​​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.
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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!