#even serious primarchs had parties!!!!

[primarchstory]

days before...

 Flags of Imperial Gardinaal and the Aquila Resplendent preempted the inevitable triumph of the coming days, suspended amidst the clan banners of the Practice Hall in a chequer pattern of red and gold, silver and black. They hung from the ceiling ductwork, pregnant with the hard work of the Chapter serfs and regimental chefs of the 52nd who had set up over the open forges below. Hot plates, tandoors, tagines and huge induction kilns bubbled and spat, obliterating all thought and odour of war with the spice of half a dozen worlds and a hundred culinary traditions. Second Company itself retained the services of an artisanal victualler from the culinary schools of Anatolia much favoured by their captain. The Space Marine sense of taste was intense, and trace scents of paprik and sumac were enough to send Akurduana's aptly named Remembrancer organ on a dizzying meme-spiral through the pepper silos of the Bosporic trench and back.  As with anything not directly related to war, Akurduana possessed little talent for the victualler's craft. That had not kept him from persisting at it long after his stubbornness had driven half of the III Legion to despair. The very fact that the Emperor had not predisposed him with the ability was all the reason Akurduana needed to pursue it. For where was the reward in excelling where one had been designed to excel?  He frowned critically, drawing the thick wax tip of his pencil over the lithographic plate The Mechanicum assayers that had performed the preliminary surveys of Vesta had discovered the limestone formation just below the permafrost layer. Akurduana had immediately been struck by its perfection. A cut and machined plane of the Vesta limestone now rested on the easel before him.  In the raised wax layered atop it, he could see the X Legion commanders who had answered the invitation to the pre-victory feast, looking about in amazement at what had been wrought on their Hall. Elsewhere, larger groups of Emperor's Children drew the Iron Hands that had been incorporated into their squads between the victual stalls and fighting cages. The other figures that made up the scene he had deliberately downplayed, brushes of feeling and motion that were essential to the mood of the piece but only in a collective sense. Thousand Sons. The officers of the two Expeditions' Army regiments. Their faces portrayed awe, shock, powerful emotions that broke Akurduana's heart to recreate, and that would shatter Fulgrim's doubly, for the primarch had a superhuman's capacity for empathy. Akurduana rubbed a tear into the coppery skin of his cheek.

[sanguiniusreborn]

Angel of Revenge (Drabble)

Inspired by the song of the same name! A self indulgent drabble where Sanguinius rallies his traitor (?) brothers to destroy Erebus once and for all. This is in no way shape or form canon (We all wish it was tho)

@luwupercal @ask-the-crimson-king @sunny-sideblogging @ask-the-sensual-primarch , @purephoenician @stresseddemon  and @incorrect-primarchs-quotes (Again, tagging for the satisfacton of seeing this) @tired-space-politician !! (also @commoner64 and @magicmuses)

Under the cut!! TW: Heresy, some serious emotional torture, Erebitch dies

The Great Angel paced, trying to rationalize his plan. This would be difficult. Getting his brothers to agree to this wouldnt be hard. They all had an intense hatred of Erebus for the sins that had lead to their downfalls. What he worried about was the disputes they may find themselves in. Finally, he made up his mind with an uncanny fury.

It was time for revenge. Time to unite his brothers once more

“-Now, I want these turned in by the weeks end.” Magnus finished his leccture. Seeing his brother brought a smile onto his face, as all of the young Aspirants grew excited at seeing their uncle, distracted as they swarmed him for cuddles and to show him things.  “Sweet ones, me and your Father need to speak. I promise you’ll get your cuddles soon. Start your homework first.” Sanguinius instructed, and tthe youths nodded, scrambling off. Then he and Magnus went somewhere private to speak.

“You’re serious?” Magnus looked shocked. Should he be? Sanguinius had been furious at Erebus since his rebirth. But a direct attack?! “I’m very serious, Magnus. I want him dead.” Sanguinius hissed. “Very, very dead. Like even deader than someone turned to warp dust dead.”  Magnus’s eye grew wide, and he nodded.  “One condition. Lorgar gets involved.” He stated, and Sanguinius nodded. “I’m going to get Fulgrim too.” Sanguinius stated. Magnus grinned “Then its a party.” Magnus stated before opening a portal for Sanguinius.

“One moment please!~” Fulgrims singsong voice echoed throughout the crystaline palace as Sanguinius patiently waited outside the door to his bedroom. Finally, the door opened, and the serpintine Daemon Primarch looked delighted. “Sangyyyyy!~ You’re here! Come in, come in.” Sanguinius obeyed the order with a bemused smile.

“So you’re telling me that you, Maggy and Lorgar are going after Erebus?” The clatter of yet another piece of jewelry sounded as Fulgrim sorted through his treasures. Sanguinius stood, now dressed in purple robes, allowing his brother to dress him. “Yes. I wanted to know if you’d like to get involved. Magnus has cleared usage of the sonic weaponry. None of our nephews or myself will be harmed.” Sanguinius stated. Fulgrim paused, looking at him with an almost lecherous look of delight. “I’d adore it!” He stated.

It had taken planning, and admittedly a few arguments to finally settle on a plan of action. Sanguinius would lead the attack, with Magnus, Lorgar, and the entirety of the Thousand Sons behind them. Then they’d shield and let the Noise Marines and Fulgrim have their fun. This way they could cut though Erebus’s defenses and ensure that nothing could stand in the way of their prize. The intent was not to kill Erebus right then and there, but to whisk him to a secured location where they could without interference, as the initial attack would no doubt draw Abbadons attention.

Sanguinius appeared on the planet first. Erebus had left Sicarus, and he was currently on a separate world, giving the Traitor Legions he’d rallied and himself an opening. They hadn’t used ships, and thus there was no warning. Kine shielded by Magnus, so that no bullet or sword may touch him, Sangunius summoned his holy fire, and begun the burning of the world

The others were not far behind, for the Thousand Sons and even some World Bearers came after, joining in burning and attacking the defenses en masse alongside Sanguinius. A low bass rumble alerted the attackers to the presence of Noise Marines, Fulgrim, Lorgar and Magnus, and they produced a mass kine shield, raising conjoured glowsticks as well. Then the party started

Within minutes Erebus’s compound had been decimated, and the Primarchs had subdued their quarry. The Thousand Sons present bolted as well, alongside their collective Rubricae. Sanguinius took no joy in killing his nephews from Lorgar, but it was a nessecary evil. Erebus woke in a dark room, held by chains that both Fulgrim and Magnus had created collectivley to ensure he could not break free from them. Sanguinius looked unimpressed as Erebus sputtered and hissed at him. “You were dead! Horus killed you!” Erebus struggled against his chains. That wasn’t true, the four Primarchs in the room knew it. Magnus’s lip twitched in annoyance. “Yeah. He did. Unfortunately, I figured out a way to come back. His effort was in vain. But I didn’t wrangle you just to chat.” Sanguinius noted. Fulgrim smirked, idlly stirring the glass of wine he held. The air in the room turned murderous quickly, four Primarchs intending to make him suffer. “Abbadon will find out!” Erebus insisted “My nephew doesn’t scare me Erebus.” Sanguinius countered. Upon seeing Lorgar, the trapped heretic was filled with hope. “Father, please! This is unjust, I didn’t-” “You did. You corrupted Horus. You caused all of this. Do not deny your involvment!” Lorgar snapped. Erebus gained a look of genuine fear, which only seemed to entertain Fulgrim more. “N’awww....Is the widdle hewitic scawed?” He taunted in a baby voice, irritating the World Bearer. “Do not bring in heresy, hedonist!” Erebus snapped. Fulgrim growled, but before he could move, Magnus raised a hand to stop him. 

Sanguinius grinned, a terrifying sight as his fangs extended, though he had no desire to bite the other, let alone consume the tainted blood within. Erebus winced. Sanguinius approached him, and touched the World Bearer, who instantly started screaming and crying. Letting him feel the pain and anguish of 10,000 years. Erebus begged for him to stop, but it fell on deaf ears. Magnus pur his hand on Sanguinius’s, transferring his own emotional pain. The Rubricae, everything. Fulgrim and Lorgar followed suit.

By the time they were done, Erebus was breathing shallowly, sweating, and clearly still in pain. Sanguinius summoned his holy fire, and Magnus’s eye started glowing. Fulgrin held out one of his four arms delicately, and Lorgar also held out an arm. Then, they blasted him, destroying Erebus permanantley, all the way through to his very soul, so he could not be reanimated as a daemon prince. Within mere minutes, he was gone, destoyed, his very being obliterated.

The brothers took some time after to chatter, and comfort Lorgar. Each hugging him tightly and loving on him, after all, killing a son was no easy task for a genesire. Sanguinius understood this the best....

After all, he’d done it before

[thessaliah]

some thoughts about the rebellion 2000 years ago

I was wondering why did the fallen angels even rebel or listened to Lucifaa (Cilius)* if he was a cruel scientist guy who would use them as tools? Some like Olivia passionately took arms on his name. We see him mostly from Sandalphon's point of view (mutually antagonistic for their jealousy, and his disregard for Sandalphon as he wasn't on Lucifer's level on his eyes - and he's not the one who made him) and after the rebellion.

But there are a few subtle cues that show the primarchs being close to him and how different he was from the Astrals (probably because, deep down, he wasn't truly one of them even if he didn't know that):

- They address him by his name (even in a casual way, as if he was just a fellow co-worker). While the other Astrals are like generic “the astrals” to them and show a distance between them and Fa in their chats (except for the scene with Sandalphon and Lyria but he wasn’t part of his circle). If you didn’t know the context of the gossip, you’ll assume that Belial is a fratboy party guy and Fa is this nerd with straight As who bores Jock Uriel with technobabble.  - The angels were given the freedom to join the fallen angels by him and Belial (though Belial manipulated people to join: they had a choice and he didn’t force them when we know the other Astrals were brutal - as an example with Jade and Fenrir backstory). - Lucifaa was against the whole "Limitators" deal, meaning he never expected his creations to blindly obey him (hell, he's even pleased when Lucifer doesn't). - He made all those angels help the skies to evolve, some passion he apparently shared with Lucifer once. Sandalphon and he had a reverse development if you think about it. - When Belial takes a time to relay his message, he complains but he doesn't punish him, he just gives a scathing snarky commentary. It's like a work banter. This continues on their usual rapport, Belial is devoted but he’s insolent and obviously doesn’t care about his grand finale just Fa himself, but he, aware of this, grumbles and sometimes retaliates but not in a serious manner. Lucifer calling him “friend”, I doubt he would use that lightly. 

From the primals perspective, I think Lucifaa wasn't just their maker, but the only one in the Astral Research project that probably seemed to care about them in his own standoffish way. He probably did once, I think, before he started to have the end of the world in the plans. But that was later where he used them for Avatar. But at that point he was far too gone and completely destructive.

It's a shame we don't see Faa's and Belial's descend to their villainous roles. What we see of them is through Sandalphon’s, Lucifer’s, Michael’s and Sariel’s POV. We only vaguely know Fa’s dreams probably played a part in his change. Being cranky and horny don't make them evil, that came later, and they became associated with Mysterious Hood Guy who was clearly evil on sight.

*Funny thing his name is actually Lucifer, while Lucifer has the alternative less used japanese spelling for Lucifer which sometimes can mean “Lucifel” instead. 

[robotslenderman]

MOAR ME Turian Headcanon

(More of my headcanon -- baby turians, Citadel relay statue and Keeper “religion”, what it’s like for a turian to romance a human)

Moar turian headcanon, based on turian languages and bonding. It’s loooooong, so I cut it. I come up with so much worldbuilding headcanon all the time but uh, I never realised just how much until I wrote all this out and saw how long it was. Oops.

Turians are shorter than most aliens up until puberty, which starts at around 9/10 years of age when they’re about 4 feet high, at which point they skyrocket. By the time they’re the age of majority, at 15 years old, they’re as tall as mature adult humans.

Turian vocal chords also don’t develop until puberty. Until then, they communicate with whistles, purrs, growls, rumbles, etc -- a language sophisticated enough that adult turians can understand them, but too basic and context-reliant for universal translators. Aside from that, it’s basically seen as its own language -- there’s a sound for “sir”, a sound for “fuck you”, a sound for “hungry pls feed me”, a sound for “I’m hurt”, etc.

It’s considered a private, home-language -- much like how someone living in Australia might speak English in public but then switch to their native language at home, turians never use this language in public but will use it at home (in addition to their native, spoken tongue) around immediate family, close extended relatives, mates and very, very close friends. It’s considered too intimate to use around anyone else. They’ll use it at home to supplement their spoken language -- in combination, not in an either/or fashion. It’s almost always the language a turian uses to say “I love you”, which can confuse lovers of other species at first.

There are, however, exceptions. Adult turians will use this language with any child, no matter who’s watching, so long as the child is “young enough”. Adult turians might also use it to soothe spooked animals, or incredibly shaken crime/disaster victims. C-Sec officers and hospital staff tend to use it a lot in their line of work.

The “child language” is region-dependent -- much like any other language, different sounds mean different things depending on where a turian grew up. But because of the limited “vocabulary” and how context-dependent a sound is, a kid can generally understand someone who speaks another “child language” pretty quickly, and adults can likewise pick up a kid’s native language and adapt to it.

Who adapts to whom depends on rank -- if a child turian is speaking to, say, the Primarch, the child will adapt to the Primarch’s child tongue as a sign of respect. If a C-Sec officer is trying to soothe a shaken child, the officer will adapt their language to the child’s. If two foreigners raise a child in a new region and the child goes to school and winds up picking up a new child language, the kid will end up using two different child languages and won’t have a problem switching between the two.

Children learn the “child language” from their parents. Adult turians communicate with newborns and toddlers exclusively in this language (which is how children learn it to begin with), but as children get to around four years old, adults start combining the child tongue with their adult tongue. By then the children have already begun to learn the adult tongue simply through watching and listening to their parents, but won’t be able to learn to speak it until puberty.

Child turians learn to read and write long before they are able to physically speak, and tend to use this method of communicating in classrooms (eg, to communicate the right answer during a verbal quiz, which is more common in an alien/Citadel school than a turian one). It can be very disorienting for aliens to be IM’d by a squeaky growly turian kid.

Much like adults do with their mates, teenaged turians still learning to use their vocal chords will use the child tongue in combination with the spoken tongue with other kids and close teachers, but will make a great effort to use only the adult tongue with adults and teachers they don’t know well. It can be difficult at first, but adults in most regions are very, very patient with letting the young take their time learning to make the new sounds, and while it’s totally fine to coach the young through making new sounds, it’s taboo to rush them or show any signs of impatience.

Turians mate for life (metaphorically speaking). Unlike humans, who tend to be serial monogamists or even poly, turians fall in love only once. They can crush on just about anyone before they are “mated” (meaning, fallen in love, not literally had sex), but once they’re attached to someone enough and cross the threshold, that’s it. It’s considered a sign of very bad character if a turian doesn’t alert someone to their growing feelings before they cross the threshold.

While it doesn’t excuse his dickery, this is the biggest reason why Septimus Oraka was totally fucked up by how his relationship with Sha’ira turned out. Most turians would roll their eyes because you shouldn’t have gotten attached to her, she’s the Consort, you should have known better and would also sneer at him for how he reacted to it -- but they’d also sympathise, because ouch.

In cross-species relationships, this was rarely a problem before humans came onto the scene -- asari are widely educated in other species and don’t tend to date as widely as humans do once they hit the “mother” stage and maidens tend to avoid bonding too closely to a turian. Turians rarely bonded with batarians or other non-council species, but it did sometimes happen and trip them up. Turians who bond with salarians often don’t have a problem because the salarians are like “Yeah, cool, lifelong friend!” and the turian either is totally unfazed by not having a sex life or just has casual sex, and the salarian is more like a queerplatonic partner. Quarians tend to be discriminated against by turians enough that bonding with one is rare.

However, when turians started having relationships with humans, being rejected by the one they were mated to became a. Huge. Problem. There’s a reason, aside from good ol’ racism, why turians tell each other “you shouldn’t date humans!” Out of all species turians bond with, human monogamist relationships tend to be the most temporary, and it hurt a lot of turians like a bitch.

Despite turians bonding to a mate only once in their life, they view sex as very separate from love and have no problems with casual sex. Some turians choose to only have sex with their partner once they’re “mated”, but it’s just as common to have casual sex outside of the relationship when they’re separated. Much like how humans have different sexualities, turians have different levels of sexual attraction to people who aren’t their mate -- some turians feel sexual attraction and drive exclusively with their mate, some turians only feel sexual attraction to others when their mate isn’t around, some turians continue to feel sexual attraction whether they’re with their mate or not. Different turian cultures have different attitudes to these sexualities.

Turians who bond to someone who dies or doesn’t return their feelings aren’t doomed to live life alone and lonely. While it hurts like hell, many turians move on and end up in a queerplatonic relationship with another turian in the same situation. Some turians also end up in a relationship with a turian who’s bonded to them in a one-way bond. 

This partner is often completely aware that their romantic love is unrequited and accept this, because many semi-bonded/widow turians will treat their new partner with the same level of commitment as they would a “real” mate. But much like human relationships with each other, this is a conscious choice -- and a turian who isn’t bonded back with their partner may still end up rejecting them. 

This, however, is viewed with the same taboo that human divorce was. It’s also very controversial in some turian cultures -- some turians believe such unions can never last because it’s not a “real” relationship if only one party is bonded to the other, some turians think it’s totally understandable that the unbonded turian may leave the bonded one. On the other side, some turians think that the unbonded turian must take it as a very serious level of commitment and if they leave it’s a poor reflection on the turian themselves, or even on the turian that bonded to them. Different cultures have different attitudes as being more prominent, whereas some cultures stigmatise the one-way-bonded-partnership entirely unless they publicly claim to be friends.

Some apparent one-way-bonds, however, are totally platonic on both sides as some turians are completely aromantic and have never romantically bonded to someone.

Having said that -- some aromantic turians still bond to another individual in a way that’s very similar to a romantic relationship, but without romantic feelings. The turian feels the same deep sense of attachment and commitment and love, but without the romantic feelings. Some turians are not only aromantic and/or asexual, but also a-bond -- they don’t bond to one individual at all, and prefer to go through life with a group of friends or on their own or some combination. Much like queer sexualities were in human history, turians who were either aro or non-bonding turians were stigmatised hundreds of years ago, however in modern society it’s now commonly accepted.

Turians bunk in hammocks in the military, and use circular nest-shaped beds full of pillows outside of it. Because of their shape, sleeping on human/asari beds are deeply uncomfortable for them. Their cowl gives them back/neck pain if they sleep on their back in such a bed, and their wide hips and shoulders give them neck and lower back pain if they sleep on their side. Sleeping on their stomach is also uncomfortable. In hammocks, turians contort into a certain position to be able to sleep and are able to use the slope of the hammock to rest their heads on their cowl, but it’s not as feasible on a horizontal surface.

A romanced Garrus adapts to sleeping in Shepard’s bed by using a lot of pillows. When he’s in the battery, he sleeps in a hammock.

Turians are somewhere between warm blooded and cold blooded -- their bodies generate heat, but they also get a lot of their heat from Palaven’s hot environment. If they had hotter body temperatures, they wouldn’t be able to cool down enough to survive Palaven’s environment.

Because of this, turians are extremely sensitive to cold.

Turians love snuggling up to humans because humans are like body-sized hot water bottles. Even after the turian’s temperature stabilises, the human is neither too hot nor too cold for the turian.

Lastly -- turians tend to have a pecking order even within families and between them, and use eye contact accordingly. Pecking orders are relative; a family might be considered “above” another, but on an individual level the firstborn kid of the “dominant” family may be considered dominant above a kid in the other family when it’s just the two of them. The “dominant” turian will make eye contact, but the subordinate turian won’t. Turians get very uncomfortable without the framework of a clear pecking order, because they’re used to either being totally in charge or having their hands held. A turian subordinate being treated like a human one -- that is, following orders but expected to be able to take initiative -- would stress a turian out and is signs of an incompetent superior.

Some turians, however, can’t handle the clear-cut rigid binary of turian relationships -- Garrus is one of them, and that makes it difficult for him to get along with other turians. These turians are almost always good leaders, but because they’re not capable of being happy following someone else’s leadership they question, they really struggle to be able to stay inside that framework long enough to get promoted to a position of leadership. Turians like this often handle alien environments better, though not necessarily -- human superiors don’t enjoy being questioned any more than turians do.

Good turian superiors tend to recognise the occasional odd duckling like Garrus, and see their potential. They’ll try to mentor the restless rebel long enough for them to make it into a higher position. This rarely works; most turians that give orders still have to report to someone else at the end of the day. At the end of the day, turians like Garrus have to find their own way, and once they do, they become highly respected by the hierarchy, and by the rebellious youths who are in the same circumstances they once were.

[theotternerd]

Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition Review

Before I get started on this review, I just want to put a few things in the open.

1. I started playing Warhammer 40K in 2005 at a buddy’s house. This was still the transition time of going from 3rd Edition to 4th Edition and I believe that only the Space Marines and Tyranids had gotten their Codices (yes, that is the correct pluralization of “codex”) updated at that point for the new rules.

2. I love the 40K lore. Like, a lot. It’s part of the reason why I still love the series, despite having not played it for close to six years. The lore and fluff draw me in, and I love reading all about it from not only the Index Astartes articles, the Codices, or any other article previously posted on the mid-2000s GW website, but also the novels, some of which have been written by some of the best sci-fi/fantasy authors.

3. I am not a fan of Games Workshop as a company. This is a company that over the past seven or so years has tried to do everything it can to destroy any remaining customer goodwill it had. This is a company that was vehemently anti-consumer and anti-competition (seriously, up until VERY recently you couldn’t buy GW products from third parties that had an online shopping cart system). But, I recently saw this...

The game YOU asked for (my emphasis, obviously). Maybe something at GW has changed in the last year or so, because this is a sign of things moving in a better direction.

As with any new 40K system release, I get curious. I want to love the game, but over the years the game has been an arms race to the bottom (GW’s bottom line), and I really can’t afford to buy and maintain a decent-sized army anymore. However, I do buy the box sets that usually release with each edition, and that’s what I did, but we’re not going to start with that. Nope, let’s look at the rules of this new edition first.

The core rules to the game have been simplified.

A LOT.

I’m talking about slimmed down to the point where it fits on a 5″ x 7″, front and back, four-panel pull-out. These eight pages of rules comprise of everything you need to know in order to play a game, pretty much the six phases of a turn:

Movement

Psychic

Shooting

Charge

Fight

Morale

The descriptions of each phase is easy to read, easy to understand, and there’s almost no weird lexicon that you have to decipher. This is exactly what new payers need, not twenty pages describing every phase in minute detail.

That being said, there are no distinctions anymore between any type of unit in the game, infantry or cavalry, beast or vehicle. There aren’t full pages describing what a close combat weapon does versus a power weapon, or detailed descriptions of what every single weapon keyword means. Everything is boiled down to its essential elements and I feel that this is the sort of basic rules that the game has always needed.

The bulk of the rules section of the new rulebook is actually about how you set up different types of battles, whether it be a pick-up game, a tournament, or even a narrative campaign. They even brought back the idea of detachments from 6th/7th Edition with no emphasis on any particular detachment composition. This is a serious departure for me as I learned the force organization chart and drilled it into my head. Sure, it’s pretty much still there, but enough small changes have been made that it fits way better. Also, it allows Codices to have their own unique detachments that fit the lore of that particular force better. It’s an overall win-win in my book.

Going back to the book, 42% of the rulebook are the actual rules. This is another departure from previous editions (except for maybe 7th, but that was a three book set and one of them was just the rules) as the rules usually made up about one-third of the book. The other two-thirds were the lore and a hobby section. Also, previous editions put a small primer section before the rules, usually to help you get in the mindset, and then the lore was after the rules, with the hobby stuff in the very back. The lore section is now in the front of the book, before the rules, and consists of 58% of the book’s contents, while the hobby section was completely omitted for 8th Edition. Again, this seems like a good move on GW’s part because they have entire books you can buy about how to make terrain, paint models, etc.

With the removal of the hobby section, which was honestly just porn for wargamers, the book has been slimmed down to 288 pages, which is impressive considering the 4th Edition rulebook was also 288 pages (5th Edition was 320, 6th Edition was 440) and included hobby information.

Datasheets seem to be the thing GW is doing now, and the rulebook addresses this at the very beginning of the rules section. Datasheets were first introduced in the Apocalypse expansion, late in 4th Edition’s life cycle. Datasheets were typically used for superheavy vehicles and unique, high-power characters, like Primarchs. But sometime during the life cycle of 6th or 7th Edition, GW decided to package datasheets in all of the model boxes, which I think was a brilliant move. Want to buy some models but don’t have the Codex? No big deal, here’s how the unit works!

One of the newer aspects of these datasheets is the Power Rating. For more casual games, the power rating can generally indicate how powerful a unit is, and both players can compare overall army strength by the overall Power Ratings.

Also available right now as a bundle are the army indices, which lets you get started right away with the new edition. Each one focuses on a particular area, with the Imperium getting two books, Chaos getting one, and Xenos getting lumped together into two indices. Each one is pretty big and provides datasheets for every unit in the game at this point, except for Forge World models. The lack of Titans is upsetting, but understood.

Final Thoughts I was startled a bit by 40K’s 8th Edition. I was seriously thinking that GW was going to screw the pooch on this and just keep going on with making a new edition every 4-5 years, alienate certain players by not updating factions they play, and simply make the rules even more complicated, but...

GW did a great job listening to the fans. It really seems like they’ve decided to regain all that goodwill they lost years ago. Hell, they regained some of it when I saw The War Store newsletter saying that you could now order GW products through their website, not having to call or send an email for orders (seriously, that’s how we had to do it back in the day...up until a month or two ago).

The rules are super streamlined, which is great for teaching new players. The datasheets make starting an army incredibly easy and they are great references during play. Right now, I’m just waiting to see what the first Codex looks like, because that will be the real telling point for the life cycle of 8th Edition. But, until then, this is looking real good.

Website: https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Warhammer-40-000 Price: $60 ($40 for eBook), $125 for the Index set or $25 for each Index ($20 for eBook), $104 for eBook bundle of Rulebook and Indices Players: 2+ All images © Games Workshop.