My local hobby store says it should have one for me later today! Is there anyone else here who has one yet? Thoughts?

I'm holding mine right now and waiting for a lull at work before I get to start reading it. I skimmed through it though and it made me smile.

As I posted in the "What Critters Are There?" thread in the main forum, I've had mine for about a week and am extremely impressed.

As far i know theres been a logistical error in the US somewhere that caused the europa delivery to be delayed, as far i know until next week.

Sarius said:

Okay, now I am dismayed

On my first read-through, I must say I was slightly disappointed. The quantity of material that was there seemed slightly anemic, but the quality of the material was excellent. I'm thinking that there will be Anathema 2, 3, etc. as the universe expands. Being new to the FFG incarnation of 40K - what happened to Slaanesh? Did they do away with that whole end of things? Or can we expect to see more of those Chaos expansions (Pleaguebearers, Disc Riders, Keeper of Secrets, etc.) in sequel books? Again, I am pleased with what is there, but for $40 it seemed a little thin...

A set of rules for converting stats from Warhammer 40000 army books to stat lines for Dark Heresy would help fans out a lot. They wouldn't need to be hard and fast rules, just guidelines and suggestions. Races like the Tau or Necrons would make excellent enemies for acolytes associated with the Ordo Xenos.

Well obviously we will have to agree to disagree on the overall impression :-) But as to this item..

TroySterling said:

Lady of the Voids and the Ruination of Imperfect Beauty are both Slaaneshi.

I particularly liked the Ruination.

dwraley said:

Nah, stats in the tabletop is not representative of the fluff creations, just look at space marines. They are not cannon fodder as they are in the tabletop(or dawn of war).

I liked it, but was disappointed by one thing:

While they had profiles for Eldar Dire Avengers and Rangers, and Ork Boyz and Nobz, they didn't give the 'racial bonuses' so you could go and make your own Eldar or Ork enemies...

I guess if we wanted to, we just have to use the stats for Dire Avengers, Boyz, and Nobz, and just improve on them (and Rangers, if you wanted to make some sort of Eldar Pathfinder adversary / ally)...

Of course, if the Acolytes ever got strong enough to challenge a Farseer, I doubt he / she would have the combat abilities of the Dire Avenger.

Orks at least would be easier, just using Nobz for Warbosses and the like, and you could even get away with making Pain Boyz, Wyrd Boyz (including Warp Heads), and Meks with improved Boyz stats.

I was greatly impressed with Creatures Anathema, despite the fact that there isn't a massive amount of creatures like in a D&D Monster Manual. I am really happy with the inclusion of a Genestealer and a Lictor. I'm running a campaign, and my next adventure takes place after the 3 adventures in Purge The Unclean. The acolytes will be encountering Tyranids (which I had in my own designed adventure before Creatures Anathema was released).

What I really like is that I originally designed my own stats for Genestealers and Lictors, and the official stats in Creatures Anathema are not too different from what I designed. The stats from the book are better than my own, but close enough that I didn't have to modify my pre-written adventure too much (The acolytes will be dealing with only ONE Lictor that constantly harasses them throughout the adventure, rather than 3 seperate Lictor encounters like I had originally written). I also had to reduce the number of genestealers a bit.

The cool thing about this game is that I get to use my Warhammer 40,000 miniatures often, which makes the game that much more visually appealing to me and my group.

Before you all harsh me, I'll start off by saying I really like it. Better than DotDG.

My main bit...err...gripe about DotDG was that there was too much fluff and not enough game stats and material directly usable in the game. On the other hand, it was entertaining to read. Anathema seems to have struck a much better balance on this aspect, with more game material per capita, but without sacrificing the fluffy stuff that keeps the game material from being textbook-like.

FFG, if you're reading this, here's some criticism intended to be constructive:

1. Spelling errors. Lots of them. C'mon...how unprofessional. Hey, I have a degree in English and I'm available if you need an editor....Sorry, but spelling and grammar errors are like nails on a chalkboard to me and in some cases involve the need to print "Errata".

2. Short. As in, not very thick. So for $39, I'm guestimating it was about 23-25 cents/page at 128 pages and say...$10 for the cover. I'd rather pay $50 and get 38-42 more pages.

I'm not asking you to sacrifice the art (which I really liked in this book, btw. Lots of art I've never seen before ), but saying that throwing in some B&W pages is OK with us. I want as much game-usable material as you can jam into a book for $50. You left out so many races, that you can easily produce an Anathema "2", "3" an "4".

I say $50 because for Rulebooks, that's my price point. If Anathema had 1/4th more pages with more daemons, Tau (and equipment), more of the "historic" critters etc. then I'd gladly drop a $50 on it, so don't worry about keeping the price down to $40.

Of course, perhaps you were "saving" these for future publications, such as for Rogue Trader, or introducing them in DH adventures or supplements, which is fine...I'd just kind of like to know.

Overall, I'm very happy with Anathema. There's good game info (maybe not as much as I'd like...) in there AND it's a fun read, which is important when sitting on the Golden Throne...

Maxim C. Gatling said:

American English & UK English have quite a lot of differences, Colour/Color or Center/Centre for example, so it might just be the UK English you're seeing and automatically attributing it to errors.

Then again, if you come across actual errors such as some/soem then all well and good.

It's definitely content light and the spelling errors while numerous were hardly glaring in most every case. The only disappointing thing for me was the Malleus section. The warp spawn they picked are just not as compelling to me as I'd hoped and most are hardly something I would use for more than one scenario. The Burning One is pretty cool though as are Nurglings. Everything else seems really limited without much work on the part of the GM.

Despite this I love the book and it shares a proud spot on my shelf next to my Old World Bestiary (my favorite monster book ever).

Personally, I felt there was *WAY* too little lore/fluff present in Creatures Anathema.

One of the things that really stuck out in my mind with the Disciples of the Dark Gods was the depth of everything. Each faction had its own backtsory, each one had multiple goals, each one had a series of agents you could use, and each one you could run an entire campaign with.

In this... all I can say is "Meh". If you're looking for random encounters it has plenty, but anything beyond that is severely lacking. You were told what a Lictor was, but you weren't given any type of ideas for the rest of the critters that could be accompanying one. You were told about the Ethnulion(sp?) culture, but you weren't given any ideas as to what they could be up to beyond being anti-Imperialists. You were told about the Eldar, but beyond a few key phrases you weren't really given anything, which was disappointing since usually these books cover things in *FAR* more detail than a Gamesworkshop Codex.

Despite the disappoint though, unless they royally mess up the first Harlaak scenario book and/or Radical Guide... I'll still be buying.

Maxim C. Gatling said:

Personally, I don't notice spelling and grammar errors, and I'm generally more interested in the content than the medium of their presentation anyway...

...the main error that does bother me, though, is the fact that a significant number of creatures seemed to have their movement values listed incorrectly, either forgetting to calculate the effects of size properly, or in at least one case, forgetting to add the effects of the Unnatural Speed trait listed for the creature. The Lictor should, for example, have movement speeds of 14/28/42/84, not 6/12/18/36 (Ag Bonus of 5 before Unnatural Agility, +2 for its size, doubled for Unnatural Speed).

The Baron said:

It's a Lictor. If there's anything accompanying it, then you're as good as dead already, because that means there's a Hive Fleet already in orbit, and it's planning to eat in...

N0-1_H3r3 said:

ur wrong about the Hive Fleet being in orbit.

the Lictors are usually launched out ahead of the Fleet, usually when it comes within range of the call set up by the 'Stealer Cult.

so it would be accompanied by Pure-strain Stealers and hybrids.

So... considering that hybrid 'stealers can be represented easily with mutations and we've got stats for the purebreeds, I fail to see the problem.

wulfenite said:

Really? That's a different way of interpreting the background, certainly...

As far as I'm aware, genestealer cults are largely unaware of the presence or nature of the Hive Mind on any conscious level... and tend to be amongst the first things eaten when the Hive Fleet starts consuming the planet (because they don't put up a fight)... while a Lictor may be sent out in response to detecting the beacon projected by a Genestealer Cult, it has no need or reason to unite with them - Lictors are not, afterall, pack animals or team players.

Beyond that, though, my point still stands - if you encounter anything other than vanguard organisms (Lictors and/or Genestealers), then there is almost certainly a Hive Fleet in orbit...

That's actually an interesting question... when precisely are the 'stealer cultists consumed? It would make a certain amount of sense if they were spared for last - after all, they're already entrenched on the planet, with more know-how of its structure and defenses than the hive fleet will ever possess and it's not like there's any chance of them running away. On the other hand side, a vanguard force with a few brood pools might indeed use them as a quick infusion of otherwise (assuming a largely barren planet) difficult to obtain biomatter to convert into more directly combat-oriented forms.

all 'Nid organisms are consumed at the end phases of planetary attack. and the bigger attack beasts are already made in orbit, they just have to be shot/shat down to earth.

Cifer said:

The Ripper Swarms don't appear until about Phase IV of an invasion, when the capillary towers and digestion pools have 'matured'. During Phase IV, the world is probably still being defended, so the Rippers tend to hang around behind the front lines and consume everything behind the swarms of war-organisms, directed by Malanthropes.

Regarding Genestealer Cultists and their knowledge... not as useful as they might seem. The Hive Mind doesn't micromanage, afterall, and is quite willing and able to expend, say, hundreds of thousands of Gaunts and Gargolyes just so the enemy uses up ammunition. When it comes to securing information, it should be remembered that Lictors can obtain information of that sort using their feeder tendrils by consuming the brain of a victim (and will often do so in advance of the first Mycetic Spores landing on a world)... if a Genestealer Cult are the most effective source of that information, they'll likely find themselves accosted by a Lictor and ripped apart for the knowledge they possess. It may even happen faster if the strain of genestealers that spawned the cult possessed feeder tendrils... the genestealers turn on their cult in the moments before the Hive Ships reach orbit, stealing their knowledge and passing it to the Norn Queens directing the fleet...

To respond to posts:

In the Tyranid Codex they have mention of Genestealers Cults during the initial and final stages of invasion walking onto Hive Ships where they're rengineered into better suited lifeforms. It's all at the whim of the Hive Mind when they're absorbed (i.e. On Ichar IV they weren't reabsorbed until the last few battles where things went awry for the Nids, on the Feudal World mentioned in the Tyranid Codex they were reabsorbed almost immediately seeing as how they were considered "unnecessary" in their current forms). Basically, I just restated what N0-1_H3r3 said.

Hate to contradict you Wulfie, but Lictors are the first organisms that a Hive Fleet launches off when it encounters habitable worlds. As was mentioned in Creatures Anathema, if Lictors are encountered it's the beginning of the end for whatever planet they land upon.

As for the Rippers... I wouldn't say that they're only released during the 4th Phase of the Invasion, however they aren't encountered with as much frequency. There's a whole section in Xenology (the bible in regards to all Warhammer 40k Xenos species) which goes into detail about how literally trillions of them are released at the end of the invasion and they function as sort of a vaccuum cleaner, picking away at anything even semi-edible. Each Ripper, by the way, has an egg sac upon its tail that will explode into dozens of baby Rippers upon death, those baby Rippers eating their parent and then moving on to continue devouring things.

And that's not counting the Tyranid Micro-organisms that are released, which work to try and slowly "Tyrannaform" the planet should the assault fail, in addition to the various Tyranid left-over Organisms (Catachan Devils, Fenris Krakens, etc.), which are essentially Hive Beasts who lost their Norn Queen and evolved on their own, without synaptic guidance. Albeit, whether they have the ability to pick up the Hive Mind's will again or not has yet to be seen... *cue ominuous music*.

The Baron said:

I was speaking in approximate terms, of course, but Phase IV makes up the overwhelming majority of a Tyranid invasion - afterall, Phase III represents the true start of an invasion (Phase I is Discovery, Phase II is Approach). Rippers will appear primarily during the 4th and 5th Phases simply because they're not really war-beasts so much as methods of consumption, and thus appearing any earlier in large numbers is largely pointless - you don't start eating a world until the invasion has really kicked off.