The Insider – December 6th – 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
Things picked up FAST with Thanksgiving behind us. Blood of Baal arrived to update the Blood Angels to the format of the new Marine codex, and introduce bigger, faster, more vampiry Mephiston. The Tyranids got some interesting updates. Not enough to cut it in the meta, but help nonetheless.
There is talk on the rumorvine that 40K 9th Edition is coming next summer, and I’m sure the drip, drip, drip will only accelerate. GW knows the game is fundamentally sound, but has problem areas. They also know that Marines are off the chain right now, so I expect them to get a hefty hit with the nerfbat one of these days. Chapter Approved 2019 is here and with it the new 54 page book of points for everything – except the now banned from Matched Play 40K Legends. This is yet another step in GW taking control over organized play. I expect this trend to continue slowly but surely in the years ahead as GW eases back into controlling their own product – after abandoning organized play for a decade.
SO HOT!
Finally Age of Sigmar’s Slaves to Darkness looks fantastic. Look for full coverage on them in the days ahead. It’s very close now. Those are some sexy miniatures!
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
It’s another week and I’ve been working on my Ossiarch Bonereapers. Finally starting to come into focus with the lists I’ve been messing around with. I’m still needing to get some tests games in before I finalize anything but that’s the great thing about the gaming community here in Austin – I’ve got ample chances to try stuff out. There is a tournament this Sunday at Dragon’s Lair which I’m probably going to attend. I’m debating on bringing the Bonereapers unpainted or my Nighthaunt (which IS painted).
Then again, I’m not going to the tournament to “win all the things” – I attend local tournaments to get 3 games in on a single day! Plus, it’s a great way to learn my list. So we’ll see if I get stuff built to a point I can field it. Apologies to my opponents for the mass of grey coming their way.
JR
It is a crazy week here in RPG land! Earlier this week I reviewed the Young Adventurer’s Guide to Dungeons and Tombs and it has been so inspiring I’ve decided to revisit one of the dungeons mentioned in it–the Sea Ghost. This is the ship out of the excellent Ghosts of Saltmarsh book, and it’s basically all you’d want out of a pirate ship dungeon. Including secret lizardfolk. I’ve been reimagining what a pirate ship dungeon could look like–usually my dungeons tend to be sprawling, but I live the idea of a small, single session location.
I’m also digging into the new Lancer RPG, which is a mecha rpg that has a lot of promise. I first came across it while working on the Roleplayer’s Guide to Heists, which also should be publishing soon, and I’m excited to dig in. Tomorrow ought to bring more sci-fi into my life–I have begun looking for a good system for playing adventures set in the world of Dune. So far it’s tricky to find something that feels exactly right, but I’m looking. Finding the right system is half the battle!
Mars
If you’re in the mood to hit the theater, Knives Out is a great who-dun-it and a ton of fun. Rain Johnson is back to what he’s great at, and the cast has great chemistry. Craig and Evans playing against character adds to the joy of it. I can’t say much more without giving away too much. If you didn’t catch it opening weekend, do so this weekend. You won’t regret it.
Abe
Tabletop games are great and all, we wouldn’t all be here if that wasn’t so, but sometimes you want to switch things up. I think most of us have at one point or another checked out these new fangled video games and found they have a lot to offer. Lately I’ve gone to a another go around. And man do I love this game, of course it’s got solid tabletop roots, so that helps. I never actually played Battletech or Mech Warrior as psychical games, and unlike a ton of my friends didn’t get in the lore before, so this game was my first real dive into it. It’s a great setting a really fun game. I’ve been told that the video game does a pretty good job of keeping a lot of the tabletop mechanics so thats cool.
Like a good tabletop or video game, Battletech is simply a very stratifying game. Jumping your mech into an enemies rear arc and hitting them point blank with an AC20 (a whopping big cannon) just feels good. Too bad 40K got rid of arcs, it feels like Knights (which are HEAVLLLLY borrowed from Mechwarrior/Battletech) would be a more balanced unit if you could flank them. Ah well, what do I know? Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to this week (and building terrain), if you are looking for a good video game that has a lot of the feel of a tabletop game, I highly recommend Battletech.
Thomas
This week has me slowly building out my LVO list (talk about it later), client work, finish some illustration (LVO banner art, Plastic Dudesmen, commission stuff), and spend time with the family. Right now I am just waiting to see what neat new Thousand Son stuff comes out. I just got my flight for the LVO so come say hi if you see me putzing around and playing a janky Chaos Space Marine list.
~We will catch you on the backside groups and don’t be a stranger, everybody!
