Plagueburst Crawler and More in ‘Getting Started’
Getting Started with Warhammer 40K is an excellent guide to getting started with Warhammer 40K.
Getting Started with Warhammer 40,000 is out now, and it does exactly what it says on the tin–it’s a great book for getting started with Warhammer 40K–but it’s also a sort of stealth preview of some of the newer units that will be coming out. For starters, just yesterday we saw a squat tank with a mortar (mortar for Mortarion, am I right?) identified as a Plagueburst Crawler.
Well that’s confirmed, it is indeed exactly that. It’s a squat tank that’s covered in spikes and its primary weapon looks to be a mortar of some kind. The whole point of it is to provide heavy fire support for the Death Guard. There are nice little details like this scattered throughout the book. Here’s a little bit I found in the “Collecting an army” section:
Inspired by the grotesque Daemon Engines of the Death Guard, we couldn’t resist including a couple of these awesome models in the mortal portion of the force. The models from the starter set helped with this goal…to this, we added the armoured might of a Plagueburst Crawler, whose potent firepower would be the bane of its enemies.
And of course, it’s got that big spiky bulldozer blade, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s at least decent in a close combat match. But we’ll have to wait for an official release to check it out.
So let’s go ahead and confirm that rumor, and get started speculating what all weapons it’ll have. There’s the mortar, the three barreled thing in the front, and the sponsons. I like the shape of it–it looks like it trudges on inevitably, in spite of whatever’s arrayed against it.
But of course, there’s plenty of more reasons to pick up the book than a couple of pictures of new models. It’s a handy guide to the lore of 40K, which can be daunting for newbies. It has one section that’s an overview of all the armies in play (so far), a sample battle report that new players can follow along with, and a helpful guide to painting up minis.
The world of 40K is daunting–full of history and plastic bits to which your fingers will inevitably be glued. While seasoned veterans may not find too much in the way of excitement here, this book is a great way to get someone into the hobby.
I particularly found the suggested armies helpful–I mean, we’ve talked about how important building an army list is these days–and it’s nice to have a foundation to work from. Same goes for the painting tips–many of the techniques on display are a little beyond my skill level, but it’s a good instruction manual towards getting there. Plus it comes with a Primaris Space Marine, which you can use to either kickstart your collection, or to pose as the unwitting sole opponent for the army of your choice.
Stay tuned next week as we take you through the whole process of beginning to read the book with Getting Started With Getting Started With Warhammer 40,000.
