Warhammer 40k rules updates are here; see how balance changes, point drops, and errata just buffed your faction!
Another Long War Two-Fer is here: Keep those hobby muscles strong with this week’s webcast and the latest exciting podcast of tabletop wargaming awesomeness, mostly centered around Warhammer 40k.
The Long War: Episode 525
Article Table of Contents:
Show Summary:
This week, the crew talks hobby news, MiniWarGaming, GW’s latest releases, and whether constant 40k balance updates are actually helping the game. Here are the key takeaways, section by section:
- 00:00-10:45: Rob Baer, Kenny Boucher, Wyatt Turk, and Mike Haspil open by talking about how completely unhinged 2026 has been for the hobby, before Haspil explains how the latest Space Marine Legends cuts basically wiped out his motivation to rebuild armies he’s already spent years collecting. Naturally, that turns into My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park, 311, old CDs, and everyone revealing exactly how old they are.
- 10:45-15:05: Kenny gives an update on the Wu-Tang Clan Demon Prince project while Haspel previews something special for Bourbon and Bolters, where he plans to perform a previously unpublished story that Games Workshop bought from him, complete with voices, live and apparently one time only.
- 15:05-20:00: Transformers nostalgia takes over after talk of the movie’s 40th anniversary rerelease and possible new footage, leading to Gen X collecting habits, Optimus Prime dying, traumatized kids, Mufasa, and Haspil explaining why some franchises eventually just give fans a perfect exit ramp.
- 20:00-24:15: Flashgitz’s Space King Kickstarter hits $2 million within hours and gets praised as the right way to parody Warhammer, with the crew contrasting an original IP built around the joke against creators selling obvious one-for-one GW knockoffs and then acting surprised when somebody comes knocking.
- 24:15-28:55: MiniWarGaming lands in the hot seat over Ravaged Star delays, layoffs, studio-army liquidations, and its building going up for sale, while its new response video says the company is giving the downsized business about six months to prove it can generate enough recurring revenue. The planned final terrain Kickstarter makes the situation look even shakier to the crew while Ravaged Star remains unfinished.
- 28:55-30:55: The news desk moves through Frontline Gaming terrain footprints, the new Warhammer+ season, and fresh Space Marine kits, with Rob giving the multipart Intercessors and Vanguard Veterans some credit for looking more flexible to actually build than some recent GW kits.
- 30:55-36:50: GW’s plastic Thunderhawk reveal gets absolutely cooked because it’s actually a wrecked terrain piece, which Rob thinks is an especially bizarre move right after another huge Space Marine Legends purge. The rest of the crew thinks he may be reading too much into the joke, although several of them suspect a real plastic Thunderhawk probably has to happen eventually.
- 36:50-43:40: Frontline Gaming’s $30 tape measure goes from something Rob didn’t even want to cover to something he grudgingly likes, once he realizes it’s an actual heavy-duty tool with carbon steel, metric and imperial measurements, a magnetic base, and a much nicer recoil mechanism than the usual hobby-branded tape measures everyone destroys.
- 43:40-46:10: The main 40k discussion starts with whether GW’s smaller surgical balance updates are finally the right approach, with Wyatt arguing that fixing the actual busted unit or interaction is much better than hammering an entire faction into the Shadow Realm because one thing got out of hand.
- 46:10-49:10: Changes to tournament terrain layouts raise the question of whether GW can reshape the meta without touching army rules at all, but Wyatt argues the bigger issue is event organizers choosing the fairest maps for each mission instead of randomly allowing layouts that heavily favor fast shooting armies.
- 49:10-54:30: The crew likes GW separating points, dataslates, and other balance updates more cleanly, especially when the app handles most of the work, then pushes back on the theory that GW intentionally makes new models overpowered to force competitive players into buying armies before nerfing them later.
- 54:30-1:07:30: The biggest debate is whether competitive tournament results have too much influence over rules used by casual players, with the crew largely arguing that top players expose broken combinations faster and generate the data GW needs to balance the game. The tradeoff is that occasional players can feel like they need to do homework every time they pull an army off the shelf, especially when their physical books are already outdated.
- 1:07:30-1:11:20: The show winds down with video game recommendations and another discussion about hobbies eating every available hour of your life, including Star Wars Zero Company, Aliens Fireteam Elite 2, Dawn of War 4, and Haspil getting sent off with a Master and Commander quote before the crew closes out the new time slot.
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