Warhammer 40K is a funny beast - sometimes they have an event which is legitimately a big deal that changes the path of the universe and we get all excited, and other times it's a big event and seems to fizzle out! With the first part of the Psychic Awakening on pre-order this weekend, it will be interesting to see which one this event will be.
Psychic Awakening starts off with a hefty bang in the form of the Blood of the Phoenix boxed set. Hefty in price, hefty in content, this is a really lovely set of miniatures - with the new multi-part multi-pose Howling Banshees and Incubi, plus the new Jain Zar and Drazhar in plastic plus more, this is an Eldar player's wet dream. Interesting this set comes with a Campaign Book and not Phoenix Rising, but it's a great set! Speaking of Psychic Awakening: Phoenix Rising - there's two versions - the Slinky Armoured Assassin Collector's Edition and the Close Quarters Death Machine Standard Edition. Now, if you're a good nubile nymph and you order through the webstore, you will get the Psychic Awakening: Phoenix Rising Datacards  for Jain Zar and Drazhar. 
It must be the end of the year because Games Workshop are offering calendars for 2020 - we have the Warhammer Age of Sigmar 2020 Calendar, the Horus Heresy 2020 Calendar and the Warhammer 40,000 2020 Calendar all festooned with Black Library art. Speaking of Black Library there are a few offerings from them this week - The Horusian Wars: Divination, a collection of short stories set in the Horusian Wars and Inferno Volume 4. Now if you're an Inferno fan, there are a selection of reprints of old Inferno magazines - you can get the Classic Inferno! Print on Demand Collection or you can get issues # 16 to #25 individually. Next week is also White Dwarf October 2019 with a feature on the Slaanesh miniatures released some months ago. It does seem that White Dwarf is WAAAAY behind the times in terms of rules content that is often not timely or relevant anymore. A bit like the whole White Dwarf these days!

One of the really big surprises to come out of any GW event this year has been the new Space Marine 'action figure' from Bandai. At 8 inches high (thank you Games Workshop for pandering to the one market that uses the Imperial system) this is pretty impressive - but as anyone who has ever made a Bandai kit knows buy looking at it, this is really just a Gundam kit in blue injection-moulded plastic. We have many many feelings about this at Beardy Hammer HQ, but this may not be the venue for it, so when the NZ price was revealed to be $248, those feelings came charging forth. Our feeling - this will be a model kit by December or early next year, so bide your time.
In other releases we have the new warband for Beastgrave –the Grymwatch in nice dynamic poses. There's also themed dice and card sleeves for them too.
Blood Bowl - that seemingly forgotten game - has a new team this week with the Gwaka'moli Crater Gators Lizardmen. Probably less bestial and more Skink-based than people had hoped, these guys are sill pretty cool. There is also a custom Lizardmen Pitch for them to play on, Lizardmen themed dice and a Lizardmen Team Card Pack, as well as the next issue of Spike! Journal centred around them AND, if Made To Order is your thing - then the Blood Bowl Kroxigor returns! Two other interesting Blood Bowl products for next week - the new Head Coach's Rules & Accessories Pack which includes a condensed A5 rules, gaming aids, rosters for every team, and Star Player rules, plus we finally get the Team Card Pack for the Goblins!
Blackstone Fortress has brought us some really great miniatures, and we can now get two of these forces form the most recent incarnation separately, with the awesome Cultists of the Abyss (great price too) and the larger Servants of the Abyss sets on their way. This is all to coincide with the new expert-level Abominable Intellect card pack being released.
In books next week we have a tonne - Siege of Terra Book 2 The Lost and the Damned in hardback, Deathwatch Book 1 Deathwatch and Deathwatch Book 2 Shadowbreaker (interesting timing on this - sort of out of the blue unless this ties into Psychic Awakening), the Requiem Infernal paperback, the new Lords and Tyrants omnibus of 16 short 40K stories, and a book with probably the most gorgeous cover for some time - Neferata: The Dominion of Bones.
We mentioned Requiem Infernal earlier, well right now the Games Workshop Webstore is cleaning out their old collection of Sisters of Battle - all the metals have to go! The plastic ones must be next week or the week after. The holy grail is with us, so if that's your thing, get on board!
The other cool things are two Forge World Dark Angels - the Dark Angels Legion Praetor (with alternate head and shield can be swapped out for a Bolter) and the ominous (and a tad static) Dark Angels Legion Leviathan Pattern Siege Dreadnought.

Once they were the Empire, then they were part of the Free Peoples, and now they are back, this time in the new Battletome, Cities of Sigmar. It's really cool to see these guys back, especially to see the amazing Freeguild General on Griffon model back in the spotlight! The Battletome itself comes in the Blinding Heraldry Limited Edition and of course Muddy Patchwork Standard Edition. There are also two new Start Collecting! sets - Greywater Fastness (bog-standrad Dwarves with some characters. Probably a very good force starter set) and Anvilgard (all the Dark Elves no one buys) . Now the Empire might be cool, but the Orc are forever, and they also get new rules with Battletome: Orruk Warclans. This also comes in two editions, Grunts & Armour Limited Edition and When Did You Last Bathe Standard Edition. Both of these releases come with Warscroll Cards - one for Orruks and one for Cities of Sigmar. 
It's actually quite the Age of $igmar weekend, with the "new" Warhammer Age of Sigmar Gaming Book, which includes the A0$ Core Rules, selected content from the General’s Handbook 2019, the Malign Sorcery content and more. No more lugging books about - it's all here. One day GW will enter the 21st Century and just put it in a bloody app!
Now for the Warhammer 40,000 players, this week also sees the new Warhammer 40,000: The Rules book released which covers the core rules plus a tonne of stuff from the current supplements. 
It seems a whole lot of the 28mm range is getting love this weekend with a lovely set of new miniatures for Middle-Earth - King of the Dead & Heralds. How it's $70 AUD for 3 plastic miniatures, we're not sure, but there you go! There's also some themed Army of the Dead Dice which peer at you from across the room glowing in the dark as you try to sleep to remind you that you spent $70 on three plastic miniatures.
There's more Middle-Earth, with the metal Cirion and Beregond, Citadel Guard, and Lords of the Fiefdoms getting a re-release. There's also a whole series of profile cards for your forces too, Magical Powers Card Pack, Fallen Realms Profile Card Pack, Mordor Profile Card Pack, and the Defenders of Pelennor Profile Card Pack all on pre-order.
In books this week, we've got the paperback of Scourge of Fate, which is set around Archaon's Varanguard.

As Games Workshop move more towards quick competitive skirmish games (Apocalypse lasted about one week didn't it?), the Warhammer Underworlds series expands, with the latest installment, Beastgrave, on pre-order this weekend. The boxed game comes with some amazing looking additions to any Beastmen army and some rather odd looking Elves which sort of hark back to the old Wood Elves (with added 2019 hooves) but also channel the Daughters of Khaine, but in green! There's also a very looking terrain set, Beastgrave – Primal Lair, which would have some interesting texture challenges for hobbyists - from smoke to slime to crystals and bone. Now this is a a tokens and cards game, so there's a Beastgrave Deck Box for transporting your cards, the Beastgrave Counter Set to continue your adventure, a Skaeth's Wild Hunt Dice Pack or Grashrak's Despoilers Dice Pack (pick your poison) ,  a Beastgrave Playmat to keep things all in order and of course the all-important Card Sleeves which come in Skaeth's Wild Hunt or Grashrak's Despoilers variety. So many extra things to make your game prettier! Transporting your troops around seems a bit of a thing these days, so there's the Beastgrave Carry Case. We've seen these dropped and not entirely sure these are much good in reality. If you haven't had your fill already today, well you can get even more Beastgrave with the Beastgrave novel, which also include three alternative-art cards to use in the Beastgrave game.
In other book news, the big 40K novel at the moment is Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work, which promises the next chapter in the current 40K story arc. Not sure if this works into Psychic Awakening, but great to see the Emperor's Scythes in action too!
We also have an audio drama, with The Beast Inside, which places Ambull vs Rogue Trader!

Man these Thallax are a pain in the butt to make!! If they weren't so damn fiddly, we'd definitely have more. The latest addition is the quasi-leader so I decided to go with a more human pose. These are entirely sentient machines after all - robots with thinking, feeling human brains - who will kill you!

Aren't all the best Space Marines black?
Exhibit A - Dark Angels. 'nuff said!
This week yet another Chapter falls to the Primaris scourge, in fact two - the venerable Iron Hands and the way-too-emo Raven Guard - with not only a Codex supplement for each, but also new plastic goodness!
Iron Hands were always a First Founding Chapter, all the way back in 1st Edition Rogue Trader and now you can field them in the new edition of 40K with either the Cold Dead Hands Collectors Edition or the Chrome and Cogs Standard Edition. Both supplements are 64 pages, so not huge, BUT they do have the rules in it for this guy - Iron Father Feirros - a mighty Techmarine with a tonne of gear strapped to his back. Amazing looking mini, probably a must-buy just for the bitz. The Iron Hands also get a new Primaris-flavoured Iron Hands Upgrade Sprue which includes decals and some Iron Hands Data Cards. No dice though, oddly!
In other noir-related news, those newly-named First Founding Raven Guard also have a new supplement. It comes in Daddy Doesn't Love Me Collectors Edition and But I Want To! Standard Edition. Raven Guard Chapter Master Kayvaan Shrike has also gone all Primaris-flavoured with his new mini, which come without alternative weapons  or an alternative beaky helmet head - which seems a real shame. Feel like you need feathers on your army? Well let me introduce you to the Raven Guard Upgrade Sprue - everything has feathers, and if you like emo, well the heads come in My Chemical Romance flavour! In reality, if you've read the Horus Heresy books you know the Primarchs all had massive Daddy issues, so the Raven Guard are the perfect Space Marines. Oh and The Raven Guard don't get dice either, but they do get Data Cards.
In other Primaris news, the Eliminators can now be bought separately in what looks like a really nice kit with a nice selection of extra bitz. Not sure why they are drying their washing on their armour, but they are and by far the most dynamic Primaris so far, the Primaris Lieutenant in Phobos Armour is also out next week (again single pose and no alternative weapons or head). 
In books we've got the Brunner the Bounty Hunter Omnibus, set in the Warhammer Old World and next week is White Dwarf, so if you live in Australia and get it via mail order, you'll have that in mid-October.

In the old world there was a hero, small of stature but giant of valour and victories - he was Gotrek Gurnisson... and he's back with an absolutely cracking plastic model! Thankfully not too expensive (comparatively) this will be gracing many people's armies that's for sure. 
Warcry continues to evolve, with it's first expansion Monsters & Mercenaries out next week. Add the Untamed Beasts and Iron Golem warbands as well as the Chaotic Beasts from the original Warcry boxed set as well as a repacked Chimera (a sadly oft-forgotten kit) and you've got more options for those wanting to play! There's also a nice scenery set, the Defiled Ruins, adding some Age of $igmar to the Chaos realms.
Books this week is all about Gotrek - some solo Gotrek action in Ghoulslayer, or if you like him in a buddy-cop mode then Gotrek & Felix: The Fourth Omnibus may float your boat. In audio dramas, there's Realmslayer: Blood of the Old World and a nice addition, you can also get the  Realmslayer: A Gotrek Gurnisson Series – The Complete Script in book form.

Who doesn't love Thallax? Apart from the poor sods you have to build these incredibly fiddly bloody models of course. The Thallax look amazing - the super soldiers of the Mechanicus, these are how the Space Marines would have been in they were human-augmented robots and not robot-augmented humans. During the Great Crusade and through the Horus Heresy, the Mechanicum would task out these powerful sentient robots to the Adeptus Astartes Legions, so surely the XIIth Legion War Hounds would have had some, right? They certainly used Praevians, and Praevians need robots!

It's pretty amazing that games Games Workshop would once release as a Specialist Game through Forge World - like Titanicus and Necromunda - are now getting the full GW plastic boxed set treatment. It's actually a brilliant time to be part of the hobby, and this weekend sees the return of the classic Aeronautica Imperialis... and in the same scale as the afore-mentioned  Adeptus Titanicus!
The Aeronautica Imperialis game itself is called Wings of Vengeance and comes with an Imperial and Ork squadron, which thankfully GW have also released separately next week too - so if you don't want to stump up on the game (and get twice as many planes) you can get the Dakkajets, Fighta Bommerz, ​Imperial Navy Marauder Bombers, Imperial Navy Thunderbolt Fighters and Imperial Navy Marauder Destroyers as individual sets, which is super cool and we're sure you will be seeing these flying around every game of Titanicus from now on. There's also some very cool Imperial and Ork Ground Assets (that again will be turning up as scenery in Titanicus games...!). The release of the game also includes a campaign book, Rynn's World Air War Campaign Book and a double sided board set called Rynn's World Area of Engagement. What would a GW game be without some sort of integrated card element? We have the Aircraft and Aces Imperial Navy Cards and ​Aircraft and Aces Ork Air Waaagh! Cards, plus of course the Ork Flyboyz Dice Set and Imperial Navy Dice Set. There's also a set of Order Tokens which include maneuvers and what each plane is doing.
As you would expect, this week's books generally fit around the theme, with Dan Abnett's Double Eagle, and the Wings of Blood Anthology all about those magnificent men and their flying machines. The other book next week is the Blood Rite book - which is set around the second series of Space Marine Heroes miniatures - Terminators. When will those get released?
Now if you're a good citizen and order enough Aeronautica Imperialis stuff from GW this weekedn, they will give you swag; the super cool Aeronautica Imperialis Ace Markings for your car/ laptop/ Dakkajet and if you order either the Rynn's World Air War Collection, Ork Air Waaagh! Collection or Imperial Navy Collection you will get the Aeronautica Imperialis Crew Cards (soon to be available for free as a download).

As an interesting aside, the packaging for Aeronautica Imperialis is completely different for any current GW product - you wouldn't even know this was to do with Warhammer except for a small badge on packaging. It did also remind us of the old Dust Tactics boxes a bit! Very crisp and clean.

Sorry for the delay this week - I have been away for work and didn't get the chance to do this - but next week sees yet another addition to the Blackstone Fortress game, this time a new large set with a bevy of cool new miniatures. Blackstone Fortress: Escalation brings a new set of adventurers into conflict with more Chaos Cultists, these ones drawing influences from some of the design elements in Warcry (check out the helmets) plus a touch of fire!
With a chunky box, it's just a few books left for next week - the intriguing Rites of Passage set around Navigator Houses (they've scrubbed up well from the Rogue Trader days), Terminal Overkill based in the Necromunda universe and the first novel featuring Severina Raine, Honourbound, get's it's paperback release.

Before we leave you, have a look at these lovely minis! Those Cultists are very nice and the fluffy Rogue Trader-era goodness coming out of the explorers is amazing. Lovely set!