Forge World Newsletter #262 - Space Sharks Character and more Badab rules!

As always the important bits reproduced below:

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Hi There,

Happy New Year from all at Forge World! In this, our first Newsletter of 2011, we have two new Space Marine releases to start the year, along with additional Badab War content now available to download and news of the first three events that we’ll be attending this year.
Thanks, Ead Brown


Tyberos the Red Wake, Available to Pre-Order Now

Tyberos the Red Wake is a uniquely detailed multi-part resin kit designed by Will Hayes. Tyberos was presumed to be the commander of the Carcharodons Chapter during their unlooked-for and savage intervention in the Badab War, leading his Terminator-armoured brethren in bloody assault after bloody assault from the notorious battle barge Nicor.


Tyberos gained a dark fame for his brutal combat prowess and the two unique power weapons with which he carved a path of mangled and shredded corpses through the Secessionist forces. Known as ‘Hunger’ and ‘Slake’ these ancient relic-gauntlets, which combine barbed power blades with an inner maw lined with vicious teeth, are of a pattern and manufacture unknown to the Adepts of Mars.


With devastating special rules published in Imperial Armour Volume 10: The Badab War Part 2, Tyberos the Red Wake adds deadly close combat capacity to a Codex Space Marines army, and allows a unit of lightning claw-equipped Assault Terminators to be chosen as a Troops choice. This sinister special character is available to pre-order now for despatch in the week commencing the 24th of January.


Black Templars Transfer Sheet, Available to Pre-Order Now

Zealous, fleet-based defenders of Mankind, the Black Templars have waged a 10,000 year crusade against the alien, the heretic and the witch. This new A4 Black Templars Transfer Sheet, designed by Paul Rudge, is packed with over a thousand individual Chapter badges, Crusade heraldry, mottos, litanies and blazons that can be used on vehicles and infantry.


The Black Templars Transfer Sheet is available to pre-order now for despatch in the week commending the 24th of January.

Additional Badab War Content Available to Download Now
The Forge World warehouse has been relentlessly shipping Imperial Armour Volume 10: The Badab War Part 2 for the past few days, and we’re glad to announce that all pre-orders for this extremely popular book have now been despatched.


Alan Bligh’s first draft contained several extra scenarios that we didn’t have room to print in the book, and the first of these is now exclusively available to download here (Red Hour) and here (The Doom of Hive Dominar). To get the most out of these scenarios will require Imperial Armour Volume 9 and Imperial Armour Volume 10, as each provides a unique tactical challenge based on some of the major engagements in this most bloody conflict. You can also find two new special characters, Arch-Centurion Carnac Commodus and Master Harath Shen, to add to the bloody legend of the Badab War on the tabletop.


Dates for Your Diary – Forge World 2011 Events News
With the New Year only a few days old, here at Forge World we’re already planning our calendar of globe-trotting events for 2011, and we’re proud to announce the first three:


AdeptiCon, Chicago – 1st to 3rd April 2011
For the very first time, Forge World will be attending AdeptiCon 2011 at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Centre in Chicago, IL. We’ll be bringing a wide selection of our resin kits, modelling products and Imperial Armour books, and hopefully a few currently unseen new releases as well!
We are now taking reservations for AdeptiCon, and this is the best way to guarantee that we will have exactly what you’re looking for. You can place a reservation order either by telephoning the Customer Service team on 011 44 115 916 8177 or by sending an e-mail titled ‘AdeptiCon reservation’, including your name and a list of the items you’d like to reserve, to ForgeworldReservations@games-workshop.co.uk for AdeptiCon.
We must receive your reservation orders by January 24th to allow us to process and ship them in time, so don’t delay!


The Forge World Open Day, Nottingham – 3rd April 2011
Warhammer World in Nottingham will play host to the fifth annual Forge World Open Day on Sunday the 3rd of April. We’ll be bringing you huge participation games, our annual Painting Competition and the return of our Charity Titan Raffle.
What’s more, our entire Studio team of writers, sculptors and graphic artists will be present for you to chat to, and they’ll have displays of work-in-progress miniatures, artwork, and forthcoming Imperial Armour books for your perusal.
Our vast sales stand will, as always, be packed with our full range of products including some top-secret new releases.
Stay tuned to our Events Pages for more details about this ever-popular event, which will again be free to attend.


Salute, London – 16th April 2011
The ExCel centre in London will be the venue for the popular Salute show which we are excited to be again attending. Our sales stand will be jam-packed with a lavish selection of the Forge World range of products as well as new releases and Warhammer Historical rulebooks.


Keep an eye on our Events Pages, where we’ll be bringing you more information about our presence at Salute 2011.

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I must say I like the look of the unsual terminator armour on the Space Shark Character, pretty sure that will be turning up in a conversion or too. Only hope they make some variant armour for mixing in to normal squads rather then just this version. Other then that good rules and nice scenarios.
Not a bad little issue even if there are only two releases lol!

Helsreach - Book Review

Helsreach - Aaron Dembski-Bowden

When the world of Armageddon is attacked by orks, the Black Templars Space Marine Chapter are amongst those sent to liberate it. Chaplain Grimaldus and a band of Black Templars are charged with the defence of Hive Helsreach from the xenos invaders in one of the many battlezones. But as the orks numbers grow and the Space Marines dwindle, Grimaldus faces a desperate last stand in an Imperial temple. Determined to sell their lives dearly, will the Black Templars hold on long enough to be reinforced, or will their sacrifice ultimately be in vain.

CAUTION MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!

The Second book in the Space Marine Battles series deals with the second Ork invasion of the Planet of Armageddon. This is one of the more famous planetary invasions and leads to a series of battles that many Space Marine Chapters of the Warhammer 40,000 have been involved in and is the defining moment for many a Chapter or Space Marine Hero. This book tells the story of that invasion and the horrific consequences for population of Helsreach, its Defenders and it Enemies and concentrates on the Black Temaplars Space Marines.


The book sees the lead up to the invasion with details of the invasion and the preparations and decisions that lead to the eventual outcome. The book also deals with the siege of Helsreach and final outcome to save the city and its population. This was an excellent book that I felt looked at one of the most interesting and devastating events that could impact a world and ultimately a Hive city.

The book was well metered for the most part, though some small parts did seem to drag rather slowly and this seemed to pull the whole book back and make it seem a slow read in the places. The story was pretty straight forward and for the most part however did seem well planned out, but there were some issues with the format and style it was written in. The thing that particularly frustrated me where when it flicked between the flowing story and Grimaldus’ inner monologue, those bits whilst interesting and involved didn’t seem to gel with the rest of the book. Again like the first book in the series this book had the 4 colour pages in the centre with maps of the planet, continents and cities. This single little touch really makes this series stand out as something different to the normal warhammer 40000 novels out there.

The story was a very good telling of the siege of Helsreach but rather then concentrate on this (which in my view would have made a great guard and titan novel and could have been expanded) this book looked at the “limited” involvement of the black Templars. And most importantly looks at the development and failings of Grimaldus, a black templars chaplain.

Whilst the novel was well written I wasn’t impressed overall with the battles as the few that the marines seemed to be involved in were over too quickly and didn’t go in to the greater depth I expected to see in the Space Marines Battles series. Most of the characters were fairly two dimensional as well and were pretty much 40k stereotypes, but this I guess is what made it a true 40,000 novel! The novel again was a good start to a good series and is going a long way to help set some of the best short fiction stories down on paper in a more in depth and complete manner then before

As with the previous book in the series (and I’m taking this almost word for word about the previous Space Marine Battle series review) is that my final gripe and one that I though could have made the book an outstanding pinnacle of Black Library fiction was the liberation, or in this case lack of one. Whilst the hive is liberated and we know this, what we don’t know is wholly how or who by. To me adding a few more chapters covering this and all the forces involved would have really finished the novel off and would for me as a gamer opened up some interesting avenues for modelling and army building. Not to mention finding out the fate of the Black Templars Techmarine after his sins!

With all that in mind though Helsreach is a reasonably enjoyable read and because of that and its place in a great looking series of books I personally think this is worthy of a 4 out of 5

Availible from:

http://www.blacklibrary.com/

Helsreach - Aaron Dembski-Bowden
softback, 416pp • ISBN 9781844168620