Black Seas – Master & Commander Starter Set
Warlord Games is establishing itself as a major player in the world of naval wargaming. It started with Cruel Seas, which covers the coastal battles of World War II at a scale of 1:300, and has expanded to include the Age of Sail with Black Seas, which is also at a scale of 1:700 and accompanies Black Powder.
What better way to introduce someone to these new systems than with a proper starter set? They did just that with Strike Fast, Strike Hard! for Cruel Seas, and have now done the same with Master & Commander for Black Seas.
This box can be used as a two-player starter kit or as a large starter fleet for one player, as the ships are generic and can be used by any nation. The set includes the 96-page rulebook, nine vessels and lots of gaming material, which we will take a closer look at below. The Master & Commander starter set has an RRP of £59.
Star Wars Shatterpoint – Wisdom of the Council Squad Pack
As mentioned in the Outer Rims Terrain Battles Pack, we received several items from Asmodee from the Adepticon Roadmap for 2025. Among them were two Shatterpoint sets, Wisdom of the Council and Requesting Your Surrender. Today's review will cover the Council Squad Pack, which includes Jedi Masters and Padawan.
The SWP 50 Wisdom of the Council Squad Pack has an RRP of 49,99 USD and contains four miniatures for the game.
- Jedi Master Shaak Ti, Togruta
- Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi, Cerean
- Ithorian Padawan Learner
- and a female Padawan Learner who can be built either as a Human, Zabrak, Nautolan, or Rodian
This squad pack is set in the Clone Wars era of the game.
The miniatures are all inside a single sprue, as well as the four 40mm bases. And we get a lot of game material in five (!) different languages - English, French, German, Polish and Spanish. This will be streamlined in upcoming products.
Star Wars Legion – Outer Rim Battles Terrain Pack
As part of the coverage on the Adepticon Road Map, we received a large package from Asmodee containing various boxed sets from their Star Wars Legions, Shatterpoint and Marvel Crisis Protocol tabletop wargames series. We want to review these sets, box by box, starting with the Outer Rim Battle Terrain Pack from Star Wars Legion.
With our upcoming Outer Rim campaign, we are excited to cover this terrain pack. This set has an RRP of 59,99 USD and contains ruins, rubble and walls, along with two mouse droids - a critter is usually included in each of these sets as an easter egg.
Having seen the product pictures/front of the box prior to this review, I was surprised by the amount shown on the back — more on that below.
Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Acastus Knights Asterius
Among the three Mechanicum knights new in plastic, the Acastus Knights Asterius are the only ones we didn't cover before as their resin counter part and as such are very happy to introduce them on here.
And just like the other items, this boxed set will go on pre-order on April 19th and will be released on May 3rd for a RRP of 37 GBP or 47,50 EUR.
The Acastus-Class Knights Porphyrion are already a rare sight, being perhaps the most heavily armed and armoured of all the Knight chassis in service, which rivals the Scout Class Warhounds Titans in size and might. The Asterius is even more scarce, replacing the Twin Magna Lascannons of the regular Acastus for Conversion Beam Cannons that can turn enemy fortresses and titans into ashes. The other weapon systems are replaced as well, the Las- or Autocannons are up armoured to Volkite Culverins and even the missile system is replaced by a Karacnos mortar battery.
Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Krios Squadron
Just in march of this year we had the "big brother" of this vehicle for Horus Heresy and just two months later we see the Krios as a Squadron kit of six for Legions Imperialis.
The Krios was the main battle tank of the Mechanicum, similar to role of the Predator for the Legiones Astartes, during the Horus Heresy. There were multiple variants of the Krios produced and this kit covers the two Krios Battle Tanks with Lightning Cannon or Irad Scourers, as well as the Krios Venator variant with Pulsar-Fusil.
This kit will go on pre-order on April 19th and will be released on May 3rd for a RRP of 31,50 GBP or 41 EUR.
Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Cerastus Knights Atrapos
We get to see three former Forge World resin kits from the Adeptus Titanicus range re-released as plastic kits today, and in this review we will cover the Cerastus Knights Atrapos.
This set of four Cerastus Knights Atrapos will go on pre-order on April 19th and will be released on May 3rd for a RRP of 47,50 GBP/62,50 EUR. Their rules are covered in the Core Rulebook for Legions Imperialis.
The Atrapos pattern of the Cerastus Knights is a rather "recent" addition to the lore of Warhammer 40,000, with them being introduced as 28mm model kit in 2015. Similar to the Mechanicum Questoris knights, the Cerastus Knight Atrapos is a unique and rare variant among the Knight Households. They were originally developed to take on heretek engines and xenos warmachines, as those were considered a blasphemy to the Omnissiah, but their rare and potent weaponry made them a devastating threat against not only Knights but Titans well, on both sides of the Horus Heresy. Armed with Atrapos Lascutters and Graviton Singularity Cannons, mounted on the swift Cerastus chassis the Atrapos is a rather destructive choice, especially further upgraded with the Macro-Extinction Protocols, Blessed Autosimulacra and Ionic Flare Shield, which were partially transfered into their unit profile in Legions Imperialis.
Legions Imperialis – Mechanicum Knights Magaera/Styrix
The Questoris Knights got multiple updates over the time since their initial release for Adeptus Titanicus in 2018. The initial box set was a set of 3 Imperial Knights, and those got an upgrade with the rocket pods and thunderstrike gauntlets (either as a blister pack or full set) to Questoris Knights, and parallel a release by Forge World for the Mechanicum Knight variants of the Magaera and Styrix in resin. And now these resin models have been remade in plastic, which we are going to take a closer look upon today!
This set of four Questoris Knights will go on pre-order on April 19th and will be released on May 3rd for a RRP of 31,50 GBP/41 EUR.
The Questoris Knights Styrix and Mageara were introduced to the Lore of Warhammer (30,000) with the Horus Heresy Book IV - Conquest in 2014. Both patterns have a Hekaton Siege Claw as a melee weapon, but in different designs, and for ranged attacks either a Lightning Cannon in case of the Magaera or Volkite Chieorovile in case of the Styrix.
Age of Sigmar – Stormcast Eternals Gardus Steel Soul
We're doing smaller unboxings and reviews along the line of the Stormbringer subscription. Back in the shipment with issue 14 to 19, we got the 2021 Stormcast Eternal Character of Gardus Steel Soul.
The miniature as part of the magazine series is a proper steal, as the regular price is 34 EUR and it is currently more or less Mail-Order exclusive, so not much you can do about a discount. But at 10,99 EUR it is very solid.
Gardus Steel Soul is a Lord-Celestant of the Hallowed Knights Stormhost, and their silver and blue armours provide a bit of variation to the poster boys of the Hammers of Sigmar. The artwork you can see on the cover of the magazine comes from the Black Library novel Hallowed Knights: Black Pyramid.
Horus Heresy – Mechanicum Ursarax Cohort
Among the new sets for the Mechanicum are the Usarax Cohorts, a unit closely related to the already available Thallax Cohorts.
Both, the Thallax and Ursarax are no robots, but heavily augmented cyborgs. Where the Tech-thralls or Servitors are mind-wiped, these keep a part of their human independent initiative and personality, but are stripped to the bare minimum of their major organs and nervous system and then encased within an armoured mechanical system.
The Ursarax are a rarer sight on the battle field, compared to the more common Thallax, as they fulfill a different role in combat. Where the Thallax have their different types of ranged weapons, the Ursarax are focused on close combat and assault attacks. They are equipped with jump packs and lightning claws, which can be replaced with power fists, and are even armed with short ranged Volkite Incinerator in the middle of their chests.
Stargrave – Dead or Alive
We gave you an overview on the initial release of Stargrave. Covering the rules themself along with the first three plastic kits of the Crew, Troopers and Mercenaries. But where has Stargrave moved to in the mean time?
The first small supplement was released along side the Nickstarter in March 2021. With the first lockdown a lot of games, and especially Osprey Games, received single player add-ons and so did Stargave with Dead or Alive initially a free mini-campaign for solo-gaming of 21 pages - which was in 2024 re-released as a full 96 page paperback supplement with further content for Stargrave. So due to this fact - this was the first and the most recent supplement for Stargrave, with quite a few releases in between.
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