Hail fellow Dawi,

I've been able to get my hands on my very own copy of the Blood in the Badlands book, and as promised in another thread (a dwarf never breaks a promise!) I'm going to do a review of it.

I have not been able to read all of it, or give the rules a close inspection, so an in-depth review will have to wait a few days.

I have however read through it quickly, and so I can share my first impressions.

First, the cover art is amazing. The detail is stunning, the Thane even has a flaming axe, and in the background there's an Abomination eating a slayer!
The pictures and maps are of a high quality, and the armries featured in them are very nice.

The book itself is essenstially a crossover between a WD article that covers a campaign fought by the studio team and a rulebook.
In the book, the story of a campaign played by the studio team is told with battle reports (short ones), pictures and fluff. In between the rules for the games fought and played are given, while at the end of the book the siege rules are looked at seperatly.

The reports and story make for a very nice read, but they alone would not make this book worth the price. The story's about a magical flying fortress that has to land once every 1000 years in the badlands. Every side tries to controll as much territory as possible to have maximum chance of it landing, because they want it.

The rules remind me a lot of the old book called "The General's Compendium" that had all sorts of rules about campaigning and siege games. It seems these rules have been revamped to fit current armies/fluff/rules.

To start with there's a bunch of general rules for campaigns, with character wounds recovery systems, army specific rules and a bit on how to play game turns. These rules are not very different from the ones found in the Mighty Empires pack, and they actually use those tiles for representing the map.

Then, the campaign is devided into four seasons, leading up to the ultimate battle in the winter.
Each season sees a bunch of new scenarios and rules released, and rewards for the side that wins. Then there follow a few battle reports of the new scenarios.

Then on page 68, the important bit to us dwarves comes in to play, the underground fighting rules.
There are only four pages of them, and there are basicly three general rules :

Irrepressible Gloom : All ranged attacks (shooting + magic) are capped at 24 inch max, and 6 inch and onwards counts as long range. (Go OG!)
Uncertain Footing & Low Ceilings : Cav, Monstrous Cav and flyers have to take a dangerous terrain test when doing any movement beyond normal (inludes marching).
Trolls & Cave Squigs : On a roll of 4+ there are D3 cave trolls and there are always D6 Squigs present. These are deployd after terrain setup but before deployment, move randomly in compulsory moves phase and are enemies to both armies.

Then there are five scenarios that look fun and fluffy.

Secure a pawhold : Basicly the attacker (skaven) tries to gain entrence into the dwarven hold. Attacker gets a bigger force, the defender has to try and keep as many attackers out of his depoyment zone to win.
Poison the Wells : There are two wells in the middle of the map, one unit of the attacker includes an assasin able to poison them. To be able to do so has to be in base contact with a well, with a negative modifier to the poison roll if the unit is in combat. If the battle is lost by the defenders they suffer a 100 point penalty the game(s).
Undermine the Defences : There are a couple of Earthstones on the map, basicly supporting pillars. Attackers try to destroy these, they are counted as buildings with T10 W5 that cannot be occupied.
Claim the Aproach : A battlefield formed like an H, with runestones on each side representing the control pannels for the gates. The attackers tries to secure them to get extra points in the final and fith battle.
Storming the Gates of Barak Varr : Square battlefield with a small addition on the side. This is where the defender deploys. The entire defending (dwarf) army is stubborn, as this is the last defense of the hold. Attacker wins if three or more units manage to escape through the defenders (and thus smallest) table edge.

After the final battle of the campaign, the siege rules are featured.
They seem nice and fun, with starvation rolls, splitting up attacking forces and having a relief force. There is also a defensive and offensive artillery turn before the main game, representing the shoot-out that always occurs before the final attack.

Then there are some rules for siege engines, some army specific, some side specific (good - bad). There's siege ammuntion, hasty assault, underminders, flaming ammo, boiling oil, a dwarf brewhouse (500 points! Any unit occupying it may drink and restore D3 wounds, on a 3 they suffer stupidity for the rest of the game as well), tower upgrades and more.

The book concludes with an army roster sheet that can be coppied for managing your own campaigns.

FINAL THOUGHTS :

The book makes for a nice read, and the scenarios seem fun and special. The siege rules seem nice as well.
There is nothing ground breaking or entirerly new, most of these things have already been publsihed in older books, but it's nice to have an 8th edition version of it.
The layout and pics are very nice, and it just seems like fun to try what's in there, which says a lot about how it's written.

So this book is nice to have, and makes for an entertaining read and some fun games.
Is it essential? No, not at all.
Is it a must have for dwarf players? No, as the underground battle rules are limited, and the siege rules nothing new.
Is it affordable and nice to have? Yes, yes it is.

So if you have the cash to spare, and if you like playing campaigns or just some unrelated special scenarios to spice up your game, this is the book for you. If you're tight on cash, buying units/paint should get priority over this book.

Finished. I hope I have helped someone with this. If there are any questions, feel free to ask them. I will also gladly accept any virtual ales to clear my throat after all this talking. 😉

:drinks:

Torendil the Slayer