Games Workshop - Warhammer 40,000 - Arks Of Omen: The Lion (HB)

Product Information

Wherever Commander Dante strikes, his loyal Sanguinary Guard are never far behind. Dazzle your foes with dice rolls using this set of 15 metallic gold dice with red pips that feature the Blood Angels Chapter icon on the 6 face. Vashtorr the Arkifane The first three books reignite the classic struggle between the Imperium of man and the forces of Chaos – with the third introducing a major new character to the setting, Vashtorr. The fourth book will be a distinctly xenos affair, however. We’ll have more on that next year, along with news on the rest of the series… These games of Warhammer 40,000 will be fully compatible with the space hulk terrain found in sets like Kill Team: Shadowvaults , which will soon be seeing a standalone release. This is all a real shame because I honestly believe in this format, which has snappier play and refines actions into something that fixes their major issues. If Games Workshop made a version of this that used a 44×30″ board and came with non-Gallowdark terrain and allowed say, a single vehicle or something similar, I think they’d be able to create an exceptional introductory version of the game in a way that has eluded them before now. I like Boarding Actions, enough that I’m going to play more, but I’m also immediately thinking about how to make it work with Zone Mortalis terrain. I’m also concerned with how long it’ll get support, since this seems exactly like the kind of thing we get right before a new edition to pad out a release schedule. Thousand Sons are in a weird place in Boarding Actions. Their ability to throw out mortal wounds with every unit in the psychic phase makes them very deadly, but their limited datasheets and high costs can make it difficult get everything you want into your roster. There are basically two builds you’re looking at with Thousand Sons in Boarding Actions: Three units of Rubrics, or Rubrics + Scarabs (double scarabs is possible, but taking only 3 units in Boarding Actions games seems like a mistake to me). Either way, your cheapest character options are the Infernal Master and the Sorcerer, each of which cost you 90 points and the former of which is likely the better play. One cool part about Boarding Actions is that while teleporting is very powerful the fact that Sorcerous Facade is Warp Charge 11 makes it just too unreliable to use and so there’s a lot of reason to use a different great cult. In particular, the Cult of Magic, Cult of Time, Cult of Scheming, and Cult of Knowledge all have real value in the mode. Empyric Trespass in particular can be very nasty as it has a 24” range and doesn’t require line of sight.

A lot. This is going to be one of the biggest shake-ups we’ve seen all Edition, with major changes to army design, significant shifts in how strong various factions are, and (hopefully) fewer serious outlier units dominating the meta (though a risk that some Marine builds might take that crown). Our rough feeling at a glance is that things break down as follows – this isn’t necessarily where armies end up in a tier list, but in terms of impact from these changes this is where we’re at: A cap on the most extreme builds – most armies aren’t going to struggle to fit into the new detachment, but a few very extreme builds might previously have wanted more than six units in a non-Troops slot, and that’s now outright impossible (with the possible exception of Elites where there are extra slots for Character models). In Arks of Omen: Abaddon the Warmaster is plotting his next action on The Vengeful Spirit when he is met by the demigod Vashtorr the Arkifane, who promises him an alliance that would serve both of their interests. If their efforts succeed, Abaddon would gain the weapons needed to pursue his goal, while Vashtorr would achieve his goal of ascending to become the Fifth God of Chaos. This plan would unleash a new age of terror and war across the Imperium.

It’s cool that Vashtorr spent a bunch of time working on his little plan and setting all his cute traps, but he absolutely came to the wrong place to try and run that hustle. You can’t Home Alone the Dark Angels on their own turf, my guy.

It wouldn’t be a new season without some changes to the Secondary Objectives, and Arks of Omen has some pretty impactful ones. Faction-specific Secondaries see plenty of tweaks and re-balancing, which we’ll cover in each of the faction articles, but there are some surprisingly big updates to the core choices as well.

Mission Steps

This game mode acts as a bridge between the larger-scale battles in Warhammer 40k 9th Edition and the smaller squad-based Kill Team system – while nodding at the earlier Warhammer 40k tabletop game Space Hulk. Grand Tourmament 2020/ 2021/ War Zone Nachmund/ War Zone Nephilim/ Arks of Omen • Munitorum Field Manual/ 2021/ 2022 • Tactical Deployment

Space Marines • Necrons • Death Guard • Drukhari • Adeptus Mechanicus • Adepta Sororitas • Orks • Grey Knights • Thousand Sons • Adeptus Custodes • Genestealer Cults • T'au Empire • Aeldari • Tyranids • Imperial Knights • Chaos Knights • Chaos Space Marines • Chaos Daemons • Leagues of Votann • Astra Militarum • World Eaters First, if a unit’s minimum size is less than five then it can only be included in a Boarding Party if the unit is minimum-sized. This means that if you take something like a unit of Chaos Spawn, it’ll only be a single model. Rob: This is still the worst mission, as it disproportionately punishes the crap out of specific armies and strategies. TOs should still avoid running this mission. The Furnace contains a specific region in the board called The Furnace and another region called the Furnace Control Zone. Models inside the control zone can perform an action to turn on the burners in the furnace, which naturally has an unpleasant outcome for anyone inside the furnace (roll a D6 for every model inside and inflict a mortal wound on a 4+). Inside the furnace are a pair of particularly valuable markers which would explain why someone would want to go in there. Players score up to 15 points per turn for controlling one, two or more objectives and an additional five points if they control one or more objectives in the Furnace. They also score an extra 10 points if they control one or more objectives in the Furnace at the end of the game.

Once created, the Arks are placed under the command of Abaddon’s chosen followers and sent to their task, though not always fully aware of what they’re looking for. There’s some really cool details in the book on how these are outfitted and how Abaddon ensures they’ll achieve their goals, and it’s worth a read to understand more about the roles they play in the larger plan. What’s Next Being a daemon of calculated malice, his singular goal is to become a being of such power that he can rival that of the Dark Gods themselves. Vashtorr believes that the best way to achieve divinity is to fulfil the same prophecy that Abaddon pursued in the hopes of finding a weapon of incredible power. The pursuit of this prophecy would require the collection of multiple artefacts scattered across the galaxy which could be combined into something that Vashtorr called the Key. To find and return the Key-fragments would require vessels of immense power and capability, and Vashtorr had a plan for that as well: They would harness space hulks and form them into Arks of Omen that would lead Balefleets across the galaxy. The Arks of Omen Big Azrael now gets 6 swings at 7/-4/3 (up from 5 at 6/-4/2), which rips. You still get the 4++ bubble, though it’s slightly bigger now that he isn’t on a piddly little 25mm base. His PL didn’t actually change, and there aren’t points in here, but Warhammer Community posted his datasheet and he costs 170 now. That is still a friggin’ bargain for what you’re getting here. This detachment also comes at no CP cost, so you’ll always end this process with 6CP to spend on Requisitions, and you can use these on the Warlord Trait and Relic stratagems (returning from Nephilim) or the new Heroic Support stratagem, which can be used once to bypass a one-per-detachment restriction – great news if you want to take multiple Hive Tyrants or Tau Commanders at a lower cost than putting in an additional Patrol used to run you. Finally, which Faction you select for your Arks of Omen detachment determines which set of Faction Secondaries you get access to, even if you choose to include an Allied Detachment. This is particularly good news for Ynnari, because a Ynnari detachment containing Harlequin or Drukhari models still explicitly counts as an Asuryani detachment, finally putting to bed the ambiguity over whether they get access to the Asuryani secondaries.