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Sounds quite like I expected it... Abaddon wins but with excessive losses. Just like in Traitors Hate and basically every Crusade... As a Chaos player I must admit I had hoped for a bit more. Abby doesn't seem that strong.

And what's up with Belakor + Iron Warriors not being able to kill a handful of Imperial Fist recruits?! That part sounds pretty bad, they should have died, all of them. It's okay that they defend against Chaos a bit, but they should have died nevertheless.

That recap was the best thing I've read all day. Thank you for that.

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
Sounds quite like I expected it... Abaddon wins but with excessive losses. Just like in Traitors Hate and basically every Crusade... As a Chaos player I must admit I had hoped for a bit more. Abby doesn't seem that strong.

And what's up with Belakor + Iron Warriors not being able to kill a handful of Imperial Fist recruits?! That part sounds pretty bad, they should have died, all of them. It's okay that they defend against Chaos a bit, but they should have died nevertheless.

The fists are hardcore, but not /that/ hardcore.

I love me some IF but that was completely garbage, I understand that Be'lakor got a bit antsy and his hubris exceeded its allowance, but that was too much.

I was expecting Abby to kill his way to mars in this book honestly. I'm kinda happy that it didn't alter the story in an irreversible way, but it wasn't nearly as brutal as I was expecing

I guess they realised that having the fists die to a man was getting kind of old and went a bit too far the other way.

This excites me. Especially the idea that we're likely getting an Eldar-heavy book next.

Agiel wrote:*EDIT* Never mind, a teaser image from GW seems to confirm that was in fact Sylandri Veilwalker. She's rapidly turning into the G-Man of the 40K universe:

Yeah, the Harlequin is Veilwalker. Apparently she's been in touch with Cawl for some time now too.

Also, now I imagine her popping up in the Stasis Chamber - "Rise and shine... Mr. Guillliman... Rise and shine...."

CREEEEEEEEED wrote:I find it hard to believe there was only one Cadian regiment defending Cadia. Don't they have hundreds of Cadian regiments?

There are a heap of different Cadian Regiments mentioned throughout the battle scenes. I;ve only skimmed over the battles in my summary.

gummyofallbears wrote:Sorry for asking the same question twice, but what happened to the Firehowlers? Are they like all gone? If so, I understand how Tomb Kings players felt (sorta)

They went with glory for the Allfather and Russ, on a suicide mission sabotage the Blackstone Fortress to lower its defences. They're implied KIA when the Phalanx blows it up, though you know the saying "If you don't see a body...."

Great summary, thanks GoonBandito, very enjoyable.

I get a bit confused with all the fluff, but I thought Eldrad was dead? (Or at least, presumed dead?)

Does anyone think the rumoured return of one of the Loyalist Primarchs might happen in the next book? Or perhaps things have to get much worse first.

With the Eldar involved, maybe Abaddon can get his butt kicked by the Avatar next (seems appropriate, Imperial Saint, followed by the Eldar equivalent, sorta). Alternatively, Ghazghkull has to return from his pilgrimage at some point, right? Perhaps the Fall of Armageddon is next? (And Abaddon can get his butt kicked by a suped-up Gorkanaut?)

Eldrad is not dead in current continuity. Yes he dies in the original campaign, but it appears they have backtracked us behind that point and started over, and so at the moment he is alive. But, I would hope that in the future of this campaign he dies again, preferably when Slaanesh eventually gets a GD kit and rules.

jifel wrote: Eldrad is not dead in current continuity. Yes he dies in the original campaign, but it appears they have backtracked us behind that point and started over, and so at the moment he is alive. But, I would hope that in the future of this campaign he dies again, preferably when Slaanesh eventually gets a GD kit and rules.

Awesome, thanks. Since the Blackstone Fortress is in tiny pieces, I guess his death/disappearance will take a different route, which is, I always feel, the best path for a retcon to take.

EDIT: Although, I guess Abaddon does have two of them...

"[the Sorcerer] spoke a name. One Abaddon had put from his thoughts long ago. It seemed impossible, but such words had as much currency now as they had when Horus first set foot on Davin."

The reference to Davin, and a name Abaddon hadn't heard in a long, long time...

Isn't there also a prophecy somewhere about Abaddon being killed by one of hie lieutenants or something like that?


Is there any way the thing in Cawl's box... is Loken?

stainawarjar wrote:

Is there any way the thing in Cawl's box... is Loken?

I don't think so; surely it's an artefact not a person?

But still, it would be amazing if Abaddon's final fall came at the hands of Loken, somehow.

 gummyofallbears wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
Sounds quite like I expected it... Abaddon wins but with excessive losses. Just like in Traitors Hate and basically every Crusade... As a Chaos player I must admit I had hoped for a bit more. Abby doesn't seem that strong.

And what's up with Belakor + Iron Warriors not being able to kill a handful of Imperial Fist recruits?! That part sounds pretty bad, they should have died, all of them. It's okay that they defend against Chaos a bit, but they should have died nevertheless.

The fists are hardcore, but not /that/ hardcore.

I love me some IF but that was completely garbage, I understand that Be'lakor got a bit antsy and his hubris exceeded its allowance, but that was too much.

I was expecting Abby to kill his way to mars in this book honestly. I'm kinda happy that it didn't alter the story in an irreversible way, but it wasn't nearly as brutal as I was expecing

But the IF didn't beat back Belakor and the Iron Warriors alone. The Legion of the Damned show up and we all know how OP they are. When the Emperor's own daemons show up chaos is gonna have a bad time.

Thanks for the read. I'm happy to see the story going somewhere...though it's not a particularly intriguing somewhere.

Typical GW where the story magically includes far too many known characters/armies...but my expectations are pretty low so it was expected.

 Sersi wrote:

 gummyofallbears wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
Sounds quite like I expected it... Abaddon wins but with excessive losses. Just like in Traitors Hate and basically every Crusade... As a Chaos player I must admit I had hoped for a bit more. Abby doesn't seem that strong.

And what's up with Belakor + Iron Warriors not being able to kill a handful of Imperial Fist recruits?! That part sounds pretty bad, they should have died, all of them. It's okay that they defend against Chaos a bit, but they should have died nevertheless.

The fists are hardcore, but not /that/ hardcore.

I love me some IF but that was completely garbage, I understand that Be'lakor got a bit antsy and his hubris exceeded its allowance, but that was too much.

I was expecting Abby to kill his way to mars in this book honestly. I'm kinda happy that it didn't alter the story in an irreversible way, but it wasn't nearly as brutal as I was expecing

But the IF didn't beat back Belakor and the Iron Warriors alone. The Legion of the Damned show up and we all know how OP they are. When the Emperor's own daemons show up chaos is gonna have a bad time.

Ah yes, that is my bad by simply forgetting that they showed up.

Lord Flasheart wrote:

jifel wrote: Eldrad is not dead in current continuity. Yes he dies in the original campaign, but it appears they have backtracked us behind that point and started over, and so at the moment he is alive. But, I would hope that in the future of this campaign he dies again, preferably when Slaanesh eventually gets a GD kit and rules.

Awesome, thanks. Since the Blackstone Fortress is in tiny pieces, I guess his death/disappearance will take a different route, which is, I always feel, the best path for a retcon to take.

EDIT: Although, I guess Abaddon does have two of them...

At least 2

Makes you wonder why he didnt bring both though. When you want to destroy a planet, it certainly helps.

 Exergy wrote:

Lord Flasheart wrote:

jifel wrote: Eldrad is not dead in current continuity. Yes he dies in the original campaign, but it appears they have backtracked us behind that point and started over, and so at the moment he is alive. But, I would hope that in the future of this campaign he dies again, preferably when Slaanesh eventually gets a GD kit and rules.

Awesome, thanks. Since the Blackstone Fortress is in tiny pieces, I guess his death/disappearance will take a different route, which is, I always feel, the best path for a retcon to take.

EDIT: Although, I guess Abaddon does have two of them...

At least 2

Makes you wonder why he didnt bring both though. When you want to destroy a planet, it certainly helps.

I suspect other books will tell us.

BrianDavion wrote:

 Exergy wrote:

Lord Flasheart wrote:

jifel wrote: Eldrad is not dead in current continuity. Yes he dies in the original campaign, but it appears they have backtracked us behind that point and started over, and so at the moment he is alive. But, I would hope that in the future of this campaign he dies again, preferably when Slaanesh eventually gets a GD kit and rules.

Awesome, thanks. Since the Blackstone Fortress is in tiny pieces, I guess his death/disappearance will take a different route, which is, I always feel, the best path for a retcon to take.

EDIT: Although, I guess Abaddon does have two of them...

At least 2

Makes you wonder why he didnt bring both though. When you want to destroy a planet, it certainly helps.

I suspect other books will tell us.

It's almost like they want us to keep buying their books...

Great read. First impressions:

* There were only 850 million people defending Cadia? Can we all pause and consider how absolutely ridiculous that number is? The most fortified planet outside of Terra, at the Eye of Terror has 850 million defenders? GW would have been better not citing any number at all. At the very least, Cadia would have had tens of billions. Fact. Again, not to be a dick but where are all the defenders on Cadia? Armageddon has like x10 the number of people involved in the 2nd War of Armageddon and somehow Cadia the best defended planet next to Terra has like...no one? I think the most irritating part of this is I barely know most of the lore, yet this seems like pretty common sense stuff that should not have been overlooked.

* Cadia finally falls. Good. Hoping GW will finally release some new IG regiments or support some of the older regiments in plastic. Anyone who was interested in the Cadian aesthetic has made their investment. Shame Kell died, but he did save Creed so that is cool. I'm sure this isn't the last we have seen of him.

* Sisters and Celestine finally get some love. Its been a long time coming. Happy for SoB players.

* Not impressed with Greyfax. Comes off as a lawful good c*nt who needs to step off her pedestal, look around and see the Imperium beset on all sides backed into a corner.

* Not sure how I feel about Eldar/Imperial alliance. I'll wait to make any judgements.

* What is Trazyn's stake in all this? Isn't the necrons like primary objective to wipe out all life in the galaxy? Why the hell does he care? Chaos cannot exist without life. If there is no one alive suffering, depressed, lustful etcetera then Chaos ceases to exist. He has pokeballs with people in stasis? Interesting.

* What is in Cawl's possession?

Don't be too harsh on Greyfax - she's been displaced in time by Trazyn and suddenly popped out in the middle of a pitched battle featuring a 'witch being worshipped by Imperial Soldiers', 'mutated Astartes running around freely' and 'ghost warriors shooting soulfire fighting for the Imperium'. She's a hardline, puritan Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor - she absolutely should be losing her gak at the state of affairs she's witnessing. And she does set aside her Heresy concerns in the moment to concentrates her attacks on the Chaos Forces, so its not like she's going around purging heresy in the middle of a battle.

There is also scene towards the end of the book though where she has a slight softening towards Celestine, so she might be coming around a bit. We'll have to see where her story goes in the next book.

Is it possible the mysterious character at the end is Trazyn (Or it's a Primarch, but that would be lame) taking Creed as part of his collection as payment for his help? Also I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess that the artefact onboard Cawl's ship is Garviel Loken, somehow kept alive all this time (or its a Primarch, but that would be LAME! Seriously everything these days is Primarch this, Primarch that; we need a bit more diversity here GW).

Commissar Benny wrote:
Great read. First impressions:

* There were only 850 million people defending Cadia? Can we all pause and consider how absolutely ridiculous that number is? The most fortified planet outside of Terra, at the Eye of Terror has 850 million defenders? GW would have been better not citing any number at all. At the very least, Cadia would have had tens of billions. Fact. Again, not to be a dick but where are all the defenders on Cadia? Armageddon has like x10 the number of people involved in the 2nd War of Armageddon and somehow Cadia the best defended planet next to Terra has like...no one? I think the most irritating part of this is I barely know most of the lore, yet this seems like pretty common sense stuff that should not have been overlooked.

GW has never been good with numbers. However at least the old Codex Eye of Terror made an attempt. It listed Cadia as 71.75% under arms (though then inexplicably gave the population as 250 million rather than 850 million like the 3.5 edition Codex: CSM). Assuming that was a typo and the population is 850 million, that means 609.875 million under arms, or something like 76, 234 regiments if the Cadian 8th's 8,000 is used as a benchmark (as it is given as a typical infantry regiment).

Codex: Eye of Terror gave a partial listing of forces in the 13th Black Crusade. On the Imperial side for Cadians alone, it listed 612 Cadian regiments, 16 Regional Commands of Cadian Youth Army (I'm guessing Whiteshields), and 486 companies of Kaskin. There were many other forces listed from elsewhere.

Now it seems Fall of Cadia is more concerned with characters and "forging a narrative" rather than trying to represent a large war, so it seems to only list characters without even bothering to try and pretend the rank and file units matter.

 GoonBandito wrote:
Don't be too harsh on Greyfax - she's been displaced in time by Trazyn and suddenly popped out in the middle of a pitched battle featuring a 'witch being worshipped by Imperial Soldiers', 'mutated Astartes running around freely' and 'ghost warriors shooting soulfire fighting for the Imperium'. She's a hardline, puritan Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor - she absolutely should be losing her gak at the state of affairs she's witnessing. And she does set aside her Heresy concerns in the moment to concentrates her attacks on the Chaos Forces, so its not like she's going around purging heresy in the middle of a battle.

There is also scene towards the end of the book though where she has a slight softening towards Celestine, so she might be coming around a bit. We'll have to see where her story goes in the next book.

Do we know from what time she is from? Like is it possible she is the oldest inquisitor currently alive? The Ordo Hereticus inquisition was formed after the Heresy correct? Why is she referred to as the "Eye of the Emperor"? Did the emperor himself bestow that title upon her?

 WE Drake Man wrote:
Is it possible the mysterious character at the end is Trazyn (Or it's a Primarch, but that would be lame) taking Creed as part of his collection as payment for his help? Also I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess that the artefact onboard Cawl's ship is Garviel Loken, somehow kept alive all this time (or its a Primarch, but that would be LAME! Seriously everything these days is Primarch this, Primarch that; we need a bit more diversity here GW).

Yeah, kind of hoping Trazyn puts Creed in status and has greater plans for him. Like perhaps he will be needed for the defense of Terra?

Iracundus wrote:

Commissar Benny wrote:
Great read. First impressions:

* There were only 850 million people defending Cadia? Can we all pause and consider how absolutely ridiculous that number is? The most fortified planet outside of Terra, at the Eye of Terror has 850 million defenders? GW would have been better not citing any number at all. At the very least, Cadia would have had tens of billions. Fact. Again, not to be a dick but where are all the defenders on Cadia? Armageddon has like x10 the number of people involved in the 2nd War of Armageddon and somehow Cadia the best defended planet next to Terra has like...no one? I think the most irritating part of this is I barely know most of the lore, yet this seems like pretty common sense stuff that should not have been overlooked.

GW has never been good with numbers. However at least the old Codex Eye of Terror made an attempt. It listed Cadia as 71.75% under arms (though then inexplicably gave the population as 250 million rather than 850 million like the 3.5 edition Codex: CSM). Assuming that was a typo and the population is 850 million, that means 609.875 million under arms, or something like 76, 234 regiments if the Cadian 8th's 8,000 is used as a benchmark (as it is given as a typical infantry regiment).

Codex: Eye of Terror gave a partial listing of forces in the 13th Black Crusade. On the Imperial side for Cadians alone, it listed 612 Cadian regiments, 16 Regional Commands of Cadian Youth Army (I'm guessing Whiteshields), and 486 companies of Kaskin. There were many other forces listed from elsewhere.

Now it seems Fall of Cadia is more concerned with characters and "forging a narrative" rather than trying to represent a large war, so it seems to only list characters without even bothering to try and pretend the rank and file units matter.

It just seems kind of like something that would be difficult to overlook. If we are to take this new lore at face value than that means Cadia has 7 times less defenders than present day earth? Yet it is the 2nd most defensive planet in all of the Imperium and the IG is reknown for its greatest resource being body count but Cadia can't even muster the population of earth? I love the direction they are headed with the character development, but stuff like this really breaks immersion and makes it difficult to really gage with any real accuracy how massive these wars really are.

The Cadia system consisted of multiple planets. The names though not the populations for these were given out in the past.

Going out from the sun in the star system:

Prosan - Hostile environment training world
Korolis - Promethian weapons grade atomic materials produced here
Kasr Sonnen - Fortress world
Cadia - lynchpin fortress world of sector
Kasr Holn - Fortress world
Macharia - Militarised hive world
Vigilatum - Naval training world
Kasr Partox - Fortress world
St. Josmane's Hope - Military prison
Solar Mariatus - Source of much war materiel


In the old Eye of Terror campaign, Macharia was destroyed by the Planet Killer and St. Josmane's Hope was destroyed by an Inquisition mission after it fell to a combination of Chaos attack and prison uprising. The destruction of St. Josmane's Hope seems to have been canonized (though the exact circumstances may have been altered) as there has been a reference to its destruction on p.17 Codex Skitarii under the entry for Agripinaa forge world.

I don't like how it looks like there's going to be an alliance between imperials and xenos.

What happened to "in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war"? Stop trying to make 40k noblebright, GW.

SeanDrake wrote:

 gummyofallbears wrote:
wait wait wait, what happened to the firehowlers???

As the main Great Company I play, I will be pretty angry to get screwed over again.

I like the fact that they are advancing the story though, not as bad as I thought.

Good news as they had an important mission and part in the story and succeeded.


The bad news is it was a suicide mission.... My condolences on joining Tomb Kings,Squats and good rules/fluff.

Only that tomb kings are still a thing in AoS. The crimson kings of the obsidian dynasty is basically tomb kings by another name.



There's other mentions of them though a few more books.

That may be the worst piece of fiction I have witnessed.

Sure, this is a recap, so missing some fleshing out, what we have is the bare bones of the story. That being said it is dreadful, and reeks of bad fan-fiction.

Maybe that 850 million is all that's left of the defenders as the story starts? Considering as they stated they were literally defending the last area of the planet, could be that they only gave the number of people left from the years that Cadia has been under assault?

Definitely Trazyn who took Creed towards the end there, potentially have him restored with Cybernetics to assist in the defence of Terra with legions of the lost Pariahs!!!! (Yeah never going to happen but meh)

KalexKurosaki wrote:
Maybe that 850 million is all that's left of the defenders as the story starts? Considering as they stated they were literally defending the last area of the planet, could be that they only gave the number of people left from the years that Cadia has been under assault?

Definitely Trazyn who took Creed towards the end there, potentially have him restored with Cybernetics to assist in the defence of Terra with legions of the lost Pariahs!!!! (Yeah never going to happen but meh)

Necron Cyborg Creed better have the ability to summon Baneblades anywhere on the table. He is a Tactical Genius after all.

Sgt. Cortez wrote:

And what's up with Belakor + Iron Warriors not being able to kill a handful of Imperial Fist recruits?! That part sounds pretty bad, they should have died, all of them. It's okay that they defend against Chaos a bit, but they should have died nevertheless.

But isn't Belakor literally cursed to never succeed now? Once the favored of all 4 chaos gods, now spurned by all 4?

 Vulkan Fran'cis wrote:
So who was the scaled warrior at the end....hmmm at first I think Vulkan? but the laughing at someone on deaths door step doesnt really fit him.

Wasn't that what happened to Settra?

is Baroness Varda the first named female Knight commander in a codex (rather than BL?)

re the plot - fun read of the synopsis - thanks much to the OP and good to hear that the Sororitas were kicking ass.

I like Trazyn - a lot more than Eldread who seems to more and more like End Times Teclis - who was a complete tool.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
I don't like how it looks like there's going to be an alliance between imperials and xenos.

What happened to "in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war"? Stop trying to make 40k noblebright, GW.

An alliance isn't Noble bright, it's common sense now that the eye is three times bigger and the imperium can't contain it alone. Continuing to fight wouldn't be grimdark, it would just be more face palm stupidity. Personally I've been waiting for this for ages. And it's not like the alliance means no more fighting, they're still bigoted towards each Other and there are still pirates. There is still only war in the grim darkness of the 41st millenium, the Eldar and imperium are simply focusing on other threats at the moment.