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The Joy of Unboxing: Warhammer 40,000 Dark Imperium

By July 1, 2017August 28th, 2019Miniatures Games, Unboxing, Videos

You break all the laws of physics and you seriously think there wouldn’t be a price?

Let’s have a look at Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000: Dark Imperium, the new 8th edition starter set.

Despite my frequent rants about Games Workshop’s exorbitant prices, I’ve been a fan of the company since its earliest days (my first copy of White Dwarf was number 4!) and they have created some amazing games over the years. And recently GW has really been getting back on track by modernising its communications and listening to the fans – breaking out of the ivory tower built by executives and lawyers that it had walled itself into. Which is why I felt like giving their flagship game another go, and bought the new 8th edition starter set, Warhammer 40,000: Dark Imperium.

Unfortunately, while they do things like charge NZD$45 for a single plastic miniature, I won’t be buying larger armies any time soon. Which is a great shame, as I’d be happy to buy more if the prices were reasonable. Luckily I have some old figures lying around (including some first release metal and plastic space marines), and coupled with the figures in this set I’m sure I can put together a few enjoyable games.

W40K is still an ‘I go – you go’ game (each player takes an entire turn before the other player gets a turn), which feels very old-fashioned in this age of alternate activations, and I’ll never be a great fan of the dice-heavy ‘roll to hit, roll to wound, roll to save’ system that Warhammer is built around, but I guess these things have a certain old school charm. And it can’t be denied the miniatures are excellent.

Something new this time around is the inclusion of the hardback rulebook in the starter set, a fantastic move that was the thing that pushed me over the edge to buy this set. So let’s have a look inside the box – well, the sleeve – shall we?

5 Comments

  • Mark says:

    Their prices aren’t too bad. As soon as I’ve remortgaged the house, sold my car and refinanced my first-born, that sweet, sweet starter set will be all mine

  • The8thPagan says:

    UH… have you had chance to try Dark Imperium yet?

    Reading a review today and it sounded interesting.

    What’s it like to assemble?

    Is there a campaign in the box and if so, how many battles in it before you have to start buying more figures?

    • Assembly was pretty easy (though I’m not a newbie). All my figures are based and undercoated and ready to paint. Haven’t played yet. There’s no campaign as such with the figures supplied, just the main rulebook with the usual battle options. I imagine any gamer wanting a more interesting experience would want to add models pretty damn quickly!

      Will and I will give it a go in a few weeks.

  • The8thPagan says:

    I think I’ll give it a miss then. Already got plenty of skirmish games and I was hoping for a campaign with a story, instead of the usual: secure objectives, kill the boss, capture the flag etc.

    A bit of story makes the game more interesting. Without a story it’s just tactics and dice luck.

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