Huzzah!!! A Good Hell Dorado Rulebook.

Firstly I have to say a HUGE big thank you to the guys at the Maelstrom for sorting my water damage Hell Dorado Rulebook out so professionally and quickly. You see if you read my blog yesterday you'll have seen I finally got my copy of the English Hell Dorado Rulebook. However my joy was short lived as the Hell Dorado 'curse' had struck my book down with a severe case of water damage *shakes first at Hell Dorado curse*. This possibly made me the saddest panda on earth. Even sadder than the looters having to return stuff to the Games Workshop!

However two things I need to clear up:

1. Despite the book looking perfectly OK in my picture, I assure you it was very badly damaged and at points impossible to read. So I'm not being a 'big cry baby' and a 'whinger'. I'll post some images to prove it!!!
2. No, the irony of me having some Naval based miniatures in the shape of my dystopian Wars stuff turn up undamaged by water hadn't escaped my notice and no it wasn't funny at the time, but now I have my new rulebook it has raised a wry smile.

So onto the evidence for you all:

On the right we have the new rulebook, on the left however...

This close up hopefully shows how bad it is compared to the new one

More undulations than the Himalayas

Look the pages aren't stuck together like somebodies 

had a giant nerdgasm over them

Hopefully that puts to rest the idea that it wasn't too bad and that I'm just a giant whinger and whiner. I mean I am a giant whinger and whiner, but on this I think my complaint was more than fair. So hopefully some of you Hell Dorado diehards will put those knives away now.

So what are my initial thoughts on the book now I've got it in hand and have had a chance to flick through it? Mixed, would be the word I'd use. The page quality isn't that bad, however the lack of a hardback cover will mean that this book will rapidly start to look really tatty if I carry it around, much like my Malifaux books are now, although the Malifaux covers are made from a thicker card. The colours and print quality though are all very good and the artwork is clear and crisp and retains all of the character of the French rulebook I saw a few years back now. Obviously with a few notable exceptions on the artwork front. So its not a bad product.

However on the downside I've already spotted some spelling mistakes and for somebody who is Dyslexic like I am they must be howlers for me to spot. Given the time and the delays that is really poor and inexcusable, but Ciphers Anima Tactics rulebook also contains similar typos so perhaps they need to 'outsource' proof reading duties. Apart from that there is another minor disappointment for me, in that the stats for some of the newer characters like Husaym al Din and Augustinus Raimond aren't in the rulebook. Now this might not seem like a big deal because you get the cards and rules with the miniature when you buy it, but the fact they aren't in the book means there's no fluff for them either like the other characters, but perhaps more importantly for some of you you'll be buying those miniatures blind not knowing what they do.

Is it a major hassle? No of course it isn't because I'm sure you'll find the rules for these mini's somewhere online and I'm sure somebody will post them somewhere. However it is an inconvenience and most wargamers are growing accustomed to actually having things done well and with the highest professionality. These minor quibbles, and they are minor, do detract somewhat from the overall effect and I'm sure they won't stop some local gamers round by me from referring to the game as Hell D'oh rado!!! Genuinely I'm starting to believe in the Hell Dorado 'curse' that French gamers talk about and its a shame because the miniatures for the most part are really nice and the rules were always quite good I felt. I'll do a full review or breakdown of the game in a few months time, when I've played it with the official English rules. Peace out!