The last Age of $igmar's General's Handbook added a number of cool elements to Ao$, so it will be interesting to see what else can be introduced or tweaked in the new ​General's Handbook 2019 on pre-order this week. They promise expanded rules for urban combat, a new Raids and Ambushe mechanic, and soemthing that really tickles our fancy - Mercenary Companies, as I've been building one for some time! What is curious and sad is the section on a code of conduct for players designed to encourage sportsmanship and good play for all gamers - what's going on out there? There is also a Warlord Edition - webstore exclusive - with some extra bibs and bobs if that is your want and desire. Unfortunately nothing in terms of miniatures which is a bit of a shame - some Made To Order old school Generals could have worked nicely!
Speaking of niche, Middle-Earth fills the "we don't have much this week" void with Ranger Captains: Faramir, Madril & Damrod, Warriors of the Fiefdoms, The Lords of Umbar, hapless Balin, King of Moria and Flói Stonehand, Army of the Dead Banner Bearer (in the shiniest chainmail a dead person has ever worn), the beautiful Cave Drake and Radagast the Brown (played in the movies by my favourite Doctor Who, Sylvester McCoy!). These are all webstore exclusives, so the shelves are going to be pretty bare next Saturday!
In books there's a new Astra Militarum Omnibus - Shield of the Emperor and for Ao$, Soul Wars makes it's paperback debut.
Next week will see White Dwarf too, with June 2019 going on sale. No one will care, but there it is!
​Watch this get a relaunch/ refit/ digital only change in the next 4-6 months

As you would no doubt have heard, Games Workshop have relaunched their paint range to not only include the 34 brand new Contrast paints, but also 16 new Base paints, 8 new Layer paints, 26 new Air paints (we think giving further evidence GW will bring out an airbrush very soon), and 4 new Technical paints.
Excitingly, the 16 new Base paints include the old Forge World Horus Heresy colours - Phoenician Purple, Death Korps Drab, Gal Vorbak Red, Night Lords Blue, Nocturne Green, Corvus Black, Lupercal Green, Iron Hands Steel, Grey Knights Steel, and Iron Warriors.
There's actually a lot to take in here, instead of listing every new paint, it's probably easier to tell you about the bundles - you can get the ​All The New Paints bundle (left), the Contrast Paint Collection, the Base Paint Collection or the Air Paint Collection. There is also two new sprays, Grey Seer and Wraithbone, especially designed to give a smooth application to assist with the paint flow of the new Contrast paints. You will notice that the green and yellow spray are no longer there, being replaced by the Air Range equivalent.

Now a really cool feature of the new paints is an update to the way the Shades are displayed (see below).
When you click across the colours in the Shade range, it brings up examples of how to use them to create certain effects. When you then click on that effect, it brings up the colours needed and a way to add those colours to your shopping cart. There's also the option to get do it the simple Battle Ready way or to add extra steps and have them Parade Ready.  This is a really nice tool using existing data from the Citadel Paint App and make it one thing on the webstore portal.

Interesting changes by Games Workshop. Having been through many many changes to the paint range over the past 30 years, this does get a bit tiresome, but it's generally a good thing after some initial pain!

Well after months of bumper releases, we've finally come to that time where it slows down. Now it could be slowing down in preparation for something big, like maybe Warcry or the next Blackstone Fortress expansion Escalation - but this week all we get is books. Those books however, are pretty damn cool!
The seminal Liber Chaotica is back in print. This is a core book exploring all the current Chaos Gods (minus Malal). The only real issue with this book is it's written in the first person, and it does get hard to read at times. However, this is a core book with a tonne of info if you're into Chaos, or fighting Chaos.  The other exciting book is the Space Wolf: 20th Anniversary Edition which is the hardback collection of William King's novels around Ragnar Blackmane. Also next week is the Gotrek & Felix Third Omnibus and the paperback version of the Horus Heresy Book 47: Old Earth revolving around the Salamanders and Vulkan.

Blood Bowl are slowly getting more and more teams and this week sees the Halflings get a look in. Long a  fan favourite, this new plastic kit is packed with the sort of detail Forge World promises, but it seems Games Workshop is now delivering in spades with the new Greenfield Grasshuggers kit. As with most team releases, there is a themed Halfling Pitch, a Halfling Team Card Pack and Halfling Team Dice. plus issue #5 of Spike is also out, themed around Halflings. If you're a nostalgic Halfling, then the very old Treeman and Halfling Hot-Pot have also been rereleased as Made To Order.
Despite being poorly serviced and ignored on most Games Workshop store shelves, Necromunda still manages to plod along, this week with the new Necromunda: The Book of Peril supplement out plus the very first plastic characters for Necrmunda, Kal Jericho and Scabs. There's also new Badzone Environments & Events Cards and card sleeves.
In book news, we see the mainstream release of Angron: Slave of Nuceria - which we bought on release for the limited editon to get more info on the War Hounds Legion and how they fought, so have already read it. It's a hard book to review, but maybe we'll write it up to give you an idea of the contents.

When we first saw them, the new Age of $igmar terrain seemed just too large to be real - but here we are just a few months later and it turns out they are all too real. The Enduring Stormvault, for example, is a large three-part base with multiple other smaller pieces. In reality it would take up the vast majority of space on a gaming table. Even the Sigmarite Dais and Shattered Temple are large pieces in themselves. If you're not into large terrain pieces, there's a very cool set of pieces in the Timeworn Ruins. Oddly there's an icon very similar to the Crux Terminatus present on Terminators in 40K (left). Age of $igmar is getting even more of a pump next week with the new Soul Wars: Forbidden Power set with some new Endless Spells minis - check the Nagash influences and there's also the new Forbidden Power Warscroll Cards.
Now if Age of $igmar is your thing - then we also have new books - the Myths & Revenants in hardcover, Skaven Wars: The Black Plague, Rulers of the Dead and Genevieve Undead. For 40K peeps, the paperback version of the Rise of the Ynnari: Wild Rider book is also out. Poor old Ynnari haven't had much of a run since their emergence on the scene. 

Nothing too exciting this week - in fact if Kill Team was just a supplement, not boxes off well-named minis, then it may have just flown right passed - but it's not just Kill Team this week, even if that's what GW are spotlighting.
So Kill Team: Elites allows you to take the big boys of your armies into combat. This also allows Custodes, so welcome to the new Meta that was smashing Heresy gaming for a while - The Rule of the Golden Rods.
Of course we get some sets to go with this new book - The Dolorous Strain – Death Guard Kill Team, The Fractal Blades – Thousand Sons Kill Team and Toofrippa's Krew – the Orks Kill Team. There's also a half decent scenery expansion utilizing the scenery from Urban Conquest and others - the Sector Sanctoris Environment Expansion.
Sadly the main storyline for the Horus Heresy is coming to an end so the books for that are trickling out - this week it's the Siege of Terra Book 1: The Solar War in hardback and the super-limited 2500 copies edition Solar War book (which is beautiful and some arse-dragon was selling for $400 online last week) is also back if you missed out last time. There's also little trinkets - what better way to celebratre the mass slaughter on Terra - with the Black Library Siege of Terra Coaster Set and The Horus Heresy: Deck of Cards (which seem like a cool idea but look a bit naff).
A few weeks back, Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault got a few new teams, and now you can get those teams a a slightly reduced price but interestingly Thundrik's Profiteers and Ylthari's Guardians are webstore exclusives.
Apart from the Horus Heresy this week, there's only one 'book', the audio book Agent of the Throne: Ashes and Oaths.
You would have seen these previewed ages ago, but we now have Funko POP! Space Marines - Blood Angels Assault Marine, Space Wolves Pack Leader, Dark Angels Veteran and Ultramarines Intercessor. These are pretty cute and the paint applications aren't too bad. Could be fun for customizing!

When the Gloomsite Gitz hit we had a taste of the Brian Froud-esque took of them, and as more characters are released we see more influences - the Loonboss from the new Looncurse boxed game for example, has the characteristic armour we grew to know so well from the Labyrinth film which used Froud as a concept artist. Going up against the Gitz are the Sylvaneth, who have well and truly thrown off the shackles of the Wood Elf allies to be their own force with a brand new very cool Arch-Revenant mini, also exclusive to this set. This boxed set comes in at the Silver Tower price range, but if collect either army you get quite a lot of value and actual multi-pose minis too.
The rest of the releases this week are books! The next in the Limited Edition of the Primarch series is the mighty Konrad Curze: The Night Haunter himself, taking to the shadows to rip his enemies asunder. Gav Thorpe's Dark Angel's books get an omnibus with the Knights of Caliban, the Hallowed Knights: Black Pyramid in paperback and the Blackstone Fortress in paperback also get a release, as does Inferno! Volume 3. 

After many years of waiting, Slaanesh is back - and if you're into daemons, then this release is a boon for you. If you were hoping for a Tzeentch-style release with human acolytes or maybe Beastmen cultists, then this will probably disappoint. Lets' start at the beginning though...
Hedonites of Slaanesh is of course spearheaded by the new Battletome, which comes in Tug My Piercings Limited Edition and Grab The Lube Standard Edition. The big kit for Slaanesh is the awesome Shalaxi Helbane/ Keeper of Secrets combi-kit. This is a very large kit with a very large price - it's Primarch pricing - which is surprising seeming some of the other Age of $igmar kits of this size, even among the Stormcast who are notoriously expensive! Then there's Syll'Esske: The Vengeful Allegiance, effectively a large mono-pose figure, The Contorted Epitome, a spell portal on legs, and a new version of the classic The Masque, another mono-pose figure. We do get a chance to get our hands on the miniatures first released in the Wrath and Rapture boxed game - the multi-pose Fiends of Slaanesh and the highly macabre Infernal Enrapturess. As usual, we have an amazing terrain piece for Slaanesh - the Fane of Slaanesh - which is very large and striking and a Slaaneshi Endless Spells which includes the awesome Mesmerising Mirror which is a huge hand holding a spell portal. Speaking of spells, there's also Warscroll Cards, and interestingly no themed dice which is a bit sad as we would have loved some of those.
- 
Now before we move on to the other pre-orders for next week, lets talk about this release - it's an odd one. First of all we initially had just the new stuff being released this week, minus the Fane of Slaanesh. The two releases from Wrath and Rapture were not previewed for this week at all. This had left hope for those of us who were desperately wanting Cultists to bring a non-daemon element to this army. We thought these re-releases may mean a second week - but alas it looks like we only get one week of Slaanesh. Khorne got a huge release a few years ago, as did Nurgle and Tzeentch (which was amazing) - so why this truncated one for Slaanesh? This is a very daemon-oriented army with zero human followers. It will be interesting to see the rules to see if they are even provisioned for. Unlike Nurgle and Tzeentch, BTW (despite stating to the contrary) this is a very Ao$ army and not one that you could see fielded for 40K. 
That being said, this is a release I have been desperately waiting for and so far I don't like much of it, so maybe this is just personal disappointment - but even my local GW guy looked at me today already knowing this probably wasn't the release any of us Slaanesh fans wanted.
-
Pre-order books next week, we have the Deathwatch sequel, Shadowbreaker, the two new Warhammer Adventures, Book 2: Realm Quest – Lair of the Skaven and Book 2: Warped Galaxies – Claws of the Genestealer. Next week also sees White Dwarf May 2019 rock up with amongst other things Index Xenos: Ynnari, a faction that was introduced as a new way for Eldar players to play and then completely ignored by Games Workshop. Either do it or don't, guys! Bit like Slaanesh, either do it properly or don't!

Titanicus makes a return next week with the next expansion, Doom of Molech, adding new Knight Households and Titan Legions to the fan-favourite. There are also two new scenery sets, the Civitas Imperialis Administratum Sector and the Civitas Imperialis Spires to either use on their own or add to your existing scenery. There's also Knight Stratagem Cards and the re-release of the wildly popular Grand Master Edition. Forge World have also come to the party with two new Warlord weapons, the Quake Cannon and the Macro Gatling Blaster. The price on these has been universally panned from our group, so interested to see how these go.
Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault have two new units - the Ylthari's Guardians (with themed Card Sleeves and Dice) and Thundrik's Profiteers (also with themed Card Sleeves and Dice) - both excellent dynamic sets either for this game or to add to your Age of $igmar army. Speaking of additions for armies, there have been a number of new Warhammer Underworlds sets released over the poast 6 months, and now you can get them without all the added junk so you can add them to your existing force for each army - Tzeentch's Eyes of the Nine, Slaves to Darkness' Godsworn Hunt, Gloomspite Gitz Zarbag's Gitz and Mollog's Mob,  Nighthaunt's Thorns of the Briar Queen, Stormcast Eternals' Stormsire's Cursebreakers (definitely the weakest set of the lot).
In books next week we have a fair few... the short story compilation Lords and Tyrants,  the new paperback editions of Dark Imperium: Plague War and Blacktalon: First Mark, the The Imprecations of Daemons audio drama and finally a new edition of the classic The Imperial Infantryman's Handbook.
That's it for the main GW pre-orders this week, but with there's still Middle-Earth to cover...

Middle-Earth has a real cult following to it, and next week sees the brand new Battle Companies book that is an expansion for both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, encompassing all the miniatures across the GW and Forge World ranges. This of course brings with it miniatures - Éowyn & Merry in plastic as well as Made To Order minis including the classic metal The Breaking of the Fellowship, Rangers of the North (The Grey Company), Galadhrim Warriors with Swords (Haldir's Elves), Galadhrim Warriors with Bows (Haldir's Elves), Morgul Stalkers, Faramir, Captain of Gondor, Halbarad, Kardûsh the Firecaller and Círdan

Last week when we wrote THIS the cupboard did seem a little bare, but as the Chaos Space Marine release slowly finishes we are left with three heavy hitters - the new Dark Apostle and his Dark Disciples, the rather melodramatic Master of Executions (with alternate head) and available for the first time out of the Blackstone Fortress game, the rather non-descript Chaos Lord.
Age of $igmar has been sadly left forlorn and unattended  during this time of wide-spread Chaos love - but no more, with the Fyreslayers getting a bit of a bump in the form of a new Doomseeker mini, and a new Battletome. which comes in Does The Collar Match The Cuffs Limited Edition and the We Have Souls Standard Edition. As with all new Ao$ releases we have a piece of very cool magical scenery in the shape of the Magmic Battleforge and some Endless Spells called Magmic Invocations - good luck painting those! GW actually missed a very good opportunity here and could have cast these in clear orange plastic. It's a real shame to not see them thinking outside the box while other companies do clever things for their Communities. Of course the Fyreslayers also get a set of Fyreslayer Dice and also Warscroll Cards.
Do you like barbarians? Do you like Chaos-worshiping barbarians? Well Gav Thorpe has a new book for you - The Red Feast - which may very well be the entry point for the last of the Malign Portents forces to be released.... the Darkoath!