Preliminary FAQs for AoS (from GW FB Page)

  Hey folks, the first draft of a FAQ from GW are out on the AoS FB page.  I took the liberty of cutting and pasting the info and putting it into a MS Word doc, for easier reading.


Copy of Preliminary Age of Sigmar FAQ from GW

  Enjoy.

It's Here... Horus Heresy Book 4 - Overview

  It's here, it's really here!  Like Christmas in November, my forgeworld box arrived today!

  Alas, the tale is bittersweet, as the book's slipcase suffered damage in the journey to my doorstep.  I doubt if I will ask FW for a replacement, since it is only the slipcase and not anything on the inside, but I may just email them pictures in hope that they toughen up their packaging.

  For those who do not know, this book covers Horus' actions after the Isstvan events, as he starts his 'crusade' into the imperium towards Holy Terra.  It covers a bunch of Knight houses, the Solar Auxilia of the Imp Guard and more Mechanicum goodness.  There is also a new campaign system, something I always look forward to in hopes it can be adapted to 40k easily.  I'm dying to get into bed and start reading this bad boy!

  I will not be reviewing the book just yet, I always say I will, but I hardly ever get to it.  This is just an overview of what came in.  On with the pictures!!!

 The slipcase with ye olde eye 'o Horus on it.  You can kind of see the damage here on the left side and the two bottom corners.  On the back side is the much better Imperial Aquila!

   Closeup of the worst damage.  At 90 pounds ($140), I kind of expect better packaging, so I may just fire off an e-mail tonight on this.

   But on to the innards... or 30k goodness.  On the left is the double sided, very heavy stock, twin sided poster.  More shots of this later, suffice to say for now that it is beautiful.  In the middle, the meaty bits, or the book itself.  On the right side, the 4 card stock laminated reference sheets.

  As always, a beautiful presentation, gilded pages, metal edges, all very nice.  It looks like they changed the way they glue the picture onto the cover, for there are no raised corners and it seems slightly inset into the cover.  Hopefully no more delamination issues.

   Gilded edges.  That gap is caused by the bookmark, not damage or spine problems.

   The four reference sheets.  One each for special rules and notes, Weapons of the Mechanicum, Weapons of the Space Marines, and weapons of the Solar Auxilia.  A very nice inclusion, I think.

  The two sides of the poster.  It is printed on very heavy card-stock, very durable.  This might be a candidate for a frame, but it would have to be back-folded and mounted very well in order to look good.

  So, there ya go.  The package in a nutshell.  Hopefully I'll get the guts up to review the contents, but I'm always leary of that, since I'm a newb!! :)

Leviathan - A Review

  It's here, it's here!!!  I was able to go to Active Imagination (my FLGS) on Friday and pick up a copy of Leviathan.  I was really jazzed, since it sold out almost immediately from the website (thanks Ben!!!)  A bout with kidney stones kept me from reviewing it right away, but here goes!

  Very cool, all in all.  The box set is divided into two books, one fluff and one rules.

  The rules book is pretty solid with six new Echoes of War missions that recreate the fluff battles from the other book.  They each have a little twist, but they are also rather limited since the sides are set.  Two of the missions are for Adeptus Sororitas (Sister of Battle) vs Tyranids and the other four are Adeptus Militarum (Imp Guard) vs Nids.  But that could be remedied easily enough, we all know how to do that...  The design of the missions do seem to capture the feel of the fluff from the book, so that makes them pretty cool.

  After the missions comes the Cities of Death rules, which are, again, pretty cool.  Cities of death used to be it's own book, and I bet they will release a book for these as well, in a separate release.  It comes with 66 new objectives tailored around a seriously urban terrain setup.  In fact, to do these missions, the seriously recommend that you have at least 6 good sized building/ruins terrain pieces.  Of course, the more, the merrier.  All objectives in these missions have to be in buildings or ruins.  There are also 6 missions with deployments and set ups.  It all looks very interesting and should add some spice to your game table in the near future.  There are no stratagems or campaign rules, which I had kind of hoped for, but the rules for achieving the objectives and the 66 new 'cards' will certainly capture the feel of an urban war, I think.  As always, keep in mind that city fights tend to equalize shooty-heavy armies with opponents that might not be that good at more open terrain.  Having limited lines of sight and tons of cover makes for more close-in fighting...  Me likey!

  Following the cities of death is the Death from the Skies section.  Regurgitated from the previous two incarnations (Crusade of Fire and ... errr... ummm... I forgot where they printed these before) and have nothing new at all.  Just the bare bones rules for fighter aces that cost +35 points and give some odd benefits.  Some are very cool, some are useless for the points.  Still, it might be a fun twist to add by mutual agreement in a pre-game discussion.

  Then comes the Tyranid section.  All the new Tyranid stuff is all here, the data sheets for the new and improved models as well as a few new formations for the Nids.  I'm not terribly familiar with the Nid formations, but these do seem to offer some flexibility that I am sure Nid players will really enjoy.  I will not let the wife see this book :)

  So, the rulebook is pretty solid, overall and worth the effort to get. 

  The fluff book is the heavyweight here and is, as could be predicted, gorgeous!  152 pages of some very well done, if a bit drawn out, fluffy goodness.  I am only about 1/3 of the way through a full reading of it, but it is very good throughout.  This book presents the forces of the Astra Militarum and the Adeptus Sororitas against a splinter of hive fleet Leviathan.  An odd choice of forces for the first book in what they describe as a new campaign series, but they tie it together in a way that makes sense.

  The part of it that makes me laugh a little is how open ended it 'seems' to be.  From the mapping (and the title... duh) we know that this is going to be the debut for the roll-out of the Blood Angels.  There also seems to be a lot of spots for almost anything to be added to this framework.  For me, I cannot wait for the BA release to see if they will be vanilla, castrated marines or if they will have some flavour remaining.  I fear that they might bring them out neutered (like so many other codex releases) and then pump them up down the road.  I hope not, but it might happen.

  There is a great deal of art in this book, lots of armies on parade pictures too.  There is also a great deal of well written fluff in here that ties the whole thing together.  I like the snippet stories that are all through the book and give that 'history as it happens' feel to the story.  I almost get the feeling that the last chapter is not written yet, as if it was like the old days with the world-wide campaigns??

  So, to wrap up, this is a very good set, IMHO, with very few disappointing aspects to it.  Some parts are just cobbled in from other things, but it does make for a good reference for all the recent releases.  For the first time in a while, I can justify saying that you are getting what you pay for here.  It's a solid release with a little bit of something for everyone and a treasure for the Nid players.  If you can get your paws/claws/hands/augmetic limbs on one, go for it.

New (small) rulebook and Nid Dice...

  Picked up the new, smaller rulebook from GW on the pure chance that it would be cool.  While it is smaller than the big rulebook, it is not smaller than the paperback rulebook that was in the Stormclaw set.  This leaves me really confused about where this thing "fits" in the product line.  Let me show you...

A tiny bit larger than the paperback version.

A lot thicker than the paperback version.

  I guess it fits in because the Stormclaw was a limited run thing, so the paperback copies are kind of rare, and this version will be on the product line for a bit.  So, the Pros and Cons...

Pros

• Very easy to read format.  Will be handy at the table and in lower light situations (like tournaments, where I can never seem to get enough light)
• All the rules presented in order...  :)
• 3, count'em three bookmarks.  (sounds silly, but it is handy to have certain sections marked out)
• The reference and index sections from the big rulebook.  very handy!!

 Cons

• $58.00
• The most recent FAQs are NOT in it.

So, I can recommend this if you want to make your kit smaller and you have the spare change...

More pics to follow for completeness sake.  At the end is a couple of pics of the Tyranid Dice tin.

Thoughts on Sanctus Reach

  Now that Sanctus Reach has come, and presumably gone, I'd like to offer some thoughts on the set, all the products in the 'range', if you will.  I can sum up my thoughts pretty succinctly, I think.  A missed opportunity, and a great effort.

  I say this because, as always, this is a great presentation from the games workshop folks.  The two boxed sets are very nicely done, if a bit pricey.  The rulebooks are very nice and the novellas look very interesting.  I have some time on the road coming up, and I am bringing both books to read.  They are big pront, so it whould be easy to get throguh.

  The Stormclaw set is pretty sweet, if I do say so myself.  The new orks and space vikings are very cool, brilliantly executed and you do get a lot of value for the money in the set.  I'm not a big fan of the grey canine keepers, but I do like me orkses, and me gotz lotz of kool orkses.  The models have a great character to them and will look good in any Space Wolf or Ork army.

 The campaign game that comes with Stormclaw, and is extended in the 2 boxed sets is pretty decent, I think.  It has really good feel to the missions and as far as I can see, it follows the narrative pretty well.  It's always nice to read a piece of the fluff and then be able to duplicate it right away.  I think that is a really good way to bring people into the game, in small chunk like this with good rules, good presentations and a good "look and feel".  What's really nice is that you get the models you need to do the campaign missions in the box.  Nothing else to buy.  Sort of.

  You see, herein lay the problems as well.  The Stormclaw box has the nice small rulebook, the minis you need, the campaign books with the missions and all the nice stuff.  Alas, the box is missing dice, rulers and templates.  Now this is not really a big deal, but how much of the 97 cents worth of plastic to add those items would have hurt the bottom line?  Really?  This means nothing to long time players and gamers, that stuff is easy to get, but what about the new guy?  The guy just starting out.

   The problem here is also two-fold.  They made this a limited edition.  So it's gone now, not on the shelves, unless you're lucky.  So that new guy that is looking for a way to get in on the hobby doesn't have that resource anymore.  Kinda sad.  It would almost make sense if we see a whole bunch more of these themed campaigns in the future.  Then this would all make sense, but if not, this is a product like that I think missed the mark.  It is probably well sold out, so it had a positive effect on botttom line, but I think the long term lack of foresight will bite old GW again...

  So, I guess I am really glad to have all these items, it's a good set of items and I feel like I got what I paid for.  But all in all, I see it as another small mis-step in the marketing the GW does.  Maybe this is just the first of many small campaign box releases, and if so, I'll eat these words.  But if not, I think they missed a big chance here.

Grukk agrees!

     

7th Edition Munitorium Video Unboxing and Review

  Hiya folks,  Just did a photo/video unboxing of the Collectors edition, err Munitorium edition of the 7th edition rule set.  No opinions on the rules, just a review of the Box Set itself and its qualities.

  Enjoy the vid...

See ya soon...  Be well.

Legion of the Damned Mini-Dex - rated - Meh to cool

  Always have had a soft spot of these guys, and this new $16.99 mini-dex promised tons of fluff for them.  Needless to say, I handed over my money, pre-order fashion and waited...

  Then the great computer debacle of 2014 occurred, which has led to a completely lost weekend as I upgraded to 2 new computers... blah blah blah, I'll spare you the details.  You don't care about them (unless you like the thought of 2 brand new Macs on my desk, muahahahaah!!!!)  So, I was able to read and digest the mini-dex yesterday and last night.  All in all, I would give it a B... a solid B, but not the A+ I hoped for.

  So, as far as a mini-dex goes, it's not too bad.  It concentrates on 1 thing, the LotD, obviously.  It does also make them different from the standard marine codex entry in many ways.

  They are now a detachment unto themselves, which seems to be a new rage with GW things.  They can ally with the usual suspects, Battle brothers with Imperium, hate Xenos totally, and are meh to Eldar/Tau.  They have a force org for their detachment so you can take a nasty big amount of them.  They can also nominate a warlord who gets some gonzo abilities and a relic of his own.

  One of the warlord traits is a great one called Never too late, Never too early, which allows them to arrive via reserve at will, no roll required, starting on turn 2, have to be in by turn 4.  Very nice to know you will have them when you need, but alas, only a 1 in six for that.  The other warlord traits are pretty nice, but no game changers.

  The squads are as you would expect, no major change to their stat lines.  The special rules are bumped a bit, and makes them a bit more fluffy.  They have the rule, Aid Unlooked For, which makes them unable to have ICs join them, requires reserve entry via deep strike, but does allow you to re-roll scatter dice if you want.  they also get Fear, Fearless and Slow and Purposeful.  The other rules they get give them Ignore Cover and a 3+ invul save.  All in all, a nice package of rules.

  Also in the dex are some missions, an Apocalypse data sheet for them and some other goodies, plus some really nice art. 

  So, why the B?  CUZ THEY DIDN'T ANSWER THE AGE OLD QUESTION IN THE FLUFF!!!!  (Sorry for yelling, just frustrated).  Everyone who has been in the game since the olden days (remember Rogue Trader?) has opinions about just who these blokes are and why they are here.  Yes, this codex adds ALOT of really nice fluff, background stories, first-hand witness accounts etc, BUT NO ANSWERS.  (I say that with tongue firmly in cheek.)  Still, the fluff is really quite good, and the legion are now much more configurable and can go anywhere, with anyone.

  Can you make a LotD army list?  Nope, not that I can see.  No vehicles, no troops (all LotD are elites, but they are their own detachment, so they don't count against you) and no ICs.  (I think if you make them primary detachments though, they become scoring units, so you just might be able to pull it off).  They will make a very nice, powerful add on to an imperial list, or give some real flanking punch to one of their more erstwhile allies.  These guys are tough hombres and you have to kill them dead, dead, dead to make them go away.  Since they are, like Codex Inquisition units, a detachment unto themselves, you could conceivably have 7 units on the board (3 from main force org elite slots and 4 from this detachment slots).

  I think I just saw a Sisters of Battle army becoming viable???  :)

  So there you have it, my thoughts after a good nights reading the mini-dex.  Hope you enjoyed it!  See ya soon.  Need to get to work on my new Imperial Knight :)

Thoughts on Escalation and Stronghold Assault

  Just some quick thoughts on the Escalation and Stronghold Assault books.  Picked these up this weekend from the FLGS.

Escalation

  I was kind of incredulous at first, since I started with Escalation.  For those who don't know, this is the expansion that allows you to bring "Lords of War" into the normal 40k games.  Lords of war are nothing more than Apocalypse models that are normally held only within the bounds of Apoc games. Not every super-heavy from Apoc is here, but most of the signature models are here.  I have to imagine ForgeWorld will be adding A LOT to this as time goes on.

  First, You have to remember that allowing Lords of War (LoW) into the normal game is strictly optional and needs to be agreed upon by both players.  (EDIT: I should point out, there is nothing that says, in the book, that these are optional rules, the community consensus is that these rules are now standard, I say optional since nobody can force me to play a game I don't want to play, nor should you!!) That being said, these are still big time game changers. I do not see these rules being the norm for many games.  A single Apoc type model is going to seriously change a game.  There are D weapons on those things.  D weapons are such super-heavy weapons that they kill everything on a good hit, no save, no invul saves, no cover saves, no reanimation, just DIE.  Luckily, to have this huge effect, D weapons have to roll on a separate chart to determine the severity of their impact.  At the lower end of the scale, they just cause A LOT of wounds and carnage.

  There is a lot of talk going on some of the boards, that I have seen, that these are going to ruin the game.  I don't think so.  First, you have to agree to use them.  Second, they are not unkillable by normal units.  Most of them have between 9 and 12 hull points, so they are not beyond the scope of most armies to kill.  Of course, they do not roll on the normal vehicle kill table (no 6 to explode a Thunderhawk gunship).  Lastly, they cost a BUTT load of points to put on your list.  Oh, one more thing, there is a Warlord trait table in here for the person who does NOT take a LoW unit.  This is a MASSIVE table that you WILL use if you play against a LoW player, they are warlord traits that will even up the game immensely.

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

My crazy life... IMP Armour 12, Night Shroud, Nova Open Raffles

  Ok, writing this post on my iPad as I lie in the hospital bed I'm chained to for another night.  Long story short, sat night/Sunday morning I went into anaphylaxis shock and was not able to breathe.  Not a cool thing, but the Rio Rancho FD was on the scene ASAP (heroes!!)  Lots of doctoring going on and I find out that I also have type 2 diabetes.  To add insult to injury, I ordered a collector's edition of Apocalypse on Friday, only to find out today that they had sold out before my order went in.  Shitty weekend, all in all.

  But, I did get some cool stuff in the last few weeks.  quick reviews follow...

Forge World - Necron Night Shroud Bomber

 Yeah, this thing rocks.  For one, the model is way better than  the Storm Eagle I bought previously.  The parts are much better fit and it looks like this one might go together pretty easily.

  And... it has Death Spheres.  Think photon torpedoes for the battlefield.  S10 AP1 Large Blast, bomb with blind and pinning.  That's a world of hurt and it carries 5 of them.

  I cannot wait to build this thing and give it a shot.

Forge World - Imperial Armour 12 - The Fall of Orpheus

 Wowza!  Expensive but is this ever great.  I have never picked up an imperial armor book before, but after listening to the Independent Characters podcast review, I had to order it.

 Am I ever glad I did.  Just the fluff section is great, but it really shines with the 3 army lists and campaign systems.  The army lists are for a new Necron dynasty called the Maynarkh.  Very cool options with these guys and you can take a lot of it to regular 40k.  The new units are fun.

  The other lists are for a Space Marine Minotaurs chapter, again, cool stuff here.  The last entry is for the update ImpGuard Death Corps of Krieg.  Again, very cool to look at, and I am not a Guard person at all.  If I was to do any Imp Guard stuff, it would be these guys, no question.

  The campaign system is outstanding.  Very fair and balanced while allowing you to play anything you like.  There are some example missions but they are suggestions and you can do anything you like, Zone Mortalis, regular 40k, even BFG if you like. 

  The book is way worth what you pay for it 48 Brit Pounds or $71 dollars at today's rate.  Expensive but you do get what you pay for.  

Forge World - Abbadon and Loken

 Ok, who doesn't love Loken and hate Abbadon, when reading the book(s).  This is a gorgeous set of figs and base.  The great part is both characters are on bases that slide in and out of the diorama, so you can have this as a great display piece, but also use the characters in a game.

Awesome!!!



Well, that's about it for now, getting tired and it's almost time for a vital signs check.  Signing off...

DOH... one more thing...

The guys at Nova Open are doing charity army raffles at this years open.  Here is the text from their website raffle section.

Our biggest fundraising events will be charitable army raffles, which focus on engaging the tabletop miniature gaming communities. Raffle tickets are sold online HERE continuously until the drawings which will occur at the NOVA Open Convention on Sunday, September 1, 2013. This year, there are three painted armies being created for the following causes:

• 40K Dark Angels: Redemption of the Fallen Army for Doctors Without Borders
• 40K Necrons: House of the Silent King Army for Fisher House Foundation
• Warmachine/Hordes: The Lightish Red Army (aka Pink) for Breast Cancer Research Foundation

 Sounds awesome to me, and they are giving .95cents of every $1 spent on raffle tickets and you do not need to be there to win.  Very cool!  I just had to plug that.

Now I'm outta here...

Death from the Skies

Or, the hurrier I go, the behinder I get.

  What a day.  After trying to kill the Dish Network guy, things went downhill...

  But I still got my hopper and it is pretty freakin cool.  My fed-up-ness wirth DirectTV is finally over.

  I did try to start painting the realm of battle boards tonight.  Only to find that when I spray primered them, I used an enamel primer... yay Me!!  In a hurry, in a cheap mood, got stupid and bammo, now I have to re-prime the boards.  Oh well.  I should still get to them this weekend if all goes well still.  it is annoying though, I was all ready to go and nada.

  But on to the new book. Thunder from the skies is a mixed bag, IMHO. There is about 15 pages of fluff. Then a section on new air war missions, just like any other mission book they have put out. If you want to use them, you have to roll and win, then you can roll to see which one you play (unless you both agree, of course). After that is a reprint of the Burning Skies rules for air combat and more flyer fun to add to the game. Up next is the 'Bestiary', war gear and army lists for the flyers. The Space marine section adds icons to show what flavor SM chapter has access to what flyers.

WIPs and Chains and DFA!!

  Ok, no whips and chains, really...  I meant Works in Progress.  Get your minds out of there!!

  I am posting a pic of my new improved Aquila from the Honored Imperium set.  I think the stone look came out ok, but I think it will really pop when the background is painted on.  I am following the same basic thoughts as the Warhammer Lady (see link to the right).  I want that look of fallen stone, not the fallen metal Aquila I had tried before.  In retrospect, it looked garish in metal.  I'm glad I stripped it.  Hopefully I can knock it all out this weekend.

  Got a new piece of Pegasus Hobbies Terrain, the small Gothic City Building kit.  Very cool kit, it really is a decent investment, and I am just about to plunk down the money for the bigger set.  A great alternative to GW terrain and will make the board look a little different.  The picture just gives you an idea of what's in the box.  It snaps together, but for any real gaming, it will require glue and a lot of mold line work.  All the usual prime/paint stuff as well.  But again, their stuff is modular, so you can combine the kits in a particular range to get something really cool.  Odd part on this kit, no floor or roof.  Easy enough to fix, but just kind of odd.  Also, the conical caps for the columns, only 8 in the kit, but there is a crap-ton of columns.  I wish they had tossed in a few more sprues of those.  I may just have to cast some of those from plaster or something like that.  These are not a lot cheaper than the GW stuff, but the change in design and look is worth it, I think.

Also, just ordered Death From The Skies.  GW's new compendium of aerial rules.  Yes, I paid the $33 for the book, like a good GW fanboi should.  But it looks really cool.  And the promise of being able to use the Storm Raven with VSM and Templars is just too good to pass up!  Especially now that I have redone the fluff of my chapter to be a cross between BA and BT.  I have heard a lot of arguments that say this is a bad thing, GW selling this direct order only, with no pre-release hype, but I cannot say as I mind.  There are no secrets in this hobby, everyone knew it was dropping today.  I'm looking forward to it!

    

Crusade of Fire

So, I'm one of those that went out and ordered GWs new Crusade of Fire book as soon as it was available to order. Two reasons, 1) I much rather to play campaign format games and 2) I have always been intrigued by the Planetary Empires set.

To be honest, I did not know the campaign system was a build on, or refinement to the planetary empires set. At least not when I bought it. That doesn't bother me, but it may turn off some folks. It kind of makes me think the book was a vehicle to sell more sets of hexes. (But that is why GW is in business, right?)

The campaign system presented in the book is really quite good, I think. The crusade covers two forces, space marines and chaos. There is a third faction, but Moreno that later. The campaign system uses the planetary empires sets to track the status of the campaign, but that is not really necessary. You can track it all using paper, or even computer programs. There is an iPad app I just got called Hex Map Pro that would work perfectly.

They really suggest using a GM for the campaign, and I tend to agree. They do show how the gm can be players as well. It's all well presented. They show how the the three turns, or phases of the campaign play out, and it is really quite engaging. For once, when reading something from GW, I felt like it was them having fun, and not just selling product or playing it a pre-planned battle report.

The campaign is a fight for a system that has just recently emerged from a warp storm. As the campaign plays out, more planets are revealed to be fought over. Very cool idea for changing the layout of homemade campaigns. What's very odd is the third faction in the fight. It feels tacked on, like a last minute change to a planned thing. Still, the third faction shows you how to shoe-horn a new player or faction into your own deal.

Overall, I think the campaign system is great, and the presentation is great as well. They show how to add all kinds of spice to the campaign system without bogging it down too much. The real beauty is how you can use this system to do your own campaigns using the ideas and building blocks they have given you in the book.

As a bonus, in the back of the book are rules for demon worlds, a gladiator combat system for independent characters and a dogfight system for aircraft in 40k games.

Demon world rules are great. Hands down the most bad-ass section of the book.

Dogfight rules are fun and look like they might play well. They don't seem like they will add too much overhead or extra time to a game, but they do add some time, so caveat emptor... Basically it's like challenges for aircraft. There are three sub-phases that get played out when a dogfight starts, and chances to make choices in each. A table is used to cross reference you and your opponents choices and see what happens. In the dogfight section is also special maneuvers and a few pages of upgrades you can buy in your list for your flyers. (pilots with mad skillz).

The gladiator combat system is comical at best. It would be a fun sideboard thing to do while your waiting for your next tourney slot or whatever. It is horridly balanced, but as long as you both approach it in good fun, it looks like it could be fun. You basically agree on a point value for an IC then go toe to toe in the ring. You use cards that you photocopy from the book to control the fight and how the crowd likes you. It's pretty simple, and might be a fun distraction for a while.

All in all, I found it to be a great book. My problem is the price. I generally don't knock gw for their pricing, but this book seems a little over the top to me. It's not all that thick but it does deliver on what it says it will. It was a limited release, and that's something I hope they don't make a habit of. I don't mind the occasional limited release, but this is a campaign source book? Why a limited release?

Well, that's about it. Hope it helps you decide if your gonna pop on that eBay auction, since that's about the only way to get it now...