loading up on WH40k

So besides playing Dawn of War non-stop, a bunch of Warhammer stuff has been arriving in rapid-fire succession in the mail.

First up that I'm insanely excited to finally have is the sci-fi novel by CS Goto that follows up on his adaptation of Dawn of War. He expands on the adventures of the Blood Ravens marines in the aftermath of the Tartarus campaign and also further explores the fate of the Eldar who shared an alliance with them. It's a dramatically different feel to what I've been reading as of late... Been into the Harry Potter books. Which, although are smartly written in that they don't talk down to kids and are also suited for all-ages, are nevertheless still children's books. The Warhammer book is simply violent in its graphically descriptive narration. But oh... still very compelling.

But I need to admit that part of why I'm reading it so intently is because I waited 5 months for it! Amazon had it back-ordered for so long that I breifly considered giving up and placing an order directly Games Workshop's "Black Library" store even if it would cost me a little more to import it directly from the UK.

Second thing that arrived in the mail shortly there after was a book my brother pre-ordered a while back when it was announced. This is the oversized book for the new "Apocalypse" expansion. It's the strangest gaming book I've ever read. It reads a lot like a magazine more than a rulebook. It's got all sort of suggestions for scaling up the existing "core rules" for a Warhammer game. And lots of write-ups for play-test games that were staged during development... and only the second half of the book really deals with introducing any new rules (for the newer units).Speaking of which... that's the other thing that makes it feel like I'm reading an enthusiast's magazine rather than a rulebook: it covers many of the "Forgeworld" off-shoot model units that are semi-official... until now that is. With the scaled-up game, impractical and unplayable unit suddenly can be put on the extra-large table.

Which in turn brings us to the final item that arrived in the mail: my Baneblade "super-heavy" tank. Wow. Its box looks the size of the starter-set for Warhammer. I can't wait to get started on this kit. Unfortunately, really, I have several other projects on the go at the moment. So it'll need to wait (unless I change my mind over the weekend).