Warhammer 40K: Five Questions White Dwarf NEEDS to Answer About ‘The Fallen’
The Fallen are appearing in next Month’s White Dwarf. Here’s the bug questions 40K needs answered.
Next Month White Dwarf promises a big article about The Fallen. White Dwarf 464 seen below has a cover teasing an “Index Hereticus: The Fallen”. Right away that sounds like the Chaos version of the long-form Index Astartes articles we have seen lately on the Exorcists and the like. The past articles have been exemplary and included not only lavish background, but rules as well, normally in the form of Chapter Tactics, Warlord Traits, and Relics. Occasionally, you might see a named character.
About the Fallen. First of all we haven’t seen the Fallen show up in a bit. They got no love in Psychic Awakening and got a one-page Specialist Detachment (Fallen Angels) in Vigilus, where they played a small if key role in the campaign. Does anyone remember this set of fun from 8th Edition and 2019?
Big Questions
This leads to my questions for a White Dwarf article that could revive the Fallen into a modern playable army and get them onto the tabletop in 9th Edition, instead of being merely a topic for lore conversations.
Where’s Luther
The big man himself has been busted out of The Rock and is free for the first time in millennia. The Dark Angels know where he is and are giving chase. In short, GW is setting up a showdown like we haven’t seen since the Heresy. I would love to see a datasheet for Luthor (unlikely) alongside a new model (highly unlikely). But even some lore love for Luthor would go a long way and they could always drop him and a new model into a future codex.
The big deal for me is that the arrival of Luthor in 40K would almost certainly mean that The Lion would not be too far behind.
About Those Keywords
So here’s one big consideration for The Fallen – exactly who’s side are they on? In past editions of Warhammer 40k, they have fallen (heh) on both sides of the fence. In some aspects they are CSMs, and sometimes like in Vigilus they can pass those FALLEN, IMPERIUM keywords around. I am very keen to see how GW will place them in 9th Edition, and what the decision will mean for their future, both on the tabletop and in lore.
About that Second Wound
So, when are we going to see W2 show up outside of the goodie-two-shoes Marines? I’m rolling this consideration into a request for a new updated datasheet for 9th Edition Fallen. These guys really need it. Right now they are a little bland, and if they are going to lean into the Plasma weapon family, can we get a few more, and maybe some of their older 30K gear they might just still use – Graviton, Volkite, and the like. These guys are old and some of them may think they were just fighting in the Heresy last week due to being tossed across time and space.
Cypher
We can always use an up-powered and more badass Cypher. He got that sexy new mini in Rise of the Primarch, has talked to Guilliman, and busted out of a Custodes jail on Holy Terra. He’s up to his tricks in more big 40K campaigns than you can count, and even Abaddon respects the guy. The dude can use a couple more special rules and some stat bumps is all I”m saying.
Assembling a Legion?
Finally, the big cliffhanger we’ve been reading about since the Dark Angels got their 8th Edition Codex is that Luthor is gathering a LEGION SIZED force (say roughly 100,000) of the Fallen in the Imperium Nihilus. I’m not saying I expect a White Dwarf article to grow into a full codex. But two points.
- It wouldn’t be hard to give out a handful of general units you could stick the FALLEN keywords on that are classic Dark Angels stalwarts, like Land Speeders, Bikes, etc. Remember that the Dark Angels had Raven Wing, Death Wing and the other specialist wings back when the Fallen were still around.
- Second, it would be nice to have rules for a Loyalist Dark Angels army after 30 years.
~What do you want to see out of The Fallen article?
