Well I don’t know about you, but this is most excited I’ve been for AOS in years. AOS4 has frankly died on its arse round here so far – tournament attendances might be holding up fine, but I talk to a lot of people around the world about this game on a daily basis, and the message I keep hearing is that the heart and soul midweek gaming culture is flat. Yes there’s exceptions and some groups are thriving, but what most people are telling me is that over the last 12 months, they just aren’t playing for fun like they used to.
It’s been flat as a tack but this GHB is a massive shake-up, including – importantly – a complete rework of Battle Tactics. The Scourge of Ghyran rules are exciting, and a lot of armies look like they get to break the game in their own unique way. The buzz is back!
So welcome to our monthly roundup of what’s been going on in the game generally and the Craichouse in particular, with a rundown of what’s been published here on the blog. We’ve got the winner of our Fantasy Art competition, a new affiliate link to plug announce, plus a look ahead to what’s coming up in June.
Ready? Let’s go.
Indexhammer: May ’25
Our contest to find the greatest work of art in the Warhammer Fantast canon reached its conclusion! It could scarcely have been any closer, with the final vote finishing 51% to 49%, but we’re rapt to announce that the great Karl Kopinski took top billing.
Thanks to all our Patrons who made nominations and to everyone who voted. We had a lot of fun running this competition so look out for a follow-up next year, most likely exploring your favourite fantasy art from outside the worlds of Warhammer.
You can catch the Top Four voting here, or skip ahead to the final showdown which includes a showcase celebrating the works of both artists:
Meanwhile Pat punched out a rundown on the coolest models that you just don’t see on the table often enough:
And as we ramp up the GHB with the Scourge of Ghyran reveals, Zak got ahead of it with his own ideas for which units should get the love:
And then the whole team pitched in deep dives on a lot of our favourite armies:
Around the Craichouse
Thank you and welcome to our latest Patrons Brian Bunn and Chris Riley who both joined in May. We’re rapt to have your support, and we’ll keep working to give you the best dedicated AOS coverage we possibly can.
The Plastic Craic Book Club has started reading Know No Fear by Dan Abnett through to the end of June, so there’s still time to get involved. This one was voted for by our Patrons as a great standalone HH book for people who aren’t already 30 books deep, and I have to say, it’s an absolute banger. I’m really enjoying it so far and looking forward to discussing it together in the Discord when we’re done.
We’re launching a joint project with our friends at Woehammer! We’ll throw them a few nominations for beloved characters that really should have a Warscroll in Age of Sigmar, and they’re gonna draft up some rules for them; and they’ll throw a few nominations back at us to repay the compliment. Then we’ll each do a batrep using these custom warscrolls and publish it on both blogs. We’re currently taking nominations from out Patrons for the characters they’d like to see, so get around that if you haven’t already.
The Plastic Craic Gen 1 golden dice have all been spoken for and we’ll be commissioning a new wave in the near future. We used Baron of Dice for the Gen 1 dice but we’ll probably look elsewhere this time around, so we’re open to recommendations for manufacturers. The current shortlist is Q Workshop, Counter Attack and Chessex, so if you’ve used of the above (or anyone else) please let us know about your experience and we’ll take them into consideration. We did rounded corners last time, so we’ll probably go square this time, but beyond that it’s all up for grabs.
Finally, with the PC Global Campaign 2025 completed, I’ve leveraged my world-class Canva1 skills to put together a memento poster for all involved. We’ve got the final map in the centre with a bunch of photos and memories around the edges, including an intro and denouement for each faction and the named characters who emerged. I’ve ordered a printed A2 copy to give it a final check over, and then I’ll release it more widely.
New Affiliate: Pro Painted Studios
We’ve teamed up with Pro Painted Studios to offer a 10% discount code: you can enter PLASTICCRAIC as the code, or click the link that will be at the bottom of each article moving forward.
PPS makes really high quality and practical tokens and the reason I reached out to them is that I’ve bought their tokens myself over the years, with my own money, and always been delighted with what they delivered. What stands out to me is that it’s obvious that these guys are active AOS players themselves; their faction token sets always hit the nail on the head with what you’ll want and need to use in-game.
We obviously get a kickback from any purchases you make but we don’t deal with dickheads, so clicking that link (or the links to our UK and Australian affiliates for your minis) is a great way to support the blog, as well as a small business ran by hobbyists.
There’s a full set of generic tokens (reminders like +1 Damage and “Control Increased”) that you will never be sad to own, handy damage tokens and a sweet Bad Moon tracker that I reckon I’ll pick up myself.
Patreon articles
In addition to the articles on the main site, we published a whole bunch on our Patreon site in May, with some of the highlights being:
- Notes on the Stealth FAQ that dropped early in the month.
- Votes on our Book Club selection, Know No Fear.
- MSU Moonclan is a pet build of mine, and it’s backerer than ever.
- And you’d think we’d know better by now, but we’ve got some thoughts on the incoming Meta and a list to meet it head-on.
So What’s Next?
We normally have a set of bullet points here around the articles that we’re all working on for the coming month, which over time have proven to be a blend of cast-iron guarantees, cheerful optimism and hollow promises. It would be a fool’s errand to go down that path when the GHB is right around the corner – especially when it looks like such a big shakeup – so the best I can say is that we will be focusing our energies on that, and I also want to give Bonesplitterz a proper send off.
Our biggest hope is to give our Patrons something worthwhile to read every week, and hopefully this program for June and beyond will deliver that for you. Our Discord is for Patreon members and writers only (No Dickheads Policy), and membership is priced at a level that everyone can afford – so if you want to join us, you know what to do.
Have a great month, nerds – see you on the other side.
If you’d like to help us continue our work, we’d love to have your support. All Patreon Tiers include Discord access, exclusive articles and regular contests. Our Tiers are priced to be within everyone’s reach, so please click here to join us today!
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