Review of The Siege of Vraks - Part Three

I picked up my copy of the third part of the Siege of Vraks Trilogy yesterday. I started buying this trilogy with Part One and was pleased with my purchase even at an eye-watering £38. I decided to collect a Vrak Renegade Army and my regular opponent, Shaun, collected the Death Korps of Krieg.


The book was good value for money with excellent graphics, two new army lists, scenarios, trench warfare, and lots of lovely new models. Shaun and I fought a campaign of very enjoyable battles. The only problem with Part One was the indifferent prose but that was a minor irritation.

Part One gets Four Stars (out of five).

I eagerly bought Siege of Vraks Part Two and was deeply disappointed. There was very little in it that was new and it was a mess. Key rules were missing. The book was padded with repeat data that a buyer would already own. I did not need datasheets for Chaos Land raiders and Rhinos. The Imperial player had only data for Krieg engineers to justify shelling out £40. The Chaos player was little better off with a Khorne variant renegade army list that was a mild reworking of the list from Part One. The worst feature was the truly dreadful prose. I do not know whether it really was much worse than Part One or whether I was losing patience but it stank.

Part Two gets Two Stars (and that’s being generous).



I bought Part Three to complete the set, laying down my £45 more in hope than expectation. My first impression was favourable. Forge World supply a stiff sleeve to take all three volumes. That was a nice touch. The graphics are as good as ever. Forge World have few peers in this area.

There is more new ‘stuff’ in this book. The Imperial player gets rules and data for the Minotaur, Valcador, Inquisitor Lord Hector Rex and a Krieg Armoured Regiment army list.

The Chaos player does well getting info to play Necrosius (a Nurgle sorcerer), Blight Drones and Blood Slaughterers (daemon engines), Gorefeaster and Jibberjaws (monsters), and An’ggrath the Unbound, Scabeiathrax the Bloated, Uraka Az’baramael, Mamon, and Zhufor (various characters).



The new Renegade Army List follows the pattern set in Part Two in being a mildly Nurgalised version of the Part One Vrak Renegade Codex. There is a useful roundup of the various Renegade and Heretic armies that can be used in the Siege of Vraks. The list does not allow the use of the new Blight Drones or Blood Slaughterer models, which is disappointing.



Part Three includes a simple but well thought out Campaign Game system based on area control and a point to point movement system on a map. This is a great idea.

Forge World have included extra Vraks Apocolypse Battle Formation sheets. Some are useful but others are a hoot. I particularly like the Ventarii Reaver Titan Maniple. To field this wonder all you need are three Reaver Titans and three Warhound Titans – on the other hand, you could squander the money on a second-hand car, pay your kid’s university fees, or eat for six months. I cannot see many people fielding thirteen Blight Drones at £40 a pop.



So far so good but now I get to the problematic issue. The prose is still awful to the point that it spoils my enjoyment of what should be a good read. The sentence structure is clunky with over use of sub-clauses in front of the clause, often in multiple combinations. The punctuation and grammar are also shaky. The way paragraph are split is often not helpful for the reader.

I quote below the opening sentences of three paragraphs selected from page 46 to show what I mean.

Paragraph A.
“Then, as suddenly as it struck, it was over. The damage done, the Traitor Marines had fallen back, and left the field to their summoned allies.”

Paragraph B.
“So it had come again. The daemonic incursion that the Visions of Seer Malphius had predicted had started with the followers of Nurgle, now Zurphor’s blood legions had managed to open another rift and done likewise. “

Paragraph C.
“Whilst Zurphor could call upon daemonic aid there was little chance of winning a war of attrition, his reinforcements were effectively endless.”

My final criticism is a matter of taste. I find the writing style overblown and portentous. This approach may be acceptable for a few lines of italicised fluff in a codex or White Dwarf but it gets wearisome over one hundred pages.





I give Siege of Vraks Part Three - Three Stars.