Warhammer Bundle Values

Games Workshop seems to have rediscovered the value in volume sales.

After being fairly roundly criticized for offering no discount whatever--and therefore no incentive to buy--on product bundles for their recent Apocalypse relaunch (especially when Forgeworld WAS doing so), their new large holiday bundles for 2013 represent notable value: the Space Marine Stormwing, for example, offers a Stormraven and two Stormtalon escorts, retail US$82.50 and $45.50 respectively for a total of $173.50, at the bundle price of $140.

There are a number of these bundles (including a couple Fantasy Battle themed); the Tempestus Firebase has my event moderator's eye: an Aquila Strongpoint ($115), an Imperial Defense Emplacement ($29.75), a Vengeance Battery ($50) and two Firestorm Redoubts ($65 each), retail $324.75, bundled for $250. That is a helluva table to battle over at a real discount.

Very welcome philosophy change, GW.
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The Gorgon Primarch

Forge World renders Ferrus Manus, Primarch of the Iron Hands, their finest character sculpt yet, I believe:

Although the corporate 'back story' making it essentially a necessity that GW produce models of their Primarchs is well-known in the hobby community by now, to this point I've largely regretted it: I haven't been impressed enough with the physical realizations of these legendary characters to be happy. Ferrus Manus changes that--and not just because I have fielded an Iron Hands army in past myself (one could argue that makes my expectations higher): from the face to the pose to the wealth of detail, this model makes more of what I had imagined of the Emperor's technologically-oriented son, rather than diminish him.

Worth £55/$80+? Hard for me to even consider. But the asking price doesn't diminish the artistry; this is beautifully-done wargaming modelry.
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Wrath of the Norsemen

1220 years ago, June 8, 793AD, began a brief but so-memorable reign of terror that it defined an entire people for Western Culture: at dawn, men came from the sea in sleek ships of a like never before seen to fall upon the English island monastery of Lindisfarne, men so fierce and bold and unafraid that, for the following three centuries, nothing--including the technological limits of then-current navigation or the geographical limits of the known world--stopped their advance. They sailed East down rivers through Russia, into Asia and entered Byzantine culture as the elite Varangian Guard; the sailed West to the New World, to change the population of Ireland, and to (for a time) rule England; they sailed south to pillage Europe, lay seige to Paris, to explore North Africa and reunite the Mediterranean culture with Europe. They were 'the Norsemen,' whom priests so famously pleaded with God to save, from their wrath; and 1220 years ago, with the sack at Lindisfarne monastery, began the great Viking Age. Skol!