UNBOXING: First Strike Warhammer 40,000 Starter Set

UNBOXING: First Strike Warhammer 40,000 Starter Set

There has been a lot of unboxing posts on the web of the new Dark Imperium box set. This weekend I got my latest hobby fix from Element Games and it was the First Strike Warhammer 40,000 starter set.

This box set is about the size of a house brick and weighs about the same, so what have GW managed to cramp into the seemly small box?

Check after the break for the unboxing

Opening the box you pull out the try which is also the piece of terrain, more pictures on that later. So in the box you have the 4 sprues of models, rather than the standard grey we have Ultramarine Blue for the Primaris Marines and Sickly Green for the Death Guards and Pox Walkers.

The big weight in the box comes from the 2 books in the book, the first is First Strike Read This First and the second being the Core Rules. Not read these yet, but will do a review on these later this week.

The first set of sprues are the 3 Primaris Intercessors – clad in Mk X power armour, they are each armed with a bolt rifle and carry grenades. You get a Sergeant, who leads the unit – he has a holstered pistol and is easily identified by his bare head, no helmet needed boys.

- 3 Primaris Reivers – again clad in Mk X power armour, these Space Marines carry heavy bolt pistols and combat blades – they distinguished by the sinister skull motif on their helmets, with the Sergeant featuring a half-skull faceplate.

The next set of sprues are 3 Plague Marines – each festering and bursting out of their armour due to the malign corruption of the Plague God Nurgle. 1 wields a boltgun, 1 is armed with a blight launcher and 1 – the Champion, who leads the unit – has a plasma gun, power fist and plague knife;

- 6 Poxwalkers – these are the cursed victims of the plagues, transformed into living weapons. Each is armed with an improvised close combat weapon, with hammers, chains, planks of wood and metal pipes with nails in represented.

These models are not in the Dark Imperium box set and bring the Blight Launcher to the table.

The models have been designed to be clipped from the sprue and push fit so that new players can get gaming within a matters of minutes from opening the box.

So the final pieces in the box are 2 data files for each of the units, all the rules needed for each of the units for easy reference in the first 2 games. 

The try that contents comes in flips over to become a piece of terrain, nice durable piece of terrain. A folded gaming mat which measures just under 2ft square and reversible, one side is marked with letters for the placement of the troops in your first few games as you run through the scenarios.

You also get some dice and a transparent range ruler.

So a lot of stuff packed into a small box, getting it from GW will cost you £25 or if you have a look online and my preferred online retailer is Element Games you can find it for £21.25. 

I think this represents great value even just for the figures alone. The figures in the box can be bought in separate packs for £10 so this Starter represents great value for money.

Even if you have purchased Dark Imperium you may well have friend that has never played in the hobby or fallen this would be a great little gift to get them started with 40K

Later on this week I will review the 2 books in the box set and show some more pictures of the figures.