People were asking for new boxed games, GW answered... although not exactly as we expected.
Assassinorum Execution Force is a very especifically themed game in which 1 to 4 players command a squad of four assassins that infiltrate a cultist base to kill a chaos sorcerer before it finishes a dark ritual.
The boardgame pieces are really good, both strong (really thick cardboard) and high quality (think latest Space Hulk pieces). There are no doors but some additional room tiles, event cards, markers and dice. Not impressive, and definetly not equal in quantity to Space Hulk, but still ahead regarding quality compared to for example Deadzone or Sedition Wars board pieces and tokens. Expensive or not, but GW's general high bar of control in boardgames is there.
The instructions are small but effective, although I haven't yet read them. The minis are 4 new plastic assassins, one of each specialty (Vindicare, Eversor, Culexus and Callidus), 15 chaos cultists, 3 chaos space marines and a chaos sorcerer with a small familiar demon (that acts as turn counter). One interesting bit is that as they are reusing existing plastic sprues for all foes, the chaos sorcerer is actually the full Chaos Lord double sprue, so you can make the Lord, the Sorcerer or a Terminator Lord. Only four new, but all are nice and good looking. Of course the new assassins are just incredible and very dynamic.
For those seeking the price/value ratio, some quick maths of the prices as of May 2015 of the individual miniatures:
3x Chaos SM: 8.30€
15x Chaos Cultists: 8.30€ x 3 = 24.90€
1x Chaos Sorcerer/Chaos Lord/Terminator Chaos Lord: 19.50€
4 Assassins: 21€? x 4 = 84€ (not yet released standalone)
Total: 52.70 + 84 = 136.70€ retail cost
At Games Workshop's website the game is 100€ but you can easily get it around 20% cheaper (at Wayland for example costs around 82€ at current exchange, with free shipping).
All this means that even without discounts, you will get at least around 36€ of miniatures "free". But truth be said, at the original price it is an expensive game: Most miniatures reused, limited variety of gameplay and scenarios, not too complex rules... Also for advanced Chaos Warhamer 40,000 players (people already with non-basic CSM armies) most minis won't add much value to their collection.
Discounted, for me is a good buy: Reviews say in general the game is fun and engaging (and not easy), for a collector (like me) just the assassins will cost more than 20€ each once sold separately in the future (I did wanted them), and as Dark Vengeance made me start a small Chaos Space Marines force, the minis of this game are a really nice addon to grow that army.
So... make your choice, but definetly hunt online, it does make a big difference and I got no problems finding my copy.
