I have spent many hours now with the new 40k rulebook, and I have not even read any of the rules yet. I have been too captivated by the amazing artwork, battlefield photos, and fluff. That is one of the advantages of 430 pages of full color; there is lots of eye candy. The photo above is a magnificent two page piece of the Imperial Calendar.
This is one of my favorite pieces. It depicts the Adeptus Mechanicus on one of their forge worlds. A subject matter that I am personally interested in.
Check out this close up. It is some kind of bio-mechanical construct that has numerous people wired into its workings. I have no idea what it is but I really want to build one for the table top.
Speaking of the Adpetus Mechancus one of my favorite sections of the book is Appendix 1 which in GW's own words is, "A miscellany of the esoteric and unusual - casting light onto some of the darker, more obscure corners of the Imperium. Everything from Astropathic communication to a guide to field-dressing a lasgun wound can be found here!" The first page is all about the Cult Mechanicus. Hooray for more fluff!
Here is one of the 2 page spreads that mark the beginning of each section of the book. Each one has a quote on the left and a picture of an iconic character on the right. Again, full color is great.
The other thing that really captivates me is the new battlefields that GW created for this book. Their terrain team made some extremely awesome stuff. The image above is part of a 4 page centerfold portraying Eagle Gate the entrance to Eydol Hive City. This structure is massive. Tangled hive cities have always interested me but I have never seen one portrayed this well before.
A refinery and accompanying dam.
A deep space asteroid base. Awesome!
An Imperial installation. While this one appears to be build-able it used at least 3 Fortress of redemption kits, 3 Skyshield landing pads, and a half dozen Bastion kits.
This book really is beautiful and has gotten me inspired to dive back into 40k full force. Hopefully the rules match the awesomeness of the artwork, but even if they don't I will have fun trying to recreate the amazing universe and all its inhabitants on my own table.
Michael
The splash pages are gorgeous. There isn't one that I wouldn't love to have as a wallpaper for my computer.
ReplyDeleteThat said: while it's an unbelievably gorgeous book, the further I get into it, the more I think it comes in (a close) second to WHFB 8th.
Anyway, they've definitely stepped up their game, and it's definitely worth every penny.
Agree with both you and Rushputin - this book was a gret follow on to WHFB 8th. Production values across the board went well up.
ReplyDeleteLove the art work throughout. While I've had a quick glance at the rules, I've really been digging into the rest of the book - thats where the value is for me.
I played my first 6th edition game tonight. I must say, I love the new rules overall. The casualty removal takes a little getting used to, but there were way more tactical surprises than there would have been in previous editions - mostly involving snapshots. I love the new vehicle damage rules....way cool! But as Mike posted, I CANNOT stop drooling over the amazing artwork throughout the book!
ReplyDeleteI had a look at the book and yes, it does look absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, the price is so high that I am letting it go by. I wish GW would give an option for a cheap download of rules only through Drop Box or so. I love the fluff and the artwork, but sometimes choices have to pan out different.
ReplyDeleteSC Mike
Definitely (for me!)one of the highs of a new edition like this is the hours of fun poring over the fluff and images. The other thing I find when a book is big and has all this in it is that I look forward to coming BACK to it, as I always discover some new detail!
ReplyDeleteplanning on building the eagle gate terrain piece pretty soon. If you go to my stores facebook page and look at the nearly finished Ruined Imperial Cathedral from WD241 it is almost an exact replica of that monster. Go to Universalbitsandgames on facebook to check it out.
ReplyDelete