Warhammer Fest 2018 Review (Picture Heavy)
Warhammer Fest
On Sunday the 13th May, Mike, Dave , Chris, and I headed to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry to attend the second day of Warhammer Fest (Games Workshop’s annual event). The arena itself was set up almost identically to last year, with the Forge World sales area at one end of the main room while the licensed products were at the opposite end. Between them there were Games Workshop sales, a multitude of gaming tables for the event’s grand tournaments, a bar and Warhammer TV.
There were also a few Seminar rooms where they had a number of talks. We attended Writing for Black Library, where they discussed various aspects of… writing for Black Library, and the Specialist Games Studio seminar, about what the studio was working on, and future releases for Necromunda, Blood Bowl, and *trumpet sounds* – Adeptus Titanicus.
As well as all this, there is Golden Daemon, the studio room, with designers, painters, etc. who you can chat to about their work, and displaying a lot of miniatures that are being released in the future.
It’s a great day, and we’d recommend attending in the future.
Citadel Design Studio
We didn’t focus too much on the Citadel Design studio, as most of the reveals there were already up on the Warhammer Community site by the time we attended.
For recap the big reveals there were:
A new editions of Age of Sigmar, with some new cinematic magic, which included models for the magic being cast (these, I believe are optional), and some other cool stuff including a new Stormcast Chamber, a new Death army The Nighthaunt, and some plastic objective markers.
A render of a plastic Sister of Battle. She looks incredible, and will be available somehow (but they didn’t say how) before the main release which is coming next year.
But we did get some more info from the…
Forge World & Specialist Games Design Studio Area
The Forge World and Specialist Games Design Studio Area showcased a lot of the great new things on the horizon. This year they had a huge showcase for the new edition of Adeptus Titanicus, which looks incredible, and is due for release in August (2018). The game was described as a lot more strategic and tactical than all of the other games, where players have to monitor their war machine’s reactors, shields, etc. while trying to blow the opposing war machines to pieces.
They also displayed the miniature for Jenetia Krole, Knight-Commander of the Silent Sisterhood, and if you’re anything like Mike, you’ve been waiting for her since Book 8: Inferno came out. (You can see a full 360º video here.) Beady eyed readers will also see some information regarding the next Horus Heresy Black Book, entitled Malevolence, in the pictures. No word as yet on when it will be available, but at least it is being worked on.
There was a huge Necron walker on display, currently unnamed, which looks amazing and gives the shiny metal race some much needed support to counter Imperial Knights, Stompas, and Tau Battlesuits, etc.
The Hobbit was on display here with some future releases, as were Blood Bowl and Necromunda (which are featured in more detail below).
Necromunda
Necromunda has had a steady stream of releases since it’s relaunch last year, and they look set to continue. As well as showing off the new Van Saar miniatures and their Forge World upgrades (featuring heavily in the seminar), we get a sneak peak into the new Cawdor gang (one image of the artwork below) some new beasts and some new characters, including “The Deserter” a cowardly former Imperial Guardsman.
In the Design Studio area they also had all of the gangs painted up on full display.
Blood Bowl
Blood Bowl was another big feature in the studio talk, and took up a few cabinets worth of space in the Design Studio area. Incoming they have cheerleaders, lots and lots of cheerleaders. They also showed an armoured troll, some of the newer teams, and also a number of mutated players, possibly some extras for a new team?
(For good measure, I’ve included a Golden Daemon entry of a touchdown celebration, which I thought was outstanding.)
Adeptus Titanicus
Adeptus Titanicus stole the show for me. The game is Titan vs Titan battles set (currently, though with possible room for expansion later) during the Horus Heresy, and features Warlord Battle Titans which are around the same size as a 40K scale Imperial Knight, but are as detailed as their 40K counterparts. They showed Warlords, Reavers and the cutest Imperial Knights I’ve ever seen. They were about the same size as a terminator in 40K, and unbelievably detailed. The kits themselves seem incredibly posable for the size, and I’m fairly certain that, come August, there will be a multitude of them kicking about on gaming tables everywhere.
The main release will be the rules set, and separate miniatures, but there will also be the Grand Master Edition (possibly in limited numbers, though they don’t know yet – I got the impression they were already packing them), which will include rules, buildings and titans. As mentioned all the titans will be sold separately (at release it will be: Warlord, Reaver, and 3x Imperial Knights), as will the command boards that are used to monitor your titan. The buildings are plastic, and modular, and look incredible with the mighty war machines towering over them, and I personally can’t wait for it to land. There will also be a number of Forge World 2×2′ resin board tiles to make up your gaming board.
At this stage there is no plan to add infantry and tanks to the game, as they want to focus on introducing as many cool titans as possible. (If they have to work on introducing infantry and tanks then they are always playing catch up with the main range, and find it difficult to introduce anything new.)
Golden Daemon
As always, Golden Daemon featured some spectacular work, but it wasn’t possible to take pictures of them all due to crowds. (We’ve taken some choice pictures of the work we really thought stood out) Suffice it to say, they were all spectacular. The Young Bloods section should get special mention as the new talent coming into the hobby is impressive to say the least. Sit back, get a brew, and have a look through some of them showed below:
If you have any thoughts please comment below, and please consider following us on other social media listed below:
Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Youtube