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I did not know where too put this , so i put it here

My preview on Assault On Black Reach(AoBR)

So heres a list of good and bad things about the box :

Bad things : I've never come across such disapointment . I personaly spent around 7,000 ISK on it( around $10) only too find out the box whas a big pile of. Sure , i get a captain , a dread and some tacticals , aswell as some deffcopptas , nobz and Warboss . But i dont get any choocies of weapons , looks , motions or anything . THEY ONLY COME IN 2-3 BITS EACH GUY! I hate too say this ... but this box truly sucks .... i would rather have spend four time this money too buy the sets each and everyone , too get too have a choice of ... almost everything !

Good things : Well , for me , gluing isnt the easiest part of all . So the good thing about these models are that you only have too glue them too the base , otherwice they simply "pop" together. The box came with both orks and SM's , which is good if you want too have a secondary team or teach someone how too play. Also , the box is cheap , so for beginners , i would recommend it ! It also game with a scatter dice , which i cant seem too be able too find ... There are more things about this box , that are good for beginners , but for more advanced(and more rich) you should rather buy something else ...

A final rating from 1 - 10 would be 2 , maybe 3(comes with deffchopptas , whom i cant find ANYWHERE in iceland )

The math :

- No motion , weapon or look choices( 10 - 3 = 7 )
+ Come with two teams (7+1=8)
- No bits and pieces lefovers(8 - 6 = 2 )

I thought the box was a quick way to bolster my numbers. I needed some Terminators & a Dreadnought which together equal the price of the set so it only made sense to buy. I do understand where you're coming from though, when I started my current marines I didn't get AoBR intitially because I wanted my new captain to be very unique and I already had 1 Dreadnought and didn't need another at the time.

Well I like the AOBR ork warboss.They don't have weapon options and such as it is a box for beginners and such they want to make it simple to play with(well not really GW just felt like saving money).I think it is good value for money,and if you buy more than one there is alot of potential for conversions and such.

Hmmm Assault on Black Reach in comparison to other boxes that have come out is really quite cool its maximum value for money lets see what you usually have to pay for what you have in the box

starting with Space Marines

Commander £8.00
(Granted in the 8 pound kit you get multiple choices but the two piece in AOBR is not too bad)
Tactical Squad £18.00
Dreadnought £25.00
Terminators £25.00
(No Assault cannon but thats easily remedied)

Thats £76.00 of marines off the mark

Orks

Warboss £18.00
(Really high quality in AOBR very good plastic kit)
Orks x20
(thats usually 12:00 x2 so thats £24.00 of orks all inclusive)
5 Nobz £18.00
(All customizable with the new Plastic Nobz kit everything in the box is designed to be used with the new Ork Plastics)
3 Deffcopters ???
(The special edition and I believe the selling point of the kit unfortunately I no longer have mine traded them for some Chaos stuff but they look loverly and with wheels bolted on look really awesome)

Thats £60.00 of Orks as well so all in all thats £136.00 of minis and 3 free Deffcopters not bad value for money

The Downsides well the books make me go a bit meh I appreciate my readers digest 40k Rulebook but no background on the Black Reach Campaign or very extensive "hey you welcome to the hobby parts take a look at the studios cool armies book" which is left out of the box but included in the £30.00 rulebook hmmmmm.

But all in all I love the minis

I forgot about the rulebook, that was another selling point as I really didn't want to spend $50 on another set of rules.

I hate too say this ... but this box truly sucks .... i would rather have spend four time this money too buy the sets each and everyone , too get too have a choice of ... almost everything !

...then why didn't you?

This whole "preview" is kinda pointless because, for one thing, the box isn't new. It's been out for quite a while. REVIEW is the word you're looking for.

And as far as the review portion goes, it's still pointless. The whole point of the Black Reach set isn't to give you the same overpriced multi-part models they sell you in other kits for less money, which is in fact what it seems like you were expecting. $35 tactical Marines, $50 terminators, etc. in a $60 (soon to be more) box. When you went out to buy this thing did you really think GW would have done that? Did you seriously expect the same multi-part/multi-option kits for such a small amount of money?

There are more things about this box , that are good for beginners

It's almost as if it were designed that way!

This thing wasn't meant to come with the same parts and options as the other kits, it was designed for beginners just getting into the hobby. They give you a predetermined army list for each side, snap-fit models that don't require glue that come in static poses (so they can sell the box for less, no one's going to shell out $300 for a "starter set", are they?), armed only with the options the preset army list gives them. It's meant to get you into the game. If you want more options, more complex kits, or units that don't already come in the box, gee, you have to buy them! And if you want to use those units you need a codex! They're not gonna give you everything.

Simply put, I know everyone is entitled to their opinion, but you're wrong. Despite all the bad things about the box, AoBR is still a great value (even after the price increase...god...), even for the "rich" veterans since it gives you a cheap and easy way to bolster your forces. No one's going to care if you have a few static Marines among your more characterfully-posed multi-part tac squads or if your shooty terminator squad looks a tad underwhelming compared to your hammer-swinging ones.

To me, the "potential" value of this box was precisely zero.

After playing and collecting SM for the last 21 years, I already have enough troops that this box would not have added anything more that I didn't already have sufficient quantities of.

However, from the POV of someone just getting into the hobby and needing a good starter force (if collecting either of the featured armies), the value would be significantly higher. We have three new players in our club that if it wasn't for this box, would not be playing, would not have learned about our club, and other people like us.

As an entry point, it is fine. You don't need tremendous variety for the 'rank and file' troops. You need bodies on the ground. Individuality is for characters and selected units/vehicles.

Great value for the money, especially for new players....which is what the set was targeted at anyway. Worth it for the rulebook, templates, and dice alone.

The OP sounds like he didn't know what he was buying.

When you say that there are no weapon options do you mean that the only thing you can equip the dreadnought with is the multimelta and the arm? Oh and can other weapons be stuck onto the dread instead because for some reason I have all the arm weapons for a dread.

And BOSS_PIMPALOTZ what do you mean the lack of assault cannon can be easily remedied?

For me this box was great value. Lots of slugga boys , lots of koptas , another warboss , the new rulebook. I swapped my SM with a friend for the orks out of his AOBR box. For the price you can't go wrong.

I thought the box was great too. Ok, so the models aren't fantastic...but for me, they do the job.
I'd rather have 5 static terminators, and a multi-melta dread from AOBR, than buying terminators and a dread separate for...well, more.

I picked up one to bolster my orks for a bit less cash on my part (and will be getting a 2nd soon), and as a sort of side-project decided to make a small Salamanders army with the marines. They're great for boosting numbers quickly, and as a starter set I personally think the box set is brilliant.

I got two of these boxes and sold most of the orks to a guy who plays them, I kept three of the defkoptas. This was excellent value for money, the marines were not only better versions of the Macragge marines but were the proper size. It also gave me a rulebook and the set was almost worth the price for the dred alone. A dred's about $70-80 NZ here and the AOBR set was $105 so everything else was a bonus.
The sergeant was different too and I liked the way the simplified termies were still compatible with the boxed ones.

My main complaint about the marines was that the captain had a crummy looking bolter when he should have had a stormbolter at the very least, otherwise it was a nice model. The marines themselves, being the same Macragge poses lacked in that none of them were actively firing their weapons, which is how I prefer to model mine, instead having that rather boring pose of the weapon held across the chest. They're still nice additions to my army.

One of the little touches they did with this set was including piles of spent shell cases (kind of useless) and some skulls that had been shot through the head which were a pleasant surprise.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'll add that the extra dice were good too, but the red chopsticks are kind of useless, not even good as chopsticks.

Its great. 1/3 of my Deathwing atm are AoBR, which is fine because I needed SB/PF Terminators and got them 40$ cheaper than the normal boxed ones.

If you are looking to just get more generic bodies its amazing, like for orc players, you can get a horde of orks strait from AoBR for paying almost nothing compared to what you would have had to pay if you would have picked up a bunch of the 10 man ork boy units.

It is just a starter kit, you can't expect to get a dread with every weapon arm and have the tacs have a bunch of options etc, just because they'd loose a ton of money doing that!

My points it simply this :

Im not that much into playing , my whole army evolvs around painting/modeling them . When i got AoBR i found out i whasnt gonna get any bits nor pieces , so that one disapointsment .

I understand you think im a novice , but thats just what i think ... also for those of you who said it whas not new , gimme a break , i live in iceland AND i dont recive countinues amound of cash(im 14)

Also , its not ONLY a beginners set , and if it whas , why not give the beginner a choice of weapons and looks ?

Simply because GW want to save cash,they are a business and if they can save cash thats what they will do.

i thought it was a great deal,it was cheap way to build the boyz i mean 20 boyz are 40.00$ were as you get all the stuff for 50$ in AOBR,if your looking for options dont buy a starter set thats all i have to say about this. but in the long AOBR is the best starter set they have come out with bar none

gretar wrote:My points it simply this :

Im not that much into playing , my whole army evolvs around painting/modeling them . When i got AoBR i found out i whasnt gonna get any bits nor pieces , so that one disapointsment .

I understand you think im a novice , but thats just what i think ... also for those of you who said it whas not new , gimme a break , i live in iceland AND i dont recive countinues amound of cash(im 14)

Also , its not ONLY a beginners set , and if it whas , why not give the beginner a choice of weapons and looks ?

Ok, the whole point of the box is to introduce you into playing, and as an aside give you lots of effectively free minis (over £100 as quoted above) to help in your initial set up. A new player isn't probably going to have great modelling skills, hence the minimal number of parts. Saying that though, although you are fairly restricted in poses, you get great minis. They are probably the best starter minis I've seen, especially the ork boss. You can't have both simplicity and a large number of choices of additions, as it would push the cost up further.

I understand that like the rest of us you are buying on a budget, but maybe in this case you might have checked out threads on the forum about AoBR before buying. Even so you got it cheap. No offence, but I think you were expecting too much, indeed you got a lot less in Macragge.

I hope that on reflection, when you have made/painted the minis you will have changed your mind. If not then spread the minis through the army you already have and reduce the impact of the 'sameyness'

Hammerziet wrote:When you say that there are no weapon options do you mean that the only thing you can equip the dreadnought with is the multimelta and the arm? Oh and can other weapons be stuck onto the dread instead because for some reason I have all the arm weapons for a dread.

And BOSS_PIMPALOTZ what do you mean the lack of assault cannon can be easily remedied?

I mean you can stick an assault cannon on one of the termies if you own one so as you have an assault cannon termie

Kind of hard to have any sympathy for some one who buys this and is disappointed at this point. There are plenty of pictures of the sprues around and lots of reviews. A tiny bit of research would have shown Gretar what he was getting and kept him from 'wasting' is kroners.

Are you kidding? The box is a great value. It's one of the only things that GW produces that I see as being worth the money. All of the figs look great. Try putting a bunch of slugga boys together from the orc boy boxed set and they'll end up looking almost exactly the same. The warboss is the best looking warboss model that GW produces and he's actually armed with a power klaw and cybork bits. The deffkoptaz also look good. The marines are fine once you get them painted up. Throw them in a full space marine army and they'll fit right in. On top of that you get a rulebook that's actually convenient to carry around and keep handy. They knocked it out of the park with this boxed set.

The box is a love hate relationship for me. I didn't like that the orks were slugga boys. I have tons of slugga boys already, so shootas would have been better. I don't plan on using the dethcopters. The Plastic warboss and nobs are wonderful conversion fodder. Those I'm happy with.

On the SM side, the termies and dread are just money, easily worth the price alone. Love them. The tacticals are not so great because I'm doing space wolves and standard bolter marines are just not in the army list. So they probably aren't doing anything. A little conversion work and I got a pretty good wolf guard battle leader or Wolf lord out of it.

I love the small rule book. I haven't actually bought the hard bound 5th rule book, so this little book is awesome. I also love the new template set. I've used the same single template set for 10 years over 4 armies. It was good to have another. I don't have to hunt around and look in which of 7 army cases has the old set.

I gave the set as a whole a 3 rating. Thats how it felt to me.

I found AoBR to be a good value,I did a Marines for Orkz swap,giving me 40 boyz,2bosses & 10 Nobz (for convesions) and 6 koptaz wich I then traded for more ork bitz.
Add to that the mini rulebook,templates,red whippy sticks (attitude modification devices),scatter die,etc,and the box is just win.
My only real complaint would be the amount of mold lines on the minis,made preping them a bit of a pain.

Everyone I know has bought the AobR for the rulebook alone, that handything takes up so much less room that its wonderful for taking to games rather than carting a big rulebook around

Hey Cadbren , don't knock the red chop sticks ( batton rouges/red sticks ). They might be next to useless, but they are a part of GW history. I think they must have been in all boxed versions of warhammer. They make a great swishy sound in the air , can be put on the board to mark deployment zones , cut up and used as scenery , can rescue those dice that roll under furniture and when all else fails used as some kind of ruler. No forget the last sugestion thats just silly.

AoBR is the only reason that I started an Ork army for fifth edition. I bought two and swapped the space marines for Orks, so now I have 80 sluggaboyz, 20 Nobz, 12 Deffkoptas and more Warbosses than I will ever use. That combined with some WWII tanks, half-tracks and armored cars that I got cheap at Target and converted got me 80% of my current army, before the June price increase. I'm not so picky about variety when it comes to massed troops, after all there are only so many poses that you can make even with the multi-part Ork Boyz. And I really like the Nobz despite what everyone else sez.

warpcrafter wrote:AoBR is the only reason that I started an Ork army for fifth edition.

It was the AoBR box that tipped the scales for me and got me on the battlewagon


(sorry, bandwagon :p)

The thing to remember is that this is a STARTER box set, not a Battleforce. If you want the higher quality, more customizable, and more dynamic models you are gonna have to pay more and get a battleforce set.

I started a marine army simply because of AoBR. I was already an Ork player. I appreciated more Nobz, the excellent Warboss, and the Koptas will be fun to toy around with. I thought the SM stuff you got in it was fabulous. I just experienced the financial pain of actually having to buy a full terminator box set (bought some assault termies), so i can appreciate the low cost entry point for a marine army. I bought another set of tactical marines and have 5 AoBR marines in each of my tactical squads. I also thought the Captain was great and the cheap Dread was like icing on the cake.

gretar wrote:My points it simply this :

Im not that much into playing , my whole army evolvs around painting/modeling them . When i got AoBR i found out i whasnt gonna get any bits nor pieces , so that one disapointsment .

I understand you think im a novice , but thats just what i think ... also for those of you who said it whas not new , gimme a break , i live in iceland AND i dont recive countinues amound of cash(im 14)

Also , its not ONLY a beginners set , and if it whas , why not give the beginner a choice of weapons and looks ?

You didn't read anything about the AoBR set prior to purchasing it? You claim you only found out there weren't any bits when you got it.

Sorry, thats your fault. There were literally hundreds of posts and descriptions (as well as pictures) of the contents of the AoBR set on the internet shortly after it came out.

If you live don't get a lot of cash then shouldn't you be a little bit of a more informed consumer? That is to say if you don't have a lot of money then you should think a little bit more carefully about what you spend that money on.

Sorry you had to learn that the hard way.

It lacks weapon options exactly because it is for beginners - that way they wont have to worry about all the options or potentially give a weapon to a unit that can't take it. Also remember that you don't get a codex for either army so don't really go in to many special rules.

all in all as stated by many of us a great set at a great price,if you build to paint not play then no this is not the way to go but for a quick collection its all around a good buy

I find that its a fantastic set i play orks ..or more so i am tired of marines so i am playing orks and just for the orks alone this is a fantastic set.
I don't so much mind that they are not multipose because well are you really going to notice a bunch of multi posed orks in an army of 100 of em ...generally not. I also like the fact that it comes with big shootas instead of allowing me to give it other options cause at the end of the day my shooting stinks anyways so more shots i can pump out the better.
As for the marines sure the tac squad doesnt have any extra options but if you are similar to me and have a normal box of terminators and a dreadnought you can take the extra parts from these and give the terminators one of the extra special weapons and dreadnought you can switch the arms easily enough.

It should be noted that i have purchased and traded 3 box sets to get tmyself all the orks .