Well it's Starter Set Season, and joy be upon us all. Unfortunately (you knew that was coming, didn't you?) the Starter Sets for this edition of Age of $igmar just seem to miss the mark - let's have a look...
Here's the big one - the Warhammer Age of Sigmar – Ultimate Starter Set, it has the minis and the play tools, but it's missing a rulebook. Well it has the Spearhead rules, but not the full game rules, not even a little chibi version! They're not being too subtle about moving people to Spearhead mode, are they? Next up, the Warhammer Age of Sigmar – Starter Set which comes with most of the minis, but no rules, not even the Spearhead rules! This is probably the cheapest way to get a taste of the new minis (minus the heroes and with half some of the units), so could have very easily been called "The Miniature Taster Collection" and left the rest of the stuff out of it. Finally we have the Warhammer Age of Sigmar – Introductory Set which comes with a few minis, some paints and the TWWB (The World's Worst Brush). Not too sure who this is aimed at either. Even if you bought this, are you really going to take five Stormcast over to your mate's place? So as you can see, all of these don't quite hit the mark. Sure you can go and buy the Rulebook, or even fork out on Skaventide, but as the Ultimate Starter Set is the same price of the previous edition's full boxed sets, how is this motley offering designed for people trying to get into the hobby? Seems like they were designed by an accountant not a hobbyist.
Okay, so you've mortgaged the cat, sold your sister and you now have minis - it's time to paint! There's three new hobby sets - Stormcast Eternals Paint Set which has three Stormcast, some paints and TWWB and the Skaven Paint Set, which includes some paints, five Skaven and TWWB. Both good ways to get into the hobby for newbies - just throw away TWWB, go to the local craft store and spend a few dollars on a multi-pack of brushes. The last of the new hobby sets is the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Paint and Tools Set which is actually pretty nifty, especially as they are full pots not dinky mini pots.
Again for this edition we have the Getting Started With Warhammer Age of Sigmar book. These are a great repository of lore and articles on modelling and painting. I bought a couple of copies for my nephews for one of the previous editions, and it was great! Latter ones weren't as good, but it's really worth passing these on to anyone you think might be interested, plus they come with a two minis. 
Away from Age of $igmar, we have Warcry - the little engine that could of the Warhammer world. The latest expansion is Warcry: Briar and Bone, sees us returning to the Gnarlwood (yawn!) as the Bonereaper's Teratic Cohort take on the Sylvaneths' Twistweald, who definitely pulled the short straw as they are infested with painful plants and bugs. As if being a living tree-elf-spirit wasn't bad enough! Both of these sets are nice, and the Teratic Chort brings brand new units to the Bonereapers.
Previous Warcray warbands have leapt from the last boxed expansion giving you access to the Lumineth Reamlord's Ydrilan Riverblades and Nagash's cowled wunderkind, the Pyregheists. Also from that expansion we have the Idol of the Old Ones terrain piece which can happily join your Seraphon forces/ terrain collection/ pile of shame with pride. This is on my list!!
In books this week we have the hardback of Lioness of the Parch and the paperback of ​Blacktalon.
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Apologies for the brevity of this update, I accidentally deleted the first one, so this is version 2.

Necromunda have decided to do a similar format to Kill Team, and instead of having the terrain in the expansion boxes, the terrain will now be separately available. In some ways this is good, but when you're introducing a whole new battlefield, it seems like double handling. Thus we have Necromunda: Hive Secundus, the second largest Hive City on Necromunda gets a look-in, and boy is it a mess! It's also infested with Genestealers and of course their friendly Cultists. Both the Cultists and Genestealers have been twisted by their anger at having GW block certain releases in certain markets, so there's a new spin on them. Meanwhile, their adversary, the Van Saars, backed by the Imperial House, bring some new weapons to the melee, and are backed up by two reformatted Xenos armoured suits - easily the highlight of this set. One of the terrain sets to accompany Hive Secundus is these weirdly organic looking Hive Data Stack Cluster. Very different feel, so I'm sure people will be into these for something different. The other terrain set is the Ruined Zone Mortalis - the classic Zone Mortalis, but melted, broken, smashed, to depict the destruction and chaos inside Hive Secundus. Great idea, but it makes them hard to stack, which is the idea in a massive Hive City. Two new stand-out characters this week, with The Proxy and Fixer, both in resin and beautifully sculpted and painted. Fixer especially is right in line with the original look of the Imperial House in both Confrontation and Necromunda.
The Warhammer: Old World is back after a hiatus that is way way too long, and this time we have the Dwarves! The new ​​Arcane Journal: Dwarfen Mountain Holds, if it's anything like the others in this series will be a great guide to "Lore and More", while the release of the Dwarfen Mountain Holds Reference Card Pack, Dwarfen Mountain Holds Dice Set. and brand new Transfer Sheet (this is really cool!) will get your troops on the field.Speaking of troops, the Dwarfen Mountain Holds Battalion box gives you a tonne of them. There's also some fantastic new leader sets , the plastic Dwarf Lords with Shieldbearers (a must-have), the new and vastly improved ​Ungrim Ironfist, the Slayer King of Karak Kadrin which is just an amazing model with great bearing (in resin), and Dwarf Thane with Handgun on Oathstone, also in resin. There's also a reappearance of the plastic Runesmith. All of these are brilliant! These new releases are supported by a bevy of classic, and old, miniatures, including the Dwarf Command Set, Slayer Command Set, Dwarf Slayers, Doomseekers, the very ancient Imperial Dwarves Command and Imperial Dwarfs (who I think have to be 40 years old by now), the Dwarf Warriors, Dwarf Quarrelers, Irondrakes/ Ironbreakers, Hammerers/ Thunderers. Guided by the trusty Dwarf Engineers (in metal) there are of course some war machines, including the Grudge Thrower, Flame Cannon grizzly Goblin-Hewer, Dwarf Bolt Thrower, The Anvil of Doom and Bugmans Cart.
In books this week it's the Death Korps of Kreig Dead Man Walking in Special Edition. Not only is the cover in black and white, the writing inside is too. Very special. Very limited! 
Horus Heresy loves a map, and now Necromunda has a new map too, Carta Galactica: The Secundan Exclusion Zone, showing you Hive Secundus and a whole lot of eradiated desert!

With Games Workshop still trying to get the new Age of $igmar: Skaventide to be a rip-roaring success, we have a mediocre pre-order weekend, with offerings from Black Library. It does look like next week may be the Mechanicum for Horus Heresy, if that keeps you nullified. It's quite literally the only thing on the horizon that is keeping us interested in Warhammer at the moment, which is a bit of a sad state of affairs, frankly
The undoubted most-interesting most-underrated character in the Horus Heresy novels is Ahriman of the Thousand Sons. Now, in the Warhammer 40K timeline, we have the new Ahriman: Undying novel. This is available in both hardback and Limited Edition formats.
Unrivalled combat mistress, Lelith Hesperax is here with her new novel Lelith Hesperax: Queen of Knives. Games Workshop have this listed as a hardcover this week, but in Australia and New Zealand it's just the Limited Edition version for now.
​The already-sold out Morvenn Vahl: Spear of Faith Mega Limited Edition is up this weekend, following the tried and true format of the Emperor's Spears collection from some years ago. Limited to 1,750 copies and presented in a magnetic-enclosure box, the hardback novel is accompanied by 56-page cloth-bound book, The Book of Saints, telling selected short stories of Adeptus Sororitas legends, plus there's six postcard-sized art prints showing artwork from The Book of Saints.
Paperbacks this week see the return of Fall of Cadia for the 1500th time, and the Mechanicus vs. Emperor's Children Cultists in Genefather. 

With the 4th Edition Age of $igmaron pre-order last week, this week there's some extra goodies and the new core book for those who didn't jump into the Big Box. As an aside, it's interesting not to see the Big Box not sold out - I wonder if we're going to have a repeat of the lacklustre sales of Dominion, the 3rd Edition Big Box...
Get ready to end the new era with the Warhammer Age Of Sigmar Core Book, available for pre-order this weekend. Available in $igmar Simp Limited Edition or We Miss The Old World Standard Edition, we're predicting this will be the last hoorah in the Age of $igmar before Games Workshop may decide to bring back The Old World into the main universe.
Now if you want to jump straight into Age of $igmar, then you'll be needing the Warhammer Age Of $igmar General's Handbook 2024-25. But I bought the rule book and the Faction Cards, why do I need this other book? Well, friend, the General's Handbook brings you up to date with the latest narrative events in the Warhammer Universe, plus it gives you the new Matched Play Season Rules 2024-25, including the Grand Alliance-specific battle tactics, 12x Battleplans, the new Tournament Organisers Pack, the all-important changes to endless spells warscrolls and rules, some Advanced Rules for applying to matched play Battlepacks, the Citadel terrain types, and some blank sheets to fill out. If you want to be one of those competitive sporty players, then this is for you!
Warhammer Age Of $igmar: Spearhead – Fire & Jade Gaming Pack is a way to get the four new pieces of terrain at a cheaper price - not but seriously, this will give you a Double-sided gameboard designed for Spearhead games, the plastic push-fit pieces of terrain, 36 x Spearhead cards and the entirely disposable 6" Plastic range ruler and 1x 3" plastic range ruler. Get into Spearhead with this set as it seems to be the game mode GW are really pushing this edition.
The big pre-order this week are the Faction Packs, which is basically a set of cards with your Faction's unit profiles and abilities, army rules, the new Spearhead rules etc. These are available for all Factions, so you can quickly get up to date with the new rules - Stormcast Eternals, Skaven, Hedonites of Slaanesh, Maggotkin of Nurgle, Disciples of Tzeentch, Blades of Khorne, Slaves to Darkness, Flesh Eater Courts, Nighthaunt, Soulblight Gravelords, Ossiarch Bonereapers, Sons of Behemat, Ogor Mawtribes, Gloomspite Gitz, Orruk Warclans (also containing rules for both the Ironjawz and Kruleboyz), Fyreslayers, Kharadron Overlords, Sylvaneth, Idoneth Deepkin, Daughters of Khaine, Lumineth Realmlords, Seraphon, and Cities of $igmar.
Dice, we all love dice (even though there's none in the Big Box, but fear not, there's Dice Sets for Grand Alliance Destruction, Grand Alliance Chaos, Grand Alliance Death and Grand Alliance Order.
Also available this Friday is the next White Dwarf, issue #502.