
In a smart move, this year Games Workshop and Black Library have done soemthing they're not especially good at doing, and that's co-ordinating releases, so we have a miniature release to coincide with a book, or vice versa. The first is the new plastic Maleneth Witchblade miniature, an assassin from the Daughters of Khaine (a faction that really needs some more fleshing out with minis to go with the extensive lore) and she is of course also the steadfast companion of Gotrek Gurnisson. He partnering book is Shade of Khaine, which comes in Special Edition or Hardback. There's also a new collection of stories Gotrek and Maleneth: The Omnibus in paperback which includes: The Bone Desert novella, The Neverspike short story, the Ghoulslayer novel, the Gitslayer novel, Death on the Road to Svardheim short story, Soulslayer novel, The Crown of Karak-Khazhar short story and the Dead Hours short story. I'm keen on this, so ideally this will be coming out of my wallet in a matter of hours.
The other miniature set is Hell's Last, a multipart plastic of Imperial Guard Captain Minka Lesk and her retinue - Confessor Talbeas, veteran Trooper Jaromir, a brilliant dynamic model of Commissar Shand (miniature of the year?), and Veteran Sergeant Grawnya. These are released at the same time as the Hell's Last novel, which comes in hardback and Special Edition.
There's a few other books, with the Astra Militarum-themed Fifteen Hours being republished for it's 20th Anniversary Edition, and the the two Black Library Reader’s Choice Winners to be available for a limited time in paperback are Dan Abnett's Titanicus, and Grey Seer (originally released as Thanquol & Boneripper Book 1). One final book for Black Library Celebration, and that's a new Warhammer 40k omnibus - Blood of the Imperium in paperback which collects Painboyz, The Long and Hungry Road, The Reskard Purgation, The Price of Morkai, Starstruck, Blood Harvest, Memories of Broken Glass, The Dust that Remains, The Whispering Blade, The Buried Beast, and the complete Tome Keepers: Legacy of Defiance (Volumes I-IV).
The last release is an "art book", with Black Library artwork, called The Art of Warhammer 40,000. Games Workshop seems to be pumping these out, but they're really not that special unless you're a completist.
So... Black Library Celebration is covered - now it's onto Horus Heresy, with a brand new plastic boxed set! The Mechanicum Heavy Support Force includes two new minis, and one recently released. The Thanatar Calix Siege-automata is an absolute beast and now the second variant on this chassis, and some may say the best. The other new miniature is the Krios Strike Tank/ Krios Venator combi-kit, giving your mechanicus soemthing nimble and deadly on the conventional battlefield. The last miniature is the Karacnos Assault Tank, which can also be built as the Triaros Armoured Conveyor.
The rest of the releases are all in resin, with the new Iron Hands Legion Praetor, and his opposite number, the Iron Warriors Warsmith (in Cataphractii armour) heading the releases. In fact the interesting thing about these new releases is that for the most part they are two sides of the same coin. We have the
Loyalist Herald Consul (unfortunately in the new MkIII armour) and the Traitor Herald Consul, and then the Traitor Overseer Consul and the Loyalist Overseer Consul. The Overseer Consuls are especially noteworthy as they are the military police of the Astartes units. In older lore these units were deployed from Terra to legions to keep order, the World Eaters units for example were numerous and instilled discipline with deadly force. The last Astartes miniature is interesting as it's a Space Wolves Caster of Runes Consul - a psyker by any other name - and banned by the Council of Nicaea. There's two new minis for the Mechcanicum too - the Arcuitor Magisterium and her assistant, and a new field commander, the Secutarii Axiarch - which just has a real presence about them and would make a great leader for a hopeful Secutarii plastic release (maybe a little redesign too, please...). This dude might need to come home to my house...