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Customer Review
- Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2017I'm a long time Space Hulk player who has generally steered away from the W40k tabletop miniature game. From my love of Space Hulk, I've developed a strong liking of the 40k lore over the years, I've just never been interested in playing W40k itself. From the blast templates to the scatter dice, to the wide open terrain, it just seemed a bit more than I was interested in.
But that love for the lore has kept me nearby over the years. I've grown to love putting models together, and painting them, yet other than doing so for the various editions of Space Hulk I own and buying some other miniatures to practice painting on, I still never really cared to try 40k. Yet it somehow still always stayed close by me. I finally got curious a couple of years ago, and watched some "how to play 40k" videos on YouTube. I had to admit, it did look fun, but still not really something I wanted to jump into. But I kept reading 40k books and short stories, and really enjoying them.
Then, a few weeks ago, I was at Origins Game Fair with my son. There was a demo table set up for attendees to try 40k. We figured we'd give it a go, since, after all, it was a game convention. While playing the demo, what I experienced was an enjoyable tabletop game that made me want to dig a little deeper. The demo was far simpler than I expected 40k to be. I found out from the Games Workshop employee who was giving the demos that a brand new version was coming out the very next day, and that the Core Rules would be free online. I still wasn't completely sold, but I figured I could download the free rules and try it out with my Space Hulk miniatures.
Now, several weeks later, I'm the proud owner of the full hardback rule book. The streamlined rules in 8th edition are very easy to pick up, very easy to understand and remember, and still allow for complex strategy. The scatter dice and blast templates, which I didn't like the concept of, have been removed from the game entirely. What you get in 8th edition is a set of clear rules that outline each turn in 6 steps.
So, since the core rules are available for free online, why would you buy the book? For me it was simply because of what I liked about 40k in the first place; the lore. The hard back rule book is filled with lore. The core rules themselves only take up 8 pages of the book. Much of the rest of the book is background and story, and I'm enjoying it very much. The hard back book also contains a section of advanced rules that can be added to the game once you have the basics down. These advanced rules are not contained in the free download, so you need this book to get those.
All in all, I'm pretty excited about having finally tried 40k, and I'm especially thrilled that the new rule set has made the game something I look forward to playing.
