My Big Issue with Warhammer 40,000 Xth Edition

So I know my last post was about the hyperbole and negativity surrounding 10th edition. But there is one problem that I think will kneecap 10th edition if it isn’t addressed. Granularity. Army building is a mess because you just pay for the units. This is mostly fine for units with simple, similar options. Terminators for example have relatively few expensive options and even those are broadly similar. Other units have far more uneven options. The Wraithknight has been the standout poster child for this so far. The Wraithknight is 475 points no matter what you equip it with. Ghostglaive and Scattershield? 475 points. 2 Heavy Wraithcannons? 475 points. 2 Heavy Wraithcannons and 2 Starcannons? 475 points. This is… not great. The first one has no ranged weapons and good if not spectacular melee as well as some defensive boosts. The second has amazing ranged fire (2d6 wound shots with Devastating Wounds) and the 3rd is literally just an upgrade from that.

This loss of granularity isn’t just a problem here, it’s also a problem with unit sizes. A 5 man squad of Intercessors costs 95 points. A 10 man squad costs 190. Pretty straightforward right? 19 points / Intercessor. Well guess what a 6 man squad costs. 190 points. Between this and the loss of weapon options, army building has gotten FUNKY. You might be building a 2000 point army and be at 1970 and unless there’s an Enhancement for a character that really works… you have to remove whole units rather than shuffle options around. For someone like me with a MASSIVE collection of models spanning decades (God I’m old) this isn’t that much of a problem, I can shuffle around units and get to 2k using other unit combinations but it has meant tearing some army ideas completely apart and rebuilding whole groups of units.

I’m a fan of interesting decisions in gaming. I like granularity and I like making choices with impact. Picking the most optimal weapon for every situation because it’s an obvious choice and all other factors are the same isn’t an interesting decision. It’s pretty profoundly flawed, in fact. Certain choices will just never be used. By the same token reducing army building choices in other categories just reduces the number of decisions you can make while at the same time making some of them more difficult, especially for people without the resources I have. This is the opposite of what GW should be doing.

So why did they do it?

The app. GW has invested… some… time and money into an app for army building. While I’ll be the first to admit it’s MUCH better than their last attempt, that bar is so low you need a metal detector and shovel to find it. But I think it’s a lot easier to do an app fast and cheap if you want it to do the bare minimum. And if you change what it has to do you can really make that bare minimum a lot more minimal. Now this might be because they just announced that they are linking it to their much-maligned Warhammer+ subscription service, but it really just seems like a business decision made without regard to the effect it has on the game. I hope they revert to more granular army building, that they give us back flexibility and meaningful choices in army building, but for now this is definitely the rotten apple in the barrel for me.

So Much, So Suddenly

Well GW kicked off the week with a BANG.

I was getting ready for work and saw that GW had announced another round of Space Marines going Last Chance to Buy.

That’s a LOT. A truly surprising amount. I recall GW saying that they would be removing models based on sales, which doesn’t make a lot of sense here, so I think there’s two things going on in this case.

There’s two kinds of models in this purge, and it is a purge. Uncommon to downright rare models that have been unpopular for a long time, and extremely popular and even meta choices. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Hunter/Stalker on the table in my local meta, Assault Squads have been hot garbage for a LONG time, Thunderfire Cannons and Techmarines with Servitors just don’t come up unless some weird buff puts them in the spotlight. Scouts probably haven’t sold in a while, especially since they lost Battleline in 10th. Land Speeder Storms and Librarians you’ll see occasionally but again they just don’t come up very often. Ironclad Dreadnoughts are practically invisible with practically every other chassis outpacing them.

But some of the others? Land Speeders and Attack Bikes find their way into a LOT of lists. Bike Squads and Scout Bikes are clutch for several armies. Scouts with Sniper Rifles have been great sellers for a LONG time, although 10th did them no favors and I have a huge soft spot in my heart (or head) for the Company Command box (seriously, pick one up if you don’t have it.) BUT I also suspect that several of these are out of stock or very low stock at the moment because they are quite good.

And a lot of people are MAD. I get it. I have RTB-01 beakies in my army that I bought when they were new. But I’m not mad as a Space Marine Player. This has been inevitable since Primaris started coming out as a line. Space Marines even absent Firstborn choice have more choices than any other army. It’s disappointing that many choices are gonna be relegated to proxies for Primaris or Legends. It’s unfortunate and some very iconic units are going away forever. I can’t really blame GW though even if this is a BIG change. At this point I don’t know if any Firstborn units will be left by the end of next year and I really doubt any will be left by 11th edition.

I do think some units will stick around. Land Raiders (to carry Terminators) and maybe the variant LRs. Specialty units (GW has already commented that Ravenwing will continue to be sold) Flyers unless they release a Primaris Flyer. And that’s about it.

Armies like the Grey Knights will need a complete overhaul and it would really behoove GW to do something for White Scars especially but really all the non-blueberry chapters.

The people that should be mad though, are the Xenos players. I predict within 48 hours we’ll start seeing news of the next round of Space Marine releases. GW wouldn’t drop a bomb like this unless they were ready to clean up the mess. We’ll see the new Terminator kit, we’ll see other new kits, and we’ll get a feeling for how big the 10th edition releases will be. But here’s the thing, the other Xenos, the Orks, the Eldar, the Tau, will be lucky to get half the boxes Marines will get. So yeah I get Marine players are feeling disappointed, but it’s not something I can feel myself.

10th Edition Plans and Goals

So I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to do gameplay wise in 40k in the much more enjoyable 10th edition, as well as what I’d like to do Hobby Wise and how I’m going to manage this website and other, related social media.

Last year I started a job that was much more amenable to doing… everything I enjoy really, and while it took a while, I’m now in a place both hobby wise and work wise where I can really do things I enjoy.

So. I’ve looked at a lot of things and among the side projects that distracted me was a BA Horus Heresy army painted with a VERY different technique from my Dark Angels. While my Dark Angels are painted with an Edge Highlighting technique that looks very striking at a distance, I’ve never been too thrilled with how they look up close.

I mean it’s alright

It looks fine, I guess

But I came up with a technique that’s MUCH more striking.

So this looks GOOD in person.

But there’s a problem. My army is ENORMOUS. Absolutely ridiculously large.

Really

Really

REALLY

…dusty… I MEAN HUGE

So at a minimum this means (after a test on a squad I haven’t painted yet) Priming black, airbrushing a metallic over it (probably Leadbelcher or something similar) and then carefully airbrushing Caliban Contrast over it to get a good metallic “Dark Candy Apple Green” look. Then you paint the equipment and details as normal and hopefully get a really beautiful, striking look. My Ravenwing / Deathwing aren’t painted with edge highlights and I’m not sure what I’d do there. I’ll have to do some testing to figure it out.

So that’s going to be a HUGE hobby project. Game wise I have some good friends I’ll try to play casual games with at least once or twice a month. Back in finance the hours are definitely not terrible and it should be workable.

Now for the big one. This blog, and social media. I have a YouTube channel, (actually 2) Twitter and now Threads, and even a TikTok. I’ve got just about everything but an OnlyFans and I don’t think Dark Angels Feet Pics will go over well. I plan on cross posting stuff between the text options, but also doing at least short videos on TikTok has some appeal, and I’d love to do longer videos digging into the game, the history of the game, lore, and community, and the hobby side, but that’s a big time investment so we’ll see.

10th Edition the Most Hyperbole Ever!

40k 10th Edition is out and there’s a lot to like about it. Lethality is down, vehicles especially are a lot harder to destroy. Weapons are less versatile, especially melee weapons and in general melee feels a lot weaker.

I was really hoping Invulnerable saves would be reduced but ohhhhh that did not happen in the slightest. On the surface there’s fewer mortal wounds but when you get into the mechanics (dice manipulation + devastating wounds) it can be trivial for some armies to force mortal wounds onto targets. There’s already been one nerf in this regard and I’m still expecting more.

So here’s how weapons got less versatile. Here’s the melee options for the Deathwing Terminators. I know, it’s awful to be me. Everything is wounding MEQ on 2 or 3, however some weapons get more attacks, some have worse accuracy. Against infantry you have definite preferences, GEQ you want lightning claws and power weapons, MEQ you want power fists for the 2+ to wounds and 1 shot kills, vehicles… well vehicles have gotten tougher.

T 12 with a 2+ save. So you really want that chainfist so you’re wounding on a 3+, really handy against things like Knights especially. The Thunder Hammer is kind of a downgrade, however it comes with a Storm Shield (extra wound for the model) and on a 6 to wound it does 2 mortal wounds which can be handy. I like that there’s no longer a best choice (and I like that my Deathwing have basically infinite choices outside the friggin sergeant with his power weapon).

Armor (as in armor save) matters MUCH more than in past editions. Very few weapons have an AP better than -2 and many of those that do (Plasma and Melta) are still at S8 or 9. Only dedicated anti-tank weapons like Lascannons combine high S and high AP, and many (but not all) of those got nerfed. Predator and Razorback lascannons are one shot only for example, although the new Ballistus Dreadnought gets two shots and the venerable Land Raider gets 2 shots from each of its arrays. However that same Land Raider facing conventional infantry isn’t going to be feeling nearly as good. It does still have a twin-linked heavy bolter and storm bolter backed up by a multi-melta but 11 shots into infantry, even if most of them are pretty high quality, doesn’t have as much oomph when most of them are low AP.

The change to Melta weapons is particularly interesting. They lost a bit of range, and pretty much stayed the same. Multi-Meltas are 2 shot S9 AP-4 D6(+2 at close range). If they get through the high toughness of tanks they’ll do a ton of damage. But only a few armies can reliably get them through that T. Multi-Meltas are as good as anything at killing heavy and super-heavy infantry but making them very erratic vs tanks is an interesting choice.

I do like that there’s something of a rock-paper-scissors meta with having to match equipment choices to a units mission and versatile weapons frequently having a premium attached. I also like that it’s not a STRICT rock-paper-scissors matchup. I think it’s a very good design choice and not an easy one to pull off.

Now, about that hyperbole. Good. Fucking. Lord. The competitive community wants to burn down GW and smash their armies under a steamroller to hear them talk about 10th. There’s problems. It’s a whole new ruleset and some of the problems are pretty grievous. Wraithknights w/ a Farseer nearby are a problem, and I don’t like how a number of things are worded. For example a battleshocked Titanic unit RAW has a 1 in 3 chance of being deleted falling back from a unit of grots. That… doesn’t seem right.

The real problem isn’t issues with the rules. FAQs will come out. Errata will come out. GW has gotten orders of magnitude better about updating the rules. The rules will improve. It’s frustrating to find issues in a ruleset they’ve spent time on but it’s NOT THE END OF THE WORLD nor has GW FAILED AS A COMPANY.

I’ll admit I have a great deal of antipathy towards the competitive “community”. There exists a tendancy to be toxic as individuals and as a group. There are welcoming individuals and welcoming subsets of the community but it’s just not enjoyable to invest a lot of time in an army and just get dumpstered by a meta chaser that was up all night building the latest grey horde. This edition even has a huge boost to the competitive community because skew lists are so easy to build with no “troops tax” required. A limit of 3 of any datasheet does prevent the worst offenses, however there’s still plenty of options in plenty of armies to skew in a competitive meta.

I for one am thrilled at the new opportunities. I love tank lists and 10th seems to have a definite place for them in the new meta. Tanks can be countered, Predator/Gladiator tanks have T10 vs the T12 of Repulsor/Land Raiders so they don’t just get removed in 1 turn of shooting, but dedicated AT can deal with dedicated tank lists. The Lion is FULLY back, not the badly conceived rules of 9th but a more considered profile in 10th. While some armies lack for choices (Votann for example) more armies are feeling fleshed out. Necrons, Tyranids, Sisters, all have pretty much all the boxes at least checked.

I’m considering ways to express my feelings about the game going forward, and chart my progress, here, youtube, TikTok, whatever. We’ll see but I’m looking forward to the journey!

Warhammer 40k: 10th Edition

So 10th Edition is imminent. As in the rules themselves, army lists and points are all released. I haven’t been able to play a game (looking forward to playing July 3). I actually played a few games at the end of 9th as a good friend returned to the game and GW did something that I honestly didn’t expect them to ever do.

Daddy’s Home

The Lion is Back. In 9th he hit pretty hard, although not really what we were hoping for and his defense was abysmal. He’s carrying the Emperor’s Shield but it was… not great. In 10th he found the On switch and between that and some slight stat adjustments and a rule change that favors him greatly… he’s a brick and hits like a truck. Both the lore and the model line for Dark Angels is moving in a way I haven’t seen in over a decade and I’m absolutely thrilled at the prospects. Even if we just get upgrade sprues for whatever terminators come out, and maybe some bikers I’ll be happy. The Lion is back!

Rules wise melee seems to be in a worse place, which is interesting in a game where melee is traditionally as important as it has been. GW seems to have finally found a solution to the MSU problem that has plagued the game for several editions. I think bigger units will see the table in a way that hasn’t happened in a long, long time. One loss I’ll miss in unit sizes is granularity. Units are either min or max size, assuming there’s variety at all. Tactical Squads are especially hard hit, as 10 Firstborn Marines are the only squad size you can take.

So… What do I do with these guys?

Obviously, I’ll have to redo some core units I’ve used for a long time but Terminators, and Primaris units continue to be strong, so I still have options. Surprisingly the previously 100% useless Assault Squads might even make a return in a game with reduced lethality and that seems to place a premium on fast moving units.

Can we see the table boss?

So far objective-based missions are what we’re expecting to see on Saturday when the big box drops. I plan on trying to bring fluffy lists, organized around what I think a half-company of Marines would look like, rather than stompy death blobs. But at the same time there’s another huge change to consider. I mentioned things got a lot tougher. You know what got tougher-est?

Tonks

Tanks might be back in a BIG way. Both possessing staying power far greater than in past editions, as well as retaining some of the best killing power in the game, the age of armor might be back. Maybe we’ll get really lucky and the Lion will bring back the rest of the Hexagrammaton and we’ll get the Iron Wing with their tank heavy spearheads. I doubt it, but I don’t doubt we’ll get to see a lot more tanks on the battlefield. And I’m a guy that loves his tanks. I have several Predators, a couple Land Raiders, a couple Repulsors and an Executioner to go with the Razorbacks and Rhinos in my list. Remember, I’m going for a ‘mech company so vehicles are not something I’m short of.

I will try some bikes at some point. I’m not hugely enthusiastic about them like I am other things. I expect the actual codex next year will give us a true Ravenwing formation but currently they look solid, but not amazing. One big change that I think will affect them is that Characters now join units. They aren’t independently wandering around; they lead a unit and buff that unit directly. Sammael for example looks like he’d be brutal leading his Black Knights, which is where you’d expect him to be. Not that the Knights need too much help.

The 5 things I’m most excited about are

1. More durable tanks (and other units, but mostly tanks)
2. Characters leading units again
3. Larger battles: Points seem slightly down again
4. Simplified rules: USRs are back. each army doesn’t get subtly different versions of the exact same rules
5. New Missions: Battlefields seems smaller, armies seem a bit larger, things are going to happen fast.

Things I’m perhaps more anxious about

1. Power Creep, Marines have hundreds of datasheets, some armies barely have 30 or 40. Balancing this can’t have been easy.
2. Melee: The one place the rules seem awkward is melee with lots of weird things happening.
3. Wombo Combos: Leaders being directly attached to units has led to some having really powerful buffs and some units have pretty high native strength. I’ve only seen a few that look crazy but…
4. Lack of Maneuver: How do we manage the field with more units on a smaller battlefield. Managing battlespace is fine in a Napoleonic game or the old WHFB but I don’t think it should be as big in a skirmish game, but we’ll see.
5. What will the game turn on? Will infantry dominate? Tanks? We doing Herohammer? I guess we’ll find out.

For the Lion and the Emperor!

Warhammer 40k: Indomitus

Ok, I know I’m a bit late to the party but now that the Dark Angels book has come out I want to talk a little bit about a couple things. First, the game is different. The rules changes from 7th to 8th edition were huge, but somehow I feel the game has changed more, and more for the better from 8th to 9th, even though the actual changes weren’t that big. I still don’t like some things (proliferation of invuln saves and mortal wounds being 1 and 1a) but the game focuses a LOT more on objective play and scenarios. You have to build an army that can do a LOT more than just kill things (while, you know, still killing things). Marines going to 2W is, well, about 7 editions overdue in my not so humble/biased opinion. Terminators hit 3W which is very spicy, even with significant 2D weapons out there, firstborn marines are back with a vengeance.

Xenos haven’t had much to get excited about. Necrons got a pile of new stuff and they climbed the tier list, kept their flavor, and, I think, brought some new life to the lifeless robotic hordes. Aeldari are hoping for a similar pass, but they got a bit of a pass with Ynnari (which then got nerfed out of existence) and a handful of new models for Howling Banshees and Drazzhar. While Aeldari and Orks both BADLY need new models, I’m not holding my breath.

Ok, now to talk about the DA releases a couple weeks ago.

HOLY.
SHIT.

Dark Angels are R-E-L-E-V-A-N-T now. Like, hellooooooo meta. No more excuses for getting my head handed to me anymore. Automatic free Transhuman Physiology (never wounded on a roll of 1-3 no matter the weapon’s S)

Basically the Deathwing and Ravenwing are both troops if you put them all together in a detachment, and you can take a Vanguard/Outrider detachment as a Battalion (i.e. no CP cost) if it has your warlord in it, which is just… YES! The only problem is doing 1 of each to give you a classic Black & White army leaves you with only 8 elite slots and YOU WANT TO FILL EVERY ONE OMG. I’ve been making lists for a game next week and just… EVERYTHANG is good. Plain old Deathwing? Knights? Bladeguard? Champion? Ancient? Ravenwing Apothecary that works in both detachments and is the BEST APOTHECARY IN THE GAME? Relic Terminators? Deathwing Command Squad? Probably the only stinker is the Deathwing Apothecary because he’s so completely outclassed by the Ravenwing version. The Ravenwing rejoices in speed with so much elan it’s probably going to make any White Scars die-hards just give up. ObSec, great weapon options, and really useful stratagem kit that lets them deliver a ton of firepower as well as their jink invuln save (5++ 4++ if they advanced) is just brutal Oh yeah and a top notch Psychic discipline that gives you buffs, debuffs, tactical fuckery and just seems SO good thematically.

The big downside is that you are going to be a small elite army. There’s some real potential to be outnumbered by everything except Knights. Fortunately you can just pile in obsec units. Deathwing Terminators, Terminator squads, Close Combat Terminator squads, and Relic terminators can all be obsec, as can Bikes and Outrider bikes. Greenwing exists, but why? I mean I literally have an almost completely mechanized battle company and I just can’t see it hitting the table without some serious nerfs to Deathwing and Ravenwing. But, there was a clear swing and a miss in the releases. The Patrol Box.

WTF is this?

That…. That isn’t a Dark Angels box. That’s a bunch of random crap painted Dark Angels colors and thrown in a box. They didn’t even bother to use the Plasma Inceptors, just the Assault Bolter version, with a combat squad of intercessors, a Dread, and a Chaplain. No thanks. You know what box WAS a Dark Angels box despite GW not marketing it as such?

You painted your Dark Angels Wrong

In 8th edition I complained (correctly) that Dark Angels were little more than slightly different Ultramarines painted Green. Clearly GW has someone specifically reading my blog who saw that and acted on my criticism to differentiate them better. Good job. Because now we have a whole box of Dark Angels painted Blue.

I’m not even kidding. The Captain, the Lieutenant, the Blade Guard, the Blade Guard Ancient, and the Chaplain all can be Deathwing. The Outriders are Ravenwing, the Judicar can SADLY be in neither, and will be relegated to Greenwing detachments despite being an awesome model with amazing rules. The eradicators are a rare bright spot in the Greenwing, being excellent with the DA special rules, and the assault intercessors are good for learning how to paint, I guess, because assault marines are just awful and assault marines without a jet pack are even worse so why even bother putting them together.

Scraping the Bottom

So the new Space Marine Codex for 8th is out. With it came updates to the non-Codex chapters. Blood Angels, Space Wolves, and of course, my beloved Dark Angels. To call this update a sop gives it far too much credence. I’m going to talk about 4 main portions of the update, and examine the effects that DA players have to work under while we wait for a new codex that hopefully will rectify the situation.

But first a bit of context so you can see the power level DA were in before the update. Here’s this morning’s ITC rankings.

One guy over 550, everyone else under 400, even dropping down into the high-mid 200s by #10

Vs. One score under 500. The #10 Vanilla Marine army would be the #2 Dark Angels Army

Ouch. So before the Codex, DA were virtually non-competitive vs regular Space Marines. That’s the environment we existed in Friday. From there we see four main changes to the new Marine Armies.

First off is Doctrines. This is a huge one, handing out -1 AP to either Heavy and Grenade weapons, Rapid Fire and Assault, or Pistol and Melee, depending on which you are on. This basically puts regular marines back where they were in 7th as long as their doctrine is going, and boosts intercessors a LOT, with grenades and grenade launchers getting some real “reach out and touch someone” on turn 1. Dark Angels did not get this in the update, leaving all our troops with inferior AP, and no way to “tip the scale” depending on what phase of the battle is going on.

Second is Litanies of Battle. This is GW’s attempt to make Chaplains much more valuable and I am here for it. Basically each chaplain gets to pick a Litany he can recite every turn. Some of these are very powerful, even if virtually all are situational. Of course DA didn’t get this in the update either.

Third was stat changes. This affects DA in a different way. Lots of Primaris units received +1 wound. Gravis units in particular. This DID get given to DA; however it’s still a nerf. Gravis units are now tougher than Terminators, relegating two of the few special DA units rather less effective. Those being Deathwing terminators and Deathwing knights. While DA has access to the units with more wounds, these units don’t have the same access to power boosts that vanilla space marine units have.

Finally there’s point changes. Many units received new, lower costs, which DA do not have. There were some increases (especially Thunder Hammers) which haven’t hit DA yet, but in general Dark Angels armies built to mirror vanilla marines will have fewer, less potent models on the table, compared to their basic bitch brethren.

I do want to point out that some changes did hit equally, Angels of Death being a big one, but even these hit equally. Every change has had either zero net effect or a negative net effect, leaving an already weaker army further behind the power curve.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. GW has said there will be something for DA next month, but I am less than sanguine about it. We’re pretty late in the day for us to get what I think would help the most (The Lion) and I strongly doubt we will get more than a near-equalizer. Rules that bring things roughly in-line with Vanilla marines but don’t address the larger power imbalance.

I would LIKE to see a new chapter tactic. Grim Resolve doesn’t mean much of anything in a world of buff auras and MSU. I think something like a +3″ to aura abilities would be suitably strong, and also show the control the inner circle exerts over the Unforgiven. I know that’s very strong but… DA need something very strong at this point. Space Marines got boosted because they honestly needed it to be a top tier army. DA weren’t a top tier army, or even an average tier, now they are getting shoved even lower, and Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Grey Knights, and Death Watch with us.

Last Son of Caliban: I, Bors

Being an account of Lieutenant Bors of the Fifth Company, First Chapter, Legio Astartes, “Dark Angels”

“I have served the First for nearly one hundred years, sidereal. I have battled rebels, xenos, traitors, heretics, daemons, simple fools to the greatest terrors of the galaxy. I fought as a scout, a devastator, an assault squad member, a brother of a tactical squad, a sergeant, a member of the Raven Wing, a Dark Talon pilot, and in the Bone-White battleplate of the Deathwing.

When Master Balthasar fell I was all but assured his position as Master of the Fifth, until the Primarch intervened. He informed Supreme Grand Master Azrael that he had noted, with interest, the lack of advancement of our new Primaris “brothers” and was confused about their poor performance with our great chapter. He noted the performance of Master Cain when he commanded a Company during the Indomitus Crusade. As such he requested and required that then-Lieutenant Cain be appointed command over the first Company available, and thus my path was altered.

His performance has never been wanting, his leadership adequate, and his knowledge of both our weapons and our enemies, serviceable. He uses his subordinates to their strengths, and his employment of the full panoply of war demands even my grudging respect. Beyond that the Chapter demands my eyes on him. The Fifth is frequently supported by Grand Master Ezekiel and much of this is to ensure that the secrets a Master of the Dark Angels must know are kept secure.

In truth I cannot say whether he or I would be a better Master of the Fifth. I would not venture to second guess the Primarch, even though he is not ours, but I must admit I resent not having the chance to test my own mettle.”

I laid down the autoquill. Sealing the tome under gene-lock I stored it beneath the surface of my small desk. Every officer and Sergeant of the Fifth kept his records to be stored and recorded in the annals of the First. Taking a moment to ensure my wargear, my weapons, battleplate and jump-pack had been properly stored I prepared for rest. It was late in the day, truly it was early in the next, but the workload on officers of the First allowed for little sleep.

A vox-chime from my wrist reminded me that I bore not this burden alone. I recognized the comm-code of Grand Master Ezekiel and at once lifted the bracelet.

“Grand Master, how may I serve?”

“We brief tomorrow for the drop on Barnabus. You will attend me before Morning Prayer, that we may discuss certain aspects of the mission. The brief will take place instead of morning drills. Barnabus seems to be a simple rebellion but we have noted concerning patterns. We will discuss more before the brief.”

“Of course Grand Master. Is there aught else?”

The cutting of the carrier wave stood as Ezekiel’s only answer. I slapped the light switch on the wall and lay on my pallet.

The Glorious Tale of Broin the Mighty

Master Cain had mustered the company. The Chapter recruiting base on Molov close by the Cicatrix Maledictum had become a major marshaling point. The 5th stood in ranks in the hard rain, under a dark sky shot through with the otherworldly purple and green light of the tear in space. Chaplain Zadok brought his fiery harangue to a thunderous crescendo, extolling the virtues of the company and demanding more of them in the upcoming battles.

Nearly a quarter of the men in ranks were new to the company. More than a dozen dead, another bunch rotated to serve as vehicle crew or replacements to other companies, or to serve in the Ravenwing. In the ranks the new members stand at the end of their squads, their armor freshly repainted with the markings of the 5th. The rain washing down them, sleeting from the heavens made them appear as weeping statues. The puddles shook. a tremor washed over the company.

Master Cain spun, his senses pointing him directly to the source. Through the weirdly lit gloom a hulking shape approached, the full-throated, brassy notes of warhorns. A Crusader-Class knight, in black and bone. And what appeared to be deep green.

“Oh no” breathed Bors over the company vox.

Cain focused and a burst of lightning highlighted the name “Broin” on the knight as it came close, still half a kilometer away it towered over the vehicle park as it tromped forward between the lines of vehicles as if they stood honor guard for him.

The company stood, still and silent, facing away with perfect discipline. Cain admired them for that. Still he could feel every pair of eyes in every helmet straining to see the sight. Most knights walked with a noble gait, this one tromped with intent, but no grace. “Bors, what do you know”

“If this is the Broin I know this will be a trial, master.”

Cain looked at his Lieutenant, his hammer twitching in his hand.

“Is he that bad Bors?”

“He is a fine warrior, but if he was a tenth the warrior he thinks himself to be we could take up farming, or embroidery.”

As Cain stared at Bors, trying to detect any trace of falsehood in his odd comment, the Knight swung ponderously around behind the Chaplain, taking the place of honor as if to address the company. The horns sounded, deep and thunderous.

“Warriors of the First Legion” bellowed the speakers on the knight. “Congratulations on your fortune this day! Today you join forces with the glorious Broin the Mighty!”

Cain looked on in amazement. He could hear vox-clicks from his sergeants and Chaplain Zadok’s vitals were spiking.

As Broin’s speakers cut in to continue his speech, Master Cain stepped forward “Broin, we of the First Legion greet you. Tonight my Lieutenants, Bors and Nabbuk have prepared a feast, in your honor. We look forward to hearing your tales and to working with you. For now we must prepare for tomorrow’s embarkation!”

Bors looked at him, hate seething off him in waves. Even the unflappable Nabbuk seemed bemused. Cain clicked over to the command vox. “Seat him between Joab and Uriah. Adjust the tables so our head table meets at an angle to theirs at the front of the hall. We must not insult our new ally.”

“-and I look forward to our feasting and fighting as glorious brothers!” Broin was finishing even as Cain re-enabled outside audio.

The knight stomped away, to the head of the vehicle column, where a support crew in black livery waited to aid him down. Bors voiced a thought that clearly troubled him “Why is his livery on his shield so close to ours? Before it was simply halved, now it’s quartered with our green, though not quite the company pattern.”

Zadok sighed “I suspect it is one of Sapphon’s little games. He likely sent him the information on our company and suggested he incorporate pieces of it. He seems to enjoy… pushing decorum at times. See how we react. Testing us.”

“This will test us. Master, with your permission I’d like to head over with Nabbuk and prepare room at the feast.”

“Of course, Bors. I will see you tonight. See if they have banners or such to hang for the feast as well.”

“Of course.” Bors and Nabbuk saluted and stalked away, bristling with rage.

Broin, just about tabletop ready

Return of the Primarchs I: The Lion

The Hall of Grand Masters waited deep within the Rock. Hidden down among the lowest levels few knew of its existence. At the precise same instant, guided by the Watchers in the Dark more than a dozen Chapter Masters of the Dark Angels stepped from shadowy alcoves in the wall into the dim light of the Hall. Robed and hooded in the colors of their chapters, the leaders of the Successors of the Dark Angels walked to their seats as the Watchers took up positions behind them their dark green robes blending into the stone of the walls as they froze into immobility. Many battle-brothers lived their lives without seeing a single one of the mysterious beings, this night more than thirty of them took station in the Hall.

“Master of Souls Nakir,” intoned Azrael, carefully biting off his words in the thick air of the chamber. “Why have you called this meeting?”

Nakir sat up a bit, his deep black robe shifting. “It wasn’t my summons Supreme Grand Master. The summons I received came from Master Makallan!”

Cries erupted around the table as every master claimed another had summoned him. Soon half the members were standing and the sussurus of whispers of the Watchers pressed hard on their minds.

“Enough.” said a voice. The tone was that of a whisper, but the volume crashed across the room like a tidal wave. Every head snapped with transhuman speed and precision to the throne that had stood empty when they entered. On one side of it stood a robed Watcher. Only this Watcher’s robes were not the dark green of every other Watcher ever seen, but a bone-white scribbled over with runes of ancient Caliban. Towering over him on the other side of the throne stood an Astartes in black power armor of ancient design. Hooding his features in a deep white robe did nothing to disguise the ancient Fallen Dark Angel, Cypher.

Yet the greatest surprise sat between them. Even seated the magnificent warrior on the throne towered over Cypher as Cypher did the Watcher. Blonde hair so pale as to be nearly white hung over a face narrow and drawn. The aquiline nose, projected forward over pale lips, barely seen on the face seen in so many windows and frescoes by the assembled warlords of the Dark Angels successors. His black armor shared a color with Cypher’s but where Cypher’s armor blended with the shadows, hiding him even when one looked squarely at him, the Lion’s glossy war-plate stood like a burning beacon, a black flame lit to burn out the enemies of his legion.

“I did not summon you here to listen to my sons bicker and squabble. I came here to determine exactly what has been done to my legion, and why my brother has been allowed to infiltrate it and fragment it.”

The Chapter Masters paused, unsure how to handle the barbed questions inherent in the statement of the Primarch. Cypher stepped into the stiff, empty air and cast back his hood.

“Perhaps our best use of the time is to determine how to put your Legion back in its desired state, and with the leaders it needs, given the issues the Imperium faces at present, my Lord.” He said calmly, addressing his words to the Primarch seated behind him, but with a cool, measuring gaze spread across the Chapter Masters before him.

The point of this series is to show how the missing Imperial Primarchs could return.  I will be doing all 9, even the dead ones.  The goal is not to show what effect they will have, simply how they could choose to reveal themselves.