News And Other Things I’ve Read

Basically this is a round up of things I’ve seen in tabletop news that I’m interested in. This won’t be a universal news source, just things that caught my eye. Fortunately I asked nicely and they gave it back, otherwise I would struggle to read the other articles.

LOTR — Treebeard & Quickbeam March To War¹

Treebeard is finally getting released in plastic, Quickbeam on the other hand is a Forge World project and therefore resin. I don’t own any ents, nor did I have any intnetion of starting an ent army. And my pile of shame is too large. But Treebeard may just be majestic enough to justify not a full army but a centre piece model². I used to own a metal Treebeard, though he was pretty ‘armless (unless you hit someone with him, as with any big metal models that would bloody hurt) . Mostly because his arms used to fall off, I hadn’t discovered pinning. Only applying superglue, balancing on the mantlepiece, prayer³ and waking up to find his arms hadn’t stuck. That should be a thing of the past with them both.

Treebeard — Look at him. He looks ancient, cracked and weathered. And like he hasn’t seen an Ent wife in years.

New 40K — More Love For The Sisters, And The Dark Eldar⁵ Cometh.⁶

New battle box, almost like a starter set, 2 armies theoretically well matched and cheaper than buying individually. Piety and pain, good name.⁷ Before I get into the contents I must cover the hair. Lelith Hesperax wins the best hair in the box award, for this week.

Piety And Pain — I see heretics getting their deserved comeuppance.

The Sisters get :

• A Palatine
• 5 Retributors⁸
• A flame throwing church on a Rhino chassis (An Immolator).

I must say how much I love the aesthetic, number 1 nuns with guns are cool and bigger guns are cooler.⁹ Having a stab at pricing the Sisters cost £100 alone. The Dark Eldar bring :

• Lelith Hesperax
• 10 Wyches¹⁰
• 5 winged Scourges
• 1 venom

I’m less of a fan of the aesthetic of these boys and girls, pushing too far towards Slaanesh worship for me. Too many whips, and the Wyches armour leaves too many cut outs to be stabbed through. And Lelith was apparently in too much of a rush to put her shirt on. Maybe they’ll think it was worth it to show off that extra bit of skin. I like the armour on the Scourges, although the mix of feather and membrane wings in the Scourges puts me off them a bit.¹¹ Pricing wise they would cost £80.

Overall I like the box. Unusually for 40K it has, for me at least, a clear ‘good’ and ‘bad’ side. I’m sure you can guess what side is which. If it is good enough value — under the £100 mark. And I have cleared all my other projects it may be worth a look.

Also the Dark Eldar and getting a new codex, and a new combat patrol box. Good news for those Dark Eldar players out there. Will it be competitive? Was it competitive before? I don’t know, my experience of Warhammer as an Ork playermostly consists of getting shot to buggery before we could even get our Choppaz dirty. Well dirtier, Orky no do da kleen.

Mini News

Here are some things I saw this week that looked cool, but didn’t really justify a full section on their own. So here they are in brief, for your perusal.

• Wargames Atlantic — Cannon Fodder Previews¹³

These bear some promise as Imperial Guard¹⁴, the top right look as if they are designed for fighting in a low pressure atmosphere, such as a compromised space station. They look nice and industrial. Bottom left penal troopers. The other two make reasonable base guard models.

• Robyn’s Hoodies — Kickstarter¹⁵

Models with an old school charm, I missed the era when these were the sort of models that you got. But White Dwarf (and the old ones were so much better than the new ones-I can and do spend hours reading them — I digress) has made me nostalgic for them.

I have no real need for them — maybe I could pick up the Baron’s War system. But they look cool enough to grab a few just to paint — keep your eyes peeled and you may see them here soon. The kickstarter estimates June.

You may notice Robin is spelt wrong above, only in this case it isn’t. Robin has been swapped for Robyn as has their gender. An interesting twist, and a lovely model.

• Stellaris Infinite Legacy¹⁶

Stellaris is coming to the tabletop — well I hope it is a simplified version or players are going to need to do a lot of maths.

Most Paradox games have become board games now, in fact I believe Europa Universalis was originally a board game. Although I never realy get on well with board games made from video games such as Civilisation. They just don’t play right somehow, although I know other people that love them, so if that’s you have a looksie.

• The Order Militant by Gripping Beast¹⁷

The Captain — about to shoot a witch, while maintaining his fabulous moustache.

She’s a witch, we must weigh her against a duck. I can’t see these boys bothering, they’ll just cut her up or cleanse with flames.

This entire range looks great — looking very warhammer Fantasy to me.

• Obidiah Hogswill and Deserters by Alternative Armies¹⁸

Any one a Sharpe fan here? Just me. If you are you’ll recognise that complete bastard (must be said like Sean Bean) Obadiah Hakeswill. Well this army draws significant inspiration from him,. If not it’s still a nice retro army, with old school minis. I have a particular fondness for that the second in from the left in Obidiah’s gun he looks particulatly stumpy.

1. Saruman has become the brown trousered. Source : https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/03/14/sunday-preview-the-lords-of-commorragh/
2. Pricing Dependent — He will probably be about £40–50, given a normal Ent is £26. And he looks significantly chunkier.
3. Apparently I was not praying to the Emperor³ hard enough.
4. Maybe Lord Vader found my lack of faith disturbing and so Force pulled Treebeard’s arms off.
5. They are now Drukhari, but apparently I’m old and think Dark Eldar explains what they are better. Also Sisters are technically Adepta Sorroritas, although the warrior orders are still Sisters of Battle, so I’m on slightly higher ground here. And this is a hill I’ll probably die here.
6. Well I hope none of the Dark Eldar tried to love any Sisters Of Battle, that would be dealt with by the hot end of bolter. Source : https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/03/14/sunday-preview-the-lords-of-commorragh/.
7. That rhymed — I’m a poet and I didn’t know it.
8. Basically Devestator marines — you can compare most of the Sisters range to Space Marines. Almost as if Sisters are nearly female Space Marines but more prayer and less gene editing.
9. DAAAKAAAA!!!! Sorry my inner Ork is coming out again.
10. Games Workshop appear allergic to normal (non copywritable?) spellings.
11. And it would be too expensive to buy a second box just to match wings. Though if you wanted 3 squads you could probably do it. 9 membranes and 6 bird wings, could make 2 decent squads.
12. Source : https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/03/15/belakor-returns-to-the-41st-millennium-and-he-can-basically-chop-a-tank-in-half/
13. Source https://wargamesatlantic.com/blogs/news/more-cannon-fodder-previews#
14. Or Astra Militarum, to use their official name.
15. Source https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rob1/robyns-hoodies-and-the-sheriffs-henchmen
16. Source https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/academygames/stellaris-infinite-legacy/description
17. Source https://www.beastsofwar.com/news/new-order-militants-gripping-beast/
18. Source https://www.alternative-armies.com/collections/obidiahs-army-of-deserters