Review of Imperial Armour Book 10 The Badab War Part 2

I thought this may be of interest to some Death Watch players and GMs

Again like the previous Imperial Amour books, this publication is a large glossy hardback book – in this case just over 200 pages (208)

The Book continues the story of the attempted succession from the Imperium by the Astral Claws Space Marine Chapter under its Master, Lugft Huron, the infamous Tryant of Babab. The story picks up as the Loyalists begin to turn the tide and new Space marine Chapters arrive to bolster their forces, often with reputations nearly as forbidding as those they have come to fight

The book is divided into several sections:

Part 1:The Story – this continues the in depth discussion of how the war evolves and the collapse of the alliance of Secessionist forces brought together by Huron. It describes the skirmishes, battles and final assault on the heavily protected Badab system as well as the machinations (to a greater or lesser degree) of the Inquisition, Mechanicus and most importantly the Space Marine Chapters themselves. It concludes with the aftermath of the war, the penalties inflicted on the survivors and the impact on the area.

Part 2: The Chapters of the War – this section concludes the discussion of the remained chapters and in this case includes:
The Mantis Warriors (S), Salamanders (L), Executioners (S), Sons of Medusa (L), Minotaurs (L), Carcharodons, (L) Exorcisits (L) and Star Phantoms (L).

All of which have about 10 pages of description, imgery (50%) and background – very usueful for anyone using Deathwatch or indeeed wanting a more unusual Chapter to make a appearance in a RT or DH game. Lots of good information here as well as some nice plot thread ands seeds about old and new threats and mysteries of the Imperium and beyond.

Part 3 is where the gaming part starts – stats and bacground on new war mahcines – in this case – the Caestus Assault Ram, new Dreanought variants, Land Raider Achllies
(some interesting fluff text about the “Land Engima and its pursuit by the Mechanicus – nice possible plot threads here ? )
This of course is tied in with the release of said vechicles by Forgeworld
There is a bit of a filler bit which talks about the varied Thunderhawks Rhinos, Land Speeders and the Power Marks and has nice imagery but does feel like filler….

Part 4 continues with stats for the remaining personalities for both the Loyalist and Secessionist Chapters – and range from Ancient Salamander Dreadnoughts to the Captain of the battlebarge Nicor and commander of the Carcharodons, Tyberos the Red Wake. All of these are pretty “hard” by 40K standards – some probably well balanced – some perhaps less so……….

Part 5 includes a variant army list for Space marine players – the Siege Assault Vanguard – which is ok and also includes of course certain of the new models mentioned earlier.

Part 6 was the bit I was really hoping for and I was both pleased and disappointed by its content. Battle for the Maelstrom Zone includes notes, fleet lists and rules for BattleFleet Gothic.Sadly this only takes up 4 pages and hence has limited coverage of the extremely interesting range of “new” ships mentioned or discussed in the previous volume.
We do get rules for a two generic ships – the Space Marine Vanguard Cruiser variant on the standard strike cruiser and the Imperial High Conveyor – nice to see a bit more info on this and stats – also like its special trait of Vast. Three unique vessels are also discussed and stated – the Night Hag – the flagship of the Executioner, the Nicor, the flagship of the Carcharodans fleet and the Raptorus Rex the warp capable star fortress of the Fire Hawks (Oh yeah!).

Sadly nothing more on the: Adeptus Mechanicus Locus-Caravels and Typhoon Class Hunter Killers (which are able to drive off Marine Strike Cruisers), Space Marine Forge-Ships and Scout Surveyors. Also no new BFG models as yet.

The book concludes with three new Apocalypse Formations – which unsurprisingly include the Caestus Assault Rams and Land raider Achilles.

Again as is only to be expected the book is beautifully presented – as it should be with a price tag of £45 but IMO it is a fair prices for the high production values and impressiveness on your shelf and in your hands. The second book comes with a nice box to keep the two volumes together as well as the standard shiny poster.

So why would you want it – well I could say if you have to ask that you probably don’t need it! They are coffee table books rather than sales catalogues.

In truth there is lots of interesting and useful information for Deathwatch Gms as well as the potential for some very scary encounters for RT players given the fleet based nature of many of the Chapters described.

Next volume is about the Eldar – a new a Craftworld, Aspect warrior type, and powerful new vehicle types have already been unveiled!

Thanks for the review.

I've been waiting to get these books for a while, but wanted to wait until both were out (and until I had some money!). The bits on each Chapter will come in handy, especially the Exorcists. I've always wanted to see them expanded upon. Anything new about them that we didn't know?

BYE

hhmm not sure there is quite a bit of background on them - history, notable conflicts, Chapter composition and organisation spread over about 4-5 pages.

Anything in particular looking for?

Ahh, it is books like these that make me envy Marine players for their extensive fluff ...

Still, I very much enjoyed reading about what was available on the Badab Uprising on the usual sources. It's a very interesting story, especially considering its value in terms of gauging how Imperial and Chapter politics work. I'm sure it is a nice read. Thanks for the review!

H.B.M.C. said:

Without digging up everything that may already be known about the Exorcists, the book is clear that they are organized and operate as a Codex-compliant Chapter (as opposed to the Grey Knights, who are highly non-standard in operation), which I wasn't certain of. It also expands on their close relationship with the Ordo Malleus, and reveals that their homeworld of Banish lies within an otherwise prohibited sector of space.

The Exorcists also have 12 or 13 companies, which is their biggest divergence from other Codex Chapters. Companies 10, 11, and 12 (possibly 13) are neophytes; it is stated that due to the particularly rigourous training the Exorcist neophytes undergo that their recruit failure rate is very high, requiring them to have a much larger pool to drawn from at any given time. It does suggest (but not confirm) that controlled possession by a warp entity is part of an Exorcist's training, to increase their resistance to such things. They are also stated to have an even higher sanity threshold (my words) than most Marines, and are capable of withstanding appalling mental onslaughts without breaking.

That's all I can recall, other than their otherwise exemplary performance during the Badab War being tarnished when the Carcharodons turned Badab Primaris into a charcoal briquet, and the Exorcists ended up shooting down some Loyalist ships while preventing traitors from escaping in the confusion.

Lynata said:

At least the next book is going to be heavy on the Eldar to spread the love around a little