The Insider – October 30th – Prime
Welcome to this week’s BoLS Prime Insider. Let’s talk industry whispers, what’s coming in the week ahead, and a look behind the scenes of the studio.
Welcome back to this week’s Insider. This will be an ongoing weekly column where you get a behind the scenes look into the BoLS office, what our core team is up to, and working on, as well as what we are hearing in the industry. Our promise to Prime members was to give you greater insight into what we are up to, excited about, and what we are seeing and hearing out there in the industry.
Remember you can always hop into the DISCORD channel and directly chat any of us up or ask questions. So enjoy and don’t be a stranger. On with the show.
Larry
Back to the Grimdark this week and the GW conveyor belt rolls on. This week we have the odd combo of Space Wolves, and Deathwatch. Blood Angels will be along soon and does anyone else find it odd that the Dark Angels are nowhere to be found?
New Units
I’m probably most excited about the Sons of Morkai as it means that GW is now stepping into the world of unique Primaris units to make the Supplemental codex armies have some character. We’ve had unique Chapter units for decades now, but back in 8th none were Primaris. I see this as a sign of completion and confidence on GW’s part. The Primaris range is complete enough that they can now start to make some little tweaks here and there to make the various chapters keep their uniqueness, even for players with all-new all-Primaris lists.
I have no idea what they have planned for the Deathwatch, but they are such an oddball force I’m sure they will come up with something.
Forge World
To me, the much bigger news is the Forge World Imperial Armour book dropping this week. After decades of an arms-length relationship, GW has sorted things out with FW in 9th. We finally see FW brought into the fold and firmly put under the control of the Design Studio. No more will we see FW throwing firebombs into the 40K (or AoS) meta with wildly unbalanced rules. This book has been a long time coming, and our sources say to prepare for lots of nerfs across the board. GW will want to tame the FW beast and make sure the craziest combos go extinct.
The competitive scene is holding their breath to see how many of their pricy resin tabletop terrors will survive the purge. The hobbyists couldn’t care less and are happy as a clam. There’s a lesson in there somewhere for us all. We will have much more on this once we get our hands on the books (soon, I’m checking the mailbox every 10 minutes)!
New 40K Boxes
In other exciting news, GW is replacing their popular “Start Collecting” boxes with new “Combat Patrol” boxes. On the plus side, these are all new sets with what appears to be good useful units included, rather than the mishmash combos of yesteryear. On the negative side is… a substantial increase in the price of these kits. The Start Collecting boxes used to clock in at $85-$105. The new pair is $140 apiece.
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Adam
Hope everyone is doing well! I’m looking forward to Saturday as it’s Halloween! Time for scary movies and candy – and maybe some more work on the hobby front. It’s been a week already and here in Austin, the weather changed. The early part of the week was rainy and cold which makes for poor priming weather. So, unfortunately, I haven’t made progress on the hobby front for me current obsession:
However, the weather is looking clearer today. Maybe I’ll get the gang primed-up first. I’m not 100% sure what the final scheme will be so that’s been part of the delay, too. I might just go with something a bit more “traditional” for the Orlocks with blacks and blues. I’d mix in some browns too though because I’m picturing this as a Road Crew vs a pure Hive Gang. All the more reason to go full Mad Max on the next vehicle get. I might even get an Ork Trukk and do a ton of work on that to make it less Orky and more Orlocky.
Like this – but hummie!
I was also thinking of checking out the Speed Freaks game rules to see if there is a way to make that work within the Necromunda setting. Could be fun.
JR
It’s been a big week in the RPG world–two big new products came out these last couple of days, both of which I’m super excited to dig into. Beasts and Behemoths is probably my favorite of the Young Adventurer’s Guides to date, it tackles the big iconic monsters of D&D and presents them in a flavorful light that recontextualizes them for you in ways you didn’t know you wanted. It’s a great shot in the arm for big monsters.
But speaking of “flavorful” D&D books… Heroes’ Feast is here, and dang if everything doesn’t look incredibly delicious. I am hungry just thinking about it. This is a recipe book full of D&D food gleaned from the game’s 40+ year history, whether hidden away in novels or mentioned in adventures or sourcebooks. It is the perfect book to make sure your game night has the best snacks.
The best part of my week though, are my Wednesdays when I run Haven: A Land Reclaimed on All Nerds Here. It’s been a blast to get to play with the Legacy: Free from the Yoke rules and do some on-screen worldbuilding with some very good friends. We’re at Episode 4 and next week will be our big mid-season spectacular, so check-in if you haven’t yet. We have a crab mech and Dracula warriors and it’s only going to ramp up from there. So check us out sometime!
Mars
We have reached the last week of October – time for some folk horror. The sub-genre is an odd one to really pin down. It’s more based around where the story is set and the isolation of the characters than exactly where the evil is coming from or how victims are killed. There was a golden age of folk horror in the late-1960s to mid-1970s that came with counter culture and a resurgence of occult religions (this all hooks into the Satanic Panic around D&D, too). Anyway…
The Viy – Available on Shudder
A group of seminary students from the city go on summer break, drunkenly wandering the countryside. They end up lost, and spend a night in the company of a haggard witch. A scuffle breaks out, and one of the students, Khoma, murders the witch. Only it turns out he really killed a beautiful landowner’s daughter, and now he must sit with her body in a church for three days, protecting it from evil spirits.
The Witchfinder General – Available on Shudder
A disturbing tale of evil set during the English Civil War. When Matthew Hopkins is appointed Witchfinder General by the Puritans under Cromwell, he is empowered to travel the countryside with his henchmen and collect a fee for each witch from whom he extracts a confession – a policy which is exploited to the full.
Blood on Satan’s Claw – Available on Shudder
When a mysterious corpse is accidentally dug up by a boy in a small town, a group of local teens starts acting very strangely. The adolescents, led by a girl named Angel, are convinced the corpse was once possessed. Hoping to get in touch with the devil through the body, the teens act out a series of demonic rituals that causes a stir among the townspeople. When word of the satanic activity spreads, certain parents start trying to lock up the kids behind the spooky stunts.
The Wicker Man – Available on Shudder & VoD
Sergeant Howie arrives on the small Scottish island of Summerisle to investigate the report of a missing child. A conservative Christian, the policeman observes the residents’ frivolous sexual displays and strange pagan rituals, particularly the temptations of Willow, daughter of the island magistrate, Lord Summerisle. The more Sergeant Howie learns about the islanders’ strange practices, the closer he gets to tracking down the missing child.
Picnic at Hanging Rock – Available on HBOMax & VoD
In the early 1900s, Miranda attends a girls’ boarding school in Australia. One Valentine’s Day, the school’s typically strict headmistress treats the girls to a picnic field trip to an unusual but scenic volcanic formation called Hanging Rock. Despite rules against it, Miranda and several other girls venture off. It’s not until the end of the day that the faculty realizes the girls and one of the teachers have disappeared mysteriously.
Abe
Like Larry, I’m pretty excited about the new books coming out. Space Wolves were the first 40K army I played, about 20 years ago, and though I’ve moved on from them I still have a soft spot for them. Deathwatch, on the other hand, is just a strange strange list and as such, I find them really interesting. Out of any of the Marine armies that use Primaris I find moving them to a supplement, rather than a stand-alone Codex to be a strange move, but I want to see what all they get. I’m not surprised that Dark Angels are coming last, they were late to the Siege of Terra and they will be late now. Traitors just have to wait. 
One thing about the new Combat Patrol boxes is that they are clearly all Primaris units. The older Start Collecting boxes were some of the last really prominent places that classic Marines were pushed. Now, these are gone, replaced with Primaris units. This is a big deal as we approach the holiday season as these kinds of sets are often bought as presents and are often on must stock lists for retailers. This marks another subtle pushing out of the older models for the new. This is a bit of a bummer in the case of armies like Space Wolves and Deathwatch since the Primaris don’t have any chapter specific models, the older boxes had really unique models in them, whereas the new ones are just generical models with an upgrade kit thrown in. Ah well, no man can stop progress.
Thomas
This was a week at home again which means I got a lot of random minis painted. I still continued to knock out my Inktober stuff – check it out on my Instagram. I post illustration and miniature painting pretty regularly. Beyond that, I hope to figure out a game before long as I feel the itch to throw some dice. I hope everyone has a great Halloween even though we won’t be out and about this year.
Started messing with building objectives. Just something more so than a crazy logo – but more cartoon-like. Evil mouth of doom.
Meaghan
Hello and Happy Friday Adventurers! It’s almost Halloween! And then it’s almost November! Which is always a famously boring month where nothing of note ever happens and nobody ever has reason to be stressed. 😐 If you haven’t yet, remember to get out and vote!
Next week I’ll be taking a break from the spooky stuff (I know, I’m sad about it too) with some dice that just feel like autumn and some of the nifty magic items you may have seen in movies and thought, “I’d wish my character had one of them!” Oh yeah! If you were joining in on NaNoWriMo this year and wanted to be writing buds, you can find my participant profile here.
~Talk to all you folks next week!
