Apocalypse 2nd Ed - First thoughts

Overall, I think the new edition is fantastic. Clears up a lot of the ambiguity and streamlines much of it (I like that they suggest scrapping all vehicle damage aside from blown up for instance) and it's written much tighter, so there's not as many holes in the rules.

 (Apocalypse, in macro form)

They also toned down the horribly broken combos, and while there are a few solid choices to be made there aren't any no-brainers. StrD is not so bad as some make it out to be IMO. Highly effective at killing vehicles as always, but there's a 1 in 6 chance it will do nothing to infantry.


 One thing I don't like is the new "after the break" system for some things as it's a bit too meta for my tastes (and I usually love meta stuff). I understand it as a concept and I do like that they've included more of a guide for organising, but tying rules to when you have lunch is a bit... odd.
Not a huge fan of keeping most vehicles off the board either by restricting their entry, but I see why they did it. Still no big deal and I'd rate this version 50% better than the old one.

 As for my thoughts on specific dealies...

 Assets:

 Flank March - now only brings on one formation. Did you know you can have 200 Necron warriors in a formation?

 Trophy Kill can be good as it's easy to vapourise people with StrD now and earn an easy 3 VPs to recycle Titans over and over with.

 Tunnel Rats could be used to hilarious effect with Precise Coordinates to deploy gigantic swathes of IG to the board up close and personal.

 Most of the Space Marine ones are kinda terrible, mostly due to small scale or not particularly epic effect. 

Daemon Shell got improved as you don't have to nominate who has it until you shoot it.

 Ere We Go can't hurt in the world of random charges.

Idol of Gork (or possibly Mork) - give you Rage! Must be in your deployment zone... uh, no.

 Mek Workshop - restores vehicles to full hull points. Combine with Stompa Mobz and have everyone hate you.

 Strands of Fate. Good for bragging rights or just being an insufferably smug Eldar player. Unless you roll a one in which case play it off as a joke.

Webway Assault - crazy good, especially when combined with the Kabalite Web Strike to give you four vehicle accessible portals anywhere on the board.

World Digestion - still as annoying as ever.

Entropic Plague - everyone will hate you. Forever. But you're playing Necrons so that should only make you more powerful.

Formations

The big change is that Formations are now free - so if you have the models just whack them into one because there's only benefits (aside from needing to squadron up).

Some interesting things about the changes to Superheavy vehicles are that, aside from being unstoppable killing machines, they're generally faster, can be targeted by psychic powers (Baneblade with 4+ invulnerable!) but can also be locked in HtH combat, which is a huge change with how assaulting Titans will play out. Before with having to disengage each turn it left attackers vulnerable to countercharges and being shot to death. Now they can tie up a Titan much longer. I think StrD melee weapons will be a little more common now out of it, as most Titans don't have a high attack score to just bludgeon their way out of combat (even with Stomp attacks).

High Commands are also basically amazing as they give you one free Strategic Asset during the game.

Anyways, arm up, and let's look at what's cookin':

Lord Castellan's Command is a great choice for an IG army, with lots of benefits at a relatively low points cost. Trick is to keep Creed alive of course.

The Space Marine Companies are both good, especially if you're planning on taking them anyway. The only downside is you have to deploy them all together. 1st Company is a bit better as it gives everyone Deep Strike and Fear as well as lots of other benefits.

Wings of Sanguinius can deep Strike in the enemy's turn, meaning next turn (if they survive) they can run around and assault and so on.

The GK Extermination Force is probably the only formation I would come close to calling broken. While it fits the background if you bring it against Daemons in particular don't expect many invites again. It does have the weakness that the Dreadknight is the key so it's not that dangerous.

The Lord of Skulls is perhaps a little overpriced (I must meditate on this some more), but not hugely.

The Tetragon of Darkness isn't anywhere near as annoying with the change to StrD weapons.

Dread Mobs are a great investment for any Waaaaagh.

The Stompa went up in points..? I'm not seeing why.

Phantom Titans are good now, really good (assuming you can keep them out of assault). The D-Cannon did lose the ability to ignore shields, which kinds blows, but the new Superheavy damage rules really benefit the Eldar the most.

Sunstorm Squadrons got even crazier and will utterly annihilate huge chunks of the battlefield easily. One of the deadliest formations in the book IMO.

Fielding a Wraithknight Dreamwalker Squad is nifty and could really catch people off guard when they start running around 11" a turn.

All the Dark Eldar formations are good, but Dark Olympiad (even better with the Duke)and Kabalite Web Strike are the stand outs. Everything in the book for the DE works so well together they can easily be a top Apoc army without any Superheavies.

Endless Swarm is kinda insane as after turn 4 you can only Snap Shot at it, and it is theoretically infinitely large...

The Heirophant has been fixed up so it now actually has workable rules, and I don't think is either borked or over priced depending how you look at it.

The Necrons are a real mixed bag. A few don't seem very good due to either just not being very good (Obelisk - very situational) or impractical (Baleful Necropolis - stay within 3"? Why, yes, I do want lots of StrD pie plates!). Infinite Phalanx is funny as it's a single 50+ warrior unit. The downside is that it's all one unit so can be bogged down in HtH by a few guys for a long time.

The Tesseract Vault and Transcendent C'Tan can be dead killy (the C'Tan especially), but can also be very, very pricey. You can easily make the C'Tan cost over 800pts, and it will wreck face without doubt, but it also explodes horribly when it dies so...

The Macro Cannon Aquila is a fairly cost effective way of getting StrD and an AV15 bunker into the deal. The Vortex version isn't as good simply due to the Vortex rule changes.


So that's my thoughts on the first pass of the book. Not necessarily accurate, not necessarily final, but certainly there. Or here. Or whatever.

Review: Imperial Armour 12: The Fall of Orpheus

Imperial Armour Volume 12: The Fall of Orpheus is Forge World’s latest offering in the series, covering said fall at the hands of the dastardly Necrons. It’s the first to feature our cyborganised chums, but the Death Korps of Krieg and the Minotaurs Chapter are here for some familiarity.
What I’m interested to see is if they’ve overcome the all too familiar editing errors that hamstrung the last IA outing…

Story and Background

In a departure from the last few IA books volume twelve, despite the title, isn’t the full story. The background is, in fact, merely the prelude to the campaign setting. See, the background charts the Orpheus sector all the way from its discovery pre-Heresy through to the Necron incursion, and then stops after the Necrons have flattened the Imperial forces. The campaign is designed to represent the war to reclaim the sector / save what’s left, so there is no fixed winner or loser as in books such as Vraks or Badab.
That said Alan Bligh’s introduction (itself a good read) indicates that there may be more to come from the sector, so who knows what end will be made canon.

Now, my biggest gripe of IA:11 (aside from the editing, or lack thereof) was that there wasn’t enough Eldar. This book does and doesn’t address that issue, but I was left overall happy with how it was balanced. It’s told as a history analysis, a textbook account interspersed with snippets of Inquisitorial insights to guide future generations so they may avoid the same fate. Because of that the Necrons themselves don’t appear in the flesh, as it were, until almost the end. The best comparison I can draw is the movie Predator – you don’t really see the Predator until very late, but its influence guides and shapes the story and actions of those it’s toying with.
We, as outside observers with the benefit of our meta knowledge, can see what all these portents and mysterious actions are shaping into, but the Imperial forces’ lack of action seems almost reasonable in the circumstances. The Necrons are always there, doing their Necron-y thing, but like all good horror monsters they have the good sense to do it off camera.

The Necrons themselves aren’t left as shadowy bogeymen, and there are a great number of insights into how the different courts interact with one another, the different methodologies behind their long sleeps, and even some tidbits about the origins of the Flayer Virus.
I’ve seen a few people comment that they’ve been looking forward to the rumoured return of the Red Harvest, and it is certainly back here with a bloody vengeance. The particular Necron dynasty in the book, the Maynarkh, are all touched by the Flayer if not all totally crazy, so whilst the Flayed Ones are of course doing their whole “it puts the lotion on the skin” thing the rest of them are given reason to participate, and it brings a degree of pathos to their actions in my eyes.

The Imperials get some loving, as would be expected ,with the Death Korps having the usual background blurb and some new bits thrown in to do with their names and organisation. The Minotaurs have their turbulent and shrouded history revealed a little more after the Badab books, but no conclusions are drawn (though there are plenty more implications).

There are no particularly amazing moments that I feel the need to gush about, but more importantly there are no brain-dead moments of editorial idiocy to cringe at. In fact I didn’t notice a single error in the entire book! There may well be some, but given the hack job they did to 11 and 8’s numerous missing rules, it’s a million percent improvement.
I found it an enthralling read, well planned and dripping with atmosphere. Like Badab I, Orpheus is also a great resource for background junkies. There are small details about the procedures for colonising planets (including edicts that can just up and move a population if the Imperium sees fit, or give them all over to the Mechanicus), politicking and inter departmento relations. Despite the growing doom it gives a view into how a sector runs day-to-day, with the disruption and tension pirate raids cause interspliced with the economic balancing required of the different worlds.

Mmmmmurder donut

There is not a lot of action when compared to other IA books, but the Death Korps get a few battles and are allowed to show off a bit, while the Minotaurs wreck some serious face. It’s never one-sided in the combat, or, if it is, it goes to the Necrons who annihilate the ever-loving-bejeezus out of a lot of stuff with contemptuous ease due to surprise or overwhelming numbers.
The story does contain a few links to the Badab books by virtue of the Minotaur’s presence, and has a few cameos, such as a brief appearance by the Grey Knights and a retro appearance of the 8th Necromunda “Spiders” regiment, which was pretty neat.


I would also be remiss if I failed to give special mention to the art. This is hands down the best looking Imperial Armour to date, and I personally think the best looking GW book since Rogue Trader days. The illustrations are beautiful, and rendering the character plates over a black background with deep, shadowed colours was the obvious, but totally correct choice. To put it simply this book sis just so evocative, there’s little besides total praise I can say.
Literally the only negative I can think with the art is that they a) didn’t make the Asterion Moloc art as a poster – it is phenominal, and b) they don’t show enough of the Necron minis in the book. Mind you that does mean the diorama shots of the Death Korps fighting through tunnels takes on a very Aliens feel with the shadowy half-seen or unseen foe. See – even the negative is a good point!

Rules, Armylists and Units

There are two complete army lists presented – the Necron Dark Harvest and Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade – while the Minotaurs are essentially a list of add-ons for the current line of Space Marine Codexes.

The Necron Dark Harvest list is, aside from the few unique Forge World units, close to identical to the Codex list. There are some minor force-org changes , and many units gains some minor wargear choices, but the biggest change is to the HQ units who, to tie in with the Dynasty’s flayer taint, all have special rules that can make them go crazy during the game. Additionally the list can be built to be very construct heavy, mainly due to the additional Forge World units present.
The list is geared as a high number aggressive attack force that can take a lot of casualties. No doubt many of the usual Necron uber-builds will work just as well, but then there is no need to use the list.
There are a couple of special characters to use as well. First is Dynasty’s most implacable and deadly warlord, Joan Collins:

With shoulder pads like that I'm surprised GW hasn't tried to sue her...

I mean Kutlakh the World Killer. He’s not overly remarkable, but unusual (for the Necrons) in that to befit the army he is built as a close combat monster.

The other is Toholk the Blinded, a Chronomancer and Arch-Cryptek. He is a buff-giver, doling out bonuses to his war machines and re-rolls to units he joins.  Of the two Toholk seems to be more useful to me from that point of view, but he’s nowhere near as tough to kill.

New units are the Tomb Stalker, Tomb Sentinel, Acanthrites, mini pylons, Tesseract Ark and the Night Shroud Bomber.
The Sentry Pylons are heavy support units, also purchasable for the standard Codex, and come in batteries of 1-3. They are unique in that they don’t need crew and can deploy in a slightly dispersed formation.
They have three weapon choices, though only one can Skyfire/Intercept, but it’s got 120” range, so all good.

Tomb Stalkers haven’t changed much from the previous rules, but have a couple of options to bring them in line with the new Codex.
The variant model, the Tomb Sentinel is basically a Stalker with a short ranged no-save make a Str test or die blast weapon.

Tha Acanthrites are jump infantry with short range melta weapons and aren’t too shabby in close combat either.

The Tesseract Ark is essentially a gunboat. Heavy with moderate defences, but well armed. It hits very hard and, while it can take a punch, it's not as tough as a Monolith.

The Night Shroud’s rules look ok to me, and it is definitely a bomber, armed with twin-linked tesla destructors and five Death Spheres – str10, AP1, large blast, blinding, pinning bombs – and nothing else. It is tough with 4hp but only moderate armour.

The rules for the Gauss Pylon are also updated (the only Super Heavy in the book, actually), and the Tomb citadel has its rules introduced. The Tomb Citadel improves the shooting of a unit docked to the main building, gives a save to any unit on the citadel and can take a pair of gun turrets. It seems underpriced for what it does, as Necron forces castled up there would get a 3+ invulnerable and re-rolls to 1s on resurrection rolls.

The Minotaurs characters are Lord Asterion Moloch, Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi, Dreadnought Hecaton Aiakos and Vigilator-Sergeant Hamath Kraatos.

Asterion Moloch, like most Marine characters, is an unholy death-machine in combat, and is geared solely towards close combat. His profile and abilities are reminiscent of Lysander, though beefed up as befits a Chapter Master.

Enkomi, in addition to having one of the most metal mini in GW’s history:

Slaaaaaayeeerrrrr!!!!!

 is, amazingly, even more geared towards close combat than his glorious leader, buffing his squad into Rage filled Zealots.

Aiakos is a Contemptor dread with a special close combat attack.

Kraatos is, despite the name, not a(nother) hand to hand specialist, but the 2iC of the 9th company. He’s a devastator squad upgrade and carries a heavy bolter. Sorry, a sniper heavy bolter.

Most of the other units are updating some of the older units (Damoclese Rhino, Deathstorm Drop Pod, Sentry Gun) and including newer ones such as the Deimos Predators and Storm Eagles.



The Death Korps Assault Brigade list is, essentially, the Codex: Imperial Guard list with Forge World units subbed in.
They have the special character Marshal Karis Venner, who in keeping with the book’s theme, is a badass in melee. Yes, in IA12 even the Guard are hand to hand murder machines!
Otherwise the Death Korps, like the marines, are seeing a tidying up of older units (making the Hades less broken [it has to deep strike, as do units coming after so if the enemy blocks them they mishap]) and the inclusion of newer ones (Rapiers, Avenger).

As best I can tell every special rule is either cross-referenced or listed in the book, and I didn’t spot any particularly glaring oddities present in some of the more recent products. It seems the attention from the Horus Heresy series has made them pick up their game.



Campaign and other Rules

The Campaign is a pretty standard campaign set-up – multiple theatres, different battle types etc, with some limitations about assigning units to certain theatres making them unavailable in others, but nothing radically different from the last few books.
As mentioned above the campaign is less a reconstruction of the events in the book but a continuation of the war described. This is something I think Forge World would be better served by in some instances, so as to alleviate the debate of “the Imperium never wins” vs “they make the xenos suck and die too much” if nothing else.
The Zone Mortalis rules are also included here.

One notable thing I mentioned above is that there is only one Super Heavy in the book (the Gauss Pylon) and no Apocalypse formations – another sign Apoc is being updated soon?
One odd thing were the six pages of adverts in the back of the book for other IA tomes. Full colour ads for some of the newer releases. Given GW isn’t stocking FW in stores anymore it seems like a wasted effort to me as if you have this book you’re unlikely to be any more spurred to pick up a copy of IA Masterclass than you were ordering it from Forge World’s website.
Not a big deal, just… odd.


Summary and Scores

Overall a fantastic book. The army lists may not be divergent enough for everyone’s tastes, but then again they could be seen as not too divergent to be more widely acceptable. Even though the Necrons aren’t as visible as other xeno races in their books it felt they had a greater impact on the story, like the Tyranids in IA4.


Story and Background – 8/10. While you may think I’d give it higher I am aware that things like the methodology of a planet becoming an Imperial World isn’t something everyone is interested in, so the somewhat dryer text may be a bit dull for some folks. That said the story is skilfully crafted and the many asides and callouts are very characterful and enhance the book even more.

Art and Layout – 10/10. This is a gorgeous book that drips with atmosphere. Not much more to say than that.

Army Lists and Rules – 6/10. Again, a seemingly low score, but while well executed there is much of the same-old here. If you want new rules, or just to use one unit, this book will not hold a great deal of value for you. If you want rules that work, there will be no issues. On a positive units that have languished without a 6th ed update or have been long reviled are cleaned up and there is quite a host of special characters to choose from.

Extras – 7/10. The campaign fits the story, and is presented with a slight twist to the previous iterations. Zone Mortalis is a sensible addition and a great set of rules by themselves and a welcome inclusion.

Overall (not an average) – 9/10

Yep, I think it’s that good. Do keep in mind that I am basing this on a weighting towards the story and art over the rules as explained above. However if you’re a fan of 40k lore, this book is a great read.

Review: Imperial Armour 11, the Doom of Mymeara

Imperial Armour Volume 11: The Doom of Mymeara is the latest addition to the IA series of books. It is the story of the invasion of the frozen Imperial world of Betalis III by a combined force of Craftworld Eldar and their Corsair brethren.

Story and Background

Like all Forge World books it is lavishly illustrated, opening with a six page full colour spread. The internal pictures are all beautifully done, and I’d say it is the best looking IA yet. The story telling is the standard after action report style of the series, and begins with the initial Corsair raids and the cat-and-mouse game between the Eldar and Imperial Guard forces as the raiders prodded and probed the seemingly random outposts before disappearing.
It soon comes to heated battle, and an Inquisitor arrives and sends a distress call to the nearby group of Space Wolves – Bran Redmaw’s great company. They arrive as the Eldar forces are on the verge of overwhelming the Imperials, and turn the tide, driving off the Xenos. But did they stop the aliens achieving their true goal..?

The story is well plotted and has plenty of twists and turns, with the Imperials giving a good showing even as they’re getting overwhelmed by the superior Eldar forces. There has been some mention of the Phantom Titans seeming underpowered against the Imperials, but to my reading is fine. The Phantom and its two Revenants are wailing on a Reaver and two Warhounds. They are driven off after the rest of the War Griffons show up – that would be five more titans of indeterminate classes, but either way I think it’s reasonable for the Phantom to retreat in the face of that.


This links in with the book’s worst aspect – it is edited terribly. I don’t mean Forge World’s usual brain-fart typos and messing up the rules, but it’s like in the rush to get it out for Christmas they didn’t have time to proof-read. For example:

“As the Nightwings, Phoenix and Vampires soared down, they were met with a tremendous firestorm of las shot and artillery shell. What heavy armour his command staff could muster, but he had not sent the young colonel into battle empty handed.”

What?

It’s like they just cut out the beginning of the sentence, or part of the paragraph. There are a couple of other instances of this sort of thing, as well as glaring typos. Some include:

- Units being Jet Pack Infantry as their base type, but you have to pay to buy them jet packs

- Duplicating a piece of wargear in a units listing

- A superfluous mention of 0-1 and 0-2 restictions

- Webway portal wargear rules included… but nobody in the Corsair list can take it…

Etc, etc…

Now, Talima Fox’s prose is fine, but very uneven – the second paragraph of the book contains a 42 word run on sentence, and the focus on the macro and micro changes often. By this I mean that we’ll be essentially hearing a character’s life story, and then the exact details of how a battle was fought, then back to century spanning events in the next line.
The aforementioned editing issues don’t help at all either (I’m pretty sure I saw an ‘utterly decimated’ in there, but I can’t find it again). One particular example that stuck out was hearing how the Eldar were mowing through the IG forces defending a mining facility, “but it was at the entrance to the mines that the worst atrocities were committed by the Eldar.” We then read about how the mining vehicles (and militia behind them) blocking the entrance were destroyed by Fire Dragons… and that’s it. No massacre of cowering civilians, no revelling in the destruction, nothing particularly worse than what had just been described really.

Ms Fox seems to have a thing for Fire Dragons, and I can't blame her.

Compared to other IA stories, Mymeara feels short. The shortness isn’t a bad thing, the story gets to the point and never drags on or re-hashes the same type of battle over and over. Each piece of combat is different to the last, or a continuation that adds to the story rather than repeats it. In tone, aside from a few story callout boxes, it is very much a historical account. There are no real ‘character moments’ in the story. Generals command and soldiers fight, but aside from a few moments with particular notable officers or commanders (such as Bran Redmaw himself) most characters go unnamed. Whether or not this is a bad thing would be up to personal taste.

My gut instinct is that for whatever reason they cut sections out of the prose at the last minute, and didn’t have time to do a final edit before rushing off to print. I mean Forge World is renowned for its lax editing standards, but this is bad. Now you’re probably thinking it’s a terrible book – but the truth is far from it if you’re able to look past the superficial errors and enjoy the story. The ending section, written as the aforementioned Inquisitors account of a battle, is especially well done and I found neither the Eldar nor Imperials to be portrayed as weaker or too out of character.

One thing that is done very well is scale. It is an unfortunate thing that Sci-Fi writers have no sense of scale, but Talima Fox avoids this pitfall. The crapsack mining world of Betallis III still has a population of over six million, and the combats include large volumes of superheavies and huge numbers of regular vehicles. One example is that over a hundred War Walkers and five Cobras were recovered by the Imperials after the fighting – that’s just the salvage, not units engaged.

Coming back to that macro/micro thing, the Eldar section isn’t as fleshed out as I’d like – for the first real information on Corsairs in a 40k book there wasn’t much to go on about how they do things. We probably could have done without 14 pages of pictures of Space Wolf troopers and vehicles and had a couple more pages on Corsair society in my opinion. Fortunately the various Rogue Trader books have good source material on the various Corsair groups found in the Expanse, but it is a lost opportunity.

A dozen pages of this is certainly better than information about the Corsairs!

The same can be said of the Eldar special characters – namely that in a society with no gender divisions (and canon 50/50 chance of a warrior being female) it is a bit of a disappointment that neither the new Phoenix Lord, nor any of their new troopers, are female – especially from a boutique company like Forge World (and it’s not an easy prospect to convert the Shadow Spectres either). Another oddity is that none of the photos showcase the Corsair kits – they appear in the background of one or two photos, but as the new shiny toys they don’t get much play.



Army Lists and Units

First up are the Cadian regiments and a description of their notable actions. They are led by General Myndoras Odon, supreme commander of the Guard defenders. He has his own description and comes with a command squad and rules wise is Creed lite, including a special ability “Careful Planner”.
Next up is a brief discussion of the Cadian forces. It’s a generic description of Cadian forces, which seems superfluous given most people buying an Imperial Armour book would be familiar with the regiments already.
After this comes rules for the Malcador Infernus, Praetor Assault Launcher and Crassus Transport. Rules are the same as in IA: Apocalypse 2.

The Elysians get a brief write up, explaining they were hitching a ride with the Legio Gryphonicus detachment so were diverted by circumstances rather than choice. Legio Gryphonicus have a short bit of blurb, noting that one of the Reaver’s machine spirits was especially skilled at fighting the Eldar, having fought them before.

The Imperials continue with Bran Redmaw’s Great Company coming next. One point of contention I’ve noticed is that the Space Wolves are noted as a 2nd founding Chapter. It reads to me that this is meant to mean that as a Chapter they came from the 2nd founding, the Space Wolves Legion being noted as their predecessor. Regardless, it’s still a weird way of writing it.

He even gets a model before the Farseer.

The Great Company gets a lengthy write up, and the aforementioned 14 pages of pictorials.
Game play wise they aren’t any different from the regular Space Wolves, but their master certainly is. Skarvald the Troll-faced did a great write up on his rules for those interested. Story wise he’s constantly struggling against the Curse of the Wolfen, but no insight into the curse is given – it just is.


The Eldar section begins with Craftworld Mymeara, telling of their struggle to survive and the intercession of Phoenix Lord Irillyth that saved them. One interesting tidbit is that each craftword came from a single Eldar planet, so they already had separate identities from one another before the fall, explaining the different ‘personalities’ of the factions. There’s more to the Mymeara Craftworld, but that would be spoiling the story.

Alaitoc is also present, an ally of Mymeara, and has their own background section. It is odd, as half of it is dedicated to an account of defeating a Hivefleet Behemoth splinter (that macro/micro thing again), which felt too much like copying Iyandens shtick.


The Shadow Spectres and their Phoenix Lord come first unit-wise, and have undergone a few revisions since the beta rules. They’ve got an invulnerable save that varies dependant on enemy range and the Prism Rifle rules have been tweaked a little. That said the Exarch lost his ability to fire separately from the Ghostlight, so taking a Haywire Launcher does… something to the shot (rules for the Prism Blaster are included).

The combined range, rather than being 12”+12” per extra model firing is now 18”+6” per two firing models (rounding odd numbers down) in the squad. That seems overly complicated to me, as you need two to shoot 24” (as in the beta), but four to shoot 30” where four would fire 48” in the beta.
One big improvement is moving them from the clogged Heavy Support section to the Fast Attack slot. Phoenix Lord Irillyth is what you’d expect – standard statline and beefed up version of his aspect’s gear.

The second special character is Farseer Bel-Annath, supreme seer of Mymeara. He’s a combat focussed Farseer, having previously served as an Autarch after a life on the path of the warrior after a stint as an outcast. He confers Stubborn to nearby units and can optionally modify his army’s FOC, dropping two Troops in exchange for a fourth Heavy Support.

Background wise he and Irillyth have a really weird timeline. Bel-Annath was born “long after the fall”, and was a young seer when Irillyth was last seen on Mymeara. He didn’t become a seer until the second half of his life. Yet the Shadow Spectre aspect is said to have fallen into memory for all save Mymeara due to Irillyth’s disappearance. But if Irillyth was last seen by a living Eldar not noted to be especially long lived, how did everyone forget the Aspect?

Alaitoc only contacted Mymeara after Irillyth departed, and the Phoenix Lord came to the Craftworld in what seems not especially long after the fall. So either Irillyth spent nearly 10,000 years chilling on Mymeara (no wonder his shrines were abandoned…), or the timeline is seriously messed up here. Editing, people, editing…


The Corsair background is, as mentioned previously, sadly brief. The entire section for a previously unseen but oft-mentioned faction is shorter than the Space Wolve’s pictorial section (can you tell I think it was too long?). The text is only a little over a page long once you take out the pictures. Nothing about how the bands are organised, where they are supplied from, what they do with their fallen or how they prevent falling to evil. Only a brief mention of Craftworlders occasionally taking on Corsair groups they feel are too close to their dark kin.


Corsair Army List

The army list itself is very good, once you get past all the bone-headed errors plaguing it (see earlier list). You can even take a Gyrinx! The basic Corsair weapon is either the Lasblaster or Shuriken Pistol and CC weapon.


HQ

Corsair Prince (or Princess) - a cross between an Autarch and a Archon, they can be well kitted out for combat (ranged or close) and allow non-deep-striking units to do so anyway. They also get a free orbital bombardment type weapon, with three variants to choose from.
The Prince (or Princess) can take a retinue of Bladesworn Corsairs. They come equipped for close combat, but can be given more ranged/special weapons.

Void Dreamer – the Warlock equivalent. They come with three psychic powers by default, a reasonable shooting attack, a defensive power against psykers or daemons, and a morale re-roll ability. They’re nice and cheap.


Elites

Voidstorm Squad – Elite Corsairs, they come with jet packs as default, and can take more special weapons.

Harlequins – as per Codex: Coneheads, may take a Corsair Venom transport.

Craftworld Outcasts – One Codex Eldar fast attack or Elites choice. I think this is meant to be 0-1 but, despite the preamble on the subject, such a clear note is missing.

Dark Eldar Kabalite Warriors – from Codex Dark Eldar.


Troops

Corsair Squad – BS 4 Guardians, they can take Shuriken Catapults if you don’t like shooting things, or Shuriken Pistols is you like dying in close combat. They can also take Jet Packs, and min-max horribly: Five guys with Jet Packs, an Eldar Missile Launcher and Fusion Gun runs you 100 points. The Jet Packs come at a flat rate, so it is more pricey to do it this way.
They also have grenades and can take a squad leader upgrade, who can be given a fusion pistol and power weapon.
Jet Packless squads can take a Corsair Venom if they number five or less, or a Falcon if they number six or less… despite a Corsiar Falcon carrying ten. Dammit Forge World!

Wasp War Walkers – Changing slightly from their beta rules, they’ve gone up 10 points but can move as Jet Pack infantry normally now. Additionally after using their special Jump Jet move (now 12”, done in lieu of shooting after normal movement) they may no longer assault or make their Jet Pack move. You can’t have more Wasp Squadrons than Corsair Squads.
Overall I think they are great units, and the Jet Pack movement more than makes up for the lack of 24” jump.

Corsair Jetbikes – BS 4 Craftworld Jetbikes, whose unit leader can be given a fusion pistol and power weapon.


Dedicated Transports

Corsair Falcon – BS 4 Falcon, transport capacity ten.


Corsair Venom – Much like the Dark Eldar version, but with Craftworld guns.


Fast Attack

Hornet Squadron – as per IA:A2

Nightwing – a fast skimmer/flyer, it is not much changed from previous version, but gains “zAerial Assault” [sic]. Dammit Forge World!

Night Spinner – same as in White dwarf



Heavy Support

Phoenix Bomber – yes, you read that right. It’s hella expensive (just under a base Land Raider), but can rain unholy destruction upon your foes. It’s only AV10 though, so you’ve got to hope those holo-fields hold up.

Warp Hunter – as per IA:A2

Fire Storm – A pretty good ranged platform with the Fire Storm Scatter Laser’s 60” range (And twin-linking).


Overall I think it’s a great, characterful list hampered by stupid errors (such as the falcon issue and lack of webway buying ability.


The Eldar Engines of Destruction section details all the Eldar vehicles, Codex and Forge World, though does not contain rules for a couple of them (Wave Serpent, regular War Walker and Wraithlord). Everything else is detailed here, including the Wraithseer and Lynx. The Phantom gains the close combat weapon option, and Warlock Titans are mentioned.


Lastly comes the obligatory missions and Apocalypse Formations. These are all standard fare, with the missions as characterful as usual, and the formations taking advantage of the latest Forge World releases save the Space Wolves, which requires 2-4 Land Raiders.



Overall the book is a rough, or perhaps cracked diamond – it had great potential, but several missteps (poor editing, uneven flow of narrative, overdosing on Space Marines against the Eldar) keep it from achieving its full potential.

It may seem I’m harping on against the Space Wolves here, but given they only play a very small part in the story and we’ve just had two volumes of All Marines – All The Time (and this is the first appearance of the Eldar) it was a great disappointment that it was so Imperial-centric. Yes, it’s called Imperial Armour, but there are players who don’t play Imperial forces, or who would like to know more about the various Xenos races.

This is a very similar complaint to my thoughts on IA:8, Armour of Gork (or possibly Mork). The Space Marines could have been easily excised from the story and replaced with Karskin, Valhallans, or anyone really and it wouldn’t have altered the story too much.

Story and Background – 8/10 for concept, 6/10 for execution. Now, I’m not slamming Talima Fox here as much as it might seem. Most of the issues should have been picked up before going to print as they’re silly, avoidable errors for the most part. Her writing and concepts were good, with the only eyebrow raising moment being a bit involving a group of Wraithguard and Space Wolves which, given GW’s propensity to have one side dominate, was a welcome change.

I’d happily read another book by her, but I’d be crossing my fingers that she’d be getting more (or better) editorial guidance. For the record I’m of the opinion that writers usually make terrible self-editors, especially if they don’t have a good long break between draft and review. I know if I don’t leave something a while I’ll miss glaring mistakes in my own writing.


Layout / Graphics – 9/10. A very pretty book, it only lost a point for lack of art of the Corsairs. The only Eldar character page is for a Dire Avenger. It would have been good to see more of these forces as they play a large role in the story and haven’t been featured before.


Army Lists and Units - 7/10, would have been higher if not for stupid mistakes. The Corsairs list would be great, save the errors riddling it. As it stands it’s still a good list, and would work well in low points games nicely.


Extras – 7/10, good, but nothing exciting.


Overall – 7.5 / 10

I’m only giving it slightly higher than IA8 as I enjoyed the story more, even if the better plot was let down by worse editing. And, honestly, if I wasn’t a huge IA/FW fangirl and this was my first IA book, I’d be at least calling them up asking WTF (which I might do anyway)?

This all makes me feel that the book was rushed to make Christmas – there are too many obvious mistakes and Forge World’s constant “it’ll be out soon” message just makes me think they hit a deadline and either were forced to put the book out or decided ‘sod it’, and went to print regardless. Neither option is particularly good.

Still, the book, like IA8 for Orks, is a great resource for Eldar players and definitely worth a look if possible.

Review: Imperial Armour Apocalypse 2nd Edition

The Second Edition of Forge World's expansion for Apocalypse has arrived, loaded up with tons of wargear for the tabletop. However it is not all just for Apocalypse...

On the first page they display three handy logos, indicating whether or not the unit is intended for Apocalypse games, such as the Warhound below:

Or for regular games of 40k, like these Contemptors:

The third logo is for Apocalypse formations. However one very intersting thing is that the "Warhammer 40,000 unit" blurb reads:

This unit is intended to be used in 'standard' games of Warhammer 40,000, within the usual limitations of Codex selection and force organisation charts. As with all our models these should be considered 'official', but owing to the fact they may be unknown to your opponent, it's best to make sure they are happy to play a game using Forge World models before you start.

Nafka had a post recently on Faeit 212 about the officialness of Forge World, and you can read my opinion on the matter there. Suffice to say IA units are now as legal to field as any other unit in 40kdom. Because, you know, if my opponent tells me he's playing GK razorspam or a Leafblower I'm perfectly happy to not play him as well...

But I digress...



The book itself is the standard Forge World layout, but it broke a record! It only took me five minutes to find a mistake - it's usually a while before I spot those ;)
The special mission Rampage of the Beasts describes what forces and percentages they are broken up into for the Attacker twice. Also despite being an upgrade for 5th ed, the Eldar Serpent Rider Host still makes reference to Target Priority Tests.

Oops.


But minor points aside, the book is solid. Now on to some of the more interesting things:




Imperial Guard


- The Marcharius Vanquisher got a second fire mode for its AT shells, gaining the +1D6 pen on that shot only, losing the blast but also gaining Twin Linked.


- The Marcharius Vulcan can fire twice like the Stormlord. The Vulcan Mega Bolter is still over-rated.

- The Crassus went up a little in points, but can carry 5 more dudes (so you can fit a whole platoon + Command Squad in there!) and also moves 12". Great improvements there.

- The Dominus variant of the Crassus features a triple bombard. It is delightfully over the top.

- The Praetor, pictured below, feels a little underwhelming. It has three fire modes (HE, Incendiary, AA), but you have to pick one before the battle. The explosive ones are only Ordnanace Barrage 2, and though they are 5" and 7" templates, something with so many missiles on it (and an Apoc unit) looks to me like it should fire more.
That said it's good they didn't just give it an Apocalypse Blast weapon, and it's not that expensive really.


- Tauros Squadrons are there for IG or Elysian armies (the Venator is an upgrade, so squadrons can be mixed types).


- Plasmagun version of the Marcharius. It can overheat when fired on maximum, but I'm not sure it's going to be fired that way very often.


- Six of the formations are gone, as well as a number of vehicles like the Manticore.

Space Marines


- The Contemptors come in four flavours: vanilla, vampire, loup-garou and dakka.
The Codex version has more wargear options, including a special plasma blaster and the Graviton Gun.It can take a +1 BS option, two DCCW arms or a Chainfist (allowing an Ironclad Contemptor). It can also take all the standard dread weapons, though the Assault Cannon is the special Kheres model (more dakka!); mount a cyclone, regardless of other weapons; or take the heavy conversion beamer.


The Blood Angel version may take Blood Tallons, the Frag Cannon or a Magna Grapple. It can't take the beamer, plasma blaster, graviton gun or cyclone however.


Space Wolves is very similar to the Codex model, but less wargear. It also must chose a Night Saga...
The Wolves find that their Contemptors tended to savagry and excess in battle, tainting the sagas of those within. It bacame self-fulfilling as now the Iron Priest only inter those warriors already of dark disposition.
The three sagas are the Saga of the Black Cull, the Saga of the Forsaken One and the Saga of the Iron God. Each also comes with an Oath - Master of Slaughter, Oath of Sundered Brotherhood and Oath of Hubris respectively, guiding how the Contemptor will act.


The Mortis pattern starts with BS5, and must take twin heavy weapons on the arms, and may also take a Cyclone. A Mortis with twin Kheres cannons and a Cyclone sounds very tasty - 12 Assault cannon shots plus two missiles on the move would murder infantry and even armour would be afraid.

These guys are privey points wise, however. You can go mad and get some of them costing as much as a Land Raider without too much trouble...


- The Caestus and Achilles are reprinted here.

- The dreaded (ha!) Lucius pattern drop pod has not only gone up in points, but it is now risky for the Dreadnought to assault out of it.

- A formation was cut, but they left in the Automated Defence Force, which is odd as the rules for the Taratulas aren't in the book. You can download the IA2 update though to get them, but it is a bit silly.



Forces of the Imperium

- The Lighning, Valkyrie and Vulture are all out, replaced by the Sky Talon.

- The Arvus can take jury-rigged guns.



Da Orkz

- The Looted Rhino, Gun Wagon, Battle Fortress and Krusha Wagon are all gone.

- The Warkopta, Kustom Meka-Dread, Kill-Blasta/Bursta, Lifta Wagon and Grot Tank Mob from IA8: Armour of Gork (or possibly Mork) are all in however.

- The Grot Mega Tank is also in. It takes two 'heavy turrets' of twin linked Kan gunz, and three light turrets of Kan Gunz. It's better armoured than a Chimera, but not by much. Movement and shooting are very much like the Grot Tankz.



Eldar

- The Wraithseer has had a few tweaks to its powers. Foreboding is now -2 to Leadership or be Pinned, and Deliverence is now Feel No Pain.
Enliven still seems like a waste to me - I'm yet to hear an Eldar player lament the lack of Fleet on his or her Wraithlords. Something like Fleet or some bonus to shooting would have been good. Or making it count as Assault Grenades.


- The Phantom Titan has had a fair bit of work done to it. It still costs the same, but they have changed the shields, it's hard to hit in CC, Spirit Guides got reworked to not suck and the Star Cannon got an extra shot (yay?).
I'm still of the opinion that the secondary weapons are too short ranged, but it is a much better bang for your metaphorical buck.
Point to note is that it can hit anything in assault with a titan CCw, as its Towering Monstrosity rules doesn't prevent it.

- The Hornet gained Aerial Assault from the Dark Eldar codex, so is much more useful.

- Ths Scorpion, Cobra, Phoenix, Void Dragon Phoenix and Nightspinner are all cut.

- The Lynx hasn't changed from its beta rules.

- The Warp Hunter got a BS bump, and a bigger blast on the main gun.



Tyranids

- The Scything Talons of the Heirodule and Harridan gained re-rolls to hit. The Harridan is now a proper flyer, and the Gargoyle brood rules were tweaked a little.

- The Malanthrope got some stat changes, went up in points and now has a Synapse based boost to units around it.

- The Stone Crusher Carnifex went up in points, but had some stat changes and is harder to kill, with a boost to its Regeneration rolls.



Tau

- Added in Commander R'Alai in his XV-9 suit. He gets a special experimental weapon and has special ammo on top of that, though they Get Hot!



Necrons

- Have a unit! The Tomb Stalker is very gribbly. Able to Fleet, Deep Strike, Move Through Cover, Hit and Run as awell as assault units without having LoS first. It also has a special immunity to weapons that wound regardless of toughness (Hellfire shells, sniper weapons etc).
It's pretty pricey points wise, but cheaper than a Monolith.

Dark Eldar

- The Reaper is the Raider built around a giant haywire blaster, shown above. It has two fire modes, and can cause multiple haywire hits in one shot.

- The Tantalus is the big two hulled vehicle, and can carry 16 dudes. Unlike the model shown at Games Day it doesn't have the pintle mounted weapon, only the two Pulse-Disintegrators (which fire 6 shots each...). It can also bladevane infantry and vehicles (for 2D6 penetration), and is an open topped tank, so can ram and tank shock on top of everything else.

- The Raven fighter looks rather sad now...



Chaos

- The Tzeentchian mega-greater Daemon is absent, but the other three are represented.

- The Chaos Warhound can now be Possessed. It is a great deal for the points.

- The Chaos Contemptor is very similar to the Codex version, with a few key differences. It has some unique chaosy secondary guns, can take a Havoc Launcher instead of a Cyclone, and doesn't have the invulnerable save.
What it does have, however, is the ability to ignore 50% of glancing hits, and also ignore a smaller number of penetrating hits.
Dedications to the four gods are available, but must be modelled appropriately. The Chaos Contemptor is also not crazy, so won't go around killing your own dudes.



Missions


There are also four new Apocalypse missions. They are well written, including details of reccomended table size, points levels and detailed scoring information. Each is very different and would obviously require a lot of planning, moreso than normal.



Summary

Overall this is a great resource for anyone interested not only in Apocalypse, but in expanding their 40k options. Like always there's more for Imperial players, but both Eldar factions have some great things too.
It does suffer in that it references other IA books in a couple of places, and they also cut a number of units out that aren't in regular Codexes which, when coupled with removing the master unit list that listed what book everything was in, seems rather stupid.
Also, the Reaver is on the cover, but the rules aren't in there... that's not just silly, but a little misleading in my opinion. I'm not sure why anyone approved that, as a great shot of the Contemptor would have worked just as well.

In total I'm giving the book an 8/10.

Full Review: Imperial Armour 10, the Badab War part2

IA10, the Badab War part 2: The Badabening, is obviously the sequel to IA9 (review here) but as you may or may not be aware, it was originally not to be. The plan was to have a single book but writer Alan Bligh got a bit carried away and wrote too much. This is a mixed blessing honestly as extra information is never a bad thing, but this volume feels somewhat anti-climactic after such a good start.
The best way to explain this is by examining the background section.

We open with “The Wrath of the Imperium”, giving a brief recap of events as well as delving into the brutal subjugation of a planet by the Sons of Medusa. It also details the arrival of the mysterious, ancient and malevolent Carcharodons. These mysterious warriors are the most vicious loyalist marines we’ve ever seen. The only description of the interior of their ship features a massive pit where they discard the broken wargear, banners and corpses of defeated enemies in heaps. Their first action is to set about subduing the dug in Mantis Warriors in what is known as the Tranquillity Campaign.

You will build us

Here the terrible nature of the war is shown to full effect. While the Mantis Warriors, weary of the war and doubting its goals, strive to protect their ancient homeworlds the Carcharodons butcher, burn and destroy everything until the Secessionists could simply fight no more. The brutality doesn’t go unchallenged, and Fire Angels depart the war due to being unable to work alongside such brutal allies.

We get off to a good start here, but now the Astral Claws are effectively alone as the Executioners prove unreliable – attacking only who they deem worth a good fight, regardless of strategic benefit. We move on to a raid by the Salamanders and Minotaurs that uncovers more evidence of Huron’s corruption, and leads to the Executioners and Salamanders exit from the war.
These set pieces are well done and, as with the last book, different to the normal marine battle fare. We next get a bigger invasion attempting to get a foothold into Huron’s inner defences, and this is where it started getting a bit wobbly for me. There was a huge space battle, but I found myself often having to flick back to identify which ship was a Loyalist and which a Secessionist.


Eventually Badab is reached and the Tyrant overthrown (of course), and I won’t spoil the details. Suffice to say the Carcharodons prove to be utterly ruthless (again) and the Tyrant gets a melta to the face. This section suffers from padding out in my opinion. It has to be dramatic and sensational of course, it’s the climax after all. However I feel that splitting into two books was perhaps too much.

I didn’t notice it in IA9 as it was loaded with the political manoeuvring and manipulations, so there was plenty to chew on. Here there is only battles, and they blur together as it’s the same few guys fighting over and over again. It also suffers from being compressed – what would have been half a book in Vraks, or a whole book in Anphellion’s case, ends up being a couple of pages here. Not enough for a deep analysis and story, but more than a quick overview.
This is not to say the book is bad, I enjoyed it more than IA8 and it certainly completes IA9 without feeling disjointed. The problem is not much happens for the wait between books to feel worthwhile. While the Vraks series brought on the ever growing influence of Chaos with each instalment, Badab just adds the last couple of battles with some new guys. It's like a long adbreak near the end of the movie, rather than a sequal.

This cammo doesn't get an update :(

This book also suffers from having little of IA9’s big personalities. Huron and Culln featured large in 9, but are hardly present in this book. It is mostly the actions of armies that define this book, not the characters. While a natural progression as the war drew on and plans became more focussed. If it was one story it wouldn’t have been as noticeable, but I found the change jarring due to the wait.
Again, not a big issue, but it ties in with the two book thing.


What would I have done? With my perfect hindsight, I’d have released a two book set at once – one book the background (history) and the other with rules, army lists and scenarios (technical manual). That way I, as a reader, wouldn’t have been waiting to get the end of the story (which felt shorter, perhaps due to being basically just battles) and let’s face it – pretty much everyone who bought 9 is going to buy 10. Forge World is bundling them together now anyway, so it would have been better in my eyes to just do that from the start.

You know you'd buy it.
And by you I mean me.

Another thing I noticed in this book was what felt like heavy product placement. The Caestus Ram and Land Raider Achilles get a few notable mentions and are totally awesome. It could just be my being used to the other wargear mentioned so these stood out more, but I noticed it regardless.


Of course this book completes the write-ups of the participating Chapters, in:


Chapters of the Badab War, part 2

They are the Mantis Warriors, Salamanders, Executioners, Sons of Medusa, Minotaurs, Carcharodons, Exorcists and Star Phantoms.

The Mantis Warriors are individualistic hit and run/infiltration specialists whose territorial and loyal nature got the better of them, bringing ruin on them and their people.

The Salamanders are just as they always are, so no new revelations here.

Executioners are the descendants of Dorn, and see themselves as trusted to seek out and execute the Emperor’s enemies rather than to defend and protect. While appearing outwardly barbarous, they are cunning and wise in the ways of war, as well as honourable to a fault (which would both be Huron’s gain and downfall).
Each battle-brother must prove himself worthy of being remembered by the Chapter’s ‘Death Speakers’ (chaplains). One terminator is noted as being ‘chronicled for his remorseless slaughter’, so they sound like real fun guys to be around.
The section also detail exactly why they joined with Huron, and what happens to them afterwards.

The Sons of Medusa are an offshoot of the Iron Hands after an Adeptus Mechanicus related religious schism in regards to the future of the Cult Mechanicus and Ecclesiarchy. Probably one of the most original ideas for a founding, they also bear the Iron Hand’s unusual Clan structure so fans of the sons of Mannus have some interesting reading for them.

The Minotaurs are presented as maybe being the same chapter as from the 21st founding, but maybe not. It details the crazy, unpredictable 21st founding chapter and its unreliable nature, and the chapter’s vanishing from Imperial records for a long period.
When they re-appear they appear it is as a no less furious force, but a controlled one seeming to act as the will of the High Lords of Terra. Mysteriously well equipped (loads of Mk8 armour) and politically protected (people who ask too many questions tend to disappear), it is implied that the High Lords shield them and in return the Chapter destroys whoever they are told, be they enemy of man or one-time protector.

I'm just here to take up space.

Named for the Great White Shark and/or Megaladon, the Carcharadons (from the Greek karcharos and odous meaning sharp or jagged tooth) are dark killers. They seem to exist in isolation, possibly even in the blackness below the galactic plane, rising to the surface only to feed before vanishing back into the blackness. They are Space Marines without the pretence of honour and glory, killers in the Emperors name who exist solely to bring death and destruction.

Contrasting them Sharks are the Exorcists – studious, honourable, and thoughtful. Each battle brother is inducted into the mysteries of arcane lore and daemonology far more than any Chapter save the Grey Knights. They are a sort of Grey Knights lite, being able to withstand more than your average marine, but without the high standards of the Knights there are more of them so they can fight larger wars. Their description alludes to the possibility of warp exposure/possession for initiates, but does not confirm it.

Lastly are the Star Phantoms, another mysterious chapter shrouded in mystery. Though proven pure without doubt on numerous occasions, they have repeatedly come into conflict with other Chapters, including almost wiping out the Marines Malevolent. Additionally they were noted by Lord Marcharius as “unsuitable for tactical close support of other Imperial units” due to their somewhat relaxed approach to collateral damage.
A grim chapter, they see themselves as misjudged and outcast, and are eager to kick Huron’s teeth in, performing the final assault on his fortress-palace.


While volume 9 had an abundance of pious, Emperor-fearing chapters, IA10 is weighed down by enigmas wrapped in riddles wrapped in power armour. Again, this is due to the splitting of the story separating the ‘good’ initial battles from the ‘crazy’ later ones. Had they all been together it likely wouldn’t have been noticed (or I’d be commenting that they’re either pious or mysterious).



Engines of Destruction

A new section when compared to 9, this bit details the war machines of the Astartes.
First up is the Caestus Assault Ram, followed by a nicely detailed section on Dreadnoughts, then the infamous Land Raider Achilles. Apparently we can blame the Imperial Fists for it. The Land Raider section contains an allusion to a new vehicle type emerging from Magos Land’s research – a teaser for an upcoming kit or just some fluff? You be the judge.

The section continues through the Land Speeder, Thunderhawk and Rhino variants, and has some callout boxes about the religious rites performed by techmarines. Nothing groundbreaking here – it’s almost IA2 lite. It is nice to have it here if you don’t have that book though.
Lastly is a two page spread of Power Armour, marks 3 to 8 (with Apothecary variant). Interestingly MkIV is said to be the pinnacle of design, but is too hard to produce and maintain in the ‘modern’ age.



Lords of Destruction, pt 2

In the second batch of special characters we get:


Salamander Captain Pellas Mir’san – a master swordsman who has a Calgar like morale effect on his squad.

Salamander Venerable Ancient Bray’arth Ashmantle – a close combat dreadnought with flame/melta weapons who can ignore lance and melta, as well as being able to wreath himself in flames during assault.


Mantis Warrior Librarian Ahazra Redth – gives Infiltration as a chapter tactic, as well as effecting attempts to seize the initiative and reserve rolls. He also has a unique psychic power similar to GK’s shrouding.


Executioner High Chaplain Thulsa Doom,

Purging is at last at hand. Day of Doom is here. All that is evil, all their allies; your parents, your leaders, those who would call themselves your judges; those who have lied and corrupted the Earth, they shall all be cleansed.

Er, sorry Thulsa Kane –

I shall contemplate this on the tree of woe.
And by me I mean you.

Chapter tactics are Stubborn, gives his squad super Fearless and Liturgies of Battle, and is hard to kill. Nothing said about whether initiates have to push a big wheel around and around.


Minotaurs Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi – one of the simpler characters, he has only one unique rule, giving more attacks on the charge than normal.

Minotaurs Lord Asterion Moloc – gives chapter tactics of Preferred Enemy: Space Marines (any loyalist book, not chaos or renegades). He also is in Terminator armour and he and his squad count as having assault grenades. He’s also very hard to kill (think Lysander type toughness), but expensive.


Carcharodon Tyberos the Red Wake – chapter tactics of Furious Charge, and Rage after killing a unit in assault. As seen on his model he comes armed with lightning claws and chainfists, as well as being able to take Lightning Claw termies as troops. Regular marines can exchange bolters for close combat weapons for free.


Exorcist Captain Silas Alberec – a lean mean daemon killing machine. He has a special Thunder Hammer that auto wounds daemons and any model with psychic powers. Any marines on his side can re-roll failed pinning checks (not a chapter tactic).


Star Phantom Captain Zhrukhal Androcles – he is a ‘Master of Destruction’, and captain of the 9th. As such he can take devastators as elites as well as heavies.


Sons of Medusa Iron Thane Vaylund Cal – chapter tactics gives Fearless, and any devastator squad ‘appropriately modelled’ to show cybernetics gains Feel No Pain (but they can’t run or sweep). He himself is nigh indestructible, and has all the Master of the Forge rules.


These guys all look fun, and their special rules are very well written, with a definate slant on morale boosting effects. Many of them have a special notation that taking them prevents the taking of any other Chapter Master, named or otherwise, so you are locked into their Chapter Tactics if you take them.



Space Marine Siege Assault Vanguard Army List

Designed to represent the direct assault of a heavily fortified position this list eschews many of the toys of the standard Codex, focussing on in your face destruction. However keeping with the theme there are no drop pods, no scouts and no speeders or bikes.
On the flip side you can get squads of Predators, Vindicators and Whirlwinds. Dreadnoughts can be bought as multiples for one troops slot, thought they don’t form a squadron. Tactical squads on foot can get mantlets to protect them from shooting, and there are foot assault squads that count as troops (think Blood Angel assault squads for options).
There is also a special HQ choice (Siege Master), though he’s not that amazing. Unsurprisingly, all the Land Raider options are available here also.

The list has a load of flavour to it, and the restrictions definitely force the focus on the theme.

After the list are the rules for the Caestus and Achilles. The Achilles has gone up in points, and does not gain any extra defence against StrD weaponry.

It's powered by nerdrage

Finishing off the book are a scenario for the Siege breaker list, a section for BFG, and the ubiquitous Apoc Datasheets. Here is a bit more of the product placement I was talking about, with one being a three Caestus unit, the other a 4-6 Land Raider one (where half must be Achilles) and a six Dreadnought unit (which Chaplain, Siege or Ironclads are perfect for). They are actually pretty good sheets to be fair.



Summary

So, was it worth the money? Yes.
This time however I found myself liking the extra bits such as the descriptions of equipment and the Chapters and characters more than the story.

Story gets a 7/10 this time around, for reasons already espoused upon. Overall the series' story gets an 8/10.

The Chapters are a 8/10 here. While there was some similarity (they are all marines after all) it was not as noticeable as last time.

Engines of Destruction is an 8/10. I'd give it less though if you already own IA2.

Lords of Destruction get a 9/10 again, with a 10/10 for both books. While that may seem odd it is because they’ve done some really thematic rules without making it feel like they’re just going for power. Each one feels like they embody their Chapter’s style.

The Siege Vanguard List gets a 7/10. While I like it personally (it suits my play style very well in fact) it’s not a radical departure and certainly not going to be for everybody. Aside from the two new vehicles and some options there’s nothing really new.

BFG - ??? I’m not familiar enough with the system to rate this, sorry.

Apocalypse – 8/10. Giving it a higher score as it’s some crazy and different stuff. Also as someone who owns large numbers of Land Raiders and Dreadnoughts I can’t help but approve.


IA10 Overall – 8/10

This is a good book but while the story’s length necessitated the splitting into two volumes it didn’t showed that it wasn’t designed that way. However the story is still good and this book is a must for any die-hard Space Marine fan.


Badab War Series overall:

9/10

A few minor mis-steps and oddities here and there don’t hide that this is my personal favourite Imperial Armour series.

And the Imperials won!

He can hear fruit.
Apples scream the loudest.