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Well, with White Dwarf 302 GW has performed a miracle - as an avid Eldar
collector (and sometime player, of course) I looked at the banner headline on
the front cover - "Eldar Wave Serpent Grav Tank!" - and I couldn't give a toss.
Remember that this is a model we've been waiting for for many years, but
somehow GW has managed to remove any semblance of interest from the release.
Oh, well, maybe there'll be something of interest in the magazine (the bastards
had better have done credit to Biel-Tan, since they beat me to publication. :-(
)
Where to start?
NEW RELEASES
WARHAMMER
Greasus Goldtooth £20
Ogre Kingdoms Butcher £15
Ogre Kingdoms Ironguts (4) £20
Ogre Gorger £9
Ogre Kingdoms Yhetee £9
Gnoblar Scraplauncher £20
Special Edition Ogre Maneater £9
Not here. Please. Oh, very well, may as well get this out of the way. I said
before that Greasus Goldtooth looked good for comic value; the good news is
that now I get a better view this still true. The bad news is that I said the
Ogre Butchers were among the very worst models in WFB, and this is also true.
The Ironguts are bland enough not to be objectionable, but what is it about
that 'one arm stretched upwards, one reaching down to the foot' fitness pose
that appeals to GW so much? It doesn't appeal to anyone else, but we get it
with both Gorgers and one of the Yhetees. The 'Special Edition' Maneaters are
the two that have been consigned to Mail Order for being too hideous for
general sale (not sure how the Butcher squeezed through) - the female (not
shown for sanity's sake) and the ninja.
WARHAMMER 40,000
Captain Lysander £9
Captain Shrike £8
Eldar Wave Serpent £20
Hmm. I'd like to say that on closer inspection this isn't too bad a model.
Sadly, that would be completely untrue. It's true that it's hard to see
anything inherently wrong with any of the components - the Falcon hull remains
among GW's best vehicles and such things as the new plastic shuriken cannon
and, of course, the plastic heavy weapons sprue are very welcome. The
out-of-place holofield-thingies could work well on, say, a War Walker, while
the turret would be useful in any number of custom vehicles - custom Tau
vehicles, that is. The problem is that there is nothing coherent about the
whole; it looks like half a Falcon with a bitz box thrown in rather than a
vehicle in its own right. My first thought on seeing the price was that, with
11 heavy weapons in the set, the various vehicle upgrades and the Falcon hull,
this was a pretty good deal. Unfortunately without the Falcon turret there's
not a lot you can do with the model unless you want to use it as a base for FW
kits. As for the heavy weapons? Wake me up when the sprue's added to the War
Walker or Vyper box.
What I have to ask about this kit is, simply, why? Even if a good Wave Serpent
really can be made from a Falcon hull (which I doubt), a better one can be made
by starting from scratch as the Epic 40k designers did, and the costs of doing
so can't be any higher than years spent on various abortive attempts to make
the FalconSerpent work and the eventual creation of two new sprues for the kit.
EPIC
Eldar Anti-Grav Platforms (6) £8
Eldar Falcons (3) £8
Eldar Night Wings (6) £8
Eldar Vypers (6) £6
Eldar Warhost (38 stands) £12
Eldar War Walkers (6) £8
Eldar Wave Serpents (4) £5
Ah, real Wave Serpents - though surely there must be some misprint if you get 4
Serpents for £5 and 3 Falcons for £8? The good news is that for the most part
these haven't increased much in price since E40k days, when the smaller items
sold at £1 apiece. These releases basically get the E40k rereleases out of the
way - all that's new are the replacement of Harlequins on the plastic sprue
with more Rangers and the lower variety in new components (all weapon platforms
now have either scatter laser - heavy weapon - or D-cannon - support weapon -
Falcons only have pulse laser/scatter laser and Wave Serpents twin shuriken
cannon). It's a shame that the Nightwing models haven't been redone, as they
are no longer vaguely appropriate for the armament in rules, but on the other
hand for £8 you get as many as you're ever going to need in a game and 600pts
for £8 is a better deal than most you'll get from GW (except the Warhost). As
for Falcons, Forgeworld makes better, cheaper Epic Falcons.
BLOOD BOWL
Skeleton with chainsaw £5
I suppose there's a reason this is needed. Then again, I've always supposed
there's a reason for Blood Bowl but have yet to learn what it is.
MORDHEIM
Dwarf Treasure Hunter £5
Sigh. Another unneeded Hired Sword while the range is still full of holes -
Mordheim actually has a full range of Dwarfs (or would have if they got round
to releasing the Heroes in blister packs).
NEWS - WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
At last, something more than one-line references to what we now learn has
become "Warhammer Realms: Lustria". It seems that this is a WFB of the proposed
40k Battlezone series, which flopped to a halt when all GW's frenzied promotion
failed to shift more than a couple of Cityfight books. Let's hope the basic
concept of a setting-based supplement is all Lustria has in common with that.
What we're told seems to hold more shades of RT than Cityfight, though - an
Encounters phase with carnivorous plants and the like, random weather and other
events and so on.
The Rise of Sotek itself is basically a campaign written into the book and, as
I predicted at one stage, it is a historical campaign between Lizardmen and
Clan Pestilens. It's set during the Age of Strife, apparently, so expect some
welcome fluff about what the Slann were up to before the rise of the Imperium,
while the Eldar empire was still going strong and ... not *that* Age of Strife?
We're told of new releases for "several Warhammer races" - Tenehuain and a
variety of Pestilens-themed Skaven are the obvious ones, and we've seen High
Elves, but we aren't given any more details. I still want to see Luthor Harkon.
Overall, quite aside from my renewed interest in the Lizardmen, this looks to
be the most interesting 'mainstream' GW release of the year (the only others
I'm interested in being Fanatic's Swordwind supplement for Epic, Warhammer
Fantasy Roleplay v2 from Black Industries and Forgeworld's Taros Campaign
book). There will be a tie-in summer campaign ("Conquest of the New World",
just a general everyone v. Lizardmen deal without a story as such), but it
probably won't be the major GW online campaign this year (which I believe is to
be an LotR campaign). However we are told that "Classic warriors of ill-repute,
such as Pirazzo's Lost Legion and Tichi-Huichi's Raiders, will be updated to
serve you in the campaign" - updating the Sink Cold One Rider models is good,
but can we have the same Lost Legionnaires released with a price cut? I may
have to find the money to invest in more GW releases this year after all...
There is a box in the news section revealing that - guess what? - the price
rises mentioned will indeed take place. I don't see it as a huge change - £18
rather than £15 for the plastic regiments is certainly annoying (but makes
Batallions better deals), but was inevitable given that both the Space Marine
Command Squad and Ogre Kingdoms Gnoblars sets came out at this price, but most
of the monsters etc. that will suffer from the blister price rise aren't used
that much anyway.
THE IVORY ROAD
Any fluff that prevents fluff fans from having to buy the Ogre Kingdoms book is
to be applauded. It's presented as a journal and is quite fun reading - it's a
better style than shoddy storytelling, at any rate one better-suited to GW
staff writers. It's a good way of conveying atmosphere, and allows them to tell
stories set in areas where people aren't hacking one another to pieces. We get
a few more hints about the Chaos Dwarfs in the form of rumour - confirming that
they do all now wear the iron facemasks. There's an accompanying scenario,
though not involving Chaos Dwarfs - Empire v. Gnoblars, of all things.
BELLY OF THE BEAST
Empire v. Ogre battle report. There's a new format to the pre-battle ramble - a
table is included showing each army's strengths and weaknesses and with a
blantantly obvious tactical comment (in this case, that the Ogres need to get
into close combat before they're shot to pieces).
THE UNDER-EMPIRE
This is a very fluffy issue, though I'm not sure why the Skaven were chosen for
one this month - perhaps they've been ignored for a bit too long, or they want
the opportunity to advertise the Skaven fluff book. There's nothing much new
here, not even an acknowledgment that after the Storm of Chaos the Empire can't
pretend Skaven don't exist. In fact the whole piece seems to be drawn from
older fluff - there's no reference to the Dwarf presence in Karak Eight Peaks,
for instance. One thing that does seem to be new is a reference to Warlord Clan
Scrutens, resident under Marienburg, which was forced out of a previous
stronghold by conflict with the Fimir (who are unsurprisingly not mentioned by
name, just as "some form of daemonic, cyclopean swamp-dwellers). However, the
Fimir around Marienburg were themselves wiped out by the Skaven, and that's no
doubt why they don't have an army list.
A TALE OF FOUR GAMERS
Right, here we go again. Where were we? Oh, yes:
Stephen (Tomb Kings)
Tomb King mounted in a chariot
Liche Priest
16 Skeletons with spears and shields
12 Skeletons with bows
1 Tomb Swarm
8 Skeleton Heavy Cavalry
3 Undead Chariots
Paul (Empire)
Captain
Wizard
20 Swordsmen
20 Free Company
5 Archers
5 Halflings
Dave (Grimgor's 'Ardboyz)
Orc Shaman (Level 2. Dangly Wotnotz)
13 Black Orcs (full command, great weapons)
3 Stone Trolls
Asger (Daemonic Legion)
Daemon Prince
Daemonic Herald
Plaguebearers (12)
Nurgling Swarm (4 bases)
We start with the Tomb Kings this month. Stephen gets battle in, though again
not against other Gamers. We do get a truncated report of the battle, in which
he loses to a missile-armed Dwarf force, which won by simply shooting the Liche
Priest's unit until he died and then watching the army collapse. No commentary
on why he selected his next batch of purchases, which are 16 more Skellies and
a Tomb Scorpion, or on how the Skellies are armed.
Paul complains about painting again. His results aren't bad, and he has managed
to complete the force he's amassed by this stage. He decides for his next
purchase he wants Halberdiers, but due to a sudden loss of taste he wants them
to be made from Spearmen models rather than - well - Halberdiers. His purchases
are 3 Empire Detachment sets (he lists them at £8 - I thought they were £12?),
of which he swaps the handgunners for spearmen (isn't that cheating?). I think
that set has 16 models in it, so that gives him 48 Spearmen.
The Orc player gets in a plug for GW Mail Order (oops, Direct Sales) as he sets
about buying conversion bitz. However, he isn't quite Sawyerish as he does get
round to adding an Orc Regiment set. This gives him a Taugrek (a Black Orc
battle standard bearer), a Boss for his Black Orc regiment, a Big Boss and 7-8
Big 'Uns and 7-8 normal Orc Boyz as he assembled them.
Finally, Asger spends his time painting his ugly Daemon Prince conversion and
adds some more Plaguebearers.
No real battle reports, but then I'm not in a position to complain given the
absence of battle reports in the RGMW Tale (though we have more excuse)...
To summarise:
Tomb Kings
Tomb King mounted in a chariot
Liche Priest
16 Skeletons with spears and shields
12 Skeletons with bows
1 Tomb Swarm
8 Skeleton Heavy Cavalry
3 Undead Chariots
1 Tomb Scorpion
20 spare Skeletons
Empire:
Paul (Empire)
Captain
Wizard
20 Swordsmen
48 (?) Halberdiers
20 Free Company
5 Archers
5 Halflings
Grimgor's 'Ardboyz
Black Orc Big Boss
Taugrek the Throttler, Black Orc Big Boss (Battle Standard)
Orc Shaman (Level 2. Dangly Wotnotz)
14 Black Orcs (full command, great weapons)
7 (?) Big 'Uns
8 (?) Orc Boyz
3 Stone Trolls
Daemonic Legion
Daemon Prince
Daemonic Herald
25 Plaguebearers (Musician)
Nurgling Swarm (4 bases)
BUGMAN'S LAMENT
Final part of the Bugman campaign. I haven't really been following this, but we
get rules and conversion ideas for two new characters (the Dwarf is rather bad
but the Goblin - Grom the Paunch with a new axe and head - isn't). We also get
two new Dwarf list entries - a brewmaster and Dwarf firethrowers (actually
quite a good conversion).
INDEX XENOS: THE SWORDWIND
Most of this is reprinted and there's very little on Biel-Tan history -
disappointing, though at least it doesn't introduce anything that conflicts
with my Biel-Tan fluff. Introduced is the idea of just what an Autarch is, and
this idea (an Exarch that has explored several Aspects of the Path of the
Warrior) seems to conflict with long-established fluff which holds that an
Eldar is confined to one Aspect when he chooses the Path of the Warrior. The
fluff on first contact is disappointing - human Explorators got attacked and
then the Eldar left. Most disappointingly, the way the fluff is presented is
sketchy at best - given four sides of A4 to describe a Craftworld seems a lot
considering that the sum total of its established fluff to date, in the same
detail, should take about half that, but the simplistic treatment of the
Warrior Paths and the rush through Biel-Tan society and tactics are less
detailed than what's gone before. Still, if nothing else this gives me a rough
format and page limit to work to when tidying up my (invariably longer)
Craftworld fluff pieces for submission.
SWORDWIND OF BIEL-TAN
Biel-Tan tactics. This is a reversion to the old-style WD Tactica, which is not
a compliment as these consisted of a list of what each unit could do per the
Codex and no advice on what to do with them. Alessio rather overplays the
advantages Shining Spears have gained from the new rules, fails to mention Fire
Dragon auto-penetration and has nothing to say about Dire Avengers beyond
"They're better in close combat than Guardians". Not impressed by his sample
armies - both are a straight Studio armies with one (and no more than one) of
everything.
WAVE SERPENT
Pictures of - you guessed it - the Gnoblar Scraplauncher. Or not. From the
front, bar the out-of-place angular Tau turret, the thing looks as though it
nearly works, but is begging for armour plates at the end of the field
projectors. Every example of the tank shown uses the shuriken cannon, which to
me suggests that GW knows the twin-linked shuricats desperately need an update
but haven't included new ones on the sprue. We're shown various Wave Serpent
paintschemes, but no pictures of the new sprue, though we're told it includes
all five heavy weapons in duplicate, a new sensor probe, the secondary shuriken
cannon, a spirit stone, crystalline targeting matrix and of course field
generators that can double as a holofield - no vectored or spirit engines and
no scythes (but who cares about scythes?)
SPACE MARINE LEGENDS
More fluff, on four Space Marine Chapters (Ultramarines, White Scars,
Salamanders and Imperial Fists). Reprinted, near as I can tell.
HEROES OF THE IMPERIUM
Rules and fluff for Lysander and Shrike. To give the writers credit, these
characters' stories are a departure from the usual 'brave feral savage became a
Space Marine, won glorious victories, became a hero' stuff that's stale by now.
NECROMUNDA: THE IRON LORDS
GW's latest inhouse campaign. The gangs: The Unwashed Brotherhood (House
Cawdor), Raygorn's Rednecks (House Goliath), Scarlet Reavers (House Escher),
The Dead-Marsh Defilers (Scavvies, even though they don't have current rules),
HiveNet (converted cybernetic House Van Saar), Trenchcoat Cowboys (House
Delaque, with blue skin for some reason), The Phantoms (House Orlock) and
Lazenby's Specters (House Van Saar). One from every House and only one House
duplicated - you might almost think it was planned that way.
The Unwashed are apparently led by Smelly Bob, an undercover Nurgle cultist
whose "disguise" includes having the Nurgle symbol prominently displayed on the
book he carries ("Honestly, it's just the Forgeworld fluff book...")
We aren't given battle reports, just a description of how the gangs are doing -
bit of a waste of time putting the campaign in WD, really. The Scarlet Reavers
were replaced with Jade Lotus after having to retire early in the campaign,
beaten comprehensively by the Delaque. Let's hope we actually get battle
reports next month. We do get a few details of the setting and a scenario.
DOC BUTCHA'S CONVERSION KLINIC
Eldar Pirates - the same ones as in the Kill-Team section of the 40k rulebook.
SCOURING OF THE SHIRE
Preview of the next LotR supplement. How dull.
ARAGORN'S REVENGE
New scenario.
THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM
Another new scenario.
THE WAR OF THE RINGS
Rambling on about the online summer campaign. And you thought the 40k and WFB
ones weren't interesting.
ISENGUARD'S PACK
Warg Riders.
FURY OF MORDOR
Showcase of a large converted battering ram.
An issue as devoid of rules (or indeed pretty much any other) content as they
come, which is a shame. Next month's looks just as unpromising, with LotR
grabbing the prime time, though we're promised fluff, rules and conversions for
new types of abhuman (I'm guessing none will be short bearded abhumans,
though), a scenario with Tristan le Troubadour (presumably giving the character
6th Ed. rules) and more battle-less Four Gamers.
Philip Bowles
Well, with White Dwarf 302 GW has performed a miracle - as an avid Eldar
collector (and sometime player, of course) I looked at the banner headline on
the front cover - "Eldar Wave Serpent Grav Tank!" - and I couldn't give a toss.
Remember that this is a model we've been waiting for for many years, but
somehow GW has managed to remove any semblance of interest from the release.
Oh, well, maybe there'll be something of interest in the magazine (the bastards
had better have done credit to Biel-Tan, since they beat me to publication. :-(
)
Where to start?
NEW RELEASES
WARHAMMER
Greasus Goldtooth £20
Ogre Kingdoms Butcher £15
Ogre Kingdoms Ironguts (4) £20
Ogre Gorger £9
Ogre Kingdoms Yhetee £9
Gnoblar Scraplauncher £20
Special Edition Ogre Maneater £9
Not here. Please. Oh, very well, may as well get this out of the way. I said
before that Greasus Goldtooth looked good for comic value; the good news is
that now I get a better view this still true. The bad news is that I said the
Ogre Butchers were among the very worst models in WFB, and this is also true.
The Ironguts are bland enough not to be objectionable, but what is it about
that 'one arm stretched upwards, one reaching down to the foot' fitness pose
that appeals to GW so much? It doesn't appeal to anyone else, but we get it
with both Gorgers and one of the Yhetees. The 'Special Edition' Maneaters are
the two that have been consigned to Mail Order for being too hideous for
general sale (not sure how the Butcher squeezed through) - the female (not
shown for sanity's sake) and the ninja.
WARHAMMER 40,000
Captain Lysander £9
Captain Shrike £8
Eldar Wave Serpent £20
Hmm. I'd like to say that on closer inspection this isn't too bad a model.
Sadly, that would be completely untrue. It's true that it's hard to see
anything inherently wrong with any of the components - the Falcon hull remains
among GW's best vehicles and such things as the new plastic shuriken cannon
and, of course, the plastic heavy weapons sprue are very welcome. The
out-of-place holofield-thingies could work well on, say, a War Walker, while
the turret would be useful in any number of custom vehicles - custom Tau
vehicles, that is. The problem is that there is nothing coherent about the
whole; it looks like half a Falcon with a bitz box thrown in rather than a
vehicle in its own right. My first thought on seeing the price was that, with
11 heavy weapons in the set, the various vehicle upgrades and the Falcon hull,
this was a pretty good deal. Unfortunately without the Falcon turret there's
not a lot you can do with the model unless you want to use it as a base for FW
kits. As for the heavy weapons? Wake me up when the sprue's added to the War
Walker or Vyper box.
What I have to ask about this kit is, simply, why? Even if a good Wave Serpent
really can be made from a Falcon hull (which I doubt), a better one can be made
by starting from scratch as the Epic 40k designers did, and the costs of doing
so can't be any higher than years spent on various abortive attempts to make
the FalconSerpent work and the eventual creation of two new sprues for the kit.
EPIC
Eldar Anti-Grav Platforms (6) £8
Eldar Falcons (3) £8
Eldar Night Wings (6) £8
Eldar Vypers (6) £6
Eldar Warhost (38 stands) £12
Eldar War Walkers (6) £8
Eldar Wave Serpents (4) £5
Ah, real Wave Serpents - though surely there must be some misprint if you get 4
Serpents for £5 and 3 Falcons for £8? The good news is that for the most part
these haven't increased much in price since E40k days, when the smaller items
sold at £1 apiece. These releases basically get the E40k rereleases out of the
way - all that's new are the replacement of Harlequins on the plastic sprue
with more Rangers and the lower variety in new components (all weapon platforms
now have either scatter laser - heavy weapon - or D-cannon - support weapon -
Falcons only have pulse laser/scatter laser and Wave Serpents twin shuriken
cannon). It's a shame that the Nightwing models haven't been redone, as they
are no longer vaguely appropriate for the armament in rules, but on the other
hand for £8 you get as many as you're ever going to need in a game and 600pts
for £8 is a better deal than most you'll get from GW (except the Warhost). As
for Falcons, Forgeworld makes better, cheaper Epic Falcons.
BLOOD BOWL
Skeleton with chainsaw £5
I suppose there's a reason this is needed. Then again, I've always supposed
there's a reason for Blood Bowl but have yet to learn what it is.
MORDHEIM
Dwarf Treasure Hunter £5
Sigh. Another unneeded Hired Sword while the range is still full of holes -
Mordheim actually has a full range of Dwarfs (or would have if they got round
to releasing the Heroes in blister packs).
NEWS - WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
At last, something more than one-line references to what we now learn has
become "Warhammer Realms: Lustria". It seems that this is a WFB of the proposed
40k Battlezone series, which flopped to a halt when all GW's frenzied promotion
failed to shift more than a couple of Cityfight books. Let's hope the basic
concept of a setting-based supplement is all Lustria has in common with that.
What we're told seems to hold more shades of RT than Cityfight, though - an
Encounters phase with carnivorous plants and the like, random weather and other
events and so on.
The Rise of Sotek itself is basically a campaign written into the book and, as
I predicted at one stage, it is a historical campaign between Lizardmen and
Clan Pestilens. It's set during the Age of Strife, apparently, so expect some
welcome fluff about what the Slann were up to before the rise of the Imperium,
while the Eldar empire was still going strong and ... not *that* Age of Strife?
We're told of new releases for "several Warhammer races" - Tenehuain and a
variety of Pestilens-themed Skaven are the obvious ones, and we've seen High
Elves, but we aren't given any more details. I still want to see Luthor Harkon.
Overall, quite aside from my renewed interest in the Lizardmen, this looks to
be the most interesting 'mainstream' GW release of the year (the only others
I'm interested in being Fanatic's Swordwind supplement for Epic, Warhammer
Fantasy Roleplay v2 from Black Industries and Forgeworld's Taros Campaign
book). There will be a tie-in summer campaign ("Conquest of the New World",
just a general everyone v. Lizardmen deal without a story as such), but it
probably won't be the major GW online campaign this year (which I believe is to
be an LotR campaign). However we are told that "Classic warriors of ill-repute,
such as Pirazzo's Lost Legion and Tichi-Huichi's Raiders, will be updated to
serve you in the campaign" - updating the Sink Cold One Rider models is good,
but can we have the same Lost Legionnaires released with a price cut? I may
have to find the money to invest in more GW releases this year after all...
There is a box in the news section revealing that - guess what? - the price
rises mentioned will indeed take place. I don't see it as a huge change - £18
rather than £15 for the plastic regiments is certainly annoying (but makes
Batallions better deals), but was inevitable given that both the Space Marine
Command Squad and Ogre Kingdoms Gnoblars sets came out at this price, but most
of the monsters etc. that will suffer from the blister price rise aren't used
that much anyway.
THE IVORY ROAD
Any fluff that prevents fluff fans from having to buy the Ogre Kingdoms book is
to be applauded. It's presented as a journal and is quite fun reading - it's a
better style than shoddy storytelling, at any rate one better-suited to GW
staff writers. It's a good way of conveying atmosphere, and allows them to tell
stories set in areas where people aren't hacking one another to pieces. We get
a few more hints about the Chaos Dwarfs in the form of rumour - confirming that
they do all now wear the iron facemasks. There's an accompanying scenario,
though not involving Chaos Dwarfs - Empire v. Gnoblars, of all things.
BELLY OF THE BEAST
Empire v. Ogre battle report. There's a new format to the pre-battle ramble - a
table is included showing each army's strengths and weaknesses and with a
blantantly obvious tactical comment (in this case, that the Ogres need to get
into close combat before they're shot to pieces).
THE UNDER-EMPIRE
This is a very fluffy issue, though I'm not sure why the Skaven were chosen for
one this month - perhaps they've been ignored for a bit too long, or they want
the opportunity to advertise the Skaven fluff book. There's nothing much new
here, not even an acknowledgment that after the Storm of Chaos the Empire can't
pretend Skaven don't exist. In fact the whole piece seems to be drawn from
older fluff - there's no reference to the Dwarf presence in Karak Eight Peaks,
for instance. One thing that does seem to be new is a reference to Warlord Clan
Scrutens, resident under Marienburg, which was forced out of a previous
stronghold by conflict with the Fimir (who are unsurprisingly not mentioned by
name, just as "some form of daemonic, cyclopean swamp-dwellers). However, the
Fimir around Marienburg were themselves wiped out by the Skaven, and that's no
doubt why they don't have an army list.
A TALE OF FOUR GAMERS
Right, here we go again. Where were we? Oh, yes:
Stephen (Tomb Kings)
Tomb King mounted in a chariot
Liche Priest
16 Skeletons with spears and shields
12 Skeletons with bows
1 Tomb Swarm
8 Skeleton Heavy Cavalry
3 Undead Chariots
Paul (Empire)
Captain
Wizard
20 Swordsmen
20 Free Company
5 Archers
5 Halflings
Dave (Grimgor's 'Ardboyz)
Orc Shaman (Level 2. Dangly Wotnotz)
13 Black Orcs (full command, great weapons)
3 Stone Trolls
Asger (Daemonic Legion)
Daemon Prince
Daemonic Herald
Plaguebearers (12)
Nurgling Swarm (4 bases)
We start with the Tomb Kings this month. Stephen gets battle in, though again
not against other Gamers. We do get a truncated report of the battle, in which
he loses to a missile-armed Dwarf force, which won by simply shooting the Liche
Priest's unit until he died and then watching the army collapse. No commentary
on why he selected his next batch of purchases, which are 16 more Skellies and
a Tomb Scorpion, or on how the Skellies are armed.
Paul complains about painting again. His results aren't bad, and he has managed
to complete the force he's amassed by this stage. He decides for his next
purchase he wants Halberdiers, but due to a sudden loss of taste he wants them
to be made from Spearmen models rather than - well - Halberdiers. His purchases
are 3 Empire Detachment sets (he lists them at £8 - I thought they were £12?),
of which he swaps the handgunners for spearmen (isn't that cheating?). I think
that set has 16 models in it, so that gives him 48 Spearmen.
The Orc player gets in a plug for GW Mail Order (oops, Direct Sales) as he sets
about buying conversion bitz. However, he isn't quite Sawyerish as he does get
round to adding an Orc Regiment set. This gives him a Taugrek (a Black Orc
battle standard bearer), a Boss for his Black Orc regiment, a Big Boss and 7-8
Big 'Uns and 7-8 normal Orc Boyz as he assembled them.
Finally, Asger spends his time painting his ugly Daemon Prince conversion and
adds some more Plaguebearers.
No real battle reports, but then I'm not in a position to complain given the
absence of battle reports in the RGMW Tale (though we have more excuse)...
To summarise:
Tomb Kings
Tomb King mounted in a chariot
Liche Priest
16 Skeletons with spears and shields
12 Skeletons with bows
1 Tomb Swarm
8 Skeleton Heavy Cavalry
3 Undead Chariots
1 Tomb Scorpion
20 spare Skeletons
Empire:
Paul (Empire)
Captain
Wizard
20 Swordsmen
48 (?) Halberdiers
20 Free Company
5 Archers
5 Halflings
Grimgor's 'Ardboyz
Black Orc Big Boss
Taugrek the Throttler, Black Orc Big Boss (Battle Standard)
Orc Shaman (Level 2. Dangly Wotnotz)
14 Black Orcs (full command, great weapons)
7 (?) Big 'Uns
8 (?) Orc Boyz
3 Stone Trolls
Daemonic Legion
Daemon Prince
Daemonic Herald
25 Plaguebearers (Musician)
Nurgling Swarm (4 bases)
BUGMAN'S LAMENT
Final part of the Bugman campaign. I haven't really been following this, but we
get rules and conversion ideas for two new characters (the Dwarf is rather bad
but the Goblin - Grom the Paunch with a new axe and head - isn't). We also get
two new Dwarf list entries - a brewmaster and Dwarf firethrowers (actually
quite a good conversion).
INDEX XENOS: THE SWORDWIND
Most of this is reprinted and there's very little on Biel-Tan history -
disappointing, though at least it doesn't introduce anything that conflicts
with my Biel-Tan fluff. Introduced is the idea of just what an Autarch is, and
this idea (an Exarch that has explored several Aspects of the Path of the
Warrior) seems to conflict with long-established fluff which holds that an
Eldar is confined to one Aspect when he chooses the Path of the Warrior. The
fluff on first contact is disappointing - human Explorators got attacked and
then the Eldar left. Most disappointingly, the way the fluff is presented is
sketchy at best - given four sides of A4 to describe a Craftworld seems a lot
considering that the sum total of its established fluff to date, in the same
detail, should take about half that, but the simplistic treatment of the
Warrior Paths and the rush through Biel-Tan society and tactics are less
detailed than what's gone before. Still, if nothing else this gives me a rough
format and page limit to work to when tidying up my (invariably longer)
Craftworld fluff pieces for submission.
SWORDWIND OF BIEL-TAN
Biel-Tan tactics. This is a reversion to the old-style WD Tactica, which is not
a compliment as these consisted of a list of what each unit could do per the
Codex and no advice on what to do with them. Alessio rather overplays the
advantages Shining Spears have gained from the new rules, fails to mention Fire
Dragon auto-penetration and has nothing to say about Dire Avengers beyond
"They're better in close combat than Guardians". Not impressed by his sample
armies - both are a straight Studio armies with one (and no more than one) of
everything.
WAVE SERPENT
Pictures of - you guessed it - the Gnoblar Scraplauncher. Or not. From the
front, bar the out-of-place angular Tau turret, the thing looks as though it
nearly works, but is begging for armour plates at the end of the field
projectors. Every example of the tank shown uses the shuriken cannon, which to
me suggests that GW knows the twin-linked shuricats desperately need an update
but haven't included new ones on the sprue. We're shown various Wave Serpent
paintschemes, but no pictures of the new sprue, though we're told it includes
all five heavy weapons in duplicate, a new sensor probe, the secondary shuriken
cannon, a spirit stone, crystalline targeting matrix and of course field
generators that can double as a holofield - no vectored or spirit engines and
no scythes (but who cares about scythes?)
SPACE MARINE LEGENDS
More fluff, on four Space Marine Chapters (Ultramarines, White Scars,
Salamanders and Imperial Fists). Reprinted, near as I can tell.
HEROES OF THE IMPERIUM
Rules and fluff for Lysander and Shrike. To give the writers credit, these
characters' stories are a departure from the usual 'brave feral savage became a
Space Marine, won glorious victories, became a hero' stuff that's stale by now.
NECROMUNDA: THE IRON LORDS
GW's latest inhouse campaign. The gangs: The Unwashed Brotherhood (House
Cawdor), Raygorn's Rednecks (House Goliath), Scarlet Reavers (House Escher),
The Dead-Marsh Defilers (Scavvies, even though they don't have current rules),
HiveNet (converted cybernetic House Van Saar), Trenchcoat Cowboys (House
Delaque, with blue skin for some reason), The Phantoms (House Orlock) and
Lazenby's Specters (House Van Saar). One from every House and only one House
duplicated - you might almost think it was planned that way.
The Unwashed are apparently led by Smelly Bob, an undercover Nurgle cultist
whose "disguise" includes having the Nurgle symbol prominently displayed on the
book he carries ("Honestly, it's just the Forgeworld fluff book...")
We aren't given battle reports, just a description of how the gangs are doing -
bit of a waste of time putting the campaign in WD, really. The Scarlet Reavers
were replaced with Jade Lotus after having to retire early in the campaign,
beaten comprehensively by the Delaque. Let's hope we actually get battle
reports next month. We do get a few details of the setting and a scenario.
DOC BUTCHA'S CONVERSION KLINIC
Eldar Pirates - the same ones as in the Kill-Team section of the 40k rulebook.
SCOURING OF THE SHIRE
Preview of the next LotR supplement. How dull.
ARAGORN'S REVENGE
New scenario.
THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM
Another new scenario.
THE WAR OF THE RINGS
Rambling on about the online summer campaign. And you thought the 40k and WFB
ones weren't interesting.
ISENGUARD'S PACK
Warg Riders.
FURY OF MORDOR
Showcase of a large converted battering ram.
An issue as devoid of rules (or indeed pretty much any other) content as they
come, which is a shame. Next month's looks just as unpromising, with LotR
grabbing the prime time, though we're promised fluff, rules and conversions for
new types of abhuman (I'm guessing none will be short bearded abhumans,
though), a scenario with Tristan le Troubadour (presumably giving the character
6th Ed. rules) and more battle-less Four Gamers.
Philip Bowles
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