I actually have this now. One of the guys here bought a box and only wanted the terrain, and so I picked up the rules, templates, tokens and dice for about 30GBP. Have now put together a list for Eldar, have bought four boxes of 40K minis in the last month and played my first game of it. This is someone who hasnt played 28mm GW since Space Hulk second edition.
Sure, the lore is a little 'stretched' with Necrons, etc all managing to be found in one Hive, but we are not letting the background get in the way of a decent game.
I dislike the Spec Ops (the 'extra troop types' such as Ravenors, Terminators and Wraithguard that are only available for one game at a time) mechanic on paper as I would prefer more variety in what you can build your teams with over these 'star players'.
I have a second test game this week, and then the first campaign game after this. Initial thoughts are that the system is overly complex in certain places, and '40K deficient' in others, and that the entire game feels like eating cotton candy. Its a great sugary hit but it lacks a lot of depth.
For example, I build my Eldar and I have a total of 4 choices. I must have one leader, who is my Exarch. Then I can get Dire Avengers, Guardians and Guardian weapon gunners. You can then arm your troops, which should be where the fun stuff comes in, but these guys can take equipment from the grenades (of which there is one grenade choice), misc (which basically for these guys comes down to photor visor and a reload) or basic weapons (consisting of 3 types of Shuriken Catapult, one for Guardians, one for Avengers and one for the Exarch. This means that aside from the Exarch, your choices are Guardian with Catapult, Heavy weapon platform for twice the cost of an infantry model, and a gunner, or an Avenger with a Shuriken Catapult.
At no point do I feel that these are 'my guys' because I never really created this Kill Team. I also suspect that the campaign and advancement system will involve basically adding one more guy and giving a couple of them skills. Not exactly in depth.
All that said.... See above for me spending around almost S$200 in one month on GW minis. As an excuse to buy some 40K, its as good as any that has been available. Its great that a typical team has about 6 guys in it as I now have four teams that I want to build, and I can feasibly do this one each month. Plus, there is a lot to be said for being able to buy one box and get all of your troops from the same place. We also played a fair few games of This Is Not A Test (another campaign skirmish game) and although I like this system better, the fact that Shadow Wars includes the 40K background and races, is a real edge. Plus, with TNT, I spend half my time online looking for that one guy from any range available with mesh armour, an Assault Rifle and a pistol. When I add a new Guardian, I just go back to that box in the corner and its there with the right weapons included.
_________________ https://www.cybershadow.ninja - A brief look into my twisted world, including wargames and beyond. https://www.net-armageddon.org - The official NetEA (Epic Armageddon) site and resource.
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