It's always cool to see how Games Workshop update their characters, and the update to Be'lakor, the Dark Master is pretty bloody amazing - though painting those wings may be mind-numbing... The return of Be'lakor to the main stable of "villains" is told in Broken Realms: Be'lakor - available in both Flappy Flappy Limited Edition and My, What A Big Sword You Have Standard Edition - as he vies to be top Chaos dog! But he has some company - the Stormcast Gardus Steel Soul (who has obviously dropped something) and the Nighthaunt Krulghast Cruciator (who has something caught on the back of his robes).As forces gather for war, so do the army sets - Tzeentch's Atra’zan’s Blazing Cavalcade, Nighthaunt's Sorrowmourn Choir, Seraphon's The Celestial Stampede (obvious winner in terms of cool factor) and Karadron's Drongon’s Aether-runners.
In books, there's Inferno! Volume 6, Issue 3 of Marvel's Warhammer 40,000 Marneus Calgar, and the Titan porn of Mortis - The Horus Heresy: Siege of Terra Book 5 in hardcover.

While Age of $igmar toddles along being a bit hit and miss, Warhammer Underworlds (in it's current Direchasm mode) continues to kick goals – this time with The Crimson Court - four vampires, who frankly rock! Kindly, there's the new Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm – Grand Alliance Death Dice Pack, plus we also get (yet again) another Warhammer Underworlds Starter Set this week. The more we get, the smaller they become, plus some Warhammer Underworlds Cards to extend the selection from the new Starter Set.
For the fans of the Big Robots game, Adeptus Titanicus, you've got a good week coming, with the new updated Adeptus Titanicus Rulebook, and the biggest boy of biggest boy, the Warmaster Titan with Plasma Destructors. If you're playing catch up, then there's also the Adeptus Titanicus: Loyalist Legios book profiling the main forces already released. This also brings the possibility of a Traitor one too, PLUS the consistent rumour that this will be the format of the books coming out of Forge World for the 28mm Horus Heresy game too. Need more big robots in your army, well here's everything so far (minus the Knights) in the Precept Maniple Battleforce - almost the same price as the new Warmaster! Now to help yourself stay vageuly sane trying to paint these little big robots, try these long-out-of-production transfer sheets for Legio Ignatum, Legio Metalica, Legio Solaria & Legio Astorum. They're small but packed with goodness. 
As mentioned above, the Blood Bowl boxed set has finally been split up - rejoice, fellow converters - and here's all the goodness...  there's the Imperial Nobility Blood Bowl Team: The Bögenhafen Barons, their leader Griff Oberwald, a Team Dice Set and a Team Card Pack. Their adversary, Black Orc Blood Bowl Team: The Thunder Valley Greenskins and their leader Varag Ghoul-Chewer also get a Team Dice Set and Team Card Pack. Thankfully the Elf and Dwarf Biased Referees are also available separately, as is the Blood Bowl: Death Zone Rulebook and the Sevens Pitch: Double-sided Pitch and Dugouts for Blood Bowl Sevens. As with most Blood Bowl releases there's also a Blood Bowl Spike! Journal, this time it's Issue 12.
Back in stock is the Siege of Terra: The Lost and the Damned Map (which we hear very mixed reports about the quality of), plus in books we have the normal hardback of Alpharius: Head of the Hydra, the Lost and the Damned Horus Heresy: Siege of Terra Book 2 in paperback. They really are very slow with the Siege of Terra paperbacks! Plus it's a White Dwarf week with Issue 463.

The resurrections of the interest in Mordheim and what came to be known as Blanchitsu after Games Workshop wanted to appropriate the #INQ28 hashtag, has almost singlehandedly powered the interest in fantasy in the fan community since the instigation of Age of $igmar. The Old World may be dead, but the community still keeps it alive. Well this weekend we see the pre-orders go up for the first real foray buy GW into that world with Warhammer Quest: Cursed City, the new boxed game which boasts a tonne of minis, plus main characters straight out of the Mordheim playbook. Interestingly there's no plastic scenery this time, so it will be of interest if GW go down that path, considering the amount of terrain-builder Kickstarters there have been in the last 18 months. The release also sees the novel, Cursed City, which comes in Special Edition and Hardback also released. If you pre-order you'll also be in the running for the free Key to Ulfenkarn collectable. You'd want to be fast though as this box is likely to sell out on the day of release. Though some of the minis appeal to us here at Beardy Hammer HQ, the overall set doesn't entice, so we'll wait for the minis to come out separately. The new skeletons are especially interesting...
​In books this week, we have the sweeping romantic epic telling the story of a woman in love with the man of her dreams living a life shared together in their quiet secluded house where they raise animals and care for sick birds* - Lady of Sorrows in it's Paperback form, out next week!

The Lumineth Realm-lords kind of appeared out of the blue, bringing their cow iconography with them, back in 2020, and now we have the rest of the releases - making up what has become a very large model range. Interestingly the release is on the back of the second installment of the current Broken Realms story arc in Age of $igmar,  kicking off with the Broken Realms: Teclis book which comes in Shiny Shiny Limited Edition and Almost As Shiny Standard Edition with the Lumineth up against the armies of Death. This updates your forces with the new releases plus the fluff to back up the narrative of the campaign. If you're new to Lumineth or just want a new book, then the Battletome: Lumineth Realm-lords which again comes in Blinding Glory Limited Edition and How Do They Keep Their Robes So Clean Standard Edition. To back up the new words, we have a veritable bevvy of miniatures - bloody spectacular ones at that...
starting with the combi-kit of Hurakan Spirit of the Wind/ Sevireth, Lord of the Seventh Wind, an awesome tabletop piece that frankly I'd be scared to paint. The dynamic duo of Ellania and Ellathor, Eclipsian Warsages and Monkey Magic-vibes of the Hurakan Windmage are equally impressive, in fact the Windmage is really quite amazing. - a total departure from anything GW has done before. There's the mounted hero combi-kit of Lyrior Uthralle, Warden of Ymetrica/ Vanari Lord Regent and the evocative Scinari Calligrave - also so bloody tempting. In an exciting development, the return of the bannerman is here with the Vanari Bannerblade and more buffs to your army with the Scinari Loreseeker.
++ It should be said at this point that if you read the GW site, you'll get an idea how this army plays - it seems each hero gives specific units buffs, so this could be quite a powerful character driven army ++
In terms of troops we have the Vanari Bladelords, the mega-flauna kangaroo-riders, the Hurakan Windchargers and a shout out to the other Elves ranges with the obligatory Vanari Starshard Ballista. The Lumineth also get a terrain piece, again a game changer (and wouldn't some of the other ranges love a hovering terrain piece) the Shrine Luminor.
We've already seen Lumineth dice, so none of those today, but we do get the Lumineth Warscroll Cards.
Allies and foes abound with four new boxed sets - the Gortle Pulpskull – Invidian Plaguehost (Nurgle), the Arcobalde Lazerne – Xintil War-Magi (lets say 'Empire' for old times sake), the Horrek Venzai – Horrek's Dreadlance (Ossiarch Bonereapers - a range that's gone nowhere, sadly) and the Gorstane Mortevell – Mortevell's Helcourt (Flesheater Courts). Quite the week, and be interesting to see what hobbyists do with the Lumineth. It's not really until they get out into the community that we often see the best way to do these models - a real tribute to platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
Away from Age of $igmar, how much would you pay for a Space Marine? Well BANDAI have a really lovely one and it's quite a bit... BUT the White Scars Primaris Intercessor Action Figure has got to be the best looking one so far!
Now, for books we of course have a Lumineth Realm-lords novel, The End of Enlightenment in hardback, the hardback (non-Limited Edition version) of Luther: First of the Fallen, and a new Warhammer Horror, The Vampire Genevieve in paperback. There's also the Marvel: Warhammer 40,000 Marneus Calgar – Issue 2 which GW shops have an exclusive cover for if that tickles your Smurfy bits.
In other releases, the folks at Forgeworld have finally released the new Word Bearers Legion Praetor
and Word Bearers Legion Terminator Praetor - both amazing Horus Heresy-themed models.

After some very slow weeks, Games Workshop is back with some big releases this week which cover some of the range usually untouched.
First off we get the new boxed set of Piety and Pain, which pits the Drukhari (Dark Eldar) against the Adepta Sororitas (Sisters of Battle). Great starter set for both armies, but do check the pricing, because despite the Drukhari being some of the cheapest 40K armies to buy, the Adepta Sororitas are some of the most expensive.
Speaking of Drukhari, they finally get their new Codex this week, which comes in Terror From Above Collector's Edition and Spikey Stabby-Stab Standard Edition. There are of course Drukhari Datacards and a Dice Set (notice new packaging), plus an excellent new Drukhari Combat Patrol - possibly the best Combat Patrol released yet! If you like the look of this release then you can get them all in one order with the Lords of Commorragh Collection, but you don't save any money despite getting a signed print with this set.
Warhammer 40K moves into a new warzone with Charadon – Act I: The Book of Rust which comes in Collector's Edition or Standard Edition, plus there's the Crusade Mission Pack: Plague Purge adding 24 brand new missions for Crusade campaign games.
Warhammer Underworlds continues to impress with a new set of minis, this time the Seraphon have the The Starblood Stalkers, which interestingly centre around Skinks and not Saurons, which is a bit of a shame, but a neat set none the less.
Middle-Earth get some love this week with an amazing new Treebeard, Mighty Ent model. Beautifully sculpted, this is an amazing, but pricey, addition to any Middle-Earth army. There's also a nice new Fangorn Dice Set out too...
Blood Bowl is back, this time with a Halfling Pitch, Halflings Team Card Pack and some very out-there Halfling Team Dice Set.
In books this week we have ​Silent Hunters in hardback, a new Horus Heresy anthology Blood of the Emperor in hardback, the Fabius Bile novel Manflayer in paperback and a Limited Edition version of Ravenor Returned which is pretty nice!

Warhammer Kill Team was the skirmish game released about a year before 9th edition and is really only famous for having super cool names for the teams they released - like the Tau team called Advance Team Starpulse, an obvious riff on the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman and Secret Combat Team Go-Rangers from Japanese pop culture. Well Kill Team is back, and not just in White Dwarf articles, we have a new expansion with Pariah Nexus, a self-contained starter set with Space Marines (inc. the much-anticipated Captain with master-crafted heavy bolt rifle and five Heavy Intercessors) vs the Necrons (with the equally-anticipated Chronomancer and Flayed Ones). You also get a double-sided game board, Necron-themed terrain, and the softback book, containing extensive background etc etc.
Kill Team also gets a new book, Killzones, filled with rules for fighting in different environments over 24 missions. Now to represent these environments, GW have very kindly released three new Environment Expansions; Sector Fronteris, Sector Munitorum and Sector Mechanicus, all with a double-sided gaming board. Also next week we see the Indomitus boxed set start to be split into smaller sets with the very pricey Space Marines: Honoured of the Chapter and Necrons Royal Court sets. These aren't multi-pose kits, so not sure why they are top-dollar.
No new books this week, but the Black Library Celebration stuff from last week is mostly still around...

It's Black Library 2021 week and there's a few interesting offerings, including a rather odd miniature... (left).
The miniature is Captain Uriel Ventris, a legendary Ultramarines hero - and that's not so odd - but the look is. This is Uriel Ventris as a Primaris Marine, but have a look at the armour - definitely not Mk X plate, and then there's the head, which Games Workshop changed from the initial preview which appears on the box art, to this one we see on the left. Who knows what you're going to get!  
As befits a Black Library Celebration, the miniature is here to accompany the book, The Swords of Calth which comes in Special Edition or normal Hardback, which tells the story of Uriel Ventris ascension to the ranks of the Primaris Space Marines. Love Uriel Ventris, then pick up this $30 Bookmark. In further Black Library Celebration we get the 20th Anniversary Edition of Hammers of Ulric in hardback, the new Liber Xenologis sourcebook in hardback and three of the best covers we have ever seen on some Black Library books; Pariah Bequin, Book 1, Penitent Bequin Book 2 Special Edition (which includes the 'Lepidopterophobia - Medea Unbound' short story) and the normal Penitent Bequin, Book 2 in hardback. These are beautiful, especially that Penitent Special Edition. There's also an Imperial Guard novel, Dead Men Walking in paperback and the Black Library Reader's Choice 2021 Winner The Daemon's Curse (Paperback) Malus Darkblade, Book 1.
For trinket collectors there's also the Liber Xenologis Pin Badge Set: Janus Draik Collection. Plus order anything from the webstore this weekend and you get the free ​Black Library Celebration 2021 anthology.

The time has finally come where, like Tzeentch and Khorne before them, Slaanesh has finally received their human acolytes - or "Hedonites" as they are called. It's been a long time coming, and has been greeted with mixed reviews, which we will get into later... It's quite a big release with what looks like the entire range being released in one hit, unlike the other Chaos Gods. 
We start the release wave with the new Battletome - Hedonites of Slaanesh which comes in Whips and Chains Limited Edition and Hello Sailor Standard Edition. Leading the glorious shiny sexy charge is Sigvald, Prince of Slaanesh who seems to be less beautiful and more horse-faced. It's not a good head! The large HQ unit is Glutos Orscollion, Lord of Gluttony which is a very detailed model and like the other newer HQ units, not very flexible in modelling options. Slaanesh also gets a battle wizard, the Shardspeaker of Slaanesh and a bully-boy who is one of the only models to keep any of the old BDSM look, the Lord of Pain. There's also some troop options with the dynamically posed Blissbarb Archers. There's also some big boys and girls with the Myrmidesh Painbringers/ Symbaresh Twinsouls combi-kit. Finally we also get the Slaaneshi Beastmen with the Slaangor Fiendbloods which is really cool to see. There's a new generation of Seekers too with the Slickblade Seekers/ Blissbarb Seekers combi-kit. There's also Warscroll Cards and thankfully a Hedonites of Slaanesh Dice Set which  are very nice!
The Daughters of Khaine also get an update, interesting being aligned in the universe with Slaanesh. It comes in Slippery Scales Limited Edition and Tear Your Heart Out Standard Edition. There's also an Endless Spells set (very red) and a Daughters of Khaine Dice Set (equally red).
In books this week we have the hardback of Stormvault, two new books in the younger readers range of books, Plague of the Nurglings and Fortress of Ghosts, another Warhammer Horror anthology, The Harrowed Paths, with 6 short stories and a novella including one by Graham McNeill, and ​White Dwarf 461.
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So as you may know, we have been calling for human acolytes of Slaanesh since the Tzeentch release. They seemed pretty close then, but as Games Workshop don't really know what to do with the inherent sexuality of the old Slaanesh look, it took them a while. The look they have settled with though seems to be a little problematic - it's a sort of Persian-fusion, which makes sense when you read about the cruelty of those ancient rulers - but what we have is almost a stereotype of flowing robes and scarves, a VERY far cry from the leather, tight PVC and chains of the older lore. In fact only the Slaangor seem to have any callback to that older look and feel. There are interesting parallels in the look between these Hedonites and the  Cypher Lords from Warcry, which makes sense, but again taken to an extreme. We're not really into the outrage culture thing, but this could blow up in GW's face, when really there was existing lore that adult gamers can understand and isn't offensive. The new look itself doesn't work for us when a few head swaps on Idoneth Deepkin will give you something better, so speaking of that, lets look at the minis.  
The inability of GW to work out how to represent excess is typified in the HQ unit, Glutos Orscollion, Lord of Gluttony. He is the gross excess of Slaanesh, not the strong female warriors or tempting demonettes, or even the slaves in chains - they picked a unit that is, yes, excess, but also not something we see typically represented in the older ore of Slaanesh. In fact this is closer to the Glotkin from Nurgle and probably better suited to that range. As a centerpiece for Slaanesh, his doesn't work for us, in fact a Cauldron of Blood would be a better basis for an HQ unit - again showing how the Daughters of Khaine stole Slaanesh's thunder! The Blissbarb Archers are probably the high point in terms of dynamic modelling, and in fact very much similar in pose and sprue breakdown to the Namarti Reavers, which is interesting as these have been the base for kitbashed Slaaneshi troops for a few years now. These models are beautiful, and the influence of movies like Conan is written all over this range. The miniatures that really just don't seem to fit for us are the Myrmidesh Painbringers/ Symbaresh Twinsouls - are they meant to be the Slaaneshi Chaos Warriors? The poses are static and thick, not lithe and tempting, in fact they are ugly. There's also so little skin and lack any real  BDSM elements like the leather or spikes - there's some, but really not much to tie them back to the Demonettes of Slaanesh or the rest of the range. They just seem like outliers without even a callback to the Lord of Pain, who ideally should share elements with them. In fact the Lord of Pain is a welcome part of this release, as is the Shardspeaker of Slaanesh who owes a lot of it's look again, to Conan, but has some real character to it. It's so great to see the Slaangor Fiendbloods who look exactly like the old ones, so a great callback to that old lore. It's curious as these are counted as elites in the Hedonites range and you only get three in the box - which is a far cry from the Tzeentch Tzaangor where you got a tonne of minis, extra heads and weapons. Bit of a shame, because fielding a large unit of these would be great fun.
Finally the Slickblade Seekers/ Blissbarb Seekers are again very similar in breakdown and look to the Idoneth Deepkin, which is not a bad thing and a definite improvement on the old ones, though the old armour was very cool!
Look overall this release seems out of place with the way we've seen Slaanesh. We've had some minis, like Syll'Esske: The Vengeful Allegiance which fits somewhat into this range, but again this is a far cry from probably what people thought or wanted. I don't know how this will go as it lacks so much of the old spirit and doesn't have enough of the heavy spikey presence Chaos followers want.
Be keen on your thoughts too, so let us know!

Everyone's favourite moody gothic knights, the Dark Angels, are back with new rules for Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition. They all come neatly packed into a Codex Supplement, which you can either get in The Bells, The Bells Collector's Edition or By My Blade Standard Edition. Big question is, after years of the same lore in the Dark Angel Codex (literally copy-paste), will we get anything new? There are of course new Datacards, but sadly no themed dice! No new minis for the Dark Angels either, but there is their Combat Patrol if you'd like a nice boxed set.
You could of course use some of the new generic Primaris Space Marine sets released next week to add to your army, and with the very cool Bladeguard Veterans and heavy-as-frakk Primaris Eradicators, they would be a great addition. Mind you, both of these sets are priced at $30 per model! The Primaris also get what has to be the nicest addition to their armoury so far next week with the Storm Speeder Hailstrike/ Thunderstrike/ Hammerstrike combi-kit, which thankfully breaks the current Primaris rule of 'how boring can this vehicle look?' before it is released! There's also a new set based around the Primaris Ancient - a much wanted mini - Heroes of the Chapter. Don't leave the Necrons out though, they get their own digital wizard in the form of the Psychomancer. The Mechanicus would kill for that floating skull!
In the world of Warhammer Underworlds the Direchasm: Khagra's Ravagers set adds some Chaos Warriors to the game. They're all very characterful and a great addition to any Chaos warband.
In books next week we have Book 2 of the Dawn of Fire series, The Gate of Bones, which comes in Limited Edition of thankfully paperback. There's also a new Warhammer Horror novel, The Deacon of Wounds in hardback and the paperback of ​Saturnine - The Horus Heresy: Siege of Terra Book 4.

With new pre-orders limited to very fortnight, this week we get some classic Lord of the Rings/ Middle-earth minis. It's interesting to look back at these and see how far the sculpting has come (with the help of computers you'd think) to make the likenesses so much more like the actors.
If you're a fan, this Made To Order collection is available for a limited time and includes Arwen and Frodo (Mounted), Mounted Witch-king (Black Rider), Frodo & Sam in Orc Armour (with my absolute favourite LOTR mini - left), Elladan and Elrohir Unarmoured (kudos to the painter here who did them in the colours attributed to the Elves in the novels), Múrin & Drár, Galadriel - Protectoress of Lothlórien, ​Círdan, Cave Troll with Chain & Spear, Cave Troll with Chain & Hammer, Mordor Orc Captains and Ambush at Amon Hen. If you like them all, and it's probably one of the best all around collections they have put out at once, then you can get the, all in the Middle-earth Made to Order Collection.
White Dwarf 460 is coming with new rules for the Emperor’s Spears written by Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

Welcome to the first real pre-order week of 2021, and we are blessed with the most favoured of Games Workshop Gods, Nurgle, who gets a tonne of new rules and some new minis for 9th Edition.
As always with a new rule set we get the Codex, which comes in Spume Riddled Collector's Edition and Pustulant Boils Standard Edition, plus there's a set of Death Guard Datacards to help you wreak havoc. There's some new minis too, with the Lord of Virulence and his chonky plague spewer, the Nurgle-themed terrain set the Miasmic Malignifier and three character models in the form of the Chosen of Mortarion. The last limited Edition Nurgle minis sat in Last Chance To Buy for months, so lets see how these go. It is interesting to note the use of colour on these minis. Nurgle always had a very restricted palette with washed out colours, but these are becoming quite garish! There is also a new Combat Patrol: Death Guard box which gives you a good force to start with, plus there's a re-boxed Poxwalkers set, which when you think about how many you need probably should be a box of 20 for that price. 
​The Middle-Earth range also gets a bump with some old faves back, including the Dead Marsh Spectres (that Elf mini is one of my all time favourites), the Barrow-wights (who bear a striking resemblance to the new Blood Bowl character Gretchen Wächter), the Black Riders, Haldir, Marchwarden of Lothlórien, the Gildor Inglorion & Glorfindel set and the Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee & Gollum set.
In books, we get the next in the Limited Edition Horus Heresy Siege of Terra books, Mortis (you snooze you lose with these), the much-anticipated Alpharius: Head of the Hydra Limited Edition which should answer a whole lot of questions about this mysterious Primarch, and the hardback version of the The Horus Heresy: Siege of Terra Novella Fury of Magnus.
Speaking of Horus Heresy, these the latest in Night Lords minis with the Contekar Terminator Elite (including that very sexy Volkite) and for Necromunda, the Escher Phyrr Cats.
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Games Workshop have announced that pre-orders will now be fortnightly, so we'll probably dial back these updates to coincide, or maybe expand to see if there's other interesting things round. We started doing these updates so there was a living history of pre-orders for people to look back on, a bit like we did for the White Dwarf when that was weekly. 

Back in 2017 - aaaaah, simpler times - I set about doing an Enforcer gang for the then-brand new incarnation of Necromunda. At the time there were no minis or rules for Enforcers, so I made them up!
Combining Imperial Guard and Genestealer Cult parts, they came up pretty well and suited how I saw a unit of private security forces tasked to the Merchant Guild, outside the formal law and order structure. 
Since then Games Workshop has been fleshed out the Merchant Guild and the Enforcers, but still this little unit of hardened private security operators are one of the favourite things I've painted.
When the new 'Jotunn' H-Grade Industrial Servitor Ogryns for Necromunda came out I saw the perfect opportunity to make a hulking brute to escort the Merchant Guild Emissary I'd made. With a tonne of both Green and Brown Stuff moulded to look like a larger version of the Imperial Guard armour I'd used on the Enforcers, he was set to go. I could have added more weapons, but unsure of the game loadout I settled on a fluffy power maul which seemed suited to smashing his way through almost anything.

When it came to painting the Brute. he sticks very closely to the Enforcers, but adds the bling to parts of his uniform that a bodyguard of such a rich Guild would have. I was concerned about the gold with the orange, being to warm tones, but the cold steel between seems to work. The cool greys and white also break it up a bit. The paint job isn't perfect, and I do wish I was an amazing painter, but he stands out on the field and overall I'm really happy with him. Orange is a bit of a pain to keep clean while painting, so I recommend a surgical glove to keep your hand oils from making the orange too dirty or dulling down the overall finish.

It's not until you put this guy next to the other minis you see how huge he actually is! He does look like he would take good care of his emissary though, and the Merchant Guild Enforcers would surely be happy to have their back.
Overall not the best shots - I'll work out this LED photobox thingy one day - but you get the idea. He looks much better in real life and away from the harsh lights and tight closeups!

Merry Christmas to you and yours and hopefully a healthy and happy 2021 for all.
Games Workshop and their friends as Forge World have two Christmas models for us this year, and both available now! First up is Gorzag Gitstompa and Nikkit, who you may remember from the cover of the old Gorkamorka game. That art is floating around again at the moment, so go check it out. The mini is in stores today and then online some time in the future. Considering the state of various lockdowns around the world, having an instore miniature seems pretty poor timing.
Forge World, meanwhile have brought out Saul Tarvitz, Captain of the Emperor’s Children 10th Company during the Horus Heresy and staunch loyalist even as his Legion gave into their base selves.
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Maybe these will inspire a new force for you, or pad out existing ones, either way, have a great Boxing Day, stay safe and enjoy the day off if you have it!

Fan-favourite Necromunda is getting a boost this week with an addition to the Van Saars with their new background and rules book House of Artifice. Not only do we get new fluff, there's some new miniatures, with the Archeoteks & Grav-cutters giving you some heavy-hitters and fast attack. It will be interesting to see how people use these or if they will just be used for bitz to change the poses of the current range. As well as the new minis and book there's the Van Saar Gang Tactics 2nd Edition cards and the House of Artifice Dice Set.
Blood Bowl also gets a nice new set of minis and more additions to the 2nd Edition rollout with the very cool Necromantic Horror Blood Bowl Team: The Wolfenburg Crypt-Stealers, the dazzling Necromantic Horror Team Dice and of course the Necromantic Horror Team Card Pack. There's also a Necromantic Horror Pitch with the double-sided pitch and dugouts. The Skaven and Dwarves get some love too with the Skaven and Dwarf Pitch, Dwarf Team Cards and Dwarf Team Dice and Skaven Team Cards and Skaven Team Dice. As with all Blood Bowl releases of late, we also get the next Spike! Journal, Issue 11.
As with recent weeks, there are stocking stuffers, this week from Koyo with the Warhammer 40,000 – Mystery Faction Pin Badge and the Warhammer 40,000 – Paint Your Own Space Marine Pin Badge. Now I've left the picture below to show you not only the atrocious Photoshop but also it seems Duncan has been long forgotten as there's no thinning of the paint going on there! 
In books this week there's also The Helwinter Gate (Limited Edition) super-duper Space Wolves adventure.

What's better than a 10-man Heavy Support squad wielding Volkite Culverins?
A 10-man Heavy Support squad wielding mastercrafted Volkite Culverin!!
Meet the Legion Consul Armistos, a backrow leader and heavy hitter who can do just that to your Heavy Support squads. This miniature was a bit of a modelling challenge - not only a senior character with a big gun but the first attempt at working out what mastercrafted weapons would look like.
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More on the War Hounds Legion Consul Armistos on the Project: War Hounds page 

Slaanesh gets some more goodies in the latest Warhammer Underworlds expansion, Direchasm... oh and so do the Cow Elves! Although a small set, Direcasm adds some great new minis to two new-ish factions, including the Slaangor, a Slaanseshi Beastman. To add to the set there are also the Direchasm Counter Set and the Direchasm Deck Box to keep your game cards safe, plus two new dice packs, one for Grand Alliance Order and one for Chaos.
Warcry never wants to be left out and generally steals the limelight, this time with some boxed sets, the two new Khainite Shadowstalkers and Scions of the Flame, plus ones for the Sylvaneth and Legions of Nagash. Warcry is also introducing a number of new rulebooks and guides, first is the Tome of Champions 2020, then one for each major faction; Sentinels of Order, Harbingers of Destruction, Agents of Chaos and Bringers of Death. There's also some nice new dice sets, one each for Agents of Chaos, Bringers of Death, Harbingers of Destruction and Sentinels of Order.
As we come up to Xmas, there's always the stocking stuffers, and this week we have the Horus Heresy: Legion Pin Badges II and the Black Library Character Cloth Patch Set... does anyone do patches anymore?
In books we have the Lone Wolves graphic novel, the Direchasm short story collection in Hardback which comes with 3 alternative-art cards for your games, and the Ephrael Stern Heretic Saint in Hardback. 
If you're into Warhammer Underworlds, then pre-order it this weekend and you'll potentially get one of the limited edition Direchasm Commemorative Coins.

As we come to Christmas and the end of the year - and who can't wait for the end of 2020 - we get a bevvy of products, and this week sees a metric tonne.
The Blood Angels are the next faction to get their updated Codex Supplement which comes in Let Me Suck Your Blood Collector's Edition and But I'm Pretty Under This Armour Standard Edition. There are of course the Blood Angels Datacards and Dice too, plus the new Combat Patrol: Blood Angels and the Blood Angels Death Company Intercessors. Both of these sets can be made as Death Company or regular Blood Angels, it just depends if you want black or red dudes...
This week sees a pump to the Primaris armoury with the much-awaited and much teased Gladiator tank, which comes in three flavours; Reaper, Lancer and Valiant. There's also the new multi-part Assault Intercessors which will give your normal Primaris a much greater range of leg and arm poses. Great for bitz! 
The annual Christmas Battleforces hit the shelves next week, and are sure to sell out online before then. This year they are a bit bigger, and around the $350 AUD, so around $100 more than last year. If you're in the market we have the Astra Militarum Bastion Platoon, Tyranids Brood Swarm (a very different set to last year), Space Marines Interdiction Force, T'au Empire Starpulse Cadre, Necrons Eradication Legion (a great set!), Chaos Space Marines Decimation Warband (interesting not to see the Vex Machinator, Arch-Lord Discordant in here), Ogor Mawtribes Meatgrinder Warglutt, Kharadron Overlords Barak-Nar Skyfleet (the most expensive), Disciples of Tzeentch Fatesworn Host (with a tonne of minis), and the Gloomspite Gitz Fungal Loonhorde (which seems like pretty good value too). These sets are always really exciting, but in our experience do tend to sit around untouched by many of us.
In books this week it's just the one - the limited edition Astorath: Angel of Mercy, based around the Blood Angels Successor Chapter, The Red Wings.

For those playing along at home, you may know that Australia and New Zealand aren't getting all the goodies the rest of the world are at the same time, so this week sees the pre-order for the Hexmark Destroyer, the Primaris Chaplain on Bike and the Monolith. The Monolith has seen just a bump in price that the market for the old model has exploded. In Australia and NZ, this is close to Primarch pricing.

If you've been following us for a whole, you will know our love for Slaanesh and the hopes of one day getting human acolytes for the ranks of She Who Thirsts. The dreams first started when Tzeentch got their excellent acolytes, then Khorne (who has multiple layers of them), and Nurgle - but Slaanesh was left out in the cold, which is not a good place to be with that many piercings.
When the Hedonites of Slaanesh was released, we were very excited, expecting to see our acolytes, but it was not meant to be.  But last night finally they were announced...

... and I have to say, it was not the acolytes were were expecting! Looking more like corrupted Stormcast Eternals, or spikey Slaves To Darkness, these acolytes are missing any real crossover with the Hedonites of Slaanesh or any real trace of the 'pleasure' element to the 'pleasure and pain' that is Slaanesh. We get lots of bulky armour with big swords and long smooth metallic surfaces, but where's the skin, the straps, the studs and lithe toned bodies? Maybe in a different paint scheme they will seem more Slaaneshi, but they look almost entirely different to the Hedonites of Slaanesh range.
It is interesting to note that Games Workshop did produce a set that was so close to being the perfect Slaaneshi acolytes - the Cypher Lords (below) for Warcry. I'm sure these will be the basis for many people's Slaaneshi acolytes, they are for mine, as are the Tzeentch Kairic Acolytes.

In closing, maybe this new release is actually the Slannesh version of Slaves to Darkness, not actually acolytes. If so, then that's fair enough and Slaanesh now has heavy armour in their ranks - but it would have been great to have human Slaaneshi acolytes that match the theme that has been set for over 30 years and was so nicely teased for us in the Cypher Lords. Glad I bought some of those and have already converted them up, it's a fun project and well worth a try if you too would like a more traditional feel.

For some time now, Games Workshop have bundled their Hobbit and Lord of the Rings line under the Middle-earth banner, and this week we get the chance to order some of the "classic" metal miniatures from the early days. Let's start with the good guys - Heroes of Helm’s Deep - a really stunning set with some iconic poses, then we have some riders, Gamling (Warg Attack), Théoden (Warg Attack) and Legolas (Mounted with Bow) plus the humorous Gimli on Dead Uruk-hai, and GW's version of an Ent. There's also the valiant Elves, with Haldir's Elves Warband as a set or you could get Galadhrim Warriors with Bows (Haldir's Elves) and Galadhrim Warriors with Swords (Haldir's Elves) separately. Definitely the coolest dudes in the Lord of the Rings movies were the Uruk-hai, of which you can get the Uruk-hai Scouts and Uruk-hai Battering Ram sets on order this week, plus there's the Warg Riders who - let's be frank - looked pretty stinky.
In Warhammer 40K this week, there's three terrain bundles - the 44"x30" Festering Factorum Battlefield, the 44"x60" Forge World Battlefield and the ​44"x30" Chaos Invasion Battlefield. The inclusion of the Skull Altar is an interesting touch, as it was originally an Age of $igmar piece.

If you have a good search online you'll find so many excellent 3rd party Blood Bowl-style miniatures. For years they have outclassed the Games Workshop offerings, until maybe this week when Blood Bowl Second Season Edition is released. Sporting (no pun intended) great new miniatures, including a new Imperial and Black Orc range, this new iteration of the classic game looks amazing! These Orcs really are everything Orcs should have been for a long time. There are of course new rules, so if you have the old game or some of those 3rd party minis, then you will need the Blood Bowl Official Rules. One of the venerable minis of the game is the old Treeman, and now 2020 brings us the new Treeman model, and it's very cool! As with all gam3es these days, there are game cards, so don't forget to pick up the Blood Bowl Special Plays Card Pack. Now if you pre-order through the webstore you'll get the Blood Bowl: Second Season Edition Promotional Dugouts and Blood Bowl 3 game Beta Key Code for free.
Books this week have a very Blood Bowl feel, with Death on the Pitch: Extra Time in paperback, plus the the Blood Bowl Omnibus in paperback. If you're a fan of some classic tales, then there are yet more classic Inferno! Print on Demand available - this time it's Issues 36-45. Love your old school Fantasy? Well there's the fifth omnibus for Gotrek and Felix out, plus a gorgeous looking Warhammer 40k Ravenor Limited Edition. In the world of Horus Heresy, the Siege of Terra: Solar War Book 1 is finally available in paperback, and for the serious collector there's a cool Siege of Terra: Solar War Map, which will either gather dust or you will spend the money to get it suitably display-worthy. Plus next week is a White Dwarf week.
If you're in Australia or New Zealand, then you can finally get your hands on the Space Marines Heroes Series 3 as individuals, or the ​Space Marine Heroes 3 - The Complete Set. Bit of a price bump from the last series by the way!