The Rules - Digital Edition - Quick Review

  Hmmmm, another $40 gone and all I got was a whole crap-ton of electrons that exist only on my iPad.  But are those electrons worth it?

  In my humble opinion, GW should be giving the rules to 40k out for free.  Like any good pusher knows, get 'em hooked and you have a customer for life.  This product ought to be handed out at every convention and game store like candy.  "hey little kid, want a rule-book?".  The problem is, we all know this is not the GW way.  Instead, I got to pay $40 for the honour of having the rules on my iPad.  Yay me!

Back to the question - is it worth it.  Yes.  overall, an emphatic yes.  Why?

1 - Current.  The rules are current with the latest FAQ and changes, so that means a bunch to me.  No more searching the rules and the printed out FAQ pages, or going to the GW site to look for rule changes.  That is too cool.

2 - Portable.  Hmm, huge unwieldy rulebook vs slim, trim iPad.  Well, you decide.  It is a matter of personal choice anyhow.  Some folks are saying that iPads are too easy to carry off (i.e. steal) at Cons and such.  I guess that might be an issue, but only if you're a five year old.

3 - iBooks functionality.  Highlighting, notes, book marking, hot linking and all the other iBooks format tools make it super easy find.  There is also a great glossary section and everything is linked and cross linked so you can find what your looking for very easily.  Just being able to highlight sections and takes notes is handy enough, but the fact that you can actually just sit there in review mode and see all your notes and what-not makes it very handy.

  As far as I can see, the rules are the same as the book, albeit with updates and FAQ changes.  There are some changes to the reference section, but these are obvious changes that you would expect after a year of being out there in the wild (6th edition).  There is no more need for the reference section statlines and info for the factions, as just about everyone has the codex(es) that they need.

  Drawbacks?  Hmmm, I'm trying to think of some.  I know some folks balk at taking the iPad to games for fear of loss/breakage, but I say... be careful.  That's all, just know where you are and what you're doing, man up.  I did hear an argument that the total cost (iPad+Codex+rules) was just too high.  <sigh> my only possible answer to that is STFU.  It's a product, not a requirement.  If you have the tools and money, go for it, if not, there are a myriad of other options. 

  So, for $40, you get all the meat, none of the fluff, in an easy to use format.  No more books for me, I have my iPad and I am ready to game.  Rules, check... Codex, check...  Dice... there's an app for that.

  Now, if only Army Builder would get the damn iPad version out... LOL