Happy New Year and December 2024 review
Another year is coming to an end, so enjoy 2024's New Year's Eve and have a Happy New Year!
Just like we did in the past, let me combine the review of December and looking back upon the whole year in a single article.
Warmaster – Tomb Kings of Khemri
What is a perfect way to motivate yourself beside deadlines? Having somebody else join your project / play the same games. So I managed to fire up Florian / Celebration Parallax about Warmaster and he chose the Tomb Kings of Khemri.
Not a bad fit, as that would create the Bretonnia vs. Khemri setup from the Old World Release, we could do a bit of crusading and it would certainly not feel like a mirror match.
Beside that, due to their design, painting them in 10mm shouldn't be the hardest thing, as you could probably easily do a lot already with a coloured primer, midtone wash and a bit of dry-brushing. For those of you, who don't know the Tomg Kings of Khemri, they are egyptian themed undead within the Warhammer World, using a lot of elements of the era, like Sphinxes or Chariots.
Blood Bowl – Averland Hawks Part 5
Gareth was tired of constantly running in a drive wheel on a Reik's passenger ship. It was a low-paying, monotonous job. Ironically, the constant running was the basis of his fitness for being a Blood Bowl player.
On a trip along the Averland, he met the rebuilding Hawks. Without further ado, Gareth “the Express” Bosch signed up with the Hawks and started a new life. “The rest is history”, as they say.
Deth Wizards – Raising the dead
In December we started talking about what to cover for next years CONflict Rhineland, after we did Tanks for the Apocalypse in 2024 by Snarling Badger Studios. Various options were on the table, we were thinking about doing a mech game using Osprey's Gamma Wolves or Arsenal, or doing naval warfare with Galleys & Galleons by Ganesha Games. We considered using Deathship One by Joseph McCullough (the author of Frostgrave), and have the survivors fight a mighty vampire and after me throwing in my Zombie T-Rex, we ended up back with Snarling Badger Studio and their necromantic skirmish combat Deth Wizards.
As that game is capable of solo- and coop gaming as well, it would be very flexible for a hosted table, as we could adapt the scenarios to the liking and skill level of the gamers. Beside that, Florian just got a new 3d printer (Bambu Lab A1) and with him printing Briarwood terrain pieces, it was a great excuse for everybody to paint up some Undead. Even Dino joins in and we will have parallel projects - that is a first.
Blood Bowl – Averland Hawks Part 4
We continue with a small dedication for particularly active users in the course of the project, so let’s get straight to it:
Sir Thomas Dragonblade
As one of the oldest players of the Averland Hawks, Sir Thomas had already had a lot of life experience. In Zhufbar, under Captain Milluzson, he had discovered his passion for shipbuilding and later even ran a small shipyard in Averland. Unfortunately, the business literally went down the drain when his assistant Ms. Elfikova ran off with a large part of his profits. As it turned out, she had used the money to build a ship stadium for her own team, the Karond Kar Sharks!
Blood Bowl was the next logical step for Sir Thomas - the large sums paid out to players would get him back on his feet while he yearned to face Ms. Elfikova's team each season to exact revenge.
Da Red Gobbo – A-Bomb-Inable Snowman
Last year we got double-trouble with the Da Red Gobbo Surprise and Grotmas Gitz, and this year we get another christmas themed miniature by Games Workshop from the Commemorative Series, Da Red Gobbo's A-Bomb-Inable Snowman. As of now, he is not available from Games Workshop directly anymore, you have to go through the independent retailers network for that, but that shouldn't be an issue.
The latest of the Red Gobbos is priced at 34 EUR, unfortunately an increase towards last years 32,50 EUR. And of course, the miniature comes with a scenario for Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40k, which you can download for free from Warhammer Community.
Blood Bowl – Averland Hawks Part 3
After introducing the second lineman of the Averland Hawks last time, I continue today with the final one of the brave gentlemen at the center of the pitch.
Derek Jørgensøn
Even if a dwarf would never admit it, their people are close to humans. However, there are some popular exceptions where a dwarf is happy to admit to being friends with a human, such as Derek Jørgensøn. The former inventor has many ties to the Machinists' Guild and enjoys a good reputation there. Together with the dwarf Rae Crowson, is also developing training equipment for Blood Bowl players when he is not playing himself.
Star Wars Shatterpoint – Maintenance Bay Terrain Pack
A fine addition to the Shatterpoint terrain series is the Maintenance Bay Terrain Pack, which was released in the second half of 2024 and we're looking into it today.
The large boxed set has a RRP of 84,99 USD / 85 EUR, but prices vary online. The Maintenance Bay covers an Outer Rim Garage and a womprat and is produced by Asmodee / Atomic Mass Games.
While it part of the Shatterpoint range (a 40mm scale skirmish) it is a bit taller than the platoon level 1:48 / 32-35mm scale of Star Wars Legions, but still can be used with games down to 32mm heroic scale, but we will see into that further below.
Necron Invasion
Necrons are a fixed part of the 40k universe, and most people probably don't remember a Grim Dark Future without them. They were around since the early days, but more design-wise. The Chaos-Androids from Space Crusade / StarQuest are clear predecessors of the later Necron design, but the Necrons were properly introduced to the game mere months before the end of the 2nd edition in White Dwarf 217 and 218 (January and February 1998 - German issues #25 and #26). In the third edition they should shine, with a full codex in 2002 along with proper plastic kits.
But in this "small" time frame in 1998 from January to September (because in October 1998 the third edition dropped) all we had were a few pages of units for an entire army. Because all you could place were the only HQ choice they had, a Necron Lord, the regular Necron Warriors along with scarabs and the Destroyers for support. That was the entire armylist. We even had some Immortal sculpts, but now rules for those.