​​I've recently been listening to the Horus Heresy audio book Betrayer and although not the core part of the book, there is a fair bit about the War Hounds legion spattered throughout the book.
The book is set 20 years after Angron has taken control of the War Hounds and made massive changes to the Legion, including changing it's name to the World Eaters.
++ Click The Image For All The Background Goodness ++

Christmas Eve brought a few little treasures in the way of eight Made To Order models from the bowels of the Games Workshop foundry, some fo them in fact very old! The two that really stick out two Terminator models, one an Inquisitor with Combi-weapon and the other a Demonhunter, which in it's long life was also released under the name "Ordo Malleus Terminator" at some stage. The Other models include a Chaplain on Bike, the Iron Priest (which only disappeared a little while ago) a Salamanders Chaplain, a Space Marine Captain (which I seem to recall was once released as a "Black Templars Sword Bretheren"), a Grey Knights Brotherhood Champion and finally Veteran Sergeant Naaman - one of the few named Space Marine Scout characters - this guy being a Dark Angel.
If you do plan on orderting any of these, please be aware of our experience with Made To Order which is not told to you before you order - so be warned!
Oddly, White Dwarf is due next week, but there's been no word on it yet, so maybe it has been delayed.

The Fall Of Cadia is upon us, or soon will be and Games Workshop have released one of their excellent teaser videos to make all of us ponder upon every word.
The video is interesting for a few reasons; first namely that like the Wrath of Magnus video it is told in the first person (one can only assume it's Abaddon at this stage).
Secondly for this line: "...The Emperor's angels have returned, recast from shame and shadow, reborn in black and gold..."! There's a few ways to take this - black and gold you would think refers to the Black Legion, so does that mean that the Black Legion are coming back, OR when he refers to "Emperor's angels" does he mean The Fallen (previously Terran-born Dark Angels, the Emperor's first legion) have joined the Black Legion and now return to avenge their exile?
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We're running on a theory here that the Dark Angels will be playing a part in the upcoming Wrath of Magnus story arc, having recently been infultrated by Tzeentch, so The Fallen turning up in some capacity works into that pretty well. Our hope is that The Fallen will infact find their way back into the ranks of the Dark Angels in some way (if they aren't already as the Consecrators Space Marine Chapter) especially since one of the themes of Magnus' return is reuniting his detractors.
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So what are your thoughts? Cadia is the next battlefield, so who are the players??

... and lasty - who's the cool dude in red (below)??

Well ho-ho-ho and Merry Lack of Releases to you. I suppose it makes sense to have little in the way of releases for next Saturday - it is Xmas Eve after all and all through the house, not a creature is stirring, not even a Grot with a las-pistol.
So this week is pretty thin on the ground, we have the new audio drama release The Heart of the Pharos/ Children of Sicarus and the Adepta Sororitas Rhino.which looking at the picture makes you think you get a Sisters upgrade sprue or a decal sheet - nope, none of that, in fact GW say "Please note: the transfers on the model pictured are not included with this kit.". Which kind of goes counter to the write up in the description of the product that says: "Adepta Sororitas Rhinos are bedecked with holy symbols and relics in addition to military insignia denoting squad and Order markings". Markings you don't get.... just throw in the decorations from the Immolator kit. It's not hard!
I'm not going to keep harping on about this, we had our say last week (with some good response so thank you), but more and more this is release is becoming - and I'm using a military term here - "FUBAR".

Hot on the heels of Australian GW Mail Order taking almost 2 weeks to get the White Dwarf to subscribers, we discovered today that if you order Made To Order prodcuts with anything else in your order, the other products will not come on the day of release, but will come with the Made To Order products! 
This would be fine if there was a week turn around, but now we have to wait over a month to get Index Imperialis: Apocrypha - which BTW I saw in store and is super cool!
There is no warning about when ordering Made To Order that your other stuff will be delayed, so when I went into GW this morning to get my book, it was of course not there. 
We weren't the only ones caught out mind you.
So is this just Australian GW Mail Order or other places to, and why no warning when ordering? Pretty slack customer service to think the customer wouldn't want the other things before their Made To Order.

Strange release of the week is Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Spire of Dawn which is a repack of the older (some say classic) Island of Blood plus some new Formations and a companion book of stuff.

Adding to, or maybe being the forces of, the Codex Imperial Agents are these older miniatures going up in Made To Order. From the pretty banal Preacher With Laspistol and Preacher With Sword, to the quirky Missionary with Plasma Gun and Demonhost 2, to the original Imperial Assassin, to two very solidly cool Inquisitor models... that I may have ordered! Dammit,. Always getting sucked in.

Look, I'm just going to say it - were the Imperial Agents and Sisters of Battle ever popular armies? In my many moons, I have seen very few people field either - but that's not to say there isn't a place for them. The idea of the Sisters is awesome, and the hobby needs strong female role models in there to encourage female games to join - BUT why are Games Workshop releasing it like this? Surely a simple plastic boxed set in conjunction with the Codex Imperial Agents would be smarter and cheaepr in the long run, and if they did have PILES of Sisters of Battle lying around the warehouse, doens't that tell them that this army isn't that popular? Wouldn't Imperial Agents with a Plastic Sisters of Battle box and a plastic Adeptus Arbites box have been a better idea? Both of these have been sort after by the community, feature in this Codex and it would be a solid release, with Adeptus Arbites also crossing over into the Genestealer Cult releases.
Hell the Immolator could be a dual kit with the Adeptus Arbites crowd control vehicle - BOOM - awesome!
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It's early days I know, but after some really smart releases in the past 4 months or so, this seems like a release right out of the bad old days of Games Workshop hurrying together a release and botching it up to then later get lost amongst newer releases or 'the new shiny'. I'm only concerned because this CAN work. This could be an popular army with great new minis, but it's starting to reek of Flesh Eater Courts to me. 
Bring on plastic Sisters and plastic Adeptus Arbites, not these proxy placeholders...

None of these in-store exclusives have really hit it out of the park, at first glance we thought it was a Nurgle Champion with various mismatched bits just thrown onto his armour as trophies, alas not. 
So what do you think of it? Maybe you love it and can show us the good bits, or maybe there is a redeeming feature we're not seeing. Let us know!

Okay, so we've been working on a theory here which could be very very cool, so we're going to put it out there and see what you think - it's a doozy!
As you know, Magnus the Red and his Tzeentch followers are currently attacking Fenris, homeworld of the Space Wolves Space Marine Chapter.
Part of his attack is to send some of his demons through the magma that runs under the surface of Fenris and then breech the Space Wolves fortress, The Fang, which is built in a dormant volcano. Supposedly Magnus' most powerful sorcerers will be among the demons, taking the fight to the very heart of The Fang.
On the surface this is all very straight forward, but we were reading through some old material last week and found this from William King's Space Wolf novel...

So - the Beardy Hammer theory is this:
Is Magnus' plan not vengeance (as Phil Kelly did say in the Developers' video) but actually to raise Slaanesh from the largest volcanic island (now dormant) The Fang by sending his Sorcerers in underneath?
If Slaanesh is then raised, he/she would call their forces from the Warp and all Hell would descend on Fenris. Considering the Developers themselves said this wasn't about revenge per se, maybe there is a grander plan - and was this all pointed to earlier in the year when the Harlequins and Eldrad were released? It was back in August, but it rings with all kinds of event happening right now!

I'm not an expert on Eldar prophecies or even all the Chaos Lore, but just a read over this says a few things:

"The Stolen Seers, Amassed, Gather unto them the Dead.
Legion, they drift within the sands, Their voices raised as one."
++ Could this be the Thousand Sons - Seers/ drifting sands++

"Their Voices Raised As One"
++ their voices raised as one could be Magnus' call to even those who betrayed him to come to his call ++
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"One shall walk the forked path, a threefold truth to weave the skein
Nemesis of She Who Thirsts, Opener of the Seventh Way."
++ Tzeethc AND Slaanesh!!++

"Long Dead souls gather behind"
++ Thousand Sons??++

"The rebirth of Ancient Days, Drinking, but not consuming
Taking in, but giving new life."
++ Slaanesh drinking souls but not consuming - the Legions of Slaanesh? ++

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"Like Ghouls in the Dark, the wicked ones gather, drawn to a Tragedy Unfolding."
++ Could this be other Chaos powers joining in or maybe Dark Eldar? ++

Is this the beginning of the 14th Black Crusade? Is it The End Times?
​It certainly seems like more than a few things could be pointing to it. Slaanesh held in the bowels of The Fang this whole time and now Magnus knows and sees an opening to bring fire to the whole Imperium!

So what do you think? Are we onto something??

Making unboxing videos is pretty fun and it makes you look at the miniatures in a whole new way - really apprciate the details and opens you mind to modelling possibilities.
This weekend saw a massive release of Tzeentch stuff, some so popular it sold out pretty quickly.
So without further ado, here's our look at the backbone of the Tzeentch Legions, the Rubric Marines and Tzeentch's loyal attack dogs, the Tzaangors - and didn't they have a surprise in store for us!

Blood Bowl also gets a look in with the new winter-themed Blood on the Snow board.
Like last week, Lord of the Rings players also get a look in with the Lake-town House set. It's a really nice looking set, pity it's just a bit too small for Warhammer.