UK Games Day 2012 - Part Three

UK Games Day 2012 - Part Two

UK Games Day 2012 - Part One

I was at gamesday yesterday, but unfortunately i was also at work last night so this is the first chance i have had to post.




1. The horus heresy book is amazing. Leather bound with metal corner clasps. By far the largest and heaviest single book GW or FW have ever done.




2. Despite the crazy rush and massive queue they never sold out (at least not by noon) so they either had thousands in stock or the massive queues i saw were not all for that book.




3. I spoke to alan bligh, and he said they already have ideas about the second and third books but would give any more info.




4. He also told me he had no plans for an emperor model or rules as he believes some things are best left untouched.




5. The books will be written in the order they want to do them in, not to follow the novels or the time frame of the heresy.




6. Work in progress models for abandon and more than 1 legion praetor was on display.




7. Work in progress models for chaos dwarf destroyer was on display, it was still pretty early though. Walks on 4 legs, armoured.




8. Something like a massive wraith called a morngul was shown, the model was ripping apart a horse and had long arms and no legs.




9. Forgeworld were also showing a video with artwork for the new blackfire pass book. Lots of artwork for units not currently in any book, including shaman like human wizards, and some sort of huge orc bezerker thing.




10. New knightly order on foot.




11. New Land raider variant on show, ive not confirmed it yet but im pretty sure its one of the ones in the HH book.




Overall, GW was very disappointing with the lack of concept art and WIP's on show, but FW really made the show this year. There were also some very interesting participation games on the go. my favorite by far being the huge space ship that could spin on its axis with all the models being magnetized to its hull.




From a Hobbyist with the book (did not want name mentioned)

Eagle-eyed readers of the new white dwarf may have noticed on page 149 Paul Rudge has a loyalist heresy era death guard army. One of the last comments refers to a Contemptor Talon, a squadron of Contemptors. I can confirm the rules allow a unit of Contemptors 1-3 as well as regular dreadnoughts (1-3 separate unit). Apothecaries (each must be attached permanently to a separate viable unit) and Techmarines can also be taken as one unit of 1-3. All of those are elite choices. Iron Warriors fans rejoice because each techmarine acts independently and can EACH take a squad of servitors basically (no independent character status)




Force organisation chart is recommended to 1500-3000 point games and allows 4 elite choices to squeeze the goodies in. No slots have been shortened but HQ allows 3.




There are some Mechanicum rules in the book and the rough guide of Primarch restrictions is 2000 point minimum game but may not be more than one (unless apocalypse) and a Primarch may not be more than a quarter of the points of your army. That quarter (or fourth, sorry English here :P) is also for new super heavies and titans as they take up a special slot called gods of war. Most expensive Primarch so far is Horus, 500 points, but others aren't far off.




New heavy option, can mix types... Land raider squadron







The Book has it's own allies table called 'Allies in the Age of Darkness'

Listed armies are:

- Dark Angels

- Emperor's Children

- Iron Warriors

- White Scars

- Space Wolves

- Imperial Fists

- Night Lords

- Blood Angels

- Iron Hands

- World Eaters

- Ultramarines

- Death Guard

- Thousand Sons

- Sons of Horus

- Word Bearers

- Salamanders

- Raven Guard

- Alpha Legion

- Mechanicum

- Imperial Army

(not saying xenos can't happen, but suggests not)

There are FOUR levels of alliance: Sworn Brothers (can positively affect allies but can't share transports)

Fellow Warriors (No positive or negative effects to each other)

Distrusted Allies (same as fellow warriors but allies may never be scoring)

By the Emperor's (or Warmaster's) Command (same as distrusted but unengaged allies within 6" roll d6 in movement phase, on 1 they are distracted so no action this turn)

An extra paragraph labelled Agents follows. It basically states that in future books in addition to forces shown, some units (exact word) will be described as agents of the emperor/warmaster and are treated as sworn brothers to their respective alliance.




Garro is NOT in the book unfortunately. Loken and Saul Tarvitz are though. Purely speculating, but the note about agents suggests to me that he may appear later in conjunction with his mission from Malcador (for the loyalists obviously) which would be cool for an elite squad of heroes although they'd have to be a Lords Of War option (I may have mistakenly called them gods of war in a previous email, getting confused with a similarly named Horus rule)