+ inload: a look at the Legions Imperialis rulebook +

+ Epic-scale Delights +

+ In various recent exloads I've written about the models and painting, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to scribble down some thoughts on the rulebook. +

+ For something I was really looking forward to, I can't help feeling a bit... deflated with it. I couldn't put my finger on it at first, but I've since come to the conclusion that it's down to three things:

• Writing style
• Bulk versus value
• Visuals

+ Style +

+ I think this jumped out at me as I read through and spotted bit I recognised from Space Marine 2nd edition (SM2). The LI rulebook is a big 240 page hardback. The SM2 rulebook is, in contrast, 64 pages. SM2 covers the core rules of the game in 12 pages; LI in 21. +

+ The rules themselves are strikingly similar – so what's causing that huge increase of page count? In the case of the core rules, it's largely taken up with exceptions, clarifications, and examples. I can see the value in this. Tabletop wargaming is a good example of where hard and fast rules meet the fuzzy edges of the real world, so having these helps to get across the intention of the rules. On the other hand, they don't half make it hard to get to the actual meat and potatoes of the game. +

+ It's not helped by the writing style. Compare the way picking a target is described in SM2 (left) and LI (right):

 

+ LI has a very formal style, presumably in the name of clarity and avoiding arguments. The key rules terms (like 'Detachment', 'Engaged & Pinned' etc.) are capitalised and consistent throughout the whole system. It's official-feeling. +

+ In contast, SM2 is looser, shorter, and continually directs the reader to what's in front of them. Stylistically, I find it much more friendly and readable. It lacks the clarity of LI, and is far more open to interpretation. +

+ Which you prefer will be down to taste – and having seen some of the arguments caused by the looseness of GW's old-school rule systems, the modern formal style definitely has that in its favour. +

+ However, I think there's a balance to be struck. LI is noted as being a 'veteran's game', aimed at experienced hobbyists – but if anything, I'd say that should allow the rules writers to assume a bit more of a mature approach to gameplay. +

+ The latest version of 40k struck this balance much better, I feel, with a compact, readable set of core rules which have the key points are clarified and highlighted in bullet-list boxes to get that firmer clarification on intention. +

+ Overall, I didn't feel drawn into the rules. The style makes recreating a galactic civil war feel dry and uninspiring, and in concert with the other points below, made reading about one of the richest sci-fi settings seem boring. +

+ This isn't helped by a 'one-step-back' pseudo-historical style that continually reminds you that this is all happening in the distant past. Great for marketing placement against 40k, but it distances the reader from the action. +

+++

+ Bulk versus impact +

+ The SM2 rulebook is a pamphlet. There's far less detail on the setting (40k, in that case), but what's there is evocative and serves to engage you with the rules. This is the introduction for Space Marine, and it appears immediately after the contents: 

+ The equivalent in LI is on page 28.

+ Reading through, both explain what the book contains, but I think you'll agree that SM2 does a much better job of sounding exciting. +

+ For the sake of fairness, the 27 pages before the LI introduction contain a potted history of the Horus Heresy – but again the pseudo-historical style robs it of any sense of immediacy, danger and excitement. Compare the opening sentences of the two rulebooks:

'Before the tragedy that was the Horus Heresy can be understood, one must first learn what came before, in the tenebrous millennia of strike that brought humanity to the brink of extinction. Such a time occurred thousands of years before the Emperor walked amongst his subjects and imposed his vision upon the stars.'

and:

'Space Marine is the game of epic battles in the far distant future, where mighty warriors clash in an apocalyptic conflict which will decide the fate of the galaxy.'

The first (LI) concisely introduces the unfolding action, while the other (SM2) directs you to read a history. And this isn't a setting thing. The first edition of Space Marine, which is also set in the Horus Heresy, does a much better job of summarising things and getting you set:

'It is a desperate time. Humanity's greatest champion has become its deadliest enemy. Now he leads an army against Terra itself. An army of the ultimate Human warriors - an army of Space Marines.

On the feral world of Davin, Imperial Warmaster Horus was possessed by a creature from the Warp. He has turned against the Imperium of Humanity, and so have the thousands of bio-engineered super-warriors who follow him. War rages across the galaxy in between the loyalists and the rebels.'

+ ...and this is what I mean by bulk versus impact. In fairness, I suspect this is partly a 'me' thing, in that the broad sweep of the Horus Heresy is very familiar, so I don't find the value in the rehashing of material that I've read repeatedly elsewhere. Even taking that into account, however, I'd still argue that the rulebook would have benefitted a great deal from some hard cuts. +

+ Older versions of Epic did not have the advantage of an entire library's worth of novels and supporting background, and I wonder if it was just too tempting to try to cram a lot of exposition into the game rulebook, rather than making a hard decision to give a taste and then lead people on to the supporting material. +

+ Beyond this, there's also the practical side of the army lists clearly being incomplete. I understand the commercial reasons, but with follow-up books that contain new units being inevitable, it would have been nice to at least have get-you-by stats (or even just points so you could plan purchases) for models like bikes, Land Raiders and so forth. As it is, this book, for all its size and weight, is incomplete – and at the premium price GW charges, that's just not on. +

+++

+ Visuals +

+ The SM1 and SM2 rulebooks are black and white; the LI book is full colour – but you might not know it. The design is near-universally grey. It's all very tasteful, but evokes more the dreary grind of eternal war than exciting you about a presumably entertaining game. +

+ Worse than that, however, is that there's a paucity of artworks. Each section has a colour plate of models in a diorama, nicely set off by digital atmosphere. There is a colour plate section for each of the Space Marine Legions and a couple of example Titans, and half a dozen full page or full spread digitally-enhanced model artworks like the ones below. Beyond that, it's hazy greyscale knockbacks of 40k-scale figures. +

+ Having read the Imperial Armour books for 40k/Age of Darkness, it's clear that those are the design inspiration, but it's feels spread so thinly here. With the sole exception of the picture below, there are none of the sweeping battlelines of previous editions:

+ The overall feel is clearly meant to be luxurious; a coffee table book to pick over – but the striking visuals (like the lovely example above) are just too infrequent to get across the appeal of mass battle tabletop warfare: having loads of troops and tanks. +

+++

+ What does the rulebook do well? +

+ I don't like to be overly or unfairly critical, so I do want to highlight what is great about the book. Much of the criticism above is relative. For example, while I like a friendlier, more personal tone to a manual, that won't be to everyone's taste – so I'll stick with more concrete examples here. +

+ Consistency  I think its unarguable that the crisp, precise language of the LI rulebook means that it's much better at eliminating grey areas than the more collegiate style of the previous editions. Note that this is not to say that the rules are necessarily correct, but that the approach taken means that it's possible to fix them. For example, from what I read online there are some unclear areas in the rules (surrounding transports and break points, for example) but the clarity of the language means that these things can easily be fixed as errata. Let's hope GW follow through on it+

+ Terrain and missions  Secondly, the book contains something that I've long valued in tabletop wargaming rules – a proper crack at the 'Third Army', in clearly explained rules for the board, the scenery, and the mission set ups. Given short shrift or quickly glossed over in previous editions, the terrain rules are some of the most innovative developments in an otherwise very faithful adaptation. +

+ Familiarity  For all that my heart is with the abstraction of Epic: 40,000 and the flow of Epic: Armageddon, in terms of a mechanical tightening of the older game, this really succeeds. The underlying engine remains familiar and easily recognisable, but there are lots of refinements and improvements – and knowing the criticisms of the old game, the designers have clearly done their research in closing off loopholes and stamping out the old exploits. +

+ Nice aesthetic  This probably sounds a bit rich, given I've just laid into it for looking grey and dull, and lacking any of the beautiful artwork by Blanche, Kev Walker, Paul Bonner, Colin Howard, Wayne England and the like. However, if I lay aside my expectations, and take it in the context of a world in which it's easy to quickly look up what a plasma gun looks like (for example), it is pretty stylish for a game rulebook, and there's a sense of visual polish  and consistency that is very much lacking in a lot of game manuals. +

+++

+ Striking a balance +

+ Given that this game was explicitly written to appeal to existing Epic gamers like me (see the Commanders of Old and Princeps of New box in the LI introduction page above), I can't help feeling that they've missed the goal a bit. +

+ Having said all that, I don't want to put you off the game. This isn't a review of the mechanics – that'll come after a test game this week – but rather of the rulebook's appeal. It's a new, niche game, and I think the rulebook would have been much better off with a clearer, narrower route into the appeal of small-scale gaming in the Horus Heresy. +

+ For me GW need to work out whether they want their rulebooks to be beautiful objects that you treasure and come back to explore, or practical handbooks, because at the moment rulebooks like that (and 40k) fall into the gap between these poles. +

+ Hopping off my soapbox, then; I am still looking forward to trying out the game. I came into LI with high hopes and medium expectations, and while I wish GW had taken a different approach with the rulebook, it will serve well. I can't help feeling, however, that the impractical nature of a hefty hardback is going to put off as many people as it attracts. +

+++

+ Back to the models +

+ Phew, enough pontificating about rules and bumf, let's get down to the serious business of putting paint on platic – or metal, in this case. +

+ Here are a handful of Dreadnoughts destined for the new Epic: Legions Imperialis (LI). These are Tim Adcock sculpts from 1996, I believe, for the then-new release of Epic: 40,000, the elegantly abstract/stripped of flavour (delete to taste) version of Epic. +

+ The details are notably big and chunky – as much a deliberate design choice as forced on the designers by scale and limitations of metal casting. For me, they've got nostalgic appeal, and it's certainly easier to see what's what at table distance. +

+ I had hoped to finish the painting on these, but it was so chilly last night that the burnt sienna on the bases took more than an hour to dry! +

+ Instead, here are some more piccies of the Second Company, for no other reason than I really like them! +

+ Into the fires of battle! Unto the anvil of war! +