There are many creatures and races lurking in the fluff of the Warhammer universes, some come to light after many years like the Necrons did and then there are those that have waited for even longer, biding their time - the Ambull is just such a creature. Originally native to desert worlds, it seems the Ambull can now be found in the space because now we have them in the first of the Blackstone Fortress expansions Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress – The Dreaded Ambull. The latest expansion now also gets it's first hobby accessory, the Blackstone Fortress Carry Case which looks quite a bit bigger than the previous soft cases we have seen. In books we have the first full length novel featuring Hamilcar Bear-Eater, Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods and the second Gotrek and Felix Omnibus.

Meanwhile Forge World have released new minis for the vampire-Batman Space Marines - the Night Lords.
First up is the Night Lords Leviathan Dreadnought with Siege Claws. You can also get it without the claws if that is your want and desire. There are also two Praetors - the superbly detailed Night Lords Legion Praetor in Tartaros Terminator Armour which not only comes with an alternate bare head, but also seems to have Adolf Hitler's head around his waist... and the Night Lords Legion Praetor who sports a MKIV jetpack and an optional bare head. Both of these poses are amazing - both dynamic and fear inducing. The detail on the armour is brilliant. A real high point for Forge World sculpting, plus a fair price - about the same as a plastic GW character. There are also Night Lords Dice to strike fear into every dice roll.

With the tail end of the Genestealer release due this week no one expected the Inquisition... and by that we mean two Age of $igmar Battletomes and a large boxed game in the form of Carrion Empire.
The Genestealer release last week was undoubtedly a hit, and this week we get the Biophagus character, the powerful melee fighters the Aberrants with a variety of weapon options and the heavy-hitter the Abominant with the face only a mother could love - little fluff joke there!  The Genestealer Cults also get an awesome light vehicle, the Achilles Ridgerunner which has three weapon options - see the pic below for more.
Now with all that, the amount of releases attached to the Carrion Empire game came as a bit of a surprise - not only do you get the large boxed set, enough to start a Flesh-eater Courts army for sure plus some core units for the Skaven, but their Battletomes also got released AND some Endless Spells for both armies. The Skaven Battletome comes in Bigger Than A Cat Limited Edition and Scurry Scurry Standard Edition. The Skaven also get their Endless Spells which includes the iconic Vermintide, Warp Lightning Vortex and the Bell of Doom and the magical Skaven Gnawholes, which are really sizeable pieces of terrain! In terms of troops, nothing new - just a reboxing of the classic Clanrats. There are of course the ubiquitous Skaven-themed Dice and Skaven Warscrolls. Have to say, it is really nice to see Skaven that aren't Clan Pestilens for once. Meanwhile the Flesh-Eater Courts also get their Battletome with the Let Me Suck Your Blood Limited Edition and the Just The Fang Tip Standard Edition. They also get a sizeable terrain piece, this time the Charnel Throne, which if you look at the floor looks like it may have been built on an old Bretonnian building! There's also an Endless Spell set too including the Cadaverous Barricade, the Chalice of Ushoran, and the rather fearsome looking Corpsemare Stampede. Don't forget the all-important Warscroll Cards: Flesh-Eater Courts... important until GW put them on Last Chance To Buy in a week or two!

Genestealer Cults have been a thing in the Warhammer 40K Universe since Space Hulk, and after a massive injection to their line-up a few years ago, they are back with even more miniatures making them arguably a full-fledged army! 
Starting with what will likely be a mostly-copy and paste Codex (which comes in Standard Neophyte, Patriarch Collector's Edition and the horrendously expensive Get Of Her You Bitch Limited Edition) we then get a selection of characters for all occasions; Nexos (probably the pick of the bunch for us), the venerated Magus (who comes with an alternative hand),  Clamavus (who comes with an alternative head), Sanctus (who comes with an alternative weapon), and Locus (who comes with an alternative head). There's also Jackal Alphus, the leader of the Atalan Jackals, a very cool set of mounted skirmishers for a rather good price! There's also a new terrain piece that's actually more a weapon than a terrain piece, the Tectonic Fragdrill and the repackaging of the Brood Brothers - Cadians with a Genestealer Cults Upgrade Frame.
There are of course Genestealer Cults Datacards and some rather odd Genestealer Cults Dice.
For those into added extras, if you order any of the variants of the Codex you get Genestealer art cards!

Kill Team is dominating this week's pre-orders with the new Arena Competitive Expansion with tactics and mission cards, including Battle Brothers missions and 8 Competitive Play missions as well as 2 sets of 12 Arena Objective cards as well as a double-sided, folding card game boards and 2 plastic frames of scenery. There's also some new low-rise scenery in the  Sector Fronteris Environment set. The first Kill Team to enter the frey is the new Starn's Disciples Genestealer Cults Kill Team with the exclusive Kelermorph (right) character. Not to be left out, the Mechanicus also gets a new Kill Team, the Theta-7 Acquisitus with the exclusive Tech-Priest Manipulus miniature 
The only other pre-order this week is Made To Order Orcs - from the dim dark mists of time including the iconic Orc Warboss on Wyvern, Orc Great Shamans, Goblin Shamans, Night Goblin Shamans, Black Orc Big Boss, Night Goblin Boss, and the Night Goblin Warboss.
Next week also sees the next issue of the new White Dwarf February 2019 which, despite the promises of Index Astartes... it's missing! In issue two!! Sad...

Been pretty busy on the work front over here, so please excuse the lack of updates apart from pre-orders, this week we have a really nice diverse bunch of releases to look at!
First off is the new Adeptus Titanicus Titandeath Campaign book which is trumpeting not only a new campaign around Beta-Garmon but also background and Legion-specific rules for 8 Titan Legions, narrative missions, campaign rules and more. Having seen my first game of Titanicus last weekend, I can see how Legio-specific rules are important to the game, so this will be welcomed by the community. To go along with this release is the new Reaver with Melta Cannon and Chainfist, which not only gives you a melta cannon, volcano cannon and chainfist, but also the first new carapace mounted weapon, a turbo laser destructor, something people have been kitbashing for a while. Adding extra punch to the existing Warlord Titan, the Plasma Annihilators, Laser Blasters and Power Claw sprue is now also available separately as suggested by the Community.
Warhammer Underworlds Nightvault have some reinforcements inbound - both foreshadowed in the Malign Portents champions from early 2018 - Mollog's Mob for the Gloomspite Gitz (beautifully painted BTW) and Godsworn Hunt, the first troops we've seen for the Darkoath Warqueen Marakarr Blood-sky. Very curious for this range to finally come out - which must be close now. Some of the styling here is quite cool - some of it is very 1981 Conan-esque! There are of course Godsworn Hunt Dice and Godsworn Hunt Card Sleeves as well as Mollog's Mob Dice and Mollog's Mob Card Sleeves. 
The recent re-launch of the Middle-earth brand has been going full steam ahead with the new Gondor at War expansion which focuses on Sauron's assault on the kingdom of Gondor during the War of the Ring. Following the excellent Gandalf the White and Peregrin Took set we also get the Three Hunters set. Apart from the cartoon-ish painting of the faces, these look like lovely miniatures!! There is also a Three Hunters Dice Set and a new General's Accessories Pack which seems like a great way to get into this rules set.
In books this week we have the Celestine (Limited Edition) which looks very pretty and could very well be the precursor to the Sisters of Battle...
Also this week, if you order anything from the webstore, you get the Warhammer Adventures sampler, giving you  This free sampler book contains the first five chapters of Attack of the Necron and the first three chapters of City of Lifestone!

Meanwhile, from the studio that gutted the Horus Heresy range - Forge World - we have some pretty ordinary bare heads for your Stormcast; the Stormcast Eternals – Heads Upgrade Set 1 (Male) and the Stormcast Eternals – Heads Upgrade Set 2 (female). Considering other players in the market - PuppetsWar, Mad Robot, MaxMini and Victoria Miniatures to mention just a few - these are pretty poor!

Games Workshop seem intent on making urban warfare the way of the 40K future - from City Fight to the new Urban Conquest, there have been supplements, White Dwarf articles, and now entire boxed games making sure you are smack bang in a city when it's time to rumble! I'm sure the explosion of terrain recently (only a good thing, frankly) means GW see this as a very marketable prospect, this week's new Sector Imperialis Manufactorum is another great entry into the recent terrain releases - so is urban warfare the way to go from now on? No more Cold War style open fields for hoards of tanks, artillery and aircraft, not to mention titans and walkers? Skirmish is the future, long live the skirmish!
The Gloomspite Gitz continue their sizeable release window with a number of interesting releases - the Loonboss (who has a separate head under the helmet for some reason) gives you a second leader option from last week plus there's also the insane Loonboss on Mangler Squigs/ Mangler Squigs combi-kit which gives you a third leader option! Leaders need advisors/ minions/ yes-men and the Gobbapalooza set gives you multiple weirdos. Did someone just liberally hand out magic mushrooms at GW HQ and everyone got to design something weird? In the big-boy category the Rockgut Troggoths are a very customisable unit in a tonne of pieces. It's curious to see GW go towards so many Easy Fit sets and then this one is so many pieces - not complaining, just curious. The winner of the Most Needing To Go To The Dentist Award is the Dankhold Troggoth/ Dankhold Troggboss combi-kit - both unattractive but incredible detailed and theme-y models. The Sneaky Snufflers is a cute little set - but check out the price... this is for one sprue!!
Another 40K product this week is a Death Guard Paint Set with three minis - not bad value if you want some full sized paints and to test some schemes.
Fair few books for your shelves next week - the next Gaunt's Ghosts, Book 15 Anarch is here, as is the new Blood Angels: The Complete Rafen Omnibus featuring all of James Swallow's Blood Angel novels. The Warhammer Chronicles continue, this time with classic stories, Wulfrik, Blood for the Blood God, and Palace of the Plague Lord all bundled up in Warriors of the Chaos Wastes. And finally the next Horus Heresy audio drama, Nightfane​ continues the story of Ultramarine Aenoid Thiel and his Red Marked.

We first caught sight of the Gloomspite Gitz from the Warhammer Underworlds set Zarbag’s Gitz. They were cute and a bit weird and similar in theme to the Malign Portents Champion Fungoid Cave-Shaman Snazzgar Stinkmullett. Each of the other champions has a force (except for the Darkoath Warqueen Marakarr Blood-sky) so I guess it was going to happen eventually! That leads us to today when we get a fairly wide ranging release of course headed up by Battletome: Gloomspite Gitz - which comes in both Opioid Fungus Limited Edition and Portobello Standard Edition. This rag-tag army is lead by Overlord Skragrott the Loonking who is an amazing miniature - lots and lots of character - but he is over $50 for a single sprue! Luckily for us there are also a bevy of new miniatures including the Squig Hoppers who can also be made to represent Boingrot Bounderz who very much wear the Labyrinth/ Brian Froud influence on their sleeve. Froud's influence on this range has been downplayed a bit, but it's definitely there! As with a lot of the Gloomspite Gitz range, there are Squigs, so this Squig Herd set would likely be the backbone of any of your forces. Sporting the more traditional GW look of the long hoods, the Fanatics are a very dynamic kit which can either be made up as Loonsmasha Fanatics or Sporesplatta Fanatics - but like the overlord, be aware of the price point. It's only 5 minis after all! Like the Beasts of Chaos release, there is a shrine, this one the Bad Moon Loonshrine  which is packed with detail and also a new entrant into the physical magic items, the Endless Spells: Gloomspite Gitz. Being re-released are the old Grots set, the Stabbas/Shootas combi kit, but it's a pity GW didn't give us a helmet upgrade sprue in here to bring them in line with the newer minis. Themed dice are the way to go for the past year or so, but these Squig Dice are awful! There are of course Warscroll Cards: Gloomspite Gitz and if you order the Battletome online then you get a set of Gloomspite Gitz Art Cards.
This is an interesting release - really moving the old Grots out of the Ork realm and giving them their own flavour, but is this something the community have been after? We will see, but with Seraphon desperately needing an update it's curious this is here now. We're sure there's method to the madness because it's been a hot bone of contention around the place....

Another small pre-order week as we head into the New Year, plus yet another relaunch of the magazine that just doesn't seem to be hitting the mark!
White Dwarf is getting yet another relaunch - it's really only cosmetic though as what they're really doing is just breaking it up into sections for each universe - like the GW webstore. If you look over the content, White Dwarf Jan 2019 is basically exactly the same with GW are even teasing the return of Index Astartes - which they also did earlier this year and it never ended up happening. Subscribers, however, will actually be getting something, and that's an exclusive cover with unobscured art (right). This is cool - finally something for the subscriber - but Beardy Hammer, after many decades of getting White Dwarf and adding reviews to this site, will not be going along for the ride. The White Dwarf subscription over the past few years has been an absolute disaster - issues would sometimes be weeks late, inquiries to GW Mail Order in Australia were responded to rudely with no apology or even a time frame when issues might arrive, then when the subscription was running out there was no notice given so we could resubscribe. An inquiry about this to GW Mail Order was also ignored, then a second inquiry was responded to officiously with no dialogue entered into about notifying subscribers when it was ending. Frankly Customer Service in Australia is a joke, but sales of White Dwarf on the shelf are also falling, with local GWs only getting a few issues in each month. Will this soft relaunch do anything to improve what is arguably the seminal miniatures publication out there? With bad service to customers and many broken promises (Titanicus being a year later for example) and recent mistakes in listed pricing you'd wonder if they even care!
Apart from White Dwarf, there are two other pre-orders - the Made To Order Vostroyan range and Inferno Book 2. Not a huge start to the year, especially with the lacklustre response from the Community surrounding the Gloomspite Gitz. Just redo the Seraphon and keep everyone happy, GW!

Only one pre-order this week, and it's not even a pre-order - it's in the shops now!!! That's right, the reimagining (well actually it's pretty much a straight copy) of Jes Goodwin's 1991 Noise Marine is here.

The model itself is very cool, especially if you like a bit of retro stuff.
The proportions are half way between a Primaris and a normal Marine, so it would fit into the current direction of the minis quite well. Be really interesting to see the conversions that will come out of this mini, as the pose is open to some fun for sure!

Realm of Chaos, the seminal books from 1988 that brought the Warhammer and Warhammer 40K universes together in a shared demon pantheon and that brand is now back with (what one can think is the first in a series) Wrath and Rapture, a boxed set bringing the forces of Khorne and Slaanesh into conflict. Including some new miniatures, and admittedly some pretty old tired ones, this set sees a new version of Karanak, the Hound of Khorne (right), new plastic Flesh Hounds, the new Infernal Enrapturess and the new Fiends of Slaanesh... plus the tired old minis! The set also comes with two different rules sets - one for 40K and one for Age of $igmar. Interestingly no themed dice this week or a novel tie-in so it seems like this set was really just thrown out there, and if this is the extent of the love Slaanesh fans are going to get from GW, then people will not be happy, especially after the amount all the other Gods have received over the last few years. Want to add to this force? Well mortgage the cat and we have the Realm of Chaos: Wrath, Rapture, Decay and Change Collection which includes Wrath and Rapture plus the Star Collecting Nurgle and a Start Collecting Tzeentch sets.
Graham McNeil's The Crimson King is also out in paperback next week, so there's some extra witchy-poo action for you, this time in the Horus Heresy universe.

The Resin Overlords at Forge World have two new Adeptus Titanicus releases - the Civitas District War Zone Alpha and the Civitas District War Zone Beta. Seems like a lot of money for something you could build at home, but there is a lot of detail to enjoy.