Fans of the Warhammer 40,000 board game franchise will be happy to know that Fantasy Flight Games recently announced the upcoming launch a space-themed war game for the sci-fi lover in you.

Forbidden stars is set in the Herokon Cluster where factions from across the galaxy have converged to plunder for treasures and planetary claims in a section that was, until recently, surrounded by impenetrable Warp Storms.

Designed for two to four players, the game puts you in command of either the Ultramarines chapter of Space Marines, the Eldar of Craftworld Iyanden, the Evil Sunz Ork clan, or the World Eaters Warband of the Chaos Space Marines. The various factions offer different armies and play styles, so you can pick the one that best suits you.

In this heavy strategy battle game, players must plan out their scheme, but must also pay close attention to what their opponents are up to. Play special order tokens against your opponents to stop their attack or advancement. The board is constructed of 12 double-sided system tiles, each divided into void spaces and planets. Players move across the board along the road to war.

Forbidden Stars will be available in the third quarter of 2015 for $99.

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Looking for a job? Games Workshop has some openings! Listings are from around the globe, and while they’re mostly run of the mill, there’s one that stands out.

Chief Executive, Games Workshop Group PLC: Nottingham, UK

Yup. If you’re in the UK and you think you’re Executive level, there’s even a position for you! The requirements are a piece of cake:

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Games Workshop is bringing back Space Hulk, the company’s Warhammer 40,000 board game. Like the last time, this is supposed to be a limited edition. And in fact, the product will be almost exactly like it was the last time, with the same number of miniatures and other components, only with two more scenarios.

Space Hulk preorders will ship September 20th. Retail price: £75/$125.

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Move on over 40k, War Prime is just about to hit Kickstarter.

Let’s see how long it actually lasts there. From what I’ve seen, it resembles 40k a bit too much.

Maybe it’s just me, but if the War Prime logo wasn’t on the picture to the right, I would have just guessed the image came from the 40k universe.

War Prime is currently ramping up to launch its Kickstarter project, and there’s not a lot of information. Whatever there currently is can be found here, along with more 40k-looking art.

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In the new issue of White Dwarf magazine available tomorrow, Games Workshop will make official its announcement of Warhammer 40,000 7th edition. The company will begin accepting preorders immediately and start shipping products on May 24th.

A slipcovered three-volume hardback set of the new Warhammer 40K will retail for £50/$85 and a 2,000-copy limited, boxed Munitorum Edition for £200/$340. Included with the Munitorum Edition are a smaller-format rulebook, an art book (Visions of the Dark Millenium), an A1-sized galaxy map, metal objective markers, tactical objective cards, and psychic cards.

One of the major changes coming in the 7th edition is greater flexibility in army construction, including the possibility of mixed-troop-type unbound armies. Detachment and force organization charts are still included but are no longer mandatory. On the other hand, preset armies convey command benefits.

Another change is the inclusion of tactical objectives in many of the missions. Objectives allow players to score victory points for the achievement of specific battlefield goals. When one objective is completed, a new one is drawn.

And third, Games Workshop is adding a whole new phase to the game. In the new psychic phase, players generate warp charge points for manifesting Psyker powers.

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A Warhammer 40K Chess game is coming to multiple platforms later this year. [Unfortunately, “multiple platforms” does not appear to include tabletop.] According to Hammerfall Publishing, Regicide will feature both the traditional game (single and multiplayer modes) and “an enthralling Blood Angels story driven campaign based on a totally new concept of chess.”

The game honours the sheer brutality of the Warhammer®40,000® universe. It features a multitude of merciless kill and death animations that were created in a state-of-the-art motion capture studio, utilizing military trained fight and stunt choreographers. The game combines these exciting features along with environments, weapons, and upgradeable characters which have been meticulously crafted by some of the industry’s leading artists.

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Friday marks the official release of new Warhammer 40,000 Tyranid models, along with the latest Codex. Among the figures and sets available will be:

• One body kit to make either a Haruspex or Exocrine for $73.
• An 89 piece, 3 figure set of Tyranid Warriors for $51.
• Another 3 figure set that’ll produce either Hive Guards or Tyrant Guards for $70.
• A 20 figure Termagant Brood for $44.
• A full Tyranid Predation of 160 miniatures for $1,533.

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The new Ultima Edition of Codex: Space Marines from Games Workshop is limited to 500 numbered copies, and features:

• A soft-touch, heavy-duty box with magnetic closure.
• An extra-large star map with added detail and housed in a hardcover portfolio.
• Full-color, hardcover books of space marine art (72 pages), photographed miniatures (80 pages), and of course the codex (178 pages), with all the rules, army lists, etc.

Priced at $250. But totally worth it, right?

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New from Games Workshop is Astartes Ultra, a complete chapter of nearly 1,200 Space Marine models for $11,690. The figures are supposed to represent some army of Ultramarines at an important battle in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. But if you’d considering spending that kind of money on Warhammer, you don’t need my explanation.

At under $10 per figure, including rhinos, gunships, drop pods, and land speeders—also delivery—Astartes Ultra may not be such a bad deal. Still, that’s a lot of assembly and painting. And the package comes with a signed Codex: Space Marines, a signed Insignium Astartes, a Chapter organization chart, a breakdown of the composition of each of the 10 companies, a signed art print of the Codex: Space Marines book cover, and a signed art print of Paul Dainton’s painting of the Ultramarines assembled for battle.

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The annual In-Flight Report is a Gen Con presentation by Fantasy Flight Games’ Christian Petersen covering the state of the company, as well as previewing some of its upcoming products. After giving away the Star Wars RPG beta free to attendees last time, FFG had to turn away hundreds this year.

Though there were no product giveaways, the presentation was, as usual, highly informative.

Business

Regarding FFG’s business, we learned this year that the company continues to experience strong growth—greater than 25 percent every year since 2000. After the presentation, Christian also told me that FFG was up to 106 employees.

Fantasy Flight Games is in the process of moving its office and consolidating warehouse space in the same building. The Event Center will join them shortly.

FFG experienced its three biggest product launches ever, all in the preceding year: X-Wing Miniatures Game, Netrunner, and Descent 2nd Edition.

By product line, 37 percent of FFG’s sales are board games, 24 percent card games, 16 percent miniatures, 10 percent roleplaying games, 9 percent supplies, and 4 percent other products. Comparing this to last year’s numbers, it appears that as a percentage of the company’s business, board games dropped significantly, while card games, miniatures, and roleplaying games rose.

Fantasy Flight Games has acquired CardGameDB.com, an independent website dedicated to deck-building in FFG’s living card games. All of the website’s tools will be integrated in to FFG’s website. Drew, CardGameDB’s developer, will stay with the project. And all existing data will be preserved when the transition takes place in early 2014.

New Products

For the fans in the audience, the new product announcements were the most anticipated part of the presentation…

For Descent, FFG will be releasing The Trollfens, an expansion with new rumors and a mini campaign, and Lieutenant Packs. The latter will be individual plastic miniatures in the $9-14 range. Each miniature, however, will also come with a selection of Evil Plot Cards, material from which the overlord can choose in order to customize a game.

FFG’s Diskwars game will return as a Warhammer product in December. Warhammer: Diskwars was actually the first idea that Christian Petersen pitched to Games Workshop many years ago, before their licensing arrangement.

The next products in the Star Wars RPG line are Beyond the Rim, an adventure, Enter the Unknown, a sourcebook for explorers, and print-on-demand Specialization Decks, reference cards with specialization tree information.

Eldritch Horror, a “sister game” to Arkham Horror but presenting a “global experience”, will ship in December.

Fantasy Flight is bringing back BattleLore with a new Runebound theme. The rules will be slightly updated, though the game will maintain the same left-center-right and command-card mechanics of the Commands & Colors system. Changes include a fog-of-war element in setup and more objective-based victory conditions. Those pesky banners will be gone from the new edition. And instead of defining specific scenarios like the previous version, BattleLore 2nd Edition will include a scenario generator and rules for army-building.

Several developments are underway for the Lord of the Rings Card Game. Game modes being incorporated in to all new adventure packs are meant to provide better experiences at different levels of play. There will be an easy mode for new players. And separately sold $7 Nightmare Decks will give advanced players new challenges with old adventures. Additionally, while past releases introduced new stories to Tolkien’s Middle Earth setting, future products will give people the opportunity to play out the original adventures from the books. These Saga Expansions will also feature campaign play.

For the X-Wing Miniatures Game, FFG announced the addition of larger ships to the line, starting with the Rebel Transport and the Tantive IV Blockade Runner. Priced at $60 and $90, respectively, their arrival in early 2014 will usher in a new Epic tournament format to accommodate the larger sizes and higher point values.

And finally, FFG is planning the rerelease of Blue Moon. With all the previous products in a single box, they’re calling it Blue Moon Legends.

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