After many years of waiting, Slaanesh is back - and if you're into daemons, then this release is a boon for you. If you were hoping for a Tzeentch-style release with human acolytes or maybe Beastmen cultists, then this will probably disappoint. Lets' start at the beginning though...
Hedonites of Slaanesh is of course spearheaded by the new Battletome, which comes in Tug My Piercings Limited Edition and Grab The Lube Standard Edition. The big kit for Slaanesh is the awesome Shalaxi Helbane/ Keeper of Secrets combi-kit. This is a very large kit with a very large price - it's Primarch pricing - which is surprising seeming some of the other Age of $igmar kits of this size, even among the Stormcast who are notoriously expensive! Then there's Syll'Esske: The Vengeful Allegiance, effectively a large mono-pose figure, The Contorted Epitome, a spell portal on legs, and a new version of the classic The Masque, another mono-pose figure. We do get a chance to get our hands on the miniatures first released in the Wrath and Rapture boxed game - the multi-pose Fiends of Slaanesh and the highly macabre Infernal Enrapturess. As usual, we have an amazing terrain piece for Slaanesh - the Fane of Slaanesh - which is very large and striking and a Slaaneshi Endless Spells which includes the awesome Mesmerising Mirror which is a huge hand holding a spell portal. Speaking of spells, there's also Warscroll Cards, and interestingly no themed dice which is a bit sad as we would have loved some of those.
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Now before we move on to the other pre-orders for next week, lets talk about this release - it's an odd one. First of all we initially had just the new stuff being released this week, minus the Fane of Slaanesh. The two releases from Wrath and Rapture were not previewed for this week at all. This had left hope for those of us who were desperately wanting Cultists to bring a non-daemon element to this army. We thought these re-releases may mean a second week - but alas it looks like we only get one week of Slaanesh. Khorne got a huge release a few years ago, as did Nurgle and Tzeentch (which was amazing) - so why this truncated one for Slaanesh? This is a very daemon-oriented army with zero human followers. It will be interesting to see the rules to see if they are even provisioned for. Unlike Nurgle and Tzeentch, BTW (despite stating to the contrary) this is a very Ao$ army and not one that you could see fielded for 40K. 
That being said, this is a release I have been desperately waiting for and so far I don't like much of it, so maybe this is just personal disappointment - but even my local GW guy looked at me today already knowing this probably wasn't the release any of us Slaanesh fans wanted.
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Pre-order books next week, we have the Deathwatch sequel, Shadowbreaker, the two new Warhammer Adventures, Book 2: Realm Quest – Lair of the Skaven and Book 2: Warped Galaxies – Claws of the Genestealer. Next week also sees White Dwarf May 2019 rock up with amongst other things Index Xenos: Ynnari, a faction that was introduced as a new way for Eldar players to play and then completely ignored by Games Workshop. Either do it or don't, guys! Bit like Slaanesh, either do it properly or don't!

I've had this idea for quite some time now of what combatants my War Hounds Legion would come up against. Sure there would be Xenos, but one thing the War Hounds did very well was pacification - bringing the human worlds who had been separated for thousands of years back to the fold of the Emperor. So I wondered what these worlds would be like, socially, spiritually and militarily and that sent me on a path of kitbashing a force to face down the Great Crusade. There have been a few failures, but finally this idea struck me and once the iconography and the backstory came together, finally they were one.

The overall look of the Technocracy troops, the forces of the Heirophant, needed to be bulky, but not Space Marines. They are a military force that have conquered a system, repelled invaders from Orks to Eldar for thousands of years - they have to be strong and human, but have no traces of any touch of the Imperium or the Mechanicum. These guys have the STC patterns, they have developed their own guns, armour and technology not from a reverential fearful background, but from a background of never having forgotten.
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All the bits are Games Workshop or Forge World, just purely for ease of access on the bitz market and the amount of plastic kits. The MKIII legs were a must (though MKII were tested) and the torsos from the Kharadron Grundstok Thunderers gave the bulked up look needed. Stormcast could have also worked, but as I wanted more steampunk than Fantasy, these were perfect. MKII Forge World arms and Kharadron forearms worked together quite well but not perfectly as did extra bits and pieces from the Grundstok Thunderers kit, including the guns which are cut down from their weapons and Tigrus Pattern Bolters. I even cut the toes off the Grundstok Thunderers to get away from the MKIII toes on the legs - this worked amazingly well. I tried a whole lot of heads from across the GW ranges, but the Mechanicum, heads were perfect, even if the goggled-head now doesn't really do it for me.

The scheme for the troops came from nowhere really. I don't do a lot of metallics, but Balthazar Gold has been a favourite for a while so that was a totally different type of scheme which is really what I was after. I drybrushed the base with Golden Griffin and then washed the entire model with Agrax Earthshade Gloss. Then all the rivets and joins in the armour, around the arms and joins - everywhere - was painstakingly painted with normal Agrax Earthshade. This gave the metal an aged look and feel. This is basically what I do with Knight's armour too, but in a different palette - it's very effective for natural looking metals. The rivets and weapons are just Leadbelcher and Nuln Oil, nothing special.
As much as the miniatures looked cool before painting, the colour scheme just really makes them pop. I had thought of a colour for unit markings, but i'm worried it will just ruin them as the bronze is so thematic.

Honestly I am very pleased with these. I may experiment with more and even try to expand the universe, but knowing me I'll get distracted, so this may very well be it.
Hope you like them - comments very welcome!

Titanicus makes a return next week with the next expansion, Doom of Molech, adding new Knight Households and Titan Legions to the fan-favourite. There are also two new scenery sets, the Civitas Imperialis Administratum Sector and the Civitas Imperialis Spires to either use on their own or add to your existing scenery. There's also Knight Stratagem Cards and the re-release of the wildly popular Grand Master Edition. Forge World have also come to the party with two new Warlord weapons, the Quake Cannon and the Macro Gatling Blaster. The price on these has been universally panned from our group, so interested to see how these go.
Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault have two new units - the Ylthari's Guardians (with themed Card Sleeves and Dice) and Thundrik's Profiteers (also with themed Card Sleeves and Dice) - both excellent dynamic sets either for this game or to add to your Age of $igmar army. Speaking of additions for armies, there have been a number of new Warhammer Underworlds sets released over the poast 6 months, and now you can get them without all the added junk so you can add them to your existing force for each army - Tzeentch's Eyes of the Nine, Slaves to Darkness' Godsworn Hunt, Gloomspite Gitz Zarbag's Gitz and Mollog's Mob,  Nighthaunt's Thorns of the Briar Queen, Stormcast Eternals' Stormsire's Cursebreakers (definitely the weakest set of the lot).
In books next week we have a fair few... the short story compilation Lords and Tyrants,  the new paperback editions of Dark Imperium: Plague War and Blacktalon: First Mark, the The Imprecations of Daemons audio drama and finally a new edition of the classic The Imperial Infantryman's Handbook.
That's it for the main GW pre-orders this week, but with there's still Middle-Earth to cover...

Middle-Earth has a real cult following to it, and next week sees the brand new Battle Companies book that is an expansion for both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, encompassing all the miniatures across the GW and Forge World ranges. This of course brings with it miniatures - Éowyn & Merry in plastic as well as Made To Order minis including the classic metal The Breaking of the Fellowship, Rangers of the North (The Grey Company), Galadhrim Warriors with Swords (Haldir's Elves), Galadhrim Warriors with Bows (Haldir's Elves), Morgul Stalkers, Faramir, Captain of Gondor, Halbarad, Kardûsh the Firecaller and Círdan

Last week when we wrote THIS the cupboard did seem a little bare, but as the Chaos Space Marine release slowly finishes we are left with three heavy hitters - the new Dark Apostle and his Dark Disciples, the rather melodramatic Master of Executions (with alternate head) and available for the first time out of the Blackstone Fortress game, the rather non-descript Chaos Lord.
Age of $igmar has been sadly left forlorn and unattended  during this time of wide-spread Chaos love - but no more, with the Fyreslayers getting a bit of a bump in the form of a new Doomseeker mini, and a new Battletome. which comes in Does The Collar Match The Cuffs Limited Edition and the We Have Souls Standard Edition. As with all new Ao$ releases we have a piece of very cool magical scenery in the shape of the Magmic Battleforge and some Endless Spells called Magmic Invocations - good luck painting those! GW actually missed a very good opportunity here and could have cast these in clear orange plastic. It's a real shame to not see them thinking outside the box while other companies do clever things for their Communities. Of course the Fyreslayers also get a set of Fyreslayer Dice and also Warscroll Cards.
Do you like barbarians? Do you like Chaos-worshiping barbarians? Well Gav Thorpe has a new book for you - The Red Feast - which may very well be the entry point for the last of the Malign Portents forces to be released.... the Darkoath!

It seems strange that after waiting so many years for Chaos to really get a nice new refresh, that Games Workshop would stop here. We've had two troop choice, one elite choice and two HQ choices and that's it! Well this week we get the last of those HQ choices - Vex Machinator, Arch-Lord Discordant - a truly impressive centrepiece for any Chaos army.  Not only is it big, it's very detailed and alternate weaponry.
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We've written more on what seems to have been missed from this Chaos release here if you'd like to join the conversation.
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​The rest of this week's pre-orders are books - the new Sisters of Battle teaser to whet your appetite, Requiem Infernal, the republishing of an old horror story from the old Warhammer world, Drachenfels , a new Warhammer Chronicles omnibus of Skaven stories in Warlords of Karak Eight Peaks, the audio drama The Palace of Memory and Other Stories, and finally Ruinstorm telling a rather tragic element of the Horus Heresy story - if only Imperium Secundus had lived, no more would the Imperium be ruled by bureaucrats in the name of a corpse, but by Gods.

Chaos Undivided is many things, but at it's core it is a massive force, the vast bulk of it fleshy and spikey - so in this update where is that? The Community wanted new Chaos Cultists, like Nurgle got the Pox Walkers but less pungent! Massed legions of men and women on the move backed by columns of armour to liberate planets from the grip of the Imperium - whether the populace want it or not. Blackstone Fortress gave us a tantalising look, but we never got them! This would have been an amazing addition to this release. Also on the wish list and also in Blackstone Fortress are the Chaos Beastmen. So in the very old fluff, the Imperial Guard were able to field Beastmen in units to fight for the Imperium alongside humans. Over time this has changed, but adding Chaos Beastmen into the universe shows that there was a time that they were  fielded, but then forced out by the Imperium. Remember that the Tzaangor are Chaos Beastmen who turned to Tzeentch and they were released in the Thousand Sons wave (40K weapon frame now sold seperately), so why not these? Pretty sure Slaanesh will be getting some in their upcoming 40K release window. Another missing addition also featured in Blackstone Fortress were the Psykers - those tainted Warp-drenched fiends. Having these in a Chaos force is not only cool, but super super fluff.
There are other things we could have seen - a non-Raptor hand-to-hand Chaos Marine option, corrupted Ogryn, Chaos Commissars, even vehicles like a tank or a new flyer, and what about the models from Shadowspear - Obliterators, the Master of Possession, the Venomcrawler and updated Greater Possessed? 
It just seems this release could have been bigger - especially for the importance of Chaos to the whole Warhammer 40K universe. There's so many things untouched and to stop here seems like a real shame.
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What do you think?
Did you want to see more? What did you want to see?
And while we're spit-balling, lets have a look at those awesome miniatures we did get in this release and just hope that very soon we can see the shopping list above come true.