Island of Blood: Un-boxed; Warhammer FAQs; Your tactics
The new Warhammer boxed game is awesome! It's by far the best one yet and in my opinion the best box set we've ever released - there's an Elven Prince riding a huge Griffon in it! Please forgive my gushing; I know it's unfair of me to mention it when it's not available for you to order yet, but it's gorgeous and I'm brimming with excitement about it. Not to worry though, rather than rush home with the copy I managed to acquire (see also 'blag') this morning, I thought I'd share the opening of it with you. So without further ado, here's a look at The Island of Blood.
The Island of Blood is Warhammer in a box - it's packed full of miniatures (a complete Skaven and High Elf army), rulebook, dice, templates and everything else you need to play a game of Warhammer (except a gameboard, obviously).
It took me a while to take the lid off, I don't know about you but I love weighing a big box like this in my hands, and the first time I open a particular set I like to savour the occasion.
As you can see the set is full of stuff. There are 74 miniatures in the set including the aforementioned Griffon, an Elf Mage, two Rat Ogres and a Skaven Warlord. I'll post some pictures of the models next week once I've had a chance to assemble them.
The 'Getting Started' booklet provides tips on everything from painting and modelling to playing a battle. It's a great starting point for anyone new to Warhammer and is full of maps and bits of background for everyone else.
The small-format rulebook you'll find inside The Island of Blood has the full rules for playing games of Warhammer. The background and art sections have been taken out to make it easier to carry around. It's ideal for taking along to tournaments and gaming events.
The Island of Blood will be available to advance order from Tuesday the 10th of August. As all I'm likely to be doing for the next week or so is playing around with the set, if you've got any questions about the set drop me an email and I'll do my best to answer them.
On the subject of questions, the Studio have just finished compiling the first official update for the Warhammer rulebook, which provides answers for the most frequently asked questions and clarifies a couple of the rules. They've also updated each and every FAQ for all of the Warhammer armies. You'll find the Warhammer update and FAQs here.
Remember I asked you to email me your top tactics for gaming with your Warhammer army? Well Matthew Roberts sent me a great email packed with advice for using the Warriors of Chaos. Here are my favourite three of his tips.
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Stream of Corruption is a brilliant ability which has really come into its own. For 20 points you can get a Strength 3 breathe weapon with a -1 save modifier. Previously, with the partial hits rule it wasn't really worthwhile, but now against a 60 man unit you will be hitting a very large number of models indeed. If you mount your hero/sorcerer on a Steed of Slannesh, you combine the vanguard move and the steed's high Movement value to get right up alongside the enemy and unleash the breathe weapon down their flanks; potentially knocking down 10-15 models in a single attack, especially when used against larger units.
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Large units of marauder horsemen work a treat. Armed with flails and throwing axes a unit of 25 or so, costs less than a unit of Chaos Warriors of a similar size. With the vanguard move the horsemen can harass the enemy's flanks from turn 1. First, thin out the enemy using the horsemen's throwing axes - make the most of their free reform to maximise the number of models firing. Then reform the unit and deliver a flank charge turn 2. Give them the mark of Khorne and charge in a wide formation to deal lots of dame (they're Strength 5 remember), or adopt a narrow formation to benefit from ranks and negate the enemy's steadfast.
