We hope you all had a lovely Easter break. Whether the act of cramming yourself with chocolate had a spiritual dimension or not, we trust you all enjoyed yourselves. With the industry relentlessly delivering new games, miniatures and terrain options, it’s no surprise that we came back to a fierce torrent of news. So here’s what caught our collective eye.
First up, Slaanesh is getting its own Battletome. For a time, Games Workshop was a little muted on the Slaanesh front, but has now found a way to present these weird and wonderful daemons in a contemporary way. They’re sleek, sinister and vicious, and if the teasers from the tome are anything to go by, they’re going to be absolutely lethal on the tabletop. What delighted me was the mechanic of Depravity Points, which are gained in several different ways, including when a Slaanesh hero wounds (but does not kill) an enemy, or is wounded. It really gives the army flavour, as do suitably characterful rules such as Euphoric Killers and artefacts like the Whip of Subversion.
Forgeworld also announced the re-release of the Chaos Warhound. Its hull warped with blasphemous markings, this Titan is laden with massive weapons systems that should enable it to deal with anything the wretched loyalists throw at it.
The May releases for Infinity look gorgeous, as always. The lastest ‘Dire Foes’ Mission Pack includes an alternative miniature for Knauf, the rogue sniper we met in the Outrage! manga. I’m assuming the other male figure is his nemesis, Jethro. The third - which will certainly be a popular High Value Target for Infinity players - might be an alternative Emily Handelman.
Other releases include the Zhēnchá, a durable specialist for the Yu Jing faction, Pan Oceania hero Patsy Garnett, a squad of 4 Zhayedan troops and the all-new Taagma Schemers. The Zhayedan Intervention Unit is a terrifying prospect, as many of its members have the ability to utterly ignore cover penalties when shooting. When in a fireteam, this potentially offers access to snipers who hit on 18s or less on a bunch of D20s, or shotguns that simply will never miss. Sure, you still have to beat the opponent’s dice, but those are some sweet numbers.
For me, though, the pick of the bunch are the Taagma Schemers. After a rash buying spree at Salute, it appears that I now collect Tohaa, and I took them to a local 6-man tournament to see how they ticked. Lost two, won one, but learned a lot about Spiral Corps and was impressed with many of their options. Key to them, I reckon, is the Taagma. Able to masquerade as other units due to their holoprojectors, with the option of sporting visors that can see through smoke and sniper rifles that melt people with obnoxious alien viruses, they also have a special skill called Tri-Core that allows a three-Tohaa fireteam to behave as if it has 5 models in it. Which is absolutely glorious. And filthy.
As if that’s not enough, we also glimpsed the Zondnautica - the transforming bike for the Tunguska sectorial of the Nomad faction. A rock-star unit, this just looks like boundless fun. Zoom across the table, transform into killer robot mode and mince your foes with a massive template weapon! Nomads, roll out!
Guild Ball is in the news too! The Miners have been performing well… perhaps a little too well… so Steamforged Games have taken a quick look at them and pulled them in line with everyone else. I love this approach; let the community put the team through its paces, and then respond constructively. Makes for a field of play that is always chasing balance by reacting to real-world data. The end result is a more fair and fun experience for everyone.
Shaft now has slightly reduced damage output, and a less ferocious playbook. Fissure, Mule and Digger also had tweaks, each designed to promote more interaction and gameplay options for each player. Solid, well-executed changes all round!
The industry is now gearing up for the 2019 UKGE. Running from the 31st of May to the 2nd of June, this mammoth gaming extravaganza brings all of the biggest names under one pretty massive roof. We’re going to be there, with some new releases… and we’ll also have a couple of tables there, too.
At Salute, we ran demos of our first ever game, IRONCLAD 2048. Well, at the Expo, we’ll not only be running one of our own games… we’ll be running two! Side by side! So if you want to hang out, roll some dice (and of course get some gorgeous tokens) then come and drop in on us! We’ll let you know our stand number nearer the time.
So, that’s our pick of the news. Did anything else catch your eye?
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