A Few More Sites On warhammer guide

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1. Ibarra says

   Good for class information, nothing on crafting, poor maps, only buy if you like to read about the classes when you are not playing the game, other wise skip this book.

   December 23, 2009, 8:13 pm
2. Oldknow says

   This is the worst game I’ve purchased in years. The Warhammer angle is a commercial ploy to milk fans. The graphics and game play are horrible. The install process is a dragged out mess, with no ability to even tell the end user what to click on after you’re done installing. I’m not even going to give this away. Its going straight in the trash.

   December 24, 2009, 2:06 am
3. Esparza says

   I browsed through this book, and I was not impressed. But my eye was beguiled by the lovely art, and I had a discount coupon in my pocket, and I would get an exclusive in-game item. So I gave in to temptation. And, as usually happens when you impulsively do something against your better judgement, I regret it.

   Mike Searle starts off this book by saying online MMOs are constantly changing, so how can a book keep up? It can’t! Therefore, instead of a book filled with charts and tables, we’ll give you a guide to the strategy of using a particular race & class.

   He then proceeds to give us a book filled with charts and tables…

   … oh, and jokes. Really bad jokes. Not the ‘good’ type of bad jokes, no. The type of bad that you read and go, that’s not funny. Not even a little bit; not even if I was four years old. These jokes are so bad, you resent the time spent reading them.

   Other reviews have already mentioned lovely extra artwork, the tiny print on dark paper, and the grating, ‘race-specific’ writing style. What no one has mentioned so far is the fact that, if you are a MMO beginner, this book is just about useless. It is filled with jargon and slang, and there is no glossary or index, so if you don’t know what PBAE means, you won’t be any wiser for reading this book. There are no details about basic aspects of the game- how do you use a particular chat channel, how do you join a party, what is the difference between a white, a green, a blue, and a purple item, etc. Crafting isn’t mentioned at all. There are, however, quite a few typos or other errors. For example, the Bright Wizard ability “meltdown” does damage based on the accrued combustion level of the wizard, and you do the most damage when your combustion level is between 91 and 375. This is good to know, except combustion can only go up to 100, and then you blow yourself up.

   The ‘strategy’ provided in this guide boils down to which abilities to use, in which order, for each race and class. Which is fine, except most people will figure out their preferred action set long before they have all the abilities listed in the guide. As patches and updates accrue, and abilites are tweaked and changed, we are already past the point where we can expect the Prima-recommended order to still be the most efficient. In fact, with the release of the new character classes Black Guard for Destruction and Blazing Sun Knight for Order, the guide is already on its way to being obsolete.

   In the back, there are a series of nice maps of the three warfronts, the tiers within each, and the rank of player expected to be running around in them. Each tier has a list of the public quests, but details are given for only one or two, and these details are only a list of the objectives- there are no helpful hints, like “this boss is particularly vulnerable to spirit damage,” or “whatever you do, don’t punch that drunk.”

   Still, the purchase was not a total waste. The exclusive in-game item, the Adventurer’s Handbook, is useful, and you get one for every character on your account. Do I wish I had saved my money? Yes. Do I wish that trees had not died to produce this tome? Oh, yes. Do we still need a comprehensive guide to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning? Absolutely.

   December 24, 2009, 7:52 am
4. Radielovic says

   I know I’m kind of echoing what others have said, but I found this guide to be outstanding for seeing the details of the different classes, it even made me want to play a few I wouldn’t have otherwise.

   That said, the rest is just big area maps with a page or two telling about the quests on each, not that useful.

   Unlike a lot of others though, I would buy the guide again for what it did provide, because I am very into understanding the game mechanics behind each class, and at least when the game came out (I bought this on like day one as it were) this info could not be found in this detail on line anywhere.

   December 24, 2009, 1:24 pm
5. Penner says

   This book is a tome of flavor sprinkled lightly with game information. I am not a hardcore MMO player and purchased this “guide” to help me along. Instead I find myself sorting through all sorts of nonsensical flavor text trying to figure out why I can’t use a certain ability because I don’t have some other skill and don’t know where to get it. I have been using Prima guides for years with other games and they are generally helpful. However, this one is nearly a complete waste of money. Don’t bother.

   Two stars for neat-o flavor text and excellent artwork.

   December 24, 2009, 7:46 pm
6. Sabin says

   I got it for $.01 (yes, that’s 1 penny) at Best Buy as part of a special sale they were having that day. There were some inaccuracies in the maps, and at least one map was missing entirely, but the information they did have was extremely useful in the campaign. My guess is they were working off a pre-release edition of the game and changes were introduced after the book went to press. At higher difficulty levels, you have to get right out and take the fight to the enemy immediately, and knowing where to find him often means the difference between defeat and victory.
   What I found most disappointing was the race descriptions. The guide contains a list of unit and building stats for each race, but certain details were lacking here too. (For example, the guide makes no mention of which units are capable of infiltration and which units can detect infiltrated units.)

   December 25, 2009, 2:04 am
7. Poland says

   Poor quality, B&W, images. Weak strategies. Threw it away!

   December 25, 2009, 7:41 am
8. Koffmann says

   The guide is a good place to start. It give maps and starting locations for both the attacker and the defender. The tips are good and it does go over some of the strengths and weaknesses of the various armies. What I feel is lacking are good, solid tips and strategies. There isn’t a section that details which areas are good to attack and which to bypass. There isn’t a good section that goes into detail of how to fight against or with certain armies. There are some global tips to do so, but it could be more detailed. Over all I believe that this strategy guide is well worth the money.

   December 25, 2009, 2:18 pm
9. Ericksen says

   While I am a big RPG fan, this was my first regional sourcebook for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) and I was very impressed. The writing was clear as well as fun and gave a great overview of the kingdom and its history (~30 pages), regional profiles complete with a detailed sample inhabitant (~45 pages), as well as career information (~15 pages) and a short adventure (~13 pages). Consistent with WFRP being a “grim” world, Bretonnia is far from an idyllic place. The peasants are oppressed, women are treated as second class citizens, and even when well meaning, the nobles leave a lot to be desired as administrators.

   The supplement includes a good selection of Bretonnian careers, e.g. Battle Pilgrims, as well as detailed starting racial features by Dukedom. However, its main focus is adding a lot to the knight career path for those choosing to be from Bretonnia. Many might find this career path – Knight Errant, Knight of the Realm, Questing Knight, and Grail Knight – more satisfying than the existing – Squire, Knight, Knight of the Inner Circle career path. I liked the various “knightly virtues” the supplement included and the overview of the grail quest.

   One thing I always need is a good map and there is a nice one present for the whole realm as well as the individual provinces or dukedoms when they are discussed. My only complaint is that there isn’t a scale of miles so it’s impossible to calculate distances with any precision. This seems to be a common issue in the WFRP universe.

   The supplement included an adventure introducing characters to all levels of Bretonnian society and the best and worst of its nobility. I especially liked how the adventure included statistics for both starting and experienced characters. While an experienced GM could easily make adjustments, as someone just starting out this was very helpful.

   Printed in the EU.

   December 25, 2009, 7:34 pm
10. Vales says

    This is arguably one of the better WFRP written supplements. Like lots of of WFRP products the type fonts are bold and colorful with heraldry symbols and such woven around the border of each page.

    The concept behind Bretonia?

    Throw in the Arthurian Mythology but make a it all about a twisted quest for something like the Holy Grail, and, oh yeah, there are all these problems happening in the petty kingdoms of Bretonia. Problems like the nobility trampling down upon the peasantry and other such non nobility, non human problems (i.e. Specially designed orcs, beasts, mutant types, etc), Fay stealing children, well, you get the idea. It seems to be a pretty place but look under the well swept rug and you find all these hideous bugs.

    The chapter sections of this well written book break as such:

    THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE: There’s some nice details about the geography including a well created map of the petty kingdoms within Bretonia. Then we get to meet the typical Bretonnians and discover that they tend to talk in future tense rather than present tense. It sounds weird, I know, but there are some examples of how it’s done so that players can learn. Oh, and let’s not forget the Truffle Hound and what it sometimes does to its keeper. Sorry. That part is censored. Heh. There are are pages here and there about the food, clothing, architecture and social structure as well. When in doubt,think of it as as an Anglo-French setting with much more of the emphasis on the French side.

    HISTORY OF BRETONNIA: This is a nice section of before the Lady of the Lake arrived to help the lands get over their problems. Even after she came there were plenty of problems, especially battle after battle with details about notable historical figures. Gilles and Louis the Rash stand out.

    POLITICS AND FOREIGN RELATIONS: How the feudal system works. Inheritance laws. Several adventuring ideas of about a paragraph each that the GM can flesh out if he wants the PCs to deal with noble intrigues and the like. More on the civil strife of the peasantry and the like as well as more colorful clubs. We get some introductions to the power of the merchant guilds and short interviews with various Bretonnians in regards to how they see the other lands.

    LAW AND JUSTICE: As you can imagine there are certain laws for the nobility but they’re quite different for the commoners. There are dressing laws and locals laws. The former basically telling the peasants they can’t dress too well or they’ll be punished. Sucks to be them, huh? Then there’s a couple of pages about outlaws and how they operate against the standard norms in Bretonnia.

    RELIGION AND CUSTOM: Grail Chapels about in these lands and many of the knights worship the Lady of the Lake as something of a goddess, though, the book leaves it open to who or what the Lady of the Lake is, leaning towards her just being an elven sorceress. That’s a bit too tame for my tastes so I’ll certainly make her more impressive. Anyway, we’ve got details of the Grail Damsels who are something of the priests of this religion and then there’s a nice section of the Gifts of the Lady which explains the powers she gives to her knights. If you know WFRP you will soon realize that Grail Knights are some of the best careers to enter. The talents bestowed upon Grail Knights make them most puissant warriors. Onward . . . there’s more on peasant religions, holidays and then more details about stolen children and how some of them become servants of the Lady.

    A TOUR OF BRETONNIA: this is a sizable chapter that breaks into subsections, detailing the many petty kingdoms within Bretonnia. Each subsection has the significant people and ruler/rulers, as well as the significant locations in each petty kingdom. And, I suppose I should not be loose with the term “kingdom” because some are called duchies and lower. But anyway, there’s also a section on popular sayings for each territory which gives a nice edge to the roleplaying types. Each subsection also has a blowup, giving more map detail. At the end of each subsection is a small bit about adventuring ideas. There are also special monsters to some of the petty kingdoms like Derelich (haunts that haunt mines), Artois Boars (really big), Chasm Spawn (yep, more Chaos), Iron Orcs (tougher than Black Orcs), Dracoleech (something of a lake/sea monster), Lakemen (reptilian men who don’t like humans), Hagranyms (an evil type of horse mount that is allied with the orcs) and Knockers (more undead dudes haunting mines and miners).

    CHARACTER AND CAREERS: So for a group that wants to start in this setting it breaks down the starting skils and suggested talents for each petty kingdom. There’s a nice list of suggested names which are very Northern French in pronunciation. And then we get to the many careers, like battle pilgrims and shepherds and peasant mediators but the real focus is upon all the different knightly careers from knight errants to super duper grail knights.

    KNIGHTHOOD: This is a nice section detailing how knights are supposed to act. If you read through the whole book you’ll soon realize a lot of knights do not act this way. There’s also a good section about the knights who are questing for the grail and some adventuring ideas that tie into the whole Grail Mythology of this realm. Then we get to a knight’s steed and there are even suggestions on how to get a pegasi or hippogriff as a mount. Incidentally, there is a really nice two page piece of art detailing a huge battle with several knights on their flying steeds. Oh, and let’s not forget Virtues of Knighthood. These are like talents but better and knights are limited in selecting from the list. This is far from D20, people, and that’s a good thing since most people playing this game want something different, right?

    ILL TIDINGS: this is a nice little adventure with a colorful inn that has water flowing into it because the tides are high. There’s some nice getting to know the nobility and in the tradition of WFRP some chaos things to deal with but you can tone this down, as I have done, if you don’t chaos everywhere in your setting. Four pregenerated characters are includes so that your group can jump into things right away.

    Again, this is probably one of the better detailed setting supplements and should be considered if you like the idea of an Arthurian setting of knights who are in a twisted setting where the grail may never be found.

    P.S. At the time of this writing the book is out of stock but Fantasy Flight Games should hopefully be getting in a new batch soon.

    December 26, 2009, 1:41 am
11. Diefenbach says

    A solid book detailing Bretonia. A must have if you plan to run a game in Bretonia, or you want to play Questing/Grail Knight. (Think French + Arthurian) Buy it if you’ve got the money, and enjoy these types of books. It’s good, but not a must have.

    December 26, 2009, 7:42 am

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