BoLS Unboxing: Betrayal at Calth: Book & Boardgame Components
Get your board game hat on and join us as we go through the Rulebook and the rest of the Game Components!
Hey again BoLS Readers, AdamHarry wrapping up my Betrayal at Calth Unboxing with the final video. This one is much longer as we take a good, long deep-dive into the book as well as an overview of the components. I don’t go full on into the rules but I do lightly touch on them. So check it out:
The Book
As far as the Rulebooks goes – it’s perfectly acceptable for a board game rulebook but has the added flair of borrowing design elements from the Horus Heresy line. What I mean is the color palette and the design are direct copy/call-outs to the hard back Horus Heresy books. It’s a great touch and I’m glad they used that to tie everything back together.
Rule wise this game is a great intro game for Warhammer 40k – without being overwhelming or overly simplified. That said there are lots of special rules that can make things more interesting. Every single weapon has it’s own critical effect. If you’re a long time 40k player you’ll recognize most of these effects as borrowed and tweaked from their weapon rules from the table top version. It feels like a streamlined version of the table top game without being “dumbed-down” to the point of blandness.
The use of the custom dice really emphasize the “steamlinedness” of the rule set. There are 2 hits, 1 crit, 2 “shield” sides and 1 blank. When shooting, you’ve got the same chance (equal to a 4+) to cause a ‘hit’ (a ‘hit’ in this case is either a hit or a critical hit). But they’ve ditched the “to wound” roll for a total hits/crits vs total shields rolled. Steamlined but not dumbed down, simple but not boring.
Basically if you’re a veteran player it makes sense and feels very familiar. If you’re a completely new player it’s easy to get into. That seems like a win-win to me.
The Components
For the rest of the stuff in the box: It’s exactly what you’d expect from Games Workshop. The board tiles are high quality and look fantastic. The art work is dark and moody (it’s the Grim Dark after all). The materials are industry standard cardboard and have a high gloss finish. The cards are perfect quick reference cards for all the different units. I almost wish they would do that for 40k…. I have zero complaints about all the extras. As I mentioned the dice are custom D6s and they help differentiate the board game from the table top version by simplifying the rolling.
Overall, I’m very happy with the contents of the Horus Heresy Betrayal at Calth box set. I definitely see the value of this product regardless of your status as a 40k gamer (Old School Veteran or completely new). It’s officially launching this weekend so I hope you all are ready! The seeds of Heresy have already be planted and have been sprouting. The first shots are being fired and come Saturday, the Horus Heresy season will be in full bloom!
This may be the biggest release of the year for Games Workshop. I’m pretty pumped and can’t wait to play Heresy on the board and the table top! So…who’s side are you on?
