Tamurkhan: The Throne of Chaos

Tamurkhan is the first book Forgeworld have released for Warhammer Fantasy Battle and with a lot of great titles out for Warhammer 40k it has a lot to live up to. The book tells the story of Tamurkhan, favoured of Nurgle, as he rampages across the Warhammer world. It includes rules for armies as well as rules and ideas for campaigns and battles.

It cost me $80 AU to get the book here which is quite expensive though still cheaper than buying from a Games Workshop store here. It took 22 days to arrive so you'll have to decide if you want to pay the approximately $22 more or wait the 22 days. For the most part the book is a beautiful piece of art, I'm no expert on the subject but most of the art at least looks like it was painstakingly hand-painted, which is gorgeous but some of the art looks like cheap CGI which takes away from the feel of the book. The book also saw the release of a lot of cool models to accompany it and one thing that is really disappointing is that there are no cool pics of these minis included. I understand that in 40k the battle images we see are supposed to be photos taken for records and in the fantasy world photography hasn't been invented but this is a magical world so surely there is a way around it.

The story is quite engaging and it definitely makes me want to participate in a large scale campaign. Where it goes in to detail it really shines however, sometimes it mentions events in passing in a really cheap way; mighty battle was fought, people died, etc., that and the far too often saying "battle was joined" get on my nerves. Overall though the story is great with all the bloody details you could crave and a compelling plot that involves most of the races to be found in the Warhammer world. Anybody who is a fan of any part of Chaos is bound to like it, unless of course you hate Nurgle. Maps are included to help you get an idea of where the story is taking place and how the mighty army flows across the land. The story is divided into six chapters and each of these chapters has a campaign battle idea included after the story.

The rules are the true crux of the book and they come in a range of varieties. The book has rules for a Tamurkhan led Warriors of Chaos army, a rival Empire army and making their reappearance in the Warhammer world a Chaos Dwarf army. I think all of the armies are very characterful and I am especially a fan of the Chaos Dwarf army rules. With such great models out for them I wouldn't be surprised if this marked the comeback of the dark Dwarves. The book also features some really cool rules for united Chaos armies mixing soldiers from, Chaos Warriors, Daemons, Beastmen and the new Chaos Dwarves. These 'Great Hosts of Chaos' are made up of sworn units and antagonistic units, with the possibility of the whole army coming undone if things do not go to plan. Great Hosts come in five varieties, one each for the gods of Chaos and the final for Chaos gods united. Beastmen heroes can only lead a Chaos united host, though their units can be included as part of any other host. There are also no new Beastmen units offered here despite every other chaos faction getting new units or  an entire army list in the case of Chaos Dwarves. Forgeworld will just have to do better next time. The campaign is fairly open to allow for a lot of different armies to battle it out across the included scenarios. There are also some scrolls of binding included at the back because hey, they might as well cram as much in as possible.

It is a cool book, with a lot of background, colourful art and tonnes of rules but there are a couple of things that stop it from being perfect, high cost, no pictures of models (poor Beastmen support) and the fact that some people may find it hard to read because of the worn look of each page. Accounting for all these things Tamrukhan: The Throne of Chaos gets 8.5.

Christmas From GW

Some exciting news from games workshop a bunch of new things for Beastmen players, mangler squigs for orcs, a bunch of big new armies and a campaign book for warhammer fantasy. Before I start I'll let you know that my review of Tamurkhan is well underway and will be out shortly, it took nearly 3 weeks for the book to arrive but it was signed by Alan Bligh so that is at least some compensation.

Beastmen players and anyone with a scroll of binding will get a Ghorgon/Cygor Kit and the Jabberslythe. I think the Cygor is a cool looking model but I am dissapointed with the way the Ghorgon looks. Here is a picture of the original concept art for the Ghorgon,

 this is the model by the Miss Painting Group,

and here is the Games Workshop (GW) model.

The GW model lacks the mutant savagery of the concept and it has a ridiculous head. Gone are the huge bone scythes and instead we get some puny bladed nubs. The Miss Painting Group did a better job of GW's own model. In general I like the look of the Cygor but this is not really a model that beastmen players needed. A giant kit and a few pieces from a spawn kit makes a great Cygor that even a beginner modeler can make. The new kit however will work out cheaper and mixing the parts together (if you can) should result in some interesting models. Overall I am happy with the Jabberslythe model, it is weird and evil enough to fit the bill but at $102 AU it is very pricey. Also coming for Beastmen players is a citadel finecast version of the Doombull, I think this is great because it should make the model a lot easier to put together.


Orc & Goblin players get the Mangler Squigs finecast model which is pretty cool but at $96 AU the model seems overpriced. There are also two new army boxes for High Elves and Skaven players, these are part of the "while stocks last" crap that GW is doing at the moment.

Finally there is the Blood in the Badlands book, which looks pretty exciting with some cool rules for sieges shown on the website. I will have to order a copy of this for review, unfortunately it is also one of the "limited time only" things from GW.

One Sentence Reviews

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim [PC] The greatest RPG ever made for PC, ruined by the fact that it's designed for console, is full of bugs and they make you pick up coins one at a time 9/10.


Roads of Rome [Mac, PC] Build roads, in Rome, pretty good for a casual game, not so good for anything else  7/10.


Extinct! Are You Smarter Than a Plant? [Flash Game] No you are not, plants would never play this game 4/10.

Heroes of Might and Magic VI

Heroes of Might and Magic VI (HMM6) is a fantasy turned based strategy game, which is amongst my favourite genres. You command heroes and their warrior unit subordinates across a map capturing territory and smiting your foes.

The main focus of gameplay for a turn based strategy really has to be tactics. It comes at a surprise that HMM6 lacks this, with most fights being about who has the biggest army. Most units can just move across the map freely with enemy units not creating a zone of control to stop you. Any terrain features that make it onto a battle map seem to have little influence and in the end you feel like you have fought the same battle over and over again.

There are loads of abilities your heroes can gain, from directly benefiting a battle to helping build your empire. There are also plenty of cool magic items out there for them to find. Whilst a hero does make a difference to the outcome of a battle, it seems to matter little compared to how big your overall army is. You see the biggest influence of your hero when you are fighting against lower level characters.

The graphics are great for this type of game with a rich amount of detail spread across large maps. When you zoom in on the world map you see the tiniest of details such as mushrooms and lily pads. The animations of your warriors fighting and dying are solid too. 

The game also suffers from poor dialogue and clichéd story lines, in fact the story of the first campaign reminded me a lot of Warcraft III. From time to time someone delivers a solid line and they even sound like they mean it but it can't replace the overall cheesiness of the rest of the story.

The game does have some bright points and there are plenty of reasons to play. However there are a tonne of other games out there that are begging for your attention and I just can't see Heroes of Might and Magic being at the top of that play list. I'd recommend Battle of Wesnoth instead, it is less pretty but it does a better take on turn based strategy and it's free. Heroes of Might and Magic VI gets 6.5/10.

One Sentence Review

Battlefield 3 Multiplayer [PC] This game is just like real war and just like in real war, you are in danger of losing your life 10/10.


Battlefield 3 Singleplayer [PC] Press space to enjoy cutscene 7.5/10.


iGun Pro [iOS] Shoot guns, feel like a pro, who shoots fake guns off of an iPhone and doesn't take the time to edit the wiki articles he rips off 6/10.

Squids [iOS]

Squids is a turn based RPG for the iPhone with versions for the iPad, Android, Mac & PC platforms planned. Squids is a little different from your average turn based RPG, as it incorporates an action element, in that you drag and fling your squids to attack.

There are four classes of squid: scouts, who have the ability to dash, healers who can heal, shooters who get to fire a long range shot and troopers who have a radius attack dealing damage to all foes in a circle. The classes are simple, yet varied enough to keep the game fun and interesting. You also earn bonus pearls (the in game currency) for doing things like bouncing off a wall then hitting an enemy and hitting multiple enemies etc.

Graphically the game looks great. It has a cutesy style that blends 2D and 3D together.  When your characters are not in the action they will watch little sprites (the magical kind) fly past them or perhaps yawn impatiently. Little animations are taking place all the time for example, the seaweed and starfish will sway lightly in the currents.

The game is currently selling for AU$0.99 and Game Bakers are claiming that this is 50% off. This is really the price point it should be at when you consider the game is also using micro-transactions. You can buy extra in game pearls which are used to level up your characters and purchase items. You can also pay to buy a fish that grants you a multiplier on the amount of pearls you get per level, which comes in at AU$0.99 on its own. As you can tell this means you are a little shorter on pearls than you would like to be. This is a little ridiculous and although it's not enough to detract from the rest of the game, it does bring it down a notch.

The game is still plenty of fun and with the extra halloween content that was brought in (some of which is quite difficult) it is a hard title to skip. It blends together turn based and action, beautiful graphics with great animation, silliness with an interesting (though clichéd) plot and really brings out a winner 9/10.

One Sentence Reviews

[iOS] Dragon Vale - Raising dragons requires a lot of weeding; weeding and unobtainable gems 6/10.


[iOS] Super Pirate - Apparently this game once cost money, anyone who payed for this instantly turned into a software pirate, hmm, I guess it works then 2/10.


[iOS] Paul the Octopus - Need a poorly drawn octopus to make all your decisions for you, of course you do 5/10.

Flash Games

There are a lot of flash games out there, here is a look at a few that are definitely worth your time.

In Radical Fishing you fish the "man's way", which means after you've caught as many fish as you can, you launch them all into the sky to be shot. Yes that's right in order to 'catch' the fish, you need to have blasted them to pieces. Each time you blast a fish you get money to buy new equipment to make your fishing experience better. If you are looking for some quick simple fun, it is really hard to go past this one.
You can check it out on Sugar Toast here.

Obey the Game is a collection of rapid mini games in the vein of something like Wario Ware. You play as an elephant trapped in a series of mini games and you must obey the orders you are given. That is unless it tells you to disobey, it seems simple enough but as the game gets faster and faster it becomes hard to resist your initial urge to either obey the orders or disregard them completely. While I think some people would love this game, it is the weakest of the three mentioned here. It is an Armor Game and it is available here.

A Game About Literacy has a bit of a misleading title. It is a fairly straight forward platformer with a few twists and although for the early levels it is important to read the title of the level, the literacy part of the game takes a back seat later on. I don't think it ever mentions you can wall jump but you can so remember that for later on. Otherwise it is quite a quick game but still an interesting one. Also correct me if I'm wrong but I believe you play as a chair. It is available on Daily Flash Games here.

Game Dev Story [iOS, Android]

Game Dev Story is a simulation game where you run a company that develops games. It is quite a simple game yet there is something so addictive about it. You'll begin with a small team of developers and you'll need to hire some more. Eventually you will move to bigger offices and acquire team members with a range of skills. You can train and upgrade your staff using research points and items. If you switch them between careers and build up their skills enough they can eventually take on über careers, that give them a wide range of skills and great stats. Your company will level up too, giving you access to new genres and game types.

Your team will begin with a small budget, scraping by developing things for other companies or making your own little titles. Soon things will pick up for you though and you will be moving to bigger offices and buying the rights to develop for more popular consoles. You can even launch your own console onto the market. To do this you will need to level a staff member to level 5 on all positions, then they can become a Hardware Engineer. Make sure you spend money on advertising for your company and continually release new games to keep your fans interested.

I love this game and I think it will appeal to anyone who has ever dreamed of making their own videogame, yet there is something lacking. It just needs a little bit more variety and a little more complexity. It is still fun to play for hours but it just lacks the replay value it could have had. It is on special for AU$0.99 on the app store and is currently on special for AU$2.50 on the android market. 8/10.

Tamurkhan the Throne of Chaos

Tamurkhan the Throne of Chaos is finally available for pre-order. You can check out some preview shots of it here. It will not only include a Warriors of Chaos army list for reenacting all the battles mentioned within the book but also a complete Chaos Dwarf army for those long suffering evil dwarf lovers. The Chaos Dwarf miniatures look absolutely stunning with fine runes and details carved into them.

There were a few delays in getting the book ready for production, here's hoping that Forge World used some of that time to edit the book, as Game Workshops books are notoriously riddled with typos and incorrect or ambiguous rules. I also sincerely hope they have managed to include some Beastmen units into the armies as well. I will give a full review when I receive my copy in the mail.