Reviewing Planetary Empires

Today I was surprised to find a copy of Planetary Empires waiting for me in a storage room, after I had obviously forgotten to collect it or something. Main part of that surprise was how I had cancelled my order for it anyway - seeing as I had found somewhere that had it stocked 10 days earlier than usual.

Planetary Empires is the revamped version of Mighty Empires for Warhammer 40k. It is a long hinted at product, supposedly ready for release far earlier than 2009 (apparently it was ready for the original PS spot in 2008). People already suspected there to be this kit due to GW's practice of reusing ideas and sprues - added to the fact that a hex based mold is easily reproduced anyway.

The kit contains the following items:
- Planetary Empires rulebook: This may look like a big one that's good value and filled with rules, but it's actually just 9 versions of the same one. AKA: we couldn't be bothered to produce more than one version. See later on for a small summary of the small ruleset.
- 48 hexagonal tiles: This is where the pricetag comes from. The set is 6 sprues of these tiles, which also happen to be fully compatible with the previously released Mighty Empires... minus the part where the tiles can come out again. Prepare to see your previous ME tiles, which were so perfect, mutilated in the name of the other Hammers...
- Accessories: Also known as? The Manufactorums, Power Generators, and Command Bastions. These apparently confer additional rules in whatever campaign games you take part in, however you should look at the summary... awfully done by GW.
- 96 Banners!: Hoorah! More badly made snappy snappies.

Ruleset Summary
Also known as the most important section of any review. What does this campaign ruleset give the common player? Nothing much.

The set contains more a list of guidelines than a full ruleset - something to be changed soon enough - and should not be used as the basis for your entire campaign. More as guidelines... guide lines. GW may have released an incredibly awesome and well made (for once) product, but the rules for the product are rather suckish

The fate of the campaign is judged by the value of the upgrades controlled by a player - these are unique for each race. There's one problem though.
If a Space Marine and Ork player both have a single one of each upgrade, the Marine is winning
Each race gains different values... and thus each race has a different maximum point total if they have the same amount of each. This is why i'm scrapping that system for Spinner's End.

Final Rating
If you want the tiles, get it. If you want the campaign, don't.

GW has done a nice set of tiles - i'm considering a third box to the two I already have for this purpose - but the rules leave a lot to be desired. I rate this as a 4/5 for that exact reason.