The Insider – July 3rd – 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
9th Edition is here. It goes out for preorders July 11th, and hits stores in July 25th. We came close to guessing the launch date, but were off by a week…
We have a press copy in studio and are breaking it up as we speak. So check back for all kinds of coverage of the new edition in the next week. On first glance, this edition is pulling back in the direction of precious editions of the game. Yes it build upon the lean and clean backbone of 8th, but it is MUCH more fleshed out from a rules point of view. The core rules have tripled in size from 8 to 24 pages, and overall the level of detail, and specificity is very high for a GW game. This rules are written to level of detail similar to Shadespire, or X-Wing, or Warmachine. You will have to get your head wrapped around the subtle changes (and there are MANY), but once both players know the rules, there will be fewer rules arguments and grey areas.
Prices are just coming in, and the Indomitus box clocks in at $199. GW will sell them like hotcakes at that price, with so many new minis and the hardcover rulebook included. Speaking of rules, there are a LOT of little subtle changes, so expect to take a few games of relearning. There are obvious items like the new Blast rules, and there are myriad little fiddly things like a new order of operations for math modifiers that will will catch many off guard. Then there are little things that will make many howl like the inclusion of VPs for a fully painted army in the core Matched Play rules! It’s a whole new world out there, and I am looking forward to it.
Again, check back often, we have so many articles and videos to get out on 9th in the weeks ahead!
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Adam
I don’t have much to say this week other than WOW – we got the box set and it’s pretty awesome. I keep going back and forth on if I was to pick up a copy for myself. And I keep going back to “yeah…yeah I will.” I really want to get those Space Marines and turn them into battle ready Blood Angels! The Assault Intercessors are calling me.
Like this – but Red! And Blood Angely.
Also, I’m super hyped about the new AoS General’s Handbook. I think that’s going to be a great pick-up and shift for the meta. The new Realm Rules are going to take some adjusting but I’m cool with them. The change is cutting down on the glut of artefacts in the game as every army was getting a ton and then players could also cherry pick from the Realms. I’m sure that was making some unforeseen combos. Ah well, that’s the thread GW has to balance and it doesn’t always work. Sometimes you just gotta get out the scissors and makes some cuts. Trimming of the fat so to speak. It’s good for the long term health of the game I think – but we’ll have to wait to see how that all pans out.
JR
What a week it’s been folks. While we started off mired in controversy, we also ended, mired in controversy, but it’s just a sign that the road towards changed is a bumpy one. From the ENnie controversies to the DM’s Guild and WotC, along with allegations of assault sweeping the industry once again, it looks like 2020 is shaping up to be a reckoning on all fronts. Fortunately there are games to help us get away from everything, and one game in particular I have really been digging is Monster of the Week. I get to play it every Wednesday on Twitch, which is a blast. This week my character (who has seen only one movie) fought a bunch of slasher horror monsters unsure of why everyone kept tripping over everything.
IWe have fun. I’m also checking out the pirate-themed PbtA game Rapscallion tomorrow, which feels like it’ll be very pirate-y indeed. Playbooks include the Swashbuckler, Captain, Navigator, and Mountebank, and they all look like a ton of fun. What are you playing this week?
Mars
This weekend is a designated ‘actually watch the movies in your watchlist instead of some random B movie with bad special effects’ weekend. I pay for six services, so there’s a lot to tackle… not that watching movies is a chore, mind you. This is just part of what I have saved, not sure if I’ll get to all of this list but I am going to be living on my couch for 3 days. I bought popcorn.
- Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)
- The Witch Part 1 (Netflix)
- Shadow (Netflix)
- Extraction (Netflix)
- Shirley (Hulu)
- Futureworld (Hulu)
- Shoplifters (Hulu)
- Guns Akimbo (Amazon)
- Season of the Witch (HBOMax)
- Galaxy of Terror (HBOMax)
- Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice (HBOMax)
- Sisters (HBOMax)
Abe
So, y’all see those 9th Edition rules? Looks like the (Eldar space) cat is finally out of the bag and we can finally see the edition in all it’s glory. Or, well, most of it. I guess we won’t really know everything till we’ve seen the new Chapter Approved. And all the FAQs.
But it seems like for the most part we’ve got an idea of what we are looking at. Overall I like it, and I think the changes move the game in the right direction. I don’t like all the execution, for instance I think the Blast Rules aren’t great, but I like the direction. It’s also interesting to see just how wordy the new rules. This is an edition that’s ditched simple explanations in favor of tons of detail and examples. The core rules didn’t change all that much, but they got about 3x longer. Anyway, read up and see what you think, its a brave new world out there, and we haven’t even gotten to talk about my favorite part of the new rules. Crusade. But that’s a story for another time.
Thomas
Woohoo 9th is here and we get a whole new edition to play, enjoy, and probably complain about. I got some thoughts coming this week and the next obviously so be prepared for some quick off the cuff nonsense. This past week I didn’t paint nearly as much as I took a bit of a break due to my normal job being extremely busy. I did get some art done and even a few models this past Wednesday. Right now I am just waiting on the DeathGuard FAQ mixed with the points updates to see how excited I really get.
Meaghan
Hello and Happy Friday Adventurers! Do you have any big plans for the long weekend? I’m very excited for Hamilton on Disney+ and BNA on Netflix so it will be a media heavy couple of days for me.
How have you been liking my pop culture character sheets? I’ll be adding those to my week for the foreseeable future so if you’re enjoying them or have a favorite character you want to see, definitely let us know in the comments! Next week I’ll be taking a look at the characters from Kipo and The Age of Wonderbeasts.
~Talk to all you folks next week!
