Let us see what we can see in the second to last issue of Inquisitor!
(Well for those few who may care the images aren't bad but they need to be transferred back to the PC and edited there if I want to put them at a decent click to see them large size in this blog. So yay I guess?)
Well, still four dollars. Twenty eight pages including covers this time. The Amorcast ad page lists what was probably a dream item for most of us at the time, and it is now probably one of the more rare 40K minis. A super detailed Baneblade for 130 1998 dollars. And an extra 30 bones if you wanted METAL TRACKS. That's pretty sweet. I recall once GW's Forge World took over their own Baneblade cost like 250. Without said metal tracks. The 2005 Forge World catalog lists their two Baneblade models as 270 and 285 US dollars. Their current PLASTIC Baneblade kit? LOOK AT IT. LOOK AND DESPAIR .
Also we see how GW is pulling the plug on Armorcast in general. They claim their 40K kits were only a minor part of their business. They are still around as of this writing so.. maybe it was true? But Games Workshop is infamous for being awful in new and horrible ways. This week their subsidiary companies pulled themselves off of Social Media websites (like Facebook and Twitter) entirely at behest of the higher ups. For those who wish to read or remember if this is read in the future: http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/03/gws-recent-decisions.html
This is a picture I took at a local game shop showing what Games Workshop thinks someone will now pay 30 dollars for. The left side is the same model in the blister. Yep.
Tim opens the issue mentioning their Combat Engineer rules have been updated from issue 8 which was apparently during the Rogue Trader era. His mention of Third Edition rumors were correct. (Contents.)
The big article this month is a five page Combat Engineer ruleset. A bit of fluff on them, some new gear to use, fortification rules for mines and wires, conversion/modelling tips, and four squad types. Overall it seems fun, but probably not for most games. Now six plus turn games or a GM run scenario? Could be super fun and interesting.
GI JOE MEETS 40K!
Leland Erickson is back with his Hot Lead miniatures reviews. Its a page and a half with the other half taken up by a wishlist of minis, about half of which have been produced since. He covers some Geo Hex tanks and scenery kits, and a 15mm scale sci fi minis line by Irregular Miniatures out of York in the UK. He continues to use silly Ork speak from time to time in his coverage but overall is positive on the goodies he mentions.
Jim Dieter gives us four pages on painting Chaos Marines with some semi useful black and white phots and a fair step by step guide on painting them. Seems useful enough. But I am a weird heretic who plays minis games for the GAME PRIMARILY so don't care too much anyhow. Nice enough info though.
Now we get SEVEN vehicle datafaxes, and their rules when needed.
The Tyranid Dactylis is up first. It is a conversion of their Haruspex kit and uses much of the same rules as its' three cousins from last issue. This one throws 2" S8 2d6 Damage, -4 Save Modifier Bile Pods up to 72". However the rules mention models within 1" of the blast marker are hit on a 4+ so presumably this means that when it lands things not even within the template but within 1" of it have a chance to be hit as if they were half under a normal template. Kinda nasty really. 200 points for you conversion types out there.
The Hydra gets a day in the Second Edition sun with options for extra wargear cards only it can use. Not a bad little vehicle against Eldar or naughty naughty Tyranids with lots of Gargoyles. It is kind of funny that apparently it's Heavy Bolter is also designed for air defense in spite of obviously being for ground defense of the tank. The rules say it's targeters give it problems with ground units. Well this IS Imperial Guard. They probably would be dumb enough to do that. It seems like a good little vehicle. Dunno if I would burn 200 points on one in 2nd ed games however.
Next up the Vindicator, Ork Two Armed Dreadnought, and Mk1 Imperial and Space Marine Land Speeders are up. The Vindicator in this is kind of a weaker Demolisher Cannon from the Leman Russ variant but still pretty nasty for 145 points. (Plus gives 3rd-now era players a fair set of rules to use them in early era games!) The Two Armed Ork Dreadnought brings the old metal mini back to life for 75 points plus 10-25 for weaponry. Killa Kan rules for those units going back? I say yes sir! They also recommend the current Four armed Dreadnought to be reduced in cost to 110. I dunno about that...
They finish up with rules for the original ugly old lead Land Speeders with their open everything. Nice if you want to have cheaper but easier to kill Speeders I suppose. Those things were hideous. Now I love the 2nd ed era metal Speeders in spite of them being a big pain to assemble. They just looked.. COOL.
We finish up with the Blood Slaughterer as Inquisitor thinks it should be. It takes advantage of the Chaos Codex for their current vehicle rules and makes a fair little infantry support unit. Run it near a squad to aid it in both close and ranged combat. I can dig this one over Fallout's. The BS is back now but it is Forge World and looks a bit dumb: http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Chaos/DAEMONS_AND__BEASTS/KHORNE-BLOOD-SLAUGHTERER.html
We get some Q&A on our Titan and Superheavy rules from a few issues back, some Squat errata, and then we close the issue out with Convention News, Want Ads, a full page advertisement for the miniatures game Clan War (A terrible game similar to WHFB but in the Legend of the Five Rings setting. It had "exploding dice" mechanics and still ended up being similar to that era's WHFB with it being hero and magic happy except with also buying a game card deck. Some nice minis and a great setting though!), and the back page shows us some nice Armorcast scenery to buy. The Bone Walls and Tech Bridge looked really nice!
Sadly it seems like the Tech Bridge is no longer available. A shame because it looked cool. Most of the other items on the back cover are still available however.
Overall this was another GOOD ISSUE. So on my scale I shall score it: GOOD.
Join us next time for the final issue of Inquisitor. That review might not go up for another week or two as I both need to read said issue, then do some research. (Which I am already working on to some degree.)
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