Death from the Skies Review

Death from the Skies has caused some controversy and a backlash from gamers and independent stockists alike due to it being direct order only. The fact that GW is excluding the independent stockists from this release sets a bad precedent for future releases and shows that they want people to buy direct from them and cut out the middle man. Obviously this makes them more money but it could end up killing off the independent stockists. Politics aside, what do you actually get in the Death from the Skies book?

It's a 72 page full colour paperback book. The majority of it is pictures of pretty models and artwork though. Unfortunately, much of the artwork is regurgitated from previous codices.

There is The Battle for Cardrim which was already published in the White Dwarf magazine. It has been changed a little but not by a great deal.

The Burning Skies section appears to have been copied directly from the Crusade of Fire book although Chaos now has a fighter ace of their own.

The main section of the book is the bestiary which contains all the rules for the flyers. The Space marines and Black Templar's now have access to the Stormraven and the updates from the FAQ's have been included also.

The Stormtalon is also included and now has the Strafing Run rule. It is only available to Space Marines and Black Templar's.

The Valkyrie/Vendetta has Hull Points added along with the FAQ updates but has not been nerfed in any way as many (non-Imperial Guard) players were hoping. Other than that it is the same as before.

The Voidraven and Razorwing Jetfighter seem to be the same.

The Necron Doom Scythe and Night Scythe also look the same.

The Dakkajet looks the same as does the Burna/Blitza Bomber.

It's also worth noting that the Chaos Heldrake and the Dark Angels Nephilim Jetfighter and Dark Talon are missing from the book despite the Heldrake being in the some of the artwork. This is probably due to being released quite recently.

And that's what you get for £20. It mostly seems to be reprinted rules and the only reason I can see anyone wanting to buy it is so they can use a Stormraven or Stormtalon or because they need the rules for their Ork flyers. It seems too expensive for what it is and much of it could have just been released as FAQ's and Errata's.
Do you think the Death from the Skies compendium is worth £20?

photo credit: jsutcℓiffe via photopin cc