Your favorite volume of Imperial Armour (particularly standalone books)

[LightningClawLeonard]

For anyone who owns/has used any of the old Imperial Armour books, which volume(s) are your favorites or stand out to you, and why? 

 

I am interested in acquiring one, maybe even a few, but I didn't get into the hobby until a couple years ago so I have no personal experience or point of reference.

 

 

Further clarification of why I am asking:

 

After buying a copy of the 4th Edition rules, the 3.5 CSM codex and a few other 3rd/4th Ed codices a while back, I have really sunk into the world and rules presented in those books. The quality of writing and worldbuilding is just so superior to anything GW puts out these days.  I have seen copies of old Black Books and Imperial Armour volumes going for anywhere to $125 to $800 on eBay and other sites.  I have no interest in paying $500 for a book, but in my estimation the writing, lore and color plates are at least 3-5 times better than a modern codex, so spending 3-5 times the cost of a modern codex, say $150-250ish, doesn't seem too unreasonable.  Not to mention it seems like a big plus that most of the books will have rules, datasheets and missions that are either directly compatible or easily translatable to the 4th Edition ruleset, which I have settled on as my primary focus for potential projects/list building outside of HH 2.0.

 

Note that I say "particularly standalone" in the title because from everything I have read or watched online, the Badab War volumes seem to be far and away the most lauded set of books, followed by the Siege of Vraks.  While I still appreciate any opinions on those, the reason why I made this thread is because information or opinions on the other volumes is lacking.  In addition, it seems that to get the full value out of those, you'd need all of the books, which is a more expensive proposition. Most of what is out there about the other books is basic, factual stuff that you could deduce for yourself from looking at the contents on Lexicanum, like "If you play Orks Raid on Kastorel-Novem is a good bet", or brief mentions that end up just falling back on the greatness of Vraks or Badab, such as "Volume 11 was pretty good, but the Badab War books were the best".  I also left out the Black Books out of this particular discussion because there are a ton of opinions and descriptions of those available online due to the ongoing popularity of the novels and game.  Also, yes I know that PDFs exist of these online, but I want to hear personal opinions from people who have enjoyed the books themselves, played with the rules, etc.   I personally have no interest in digital copies of anything or subscription services, so a PDF or Warhammer+ subscription isn't something I want.

Edited February 27 by LightningClawLeonard

[Rain]

If you’re a Chaos fan you need IA Vol. 13: War Machines of the Lost and the Damned. It has 5th (I think? Maybe 4th, should be compatible with either) edition rules for all of the FW Chaos vehicles, including Heresy relics and the FW demon engines, an army list for playing traitor guard, and a ton of awesome Chaos lore in the uniquely grounded and engrossing style of FW.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

Try to find a pdf on the interwebz before you pay a large sum of money for those books.

[LightningClawLeonard]

49 minutes ago, Rain said:

If you’re a Chaos fan you need IA Vol. 13: War Machines of the Lost and the Damned. It has 5th (I think? Maybe 4th, should be compatible with either) edition rules for all of the FW Chaos vehicles, including Heresy relics and the FW demon engines, an army list for playing traitor guard, and a ton of awesome Chaos lore in the uniquely grounded and engrossing style of FW.

It's interesting, at first this one wasn't on my radar at all because it wasn't centered on a specific event or conflict, but recently I have seen more and more people speak positively about it, was actually just watching a recent youtube video where someone was paging through it.

 

20 minutes ago, Deus_Ex_Machina said:

Try to find a pdf on the interwebz before you pay a large sum of money for those books.

 I'll certainly do this before I actually pull the trigger on buying one of these, I just think it's interesting to hear about people's specific experiences/enjoyment of certain books.  Often I learn something that I think wouldn't have jumped out at me had I just paged through a document online.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

Plague Zombies are the best thing about the Lost and the Damned. I can field 220 of them. Blasting those walkers with template weapons never gets old.  :)

[Lay]

The Anphelion Project is the most intriguing one for me story wise. It's a rather small scale campaign, and its presentation relies more heavily on in-universe texts than later volumes. The backdrop is basically Jurassic Park meets Aliens.

Edited February 27 by Lay

[Evil Eye]

I have the second edition (meant for 7th) of Anphelion Project and it is a fantastic book. You'd want the original version though. I've also heard great things about the Taros Campaign, particularly with how the Imperium was handed a defeat without resorting to Deus Ex Machina or idiot balls.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

2 hours ago, Evil Eye said:

I have the second edition (meant for 7th) of Anphelion Project and it is a fantastic book. You'd want the original version though. I've also heard great things about the Taros Campaign, particularly with how the Imperium was handed a defeat without resorting to Deus Ex Machina or idiot balls.

True. If they had given me a call then I would have given the fish people a run for their money. 

[sitnam]

My favorite thing to ever come out of the IA series was the Traitor Guard lists that started with Vraks and got expande dupon in IA:13. As far as campaigns, I think Taros might be my favorite. I'm pretty sure my love of Kroot started from their secions in that book

[Casual Heresy]

The only IA books I own are the Badab War books, but I'm very glad I have them. I enjoy them describing a fratercidal conflict that isn't because of Chaos but due to the arrogance of one man and unrelenting imperial tithes. Plus it expanded on so many obscure Space Marine chapters which are now legendary fan favourites. Space Sharks being re-done as the Carcharodons Astra is still the greatest glow up in 40k in my opinion.

 

I am also very glad GW put the IA books on to Warhammer+. Wish they were complete but it's still good to have all that lore available.

[Valkyrion]

Anphelion Project is my favourite by a HUGE margin, then the Badab books. 

 

[Allart01]

Man, they are really awesome books and none of them will disappoint you.

My personal favourite is the Vraks Trilogy, but as a standalone book I'd recommend Anphelion.

Taros and Kastorel are not to be slept on, though! The latter in particular is really growing on me.

[Mazer Rackham]

Favourite Volumes thusly:

 

'The incomplete and nonsensical volumes accounting of the unjust and unrighteous persecution of the Lord and Master of the Maelstrom, his regal majesty by Divine Right of war and the Emeperor's own decree, ratified by the High Lords, whom none shall impeach - His military and civic governor-in-stead, the esteemed and ennobled by birth Imperial Lord Commander Lugft Huron, and the wickedly inopportune, hastily conducted and poorly presented without evidence or causus belli, trials of his allies and liegemen the Astral Claws and the noble and tireless Maelstrom Warders in whom the Emperor laid his trust, power and will.'

 

Those.

 

Edited February 28 by Mazer Rackham

[Bung]

Badab War is my favorite AS a SM Player as it is Horus Heresy for grown ups.

(Tax evasion vs. Daddy issues). :D

 

 

I liked the Dead of Mynamera too, as you got the Eldar Corsair list, which sounded quite funny.

[DuskRaider]

Vraks was and still is one of my favorite events in the setting, save perhaps the Heresy itself. Obviously not a standalone book, but I vividly remember reading those books as if they were a historical recount of actual events, the writing certainly helps as do the illustrations. Book Two in particular was my favorite, as it focused on the Death Guard warbands involved in the conflict and gave us rules to play a Nurgle Traitor Guard army, which I leaned heavily into. 

[Rain]

2 hours ago, Mazer Rackham said:

Favourite Volumes thusly:

 

'The incomplete and nonsensical volumes accounting of the unjust and unrighteous persecution of the Lord and Master of the Maelstrom, his regal majesty by Divine Right of war and the Emeperor's own decree, ratified by the High Lords, whom none shall impeach - His military and civic governor-in-stead, the esteemed and ennobled by birth Imperial Lord Commander Lugft Huron, and the wickedly inopportune, hastily conducted and poorly presented without evidence or causus belli, trials of his allies and liegemen the Astral Claws and the noble and tireless Maelstrom Warders in whom the Emperor laid his trust, power and will.'

 

Those.

 

In this house, Lugft Huron is a hero, endastory.

[Irongert]

I really love the Anphelion project, it has this really dark claustrophobic feeling to it. What adds to it is that it's a relatively small self contained story. A ncie change from the big battles/campaigns normally being fought in 40K.

[Burni]

Taros was my first campaign type book and it was amazing. Was such a high bar, nothing has ever quite lived up to it. I actually had quite of few of the FW books and they were all good, so you can’t really go wrong tbh.

 

This thread made me remember how I just gave the books I had to a charity shop due to space constraints. Now I’m going to feel sad all day…

[Magos Takatus]

*steps out through a glowing portal* The best Imperial Armour volume has to be The Fires of Cyraxus. It was a narrative tour-de-force giving much-needed lore to the Adeptus Mechanicus by allowing them to delve into their mysterious past. I'm so glad nothing stalled the writing of that book, having that Imperial Armour book cancelled for any reason would make for the worst possible timeline! *disappears back into the portal with a distinct aura of awesomeness wafting out of it*

 

Seriously though, I think my favourite series was the Badab War. It's been a long time so my memory of the Imperial Armour books is hazy but I really loved seeing some marine chapters fleshed out. Watching the Space Sharks get morphed from a joke chapter to one of the most unnerving loyalist chapters out there was a massive transformation, as Casual Heresy said, it was a huge glow-up and if the number of one-off Tyberos models I've seen Siege Studios build and paint on Instagram is anything to go by, lots of people agree with me. I wish we had more Imperial Armour style campaign books. They just felt more... authentic(?) than GW studio's efforts. They felt more grounded and though I am hesistant to use the word "realistic", they certainly felt more thought-out than what GW itself does.

[LightningClawLeonard]

Really enjoying reading everyone's thoughts and opinions.  The Taros Campaign and the Anphelion Project were both volumes that I had not considered much before, so it's cool to more about them. The more confined Aliens/Jurassic Park type narrative that people are mentioning about the Anphelion Project are both pretty interesting.  Also good to hear some specifics about what people personally found notable about the Badab and Vraks books. 

 

Out of curiosity, does anyone have any experience with the Fall of Orpheus?  That's the only volume that has not been mentioned.  The narrative seems fairly interesting at a glance.

[Lay]

Fall of Orpheus is the opposite of the Anphelion Project in scale, since it follows a large sector-wide war. The storytelling feels more distant and "zoomed out" as a result. There's a lot of focus on world building and build up for battles that the player is supposed to play after the events in the book. That means the ultimate result of the conflict is intentionally left open in the end. 

It reminds me of old supplements like Codex: Armageddon and Codex: Eye of Terror which were published before players decided the outcome of those events in global campaigns.

 

Lorewise, the book feels like Forge World's attempt to bring back the zombie-horror theme of the 3rd edition Necrons after the faction was reimagined in 5th edition. It also makes for a nice companion piece to Steve Lyon's Dead Men Walking.

Edited March 1 by Lay

[Dark Legionnare]

4 hours ago, LightningClawLeonard said:

Out of curiosity, does anyone have any experience with the Fall of Orpheus?  That's the only volume that has not been mentioned.  The narrative seems fairly interesting at a glance.

What Lay said, about Orpheus.

I have all of them, and honestly about the only one I can say is "a miss" is Raid on Kastorel-Novem. It's not "bad" per se. Just doesn't feel as "impactful" if that makes any sense. It has more a feel of a book that was to just "get ork models and rules out", albeit very faint, compared to the rest.

RoKN is still a good time, and I love the lore portions, but it's nowhere as near as engrossing as the two big Elephants in the room that are Badab and Vraks. 

Anphelion is definitely a sleeper hit, living in the shadow of Vraks & Badad. I echo what others here have already said about it.

Edited March 1 by Dark Legionnare

[WARMASTER_]

My favourite stand alone is easily the “Fall of Orpheus” it’s not one of the best depictions of necrons before they became comedy Egyptians where they’re still terrifying and completely other, one of the best deep dives into one of the best chapters “Minotaurs” and a really great narrative story 

 

best multi book campaign has to be badab war easy again for me it’s a classic 

[Timberley]

I got the first 4 IA books, then my bank balance started to look unhealthy (it could've been the massive amount of Elysian resin I'd bought).  I sold Vol 1 & 2 of them a while ago, but kept hold of Taros, mainly because it felt like a proper historical war book, akin to the Osprey Campaign series, but bigger and better.  The facts and figures in 1 & 2 were great, but 3 (Taros) is where it hit its stride and became something where the facts and figures were reported, whilst the narrative was the thread that wove them together.  I wasn't massively into Anphelion, so subsequently bowed out of buying the books.  I'm kind of irked that I missed out on the Vraks series, but I wasn't flush at the time so couldn't afford them.

 

Therefore, Taros is the best IA book in my opinion, because it's where the IA series found its feet and set a template for the rest of the series.

[TheTrans]

I got the big Vraks set when it released in the slip cover and it was my first love and interaction with Imperial Armour. But Badab got me by the short and curlies and I've read that innumerable times! 

As people have said Anphelion is great and honestly Taros is fantastic, not often does the

Spoiler

Imperium Lose

, so that made Taros a breath of fresh air, it also like..is the most Militarily realistic one of the books I feel, as both forces are reliant upon manpower and technology as opposed to 'the warp' or 'bio monstrosity! Taros probably not as well lauded, but amazing! And by god I think its the thickest book of the lot! 

I think the golden age of GW from a 'non main line product' perspective is long dead, it seems no one is allowed passion projects anymore and I think the universe and system is much poorer for it!