The Insider – November 22nd – Prime
Welcome to this week’s BoLS Prime Insider. Let’s talk industry whispers, what’s coming in the week ahead, and a look behind the scenes of the studio.
Welcome back to this week’s INsider. This will be an ongoing weekly column where you get a behind the scenes look into the BoLS office, what our core team is up to, and working on, as well as what we are hearing in the industry. Our promise to Prime members was to give you greater insight into what we are up to, excited about, and what we are seeing and hearing out there in the industry.
Remember you can always hop into the member groups and directly chat any of us up or ask questions. So enjoy and don’t be a stranger. On with the show.
Larry
It’s been a CRAZY week between Faith & Fury, the Sororitas set and everything else out there. Faith & Fury does good work for all factions in it, but the Marines honestly don’t need any help at the moment. Mephiston is crazy and only a week away. This makes me think that Psychic Awakening may be a rapid-fire release instead of being slowly spaced out over several months.
BADASS!
I LOVE the Sororitas army but they have always been a side-show army for 3 decades. Their new codex brings them firmly into 8th, but keeps the core army characteristics of being a semi-horde with lots of close range weapons and no easy way to close the distance. It’s a tough place to be as an army in 8th. I think they will make a minor impact on the meta – but the minis will fly off the shelves.
Outside of 40K I’m excited to see the launch of Crisis Protocol from Atomic Mass Games. This Marvel superheroes mnis skirmish game is headed up by a bunch of ex-Privateer Press alumni and some type of cooperation with FFG. I bet this one has legs.
Mantic’s Kings of War 3 is really strong and now a real contender out there in fantasy wargames. While I’m excited for the possibilty of GW’s Old World returning years down the line – I find the timing of their announcment …curious.
The BoLS Open 2020 website is up and tickets are selling. Get your’s while the Earlybird Discounts are still in effect! So check it out and we hope to see you next year in person. We are working up almost a 1000 pieces of terrain for the show, so it’s gonna be a blast, and we hope to impress with our tabletops. It’s going to be a lot of fun! Back to marketing, writing and coming up with more Prime topics for me!
Adam
I’m still hammering out my Ossiarch Bonereapers – it’s a LOT of stuff. However, I have hit a slight snag in my scheduling. There is a local tournament for AoS coming up this weekend and I’d like to attend. However, I don’t think I’m going to get my OBR ready in time, so instead of taking a plethora of unpainted and partially assembled miniatures, I’m going to run my Nighthaunt army with a twist. The twist is that it’s actually going to be a Legion of Nagash list! It’s a lot less to paint and I’ve finally got Nagash to a point where I’m okay fielding him.
He’s not 100% done yet as I’d like to do some more detail work, but he’s more than tabletop ready. Wish me luck! Nagash and the Nighthaunts should be a lot of fun.
JR
I am digging deep into Eberron: Rising from the Last War this week. As you might have guessed from our review, I’m a fan of the book. I love the world, I love all the little levers you can push to find interesting stories. I’m a little surprised at how much I am digging on the Daelkyr as villains this time around–it was always a part of the setting that I just couldn’t get. I felt it took away from the magitech part of the world. But now, I love them, they’re so creepy and evil and such great adversaries.
That up there is Dyrrn the Corruptor and a new villain in the works for my campaign. Other than that, I’ve been keeping my ear to the ground about the Dune RPG coming soon from Modiphius, which I’m very excited about. Especially with the new movie on the horizon–here’s hoping it’s good.
Mars
I saw Ford v Ferrari this week – if you’re a car nut or just like rewarding stories, I recommend seeing it this weekend. The friendship Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby had was as legendary as the cars they created together. Director James Mangold and the script writers managed to weave that complex story of friendship and accomplishing the impossible against all odds into story that is never dull and doesn’t’ forget its humanity. Damon and Bale have great chemistry as Miles and Shelby (both of their names have been thrown in the best actor in a lead role category for the Oscars), and the racing scenes are gorgeous and will get your adrenaline flowing.
If you’ve got the money, one of the GT 40 MKII replicas they made for the movie is going up for auction next month.
Abe
Last week I didn’t talk much about 40K, but this week man do I have Thoughts (TM). We got just a whole ton of stuff in and its been a lot to process. Sisters a pretty mixed bag to me. I really like the new infantry models, but the tank rework leaves me cold. I also continue to worry about GWs trend to go over the top with mini-diroma models that you are supposed to have more than one of in an army. The Hospitaler is a great example. One her own shes nice, but run three together and it looks silly. Rules-wise, I’m a bit underwhelmed by the SoB. There is some good stuff in there, but the army just doesn’t really do it for me. If I’m honest it comes down to the AoF system, which I think is a horrible system that combines a lot of bad factors. Oh well.
Psychic Awakening 2 hit, and its got a lot of good stuff. Overall I think its a strong set of rules that are fluffy. The Space Marine stuff is flavorful and adds diversity to the army. On the other hand Space Marines didn’t need any other buffs, but they got them anyway. I kind of wish these rules had hit like 6 months from now, when the Marine book would be starting to feel a bit stale. All the Chaos stuff seems well designed, adding flavor and power to the army, I just don’t know if it’ll be enough.
We also got a lot of vague news this week. Warhammer Old World has been intrigued but there is just too little info to really get me hyped. Lots of interesting rumors about CA and 9th Edition also going around. I take it all with a grain of salt, but I will say if Space Marines get a bunch of point drops, and the other major armies get nerfs, you can pretty much kiss the meta goodbye for at least 6 months. Anyway, thats all for today folks, keep gaming out there.
Thomas
Well I went crazy and wrote a ton of reviews for the new 40k stuff – so I only need to work on a list this week. Also need to knock out a cartoon strip too or at least work on an idea. Beyond that – it is contemplating working on building out a small Night Lords detachment to add to my current Knight army. I got a couple different directions I can go with it – which includes me finding all the bits to make some new Warp Talon conversions and other nonsense. Overall not to bad and I even finished the first mini with the Chaos Sorcerer while on the Twitch stream this week.
~We will catch you on the backside groups and don’t be a stranger, everybody!
