Search Results for: warhammer

New Treasures: Warhammer 40K: The Horus Heresy Box Set

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Okay, this one was a bit of an indulgence. Back in January, I wrote about how much I’ve been enjoying the delightful Horus Heresy audio books from Black Library. A sweeping dark fantasy featuring sorcery, magic, undead legions and ruinous Chaos powers secretly maneuvering to bring about the downfall of the Imperium of Man in the 31st Century, they’ve been something of an occasional guilty pleasure for me. But then I listened to Ben Counter’s riveting Galaxy in Flames — the…

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New Treasures: Warhammer 40K: Ahriman: Exile by John French

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I’ve been listening to Horus Heresy audiobooks during my daily commute recently. They’re a heck of a lot of fun, and Black Library does an absolutely stellar job with them — not just by choosing top-notch readers (which they do), but also with excellent music and sound effects. They’re more like audio plays than books-on-tape… battles ring with bolter fire and explosions, and tense chases are punctuated by heavy footsteps, distant echoes, and static-laden vox transmissions. Twice I’ve almost missed…

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New Treasures: Warhammer 40K: Pariah: Ravenor vs Eisenhorn by Dan Abnett

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We don’t show Black Library and Games Workshop enough love here at Black Gate. Something of a crime, since they specialize in exactly the kind of thing we celebrate — exciting, original adventure fiction from talented writers, set in a wonderfully realized fantasy world. Maybe it’s because my sons, die-hard Warhammer 40K fans both, keep stealing the frickin’ books the instant they arrive. Case in point: Pariah: Ravenor vs Eisenhorn, the new novel from superstar Dan Abnett. I bought it a few weeks ago and it…

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Releasing This Week: Warhammer 40K: Relic From Fantasy Flight Games

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Game Designers Workshop and Fantasy Flight — the folks behind the superb Rogue Trader and Dark Heresy role playing games — have teamed up once again to release Relic, an intriguing new board game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Based on the streamlined (and well-honed) mechanics of the Talisman fantasy games, Relic allows two to four players to assume the role of powerful Imperial heroes, and bravely venture forth to protect the Antian Sector. By completing card-based missions and…

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New Treasures: Dead in the Water, a Warhammer 40K Audio Drama

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Last week, I wrote a brief introduction to the Warhammer 40K universe, under the guise of a review of The Achilus Assault gamebook. It was a cheap gimmick, I know, but life is short and filled with great things you need to know about. In the comments section Joe H wrote: I love the WH40K setting, the thing that bothers me is that they have this vast sprawling galaxy full of wonders and terrors and way too much of the…

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An Intro to Warhammer 40K: Explore the Horrors of the Jericho Reach in Deathwatch: The Achilus Assault

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I’ve mentioned a few times now that the modern game that has most captured my interest is Fantasy Flight’s Rogue Trader, set in the darkly fascinating Warhammer 40,000 universe. Let’s back up a bit, because that was probably confusing. What is Warhammer 40,000? Back in 1983, British game company Games Workshop released Warhammer, a tabletop miniatures game which allowed fantasy fans to simulate massive battles between orcs, elves, humans, and the forces of Chaos using thousands of hand-painted lead miniatures….

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Rediscovering the Joy of the Boxed Adventure: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

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If you’ve been gaming as long as I have, you’ll remember when the great adventures of the day — Gygax’s Tomb of Horrors, say, or Descent Into The Depths of the Earth — came packaged as slender stapled sheets wrapped in a two-tone cover. Color arrived years later, and adventure modules got thicker and more elaborate. In the mid-80s TSR dazzled gamers with the first boxed adventure sets, including the World of Greyhawk, The Ruins of Undermountain, and the fabulous…

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New Treasures: Warhammer: Dreadfleet

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There are games that are perfect for an impulse buy, and there are games you need to budget for. And then there are games that you lust after for months, scrimping and saving, until you’ve collected enough pennies to seal the deal. Such a game is Dreadfleet, a prize I’ve been eyeing for many months. It finally arrived on Friday, and I’ve been cooing over it ever since. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but I’m sure…

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Sean T. M. Stiennon reviews Warhammer: Bloodforged

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Bloodforged Nathan Long Black Library (416 pages, mass market first edition May 2011) Reviewed by Sean T. M. Stiennon Apart from walk-ons, cameos, and bit-parts, every single character in Bloodforged is either a daemon worshiper or a vampire.  That’s really the most concise way I can summarize the novel, and your reaction to that ought to be a pretty good indication of how much you’d like Bloodforged. Ulrika was the daughter of a family of noble warriors before her rising…

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New Treasures: Warhammer 40K: A Thousand Sons and Prospero Burns on Unabridged Audio

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When I drove my son Tim to Blue Lake Fine Arts camp in Michigan last summer, during the five hour drive we listened to Steve Lyons’ The Madness Within and Sandy Mitchell’s Dead in the Water, both 65-minute audiobooks in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. And boy, they were great. Both were extremely polished, with professional readers and solid production values, including subtle sound effects and rousing music. Best of all they were terrific stories — especially the Ciaphas Cain tale Dead in the Water. Commissar…

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