Games Workshop’s Top 5 Products of 2019
Games Workshop has had a pretty amazing year. But what were the biggest releases? Let’s take a look!
2019 has been a wild, wild ride for Games Workshop. By just about all accounts, they are doing very well and looking back at the year, it’s easy to see why. They launched a ton of products and a quite a few product lines strike hobby and tabletop gold. So what were the biggest and most important product releases for the year for Games Workshop? Here’s our picks.
Codex: Space Marines (& The Supplemental Codexes)
We can’t ignore the power armor, folks. We’ve mentioned this a few times already but Codex: Space Marines really put them back at the top of the 40k pile. They are a perrinial popular army – and this batch of books returned them to prominiace on the tabletop. How long wil their reign last this time? It’s been 14 weeks straight…and counting.
Contrast Paints
Props to Games Workshop for this one. Contrast was a pretty bold experiment on two fronts. Firstly, they marketed the hell out of this one. Their marketing was both funny and coy – and it worked. The second part of the success is that Contrast Paints, ya know, WORK. GW had a crazy idea to help folks get their armies painted and Contrast delivered on the “One Thick Coat” promise. Is it perfect? Not all of the colors are – but man, did they do a heck of a job with the vast majority. The combination of wash and basecoat in one is amazing and, again, somehow it works. It was a promise made and a promise kept with Contrast paint.
Hedonites of Slaanesh
“But BoLS Hates Slaanesh!” Actually, no, we don’t. But whatever. Hedonite of Slaanesh was and is a very big deal for Games Workshop and Age of Sigmar in 2019. To start off, it gave GW a chance to really re-work Slaanesh as a model line. If you look at the models now compared to previous interations, you can see how they have subtley shifted from some of the less…family friendly themes into something sleek and graceful. In essence, they made Slaanesh a bit more classy. But the real kicker is what they did to the army on the tabletop.
Games Workshop took an army that wasn’t really a part of the meta conversation and slapped them right on top. If you’ve been paying any attention to the competative scene of AoS, then you’re probably aware that Slaanesh has become one of (if not THE) top dog army. It’s the one everyone is worried about and that’s in no small part to the Depravity Points. Now those have gotten a tweak (this week actually) so we will see how that shifts this particular army. But as an army, they have been a “thing” since April – and that’s a pretty good chunk of time.
Sisters of Battle…Technically
Games Workshop teased and promised Sisters for 2019 and they delivered…techinically. The Battle Box came out and went *quick* if you were lucky enough to scoop one up. They got a new codex, an a handful of updated plastic models in the box with more promised, teased and on the way for 2020. Hey – at least GW did their best and did keep their promise. Sisters were released this year and are looking for another wave in 2020.
CHAOS!
All things considered, Chaos had a pretty darn good year. Abaddon returned. They got a ton of new and updated models. The Lord Discordant is a beast. Chaos even got more formal Knight rules with Renegade Knights. They’ve even got a new Start Collecting Box for 40k (and Slaves To Darkness got a new Battletome for AoS – it’s all Chaos, right?) and it’s been a good year. Plus all the attention they are getting with the Psychic Awakening books, too. Honestly, if the Space Marine book didn’t come out they might have even started to take the top spot in the meta. And while the Space Marines might of blocked them from complete dominiation, they also got some of the Space Marine hand-me-down rules so it wasn’t all bad.
Chaos, as a whole, got to be a part of the “conversation” when we look back at 2019. It was *almost* their time to shine. Too bad their pesky loyalist brothers snatched victory from them at the last minute, metaphorically of course.
There were a LOT of products from this year from GW – Ossiarch Bonereapers, Ogor Mawtribes, Psychic Awakening, Vigilus, Terrain & More! What were you favorite releases from 2019?
