Rise of the Primarch: New Fallen Angels
BoLS continues Rise of the Primarch coverage all week. Today we talk about Cypher’s merry band of Fallen Angels.
It’s here – with the third volume of Gathering Storm unveiled, GW is reshaping the grimdark in ways no one has seen in the past 30 years. This book does more than advance the storyline, but adds new rules, characters and factions to the game, and sets us up for bigger changes as 2017 progresses. More on that in the days ahead.
I’m coming for you Fulgrim!
For decades the player community has been saying that 40K never advances and that of only GW would shake things up a bit it would make everything better. Then the rumors of the big 2017 shakeup arrived and everyone got all “end times anxious” and didn’t want too much change (we’re never happy). In Book 3 GW has done a good job of threading the needle. There are some BIG shakeups in this book, and the Imperium will not be the same again. A lot of cool callbacks to the 30K Horus Heresy era are in there which should delight Black Library readers. There are minor characters showing up all over the place for their 15 minutes of fame and plenty of loose ends left dangling for Nottingham to pull on in the future. The book doesn’t end in a cliffhanger, but sets up a “new normal” that is a very different place for the Imperium of Man to find itself in. Perfect in fact as a place to pause and release a new edition of the game. I would expect the loose ends and boatloads of foreshadowing to pick up later in the year, hopefully with lots of new crazy minis.
As you would expect Space Marines are the center of attention in the book and the Ultramarines, but much to the irritation of the Unforgiven, the Fallen Angels get some love as well.
Meet Cypher’s Friends
But enough of the teases – we’ll have much more on that this week. We’re not here to show off the entire book, because you really should go pick it up – it’s that good. Today let’s take a quick peek at the Fallen Angels and just a taste of what they will be bringing to the tabletop.
We already showed off the new Fallen Angels faction earlier. The combination of Armies of the Imperium and Chaos Marines as battle brothers will open up some entirely new meta shifting possibilities.
Rise of the Primarch isn’t all rules, and you get lots of great looking color plates on how to put together your Fallen Angels. I love the combination of the original Rogue Trader black legion color with a mix and match of Dark Angel and heresy-era armor components. If you got yourself some Dark Angel tactical squads and some plastic heresy-era MkIII-IV marines it would be about perfect.
The book contains Cypher, the “Fallen Champions” Formation starring Cypher and a handful of these units, and an updated Fallen unit seen above. These guys have a metric ton of unit and upgrade options. The unit feels like it has more in common with CSM Chosen than Dark Angel Veterans for example, and I would expect them to hit the tabletop armed to the teeth (way more than the guys in the picture).
Cypher remains very much the man of mystery and charging him is possibly the dumbest idea in the galaxy with his BS:10 overwatch pistol fire (twice)! As for that oversized sword on it’s back – it’s mere sight provokes an intriguing response by Guilliman.
Last but certainly not least, GW gives us a table called “In Pursuit of the Fallen” which drops a set of great and narrative rules and sub-missions to any game involving The Fallen and Dark Angels. The Classic cat and mouse matchup doesn’t happen often on the tabletop – so it’s nice to spice it up when it occurs.
The book has so so much more from Grey Knights to the fate of the High Lords of Terra. More on that soon.
The Gathering Storm: Rise of the Primarch $50
Cadia, the long-standing symbol of Imperial defiance against the relentlessly encroaching tides of Chaos, has fallen to the fury of Abaddon’s Thirteenth Black Crusade. Craftworld Biel-Tan has been shattered, along with the dreams of their restoration to prominence. Chaos is ascending – all across the galaxy, raging Warp storms cause havoc as reality itself twists in agony.
Hope, however, remains. An alliance of Ynnari and Celestinian forces has found common ground in their desire to ward off Chaos. These heroes of the Imperium and warriors of the Aeldari race through the webway to Macragge, there to attempt the unthinkable – awaken Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, and seek his leadership in this desperate battle for nothing less than survival. The Storm Gathers…
The Book
AdvertisementRise of the Primarch is the third book in the Gathering Storm series. This 136-page hardback introduces the Triumvirate of the Primarch – a trio of heroes including Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines – and draws the threads of the thrilling story of the Gathering Storm together in dramatic fashion. Heroes new and old rise in defense of the Imperium, and the universe of Warhammer 40,000 will be changed forever.
The Rules
As is appropriate for such an apocalyptic tome, Rise of the Primarch is packed full of rules content for Warhammer 40,000:
– Datasheets for the Triumvirate of the Primarch – field Cypher, Grand Master Voldus of the Grey Knights and Roboute Guilliman in games of Warhammer 40,000;
– Warlord Traits and Relics for Ultramarines forces;
– Formations allowing you to field The Fallen, the Grey Knights’ Bulwark of Purity, the Victrix Guard of the Ultramarines and the Triumvirate of the Imperium;
– Daemonic Adversaries – these special rules allow you to field Grey Knights against enemies that are not necessarily Daemonic in nature, meaning your Grey Knights can be fielding without breaking narrative;
– 5 Echoes of War missions, detailing key battles from Rise of the Primarch;
– 3 Cataclysm of War missions – these represent desperate battles fought during the Gathering Storm.
– In Pursuit of the Fallen – special objectives to be used when fielding Cypher, units of the Fallen, and models of the Dark Angels faction.
~Have fun folks, and check back all week for more Rise of the Primarch reviews and more.
