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Hi Dakka Folks,

This is Enrico from Play Unplugged (www.playunplugged.com) and I recently wrote a review of Warhammer Armies: Orcs and Goblins. Here is a section of the review:

Warhammer Armies: Orcs & Goblins

Enrico Nardini, Play Unplugged

Waaaagghhhh! Warhammer Armies: Orcs & Goblins attempts to reach a highwater mark that has not been touched by Games Workshop (GW) army books in years. The presentation of this army book is simply beautiful and harkens back to the era of the great Chaos army books Slaves to Darkness and The Lost and the Damned. This is an attractive hardcover. The cover depicts new original artwork of a large and menacing ork stomping across a battlefield covered in a low fog and smoke. It is an evocative image, certain to stir a desire to grind your foes under hobnailed boots.

The outer presentation is not the only area in which GW has stepped up their efforts. Warhammer Armies: Orcs & Goblins is the first full color army book released by GW in a long time (perhaps ever by this author’s recollection). The page layout is attractive and easy to read. Disappointingly, there is still no glossary, but inclusion of a detailed and user-friendly table of contents makes referencing easier. There is a large quantity of recycled art in this release and though it is attractively presented, it would have been nice to see more new and original pieces.

It seems GW has settled on a layout formula for their army books and Warhammer Armies: Orcs & Goblins progresses in a manner that will be familiar and comfortable to Warhammer veterans. The book opens with a well written background and history section that details the the areas ruled by the Orcs and Goblins and famous battles and generals. The problem with this section is that much of this flavor text is a rehash of flavor text that has been cycled through each time this book has been rewritten. New characters have been added to the army list and this would have been the perfect opportunity to add an interesting story about one or more of them. This was a wasted opportunity to expand the universe.

This is made more evident when you proceed to the bestiary. This section gives flavor text details about each army list entry and special rules that are not covered by the universal special rules covered in Warhammer 8th Edition. Each of the special characters gets another summary text explaining their background here, so why waste pages rehashing their backgrounds? There certainly must be better ways to indoctrinate brand new players, and it may turn-off veterans who are familiar with these character’s backgrounds.

The next sections detail spells, magic items and display miniatures. The spell lists will look familiar to Orc and Goblin players with old favorites like The Hand of Gork or Gaze of Mork having relatively similar effects with clarified 8th edition friendly rules. The welcome addition of lore attributes brings this list fully into the 8th edition rules. The magic items section is a bit disappointing, if for no other reason then selection. There are eight Orc and Goblin specific magic items… eight. Hopefully this is an attempt at balancing future army books by having them rely on the general magic item list in Warhammer 8th Edition. Until that happens, Orcs and Goblins will be considerably disadvantaged in this area compared to many current army books. As always, the display miniatures are both beautiful and inspirational.

The unit listing section shows some considerable upgrades. Most notable is a page (page 96) on using the army list. It gives a breakdown of each part of a unit entry using numbered labels corresponding to a description of that part of the unit entry. This is a fantastic resource for new players and a helpful reminder for gamers with a few dents in their shield already. Though beyond the purview of this article, many new units have been added to the army and an Orc and Goblin army is spoiled for choice in almost every category. Many themes can be explored now without crippling yourself competitively. Savage Orcs and Forest Goblins, for example, would seem to be a powerful and viable, thematic army, as would an army of Night Goblins.

Check out the breakdown and final thoughts here: http://www.playunplugged.com/2011/03/warhammer8th-orcs-and-goblins/

Thanks!

Enrico Nardini (Editor-in-Chief)

I had been waiting for something like this, a proper write-up on the book. I have no way to read the book without ordering it so really useful, unlike the 'review' that was on BoLS.

So, thanks!