GMG Reviews - Legions Imperialis: The Great Slaughter by Games Workshop

[@EmmanuelKa]

Thanks for a nice review, Ash. My main gripe, which no-one has asked for, is related to how much LI and other recent GW releases are - as you would say - products. Where is the life and fun in releases? We don't get any living, intense, narrative scenarios but just the same tournament style play that's obsessed with some sort of generalized balance. You can see it in their output for the game, too. Where are the massive battles, the custom built terrain and narratively-driven scenarios in the core book? Nowhere, because GW only wants to show off their studio products so people buy it. So they don't build a custom Drop Pod Massacre board to take pictures on, or write a scenario that takes place in such an evocative historical moment.

[@mtnbiker78]

My friends and I are actually working on those very things!

[@blastvader]

ToW seems to have more of this sort of stuff. HH and LI are under the main (boring) studio now aren't they? The fun stuff lives with the Specialist Games crew (which has been the case since like 2003).

[@HandofBlake]

They don't make money on ingenuity of hobbyists. Now you buy or else lol.

[@blastvader]

@@HandofBlake been like that for a long time though. Look at the difference between the 3rd edition City Fight book and 4th edition Cities of Death expansion. The former was filled with terrain making ideas and tables full of terrain built by the studio, the latter was a sales tool to support the release of the plastic terrain (Imperial and Manufactorum Sector). The only GW books I've seen recently that contain terrain that isn't just entirely GW plastic tat are for ToW and LotR.

[@FarseerB1rdy]

​@@blastvader no, LI was pretty much one guy, who I know. And he's definitely not part of the main studio.

[@evanvaldyke353]

Closest I will get to the Great Slaughter for months since it sold out so fast.

[@stevenray8737]

Great review as always Ash. As for Legions I only wanted to play as Knights, but it takes a second book to basically say "so long as it's only Titans and Knights, you can take as many of their core-book formations as you like"... They could have put that in a free pdf at launch, the AT player base getting Legions off to a good start, and saved this book for more substantial content for Marine and Solar players.

[@Breakingbad_habits]

“Oops all titans” looks like a fun game mode, but the LI core rule set isn’t built for it. These strapped on rules will be a good time but won’t have depth you get with combine arms, looks like a lot of blowing up robots for kill points…. I do agree they could have released the Titandeath rules as a PDF though (maybe a community member can make it and release ;) Ps. I think we haven’t seen Siege rules in TOW yet for the same reason (and to sell books!!)

[@loveone789]

Except you can already do that via "open play" unless you're specifically concerned about organized events

[@stevenray8737]

​@@loveone789 True, and its how we played our first game as all we had to hand were AT and AI models. I think I would be happy with the condition that I take 30% as Solar Auxiliary, if I wanted to take Knights as primaries.

[@tomaszmankowski9103]

Thanks a lot for the review! I agree that Stormhammers and Baneblades deserve 3 wound stats. Especially with future releases of Fellblades, Falchions and Fellglaives for Legions in mind. Take care!

[@adampratt6078]

Another excellent review Ash, thank u. I was lucky enough to get a preorder in at my local games shop for the book, which surprised me as the owner then told me they were only allocated one copy. ONE COPY! Im not sure how i will find anyone to play against now. I hope more are available soon or the game may not be long for this world.

[@stuartbaxter-potter8363]

My store was allocated zero of anything. I think a combination of their warehouse software changeover being a catastrophe and the perennial scalpers have joined forces to deny the vast majority of us a simple game.

[@adampratt6078]

@stuartbaxter-potter8363 It's such a shame mate, I really hope u can find a copy without having to resort to scalper prices. I'm just hoping that there will be a 2nd wave in a month or so to insure anyone who actually plays can get it, or maybe a made to order event.

[@volcano3493]

Great Slaughter book as well as Legion Support & Spartans are not available anymore. In what kind of world do we live in? I wanted to order a few from my local GW store. Jesus!

[@waaaghzag]

It'll all be back in stock at GW (except the cards), but the stockists show the book as no longer available meaning they either can't order any more for restock, or don't want to hold stock for this book, which might be the case if they don't think it'll sell quickly because shelf space costs money for the FLGS. All models show on back-order at the stockists though.

[@ScreamingTc]

I love Legions, but my good has it been a shit show when it comes to support and actually having kits in stock. It will end up killing the game off if they don't get on top of this.

[@3Xero3]

Yeah... GW busy patting themselves on the back thinking their sold-out stuff means they are doing good. Meanwhile, players who want to get in are starting to see this product as simply dead on arrival.

[@SS-gr1by]

I am one of those players. Sold off all my 40k and other GW stuff cuz well, it sucked really. Saw this, watched all I could, happened to have some Titanicus still in boxes so I got the two player box and thats really it. The rest is slim pickins. Real discouraging because Im willing to go all out for this game after reading the core book. @@3Xero3

[@marekskyrim]

It's not about "killing the game", but killing the player community of the game. The game, it can always be here as long as it's sold. Finding someone to play with outside of your private group, that's the real trouble.

[@tragicthegarnering3619]

I think the 2 wounds on the baneblades are probably a balance thing as weird as it is. also it looks like they got rid of the detachment tax in this book as all the upgrades are the same costs per unit as the base units.

[@srdies5289]

Thanks for the review, sincerely. Since the book is out of stock already, at least we can have the rules for the new units... that we can't buy xD Now I understand people with 3d printers a little bit more.

[@tbd3058]

It was already out of stock at noon on the day pre releases went up. GW needs to get their shit in order

[@marekskyrim]

Honestly, I'm leaning towards stopping buying anything on pre-order day and just wait a couple months later, when there is more added to the range and I have a better overall idea. And nevermind the things that are "definitively out of stock" and don't come back, that means I didn't really need them anyway.

[@infinitecrazymonkeys4752]

Had the book and cards in my cart, just as they landed on the preorder page pressed ‘proceed’ - insufficient stock wtf GW!?

[@justinavery8664]

The same exact thing happened to me in the first release. It's beyond frustrating and forced me to move on to other game companies. It's unfortunate. Not Ash's fault, but im sick of watching reviews for games you can't even get the complete rules or cards for.

[@BarrySheppard]

Same. It's gonna be hard to justify buying more LI minis if we can't get the rules to play them 😢

[@keithgoodman6251]

Me too 😔. Again 😠

[@infinitecrazymonkeys4752]

It baffles me why they don’t simply take preorders a month or so out to gauge demand and then arrange production runs to fulfil said demand…. You know, like pretty much any other business on this planet 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@loveone789]

Out of stock immediately, go figure. Should just make pre-orders made-to-order

[@blkjet117]

What a great way to deal with availability, and curb scalping. No way GW is smart enough to do it.

[@TheRendar]

Great review! Looking forward to this one. Absolutely love the game.

[@skywatcheradept]

There are Dire Wolf titans on the cover but no plastic Dire Wolf Titans for pre-order. Warhammer Community article in January promised plastic Dire Wolf titans, but yeah.

[@Matcapoeira86]

I mean, there's also droppods and jetbikes incoming. Will probably be in a next wave.

[@Mr_Waffle.]

Plastic Dire Wolf was shown off mid last year lol. The LI release is so messed up :(

[@skywatcheradept]

@@Mr_Waffle. dang, I wrote January but I meant July. Sooo long... and nothing happening.

[@Havok448]

They were sold as part of AT of course, so some folks do have them in hand.

[@skywatcheradept]

@@Havok448 AT Dire Wolfs were forge world resin, not plastic. Now don't even have the resin version...

[@Timbucktoo32]

Would be awesome to play White Scars, but I don't think they sell models anymore 😥

[@willnox1]

Can’t get product anywhere…GW need to sort out there production…why even release a book when you can’t buy any units to play the game???

[@cyberdan42]

Everything is delayed in my distant land of Auz so sad face. Still, as usual superb breakdown Ash, super hyped for more LI content from you (now) and for my games table (whenever the damn stuff arrives and I can purchase it).

[@stigofthedump181]

this all looks great, any idea if us mere mortals will be able to buy the book? its not even listed on the GW website? has it been released, did i blink and miss it?

[@themidnightaristocrat]

It's back on GW store btw. You have to search for it, you can't navigate to it from the Legions Imperialis page for some reason.

[@12neef]

Saturday morning review! 👏🏾👏🏾🤩🥳🎉🎊

[@Chucklezzzzz]

Love your reviews. Curious as to how Titan Death plays compared to just playing Titanicus though

[@GuerrillaMiniatureGames]

Faster for one I would imagine, and with less collateral cardboard on the table :)

[@WeOnlyEatSoup]

I wanna commit to this game and buy the starter...but I just got into regular Horus Heresy and that system has such cool models dropping

[@celticduke3002]

Sorry this is a little off-topic to the video, but have you heard of Trench Crusade? Its a new wargame coming out apparently by one of the people behind Mordheim. The playtest rules just came out and I would love to see you take a look at them in a video, I've fallen completely in love with the art and lore.

[@GuerrillaMiniatureGames]

I’m definitely aware of Mike and Tuomas’ project. I’ll check it out when it launches!

[@Digitalfiendscom]

Getting so sick of this lack of sufficient stock for a new game - we still don't have fliers for Astartes, drop pods, etc. Now I can't even get a physical book and my FLGS isn't even sure they'll be getting any. Wtf GW...🙄 Spent over $1.7k on this game by now (including latest pre-order) as I want to support LI because it is a great game and want to see more. Clearly GW doesn't care enough though, so going to start 3D printing a LOT more than just terrain (and yeah I bought the Civitas ruins and buildings + 4 boxes of tiles). Getting very close to being done with GW...

[@kharnifex]

Yep, pdfs, printed detachment / ref cards, printed troops and tanks and terrain, done.

[@spamerling833]

Yeah, I wanted start since I recognized that there is another game besides Mantics announced Epic Warpath. I bought an army with the Core Rules some days ago. But after reading things like one print runs (cards probably rule book) I might just wait for the new version Warpath since Mantic cares for our demand.

[@andrewcook3983]

Doesn't GW send you the models anymore? Seems a bit odd when you did one of the best intro games for this system on KZbin.

[@GuerrillaMiniatureGames]

I haven’t seen any of the models outside the box yet. Not sure why, as they have sent along lots of other kits. I’ll give them a poke.

[@Keseleth]

Finally the game feels whole with land raiders, vanguard and artillery units included.

[@pedroalves6425]

It´s Stalingrad of the Horus Heresy.

[@douchenukem8235]

It is a bit wierd that Malcadors has 2w and Land Raiders only 1w. But my guess is that Malcadors has 2w because of internal Solar balance so im fine with it even if its wierd. If they were 1w, the points difference between the it and the Russ would probably be so small making the russ almost pointless unless you just like the model more. A little like the current difference between the assult cannon Contemptor and the storm cannon Leviathan were the latter is just better at everyting.

[@loveone789]

Well it is a proto-baneblade pseudo-superheavy tank

[@19spud75]

It must be nice to get review items that the rest of us can't even buy. UK store cards were gone within one minute. Not a pop at GMG just a vent at GW's current market strategies.

[@omegonchris]

If they've sold thousands of units within a minute, having a couple of dozen extra copies by not sending them to KZbinrs won't really make a difference.

[@infinitecrazymonkeys4752]

@@omegonchristrue, but a review of a product you can’t get hold of even on preorder is kind of moot.

[@19spud75]

No point in reviewing an item that is no longer available and stock issues are easily solved with pre-orders and printing on demand. @@omegonchris

[@FarseerB1rdy]

​@@infinitecrazymonkeys4752 I've got all the items I needed on pre order. Weird.

[@ScreamingTc]

It plays into the whole mythos that GW produces bespoke products that are instantly snapped up. It looks good on their balance books, looks good to the shareholders, and means there isn't anything taking up valuable shelf space in which to sell 40K and AoS. The problem is that it is an utterly unhealthy and unsustainable way of running the hobby.

[@bradp6452]

Sad no whirlwinds and vinidicators. Leaving out such original vehicles is a crime against humanity.

[@FarseerB1rdy]

They'll be coming no doubt.

[@bradp6452]

@@FarseerB1rdy Yeah, likely we will have them all by the fourth book. Pretty sure their rules were in the original box before.

[@SS-gr1by]

GW needs to get their shit together. They need to get their shit in a bag and take it down to the shit store or whatever. But they need to get their shit together.

[@cheetor_sho3box]

40k Mighty Empire tiles FTW! Sexy giant mecha FTW!

[@kharnifex]

Glad the stuff I printed is better looking!

[@naczelnyk0073]

Out of stock...

[@blitzplayuk2206]

So they release a book with unplayable formations coz they aint released the bikes yet 😂😂😂

[@BB-pn2qv]

This is a game that looks legit interesting, but GW's insane underproduction and awful business practices keeps me clear of. Everything is low or out of stock, hard to get too, I’m not going through that headache, so nope. Not touching it. :(

[@mikejones4097]

Why do we continue to support a company using artificial scarcity as a marketing take?

[@Phoney72]

I just recently sold off all my LI stuff. My excitement for it died off but im glad they are finally getting off their arses releasing new stuff for it

[@leesweeney8879]

So vanilla. So boring.