Hey, um, "Sanctus Reach"? Yeah, I'm Sorry.

Look, this is going to be one of those weird apologies that sounds like it really isn't an apology.

But it is.

I mean, ever since I heard about you:

http://www.slitherine.com/products/634/details/Warhammer.40,000.Sanctus.Reach

I have absolutely had my doubts.  Your models aren't a fraction as pretty as those in the Warhammer 40k RTS games, your weapon effects are average, your square-based movement system feels straight out of the first Clinton administration, and for the love of all that is just, you made the Space Wolves the centerpiece of the whole affair.  I know there are lovers of the Void Vikings, but their arcane codex, weird troop classifications, and general inferiority to just about every other chapter save the wildly-overdone Ultras, helped me to bounce and bounce hard over your less-than-burnished carapace.

One does get Titan class units.

You came to the door bearing the aforementioned bearded freaks and Orks.  The latter has been done, but is not a bad thing.  Since launch, you've been gilded with a thin Ork expansion and a far nicer Imperial Guard addition.  Still, there's little word on whether the other chapters, much less the other races, will ever make an appearance.  The devotees tell me the Sanctus Reach story involves the chaos dwarves at some point -- I honestly should have known that -- but if they show 'round before the Tyrannids, we will have words in private.

It also cannot go without mention that you shipped with PBEM++ and not connected multi-player.   This despite the fact that, post setup, your turns play in minutes.

And yet.

For the past several weeks you and I have had immense fun.  You can keep the campaign game, involving Space Wolves as it does, but my son and I have been having a fine time generating skirmish after skirmish and trying out the different units, maps, and skirmish game types. Your maps feel bigger than they did at first and they play out quite a bit like I remember 40k working on the tabletop.

My Blood Angels have Corvus I beaks.  This matters to me.

Cover matters.  Weapons feel different from each other.  And you offer all manner of choices re: "do I move in and take fire or try to strike from a distance?"  "Do I dance around and try to plink him from afar or just get stuck in?"  These are 40k choices and I like them.

And while your animations are still a bit stilted and sound limited, there's life in your characters and many of them look, sound, and act as I once imagined the little plastic fellows doing.

You've let us tell stories.  Like the brave Warboss who rushed his many foes rather than run away.

  
Or, on the flip side, the Thunder Hammer (tm) Terminator squad that took on all comers only to perish in a hail of fire from his own Whirlwind (tm).  Friendly fire, indeed, isn't.

You've even helped me, a life-long devotee of the Space Marines, appreciate the IG a bit more.  Even as they die in their hundreds and their AFVs are reduced to ash.

You have been so much fun, in fact, that my son and I have taken to playing two MP games simultaneously just so we don't have have such a horrible case of ludus interruptus from PBEM++.

In short, you've been a wonderful surprise.  A surprise in need of more content and connected MP to be sure, but a surprise nonetheless.

And I'm sorry.