A First Look at 40K Warhammer 7th Edition – A Galaxy of War

Warhammer 40K 7th Edition is upon us. The overall vibe, over the past few weeks, seems to have become more positive. But what are the three (!) new core books of 40K really like?

I’ll be looking at each of the three books in the new edition of Warhammer 40K: A Galaxy of War, Dark Millennium, and the Rules.

I’ll start with the book that is – in my opinion – the poorest of the lot: A Galaxy of War. Meant as a visual celebration of the hobby, it offers little more than Citadel photo shots and ads for other GW products. It could have been and should have been so much more.

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A Galaxy of War is an introduction to Warhammer 40,000. It contains photographs of beautifully painted Citadel miniatures and provides inspiration for your own collection.

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#1 – A Galaxy of War – What Is It?

A Galaxy of War is one of the three books that comes with the new 3-book-edition of Warhammer 40K. There are no rules here (which are in the Rulebook), or even a lot of background (which is in Dark Millennium, though there is a little bit here too).

A Galaxy of War is about the “The Warhammer 40,000 Hobby” (title of the first chapter).

The book itself is 144 pages thick, comparable to the Space Marines Codex, hardcover and full colour. For the most part, it is filled with pictures of Citadel miniatures painted by the Games Workshop studio.

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#2 – A Galaxy of War – Pictures from the Studio

Indeed, the first impression of ‘A Galaxy of War’ is that it is a giant, hardcover version of Games Workshop’s new monthly Warhammer Visions magazine.

On a second look, I don’t think it is even that. Though the studio-miniatures are nice, having literally nothing but these miniatures in close-ups or moody battle-scenes tends to get old fast. Even the much maligned Warhammer Visions occasionally has things like…

• Kit-Bash and conversions
• Blanchitsu and other weird models
• Golden Demon winners and high-quality miniatures not painted by the GW studio
• The odd paint-splatter
• Etc…..

A Galaxy of War has nothing of these.

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#3 – Advertisement, Advertisement

Worse, what it misses in actually “hobby-articles”, A Galaxy of War makes up for in advertisements for other GW products (including painting guides) throughout the book.

There are several splash-pages like the one above, encouraging you to buy ebooks, the Apocalypse expansion, Codex-books, etc…

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#4 - The Celebration of the Hobby That Wasn’t

To be fair, A Galaxy of War was the one book in the new Warhammer 40K core-book-trilogy that was always going to have the toughest time to convince me.

That said, flicking through it, I could actually envision a “Celebration of the Hobby”-book that would live up to that moniker. Imagine, for a second, if only … say … 50% of this book would have been GW studio miniatures, with the rest of the pages filled with

1. Models filled from (talented) actual hobbyists, as well as Golden Demon winners.
2. A careful selection of “first-steps-paint-splatters” to go with the Studio miniatures (e.g. An Ultramarine, a Termagant, a Tau Firewarrior, etc..).
3. Possibly one or two “advanced” articles, such as a quick introduction to weathering.
4. A few “collecting an army” features… possibly even from the White Dwarf guys / rules writers. For example, I remember a White Dwarf army of both Blood & Dark Angels, painted to complement each other visually.
5. A few “Sprue & Glue” basic introductions to tools, bases, paints, etc.. .
6. Etc… .

Somewhere out there, in some alternative universe, this book might have turned out to be the “ultimate hobby/collection”-tome that people will pick up again and again as they tinker with their miniatures.

As it stands, ‘A Galaxy of War’, for most people buying these books, will likely end up collecting dust somewhere.

It’s pretty, sure, but not “inspiring”, and offers nothing that an issue of the White Dwarf Weekly or a look at the Games Workshop webstore does not offer as well. Even Warhammer Visions is better.

Very disappointing.

Z.