5 on Friday 09/05/25

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 combat patrol for the Death Guard – Last week I stated that the Death Guard were the best god-specific Chaos Legion. A week later, I can confirm that they are still the best. Tune in another time for further updates. Oh, and here’s a new Combat Patrol:

I like the Combat Patrol, but it’s not ideal. I like the Plague Marines, Deathshroud Terminators, and the Rhino, but two characters kinds of dents the value, somewhat. It just removes the incentive to buy multiple copies to build one’s army, which is always a bit of a drag. I do love those Deathshrouds, though…

Affiliate Links:

Element Games
Wayland Games

Osprey releases a second edition of Burrows & Badgers – I bought this one. It arrived on Wednesday. I’m quite excited to read through it and see what’s what.

I’m going to start trawling the book for cool warband ideas, and MyMiniFactory for great critters to print for them! This could be a lot of fun.

Affiliate Links:

Wayland Games
Amazon (hardback)
Amazon (ebook)

Days of Wonder taking preorders for Star Wars: Battle of Hoth – Days of Wonder are best known for Ticket to Ride, but are also pretty well known for Memoir 44, which is based on Richard Borg’s celebrated Command and Colors system. Here’s a Star Wars version that is soon to be released:

I need to get my copy of Command and Colors Ancients to the table. It looks good, but I’ve just not had a chance to try it. If I do like the system, then maybe I could be tempted by Battle of Hoth.

Affiliate Links:

Element Games
Wayland Games

Roxley to release a second edition of Santorini – I love Santorini. It’s just a solid, simple, fun game. Here’s a new edition:

It’s just such a nice game, and one that I love playing with kids. It’s a very tactile game, that’s also very visually satisfying. There’s a basic, symmetrical version of the game, but I think it really shines when you use the variable player powers, to give each player a unique quirk that makes the game a lot more interesting.

Affiliate Links:

Wayland Games

Leder Games taking preorders on a new Root expansion; The Homeland – Root was my number two game last year. It would have been my number one if I had not developed a crippling addiction to Magic: the Gathering. There are a few expansions for the game, and they’re pretty fun. Here’s another one:

With three factions and two maps, there’s a lot in here! The factions seem fun; I think the Twilight Council is, conceptually, my favourite. I’d love to try all three, though!

Affiliate Links:

Wayland Games

Blog Posts & Articles

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

From Grave to Glory: Death’s Season Begins @ Woehammer – It’s always cool to see a new project start to take shape. I’ll be following along, and I’m looking forward to seeing some proper grimy skeletons!

Manor Lord: 3.5 Class @ The TTRPG Factory – This looks like it would be a lot of fun. A logistics-based character class has the potential to bring something new and interesting to the table. There are some cool ideas in here.

April 2025 retrospective @ Spalanz – Ewoks! These are some of my favourite Shatterpoint minis, so it’s cool to see them getting painted up. I must say, someone has had a very Star Wars-focused month…

DM’s Guild Review: Encounters in the Savage Cities @ The Kind GM – I think that urban fantasy is my favourite form of fantasy. This is a nice, brief review of an 84-page D&D supplement with a bunch of cool, city-based adventures.

Grant’s Top 10 Solitaire Wargames of 2024! @ The Players’ Aid – Solo games are not really my thing, but it’s always interesting to see what’s happening in the space. The most interesting games in this list for me are probably Corvette Command and I, Napoleon.

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