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Warhammer 40K Escalation Escalates

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Escalation Escalates

December 2013 has shaken up Warhammer 40K players around the globe with the digital advent calendar formations and the new Escalation and Stronghold Assault books. Fierce debates everywhere on whether they are “official” or not. and what you ought to expect these rules in your “average” pick-up game at the club or, perhaps, at Warhammer World.

I don’t really know myself yet; one of the reasons I started a little poll on the issue.

With so much confusion about, it’s not surprising that people look to Games Workshop or, more specifically, Warhammer World as the remaining bastion of Warhammer games officially organized by GW, as a guide to what Nottingham considers “regular 40K”.

#1 – Warhammer World Warriors’ Code

Escalation Official

Games Workshop laid down the rules for their own house in their new “Warrior’s Code”.

If the event you are attending is using the Warhammer 40,000 system, the following publications (either digital or printed) are available for you to choose your armies from:
• Codex: Adepta Sororitas
• Codex: Blood Angels
• Codex: Chaos Daemons
• Codex: Chaos Space Marines
• Codex: Dark Angels
• Codex: Dark Eldar
• Codex: Eldar
• Codex: Grey Knights
• Codex: Imperial Guard
• Codex: Inquisition
• Codex: Necrons
• Codex: Orks
• Codex: Space Marines
• Codex: Space Wolves
• Codex: Tau Empire
• Codex: Tyranids
• All Warhammer 40,000 Dataslate publications from Games Workshop: Digital Editions
• Any Codex Expansion, for example Iyandan, the Farsight Enclaves, Black Legion etc.
• Rules and unit entries from pages 34 – 81 of Escalation.
• Rules and unit entries from pages 12 – 36 of Stronghold Assault.
• Death from the Skies – please note this compendium from pages 53 to 72 will be in use at all our Warhammer 40,000 events. Entries will be replaced as time goes by, as Codexes are released which include the units presented within Death from the Skies.

Thus, if you are attending an event at Warhammer World, the rules from the Escalation and Stronghold Assault books, as well as the digital stuff from the advent calendar, is “in”.

Forge World rules are still “out”.

That’s how Warhammer World plays, for whatever that means.

Of course, there is no obligation to play like they play in Nottingham and, especially among tournaments, all kind of whacky house-rules are the norm these days (1999+1 anyone?).

However, I do find it insightful to consider how Games Workshop plays the game (without necessarily following suit).

#2 – Forge World Escalation

On the other hand, while Forge World rules are kept out of the more “tournament-flavoured” Warhammer World events, Forge World did put together a list for “Lords of War” units for Warhammer 40K (as opposed to Lord of War in their Horus Heresy products), which includes a choice of large Forge World miniatures that didn’t get rules in the recent Escalation book (guess it’s getting about time I pick one up and have a look).

#3 – Thoughts?

Well….

At the very least, I suppose I’ll try to pick up the Escalation book to take a look what the continued fuss is all about.

I hate repeating (or restating) the question I already asked in my recent poll, but I do wonder if GW’s “ruling” (for their own house) changed anything for you, or your games? Or is Warhammer World irrelevant to your games of Warhammer 40K?

Leave a comment and share your thoughts!

Z.

Zweischneid

Zweischneid

I am Zweischneid. Wargame Addict. Hopeless painter and founder of Pins of War. I hope you enjoyed this article. Don't forget to share your favourite miniature pictures and wargaming videos at www.pinsofwar.net.
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  • Bernd Langer

    I have a qwest. Can you writh in german !

    • http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid

      Klar.

      • Yggdrasil

        Aber nur ein bisschen :)

        • http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid

          Je suppose que votre allemand est meilleur que mon français!

          • Yggdrasil

            Well, considering your flawless reply, I’m pretty sure it isn’t :)
            Plus, my German is far, far away… I’ve lost most of it, but for a few catchphrases ;)

  • Bernd Langer

    Is ja prima . Und wie können wir verfahren ?

    • http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid

      Was genau willst du wissen?

  • Bobthemim

    I like the bit in the Warrior’s Code where a says a Daemon Prince MUST have modeled Wings if “flight” is bought, because nothing is /that/ psychic..

    I would kindly point them to BA Libby Dread with Wings of Sanguinius.. if a flying dread doesnt need wings…?

    on the topic of Escalation.. Necron armies have become OP.. the Tesseract Ark monolith thing is 315pts and is the cheapest way to get (D)estroyer Weapons.. which can cause a whopping 36 (6xD6) stripped hull points if you are lucky.

    • http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid

      Well, I don’t think I would put that much on those little jokes in the brackets (2 is not a swarm?). They are just (more or less successful) attempts to make a dreary document full of dreary regulation a bit more fun to read, not logical reasoning you should take as canon.

      And the Blood Angels stuff are psychic powers after all, the Daemon stuff is an Upgrade, similar to how a Psyker with the “Molten Beam” power doesn’t need to be modeled with a Meltagun, while a Guardsman or Marine with a meltagun certainly should have it on the miniature.

      It’s not necessarily “intuitive”, but it’s not really new to how they’ve handled WYSIWG in the past with respect to psychic powers and equipment/upgrades

  • Ruska

    Personally, my only issue is with D weapons. Sometimes I play Deathwing, and a Revenant could easily table me in 1-2 turns.

    I have no issue with the dataslates. A few of them might seem overpowered because of their bonus rules, but I feel like they’re expensive enough that it’s a high enough cost as it is.

    Granted, my opponents and I are fairly casual. I would be ok with playing a game against someone with a Lord of War, but I would tailor my army around it.

  • Hive Senteniel

    I think the only issue I think people have with Escalation is the Revenant Titan, it is way to powerful for a normal game. As a result, the Revenant Titan literally wipes armies off the field in few short turns. If one wants to face a Revenant it’s pretty much mandatory to bring your own LoW unit.If the Eldar got the Lynx or Scorpion I think it’d be better. (I’m not complaining personally Harridan is da bomb)
    *Also why didn’t marines or imperium get the Warhound if the Elder could get the Revenant. Does that seem weird?

    • http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid

      No idea.

      Perhaps, because the Imperium / Marines have the most entries, they thought they’d “balance” it by giving the Xenos-factions more powerful ones?

      • Hive Senteniel

        Well the Thunderhawk seems to do the job. But the Baneblade/Stormsword, gets blown to bits by most armies so I don’t think I would consider it “balanced”. The Warhound isn’t much more expensive and it would be able to go toe-toe with the Revenant Titan. Maybe that’ll get rectified in the future…

        • http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid

          … maybe. Would be great if they had something planned for the future.

          Right now, I am skeptical though. Feels a bit too much like a “quick Christmas” sales-push.

          But.. if it truly launches a series of larger models (with or without Forge World precedent) over the next year, it could be quite spectacular.

          Of course, if that is truly the case, the inclusion of the Eldar Revenant might mean that Eldar won’t get anything new.

          • Hive Senteniel

            That’s true, it does feel really rushed. But it would be nice to see GW make their own unique Super-Heavies for Escalation, I remain optimistic, but skeptical as well. If they do I’m not sure if they would let the Eldar keep the Revenant or not…