Imperial Armour

Yeah, I spelled it all englishy.

Since I haven't had any games to chat about recently I figured I do a post about a recent purchase I made.  I've dipped my toe into the Forge World pool a few times (mostly for extra dreadnought arms or the masterclass painting book), but now I'm ready to go skinny dippin' in the deep end.  Last year I got book one of the Horus Heresy series and now I got my first "regular" Imperial Armour book.  I honestly just got it because it features Necrons but it has inspired me to check out some of their other offerings.

First off let me say that although the book is expensive ($70) it completely blows anything GW does out of the water (the only exception to this being the base 6th ed rulebook).  In terms of quality of design and quantity of information it's an amazing deal compared to the $50 codices that are coming out.  The art is great, the realistic style pictures of the models are outstanding and there is a wealth of information in the book.  Besides a good story that sets up the conflict, there is also some background information for the three forces involved (Necrons, Minotaur Space Marines, and the the Death Korps of Krieg) and full on army lists for each.  The army lists themselves also have new units, gear, and a few special characters.  Forge World's ability to balance their armies has been called into question many times and after looking over the lists I'm not convinced either way.  Some stuff seems way over costed for what you get while some shit just seems ridiculous.  Perhaps they are slowly getting in line or maybe they just suck.  I personally don't really care, I'm not getting these books to find super units to crush face with.  Although I may get some of their evil robot vehicles to paint...they look pretty sharp.

Besides the fluffy-bits and the army lists there are also rules for the Orpheus campaign, zone mortalis, and some apocalypse stuff.  While I would like to play a gigantic game of apocalypse someday...I don't see it happening and don't find it all that interesting.  Maybe someday they'll release a gigantic Necron titan or 3 foot tall monolith with a dying star at its heart, until then I'm not hot to trot for apocalypse and super heavy rules.  However, the campaign rules seem like they would be a lot of fun.  I've never gotten a chance to play in a 40k campaign and this one really makes me want to figure out how to make it happen.  Obviously the rules are tailored for a Necron vs. Imperial setup, but it can easily be adjusted to fit other armies.  Finally, there are rules for zone mortalis, Forge Worlds skirmish boarding action/in-doors game.  Again, this seems like a ton of fun.  Since we usually play in smaller point games this would be a realistic alternative for our little group of nerds to try out.  The only hurdle would be the terrain.  While the Forge World boards are fantastic they are prohibitively expensive.  Something could be constructed or we could just use a shit load of terrain.  Since everyone I know is crapping out kids right now, maybe we could use some extra lego's?

I'm not trying to review this book or anything, but if you're collecting any of the armies featured in this book you should get it.  It's a great read.  I think I may try finishing off the Horus Heresy book (that thing is huge) but then give another Imperial Armour book a try.

As far as painting goes, I'm humming along with my June commitment to finish off 10 more tesla immortals.  I should make the deadline with a little bit of a comfort zone this time around.