It's been a while since we've done a video, but Burning of Prospero seemed like a big enough event.  

Hello and welcome to not only a pre-order day, but also a White Dwarf Day AND the day that the second Horus Heresy boxed set hits the shelves.
Speaking of White Dwarf, I owe you an apology - it seems something is delaying the delivery of White Dwarf to Australian subscribers so we can't bring you our monthly detailed look at White Dwarf. So unlike GW to completely screw up a simple system.
Okay, so this week's pre-orders take us back top the Age of $igmar by taking the recent Heroes set from Silver Tower and letting us buy them separately to field in either Silver Tower or in Age of $igmar!
Heroes include, Tenebrael Shard, Fyreslayer Doomseeker, Knight-Questor, Excelsior Warpriest, Mistweaver Saih and the Darkoath Chieftain. At $40 AUD a pop, not a horrible rip off, but also not super-cheap! Also in related Age of $igmar news, but also transferable to WH40K, the new Khorne Dominion Battlemat is on it's way. In novel news, the new hardcover Horus Heresy: Wolf King is also on it's way - celebrating the release of the new Leman Russ model from Forge World and his supposed return very soon to the world of Warhammer 40K.

It's here! Finally all the leaked images and whispers and the fevered waiting is over and the next Horus Heresy boxed set is upon us - Burning Of Prospero. Like it's sister box, Betrayal at Calth, this is a monser set with new miniatures and a new rule set.
As we know the box comes with 30 MKIII Space Marines, 5 Tartaros Terminators, 5 Sisters of Silence, 5 Adeptus Custodes and two characters - one Thousand Sons and the other Space Wolves.
The set comes in at a similar price point to Betrayal at Calth, in fact there's a deal to get both at once if you wish, or with the painting guide, or with White Dwarf, which is also out next week!

So apart from the big box of goodness (more on that later) there is also the Vox Tenebris audio drama, the afore mentioned Burning of Prospero Painting Guide (which includes colour schemes for other legions) and of course White Dwarf.
​Speaking of White Dwarf, this month includes some interesting tidbits: A Tale of Four Keyboards – Total War: Warhammer comes to White Dwarf, A World in Flames – the Burning of Prospero, The Ultimate Guide to… Commorragh (for the Dark Eldar player out there), Army of the Month is Rik Turner’s Blood Ravens, A brand-new series about gaming in the Age of Sigmar, Rules for the Lord-Veritant in Warhammer Age of Sigmar, the Legio Custodes in Horus Heresy, and Contemptor Dreadnoughts in Burning of Prospero.

So we went into Games Workshop today to have a look at the sprues for Burning of Prospero.
​All GW stores will have a copy you can fondle, and fondle we did!
First off, it's fair to say that this is an awesome set. Personally I don't see Sisters of Silence in my forces and Adeptus Custodes are great for bitz - there's big shields and shoulder pads for all your Commanders!
The plastic MkIII Space Marines have always been the big drawcard for us, having many many Forge World versions for the War Hounds force, and I have to say they live up to the hype! There are small differences to the different MKIII helmets, the torsos are all the same. The backpacks are split so there is a front upper half meaning that the thrusters or whatever they are are split. Kind of annoying but not a huge deal.
The sprues are also split differently, as all the legs and arms that make up a Tactical Squad are on one sprue. Makes us wonder if later on they'll an Assault Squad and just replace those sprues. There is no missile launcher for the MKIIIs either, so just Heavy Bolter, plasma gun and melta-gun. 
The Space Marine shoulder pads are also much better and the moulding channel is in the base not along the top. The rivets on the armour are smaller than the Forge World ones and not as obvious either.
The Adeptus Custodes are as broad but taller than a Stormcast and come with some nice shields you could use for elite Terminators. The Sisters of Silence are all on one sprue, as are the Tartaros and Custodes so can be easily spit up to make into separate releases, I assume in 6 months from now.
There is only one Volkite Charger for the Terminator Sereganht, so visions of Volkite littering your Terminators is down the gurgler!
As far as moulding goes, the weapons on all the sets are exactly the same as Forge World. but a lot cleaner, with the Chainswords and Bolters being very detailed and much improved from the Forge World ones.. The Umbra Patter Bolters for the Sisters is a nice touch!
Personally I wasn't a fan of the Sister's moulding. They are not disimilar to Dark Eldar, but not as crisp and the heads are pretty non-descript. The Adeptus Custodes are VERY like Stormcast Eternals!
​We have a set on order so hope to bring you more next week - unless the glue comes out first...

So as we say, a very slow week - but this video is enough to blow your mind... and bank balance!

Armies On Parade is just a few days away, so it was time to fit the minis onto the base today, so went to where I had stored my base to check it out. It['s been a few weeks, so expected it to be pretty stable - how wrong I was.... and it wasn't good! 

Alrighty, so the bad news: So it seems that over the last week or so, the base has been either rotting or going mouldy or something horrible. It could be the texture under the paint or maybe it didn't dry when I sprayed the watered down PVA glue on to hold the grass - either way it looks pretty bad!
Then again, there was good news - I got a chance to place some of the miniatures to the base and they look pretty good.
++ For More On Today's Adventures And More On Armies On Parade Click Here ++

This is a bit 'stream of consciousness', but tonight I came to a happy place, almost unexpectantly really.
​The world of 40k is pretty daunting at first, unless you're lucky enough to go in with a very set idea about who you want to be. For me it was pretty easy; I saw the first plastic boxed set of beaky Space Marines and i was hooked. It was a close thing, because right there next to them was the plastic Space Elves boxed set. How things could have been different...
But like everyone, the universe changes and evolves (devolves if you ask some) and slowly you question which army is for you.
​For me it could never be Eldar. The minis are great, but they're so angsty, like every anime teenager all rolled into one civilisation. Orks, too messy and played for laughs mostly. Choas, yes to spikey Marines, but no to all that mutated crap. Imperial Guard, very cool, but the last Codex basically made them cannon fodder with no skills - a terrible depressing backstory that makes it a no from me. Space Marines, I literally have hundreds of them, but more and more they seem like xenophobic dicks. Sure, that element was there in the Deathwatch & Inquisition, but Space Marines always seemed so above that stuff - not any more.
Dark Eldar - big fan of the look and feel, but again, could you ever really side with them? They're slave traders!
​And then there were the Tau, the new kids on the block as far as the universe goes. Always liked the look, and the more I read about them, the more they struck accord. To my surprise, it's Tau I've found myself embracing. Tonight I found myself basecoating a drone, just really happy to add to the army - not a chore or another piece to a never ending puzzle, but part of something to identify with and enjoy.
​There is some crticism of the Tau out there, called space Communists and so on, but really - in sharp contrast to the bitter autocratic xenophobic Imperium - where would you rather throw your support? And for me, that's it - this may be a fictional universe - but why not find a faction you can be totally happy with? Luckily for Space Marines you can invent a more caring and sharing Chapter, which most people seem to, and bumble along. Im not going to give up on Space Marines because they are very cool, but finding the Tau was a real eye opener and a total surprise.
​-
Do you play a particular faction for a reason other than their look? Let us know...

I'm actually really happy with the retinue so far. The purple is regal enough and the splashes of golds really make them look elite. The Taurox is just on the edge of being too bling, but it is the Planetary Governor's Taurox, so it would be like that for parades and so on. You may notice that it's open-topped. This is an option in the Taurox set, just not in the instructions. I did take the hatch off the back and leave it open backed too as the hatch didn't look right for effectively a non-military vehicle.
I love the stance on the Governor - so pompous! His Astropath advisor isn't amazing, but he'll have to do.
I really love playing with all the imperial bits and I think this recipe for the bodyguard is surprisingly effective. May throw together a quick driver to show what a normal infantry guy would be like.

's actually quite a big week coming up - there are a tonne of new releases, some new, some repacked, so let's dive into them!
The big one, no pun intended, is the Goliath/ Rockgrinder truck - more on that later as we can finally put some of the rumours to rest now we've seen the sprues!
The Genestealer Cults get a bannerman, with the Cult Iconward - this is unfortunately a single pose kit, but at $30 AUD it's pretty good value. The Genestealer Cult Neophyte Hybrid Squad is a repack of the Cadian Imperial Guard plus a Cadian Heavy Weapons unit, with of course a Genestealer Upgrade Sprue. Surprised to see the Genestealer Cult Neophyte Hybrid Armoured Claw or Genestelaer Cult Leman Russ not up this week, so there must be more Genestealer Cults next week. Also on offer this week is the Broodcoven, a selection of the main characters from the Overkill boxed set. Away from Genestealers for a minute, there's an excellent value Age of $igmar set - the Warhammer Quest Arcane Heroes Set is for Silver Tower, but a great way to get some heroes for $80 AUD.While on Warhammer Quest, the Hero Cards are out, and pretty good value for $80 considering it's the doorway into fielding new forces into Silver Tower (and I assume whatever the next expansion is...).
A new Space Marine box is in the mix too, the Strike Force Ultima provides a good mix of troops and vehicles. Games Workshop have also put their first Battle Map up - the City Ruin mat is sure to sell like wildfire, and at $140 isn't far from some of the competitor's prices. We're not huge fans of the layout, but to each their own. Was expecting more streets!
There are also three Genestealer sets out - the Brood Cycle which includes a sample of all of the various generations of Genestealers, the Deliverance Bloodsurge which is two 10-man Neophyte Hybrid squads and two Goliaths,. and the Demolition Claw which is similar to the Bloodsurge but with Acolyte Hybrids. There are no savings by buyng these in a set BTW!

Now onto the Goliath...

This vehicle is awesome!! I give it a week before we start seeing Adeptus Arbites and Imperial Guard in these things! Brilliant design and from what I can see, very nicely executed!! In fact for kitbashers out there, the Genestealer Cult iconography doesn't even look like it's moulded on! We were thinking that maybe this is the rumoured Space Marine four-wheeled vehicle that there were rumours about earlier this year.
Earlier rumours that this was based on the Taurox seem to not be true, in fact it looks bigger and wider (and twice as expensive)- but we'll be able to confirm that next week... WHEN WE'RE GOING TO BUY ONE!! Heresy boxed set and bank account be damned!