Based on growth rate, non-collectible miniatures and miniatures games were the strongest hobby games category in 2023, up around 9%, from $525 million to $570 million, according to ICv2 estimates.  Collectible games was the only other category to book a win, and it was only up around 3%, while the other three hobby game categories were all down for the year.

Miniatures giant Games Workshop led the way, with sales up around 15% in North America, according to ICv2 estimates based on its public filings.  The launch of the new edition of Warhammer 40,000, announced a year ago at Adepticon (see “New ‘Warhammer 40,000’“), was the biggest driver; it kicked off with a bang behind a $250 box set (see “’Warhammer 40,000: Leviathan’ Heads to Preorder“) last summer.

The biggest obstacles to better Games Workshop sales are all self-inflicted, we heard in our interviews.  Backlist fill rates are still not high, a problem that came to the fore during Covid and has persisted, and although retailers seem to be getting what they order from Games Workshop on most new releases, distributors continue to be heavily allocated.

A bigger problem, cited by both retailers and distributors, was the shortening of the preorder cycle, making it extremely difficult to gather demand info in time for initial orders to Games Workshop.  Preorder info reaches Games workshop customers on Sundays, and orders are due two days later.

The frenzy for WizKids Dungeons & Dragons miniatures has cooled, along with sales of the RPG.

BattleTech sales increased the fastest of non-GW lines in 2023, with the continued availability of the Beginner Box a big driver of customer acquisition.

Atomic Mass Games titles are doing well.  Marvel Crisis Protocol was up year over year, behind the release of a new Core Set (see “’Earth’s Mightiest Core Set“) and increased SKU counts.  Star Wars: Shatterpoint had a successful launch, bringing new life to the Star Wars franchise for the company.

For an in-depth analysis of these topics, see “Miniatures the Strongest Category – In Depth.”

For an overview of 2023 sales in the hobby games market, see “Hobby Games Eke Out a Win.”

For the top miniatures lines for Fall 2023, see “Top Miniatures.”

The Black Legion, formerly known as the Luna Wolves and the Sons of Horus, were the XVI Legion of the original twenty Space Marine Legions. Their Primarch was Horus, known to them as Horus Lupercal, and to Imperial history as the instigator of the Horus Heresy, the first great Imperial civil war. Some time after their defeat in the Horus Heresy, they were renamed the ‘Black Legion’ by their new commander, Ezekyle Abaddon. Largely since disintegrated as a unified Legion, they can be found operating in countless small warbands across the galaxy, except when they are called together under Abaddon’s banner to spearhead one of his notorious Black Crusades.

Birth of the Luna Wolves

One of their earliest campaigns proved important to the development and formation of the XVIth as a legion: the First Pacification of Luna. Playing the most important role in the action, the XVIth achieved both the critical objective and notoriety during the conflict, gaining the unofficial moniker of the Emperor’s Wolves. As a result, they were tithed the bulk of the output of the captured gene-labs for a time, allowing them to rapidly build their numbers. This, in turn, necessitated more recruiting stock.

Thus, many of the original XVIth are believed to have had a separate, somewhat unusual origin; they were effectively kidnapped from the world of Cthonia by ‘recruitment squads’ sent from Terra charged with the task of rounding up thousands of individuals from the violent gangs that infested the ancient world. These ‘recruits’ were then taken to the geno-laboratories on Luna for the modification and indoctrination required to become Space Marines.

Upon the discovery of Horus, the Emperor officially renamed them the Luna Wolves in honor of their past victories and baptism of fire on Terra’s moon.

Despite this somewhat unusual beginning, the end results were reckoned to be exemplary loyal and ferociously motivated troops. By the time Horus was placed in charge of them, the Luna Wolves were ten thousand strong.

The Ullanor Crusade – Renaming of the Luna Wolves

Perhaps the greatest achievement of the Luna Wolves, the Ullanor Crusade became a feted military campaign of the Imperium and to many is seen as the high watermark of the Great Crusade itself. The Ullanor sector was the domain of the Ork Overlord Urlakk Urg, who ruled over dozens of human-founded worlds. Determined to exterminate the Orks, Horus distracted them by ordering secondary attacks on the outlying worlds by other Space Marine Legions and Imperial Army regiments. With the focus of the Orks on these invasions of their borders, the Luna Wolves dove straight for the throat, initiating a surprise orbital drop directly onto Urlakk Urg’s capital world.

Horus led his 1st Company Terminator elite into a personal teleport attack on Urg’s palace. With the majority of the Terminators dealing with the Ork defenders, Horus led ten of the best into combat with Urg and his own forty-strong retinue. The fight was a hard one, but Horus eventually slew the Ork, casting his broken body out from the battlements of his tower, demoralising his Ork followers. Of the fight between the ten Terminators and the forty Orks, there was only one survivor: First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon.

At the successful conclusion of the Ullanor Crusade a year later, the Emperor declared it the greatest victory yet for his mighty Imperium and was said to bestow much praise upon the Luna Wolves and Horus for their part in the campaign. At the subsequent Triumph of Ullanor, the Emperor himself bestowed upon Horus the title of Warmaster, making him the supreme commander of the Emperor’s forces and effectively giving him complete military control of the Great Crusade.

The Emperor also suggested, before he returned to Terra and left the rest of the Crusade to Horus, that Horus should rename his legion to cement his position as Warmaster. The suggested name was the Sons of Horus. Horus initially declined this honour and his Legion continued as the Luna Wolves.

Increasingly concerned, however, with a belief that some of the other Primarchs and their Legions did not show him and his Wolves enough honour in their roles as the Warmaster and his personal Legion, Horus, at the suggestion of Sanguinius, eventually took up the offer made to him by the Emperor to change the name and iconography of Legion XVI. Shortly after the Interex campaign the Luna Wolves became the Sons of Horus.

Post-Heresy – The Black Legion Begins

After the events of the Battle of Terra and the end of the Horus Heresy, the Traitor Legions, along with the restored but still numerically inferior Sons of Horus, then became embroiled in a series of internecine wars triggered by the Emperor’s Children legion, culminating in the destruction of the Sons of Horus’ fortress on Maleum. To the disgust of the Sons of Horus, the Warmaster’s corpse was taken by the Emperor’s Children and several clones were created by their self-styled ‘Primogenitor’, Fabius Bile.

It was at this point that the old Sons of Horus Justaerin Captain Falkus Kibre was able to track down the Vengeful Spirit and Abaddon deep inside the Eye of Terror. Abaddon revealed his intent to destroy the clone of Horus and reform the Sons of Horus into a Legion to finish the war Horus had begun. After smashing the Emperor’s Children fortress and killing the clone of Horus, Abaddon declared himself the rightful successor of the Warmaster.

Painting their armor black, Abaddon renamed his forces the Black Legion, rejecting Horus’ name and all the failure that went with it. Abaddon managed to reunify the bulk of the old Sons of Horus under his banner, crushing all who resisted. The founders and inner circle of his newly formed Black Legion became known as the Ezekarion. The newly christened Black Legion faced its first serious threat in the form of the Death Guard warlord Thagus Daravek, who was a chief rival to Abaddon in his rise to power and another potential Warmaster of Chaos.

However Daravek was eventually defeated, and Abaddon’s power grew exponentially as he gathered many allies across the Eye of Terror, most of the Daemon Primarchs included. Using Chaos rather than being enslaved by it, Abaddon has waged the Long War on the Imperium ever since, most notably during his thirteen Black Crusades.

Black Legion Gene Seed

The Black Legion consists of a large portion of former Luna Wolves Gene-seed alongside those from absorbed warbands or captured from the Imperium. Though the Luna Wolves Gene-Seed was historically considered reliably pure, the regular practice of seeking Daemonic possession has accelerated its mutation. However, such mutations in the reborn Legion are seen as a mark of favour from the Gods of Chaos and are generally displayed with pride.

Legion Recruitment

Though the Sons of Horus were once considered a large legion, the Black Legion were long considered numerically inferior to other Chaos Space Marine legions since the inter-Legionary wars. While the number of original Legionaries remaining is unknown, and it is unknown how or even if the Black Legion recruit new implantation candidates, it is known that they recruit Marines from other Legions and Renegade Chapters.

In spite of these difficulties, by M41 the Black Legion was the largest of the Traitor Legions, having ten times the numbers of the Word Bearers. This is aided by their policy of absorbing other Chaos Space Marines and their warbands into their own ranks, regardless of which God of Chaos they may follow, if any.

Learn More on the Black Legion

Writer, Editor, Texas Native, and Austinite for 15+ years, Adam covers all things Tabletop Gaming. Which includes Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, D&D, Board Games and everything else that involves dice, boards, cards and a table.
A hobbyist, player, and collector of miniatures and games, Adam’s current obsession are his Death Armies for Age of Sigmar, his Blood Angels and Tyranids for 40k, and his ever growing Arkham Horror: The Card Game Collection.

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I’ll be the first to admit that Beetlejuice was one of the creepy 1980s movies that scared me witless. I’m still mind-boggled by Michael Keaton’s dynamic acting range, who I swear hasn’t aged in a decade. He’s stepping back into the grave (or is it OUT of the grave?) for this week’s Beetlejuice 2 release. I’m never one to turn down a woman in red, so let’s build a closet cosplay to DIE for.

One of the most iconic scenes of the original Beetlejuice film is the wedding of Lydia and Beetlejuice. Her red wedding dress is indicative of Tim Burton’s vivid, if stark, color palate. It’s a fun world to play in, and it’ll be interesting to see what new horrors reveal themselves in this next installment. With this build, we’ll turn you into the belle of the ghoul’s ball!

Lydia Deetz Closet Cosplay: The Gown

OK, hear me out. I know the original gown was meant to be comically awkward on her, but that’s no reason we can’t go glam, right? I love the idea of casually strolling into your local movie theater decked out in a GOWN and some goth makeup. Yes, please, yummy.

Whether you go modern or classic 1980s, long-sleeved or short, the devil is in YOUR details. This is a cosplay that will come across as long as you get the gown color/style and hair down. Bring in some extra details to make this yours. Add in some sparkle, or some hidden trinkets, little easter eggs that people will notice up close.

Lydia Deetz Closet Cosplay: The Wig

One of the most fun parts of Lydia’s look is her hair. She rocks some VERY distinctive locks in the film. Whether you have the hair to style or want to go with a wig, get that color right and you’ll be good to go.

Lydia Deetz Closet Cosplay: The Makeup

Lydia doesn’t wear MUCH makeup in the film, so go for a smudgy goth look or leave the makeup off and try to make yourself look tired and broody, like a moody teenager!

Lydia Deetz Closet Cosplay: Handbook for the Recently Deceased

No Beetlejuice cosplay would be complete without your very own Handbook for the Recently Deceased. It has all you need… And more!

^{Oh hey! Say our name three times and click the links in this article, and you’ll help keep BoLS alive! We appreciate all donations to the cause, and promise we won’t show up on your doorstep with offers of matrimony.}

~Join us next week for more cosplay coverage~

Have a Cosplay question you would like Mayhem’s Muse to answer?

Know a Cosplayer you’d like to see featured? Send an email here!

Jennifer aka “Mayhem’s Muse” is the Cosplay Editor for BoLS and manages Ad Sales and Communications. Her cosplay awards include the RTX Judge’s Choice Award and Dragon’s Lair Austin’s Cosplay Symposium.
Jennifer has been a Cosplay Guest Judge at RTX, Tacticon and Genghis Con in Colorado. She regularly attends conventions to cover cosplay for BoLS. Her cosplay work has been featured in publications such as Girls Who Love Monsters, Geek Fuel, and Renaissance Magazine. Jennifer has modeled in the Her Universe Fashion Show, Precision Camera’s yearly Precision Camera University, and has taught several workshops for photographers about partnering with cosplayers and creative muses/models.
Jennifer is a lifelong enthusiast of retro video games and loves Dungeons & Dragons, urban fantasy, tabletop games, VR technology, and historical archery. She has set National Records through USA Archery’s Traditional Division for Asiatic Bows and earned 4th Place in the World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan in 2018 for Women’s Korean Archery. Jennifer is currently studying for her Masters’s Degree in Organizational Leadership.

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If you’ve been watching X-Men 97, you know just how amazing a theme song can get. You’ve probably also discovered the sheer number of times Professor X does something bad that fuels the plot of any given episode. And while D&D and X-Men don’t have a ton in common, you can actually do a pretty passable psychic-powered character, with the right spells.

You’ll have to accidentally imperil your allies on your own. But, if anyone’s going to figure out how to accidentally endanger their whole party by doing something that sounds seemingly good, it’s a D&D player.

Mind Sliver

Mind Sliver is where it all begins. It’s a psychic-powered cantrip, which means it can be used at will. Of course, all it can do is drive a disorienting spike of psychic energy into the mind of one creature within range. But, it does a little more than your average cantrip, because in addition to dealing 1d6 psychic damage on a failed save, it also makes the target subtract 1d4 from the next saving throw it makes before the end of your next turn, meaning you can use this spell to set up a powerful combo.

Detect Thoughts

Let’s start with the easy one. Detect Thoughts is baby’s first real psychic spell. You can listen in to someone’s surface thoughts, or probe deeper and more actively, but your target ends up knowing that you’re rooting around in the corridors of their mind palace. It’s probably the most basic psychic spell out there, but it opens the doors (and the mind). Plus, you can use this spell to detect creatures who may be hiding or even invisible, as long as they aren’t behind 2 feet of rock, 2 inches of metal that isn’t lead, or a thin sheet of actual lead, which has its own problems.

Raulothim’s Psychic Lance

Here’s a debilitating psychic attack spell that fits in line with the whole “Professor X” thing. Because Professor X often doesn’t need to see the people he’s communicating with. And Raulothim’s Psychic Lance is one of a very few spells in D&D that allows you to cast it without a line of sight to your target.

All you need is your target’s name (and to be within 120 feet of them). Cast this spell, and your target takes 7d6 damage, which is a bit on the low side for a 4th-level spell, but if they fail they’re Incapacitated until the start of your next turn.

Dominate Person

Of course, the real psychic stuff is all about Mind Control. And while Professor X swears up and down he wouldn’t do that, it’s only a matter of time before either aliens possess him or it’s just really inconvenient not to mind control someone.

You don’t need that excuse. You’re a D&D adventurer, and can freely do whatever you want. And with Dominate Person, you can make anyone freely do whatever you want. As long as they fail their saving throw and you maintain concentration on the spell.

Telepathic Bond

Finally, there’s the Telepathic Hub spell, which lets up to eight willing creatures telepathically communicate with each other, as you psychically link them with a magical link. Through this power, you can communicate telepathically at any distance (though not to other planes), meaning you can perfectly coordinate any plan at the speed of thought.

What are your favorite psychic spells in D&D?

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]

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WizKids will release Grasp of the Mind Flayer, a new scenario kit for Dungeons & Dragons Onslaught, which will hit stores in April 2024.

The upcoming scenario pack features new monster cards that add Mind Flayers and Ropers to the mix. This pack does not contain monster miniatures, but it does have new tokens for players to use to represent the new monsters. Players can also use miniatures from their collection to replace the tokens. The pack contains new legendary items, swamp items, terrain tokens, and a new Terror deck to add onto the base game of Dungeons & Dragons Onslaught.

It will retail for $24.99.

Click on Gallery below for full-size images!

For more from ICv2’s Miniatures Week, click here.

Welcome Planeswalkers and Praetors to our ongoing series about the best casual experience in Magic: Commander.

This series has been focused on playing typal decks, so most of the decks have been the same creature type. However, what if you wanted to play everything typal? Well, luckily, you can! Shapeshifters are every creature type all the time, so you can play whatever you want and still get all the fun benefits. You might lose out against more focused Commanders, but you’ll be able to benefit from every trick in the game.

Voja, Jaws of the Conclave

Voja sits at the top of the Shapeshifter pool, and it’s really no surprise. He tore up the cEDH scene for a while after his release, and he’s just a massive power piece. Even without his special ability, he’s a 5/5 with vigilance, trample, and ward 3 for five. However, the main draw for this murder wolf is his secondary.

Whenever Voja attacks, you get +1/+1 counters on all your creatures equal to the number of Elves you control, and you can draw cards equal to the number of Wolves you control. In a standard typal deck, that’s cool enough, but imagine if all your creatures were both types! Once Voja hits the field with an army of Shapeshifters, it’s basically GG.

Reaper King

A good way to lose actual friends at the EDH table, Reaper King is one of the only ways to play “destroy typal”. It’s a 6/6 for anywhere from five to ten mana, depending on how many colors you’re playing. While it’s on the field, it has an anthem effect for all your other Scarecrows, and whenever a Scarecrow hits the field, you get to destroy a permanent. Since every creature in your deck will be a Scarecrow, you can wipe the board one piece at a time. Just be careful; the ability isn’t a may, so if your opponent has nothing, you’ll have to blow up your own stuff.

The Ur-Dragon

No surprises here, especially since the Ur-Dragon is still one of the nastiest Commanders. With all your Shapeshifters being Dragons, you get all the benefits of a Dragon typal deck with the benefit of having lower drops. With all the awesome abilities Shapeshifters have combined with the powerhouse Dragon effects that exist out there, you’ll have a war crime in no time.

Morophon the Boundless

It wouldn’t be a Shapeshifter list without the OG goop lord, Morophon. Like the other Shapeshifters, he’s every creature type. Since everything in your deck is, too, you’ll get Morophon’s anthem effect AND his cost reduction effect for your entire deck. Just make sure you’re playing enough colored pips to make it worthwhile.

Moritte of the Frost

Moritte is an interesting Commander but a fun one. It enters the battlefield as a copy of anything you control, but it gains the snow type and is legendary. That’s helpful if you need snow mana for an ability, but its real power comes from its creature effect. If you copy a creature, it gets two +1/+1 counters, letting you take your best nonlegendary critter and make it even better.

What do you think of these Commanders?

What is Magic the Gathering Commander?

For the uninitiated, Commander is a semi-casual format for Magic: the Gathering. You use a deck of 100 cards led by a legendary creature, aka, your Commander.

Aside from basic lands, you are only allowed one copy of each card in the deck. Moreover, you can only include cards in your Commander’s “color identity” or artifacts. Each color and color combo has a unique playstyle and a wealth of mighty generals to lead your deck to victory. EDHRec.com is an excellent source for Commander info and can give you ideas on how to build your next Commander deck or tune an existing one.

From North Carolina to Texas and back to North Carolina again, Clint lives the life of a traveling artist. An avid gamer, writer, actor, pyrotechnician, and general nerd, he has finally turned his love of EDH into a career. When not busy being a clueless cowboy, Winterfell Bannermen, or whatever else acting life throws at him, he enjoys reading folklore from around the world, writing narratives for his Wargaming armies, or running D&D 5e games as a professional DM. Look for his storytelling podcast, By the Dancing Fire, or find him on Twitch at FeybornPhyrexian, where he produces MTG content.

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The artists at Wizards of the Coast knew what they were doing when they designed Oko in Throne of Eldraine. It’s not just his fine facial features and the fact that he’s always depicted as being bare-chested, though those things certainly help. It’s the blue face and body paint, the tight trousers, the feathers on the cropped jacket and mop of dark, unruly hair. All of these factors have made Oko one of the most attractive characters in Magic: The Gathering, in my humble opinion.

With Outlaws of Thunder Junction, Oko has only become more attractive. The character appears on multiple cards for the set, this time trading in his woodland nymphish look for a western rake style. This offers a different and equally excellent interpretation of the faerie ne’er-do-well, with his cropped jacket becoming even more elaborate – thanks to the addition of a sweeping cape, a huge collar and even more feathers – his tight trousers gaining a big, buckled belt and, of course, a cowboy hat that still retains aspects of Oko’s Eldraine bone crown.

Though Oko has always been depicted as a trickster who has a history of doing misdeeds, Magic: The Gathering is leaning harder into the character’s more villainous side in Outlaws of Thunder Junction. Oko is an outlaw in this set, someone who is willing to mix with the wrong sorts of people in order to perform some serious larceny. This new propensity to commit crimes only further solidifies Oko’s role as an antihero, thereby making him that much more appealing. There is nothing sexier than stealing from rich people.

Whether it was intentional or not, Oko is a sexy character who feels designed for a gender and/or sexual minority audience.

It’s unsure how much of this was intentional, but Wizards has created a character who is unmistakably camp in all the best ways. Oko could have easily fallen into the trap of becoming just another Zack Synder-esque ‘cool’ dude for the straight cis guys to fantasise about being, if not for the elaborate outfit, the makeup and the immaculate female and queer gaze of the Magic: The Gathering cards the character is featured on.

Tabletop gaming, particularly trading card games like Magic: The Gathering, has a long history of doing things that are off-putting – whether deliberately or not – to people with minority gender and/or sexual identities, who might otherwise enjoy the hobby. One of these things is utilising imagery designed to only appeal to straight cis men – namely dead-eyed women with huge breasts, conventionally attractive features and skimpy, yet dreadfully uninspiring, outfits. Alternatively, there are the ultra-muscular, hyper-masculine visages of men that the players are supposed to imagine they are.

Oko is the kind of sexy character who – probably – doesn’t make people like myself feel unwelcome or gross.

There are undoubtedly people who aren’t straight cis men who do enjoy this kind of character design; more power to them. Nevertheless, they are unlikely to be the initial target audience Wizards had in mind when creating these characters. This is why it’s fantastic to see characters like Oko in Magic: The Gathering. Whether it was intentional or not, Oko is a sexy character who feels designed for a gender and/or sexual minority audience, which is extremely refreshing to see from a 30-year-old trading card game that itself has previously banned racist and culturally offensive cards.

Oko occupies a happy medium between the two potential approaches towards including sexy stuff in your tabletop game. He certainly isn’t in line with the exploitative, uncomfortable approach that people who back Kickstarter campaigns for nude female D&D miniatures enjoy. But he’s also not the kind of sexless, Action Man character you might see in a current major motion picture starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Oko is the kind of sexy character who – probably – doesn’t make people like myself feel unwelcome or gross. If he makes straight cis men feel gross, then I feel like he’s only doing a better job of occupying that happy medium space that I want to see more characters sitting in.

If Wizards has any more plans to put Oko into other highly thematic sets where he’s committing more crimes against the wealthy in another camp and sexy outfit, they can count on my absolute support.

Welcome 40K players. We’re back with Best Coast Pairings to showcase the top list of the week for competitive 40k. We have the top lists being played out there in the world, what faction are winning, and the list that won the biggest event this last week. So put on your armchair general’s hat and let’s dive into the data, brought to us by Best Coast Pairings.

FACTION KEYWORD: Imperium – Grey Knights
DETACHMENT: Teleport Strike Force

1x Grand Master (125 pts): Nemesis Force Weapon, Incinerator
Enhancement: Sigil of Exigence (30 pts)

1x Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight (200 pts): Nemesis Daemon Greathammer

1x Kaldor Draigo (125 pts): Warlord, Scourging, Storm Bolter, The Titansword

10x Brotherhood Terminator Squad (420 pts)
1x Justicar: Nemesis Force Weapon, Storm Bolter
5x Terminator: Nemesis Force Weapon, Storm Bolter
1x Terminator with Ancient’s Banner: Ancient’s Banner, Nemesis Force Weapon, Storm Bolter
2x Terminator with Heavy Weapon: Nemesis Force Weapon, Incinerator
1x Terminator with Narthecium: Narthecium, Nemesis Force Weapon

5x Strike Squad (125 pts)
3x Grey Knight: Nemesis Force Weapon, Storm Bolter
1x Grey Knight with Heavy Weapon: Incinerator
1x Justicar: Nemesis Force Weapon, Storm Bolter

10x Paladin Squad (450 pts)
4x Paladin: Nemesis Force Weapon, Storm Bolter
1x Paladin with Ancient’s Banner: Ancient’s Banner, Nemesis Force Weapon, Incinerator
4x Paladin with Heavy Weapon: Nemesis Force Weapon, Incinerator
1x Paragon: Nemesis Force Weapon, Storm Bolter

1x Nemesis Dreadknight (185 pts): Nemesis Daemon Greathammer, Heavy Incinerator, Heavy Psycannon

1x Nemesis Dreadknight (185 pts): Nemesis Daemon Greathammer, Heavy Incinerator, Heavy Psycannon

1x Nemesis Dreadknight (185 pts): Nemesis Daemon Greathammer, Heavy Incinerator, Heavy Psycannon

Total: 2000 points

The Most Played Faction: This chart represents the primary faction identified by players when submitting their lists. This gives a global view of what is popular and being played out there in the competitive scene. We are also tracking how many weeks they have been in that position.

March 28, 2024
1: Space Marines (Astartes) +2
2: Necrons -1
3: Adeptus Custodes -1
4: Chaos Space Marines =2
5: Astra Militarum =2
6: Tyranids =4
7: Death Guard =3
8: T’au Empire +2
9: Aeldari -1
10: Orks -1

March 20, 2024
1: Necrons +1
2: Adeptus Custodes -1
3: Space Marines (Astartes) =2
4: Chaos Space Marines +1
5: Astra Militarum -1
6: Tyranids =3
7: Death Guard =2
8: Aeldari =2
9: Orks +1
10: T’au Empire (new)

The Most Winning Faction: This chart represents the primary faction identified by players who are winning events. This gives a global view of what is potent and winning games out there in the competitive scene. We are also tracking how many weeks they have been in that position. 

March 28, 2024
1: Necrons =8
2: Adeptus Custodes =7
3: Space Marines (Astartes) =2
4: Astra Militarum =2
5: Death Guard +2
6: Chaos Space Marines =4
7: Tyranids -2
8: Aeldari =2
9: T’au Empire +1
10: Orks (new)

March 20, 2024
1: Necrons =7
2: Adeptus Custodes =6
3: Space Marines (Astartes) +2
4: Astra Militarum -1
5: Tyranids +2
6: Chaos Space Marines =3
7: Death Guard -3
8: Aeldari +1
9: Chaos Daemons (new)
10: T’au Empire -2

Data brought to you weekly by our friends at:

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They might wear silver but they are taking home the gold!

Writer, Editor, Texas Native, and Austinite for 15+ years, Adam covers all things Tabletop Gaming. Which includes Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, D&D, Board Games and everything else that involves dice, boards, cards and a table.
A hobbyist, player, and collector of miniatures and games, Adam’s current obsession are his Death Armies for Age of Sigmar, his Blood Angels and Tyranids for 40k, and his ever growing Arkham Horror: The Card Game Collection.

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Meet the Fallbacks​

The Fallbacks are a new group of adventurers based out of Waterdeep, though they’re so new, they don’t even have a name until roughly halfway through the book. Tessalynde dreams of putting together a crew that will reach legendary status, and the young rogue has a good sense of what’s needed and how to put together a plan.

For their first assignment, all they have to do is retrieve a spellbook from a lost temple, and Tess is fairly confident her team is up to the challenge – Anson, the steady warrior, Cazrin, the cheerful wizard, Baldric, a dwarf cleric who makes deals with the gods instead of tying himself to just one, and Lark, the flamboyant bard. They bicker a bit, as is the nature of most parties, but they’re also all competent, with reasonable teamwork for a new group.

And, because adventurers are prone to adopt the most unlikely creatures, the team also has a pet otyugh. Each team member gets their own brief flashback, and Uggie is no different, explaining how they found and healed the injured otyugh, only to discover that the creature was grateful enough to follow them. The fact that they have interesting trash for Uggie to eat makes it all the better for everyone.

The book starts well into their retrieval mission, which succeeds despite a run in with a mindflayer who warns them against “the ruinous child.” Happy and successful, they head back to Waterdeep to meet their employer, turn over the book, and get paid.

Of course, it can’t be that easy.

Not only do they find their employer is dead and no payment, but they’re framed for the murder and forced on the run. Worse, the spellbook seems to be sentient and bloodthirsty. After they make it out of Waterdeep, they wisely decide to take the book to Candlekeep to seek guidance from the Avowed at the famous library. Needless to say, that can’t go smoothly either.

Did I mention they’re also being pursued by a lich and the Zhentarim?

Assemble Your Party​

Overall, I really liked D&D:TF:BfR. The adventure moves at a good pace with enough twists and turns that I didn’t want to put the book down. The characters are engaging and very likable, especially Tess, who is the main viewpoint character. Baldric’s deal making with the gods is interesting. Anson is a solid ally, but soon a subplot involving his family adds to his burden.

Lark’s ego and flamboyance is more entertaining than annoying, which is good. He could have been tiresome otherwise. And Uggie is just adorable, though it helps that this is a novel so you don’t have to actually see the otyugh’s weird teeth and tentacles.

Cazrin was the one character that bothered me. The combination of the sunny, naive, overly optimistic disposition did not pair well with an obsession to keep and decode the spellbook, especially after certain things happened, which should have given her pause. Over time, she became less annoying, but was never my favorite character for personal reasons.

That said, it was nice to see the wizard act out instead of the rogue or the bard. Cliches get tiresome.

Should You Get It?​

This is supposed to be the first in a series of novels featuring The Fallbacks, and it’s off to a good start. The ending definitely leaves room for more adventures, and I would enjoy spending time with these characters again.

If you like audiobooks. D&D:TF:BfR has an excellent production. Narrator Lauren Fortgang does a terrific job with all of the voices, distinguishing the party members well enough that you know who is speaking before the name is mentioned and appropriately creepy in different ways for the villains. It’s a solid A and off to a good start for a new series.

Dungeons & Dragons: The Fallbacks: Bound for Ruin is available now.