Seriously guys? Jehrico Reach? So FFG put out a book on the background of the reach, but didnt they already do that? What was Achilus Assault if not that? It seems to be just a repackaging of AA. Am I the only one whos understanding it this way?

Achillus Assault was a general Background.

Jericho Reach is a Deathwatch Specific thing in the Reach. At a guess I'd say it'll focus way more on all the secret Deathwatch Fortresses, goals, etc that don't fit into the grand war strategy. Because remember, they're in many places the Crusade isn't.

Tunnelhckrat said:

Seriously? You thought you could fit the entire background of the Jericho Reach into a single book?

N0-1_H3r3 said:

Publishing a preview that is pretty much Achilles Assault content (it even says so in the box) is highly unskillful though. It would have been much wiser to take an excerpt that demonstrates the differences between the books. As such the new supplement is rather more suspect of more of the same now (even if it's not that).

Alex

While I think Tunnel's statement is a bit of an overreaction, it does seem the two books are going to have quite a bit in common. So what can we expect to see in the Jericho Reach book that makes the book worth buying over the Achilus Assault?

Here's some thoughts on what I'd like to see:

• A brand new official adventure that does NOT deal with Tyranids. Would love to see an Eldar adventure, if only so we can get some stat blocks for the Space Elves.
• More details on the various Space Marine chapters operating within the Reach - what their goals are and how many forces they have in the region.
• More 'Adventure Seeds' sidebars akin to those presented in Mark of the Xenos, perhaps grouped by sectors or planets.
• Rules for ships of the Crusade and the Deathwatch - would love to run a space battle sometime without needing to homebrew a bunch of warships.

PrinceOfMadness said:

^^ THIS! and much more.

I too was a bit underwhelmed by the first preview of Jeriche Reach. I did not even bother to read it all through. I am still working my way through all the Achillus Assault content and that preview was just all too similar (I even thought that some passages were copy pasted from Achillus Assault). I have bought every Deathwatch book on release now, I pre-ordered First founding, but I think I need a bit more convincing before ordering the Jericho Reach book. I got my hopes up when somebody on these forums here promised that Jericho Reach would be the best expansion yet for Deathwatch content-wise, but I do not see it...

As has been said before, The Jericho Reach is a look at the setting of Deathwatch and how the Deathwatch itself fits into and influences the setting, whereas The Achilus Assault was all about the Crusade itself, it's origins, history, major events, characters etc. And take it from someone who has read (and loves) this book - it is far, far more than what it's been compared to.

BYE

H.B.M.C. said:

Okay, I trust your judgement. Still, I assume that many parts of Jericho Reach will be recognizable by people that have read through Achilus Assault and the background in the corebook?

PrinceOfMadness said:

Caution there though; GMs need enough white space.

PrinceOfMadness said:

Indeed. Fighting major xeno smugglers/pirates sounds like fun.

Alex

PrinceOfMadness said:

I have no problem using the rules form Rogue Trader for Space Combat. It helps I have most of the books for that line too, so I have a lot of options.

Would be nice to at least see the stats of a Space Marine Battle Barge though. If only as a contextual reference.

If this is more about the deathwatch involvment in the reach, then why couldnt they have packaged it all into one book? Achilus assault wasnt that thick.The preview looks an awful lot like achilus assault. The whole thing still looks like repackaged material to me.

It's like the difference between a book on the politics of Europe, and the geography of Europe.

I don't see there being a 'double up' on coverage. How many planets did the Crusade book detail, after all?

I'll be annoyed if they waste space on starship combat rules. I can buy RT for that, and it really has no place in my campaign. Essentially it boils down to:

a) Rolling some dice and the players win. They have no personal investment in the vessel or crew, so don't really care about it's condition after victory; so long as they win.

b) Roll some dice, the ship blows up and everyone spends a Fate Point to survive.

Given that 'b' is not ever going to sit well with players, 'a' is almost a forgone conclusion. Why do I need rules for something that is predetermined. I'll just cut with the dice rolling and flicking through books and either describe it cinematically, or instead substitute some kind of event where the players can actually influence matters.

I would personally give it until the 3rd preview before getting worked up. They're not going to show all of their hand in one preview, nor give much more than the book's description is going to.

If by the 3rd preview, you've not seen anything new, then I'd resume.

H.B.M.C. said:

Is it just me but they could have made a single book for both, a bit bigger? Now we just spend twice the overhead money... FFG is a lot like WotC, books more books...

crisaron said:

This thought always perplexes me, as it - the books are written at different times, and Achilus Assault had already been written and was being sent off to the printers when work on Jericho Reach began.

Also, Jericho Reach is a fairly big book, last time I checked (indeed, if you check FFG's online store, you'll see it's the same price - and locally the same size - as Rites of Battle), so not only is it an additional book of new material (yes, there is overlap, but there isn't actually that much overlap), but it's an additional book of new background material that's bigger than Achilus Assault was.

crisaron said:

As Nathan said, books are written at different times. Furthermore:

1. These books are not the same. They are both background books for the Deathwatch setting, but their subject matter is different. Achilus Assault covers the actual Achilus Crusade. The Jericho Reach covers the Deathwatch and their role within the Reach.
2. The Jericho Reach is a big book – one of the 244 page books like Rites of Battle, Ascension or the Radical’s Handbook. It’s as big as non-Core Rulebooks get.

BYE

Ooooh, good to hear about its size. Tasty stuff. I loved Achilus Assault, so... yeah, totally, more of that sort of thing! Will definitely end up owning it, after I grab First Founding.

I have to say I was rather underwwhelmed by the Archilus Assault (I think it was the first 40k RPG book I didn't finish reading through, the repetative general background stuff from the main rulebooks aside), and I similarly felt a bit "But haven't they done this already?" when I heard the announcement for the new book. Now, maybe this book will be very interesting and very useful, but then I would then point to the Archilus Assault and ask what the point of that book was. OK, it was to give more general background on the Crusade. Why couldn't that be done in a more cut down form in either the main rulebook or in the upcoming Jericho Reach? It (or Jericho Reach) is a book I don't think has any equivalent in the other games in the line. This latest book, if done properly, sounds like it is going to be the equivalent of Disciples of the Dark Gods (still my favourite of the supplements for the entire 40k rpg line) or that book of planets in Rogue Trader, ie the "background book" of the series. Yet the Archilus Assault claims to be the same, and I just cannot think of there being a second "background book" in either Dark Heresy or Rogue Trader.

I have to say, I thought Achillus Assault was one of the best books FFG has produced this year, so if the Jericho Reach is more of the same, I'm delighted.

FFG hasn't produced many "pure" background books that concentrate upon the setting (as opposed to careers, weapons, antagonists etc) and I really wish there were more of them.

I must have dropped a good £1000+ on Old WoD city books purely because I enjoyed the setting. I would have cheerfully carried on buying WoD city books until they'd run out of options and were reduced to writing "Croydon by Night" or "Rage across Droitwich." If FFG produce setting material...I will buy it!

I find the complaint hilarious from ANYONE that purchases FFG books which, most of the time and especially the Core books of all their 40k RPGs, contain massive amounts of repackaged fluff from the 40k universe which has been around for ages in other sources. I love the RPG and have spend hundreds to buy the books and have no complaints, well maybe the editing and play testing could have been taken a BIT more seriously for the price. My eyes were open when I bought them. Kudos for the DW game, Xenos compendium, BFK (editing/play testing! - REALLY!) and the ROB book. Great stuff.

borithan said:

I just thought the same and couldn't agree more. If it's anything like Disciples I will love it to death. And... 244 pages!