Warhammer 40K: Arks of Omen – Abaddon Overview
Arks of Omen: Abaddon is coming and we’ve got our hands on the book. So what the heck is going on? Come find out.
This goes without saying but we’re doing it anyhow: Spoiler Warning. We’re going to get into the events and plot of Arks of Omen: Abaddon here so if you want to wait a week and read it for yourself…well, turn around now. This is your last warning.
Still here? Good. Let’s get started.
The main plot of this book revolves around Abaddon and Vashtorr plotting to take over the galaxy. There are a series of magical MacGuffins around the galaxy that need to be collected and formed into a powerful relic called the Key. There are many of these relics located throughout the galaxy and Abaddon and Vashtorr have partnered up to gather them — but not by sending the Black Legion around. Ezekyle Abaddon, aka the Despoiler, has the plan to use other Chaos Warbands to do his bidding by striking a bargain with them.
If they complete a task for him then he will reward them with one of the Arks of Omen. How does he have so many? Well, Vashtorr is using his Warp Demi-God powers to help pinpoint Space Hulks. Then Abaddon uses his resources to pull them into realspace where his rogue Dark Mechanicus and Sorcerers can do their thing to upgrade them. This Arks of Omen shipyard is well hidden and defending by wolf packs of Abaddon’s own fleet. He then rewards the successful warlords with these ships and…off they go.
You can kind of imagine the chaos this is causing across the galaxy. Not only are there seemingly random attacks from Chaos Forces that are targeting a location and then vanishing, there are also these Macro-ships popping up around the galaxy blotting out the stars and just causing mass panic. Oh and they are typically full of Daemons, Xenos, and whatever else these rogue chaos Warlords managed to bring with them. The lore in the book touches on various assaults and wars raging because of the arrival of the Arks. There’s also mention of another big threat that’s about to be loosed…
Naturally, this book is setting up the rest of the series. We know that Angron is also getting an Arks of Omen book so of course he gets named dropped. There’s more plotting and planning but really this is the initial splash that is setting up the rest of the ripples in the conflict. Abaddon’s got a plan and his new ally Vashtorr is on board to help…for now. We’ll have to see if this alliance crosses the finish line intact or not.
Oh and if you think the Imperium is just sitting there taking their lumps — they kind of are. But there is a whole section about “Reprisals” that covers some of the counter attacks led by non-chaos forces. There’s one in particular that stuck out to us…
“Dante and his battle-brothers discovered sulphurous residue and biomechanical infestation, mingled with traces that bizarrely resembled wilted plant life.” Uh…what the heck are they talking about? Are we looking at the remains of a new faction that’s plant based? How wild would that be? Perhaps it’s some new type of Dark Mechanicus nod. Time to start theorizing!
There appears to have been a fight on the vessel. So who attacked? The dead Heretic Astartes and cultists corpses mean that whomever attacked this ship wasn’t pro-chaos. Also, the bolter-like wounds and “great blades” wounds are another big clue. Maybe this is another teaser about some more Imperial-Adjacent forces coming to play.
What About The Rules?
You’ve probably already seen this image that shows the Table of Contents. This book covers all the stuff you’ll need to know to start playing Boarding Action games. The one resource you’ll need outside of the book (besides the terrain) are the rules for mustering your forces. Thankfully GW has a free download of those rules. We’ve already covered many of the things in the rules but you might like to know how those missions work. How about an example?
Each mission has it’s own spin on things for scoring and objectives — as you’ve come to expect. What’s really cool is that GW also provided specific maps for each mission using the Boarding Action terrain:
I really appreciate the extra step of creating set maps for folks. These are neat examples of what you can do with the terrain sets and will hopefully inspire you to create your own layouts.
Anyhow, these missions combined with the rules tweaks and roster limits really do shake things up from your standard 40k games. These games seem like they are going to be faster to play, pretty intense combat-wise, and down right brutal. Enjoy!
Arks of Omen: Abaddon is up for Pre-order this weekend.
Promotional Product Provided by Games Workshop, PLC.
