Hi all,
First of all, there will be some spoilers in this article, but I will mark them as such before I present them so keep your eyes open. I wanted to take a few minutes to review how GW has advanced the plot for the 40k settings in its Arks of Omen series. Specifically, through reviewing the latest GW community post and also recapping the story so far (at least the major plot points.
GW Community Article:
In today’s article we saw a snippet recapping the story (no spoiler warnings in the article mind you) but also laying out an intriguing plan for how the Vashtorr book will have a custom campaign. This could be the new format for narrative missions and campaigns and so it is worth studying.
Each mission have specific outcomes that grant bonuses for later missions. I will be curious if GW has implemented a mechanic to prevent snowballing here. We know that the better the Chaos side does the fewer command points the Dark Angels will have in their final mission. In addition, we also get more enhancements and stratagems for Boarding Action games.
I think GW will try to keep these game type around, and even if they do not, we have a core set of rules that will be useful in specific campaign settings.
Arks of Omen Recap – Spoilers Begin!!
It has been interesting to follow the lore through these books so far. Really, the biggest plot points came from the introduction of Vashtorr and the ending of the Angron book. The addition of another chaos god (minor as he may be) is a welcome expansion of the setting. It looks like we will get a better understanding of Vashtorr through this book, as he seeks to accomplish a mysterious mission. At the end of the Angron book he recovered an artifact that was vital to his quest. We know this has something to do with the Dark Angels and that he will be attacking the Rock. This may indicate the rumors of Lion El’Johnson returning soon are true.
The other major plot progression was the turning of an entire Indomitus Crusade to chaos. When Angron destroyed the beacon, Khorne himself smashed the world and corrupted an entire sub-sector including the crusade force. This curse means we have the first confirmed chaos-aligned Primaris marines in the lord which will be an interesting narrative thread to explore. It is rare we see one side win such an unqualified victory in this setting, so we shall see what the other books hold in store. I think we will see the Lion return soon, probably not in the next book but maybe the one after. We will also likely see two xenos books too. Like the previous books, they might be opposed forces or they could be independent threats. As to who will win? A general rule of thumb is that whoever has the book named after them is likely to be the winners. Thus, you can usually tell the shape of the campaign and story by seeing what order the books come out in. We still don’t have a clear idea of what will be in store for the Orks and the Tau and I am curious as to what GW has up their sleeves.
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