The week that was ...

I don't know how to say this, but I'm kind of a big deal!

19th -25th October 2012

Chaos fail

My first taste of the new Chaos Marine 'dex was postponed this week because, quite frankly, Mick had bigger fish to fry. I'd put together a not completely hopeless 500pt Tyranid list to face him though so I hope we can reprise our game this week.

In the absence of a game against them, I took a closer look at the codex and decided that actually the "Typhus/Plague Zombies/anything else you like really", list does look good, does look like something I want to play and does look very reasonable cost-wise thanks to Mantic's release of the Corporation Zombies deal. Not so good for Battle Brothers but very good for the wallet!

Rumors abound

For those of you that don't follow Faeit 212, and why the hell don't you - do it NOW, there have been lots of leaks surrounding the pre-christmas release schedule. Most notable, in my 40K biased opinion, are the Wall of Martyrs, The Space Marine and Necron Mega Forces. In the past the Mega Forces have been pretty damn good deals so keep an eye on them because if they are for armies you like/collect this is probably going to be a good investment.

In other news, the on-again/off-again, maestro of SEO - Adam from The Space Wolves Blog appears to be back on the scene again and is threatening to unite all the Blogs disgruntled with BoLS's treatment of the common Blogger and to pick up where FtW's blog roll left off but with even more pazzaz! Colour me apathetic but I'll leave you to make what you will of it (Ed - Andy's opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions of Claws and Fists)

In other media

Some of you may know I'm a big fan of Podcasts. I'm currently listening to The Independent Characters and the 11th Company (never missed an episode of either) and I've picked up again with The D6 Generation (not a 40K podcast but an excellent general gaming one).

Over the last two episodes the Independent Characters have been reviewing the first Book in the Horus Heresy series from Forgeworld, "Betrayal". If you are in any way on-the-fence about this book, I strongly urge you to listen to the last two episodes as they are a really superb, in-depth review of the content, both fluff and rules, by a couple of guys who have a great understanding and enthusiasm for the project. In addition to this the Podcast is very entertaining no matter what aspect of 40K they are talking about so why not subscribe while you are at it.

The 11th Company are still doing what they have been doing sublimely for the last 138 episodes most recently they have delivered some very interesting insights into the world of Tournament Organisers in the US and some early (typically cynical) opinions on the Chaos Marines Codex. Though credit where it's due Neil "he's not going to lie to you" Gilstrap has managed to maintain a cautiously optimistic take on the new codex. I think it's important to remember that when you listen to these guys they are coming from a position of playing for wins in a highly competitive setting but if you're not that type of player this really shouldn't put you off listening to the podcast, it consistently provides fantastic tactical insights into play-styles and list building that I have not found anywhere else on the internet ...

... at least not since 40KUK went AWOL, just a little note here that I miss you guys and I hope that you get a new episode out soon; and please, for the love of god, sort out your sound quality. The content is epically good but I found the last one almost impossible to listen to!

And finally

I'm a pretty keen computer gamer as well as doing the 40K stuff, and recently X-Com has had me poised over the "add to cart" button on Steam. I keep telling myself I can wait until the Winter sale, where it's bound to be 25% off, but I'm not sure I have the self restraint to follow through. Fortunately my buddy Tee has been keeping me distracted with games of Dawn of War 2, Orc Must Die 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 (I'm all about sequels). These games are all excellent, particularly in the co-op multiplayer stakes but I'm not sure how long the distraction will continue to be effective. And really, why am I punishing myself about this ;)

Anyone else out there a keen PC gamer? What have you been playing recently?

The Emperors Gift - World Exclusive Review???

On Claws and Fists we've had some good Exclusives (one of the benefits of living near Warhammer World), Battle for the Fang was our first and new new new new new Dave hit us with the last one with Know No Fear. Well here's another added to the record with The Emperor's Gift.

I'm going to start with a statement, Aaron Dembski-Bowden is Claws and Fists favourite Black Library author. I've never heard Darren say a bad word about him and if he meet The Barons seal of approval then its official.

His Night Lords series was excellent and his Horus Heresy book 'First Heretic' is still my favourite in the series. This time he ventures back into the Emperors good graces with a Grey Knights book with a healthy sprinkling of the blogs favourite chapter.

I've never made a secret that I was a reader before a gamer, the first 2 Black Library books I read were Wolfblade By William King and Dark Adeptus By Ben Counter which of course featured Space Wolves and Grey Knights respectively. The two chapters have remained my favourite and are the only armies I have that are of playable size.

As I was a reader before a gamer the way I have come to judge books is do they make me want to play 40k? Recently I have been in a lull in 40k having been busy with wedding preparations, work and developing a love of bloodbowl so the acid test is does this book make me want to pick up a wolf or knight?

The answer unreservedly is Yes.

ADB begins this book as he did the final Night Lords book with an explanation. During the Night Lords novel he makes it clear that fluff has changed the series he had written.In this book he explains that the release of Codex Grey Knights changed the book he was writing.

The book is written from the perspective of one young Grey Knight, Hyperion and through the course of the book we see glimpses of his indoctrination in the most secret of Chapters, through the first War of Armageddon and beyond. As ADB explains, its not a book of the War because the War doesn't belong to the Grey Knights it belongs to the Defenders of Armageddon, it is the book on the build up and the aftermath of the war.

So what did I love about this book?

Firstly, its grim-dark. No one does it better than ADB in my opinion. Abnett took the Wolves forward in this Universe from the foundation that William King laid and ADB has continued that with them and done it wholly with the Grey Knights. They aren't and in my opinion shouldn't be what others including McNeill, Counter and everyone's favourite Codex writer Mat Ward has made them out to be. They aren't as different from Astartes as Astartes are from Guardsman. They are specialists, they are called in to deal with a specific threat, perhaps the greatest one but still a specific threat. ADB reminds us of this.

It features flawed characters. I don't want perfection from a soldier, even a Astartes, I like the reminder of humanity that failure shows. While Justicar Alaric (Ben Counter's main Grey Knight character) was flawed it was a flaw in the same vein as Uriel Ventris, he didn't agree with standard tactics but in doing so he wins the battle. Not so with Hyperion he makes mistakes, they have repercussions.

He shows the relationships between The Inquisition and the Grey Knights in vivid detail and also goes into details of the hypocrisy of the Inquisition which I love. Inquisitors using heretics and Xenos weaponry shouldn't be allowed and yet it is. The inquisition was designed to save the Imperium and yet it slaughters more Humans than anyone. It always seems to be pushed to one side but not in here.

And finally (in this review although don't think that that's all the book is) the scale of the warfare is excellent, it moves from squad fighting to all out war against an enemy (who we all know) that shouldn't be defeated. It doesn't over do the battles, it does them perfectly.

Of course this wasn't a perfect book there were some things I wasn't particularly taken with.

One of them being the name checking of in game items or Units, it seems to be a common occurrence in Black Library books, in Know no fear we had a Contemptor chucked in for nothing, in this book it was the main character carrying a Nemesis Warding Stave. It didn't take up a lot of the book but I think I would have liked him a little more if he was carrying a Daemon Hammer or a Halberd.

My other gripe was the Inquisitor. I just wasn't taken with her. A native of Fenris she didn't characterise the idea of a Inquisitor in my mind. She broke too many rules (Radical I know) big ones as you come to see. She let her personal feelings dictate policy too much and she makes some serious errors. Now I know, hypocritical of me to say I loved the main character because he had flaws but dislike this one because of it however a young Grey Knight should be expected to be imperfect would a Inquisitor get to leading Grey Knights if it was the same for her?

Overall I loved this book, I shall certainly be reading it again and again.

Let me know what you think.

Lone Wolves: Graphic Novel Review

At the Throne of Skulls in January I picked up a copy of the graphic novel, Lone Wolves by Dan Abnett, drawn by Karl Richardson. The main story is 68 pages long featuring a relatively consistent panel lay out of between 3 and 5 art panels per page.

The art is black and white throughout predominantly in close up and for the most part it's is beautiful. There are a couple of panels showing wide shots of a scene which stand out as being comparatively rough and lacking in detail, but they are few and far between and do not detract from the overall quality of the art in this book. The close ups and splash pages are fantastic, really capturing the emotion and action of a scene. There are a few pages at the front and back of the book showing development sketches and giving some background to the Space Wolves but they could have done more here to fill in readers on the IG and the Tyranids both of whom feature more heavily than the Space Wolves.

While the art is detailed and rich, the graphic design is beautifully simple which makes reading easy and there are some neat tricks used to keep you involved in the story while there is narration going on. The typography is not over the top which compliments the relatively simple dialogue, again this helps the flow of the art and makes it easy to read.

The story itself is necessarily basic (given the format) and focusses on an Imperial Guard unit that has been on the sharp end of a Tyranid swarm. They are low on supplies, low on ammo and low on morale as they pick their way through the snowy wastes on foot. The titular “Lone Wolves” do not join the story proper until the last third of the book, a hunting party from Fenris just passing through to hunt some big game. The book also contains a follow on short story but to talk about that would give away the end of the main story.

With regards to characterisation I found the Imperial Guard to be well realised and “believable”, I was not as convinced by the Space Wolves, dare I say they were too bawdy? I'm sure Space Wolf fans would disagree, particularly if the Space Viking thing is what floats your boat. For my taste I felt it was laid on a bit too thick and in the short story at the end it felt like the Wolves were taking orders from the Guard which I'm sure would rankle anyone's sensibilities.

At £15 it's on the expensive side for a trade paperback but I wouldn't say it's bad value, I enjoyed the story and the art is fantastic. If you're a Space Wolf fan it's a must read and if you're a fan of the art of 40K you won't be disappointed either, I think more could have been done to make this appeal to all sci-fi fans with some more background info but perhaps that's just not the intended market.

Has anyone else out there read this, and if so what did you think?

Know No Fear - The first ever review???

Well as my first proper post for Claws and Fists I thought I would review Know No Fear, the latest Horus Heresy book.  I picked this up at the Throne of Skulls Tournament which I didn’t attend but Andy and Mick did.  As I live about 10 minutes walk away I thought I’d go down, cheerlead for a bit (not that they needed it as you can see from the previous posts) and pick up the book.  By 3pm I was about 280 pages in.  I finished it off after the Ice Hockey game that evening (Nottingham Panthers 6 - Coventry Blaze 1).  As possibly one of the first people in the world to finish I thought I would honour that fact by reviewing it.  Just a quick warning this review will contain spoilers so consider yourself fairly warned – this particularly goes out to you Mick….

Still reading? Ok….

First of all this book is an action epic.  It grabbed my attention and did not let go of it.  Not only did it grab my attention but it made me reflect on the Horus Heresy series as a whole now that we are 19 books in and Dan Abnett manages to weave the works of the other Heresy novels into this seamlessly (Samus is here!)

Bit of background first Know No Fear is set in the opening years of the Heresy in particular the pre-emptive attack by the Word Bearers on the largest of the Loyalist Legions the Ultramarines, at Calth.  The Istvaan V massacre has been a fairly recent event but most importantly, due to Horus’ cryptic orders, the XIII Legion and its Primarch Robute Guilliman are unaware of this.  The book itself however covers the best part of 25 years… I’ll leave you to ponder that

The first part of the book is set before the Ultramarines even open fire on the Word Bearers and is split between Space and Planetside through multiple viewpoints and this works well.  You see through Guillimans perspective, a Contemptor-Dreadnought, multiple Ultramarines including a Sergeant marked for censure (Loving the touches on this Mr Abnett), and these show insight into the workings of the XIII Legion and its allies.  It also shows why the Ultramarines are one of, possibly the greatest Legion in the Imperium.  

Theoretical.  

Practical.

Now I will admit although I am a bit of a Space Marine fanboy I’ve never really liked the Ultramarines.  They’ve just always seemed a bit boring to me.  The Ultramarine books by Graham McNeil were great namely because for the first 4 books Uriel Ventris didn’t operate like the traditional view of an Ultramarine and then the mystery about the Newborn and large-scale warfare of the latest one distracted me from the hidebound way of the codex.  When I heard that Dan Abnett was writing Know No Fear, although I really like his work; Gaunts Ghosts, Ravenor, Eisenhorn, Legion, Horus Rising, Brothers of the Snake (think his 40k books are mostly covered there… Where’s my Bequin novels Dan!!!), I was a bit apprehensive because I was a bit disappointed with Prospero Burns.  To me Graham McNeil was the master of the boys in blue and Abnett seemed to go slightly off track with his depiction of the Space Wolves, although again on reflection is does make the Wolves better than Vikings in Space.  If any of those august individuals happen to read this let me say now an unreservedly I now owe you an apology for this apprehension.

I will be making a 2^nd Founding Ultramarines Chapter at some point and using Calth as a reason why.  Most importantly because Abnett made me like Guilliman and that dear reader is impressive... 

When I read this novel it immediately occurred to me not only do I know what happens I know some specifics after it.  The Age of Darkness collection has a book which is set after Calth and this occurred to me before I even brought it.  Guilliman is Holmes-esque in his attention to detail and Dan has made the book so elegant that you can almost see the thoughts whirring behind him (Maybe I’ve been watching too much Sherlock but it does seem like that to me).  It also continues to build up Guilliman as the Emperors true successor and as the architect of the Imperium and not just as the man who wrote the Codex Astartes.  Abnett does this with great aplomb and continues to build on groundwork laid out by Aaron Debenski-Bowden in First Heretic, Aurellian and Savage Weapons and McNeil in Rules of Engagement (Imperium Secundus anyone) while opening up new threads which I hope other Heresy Authors will pick up and run with.  If you’re reading this ADB where have you guys sent Angron then!  I imagine Butchers Nails will tell us…

It was always a curiosity to me how the Word Bearers managed to ambush the Ultramarines as it has been established in the fluff for a long time that they did.  The Ultramarines were supposed to be led by arguably the greatest military mind in the Imperium yet they were ambushed and almost wiped out within 24 hours Guilliman and his Legion manage to turn it around and turn a massacre no-win scenario into a stalemate which allows the Imperium to eventually endure and recover from the wounds received in the Heresy. 

Highlights of particular note for me were as follows and I will try to leave them semi-cryptic:

• Raptorus Rex (Fire Hawks starfort????)
• A unexpected cameo appearance from someone in Legion (The wording of this is in itself is a subtle clue, serious kudos if you pick up on it or correct me if its wrong)
• So he refuses my call for a ceasefire but I tell him to go and screw himself, he calls immediately.
• Samus is here!
• Vacuum? I don’t need a helmet, I’m a mother-funking Primarch, Bastard!
• Oll Persson = Ollanius Pious - smart money?
• Kor Phaeron - Darth Sidious
• Why Ultramarine Veteran Sergeants have red helmets

As a conclusion this novel does now finally put a close on the prequels to the Heresy.  Its been a long journey but now we can get onto the road to the Siege of the Emperors Palace.   I think this has been coming for a while but it really does put Dan Abnett back on top of the pile of Black Library Authors.  A few years ago there was a joke going around that there was going to be a knife fight for the Siege of Terra between Abnett and McNeil in the Warhammer World carpark.  I think ADB can obviously be added into the fray now but I don’t want Dan to write it, I want him to write the aftermath and Guillimans ascendancy.

Next Heresy Book review I imagine will be our favourite most dysfunctional family.....

The Primarchs!

Smokey D

Throne of Skulls - The final standings

Well it's been a good weekend for Mick and I, 5 games played, 4 games won and 1 game lost. Definitely the best tournament result either of us have posted, but where did these awesome results leave us in the overall standings?

Well, let's start from the start, you get 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw and 0pts for a loss, you also get points based on how many of your opponents nominated you as their favourite opponent of the weekend. GW's method for ranking you in the tournament is (as best as I can tell) the following; the average score across all the players who used the same codex is compared with your tournament score and the difference is you "ranking score". For example I scored 12pts for my 4 wins and 1 point because someone thought I was a good opponent. The average score across the 7 Ork Players at the tournament was 11 so that gives me a ranking score of 2. Mick scored 13 points as well but the average score across the 11 Space Wolf players was 8 so his ranking score was 5.

Using the above methodology Mick placed 6th and I placed 44th out of a field of 129 players. It's GW's tournament and they can score it how they like (also I knew this would be the case going into the event so I'm not complaining), I'm just not sure what that system tells us in the final standings. Except, possibly that if you do well with an army that other players did not manage to do well with then you are likely to do well in the overall standings.

Where this gets iffy is when someone with a 4-1 record wins the tournament with Daemons while the only player with 5 wins finishes 8th, so you're not really in control of your final placing.

Let's just take a look at where we would have finished if the rankings were based on your results with the codex ranking score used as a tie-breaker. In this case Mick would have placed 11th and I would have got 19th. The 5-0 Dark Eldar player still only manages second place though because an Ork player with 4 wins managed 5 best game nominations and so ended up with 17 total points to beat him by a single point. So it comes back to the age old issue of soft scoring vs generalship but all I can say to that is that if you know how the scoring is done before you go to the event and buy the ticket anyway don't complain about the rubric after the fact.

What I take away from this tournament is that I played well and managed 4 wins, I had 5 great games against 5 really nice opponents and I would definitely buy a ticket for another Throne of Skulls.

Just in case you're interested, here's how the codexes break down in terms of number of players and average score:

No. of players	Codex	Avg Score
6	Black Templars	9.83
13	Blood Angels	6.62
5	Chaos Daemons	9.20
8	Chaos Space Marines	8.38
1	Dark Angels	7.00
12	Dark Eldar	11.17
7	Eldar	8.00
14	Grey Knights	7.93
11	Imperial Guard	7.00
6	Necrons	9.50
7	Orks	11.86
17	Space Marines	7.41
11	Space Wolves	8.18
3	Tau	7.33
7	Tyranids	11.57

Review - The 'Eavy Metal Masterclass book

So while in town today I saw this (I also saw a Eavy metal box for 20 odd quid that constituted a metal pencil case tin 2 paint brushes and a couple of small tubs of medium, Jesus) and decided to have it just because I have stopped getting white dwarf but always enjoyed the master classes.

The book itself costs £18 and is about the thickness of a codex. Every page is colour which you would expect from a book on painting. The book contains 13 master classes, mixed between 40K, Fantasy and Lord of the rings (which I don't think anyone in the world actually plays).

The master classes themselves are just what are shown in white dwarf, lots of details and of course top class painting. There are certainly some techniques such as their one for painting parchment and their technique for painting glassware that I will certainly have a go at but there are others that aren't great.

So all in all would I recommend this book? If you don't get White Dwarf regularly then yes however if you do then there is really little point.

On a side note picked up some liquid green stuff a couple of weeks ago and used it to put together my Contemptor and a squad of mark III armour marines, I am going to go out on a limb and say its the best thing GW have released in the last few years.

All I ask is that it's AWESOME!

Codex reviews/unit reviews; I love them. I love to read them on people's blogs and I love to listen to them on people's podcasts. All of them inspire me to try out new units in armies I already play and many of them flip that little internal switch that triggers my “that's going to be my next army” gene. Often the reviewers come up with ways to use units that I hadn't previously considered and again that just makes me wish I played more often than once a week, and recently I've been struggling to manage even that!

Something which crops up consistently though, which is beginning to grate on me a bit, is reviewers suggesting ways to “correct” the “flaws” in a particular unit. For example “Those Grey Knight Terminators are OK but if they could take Storm Shields and assault on the turn they deep strike in they would be awesome!” or “Well, Coteaz is a solid HQ choice but for his stat line I feel he is rather over-costed.” … OK those are not real examples but it's not a million miles off some of the stuff I have read/listened to recently and to both of those and comments like them I say “Poppycock!”.

You heard me. People do still say that, look it up in the Urban Dictionary. No you don't get a link, it's your language, use it or lose it.

I'm not going to start stating the obvious stuff about how units compliment each other and compensating for a unit's weakness elsewhere in your list is one of the ways to build effective armies. I'm not going to go into this because the guys who do unit reviews usually put this in the paragraph after they wish-list how to make the unit perfect and,more importantly, because I'm not really any good at it. Have you ever read one of my lists? I'm not shy about posting them!

Now this is not meant to be a criticism of the guys who review Codices. I love your work, keep it up, it inspires me even though you are pushing me closer to bankruptcy on a daily basis. But please lets just consider how boring the game would be if every unit in every Codex was tuned to perform it's job to absolute perfection. Assault units would all rock power weapons, have 3++ saves and access to re-rolls across the board. Anti-infantry fire support units wouldn't get out of bed for anything less than a 24”, assault 2 S6 rending weapon that ignores cover.

I think we can all agree that would be pretty boring.

However with all that said there are still units out there which are widely recognised as being so devoid of use that they NEVER see the light of day. In the spirit of this article, have you ever found an effective use for one of these units? For example have you managed to come up with a use for the Pyrovore beyond being an unattractive paperweight? Or have you employed Mandrakes and never once wished that GW had just given Dark Eldar Genestealers? Please leave comments below.

Fall of Damnos - the review

So another review of a Space Marines battles novel and the question on every ones lips (or just mine) is was this going to be as good a read as Battle for the Fang? Well of course it wasn't.

That book was about my favourite chapter and contained one of my favourite characters. That doesn't mean however that Fall of Damnos wasn't good.

So what was Fall of Damnos about? Well it focuses on the Ultramarines going to war against the Necron Horde. I have mixed feelings about the Ultramarines. There is a part of me that just doesn't like them. When looking for a reason why I compare them to Man Utd, yeah they are the most supported team in the land, but they are also the most despised and its the same with the Ultramarines. 'They are the greatest of all Space Marines Chapters' but honestly are they? Saying that I have really enjoyed Graham McNeill's Ultramarines Novels featuring Uriel Ventris. Why? Because he didn't just stick to the Codex Astartes, he did what he needed to in order to win.

So what did I like about this book?
Well like Battle of the Fang it considered the fall of Damnos from a number of different view points but like BOTF this at times made it hard to read because of remembering all the different characters. One of the things I like about the Horus Heresy books is the list of characters at the start and who they are. I wish all BL books would do this.

The book also had a fair bit from the perspective of the Necrons which I really liked. It gave me an idea of why they did what they did.

What didn't I like.

The character of Sicarius but that was kind of the point. He wasn't a good leader, he cared more about personal glory than seemingly the good of his men.

I also didn't like the fact that the story really isn't finished by the end but again its a Space Marines Battles book not a Space Marines War book.

Overall it was a good read, as I can generally judge how good a book is by how quickly I read it I'm going to judge them all like this.

6 Days for Fall of Damnos, a decent book.

Battle of the Fang - the review

So today was Black Library live but unfortunately it fell on a day that Derby was at home so Big Gaz had to leave early. Because of that there was never going to be time to attend any seminars so it was purely a case to grab the books that we wanted and leave (as well as have a decent full English in Bugmans, best meal I've had in their for months remembering that I eat in there at least once a week).

This did however give me a chance to spend the day reading Battle of the Fang, you may remember that my review of Prospero Burns wasn't a happy one. I felt that too long was spent on none Astartes characters and their wasn't enough of the legendary characters that I wanted to be brought to life. I left that review with hopes that this book turned out to be better than that one. Well the grin on my face (even though you can't see it) and the speed that I read this book confirms that it was. It was excellent.

Forgive me if I put in any spoilers I will try my hardest not to.

Battle of the Fang is the next in the Space Marines Battles novels written by Chris Wraight
and I believe this is his first step into the world of 40K having previously written about The Empire in fantasy. (He was kind enough to do a Q&A on this book last year to the posters on Bolter and Chainsword which can be found here)

The book follows the story of the Wolves of Fenris in the 32nd millennium. Their Great Companies are scouring the galaxy for the arch-enemy headed by Magnus the Red. Unfortunately the need to remind the enemy of the burning of Propspero leaves the Fang tragically undermanned and the Sky Warriors are in for the fight of their lives to protect their home planet

So what did I like about this book?
Firstly unlike the previous Space Marines Battles books this looks at things from both the perspective of the enemy and the heroes. One of the things I most liked about A Thousand Sons and actually the best of the Horus Heresy books is that it leaves you unsure if the villains are evil? I will have to pass this book over to my dad and then get it back and read it a couple more times to understand the motives of Magnus thoroughly and that has to be a successful book. There are a number of different plots going on which also increases my likely hood to pick it up again and again, characters leaning towards a perceived heresy, those dealing with their own guilt and insecurities while others still trying to come to terms with living with demi gods and living legends. Unlike in Prospero Burns and the Ragnar series where we only got to see a number of Astartes in both this book had a more holistic approach to looking at my favourite legion.

Another reason why this book was so good was the speed that it moved at, within 88 pages the enemy was on Fenris leaving over 400 to tell the story. I read Black Library books for the action, this certainly delivered. We saw the action of a Rune Priest in full flow, the viciousness of a blood claw attack, the stoic fire support of the long fangs and the devastation that a few Venerable Dreadnoughts (including the eldest in the Galaxy) can bring about.

You also got some hints on things that have so far only ever been rumoured. We have known for a long time that the IX legion only ever had 1 offshoot chapter. Why? Well let me tell you that by the end of this you know and yet there are still more questions to be asked. And they also in a very tiny section that made the hairs stick up on the back of my neck hint to knowing something of the fate of Russ.

And finally the real reason that I loved this book was that it linked Abnett's view of Space Wolves with Kings depiction of action. The more time that has passed since reading Prospero Burns the more I feel that Abnett's moving forward with the ideas of the intrinsic views of the Space Wolves legion were needed its just that the story wasn't for me. Wraight combines Abnett's ideas that the Wolves aren't just killers for the sake of it with outstanding action from the word go and for me it made it much more palatable. The new terminology for the Wolves and their home is reinforced not just by the Space Wolf characters but by those of their mortal servants and troops and also the enemy. Following my poor review of Prospero Burns Aaron Dembski-Bowden was kind enough to address some of my points on it (here) and suggested that I might just prefer a less mature vision of the Space Wolves which I think was dead on, I don't look for great literature in a Black Library book just a fun read that I can pick up as I want. As I said, this book did both for me, it moved on from the drinking, farting and fighting view of William King (which I still love) into a showing that none Fenrisians don't understand the IX legion and can't without living and maybe more importantly fighting among them.

What didn't I like?
Well in honesty not a lot.
My main gripe and it is me being really really picky is that there were at least 5 different stories going on and it sometimes jumped a little too much.
There wasn't really a primary protagnoist.
We see a Rune Priest, a Wolf Priest, the Wolf Lord or Jarl in charge of the lone company in the Fang, a couple of blood claws, a Wolf Guard squad leader, a scout, the wolf lord and the list goes on, all in equal measure. Most excitedly we get a good amount of Bjorn but honestly this was me looking for a fault.

All in all I give this book a solid 9 out of 10. Its one I will certainly be picking up again and again in the future and I look to seeing more from Chris Wriaght. Certainly for me the definitive Space Wolf book and well worth the Black Library live ticket to read it early. I'm now going to move onto Victories of the Space Marines which contains another Space Wolf story.

The Purging of Kadillus - the review

The third of the Space Marines Battles book I have read is the Purging of Kadillus by Gav Thorpe. Helsreach was great, I thought that Rynns World was OK and no matter how many times I try and read the White Scars book I end up failing so it was with mixed emotions that I delved into the Dark Angels in detail.

Of course being a good Son of Russ I distrust the boys in green, I've heard rumours from the Long Fangs that all of them didn't make it out of the Great Heresy with clean souls unlike us who never faltered in our support of the All Father.

A very brief (don't want to give anything away) synopsis of the book is that the Dark Angels Third Company led by Belial fend off an Ork invasion ordered by the Maggie Thatcher of 40K Ghazghkull. Of course being a Space Marines battles book the odds are stacked against the Dark Angels.

So what did I like about it? The fact that its a Dark Angels book that has nothing to do with the fallen. You see the Dark Angels as you would any other chapter, defenders of the Imperium, the Emperor's finest and that's it. I also really like that its a book about Space Marines, Guard and Orks and it would be easy to see it recreated on the table top.

What I didn't like it and its something creeping into Black Library books is a lack of imagination when it comes to names. There are millions of worlds in the Imperium and the worlds are spread across light years, do we really need another character called Uriel? Surprisingly from me after my thoughts on Prospero Burns I thought it was a little simple which I suppose its going to be, there can't really be much character development in a single battle.

My final point and its just for Graham if he is reading, the start of the book contains an attack on a 'cough' Squats 'cough' world. (Just pretend Demiurge are Squats mate).

6/10 not a masterpiece but enjoyable.