Warhammer 40k is a name synonymous with hard hitting fights, strategy and a history rich with backstory and highly developed armies.
All images courtesy of Games Workshop
For those unfamiliar with Games Workshop or their many iterations of their highest selling franchise I will lay it out for you. Warhammer 40k takes place in the 41st millennium and war is everywhere. Sounds bleak I know, but don’t worry, even in the darkest reaches of the universe there are armies ready to fight for you, be you a spawn of chaos, citizen of the Imperium or even an Ork. You are probably asking yourself “But where do I start?” That part is easy- a Warhammer 40k boxset. There are multiple to choose from and with the 7th edition I chose the Dark Vengeance set. Now you may be asking yourself “Did he just say 7th edition? I thought they just announced 8th edition at this year’s Adepticon?” They did. So why then am I talking about a set from the 7th edition? Simple, 8th edition has yet to be released and even if it had, you might be able to get 7th edition cheaper, if not cheaper you can at least get a head start learning the base rules and building your teams while you wait. Changing from 7th edition to 8th won’t be a huge overhaul of all of the rules, just some such as Deep Strike. One of the truly great things about their games is the fact that with every edition, add on or upgrade you can use the same models as before, you just may need to make minor changes to them such as replacing a weapon that is on your miniature with one you would rather them carry.
Games Workshop was founded in 1975 and in 1987 released their first iteration of 40k. Since then fans have built their own armies, some even customizing them to the point of making them more akin to artwork. Every year players can enter for their chance at a coveted Golden Demon award.
Recently I opened up the Dark Vengeance boxset for the first time, slowly and carefully built every miniature in the set, making slight modifications to some, and planning out how to base and paint each model. Before I got too involved in the art of the hobby I just had to get some trial games under my belt with the latest rules. My son Merrick and I chose our teams, him, the noble Space Marines, and me, the evil and fanatical Chaos. We played a trial by fire match, not a specific suggested campaign but played as we learned the rules. Two of his squads were kept is reserve and off of the map and in my first turn I had successfully eliminated half of his team on the table, things were looking quite grim. Soon after the reserves were brought in and utilizing the current Deep Strike rules one of his squads appeared right behind some of my strongest units and killed about 13 my 22 soldiers. Bitter hand to hand fighting ensued all over the map as we slowly removed one figure after the other from each other but the Chaos gods were smiling upon me as his dice rolls consistently missed while mine killed 2 for every model I lost. In the last couple turns he had only three soldiers left on the field and were completely surrounded. The final shot rang out, killing his last Space Marine before it could escape.
Final verdict:
The game was very enjoyable and was easily one of the best bonding experiences I’ve had with my son. He is already asking for us to craft a story oriented game for the next time we play. Even if I wasn’t already a GW Fanboy I would have become one after playing this!
The post Warhammer 40k: Dark Vengeance of the Emperor appeared first on PopNerdTV.