Warhammer 40K First Look - More Krieg, Campaign Coming Soon!

Another week brings with it a fresh batch of Games Workshop products up for pre-order, and this week we're taking a quick sneak peek at a few important new releases for Warhammer 40K. Games Workshop provided me with preview copies of two new Death Korps of Krieg units, as well as a PDF of the new Warhammer 40K Crusade: Nachmund Gauntlet, which brings campaign play back into the 41st millenium! Read on for my first impression thoughts!

Warhammer 40K Crusade - Nachmund Gauntlet

Enclosed in this massive tome is everything you need to start running your own Warhammer 40K campaign with your gaming group, compatible with the latest edition of the rules.

Nachmund Gauntlet - Storytelling At Its Finest

This massive book, which clocks in at around 120 pages, dives deep into the story so far - we learn of the warlords seeking to lay claim to the world of Sangua Terra, one of the fortified bastions against Chaos in the famed Nachmund Gauntlet.

If you're a fan of the lore of Warhammer 40K, and want to know the latest in the story the underpins the events of the game as a whole, this is a treasure trove of fantastic storytelling. One of the aspects I most love about all the Codexes and rulebooks that come out for all Games Workshop products is the level of storytelling on display. This isn't simple "the baddies are moving closer to their goal" writing, we dive deep into the various factions at play, their machinations, and more.

Nachmund Gauntlet Campaign - Build Your Forces, See Them Through

There are so many campaign rules for this game, it's hard to cover it all in a preview. So I'll keep it brief for the sake of discovery. In this Crusade book, you'll find rules to help guide a campaign over a series of missions, and there's a truly robust ruleset designed to help you play through it all.

You'll order all players into the campaign into alliances (ideally based on the army they're fielding) split between Guardians who seek to protect Sangua Terra, Despoilers who wish to conquer the world, and Marauders who seek to use the turmoil on Sangua Terra to their own benefit.

There are also a whole suite of Crusade rules specific to this Sangua Terran war, including how to use Crusade Badges, Battle Traits, Crusade Relics, and rules on using Tactical Reserves, recording your missions, blessings, agendas, and so much more.

Nachmund Gauntlet Campaign - Missions

As for the missions included in this book, you'll find fifteen distinct missions that see forces doing everything from securing drop sites to acting as heralds for larger incoming forces. One of my favorites is the Saboteurs mission, which sees the Attacker-designated player trying to get deep into Defender territory to use a special action to sabotage important points on the map.

All throughout, these missions seem to me to balance a bit of novel and thematic gameplay with well-balanced challenges. There's nothing in here that feels so story driven that you're at a disadvantage for being on the wrong side of the narrative. This is a seriously robust Crusade book, and if you've got a regular playgroup or a local shop running this campaign, it's well-worth checking out.

Warhammer 40K - Death Korps of Krieg New Releases

Many, many new releases are coming this week for pre-order for the Death Korps of Krieg army. We recently covered the brand new Krieg Army Box that just released for the forces, and many of the units that were bundled in the box are now available for pre-order separately. I'm now getting my first look at two additional units coming that weren't included in the box set: The Krieg Heavy Weapons Squad, and the Krieg Command Squad.

Warhammer 40K - Death Korps of Krieg Heavy Weapons Squad

The Heavy Weapons Squad is designed to be built and suited to your needs! Each unit contains three Heavy Weapons Gunner models and one Fire Coordinator model, and each model has both a laspistol and close combat weapon for when the battle gets a little too close to them.

But we're not here to talk about laspistols! The standard construction for these models is to have each Heavy Weapons Gunner equipped with a lascannon, which fires a single shot at a staggering 12 Strength, dealing D6+1 damage per hit. But you can swap these out as you see fit to include a Twin Krieg heavy stubber which hits hard with three Attacks per model and has Rapid Fire 3.

Alternatively, you can also build these models with a Krieg heavy flamer, which has the "ignores cover" and "torrent" keywords and deals d6 attacks at 2 damage each.

All in all, this unit is a great option if you want some heavy fire but don't like fielding tanks!

Warhammer 40K - Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad

Finally, let's take a look at the new Krieg Command Squad! This is the Krieg army knife of the army, with so many different weapon loadouts for the various members of the Squad. Where it really all comes together is in the Wargear abilities for the various bits, bobs, and gadgets attached to your models.

Let's chat about those abilities quickly: there's the Master Vox - which allows the Officer in this unit to issue orders up to 24" away, the Alchemyk Counteragents - which gives the unit the "Feel No Pain 6+" ability against mortal wounds, the Regimental Standard - which adds 1 to the Objective Control score of models in the unit (that's for each model), and the Servo-scribes - which, once per battle, lets the Officer issue two Orders at once (and is marked with a very cool Servo-scribes model).

If you're trying to get the most out of issuing orders to your Krieg army, this unit is not only pretty tough, and full of great weaponry, but they'll help you get those orders out efficiently.

That covers everything we got a chance to check out early with this week's preorder previews! Let us know what you think about these new releases in the comments!

The products used to create this review were provided by Games Workshop.