With the release of the new Apocalypse rule book,
forgeworld shortly after released their new imperial armour book covering all
of their fancy pants models. Having always loved the forgeworld models and
actually owning two (only one super heavy unfortunately) I was eager to buy the
updated rules. So here I will share my thoughts on this new book, Imperial
Armour: Apocalypse.
First of all the book states that it is replacing the
old Imperial Armour: apocalypse second edition and apocalypse 2 books. So from
now on all of those books count for naught. With the actual apocalypse book
taking some of the forgeworld models (namely the bane blade variants) we have a
few pages open for other models. 161 pages of rules to be exact, and that’s a
lot more than the past few books, not bad when you consider it’s the same price
as the others were.
Like the previous book, Aeronautica, the book doesn’t
just have the apocalypse units, it releases rules for just regular units that
can be used in 40k and gives them a big official stamp on them so people can’t
use the ‘its not official’ bull that was once prolific on the internet. So this
book isn’t just for the tread heads with the big tanks, everyone can use it if
you have brought a forgeworld model. Except if you bought sisters of battle stuff, forgeworld
think you can shove that up your arse. So what does the book contain?
Each race gets a vast number of new units for use in
both Apocalypse games and regular games of 40k. While the date sheets are quite
nicely presented, it just doesn’t stand up to the regular Apocalypse books
presentation. It’s a shame but it’s not bad by any stretch.
The marines get two formations, the Thunderhawk
Assassination force which consists of 1 – 3 thunderhawks with marines on board.
Their task, assassinate a high command, unit or formation. I really like this
formation as it’s fluffy and could be an awesome sight on the table. The second
formation is the Dreadnaught drop strike. This formation unfortunately cannot
be used with this book alone, as the formation needs to have 2 deathstorm drop
pods, which are not found in this book. They were previously in another apocalypse
book but as the book says, its not allowed to be used. A slight oversight by
the forgeworld team? I think so, it was a little disappointing to see I must
say. The first mistake found in the book, and unfortunately I can’t say its the
only one.
A quick mention about the space marines is the Lucius
Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pod. Now the rules for this drop pod just confused the
hell out of me. While it has the drop pod assault rule is also has the Assault Vehicle
rule. Unlike the regular drop pod it doesn’t state that the occupants have to disembark
when it lands, and the assault vehicle rule states that the dreadnaught can
assault out of it, but not on the turn it arrives from deep strike. So wait a
second, does that mean that the dread can stay inside the drop pod and count as
being embarked? If that’s so does that mean it wouldn’t be able to be targeted?
Its 65 points and does nothing over a regular drop pod, bar give its occupants
shroud. What’s the point?
Chaos get some very interesting new units including
the chaos storm eagle, and chaos thunderhawk gunship. They even get proper rules
for a relic predator from the heresy era which survived to the current day of
40k. I do like these additions as they should have always had these models as
it made sense.
What impressed me even more was the chaos titans, the
marks they can have now is rather scary. If you give a titan the mark of Nurgle,
the titan will gain ‘It Will Not Die’ so that HP 18 reaver titan will be VERY
hard to kill, regaining 1/3 of its hull points back each turn. Very scary.
While the apocalypse book has Daemon lords, this book has the proper special
rules for each daemon.
Again I feel there is a rules confusion with the
plague hulk, it can swap its Iron Claw for a master crafter sword for X points.
Why would you pay to have less strength, less ap and 1 re-roll to hit? I feel
some one though you could re-roll all of your hits, which if it was the case I could
understand the price.
The most interesting thing about the necrons is they
have 3 Massive fortification in the form of the Tomb citadels. I never expected
them to use the tiles as fortifications but its interesting. You can have 1, 2,
or 4 which does various things in game. Just the fact they are using them in
game surprised me.
Eldar remain rather unchanged with most things
staying the same, even the mistakes they had from aeronautica. The biggest
thing for me was the price hike of the Lynx, while I'm sure they had a reason
for doing this I don’t get it. They increased it by 100 points and reduced its
armour. Granted the rules change of the scatter laser makes all the tanks
scary, which could be potentially devastating. Giving the lynx twin-linked is
nice but 100 points? Not sure about that.
The eldar flyers still have supersonic and hover, but
the rules don’t allow supersonic flyers to go into hover mode. Without a
special rule allowing this you have two flyers paying for a rule they just can’t
use, even worse for the flyer with a transport capacity.
Orks get a fair few units but the major change I see
if the Big Squiggoth, a model I used once as it was a steal at 50 points, but
now has gone up to 180ish. This is more than fair as it got a 3+ save and many
new special rules. I like the change to this model as it makes it more powerful
at a fair price. The tanks like the kill bursta and get a few minor changes
again which feel fair.
Tau flyers all get more armour for some odd reason,
but everything happens for a reason oddly. The only other change is the orca
drops it’s points by 100. The rest is the same.
For the tyranids the major thing that is added is the
Bio-Titan biomorph upgrades which turn a horrific titan into an absolute
monster (pardon the pun) as the upgrades make it pain scary, it can have acid
blood so if any one wounds it in combat you place a large blast template and
every one under it takes a wound, no armour saves. Or it can transport units or
even have a skyfire gun.
Warzone: Varks
This additional warzone is a very basic version of
the 3 imperial armour books but it gives you a good overview of the 18 year
war. You get 7 pages of fluff which is a good read, just a shame its so
compact. You get new unnatural disasters, finest hours and special characters.
3 New scenarios are included allowing you to recreate 3 battle during different
times in the war. They are very fluffy battles and I would love to recreate
them one day. Unfortunately you can’t use any of the characters or rules out
side of varks as the book deems them unsuitable for games out side of varks. It’s
shorter than the apocalypse warzone: Armageddon but its still a nice addition.
Conclusion
Over all I would say that if you have the models or
just an interest in the forgeworld stuff this book is defiantly for you. Its
very well presented and has some good bits of fluff to read. Unfortunately like
all warhammer books there are errors, confusions and some plane wrong rules
which dont interact properly. But the book is primarily for the use in
apocalypse which is far from competitive and the calm nature of the game allows
you to paper over the cracks. Strangely enough while some of the air craft are
in this book the majority are not, the Aeronautica book is still valid as its
not mentioned as being invalid so its still useable. Some of the flyers are
upgraded, some are not. So you will still need 2 books for everything . But
still who doesn’t love owning some beautiful books like this.
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