Has GW caved over the "Space Marine" fiasco?

Either they have or Amazon decided to ignore GW's request - as M.C.A. Hogarth's book Spots the Space Marine is back up for sale on Amazon.com.

Having a fairly negative report from the BBC, as well as whole host of authors pillorying your position (Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross, John Scalzi and Neil Gaiman)  may have made someone rethink the decision -and rightfully so.
Given GW's fairly liberal borrowing of concepts and terms (Eldar is straight up Tolkein, Lasguns are in Dune etc) it saddens me to see them take this move. Given the strength of the 40k Space Marine image, would GW really lose that much if the trademark lapsed? I'm not convinced they would.

If you don't want to go through Amazon or don't have a Kindle, Smashwords also has the book available (and has sample pages).


EDIT: Games Workshop have issued a quasi-official response via Facebook.

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.

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.

Quick Look: Imperial Armour 10: Badab pt2

At long last my copy of IA10 arrived after getting stuck in customs for an inordinately long time.



The very short review is that it's good, but not as good as IA9. This is no fault of the book, per se, but simply due to the fact that is describing an epic grindfest between the two marine factions, without room for much of the best bits of IA9 - the maneuvering and posturing of the two factions.
That's not to say it's in any way bad, it's still very very good, but IA9 set the bar very high.


Continuing the tale of the Badab conflict we learn more about the mysterious Minotaurs, the Charcharodons, and the Mantis Warriors get some page time too. There are some well done set pieces and even the siege of Badab feels energetic and fast paced.

Rules wise there are a bunch of special characters (including some pretty fearsome dudes), the Caestus Assault Ram and the imfamous Achilles Land Raider. The Achilles now costs a little more, and StrD hits are not subject to modification.


The book contains a Marine siege breaker list, which looks quite fun and has a few interesting units thrown in, but is otherwise heavily restricted (an assault list with no drop-pods or bikes, and limited fast support).

Another interesting point is that the Power of the Machine Spirit for Land Raiders is clarified. It specifically mentions the conditions for the extra shot being shaken/stunned results and "one more weapon than would normally be permitted based on its movement speed" - siding on the no side for firing with smoke launchers.
Almost all the extra rules are written with very specific clarity, which is good to see.

Lastly there are the ubiquitous Apoc datasheets, which include a 4-6 Land Raider one where at least half must be Achilles varients (they get a super shot attack though). My favourite is a six dread team that go crazy in close combat.

Packed with the book are the slipcase (which is much nicer than the Vraks one, and wasn't crushed in the mail) and the truely gigantic (A0!) poster decorated with the various colour schemes of the conflict. I'd love to put it up, but I'm not sure where I'll find space.

A couple quick book reviews

Ciaphas Cain does it again - The Emperor's Finest by Sandy Mitchell

This book is a prequel of sorts chronologically, jumping back to before his time with the Valhallan 597th, after the events of Perlia and taking off directly from the short story Shadows of the Tomb (as in the short story could well be the first chapter for this novel).

Whilst obstensibly dealing with Space Marines, they are more background characters, with only three ever being named and the book focusses more on Cain's dealings with them and their mannerisms.

The writing is some of Mitchell's best, and a great improvement over Cain's Last Stand, who's "lol Necrons show up and kill everyone (again)" ending was particulary weak. Emperor's Finest, however has a great ending, and some of the sharpest dialogue yet, with Cain meeting his match in Mira, a governor's daughter who proves his equal in many ways. I personally found their relationship arc very well developed though (highlight text to read spoilers):

I thought the very last scene was rushed. For Cain to be so easy going about what had been a rather long relationship ending seemed odd - not that he wanted out but I expected Cain to be a bit put out he was replaced so easily.
I also felt Mira moving on so quickly to be strange as she took a while to truely warm to Cain and it semed to be more than her hunger for status driving her relationship with him (and his with her - he does comment repeatedly about missing her etc).
Probably could have done with another page there, but nothing major.


Only criticism of the book is that the footnotes, one of the series' signatures, were fairly lacklustre and often, to be frank, pointless. Many were simply explaining Cain's military acronyms which are used only once. When the acronym is only used once, and there is no witticism from Amberly to acompany the footnote, having it abreviated and noted seems silly rather than just spelling it out in the first place.

But, a minor quibble - I still rate the book highly amongst the Cain series, and this one gets bonus points for a hilarious Casablanca reference.

9/10



Die For The Emperor - Dead Men Walking by Steve Lyons.

Again, while the book's focus is on the men of Krieg, they are only observed and never the focus for the narative's perspective. The perspective mostly comes from an attached, and somewhat jaded, Commisar; the planet's Governor and a pair of seperated lovers.

The book is flat out one of the best Black Library books I've read. It doesn't stuff around with nobody knowing what the Necrons are (well, the civilians don't, but the Guard do), there's no achingly long battle scenes that don't advance the plot (there are battles, but they provide character development), and the characters are all unique and have little overlap in function.
It is brutal and bloody, but not needlessly so as to feel cartoonish or ghoulish but successfully conveys the horror and confusion of the Necron attacks.

My only criticisms are that some of the dialogue between Arex and Tylar was rather odd - they were talking in a slightly crazed manner and totally different to everyone else. It wasn't bad, and worked in the circumstances, but it was never really explained.
The other would be the overuse of the word 'flensing'. No cutting, slicing, carving - it was all flensing, all the time.

Also, when I first read the name Arex all I could think of was Team America (probably because I've been watching 30 Rock recently and whenever the credits are on and Alec Baldwin pops up on I say 'Arec Barwdwin' to my girlfriend).

Now for a couple of spoilery points (highlight to read):

Arex's relationship with Tylar felt a bit forced to me, but I'm not quite sure how to put it into words. I think it might be because of the very last scene when Arex is hit by the bottle and Tylar scowls at the crowd. That just seemed like such an odd reaction, for him to react the way it was put. Their connection was based on going through the shared trauma of enslavement and Arex notes that where she was leaning on him before (and still holding out hope for Gunthar) they were later relying on each other for mutual support and she resigned herself that Gunthar was likely dead (I saw it as a mirroring of her hope that Tylar's strength was reflection of Gunthar's, and seeing Tylar's spirit broken made her lose hope that the more timid Gunthar could have survived).

When they were leaving it seemed to return to the position of Tylar being 'the strong one' in the relationship, protecting and scowling and all that, it felt like a quick recovery for him. It was also a very douchey thing for him to do, as previously he'd been very sympathetic and caring, and now he's scowling at people being left behind? The same guy willing to blow himself up with a grenade a few chapters ago?

That weird out of character moment probably made Gunthar's seeing them together more painful, along with his one man last attack at the end. I'd been hoping all book that he would have won out, or Arex would have at least learnt of his efforts (for instance she got to the Krieg HQ and heard of Trooper Sorensen going missing in the attack or somesuch). Personally I would have had Arex and Tylar learn of Gunthar's efforts, and maybe even see him at the spaceport but not have Arex and Tylar together - something like Gunthar manages to give Arex the ring in the crowd, but she's pulled away by the Krieg guardsmen onto the transport. More bittersweet than the somewhat depressing ending as is, but that's GRIMDARK for you.


All up though, a great read and one of my top 40k books.

9.5/10

Review: Path of the Warrior

Non spoilery review:

Good, but the last third has next to nothing to do with the first two thirds so the whole thing feels incomplete and disjointed.

It does have some excellent insights into Eldar culture and society, but unfortunately many of these plot threads are left sparse in favour of overly repetitive battle scenes.

Major Spoilers Ahead!

Path of the Warrior tells the story of Korlandril, and his eventual stumbling onto the titular path, and his fall into Exarchdom (told you there were spoilers).


The book opens with Korlandril , on the path of the Artist, waiting with Thirianna, a poet and forme Aspecct Warrior, waiting for their mutual friend Aradryan – he is on the path of the Mariner and has been sailing the distant stars for some time. Korlandril is basically in love with Thirianna , but is trying to suss out if she feels the same. Korlandril is also very jealous of what he sees as Thirianna ’s attraction to Aradryan .

Each chapter is prefaced by a legend of Eldar myth relating to that chapter’s subject. For example when Korlandril is injured and healing, the story of Isha giving a lock of her hair to Eldanesh to heal him is told. They are done neatly and don’t intrude into the narrative, and certainly enhance the Eldar mythos.

The first section goes on to cover how paths work, how the Eldar change their psyche (and personalities to an extent) when they take on certain paths, and how everyday life on the Craftworld goes about its business. This is very well written and the characters, while relatable, still seem alien.
Korlandril is further put out by his friend’s return as Aradryan seems distant and distracted, and uninterested in Korlandril ’s upcoming unveiling (he’s a sculptor).


It all comes to a head when the sculpture is unveiled and Aradryan criticises Korlandril ’s work, calling it uninspired and derivative compared to the marvels of the cosmos. Korlandril flips out and storms off, and Aradryan leaves the craftworld (to become an Outcast/Exodite).
After unintentionally insulting Thirianna ’s military past Korlandril makes a pass at her, asking her to stay with him as artist and poet. She tells him it is inappropriate to concentrate on one path, as well as unhealthy. Korlandril flips out again and storms off, raging and brimming with rage.

Seeking to find a control for his feelings he seeks out his friends Arthuis and Maerthuin, brothers walking the Warrior path as Dark Reapers. He also meets Elissanadrin, a Striking Scorpion. Korlandril tells them of his feelings and his need to be rid of them, while the Aspect Warriors tell him he needs to find a release for his anger.

I thought this part was superbly done – Korlandril wants nothing more than to be rid of his anger, he finds it ugly, wasteful and against everything that creates beauty. His mind is truely set as that of someone seeking nothing more than the creation of splendour, destruction is totally abhorrent to him. The Aspect Warriors, here at rest, tell him that they put on their ‘war mask’ to release their anger, but take it off outside of battle so they can release it and be free of it.
Korlandril ’s conversations with Thirianna reveal that as a former Aspect Warrior she finds that the experience has better helped her manage her anger outside of the Path.


I found this very interesting as, while Korlandril is certainly a self centred layabout (all his paths we know of are self indulgent), he reflects the Eldar’s natural distaste for violence. Other Eldar sit apart from the Aspect Warriors in communal places, and the Warriors seem only to associate with each other for the most part.
It also ties in with the prologue where an Exarch loses a member of his squad, and is not concerned as another always appears. It is basically saying that there will always be Eldar driven to the Warrior Path, as if the Paths simply create a proportional balance of the Eldar psyche across the whole society. So there will always be roughly the same number of Aspect Warriors at any given time, as there will be Bonesingers or Mariners. This appears later when Korlandril becomes an Exarch and a number of Eldar are drawn to him as soon as he takes the mantle.


Elissanadrin takes Korlandril to her temple, the Shrine of the Deadly Shadow, where he meets Exarch Kenainath who takes him in. He goes through an extensive Kung-fu training montage sequence, learning about his War Mask and how to control it. He does this in isolation lest he harm others, and is confined to the Shrine. After a time he is allowed to mix with the rest of the squad, Elissanadrin (there is brewing attraction between the pair), Arhulesh ( the joker), Bechareth ( the silent mysterious guy without a past) and Min (the older jolly guy).
The training continues and Korlandril eventually gets to put on his helmet, and thus his War Mask. It doesn’t go well, with him losing control and blacking out, but he eventually gets there and is allowed to leave the shrine.


The montage of training I found well written, as with the descriptions of the Kung-fuesque stances and moves. The training fights were short and sharp, and focussed mostly on Korlandril ’s thoughts about his skills and feelings. He also is growing as a character, and when on the outside he meets Aradryan again he apologises, revealing his mindset is now more serious, less emotional than before (again, the changing psyche). Basically he was a snotty, whiney brat who got a reality check and realised what a douche he was being for not accepting his friend had changed.

Aradryan reveals war is brewing on a distant world, and that he had seen Thirianna . Korlandril is unmoved by this, saying if they meet again he won’t be angry, but similarly won’t be sad if they don’t. Aradryan draws his friend out into revealing the attraction to Elissanadrin , but Korlandril gets embarrassed and says nothing is happening as it would be unprofessional.
Battle draws near and Korlandril receives a token of well wishing from Thirianna – a rune from her Aspect Armour, which makes him happy (Love triangle alert!). All through the book the Eldar’s psychic nature has been used very subtly and effectively in instances such as this. Communication is done through the Infinity Circuit, and people can look for each other by seeking out their imprints in it. Instead of doorbells people go to a doorway and send a psychic ‘request’ to enter, that sort of thing.

It is integrated smoothly and never feels like Gav is going ‘look at how psychic the Eldar are!’, as the Space Hulk novel often clumsily introduced Overwatch and such into the text.

As war draws near the Avatar wakes up and Korlandril is drawn back to his temple and to war. After they suit up the Warriors mill around, and see another Striking Scorpion group, the Fall of Dark Rain. Their Exarch Aranaraha , unlike Kenainath , is talkative and disturbingly friendly. His group is also much more sizable than Kenainath ’s. Elissanadrin explains that Aranaraha enjoys being an Exarch, while Kenainath hates it and that he is needed to train others to control their bloodlust. Kenainath is revealed to take a very personal interest in his pupils, wishing they didn’t need training, while Aranaraha teaches en masse and actively tries to recruit new members (I’m not sure how this works as Exarchs aren’t meant to leave their Shrines [excpt when they do]).

So basically Kenainath is Mr Miyagi and Aranaraha is Cobra Kai.


Things go badly for in the battle and Korlandril ends up nearly getting killed. We are then treated to a scene where we have Korlandril helped back to life, so to speak, by a healer. Korlandril has to face his fears and the terrible pain he feels to survive, rather than shying away from it. He eventually does, and awakes to discover that his psychological damage has been compartmentalised into his War Mask persona, and that he has to don it to repair the damage lurking inside. Initially reluctant to return, Korlandril ’s healing is interrupted by Aranaraha on a recruitment mission. Aranaraha attempts to lure Korlandril to his Shrine by blaming Kenainath’s teachings for the injury, and claiming the FDR training will make him strong.
This freaks Korlandril out, who vows to return to the Deadly Shadow. The healer is also furious at Aranaraha for coming into a place of healing with his bad vibes.

The healing section was interesting, but felt incomplete. The subject of Korlandril ’s fears being locked into his War Mask is never really mentioned again, and he is basically back to normal in a few pages. I would have liked to see more about the psychological/psychic healing personally, at least another couple of pages.


Korlandril rejoins his squad, meeting Min as he leaves the Shrine – he is finding it too hard to take off his War Mask, and cautions Korlandril against overconfidence in his ability to do so. Of course Korlandril laughs it off and goes on as normal.

We then get some good banter between the remaining squad, until time passes and Arhulesh is headhunted by Aranaraha . This provokes an honour duel between the two Shrines to prove who’s style is most worthy, and who keeps Arhulesh . Naturally Korlandril is set to fight him, being the newest Deadly Shadow as Arhulesh is the newest Dark Rain. It is doubly important as without Arhulesh the Shadows will be too few to operate as a squad and would be disbanded. A very interesting point, tying in to the whole Exarchs drawing people to them, as it shows there is some higher authority over them to do so (maybe simply tradition). The warriors do not know what would happen to Kenainath if he lost his squad though.

Of course Korlandril wins the duel, but a jibe from Arhulesh at the end causes Korlandril to lose control and almost kill him. The two make up and Korlandril is set to train by himself for some time, and upon his release makes the conscious decision to seek non warlike companionship, forsaking his squadmates initially to meet with Thirianna .


Thirianna is happy to see him, but reaveals that as a Seer she read his runes and they are confused and that he is treading down a dangerous path.
It goes badly, with Korlandril deriding Thirianna ’s concern for him and mocking her observation that he treats everything as a battle to be won. He then goes on to call her jealous of his feelings for Elissanadrin , and sees her crying as an attempt at attention (smooth move dude). Returning to the Shrine for some training he meets with Elissanadrin , and they have some sexually charged banter before another war breaks out.


Honestly, I was pretty annoyed with this battle scene. It went on for a bit too long (there are only so many descriptive ways to kill someone with a chainsword), and it interrupted a very interesting part of the story. I’ve often heard people say Eldar only have few children because sex is so intense emotionally and blah blah blah (though no idea on the source – anybody?). But here we have two Eldar basically saying

Korlandril : “I like you and am attracted to you, we should go out some time.”
Elissanadrin : “I’d rather just do you now, and then we can go out after that.”

Prettymuch flies in the face of the whole “no Eldar gettin’ jiggy with it” thing.

Na-na-na na-na na-na, Na-na-na na-na na-naaaaa, gettin' jiggy with it

The battle is doubly annoying as after he comes back Korlandril falls off the deep end with his growing insanity and becomes an Exarch. There are some scenes I found amusing where Korlandril will do something perfectly normal, everyone will freak out, and he’ll review it in his mind revealing he was acting all crazy. One example is that he walks out from a grove to ask for directions, but in reality he leapt out of the shadows in a combat stance. I thought it was well done, but unfortunately he doesn’t pull back from the brink at the last minute and the book goes down along with him.


From here on in, everything you have read is basically irrelevant.
Korlandril no longer exists, being replaced by the Exarch Morlaniath (he puts on the suit and the gestalt personality subsumes him); the Deadly Shadow squad don’t appear much, certainly no meaningful interaction; and the few characters (Thirianna , Kenainath ) who are around are talking to an essentially new main character – one with all the personality of a rock.
Morlaniath also gets a bunch of new recruits who are basically irrelevant. Eventually Thirianna comes to Korlandril (or rather Mor), asking for his help. She is a Farseer now and is having strange visions of doom that no-one else listens to.

Wait... she’s a Farseer now? lolwot? Didn’t she abhor the idea of getting caught on a path? If only there was a main character who had feelings and emotions to comment on this...
I’m inclined to think this might be an error, and they mean a scryer of some sort, rather than a full blown Farseer, but if it is it a terrible mix up for a 40k book to make – Mutilazorz level of bad IMO.

It’s fairly irrelevant in either case as Morlaniath doesn’t care in any way, shape or form about Thirianna , so he sends her away. Eventually he convinces himself to call in a favour one of his past incarnations with an Autarch, and it is revealed her visions were in fact true and the Imperium is about to invade Alaitoc!


Strap yourself in for a hugely tedious battle scene! Short version is: a bunch of Phoenix Lords show up, including Karandras. Kenainath gives Morlaniath the Deadly Shadow as his own squad is too inexperienced and Kenainath ’s mortal body is dying. We are treated to page upon page of epic battles – from the POV of Morlaniath waiting in the shadows mostly. See, the thing about stealthy close combat dudes is that they tend to wait and hide and spring ambushes. Not very exciting when they’re waiting around watching other guys do the fighting.

Eventually they team up with Karandras, Elissanadrin gets killed (maybe, she’s described as wounded later), Bechareth is also hurt (but must survive as he’s actually an Incubi and his reformation proves the worth of the path) so it ends up with Karandaras getting ‘killed’, and Korlandril /Morlaniath giving themselves to him so he gets up and goes back into the fight.

So basically Elissanadrin (probably) dies with no emotional reaction, despite being a love interest at one point – its literally a couple of lines - and the main character, who only peripherally exists at this point anyway, now totally ceases to exist. You see while Exarchs house the souls of their former ‘bodies’, Karandaras simply absorbs their energy but not their personality so they gain peace at last.


Now, why I hate all of this:

1) If you look at the inside cover of the book it is listed as ‘Path of the Eldar Series, Book One’. So there will be others. My guess is Path of the Seer (Thirianna ), Path of the Outcast (Aradryan ), and probably one about the Incubi guy.

2) This means that this entire book was essentially set-up for the others. The only real carry over is that Morlaniath convinced the Autarch to listen to Thirianna ’s vision. Aside from that Korlandril ’s story is largely irrelevant.

3) That it’s irrelevant wouldn’t be so bad if it was a complete story – Korlandril ’s relationship with Elissanadrin is never resolved, his own personal development just stops when he ceases to exist. I would have much preferred the final battle scene to be massively cut back, maybe just to be the part where they fight the Space Marines at the end with Karandaras.
This would have left room to have Korlandril step back from the brink, a bit more love triangleness between him, Thirianna and Elissanadrin , and then have Kenainath give his life to Karandaras at the end – it would be symbolic of Korlandril ’s mentor attaining peace at the same time as he does and have him leave the Path and resolve his personal issues (ie being a self centred ass [though to be fair he only seems to be around Thirianna ]).

Essentially it was like the first two thirds were a separate novel from the end, and the story never completes. For all it’s worth it could have been Kenainath instead of Morlaniath as the Exarch at the end, such is the character. It makes sense in terms of the universe to have the personality change, but it really ruined the narrative for me (and that last battle goes on far too long).

Overall it started great, but the sudden shift in the thirds section left me deeply disappointed.

6/10

Full Review: Imperial Armour 9: The Badab War – Part 1

Disclaimer – I’ll be discussing the plot in a fair bit of detail, so there will be spoilers. Also, I’ll be discussing rules and the new units / missions, but I won’t be scanning or giving points or the like. Feel free to ask about other stuff though.


The book itself

The book is the standard Imperial Armour fare: hard cover, full colour, typos and weird grammar galore. I also got a squashed bug in the pages of mine as an added bonus.
Compared to the previous IA books, vol9 seems much more lavish. I’m not sure why exactly. Perhaps it is the more extensive star maps and more ‘high tech’ feel of the data-boxes and such (and we know I love the more high tech stuff), but it feels shinier for some reason. Another great part is that it is filled with the aforementioned callouts. There are notations on planets, stellar phenomena, and events not directly effecting the main story. On top of all this there are a few page long stories detailing part of a combat action in the style of a Black Library novel. I only skimmed these in all honesty, as I wanted to get on with the main plot, but they provide a welcome break and different (more visceral) take on the conflict.

New Astral Claws scheme and the mysterious Tiger's Claws

The Plot

The storyline is styled as an Ordo Hereticus account of the true history of the Badab War and the events leading up to the conflict.

It starts a thousand years before the conflict, describing the Maelstrom area, its economic importance (due to great mineral wealth), its dangerous nature (warp storms, pirates) , and then the establishment of Imperial worlds (including Badab, amongst others) as footholds on this wealth. The story continues to describe how one of these worlds is lost to a cultist uprising, and the entire region is nearly destroyed because of the loss. This leads to the establishment of the Maelstrom Wardens, a group of marine Chapters (under the leadership of the Astral Claws) permanently based in the area to cull such activities.

This is a great section, detailing how the Imperial Tithe works and how the distribution of materials and communication is held together. There is a great deal of background information available here about warp jumps, navigation waypoints and the distribution and assignment of Marine Chapters.

Events eventually leads to the Astral Claws getting Huron as their Chapter Master, and taking control of Badab proper, then the whole Badab sector to ‘protect these worlds and those souls that dwell upon them’. Cleverly Huron (and Alan Bligh) reference the realm of Ultramar as precedence. Huron grows more and more successful, and petitions Terra for more Chapters to totally destroy the threats. He is refused without even being heard.
In response he withholds the Badab sectors tithe and blocks trade through it, claiming he needs the resources to continue his fight as he isn’t being supplied by the Administratum.

The story here is very clever, as it makes Huron seem reasonable and within his rights – in fact it is a trick part for the Imperium as, by the laws, he is as an Astartes. But it still puts a number of nearby systems (the Karthans), now without trade routes to the greater Imperium, against him.
These economic rivals petitioned the Adminstratum, who ruled in their favour, and a fleet is sent to Badab to claim the tithe, by force if needs be. Naturally it all goes to hell and the tithe fleet is destroyed. Each side claims the other fired first, however there a few tidbits that there may have been a third party involved...

New Termie armour from Forge World coming up?

The situation worsens, and this eventually leads to Huron and his allies – the Lamenters and Mantis Warriors – to secede. The secession is only in regards to their tithes, as it is their right as Astartes to not have to pay. This coincides with a mysterious rise in pirate attacks on shipping, particularly on the Karthans. The Karthans call in the Fire Hawks to ‘protect shipping’, but it is known they bear a grudge against the Astral Claws and are volatile. Eventually the Fire Hawks come to battle with the Mantis Warriors, and wage a one chapter war against the others (it goes badly). The Marines Errant show up to help, and they do something useful by protecting shipping until the psychopathic Executioners appear to honour a blood debt to Huron.

This part gives a great insight into the different marine psyches and fighting styles, as well as various degrees of honour they give each other. For example the Marines Errant and Lamenters were giving quarter and merely chasing each other off, rather than engaging in full conflict, due to old ties of kinship. The Executioners only come along because they have an oath to do so and, while they enjoy the fighting, they only fight as is strictly necessary – withdrawing once a defence station is out of action rather than staying to finish the defenders off totally.

It is not totally ‘good guy, bad guy’ here either – the Fire Hawks effectively exterminatus a (medieval level) Mantis Warrior planet just to be jerks and as last act of spite as they withdraw. Similarly the Minotaurs kill 20% of the civillain population in a sector through collateral damage in a few months. It’s good (kinda) to see even the ‘good’ marines portrayed as merciless and indiscriminate in their tactics.



The events lead to a large number of ‘loyalist’ Chapters drawn in to arrest Huron for trial, though things again go wrong when an attempt at parley between the Red Scorpions master Ortys and Huron and the Mantis Warrior’s master Sartaq is interrupted by a number of Chaos vessels (two Iconoclast and one unknown), who proceed to blow up the asteroid. Ortys and Sartaq are both killed, though Huron obviously escapes. Red Scorpions Librarian Loth retrieves the body of his fallen boss through massive amounts of badassery.
Huron has been steadily going more and more mad as we go along, and is full on paranoid rant mode at this time. However all is not necessarily as it seems, as Sartaq had been growing uncomfortable with the standoff and considering laying down his guns. But with his apparent murder by the loyalists his Chapter was out for blood...

The war proper starts, with more marine chapters arriving and those considered too honourable to fight to the death with their brothers re-deployed elsewhere. The Salamanders resisted the orders though, and stayed in the fight. I found this a very well written part as it shows the Imperium is well aware of the different natures and temperaments of the chapters, and uses them to their advantage.

For how the war goes, you’ll have to buy the book for that. Suffice to say the Marines use camouflage, clever tactics and lots of brutality. There are also some surprises about why exactly Huron was withholding his Geneseed tithe, and what his long term plans really were.



Chapters of the Badab War

This section details half the Chapters involved in the fighting. Namely:

The Astral Claws,
The Fire Haws,
The Marines Errant,
Red Scorpions,
The Fire Angels,
The Raptors,
The Lamenters,
The Novamarines,
and the
Howling Griffons

(Book 2 will cover: Mantis Warriors, Executioners, Salamanders, Minotaurs, Sons of Medusa, Exorcists, Carcharodons [Space Sharks] and Star Phantoms).

Each chapter gets an eight page write up, which details their nature and personality, organisation and any variences/strengths/weaknesses, notable battle honours and the disposition of their forces in the war. It is good to see these relatively undeveloped chapters getting some love, though due to most of the loyalists at this point being ‘by the book’ types (who would be first to stand up against Huron’s bucking of Imperial Law) they do get a bit samey.

Also it is worth mentioning the mostly black Howling Griffins scheme (see Terminator below) is a camouflage pattern, not a wholesale change in livery. In keeping with the original Badab article the book features several alternate schemes for the marines.

Not emo, just cammo.

Campaign and Special Missions

The Badab Campaign system is designed to mimic the ‘historical’ events of the war, with five themed phases. There is no rigid battle system, but certain stages award more Campaign Points to certain styles of game.
For example Phase 1, mimicking the early skirmishes in space lanes, awards 3CPs for victories in Boarding Action missions, 2Cps for Battlefleet Gothic victories, and 1CP for any other type of game.
There are no hard rules for how long each phase lasts – the book suggests either each phase is the same number of games or a real world time limit passes. This prevents people dragging out phases to pull back a win, as winning a phase grants a bonus for the campaign – winning Phase 1 gives the Loyalists +1 to reserve rolls, and the Secessionists the option to re-roll Deep Strikes.

There are five special missions, each themed to one of the Campaign Phases, and one is The Angstrom Incident. So after twenty years the exact details are revealed of this, erm, incident and you can play it out even. It has a cool plot hook to boot.


Boarding Action Rules

This section is a mini-expansion in the vein of Cities of Death or Planetstrike – not a simple add-on to normal games like Battle Missions.
There is a modified FOC, with only one HQ and one other unit mandatory. There are unit restrictions as well, with the only vehicles being artillery or walkers on 60mm or smaller bases. The designers do note that they may still not fit everywhere, so caveat emptor!

There are a few special rules:
Hazardous Ground – vehicles and bikes treat difficult terrain as dangerous, as do jump infantry in certain circumstances.
The Cold Void – Weapons of more than Str4 get rending, rending gets better, and blasts are improved.
Catastrophic Damage – there is a table to represent the ship being boarded slowly falling apart. Doors may open or close on their own, the ground may become unstable, explosions may break out or parts of the ship (board) may vent into space!

There is a lengthy discussion about the different types of environments that can be fought over, including decks, holds and the outer hull which has a special rule, The Hungry Stars, to represent guys getting blasted out into space.

To play these rules there are three mission types, and even an optional stratagems section that blows my mind because it brings back the Graviton Gun! Other fun looking options include super Tarantulas (twin-linked Plasma Cannon!), drones, crew gangs, las-cutters and more.

I think this section is superbly done, and very flavourful – combining it with the Kill Team cohesion rules from Battle Missions or some modified system (such as Killzone) would make moving around easier in the confines of the ship though.

You also get a poster!

Lords of Destruction – Special Characters

There are a total of TWELVE special characters in this book:

Chaplain Dreadnought Titus (Howling Griffons)
Lugft Huron (Astral Claws)
Capt Corien Sumatris (Astral Claws)
Armenneus Valthex (Astral Claws)
Lt Commander Anton Narvaez (Marines Errant)
Magister Sevrin Loth (Red Scorpions)
Lord High Commander Carab Culln (Red Scorpions)
Captain Tarnus Vale (Fire Angels)
Chapter Master Lias Issodon (Raptors)
Master Malakim Phoros (Lamenters)
Captain Mordaci Blaylock (Novamarines)
Knight-Captain Elam Courbray (Fire Hawks)

So every chapter in the book gets one. It is worth noting that aside from Huron the other Astral Claws characters do not appear, so may just be a bonus or may make an appearance later. Additionally the book specifically mentions it is extremely unlikely they’ll make minis for most of these guys.

Most of them get a single page – half background, half rules – though Culln and Huron get two ‘cause they’re awesome like that. They all have special rules, such as making Terminators scoring, better saves, and other unique powers.
All save the Lamenters character are for use with Codex: Space Marines (even Huron), with the Lamenters for C:Blood Angels. This does make the somewhat unique situation that you can’t take Culln with the Red Scorpions list from Vraks BUT he duplicates the list with his Chapter Tactics, so it’s a moot point (and possibly better as you can get Apothecaries in any marine unit with this Culln).


The Tyrant’s Legion – Army List

The book’s army list represents the Tyrant’s PDF forces augmented by his Marines. As such it is a blend of the Imperial Guard and Marine Codexes, being able to take a Guard Command squad or a Marine officer. However there are more restrictions, as the Marine HQ is weaker than a captain and the Guard can’t take advisors. The amount of Marine equipment is restricted as well, so you can’t just take a Marine army with some Leman Russ’ and Hellhounds.
The list isn’t just a mish-mash of existing units, however. There is a creepy anti-apothecary called the Corpse Taker (he steals other chapter’s Geneseed), mercenary fighters, and several other unique pieces. There is also a special rule that the Marines can gain bonuses to their cover saves due to fire passing through friendly guard units, but the guard take casualties as a result.

All in all the list characterful and has a surprising variety for a hybrid, but it still feels like a hybrid. It could even be used by Alpha Legion players to represent a more organised group, though it lacks any psychic powers or Daemon stand-ins. Just a thought for you guys with LatD armies!


Apocalypse

Two formations for Marines and one for Guard. The Marines have one made up of three to five Land Raiders that makes them even harder to kill. The other includes ‘one to three Thunderhawk Gunships’ filled to capacity with at least 20 models each and a different HQ choice each (ie Chaplain, Librarian etc). This entire setup (up to sixty guys and three T-Hawks) is an assassination force and all their bonus rules are geared to killing a single target.
The guard’s is four to eight Russ’ command by a Baneblade who gain some situational bonuses to damaging their targets and BS boosts.


Summary

Well, you can see that this volume of Imperial Armour is absolutely jammed packed with stuff. And there is a second helping on the way.

Story gets an 9.5/10 due to some typos and misuse of decimate. There was one particularly incomprehensible sentence, though I can’t find it again. Nit-picking aside, this is the primary reason to buy the book.

The Chapter section is 7/10, lower due to the previously mentioned repetition and similarity. The content however is very good, just ‘samey’.

Campaign scores 8/10: thematic, easy to use and flexible – everything you want in a system really.

Boarding Action rules are 9/10, the point lost due to the lack of new movement rules (though I do understand that introducing those would have made things much more complex) and the need for lots more terrain to use them effectively.

Lords of Destruction, 9/10 – each is sufficiently different to the others and lends themselves to different playstyles.

The Tyrants Legion earn a 7/10. The lower score is that while it has some uniqueness, it is essentially a modified mash-up of Imperial units.

Apocalypse – 7/ 10. Feels somewhat tacked on at the end, but the Land Raider and Russ one are pretty good for their cost. The T-Hawk one is very silly, and if I owned three Thunderhawks I’d use it, but these are really just bonuses to the rest of the book.


OVERALL – 9/10
If you’re not a Marinehead it’s probably not worth it (6/10 maybe? Less if you don’t like Imperials), try to borrow a copy first if you really like the sound of the Boarding Action rules or the Campaign.

Part Two has a lot to live up to.