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I haven't heard a peep on this, but supposedly it's in stores. Anyone gotten a look? Is it everything we hoped and more? Or is it Annihilation! 10 different versions. Take and Hold! 10 different versions. Etc.

A brief review is appreciated.

More like "3 specific missions per army" and 3 generic missions. Haven't seen it myself, but friom what a sourse told me it is just a bunch of white dwarf missions packed into a book designed to make you by more models.

Like the thunderhawk that takes up all 3 heavy support options for a space marine mission.

Looked at the pictures, didn't read the rules. Missions seem to be army specific iirc.

Most of the missions are themed towards certain armies, but they say soemthing along the lines of it being quite fine to try them out with different armies. For example one of the chaos demon ones has a warp gate in the table centre and 4 objectives equal distcances around it. The demons can either deploy as usual or come out of the warp gate as if they were a normal unit moving on from reserve/a table edge. Or you could play this with other armies simply having a Necron massport system, or a giant webway portal or ect etc.

The Baneblade one is 3 Baneblades vs 1,500 points of normal forces, the mission is to get the Baneblades off of the opposing table edge and then destroy a shield generator/Macguffin. This is a dice roll modified by the number of ordnance weapons and the like that make it off the table in working order. Opponent gets like a 3rd of their forces and the rest come on as reserves.

There's a list of the missions in the Battle Missions thread further down.

I don't think we see any new models as such, they're evcen using the old/metal killa kans if memory serves.. a closer look might reveal more of course.

It actually seems rather good theres quite a bit of variety and a lot of scenarios it'll add a good bit of variety. One of their better releases like Planet Strike

I may have missed it in all the clamoring over the plastic IG & Ork kits, but what's the MSRP of the book?

Doesn't anyone on 40K Internet forums ever go to the actual GW website? The price is $24.75 US. Link to Advance Order details. Thought for the day and every day since I see these kinds of questions all the time, it's much faster and more reliable to look at the source than ask questions and wait for answers that sometimes aren't reliable or may be slow coming.

£15 skip.

Had a quick flick on my lunch. Variety is good, and some nive special rules to boot.

Any KP missions Grotsnik?

Quite a few. The 'Duel' one looks quite good fun. Standard game, but both sides have to pick a named character. Only the named character can kill his counterpart, anything else reduces them to a single wound and they keep plugging away. D6 Kill Points for topping a named character, 1 for everything else.

Also, can't remember which Mission it was (possibly a SM one? Dawn Raid?) but one of them monkies with KP values, so Troops and their Dedicated Transports are 1 KP, with all other things being 2 KPs. (should really say 'at least one of them monkies with KP values)

I think the book is well worth investing in, as it does give you a lot of new stuff to play with. One of the Imperial Guard Missions has a distinctly '2nd Ed' mechanic. Take three paper counters (samples supplied on the page). IG player gets 2 of them, opponent 1. These are 'stray shells'. They are used in the Shooting Phase thusly. Hold them 36" above the battlefield, and let go. Wherever they land, thats where it hits. Totally random, and a lot of fun if you ask me!

Oh, and unless I am very much mistaken, Gorkamorka gets a bit of an unexpected nod....

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I think the book is well worth investing in, as it does give you a lot of new stuff to play with. One of the Imperial Guard Missions has a distinctly '2nd Ed' mechanic. Take three paper counters (samples supplied on the page). IG player gets 2 of them, opponent 1. These are 'stray shells'. They are used in the Shooting Phase thusly. Hold them 36" above the battlefield, and let go. Wherever they land, thats where it hits. Totally random, and a lot of fun if you ask me!

The Feth? You are joking right?

Nope. Deadly serious.

This is most definitely NOT a book for those seeking balanced play. The Missions are not necessarily entirely balanced in terms of who has to do what to win. Some Missions do suit certain armies far more than others.

However, for someone looking to run a campaign, pick this up when you get your Planetary Empires, and you won't go far wrong, nor want for inspiration. Even better, there is nothing to prevent you using the Cities of Death or Planetstrike rules in any Battle Mission erm, Mission to really get the greycells churning.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Quite a few.

*sigh*

What a waste.

Are there dark eldar missions?

If so any new pics? It might give us a glimpse of some of the things to come (hopefully)

Meh each to their own skip. It's how you go about getting them that tends to differ.

For example, Dark Eldar have a Slave Raid mission, where you get one Slave for every enemy unit knackered (wiped out) within 18" of one of your units, plus bonuses for taking out enemy HQ in HTH. These are a style of Kill Points, no? Oh, and some Missions use straight out VPs, like the return of Meat Grinder, where Troops units are recycled. Thats about the VPs.

2 other Dark Eldar Missions, including one where 2 of your units set up in the middle of the table (playing lengthways) as the 'bait' which get Hit and Run for free. Can't remember the third one I'm afraid.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Nope. Deadly serious.

.......OK. I REALLY want know want the devs were smoking, so I can avoid it like the plague. They actually expect people to pay money for this? "Cut little pieces of paper and then drop them on the table"? Great Cthulhu eat me now...

Dude. It's a fun little mechanic for one single mission. Over reacting much? You don't even HAVE to do it, as you can just choose not to drop them.

Not seeing the big issue here. It's how Drop Pods used to work in Epic you know.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Meh each to their own skip. It's how you go about getting them that tends to differ.

My point is that Victory Points are boring and that KP's are inherently imbalanced (my 20 Grots are worth as much as your 10 Chosen Terminators - WTF?) and I was really hoping that this Battle Missions book would have a selection of strong themed objective based missions that would be all about specific objectives, not scoring points. I don't care if the missions are balanced - no one shows up to war with equal forces and unbalanced games make perfect sense from a narrative perspective - but I wanted this book to avoid having to use the words 'Victory Points' or God-damn 'Kill Points' anywhere.

It's just sad that they couldn't even manage that.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Oh, and unless I am very much mistaken, Gorkamorka gets a bit of an unexpected nod....

/perk

Do tell!

H.B.M.C. wrote:

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Meh each to their own skip. It's how you go about getting them that tends to differ.

My point is that Victory Points are boring and that KP's are inherently imbalanced (my 20 Grots are worth as much as your 10 Chosen Terminators - WTF?) and I was really hoping that this Battle Missions book would have a selection of strong themed objective based missions that would be all about specific objectives, not scoring points. I don't care if the missions are balanced - no one shows up to war with equal forces and unbalanced games make perfect sense from a narrative perspective - but I wanted this book to avoid having to use the words 'Victory Points' or God-damn 'Kill Points' anywhere.

It's just sad that they couldn't even manage that.

Like I said skip, only had a brief read of it. Some use KPs, that much I know. Some use VPs, that much I know. I also know some use specific objectives. The exact breakdown I cannot say, as I've not had enough time to learn it. It's entirely possible that it's the standard 2/1 split for Objective and Kill Point.

Teek....when you get the book, have a look at the planetary report at the start of the Necron Section...

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Dude. It's a fun little mechanic for one single mission. Over reacting much? You don't even HAVE to do it, as you can just choose not to drop them.

Not seeing the big issue here. It's how Drop Pods used to work in Epic you know.

Let us just say that I am obviously not impressed. Yes, 40K is ultimately a game of little toy soldiers but that kind of idea is something I would expect from a five year old.

Well it's still a bit much to write off the entire book because of a single Mission Rule. It's there to represent stray shells from a wider bombardment, which it does nicely and I would say accurately (no incredibly convenient, HQ splattering shot from out of the blue for instance. Not unless you are the unluckiest player ever!)

The floaty paper reminds me of a game called "WizWar" and the "thumb of god" card where you literally threw a dice at the board (which was full of cardboard counters, etc.) and everything that moved stayed where it was. It wasn't that effective, but by-f-ing-far the funnest part of an already fun game.

But but but this is a serious game man with anthropomorphic fungus-men who beat people up and speak in Cockney accents. Trying to add in fun game mechanics that are obviously not for tournament use ruins my immersion!

Exactly.

Fun is nice. Nice is good. Ergo fun is good.

It's a game, just chill.

Let us just say that I am obviously not impressed. Yes, 40K is ultimately a game of little toy soldiers but that kind of idea is something I would expect from a five year old.

It's quite similar to a certain Chaos card from the early edition of Magic The Gathering, where the card was held over the table and flipped and any cards it landed on were destroyed. I'll leave it to others to decide if that means that game is also meant for 5-year-olds.

Personally, I have no problem with silly fun, that is Warhammer. If I wanted to play serious strategy games with little luck I'd go back to playing hexagon board wargames designed to allow players to match wits, like old Avalon Hill and SPI wargames. Warhammer has always been about the models, roleplay elements, a lot of luck, and some humor and silliness too. Those elements were there when I started two decades ago and they're still there.

A-P wrote:

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Nope. Deadly serious.

.......OK. I REALLY want know want the devs were smoking, so I can avoid it like the plague. They actually expect people to pay money for this? "Cut little pieces of paper and then drop them on the table"? Great Cthulhu eat me now...

You're right. We should just throw an Apocalypse Blast template at the board and whatever it hits is destroyed.

Joining the side that is excited to see characterful optional rules coming out, rather than some dry-as-burnt-toast tourney thingy. Expansions like this are not intended for competitive play.

It would be great to see something that IS intended for tourney play, though. But this is definitely not the product that should aim for that.

Strictly speaking, Rulebook and Codex are for Tournament play, as Planestrike, CoD and Battle Missions tend to favour specific types of armies (Guard are a nightmare in CoD!) whilst providing others with additional challenges to get the win.

But like it or not, Tourny play isn't terribly high on the agenda at GW. Rules are written with fun in mind. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, but it's easier to write fun and characterful rules than ones perfectly balanced for competitive play.

H.B.M.C. wrote:My point is that Victory Points are boring and that KP's are inherently imbalanced (my 20 Grots are worth as much as your 10 Chosen Terminators - WTF?) and I was really hoping that this Battle Missions book would have a selection of strong themed objective based missions that would be all about specific objectives, not scoring points. I don't care if the missions are balanced - no one shows up to war with equal forces and unbalanced games make perfect sense from a narrative perspective - but I wanted this book to avoid having to use the words 'Victory Points' or God-damn 'Kill Points' anywhere.

It's just sad that they couldn't even manage that.

Are you serious? Not only are you making ungrounded assumptions left and right about what the other TWENTY-FIVE-PLUS missions entail, but you're also expecting GW not to incorporate a scoring system that is prevalent in 1/3rd of the regular rulebook's missions and found in every 5th Edition codex thus far?

I know you're usually the more whiny of the posters here but god-damn.