GenCon 2021 Previews by Games Workshop

With the new way of communication, Games Workshop is more open on their previews. Along with the limitations of participating on shows, they opened up even more and do quite broad coverage on their Warhammer Community page.

Earlier last week, there was a preview, that we would see some new announcements on GenCon. For those of you not familiar with GenCon, it is the largest tabletop game (not just tabletop wargames, but any kind of game played upon a tabletop including related things like cosplay, video games and so on) event in North America. Comparable to the SPIEL in Germany, but in a much more professional, user-centred way.

Games Workshop just posted the logos of the systems that would be covered, Warhammer 40,000, Blood Bowl, WarCry, Warhammer Underworlds, Necromunda and Kill Team.

I am aware that - if you use social media - you've been drowning in reposts of these pictures due to the incapability of the facebook algorithm to sort anything and the attention span of many people to actually see that it was posted just 2 minutes ago. Never the less, let me share my 2 cents on these;

One of the first previews - partially teased prior to GenCon, with a full announcement the last day - were the new Black Templars, crossing the Primaris-Rubicon. They saw the first huge focus in the 3rd edition starter box from 1998. There will be an army set (as we've seen for the Sisters of Battle, RRP ~ 160 EUR) but in composition very similar to the combat patrol we've seen for the Dark Angels (RRP 110 EUR). The Army Set contains 13 miniatures, covering, 12 new Black Templars models (a Marshal, the already previewed Emperor’s Champion, and a 10-man Primaris Crusader Squad covering both Initiates and Marines as we've seen prior to Primaris, and a Redemptor Dreadnought. As usual the army sets covers a codex supplement and data cards, therefore the higher price compared to the combat patrols..

The upgrade sprues already available for Black Templars aged quite well, but these new upgrade pieces look well made and fit the purpose so far. I really like that the Black Templar Initiate combine the look of the Primaris Rievers and older Scouts. The Emperor's Champion is design wise well made, but I don't like the pose, on that factor the Marshal received a much better composition. Beyond that, the bits included with these will be very sought-after for a lot of different projects (like proper Dark Angels with robes...). Oh and have you seen the new Helbrecht? Holy-moly!

The Kill Team teasers came in two waves. First was the "spin-off" from the Octarius Set, splitting the content and offering a smaller starter set, the books and both teams available on their own. Hopefully this will stop that rather annoying surplus on the trade groups with "clever" people / scalpers selling the items that they won't need. Everybody knows you bought the box at least 20% off, so don't feel clever charging those prices. And pity those fools who proof them right and even pay that nonsense.

From my point of view the terrain in the smaller set is rather weak, but the Deathkorps of Krieg is an absolutely stunning kit and people now finally get their long coat Imperial Guard in plastic, after 20+ years of waiting. I have already seen multiple conversions online and it is amazing to see, what is done there.

As for the second Kill Team announcement, another large boxed set, called Chalnath, covers the fight between Sisters of Battle and T'Au. The terrain are the re-purposed Sector Imperialis sprues, that have been released with the first big installment of Kill Team. Sisters of Battle came a bit as a surprise for me, as they got a lot of love recently, but with the Novitiates (aka light infantry, something I always saw the Repentia and Arco-Flagellants covering), the models look good and are a nice addition to the range. As for the T'Au, the new Pathfinders (the kit is from 2012, but aged well) are more dynamic and should add nicely to the existing range as well. Not an army for me, but I can see the appeal for others.

For Necromunda, the Book of the Outcast, as teasered. And even got an update today with another post. I don't care that much about the DLC style of supplements for Necromunda, so the book is not for me. But the terrain looks very promissing. Really love the market stalls, something that has been build multiple times with the containers and can be scratchbuild, of course, but is a bit more sturdy this way. Hope for a proper bundle, as you will need plenty of these and they will add up in costs. As for the outlaw miniatures. A bit underwhelmed for Necromunda to be honest. But something I can see for a Chaos or Genestealer militia for sure.

Blood Bowl was the weakest announcement of the all of the previews, beside the WarCry teaser. Why put it on there if you not really going to share anything? It is about spiders. That is pretty clear from the clues, but I hope for some cool fantasy terrain. As for Blood Bowl, there is a Khorne Team. It is different from what we saw on Cyanides Video game, but that is no wonder as the list was quite over the top, including a Bloodthirster. That's a big no-no for the plastic set (which double the usual 6 miniatures per sprue). Yet, what we got here ... honestly, if you wanted that, you could have build that from Khorne part of the 2015 Age of Sigmar starter set - easily.

And then there was Warhammer Underworlds, of course the announcement of a new Season, this time called Harrowdeep. They did a great job on another set of Stormcast for the starter, Xandire’s Truthseekers, and I really dig the personalised design of the knee and shoulder pads. We had Steelheart's Champions in the first season, The Farstriders as an supplement the same season and the Cursebreakers in Nightvault. Da Kunnin' Krew brings the new Kruleboyz to Underworlds, I like the proper old style Hobgob in that kit, but beyond that, I'm not that big of a fan of the Kruleboyz design. It's mostly the proportions along with the rather The Hobbit Ork design. I am aware that Warhammer has moved on from the cartoonish look of the 90s to a (grim) darker design, but yeah, these are not for me. Yet, if you're into Skirmishers and don't care about the discontinuing seasons, Underworlds is a great way to get small warbands.

I was hoping for an update on the Aeronautica Imperialis and Adeptus Titanicus teasers from earlier this year, as I'm really keen to get my hands on the new AI/AT scaled Space Marine vessels.

In total Games Workshop previewed a proper amount of novelties. Of course, it will be weeks up to months until we see some of these hit the shelves. But that is just, how it is. I am not sure about this kind of content, if these comments or reactions towards novelties is something that would appeal to an audience broad enough, that it would make sense to produce. I always loved the idea of the Top Gear new section and I'd love to do something similar, not warhammer-only, with some fellow wargamers as monthly or bi-weekly format. With twitch, youtube, podcasts and so on, there are a lot of options to produce these, but it is time consuming, does not pay well and takes away time from painting or building miniatures. We'll see...