Bit of a small pre-order week today, which could actually be a blessing after the huge Nighthaunt releases for Age of $igmar and Kill Team for 40k - but what would a weekend be without at least something top tempt us. Personally I miss these being first shown in the weekly version of White Dwarf (not that our WD even ever turns up anymore) but the internet is a hungry beast, so here we have it. 
Next week sees the release of a new twist on an old favourite - it's Speed Freeks! Ork Klans via for supremacy around (you have to admit) a rather small area. These minis are really nice, the bikes not straying too far from art we have seen for decades and the buggies are a big improvement on the old model for sure. Apparently the buggies in this set are exclusive to this set, and with only the boxed set being released this weekend and no individual sets, it may be unlikely we know if they are for a while.
By the way, is it just us or does the book's cover art (below) look like Steve Bisley art?
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In books next week, the Limited Edition Corax: Lord of Shadows hits the shelves as does the Age of $igmar-themed Sacrosanct & Other Stories  plus a timely audio book release, Prophets of Waaagh! with a picture on the cover almost directly copied from a scene out of the newer Mad Max film.
In somewhat more exciting news, the Horus Heresy series is coming to an end (as such) with the Siege of Terra finally beginning. Next week sees the beginning of that part of the story arc with The Horus Heresy: Heralds of the Siege a collection of short stories - some in print for the first time and others were originally released as audio dramas.
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is it an exciting pre-order week? No - but it's one week closer to the glory of Slaanesh!

​Kill Team - elite squads of troops pitted against each other, and this week Games Workshop have introduced the Commanders Expansion Boxed Set, which includes a 120 page book, 33 Universal Commander Tactics cards (7 cards covering the psychic powers from the book, along with Psybolt from the Kill Team Core Manual), 20 blank Commander datacards, a double-sided Commander token sheet.  
To go with this boxed set are Commanders for each faction - Ankra the Colossus Necron Commander, Feodor Lasko Astra Militarum Commander, Fireblade Twinflame T’au Empire Commander, Gaius Acastian Deathwatch Commander, Gitzog Wurldkilla Ork Commander, Magos Dalathrust Adeptus Mechanicus Commander, Torrvald Orksbane Adeptus Astartes and Vysa Kharavyxis Drukhari Commander. Each Commander is moulded in this new coloured platsic GW are using and come with a datacard, a skill tree card, 5 Tactics Cards (including 2 Tactics exclusive to this set) plus a sheet of tokens for use in games of Kill Team. Kill Team seems like Necromunda for 40K, so should make people pretty happy!
Away from 40K, last week we saw some cool new teams for Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault, well this week you can get some card sleeves for those factions - the Eyes of the Nine and Zarbag’s Gitz. 
In books, the next Primarch book is out - Vulkan: Lord of Drakes. There's been some good press about some of these, so be interesting to see the verdict on this one too. 

We're going to show our bias today and start the preview with the new Warhound Titan for Adeptus Titanicus. This has ALWAYS been a favourite, so it's release not only spells the end of the Titanicus release that we have seen, it also means that the process of painting up a few of these begins. Luckily the Warhound comes in a two-pack, and by the picture (right) they are very much like the original metal Epic scale and are tiny!! To command your Warhound pups there is also the Warhound Scout Titan Command Terminal Pack - why include the means of paying them with the miniatures when you can sell them separately, right? With way too much written about these awesome minis lets move onto some Age of $igmar with new minis for Warhammer Underworlds - this week it's teams for Tzeentch with ​The Eyes of the Nine and the Goblins with Zarbag’s Gitz. Zarbag’s Gitz is a great set of amazing looking characters, including a very Brian Froud looking armoured Goblin. The Eyes of Nine is a bit disappointing, despite the inclusion of a female Tzeentch Cultist! The requisite themed dice for Zarbag’s Gitz and The Eyes of Nine (incredibly similar to the Thorns of the Briar Queen Dice Pack)are also on pre-order. Interestingly after the success of the Kill Team Carry Case, guess what? There's an Underworlds Nightvault Carry Case too. These disappear very quickly BTW. There's also the re-release of Steelheart’s Champions and Garrek’s Reavers for Underworlds: Nighthaunt, but if you do won them already you can just buy the Underworlds: Nightvault – Echoes of Glory cards. It's the third time these minis have been released, so just release the cards and make it simple please.
In books we have a few items actually, The Beast Arises: Volume 1 (which is an omnibus of the first four books and well worth a read!), Gotrek and Felix: The First Omnibus (which includes the first three William King Gotrek & Felix  novels plus five additional short stories), Horus Heresy: Shattered Legions (which includes ten short stories including the novella The Seventh Serpent which revisits the ragtag crew of the starship Sisypheum) and Book 2 of the Dark Imperium trilogy Plague War.
It's a Made To Order week too with Galrauch (a Chaos dragon kit well over 30 years old),  Throgg the ogre which is an amazing kit only let down by not having an army to lead, the Skaven Plague Lord Nurglitch and two Beastmen models - Morghur, Master of Skulls and Khazrak the One-eye. 

Happy weekend to you, and with each weekend comes the lottery of "time to empty my wallet" vs "ooooh, more money for next week" - yes it's pre-order time!
This week sees the release of a new boxed set Wake The Dead which pits the Ultrasmurfs against the Aeldari in the War Zone Vigilus. It's pretty cool to see the Aeldari get some love - despite to older Guardian models - plus there's two new commander models in this set, a Primaris Lieutenant and and Aeldari Spiritseer. This set is at the higher end of the price scale for boxed sets, but all the models are multi-pose plus there's the Wave Serpent.
Kill Team also gets some reinforcements this week with the forces of goodness and light (at the end of a Pulse Carbine), the Tau Advance Team Starpulse and the Exalted Scythe for Necrons. These sets also come with barricades from the Wall of Martyrs. For old school anime fans, the Tau team's name seems to be a bit of a pun on the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman and Secret Combat Team Go-Rangers - being that the Tau aesthetic is based on the Japanese anime genre. That alone makes me want to buy them. In fact doing them up like an anime team is not a bad idea... Kill Team also gets the Wall of Martyrs Environment Expansion  which comes with a double-sided Kill Team gameboard on heavy card stock, tactics cards etc etc plus an Imperial Bunker, a set of 2 Imperial Defence Lines and an Imperial Defence Placement. Pretty cool! Now of course we get the Tau and Necron Kill Team Dice - which close up can look a bit cheap, but the Necron ones look quite cool.
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In books, Inferno! Volume 1 is out next week. This is the first in the relaunch of the Inferno! brand and brings you new short stories from the worlds of Warhammer 40K, Necromunda, Age of $igmar and the ancient lands of the Warhammer Chronicles and written by debut and current Black Library authors. This should actually be very cool. The paperback version of Legacy Of Dorn is also out, as is the Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah Paperback.
Next week is also a White Dwarf week. Bit of a week cover - they all seem to be blending into one another at the moment - but they promise a whole lot of stuff we have already seen (Warhammer Underworlds, Beasts of Chaos, Adeptus Titanicus), Getting started with… Kill Team, Ultimate Guide To the Titan Legions plus a stage-by-stage painting guide for the new WARHOUND Titans for Adeptus Titanicus. 

When the new Beasts of Chaos army was announced, one of the very cool things was the Start Collecting Beasts of Chaos set. This had light infantry (Ungor), a heavy infantry unit (Bestigor), a spellcaster (Great Bray-Shaman) and a monster (the Ghorgon/ Cygor combi-kit) - a great start to any army, especially in this era of magic. The Ghorgon/ Cygor combi-kit was cool before, when added into this kit it became amazing value; you effectively get the heavy infantry and spellcaster for free! With Beastmen in the air, the Start Collecting set was ordered and we were really surprised at the kit as a whole. It's sizeable, packed with a tonne of detail - and even on it's own - the $90 price tag is well worth it. The Sylvaneth Spirit of Durthu kit gets a lot of attention for it's level of detail - well this kit is definitely on par with both options, detail and scale.
We're going with the four armed Ghorgon model - rule of cool - but definitely considering another one. Now of course the painting may be an epic pain in the arse, so that could change, but for now until it sits gathering dust, revel in the beauty!!
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++ If you follow us on Facebook, you would have seen that after years of disappointment with GW Mail Order in Australia, we decided to try Emerald Hobbies & Collectables & it arrived on the Tuesday after release. Couldn't ask for more. This is not a paid endorsement - just a heads up to Aussie & Kiwi buyers ++

Shadespire has really grown from an Age of $igmar off-shoot to it's own games system with considerable amounts of investment from Games Workshop in new minis and accessories - and this week we get the next installment Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault. This release is interesting as they must also see the need for people who don't want to buy the whole game but want to add the minis or elements to their existing Shadespire force. Both the Thorns of the Briar Queen and Stormsire's Cursebreakers can be bought separately from the game (with the themed accessories listed below), as can the Mirrored City Boards Pack. There are also accessories available for the game; the Nightvault Deck Box and ​Nightvault Playmat plus the Stormsire's Cursebreakers Dice Pack, the Thorns of the Briar Queen Dice Pack plus the Magic Dice Pack which can be found in the Nightvault game, but these are prettier, and of course the themed Stormsire’s Cursebreakers Card Sleeves and Thorns of the Briar Queen Card Sleeves. Leaving the best until last, there's a really cool scenery set, Nightvault Arcane Hazards, with some pieces for games which are probably well worth a look and if you have a look at the pictures - much bigger than you'd think. 
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In books next week we have Blood of Iax in standard Hardback or in Special Edition. This is an Ultramarines Primaris story based on the characters from the Black Library Advent Calendar tale A Brother's Confession. Primaris and Ultramarines in the same story - be-still my beating heart - please let me mortgage the cat...  

If the Dark Eldar/ Drukhari are the bastard-children of the WH40K universe, then the Beastmen are the Age of $igmar equivilent. Creatures of the Old World displaced by humanity's brutal encroachment into their domain, many fell to Chaos as a way to fight back against the xenophobic culling of their people. Not unlike the backstory, the Beastmen range have been relegated to the Webstore Exclusives, with only one or two units actually stocked in the stores - but next week they re-emerge into the light for a time with a new Battletome, a great Start Collecting box, Spells and some cool allies.
First up, full disclosure, we're big fans of Beastmen - the backstory, the miniatures and with the new version of Realms of Chaos soon to be released, this is a good day.
This new force is called the Beasts of Chaos brings not only the traditional Beastmen in, it also collects the Tzaangor and some of the old Chaos Beasts models as well. The Beasts of Chaos Battletome comes in your Scented Back-Fur Limited Edition or your standard Horn 'n' Hoof edition. With not even a different cover to differentiate them, it's another slap in the face for the Old World. In terms of miniatures, there's a great Start Collecting Beasts of Chaos set with a great selection of minis to start with, the new Herdstone and Endless Spells: Beasts of Chaos. It seems like magic is going to be a big part of this army, so you will be needing that Herdstone for sure! There are of course the themed dice and Warscroll Cards - pretty much guaranteed for any Age of $igmar release these days! Although there's no new infantry minis (sadly) the traditional Gors and Ungors (both retooled a few years back from the original plastic versions) plus the Bullgors and Chaos Warhounds. Also in the world of Age of $igmar, the Gutbusters are back - now initially I though this was to be allied with the Beasts of Chaos but maybe not - with the old Ogors set and the Scraplauncher/Ironblaster combi-kit back in stock and on the shelves.
With all this Age of $igmar stuff, Warhammer 40K is also getting some love with the Knight Preceptor Canis Rex Imperial Knight and Imperial Knights Transfer Sheet on pre-order this week. This new Knight kit has all the current versions in the one box, so there will be a lot of spares around... or a spike in magnet sales.
In books, the Shadespire: The Mirrored City novel will be out, plus a new audio drama centred around the little-seen and probably overdue for a colour scheme update Mortifactors Space Marine Chapter versus the brave and heroic Tau, Taker of Heads.
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Now... off to pre-order some Beastmen - and certainly not from Australian Games Workshop who have again not delivered a pre-order within a week of ordering it. Well done, idiots!
Going to try Emerald Hobbies (not an endorsement just a fact) this time and see how we go!

Rogue Trader - an iconic name and the very beginning of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. We have seen Rogue Traders before in the RPG universe, and of course mentioned in the original WH40K rulebook - but now we have one in miniature form; this icon made manifest.. and what a clusterfuck it is! Weird flat minis, strange outfits that don't seem to fit into any form of the 40K universe we have seen, a crew member who looks like a lamp and a Rogue Trader who seems to be wearing a mosquito net over her face. If they were going to introduce Rogue Traders, then do this with respect for the canon, the universe, and the people who may have something invested in that name and that fluff that goes with it. Are there some highlights in this new Kill Team: Rogue Trader game? There's a cool dog and the infantry unit shows promise - but looking at the sprues some of them are barely two pieces. To go with this shitty release, there is of course themed dice sets - one for the Elucidian Starstriders and one for the Gellerpox Infected.
Away from broken dreams Made To Order have some really awesome Empire miniatures - King Louen Leoncouer, Ludwig Schwarzhelm and Kurt Helborg. These are beautiful and in stark contrast to whatever Kill Team: Rogue Trader is. Also in Made To Order, ​Dwarven heroes High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer and Thorek Ironbrow reappear, The Fay Enchantress (complete with grumpy unicorn) appears from the mists and the Seraphons Tehenhauin and Oxyotl beam down from their ship in stationary orbit.
Books next week bring us the Ciaphas Cain: Saviour of the Imperium (Omnibus), Warhammer Chronicles: Masters of Steel and Stone (Omnibus) and Carcharodons: Outer Dark in paperback.
Oddly last weekend, the Australian webstore did not offer any of the extras for the Reaver Titan that we had seen for the Warlord, so some time this week they obviously remembered and threw the Adeptus Titanicus Reaver Battle Titan Command Terminal Pack and Reaver Battle Titan Weapon Card Pack online. They are available, like the Reaver Titan, from today. 

For us, the release of the new Adeptus Titanicus was going to be really good when two things happened - the Reaver and the Warhound - and today we have the mighty Reaver Battle Titan on it's way. This is a classic look, obviously directly from the larger Forge World model, but really not much changed from the original Epic scale kit. At almost half the cost of the Warlord, this is a good entry model for those flirting with this games system. Although this can be festooned in cables, they can also be removed to allow extra flexibility.
Next week also sees another Specialist Game, this time it's Blood Bowl and the Nurgle's Rotters team (and I know this comes as a shock) but these are really awesome looking models. There is of course a cool set of Nurgle Blood Bowl Dice, a Nurgle Blood Bowl Pitch and Nurgle Team Cards so you can field this team straight away! There's also an issue of Spike! dedicated to these rather unattractive lads (BTW, are there female Nurgle characters?).
In books, it's the return of Ciaphas Cain in Choose Your Enemies, there's an new audio drama The Key of Infinity with four short stories - plus next week is a White Dwarf week, which despite the Middle-Earth cover also boasts Kill Team: Rogue Trader and Hall of Fame with guest, Jes Goodwin. One to check out!

"You Shall Not Pass!" - well actually by the looks of this week's pre-orders, not only will you pass but any Lord of the Rings fan will likely explode with joy...
The release of the new boxed game Battle of Pelennor Fields will be the relaunch of the Middle-Earth range for Games Workshop.  A hefty box in it's own right, there are also new Games Rules, and the Armies of The Lord of the Rings 244-page book with all the army lists, heroes and scenarios. What would a release be without dice - we have One Ring Dice, Rohan Dice, Mordor Dice and the really odd Lord of The Rings Measurers. There's also the return of some great creature minis - the War Mûmak Of Harad, Winged Nazgûl, Balrog, Great Eagles, the Mordor Troll and an Ent. Along with the Fellowship Of The Ring set, there is a myriad of forces available - some webstore only, some at retail for the first time in a long time. There's also bundles for the factions as well, but you have your main factions and sub factions as well as mounted units. Really, it's a bonanza for long time fans and an great time for new players to a system that continually gets great reviews, certainly compared to other GW properties.
Away from LoTR to 40K, Kill Team has two new factions - The Slicing Noose – Drukhari Starter Set and Kill Team Mordelai – Deathwatch Starter Set, both coming with that god-awful Deathworld terrain. There are of course Kill Team Dice to go with them - the Drukhari and Deathwatch each get a set.
Book releases next week include the paperback version of Watchers of the Throne: The Emperor's Legion,  the Realmgate Wars Volume 2 Age of $igmar omnibus' and a look at Robot Girlyman's crusade across the galaxy with his Primaris Marines in Space Marine Conquests: Of Honour and Iron. GW haven't really been keeping us up to date with the crusade, rather concentrating on the integration of Primaris into the Chapters, but maybe this will give some clarity on who these heretical abominations are... I mean 'Defenders of Humanity Not At All Made Using Heretic DNA'.