"I’ll give you all these unopened Dark Eldar miniatures, that I just paid £100 for, and twenty five quid in cash!" Pleaded the young man. I felt very sorry for him and though the kind offer was very tempting to me being an Eldar player anyway, I just had to pass it up.

"So who did you have to kill to get that?"

"I say we murder him on the way home and make off with it!"

"Go on open it up and gives a look!"

All these and many, many more comments were made to me yesterday afternoon as I stood waiting to get onto the coach to go back home from this years Games Day. For you see in my hands I was holding a brand new copy of the new edition of Warhammer 40,000! Where did I get this bounty? How did I manage to get a hold of the game a full 20 days before its release? Well that would be telling wouldn’t it. Only joking everyone. As I posted on some of the newsgroups and on Gamers Web this month I was at Games Day to carry out interviews and do a report of the event for Gamers Web. The interviews and report will all be online before too long, but this may be the very first full and indepth review of the new 40K and a look at its future that has been released anywhere to my knowledge in the world!" So with this scoop firmly tucked under Gamers Web’s belt. Without further ado:

A lot has been said about it. Many rumours have been whispered in all corners of the Internet about it. Many have denied the fact that it would happen, and a few have even blasted it to the ground before its release without ever seeing the rulebook! What am I talking about? Well unless you have been living on Mars for the past few months or are new to the hobby (I bid you welcome in that case!) you will have no doubt heard that Games Workshop is about to replace its long running science fiction wargame Warhammer 40,000 with a whole new edition

Work on the new system was only announced a short time ago to the public, but the clues have all been there for you to piece together. Battle reports and articles in White Dwarf! The mysterious disappearance of one of the worlds best loved miniature designers Jes Goodwin for almost a year! These and many others where all present for us to divulge in and try to fathom out what was in store.

At the end of June this year the 2^nd edition rules for Warhammer 40,000, its codexes and all its boxed supplements, began to disappear from Games Workshop stores all around the world. This was to make way for the new edition of course and even the staff in retail didn't know exactly what was going to be happening.

If you are lucky enough to get to a Games Workshop store on October 10^th this year or can reach mail order and pre book your copy of the new game then your in for a real treat. Enough of this mindless waffling I hear you cry.

What about the rules? Can I use my Squats? Will my army still be usable or will I have to buy a whole new force?

Patience my friends, all will be answered.

The time is now!

Presented for the very first time in two formats, Warhammer 40,000 3^rd Edition grabs the attention from the very off. Whether you buy the boxed set, complete with rules and miniatures, or you opt to purchase the rules separately in the practical and attractive slip cover, you will notice the size does matter instantly. The box is packed (literally) to the brim with miniatures and terrain pieces and then there is the rulebook.

The rule book of the new system is a huge tome with a sample of the excellent new box artwork by John Blanche gracing its cover. The new green logo strikes out from the cover, contrasting in perfect union with the dark marbled effect of the binding. But as with a lot of things looks can be deceptive, after all a great cover doesn’t necessarily mean a great game! So I opened the rule book, the scent of fresh print wafting up to my nostrils, a feeling like none that one can really describe.

The rule book is a massive 288 pages and covers all the aspects needed to play the highly popular system. Broken down into five sections each covering the game, history, races, and rules needed to bring the system to life.

A very important aspect to any game as it sets the precedent for the rest of the game, and the way that one approaches it. Some very stark and striking black and white illustrations from John Blanche grace the first few pages and a brief overview of the system, and all at once any fears are elated. Many scoff at John Blanches visions of the war torn worlds of the future, but none can deny the fact that his dark view of a more gothic universe fits in perfectly with the history of the game. In fact the book is crammed with hundreds of drawings and paintings based on the Games Workshop 40K universe, each adding its own unique flavour to the game. Add to this lots and lots of quotes ( look on the bottom of most of the grey pages) from Imperial and Chaos commanders (among others) and you have a very graphically excellent looking book on your hands.

Following a brief introduction to the system by games guru Rick Priestly, we are given a basic tour of the system and its setting by the use of a series of passages that describe a sample game (sort of like a battle report only very toned down) which is excellent for new players to read, a look at terrain and painted miniatures and ideas on making your own terrain. All in all a good introduction to the game and as is expected of one of the largest games companies in the world, well up to the excellent layout and design.

So what has changed? Well even by just thumbing your way through the rules section of the book you cant help but notice that certain things have gone, and others have taken their place. In the old system the game was split into phases that where carried out each turn, until the battle was over one way or another these being; Movement, Shooting, Hand to hand combat. Psychic, and Rally. Movement and Shooting phases still stay in the rules (although now changed more later) and a new phase has been added to take over the old Hand to Hand combat, that of Assault. Psychic and rally phases are now completely gone.

Unlike the previous editions of Warhammer 40,000, this new system has dispensed with the old movement value (M) entirely with the majority troops being able to move at the same rate (a couple of exceptions are Hormaguants and Horses) that being 6" per model. Using a nice round figure for the movement is a great idea and speeds up game play no end. However unlike the old system, if a trooper or squad moved in the Movement phase, then it seriously affects the way that it/they shoot in the next phase.

Of course this leads to some great tactical ideas. Should you run the risk of moving in closer to your foe and not being able to bring your big guns to bear, or do you sit back and wait, taking full advantage of being able to shoot all your guns (except the heavy) twice? Pros and cons! Only the situation on the games table can really decide if you should or shouldn’t move

Having moved its full or part of its allowance the model is classed as having finished its Movement phase (although it may move again in the Assault phase!) and once you have moved all the troops you wish to its on to the Shooting phase and time to cause some damage.

As with every other version of Warhammer that has come before, the third edition uses a basic profile system to work out how models react on the tabletop.

SPACE MARINE

The profile is as usual simple to read and each characteristic is explained in full for those players new to the system or wargaming. As with previous editions a model uses its BS (Ballistics Skill) to work out if it can or cant hit an opposing model. A target is nominated (anything except a character unless its the closest model or 6 inches away!) and then the range is measured. In the new system weapons have changed format and are now classed as Rapid Fire(Bolters, Shurikens, Las-guns, etc)Blast (weapons with an area affect), Flame(Flamers, etc) Pistol, Heavy(Las cannons, etc) and Assault (Flamer pistol, mandiblasters, etc). Each weapon type is listed in the army lists for the system and its very easy to work out if you can or cant hit, just measure the range and if its under the weapons maximum range distance you can hit no problem, above and the shot will miss!

The higher the BS the easier it is too hit, and a Marine with a BS:4 will hit a target on a 3+ (3,4,5,6) as the Marines BS is subtracted from 7 (the standard way of working out combat) 7-4=3. Unlike the old system where combat was worked out for each individual model, one now rolls as many attack dice as there are members of the squad to hit. So if you have a 5 man Marine squad you will roll 5 dice, if they didn't move in the Movement phase they shoot twice giving you 10 dice to shoot with (unless using an Assault weapon, ie a Flamer or using a heavy weapon such as a Missile Launcher!) and then all hits (3-6) are counted and misses (1-2) removed.

To wound as with before one cross-references the targets Toughness (T) against the Strength (S) of the weapon and then rolls the dice again to see if they managed to wound the target. If the target is wounded it gets to make a Saving Throw (SV) against its own value.

That is as simple as it sounds the basics of the combat. Of course other things need to be taken into account, such as shooting at troops in cover, and vehicles, but these are also covered in great detail. Once the shooting is over the opposing player works out if he has taken too many casualties that turn (25% of the original squad size) and if so must roll under his/her Leadership (LD) on 2d6. If the roll is passed the unit fights as normal, but if it fails the unit then retires in the direction of its deployment zones table edge 2d6 inches. If the roll takes the unit from the table its out of the battle for good. Units that are retreating still get to protect themselves against other attacks in hand to hand combat, and will if still retreating be able to fire their weapons. A rally roll is made for retiring units at the beginning of their next turn, if they fail and move into cover in the Movement phase they can roll again.

Taking a leaf from another Games Workshop product of a very similar name (Epic Warhammer 40,000!) we now come to the phase that has given a lot of the staff members at the many GW stores over the world some headaches, but once you have got the hang of it, you will wonder how you where puzzled in the first place.

During the Assault phase any units on the controlling players side may move again if they are within 6" of an enemy. If this is the case they can move into combat with the enemy and make a hand to hand assault against them. The entire unit will make the move and if a model is within 2" of an enemy model it can still attack, just as if it were in base to base contact, this represents models giving support fire to their fellow squad members as they close in for the kill. Any model that is more than the 6" range may not move in the Assault phase.

You don't want your troops to lose a combat (as if!) as it can be very nasty using some of the new ideas in the game. If a troop looses a round and breaks and runs off towards its table edge, other troops on the opposing side can take advantage of this fact. Retiring troops who have to cross into non friendly troops are liable to be destroyed by a Sweeping Advance which means that they will have to fight a combat again without any bonuses. Also if they move past an enemy model or unit that hasn’t been engaged in hand to hand that turn they must roll for the retreat roll if it takes them past the non friendly unit they are destroyed (regardless of wounds left) by a hail of crossfire!

And that is basically that! Of course the system is much more than this and I have only touched on the basics of combat here as both time constraints and not wishing to give to much away are paramount at the moment, but if you can make sense of the basic examples I have given above, then you can easily get the hang of the game. As mentioned before a lot of players of the old system will find the new rules very simple to get into, and not that many major changes have happened to make game play difficult.

Of course I haven’t mentioned just how the armies are structured or set up yet have I? Be patient my friend all in good time! The review is still young and you have much to read.

The rest of the book covers other aspects of the game. In the Age of the Imperium section we are given a very brief look at life in the Warhammer 40,000 universe and the races that interact/war with humanity. Some excellent diagrams and drawings are littered throughout the book, and cover everything from the look of Eldar and Marines to exploded diagrams of a Bolter. The coverage is taken from the viewpoint of a human and only briefly touches on the other races (as they will all get their moment in the spotlight in the codexes over the coming months).

Onto the army lists and we are given nine full listings (with more to come later in White Dwarf) for the following.

Space Marines

Dark Eldar

Tyranid Hive Fleets

Eldar Craftworlds

Chaos Space Marines

The Imperial Guard

The Orks

Sisters of Battle

Heroes of the Imperium

What you will notice is that each of the army list is constructed in the exact same way. Unlike the 2^nd edition of the game where you had restrictions on the number of points you could spend on troops, characters and support, the new edition does away with that completely and follows a very simple structured format.

Every army must have leaders and its to this end that the first thing one should choose when making up a new force is its leaders and which to take. Certain forces (such as the Eldar and Imperial Guard) allow the player to choose from different leaders which will make up the HQ (Headquarters) section. An HQ is one of the only compulsory sections of the army lists that must be taken, but players are free to choose if the option is available to them.

The scenarios that are presented in the rules (detailed in a little while, so hold on!) can also play a role in which troops to take for which scenario. Some scenarios place limits on the amount of troop types that you can take. Speaking of which here are the troop types:

Each of the troop types gives you a full listing of the exact troops each army can take to fore-fill the roles needed on the battlefield. In the last edition of Warhammer 40,000 we had to rely on Wargear cards ( from the core game and the Dark Millennium supplement) to give our characters and squads extra edges in combat. Now they are a thing of the past and have been replaced with each races own unique wargear lists, rather than lots of pieces of cardboard littering the games table. Certain troops can take war gear others cant, but for the most part characters and squad leaders (Sergeants, etc) can use most of the things on offer.

Once you have chosen your force and what you want to field its just a simple task of copying the profiles down onto the roster sheet (given at the back of the book) and your all ready to play.

Each of the armies has its own strengths and weaknesses, and even with these the game is well balanced and very fair. Orks have suffered drastically in the past as they were too weak or not good enough to do much damage against a Space Marine foe. However using the new system Orks are now a major contender and will give anyone a run for their money. Of all the troops in the game the Orks have had the biggest overhaul. The weapons skill of the Orks has now increased but the ballistic skill has gone down. They now have an extra wound which makes them really dangerous and difficult to kill.

Other changes to the existing armies are as follows.

Marines now have some great heavy vehicles to use such as the Vindicator Rhino variant. Sisters of Battle now have Retributor squads (the SoB equivalent to Devastator squads) Eldar get a new vehicle the Wave Serpent and their Dreadnought is renamed a Wraithlord. Even Imperial Guard get in on the act with Tank Hunters and Armoured Fists. The only troops that seem to remain the same are the poor Tyranids and Orks (but then again they do get other things that make up).

Dark Eldar have long been awaited by millions of 40K fans all over the world. Hints as to the existence of these strange creatures where seeded in many of the last editions codexes and in White Dwarf articles and fiction. Not much is given away in the main rule book about them, except that they are fast and very mobile and have some of the most wicked looking weapons ever seen on Warhammer 40,000 miniatures. The race will be covered in greater depth in the upcoming Dark Eldar codex, due out in November of this year, and I will be bringing more details of them as soon as they are available.

The rule book also contains a complete section on running campaigns and gives 14 scenarios to be used with the game. Most of these are standard style adventures with one side winning the game by wiping out its opponent or having more troops left at the end of the battle. Others are a little more complex than that and give great scope for tactical decisions from the players as they have to choose their forces very carefully. Each of the scenarios gives all the terms needed for victory conditions with most games lasting around 6 turns. Of course you can always ignore these battles and devise your own or even just place your models on the table and blow the hell out each other, but I would suggest giving the samples in the book a once over first!

The Psychic phase in the old system was something of an hit and miss affair. Firstly you needed to have access to the Dark Millennium supplement to get the most from the game. Then the added problems of using cards for both spells and the power to use them and finally the fact that some of the spells where way too powerful and made a mockery of the game. All this is changed now (thank god) and the new system still allows Psykers but they are more toned down.

Now each army that can take these special troops (Eldar, Marine, Chaos) can only use one power a turn and are limited to what they can take. To use a power the player must roll under the Psykers LD value on 2d6 for the power to work. If this succeeds the power takes effect and the relevant actions are taken. If this fails nothing happened, but if a double 1 is rolled the player is attacked by a warp creature and may end up dead (the power still works though). All in all Psykers are more easy to handle and nowhere near as dangerous as before.

One thing that Warhammer 40,000 2^nd edition was both famous and notorious for was its Special Characters. Many of the characters from the last game where over balanced, too powerful or made a mockery of other troops and most tended to dominate the battlefield. Characters are still an important part of the game in the latest incarnation of this ever evolving system, but will not dominate the table as before. No special characters are presented in the core rules but will be covered in the codexes (see below).

One of the long bane's or the last edition ( a rule that was bent out of shape far too often!) was the Overwatch rule. This allowed a model of Character to do nothing in its turn and react to any movement or actions for the enemy in their own turn. Far to many times this caused arguments among gamers as too just who could fire at who and when, and now thankfully it is gone.

One of the main things that you will notice now is that a game of Warhammer 40,000 plays a lot quicker and smoother than ever before! The new rules will allow much bigger armies and will take the game into another dimension with hundreds of troops, tanks, etc, now being very simple to field. The old game was aimed more at squad level and when one had more than 4 or 5 squads on each side, the whole thing took hours to play. Now forces that are twice as big can be played in less time.

The points for the majority of the races in the game have been slashed right across the board now. It used to cost a lot of points to buy a Space Marine Tactical squad in the last edition, now that has been halved more or less.

Well having looked briefly at the rule book, and covered some of the aspects of the game, its time to take a look at the other components we find in the box and to see if it lives up to the expectations we have all been building up.

Plastics have been around since 40K first made its entrance to the hobby over 10 years ago. The long lamented RTB01 (Rogue Trader boxed set 1 for younger players Rogue Trader was the original system, check out the retro review on the Retro section) was for many the ultimate in self expression. You had 30 plastic Marines which could be posed in any stance you wished and came with a large variety of weapons and packs, etc, to make each model unique from the rest. The RTB01 set was phased out a few years ago and was replaced by more simple and static models. Still the new models of that time where a vast improvement in attention to detail, even if they did lack the animation one could give to the older versions.

Now Jes Goodwin, one of the best sculptors in the world and father figure of the Space Marines has re invented the plastics and given us not only some highly detailed miniatures, but something to rival the old RTB01 set in every way. In fact the two are perhaps as far apart in detail as a bullet is to an ICBM, but the old feeling of getting value for money crosses your mind when you pick them out of the box for the first time.

The game contains a full squad of 10 of these highly detailed and well tooled Marines. Each comes as a two piece body (as in the plastic Terminator) with different leg poses, seperate arms and shoulder pads and all new Bolters. The hands of the models are now designed to hold weapons and the wide variety of spare parts you get on the sprues. Telescopic sights, Puritiy seals, greandes, are but a few of the extras you get to spice up the Marines. A full review of the new plastics will be here on Gamers Web soon, so look out for it.

As mentioned above, the game contains a completely new race, the Dark Eldar. These strange beings are distant cousins of the Eldar who inhabit the Craftworlds and are as mean and nasty as one can ever get. The plastics this time have been handled by Chris Fizpatrick and Gary Morley and are something to see! 20 of these excellently done models are included in the game and can (as with the Marines) be assembled in hundreds of ways.

Each sprue comes with a large selection of weapons, arms, heads, daggers, and spikes (!) for you to assemble your own Dark Eldar raiders. The one thing that runs common to the models is the lethal looking curved blades on the weapons! Very nasty. A full look at the plastic Dark Eldar ( and some of the new metals) will be on Gamers Web too very soon.

Another thing you will find in the box, is some of the best looking terrain pieces that you will find anywhere. In the box you get two corner sections of ruined buildings, some small pieces of rubble, and also some palm trees that can be assembled in a wide variety of ways. Lots of people have commented about the trees looking as if they have come directly from a Kinder egg, but believe me once painted they look fantastic. The buildings and trees are both excellent and I can foresee that they will feature in many dioramas at next years Golden Demon awards. Add to these some of the barricade sections that where in Gorkamorka and your beginning to see that value for money is indeed foremost in mind here.

Designed by Jes Goodwin again, and the centre piece of the box (after the rules of course!) is the all new Marine Landspeeder! A multi part kit that fits together nicely and comes with a crew of the new Marines, and is armed with a Heavy Bolter or Multi Melta. More on this excellent kit soon. One final note on the Land Speeder is this. As well as the kit you also get an addition to the flying base in the form of a ball and socket affair that when attached to the model will allow it to be posed at a lot of different angles. The ball and socket is designed so that it will fit all models that utilise a flying base and would make Eldar Jetbikes look excellent and add greatly to the animation of the models. Imagine a whole squad of Vipers, banking as they come in for the attack!

At last for the very first time we get real templates for area affect weapons (hurrah) with three clear plastic templates being presented in the game. These templates are around 2.5mm thick and made from a hard wearing plastic. The advantages of clear templates over others speak for themselves and your given a Flamer and two burst effect templates to use with the rules, but they can also be used with Warhammer Fantasy with no problems. Add to this fast play reference sheets, dice, and the obligatory plastic range rulers and the game is now complete!

So what does the future hold in store for Warhammer 40,000? Well there is so much I cant fit it all in here. Lots of excellent new models. The all new codexes which will be more streamlined than their old counterparts (around the same thickness as the SoB codex!) with all the races/forces covered, and even slimmer books (as thick as the Assassins codex!) coming out for some of the Space Marine Chapters, and other races/clans!

One thing that many gamers will no doubt notice is the lack of both Squats and Necrons from the armies listed above! Both races will indeed get their own codexes eventually and the Squats may even be influenced by you the gaming public!

More plastic kits are on their way, including the all new versions of the Vindicator, a new Land Raider, and more variants of the Land Speeder. All this of course isn't really needed to get enjoyment from the game and all the rules that you will ever need are right there in the box. However if like me you love collecting toy soldier’s and eagerly look forward to seeing new and exciting models each month, then stick around as I have seen the future and it looks great.

Credo

Marc

I would like to extend a very special thanks to John Stallard and Phil Gallagher of Games Workshop for being so kind as to give Gamers Web the distinct honour of being one of the first (if not the first!) to be able to bring you all this review. Thanks very much.

All images and their likeness is sole, and intellectual © of Games Workshop PLC and is only used for promotional purposes. No intention on infringement of © is intended.