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 core rulebook for Warhammer: The Old World – The long-awaited release of Warhammer: The Old World is here! Will it make the community around the game happy? Well, no. Nothing could. GW is brave to even be putting this out to a fanbase that is determined to be unhappy with anything and everything. Still, they have, and the release looks pretty good!
It’s great to see the classic ‘rank and flank’ Warhammer experience returning, with the benefit of some time and reflection. I love Age of Sigmar, and find it more fun than WFB was, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for both in my heart! I’m keen to see how this develops.
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Touchstones supplement for Vampire: the Masquerade released on Storytellers Vault – Touchstones are such an important part of Vampire: the Masquerade. The idea of something (well, someone) tying your inhuman monster back to the life they had before is a powerful one. It’s great, therefore, to have a wee book that focuses on making the most of this aspect of character creation and play:
This book promises to offer advice on using these features, which I imagine are often underutilised in many people’s play. It also offers some twists on the concept and some additional rules and options to further bolster the system. At 19 pages, this will all be quite concise, but I think the price is very fair for what you’re getting.
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Atomic Mass Games to release Fear and Dead Men pack for Shatterpoint – Following on from last week’s Luke Skywalker pack, we have the Darth Vader pack! This is the second of the original trilogy-themed sets that are being released from the previously prequel-dominated Shatterpoint:
The models are nice. This is also quite a different approach to that taken with Luke Skywalker’s pack. That set was incredibly specific, being taken from a really specific moment in the films; namely the rescue of Han Solo from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt. This set is more generic, in that it could be from any number of different moments. I must admit, I prefer this approach.
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Mongoose releases Wrath of the Ancients supplement for Traveller – Mongoose just pumps out a huge amount of content for their version of Traveller. This latest offering, Wrath of the Anicents, was released in December:
The idea of an ancient precursor race in sci-fi is something of a trope, but it’s one that I do enjoy. I like the idea that, even among the infinite cosmos, there are still ancient mysteries to be solved. This supplement is one in a series about such mysteries and it’s cool to have some Traveller supplements that are about bigger, galaxy-shaking events, rather than the more local feel that the game often has. I generally prefer this local feel, but a change is nice, once in a while.
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Warcradle releases Order Colossus Squadrons for Dystopian Wars – Warcrade continues to expand their Dystopian offerings with these massive robots that float contentedly above the sea:
To be honest, I’m not sure what to make of these. I like the idea of them, but they just don’t look amazing to me. Certainly, they have redeeming qualities, but there are way better models in this range. I don’t know enough about the game to know they they are rules-wise.
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Blog Posts & Articles
The meat of 5 on Friday, the articles are listed in no particular order, so let’s get into some recommendations:
Bonesplitterz Battle Tactics Review @ Plastic Craic – I am worried for the Bonesplitterz. I know that many are assuming that they will be removed from AoS in the near to medium term, and I think they might be right. It would be a real pity, as I do really like the minis. I have a pile of them that I am just not motivated to build because of their possibly-impending doom. Posts like this underline why thy might be going, given the neglect that GW has shown to them.
Daily miniature: Goremaw @ Scent of a Gamer – Oh, this is cool! Maybe it stood out to me because I finally saw Dune this week? It’s part of the Reaper Bones line. I find the material used for this line quite annoying to work with, but I imagine it would work way better on a chunkier model, such as this one. Well painted, too!
2023 Retrospective: A Look Back at a Wonderful Year of Wargaming! @ The Players’ Aid – A good look back at 2023 with some really solid recommendations and interesting reflections. I don’t tend to have the best handle on what’s happening at different publishers, so the section on GMT and the swathe of younger designers they’ve taken on was very interesting.
Magore’s Fiends @ McMattila Minis – The red and black armour on these chaps is crisp and striking. They look fantastic! Khorne isn’t really my thing (I say, eyeing up a pile of Bloodletters waiting to be painted…) but Underworlds is a great opportunity to try out stuff that we might normally overlook.
Gaslands: Gangs on Parade @ Wyrd Stones & Tackle Zones – Gorgeous! I love these wee gangs of road warriors. I love that each set has their own distinct theme and feel. Fantastic! I’ve been hoarding little cars to give this a go, but I’ve just not gotten to it yet.
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There have been a few posts since my last 5 on Friday:
- Some thoughts on getting into 2024’s hobby activity
- My completed C’Tan Shard of the Deceiver proxy
- A Call of Cthulhu-themed Humble Bundle
- A review of some Vallejo basing textures
- Some completed Putrid Blightkings
- A Throwback Thursday about several thing; most notably D&D
I feel good to have got some models finished already! However, I also made some purchases. In the interests of recording my progress on my goal of painting more than I acquire, here’s what I bought:
Purchases this week:
- Keeper of Secrets (1 mini)
- Skaven Gnawholes (3 minis)
- 2 Hexmark Destroyers (2 minis)
- Thanquol and Boneripper (1 mini)
It does feel a bit cheeky to record massive miniatures like a Keeper of Secrets and Thanquol as just one model.
Totals so far this year:
- Purchased: 7 minis
- Painted: 11 minis
Not a bad start, but need to go carefully! I’m a wee bit worried about this particular resolution being somewhat scuppered by a new edition boxed set for AoS. Next up for me is another 6-model warband for Warhammer Underworlds!
No Rerolls 
Thanks for the shout out! Yes, I think Goremaw is a good size for a Bones model – much bigger and they start to bend under their own weight. Smaller models can suffer from lost detail.
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