News: Games Workshop Newsletter #60

Hey all, here is the info from the latest GW newsletter:

Issue 60 The Games Workshop Newsletter 18.09.2009

In this issue: Imperial Guard Catachan Characters | Tank Upgrades & Accessories | New Basing Material

Imperial Guard Catachan Characters This week the armies of the Imperial Guard are bolstered by two of Catachan’s most famous heroes. Colonel ‘Iron Hand’ Straken and Gunnery Sergeant Harker both have their own special rules that lend extra weight to an aggressive, assault-focused Imperial Guard army. Colonel ‘Iron Hand’ StrakenAugmented by extensive bionics and indifferent to the darkest horrors, Straken is a powerful close combat opponent who confers the Furious Charge special rule to nearby squads. Have Straken lead the charge of your Imperial Guard army. Gunnery Sergeant HarkerGunnery Sergeant Harker is able to move and fire with his heavy bolter, and has a Ballistic Skill to match a Space Marine. Add this giant Catachan to your Imperial Guard army. Back to Top

Tank Upgrades & Accessories There are five new Bitz Packs this week and each can be used to personalise your Imperial Guard vehicles and squads. With a bit of imagination they even make great objective markers. Imperial Guard Tank Commanders This set of three Tank Commanders can be used with any Imperial Guard tank kit from the Chimera right up to a Baneblade. Imperial Guard Crew These two Imperial Guard crew can be added to your Imperial vehicles, and are also great for dioramas. Imperial AquilasThis set of Imperial Aquilas can be used to personalise your Space Marine or Imperial Guard tanks, and your Warhammer 40,000 scenery. Imperial Guard Tank Stowage Add some extra stowage to any tank with this versatile set that can also be used to create objective markers. Imperial Guard Heads Individualise your Imperial Guard squads with this selection of 10 different metal heads. Back to Top

New Basing Material There’s an old saying amongst miniature painters that ‘good bases make good armies’. Well, with the Warhammer Basing Kit and two new types of basing grass out this week, you’ll have everything you need to create evocative bases for your models.
		Warhammer Basing KitThe Warhammer Basing Kit is packed with 20mm and 25mm pieces of resin detailing, slate, and brass-etched leaf foliage. Add extra detail to the bases of your miniatures with this all-new set.
	Citadel Dead GrassIdeal for decorating the bases of evil armies, such as Vampire Counts and Warriors of Chaos, Dead Grass can also be used to add sun-bleached areas or barren desert to a Gameboard.		Citadel Burnt Grass Another new colour of basing material, Burnt Grass can be used on its own or to mark out areas of scorched or blackened ground.

Looks like the Imperial Guard are getting spoiled with some more releases. The tank crew look pretty cool as do the new Catachan special characters. The big new release is the Warhammer Basing Kit. Having bought the previous 40k one, I can say this new Fantasy one is pretty sweet. Our store just got in some copies of it and it is actually worth buying for the sheer amount of basing options you get in there! The new static grasses are also a nice addition. What do you guys think?

Warhammer Fantasy: New Chaos Dwarf Book (unofficial) Available (free pdf)!

For all you Chaos Dwarf players out there, here is the next best thing to GW actually redoing your army (in some ways better). Look at the cover, one would think it's a GW production. That would also be completely wrong. This book is the culmination of a lot of effort by a dedicated group of people. The quality is definitely at GW level in all aspects, in short this is a professionally done army book. The book is available as a free PDF, just click HERE or the picture. At some point I will have to read through this thing to get an opinion of the rules. If they're anything like the visuals, it should be a fantastic addition to the Warhammer Fantasy world. Comments welcome!

Imperial Guard: Leman Russ Destroyer (WIP)

Hey all, time for another Guard update, this time some WIP pics of my Leman Russ Destroyer. This thing is quite the beast, sporting the equivalent of a rail gun. There are still a bunch of spots that need finishing and touching up. I'm probably going to redo the camo on the barrel as well. Comments welcome!

FW: Newsletter #218

Hey all, another FW newsletter hot on the heels of the last one:

"Hello again,

I`ve some fantastic preview shots for you this newsletter of a major release that will début at Games Day UK; the Chaos Reaver Titan in all its diabolic glory! As well as this great new model, I also have some more details about what Forge World will be up to at UK Games Day as well.

Alan Bligh
Forge World

Chaos Reaver Titan
Ready to make the earth tremble and sow fear in the hearts of the enemies of the dark gods we have our new Chaos Reaver Titan. This monster of a war machine, a corrupted version of the Imperial Reaver Titan should be available in limited numbers at Games Day UK and released to general sale later in the year. This mammoth kit stands approximately 400mm/16 inches high and has been designed by Will Hayes and Simon Egan. The model, as you can see from the pictures Here, has been lavishly detailed with the marks of Chaos and the mechanical corruption both on its external surfaces and internal compartments, which include bladed armour, the Eye of Chaos on its upper carapace, and three damned crew cyberneticaly fused with its twisted structure. Towering over the battlefield, jagged and vicious, the Chaos Reaver Titan will make a fantastic centrepiece for any Chaos army as well as a great modelling project in its own right for the collector, not to mention tipping the Balance in the favour of the Ruinous Powers in your Apocalypse games.

Rules for the Chaos Reaver Titan can be found in Imperial Armour Seven, the Siege of Vraks Part Three.

As with our Imperial Reaver Titan, the Chaos Reaver Titan is available as a separate Main Body and Weapons. The main body also comes with a sprue of large Chaos symbols allowing you to convert any of the Imperial Reaver Titan Weapons to traitor service (as all the Imperial Reaver Weapons will also fit this Chaos version allowing you to customise your model as you wish). We also have two new Chaos weapons for the Titan as well, the brutal and predatory firepower of Chaos Apocalypse Launcher and the wickedly barbed Chaos Reaver Power Claw."

Big news here obviously being the Chaos Reaver finally being released. Looks like they were able to solve whatever detail issues they had back when it was first unveiled as a WIP. Certainly this makes a crowning jewel for any Chaos Space Marine collection.

40K: New Imperial Guard FAQ is out!

Hey all,

for all you Guard players out there comes the important FAQ addressing some issues with the new codex. Check it out here. For GW, this is actually quite the speedy release, as FAQ releases normally take a rather long time.

What do you guys think? Did the FAQ address all the issues you had with Guard, both playing with and against them? Comments welcome!

40K: Spacehulk Soundboard (free download)

Hey all,

the folks over at Beasts of War have come up with this awesome soundboard to really add some atmosphere to your Space Hulk games! Check out the video




or download the soundboard here.

Seems pretty cool although I don't think you'd necessarily be playing Space Hulk by your computer. Still, it's a cool idea. Comment away!

Imperial Guard: Vanquisher

Hey all, what better way to ring in the new month than with some heavy armor? This is a Leman Russ Vanquisher converted by simply cutting off a regular Russ cannon and adding a spare plastic Baneblade cannon. I've still got some detailing and cleaning up work to do on it but it's ready to use in battle now. Eventually I'm gonna write up some fluff about this elite tank and its crew, perhaps a house rule special character for campaigns, apocalypse etc. Commanding this first tank in the company is Maj. D. von Baumann. I'll post up some more pics once I add some more detail work to this behemoth. Comments welcome!

Apocalypse: Lucky 13s Battle #4

Hey all, just a couple of pics from the last Lucky 13s game we played. Unfortunately there are only these few pics to share as everyone else forgot their cameras and my camera died after these 3 pics lol. This was perhaps the most fun game out of the four thus far, as there were no Guard armies clogging the battlefield with dozens and dozens of tanks. Play proceeded rather quickly allowing us to get in more turns than the previous games. In the end, it was another resounding victory for the good guys (Blood Angels x2 & Grey Knights), as we destroyed their bastion and made a major feint there. In actuality our plan was to simply hang on to our objectives as we had chosen a vital objecive from the assets. The game swung decidely in our favor after wiping out about 2k pts of Tyranids that had used flank march to deploy behind our bastion. Their shooting didn't do much and so on our following turn about 1k pts of Blood Angels and as many Grey Knights deployed after them, and with some insane rolling, especially my Death Company & Chappy, as well as a full assault squad, we annihilated all of the nids on that side of the board. We were contesting both of their objectives as well until the last turns when they shored up their defenses. End result, a 3-2 victory for us although with two of their players virtually tabled it would've been a complete massacre had we played another turn.