GW Grognard: It Only Took 15 Years to Right a Chaotic Injustice
Today we talk about a wrong against the Ruinous Powers from long ago, and how GW made it right.
Hey everyone! Adam, from TFG Radio, here. For those that don’t know, my main army is Chaos Space Marines. In particular, I play Black Legion. I have played Black Legion since I first read about them in the Rogue Trader book, Slaves to Darkness. The fact that they painted their armor black in regards to their shame during the Horus Heresy really appealed to me. It has since been retconned, but, due to the recent books about Abaddon and the Black Legion by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, I have a renewed love for the former sixteenth legion. As such, it really gladdens my chaos heart that Games Workshop has finally corrected a mistake they made almost 15 years ago. Chaos’ victory at Cadia!
Every Cadian kid’s first toy!
“I was just a kid. So what happened 15 years ago”, you ask? Well let me tell you. Back in 2003 Games Workshop had decided to run an online campaign. It was set at Cadia and the surrounding systems near the Eye of Terror. It was call, surprisingly, the Eye of Terror campaign and was promoted as Abaddon’s 13th Black Crusade. It gave new army lists, like the Space Wolves Wulfen, the Lost and the Damned(Renegades), and the Ulthwe Black Guardians. More importantly, the campaign was to actually affect the storyline of 40K!
I still have this codex
I was very excited. The GW forums, yes they had forums at the time, were a buzz with players starting to organize and get their armies ready for the conflict. They had special cards that, if used, would affect the campaign. They even gave out cards to event winners during the campaign. If someone had gotten a card it was hoped that they were on your side and either use it or not depending on what was needed.
Now, having both Imperial and Chaos armies at the time, I actually played for both sides but preferred Chaos. As the campaign progressed something pivotal happened. The Chaos forces were much better organized than the Imperial side. As a result, they were able to figure out the way the system worked and was able to leverage that by having us attack certain planets and systems to get the best effect of our battle in the campaign. The Imperials, on the other hand were very divided and did not seem to come together as well as Chaos did, so were always playing catch up.
Team Chaos owned it all!
The result of all this was a solid victory for the forces of Chaos. The Ruinous Powers controlled most of the systems that mattered ( I mean the Tau greatly expanded their control of nearby space but even back then no one cared about the Tau). However, it seemed like GW did not really care for the results and declared it a draw. They actually said that, although Chaos controlled the planets, the Imperial Navy controlled the space ways, so they were able to limit Chaos. I still don’t get how controlling space would stop beings that just needed a chaos gate, rogue psyker, or mass killings to get where they needed to be. So in the end nothing changed. This would actually be a recurring theme in a lot of GW’s later online campaigns.
Keep pushing that button GW
They even started to roll things back. Bringing heroes back from the dead, (I’m looking at you, Eldrad), and just rolling back the setting to just after the Betrayal at Tyrok Fields on Cadia. When it first happened, I’m not going to lie, I was upset. The Chaos players spent a lot of time and effort to win that campaign and not only were we robbed of our victory, but it was then made so it never happened. I would mention this injustice whenever the campaign was brought up or talk about the Black Crusades in general.
Fast forward almost 15 years and GW has finally decided to give Chaos the victory they earned so long ago. I warmed the cockles of my corrupted heart when I heard the title was “Fall of Cadia” and that it was to be destroyed. My joy increased as I read the story and finally got to read the destruction to the enemy that should have happened so long ago. Just typing it out now brings a smile to my lips. Thanks, GW, better late then never!
~If you did happen to take part in the campaign, be sure to leave your experience in the comments section, or try to make an excuse as to why the Imperium didn’t lose at all.
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