Forge World New Releases : Phoenix Lord & Titan Power Glaive

Having once more defeated my erstwhile allies the Eldar (sorry Will, had to mention it), this time with a Blood Drinker Mech list, in a very close 2000 point game last Tuesday night; I thought I would attempt to liven their Spirit Stones with the contents of the latest news letter from Forge World.

Set for release on the 28th of November and now up for pre-order are Irillyth, Phoenix Lord of the Shadow Spectres and the Phantom Titan Power Glaive.

Books in Brief : A Thousand Sons by Graham McNeill

This is without doubt a great book and goes into the favourites section of my Heresy collection alongside Horus Rising, Legion and Mechanicum. It's the first Heresy book in a while that actually moves the series forward despite its events remaining before Istvaan.

Graham McNeill really defines the 'Sorcerer Astartes', fleshing out these very different Marines and orchestrating the most believable and moving fall of a Legion to date; casting a shadow of doubt over my own staunch loyalist views *shudder* somebody call the Inquisition!

He makes a sterling effort to forge coherency amongst the broken and confusing cannon of the 40k verse (at one point openly questioning and including in the story arc one of it's contradictions) with many questions that have niggled me for years finally answered and some great hints dropped about others.

Some faults, McNeill still loses himself occasionally (although he is getting better) in overblown and unnecessary description, how many times we need to hear how totally awesome a Primarch is, or how the Son's control and balance their powers, we hear you we get it, please stop repeating yourself Graham. All this does is slow down the flow of what is a captivating story and fills up extra pages, are you trying to meet a certain word count?

Also I lost track of how many times he used the word Impossibly... something was Impossibly strong, Impossibly bright, Impossibly Impossible!!! Really grated and I found myself cursing out loud every time I bumped over one, there must be host of better words for describing an amazing power or technical feat.

Other than these minor quibbles (what do I know, I'm not a bestselling author) this is an awesome read and I highly recommend it.

Drop Site Massacre : Death Company Drop Pod

Taking far longer than it had any right to and damaging my calm along the way, I present the first of my (almost) completed Drop Pods.

Reprogrammed : Matt Ward talks revised Necron Background

As I sit and wait for my latest and again delayed copy of White Dwarf to drop through the letter box, contemplating whether it still merits subscription. GW have offered up another slice of video, this time featuring Matt Ward talking about his revised background of the Necrons and giving a taster of the play style of the units in the new codex. I found it quite interesting, but not being a Necron player of old, I'm unsure whether Mr Ward has done a Lucas style re-edit and left you all screaming Noooo at the brutalisation of a much cherished back story.