Warhammer Fest 2023 Recap and Comments – Part 2
Picking up after day one of Warhammer Fest 2023, Games Workshop started with Age of Sigmar, we actually received a three part reveal.
The first one, covering a well-deserved update on the Imperial Knights, now known as Cities of Sigmar Freeguild Cavaliers. Quite the tall horses and stunning barding on these. I like the different armour pieces and variants for the helmets. The old kit is 25 years old and did some heavy lifting back in the day, but it is time to send them into their well-deserved retirement. It will be interesting to see if the Demigryph cavalry will be phased out as well, as they don't really fit with the scale and who would ride demigryphs if you can have these horses? Impressive kit and I can imagine an impressive kitbash potential for Astra Militarum rough riders as well.
Middlehammer – Skaven Rat Swarms
Since I've ordered and covered the Made-to-Order classic Skaven characters from the Middlehammer era of the 90s, I was able to get my hands on some original rat people from Citadel to build a small skirmish warband around.
This gives me the choice to have two small packs of vermin warriors, led by a champion each and some characters. But as we are talking Skaven here, we need some rat swarms. In the classic Warhammer Fantasy battles, you had giant rats that you put on 40 x 40mm square bases. The ones shown in the second picture are the later 6th-ish edition rats, a bit more in line with each other compared to the earlier Oldhammer ones, and of course more variety than the swarm pack plastic ones.
Made-to-order Classic Skaven Characters
Already in 2019 Games Workshop offered some Skaven, the human sized rat-people of Warhammer, in a made-to-order run but went for a new one last week. I ordered some items and I have to say, that was quick. They put the order online on 11 am on satuday, and some people even received theirs on monday (!), mine arrived thursday which is still pretty rapid, especially if you count in that it went through customs.
This is not the first time I used the made-to-order run by Games Workshop, I did that to fill some gaps in my Blood Bowl collection back in 2017 with a halfling team.
HANS VII – Return of the traveling tabletop box
It is that time of the year again! Hans! Returns once more to my door step. And it is the 7th time, that is on its journey.
I've written about HANS! in the last years, so you can see what came around in 2019 with one of the first HANS that I participated, in 2020 with HANS V! and last years 2021 and sixth tour prior to leaving TTW.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar – Realmscape Nexus Syphon
Among the Realmscape terrain kits released along with the new Age of Sigmar edition, is the Nexus Syphon. It is either part of the Extremis boxed set or available individually.
The overall design of the new Age of Sigmar 3.0 terrain was moved from ruins of battle, towards new towns and outposts under construction, rebuilding and forging new settlements. The Nexus Syphon, a magical construct to channel the energy from the realms to power and protect these newly founded colonies of the Dawnbringer Crusades.
Blood Bowl in the Empire
Picking up Dino's Idea on the Blood Bowl team names, I did a bit of fluff crafting with a short list of team names below, that make sense - at least for me - from a Empire fluff point of view.
Guess who’s back! HANS again!
It arrived! In July 2020 HANS was here the last time and it was glorious. Now he's back for his sixth tour and I was eager to see what was in there this time.
A not so happy post man brought him up to my door step, and his happyness to get rid off him vanished once I told him, don't worry, you're picking him up again in a few days. Yay ...
Munchkin Warhammer Age of Sigmar Death & Destruction
This summer I've covered the Warhammer Age of Sigmar variant of Munchkin, and now we have the first supplement that was released in both English and German - Death & Destruction, introducing the Flesheater Court and Ironjaws to the game. The English version of the game is released by Steve Jackson Games with the localised version available through Pegasus Spiele.
Realm of Chaos – Hooves and Fur Part XIII
Here they are, the Realm of Chaos undivided warband - Hooves and Fur.
A trip down memory lane … my first Games Day
Games Days (the predecessors of the Warhammer Fest) were a format of an event, organized by Games Workshop for the first time in 1975, originally in London, and covered the broader range of products that the company imported and distributed, like role playing games or miniature boardgames. Later the event was moved to Birmingham, to the NEC and the focus changed according to the company's range towards tabletop wargames.
With Games Workshop growing internationally, the Games Days were not only held annualy in the UK, but in many European countries like Germany, France and Italy, and on other continents, like Australia (Sydney) and North America (Atlanta, Baltimore and Chicago) as well. The first German Games Day was hosted in 1999, with many of the international events joining in the early 2000's.
I went to my first Games Day exactly 17 years ago on August 24th 2003. But why do I write about a Games Day that was so long ago? The same day I found the tickets from my first trip to Warhammer World, I came across my ticket from the 2003 Games Day in Cologne.
Back in the day, the German one was held in Cologne, at the Gürzenich. Quite an impressive location for such an event, as the Gürzenich is a representational building in the heart of the city, which was first opened in 1447 and has a classic late Gothic façade. And is it used as a festival theatre, it easily covers enough space for a wargaming events.
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