Gencon’s releases continue to trickle to the public this week, with the Wrath Jacks making their debut on Privateer Press’ Website. We’ve also got some interesting 40K spinoff news, with debuts of the Space Marine game and 40K MMO.
Highest on my list of awesome though is Captain Gunnbjorn’s article in Game Trade Magazine‘s latest release. A full preview by Privateer Press, this looks like it was taken straight out of the forces of Hordes: Trollbloods book, complete with art, stats and storyline.
We already know how awesome Captain Gunnbjorn’s background is (ex-military Trollkin with hugeass boomstick??), and the vague spoilers on his stats have been swimming around ever since Gencon, but since we’ve got his whole article here I think it’s pretty safe for us to discuss his stats.
First up, Captain Gunnbjorn definitely shows his ex Cygnar training. His spells and feat are like a mashup of Cygnar’s ranged support casters and Gorten Grundback, with great support spells like guided fire and snipe. Rockwall and his feat also lend his army great resilience against other ranged armies, and Explosivo is a great toolbox spell, allowing most of his army a method of dealing against pesky incorporeal models.
Another problem might be stealth, but I’m assuming that Gunnbjorn will have AOEs in the form of either the bomber or the pyre troll, so there should be more than sufficient methods to get rid of the odd solo or two or even a small unit.
Ironically, for a Trollblood his army is not likely to be strong against melee armies. Both rock wall and his feat provide protection against another shooty army, but a melee heavy army who closes fast might prove difficult for a range-heavy army that would likely be how most Gunnbjorn armies would roll.
Regardless, Captain Gunnbjorn is an awesome sculpt, has a wildly different playstyle than what Trolls usually come with, and looks like it will be a stable for my Troll army in months to come.
Privateer Press also has released pictures for some of the Wrath Jacks. Now these jacks Torch, Malice and Triumph (we’re only missing the PoM and Retribution ones) aren’t packaged like your normal Jacks are; they’re metal add-on bits to be used in addition to the plastic warjack kits. Now this is an interesting development, but I understand the logic behind it; why make metals of models that are going to be pretty similar to the plastic warjacks when you could save production costs? Plus these are also cheaper: A Warjack Kit is about $35 and the Upgrade kit is $10, in total $45, still less than a similar unique (Nightmare is $49.99 and beast is $54.99)?
You could save considerably more if you magnetize these bits as well, but I don’t think I’m up to the challenge. Besides, I think I would like to have a nice unique pose for my Torch; would make it a lot more unique like that.
There are complaints of course: these bits are small and fiddly, they’ll have problems sticking, and the generic jacks aren’t ‘unique enough’, but I figure scoring/pinning will solve problems 1 and 2 (and pinning plastic is dead easy), and well… plastic is pretty easy to repose and get a nice unique jack pose too right? I don’t know, I think it’ll all work out in the end.
On to some of the Games Workshop developments in the previous week. It’s interesting to note that the big news this week isn’t their miniature games per se but instead all the related computer games.
The Dark Millenium MMORPG actually looks pretty awesome. I had my doubts when they first announced it, but if the movie clip is to be believed, it looks like something I wouldn’t mind playing, at least to try it out. The Imperium (Spacemarines, Techpriests and the like) look like the race that most players will start in; it will be curious to see how Orks, Eldar and the rest would turn out.
The Space Marine game also looks like a lot of fun. I will have to admit that I much preferred the last action packed trailer to this latest one, which seems a lot more toned down, but the idea of playing a hero of humanity is so attractive that I’m still looking forward to it. Who doesn’t want to wade through hordes of enemies and come out victorious?
That’s it for our minis week in review this week, tune in next week for more GW and PP roundups!
