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With the destruction of Cadia and the sudden increase of warp anomalies throughout realspace the Imperium has been split in two. I wonder what this means for the upper section, which has now rather auspiciously been dubbed "Imperium Nihilus" ninja

Are they seriously claiming that a smaller force cannot win over a larger one by staging an ambush?
I thought that was one of the main purposes of making ambushes!
cat_xp

*poke*

Come back in a few days for a closer look at Imperial Knights.

Today we take a look at brutal urban combat in the 41st Millennium and a little bit at how terrain works in the new game generally.

Battles in the sprawling gothic hives of the Imperium provide many of the most iconic images of war in the 41st Millennium. To recreate battles like this in the new edition, you need look no further than the new Warhammer 40,000‘s Advanced Rules for Cities of Death. These rules, like the Stronghold Assault rules we’ve seen already, are an optional add-on to theme your battles and add more variety to your games. In these types of games, certain units will thrive, while others will find their paths across the battlefield more limited.

So, speaking of cities… let’s chat about ruins.

The crumbling masonry of once-proud Imperial architecture has been a staple of Warhammer 40,000 battlefields for a while now. In the new Warhammer 40,000, they still will be, but the way they interact with the game will be a little different. Their impact takes the form of bonuses for units with certain keywords, and limitations for others.



Infantry are the big winners here. They alone have the flexibility and dexterity to move easily between levels of a building, over ruined walls, through doors, hatches and windows, as well as taking advantage of holes blasted in the ruins themselves. They are also the only units that benefit from cover naturally, just for being in a ruin. Other units (monsters, vehicles etc…) will need to actually be obscured to gain any bonus.

In Cities of Death games, these bonuses get even better – if a unit does not move, its cover bonus from being in a ruin is increased from a +1 to their Armour Save to +2, representing the unit digging into cover and fortifying their position. This can make even a humble Guardsman squad difficult to shift, and a power armoured unit all but invulnerable.

It’s not just Infantry though, flying units will do very well in Cities of Death games, as they are able to leap from rooftop to rooftop easily. Some of these units will be Infantry as well! Imagine facing an entire army of Night Lords Raptors in the twisting streets of a ruined hive, and you start to understand what terror means…



It’s not going all Infantry’s way of course. There are solutions to dug-in enemies. Grenades for example. Any Grenade thrown at a unit in ruins will always count as having rolled the maximum number of shots (6, in the case of a frag grenade) and can reroll to wound thanks to the “Fire in the Hole” mission rule.

One last thing Cities of Death gets us is a new selection of Stratagems. One of our favourites is Sewer Rat, which lets you set up a sneaky unit of subterranean infiltrators in the enemy’s face during deployment or right on an objective.



One war zone where the narrative certainly calls for Cities of Death battles is Ultramar. At the end of the Gathering Storm, we already saw the forces of the Traitor Legions launch their attack on the Ultramarines utopian* worlds. Now the great cities of every planet are either surrounded or active battlefields.



With his home under siege, you better believe that the liberation of the 500 Worlds** are high on the list for Guilliman’s Indomitus Crusade…

*Well, by Imperial standards anyway.
**Being in stasis for 10,000 years, it probably only feels like yesterday to Guilliman that he liberated them from the Traitor Legions the first time…

We’ve seen already today what the launch line-up for the new Warhammer 40,000 will be from our main studio (and if you didn’t then check it out here).

As well as your Citadel Miniatures, we know that loads of you love to include Forge World models in your forces or even make whole armies of these more specialised kits. Don’t worry, we have you covered.

Much like Citadel Miniatures, rules for the extensive Warhammer 40,000 Forge World range will be made available in a series of Index books. The first two of these will be available alongside the new edition of Warhammer 40,000, available to pre-order on the 3rd of June. These first two books will cover the forces of the Adeptus Astartes and their traitorous kin.



Rules for all the rest of the Warhammer 40,000 Forge World range, including the myriad xenos races of the galaxy and the massed forces of the Astra Militarum and their accompanying Imperial Agents, will all be appearing in additional Index books that set to be released before the end of June. Every single Warhammer 40,000 miniature that Forge World make today will be covered, as well as a few classic ones. Also included are rules for a few characters who do not yet have a model, such as some heroes and villains of the Badab Wars. On top of that, several units will be made available to factions that never previously had access to them, and on Wednesday this week, we’ll be taking a look at one of them when we see our first Forge World datasheet for the new edition.



For you Horus Heresy fans out there, Forge World will be announcing the future of that game system at Warhammer Fest this weekend. We’ll bring you the news from the event as it breaks, right here on the Warhammer Community site.

Death Guard are one of my favourite armies in the grim darkness of the far future, and the second army I ever owned. Blessed by father Nurgle with inhuman resistance to pain (and innumerable, horrific diseases, too!), these implacable warriors march through punishing damage as if it were no more than a gentle rain.



Death Guard in the current edition play to their background relatively well thanks to their high Toughness and having the Feel No Pain universal special rule. This is further backed up by Plague Marines being able to wound fleshy targets more easily with their poisoned blades. However, due to their high points cost in what we will soon be calling matched play, they aren’t actually seen on the tabletops in very high numbers.

Let’s see how they play in new Warhammer 40,000.

First of all, they keep a pain-ignoring mechanic, which is now called Disgustingly Resilient, as we saw with Nurglings. The best thing about it is that you still get the save, even if you get hit with high Strength weapons that would have previously prevented you from getting a save due to the Instant Death rule. However, the fact that those high-Strength weapons usually do more than 1 Damage now, means you may need to take multiple Disgustingly Resilient rolls. Furthermore, in an all Death Guard Detachment, Plague Marines are Troops – which can help you unlock more Command Points with a Battalion detachment.



Plague Marines are still Toughness 5, which means a lot of attacks only wound them on 5s. Their plague knives now allow you to re-roll wound rolls of 1 in close combat, but I think the most exciting thing about the new Plague Marines, is their new weapon, the blight launcher – an Assault 2, Strength 6, AP -2 weapon that deals D3 damage at 24″ range. Plague Marines will be tearing enemies apart from a distance and in combat. Overall, a very dependable Troops choice.

Another unit to get excited about are Poxwalkers, the other Troops choice for the Death Guard. Coming in at 6 points in matched play with Disgustingly Resilient, they are a very solid pick. This unit also never has to take morale tests, which means you have to kill them to the last man (zombie?) which is not an easy task. Another cool rule they have is Curse of the Walking Pox, allowing you to add another Poxwalker to the unit every time they slay any enemy Infantry models. This unit is great for holding objectives or for screening your more valuable units from the hyper-fast assault units we’ve seen in armies like Tyranids. Also, if you’ve got Typhus on the table, he increases the Strength and Toughness of nearby Poxwalkers by 1 with his special ability, bolstering their already formidable durability!



The Death Guard also get Miasma of Pestilence – a psychic power which you cast onto one of your own units so that, until your next turn, your opponent must subtract 1 from all hit rolls that target that unit. This paired with the high Toughness of this faction and Disgustingly Resilient makes Death Guard units extraordinarily difficult to get rid of, just as you’d expect them to be.

There’s more to say of course, but our time is running out today. I hope you are ready to bring your Death Guard army out of retirement!

Well, yesterday was exciting, wasn’t it?

Amidst the massive line-up of new releases due for pre-order on the 3rd of June were the Forge World Imperial Armour Index books for Space Marines and their traitorous counterparts.
We haven’t really talked about Forge World miniatures in the new Warhammer 40,000 yet, but now that the new books are confirmed, let’s take a look at a datasheet from one.



This guy is a Leviathan Dreadnought. And more than that, a Chaos one! The traitor’s look like they have opened up their 10,000-year-old vault of Legion Dreadnoughts for the new Warhammer 40,000. Against those new Primaris Space Marines, we’re sure Chaos players will appreciate the reinforcement.

Just a cursory glance at the stats on this guy, and we can see that he is an absolute monster! Some of the larger walkers, which previously fell a little short of super-heavy status in the last edition, do very well out of the new Warhammer 40,000 (Orks also do pretty well here).

Kitted out either for combat, shooting or a mix of both, this Dreadnought is going to wreck face. All of those weapons are looking like good options. There’s even a ranged weapon that kicks out mortal wounds – one of only a handful in the entire game. We think we’re veering towards a grav-flux bombard and hellforged siege drill as our favourite kit though. You budding Chaos Lords will have to decide for yourselves.



And that’s just one unit in one of the two Forge World Index books accompanying the launch of the new edition. And there will be more Index books on the way very soon after for other Forge World Imperial as well as xenos units.

We’ll be back tomorrow with a look at missions and objectives in the new edition.

WAAAGH!! Are you ready to stomp and smash? Krump and loot? Well then ‘ere we go!

Orks are a tremendously fun faction to love in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. They bring a slight sense of levity to the grim darkness of endless war with their insane enthusiasm for battle and ability to thrive in a galaxy most factions are simply struggling to survive in – and all the while they remain ferociously menacing.



Orks have had their ups and downs on the tabletop over the years. They’ve often been seen as the army that was fun to play but that perhaps did not win too many games. Their most recent iteration in the current version of Warhammer 40,000 gives them quite a few tools and fun, themed army build options, but they have some weaknesses that can be difficult to overcome. Having nearly no invulnerable saves throughout their army but needing to get into melee to do the majority of their damage means they are at a massive disadvantage against armies with high durability. Units with lots of characters from different factions all providing bonuses to each other cause the most problems, and can leave Orks to be overwhelmed in close combat, where they’re meant to shine. As an Ork player, I certainly know this pain all too well.

In the new edition of Warhammer 40,000, this changes, and all I can say is praise be to Gork…or maybe Mork! One of the biggest changes for Orks is the way the new AP system impacts both their offence and defence. Units like Meganobz, who have a 2+ save (and now 3 Wounds!), will find themselves being able to soak hits from things that used to kill them in one shot and keep on killin’ thanks to the save they now get. A lascannon, for example, doesn’t bypass their armour entirely and they have decent odds of surviving, even if they fail their save.



But what about the basic grunt in the Ork army, you may be asking? What about da Boyz? You so rarely see Ork Boyz on the table these days, and an Ork Nob, often swinging last in combat with nothing but a lowly 6+ save to protect him, was not exactly a feared opponent in a challenge.

Boyz will get their save against most light weapons now, as a 6+ is not ignored by so many weapons as it once was. Also, as there are no more challenges in melee, a Nob will no longer be forced to focus all his attention on smashing just one foe. Excitingly, it won’t always be a no-brainer choice to take a power klaw, either. The Big Choppa is now quite an appealing choice thanks to a more scalable AP system, and the kombi-skorcha is positively mean!



Morale is not nearly as problematic for Orks as it was, either. The Boyz have multiple layers of morale defence built into their army. The best way to mitigate it is by having a Warboss within 3″ of a unit of Orks; he can simply knock a few of them senseless (D3, to be exact) to keep the rest of the Boyz in line and in the fight. Nobz squads also help to keep Orks from leggin’ it by rolling a D6 for each nearby Ork that tries to flee, and on the result of a 6, they do not. These are all in addition to the Mob Rule! which allows a unit of Orks to use a leadership value equal to their unit size or the leadership value of a nearby Ork unit. These are great for keeping big mobs of Boyz in the fight!

But that’s not all, folks! Orks, you will find, are all about layering bonuses onto the Boyz for force multiplication. I’ve listed a few of them so far, but there are many more. A Painboy gives nearby Ork Infantry and Biker units a 6+ save against wounds suffered. A Big Mek with a Kustom Force Field gives nearby Ork units a 5+ invulnerable save against shooting attacks. And by the way, you can take BOTH of these saves! There are many more bonuses available to you, depending on how you build your army, but my favourite is the Warboss’s WAAAGH! ability, which allows friendly Ork units within 6″ to charge even if they advanced. Combine this with the ‘Ere We Go special rule that allows Orks to re-roll failed charge rolls and holy smokes, you’ve got a fighting force to be feared!



There’s so much more to discuss but alas, I am running out of space. Ork players should be pumped, as so much of that classic melee mob Orky playstyle now pays off. Blow the dust off of your Killa Kans and Gorkanauts and get ready for a WAAAGHly good time (sorry, I couldn’t help myself!).

One last little tidbit though, before I go: the Ork Weirdboy is a fantastic choice in the new edition, and one of his powers, Da Jump, is particularly awesome. It allows an Ork Infantry unit within 6″ of the Weirdboy to be teleported to any point more than 9″ away from enemy units on the battlefield (and remember, no more scattering!). This makes for quite the nasty surprise when a mob of 30 Ork Boyz appears behind enemy lines!