I was confused about that one myself. Seems an odd one to choose.

Its finally shipping! Better late than.. oh well.

from france

yes finally got mine!! i begin the reading tongight. i will telle you my opinions of it once finish

Two Cents from the cheap seats
As a GM, The Radicals Handbook is one of my all time favourites that spawned a whole lot of adventuring from about Rank 4 when I inherited the game all the way up to where the PC’s are now which is slightly under Rank 9, now admittedly as a PC, the book doesn’t have a lot for you that if you where toting around or going down that path would do much for your long term integrity before someone set you on fire, but they where there as an option if you wanted
So I did have some high expectations this would give me a couple more ideas in the pot for later and it starts off well.

A million worlds, one emperor.
Lots to like in here which people have been asking for a long time on just how the church functions in the Imperium, what it does, how it works, who did what. All that stuff is very useful as a GM when you need ideas, or to play your other card and present an alternate version of events which differs radically from that presented in the book as common knowledge and sunder a PC's idea of how the galaxy works. As a GM, it is important to know what is the commonly presented history of the Imperium is... and how it actually was as time, misappropriation and elucidation from the winners of such wars actually distorts the truth.

Paths of the Righteous
Im never one to say no to a lot of new alternate and elite advances if they suit the players idea for a character and these ones do add quite a bit of variety and value to making characters come to life.
They've been well crafted.
I don't say that a lot about many alternate rank/advance schemes which where often considered a "power-up" instead of a lateral expansion on a character to make it a more rounded, but not necessarily better than if they'd continued on their career. So I was always wary for any overly sketchy activity when people took an elite advance or weird arse background without any justification "why you're so **** special" and "why am I going to agree to let it in my game?"

Brides of the Emperor
Aside from the sentence itself being "burning talk" to describe a sister and trust me, if any PC dares to utter it out loud, around one they will get their arse kicked and set on fire.
I've already paid for them in the Inquisitors Handbook, so why am I paying for it again in another book a little bit later?
Except... these ones are actually better put together and thought out than the crap that was in the Inquisitors handbook which made very little sense. Their advances are better and I do like the repentia, dialogus, famulous and hospitaller a lot better because of it. The basic cranky ***** in power armour + bolter didn't really have anything more than the one dimensional personality of a brick and steals the Imperial Guardsmen's job, mostly because they had better personal gear.
Still not keen on a nun-with-gun in the group, I try it now at higher ranks, but for the lower ones I'd probably get annoyed with the endless whining for gear at the start of the game.
Still, I'd rather have seen a free on the net, ret-con of the cranky nuns, than another chunk of new book devoted to them, as a somewhat dedicated, long suffering GM, I'm going to buy your book but don't make me pay for something twice.

Faith and Fury
Not keen on it at all. The whole miraculous cheese business never sat well with me, simply because we've already got bloody psykers in the magic job and I really don't want to adjudicate another system of fate point use and abuse. Its all just a bit too obvious and dilutes the effects of such a miracle happening, which should be a very rare and wondrous thing that might change a PC's perspective on life and belief.
Every time one gets dropped because someone spent a fate point, just makes it a mechanic, not a miracle.

Reliquary
Yep, sort of to be expected. Nothing really jumps out and says that it'll leap on my game and tear it a new anus, so thanks for that. Some of the relics and items might make for interesting retrieval (or outright theft) stories one day

Ecclesiarchy Campaign
Its good, but its a little slim at 8 pages. In fact the entire book is a bit slim at 140 or so pages and its counterpoint of the Radicals HB was close to 230 something from memory. On that basis alone the whole book lacked a little of the somewhat excited and sheer output that went into Radicals, was it that uninspiring to write or are the monodominant aspects of the church boring?
I don't think they are.
A lot of the activity of religious fundamentalism is from at least a disassociated, arms-length quite an interesting subject for players and GMs to explore considering it is part of the Imperium's powerhouse of motivation to do what it does, with that almost psychotic level of fervour. So, that wasn't actually touched in depth at all and I'm left disappointed in that regard that it wasn't afforded a look into the fury of belief and its repercussions on imperial society.

Content: 6/10 - needed more
Art: 7/10 Good quality - not very much of it
Writing: 5/10 Not a lot of the little fluff sections
Mechanics: 9/10 Very good to exceptional, it may not have the sheer, player dribbling impact of Inq HB had, but I don't want that again either!

Overall, 6/10 compared to the books that came before it.

MKX said:

However, Blood of Martyrs isn't meant to be the counterpoint to Radicals. It's meant to be a book about the Ecclesiarchy, not every single type of puritan (as the Radical's book was, well, about radicals). Reviewing BoM as something it isn't means you are going to be disappointed, because it isn't what you think it is.

If you take into account the upcoming Daemon Hunter book, as well as the other titles in the release schedule, there's going to be more than enough stuff just for Puritans, it's just that Puritans aren't really nicely tied up into one mostly-similar group, and therefore one book, like a majority of Radicals are.

MILLANDSON said:

Actually I think MKX is correct. He percieved the book to be the puritan equivalent to Radicals Handbook. That is what he expected. Same goes for any other book. How you perceive it is how you will react to it. He wanted more about puritans and less about sisters. Thus he is disappointed.

Thats how all reviews need to go. The reviewer needs to mention what they expected out of the book so the reader can go "oh, he gave it a low rating, but things he mentioned are things Im interested in".

I actually like the book more then MKX does and think it is a good rebound from the awefulness of Ascension. It gives me hope again.

I'm not a fella that glosses over anything, in my job I'm paid to be extremely pedantic and utterly scrupulous when it comes to any kind of analysis. The person I speak to may not want to hear all of what I have to say because it rarely contains "Yes! & Awesome!". But I'm giving them something they can take back with them to genuinely improve what they're doing.

Don't think for a minute I'm just being a mean old man or doing this for any kind of attention, you just get no bull from me. As a GM or a Player, you should buy this book if you're having any kind of interaction with the church as it does contribute greatly there and it is of the high quality we've come to expect from FFG on the DH line of games. (which I mentioned quite explicitly the excellent qualities in the book) You should not buy it as I did expecting the Puritan counterpoint to Rad's Handbook, because it isn't.

MKX said:

Which you'll find is what I said. Still, buying it and then saying "this isn't a Puritan counterpoint to Radicals, therefore it's a bad book" when the book was always stated to be a book about the Ecclesiarchy doesn't really make sense. In that case better research about your purchase should have been carried out.

Doesn't explain why they left out the other Puritan factions in the church, we get a one-page blurb on the Monodominants... they aren't the only ones.

What about the ressurectionist cults like the Thorians working to bring the Emperor back to life, the orthodox Amalanthian factions trying to maintain order amongst the Imperial power-bases and the status quo of the Imperium overall? None of those guys are covered and they're just as important to the ecclesiarchy's overall activity that haven't even been whispered in this book and for newer people coming into 40K, they wouldn't have even heard of them.

Thats why even as a book on the Ecclesiarchy, its really only covered a third of the mainstream church puritans factions.

MKX said:

Aren't those more so Inquisitional factions, and not Ecclesiarchy? I don't believe any of those have any ties to the church, though I could be wrong.

Rakiel said:

The only link with the Ecclesiarchy for the Thorians is that they believe that Sebastian Thor was an avatar of the Emperor's power. Even then, they aren't specifically linked to the Ecclesiarchy at all. So yes, you would be correct there.

I've called the artwork in other FFG 40k books, "White Men in Space!" Here, we break new ground: "White Women in Space! With Lipstick!!!."

It's more like English people in space. Even the Orks are English.

Inquisitor sapiens potensque said:

Well, to be fair its a 25+ year old game made by the English.

When will the English stop oppressing us? When??

I'd much prefer a more Iclandeic-centric point of view (Icelanders in space!), but those damned English keep popping up...

Bluegrass said:

My thoughts exactly. I think it has to be a mistake since there is no reason someone raised in a Imperial monastery should know LESS about the Imperial creed than your average imperial worlder. I think swapping Superior Origins is what was intended.

Scheppov said:

I think this will be in an errata if we ever get one, as happened with Sinophia Magna.