Warhammer 40K: The Original Blackstone Fortress Came from 1999
It was 1999, and something dark and sinister stirred in the Gothic Sector. Meet the original Blackstone Fortress.
Battlefleet Gothic arrived in 1999, bringing Grimdark naval combat to the tabletop. It wasn’t the first game to do so – that honor fell to the earlier Space Fleet from 1991 and what a game it was (a tale for another day).
Battlefleet Gothic was a much more complex and nuanced game that Spacefleet, and it brought with it a new narrative setting, the Gothic War, set in the (obviously) Gothic Sector, also known as the 12th Black Crusade. This war dealt with Abaddon’s conquests and ultimate retreat from an key Imperial Navy stronghold and revolved around six mysterious artifacts – the Blackstone Fortresses.
Let’s take a look at what these Blackstone Fortresses were in their original incarnation.
The Original Blacktone Fortress Mini
First, let’s take a look at the chunky miniature itself.
Box front, not that this is it’s “activated” configuration, and is open with the 4 gun things sticking out.
And the back of the box. Now I wonder if that 8-pointed star shape means anything?
The miniature itself. Look at that giant chunk of sexy white metal. How I miss you.
The Blackstone Fortress Rules
And now the rules for the beast.
It’s slow, with 10cm being less than half of a Battleship’s 25cm of movement. That said, it moves freely in any direction, and its Firepower 8 Warp cannons are potent, having range, and battleship weapon strength. Its Defense 16 is off the charts, well above the largest of Abaddons’ fleet the Planet Killer. Finally, note that these weapons don’t include the Blackstone’s star-killing “super mega-death” weapon. Apparently, that was so powerful the designers decided to keep it out of standard tabletop play.
Maybe for good reason…
Fast Forward 26 Years
Two decades later, and GW gave us an all-new game set INSIDE a Blackstone Fortress, which only made them more mysterious. The 8th Edition Necron Codex dropped further hints of their shrouded origins, and still they are one of the Grimdark’s big questions marks. They were created by either the Old Ones, or the Necrons, to destroy their enemies – based on which legends you believe. At least two are still undiscovered, and they appear to be sentient. They have all kinds of really funky critters running around inside of them like these guys:
Abaddon returned with his last Blackstone, to wreak havok during the Fall of Cadia. But unsettling mysteries aside, we did get a LOT of great art and videos out of that Blackstone Fortress game – if not the promised lore reveal.
The brand new 10th Edition Codex Necrons sheds even less light on the origins of the Blackstone Fortresses, than previous editions did, returning some of its Grimdark mystery.
~It’s 2025, and we STILL have no idea what the Blackstone Fortesses mystery is all about? There’s always 11th Edition…
