"40K Apocalypse and Cities of Death reviews...?" Topic

Anyone purchased either of these? Any thoughts? Any writeups?

Well it is just what I have picked up here or there but 40k apocalypse is fun if you want to use big ass guns and blow large chunks of troops up… but limited maneuvering. Well every table or battle report is almost bowing under the weight of the mini's but they are crowed on there so tight it isn't even funny.

I am sure if you were playing on a rooms floor or something you would get some movement out of the game.

So it you like the idea of just throwing large piles of stuff on the table and duking it out. You should like it. If you want tactics and maneuvering might want to thing of a very large playing area or a different game.

I find the idea of the Apocalypse games enjoyable, but have yet to play in one that WAS enjoyable.

The assets seem to me to be what win or lose games.

There is nothing like spending half an hour deploying units that all get wiped out by the first Orbital Strike… "Oh you just took out half my starting force AND you have three more Orbit Strikes allowed by your Formation Data Sheet…and you haven't even hand to move a unit yet!?!"
That happened on my third or fourth game.

I have played about a dozen or so games now and have not really enjoyed any of them.

For the scale of battle these games are meant to be, I would rather be playing Epic or FWC in 6mm.

Well, I like Apocalypse every once in a while. Not for all my games, but maybe one every three months…
Well worth getting, IMO.

I don't have Cites of Death, so I cannot comment.

I play IG w/City Fight so my experience is weighted in that arena to reflect that.

I've found that you end up relying (not just using, but COUNTING ON) weapons and choices that you would normally bypass or not field so much of in a "normal" 40k game. It all has to do with the amount of cover & terrain.

For IG, flamers & Sentinels especially rock the board, while in IG, flamers would be almost routinely bypassed for other weapons in a regular game, and Sentinels are fragile enough that one would not field unless they had a specific mission to accomplish in a normal game. In City Fight, Sentinels are *very* flexible platforms that can accomplish a variety of tasks.

Only done one Apoc game when it first came out (Grey Knights w/IG Allies) and we did not use the "assets" part.

I can second HyperBunny's assessment based on what I have heard from LGS others who kept on playing Apoc and by now have given up as well.

But I gotta say that first game slug out w/o assets WAS fun.

Apocalypse is a lot of fun. It looks great seeing all of those models on the table. The game takes a lot of planning as lots of issues and ideas need to be dealt with before the game. The players need to be creative to make it work.
It takes a long long time to set down individual models. It also takes a long time for movement.I have been thinking that movement trays of somekind should be used to speed up the game. That could shave off an hour of game time. Or maybe increasing squad size along with movement trays.
On a recent 16000 total points game it took more than 5 hours to play and we did not finish.
Check out this battle report.

link

The Apocalypse book is really well written and a fun read. Have never played, though. I think Castellan is right on with movement trays, though. Funny enough, GW even makes ones that will work just fine with those round bases…

Cities of Death is a book that I think every 40k player should own, and pull a mission out of occasionally. Mardaddy is right, CoD really makes you rethink your 'standard' army build, and has great ideas for conversions and campaigns.

Apocalypse is some neat ideas to break out of the tournament mindset that seems to be prevalent in the US, but I think the execution is a little flawed. Borrowing the company bases from War of the Ring would be a good start to speeding up the game, but frankly, I'd just as soon play Epic: Armageddon.

Planetstrike is just flawed, period. The missions aren't particularly well-balanced, so the attacker tends to just walk all over the defender.

In 5th Edition I would not put my IG on the table without Flamers.

No roll to hit only to wound.

Everything touch by the template is hit.

Str 4 AP 5 with no cover save means unless it is a Marine or something bigger or has a special ward save you wound it dies.

Good reviews. Thnx!

I'll offer the contrarian opinion of Planet Strike. The last game we had featured 20 players and was a blast. The attacker lost 4 to 1. There were several stompas, kitbashed vehicles, and the usual green horde of orks. On the attacker's side was a huge fortress, 2 Warhound Titans and a Vanguard Titan (scratch built, beautiful and 3' tall).

It was great fun. I did lose half of my infantry in the pre-game bombardment but that meant I just needed to focus all that I could on what I had left. At the start of the last round it was 2 to 2. Part of what helped us over the top was leaving the relative safety of the walls of the fortress and racing hell bent for leather to the objectives in the enemy rear area. It was very enjoyable and a tough fight right until the end. The game ran about 4 hours and was great fun.

Compared to the tournament style of play, I preferred this. I like team games with objectives and a need for everyone to cooperate for the common good.

HyperBunny, your post gave me an idea. I have not thought it out completly.
Maybe give all players orbital bombardment. If either player initiates the other can respond. So, if player A calls for it player A takes all his actions. Player B in player A's turn responds. Take wounds and stuff as normal.

Mutually Assured Destruction? ;)

"Mutually Assured Destruction? ;)"

Yes!

All of this orbital bombardment stuff makes me sad LOL!

Surely in the opening phases of a planetary assault most land battles would be fought to neutralise such things as defence lasers and such.

So if the orbital defences are functioning wouldn't any ship coming in close enough to bombard targets be very vulnerable to ground fire?

Imperial defences are obviously not what they were in my youth LOL!

AS