Disclaimer: Yes, I play Warhammer. No, I am not a Games Workshop fanatic. Yes, I think the miniatures are too expensive. No, I’m not going to bash them for it. Can we now try to be objective? Thank you.

Disclaimer, the second: My review is based on the german edition of Warhammer, so don’t worry too much if I get the terms wrong – I have to retranslate them...

So, here we are, with the question: “Why is the Allamistako reviewing the tabletop everyone loves to hate? And why now, almost four years after it being released?” My answer is: Because I want to, and because I can. Here is how I’m going to structure the review: Boxed set, Rulebook, Armybooks, Additional Material. So, let us begin.

1: Boxed Set --------------- First things first, this box is HEAVY. I didn’t put it on the scales when I bought it, but it weighs quite a bit. Opening the box, we realize why: inside are not only minatures (16 Orc Archers, 16 Orc Warriors, a boar-drawn orc charriot, an orc champion (who can either walk, or be mounted on a boar), 16 human musketeers, 16 human spearmen, a cannon and a human champion (who, like the ork champion, can be either mounted, or on foot)), but also a cardboard and plastic ruin, dice, rulers,templates and, most importantly, the rulebook.

2: The Rulebook -------------------- The rulebook is the main reason for the weight of the box – with a page count of 288 pages it is a real book, unlight the rules for te previous editions of Warhammer. Although not quite all-inclusive, it is rather complete, and – also unlike the previous editions – doesn’t only include the basic rules, but also the magic rules (previously only available as an extra boxed set), background information on the setting (based primarily on the “Holy roman empire of the german Nation” – germany in the late middle ages), scenarios, tips on modeling and terrain, special rules for skirmishing (Remember Mortheim, anyone?) and even for sieges (Also previously a extra book). So, how are the rules? Well, unlike what you’ll here fom most people (who, in most cases, have never even looked into the books, and have only heard about the game from a friend – a bit like the fundamentalists who are against gaiming...), the rules are both simple and elegant, easy to learn, and yet not too simple. As an example, let’s say my orc warrior is attacking your human spearman. My orc has a close combat value of 3, just like your spearman. We look up the attack chart, and find that I need a 4 to hit you (In Warhammer, any time two stats are compared and equal, the die roll needed is a 4+). Now, let’s say I rolled a 4 (Not lightly, considering my love affair with the “1”, but never mind that...). Now I get to roll to see if I wound you. So, let’s look... my strength stat is a 3, just like your toughness, so once again I need a 4+. Now, if I manage to once again roll a 4+, you roll your armor save (6+ in our example), and if you don’t manage it, your man is toast, and my orc actually gets something for dinner. Easy as that. Of course, the rules are a BIT more complicated that that, with cavalry rules, and rules for champions, for warmachines, for flyers, and a few special case rules, but it is remarkable simple. In the german edition, the actual rules take up 94 or so pages. Next are the rules for magic. Warhammer treats all spellcasters as belonging to one of four levels. Every spellcaster can cast one spell per level he has, and generates an energy die per level as well. To these dice are added the two basic energy dice your army generates. To cast a spell, you take as many die as your caster level allows you (Level +1), and try to roll the complexity value or better. For example, to cast shadowsteed, the easiest spell on the shadowmagic list, you’d need to roll a 4+. Pit of shadows, the highest spell, on the other hand, would require a 11+ - pretty tough for your 1st level spellcaster with his 2 die... You also have Banishing die, which are generated the same way as your energy die – but i the turn of your opponent. To banish a spell, you have to roll equal or better than your opponent, but you can use as many die as you want. On both rolls, a double 1 is always a vicious “whoops”, which can lead to your wizard getting splatted (that is, if you roll as bad as I do...), and a double 12 is an unstoppable “total power” spell that can not be banished. The magic rules also include some basic magical items, and take up 20 pages. There, that wasn’t too painful, was it?

Next in the book is the background section, opened with a beautiful map of the warhammer world – a lot of role-playing games could do with a map of this quality. This section provides a basic overview over the setting, and also has some high quality colour pictures of some showcase miniatures fot the various armys of the game. This section fills about 34 pages.

Up next are the various basic possible scenarios, which I am not going to lose too many words about – let’s face it, there are not many variations of scenarios you can present in in a game like this as basic scenarios, and we’ve all seen variations of these.Another 17 pages. All this is followed up by random terrain charts for the various regions of the warhammer world (another 12 pages or so...) and the appendices. The appendices include sggestions for campaigns, rules for skirmishes and sieges, special case rules and a glossary. This section brings another 50 pages to the book, and include a roostersheet that you have permission to copy. The edition of this rulebook you get in the boxed set is a softcover, but there was – or is, I’m not sure – a hardcover edition available as well.

Do I have any problems with this book? Well, actually, I have one rules problem, and one problem with the book. The rules problem is that each player has one complete turn, and then his opponent has one turn – I would have prefered a system where everyone gets use one unit, then the opponent, and so forth. The complaint with the book is just a minor gripe: there are no basic army lists included, unlike the third edition of Warhammer 40K. You cannot play Warhammer without owning the armybook for the army you are going to play. Okay, you’re going to have to buy that book anyway, but a basic list would have been nice. On the other hand, the book IS chockfull of useful information, so I woun’t complain too loudly.

3: Armybooks ----------------- While we’re on the topic of armybooks: The following have been released: Empire (Humans), Orcs and Goblins (My fave...), Dwarves, Skaven (The ratpeople), High Elves, Chaos (Warriors and Demons in one book, Beastmen and monsters in another), Tombkings of Khemri (Egyptian style undead), Vampire Counts (The “Walking dead”), Bretonian (King Arthur style humans), Lizardmen (Aztecs) and Dark Elves. Armylists are organized in Heros, Champions, basic units, elite units and rare units. While basic units are given as minimum number of units per points amount (Usual games are played with 2000 points, which means you would need at least three of these), everything else is given as maximum units allowed (Up to four elite and two rare at 2000 points, with up to four characters, one of which may be a Hero). Also in an armybook, you get all the special rules for the army (for example, my orcs have a one in six chance that each unit might start punching itself up), the specific magical items for that race and, if nessesary, the special list of magical spells. You also get background material, flavour text, and lots of full colour pages with pictures of miniatures and tips on painting and converting your figures. The armybooks are where most problems with warhammer come from. The first few armybooks (Empire, Orcs and Goblins, Dwarves, Vampires (as long as you don’t play the alternate lists in the back) and – to some extent – Dark Elves) were well-balanced, but since High Elves appeared, every army has been a highpowered slaughterhouse, and none more so that chaos. The only exceptions beeing Dark Elves and Khemri, both need an expert, who knows what he’s doing to get the most out of the amry.

4: Other materials ---------------------- And no, I don’t mean the miniatures. Actually, if you play Warhammer, there are a whole lot of thingys you can get into for your games. Let’s start with the most obvious: White Dwarf, Games Workshop’s monthly support magazine. White Dwarf includes gaming and modelling tips, battle reports, previews of new figures and alternate rules, as well as rules updates – a bit like all those magazines for trading card games, really. Also available are the Warhammer Annuals, with number three having been released beginning of this year. The Annuals are collections of the best Warhmmer articles from White Dwarf, together with erreta, FAQ’s and stuff they didn’t fit into White Dwarf. Some people think it’s a bit of a rip-off, especially if you collect White Dwarf, I however find them rather handy – means I don’t have to drag six tons of magazines to a game. Also of mention are the six trillion websites dedicated to Games Workshop’s games all across the internet, including GW’s own site (www.games-workshop.com). Not to forget the growing and immensly popular line of novels, comics and short stories available at Games Workshop’s own publishing house, The Black Library.

Okay, I wasn’t going to, but here a short comment on the prices of miniatures: Most of the miniatures you need for your army are made of plastic these days, and I for one think that Games Workshop’s new plastic range beat most miniatures out there – including their own metals – any day. Also, I don’t see much alternative. It might be different for those of you in the US, but out here there is no alternative. A blister of Clan Wars miniatures can cost me twice as much as a typical Games Workshop blister would.

5: Summary -------------- So, what do I think? Well for substance I have to give a 3 for the whole system. The game itself is a marvelous tabletop, and I havn’t seen a better one in fantasy to date. However, the more... problematic recent armybooks draw the rating down from 4 to a 3. Style however is a full 5. The production values are top mark, with tons of colour photos, some of the best in “dark and moody” style black and white artwork, which absolutely beats anything I’ve ever seen in a White Wolf product. (The first picture inside the book is a knightly charge under the clouse of a dark storm. Wonderful). Also, the flavour material makes you feel like you’re part of this world, something that even in role-playing doesn’t happen to me too often. So yes, I recomend Warhammer fully to someone who wants a good fantasy tabletop. Greetings to the Warhammer community Warhammer_fb at www.livejournal.com/users/warhammer_fb.

I'm available for comment both at the Livejournal group above and at infernal.teddy@insanity.net

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