AB40k Maintainers

Hey folks!

Just got back from Gamesday LA. Phil Kelly gave a good presentation, concentrated on Apocalypse, though there wasn't too much new information that I caught. A few bits:

-Space Marine battle company was reportedly priced as being around $400. The GW rep's exact quote was: "the set is a $750 value and the box set saves hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and... almost another hundred dollars."

-The Baneblade painted in Steel Legion colors is not the Fortress of Arrogance (Yarrick's Personal Baneblade), but rather is an altogether new urban-combat themed variant called the Hellhammer. The main gun is shorter ranged, but reportedly ignores cover saves.

-The Baneblade's main gun uses the ultra-massive new Apocalypse Template and is supposedly strength D. This means it wounds automatically and auto-penetrates. The massive template thing sounds a little dodgy to me, but that's what was reported in the presentation.

-The Vortex Grenade reportedly teleports around to random spots on the table after it is used, and kills or destroys anything is touches (though is supposedly only causes one point of damage to super-heavies).

-There are around 30 datafaxes total, making for 3ish per army. Subsequent codex releases will reportedly have datafaxes released for them online.

-Dark Eldar are in the early stages of development; things are not yet being written, but ideas are being tossed about.

-Phil Kelley just finished writing Codex: Orks, but was unwilling to divulge any information.


That's pretty much it, I believe. Nothing really huge, but a few bits here and there. My apologies if any of this was already posted; I hadn't seen in mentioned in any of the prior threads.

I was int he same conference and i had a chance to talk to Phill Kelly for a good amount of time (he is a super cool guy, by the way).

First, Orks.

Like the OP said, the codex is done. I asked Phill a few questions about the codex and he could not say anything specific so i told him i thought the Nid and Eldar codex's were great and if the Orks would be able to compete with them and he emphatically said yes they absolutely would be able to. What that means, i dont know, but it made me feel better about it.

Also, he confirmed again that the new models were just fantastic, confirming again that the new truk and bike kits were brilliant.

He said the Orks were going to be able to go toe to tow with any other dex out, so that is reasuring.


Apocolypse

This expansion really does look awesome. The game was just fun. You litteraly put anything or everything on the table. THey showed some sample armies, one was a sister army with landspeeders and a squad of Harlies.

The game thy had going was about 10K of marines vs eldar, and it was just insane carnage. the vortex grenade has a 6" range, kills anything it touches and does D3 strutcure points to superheavies. also, just like in 2nd ed, it even removes terrain.

each PLAYER turn, it pops up somewhere else and wrecks havoc. it is about the same size as a normal pie plate.

you can take it as a stratagem. The stratagem's work like in city fight, but are bigger in scope. each army gets one, but they can get extras by taking themed armies that fit into a datafax. for example, a space marine company with 6 tacs, 2 assault, and 2 dev squads get two extra stratagems. Also, the master's of the chapter (4 new marine guys) each have a stratagem. they cost a ton of points i guess.

each datafax encourages you to buy and field a lot of models in a themed group and then provides a bonus. most people have heard of these so far, like a marine speeder and three whirlwinds getting infinite range on the whirlies, three vindicators getting a strength D super pie plate, etc.

the game is brutal, things die in droves. the basic rules are the same as 40K, there are 6 pages of new rules in the book. the rest is given over to background material (each race gets several pages of new material) conversions, gaming ideas, etc. it is as big in page count as the BGB, with more pictures and color sections i believe.

you can take ANYTHING, even multiple of the same special character if you wanted, like 10 Abadons or whatever, alhtough he said it would be lame to do so, and i agree. One game Phill Kelly descriped was a game with 2K of eldar and all 6 phoenix lords vs. his bug hoarde. he said it was a blast of a game, like fighting the x-men.

when a superheavy gets destroyed with a 6, it explodes 2D6" KILLING anything near it outright. in our game a baneblade got blown up by a reaver titan, and it exploded and killed 10 termies. only invul saves against the big explosion, its nuts.

VDR rules are ok to use, but they are not in the book.

Flyers are in and kick ass. the thunderhawk is savage, it fires the giant pie plate for its main gun.

my local store has a copy of the book i have been told, so i think i might head over today and check it out, but i might not, i have a ragin hangover at the moment.

If i get a chance ot read it, ill post more.

My overall immpresion though, was that the game was a lot of fun. not competetive at all, but like playing a huge game of 2nd ed when i was a kid with all kinds of wacky stuff going on and a lot of laughs.

Oh yeah, Jes Goodwin is doing the Dark Eldar, and Phill Kelly siad it woudl be like the face lift woodelves got.


Necrons are not on the radar anytime soon, dont expect them in '08.

I asked specifically if they would do more models on the scale of the Baneblade and they said deffinitely, but it was alls till getting worked out and they wanted to see how the baneblade sold.


Also, Phill said there were no plans for a inquistion codex, but that it was his personal mission at GW to see a combined codex with all orders of the inquistion inculded.






and, at the black library seminar, they said the new HH book would be about the warp, i believe, cant remember that bit too well, but also we should expect some non marine oriented books. the series may be huge too, like 15 plus. i guess it is selling really well all over the place.

some new felix and gotrek books coming up, and they said they would even write some books baout events after the 13th crusade next year. that would be cool.

ill post more as memory comes back through my pounding head.

Oh yeah, and the master's of the chapter for the space marines, each had a special stratagem.

If i remember correctly,

the guy with the hammer is the master of the fleet and his thunderhammer represents his ability to call down the thunder, as i was told. each turn he can order an oribtal strike.

The guy with the bolter and powersword who is running, is the master of recruits. Once per game he can repostion a portion of your army anywhere on the board or allow one portion of the army to infiltrate.
(this seems to be a common ability, in our game the eldar player used his rapid redeployment ability to put 6 warwalkers in our back lines on turn one, they proceeded to blast a lot of things to pieces. Ork sppedfreaks can do it as well as other armies)

the guy with the big storm shield and axe gives your army a big deffensive bonus. Phill couldnt remember his name or the specifics of his power, he was the master of the fortress or something like that.

the last guy with the big sword, and powerfist holding his helmet is the master of the armory, but Phill couldn't remember his power either.

It sounds like any big force that fits onto a data fax gets a special stratagem on top of the one each army gets just for playing. Another example was the 10 leman russ tank company (which can be any variation of Russ too it looked like). There were three, three tank "squads" and one command tank. the command tank let any other tank within a certain distance ignore crew shaken and stunned results and so long as he was alive, the other tanks were still scoring even if immobilised.

Also, the apocolpyse games were purely objective based. They said the games had no set turn limit, but a time limit. Like, we will play untill 6 and whoever has the objectives at that time wins.