.

Minis News 26 Oct 05

2005-10-27T05:18:00.000+01:00

New Gamezone Miniatures

I noticed these yesterday at Battlefield Berlin, trying to track down a supplier of Reaper's master paints (I'm still no wiser), and then followed through to Gamezone's own site in Spain. But given the various language differences I didn't feel confident to repost. An entry at Frother's Unite, though, identifies the new stuff (pictures in order): a Dark Elf Hero on Lizard, a High Elf captain, a Mage, an Orc Captain, a Dwarf Lord and a Dark Elf Mage. Some nice sculpts:

New Rackham Models

More of some of the best miniatures out there ... Dirz, Elemental and Mongol Orc:

Urban Mammoth - New Bio-Toxin Plant Set

Is now in stock, and for a few days there's a special offer on the various builder kits - going to get me some of that, methinks.

Renegade Miniatures - New Republican Romans

Some nice 28mm ancients sculpts. The new lines are:

ROME01 PRINCIPES, PILUM A
ROME02 PRINCIPES, PILUM B
ROME03 PRINCIPES, SWORD A (pictured)
ROME04 VELITES ATTACKING A
ROME05 VELITES ATTACKING B
ROME06 PRINCIPES, SWORDS B
ROME07 PRINCIPES, SWORDS C
ROME10 VELITES, SWORDS A
ROME11 VELITES, SWORDS B
ROME14 EQUITES A (Cavalry)

The following are "coming soon" ...

ROME08 HASTATI, PILUM A
ROME09 HASTATI, PILUM B
ROME12 TRIARI, KNEELING A
ROME13 TRIARI, KNEELING B
ROME15 EQUITES B (Cavalry)
ROME16 EQUITES C (Cavalry)
ROME17 EQUITES COMMAND

Minis News 25 Oct 05

2005-10-26T02:15:00.001+01:00

Privateer Press Shipments 26 Oct 05

The next batch of Warmachine models ship tomorrow, from various sites; the pictures below are from Game Mart. The list of new models includes:

PIP-33036 - Warmachine: Khador Behemoth Heavy Warjack
PIP-34038 - Warmachine: Cryx Deathjack Helljack
PIP-41028 - Warmachine: Alexia Ciannor & Risen, Mercenary
PIP-41029 - Warmachine: Mercenary - Risen (3)
PIP-41030 - Warmachine: Mercenary - Thrall Warrior

PIP-81043 - Iron Kingdoms: Curator & Discerning Beast
PIP-81044 - Iron Kingdoms: Umbral Warrior
PIP-81045 - Iron Kingdoms: Umbral Assassin
PIP-81046 - Iron Kingdoms: Umbral Sorcerer
PIP-81050 - Iron Kingdoms: Harlan Phineas Versh, Illuminated One

The risen and the thrall warriors can also be found in the Alexia boxed set, of which a picture below:

The Khador Behemoth and the Cryx Deathjack are the first of the larger "unique" warjacks (ringing in at £32 RRP):

Nicest of the release is probably the witch-hunter, Harlan, picture below. Also, the Katrina special edition Vladimir model (PIP-33040) is delayed, though Privateer have a released a picture of the model painted up:

New Renaissance Pikeman from the Assault Group

Nice historical figures and probably usable in a WHFB Dogs of War or Empire army, but I challenge anyone to find their way through TAG's unusable (from a Mac, at least) website to buy them.

Mega Miniatures 2006 Catalog available

As a PDF from this link. Notable among other things as the current home of the license for Traveller RPG spaceships.

Tyranids Collectors Guide

2005-10-25T02:11:00.000+01:00

I try to pick up all the GW collectors guides, though there's this nagging feeling at the back of my head that I'm being sold a somewhat inaccurate catalogue in numerous £5 chunks. One reason is to try and work out exactly what is available still, given the implosion of the GW archive service (on the assumption that the collectors guides provide the definitive statement of archived model availability); the other is, well let's admit it, to look at the well painted models. OK, I tell myself, it's a reference.

Anyhow, looking at this latest CG, I was struck by the fact that several models I thought out of print were allegedly still available. In particular, a couple of genestealer hybrids, a couple of magi and for that matter the enthroned patriarch. There's another patriarch, for good measure, in the HQ section. So, let's go to the classic/collectors section, subsection Tyranids, of the GW website and see if any of the above are listed. Nope. For that matter the antediluvian "Classic Tyranid Warrior", £8, isn't there (though a different £10.50 one, not listed in the guide, is). The Hormagaunts aren't there either, though you can order the parts separately (but the bodies aren't listed in the guide). And so on.

OK, they're not listed. Type in the model numbers, handily provided in the catalogue. Not there either. Of course, this could be an issue with the notoriously ill-maintained ASP site that passes for the GW UK online store, or it could be the case that the store runs somewhat behind the collectors guides. Anyhow, it looks like a case of going back to eBay.

Minis News 24 Oct 05

2005-10-25T01:40:00.000+01:00

Mongoose Previews Viking Dropship for Starship Troopers

As it says in the title ... Model not to be released till next year. Somewhat uninspiring to my mind, but probably a lot cheaper than a forge world equivalent if you wanted to use it in 40k (and could get away with it). However this is an early look and maybe at some point I'll see something that will win me over to SST.

Copplestone Castings announces 10mm Orcs

Go here and scroll down to 10mm Evil army. Four new model announcements: TM1/Orcs, TM2/Half-Orcs with Spears, TM3/Half-Orc Archers, TM4/War Trolls (taking scale into account these last end up at 20-22mm). Designed to be compatible with the GW 10mm games such as Warmaster and Five Armies, so if you're into those (I'm not) may be a godsend. And certainly a good job at this scale by legendary sculptor Mark Copplestone.

New Abnett Trilogy previewed on Amazon.com

2005-10-24T03:12:00.000+01:00

At this year's Games Day UK, it was announced that Dan Abnett, probably the leading author currently writing for GW's Warhammer and Warhammer:40k franchises, would be bringing out a new trilogy based around the events of the Horus Heresy. Very tempting too, given that I've yet to read a bad novel by Mr Abnett (new readers, in particular, are directed towards the Eisenhorn trilogy). Anyhow, and this may not be new news (but I just noticed), Amazon.com has a pre-order page for the first of the new trilogy, dated April 2006.

Minis News 23 Oct 05

2005-10-24T00:18:00.001+01:00

New Freebooter Releases

Two new releases for Freebooter in November, a winged variant of the female chaos demon (CHA 002-V) and a just-in-time-for-Halloween pumpkin-wielding chaos goblin (GOB 003). Total height of the demon is 64mm and of the goblin (plus pumpkin) 40mm.

Forge World Newsletter 132

A couple of new resin kits from the GW support company, firstly two variants of the Hellhound Imperial flamethrower tank, and secondly the Phaeton Pattern defense platform. The latter presumably fits with the fantastic (and fantastically expensive) Phaeton pattern defense base, which I was drooling over at Games Day this year.

Minis News 21 Oct 05

2005-10-21T23:11:00.000+01:00

Urban War Box Set and New Greens

Urban Mammoth are previewing a Starter Set for their Urban War skirmish game. Included is a cut down Hexagon construction kit and two sets of six white metal minis - Viridians and Synthas. Price is posted as £30. Attractive, especially compared to, say, Mordheim. More previews here.

Also, some new greens, posted to their message boards: (in order of pictures) Junker Exosuit, Junker Legionaries, Junker sandrunner, VASA Archangel, VASA Black Legion:

Games Workshop News

For the UK at least, taken from their online newsletter:

(40k) White Dwarf 311 preview ... largely about the Black Templars. 310 was the best WD since Paul Sawyer left so hopefully this one will keep up.

(40k) Who are the Black Templars

(40k) Black Templars artwork

(LOTR) Building a Mines of Moria board

Sneak peeks: Warriors of Khand (LOTR) and Dwarf Lord (WFB) - I won't bother linking as they aren't hard linked

Also noted, appearing on the advance orders part of their website, some new "hobby stuff" - water effects (resin?) and modular gaming hills.

I popped into our local GW today and picked up the Tyranid and Skaven collectors' guides and the 2006 catalogue. I've still to open the collector's guides. There's not much to say at this point as regards the catalogue apart from that the paper feels cheaper than previous editions and the "preview pictures" are of tau empire (the same Vespid pictures that have been doing the round - no actual Tau) and the dwarf pictures which have also all appeared in the sneak peeks on the GW website.

Minis News 20 Oct 05

2005-10-20T19:55:00.000+01:00

Dark Age Genesis

Dark Age Games announced the release of their new wargame ruleset Genesis. Also some new models for October, DAG2022 Dragyri Frostbite #1 (pictured), DAG2023 Dragyri Blizzard #1, DAG1035 Forsaken Coil Leader (pictured) and DAG1036 Forsaken Strike Leader:

More Rezolution Gallery Postings

Previews from the Rezolution website: the Ronin Brick with mini-gun and first pictures of the new Merc faction :

Mystic Spirals Castings

A small run of limited edition figures (20 castings for each figure, according to the site) from Mystic Spirals, their first. Not bad at all. The pirate's my favourite:

Reaper Greens

Around for a few days, just got round to posting, some new greens from Reaper, including the pictured Sasquatch and Vampire Lord. Go to their Greens page to see the others, including some new CAV models and, from their fantasy ranges, a Satyr, Mage of Ritterlich and a Half-Orc with Double Great Axe:

New Pulp Figures

Some very nice previews from Pulp Figures. The complete list is here. Anyone thought of making an Inquisitor-type game set in the Pulp era?:

Minis News 19 Oct 05

2005-10-20T01:05:00.000+01:00

Sigh. One broken hard disk later, and a busy day. I'll post some more tomorrow also.

New Gangs of Mega City One

Some new releases from Mongoose Publishing for Gangs of Mega City One - a Undercity Gang box set and some individual minis - Vid Vulture, Sleazy Lawyer and Cleaner. These latter items are nice looking and the first two could be used in most modern games, I think.

New Rezolution Gallery Entries

Some new gallery postings for the Rezolution sci-fi skirmish game.

New releases from Alpha Forge

Per the title, some sci-fi new stuff from Alpha Forge Games - a "Hydrissian Noble" and two salvage gang members. They also have a deal on their 6 member salvage gang.

New releases from Perry

I wouldn't normally reference historical stuff, but nevertheless, some beautiful stuff from the fantastic Perry brothers - samurai, American War of Independence Hessians, Border Reivers (1580 to 1603) and (pictured) Mahdists from the Sudan war.

Minis News 17 Oct 05

2005-10-17T22:27:00.000+01:00

Greens of the Day

Some new greens from the Spyglass fora, which are very much on my want list ...

Also a 54mm fantasy "imperial bodyguard".

Scurrilous Gossip

The 40k rumours forum at Tau Online is reporting the possibility of a plastic IG regiment with greatcoats during 2006 - maybe I can put off painting those Steel Legion minis. Seriously, this would probably be economically good for GW, since an increase in interest in Steel Legion would mean people buying more armour (and an opportunity to put the price up on armour minis, presumably). But all such rumours must necessarily be taken with a pinch of salt.

More Greens

This time from Magnificent Egos (manufacturer links to appear on the site linklist shortly).

New Collectible Minis Game from Wizkids

I'm the not particularly proud owner of a large number of Wizkids' Mage Knight 1 (and the odd mk2) models (bought in job lots on ebay) and for that matter of Heroclix, which my kids very much like. Spanish Main I've never got into (through the simple ruse of not buying any). Anyhow, their latest bright spark idea is (or are) Zypods, a kind of collectible modular russian doll with an attitude and a heroclix at the centre. I have a friend who designs this kind of game, I'll try and get his opinion to post.

Minis News 16 Oct 05

2005-10-16T21:56:00.000+01:00

OK, to the core of what I wanted to do ... provide a feed about new stuff going out in the fantasy and SF miniatures world. In the short term I'll paraphrase stuff (at least, the stuff that interests me) shamelessly from The Miniatures Page and from the fora at Frothers Unite! UK (links to be found in the, um, links section).

Starship Troopers Metals

Mongoose Publishing are admitting to momentary defeat regarding Light Mobile Infantry plastics ... they're pulling the current models and working on a set of metal minis in the interim, priced at $25 for 20 models.

I've heard various horror stories about the Starship Troopers plastics, but these look pretty good (as does the price) and may well end up in my Imperial Guard troops. I have to say that, despite a perverse liking for the movie (which plays basically like I wanted every science fiction movie to look when I was 15), the game doesn't hold much attraction for me.

New Infinity Faction Announced

Infinity is a skirmish level sci-fi game for 28mm miniatures, from Corvus Belli, who are also responsible for the WarCrow 28mm fantasy range. The game launches in November (I have this from a Corvus Belli post to FU!UK) with 3 factions: PanOceania, Yu Jing and Ariadna. Every 3 months a new faction will be released, starting with Haqquislam, and after that Nomads, which is the one just announced.

Nice looking minis and if nothing else flavour characters for Necromunda (I generally look at stuff from the point of view of, how can I incorporate this into an existing game I play, and then gradually get seduced into the new ones). I wonder by the way whether the forthcoming Tau codex will permit random aliens to be incorporated into the Tau empire ... probably not.

Celtos New Releases from Brigade Models

When Brigade acquired the rights to Celtos from Urban Mammoth, they also acquired rights to the previously limited edition models, which they've made available permanently. Here's Balor, Enora, Eilea and Galea (only the latter 3 were LE though).

On the paint table

2005-10-16T20:20:00.000+01:00

After the more general stuff, some specifics, to give you some idea of where I'm coming from.

Firstly the Warhammer armies. I only count stuff as ready to fight once it's painted.

Painted, cased up and waiting for as yet unpainted reinforcements: about 2000 points of Daemonhunters and 1000-ish of Necrons, and about 1000 points of Space Wolves (I'm more someone who likes new armies rather than large battle forces).

Currently on the paint table: a Middenheimer Empire army and a large number of Tyranids, plus a bunch of new terrain for if I ever play again ...

Sitting under the paint table, unpainted, another Space Marine army, a Chaos army and the new Wood Elves army deal. The Space Marines will probably become Black Templars; I bought a bunch of those at Games Day this year, I particularly like the look of the Chaplain and retinue (as yet unreleased) and I'll probably hold out till some upgrade sprues for the VanillaMarines are available.

Sitting next to the paint table, a bunch of Regiments of Renown from way back, which will probably end up in the Empire army in some form. Notably the Marksmen of Miragliano are already standing primed behind the in-process Greatswords. There's also a few units from the Imperial Guard, some Cadians who will probably start their first founding as Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, and a fair number of Steel Legion and Tallarn. I've got this kind-of-plan to eventually have a mix of the available regiments (I like the look of some of the new Forge World Tallarn additions also); but I need to take a look at the Codex though to see if that's even possible.

Beyond Warhammer, but still in the GW universe - several Necromunda gangs, of which the Orlocks are in the most advanced state of fieldable paintitude. And a couple of Mordheim warbands - witchhunters and skaven. Sitting nearby, while we're on the subject - a couple of boxes of Necromunda, one of Mordheim, one of HeroQuest, one of BloodBowl, a couple of Space Hulk (as well as the various expansions).

Newly out of the crate that was until recently in the roof; a decent sized number of classic Citadel models, some unpainted and some painted in a way I'm not quite happy with and intend to redo. And some Ral Partha, Chronicle, etc. (I need to do some inventorying, big time). I also have some Reaper minis I bought recently.

I'm getting increasingly interested in and intrigued by other minis though - Confrontation, War Machine, Urban War, etc. As I look beyond GW, the range of models, the worlds they inhabit and the way they're played, are increasingly fascinating me. That's one of the main things I wanted to track in this blog.

First Post

2005-10-16T18:17:00.000+01:00

So I was looking round the web for RSS feeds that talked about minis and games. I didn't find any, or if I did, they weren't at the level I wanted (and they seemed to be pretty much dormant). This blog, then, is meant to about minis and games. I'll try and keep it up to date with interesting stuff, and hopefully see a little "community" feedback start to build.

For myself, I'm a somewhat ancient (43) collector and player of miniature, board and card games. Of course, I have a life and a job as well (too much of one sometimes) but that's a subject for a different blog. I have a wife and two daughters. My elder daughter (12) plays a good game of Magic the Gathering, and we play board games on a regular basis (typically "German" ones - Settlers of Catan is a particular favourite). We live in the UK, near London.

My interest in miniatures revived relatively recently (after about a 15 year gap), as real life commitments limit the amount I can get out to actually game. So I'm now experiencing the very common syndrome of having a large collection of unpainted minis and a significant painting (and skills) backlog. But, given my work traps me on the web for a very large amount of time, I can at least read and write about the hobby here.

I'm sure all these blogs, much like the little armies on my paint tray, start out with the best of intentions, and I can hold out no promises for this one. We'll see how we go from here.