The mixed reviews basically come in the form that the superheavies themselves are really the exact same as they are in the Apocalypse book. Destroyer weapons and more appear to be identical to their apoc rules. Word currently is... that are even terrain (assuming fortifications) that project void shields!
We do know though now that there are some variances in using a Lord of War slot in your army. The first of course being the biggest, extra victory points for your opponent, and +1 on the seize roll. Now this is big especially if you are playing a 4+ seize the initiative army.
It seems very much that Games Workshop is maintaining the rules to be cohesive between the game types of Apocalypse and Standard 40k. While I can see this as disparaging for some, I think these rules will add a whole new dimension to the game that we were desperately needing.
I am looking forward to this release.
Please remember that until we have an official release, these sightings or early views of the book are still considered to be rumors.
via Avatar_exADV over on Warseer
Books both in hand.
The Aquila Strongpoint does mount strength D weapons, but is still exploded on a 2+ on the Strength D table. No special defenses against Strength D weapons, though at AV15 (!) and -1 on the damage table, it's rough to take down with just about anything else.
That said, there's also terrain which projects void fields, which each soak a destroyer hit...
via K from the Faeit 212 inbox
Anyway, have had a flick through Escalation and I was frankly disappointed. As far as I can tell it's a cut-and-paste of the rules for Superheavies, Gargantuan Creatures, D Weapons and the 'Big Template Weapons' rules, straight from the Apocalypse rulebook, with a £30 price sticker slapped on.
There were copies of the data sheets for all Baneblade variants, Thunderhawks, Stompas, Lord Of Skulls, Harridan, Tessaract Vault, Obelisk, Transcendant C'tan, Tau Flying thing (Didn't get a good look at this one) and the Eldar (and Dark Eldar, apparently...) Revenant Titan. I don't recognise the Tau flyer from the Apocalypse book, but all of the others are cut-and-paste from Apocalypse.
There were two new missions and that seems to be about it.
K.