Calth musings

I grew up on GW games, I love the universes that they created (until the Warhammer world went kablooey, but that is another matter)... but a while back I stopped buying anything except paint from them as the prices were just too darn expensive. When the Horus Heresy game came out late last year I was interested, but managed to hold off on buying it as I need space marines like a hole in the head... pretty though they may be.

Today Aidan picked up a copy and we've been looking through the very very heavy box full of goodies. Damn it looks nice. The rules are very simple, but that works nicely as a board game, and the scenarios look like fun, especially the dual board one.  I'm still managing to hold off on picking up a copy, but it did make me stop and think... about the same time that Betrayal at Calth was released, GW announced the return of Specialist Games.

I can't help but wonder if Calth was a calculated way of experimenting with a simple ruleset and people's willingness to build multipart models for a board game. The box contains so many Heresy era marines that it was a guaranteed sell to a massive proportion of their current and past followers. 

I can just imagine playing a version of Necromunda on boards like these...

I can see the turn sequence and card mechanics working really well for Necromunda and Mordheim as they add a lot of interactions between the sides and interesting events through the card decks. It wouldn't take too much work to include multiple layers by saying the red outlined items can't be directly passed through, but can be accessed via ladders or walk ways (for example). We shall have to see what happens with Specialist Games over the coming months...