5 on Friday 16/05/25

It’s Friday, and here on No Rerolls that means it’s time for an all-new 5 on Friday. We’re going to start with 5 exciting releases for this week before moving on to our usual digest of some of our favourite articles from the past week. Of course, we’re slow readers, so don’t be surprised if there are some articles that are a little older – these are just some of the great articles we happen to have actually read in the past week.

Releases & Previews

Every week there are many games, books, and miniatures released. This will probably be a mix of previews, preorders, and releases, and with release dates being the way they are in this industry, it’s always pretty approximate. Excuses out of the way, here are 5 of the releases that caught our attention this week:

Games Workshop releases a new Battletome for the Soulblight Gravelords – Vampires! I loved the Vampire Counts back in Warhammer Fantasy and Age of Sigmar’s Soulblight Gravelords are similarly awesome. My own Gravelords are very unfinished and a bit ugly, but who’s to judge? Here’s a new book:

The new miniatures that accompany this release are really cool. I love the new Zombie Dragon in particular. I’m keen to see the new lists that arise from the book, and will keep an eye out to see if any are near what I’ve already converted up for my own force.

Affiliate Links:

• Element Games
• Wayland Games

Three Sails Studios releases their exploration and ecology RPG, Mappa Mundi – I am all in favour of RPGs that are not just hack-and-slash-centred dungeon crawls. Mappa Mundi looks to be something quite different:

At 225 pages, this is a reasonably weighty tome. It looks to be an interesting, rules-light system that takes the priority off of combat and places an emphasis on exploration and ecology.

Affiliate Links:

• DriveThruRPG

Ravensburger to release the Reign of Jafar set for Lorcana – Lorcana continues to see a lot of play at home. It’s a fun, light TCG that we really enjoy. We also held a recent event, which went very well.

Each set that comes out comes with an Illumineer’s Trove. It’s a cool storage box for your cards, along with dividers and 8 packs. There’s no denying that packs are always a risk and you are generally better buying singles, but it’s a nice set, and opening packs is fun.

Affiliate Links:

• Wayland Games (Illumineer’s Trove)
• Wayland Games (Booster Box)
• Wayland Games (Bruno/Tiana Starter Deck)
• Wayland Games (Mulan/Stitch Starter Deck)
• Grab singles at Big Orbit Cards

USA-Opoly to release new board game, Tea Witches – Honestly, it was the beautiful, whimsical cover of this game that grabbed my attention:

I can’t claim to know much about this game, but I enjoy a good cup of tea and I appreciate a good witch! It’s all about growing your little tea company, which is a cute theme. I also like that The Op is actually putting out original titles, rather than just reskinned shovelware. Let’s reward good behaviour!

Affiliate Links:

• Wayland Games

Black Library releases the paperback edition of Darkoath – Black Library hasn’t really caught my attention for a while, but this one has grabbed my interest. What can I say, I like a noble barbarian:

The Darkoath are interesting to me because of their particular position down the path to serving the Dark Gods. They’re in a no-win situation, still concerned for day-to-day survival, whilst also trying to support their tribe and still serve the Dark Gods. They’re seeking favour, but aren’t there yet, and are incredibly vulnerable for it.

Affiliate Links:

• Element Games
• Wayland Games
• Amazon (eBook)
• Amazon (audiobook)

Blog Posts & Articles

The meat of 5 on Friday, the articles are listed in no particular order, so let’s get into some recommendations: 

Friday Night Shots – Filler Games @ Dude! Take Your Turn! – I’m not a huge fan of the term ‘filler’, but I get the aptness of it. This posts has some thoughts on the nature of such games and some recommendations, none of which I have, myself, played.

Fallout Wasteland Warfare – Super Mutant Skirmisher Done @ Kuribo’s Painting – I think that I’m going to be exploring some Fallout miniatures in the mid-future, so it’s cool to see some beautifully painted ones! This Super Mutant looks great.

Why Minis Games? @ Wyrd Stones and Tackle Zones – I really enjoyed this post. I found it really relatable. Go read it.

Synergy Game Review: A Mixed Experience @ Churape’s Dungeon and Stuff – I love village-building games. Constructor is a perennial favourite, and I recently really enjoyed The Wandering Village. Synergy doesn’t really seem to do anything new, but does look fun, and I love the visuals.

Tag ’em and Bag ’em: The new Fanatics break AOS, and here’s how @ Plastic Craic – I am always delighted to read about things going well for my beloved Gloomspite Gitz. I’d probably like it more if it involved units I actually had painted up, but we make do. I should paint some Fanatics…

*  *  *

There have been a few posts since my last 5 on Friday:

• Some thoughts on Warcry
• My Complete Tara core box for Malifaux
• Thoughts on the MTG card, Gaea’s Cradle
• A completed character for my Flesh-Eater Courts
• A completed character for my Genestealer Cults
• Another Nurgle-focused Throwback Thursday

9 minis finished this week! We had the Tara crew, a FEC character, and a GSC character with his accompanying token.

However, I also picked up a bunch of Delaque miniatures for an upcoming Necromunda campaign at club. The two boxes I bought add up to 17 purchased miniatures.

This updates our totals for year to:

Purchased: 28
Painted: 44

Catch you next week!