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So, the latest leaked snippets from January’s White Dwarf reveal a new book titled Gathering Storm: Fall of Cadia.

Now, in terms of the 40k setting, the Fall of Cadia is a pretty huge event. Perhaps the most significant event for a few thousand years?

So what are the implications (assuming the Fall does happen)?

Where is the setting going?

How much ground needs to be covered between Cadia falling and the Imperium collapsing?

What constitutes a collapse of the Imperium? Death of the Emperor and with it the Astronomican?

What does an Astronomican-less Imperium look like? Isolated pocket Empires?

Do you think that the Fall of Cadia is the last event of the 41st millennium and of 7th edition, or is there going to be a Gathering Storm: Siege of Terra before then? Again, how much ground needs to be covered between these two events?

Susequently, how does 8th Edition begin?



Let the conjecture flow.....

Retcon.

At least that's what happened last time.

It will fall over my dead body! No, wait, that sounds too much like a slapstick gag

ChazSexington wrote:Retcon.

At least that's what happened last time.

Yeah sadly no matter what GW does, while I will enjoy the ride they are doing, I have this nagging feeling this is all for not and it will be just like Dallas and "it was all a dream" and means nothing.

It means I get increasingly bored of the narrowing of the scope of 40K. It's fine though, as I'm planning on ignoring it all and running a mini-40K campaign that has nothing to do with any of all this tedious "storyline advancement" or any of the boring special characters.

I'm guessing it means Abaddon gets his arms back.

Davor wrote:

ChazSexington wrote:Retcon.

At least that's what happened last time.

Yeah sadly no matter what GW does, while I will enjoy the ride they are doing, I have this nagging feeling this is all for not and it will be just like Dallas and "it was all a dream" and means nothing.

Wish that had been so in fb side.

The setting's headed toward the fall of the Imperium. The Golden Throne is about to fail, and there's a famous short story referencing the yet-undetected loss of a massive number of Imperial planets.

Shortly after the turn of the millennium, Imperial space travel will become impossible, and the Imperium can no longer shuffle forces around to defend itself. Thus any Imperial worlds will be forced to fend for themselves.

In terms of what it means for the tabletop game, that's entirely up to GW. The tabletop game is designed to take place not only in the most recent lore, but also thoughout almost all of the 10,000 years following the Horus Heresy and we're encouraged to invent our own fiction for our battles. There's no real reason any army or models have to be taken OOP by the lore advancing past any plot point, as dead characters have been playable before. Cadian models can stay in-production if desired, and stories can still be written about Cadia before its fall or even the various Cadian regiments still throughout the Imperium still in operation after the fall of their homeworld.

They seem reticent to move the story in any meaningful way, and if they did there would be an outcry from whichever planet/faction/character gets quashed.
Ideally Chaos would prove what a threat they are and not just overrun Cadia but start to divide the imperium's domain. The other enemies of man can then start picking off isolated areas

So are they going to retcon the retcon they made after the black crusade campaign? I wonder if they will retcon the fall of Cadia after this campaign, this will become retconception.

Chaos will spend so much resources on pushing through Cadia that will not be able to push further in, the Imperium will set up a new Cadia on the nearest planet(s) worth holding

 Bobthehero wrote:
Chaos will spend so much resources on pushing through Cadia that will not be able to push further in, the Imperium will set up a new Cadia on the nearest planet(s) worth holding

Now that you mention it, given how, uh, space works, why have the Chaos commanders never said, "Cadia's too much of a pain in the butt, we'll probably never take it. Let's just bypass the system entirely and go for other targets that aren't so ludicrously well-defended."

 Pouncey wrote:

 Bobthehero wrote:
Chaos will spend so much resources on pushing through Cadia that will not be able to push further in, the Imperium will set up a new Cadia on the nearest planet(s) worth holding

Now that you mention it, given how, uh, space works, why have the Chaos commanders never said, "Cadia's too much of a pain in the butt, we'll probably never take it. Let's just bypass the system entirely and go for other targets that aren't so ludicrously well-defended."

The fall of Cadia allows for the destruction of the Necron pilons which hold back the eye of terror. Their destruction allows the 'crimson path' to extend all the way to Cadia effectively turning all planets in it's path into Daemon worlds.

 mrhappyface wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:

 Bobthehero wrote:
Chaos will spend so much resources on pushing through Cadia that will not be able to push further in, the Imperium will set up a new Cadia on the nearest planet(s) worth holding

Now that you mention it, given how, uh, space works, why have the Chaos commanders never said, "Cadia's too much of a pain in the butt, we'll probably never take it. Let's just bypass the system entirely and go for other targets that aren't so ludicrously well-defended."

The fall of Cadia allows for the destruction of the Necron pilons which hold back the eye of terror. Their destruction allows the 'crimson path' to extend all the way to Cadia effectively turning all planets in it's path into Daemon worlds.

Oh.

So what you're saying is that Chaos should Exterminatus Cadia with a virus bomb?

I believe the only way to destroy the pilons is to perform millions of Daemonic rituals on Cadia to overlord them with warp energy... Or something to that affect.

Virus bomb, hold space around it, send in whatever needs to be sent on the surface to make the pylons go away.

Admitedly, that's a still a large ordeal, considering how hard it is for Chaos to achieve space superiority.

 mrhappyface wrote:
I believe the only way to destroy the pilons is to perform millions of Daemonic rituals on Cadia to overlord them with warp energy... Or something to that affect.

Something wrong with cyclonic torpedoes?

GW came up with some reason why the planet couldn't be destroyed/the surface and atmosphere destroyed but I can't remember what it was. If it was that easy the planet killer could have just destroyed Cadia.

I think it'd be hilarious if the chaos marine fleet conquered cadia, got ready to roll into the imperium proper, and ran smack-dab into a whole tyranid hive fleet

and then they're all like "WEEERE the big scary threat that's going to eat the imperium!" and they'll go "no WEEEEERE the big scary threat that's going to eat the imperium!!!!" and have a WWE style smackdown match.

the_scotsman wrote:
I think it'd be hilarious if the chaos marine fleet conquered cadia, got ready to roll into the imperium proper, and ran smack-dab into a whole tyranid hive fleet

and then they're all like "WEEERE the big scary threat that's going to eat the imperium!" and they'll go "no WEEEEERE the big scary threat that's going to eat the imperium!!!!" and have a WWE style smackdown match.

And then gazillions of Orks turn up and smash them both

 mrhappyface wrote:
GW came up with some reason why the planet couldn't be destroyed/the surface and atmosphere destroyed but I can't remember what it was. If it was that easy the planet killer could have just destroyed Cadia.

Like in movies, when the bad guy has a very clear and easy path to victory, so the screenwriter interjects some arbitrary obstacle so the heroes can win instead.

Chaos are going to swarm across the galaxy and there's going to be even MORE grimdark.

Age of the Emperor.

On the livestream today, they confirmed that Fall of Cadia is only the start of the story - they also confirmed that the galaxy will still be standing when this is all done.

Clearly GW, is planning to resurrect the Emperor so they can put out a $200 model to coincide with the release of 8th edition.

n0t_u wrote:I'm guessing it means Abaddon gets his arms back.

Good point. A new Abaddon sculpt would be great. Surely a certainty?

Robin5t wrote:On the livestream today, they confirmed that Fall of Cadia is only the start of the story - they also confirmed that the galaxy will still be standing when this is all done.

But will the Imperium? I didn't see the livestream, seems like there was some good info in it though.

So more to come between the Fall of Cadia and (presumably) 8th Edition?

General Kroll wrote:Chaos are going to swarm across the galaxy and there's going to be even MORE grimdark.

I'd be happy with this. If the outcome of all this advancement of the timeline is more grimdark and a more fractious Galaxy and even a fractured Empire, I'd be delighted.

I just hope the Imperium doesn't go the way of the Fantasy Empire.

 Robin5t wrote:
On the livestream today, they confirmed that Fall of Cadia is only the start of the story - they also confirmed that the galaxy will still be standing when this is all done.

Uhh, by "galaxy" do they actually mean "Imperium"?

Because the entire Imperium could be destroyed, every human killed, and the galaxy would be just fine.

And the Imperium only spans like a third to half of the Milky Way anyways.

 Bobthehero wrote:
I just hope the Imperium doesn't go the way of the Fantasy Empire.

Well, it could be the same... but different.

If the Astronomican falls, then I guess the unified Imperium suddenly becomes a whole load of isolated worlds (or groups of worlds)? Which will sound familiar.

However, the Imperium would still be a thing (after a fashion).... and there'd still be spaceships.

 alanmckenzie wrote:

n0t_u wrote:I'm guessing it means Abaddon gets his arms back.

Good point. A new Abaddon sculpt would be great. Surely a certainty?

A good AFD prank would be a plastic Abaddon sculpt with enormous metal arms, "for nostalgia's sake."