Shadow War: Armageddon

Here is something cool I just noticed because I am obsessed with this game and only want to play it, to the point where I am about to take my son out to the GW store so we can check it out.

Grey Knights are truly a one box faction if you are looking for one. The standard Grey Knights kit comes in a 5 and 10 pack, but the neat thing is that the same kit is used to build TWO of their special operatives. You can make Purifiers (Psyker flamerthrower) and Interceptors (teleporters) with those sets. So with 10, you can build 1 Justicar (Leader), 5 Troopers with weapon options, 2 gunners with 2 out of the 3 special weapon choices, and 2 special operatives. Or if you rollin' low, you could do a 5 pack and do 1 Justicar, 2 troopers, 1 gunner, and pick a specops dude. If you want to go all in, $45-$60. And they look fairly easy to paint to tabletop standard.

Yeah, I bought 10. I went with two 5 packs on ebay, one was $22 out of the box and the other was $28. So $50 for a full faction choice. This is a 3-5 model faction, so 10 may even be overkill if you aren't looking at WYSIWYG choices.

The Terminators and Paladins may be a call to pick up single figures if you want them.

I wish I could get the box set, but it's gone. My local store might have one tomorrow when they officially go on sale.

I am alllllllmost of the opinion that the box set is sort of irrelevant. It is a cost savings on those terrain pieces, and you do get the templates, dice and counters. But if you don't care about Ork Boyz AND SM Scouts, then everything else is either easily substituted. And the rules will be online...and I MAY OR MAY NOT have a link to a sort of crudely scanned copy of the whole thing already. All of the faction rules are already free online (apart from Orks, AM and SMs, which are in the rulebook). if you want the terrain AND you want the minis, then it is a good buy if you can get a hold of one. If not...for the same price you can easily pick up a couple of boxes of figures of the factions you like and some terrain- either that Hexagon stuff, which is cheap and serviceable, a couple of Deadzone pieces, some of the MDF stuff, papercraft, spare LEGO, whatever.

Frankly, if you've played and remember Necromunda, I think you could probably get by with the old rules and the new faction lists...it's that close.

Having seen the terrain in person it is SUPER NICE. It is awesome, actually. It makes those old Necromunda pieces look like trash. I do worry about how much of it you need to get a big 4x4 layout with some height going though. I am still getting the Promethieum Forge set and using it WITH the GW stuff. The new WD has some great paint schemes in it, and the one I like the best is also the one that looks the easiest so that's a victory.

I am actually way more excited about this than 8th edition at this point. I like the smaller scale, I like the more detailed action, I like that I can dabble around in multiple factions without spending a shitload of money- I've already got plenty of money invested in AoS, it's hard to get fired up about spending that kind of money on 40k. I also really like that it is old fashioned, 1990s style GW stuff. I got all nostalgic looking at the rules...it tells you to get pencil and paper...when was the last time you saw that?

I think that GW really underestimated the demand for this because they were looking in the wrong areas. This kind of game, at this kind of scale is somewhere they have not competed in a long time. This kind of stuff has moved on to Infinity and Deadzone...but also BOARD games. All of the skirmish-sized GoaG/DoaG games, campaign games...it's all been happening on that side.

I would be all in if they do a limited re-release of the Cawdor gang box...I MAY still have it down in my parents' basement somewhere, badly painted in this terrible purple scheme...

I am going to buy the rules, obviously. But if, by some sheer coincidence, I get a link to a crudely scanned pdf before that happens, that would be very helpful because I want to start assembling my kill team this week-end.

The ironic thing is that the guys I usually play with at GW Store are not that excited about the starter set. They're busy assembling their squads, none of which are orcs or scouts, and using the regular WH40K table (ruined city or something) for playing. The idea that we could have a squad of imperials against 3 tyranids was just pure awesomeness.

As for squad's size, I'm not sure if many weaklings is easiest way to start (although I am planning on doing that). My AoS experience is that the fewer units, the easier it is to manage them. Specially for a beginner.

I'll just leave this here until the drop pods hit the lawn.

doc-0c-28-docs.googleusercontent.com/doc...44tb5gi0d4vjag191jta

The box set is nearly irrelevant. The tokens and templates are necessary.

What gw should do is give you a lot deal.
1 rulebook
A few box sets to complete a single entry
A template set
A token sheet

For a discount. Drive sales to gw as a one stop shopping experience, which they obviously prefer. You could still get them cheaper elsewhere, but it would have the package deal going for it.

Or online discounters should do this if GW are too ignorant of making money to do so.

By the by, Barnes, you need to allow permission to access that file.

My guess is GW is going to make money on this, regardless of how they package it.
But agreed with you on the second point, that strange file is not accessible.

Try this one

drive.google.com/file/d/0B-aNL8QvvrP-YUVmcW1LZS1HWVU/view

You're a gentleman and a scholar.

Also a heretic and probably a xeno.

The Rules read like the original Necromunda rules. Scatter and Artillery dice! Misfires!
I still have my old terrain somewhere and a couple of gangs, Cawdor and the body-suit guys.

Barnes, you are awesome.

Here's a question: I know I can get the templates online. What about the dice? Where can I source those?

There will probably be people selling just the templates and dice on eBay after they cannibalize their sets. You could also easily make them with some blank D6s

As far as I can tell they are just the old 40k scatter and artillery dice...I'm pretty sure it is just the old flamer and blast templates too. You are on your own with those D6s...good luck with that!

I am sure Litko and other companies will do/already have surrogates including the counters.

From Doc-

Shadows of Armageddon was allocatted and several purchasers will get refunded this coming week. We are getting shipped about 70% of our pre-order which is fairly good. There is a possibility that more may come in so we are waiting for confirmation.

I had to have been one of the first in so I better get one!