40k Rule books - a short history

So here's a post I have been thinking of for a while - why do I love 40k rule books?

Now I'm a geek in many ways: wargames, board games, science, engineering and BOOKS.
I write that in capitals because above all else I love a book. It can be on any of the above subjects or it can be on something completely random. Old and dusty ones are my favourite, because I'm also a history geek and I am drawn to anything that is remotely historic, or at least smells of the dust of long dead owners.

To cut a long story long, when Helen and I first moved in together we were in a two bed flat with two flats worth of stuff and were seriously considering signing up to appear on Hoarder Next Door. We carted that stuff through 3 house moves, a marriage and having a kid (which brings a whole new level of utter clutter in itself!).

We've started de-cluttering, almost to the extreme where we are almost minimalists now. It's like an extreme backlash to our previous existence. But as I have started paring everything down to the bone I found I am left with a handful of 40k rule books and asked myself "why did I save these and not the rest"? The answer is obvious when thinking about it, they are my favourites, and so I want to share them with you.

First up is the Rogue Trader Rule book. The copy I have now is not the one I originally had, but it looks and smells the same and is in slightly better condition. Why do I love this book? Because it's the daddy of them all of course. It is a true style icon.

I never played a game using this rule book, but then, playing 40k has never been my driver. Collecting, painting and fluff is what keeps me ticking along (see above for 'hoarder'...).

This book has everything in terms of the origins of so much of what we have today. And Space Marines are so much closer to human in their habits than they are now; drinking, fighting and swearing in bars!

The art is good. Maybe not good, maybe interesting is the right word? It was good for its time and really embraces the artistic style that was popular in 80's and early 90's sci-fi (see above for shear randomness...)

Even now I like delving in to it to see what nuggets of fluff I can find. The 40k we have now is so far yet so close to this embryonic vision released in 1987. I was only 5 then and didn't pick up my copy until 1991, but by then I also had....

Space Hulk. Space Hulk is what got me in to loving 40k. It was easy to play and the imagery was strong: man verses alien in close quarters combat. I loved it and still own and play with my original set from all those years ago. One day, yes one day, I might get round to painting those bl**dy genestealer miniatures!

The first edition of Space Hulk is still the best in my opinion. The expansions that came a long later were a testing ground for what was to come in 40k as a whole in terms of psychic powers, but they made the core game overly complex, taking away the quick and simple game play.

Although don't think 'simple' means 'easy'. As a marine player you need to be really tactical in that game because it is not easy to win by any stretch of the imagination. Chess is simple to play but no one would say it was easy.

Space Hulk was a classic, it spawned several sequels, Space Crusade and a couple of computer games. One could argue that it even spawned Betrayal at Calth, in terms of game play, all these years later. They are extremely similar (which is probably why I like that too).

After these two iconic releases came a boom for 40k. 2nd edition is where we inherit a lot of the core principals of the game, pulling it firmly away from the complex, fantasy-esque system used in Rogue Trader. I think as a marine player I have been rolling 3's to hit and 4's to wound since this edition!

2nd, 3rd and 4th edition is when I did most of my playing, but I didn't keep any of these rule books. None of them were iconic enough, or fluff-laden enough to catch my imagination, to make me keep them when the next edition came along. I don't even have my 5th edition book, which as a rules system cemented many of the 'local' rules we had been playing for years anyway (such as 'true line of sight'... who out there ever used the height chart thingy for buildings? no one, that's who...).

Then 6th edition came along, and man, at the time I was blown away by the quality of the rule book. Double page spreads of gorgeous Neil Roberts art work, weapons schematics, fluff to knock your socks off, plus only a slight tweaking of the rules and a re-introduction of the psychic phase (I never use psychers because I don't like this phase, just so you know). I thought "this book is it, the pinnacle of 40k-dom". One book to rule them all!

But less than a year later 7th edition appeared. Split into 3 books it still doesn't feel as complete or have as much of a 'special' feel about it as that 6th edition book had. I think I remember them releasing it because people weren't happy about 6th edition for some reason, but as a casual player I can't really tell the difference. Nope, I wish they'd left it at 6th, I would have been happy. Now I have a 7th edition set in the cupboard which I am loath to keep just so I can play the game!

Since then though, we have had FW bring us the geeky goodness that is the Horus Heresy. These books make keeping that ugly little brother called '7th' in the cupboard worth it. Anyone who has been in to the hobby for as long as me has been waiting for this for about 20 years! ha ha. But the rule books? They are my dream book come true: huge leather-bound tomes full of Space Marine fluff, with amazing artwork and fairly simple army lists. These are the pinnacle of 30k-dom!



So, which is your favourite 40k rule book?

Dave

Forgeworld Monday!

No sooner had I posted my earlier FW update than they uploaded a new Teaser...

Yet more love for the Mechanicum range of models with this stunning Titan wrecker of gun. I do like the style of these tracked guns - much credit to the FW design team. 

And this, a Cyclonic Melta Lance for the Leviathan Dreadnought. It is described as a supercharged multi-melta, i think its safe to assume this is going to wreck vehicles!

The big news on Friday was about Warhammer Fest, Ive never been so can't comment on what its like but this has been a cross-platform event firmly in the calendar for many years; my impression has been that it is more about energising our interest in the world of GW, rather than providing lots of new releases. Although given the speed with which new releases are flowing I suspect there will be some new stuff to spend our cash on!

Wednesday also brought us these lovely Word Bearer models which were built from the Betrayal at Calth boxed set and the recent upgraded resin parts.

I will keep my eye out for any more news...

Incarceration, Betrayal and Retribution

the last week or so I have managed to fit in a fair bit of hobby activity!

We'll start with 'Incarceration'. we're talking dead Space Marines incarcerated in the living-sarcophagus of a dreadnought.

Below is a picture of the nearly-completed Space Wolves contemptor dreadnought I have been working on (my wife kindly took the picture). I've added some transfers from the new Space Wolves decal sheet, which look pretty cool. Jut got some highlighting of the eyes and wolf tails to go.

I've added some weathering powder in the form of brown around the shins and black around the vents and exhaust stacks.

I also added some blood to the big drill fist thingy using Tamia Clear Red. I added this after I varnished the mini so that it would remain glossy.

I'll hopefully finish him this week and get a proper post up to show him off. Let me know what you think so far.


Next is 'Betrayal'. Last week, after being informed by a kind reader that we were playing the game wrong we had another three games of Betrayal at Calth whilst at Warhammer World on Wednesday night. The game flowed much better. I lost two and won one game, so 4-4 overall now.

I still really like this game. It's pretty simple and yet has enough complexity to keep your interest.

And this feeds in to our last topic, 'Retribution'. When I heard this book was coming I knew I wanted a small Shattered Legion force....

Well I got my hands on it on release day, and in my opinion the book has taken the series back up to the heady heights of the original trilogy. I remember when I got Book 1 and was blown away by the fluff, art and rules. Well, this book did the same and it has been a long time coming.

I was wondering what purpose my Shattered Legion force was going to serve. I now have the rules and framework to use them in games of 30k, but it's not that often I get to play, it's going to be more of an exercise in fluff and painting. But after playing Betrayal at Calth a few times I think I am now going to paint the force up specifically for that game. All I'll need is an additional tactical squad to be able to use it in regular games of 30k (you need a minimum of two troops choices, and can't have more 'troops' than veteran tactical squads, so I read that as needing 4 tactical squads in total, two normal, two veteran).

So all in all, one box of BaC marines plus 10 more for the additional tactical squad means that I should have a force that I'm happy with, is interesting to paint and has more than one use. It shouldn't take too long to put together either. I had already put together one Veteran Tactical squad.

My plan is to have the bulk of the force painted as Luna Wolves and Iron Warriors (loyalist of course), with the occasional marine from a different legion spotted about to allow me to have a go at painting colours I have never painted before.

Let us know what your Retribution plans are!

Betrayal at Calth

Ok, so I know this was released some time ago now but I finally got round to playing Betrayal at Calth.

Firstly, lets start with the contents of the box...

The quality is great, the range of bits is absurd and man, that is a lot of miniatures for your money, especially considering how much I have spent on resin crack from Forge World.

So far I have only stuck together the dreadnought, I just couldn't resist. He's not quite finished yet, just waiting for the new Space Wolves transfers to arrive, but I should hopefully have him completed next week sometime.

Lets get on to the game. My boss offered to play with me as he also has a fancy for 40k so I took it in to work, fully believing the "a game only takes 30 minutes" tag line...

We peeled back the cellophane on the board pieces and unpacked the dice. He played Word Bearers (with Space Wolves stand in minis) and I played Ultramarines (with Space Wolves stand in minis...).

The game board fit on an office desk, so it's much easier to transport and set up than a full on game or 40k (and even Space Hulk, which is surprisingly big). The space required and number of minis involved reminded me of Warmachine Hoards, when I had a demo game of that.

We played Scenario 1, which was essentially a race to the blast doors at the end of the board before they slam shut and bar your escape.

What I would say about this scenario is that: Blast Door 1 closes after the third turn, 2 closes after the fourth and 3 closes after the fifth. You can only move 2 hexes a turn, and Blast Door 1 is 7 hexes away. I'm not that great at math but unless you have a card that helps with tactical points or movement, you ain't never gonna get there in time!

We figured this pretty quickly and both set off for Blast Door 3.

The game was fun. We played it with everyone having bolters so that we could keep it simple, but essentially it's just a more complicated Space Hulk, which I love anyway.

Shooting with bolters seems a little ineffective, but close combat was real fun. The game itself took us 55 minutes, but it was the first time we'd even looked at the rules so I'm not surprised. I'll definitely take it in again and give it another go. I'm even tempted to paint up some minis specifically for the game (and I'm tempted to buy another box just for the minis!!)

Who won? I did, which makes a change because I never win at Space Hulk, 40k or 30k. This could be the game for me!!

If you brought the box for the minis, I urge you to give the game a try. I really hope it sticks around as one of the Specialist Games that GW are launching and supporting.

Dave

Forgeworld Friday - Updated Armour Sets

FW New Armour

I love checking in on the FW website on a friday to see what new goodies are on offer for us and this week they haven't let us down! On offer are 'updated armour sets' to match the updated weapons issued last month.

So I tried to play spot the difference as I couldn't make out what had changed and after scratching my head for a while picked up the phone to FW for an explanation, there are four changes we can see here:

1. The models now come in a blister pack - woohoo!
2. The models are now missing a right hand - this will allow them to take the weapons that were issued last month, and also ...
3. The change has been made to make them compatible with the plastic Betrayal at Calth sets
4. All the models are issued with the 32mm bases

This is an interesting shift making a change directly to a FW product to make it more compatible with a GW marketed boxed set - makes perfect sense to me. Only downside I can see is what to do with all those weapons I still have that need models with a right hand!

Plastic Contemptor Dreadnought Conversion

Hey there,

I just wanted to share this with you guys. It's my plastic contemptor dreadnought conversion for my Vlka Fenryka.

I have one contemptor in my army already but have always had a hankering to do one with a siege drill. I don't know why, they just look pretty brutal and that's what the Wolves of Fenris are all about I guess. So how did this conversion finally come about?

Well I recently brought the Betrayal at Calth box set. I wasn't that bothered about the dreadnought to be honest. As I say, I already had one in my army and like everyone else on the internet, I thought it looked a bit static. I wasn't in love with it. But then the guys over at Battle Bunnies posted up a conversion walk-through and I thought, you're right, it's plastic, it'd be simple to convert. And as I already had one... Then FW released the leviathan Siege Drill, and I just thought what have I got to loose!

Firstly I stuck the main body together. Then I cut it at the waist and took the left leg off, gluing them back on in a slightly more dynamic pose. Battle Bunnies took the head off too but at the time I was doing this I didn't have a lot of time, so I left it.

I then stuck the fist arm together before cutting the fist off at the shoulder.

Then I glued my leviathan arm together and then stuck that on. The power cable housing fits quite nicely too. To get it snug I filed the ornamental trim around the bottom of the shoulder down flat. A bit of green-stuff to fill gaps, some wolfy totems, and you're done!

 

I'm really pleased with it. The pose looks ok, and that siege drill is mahoosive! I went with the multi-melta rather than the assault cannon because I figured with the siege drill he's going to be going after tanks rather than infantry. My other contemptor has a heavy bolter so he can deal with the traitors on foot.

 

Let me know what you think, or even better, share your own conversions with us!

Dave