Search Results for: warhammer

Future Treasures: Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader: The Omnibus by Andy Hoare

Fantasy Flight released the epic Rogue Trader role playing game in 2009. One of the early fruits of their Warhammer 40,000 license, Rogue Trader allowed players to play intrepid merchant princes buying and selling outside the legal boundaries of the Imperium. I became a fan immediately, and it quickly became my favorite science fiction RPG. Fantasy Flight lost the Warhammer 40K license last year, and the game is now out of print. I thought that would be the end of…

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How to Worldbuild a Good Sandbox: Four Rules from the Warhammer 40K Universe

I’m working on a sandbox Space Opera setting. Sandbox is the tricky part; a “sandbox” is a storyworld that lets you tell (or experience — if you are a gamer) all sorts of different kinds of story. Essentially, I’m building my Discworld. Oh, you say, just make it big with lots of different kinds of settings plus spare blank spots on the map. Yes, that gives you lots of flexibility (though less than you’d think). However, the stories won’t be —…

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New Treasures: Warhammer: Lords of the Dead

I really enjoy these Warhammer omnibus editions. They’re a tremendous bargain, for one thing. They typically contain 2-3 full length novels, plus the assorted short story or two. I’ve collected more than a few, and while I especially enjoy the science fiction offshoot, Warhammer 40K, the straight-up Warhammer volumes have proven to be a reliable source of modern sword & sorcery, most notably the tales of Gotrek & Felix, C. L. Werner’s Brunner the Bounty Hunter, and Kim Newman’s The Vampire Genevieve. I’m…

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Only War for Christmas: How to Defend Warhammer for Teenage Boys

Older relative: “Well I’m not buying him  (nose wrinkle) Warhammer.” Fellow parent: “Oh God, Warhammer. We’re trying to steer him away from that!” Another parent: “But it’s sooo expensive.” It’s the run up to Christmas and people want to know what older and teenage boys want, and — just like with books — the boys, the geeky ones at least, want the wrong things. Except of course, I think these are right things and I want to yell: There’s this thing you can get that…

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In the Trenches: Warhammer 40K: Gaunt’s Ghosts: Straight Silver

The world of Aexe Cardinal has been largely separated from galactic civilization for several centuries. Their technology is roughly on the level of ours around the time of the First World War — which is significant, because for almost half a century, the dominant nations of the planet have been in a deadlock with the Chaos-tainted Republic of Shadik. Their war is fought between lines of trenches across an ancient, toxic no man’s land. In all the ways that matter,…

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Tanith Airborne: Warhammer 40k: Gaunt’s Ghosts: The Guns of Tanith

The Guns of Tanith A Warhammer 40K novel Volume 5 of Gaunt’s Ghosts By Dan Abnett Black Library (315 pages, $6.95, May 2002) Cover by Adrian Smith The Guns of Tanith opens with another first for the Ghosts: A training sequence. After redeeming himself for the disaster on Hagia, Gaunt and the men of the Tanith First-and-Only are being deployed to Phantine. Phantine’s industrial history spans so many millennia that most of the planet is covered by smog toxic enough…

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Road Trip from Hell: Warhammer 40K: Gaunt’s Ghosts: Honour Guard

Honor Guard A Warhammer 40K novel Volume 4 of Gaunt’s Ghosts By Dan Abnett Black Library (312 pages, $6.95, August 2001) Cover by Martin McKenna The faith of the Imperium of Man — the only faith, thanks to a massive Inquisition — is centered around the God-Emperor of Mankind, who sits upon his Golden Throne on Holy Terra. Whether he’s a divine being incarnate, or a man who somehow gained god-like powers, is a question I don’t know the Warhammer…

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Conquer a Dark and Dangerous Galaxy in Warhammer 40K: Forbidden Stars

Last year I bought Warhammer 40,000: Conquest, Fantasy Flight’s two-player card game of interplanetary warfare in the Warhammer 40K universe, and enjoyed it quite a bit. But as much fun as it was, it wasn’t what I really wanted — a multi-player game of large scale strategic conflict in the stars. So I was excited to discover today that Fantasy Flight has recently released Forbidden Stars, a competitive board game of interplanetary war set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and it…

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Street Fighters of the 41st Millennium: Warhammer 40K: Gaunt’s Ghosts: Necropolis

Necropolis A Warhammer 40K novel Volume 3 of Gaunt’s Ghosts By Dan Abnett Black Library (301 pages, $6.95, December 2000) Cover by Martin Hanford Necropolis marks a turning point in the Gaunt’s Ghosts series for a few reasons. It’s the first book written entirely as an original novel rather than an expansion of previously published short work. It also broadens the scope of the first couple books in covering an entire Imperial Guard campaign from the first rain of shells…

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Space Orks, Space Elves, and Tough Space Men: Warhammer 40K: Gaunt’s Ghosts: Ghostmaker

Ghostmaker A Warhammer 40K novel Volume 2 of Gaunt’s Ghosts By Dan Abnett Black Library (288 pages, $6.95, July 2000) In the inaugural series installment, Warhammer 40K: First and Only, Dan Abnett introduced us to the Tanith First regiment of Imperial Guardsmen and their iron-willed commander, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt. That novel had Gaunt as its clear protagonist. A series of flashback chapters sketched out his past: Losing his father to Ork hordes in boyhood, growing up a ward of the…

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