Shadow War: Armageddon

The thing about Doc is that if it's in stock, it's no problem. You'll get it right away. If he has to get it from the distributor...it may take a while. I've taken to mostly just getting new release stuff from him and getting older things from ChaosOrc or MiniStomp- it's sometimes a few dollars more, but much less of a wait.

If this really is a limited item, then it makes me worried for the continued support of the game.

But I believe that will all hinge on a physical book being released. No physical book, then I doubt we'll see lists for every faction. If you really intend to use this as a gateway vehicle to 40k, then you'll taken the gateway seriously enough to support stuff like sisters of battle or thousand sons for instance.

I don't think they would have shown at GAMA if the plan wasn't to do more...I think the OMG it's limited thing came from it selling out so quickly and people expecting GW to have unlimited stock on their web site. There's too much promotion in it, too much development in it. And the new terrain for April/May is a part of the release.

If anything is really limited, it will be this specific box as a bundle. The rules will be made separate along with the terrain. Probably the dice/rtemplates/counters too. You can buy whatever Boyz and Scouts you want.

You know, to be honest, I am sort of liking the idea of a separate rule book purchased alongside that Promethium Forge stuff more and more...I really like the GW terrain, but it's not that much more to get that huge layout that is also completely modular and collapsible.

I was at the GW store today. There's a lot of excitement about Shadow Wars among the regulars, some people have already played it several times. They had a preview copy and I actually spent some time reading the rules and even took notes for my imperial guard killteam.
The rules are definitely on the dense side compared to Age of Sigmar, but I did not find them overwhelming. There's a 90ies vibe to them, unsurprisingly. But I think this could turn out to be less complex than Age of Sigmar in the end, because I have not found game-bending abilities like in AoS. You have your weapons with different stats, but I think it is pretty intuitive for anyone acquainted with 40K arsenal.
Another thing is that the starter is pretty much sold out on arrival. I was pretty much assured that the rulebook will be sold separately soon.
Also, my guess is that Shadow Wars will get more support than the regular GW specialist games. It is a huge event for the store and is already moving a lot of 40K products.

Yes, I've played a couple games already. It's definitely Necromunda with very minor tweaks. Overwatch seems nerfed slightly (I don't recall it being -1 to hit before), which is a good thing

The campaign is also lighter since it doesn't have territory. Biggest disapointment is the serious injury chart being so small. I loved/hated that D66 table before.

But otherwise it's great. The scenery is amazing (best I've seen), and the ruleset doesn't feel creaky to me, although Necromunda was probably my favorite miniatures game so I'm biased. I will say this, this game is much more deadly than Necromunda as you start off at a high power level. Everyone's not BS/WS3 with crap equipment, scraping by.

Also, 1000 points is a very small model count for some factions. I statted up my Chaos Kill Team last night and it looks like I'll be using this when we dive into my group's campaign:

Mark of the Undivided (+1 Leadership)
Aspiring Champion with Plasma Pistol and Powerfist
Gunner with Meltagun and Reload
Trooper with Boltgun and Reload
Cultist with Autogun
Cultist with Flail and Autopistol
Cultist with Sword and Autopistol

Choices partially had to do with avoiding "Counts as". For instance, I probably wouldn't have normally taken a powerfist with my Aspiring Champion, but the model is sweet. Can't wait to Melta some Eldar and Ork face.

I also picked up a Cadian squad for $13 on Ebay, assembled but not painted. That includes shipping. This game can be incredibly cheap if you keep your eyes peeled.

Is 1000 points the standard game amount?

Yes, there's no variation (of course you could house rule), but you build your Kill team with 1000 points. Extra points left over are lost so spend them all.

Weapons can get pricey so you need to be careful.

In campaign mode, after each mission, if your leader was not knocked out of action you can recruit new members with 100 points, or you can buy new equipment. You can spend Promethium Caches to get more points here I think (Promethium Caches are VP though so you need to be careful).

So your gang can get bigger, but you must always field your entire Kill Team when you play. Don't forget model restrictions such as you need at least 3 members in your KT and you can't go over 10 (unless the faction states otherwise, like Orks who can go to 20).

I really love the spend Promethium Caches to bring in specialist units for one scenario. Those specialists don't count against your unit limits. I kind of wish money wasn't tied to VP though as the camapign is a race to 15 Promethium Caches.

There's also no underdog bonus like there was in Necromunda. So if you have some very bad luck and lose some members without being able to replace them, you're going to have it a bit rough. This may be the best time to bring in those specialists and say fuck the Promethium.

In most skirmish games I have played, it seems better to have a higher number of cheap units than less more expensive units. What do you think of that in Shadow War?

A theory I read the other night was that Not-romunda was cobbled together to act as a stop gap in the production schedule when Adeptius Titanicus was pushed out a year. Makes sense. GW and all the divisions aren't that reactionary and have things planned out a year or two in advance. Witness the past two months where Black Library have been promoting their Adeptus Titanicus novels to tie into the original launch window.

Needing something to showcase at Gama since Titan Legions was no longer available, they needed something. That's where Not-romunda came in. Pull it from the Specialist Games Division and whatever development they did and give it to the GW Mothership to launch. Fit existing 40k models into the system and utilize the new modular scenery which was likely already on its own production timeline, likely to lead up to the new 40k edition rumored to be June/July.

This would explain why GW was caught off guard by the sell out by not having digital downloads ready to go, not having future support ready and why they had a small production run. They planned this to be filler, something to fill in a late opening production window, not something for future support.

hotseatgames wrote: In most skirmish games I have played, it seems better to have a higher number of cheap units than less more expensive units. What do you think of that in Shadow War?

Numbers certainly seems strong, just as it did in Necromunda. Kill Teams have to perform a bottle test when you lose 25% or more, which is the main way you lose from your team fleeing.

More expensive guys here do seem proportionately strong though. CSM's for instance have a 3+ armor save, which can be weakened from stronger weapons but a Kill Team with tons of cheap guys will probably only have a single unit or two capable.

More guys also seems like it could be beneficial in certain scenarios where you're trying to acquire loot, although it can be harder to defend it I guess.

The rules do keep you from recruiting too many of your crappiest guys. You can only have half of your Kill Team made up of Recruits.

Like with Necromunda, you'll hear people emphasizing having more bodies. I think in general it's best to start with lots of weaker dudes and build up to the larger stuff...but I have heard too that with some factions it's kind of hard to buy into the more expensive stuff later (Grey Knights).

There's tons of add on gear, ammo, equipment, etc to spend points on too so you should always be able to hit 1000.

Yeah, I just added up the base cost of 10 skitarii if you field all 3 specialists. You hit 855 points before you even have any guns!

10 dudes all running around with knives could be interesting, call your Kill Team the Phone Booth.

You have to remember that this game is all about kitted-out individuals, not aggregate armies. All the gear makes a big difference, and special/heavy weapons have a high cost for a reason.

My Dark Eldar are kind of a knife squad...except by knife I mean those chain blades that deny your target a parry. Adding a bat-wing scourge to them, he's got a Shardcarbine with poison ammo to give them some ranged support. They all have Splinter pistols except for the Bloodbrides, who have the gladiatorial weapons.

Really looking forward to playing with Tau...they get to bring their drones.