As astute readers know, I'm an unabashed fan of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. So when I saw that GW would be releasing a board game based on the legendary assassin temples, it definitely got my attention. Last week, I caved to the hype and ordered the game.
In Part 1 of this review, we'll be discussing the box's contents, from the models to the instruction manual! I promise lots of pretty pictures!
First things first: the production value. I know this game is expensive, but everything in the box is very high-quality. Say what you want about GW, but they know how to make fantastic models, and you get a lot of them in the box. As a matter of fact, you get a lot of everything:
That's a butt-load of material. Let's try and break it down a little.
The Chaos sprues: the game comes with 15 cultists, 3 Chaos Space Marines, and 1 Chaos Terminator Lord. The Cultists and the Terminator Lord sprues are the same ones that GW sells for the standard Warhammer 40,000 game. This segues into an important point about Execution Force--you're not getting "figures" in this box, you're getting high quality models. You will have to assemble and, possibly, paint a number of these models in order to get the most out of this game. For a lot of us that's a plus, but I can imagine for some people that would be a negative. Whoever you are, you should at least be aware of this.
Great detail on the models.
Lousy photo, but I only have an iPhone. These are the assassin sprues.
The assembled models are truly stunning. These have the dynamic poses that are becoming a staple of GW's independent characters. (You may notice what looks like a miscast on the sniper - that's just some putty I have holding the arm in place for the picture because I need to paint that model in pieces.)
For a more appealing picture of the detail on these models, check out the pro-painted Eversor Assassin below:
I've been waiting until now to mention what is probably the biggest negative about this game: the cost. GW is selling this on their website for $128 *ducks to avoid thrown objects* However! The total cost of buying the models separately from the game would exceed that amount, given GW's current pricing (this article is not meant to spark a debate on that, so don't even think about it!).
Onto the rest of the unboxing!
Full-color, glossy rulebook that includes about 10 pages of fluff and background at the end. Also, there is a list of campaign-style achievements for you to aim for -
A number of punch-outs and tokens that you'll need for the game
A very helpful and well-produced instruction manual.
The four game-board sections that the game is played on, and my size 13 foot for scale. These pieces are extremely sturdy and fairly water-proof, as I found out thanks to my dog!
"It's my apartment and I'll do what I want"
Finally, because I ordered from GW's website, they sent me these cool pins:
So, this is what you physically get for $128. There's a ton of stuff in this box, and it's all high-quality. You will need to figure out some sort of storage arrangements for the models, because these are not the type of game pieces that you just throw back into the box.
Again, the models are the same that GW would sell to 40k players. There has been no lapse in quality because this game isn't part of their mainstream production. These cultists are going straight into my 40k Chaos army, along with the Terminator Lord (as for the regular Chaos Marines, I have too many already).
In Part 2, we'll talk about the actual gameplay, but I'll give a spoiler for those of you who stuck it out until the end: the game is awesome!
Thanks for reading! For more gaming goodness you can follow me on Twitter at the truly outdated name
@PIflamesofwar
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