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Hey guys, I’ve just seen the new Grimdark Empire range. Have to admit, I’m in love with the Victorians (counts as Praetorian Guard) I live in the Kingdom and they are based in Australia I believe. The questions I’d like answered is how long would an order take to arrive? Also has anyone had experience with them? Is the quality as good as it looks in the pictures? If anyone in the know could help I’d be grateful.

Got my edition today. The slipcase / dust jacket was in good order, as well as the books themselves. Read the first chapter, so only got a taste by now but I like it. Even now one will notice the extensive use of new words and phrases by Abnett. It fits in it's function to create the atmosphere of a Hive with it's own many subcultures. Look forward to reading more tomorrow and your opinions on both the novels.

So with the drop of 11th, GW has reworked some of the combat patrols and possibly nuked the rest. I’m hoping not, but at current I will only have four working CPs at time of writing. The Vengeful Brethren (DA) The Vardenghast Swarm (Tyranid) Bane-Slayer’s Bulwark (votann) Assault Force (SM) Still under construction is: Dryan Lance (IG) ‘Ardmob (orks) So these will be the ones I focus on for now. It’s kind of one of the reasons that I didn’t want to buy new models for this project. Outside the excuse to get more of them painted. I know I have others I can work on, but I'll take stock later. All the CPs that did survive have had a major rework. While the models remained the same, they had ability changes and (in the case of the marine one) some had weapon modifications. All have been given a Disposition which would allow the mission deck or app to be used to track/decide missions. Which would be easier if you could select them, but it only allows those from your battleforge to be selected right now. As for the change to the CPs themselves. I’m still going through them. I like the change to the nid one. The psychophage is its speedy self again with an aura bonus. The prime is more important since they gave it a summoning ability that functions like the old reinforcement strat the CP used to have. So it kind of has to survive longer. The new hidden rule and his movement do give him some nice hit and run capacity. I do understand after seeing the rework that not all of the previous CPs would make the transition to 11th. I was hoping to have at least one per faction, which we almost got. IK, CK, and DW all lost theirs. I understand the IK/CK because those were modified even in 10th for how they worked. The lose of DeathWatch was a bit weird since IA got one. Anyway, if I did the mission bit correct here then the missions are actually kind of neat. From looking at the mission deck there are 25 missions, each disposition has 5. So if you use just your disposition you may 5 missions types (down from 6 prior), but unlike prior your opponent isn’t on the same mission. Also if you wanted to, the app does allow for ‘custom’ mission objectives which is a choose your own. So as long as your opponent is ok with it you can just take a random mission. That is if they use the standard missions. While fooling around I did find a combination that by RAW doesn’t work. Disruption - Priority Assets = Locate and Deny - Extract Relic These missions work pretty much identical to each other with the LD player setting up the markers. But the action has to be on a central objective and CP doesn’t have one. Personally I’d just rule that it has to be near the center of the board which the preset maps have terrain there. While there is only 3 preset mission maps, but once again, you can just shift terrain as long as your opponent is ok with it. Just try and keep it even. Honestly in my first game I frakked up the terrain placement, but it really didn’t seem to hinder anything. Also the fact that GW is releasing a box set of patrol terrain will help. Personally I won’t be getting it as I have plans for the larger pre-painted set. No battle reports till next month as I'm focusing on painting right now. I'll post the Assault Force once I get a better picture. Thanks for reading.

Zardu Layak: The Crimson Apostle - Rich McCormick Another strange pick for the Heresy Character Series. Oddly enough, I've found that the less a character's needed one, the more enjoyable (if not necessarily higher quality) their book has been for me. This continues that trend, Layak needed this treatment the least after Sigismund, and it's also my favourite after Sigismund. By this pattern, if Typhus ever gets an entry into this series, it will be unreadable. McCormick returns after an extremely ambitious but messy debut novel, and in some ways this continues the trend. This is a story designed to tell you about the title character, conventional structure be damned. To his credit, he does make Layak his own character after one book of personifying "Lorgar's habits finally bite him in the ass" and three books of being "Generic Chaos Preacher Man." We get snippets of his past, we get several other characters' unique perceptions of him, ultimately making him a sort of anti-Erebus. Layak too came from nothing, but instead of using Chaos as an excuse to gain power, Layak wants nothing but to serve the gods. He is not the hand of destiny, he is its tool, and is the embodiment of the legion's acceptance of the universe's "truth." With that in mind, I think McCormick does justify the choice of Layak for this series - the Heresy doesn't really have another Word Bearers POV that displays this degree of zealousness. Talgron and Argel Tal struggle to retain some decency despite serving the dark gods, and Erebus and Kor Phaeron are ultimately only in it for themselves. Layak is truly, unironically, in it for the Gods and has no pretensions about this fact. The supporting characters are well chosen also. Our human POV, Barnhart, provides both a mortal view of Layak's inscrutable nature, and is a much needed reminder that even during the Great Crusade, astartes actions had plenty of well-trained Guardsmen support (I just wish we actually found out what became of her.) Our antagonists Hebek, Saucan, and Kulnar all embody the less "pure" Word Bearers templates: Hebek is only in it for himself, Kulnar believes himself uniquely enlightened, and Saucan thinks his is the vision that will rule the galaxy. This is quite effective in both highlighting why Layak ends up Chaos' mouthpiece for a time, and by contrasting against him they each become fairly memorable. This book is both a well done character study of its title character, and a very dignifying account of the Word Bearers that breaks away from the "bad fighters surrounded by cannon fodder cultists" stereotype. I think if each Character Series and Primarchs book were written in this way, they'd all be beloved by the fandom. But I did say it was messy. It's a book that knows exactly what it wants to do at the expense of structure. The first half is great - it establishes the conflict and the characters, we take a journey to the place of conflict, and see a confrontation with the first guy he came to kill. Then the second half is basically two instances of: "Layak immediately finds the next Anakatis Blade holder, their philosophies clash, Layak wins." Layak's victories don't feel terribly earned, and much like Lord of Excess, the back half takes "all killer, no filler" to the extreme by compacting necessary connective tissue to the absolute bare minimum (or less.) It makes for an easy read - it's hard not to enjoy a version of a story that's just the most interesting parts - but also transparently an excuse plot to show what McCormick wants to show. But can I really complain about that when it's both easy to read and fulfills the purpose of the book perfectly? Not with much gusto. Waiter! Waiter! My steak is too tender. My lobster is too buttery! McCormick continues to impress, and his love for the setting is apparent in both his books so far. Very much looking forward to the next one, messy or not. Arbitrary numerical rating is a 7.5/10