September 2024 review
Oh what a September it has been! Quite packed with travelling and that is not over in October either.
Right in the beginning of the month CRISIS! returned, and what a return it was. Proper weekend in the city of Antwerp, including meeting Tuomas Pirinen (and having my Mordheim book signed). Due to unplanned coincedences the festivities of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the city (Bevrijdingsdagen) were hold simultaneously . So lots and lots of World War 2 vehicles, people dressed as Allied forces and music was going on.
Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team – Hivestorm
Kill Team's latest edition went for pre-order today and will be shipped in two weeks from now on October 5th. While a lot of the new components are available as individual items, there is a new starter set called Kill Team - Hivestorm as well. And just this set will be covered in today's unboxing review.
With Hivestorm we will see the 4th edition of Kill Team, which introduces two new Kill Teams, new terrain (called Killzone: Volkus Terrain and an updated set of rules. The two factions battling each other in this boxed set are the Tempestus Aquilons, the elite of the Astra Militarum equipped with Grav Chutes and the Vespid Stingwings, the updated insectoids of the T'Au Empire. And on top of that, we even get a new equipment sprue, with further scatter terrain and various grenade markers (along with the updated templates).
Just a quick heads up, as covering the Hivestorm box already went up to 70 pictures just for the unboxing, we're going to split the content into multiple articles.
WarCry – Gloomspite Gitz Part 2
Last time I showed two Gloomspite Gitz with spears that I can most likely use somehow in any lineup. This time it's the Loonboss's turn.
Crisis 2024 – Part 1
It is finaly back - Crisis could again hosted in 2024, after the last instalment in 2019.
The break had multiple reasons, and after the forced break due to Covid, the aftermaths of Brexit made organizing an event quite difficult, especially as one of the unique aspects of Crisis was the large amount of british manufacturers and traders at the show. In 2022 and 2023 there was a smaller convention at the club rooms of the Tinsoldiers, with support of the Lardies, creating LARDwerp, which we visited as well back in 2022. And due to scheduling conflicts with the new venue, it had to be moved from the first weekend in November towards September.
What is new about Crisis? First of all, it is not just the Tinsoldiers of Antwerp hosting the show, but they joined forced with the HQ Gaming Club and used the 't Bau-huis in Sint Niklaas as the new venue. While it might (currently?) not be the at Waagnatie in Antwerp anymore, the new venue is a proper alternative for the restart. About 15 minutes outside of Antwerp, you can easily get there by train from the Central Station (with the IC-line you can drive every half an hour, and it's about 7 EURs for a weekend ticket), as the venue is just 500m from the local train station. For those of you arriving by car, there are is a parking lot and even some charging stations for BEVs.
The tickets were 12 EURs (dropped to 10 EUR, due to some last minute cancellations of vendors) and visitors under the age of 14 had free entry. Due to keeping the risk and costs as low as possible for the restart, there wasn't a show miniature this year, but that might be for the reason as well, as the show didn't have a topic this year, unlike it did in the past. So we might see that return in the future.
Crisis 2024 – Part 2
Now that we have finished the traders in part 1 of our CRISIS 2024 coverage, let us move on towards the clubs and gaming systems.
A very special guest at the show was Tuomas Pirinen with Trench Crusade. I follow this system for a while now, as they have a very active facebook group, with various conversions and I was excited to see the miniatures at show.
The setup was a bit spontaneous, as Tuomas had little time to prepare much more, as he basically finished his regular work day as Game Designer for Sony Playstation and directly jumped into a plane towards Belgium, grabbing just the few items that fit into the luggage.
Adeptus Titanicus – House Moritain Ad Arma Pt. I
As each of my titan legios will cover an allied Knight Household, I want to start with those supporting Legio Astraman.
According to the Adeptus Titanicus supplement Loyalist Legios this would be the Knights of House Moritain, due to its ties to the Forge World Graia.
Age of Sigmar Stormbringer Magazine 32 to 37
On Friday, August 30th of 2024, the 7th package of the german Stormbringer magazine by Hachette arrived, covering the issues 32 to 37. With this shipment we get the second bigger premium content out of four, along with a shift of the Stormbringer content away from the Stormcast Eternals vs. Kruleboyz towards some of the other factions of Age of Sigmar.
August 2024 review
Welcome to September, quite the busy month ahead of us.
I dropped by my local Warhammer Store, who just had their 6th anniversary, to pick up the miniature of the month along with the new Stormcast sculpts and a bit of yellow for "projects". Impressive to see how more dynamic the Stormcast Eternals have become, especially compared to the very first releases with the rather bulky Liberators.
Anyhow, the miniature of the month is a great series for me, as I can pick up models that will be used in the scale comparison shots of our reviews, without me having to buy the entire box and it provides value for our readers.
Horus Heresy – Mechanicum Thanatar Cavas Siege-Automata
Along with the individual kits from the Mechanicum Battlegroup there are three novelties for pre-order this Saturday, the new supplement for Horus Heresy - The Martian Civil War, an Archmagos Prime and the Thanatar Cavas Siege-automata. The last one we're going to build today.
The Thanatar Automata is the largest walker, that is not a Knight, within the ranks of the Mechanicum and a former resin kit, available in the Cavas or Calix Siege-Automata variants. With the Cavas being the first to the produced in plastic. But don't worry, you will see it further below, the kit (or rather the sprues) are designed in a way, that the armament can be swapped and the Calix variant will likely be covered with a weapon sprue of its own.