The General's Compendium a softcover 8 by 12, 176 pages long. It is unusual among GW's usual product line in that it was produced in its entirety by the Games Workshop US promotions staff, while pretty much all of the creative content from GW comes from the UK design studio. Ostensibly, it was published to support Warhammer's flagging sales in the USA, compared to its highly successful counterpart, Warhammer 40,000. The General's Compendium is full-color, printed on quality, glossy paper. In my own experience and that of some in my gaming group, there has been some issue with the binding. My own copy was very stiff and tightly bound, and after some use it looks like I'll have to be careful to prevent pages from falling out.
In terms of raw content, this is one of the most excellent resources that has come out of either the US or UK studio in quite some time. The overarching goal of the book is to present players with dynamic new ways to play Warhammer, and make the hobby more interesting and exciting. This book does a fantastic job doing just that.
The first chapter presents a simple model of linked games. In these ladder-type campaigns, players can create a binary chart of cause-and-effect game progression. For example, a ladder campaign representing a siege might start with a storming of the external barricades, then a scaling of the walls, then a fight in some dense streets, then finally a pitched battle on the lawns of the capitol. Each game played would have different parameters depending on what had happened in the previous game.
Second is the chapter on map campaigns. Here, players engage in a second metagame of moving their armies across a map representing sections of the Warhammer world, gathering territories, and expanding their realm. When armies meet, games of Warhammer are played to resolve the conflict. Rules for forming alliances (and betraying them!), razing the countryside and rallying the locals are included, along with army-specific rules about how different races interact with the map. Dwarfs, for example, can trudge through mountains with little difficulty while Dark Elves can sacrifice their conquered locals to gain divine favors.
The third chapter actually is a ready-made map campaign in itself, representing the disputed lands of the Border Princes. There are a few special rules for playing a Border Princes campaign, but the real kicker here is the poster-sized map of the Border Princes you'll find in the back of the book. It's brilliantly drawn and already sectioned off and ready for play.
The fourth campaign chapter is about playing truly wild and creative campaigns with a Game Master. There are piles and piles of optional rules for a GM to pick from here, and creative players will really appreciate the selection and freedom.
There is also content on running competitive, tournament-style games, and a chapter on expanding games in a multiplayer direction. These chapters were both solidly grounded and dynamically interesting. Some of the ideas for games with more than two players sounded like a lot of fun.
This book is peppered with little mini-articles on terrain-building, painting, and other important aspects of the hobby. Many gamers should find this useful, though the layout format could have been better. A single hobby article chapter would have helped many players find the relevant article, as opposed to flipping through the book to find it. Despite this shortcoming, the hobby articles are both useful and original.
For the truly crazy gamer, there is an entire chapter devoted to boats, ships, dinghys, rafts, catamarans, hulks, frigates, giant turtles with howdahs and other seagoing vessels of the Warhammer world. Using this chapter at all will require an advanced degree of hobby competence, but it looks like it would be well worth the effort. The book itself states that this is in no way an attempt to present solid, hard-core naval combat rules, but instead a way to introduce a brand new environment to your troops. Marine warfare afficianados look elsewhere; this section simply brings organ guns and champions of Slaanesh to the high seas.
The last chapter is about siege and city fighting. It includes rules for raids and attacking (and destroying) key buildings in an enemy settlement. Lots of fun, especially for campaigns.
There is a disclaimer in the beginning of the book about how nothing in it is 'official' and sanctioned for tournament use. This doesn't bother me in the least, and should not bother anyone else either. It's your hobby, after all, and here are 176 pages worth of ways to make it better.
At a very reasonable $25, there is no reason why this book should not be in the library of every Warhammer player.
