8th Edition Pre-Orders

The latest edition of 40K is just one week away.  Pre-orders have been up for a while and it will be released this Saturday.  There are already plenty of forums, blogs and pages talking about the rules or whats coming and with the leaks and reviewers and stores already having copies and running demo games there isn't much point me just repeating what has been written about already, instead I though I'd write about the pre-orders and how I'm planning to get into 8th Edition.

Dark Imperium Box Set

So the standard starter box for this edition is Dark Imperium.  At £95 from GW it is a bit on the expensive side but it is one of the better box sets I've seen from Games Workshop in the last few years.  This box comes with the full rule book, plenty of models for Primaris Space Marines and Death Guard, Data Sheets for all the included models and dice and rulers etc.

It is actually a pretty good deal if you have someone you want to split the models with, it is expensive but it would cost you a lot more to buy it all individually and actually comes with the full rules this time not a slimmed down basic version that doesn't included everything you need.


8th Edition Rule Book

For those that don't want the full box set you can get the book by itself.  It is identical to the book included in the box set so it doesn't matter which one you get.

You get all the fluff, basic rules and then additional rules for missions and the 3 ways to play.  It also contains the rules that were put out as expansions in previous addition like Battlezones, Cities of Death, Planetstrike and Stronghold Assault.

At £35 it is what I expected for a new rule book.  There is also a limited edition collectors box that is being released for £250 with a special edition book and a few other added extras, honestly it looked good but there was no way I could justify £250 for the rules.

Index

The rule book does not come with the datasheets for armies, which it did back when they did a full re-set back in 3rd edition.  But so you can play from day one they are releasing the Index books which will be like a placeholder codex until the full ones can be brought out.

There are a few to choose from.  Index: Imperium 1 covers all the Space Marine rules, Index: Imperium 2 covers all other Imperial factions, Index: Chaos covers Chaos Space Marines, Daemons and Traitor Knights, Index: Xenos 1 includes all the flavours of Eldar (it is going to take a long time to start calling them Aeldari, Drukhari and Ynnari) and Necrons and Index: Xenos 2 has Orks, Tau, Tyranids and Genestealer Cults.

Each book is £15 which seems OK.  I'm glad they kept the cost down a bit by splitting them between books instead of one massive book which would have been much more expensive, It is fine for me since I only need one, but people with different armies might need more than one to play all their armies.

Tactical Objective Cards

For only £8 these are a pretty good deal.  I found the 7th Edition tactical objective cards really handy while playing.  They are not needed to play but just make things a bit easier.

My worry is that in the last edition each army got their own tactical objectives when their codex was released so I feel these might get made redundant very quickly.

Sector Imperialis Objectives
These are really nice.  They are objective markers for use during games but rather than the little plastic tokens we've got in the past they are actual models that can be used and are themed to work well with the latest range of terrain GW has put out.  I really like the Genestealer specimen in a stasis container, it is defiantly better than the plastic flags form other editions.

£20 is a bit high for objective markers but they do look good and sure they will get used.

Command Dice and Wound Trackers

At £12.50 for the Command Dice and £8 for the wound trackers these should be pretty handy.

The Command Dice feature numbers to keep track of how many command points you have left which is a new feature in this edition and they also have symbols to keep track of squad conditions during the game.

The wound dice are to help track wounds now they are being increased for a lot of models in this edition.  They are just different dice (two colour D10's so they can track up to 100 wounds if needed)

Combat Gauge

I wasn't really sure what this was to start with but have since found out.  It has edges at 1/2 inch, 1 inch, 2 inches and 3 inches.  You can quickly use it to find out who is in range during close combat.

There are other gauges like this out there and I have seen some that I think are better and probably more useful.  For only £6 it isn't bad, but I still like the old red sticks you used to get.


So What Do I Plan To Get?
I am not sure I will get the box set.  I have no need for the Death Guard and don't know if I have anyone that would want them to split the cost with.  I would like the new Marines but I have loads of models from other box sets I've never used sitting around. Instead I'm going to get the Rule Book by itself probably.

I will also pick up Index: Imperium 1 since that has the rules for Blood Angels (and a Flesh Tearers section) which is the only one I need at the moment.  If I'd heard rumours that the faction I play were getting a codex early in the edition I might have skipped the Index and waited but I've not seen a timetable for the codex releases yet and i'm sure Blood Angels won't be the first, I'd guess vanilla marines (because they always are) then Chaos (because Death Guard are in the box set) then a Xeno (probably Eldar in some form because of their role in Gathering Storm) then another Imperial faction so at least 6 months before another Space Marine Faction codex.

Tactical Objective Cards I like but will wait until the first codex release before deciding.  If they get their own objectives in the codex I will wait for Blood Angels and get their faction objective cards, if they don't get faction ones in the first codex I will pick up these ones since I do like using them.

I'm going to give the Objective Markers a miss.  I really like them but I was planning on getting Munitorum Armoured Containers set already which comes with a load of barrels and creates with I will use instead.  As I said £20 is a lot for objective markers.

I will give the wound trackers a miss as well.  I have loads of D10 and D20 dice at home and can just use them for the same thing.  I will probably pick up the command dice though.  Keeping track of the number of command points is easy but I like the symbols for tracking combat statuses.  I will probably not get the combat gauge either because like I said before their are others on the market with I think do a better job and I already have tape measures and red sticks.

So that's what I'm planning on picking on when they are released.  It is what I need to play and a few cheaper extras that will make the game easier and more enjoyable (hopefully).

Pre-Orders are up now at Games Workshop or your FLGS and 8th Edition will be released on Saturday 17th June.