Disclaimer: This review focuses on what’s in the box and is not an in depth review of the rules changes. You can find way more qualified people than a guy who’s last real foray into 40k was way back in Second Edition!
If you have been reading this blog for a while you know I’m a big fan of Warhammer 40k, Second Edition. In reality I didn’t play much of it back when I was a kid as I could only get one friend to join me in playing as everyone was really into Warhammer Fantasy. That was our main game for years but I got to play some 2nd Edition. I bought a handful of figures in 3rd Edition but never really played and from there I didn’t make a single 40k purchase until 8th Edition was released in 2017. Since then I have picked up the 9th and 10th edition boxes but have played very little. In fact, besides a few games over the last few months I only played 10th edition. Those boxes have helped me get a decent sized, albeit not impressive on the field, Dark Angels army. One of my 14 year olds has been working on an Ork army for the last two years, really getting into painting about 8 months ago. When Armageddon was announced, and it was discovered it would have Orks in it I knew I’d be buying it! I put a copy on hold at my semi local shop and picked up the Sunday of the release weekend. It is a hefty box and as if Games Workshop was trying to butter me up the cover art is reminiscent of Second Edition, or as we call it at my house The Lords Edition.
Let’s take a look in the box! As always you are confronted by a giant pile of plastic sprues, we will take a closer look at these further down the blog!
At the bottom, contained within a smaller box, you get the assembly instructions, the Core Rules in softcover, a hardcover book entitled “Operation Imperator”, an Ork and Space marine decal sheet, a box of Chapter Approved cards, a box of Dominatus cards, and a small box of unit cards.
Unlike the previous two editions this set does not have a massive hardcover book containing both lore, background, and rules. The rules are separated into a small format (6.25″ x 9″) 89 page softcover rulebook, while the lore is in a large format (8.75″ X 11.25″) 114 page hardcover book titled “Armageddon: Operation Imperator.” I am a big fan of this shift as the core rules are going to be much easier to carry around separated out from the fluff portion of the book. Those massive tomes of yesteryear were great for some coffee table reading but not such much for carrying to the shop and looking up rules. (Who thought it was a good idea to number the rules section of those books independently of the book as a whole?)
“Armageddon: Operation Imperator” is the fluff and background portion of the box set. Unlike 9th and 10th edition where each of the armies of the 40k world were covered in depth, perfect for new players, but a bit of overkill for veterans, this book essentially only covers the fluff and background of the current in world Armageddon campaign, specifically focusing on Operation Imperator, the Space Marine counterattack. The book contains a section on
- the overall campaign,
- the Space Marine Chapters order of battle, and background and imagery for the main chapters
- the Ork order of battle, and background and imagery of the various Ork Clans,
- details of Operation Imperator
- the various theatres of the Armageddon campaign
- and a short, 14 page section about the other forces of the 40k universe.
Having only 14 pages with only a short blurb about each of the Xenos races, the other imperial forces, and the forces of chaos is a big departure from the previous starter books. As a veteran of the 40k universe I’m ok with this, but for new players it could be a missed opportunity for them to learn about armies beyond Orks and Space Marines. Unlike separating the rules from the fluff I have mixed feelings about this change!
Naturally the book contains two page spreads of gorgeous full color artwork…
and tons of two page spreads of beautiful Games Workshop miniatures. I do wish the book contained pictures of other elements of the Imperium, at least in the photos. I understand this book is focusing on the Space Marines and Orks that are included in the box but missing out on the Imperial Guard leaves me feeling a little down on the overall look of the book.
The book also contains theater maps, both system wide and on Armageddon specifically.
There are orders of battle for both the Ork and Imperial factions.
One of my favorite parts of the book are the spreads with less known Space Marine Chapters. Players today should have no problem knowing they can make up their own Chapters, or expand beyond the basic chapters!
While I have purchased every starter box since 8th Edition I have not played many games. In fact I have only just recently started playing a few games of 10th Edition with my Grot and to keep things simple we have ignored a lot of the optional rules. To that end I’m not qualified to talk about the rules themselves and there are far better people to give you a break down of changes from 10th Edition. If you aren’t aware all the old Codex’s are still valid so the game isn’t a total overhaul, but from reading the official Warhammer Community posts there have been numerous significant changes. The one that I like the most is the change to objectives. Rather than being random blips on the map terrain features are the objectives, giving you something to actually fight over, and a reason to occupy the objective! One feature I do not like about the rulebook is the reliance on the Warhammer 40,000 app. There are many rules that are in a sidebar in green text that you need to go to the app to look up. The app isn’t super user friendly either. For example the first rule I tried to look up was Random Movement. I searched Random Movement, scrolled down to the rule, clicked the expand arrow and it said “see Random Characteristics.” Other apps would have this rule hyperlinked but not the Warhammer 40,000 app. I had to type up Random Characteristics in the search bar and scroll down again. End of the world stuff? No. Annoying? To me, yes! I also like to be able to play my game without using an app, I have my phone in my hand too much as it is!
The Chapter Approved deck contains cards that help determine the set up and missions you will field. Each player secretly chooses one of the force disposition cards and then they compare the two which will provide each players objective. Your deployment cards are randomly selected and you set up the table based on this random card draw. If each player agrees they can make use of the Twist cards that will change some rules of the game. For example, in Night Fighting enemy units are not visible unless they are within 18″ of each other. In Scrambled Communications the players swap their Primary Mission Cards! Finally there are cards for Secondary Missions. You can choose to used Fixed Secondary Objectives which stay the same throughout the game, or Tactical Secondary Objectives which you get two of during each command phase. These new Secondary Objectives replace your previous Secondary Objectives, so the goal posts keep moving so to speak. While the cards are nice I don’t like that you have to find these rules in a deck of cards separate from the main rulebook. We didn’t realize it was the same way in 10th Edition until our last game, and since it’s not mentioned in the rules I think its easy for new players to miss this section of the rules.
The Dominatus cards provide locations throughout Armageddon that you can fight over, Agenda Cards which represent the goals you can attempt during each battle in a campaign phase over the course of 3 campaign phases, and an upgrade deck allowing you to get Battle Honors, Battle Skills, and Relics. The Agendas that each player can achieve is determined by the Briefing Deck. These cards are not necessary but allow you to play a short campaign. While the rules suggest having a Warmaster, i.e. a Games Master, these cards allow you to put together a campaign without spending endless hours crafting everything from scratch. Oh, and the Vortex Grenade is a Relic item and while not as powerful as it was in 2nd Edition it still gives me warm fuzzy feelings
The Ork Sprues. You’ll note you get two sprues of Ork Boyz. These are great models and are nice upgrades to the Ork army. The characters are super fun, and I especially love the Wartrack and the Weirdboy. The Orks have really won out in this set!
My son was so excited he assembled five models the day I picked up the set!
The Space Marine sprues.
I feel the Space Marines are little lackluster. The Vanguard Veterans are very bland for Veterans, and I would say besides having a few slight extra details and power swords instead of chain swords they aren’t much different than regular Assault Intercessors. I do like the addition of MkVII helmets throughout the set, I only wish there were a few more! I do love the Eradicator in Gravis armor firing his pistol as his Heavy Bolter is out of ammo, that is a fun piece for me! One thing I find interesting is that the Librarian is on the same sprue as the Vanguard Veterans. This is similar to the combined Plague Marine and Poxwalker sprue in Dark Imperium. To this day people who buy the Poxwalker box question why there are a few halves of Plague Marine models in the box and I’m wondering how this set is going to be handled. Will every box of Vanguard Veterans come with a Librarian or will this sprue be re-tooled in the future? Time will tell!
Finally the Warboss and the Space Marine captain are on one sprue, however this is more like two sprues joined at the hip and will easily be made separate from one another. The Ork Warboss is incredibly big and beefy and I really like him. Sadly the Space Marine captain, like the Chapter Ancient, were both included in previous starter boxes and are just alternate sculpts. As an aside the word Armageddon is sculpted on the Ancients banner which is good if you aren’t great at freehand, but annoying if you don’t want your Ancient to be waving an Armageddon banner!
The unit cards are for the units found in the box, and are set up to support just the box. For example Gretchin are only allowed in units of 10 as that’s how they come in the box, but Games Workshop has said they are still available in bigger units per the Ork Codex. These cards are set up in a way to make a balanced battle between the two forces in the box.
This new box costs $295 USD retail. For the miniatures alone you are looking at around $900 in models alone based on current costs. If you factor in the costs of the various books and cards you are looking at closer to a $1,050 price tag if everything was bought individually. If you have two new players that want to split two of these boxes you would be in good shape! The value drops somewhat if you don’t want multiple of the same character, but even then you are coming out way ahead versus individual purchases!
So, what do I think of the box? As always it is a tremendous value if you are interested in the two armies presented. Veteran Space Marine players probably get limited value from the box however, as they are likely to have most of the models in the box already, minus the Heavy Bolter armed Gravis marines, and the new Landspeeder. I guess even Games Workshop will run out of ways to package Space Marines, but since the release of the Primaris Marines I feel each of the starter sets was sufficiently different enough and provided enough new units that they were well worth it to returning players. For the Space Marines at least this feels like a lackluster release for veteran players. Conversely, the Orks are a pure gem and easily worth the teef for anyone interested in playing the Green Skin menace. Even if you have a ton of boyz (and you probably do if you play Orks) the new boyz are really nice and full of detail so you’ll probably want to augment yours with these new models. The characters are all really fun, and the new vehicles are terrific. If you are an Ork player this box is well worth it!
I do feel this box struggles to find it’s place. Is it for new players or veteran players? I have a hard time making that distinction. The Space Marine models are good for new players, but not great for veterans. The Ork models are terrific for both new players and veteran players. The campaign book is good for veteran players looking to learn more about the current Armageddon campaign but it’s limited information on the other armies in the setting leave new players having to look elsewhere for information.
While I feel the box has an identity crisis in who it is designed for the overall value is terrific if you are a new player of either faction and well worth the purchase. As the Space Marine player in my family I might not be getting the same value as I would if I were the Ork player the important thing is my son is thrilled and we get to continue to hobby together. I guess that’s worth not getting many cool new things beyond the Landspeeder! Oh, and like I said, the mini rulebook is pretty neat too.
-Wachtmeister
The Wachtmeister's Patrol 