Hammer of the Emperor is a handbook for the brave soldiers of the Imperial Guard. New options for regiment creation and mixed regiments, along with details on renowned regiments like the Attilan Rough Riders and Tanith First-and-Only, give players unique ways to wage war in the 41st Millennium. Plus, enhance your missions with new Advanced Specialties, an expanded armoury, rules for Mounted Combat, and much more!

Alright, I'll admit it. The vaguely cynical side of me wants to say "well, that didn't take very long" though at the same time I must admit this might be interesting. I might consider breaking down for these two books even though my roleplay group disbanded a year ago. Who knows, maybe the Imperial Guard would represent a compromise between my group's Orky-like desire to go smashy-smashy and mine for something requiring a little more thought.

I'll have to grab a preview or a review when these books start making the rounds. Certainly beats asking for someone wake me up when FFG announces "The Greater Good," "Children of the Omnissiah," or the "Seneschal's Guide to Trade Dynasties."

>Valhallans

>Rough Riders

>Advanced Specialties

>mixed regiments

I keep trying to stop drooling and it doesn't work. This book sounds great. That cover is wonderful, too. I hope they post the full pic somewhere.

Sounds great.

Perhaps release the actual core book first.

And about the tanks?

Soldato Cuu said:

What about them?

In this book we will find new rules to create a regiment, Special regiments such the tanith first and only, rules for mixed regiments and new weapons and gears. So we can expect new tank's pattern, such the leman russ executioner? I mean this

p.s: sorry for my bad english XD

Mounted combat, huh? Does this mean that Wrangling will be a separate skill instead of the specialization of Survival? I mean, a Riding or an Operate (Horses) Skill would be pretty dumb. But guess what, a separate Wrangling would be also uncool… As you will have a main skill for riding a horse, but Demolitions and Tactics are still sub-skills?

Otherwise, mounted combat sounds cool, but not by the usual IG way (hunting lances are lame) - a high-speed firefight on horseback using all kinds of powerful weaponry (plasma guns, missile launchers) Black Ops 2 style would be A-W-E-S-O-M-E.

The 0-Day DLC of the tabletop world.

I don't know if I'm more upset about the splatbook itself or upset at myself because I know I'll buy it.

WittyDroog said:

FFG always makes fun first supplements. Inquisitor's Handbook and Into The Storm both added plenty of good stuff, and /tg/ is still making new chapters with Rites of Battle's rules. I was actually dissapointed by the lack of a more general book for Black Crusade; these Tomes just don't sit well with me.

This book sounds like it'll have lots of fun new toys. Advanced Specialties make it worth getting for me, personally. Any word on if the Valkyrie will be in this or do we have to wait for flying vehicles?

Still pissed that the Tauros wasn't in core.

WittyDroog said:

I'm not arguing that the book won't be fun, I fully agree there. It's just that if that info was in the wing I would have waited a while longer to see some of it come into the book. But FFG is a business, needs to make money, and all that jazz.

And even though the book isn't currently avalible just hearing the announcement is enough to wipe your frown a bit. You know there's stuff in there that had the potential of being in the core book. I could be remembering things incorrectly, but books like The Inquisitor's Handbook wasn't announced until after the core book came out.

All I'm saying is give me a moment to enjoy the book before telling me that I'm going to have to wait another month or two and spend another chunk of change to get more stuff (I know they're not putting a gun to my head, I'm putting a gun to my head.)

WittyDroog said:

You do? Because for most of the books, FFG doesn't contract the writing until the book concept has been greenlighted, which would mean none of this stuff was written until after the core book was in beta and mostly set in stone.

I for one don't consider the starting 40K rpg games these days, untill the 'players guide' is out. Not because it's not playable, but there's the risk of missing alt starting options. And they know me so well.

Valhallans, Atillans, Rough Riders, all expected, all required.

The only major regiment missing between Only War:MRB and Hammer of the Emperor is Armageddon Steel Legion.

Face Eater said:

To be honest with the Regimental creation rules they have in the game you real can create rules for all of those regiments. For each of the ones in the core rule book they show you which options they pick to make each of them, so with a little background info on the regiment you want you can make them all very easy.

WittyDroog said:

I'd be more upset if the core rulebook wasn't so meaty. Including regiment creation, a largely new selection of NPC profiles, and twelve (I think?) specializations, plus new vehicles rules? This one is full of stuff compared to some of the more limited releases (looking at you, Deathwatch.)

WittyDroog said:

Plushy said:

Plushy said:

You're right and I am just acting spoiled but at the same time I'm not going to able to just sit around knowing there's another book with more options for regiment and character creation.

Honestly all it means is that I'm holding off on actually running Only War in this retail form until this splatbook comes out because I don't want to be deep in a campaign and then be distracted by a really cool regiment idea and reset. It's a lot easier to avoid when a splatbook contains a new mechanic type, such as introducing vehicle rules when none existed in the core book, rather than adding more enticing options to the core mechanics so soon.

In the meantime our group will likely play the new Star Wars beginner box so FFG got my money anyway.

WittyDroog said:

Only War has had most of its content finished for a long while now. The Beta changed a few pages of content at the most. Much of the art was already done or in progress, which means they only thing left to work on was fluff before the long process of getting the book produced and shipped. Hammer of the Emperor was almost certainly started after most of the core book was done.

The fluff was done at the same time as the book. It just wasn't included in the beta.

We wrote Only War back in Oct/Nov 2011. Hammer of the Emperor came much later.

BYE

Core rulebook vehicles section says they don't cover the Valkyrie because its Navy.
You guys think we're gonna get our flyers?

Nomad_Druid said:

I don't think so. At least not in the core rules or Hammer of the Emperor. Adding literally another dimension to the complexity of vehicles and vehicle combat would probably take up quite a bit of space in addition to all the tables and traits that flyers would need. Tanks and move on the same plane and roughly the same speed as Infantry, flyers however do not.
I'd love to see them but I don't think they'll be in the 'advanced players handbook'.

Thats true.
Regardless, I think I'll have Valkyie carryers here and there for my sessions. Since there aren't any rules ill come up with something simple based on the Codex. Max capacity of about 12 people.

Musclewizard said:

There are rules in Into the Storm for flyers and they barely occupy three pages.