Based entirely on what looks cool to me…

For Warhammer 40,000, the KV128 Stormsurge ($150) from Games Workshop holds two Tau crew and features ball-and-socket joints for a range of posing options.

From Privateer Press, the gargantuan Trollbloods Glacier King ($135, November) for Hordes freezes lakes, streams, and enemies with its passing. The heavy warjack Hand of Judgement ($60, December) for Warmachine wields an immolator cannon and mace for the Protectorate of Menoth.

Among the Wyrd Miniatures releases for Malifaux 2nd Edition, there’s the pre-colored Swamp Cottage ($21) and the gun-toting Abuela Ortega ($16) in steam-powered wheelchair.

Gale Force Nine’s resin minis for the Dungeons & Dragons Rage of Demons campaign includes a five-piece Orcus figure ($75) seated on a throne of bones.

In Reaper Miniatures’ Dark Heavens series there’s a new Temple Dragon ($33).

And for a very limited time, Reaper’s Bonesylvanian series includes the better-look-at-the-pictures-than-have-me-describe-them Jacques ($8), Howie ($8), and Lou ($11).

Spartan Games adds two new forces to Firestorm Armada this month, including a Terquai Dreadnought Group (£25) and a Xelocian Imperium Dreadnought Group (£25).

And last-but-not-least, Dark Sword Miniatures recently released a Cat Paladin ($10).

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Here’s an awesome piece of news that just grazed across my email tonight. Privateer Press has gone and released the rules for Warmachine and Hordes for FREE in PDF format. That’s right. Free.

This is a brilliant move. Let the players read the rules, get hooked, then go absolutely broke buying tons of minis and supporting materials. To coincide with the free rules release, Privateer is also holding a contest where you can win a prize package worth over $400 just by buying a two-player battle box for wither Warmachine or Hordes. Maybe you don’t need to go broke after all. Just win the contest and you’ll be good as gold!

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Looking to field a complete 35-point army without all that collecting? The new Warmachine: Convergence: All-in-One Army Box is for you! Plunk down $129.99 and you get the following:

1 Warcaster Father Lucant
1 Inverter Heavy Vector
1 Diffuser Light Vector
1 Galvanizer Light Vector
1 Eradicators Unit (5)
1 Optifex Directive Unit (3)
1 Reductors Unit (10)
1 Transverse Enumerator Unit Attachment
2 Enigma Foundry Solos
3 Accretion Servitor Solos
Digest-sized WARMACHINE rulebook with complete core rules
Strategy cards with tactics and tips for your army

The box comes out in July, and is a limited run aimed at new players of the game. I’ve always loved the idea of all-in-one boxes, but have never actually splurged on one.

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This year is the first year I’ve had the opportunity to attend PAX East in Boston, MA. Mostly known as a convention for video gamers, there’s a large, and growing, tabletop  component to the show. Though I only attended the show on Friday, I was able to see a LOT of great stuff for the tabletop, and even demo a few new games. Since there was a lot to see, I’ll be breaking this up in to several posts over the next few days so as not to overload everyone.

Wizards of the Coast

My first stop was the Wizards of the Coast booth were they were showcasing the 2015 version of Duels of the Planeswalkers. While none of the new cards have been added to the alpha build yet, I was able to check out the new UI and tweaks to the game overall. While 2014 was a vast improvement over 2013, 2015 is just a more polished, smooth update to 2014. The new deck builder is supposedly more robust, but wasn’t available yet. Overall I was impressed with what I saw, and can’t wait to get my hands on a finished version with all the new features and cards.

Wizards also had a demo station set up on the tabletop floor for Kaijudo, where they were explaining the new draft format, and had samples of their new competitive decks. These decks are constructed to be a bit more competitive than current pre-constructed decks, and make for much more exciting play. I was able to get one to bring home, and will soon be testing it out with the kids. One of the most exciting aspects of the draft format, coming out this May, is that the number of cards in booster packs is going up from 9 to 14. The price will stay the same. Now you’ll be able to buy 3 boosters per person to host a draft game.

Privateer Press

Privateer Press’s booth had several things going on, but the main two attractions were Zombies Keep Out and Warmachine Tactics.

Zombies Keep Out is a cooperative board game for 1-6 players where everyone is trying to keep zombies from breaking down the barricades to a goblins’ workshop. Players work together to try and build crazy contraptions to stop the zombie horde before they break down the barricades and invade the workshop. One of the cooler mechanics of the game is that players who suffer zombie bites have to slowly start acting like zombies. 1 bite means a player has to start slurring their speech while playing. They also can’t trade cards. More bites start making the player have to moan and point, instead of speaking.

Privateer was also showing off Warmachine Tactics, a PC game of the popular miniatures franchise. The game looks pretty amazing, and feels solid. The really cool part of the game will come to a future update of the build. Players will actually be able to paint their units. Not just color them, but paint them. Since the data will be stored procedurally, it takes very little power to send your unit customizations to another player over the internet, so any player you play against will see your custom units on the field. The game is currently still in development, but will see a release around the end of the summer.

Geek Chic

One of the most amazing things I saw at PAX was the Geek Chic book. We’ve covered their tables in the past, but I’ve never gotten a chance to see one in person. Flat out, these are some of the most amazing, beautiful pieces of furniture I’ve ever seen. They’ve got tables in every size and shape to meet the needs of gamers in all stages of life. From coffee tables and GM desks to kitchen tables and the famous Sultan, these tables just ooze class.

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