Age of $igmar V2 is here with the Soul Wars boxed set, which sees a new generation of Stormcast take on Nighthaunt - but is that the whole story?
For a long time Slaanesh has been missing in action in a real way. Tzeentch, Khorne and Nurgle have had massive releases, but Slaanesh has been existing on old minis. Yesterday when Soul Wars was placed on pre-order we were questioning if maybe "Soul Wars" could be a larger reference to Slaanesh - Devourer of Souls. Well now Phil Kelly - Senior Background Writer for Games Workshop - has released a video to the Mortal realms... and have a look what's over his shoulder (left). 
~ Bring on Slaanesh ~

With the new version of Age of $igmar upon us, Soul Wars is where it all begins. Soul War is meant to point to the Forces of Nagash and their spectral forms, but personally we are hoping it points to the Slaanesh - Devourer of Souls! That being said, there isn't a spikey breastplate in sight yet, so the new Soul Wars boxed set will have to do. Packed with all brand new snap-fit miniatures, this puts a new spin on the look of the Stormcast Eternals and introduces some ghostly forces for Nagash. To supplement the boxed set there are also four additional Easy To Build kits; Castigators with Gryph-hound, Sequitors, Myrmourn Banshees and the Glaivewraith Stalkers - all dynamically posed with scenic bases. Soul Wars also sees the magic ability taken from your imagination and writ large on the battlefield with the Malign Sorcery miniature set. I saw this today and the pieces are huge! Games Workshop have been doing a lot with scenic bases, terrain and the like for a while now and this new edition of Age of $igmar is no exception with the Shattered Dominion Objectives set. Having a look at the sprue pictures, these certainly seem like a step up from the first sets for Age of $igmar.
​Soul Wars also sees a slew of books - the new Age of $igmar Core Book (which is a nicely produced hefty tome), the Generals Handbook 2018, plus the Soul Wars novel which comes in standard and also a super deluxe version that I could be highly tempted to buy! "But where are the accessories?" I hear you cry...
There is a new Combat Gauge, Scenery Effects Dice, Command & Status Dice and Wound Counter Dice just to make life complicated. Speaking of which, something to make your life less complicated when painting your ghostly hordes are two new technical paints - Nighthaunt Gloom and Hexwraith Flame - both formulated to just wash over your primer or white base coat. There's also some paint sets - one for Nighthaunt and one for the new Stormcast Chamber, the Sacrosanct. Incidentally, if you do order the Soul Wars boxed set online, you will receive a set of Soul Wars - Warscroll Cards.
​Age of $igmar V2.0 isn't just about new minis - it's also about starting a new army - AGAIN! Soon Games Workshop will just be starter boxes... There's Starter Collections for Seraphon (there's a change to the background of the Seraphon too BTW - hold onto your hats), Fyreslayers, Malignants, Blades of Khorne and Demons of Khorne, Legions of Nagash, Demons of Nurgle, Ironjawz, Sylvaneth, Flesheater Courts, Kharadron, Skaven, Beastclaw and Tzeentch (which unfortunately doesn't include Tzaangor).
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Not into Age of $igmar? Well... there are three books to tide you over - Horus Heresy - Master of Mankind is out in paperback, the Yarrick Omnibus, and War of Secrets - a Tau vs Primaris Marines story.

It's a small pre-order week this week, an if you were lucky enough to get your White Dwarf - which despite being a subscriber we did not - then that will keep you busy for a little bit!
In terms of releases we have the Armiger Warglaives, previously only available in the Forgebane set, they can now be yours!
While we're on the Imperial Knights, can someone please tell GW that they are MECHS not ROBOTS. GW have been calling them robots, which being that these have a pilot is not the correct term. You would think 30 years of Gundam, Battletech, Macross and Voltron would have taught them something.
In non-miniature related releases, Shadespire gets it's very first audio drama with The Darkness in the Glass. Nice cover!

If you're making an early Horus Heresy or Great Crusade army, then Combi-Volkite is a very fluffy weapon, especially for Veterans or Characters. Forge World have only made one so far and it's on the limited edition Praetor from Warhammer Fest in 2016. It's a pretty ugly model and kind of a big outlay when you'll be needing a few if you want to arm your entire squad. That being said, we think we have a solution! The Combi-Volkite (left) can be kitbashed, almost exactly, with a few of the current range pieces and about 30 minutes of your time. 
The Combi-Volkite is very fluffy for the XIIth Legion War Hounds as they are a Great Crusade Legion. For them their Veterans would more likely than not to have these in their arsenal.
Now on with the simple (and a bit blurry) build...

I grabbed a few cheap things off eBay to test if this would work - a Forge World Volkite Charger, a normal current range Bolter and the Combi-Bolter piece from the Space Marine Devastator kit.

For all intents and purposes, this is identical to the Forge World Limited Edition version. The fit of the pieces is trial and error but they will go together, so be careful not to lose any bitz and keep the glue off the surfaces.
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​I've been asked if removing/ replacing the magazine/ strap from the Combi-Bolter is necessary, and for the bitz to fit together, yes it is, BUT you can just as easily just cut the strap off and use that same magazine.

... and there you have it - fluffy Combi-Volkites for your Veterans!
What do you think? It's pretty straight forward and adds a lot of 'choom' to your army for just a few $

The time is upon us, yes, the Imperial Knights not only get their 8th Edition Codex, but they also get some new models - so mortgage the cat and lets get into it... It's time for the big boys to enter the arena, and GW does that in spades the Knight Castellan and Knight Valiant - interestingly not a combi-kit, but two seperate kits, both at the hefty $280 AUD each, making them close to the most expensive GW kits. Its not just time for brute force, there is also the Arm​iger Halverins twin pack giving smaller faster long range fire support. There is of course also the Codex which comes in Collectors and Standard edition, the Data Cards and also Data Sheet Cards, plus the ubiquitous themed Dice and a pretty cool Battle Gauge! There's also a very nice piece of terrain called the Sacristan Forgeshrine. Now if you'd like some Knights with your terrain, there is the new version of Renegade which includes two Knights including the Knight Warden.
Meanwhile, in books there is yet another Warhammer Omnibus, this time with Mathias Thulmann: Witch Hunter which collects C.L Werner's Witch Hunter, Witch Finder and Witch Killer. Fabius Bile also returns in Clonelord, where he finally gets revenge on George Lucas for those damn awful Star Wars Prequels!​
White Dwarf is next week also, with a pretty rad cover and what looks like a nice Imperial Knights double-sided poster.

Today we have a review from Steven, loyal servant of the Omnissiah and mini buying fiend! In a flurry of excitement and too many Imperial Credits, he leapt on the Eisenhorn model from Games Workshop. Here are his thoughts, displayed to you as a plaintiff cry into the Warp.

Black Library hit the big 2-0 this year, and to celebrate, they’ve released some shiny goodies through Games Workshop. They’ve taken one of 40k’s well known characters and have turned him into tabletop form. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, The Emperor himself…no? Ok, is it Ibram Gaunt and his Ghosts? No? Ciaphas Cain? No? Well it can’t be Papa Smurf, he already has two models…
Oh right, it’s Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn.
Eisenhorn is an Inquistor for the Holy Inquistion who starts of his career as an Amalathian (the Emperor is good and the Warp is evil), but slowly changes his views be Xanthism (impure Inquistors who use the Warp as a tool). If you haven’t read the Eisenhorn books by Dan Abnett, we strongly suggest them as a good read, though ++ PLOT SPOILER ++ don’t get too attached to the side characters (RIP Fischig).
Let’s start our review of the redeeming part of the Eisenhorn model... and that’s the box.

Shadespire is a fast-paced skirmish games set in the Age of $igmar universe, and apart from being yet another board game that sits gathering dust so you can get a new toy, it has some really dynamic miniatures.
Currently there are warbands that you can buy separately to add to the game, and as of next week you can now save $10 AUD and get those minis without all the cards that just take up room. Unfortunately these are Push-Fit, but their poses certainly transcend the usual stilted, static mono-pose offerings. On offer we have warbands for Skaven, Stormcast Eternals, Khorne Bloodbound, Deathrattle, Stormcast Eternals Farstriders, Khorne Bloodbound Reavers, Fyreslayers and the Ironjawz. These will make great additions to any Age of $igmar army as centrepieces, elite units or even scattered amongst your troops. Also on offer in Push-Fit is the Easy to Build Primaris Space Marines Collection and the Easy to Build Death Guard Collection.
In books we have Warhammer Chronicles: The War of Vengeance Omnibus which collects The Great Betrayal by Nick Kyme, Master of Dragons by Chris Wraight, The Curse of the Phoenix Crown by C L Werner.
A cool little add-on next week is the The Horus Heresy Journal - now generally these seem a bit naff, but this one has some nice little timeline details at the bottom of each page and the Eye of Horus at the top of each page. With the 1st anniversary of Alan Bligh's death, this is nicely (if potentially accidentally) timed.
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Vale to you, Alan Bligh, on this anniversary of your passing. Your universe continues unabated! A tireless worker and hobbysist, it seems a fitting tribute that so many cling to his words for the universe they love so much. As times move forward, it will be out job to defend the legacy of his background against Games Workshop's trend of ever changing and retconning of fluff.
In the annals of 40K/ 30K, Alan Bligh shall always stand with the giants like Andy Chamers, Rick Priestly, Jes Goodwin and Jervis Johnson.
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Over the past year or so, there has been a lot of attention paid to the Eldar - new minis for the Harlequins, the introduction of the Ynnari, a brilliant Codex for the Craftworlds and a power boost to the maligned Drukhari. 
Well as we get to the tail end of the 8th Edition Codex releases, it's the Harlequins turn to get a brand new (but smaller than a standard Codex at only 80 pages) Harlequins Codex which comes in both Custard Pie Collectors Edition and Packed Into a Mini Car Standard Edition (left) plus of course the obligatory Data Cards. As well as the Harlequins release, we also get a miniature for all Aeldari factions - the Webway Gate, which looking at the sprues does not have modelling options for Drukhari icons, so really it's not for everyone, is it?
In paperback book releases, The War of Vengeance is a new omnibus with three stories from the Old World; The Great Betrayal by Nick Kyme, Master of Dragons by Chris Wraight, and The Curse of the Phoenix Crown by C L Werner. The two others we spoke about earlier on their hardback release - the Inquisitor novel Vaults of Terra: The Carrion Throne and White Scars in The Last Hunt.

Forge World are at it again, this time deleting more from their Horus Heresy range - including the almost the entire MKII Space Marine range and many weapons sets, mainly the older Legion range. Some of the weapon sets make sense, as they now appear in the plastic boxed sets for Horus Heresy - the Tigrus and Phobos Pattern Bolters and Flamers for example - but if you want to build a  Heavy Flamer or Missile Launcher-armed Heavy Support Unit, you are going to need to buy a fair few boxes to get enough to arm one squad. Also disappearing are the older pattern Volkite Culverin, and Legion Pattern Rotor Cannons, Las Cannon, Mutli-Meltas and Plasma Cannon sets. Sadly the Cataphractii and Tartaros Terminator sets are also getting the chop, as are the Umbra, Seeker and Ferrox Pattern Bolters. Also of note are the Bolt Pistol sets which also add much needed kit around the waist of your forces.
Now, as we said earlier this week, this is an odd move considering how MKII is currently prominent in the marketing for the New Horus Heresy book, Malevolence.
Everyone on the net seems to be an expert on this, and frankly their voice is often wrong and unhelpful.
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So lets delve a little deeper:
Are Forge World just deleting old stock that doesn't sell? Maybe!
Are Forge World deleting stock that is being impacted by recasters? Potentially - that's smart if you want to weed out people who are using recast stuff, but now you have opened a legitimate market for recasters!
In terms of business, this is crazy! We have already seen hardened anti-recast bloggers state that this leaves them only one option - and that is to buy product not manufactured by Forge World. The Community itself is now in opposition to the manufacturer which creates a lack of trust and stability AND loyalty.
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The other two options these armchair blogging experts aren't even considering ...
1) Could Forge World be changing the resin used in their weapon sets? There is better resin for smaller items and maybe this is where they will start. Neo-Resin is one such material.
​2) Could Forge World be moving towards clam-packed plastic weapons sets? Let's hope so!
These would be easier, cheaper to mass produce, all on one sprue like the old days AND they could be carried in store by Games Workshop. We have already seen the very successful move to use these EXACT weapons in plastic Horus Heresy sets from Games Workshop as we said above. This latest cull sees SOME duplication deleted between the GW and the Forge World range, so bringing out dedicated heavy weapons sets for Games Workshop to sell in store makes sense - doesn't mean it'll happen, but it just makes sense. 
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​Let us know what you think. Let's open up a dialogue and be constructive.