Warcry really set a lot of tongues wagging when we first saw the warbands start to appear at various Games Workshop events. This is Chaos in it's minor forms - those wish to pay tribute, wanting to be at the echelon of Chaos Warrior and Chaos Champion, and the fighting in Warcry is how they will do it!
This weekend the two week pre-order window opened for not only the Warcry Starter Set boxed game (and the bevy of miniatures in it), but also the first of the warbands - the awesome Cypher Lords. These guys are so close to the Slaaneshi troops we've been imaging this was an instant buy! If you saw the box and didn't want to buy the whole Warcry Starter Set, the Warcry Core Book is also available separately and with a multitude of warbands still to come, why tie yourself down to these forces? There is also a terrain set as the Sigmartie Mausoleum gets reborn as the Ravaged Lands: Corpsewrack Mausoleum with a two-sided battlemat and tokens to add more battlegrounds to fight on. As is the case these days, the cards keep coming with the Warcry Battleplan Cards, and then cards to add Stormcast Eternals, Legions of Nagash, Idoneth Deepkin, Gloomspite Gitz, Nighthaunt, Ironjawz, Flesh-eater Courts, Bonesplitterz and Daughters of Khaine to the game. Accessories abound too with a Warcry Ruler and Warcry Carry Case, which is soft so good luck not having bitz break off in that thing. Thankfully there's no Warcry novel this week, but as this is a two week pre-order window, we're suspecting that will be next week with at least one or two more warbands.
If you do order the Starter Set this week you'll also get Warcry Faction Art Cards - 8 double-sided A5 cards, featuring artwork, and descriptions of the game’s main warbands.
​You could do that, or you could save $80 and buy it from a local hobby store.

Henry Cavill is The Witcher, and boy does he smash it!!

For some weeks now I've been tooling around with a Chaos chariot, wanting it to fit into a Slaanesh force. Having never painted pink, this was interesting as it's such an overpowering colour. Thing is, pink is just one aspect of Slaanesh, there are purples and especially blacks, so when it came to the driver it was time for more experimentation using a dark pink and a new skin tone to have a more dusky look. My vampires and Dark Eldar have a warm grey tone, so this needed to be different and was Flayed One Flesh with a wash of a warm grey and a touch of purple, then working the highlights up with the base and white. The miniature itself is a Kairic Acolyte sliced and diced with a Slaanesh Daemonette head. The straps across the body are Green Stuff and the shoulder armour is from the Hellstriders kit.
There's no real rush on this model, so will tinker away at it and see what works!

There was a time, not too long ago, that Games Workshop were calling their Elves "Aelves". Well fast froward to today and that little piece of history has well and truly gone, because not only do we have Sylvaneth Wood Elves this week, we also have Blood Bowl Elves and not a single random old English 'A' in sight.
The Sylvaneth are an interesting group, the more spirit-base element to the Wood Elves, both in touch with and fully part of nature herself. Next week sees the release of a brand new Battletome for them which, as normal these days, comes in Trim Your Hedges Standard Edition and the Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Old Oak Tree Limited Edition. Interestingly the character on the front cover has not been released from it's boxed game for this release, but you do get the new Endless Spells: Sylvaneth new Sylvaneth terrain with the Awakened Wyldwood, some Sylvaneth Dice and the requisite Warscroll Cards.
These aren't the only Elves out next week because Blood Bowl gets it's Wood Elf team, the Athelorn Avengers - stunning miniatures in dynamic poses. With all new teams there are also Wood Elf Dice, and a rather ordinary looking Wood Elf Pitch to play on. Bit of a shame that! Next week is also a Spike! week, with Issue 6 showing off the Athelorn Avengers, plus the Wood Elf Team Card Pack and a set of Blood Bowl Match Inducements cards.
Meanwhile, in The Shire, the Prime Minister is disgracing himself outside McDonalds - that's a joke for Australians - but really we're talking about Middle-Earth where The Shire is under attack in the new Scouring of The Shire expansion book. We also see the return of some classic minis, with Bilbo Baggins, Bandobras Took (on Foot & Mounted), Golfimbul (on Foot & Mounted), three different Gandalf the Grey (on Foot, Mounted and on Cart) and the Ruffians set. Not a release that's going to set the world on fire, that's for sure!
Do you like your Adpetus Titanicus? Well there's a new Titan hovering around - Acastus Knight Porphyrion be thy name and the Acastus Knight Command Terminal Pack... which you'll need to use it. There's also a tonne of other neat Adeptus Titanicus releases too; you can command legendary Titans with either the Traitor Titans of Legend or Loyalist Titans of Legend Command Terminals and two sets of dice - Loyalist and Traitor. There's also Loyalist Legio Stratagem Cards and Traitor Legio Stratagem Cards.
Warhammer 40K has some re-releases with the Eldar Spiritseer now available separately and two new Star Collecting sets; Start Collecting! Primaris Space Wolves and Start Collecting! Thousand Sons.
Books! There's usually a book or three - well next week there's a few more with Vaults of Terra Book 2: The Hollow Mountain, the Ravenor: The Omnibus, an anthology of 18 short Age of $igmar stories Gods & Mortals, The Horusian Wars Book 2: Incarnation ​​and finally July's White Dwarf - oddly half way through the month, which is okay because if you get it through Australian subscription you'll get it in October anyway!

The last release of the Siege of Terra Deluxe Edition was very popular, and with Book 2 on pre-order this week the scalpers will be out in force, so if you are interested, spend the money now and get The Lost and the Damned (Limited Edition) ASAP! You have been warned. In new models we have a really awesome release - the Knight Desecrator/ Knight Rampager Chaos Knight combi-kit. Covered in spikes, with amazing new legs - how long until we see those on a Lord of Skulls? - this kit looks so cool! There's also the Chaos Knights Transfer Sheet out (which is the same one you get in the kit) and two Chaos Knight Codexes; there's the Webstore Exclusive Codex: Chaos Knights Stompy Stomp Collector's Edition and the My, What Big Feet You Have Codex: Chaos Knights Standard Edition, plus the Datacards: Chaos Knights. Next week also sees the new minis for Blackstone Fortress hit with the new expansion, Blackstone Fortress: Traitor Command. Both these minis are very cool, very fluffy and so needing to come to Beardy Hammer HQ. Blackstone Fortress also gets two other expansions - Blackstone Fortress: Advanced Arsenal which includes 24 brand-new resource cards plus more and Blackstone Fortress Endless Peril which adds Includes 30 brand-new exploration cards, 15 challenge cards and 15 combat cards to add variety to your expeditions into the Blackstone Fortress. So quite the week ahead.

Happy Warhammer Day!!
Have you got the balloons and streamers up? Baked a cake? Done all the wrapping? Or has Warhammer Day - despite the 
​razzmatazz - passed you by?
Well, valued reader, here's the rub; today is a day to celebrate Warhammer in all it's forms - by buying stuff. No there's nothing free, there's no give-back (especially to consumers outside the US and UK who pay MASSIVE mark-ups on products) it's about a few nifty items. First cab off the rank is Sister Superior Amalia Novena, the very first of a new line of plastic Sisters of Battle - old Mop Head! A fairly unimpressive start, but if it floats your boat, she will be in-store today! But that's not all, have you been inspired by the kitbashed Primaris Intercessor Funko POP! online? Well now you can buy one that's white to do yourself. Cute idea!
But that's not all, for a limited time only, there is an exclusive Objective Marker set made of brushed-brass and featuring the new logo on one side and are numbered 1 through 6 on the other side. No pricing, so get set to mortgage the cat! Now if you do buy any of these things today, you will also receive the Warhammer Day 2019 Celebration Pin (left).

 Alrighty - Apocalypse is here and we can see what's coming. Probably best to start this by saying there is some Vanguard Pricing going on here. Vanguard Pricing is a term we coined here at Beardy Hammer HQ when it came to boxed games since the time of the Primaris release & the difference between US and international pricing. So lets have a look what's on offer...
The Apocalypse rule set itself comes as a boxed set with a 120 page Apocalypse manual and game rules plus punchboard sheets of double-sided Apocalypse gameplay tokens, Command Asset cards and 24 dice. The big new mini releases for Apocalypse is the Skorpius Disintegrator/ Skorpius Dunerider combi-kit for the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Primaris Repulsor Executioner for the Imperium. The Skorpius is a freaky looking kit and I need it in my life, while the Repulsor is now more expensive than a Baneblade!
The big buzz for a few weeks has been on the Detachment boxed sets - they're big, and if you're not in the US or UK, they'll hit the bank pretty hard. The UK 100 Pound/ US 170 dollars translates to $280 AUD or $330 NZD - that's the Vanguard Pricing we were talking about, but then again you may never need to buy another set! The initial releases are Space Marines Battalion Detachment, Chaos Space Marines Battalion Detachment, Imperial Knights Super-heavy Detachment, Adeptus Mechanicus Vanguard Detachment, T'au Empire Vanguard Detachment, Orks Spearhead Detachment, Tyranids Spearhead Detachment, Craftworlds Vanguard Detachment, Necrons Outrider Detachment, Astra Militarum Spearhead Detachment. Now if you have a look at the webstore you'll see there are many other Detachments, but these are bundles, not dedicated sets for this release - so this is where you get your Air Wings, Spearheads,  and other Super-Heavy detachments. You will also notice that we did not get a dedicated Drukhari or Harlequin Detachment. The oddness of this is about to become even more apparent... There is also the massive Ruins of the Apocalypse Gaming Board Collection which surely can't be posted!
The Command Asset Cards are 100 Command Assets which offer a huge variety of new tactical options, plus a big Apocalypse Dice with 50 dice (25 six-sided dice and 25 twelve-sided dice). There are also Apocalypse Datasheet Cards for Space Marines, Chaos Daemons, combined Tyranids and Genestealer Cults, Necrons, Tau, Orks, Chaos Space Marines, Astra Militarum and... Aeldari - that is Craftworld, Drukhari, Harlequins and Ynnari. To us this smells weird! The Ynnari faction introduction got no traction at all, so is this another try to unite the Space Elves? These are also available on the website (for free) so do as you will, or buy all of them at once in the Apocalypse Datasheet Cards Collection.
Apocalypse will see the reintroduction of something GW scoffed about for years - Movement Trays - which come in 25mm, 32mm and the multi-part 40mm sizes. Check out the prices too BTW. OUCH! At least buy me a drink first... Now of course the Apocalypse must be told in the form of prose, so there is the Apocalypse novel and, interestingly, a Limited Edition version!
There are other books next week, the Necromunda Underhive Omnibus, the next Vampire Genevieve novel Beasts in Velvet and a Vampire Genevieve Anthology Silver Nails. In audio dramas, Venators gives you three short Necromunda stories on one compact disc!  
Apocalypse also sees the release of a brand new transport case - the Crusade Case XL which purports to be the largest and sturdiest case, able to transport four huge models at once, plus metal-reinforced construction. It's pretty beasty and a serious investment, but again, you may only ever need one!
Any purchases of the Apocalypse rule set (and at least $280 of additional Apocalypse products) will also mean you get the Apocalypse Pin (above). Thanks to BeefWeaver for the heads up on the pin and Command Asset Cards! There was a bit to cover in this write-up.

As the build up to Apocalypse continues, GW are letting us save our pennies (as we'll spend WAY too much when that comes out) by having a second week of little stuff - not necessarily a bad thing, just not too exciting.
Some will however be excited by Plague War Limited Edition (left) that has been released! Telling the story of the clash between the newly resurrected Rowboat Girly-man and Death Guard Primarch, Mortarion, this is the next part of the Dark Imperium series. Very nice presentation of this book in keeping with the Solar War Limited Edition - but this one taking part in the 41st millennium, not the Heresy. Age of $igmar, about to be eclipsed by Apocalypse in the next few weeks, have thrown the Power Unbound cards out there, an expansion for Warhammer Underworlds which expand your chosen warband with 3 cards for each. 
In books we have the Gloomspite novel and and audio drama Death's Mercy which is the next part of Gav Thorpe's exploration of the Harlequin aspects.

So here's a story - the very first time Apocalypse came around Games Workshop released a Space Marine Company box. 106 multi-part Space Marines and 9 Rhinos - it's a beast of a set! Full of excitement I bought this box. Yes well... Suffice to say - who doesn't like a big army box? 
The preview of these sets buzzed through Beardy Hammer HQ as we zoomed in on images to see the contents, slavering madly in excitement.
These sets are split up across most of the factions (interestingly missing Drukhari so far) and then into role, so you will see Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines get Battalion Detachments, Mechanicus (OMG a box of Kastelans!!), Tau and Eldar get Vanguard Detachments, Imperial Guard, Orks and Tyranids get Spearhead Detachments, Necrons get an Outrider Detachment (guess this is what the Drukhari would get too) and then there's a Super-Heavy Detachment for Imperial Knights (and you would assume the Chaos Knights would get released for Apocalypse so there's probably one for them too).
The Space Marines ones seem to be a mix of multi-part and snap-fit minis, giving you a tonne of dudes. The Mechanicus one, depending on the price-point could be a solid saving on what is, in Australia at least, a pricey kit, while the Tau one is a flavour we've seen in various incarnations - swapping out the Ghostkeel for a Riptide. The Eldar Detachment, like the Mechanicus, could be a good cost saving too - also a great set which could look striking on the field. The Imperial Guard Detachment is the only one with a transport in it which makes sense with all the tanks, while the Ork walkers and Tyranids are great force builders is nothing else BUT it is curious not seeing a horde option for Tyranids in here. The Necron Outrider Detachment will likely outflank anything and if the Drukhari get a set like this, it would make perfect sense. The Imperial Knights sets speaks for itself, but curious if there are weapons options for the Helverins to make the Warglaives.
Now we've seen these, but I wonder if there might be a Space Marine Spearhead one coming with Predators or Land Raiders, or a Craftworld Outrider with Jetbikes (or maybe that will be a Harlequin allied set?), or an Ork Battallion set with Nobz and Boyz galore. Lots of possibilites, either way a good way to army build and save some money.
We'll leave you with this observation though - that Apocalypse Space Marine Company set I got back in 2007 I told you about earlier was to build an Apocalypse force - how do you think that went? Spend wisely. 

The last Age of $igmar's General's Handbook added a number of cool elements to Ao$, so it will be interesting to see what else can be introduced or tweaked in the new ​General's Handbook 2019 on pre-order this week. They promise expanded rules for urban combat, a new Raids and Ambushe mechanic, and soemthing that really tickles our fancy - Mercenary Companies, as I've been building one for some time! What is curious and sad is the section on a code of conduct for players designed to encourage sportsmanship and good play for all gamers - what's going on out there? There is also a Warlord Edition - webstore exclusive - with some extra bibs and bobs if that is your want and desire. Unfortunately nothing in terms of miniatures which is a bit of a shame - some Made To Order old school Generals could have worked nicely!
Speaking of niche, Middle-Earth fills the "we don't have much this week" void with Ranger Captains: Faramir, Madril & Damrod, Warriors of the Fiefdoms, The Lords of Umbar, hapless Balin, King of Moria and Flói Stonehand, Army of the Dead Banner Bearer (in the shiniest chainmail a dead person has ever worn), the beautiful Cave Drake and Radagast the Brown (played in the movies by my favourite Doctor Who, Sylvester McCoy!). These are all webstore exclusives, so the shelves are going to be pretty bare next Saturday!
In books there's a new Astra Militarum Omnibus - Shield of the Emperor and for Ao$, Soul Wars makes it's paperback debut.
Next week will see White Dwarf too, with June 2019 going on sale. No one will care, but there it is!
​Watch this get a relaunch/ refit/ digital only change in the next 4-6 months

As you would no doubt have heard, Games Workshop have relaunched their paint range to not only include the 34 brand new Contrast paints, but also 16 new Base paints, 8 new Layer paints, 26 new Air paints (we think giving further evidence GW will bring out an airbrush very soon), and 4 new Technical paints.
Excitingly, the 16 new Base paints include the old Forge World Horus Heresy colours - Phoenician Purple, Death Korps Drab, Gal Vorbak Red, Night Lords Blue, Nocturne Green, Corvus Black, Lupercal Green, Iron Hands Steel, Grey Knights Steel, and Iron Warriors.
There's actually a lot to take in here, instead of listing every new paint, it's probably easier to tell you about the bundles - you can get the ​All The New Paints bundle (left), the Contrast Paint Collection, the Base Paint Collection or the Air Paint Collection. There is also two new sprays, Grey Seer and Wraithbone, especially designed to give a smooth application to assist with the paint flow of the new Contrast paints. You will notice that the green and yellow spray are no longer there, being replaced by the Air Range equivalent.

Now a really cool feature of the new paints is an update to the way the Shades are displayed (see below).
When you click across the colours in the Shade range, it brings up examples of how to use them to create certain effects. When you then click on that effect, it brings up the colours needed and a way to add those colours to your shopping cart. There's also the option to get do it the simple Battle Ready way or to add extra steps and have them Parade Ready.  This is a really nice tool using existing data from the Citadel Paint App and make it one thing on the webstore portal.

Interesting changes by Games Workshop. Having been through many many changes to the paint range over the past 30 years, this does get a bit tiresome, but it's generally a good thing after some initial pain!