With a new edition of Warhammer 40,000 due later this year, Games Workshop appears ready to introduce a range of new factions (or faction variants). The first announced among several new types of Space Marines is the Primaris Space Marine, raised by Primarch Roboute Guilliman on Mars.

Compared to regular troops, the Primaris Space Marines are bigger, can hold up to small-arms fire longer, and carry bolt rifles with additional range and armor-piercing power.

Primaris figures can be incorporated in to companies with other factions or can be used to make their own compact army.

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Games Workshop has announced plans for a new edition of Warhammer 40,000 due sometime this year. With just 3 years since the last revision, GW promises that every figure and all current armies will be supported in the new edition. The setting will remain the same, though some advance in the story line is expected. And a version of the core rulebook will be free.

The company’s main goal for a new Warhammer 40,000 appears to be to streamline game-play significantly, bringing a typical game down to 1½-2 hours and much easier for new players to learn. At the same time, veterans will have options for adding depth and complexity. Among the new elements being added to the game are command points rewarding players with special abilities for thematically-built armies.

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The big news from Games Workshop was the Warhammer Quest re-issue, but that wasn’t on display at Toy Fair this year. Instead, the main booth was all about the recently-released version of Blood Bowl. I loved the old version of Blood Bowl, and getting to see the newer line — with the professionally-painted miniatures — was really neat. The new boxed set, retailing at $99, contains 12 miniatures for the Ork and Human teams, in green and blue respectively, ready for assembly and paint. Additional teams come in colored plastic to easily identify teams without the need for painting miniatures before play. Skaven and Dwarven teams are priced at $35.

New to this edition are different fields to play on. The board that comes with the base game has a human field on one side and a distinctively orkish field on the reverse. Additional themed pitches include the $38 Skaven/Dwarven double-sided board with rules for underground “weather” effects and a $32 Blood on the Snow pitch with a winter-themed pair of fields “covered in reindeer skulls, squashed presents, loads of blood and some slightly dubious patches of yellow snow.”

However, you’ll really need Death Zone, a 48-page book containing seven team types (Skaven, Nurgle, Dwarf, Elven Union, High Elf, Dark Elf and Wood Elf) with background, rosters and famous examples of each, to complete your game. The book also contains additional rules for the coaching staff, season play, star players, additional skills… Throwing rules like this into a separate product is what Games Workshop did for the previous version of Blood Bowl to keep the entry point to the game low. Arguably, the same case can be made for this edition, as the base game is just under $100. But if you really want to get into the new version of Blood Bowl, you’re going to need this $25 softcover book.

Cards replace the punchboard tiles from the earlier version, and — for those of you who remember the last incarnation of Blood Bowl — the box is actually sturdy enough to hold the game.

Downstairs in Games Workshop’s second booth, the two newest lines showcased are the Warhammer 40k Starter Sets and the Warhammer 40k Build+Paint series.

Both Starter Sets retail for $50 and will be shipping soon. Battle for Vedros contains 28 miniatures that require no glue for assembly: nine Space Marines (including a Dreadnought) and nineteen Orks. A basic rulebook and dice for the game are included in the package. Tyranid Encounter! is at the same price point but comes with 40 miniatures: twenty-four Tyranids and sixteen Space Marines.

The Build+Paint sets will be available in waves. Series 1 is being released now with miniature kits that contain glue, paint pots, and a brush starting at $14.99. Items on display included three Ork and three Space Marine kits. The Ork Blastabike and Space Marine Attack Bike retail for $14.99, the Ork Trukkboyz and the Space Marine Speeder Strike retail for $24.99, and the larger forces for Orks (Raiders) and Space Marines (Heavy Assault) are priced at $39.99. Like the Blood Bowl miniatures, the Build+Paint sets come in colored plastic to allow for quick play at the table before painting.

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Warhammer Quest Shadows Over Hammerhal is a boxed game for 2-5 players, set in – and below – the splendid city of Order, Hammerhal. The game can handle 4 player characters with a 5th playing as the Game Master. Also, the game is compatible with Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower Hero Cards, so any miniatures you already have for that game can be used in Shadows Over Hammerhal.

Inside the box is 31 miniatures, a 72-page guidebook, a 32-page adventure book for the gamemaster to use, 18 double-sided board sections, 55 cards, 12 dice and counters/markers for tracking your heroes as they gain experience and skills.

Last published around 1995, Warhammer Quest is making a triumphant return thanks to Games Workshop finally caving into fans’ wishes. Releasing at the end of this month you can preorder the game for $150 and get some sweet extras for free, includin an art card of The Yncarne, Avatar of Ynnead and a free Gamemaster’s Screen.

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Games Workshop is shipping later this week Deathworld Forest, a $130 box filled with the makings of deadly terrain for Warhammer 40,000. Included are 84 plastic pieces that can be mixed and matched to assemble grapple weed, shardwrack spines, barbed venomgorse, and eldritch ruins. Also in the box are the specific rules for each individual component.

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Never mind the destruction of civilizations, the human skulls, or the other violent themes, PETA (specifically the UK organization of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) wants Games Workshop to stop sculpting its Warhammer 40,000 miniature figures with images of animal fur.

PETA has written to Games Workshop CEO Kevin Rountree asking that the leading British miniature war-gaming brand ban “fur” garments from all Warhammer characters. While we appreciate that they are fictional, draping them in what looks like a replica of a dead animal sends the message that wearing fur is acceptable – when, in fact, it has no more place in 2017 than it would in the year 40,000.

Come to think of it, how do they know it’s not fake fur?

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Games Workshop is releasing a new edition of their extremely popular Blood Bowl on November 24th for $99.99. This new edition comes in an all-you-need-to-play box containing:

• 12 colored plastic, push-fit human players (2 x Blitzers, 2 x Throwers, 2 x Catchers, 6 x Linemen) plus balls and counters.
• 12 colored plastic, push-fit orc players (2 x Black Orc Blockers, 2 x Blitzers, 2 x Throwers, 6 x Linemen) plus balls and counters.
• 56 page rule book.
• Double-sided fold-out card pitch (human on one side, orc on the other).
• Two double-sided card dugouts (human on one side, orc on the other).
• Two sets of special Blood Bowl dice (one blue for the humans, one green for the orcs).
• Plastic template set (range ruler, scatter template and throwing template).
• Card deck, containing Special Play cards, four Star Player and player reference cards.
• Decal sheet, containing numbers as well as human and orc symbols.
• Two double-sided rules reference sheets.

Their hopes are to gain a new audience with the easy-to-assemble minis and complete package set.

Of course, being Blood Bowl, you know they’ll be tons of teams, extra minis, and available supporting purchases that will follow soon enough.

While I’m super excited about this, I wonder if I really need this in my collection, having both Dreadball and Guildball already.

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With Burning of Prospero, Games Workshop gives the boxed game treatment to another battle in the Horus Heresy saga (last year at about the same time, the company release Betrayal at Calth). This one pits the Space Wolves, Sisters of Silence, and the Custodian Guard against the psychic Thousand Sons for control of the city of Tizca.

Included in the box are 47 miniatures, alternative weapon pieces, tiles, dice, a rule book, and a story book for $150.

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Games Workshop has begun reissuing old figures for limited runs. What the company is calling its “Made to Order” service is featured in a special section of the GW web store, where previously discontinued models will be posted for a minimum of 48 hours. A figure that does well, however, may remain available to order for longer.

As the revived figures are being made to order, GW advises customers that orders may take up to 28 days to ship.

Among the Made to Order pieces currently available from Games Workshop are some Warhammer 40,000 Mordian and Valhallan Autocannon units, a Steel Legion Commissar, and a 10 figure Cadian Kasrkin squad.

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Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games have terminated their license agreement. According to an announcement by FFG, the company will end sales of all products based on GW properties—Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40,000, and Talisman—as of the end of February, 2017. All previously-announced products, however, will be delivered before that date. That includes a couple of Talisman and Warhammer 40,000: Conquest expansions.

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