Games Workshop has released the boxed starter set for the latest edition of the Warhammer fantasy battles game. The Island of Blood includes High Elf and Skaven armies (74 figures total), a rule book, a getting-started booklet, dice, templates, and range rulers.

In other GW news, Bwana Bill over at the Tabletop Wargames Blog reports that Games Workshop is planning a Warhammer Historical book for World War II games titled Kampfgruppe Normandy.

And finally, Games Workshop has opened another three retail Hobby Centres—in Denton, Texas; Lyons, France; and Pforzheim, Germany.

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Spin Master keeps putting out crazy new types of Bakugan. The transformations of BakuMorph Bakugan aren’t finished when sprung by a gate card. The legs, wings, and tails of these figures extend even further to create Bakugan that tower over their opponents.

In September and October, other radical Bakugan being released include:

• Two core Bakugan that split when landing on a gate card—Sky and Gaia, which transforms in to two separate creatures, and Dartaak, which when activated, half of it shoots forward.
• Three core Bakugan that have buttons for “double-strike action”—Blitz Dragonoid with fists that spring from the sides, Phantom Dharak with two large pincers, and Aksela with wings revealed around a central eye.
• Four Super Assault Bakugan—Quakix Gorem winds up to rumble on the battlefield, Ziperator spins in to battle charged by a zip line, Irisca has a rotating LED eye, and Gyrazor has spinning mandibles.

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There are many awards given out each year for games, and while I don’t take any of them as definitive, I do find that they each have something to offer. The Dice Tower podcast has been organizing its own awards program for the last few years with the help of a number of other podcasts and blogs. This one offers the perspective of dedicated hobby board gamers, who nevertheless enjoy various types of games. As the group of judges is small, they also wait a while after the end of the year to give everyone some time to experience the range of games.

The winners of the 2009 Dice Tower Gaming Awards are:

• Game of the Year — Small World
• Best Family Game — Small World
• Best New Game Designer — Colby Dauch for Summoner Wars
• Best Game Reprint — Tales of the Arabian Nights
• Best Production Value — Space Hulk
• Best Small Publisher — Plaid Hat Games for Summoner Wars
• Best Party Game — Dice Town
• Best Game Expansion — Pandemic: On the Brink
• Most Innovative Game — Tobago
• Best Game Artwork — Small World
• Best War Game — Richard III

Personally, I’d been staying away from Small World as I did not particularly enjoy its predecessor, Vinci. But the positive talk about this game has kept pretty steady; I probably should give it a try.

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First the sales…

Geek Chic is running a virtual tent sale for orphaned orders, factory seconds, and show pieces. You can get their amazing furniture at significantly reduced prices. Unfortunately, the company is too busy to post the list of available pieces on the web site and I don’t have room for it here. If you’re interested, I suggest emailing them.

Mongoose is unloading out-of-print items from the warehouse at reduced prices, including RPG books and miniatures.

War games are on sale at GMT.

Also for the war gamers, the C4 Corner Cutter is on sale through Labor Day.

Now, the giveaways…

The NewbieDM blog is giving away a copy of the Red Box Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set. Standard comment-or-tweet requirements.

Myriad Games is giving away games to Facebook fans every Friday.

North Star Games is also giving away games on Facebook, monthly for meeple photo submissions.

Big Daddy’s Creations is running a contest for Neuroshima Hex on the iPhone/iPad. Ten people who solve the puzzle will get promotional codes for free downloads.

Aspiring game designer, Michael R. Keller, wants a logo for his venture, Visible Hand Games. He’ll give one prototype game now and one published game later to a selected designer.

Thomas McDonald’s State of Play blog has Bicycle Poker Playing Cards and Dice to give away.

Cincinnati Coupons is giving away Education Outdoors’ Camp Board Game Travel Edition and S’mores Card Game. Every method of following is another entry.

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Snakes and Lattes is a new board game cafe in Toronto. Source has a shot of part of their 1500 board game collection, so we’re talking real games. (source)

It’s tempting to think of it as Canada’s first board game cafe, but Vancouver has or had one called Wow Wow, though it doesn’t have a website, and it doesn’t answer the phone.

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What could be more fitting for Watchmen than a tactical combat game? The DC HeroClix Watchmen Deluxe Collector’s Set includes 25 figures and “display quality packaging.”

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[via BoardGameNews]

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The second wave of Dungeons & Dragons Heroscape is out with four different non-random boosters: Golem and Wyrmlings, Veterans of the Last War, Ogre and Goblins, and Heroes of Khorvaire. Each package includes five figures and a treasure token.

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Inching closer to release of the Ultramarines Warhammer 40,000 movie.

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Ex illis from Bastion Studios offers fantasy miniatures war gaming with an online component. The software (which works on a PC, Mac, or iPhone/iPod) tracks each unit’s attributes, lets players know what tactical options are available on their turns, and executes the calculations necessary to resolve combat. It seems that Bastion’s approach was to develop a highly detailed and complex rules system, but couple it with software that would try to make it fun rather than burdensome for the players. The Rule Keeper software also animates combat and allows individual units to benefit from experience. That is, the miniatures level up from one game to the next.

Bastion releases a new unit most months for Ex illis and their latest is The Archangels. The six figures in the box can be assembled as either Evocati or Nephilim (good or evil). When activated with Rule Keeper, the software will record the player’s chosen side.

Also on display at Gen Con but shipping in October was The Emissarius, a towering monster for the battlefield.

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