WARLORDS OF THE DARK MILLENNIUM - CHAMPIONS OF CHAOS

ABOUT THIS SERIES:

The galaxy burns with the fires of countless wars and conflicts, heroes and villains leading their armies in endless battle against their foes. Warlords of the Dark Millennium explores the history, wargear and fighting styles of some of the galaxy’s most powerful warriors.

CHAMPIONS OF CHAOS

Among the champions of the Dark Gods there are some names that carry with them a long and terrible history of blood and death. Abbadon the Despoiler, Lucius the Eternal, Typhus the Herald of Nurgle, Ahriman, Huron Blackheart, Fabius Bile and Khârn the Betrayer are counted among these, their names a curse upon the lips of those that have crossed their path. Almost every vile deed committed by the forces of Chaos since the Horus Heresy can be laid at their feet. They are the generals, warlords and champions of the Traitor Legions, and they will not be sated until the Imperium is no more.

Warlords of the Dark Millennium: Champions of Chaos brings together the exciting backgrounds of the most well known champions of the Dark Gods.

ABADDON THE DESPOILER

The greatest of threats to the Imperium of Man are posed by the legions of the Dark Gods. At their head stands Abaddon the Despoiler, Warmaster of Chaos – a man so driven by hatred he has waged the Long War against the Emperor for ten thousand years. It is whispered that, in recent times, Abaddon has not only united the disparate hordes of the Eye of Terror, but also the Chaos Gods themselves.

DEADLY BEGINNINGS

In the days of hope that preceded the Horus Heresy, Ezekyle Abaddon fought amongst that most noble of brotherhoods, the Legiones Astartes. Originally the firstborn son of the most mighty of Cthonia’s gang warlords, Ezekyle killed his father in single combat after a disastrous Cthonian coming of age ritual. Though he lived in exile after that point, his massive build and natural ferocity saw him grow to be a legend amongst his people.

Before long the vicious young warrior came to the attention of the Luna Wolves, and he was recruited into their brotherhood. Within the space of a few short years Abaddon had distinguished himself on the training grounds and fought his way through the echelons of the Luna Wolves to be given the newly founded rank of first captain. After the development of new and powerful war-tech, Abaddon was gifted a suit of custom-made Terminator armour to accommodate his mighty stature. So powerful a warrior had Abaddon become that he was used as a military model for the entire brotherhood of the Justaerin.

With a long history of victories behind him, Abaddon was soon respected as a leader and fighter alike, for he waged war like the warrior kings of old. Better yet, he earned a place at the right hand of Horus Lupercal, most favoured of all the Primarchs. He became a lord of the new superhuman elite who were to redefine the course of history; at first to the betterment of the Imperium, and later to its tragic downfall.

A KING AMONGST TRAITORS

To witness a Primarch in the flesh was to be in the presence of a demigod. Horus Lupercal was raised up by the Emperor himself as the greatest of all their number, an accolade never surpassed before or since. Yet amongst Horus’ many virtues was humility. He listened well to the counsel of his warriors, learned from his mistakes, and considered every action before committing to it. Amongst his advisers in the Luna Wolves, he trusted four officers above all. This council of warrior captains was known as the Mournival. At the time of the Heresy’s beginnings it comprised Garviel Loken, Horus Aximand, Tarik Torgaddon and Ezekyle Abaddon. Abbadon was the first and most respected of them all, a man who worshipped his Primarch as a god, just as Horus worshipped the Emperor in turn.

As the Great Crusade conquered its way across the stars, it reunited many of the scattered domains that had been abandoned and isolated by the chaotic tides of the Warp. Always at the fore was Horus Lupercal, with Abaddon at his side. They were the first into battle, the first to exhort their brother Legions to acts of greatness, and the first to encounter the strange new threats that had grown in the dark corners of the galaxy. One of these threats was a danger so insidious that it slowly corrupted many of the Legio Astartes, including the Primarch Horus himself.

In the daylight hours, those of the Legiones Astartes who had secretly come to worship Chaos used their twisted logics to sway more of their number to their cause. Erebus, first amongst the Chaplains of the Word Bearers and first amongst the worshippers of the Dark Gods, met secretly with his agents many times, even spreading his secret warrior lodges to the brethren of the Luna Wolves.

Meanwhile, the Emperor of Mankind, having other agendas to pursue upon Terra, left the Great Crusade in the capable hands of his Primarchs. He named Horus Lupercal as Warmaster in his stead, renaming the Luna Wolves as the Sons of Horus as a mark of his ultimate favour. At the culmination of the Ullanor Crusade he entrusted the future of the Legiones Astartes – and essentially that of Mankind – to his favoured son.

Many of the Primarchs perceived only that the Emperor had forsaken them, just as the greatest triumph of all was within their grasp. Horus struggled on, but the weight that had been placed upon his shoulders was too great, and it eventually broke even him.

In the mist-wreathed swamps of a forsaken planetoid, Horus was laid low by an ensorcelled wound dealt by a sword of eldritch provenance. Blinded by grief, Abaddon and his fellow captains took the Primarch’s body to the corrupted warrior lodges of that world, for Erebus ensured them that nothing else could save him. Yet instead of salvation, the priests of that Davinite moon brought eternal damnation. When Horus emerged, a change had been wrought in him, and a shadow lurked behind his eyes that would never leave.

The seed of bitterness that had been planted in Horus’ heart ultimately blossomed into a full-scale heresy that nearly tore the Imperium apart. Yet the Warmaster fell at the last. As he duelled his once-beloved gene-father, the Emperor, upon the bridge of the Vengeful Spirit, Horus’ flagship, the Warmaster was vanquished by a psychic blast.

Abaddon and his most heavily-armed warriors fought their way through squad after squad of yellow-armoured Imperial Fists Terminators to the command centre of the starship, but they were too late. Running across iron decks that were slick with the blood of demigods, Abaddon took up the lifeless body of his father with great tenderness. Wracked with emotion, he detached the taloned claw that Horus had used to kill the Primarch Sanguinius from his Primarch’s armour and resolved to use it to throttle the Emperor himself.

With his gene-father dead, Abaddon abandoned the conquest of Terra and instead blazed a trail across the stars to the forbidden realm of the Eye of Terror. The Traitor Legions retreated in his wake, cursing the hour that had stolen their destiny. With this act, Abaddon passed from mortal space and into legend.

THE REALM OF NIGHTMARES

In the swirling reaches of the Eye, the Sons of Horus fought a series of ferocious battles with not only the other Traitor Legions but also the Daemon-children of the Chaos Gods. The Sons of Horus worshipped one Chaos God after another, hoping to find favour enough to halt their decline, and each time, more of their number gave themselves up for daemonic possession. The internecine conflicts with the other Traitor Legions eventually culminated upon the Daemon world of Maeleum, where the mile-high fortress built by the Sons of Horus was brought low by a combined force of Traitor Legions. To add to the ignominy of defeat, the Warmaster’s body was captured from the stasis vaults at the heart of the fortress. It was given to the dark apothecary, Fabius Bile, and cloned in an attempt to restore Horus as a puppet Primarch, much to the disgust of his remaining Sons. Denied their Warmaster and the hope he represented, the Sons of Horus looked to Abaddon once more in their hour of desperation.

Not only had the gene-father Abaddon had once worshipped been slain, but his body had been stolen and defiled many times over. Ezekyle was forced to admit to himself that Horus had failed utterly, and that even in death he was nothing more than a puppet. At this realisation Abaddon’s soul shattered into a thousand black shards. All his love and grief hardened into a burning coal of hatred, hot enough to set the galaxy ablaze in his quest for revenge. He would succeed where Horus had failed, even if it took him ten thousand years to do so. So was born Abaddon the Warmaster, scourge of the Imperium and most visionary of all the chosen of the Ruinous Powers.

Abaddon’s first edicts to his followers were to reject the name of Horus and their ancient Legion title. He ordered the remaining Chaos Space Marines to repaint their armour black, the colour of shame and vengeance. He then personally led them in a series of lightning raids upon the rival Emperor’s Children Legion that had stolen the Warmaster’s body, destroying his mortal remains. A costly battle followed as Abaddon located and destroyed every one of his gene-father’s clones, burning every trace of Horus’ mortal flesh to ash.

Horus Lupercal was gone forever. The Traitor Legionnaires had a new warrior king, one who would not rest until he had engineered his cold and pitiless revenge.

THE BLACK LEGION

Abaddon has long since fought to rebuild the pride and reputation of the warriors he named his Black Legion. At first, he accomplished much through sheer determination and a talent for slaughter that exceeded every warlord outside the gates of Khorne’s own fortress. Slowly but surely, Abaddon won the grudging respect of the other Traitor Legions, leading his shattered armies again and again against the reviled Imperium of Man. As his deeds grew mightier and his base of power more solid, Abaddon succeeded in winning their support too. His impassioned words rekindled the Traitor Legions’ smouldering hatred of the Emperor on dozens, perhaps hundreds of worlds. As the centuries rolled on, warriors of all the Legions fought beneath his banner. Those who opposed him were crushed, and those who joined him added their strength to the greatest army ever assembled in the Eye of Terror.

When Abaddon returned, it was at the head of a diabolic horde that ravaged entire systems around the Eye of Terror before the Imperium could muster the strength to halt it. Planet after planet fell in an apocalypse of fire and steel before his Traitor Legionnaires. The armies of Abaddon were only stayed at great cost by the combined efforts of the Titan Legions and the loyalist Chapters of the Space Marines. Yet this was but the first of many such grand invasions into Imperial space, for Abaddon dreams of forging a diabolic empire of his own from the blazing remains of the shattered Imperium. Each world, each city destroyed is a step closer to wiping the canvas clean so that he can make his indelible mark upon the galaxy.

VENGEFUL BEYOND REASON

Whilst his rival Legions struggle amongst themselves for the fickle favour of their chosen gods, Abaddon has a purity of purpose that all have come to respect. Under his banners march twisted Adeptus Astartes from every Traitor Legion, renegade Chapters that have defected from the post-Heresy Imperium, hordes of cultists, beast-headed mutants, Space Marines who have given their bodies to possession by Daemons, war engines from the Soul Forge and a thousand other freakish strains of anarchist and monster.

The denizens of the Eye have learned over the millennia that those who swear an oath of fealty to the Despoiler would do well not to break it. When the World Eaters that had promised their aid to Abaddon left his armies to join the fighting upon Skalathrax, the Warmaster abandoned his plans, tracked the Berzerkers down and severed their limbs before cauterising their wounds with a flamer, leaving them as little more than screaming stumps unworthy of a place at the Blood God’s table. When the Emperor’s Children that had joined the Black Legion turned upon their masters at Faeruthia he blinded and deafened them to a man, tearing out their tongues and sealing them in inert gel-skin so their sensory deprivation was complete. Upon the crystal planet of Liolonac the Sorcerers of the Thousand Sons denied Abaddon the audience they had promised him, having found a relic of unsurpassed value. The Warmaster visited a mutagenic plague upon them that twisted them into bulging repulsive mounds of flesh before lobotomising them and hunting them until death with a pack of warped hounds.

Abaddon’s vengeance is not limited to his brother Traitors. When a wilderness shrine upon Plutol refused to bow to his authority, Abaddon killed every other human upon the planet before personally visiting the shrine and forcing the priests to eat the bodies of those they had once prayed for. Such is the magnitude and thoroughness of each act of revenge that even Daemons fear to cross Abaddon. In his singleminded quest to bring the galaxy to heel he earned a new name; the Despoiler, he who would stop at nothing to secure revenge.

THE BLACK CRUSADES

Abaddon has tested the strength of the Imperium many times in the Long War, and with each victory his power grows. Over the millennia, he has led no fewer than thirteen Black Crusades, each of which has emerged from the Warp and culminated in a spectacular invasion of realspace. The first of these saw him recover the Daemon sword Drach’nyen, a writhing Warp entity that can rend reality wherever it strikes, and every crusade since has seen him destroy a prospective foe or claim another valuable relic for his own.

Though the High Lords of Terra believe that these crusades have been repelled, albeit at great cost, they are unaware that each was keyed to a specific goal. As epic in scale as they may be, Abaddon’s Black Crusades are but stepping stones, rungs in the ladder that leads to the Despoiler’s ultimate vengeance. The destiny the Despoiler has chosen is not that of daemonhood – though he has been offered the ultimate reward of immortality by each of the Chaos Gods, he has held back from surrendering his soul. The prize he seeks is nothing less than to tear the Emperor from his Golden Throne upon Terra and, in the process, plunge the Imperium into the darkness of anarchy forever. Without the Astronomican, the psychic beacon with which the Emperor steers his flock across the stars, the Imperium will swiftly collapse into a scattering of cold and lonely worlds, each easy prey for the Despoiler’s nightmarish allies.

THE DARK FLEET

Abaddon’s grand fleet has comprised many thousands of cursed and mutated vessels. Amongst them are gigantic space hulks, grand Battle Barges, rebel strike fleets, weaponised asteroid chains, Repulsive class grand cruisers, Desolator class battleships, Despoilers named in his honour, Hades, Styx and Lethe class heavy cruisers and a thousand other warships besides. One of his most powerful ships, the Planet Killer, boasts a weapon of such extreme power it can depopulate a world in a single night. Yet the true jewels in the crown of this insane armada are the Blackstone Fortresses, ancient and alien starbases so large they once anchored entire sub-sectors of the galaxy. Each possessed power beyond mortal imagining, being both immovable object and irresistible force combined. Yet when Abaddon combined the might of three Blackstone Fortresses at Tarantis, during the climactic events of the Gothic War, the resultant bow wave of raw energy inflamed the system’s star to such an extent it consumed the two worlds in closest orbit before going nova. The cataclysm wiped out everything for many thousands of billions of miles in every direction in a storm of gas and plasma.

With the power to destroy entire star systems at his fingertips, Abaddon inadvertently forced the Imperium and the Eldar to ally against him, and he was driven into retreat at Schindlegeist. It is whispered that two of the Blackstone Fortresses exist yet at the heart of the Despoiler’s fleet, and that Abaddon has other such weapons of annihilation waiting to be deployed when the time is right.

THE CRIMSON PATH

The last and greatest of Abaddon’s thirteen Black Crusades has plunged the Cadian system into a war of unsurpassed intensity. The ninth planet in the system, St Josmane’s Hope, has already been utterly destroyed, and war rages across every district and kasr of Cadia itself.

The uninitiated question the Despoiler’s motives, for he has ploughed the broad-bladed spear of his invading forces right into the heart of Fortress Cadia and her many-layered defences. Those who know of the daemonic bargains Abaddon struck in the depths of the Eye of Terror realise the true scale of his ambitions. Within the toxic swamps of the Plague Planet, Abaddon bartered the Hand of Darkness for the aid of the gaunt monstrosity Mortarion and earned the blessings of Nurgle. Within the surreal, spawn-infested planescapes warped by the power of Tzeentch, Abaddon gained the use of the Rubricae of the cursed Thousand Sons. Within the red bowels of the Goreswirl, the Despoiler duelled the finest of Angron’s champions, cutting off their heads one after another with the Daemon Sword Drach’nyen before gifting the Hellfire Stone to the Daemon Primarch of the World Eaters and earning his respect in the process. Upon the flesh-world of Oliensis, the serpentine prince Fulgrim swore his aid in exchange for a Pythonian psyker-innocent and the promise of a third-share of those civilians caught in the path of the crusade to come.

All that remained was to pave the way for the Daemon Primarchs and their hordes to breach realspace. With several hundred thousand Chaos Space Marines falling upon Cadia in his name, Abaddon has spilt enough blood that the walls of reality are thinning to the point of total collapse. The gates of hell are yawning wide. Abaddon intends to drive the speartip of his Traitor Legions deeper and deeper into Segmentum Solar, numberless Daemon hordes sowing utter destruction in his wake. His ultimate goal is to capsize realspace in a localised swathe of ever-escalating battles that allow the poisonous half-realm of the Eye to bleed outward all the way to Terra. Once he completes his evil pilgrimage, the Despoiler will dash the Corpse-Emperor from his throne of lies and forge an empire of madness in the name of the Dark Gods.

UNIT TYPE: Infantry (Character).

WARGEAR: Terminator armour.

Terminator armour confers a 2+ Armour Save and a 5+ invulnerable save. Furthermore, models in Terminator armour have the Bulky, Deep Strike and Relentless special rules, and may not make Sweeping Advances.

WARLORD TRAIT: Black Crusader.

The Warlord and all friendly units within 12" of the Warlord have the Preferred Enemy (Space Marines) special rule.

Some rules in this book provide Preferred Enemy or Hatred (Space Marines). The category ‘Space Marines’ comprises all units taken from the following codexes: Space Marines, Black Templars, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Grey Knights and Space Wolves.

Preferred Enemy: This rule is often presented as Preferred Enemy (X) where X identifies a specific type of foe. If the special rule does not specify a type of foe, then everyone is a Preferred Enemy of the unit. A unit that contains at least one model with this special rule re-rolls failed To Hit and To Wound rolls of 1 if attacking its Preferred Enemy. This applies to both shooting and close combat attacks.

SPECIAL RULES: Champion of Chaos, Eternal Warrior, Fearless, Independent Character, Veterans of the Long War.

Champion of Chaos: A model with the Champion of Chaos special rule must always issue and accept a challenge whenever possible. If there is more than one model in a combat with this special rule, you may select which model issues or accepts the challenge. Whenever a character with the Champion of Chaos special rule kills an enemy character, you must immediately check to see if the Dark Gods reward him. To do this, roll a D66 on the Chaos Boon table opposite – by this we mean roll two D6, one after the other, counting the first dice as ‘tens’ and the second dice as ‘units’. Then refer to the table opposite to see what boon (if any) your champion has gained. So, if you roll a 3 on the first dice and a 5 on the second, you would get a D66 roll of 35 – your champion would now benefit from the Mechanoid Chaos Boon. This boon lasts for the rest of the game; make a note of it on your army roster next to that character’s entry. If a boon is rolled that the character already has, the roll has no effect. If an enemy character dies as a result of multiple Wounds being allocated to it simultaneously, and one or more of those Wounds were caused by the champion, that champion still rolls on the Chaos Boon table. Note that destroying models in a Sweeping Advance does not confer a roll on the Chaos Boon table.

Veterans of the Long War: Models with the Veterans of the Long War special rule have the Hatred (Space Marines) special rule (see designer’s note, pg 28) and +1 Leadership (remember that a model’s Leadership cannot be modified above 10). When Veterans of the Long War is listed in a unit’s special rules, the Leadership increase will already have been taken into account in its profile.

Hatred: Commonly, a model only has Hatred towards a specific type of foe, in which case, the unlucky target will be expressed, in brackets, after the special rule. This can refer to a whole army, or a specific unit from that army. For example, Hatred (Orks) would mean any model from Codex: Orks, whilst Hatred (Big Meks) would mean only Big Meks. A model striking a hated foe in close combat re-rolls all misses during the first round of each combat – he does not get to make re-rolls for Hatred in subsequent rounds.

Bulky: Bulky models count as two models for the purposes of Transport Capacity.

Deep Strike: In order for a unit to be able to Deep Strike, all models in the unit must have the Deep Strike special rule and the unit must start the game in reserve. When placing the unit in reserve, you must tell your opponent that it will be arriving by Deep Strike (sometimes called Deep Strike reserve).

Some units must arrive by Deep Strike. They always begin the game in reserve and always arrive by Deep Strike. When working out how many units can be placed in reserve, units that must be deployed by Deep Strike (along with any models embarked upon them) are ignored. In addition, a unit that must arrive by Deep Strike (such as a Drop Pod) must do so even if you are playing a special mission where the Reserves special rule is not being used. Of course, all the Eternal War missions presented later do use Reserves, so you won’t usually need to worry about this distinction.

Arriving by Deep Strike

Roll for the arrival of all deep striking units as specified in the rules for Reserves and then deploy them as follows:

• First, place one model from the unit anywhere on the table, in the position where you would like it to arrive, and roll for scatter to determine the model’s final position. If a vehicle scatters when arriving via Deep Strike, do not change its facing – it must continue to face the same direction as it did before you rolled for scatter.

• Next, the unit’s remaining models are arranged around the first one. Models must be placed in base contact with the first model in a circle around it. When the first circle is complete, a further concentric circle must be placed with each model touching the circle inside it. Each circle must include as many models as will fit.

• Models deploying via Deep Strike treat all difficult terrain as dangerous terrain. In the Movement phase during which they arrive, deep striking units may not move any further, other than to disembark from a deep striking Transport vehicle if they are in one. Units deep striking into ruins are placed on the ground floor. Deep striking units count non-ruined buildings (except for their battlements) as impassable terrain. In that turn’s Shooting phase, these units can fire (or Run/Turbo-boost/move Flat Out) as normal, and obviously count as having moved in the previous Movement phase. Vehicles, except for Walkers, count as having moved at Cruising Speed (even immobile vehicles). This can affect the number of weapons they can fire with their full Ballistic Skill (pg 71 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

In that turn’s Assault phase, however, these units cannot charge. This also applies to units that have disembarked from Transports that arrived by Deep Strike that turn.

Deep Strike Mishaps

If any of the models in a deep striking unit cannot be deployed, because at least one model would land partially or fully off the table, in impassable terrain, on top of a friendly model, or on top of or within 1" of an enemy model, something has gone wrong. The controlling player must roll on the Deep Strike Mishap table and apply the results. If the unfortunate unit is also a Transport, the Deep Strike Mishap result applies to both the unit and anything embarked within it.

Fearless: Units containing one or more models with the Fearless special rule automatically pass Pinning, Fear and Regroup tests and Morale checks, but cannot Go to Ground and cannot choose to fail a Morale check due to the Our Weapons are Useless rule (pg 26 in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

Eternal Warrior: A model with this special rule is immune to the effects of Instant Death.

Independent Character: Independent Characters can join other units. They cannot, however, join vehicle squadrons (see page 77) or units that always consist of a single model (such as most vehicles and Monstrous Creatures). They can join other Independent Characters, though, to form a powerful multi-character unit!

Joining and Leaving a Unit

An Independent Character can begin the game already with a unit, either by being deployed in unit coherency with it or, if the unit is in reserve, by informing your opponent of which unit it has joined.

In order to join a unit, an Independent Character simply has to move so that he is within the 2" unit coherency distance of a friendly unit at the end of their Movement phase. If the Independent Character is within 2" of more than one unit at the end of its Movement phase, the player must declare which unit it is joining. If an Independent Character does not intend to (or cannot) join a unit, it must (where possible) remain more than 2" away from it at the end of the Movement phase. This is to make clear whether they have joined a unit or not. Note that, after an Independent Character joins a unit, that unit can move no further that Movement phase.

An Independent Character can leave a unit during the Movement phase by moving out of unit coherency with it. He cannot join or leave during any other phase – once shots are fired or charges are declared, it is too late to join in or duck out!

An Independent Character cannot leave a unit while either he or the unit is locked in combat, falling back or has gone to ground.

He cannot join a unit that is locked in combat or falling back. If an Independent Character joins a unit, and all other models in that unit are killed, he again becomes a unit of one model at the start of the following phase.

While an Independent Character is part of a unit, he counts as part of the unit for all rules purposes, though he still follows the rules for characters.

Look Out, Sir

Independent Characters pass Look Out, Sir rolls on a 2+.

Heroic Morale

A unit that contains one or more Independent Characters does not need a double 1 to Regroup if reduced to below 25% of its starting numbers, but instead tests as if it had at least 25% remaining.

Special Rules

When an Independent Character joins a unit, it might have different special rules from those of the unit. Unless specified in the rule itself (as in the Stubborn special rule), the unit’s special rules are not conferred upon the Independent Character, and the Independent Character’s special rules are not conferred upon the unit. Special rules that are conferred to the unit only apply for as long as the Independent Character is with them.

Independent Characters and Ongoing Effects

Sometimes, a unit that an Independent Character has joined will be the target of a beneficial or harmful effect, such as those bestowed by the Blind special rule, for example. If the character leaves the unit, both he and the unit continue to be affected by the effect, so you’ll need to mark the character accordingly.

Mark of Chaos Ascendant: If Abaddon is included in your primary detachment, he must be the Warlord. He also has all four Marks of Chaos. Note that, due to the Mark of Tzeentch, the invulnerable save provided by Abaddon’s Terminator armour is increased to 4+.

• Models with the Mark of Khorne have the Rage and Counter-attack special rules.

• Models with the Mark of Tzeentch have +1 to their invulnerable save (to a maximum of 3+).

• Models with the Mark of Nurgle have +1 Toughness.

• Models with the Mark of Slaanesh have +1 Initiative.

CHAOS BOON TABLE

If Abaddon rolls Spawnhood or Dark Apotheosis on the Chaos Boon Table, re-roll this result (and any further results of the same). The Despoiler is not meant for Daemonhood just yet!

D66 Chaos Boon

11-16 Unworthy Offering: The champion receives no reward.

Better luck next time!

21-22 Spawnhood: The champion is transformed into a Chaos Spawn. Place a spare Chaos Spawn model, on full Wounds, within 3" of the champion (or the vehicle in which he is embarked) and more than 1" from enemy models. Then, remove the champion model from play.

If the Chaos Spawn cannot be placed, just remove the champion. The champion only counts as killed once this Chaos Spawn is removed as a casualty, or if it cannot be placed on the board. The champion is now a separate, unengaged, non-scoring unit that retains none of the champion’s special rules or wargear. It does, however, retain the same Mark of Chaos (if it had one). If the champion was your Warlord, this Chaos Spawn remains your Warlord but loses his Warlord Trait.

23 Warp Frenzy: The champion is consumed with anger.

The champion has +1 Attack.

24 Fragment of Immortality: The champion cheats death.

The champion has the Eternal Warrior special rule.

25 Strength of the Berzerker: Power flows into the champion.

The champion has +1 Strength.

26 Arcane Occulum: A blood-shot eye pushes through the flesh.

The champion has +1 Ballistic Skill.

31 Cerebral Cogitator: The champion’s mind races with stimuli.

The champion has +1 Initiative.

32 Bloated: The champion’s flesh bulges out in clammy rolls.

The champion is returned to full Wounds. If he is already at full Wounds, he now has +1 Wound.

33 Crystalline Body: The champion’s flesh changes to diamond.

The champion has +1 Toughness.

34 Shield of Force: The champion is obscured by Warp energy.

The champion has the Shrouded special rule.

35 Mechanoid: The champion’s flesh bonds with his armour.

The champion’s Armour Save improves by 1.

36 Blade of Chaos: The champion’s favoured weapon is infused with the raw power of the Warp.

If he has one, choose one of the champion’s Melee weapons – it now has the Fleshbane special rule.

41 Witch-eater: Warp-spawned powers and their practitioners have no dominion over this champion.

When the champion or his unit pass a Deny the Witch roll, the enemy Psyker immediately takes a S 6, AP 2 hit.

42 Cosmic Fate: The champion has a touch of destiny upon him.

The champion may re-roll failed armour saves.

43 Venomous: The champion’s very touch is toxic.

The champion’s Melee attacks have the Poisoned special rule.

44 Unholy Crusader: For this champion, to rest is to die.

The champion has the Crusader special rule.

45 Meteoric Charge: The champion charges like a steel bull.

The champion has the Hammer of Wrath special rule.

46 Icy Aura: The champion’s body exudes a deathly chill.

Enemy models in base contact with the champion at the end of Initiative Step 1 take a S 4, AP 5 hit.

51 Mind of Metal: The champion’s resolve is absolute.

The champion has the Adamantium Will special rule.

52 Gun Morph: The champion’s arm forms a fleshmetal gun.

If he has one, choose one of the champion’s ranged weapons – it now has +1 Strength (this applies to both weapons on a combi-weapon).

53 All-consuming Hatred: The champion’s ire seethes within.

The champion has the Hatred special rule.

54 Warp Claws: The champion’s claws can cut through reality.

The champion has the Shred special rule.

55 Lifetaker: The champion’s aura ages his foes.

The champion’s Melee attacks have the Instant Death special rule.

56 Blademaster: The champion’s blade is an extension of his arm.

The champion has +1 Weapon Skill.

61 Voice of Horus: The champion’s voice is heavy with authority.

The champion has the Stubborn special rule.

62 Temporal Distortion: Time is altered around the champion.

The champion has the Fleet special rule.

63 Masochism: The champion has acquired a taste for agony.

The champion has the Feel No Pain special rule.

64 Multiple Boons: Roll another D3+1 times on this table, re-rolling Spawnhood and Dark Apotheosis results.

65-66 Dark Apotheosis: The champion is transformed into a Daemon Prince equipped with power armour. This follows the rules for Spawnhood (see result 21-22) with the following exceptions:

• In every instance, replace the words “Chaos Spawn” with “Daemon Prince”.

• If the champion had a Mark of Chaos, the Daemon Prince is instead a Daemon of the same Chaos god.

• If the champion was your Warlord, he retains his Warlord Trait.

DRACH’NYEN

Abaddon carries the arcane Daemon blade known as Drach’nyen, which contains the bound essence of a writhing and powerful warp entity.

RANGE: -

STRENGTH: +1

AP: 2

TYPE: Melee, Daemon Weapon, Specialist Weapon

Melee

Weapons with the Melee type can only be used in close combat.

Daemon Weapon: The most powerful of all weapons used by Chaos champions have Daemons bound into them, imprisoned by the complex rites of the Soul Forges. Each weapon is a unique artefact, named for the warp-entity trapped within it. Some of these bear only a flicker of sentience, but some rage so powerfully against their fate that their wielder becomes a slave, and the blade the master.

At the start of each Fight sub-phase during which the bearer of a Daemon Weapon is locked in combat, roll a D6. On a roll of a 1, the model immediately suffers a Wound with no armour saves allowed and his Weapon Skill is 1 until the end of the phase. On a roll of 2+, the bearer gains that many additional Attacks until the end of the phase. If the bearer has multiple Melee weapons, only roll a D6 if he chooses to attack with a Daemon Weapon.

Specialist Weapon: The mightiest weapons only reach their full potential when wielded in pairs, as they require an entirely different battle stance from that of more commonplace weapons – such inconvenience is inevitably repaid with greater destructive potential.

A model fighting with this weapon does not receive +1 Attack for fighting with two weapons unless both weapons have the Specialist Weapon rule.

TALON OF HORUS

Abaddon wears the Talon of Horus – an archaic lightning claw with a built-in combi-bolter, which he took from his fallen Primarch after the Siege of the Emperor’s Palace. This legendary weapon is the very same to have slain Sanguinius and mortally wounded the Emperor himself.

The Talon of Horus has the profile below and also incorporates a combi-bolter. In addition, Blood Angels have the Hatred (Abaddon) special rule.

RANGE: -

STRENGTH: x2

AP: 3

TYPE: Melee, Shred, Combi-bolter, Specialist Weapon

Melee

Weapons with the Melee type can only be used in close combat.

Shred: Some weapons and warriors strike in a flurry of blows, tearing flesh asunder in a series of brutal strikes.

If a model has the Shred special rule, or is attacking with a Melee weapon that has the Shred special rule, it re-rolls failed To Wound rolls in close combat.

Similarly, if a model makes a shooting attack with a weapon that has the Shred special rule, it re-rolls its failed To Wound rolls.

Combi-bolter: Essentially a twin-linked boltgun, the combi-bolter emerged from the Horus Heresy as the most tactically flexible weapon available to Space Marine Terminators. Whilst the Space Marines loyal to the Emperor developed the weapon into the storm bolter, the older combi-bolters are still abundant in the armies of the Traitor Legions.

RANGE: 24"

STRENGTH: 4

AP: 5

TYPE: Rapid Fire, Twin-linked

Rapid Fire: Rapid Fire weapons are very common and usually come in the form of semi-automatic rifles. Their versatility means they can be fired effectively ‘from the hip’ when a squad is advancing, spraying shots into the enemy whenever they present themselves, or instead, used for aimed single shots against targets at greater distances.

A model armed with a Rapid Fire weapon can fire two shots at a target up to half the weapon’s maximum range away. Alternatively, it can instead fire one shot at a target over half the weapon’s range away, up to the weapon’s maximum range.

If a unit shooting Rapid Fire weapons is found to be partially within half range of the target, the firing models within half range fire two shots, while those further away fire one.

Models that shoot with Rapid Fire weapons in the Shooting phase cannot charge in the ensuing Assault phase.

Twin-linked: These weapons are grafted to the same targeting system for greater accuracy.

A weapon with the Twin-linked special rule counts as a single weapon of that type, but to represent the fusillade of fire, you must re-roll the dice To Hit if you miss. Twin-linked weapons don’t get more shots than normal ones, but they give you a better chance of hitting with them.

Twin-linked blast weapons

If the scatter dice does not roll a Hit, you can choose to re-roll the dice with a Twin-linked Blast or Large Blast weapon. If you choose to do so, you must re-roll both the 2D6 and the scatter dice.

Twin-linked template weapons

Twin-linked Template weapons are fired just like a single weapon, but must re-roll failed To Wound and armour penetration rolls.

Specialist Weapon: The mightiest weapons only reach their full potential when wielded in pairs, as they require an entirely different battle stance from that of more commonplace weapons – such inconvenience is inevitably repaid with greater destructive potential.

A model fighting with this weapon does not receive +1 Attack for fighting with two weapons unless both weapons have the Specialist Weapon rule.

AHRIMAN

‘Knowledge is power, but power is nothing without purpose. You may hold in your hand the power to remake all things, but if you do not know what you would change, then you hold nothing at all.’

- Ahriman of the Thousand Sons

Ahriman is the most powerful Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons. An exile from his own Legion, he is doomed to wander the Eye of Terror, and beyond, in search of knowledge. Wielding the Black Staff of Ahriman, and possessed of knowledge unequalled outside of the most exalted of Daemons, he is a figure of terrifying power. At his will, armies of lesser sorcerers, Warp-animated Rubricae, and countless other slaves to darkness make war across time and space. Uncounted souls have burned as the price for his need for forbidden knowledge, a need which has driven him since the earliest days of his Legion’s damnation.

SORCERERS IN AN UNKIND AGE

In the time before the Horus Heresy, when the Emperor still walked among his sons, Ahzek Ahriman was Chief Librarian of the XVth Legion of the Legiones Astartes – The Thousand Sons. Under the leadership of Magnus the Red, the Thousand Sons explored the limits of knowledge and psychic ability. To be a Thousand Son was not simply to be a warrior, but to be a scholar, a savant, an adept of the arcane and the transcendental. Where others fought the Emperor’s wars with bolter and blade alone, the Thousand Sons conjured lightning from the air, burnt armies in typhoons of pyromantic fire, and cracked the walls of citadels with the power of their minds. As they conquered, so too did they amassed knowledge, building great libraries of rediscovered lore and plundering the learning of lost worlds. Yet even as they ascended to the heights of knowledge, they were cast down.

In the Age of Strife, psykers had cast a long shadow on Mankind, and the Thousand Sons’ fixation on occult knowledge drew the attention of other Legions. Censured by the Emperor, the Thousand Sons were forbidden to explore or wield the arts they had spent so long cultivating. But the Thousand Sons could not resist the power of the Warp, and broke the Emperor’s decree. In response, the might of the Space Wolves Legion was unleashed on the Thousand Son’s homeworld of Prospero. In the burning ruin of their crystal cities, with the dead littering the shores of bloodstained seas, the Thousand Sons turned to the Warp, and the Warp heard their call. It is said that the skies of Prospero became fire, the seas acid, and that the shrieks of Daemons rolled around the shattered pyramids of their cities. As the psychic storm broke, the surviving Thousand Sons were ripped out of existence and transported through time and space to a planet within the Eye of Terror: the Planet of the Sorcerers.

MASTER OF THE RUBRIC

Reality in the Eye of Terror is a twisted and mutilated thing. Within its ragged bounds, the laws of the physical are slaved to the whims of the Warp: dreams and thoughts reshape matter, Daemons walk unbound, and time flows like the currents of a storm churned sea. Within this realm of nightmares and possibility, the Thousand Sons made their home. Unfettered by the restrictions of mortal law or base reality, their sorcerous powers climbed ever higher, but as their power grew, they began to change. Mutation seethed through the Thousand Sons, fusing flesh and armour, melting the features of once noble warriors into twisted horrors.

Ahriman watched as his battle brothers devolved and knew that he could not allow his Legion to fall further. In secret, he drew together a cabal of the most powerful of his brothers. Some came reluctantly, but saw that there was no choice; some came wholeheartedly, believing in Ahriman without question. Others were drawn to him by desperation, knowing that time was running out – but all shared Ahriman’s hope that, together, they could save the Thousand Sons. Drawing on the Book of Magnus, Ahriman created the Rubric, a spell which would undo the changes wrought upon the flesh of the Thousand Sons, and shield them from such mutations in the future. At last, their great work prepared, the cabal unleashed the Rubric.

Daemons howled and laughed over the towers of the Planet of the Sorcerers. Sheets of multi-coloured lightning descended from the skies. Darkness became light, light darkness. The Rubric touched each of the Thousand Sons, and in that moment, every one of them was remade. The mutation wracking the Legion vanished, burned away in the Rubic’s fire, but what remained was not what the cabal had intended nor expected. Those whose psychic powers had been weak or non-existent had become spirits sealed in sigil covered armour. Inside their shells the echoes of their souls howled and rattled in voices of dust. These were the Rubricae. Those who had possessed greater power still lived, but found their powers multiplied and increased. Looking on the results of his attempt to save his Legion, Ahriman saw that he had both succeeded in every way, and failed utterly.

The Book of Magnus

The Book of Magnus was created by the Primarch of the Thousand Sons during the Great Crusade. Written both by Magnus’ own hand, and the hands of mind-slaved serfs, it was the summation of his knowledge and understanding. In the wake of the Thousand Sons’ fall, the Book of Magnus became a book unbound by physical laws. The knowledge within its pages crawls as though alive, constantly changing, and constantly growing. If a mortal could open its pages twice and live, he would never find its contents the same. There have been several copies of the Book of Magnus, or at least it has manifested several times; such is its Warp infused nature that it may be a single book existing in many places and times. Ahriman possessed a copy of the Book of Magnus before his exile, and others are known to have existed. Kallimakus, once scribe to Magnus the Red, fled the burning of Prospero with a partial copy. Others may exist, but if so, their mark on history has long been burnt away and consigned to oblivion.

EXILE OF THE THOUSAND SONS

As the echo of the Rubric faded, Magnus the Red descended from his tower to confront Ahriman and his Cabal. Some say that in that moment, Ahriman pronounced himself satisfied, and that Magnus’ wrath was only diverted by the intervention of other powers. In a realm of lies, the truth cannot be known, but the outcome of that last meeting is certain. Ahriman, and all those who had stood with him, were banished from the Planet of the Sorcerers for eternity.

Within the Eye of Terror, what one soul may live as an eye-blink, another might experience as many lifetimes. Within such a realm of paradox, questions such as loyalty and truth dissolve in the screams of delusions made real. To walk the stars in such a place is to be walking the path of Chaos to glory or utter destruction. Legions have died there and been reborn, mighty lords become slaves, and mortals ascended to sit beside the Dark Gods of Chaos. In this realm, Ahriman walked alone, cut from the Legion he had sought to save, doomed to an existence on the margins of insanity. Some say that, in this time, he lived nine thousand lives of mortals, tricked truths from the lips of Daemons and became lost in paths of dreams. How long Ahriman wandered the Eye of Terror after his banishment is a question that can have no answer. Time is a fragile thing in the Warp’s grip.

No matter the truth, Ahriman rose from the ashes of the Rubric and the shame of exile with renewed purpose. Understanding and knowledge had always been the fire at the core of Ahriman’s soul, and so it was still. The Rubric had failed, but its intent was untarnished, and what could have been the cause of its failure but imperfect knowledge? With pure understanding and perfect knowledge, Ahriman could complete the salvation of his Legion.

SEEKER OF IMPOSSIBLE KNOWLEDGE

Across a thousand worlds, Ahriman has sought the keys to save what he has already destroyed. The scars of his obsession have made his name a curse in the mouths of humans and aliens alike. Scraps of lore, artefacts both obscure and profane, and rare souls draw him like a raven to a corpse. To the Eldar, he is the carrion scribe who eats the souls of their dying race for secrets, to the Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus he is the lightning rod which brings a storm of Daemons, amongst the servants of Chaos he is a flame of power and trickery as likely to burn those drawn to his light as to illuminate them.

A master of subtle manipulation, Ahriman has seeded cults on a hundred worlds, and bent the desires of the powerful to achieve his ends. With conspiracies and plots spread across the galaxy, he coils between them, a puppet master pulling invisible strings. When such subtle means are impossible he wages a sorcerer’s war, forcing armies to kneel with visions of terror, shattering war machines with invisible forces, and ripping the souls from mighty heroes. He knows the true names of 9x9x9 daemons, and possesses pacts which can bring armies flocking to his call. Worlds have burned at his command, billions have fallen to the hunger of the Warp, and reality has bled at the fury of his power.

DREAMS, WARS AND BLOODSHED

Amongst Ahriman’s countless atrocities, there are those that stand as true testaments to his subtlety, power, and ruthlessness.

The Harvest of Calliope

Calliope was a world of lost knowledge; an entire planet given over to the archiving of records from the earliest days of the Imperium all the way to its uncertain present. Stacks of rotting parchment filled caverns extending far beneath its crust, dataspool stations ringed its orbits from pole to pole, and its cities sprawled around the Index Vaults. Every soul on Calliope existed for the archive, from the hunters who stalked vermin in the deep parchment stacks, to the scribes who fought for control of the hundreds of contradictory indexes; all were bound to the ecology of the archive. So it had been for a time since before any could remember, and so it seemed things would continue. Until something changed.

A faction arose within the caste of indexers. This faction called for the unification of all the indexes into an endlessly extending formula. They called themselves the Summation. Where the idea had first come from none were certain, but once it took hold it bloomed like a flower in sunlight. The Summation’s power grew generation by generation until its rule of Calliope was uncontested. Centuries passed and billions laboured to further the Summation’s goal. At last, they succeeded. On the day of the Emperor’s Ascension, in the High Hall of Indexes, a scribe wrote the final line of symbols to complete the formula, and in that instant Calliope fell silent.

When an Imperial ship arrived at Calliope a decade later, it found a few starved people living amongst the dry corpses of the dead. None of the survivors could remember anything for more than a few seconds. Stranger still, the great archives were blank, every datastore empty, and every page of parchment bare. The only mark remaining to tell of the algorithmic seed Ahriman planted, and then harvested millennia later, was a single image, hovering in the lost memories of the survivors’ blasted minds: the image of a figure in a horned helm wreathed in flame stepping from a wound in the air.

The Death of Dianixis

Ahriman had long sought the skull of Lepidus, a dead hero of the Second Black Crusade, for reasons that remain his own. The skull, dipped in silver and engraved with ten thousand words of detestation, lay in the polar shrine city on Dianaxis. A conspiracy to obtain the skull by guile had already failed, so Ahriman turned to more direct means.

Since the end of the Scouring, countless billions have fought and died in the shadow of the Eye of Terror. For almost eight millennia the remains of many of these honoured dead lay on Dianaxis. Heaps of charred bones, the serene bodies of martyrs, and the polished skulls of Space Marines all came to the mausoleum world. On the surface of Dianaxis, the plains of bones extended from shrine city to shrine city, and grew ever deeper with each passing year. The cities themselves were built from the skulls and bones of the most heroic dead. So sacred and revered was Dianaxis that a dozen Space Marine Chapters maintained honour guards and bastions on its surface. Star fortresses ringed its approaches, and millions of troops stood sentinel over the skulls of those who had died to hold the darkness in abeyance.

Across the reaches of space, Ahriman burned worlds and sent souls shrieking into the Warp. As the murdered worlds spun into alignment with each other they created an arcane pattern in the stars with Dianaxis at its heart. As the great design locked into place, Dianaxis’ sun was pulled from reality, leaving a howling wound in the sky of the mausoleum world. Blood and fire spread across the heavens. The bones of the dead howled the last thoughts of their lives, and rainbow fire crawled across the ossuary towers. Daemons poured through the hole that had been the sun, tumbling onto the mausoleum world like falling stars. The defenders screamed as the children of Chaos ate their souls.

Amidst the slaughter, Ahriman appeared outlined in lightning, ringed by sorcerers and rubricae. Power rolled from the circle of sorcerers and they strode through the battle, killing the defenders and dissolving Daemons with arcane fire. The Chapter Honour Guard came against him, but were reduced to ashes and silent screams with a gesture. Fire Bane, last Warlord of the Legio Officium, strode to war from its shrine. The cry of its warhorns echoed across the damned world, and its weapons burnt a path towards Ahriman’s circle. Drawing together the power of his fellow sorcerers, Ahriman forced the war machine to its knees, before pulling the core of its plasma reactor through its carapace. At last, Ahriman held the skull of Lepidus in his hand, as the battle between men and Daemons raged around him. Raising the skull to his eyes he found the one word he sought etched on the skull’s surface. Letting the skull fall from his hand, he and his forces vanished, leaving the world of bones to the howls of Daemons and the cries of the dying.

FATE’S END

Ten millennia have passed in the realms beyond the Eye of Terror, and still Ahriman walks his path of exile towards the promise of a distant salvation. Perhaps Ahriman has already tried to undo the damage of the past and failed, but, as the light of the Imperium gutters, his steps take him ever closer to the answers he has sought for so long. The shadow of secrets, lost since before humans ever stared up at the stars, lingers on the horizon in the elusive Black Library, calling Ahriman ever on, down the road into the future. Flames light that road, and the bones of the dead and the ashes of murdered worlds pave its course. None, except perhaps Tzeentch, who watches all and laughs the song of fate, know what awaits Ahriman at the end of that road, but if he should reach its end, the universe will tremble.

230 Points

UNIT TYPE: Infantry (Character).

WARGEAR: Power armour, bolt pistol, frag grenades, krak grenades, aura of dark glory, inferno bolts.

Power Armour: Power armour confers a 3+ Armour Save.

Bolt Pistol:

RANGE: 12"

STRENGTH: 4

AP: 5

TYPE: Pistol

Pistol

All Pistols are effectively Assault 1 weapons. A Pistol also counts as a close combat weapon in the Assault phase (pg 24 and 51 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

Gunslinger

All models with two pistols can fire both in the Shooting phase. This follows the normal rules for shooting.

Frag grenades: Frag grenades are assault grenades.

Shooting

When a unit armed with assault grenades makes a shooting attack, one model can choose to throw a grenade, rather than using another shooting weapon.

RANGE: 8"

STRENGTH: 3

AP: -

TYPE: Assault 1, Blast

Assault

Models equipped with assault grenades don’t suffer the penalty to their Initiative for charging enemies through cover, but fight at their normal Initiative in the ensuing combat.

Krak grenades: Krak grenades are shaped charges, excellent for cracking the armour on light vehicles.

Shooting

When a unit armed with krak grenades makes a shooting attack, one model can choose to throw a grenade, rather than using another shooting weapon.

RANGE: 8"

STRENGTH: 6

AP: 4

TYPE: Assault 1

Assault

Unless used in assaults against vehicles or Monstrous Creatures, Krak grenades have no effect. When they are used in assaults against vehicles or Monstrous Creatures, krak grenades have the following profile:

RANGE: -

STRENGTH: 6

AP: 4

TYPE: -

Aura of Dark Glory: A model with an aura of dark glory has a 5+ invulnerable save.

Inferno Bolts: Shots from a boltgun or bolt pistol with inferno bolts are resolved at AP3.

WARLORD TRAIT: Master of Deception.

Nominate up to D3 Infantry units in your army before deployment. Those units gain the Infiltrate special rule.

Infiltrate: Units that contain at least one model with this special rule are deployed last, after all other units (friend and foe) have been deployed. If both sides have Infiltrators, the players roll-off and the winner decides who goes first, then alternate deploying these units.

Infiltrators can be set up anywhere on the table that is more than 12" from any enemy unit, as long as no deployed enemy unit can draw line of sight to them. This includes in a building, as long as the building is more than 12" from any enemy unit. Alternatively, they can be set up anywhere on the table more than 18" from any enemy unit, even in plain sight.

A unit that deploys using these rules cannot charge in the first turn.

Having Infiltrate also confers the Outflank special rule to units of Infiltrators that are kept as Reserves. If a unit with Infiltrate is deployed inside a Dedicated Transport, they may Infiltrate or Outflank along with their Transport, but if they do, they must deploy/move onto the table embarked within it. An Independent Character without the Infiltrate special rule cannot join a unit of Infiltrators during deployment.

SPECIAL RULES: Champion of Chaos, Fearless, Independent Character, Mark of Tzeentch, Psyker (Mastery Level 4), Veterans of the Long War.

Champion of Chaos: A model with the Champion of Chaos special rule must always issue and accept a challenge whenever possible. If there is more than one model in a combat with this special rule, you may select which model issues or accepts the challenge. Whenever a character with the Champion of Chaos special rule kills an enemy character, you must immediately check to see if the Dark Gods reward him. To do this, roll a D66 on the Chaos Boon table opposite – by this we mean roll two D6, one after the other, counting the first dice as ‘tens’ and the second dice as ‘units’. Then refer to the table opposite to see what boon (if any) your champion has gained. So, if you roll a 3 on the first dice and a 5 on the second, you would get a D66 roll of 35 – your champion would now benefit from the Mechanoid Chaos Boon. This boon lasts for the rest of the game; make a note of it on your army roster next to that character’s entry. If a boon is rolled that the character already has, the roll has no effect. If an enemy character dies as a result of multiple Wounds being allocated to it simultaneously, and one or more of those Wounds were caused by the champion, that champion still rolls on the Chaos Boon table. Note that destroying models in a Sweeping Advance does not confer a roll on the Chaos Boon table.

Fearless: Units containing one or more models with the Fearless special rule automatically pass Pinning, Fear and Regroup tests and Morale checks, but cannot Go to Ground and cannot choose to fail a Morale check due to the Our Weapons are Useless rule (pg 26 in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

Independent Character: Independent Characters can join other units. They cannot, however, join vehicle squadrons (see page 77) or units that always consist of a single model (such as most vehicles and Monstrous Creatures). They can join other Independent Characters, though, to form a powerful multi-character unit!

Joining and Leaving a Unit

An Independent Character can begin the game already with a unit, either by being deployed in unit coherency with it or, if the unit is in reserve, by informing your opponent of which unit it has joined.

In order to join a unit, an Independent Character simply has to move so that he is within the 2"+ unit coherency distance of a friendly unit at the end of their Movement phase. If the Independent Character is within 2" of more than one unit at the end of its Movement phase, the player must declare which unit it is joining. If an Independent Character does not intend to (or cannot) join a unit, it must (where possible) remain more than 2" away from it at the end of the Movement phase. This is to make clear whether they have joined a unit or not. Note that, after an Independent Character joins a unit, that unit can move no further that Movement phase.

An Independent Character can leave a unit during the Movement phase by moving out of unit coherency with it. He cannot join or leave during any other phase – once shots are fired or charges are declared, it is too late to join in or duck out!

An Independent Character cannot leave a unit while either he or the unit is locked in combat, falling back or has gone to ground.

He cannot join a unit that is locked in combat or falling back. If an Independent Character joins a unit, and all other models in that unit are killed, he again becomes a unit of one model at the start of the following phase.

While an Independent Character is part of a unit, he counts as part of the unit for all rules purposes, though he still follows the rules for characters.

Look Out, Sir

Independent Characters pass Look Out, Sir rolls on a 2+.

Heroic Morale

A unit that contains one or more Independent Characters does not need a double 1 to Regroup if reduced to below 25% of its starting numbers, but instead tests as if it had at least 25% remaining.

Special Rules

When an Independent Character joins a unit, it might have different special rules from those of the unit. Unless specified in the rule itself (as in the Stubborn special rule), the unit’s special rules are not conferred upon the Independent Character, and the Independent Character’s special rules are not conferred upon the unit. Special rules that are conferred to the unit only apply for as long as the Independent Character is with them.

Independent Characters and Ongoing Effects

Sometimes, a unit that an Independent Character has joined will be the target of a beneficial or harmful effect, such as those bestowed by the Blind special rule, for example. If the character leaves the unit, both he and the unit continue to be affected by the effect, so you’ll need to mark the character accordingly.

Mark of Tzeentch: Models with the Mark of Tzeentch have +1 to their invulnerable save (to a maximum of 3+). If given to a model that does not already have an invulnerable save, this mark confers an invulnerable save of 6+. Additionally, a Psyker with the Mark of Tzeentch must generate at least one of his powers from the Discipline of Tzeentch.

For example, Thousand Sons have an aura of dark glory (5+ invulnerable save) and the Mark of Tzeentch, so have a total invulnerable save of 4+.

A model or unit may only purchase one Mark of Chaos. An Independent Character with a Mark of Chaos may not join a unit with a different Mark of Chaos. When a Mark of Chaos is listed in a unit’s special rules, its effects will have already been taken into account in its profile, where applicable.

Psyker (Mastery Level 4): See page 66 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.

Veterans of the Long War: Models with the Veterans of the Long War special rule have the Hatred (Space Marines) special rule and +1 Leadership (remember that a model’s Leadership cannot be modified above 10). When Veterans of the Long War is listed in a unit’s special rules, the Leadership increase will already have been taken into account in its profile.

The Black Staff of Ahriman

The Black Staff has the profile below. It allows Ahriman to manifest up to three witchfire powers in the same Shooting phase, provided he has enough Warp Charge points.

RANGE: -

STRENGTH: +2

AP: 4

TYPE: Melee, Force.

Melee

Weapons with the Melee type can only be used in close combat.

Force

If a Psyker inflicts one or more unsaved Wounds with a Force weapon, he can immediately choose to activate it by expending a Warp Charge point and taking a Psychic test (pg 67 of Warhammer 40,000 rulebook). If the test is failed, or the bearer has no Warp Charge points to spend, then there is no additional effect.

If the test is passed, all unsaved Wounds inflicted by the Force weapon that turn have the Instant Death special rule (see the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook). Deny the Witch rolls cannot be taken against Force weapons.

Force weapons have no additional effect against vehicles or models that do not have a Wounds characteristic.

Instant Death: Unsaved Wounds inflicted by an Attack with this special rule automatically inflict Instant Death, regardless of the victim’s Toughness (see the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

FABIUS BILE

THE DARK APOTHECARY

The fiend known as Fabius Bile is a truly sinister creature. Though he was once an Apothecary of the Emperor’s Children legion, he has steeped himself in forbidden arts for so long that he is more torturer or lunatic scientist than healer. Woe betide those that cross Bile’s path, for they rarely escape unchanged.

Perpetually driven by his own vile ambitions, Fabius Bile has travelled the galaxy more widely than any other man. He has committed so many atrocities that he is outcast even from his own Traitor Legion – even the sensation-seeking Emperor’s Children will not truck with him, for they know the risks well. On Dimmamar, Bile was known as the Chem-master, for there he changed the atomic composition of the air until the population was forced to ingest his transformative serums or slowly suffocate. On Arden IX and in the Bray system he is Manflayer, for there he would wear the skins of those who opposed him as a great stitched cloak, forcing the skinless survivors to carry the garment behind him like a bridal train. To the wretched tribes living among the ravaged hives of Paramar V he is the Clonelord, for he vat-grew obedient twins of every firstborn child and replaced them with their doppelgangers the better to guide the planet’s descent into darkness.

To Bile himself, there is only one title that does his magnificence justice – the Primogenitor. He believes that in him is the Emperor’s boundless artistry reborn. He claims to understand the secrets of creating Space Marines and even Primarchs, and though his creations are extremely strong of body, they are rarely of sound mind. To witness one of Bile’s genetic by-blows is to lose a shred of sanity, for they are disturbing indeed.

Bile has left a trail of foul deviants and twisted abominations wherever his ships have landed. His name has become a curse to the High Lords of Terra and those of the Apothecarion who have learned of his legend. Many believe that he has irrevocably tainted mankind’s gene pool, polluting it with hidden growth strains and lurking corruptions. Some scattered cults even worship him as Pater Mutatis, father of all the mutants that skulk in the underbelly of the Imperium. It is a belief that Bile does nothing to dissuade.

The Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes are well aware of Fabius Bile’s nightmarish actions. In every segmentum, the populations of once-productive Imperial worlds have had to be wiped out wholesale. Once the infections of Bile’s black arts have taken hold, the mewling victims must be purged by fire and sword to prevent them fleeing. Only by personal investigation can it be ascertained just how many citizens have fallen to Bile’s genetic afflictions. Mostly, the Chapters charged with investigating such worlds find once-civilised planets populated by ragged hordes of debased, shambolic monsters.

Not all of these purgation missions are mercy killings. Upon dozens, perhaps hundreds of worlds, the Space Marines have encountered fierce resistance from hardened cadres of enhanced humans who fight with the strength and cunning of devils. These altered half-spawn exhibit strength, speed and intelligence many times higher than the human norm and are depraved, psychotic killers to a man. They are Bile’s proudest creations, the New Men he would spread throughout the galaxy. Fickle, selfish, obsessive, aggressive, murderous; they echo their creator in more than just their physique. Each of man’s worst traits has been brought to the fore and magnified tenfold, married with the psychology of a tyrant and the strength of a madman. Even the Inquisition do not know how many of these abominations have escaped into the galaxy. Many of them are altered subtly, their corded muscles and crazed minds hidden in plain view until their incipient psychosis sends them on a manic killing spree.

THE CREATION OF A LEGEND

In the latter years of the Great Crusade, Bile’s uncanny skills saw him move from the rank of Apothecary all the way to lieutenant commander of the Emperor’s Children. Even as a leader of men, he was rarely away from his surgeries for long. Bile saw his fellow warriors not as comrades or brothers, but as fresh test specimens ready to be experimented upon. Each was but a stepping stone in his great work; a tapestry of genetic information to be unpicked and woven anew in Bile’s quest to understand the forbidden sciences of the Emperor himself.

As the Horus Heresy unfolded, Bile was instrumental in the surgical alteration of his fellow Space Marines, enlarging and boosting their sensoriums so that they could experience the most succulent fruits of excess. He altered brain chemistries and connected pleasure centres to the nervous system so that even agonising pain would bring them unholy joy. The resultant slide into sensation-seeking excess saw his Legion fall from grace, corrupted from within by Fulgrim’s own plunge into the darkness and the covert alterations performed on Bile’s slab.

The events of the Horus Heresy culminated in the Siege of the Emperor’s Palace. The Emperor’s Children, by this time a Traitor Legion fully under the sway of the renegade Warmaster, invaded Earth with Horus but took little direct part in the fighting around the palaces. Instead, they descended upon the civilian populations of Terra’s Administratum; the mind-bogglingly complex infrastructure of clerks, bureaucrats, curators and menials whose efforts kept the lifeblood of the Imperium flowing. Whole dynasties of staid scribes and strata of haughty prefects were caught as they fled the war zone consuming their world. They were consumed in their turn. More than a million prisoners were rendered down under Bile’s supervision and distilled into an array of stimulants and intoxicants for the Emperor’s Children to ingest. It was the crowning depravity of their slide into the abyss, and it pleased their master Slaanesh greatly.

Perhaps it was at this time that Fabius Bile committed himself completely to the darkness. He was certainly foremost in the experimentation upon living prisoners, keeping them alive in their torment for weeks at a time and cataloguing every ghoulish result. Even amidst the carnage that followed the breaking of the Heresy, his fascination was with life, not death. Bile guided the Emperor’s Children ever further into the embrace of Slaanesh, the Dark Prince. His surgeries ensured that only one path was left to them; an eternal pursuit of sensual excess that has scarred the stars ever since. Yet Bile himself never underwent the surgeries he so thoroughly inflicted on his so-called brothers.

As his fellow Space Marines lost themselves in sensuality, Bile moved further and further along his own dark path. He left Holy Terra shortly before Horus’ defeat at the hands of the Emperor, accompanied by a handful of his most gifted acolytes. Bile’s warband moved through the war-torn Imperium like a shard of glass in an intestinal tract, carving a new legend with every twist and turn of their journey. Wherever he made planetfall, the Primogenetor offered his assistance in exchange for prisoners, genetic samples and ancient technical libra. Many ambitious planetary overlords came to rue the day they joined their fates with Fabius Bile. His atrocities and acts of mass genocide often repelled even those that had ordered the deaths in the first place. Nonetheless, few could deny that the assistance Bile offered was potent. His serums could transform mediocre defence troopers into ravening super-soldiers, and his mastery of the cloning process saw him able to mobilise thousands of ‘perfect warriors’ within months.

Yet for all his twisted genius, Bile could not hold back the furious crusade of loyalists that launched outward from ravaged Terra. Retribution finally caught him in the Arden System, where he was supporting the excesses of the renegade Lord Tyrell in exchange for foetal material. The Adeptus Astartes launched themselves down upon the corrupted world of Arden IX like fiery angels of vengeance. Bile’s flesh refineries and cloning vats all burned in a single night as the righteous fury of the Salamanders Chapter incinerated all evidence of the Primogenitor’s precious experiments. Bile brought low a dozen Space Marines in the battle, his rictus grin illuminated by flickering fire as his once-brothers died agonising and inventive deaths. Yet he barely escaped the battle. He was forced to flee for his life, and his ship was crippled by an Imperial Gothic class cruiser as he fled for the dubious refuge of the Warp.

Whether by accident or design, Bile’s vessel was slowly drawn into the Eye of Terror. He drifted there for an age, constantly experimenting on those few acolytes he had left until the hand of some dark god guided his ship into the gravity well of a Daemon world. Once, the p lanet had been one of the scintillating jewel-worlds of the Eldar civilisation before their own debaucheries saw their civilisation torn apart. Now it was a shrivelled ruin, a crone world of seething madness that echoed to the screams of souls long dead.

To Fabius Bile, it became home.

TO WALK THE STARS

Bile soon discovered that the shattered Traitor Legions making their home in the Eye of Terror had particular need of his skills. His augmented warriors and bio-magicks were useful indeed, and clones and slaves were put to good use on a hundred battlefields. Yet it was the skills Bile had learned as an Apothecary that were most precious to the Traitor Legions. Most of all, they needed Bile’s ability to extract precious progenoid glands from the fallen in order to create new Chaos Space Marines. Without these skills, the Long War would slowly dwindle, and the fires that Horus had lit would go out forever. With so much influence at his behest, Fabius Bile negotiated a delicate bargain with the Traitor Legions, selling his secrets to each of them but refusing to aid one any more than any other. In this way, the Primogenitor ensures his position at the heart of a genetic web that spans across the Eye of Terror and beyond.

THE THIRTEEN SCARS

It is rumoured amongst the acolytes of Bile that the Primogenitor studied the arts of pain under the Haemonculi of Commorragh. These maestros of torture are so skilled in their works that even Bile, with several thousand years of experience in wielding the scalpel, is a mere novice by comparison. Nonetheless, after his eventual capture in a raid on an Emperor’s Children citadel, Bile so impressed the Coven of the Thirteen Scars with his improvisational tortures that he was allowed to visit the inverted spires of their city-dungeons as a guest instead of a victim. There, he aided the Thirteen Scars in the creation of the Tower of Flesh; a living, breathing fortress made from the remains of those that had wronged the Coven in their lives. Without Bile’s elixirs and the runes he carved into the fleshy walls of the mobile fortress, the sentient tower may not have lived more than a few days, but it lives on still, dangling from the underside of Commorragh like a fleshy stalactite. Within its blood-dripping walls, Bile was taught many of the Haemonculi’s lesser secrets. In the dark circles of the truly evil, the magnitude of such a feat is whispered in hushed tones. No greater honour have the Dark Eldar bestowed upon a member of the lesser races in all of human history. Bile realises this fact well, and has put the lessons he learned there to good use ever since.

‘If a man dedicates his life to good deeds and the welfare of others, he will die unthanked and unremembered. If he exercises his genius bringing misery and death to billions, his name will echo down through the millennia for a hundred lifetimes. Infamy is always more preferable to ignominy.’

- Fabius Bile at the Desecration of Kanzuz IX

THE CHIRURGEON

Possessed of a darkling sentience of its own, the Chirurgeon is a complex, part-magical, part-technological device that is attached to Bile’s spine and extends its spidery limbs over his shoulders. The life-giving ichor that it pumps around Bile’s body is charged with the immortal energy of the Warp. It gives him many of the immunities enjoyed by daemonkind whilst boosting his physical abilities to superhuman levels.

XYCLOS NEEDLER

Fabius Bile had the Xyclos needler specially crafted so he could ‘test’ new genetic serums in battlefield conditions. It fires a thin capillary tube imbued with Bile’s latest creation. Even the smallest scratch can induce terrifying psychotic premonitions of the tortures yet to come, cause a living being to mutate uncontrollably, or even to cause the victim to spontaneously combust.

ROD OF TORMENT

The hell-forged Rod of Torment was once a sceptre of office belonging to the Daemon Prince Sh’lacqclak, Marquis of Mutilation. Reforged to Bile’s own purposes, the Rod amplifies the slightest touch into a raging maelstrom of agony. Though Fabius sees the device as somewhat blunt, it always raises a flicker of interest to send a victim screaming for the release of death just by administering a deft rap on the knuckles.

165 Points

UNIT TYPE: Infantry (Character).

WARGEAR: Power armour, bolt pistol, frag grenades, krak grenades.

Power Armour: Power armour confers a 3+ Armour Save.

Bolt Pistol:

RANGE: 12"

STRENGTH: 4

AP: 5

TYPE: Pistol

Pistol

All Pistols are effectively Assault 1 weapons. A Pistol also counts as a close combat weapon in the Assault phase (pg 24 and 51 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

Gunslinger

All models with two pistols can fire both in the Shooting phase. This follows the normal rules for shooting.

Frag grenades: Frag grenades are assault grenades.

Shooting

When a unit armed with assault grenades makes a shooting attack, one model can choose to throw a grenade, rather than using another shooting weapon.

RANGE: 8"

STRENGTH: 3

AP: -

TYPE: Assault 1, Blast

Assault

Models equipped with assault grenades don’t suffer the penalty to their Initiative for charging enemies through cover, but fight at their normal Initiative in the ensuing combat.

Krak grenades: Krak grenades are shaped charges, excellent for cracking the armour on light vehicles.

Shooting

When a unit armed with krak grenades makes a shooting attack, one model can choose to throw a grenade, rather than using another shooting weapon.

RANGE: 8"

STRENGTH: 6

AP: 4

TYPE: Assault 1

Assault

Unless used in assaults against vehicles or Monstrous Creatures, Krak grenades have no effect. When they are used in assaults against vehicles or Monstrous Creatures, krak grenades have the following profile:

RANGE: -

STRENGTH: 6

AP: 4

TYPE: -

SPECIAL RULES: Champion of Chaos, Fearless, Independent Character, Veterans of the Long War.

Champion of Chaos: A model with the Champion of Chaos special rule must always issue and accept a challenge whenever possible. If there is more than one model in a combat with this special rule, you may select which model issues or accepts the challenge. Whenever a character with the Champion of Chaos special rule kills an enemy character, you must immediately check to see if the Dark Gods reward him. To do this, roll a D66 on the Chaos Boon table opposite – by this we mean roll two D6, one after the other, counting the first dice as ‘tens’ and the second dice as ‘units’. Then refer to the table opposite to see what boon (if any) your champion has gained. So, if you roll a 3 on the first dice and a 5 on the second, you would get a D66 roll of 35 – your champion would now benefit from the Mechanoid Chaos Boon. This boon lasts for the rest of the game; make a note of it on your army roster next to that character’s entry. If a boon is rolled that the character already has, the roll has no effect. If an enemy character dies as a result of multiple Wounds being allocated to it simultaneously, and one or more of those Wounds were caused by the champion, that champion still rolls on the Chaos Boon table. Note that destroying models in a Sweeping Advance does not confer a roll on the Chaos Boon table.

Fearless: Units containing one or more models with the Fearless special rule automatically pass Pinning, Fear and Regroup tests and Morale checks, but cannot Go to Ground and cannot choose to fail a Morale check due to the Our Weapons are Useless rule (pg 26 in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

Independent Character: Independent Characters can join other units. They cannot, however, join vehicle squadrons (see page 77) or units that always consist of a single model (such as most vehicles and Monstrous Creatures). They can join other Independent Characters, though, to form a powerful multi-character unit!

Joining and Leaving a Unit

An Independent Character can begin the game already with a unit, either by being deployed in unit coherency with it or, if the unit is in reserve, by informing your opponent of which unit it has joined.

In order to join a unit, an Independent Character simply has to move so that he is within the 2"+ unit coherency distance of a friendly unit at the end of their Movement phase. If the Independent Character is within 2" of more than one unit at the end of its Movement phase, the player must declare which unit it is joining. If an Independent Character does not intend to (or cannot) join a unit, it must (where possible) remain more than 2" away from it at the end of the Movement phase. This is to make clear whether they have joined a unit or not. Note that, after an Independent Character joins a unit, that unit can move no further that Movement phase.

An Independent Character can leave a unit during the Movement phase by moving out of unit coherency with it. He cannot join or leave during any other phase – once shots are fired or charges are declared, it is too late to join in or duck out!

An Independent Character cannot leave a unit while either he or the unit is locked in combat, falling back or has gone to ground.

He cannot join a unit that is locked in combat or falling back. If an Independent Character joins a unit, and all other models in that unit are killed, he again becomes a unit of one model at the start of the following phase.

While an Independent Character is part of a unit, he counts as part of the unit for all rules purposes, though he still follows the rules for characters.

Look Out, Sir

Independent Characters pass Look Out, Sir rolls on a 2+.

Heroic Morale

A unit that contains one or more Independent Characters does not need a double 1 to Regroup if reduced to below 25% of its starting numbers, but instead tests as if it had at least 25% remaining.

Special Rules

When an Independent Character joins a unit, it might have different special rules from those of the unit. Unless specified in the rule itself (as in the Stubborn special rule), the unit’s special rules are not conferred upon the Independent Character, and the Independent Character’s special rules are not conferred upon the unit. Special rules that are conferred to the unit only apply for as long as the Independent Character is with them.

Independent Characters and Ongoing Effects

Sometimes, a unit that an Independent Character has joined will be the target of a beneficial or harmful effect, such as those bestowed by the Blind special rule, for example. If the character leaves the unit, both he and the unit continue to be affected by the effect, so you’ll need to mark the character accordingly.

Veterans of the Long War: Models with the Veterans of the Long War special rule have the Hatred (Space Marines) special rule and +1 Leadership (remember that a model’s Leadership cannot be modified above 10). When Veterans of the Long War is listed in a unit’s special rules, the Leadership increase will already have been taken into account in its profile.

The Chirurgeon

The Chirurgeon gives Fabius +2 Attacks and +1 Strength (included in his profile) and the Feel No Pain special rule.

Feel No Pain: When a model with this special rule suffers an unsaved Wound, it can make a special Feel No Pain roll to avoid being wounded (this is not a saving throw). Roll a D6 each time an unsaved Wound is suffered. On a 4 or less, you must take the Wound as normal. On a 5+, the unsaved Wound is discounted – treat it as having been saved. Note that Feel No Pain rolls cannot be made against unsaved Wounds that inflict Instant Death, but can be made against Wounds caused by Perils of the Warp.

If a unit has the Feel No Pain special rule with a number in brackets afterwards – Feel No Pain (6+), for example – then the number in brackets is the D6 result needed to discount the Wound.

If one or more models in a unit have the Feel No Pain special rule, then the Mixed Saves method of Wound allocation should always be used for allocating Wounds and removing casualties from that unit; Feel No Pain rolls should be individually made after each failed save.

Rod of Torment

RANGE: -

STRENGTH: User

AP: -

TYPE: Melee, Instant Death.

Melee

Weapons with the Melee type can only be used in close combat.

Instant Death

Unsaved Wounds inflicted by an Attack with this special rule automatically inflict Instant Death, regardless of the victim’s Toughness.

If a model suffers an unsaved Wound from an attack which causes Instant Death, it is reduced to 0 Wounds and removed as a casualty.

Xyclos Needler

RANGE: 18"

STRENGTH: 1

AP: 6

TYPE: Assault 3, Poisoned (2+).

Assault

A model shooting an Assault weapon shoots the number of times indicated on its profile – whether or not the bearer has moved. A model carrying an Assault weapon can fire it in the Shooting phase and still charge into close combat in the Assault phase.

Poisoned

If a model has the Poisoned special rule, or is attacking with a Melee weapon that has the Poisoned special rule, it always wounds on a fixed number (generally shown in brackets), unless a lower result would be required, when attacking in close combat. In addition, if the Strength of the wielder (or the poisoned weapon) is the same or higher than the Toughness of the victim, the wielder must re-roll failed rolls To Wound in close combat.

Similarly, if a model makes a shooting attack with a weapon that has the Poisoned special rule, it always wounds on a fixed number (generally shown in brackets), unless a lower result would be required. If no number is shown in brackets, the rule is Poisoned (4+). Unless otherwise stated, Poisoned weapons are treated as having a Strength of 1. The Poisoned special rule has no effect against vehicles.

HURON BLACKHEART

‘The only reward for loyalty is betrayal.’

- The Tyrant of Badab

Huron Blackheart is an inhuman servant of Chaos who now lives only to bleed the Imperium he once served. Master of the Red Corsairs and Lord of the Maelstrom, he is the dark-souled king of an empire of monsters. Reaving into the Imperium at the head of a fleet of renegades and traitors, he has grown in power even as the light of the Imperium has grown dim tattered. Once Chapter Master of the Astral Claws, Huron forsook his oaths to the Imperium, and dragged four Chapters into war against the rest of the Imperium. Broken and defeated, he was taken into the Maelstrom and there was reborn. Bound to machines which keep him alive and forever in pain, Huron is now a scarred creature of hate. His machine claw clicking, he has strode to battle time and again, followed by the daemonic Hamadrya, and each time the agony of his existence grows and the spite within him deepens.

THE TYRANT OF BADAB

Before the Red Corsairs there were the Astral Claws. Before Huron Blackheart, there was Lugft Huron. The Astral Claws were one of a series of Space Marine Chapters tasked with watching over the blighted region of space known as the Maelstrom. An open wound in reality, the Maelstrom is a place where Daemons walk the worlds drowned in its depths, where aliens swarm like carrion feeders, and the outcasts of humanity gather and grow strong. The Astral Claws once watched over the Maelstrom, but even as they waged their war against the dark, they found themselves part of a dwindling host. Its fellow warden Chapters were drawn off to fight other wars, and every request for aid was answered with silence.

Perhaps fate would have taken a different path if another had sat on the throne of Badab, but it was Lugft Huron who watched as the malignancy of the Maelstrom waxed, and his Chapter alone paid the blood price of vigilance. How could such a father of warriors accept the slow death of his Chapter? How could he accept failure? Perhaps in pride, perhaps in desperation, Huron broke with the iron law of the Imperium. Outlawed processes of gene-seed implantation were used to swell the Chapter’s numbers beyond its set bounds. As the Astral Claws numbers grew so did their domains. Worlds which had been ruled by weak men became vassals of Badab. Great armies rose to Huron’s call, incursions from the Maelstrom were halted, and for a time the heresy which had bought that victory remained hidden.

No secret is eternal, however. Even as the Astral Claws ascended in power, so did their secret circle closer to revelation. Whispers rose and travelled across the Imperium. Questions were asked and answers sought. Worlds in the sphere of Badab began to withhold the tithe, and the Astral Claws failed to supply samples of their gene-seed to the Adeptus Mechanicus. On Mars, the Tech Priests sift samples taken from every Space Marine Chapter, looking for mutation or growing weakness. Each Chapter swears at its founding to provide such samples, at the risk of the strongest censure if they should refuse. Eventually, the tardiness of the Astral Claws’ gene-seed samples and tithes could not be ignored. The Imperium turned its eye to Badab and sought answers. When a deputation of the Adeptus Mechanicus arrived in the Badab system, and demanded the Chapter yield samples of its gene-seed, Huron knew his secret could be hidden no longer. The Astral Claws fired on the Adeptus Mechanicus ships, destroying them and beginning the Badab War.

THE BROKEN FATHER

The Badab War burnt for almost a decade, consuming stars, planets and billions of lives. Seventeen Space Marine Chapters fought on its many bloody battlefields. At its end, the rebellious Astral Claws were pushed back to the Badab system, and the fortress of the Palace of Thorns. The forces of retribution closed in, and the scene was to be set for one of the most brutal planetary assaults in Imperial history. Rolling bombardments turned cities to dust and shattered stone. Pillars of ash and fire rose from the ruins to touch the heavens. And from out of that smoke-clogged sky, seven companies of the Star Phantoms Chapter descended like avenging angels, as the battle raged across Badab and through the Palace of Thorns. The Astral Claws and their vassal forces made the Star Phantoms bleed for every scrap of ground, but hour by hour, more of their defencive positions were lost, and the tally of dead mounted. At last, Captain Androcles of the Star Phantoms fatally wounded Huron with a melta blast. The Tyrant fell, and the Badab War ended.

The Astral Claws were no more. The fears of Huron, that they would die a forgotten death on the edge of the Imperium, had been replaced by extinction at the hands of the Imperium. As father of his Chapter he had not only failed, but brought about the doom he had tried to avoid. Scoured from Imperial records, the honours won by the Astral Claws in their long service became ash, their domains given to those who had cast them down.

But the Tyrant lived.

Taken from the battlefield by a cadre of his veterans, he had clung to life through sheer force of will, despite being reduced to an unrecognizable heap of charred flesh and armour and missing most of the right side of his body. Bearing the broken body of their lord, the last of the Astral Claws fled into the Maelstrom. There, amongst the Warp-saturated clouds of dust and gas, the Techmarines and Apothecaries laboured over the remains of Huron for seven days and nights. On the eighth day, Huron rose and looked on what remained of his Chapter. He saw a ragged band of loyal warriors, a last remnant of a past that was now dead. Barely a company’s strength had survived the fall of the Palace of Thorns. Amongst them stood veterans and new initiates alike. And when his brothers looked back what did they see? A walking body of scar tissue and machinery, its wound-chewed face twitching from an agony held back by his iron will. Without a word the Astral Claws knelt to Huron then and there. He beheld his remaining warriors in silence and, through the film of pain and near-death madness, saw a new path for him and his brothers. He spoke then, telling them to rise, to strike out the symbols of loyalty to the Imperium which had betrayed them, and to paint their armour red for the blood of their murdered brothers. They would survive, he said, and they would rise. In that moment, the survivors of Badab shed their last tattered scraps of honour. The Astral Claws were no more – only their bloody shadows remained, clad in the crimson that would give them their name: they were Red Corsairs, and if they could not live in honour they would rule in hell.

MASTER OF THE MAELSTROM

In the depths of the Maelstrom, Huron began to gather power. The Maelstrom is a place of broken reality older than the Imperium. Within the folds of its gas and dust clouds, the Warp and reality blend and curdle together. It is a mutant realm, with one foot in the physical world and one foot in the dream reality of the Immaterium. At its heart, Daemons walk the stars, and dance across the surface of worlds where no law reigns, and sanity is a joke chuckled from the mouths of dry skulls. Further towards its edge, where the Warp’s touch ebbs and flows like the wash of a great ocean, life festers like carrion in an open grave. Ragged kingdoms of outcasts, mutant shipwreckers, pirates, witches, aliens, the shunned and the lost, all swarm in the margins of the Maelstrom. When the remains of the Astral Claws made it their home, it was a place of cruelty and bloodshed, its darkness was wild and untamed. Huron, and his Red Corsairs, changed that.

The Hamadrya

The Hamadrya is a peculiar creature which seems bound to Huron Blackheart. Slick skinned, with blank red eyes, it resembles something like a featherless bird or a skinless dog, but when seen on the edge of sight its shape changes, bloating in size, or turning to a flickering pillar of flame. What this creature is remains a mystery. Perhaps it is a Daemon of the Warp, the bound essence of one of Huron’s enemies, or even the remains of his own mutilated soul, forfeited to the Chaos Gods in return for his survival. No matter its nature, the Hamadrya seems to gift Huron with strange powers, slowing time, allowing him to see lies, and to know truths that no mortal should.

On renegade worlds Huron slew petty kings and forced mutant lords to kneel at his feet. When the other pirate lords of the Maelstrom refused his demands, he slew their followers, looted their holdings, and gave them to the Warp-twisted mutants infesting his ships for sport. Soon, the outcasts of the Maelstrom learned not to refuse the Master of the Red Corsairs. From the pirates and renegade Navigator clans he took ships. From the populations of dank slave worlds and rust-filled space stations he took flesh and muscle to labour in his holds. Piece by piece, Huron and the Red Corsairs built a dark mirror to the lost realm of Badab. From his throne on the rusted space station of Hell’s Iris, Huron watched as his power grew, unbounded by the strictures of the Imperium. Ragged fleets of ships raided into the Imperium, bled its worlds of slaves and riches, and returned to heap them at his feet. The denizens of the Maelstrom named Huron the ‘Blackheart’, and he wears that title like a crown, still.

THE BLOOD REAVER

Just as Huron’s power grew, so too did the strength of the Red Corsairs. As though drawn by fate, the renegades of many Chapters would find their way to the Maelstrom, and to the foot of Huron’s throne. It is said that the oath breakers of a hundred Chapters follow the Blackheart to battle, their colours hidden by the red of betrayal. All have fallen far from their noble origins. Many of those who find their way to the Maelstrom have already given their souls to darkness, but even those who have not, fall in time. The Warp breathes out into the Maelstrom, and it touches all those that dwell within it. Mutation runs rife amongst the Red Corsairs, as do cults and factions devoted to the Dark Gods. The Jagged Oath, who eat the flesh of the dead after battle, and the Nine Eyes, a cabal of infamous sorcerers and deceivers, are just two of an ever-changing patchwork of corruption within Huron’s followers. Some amongst the Red Corsairs may not give their souls to the Chaos Gods knowingly, but lack of devotion does not lessen their damnation.

In battle, Huron has led his Red Corsairs against the Imperium time and again. ‘The Blood Reaver’ they call him, and it is a title he has earned well. Systems close to the Maelstrom have suffered increasingly bold raids since the rise of the Red Corsairs. Often these raids are as swift as they are brutal. Corsair ships appear, crush their prey with overwhelming force, and withdraw as fast as they appeared. Besides these bloody raids, Huron has personally led a series of spectacularly grand attacks on the Imperium. On Vilamus, he destroyed the gene-seed stock of the Marines Errant, condemning the Chapter to a slow death, and so repaying in spite the role they played in the fall of Badab. At Parenxes, Huron burned a strike force of the Space Wolves and Death Hawks Chapters, taking the strike cruiser Wolf of Fenris as prize after slaying Gnyrll Bluetooth.

In one of his most recent atrocities, Huron descended on the mustering of Battlefleet Aquinas above Oldarian. Learning of the muster from the lips of a Warp-seer, Huron gathered his entire fleet and made for the harbour system. Knowing that his transition from the Warp would alert the Imperial forces, he exited the Warp in the gulf of dead space far from the Oldarian. Blood sacrifices ensured that he arrived before the muster began, and as the first Imperial ships arrived, none realised that the Red Corsairs were creeping nearer. Only when the Imperial Fleet hung at anchor above Oldarian did the Red Corsairs’ guns howl. Ten mighty warships died in the first seconds of the attack. Huron himself led the second wave of the assault. The strike cruiser Wolf of Fenris dove into the burning core of the Imperial fleet and launched boarding torpedoes into the hull of the battleship Chosen of Thor. A hundred Red Corsairs, with Huron at their head, cut their way to the battleship’s reactors and quenched them. The Chosen of Thor became dark and silent as the rest of the muster was ripped apart beside it. It is thought that Huron let some of the Imperial ships flee, holding fire when they broke from battle. When the ships reached other Imperial forces their crews told of a last message, growling from the signal arrays. ‘Your Empire is dead’, it said.

As the End Times spiral towards a final midnight, Huron’s strength waxes, and the Maelstrom swells to claim worlds that it has never touched before. From his fastness, Huron watches, while his forces raid ever deeper into the Imperium. Some say that the Blood Reaver is waiting, that the forces he had so far unleashed are but a fraction of his might. What he waits and watches for none know, but the Lords of Terra fear that when that hour comes, the fallen Tyrant of Badab will return to claim the throne from which he was cast down.

160 Points

UNIT TYPE: Infantry (Character).

WARGEAR: Power armour, power axe, frag grenades, krak grenades, sigil of corruption.

Power Armour: Power armour confers a 3+ Armour Save.

Power axe:

RANGE: -

STRENGTH: +1

AP: 2

TYPE: Melee, Unwieldy

Melee

Weapons with the Melee type can only be used in close combat.

Unwieldy

A model attacking with this weapon does so at Initiative step 1, unless it is a Monstrous Creature or a Walker. If it does so, it will also Pile In at Initiative step 1.

Frag grenades: Frag grenades are assault grenades.

Shooting

When a unit armed with assault grenades makes a shooting attack, one model can choose to throw a grenade, rather than using another shooting weapon.

RANGE: 8"

STRENGTH: 3

AP: -

TYPE: Assault 1, Blast

Assault

Models equipped with assault grenades don’t suffer the penalty to their Initiative for charging enemies through cover, but fight at their normal Initiative in the ensuing combat.

Krak grenades: Krak grenades are shaped charges, excellent for cracking the armour on light vehicles.

Shooting

When a unit armed with krak grenades makes a shooting attack, one model can choose to throw a grenade, rather than using another shooting weapon.

RANGE: 8"

STRENGTH: 6

AP: 4

TYPE: Assault 1

Assault

Unless used in assaults against vehicles or Monstrous Creatures, Krak grenades have no effect. When they are used in assaults against vehicles or Monstrous Creatures, krak grenades have the following profile:

RANGE: -

STRENGTH: 6

AP: 4

TYPE: -

Sigil of Corruption

A model with a sigil of corruption has a 4+ invulnerable save.

WARLORD TRAIT: Master of Deception.

Nominate up to D3 Infantry units in your army before deployment. Those units gain the Infiltrate special rule.

Infiltrate: Units that contain at least one model with this special rule are deployed last, after all other units (friend and foe) have been deployed. If both sides have Infiltrators, the players roll-off and the winner decides who goes first, then alternate deploying these units.

Infiltrators can be set up anywhere on the table that is more than 12" from any enemy unit, as long as no deployed enemy unit can draw line of sight to them. This includes in a building, as long as the building is more than 12" from any enemy unit. Alternatively, they can be set up anywhere on the table more than 18" from any enemy unit, even in plain sight.

A unit that deploys using these rules cannot charge in the first turn.

Having Infiltrate also confers the Outflank special rule to units of Infiltrators that are kept as Reserves. If a unit with Infiltrate is deployed inside a Dedicated Transport, they may Infiltrate or Outflank along with their Transport, but if they do, they must deploy/move onto the table embarked within it. An Independent Character without the Infiltrate special rule cannot join a unit of Infiltrators during deployment.

SPECIAL RULES: Champion of Chaos, Fearless, Independent Character, Veterans of the Long War.

Champion of Chaos: A model with the Champion of Chaos special rule must always issue and accept a challenge whenever possible. If there is more than one model in a combat with this special rule, you may select which model issues or accepts the challenge. Whenever a character with the Champion of Chaos special rule kills an enemy character, you must immediately check to see if the Dark Gods reward him. To do this, roll a D66 on the Chaos Boon table opposite – by this we mean roll two D6, one after the other, counting the first dice as ‘tens’ and the second dice as ‘units’. Then refer to the table opposite to see what boon (if any) your champion has gained. So, if you roll a 3 on the first dice and a 5 on the second, you would get a D66 roll of 35 – your champion would now benefit from the Mechanoid Chaos Boon. This boon lasts for the rest of the game; make a note of it on your army roster next to that character’s entry. If a boon is rolled that the character already has, the roll has no effect. If an enemy character dies as a result of multiple Wounds being allocated to it simultaneously, and one or more of those Wounds were caused by the champion, that champion still rolls on the Chaos Boon table. Note that destroying models in a Sweeping Advance does not confer a roll on the Chaos Boon table.

Fearless: Units containing one or more models with the Fearless special rule automatically pass Pinning, Fear and Regroup tests and Morale checks, but cannot Go to Ground and cannot choose to fail a Morale check due to the Our Weapons are Useless rule (pg 26 in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

Independent Character: Independent Characters can join other units. They cannot, however, join vehicle squadrons (see page 77) or units that always consist of a single model (such as most vehicles and Monstrous Creatures). They can join other Independent Characters, though, to form a powerful multi-character unit!

Joining and Leaving a Unit

An Independent Character can begin the game already with a unit, either by being deployed in unit coherency with it or, if the unit is in reserve, by informing your opponent of which unit it has joined.

In order to join a unit, an Independent Character simply has to move so that he is within the 2"+ unit coherency distance of a friendly unit at the end of their Movement phase. If the Independent Character is within 2" of more than one unit at the end of its Movement phase, the player must declare which unit it is joining. If an Independent Character does not intend to (or cannot) join a unit, it must (where possible) remain more than 2" away from it at the end of the Movement phase. This is to make clear whether they have joined a unit or not. Note that, after an Independent Character joins a unit, that unit can move no further that Movement phase.

An Independent Character can leave a unit during the Movement phase by moving out of unit coherency with it. He cannot join or leave during any other phase – once shots are fired or charges are declared, it is too late to join in or duck out!

An Independent Character cannot leave a unit while either he or the unit is locked in combat, falling back or has gone to ground.

He cannot join a unit that is locked in combat or falling back. If an Independent Character joins a unit, and all other models in that unit are killed, he again becomes a unit of one model at the start of the following phase.

While an Independent Character is part of a unit, he counts as part of the unit for all rules purposes, though he still follows the rules for characters.

Look Out, Sir

Independent Characters pass Look Out, Sir rolls on a 2+.

Heroic Morale

A unit that contains one or more Independent Characters does not need a double 1 to Regroup if reduced to below 25% of its starting numbers, but instead tests as if it had at least 25% remaining.

Special Rules

When an Independent Character joins a unit, it might have different special rules from those of the unit. Unless specified in the rule itself (as in the Stubborn special rule), the unit’s special rules are not conferred upon the Independent Character, and the Independent Character’s special rules are not conferred upon the unit. Special rules that are conferred to the unit only apply for as long as the Independent Character is with them.

Independent Characters and Ongoing Effects

Sometimes, a unit that an Independent Character has joined will be the target of a beneficial or harmful effect, such as those bestowed by the Blind special rule, for example. If the character leaves the unit, both he and the unit continue to be affected by the effect, so you’ll need to mark the character accordingly.

Veterans of the Long War: Models with the Veterans of the Long War special rule have the Hatred (Space Marines) special rule and +1 Leadership (remember that a model’s Leadership cannot be modified above 10). When Veterans of the Long War is listed in a unit’s special rules, the Leadership increase will already have been taken into account in its profile.

The Tyrant’s Claw

The Tyrant’s Claw has the profile below. It also incorporates a heavy flamer.

RANGE: -

STRENGTH: +2

AP: 3

TYPE: Melee, Armourbane, Shred, Specialist Weapon

Melee

Weapons with the Melee type can only be used in close combat.

Armourbane

If a model has this special rule, or is attacking with a Melee weapon that has this special rule, it rolls 2D6 for armour penetration in close combat. Similarly, if a model makes a shooting attack with a weapon that has this special rule, it rolls 2D6 for armour penetration. In either case, this special rule has no effect against non-vehicle models.

Shred

If a model has the Shred special rule, or is attacking with a Melee weapon that has the Shred special rule, it re-rolls failed To Wound rolls in close combat.

Similarly, if a model makes a shooting attack with a weapon that has the Shred special rule, it re-rolls its failed To Wound rolls.

Specialist Weapon

A model fighting with this weapon does not receive +1 Attack for fighting with two weapons unless both weapons have the Specialist Weapon rule.

KHÂRN THE BETRAYER

Khârn the Betrayer is the greatest mortal champion of Khorne. Second only to the Daemon Primarch Angron in aggression and bloodlust, Khârn has lived a life of murder and betrayal, the blood spilt and skulls collected for his patron beyond counting. In battle Khârn is always where the fighting is at its thickest, his heavy chain axe Gorechild rising and falling as it severs heads and claims skulls. Khârn lives only for battle, and the chance to bring death to anyone within reach of his axe, be they friend or foe. Whether Khârn fights only for the glory of the Blood God or for himself – the endless days of murder drowning out the tormenting voices in his head – only he knows for sure. However, what is certain is that few men have laid eyes upon the Betrayer and lived to tell the tale.

‘Only a fool takes Khârn for a mindless brute or rabid dog. Under that blood-soaked helm lurks an intelligence and cunning that makes him a masterful killer – trust me when I say that there is a dark purpose in his madness.’

- Abaddon the Despoiler

AN EIGTH-FOLD PATH

Khârn’s legend began thousands of years ago during the Emperor’s Great Crusade. Even then the young Space Marine had earned a reputation as an able commander and fearless warrior as part of the War Hounds Legion, precursor to the World Eaters. As Captain of the Legion’s 8th Company, Khârn earned glory for himself as the War Hounds conquered planets and systems in the Emperor’s name. However, it was not until the Legion were reunited with their Primarch Angron that Khârn’s true rise to power, and his descent into damnation, began.

When the War Hounds discovered Angron they rejoiced at being reunited with their Primarch, taking knee before him and offering up the leadership of the Legion. To their dismay, Angron, having little interest in the Crusade or the Imperium, turned his back upon them. In the end, the Legion forcibly teleported Angron onto their battle barge, sealing him in a cargo hold. Convinced that they could change the Primarch’s mind the captains and commanders of the War Hounds entered the hold to make their case. One by one Angron killed them all, until Khârn – as one of the few remaining officers of his rank – was the only one brave enough to face the homicidal giant. Into a chamber spattered with the blood of his brothers Khârn walked, calm and composed, never flinching even as the looming shadow of Angron rose up from where he sat upon a pile of power armoured corpses. Angron attacked Khârn as he had the others, smashing him to the ground and hammering him with furious blows. However, Khârn did not defend himself, remaining in control of himself even as his instincts screamed at him to fight. In the end it was this calm bravery that won him Angron’s respect, and allowed him to convince the Primarch that mastery over the Legion was not a collar to be worn around his neck, but a mantle of power to be worn on his mighty shoulders – a mantle that would grant him the freedom to stalk across the stars in an endless war of glorious bloodshed.

So it was that Khârn became Angron’s equerry, the right hand and council to the War Hounds’ Primarch. It was also at this time the War Hounds became known as the World Eaters, their savagery and lust for battle the doom of entire civilisations. In the shadow of Angron, Khârn began to change, becoming more aggressive and unstable, those reckless traits he had long kept in check rising to the surface. Angron’s use of the Butcher’s Nails, skull implants designed to heighten aggression, only accelerated Khârn’s descent into madness. Lost in his thirst for battle Khârn and his brothers were easy prey for the Dark Gods, and were among the first to side with Horus in his war against the Emperor.

Khârn fought with a renewed fury during the Heresy, finally finding a foe worthy of his skills in the loyalist Space Marines. It seemed that Khorne had a plan for the World Eater’s captain, every gore-drenched warzone bringing Khârn closer to complete servitude to the Blood God.

On Isstvan III, when the Sons of Horus, Death Guard, Emperor’s Children and World Eaters turned upon the loyalists within their ranks, Khârn was there cutting down any who refused to bow before the Warmaster. During the fray Khârn was horrifically wounded when he was thrown onto the teeth of a tank’s dozerblade. Not for the first time, Khârn was left for dead by his foes. However, Khârn proved his resilience, and the favour of Khorne, as he clawed his way back to life. It was during the Heresy, also, that he would claim his distinctive weapon Gorechild, one of Angron’s paired chain axes. The Primarch had discarded the weapon when he broke its mica-dragon teeth using it to dig through rock. Loath to see such a precious weapon lost to tides of war, Khârn had it repaired, and has carried it into battle ever since.

Khârn was present as Horus laid siege to Terra. He was the first of his Legion to breach the walls of the Emperor’s Palace, and claimed more skulls for Khorne than any other. It was during the siege that Khârn was seemingly killed once again, surrounded by a mountain of loyalist corpses. When Horus was slain and the traitors defeated, his brothers bore him back to the Legion’s ships, taking his body with them as they fled to the Eye of Terror.

For a long time Khârn lay unconscious and upon the edge of death in the hold of the World Eater’s battle barge, as the Legion’s captains argued about who should lead. Only when one captain murdered another, arguing over Khârn’s body, did he rise back to life, revived by the freshly spilled blood spattered over his flesh.

Many looked to Khârn to lead the World Eaters, now that Angron had ascended to Daemonhood and once again spurned his Legion. The first thing the World Eaters required was a home within the Eye of Terror, a place from which to build their strength and strike back at the hated Imperium. It was a search that would lead them to the Daemon world of Skalathrax. A cursed place once inhabited by the Eldar before the Fall, it was also coveted by the Emperor’s Children, who desired the alien soul stones for their debased god. It was not long before the Legions were engaged in bitter and bloody war for control of the world, Khârn at the forefront of the fighting. However the presence of the Legions had broken the ancient equilibrium of Skalathrax, and as they struggled an unnatural cold crept in from the void. When the World Eaters took refuge from the freezing storm front, Khârn turned on them, disgusted by their cowardice. Using a flamer to destroy the shelters, Khârn started a fire that soon burned out of control, and he rampaged through the dying world killing World Eaters and Emperor’s Children with equal fury. For his actions Khârn would earn the title Betrayer, while his shattered Legion would never fight as one again.

‘Emperor’s Teeth! One man did all this?’

- Viscount Hurlon, upon discovering Khârn’s murder of all 12,000 inhabitants of the Mirrored Spire of Vorlanthus IV

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD

In the aftermath of Skalathrax the World Eaters were scattered into wandering warbands, Khârn himself disappearing into the Eye of Terror to seek new foes to kill for his god. During this time Khârn the Betrayer would become foremost among the champions of Khorne, no other able even to come close to his kill count. It is whispered on the Warp-winds of the Eye that there is a pile of skulls beside the Blood God’s throne for Khârn’s offerings alone; a pile that grows higher every day. Though Khorne enjoys all forms of murder and violence, none are as precious to him as those inflicted in close quarters, as it is the truest test of a warrior’s abilities, unsullied by advanced technology or psychic trickery. In this way Khârn is exemplary in the eyes of Khorne – almost all his killing is committed with Gorechild, his armour bathed in the blood of the vanquished as their heads are parted from their bodies.

At times Khârn has resorted to other means of killing, like in the factorums of Ulsa during the Bloodtorrent War, when Gorechild became jammed in the hull of a Mechanicum war machine and his plasma pistol fractured from overuse. The Betrayer turned the sharp edges and hard surfaces of the factorum to his own violent ends, impaling screaming Imperial Guardsmen soldiers on grinding gears or flaying the skin from their faces by pressing them on howling conveyers. Such was the carnage that the vast manufactorum ground to a halt, its workings clogged with the mangled remains of over a thousand pulverised corpses.

Khârn has cultivated a well-earned reputation as the first to enter a fight and the last to leave, mirroring his battle long ago at the siege of the Emperor’s Palace. During the mayhem and carnage of the Seventh Black Crusade Khârn was the first to board the Blood Angel Strike Cruiser Sanguine Tear, smashing his way through the void-lock when his own ship became embedded in its hull. For several bloody minutes the Betrayer fought alone against a dozen Blood Angel Terminators, until the rest of his warband flooded onto the Space Marine vessel. Khârn was also the last to leave, after the Sanguine Tear had been reduced to a charnel house of corpses and fire, returning to his own cruiser and ordering its captain to blast them free from the wreck.

In his long life as a servant of the Blood God Khârn has travelled the breadth of the galaxy, staining the ground of a thousand, thousand worlds red in honour of his murderous master. Though the Betrayer yearns for the destruction of the Imperium – an obsession that Abaddon the Despoiler has used more than once to lure him into his army – it is the taking of skulls that truly drives Khârn. Human heads are the most desirable, but any able opponent is a worthy offering to Khorne. Khârn has taken the lives of almost every kind of human, alien and Daemon to walk the stars or dwell beneath them. Tyranid Hive Tyrants, Necron Overlords, Eldar Autarchs and Ork Warbosses have all tasted the bite of Gorechild’s teeth. Khârn knows that Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows, only that it does.

It is a brave warlord that enlists Khârn’s aid, calling upon the Betrayer being often a measure of equal parts folly and desperation. Khârn’s allies can never be sure that he will not turn upon them, should the enemy prove unworthy of his axe or the tide of war leave him no adversaries nearby. More than one warband of Chaos Renegades have followed their foes into the grave, Khârn savagely decapitating them once there were no more enemies for him to kill. The only warriors that freely fight at Khârn’s side are other World Eaters, Khorne Berserkers drawn to the Betrayer by tales of his bloody deeds. These crazed butchers live only to murder and kill, the taking of life for the Blood God the singular meaning of their existence. If it should come to pass that Khorne calls for their skull they give it willingly, offering their necks while screaming out his name. It has been speculated by more than one heretic scholar that Khârn has killed more warriors of the World Eaters Legion than all its enemies combined.

Khârn the Betrayer will never stop killing. Whether it is the blood madness he learnt from Angron during the Horus Heresy, or the taint that has corrupted his soul since Khorne’s gaze fell upon him, Khârn’s mind burns with an unquenchable rage. So long as he draws breath he will offer up lives to the Blood God, until at last he gives his own.

160 Points

UNIT TYPE: Infantry (Character).

WARGEAR: Power armour, plasma pistol, frag grenades, krak grenades, aura of dark glory.

Power Armour: Power armour confers a 3+ Armour Save.

Plasma Pistol:

RANGE: 12"

STRENGTH: 7

AP: 2

TYPE: Pistol, Gets Hot

Pistol

All Pistols are effectively Assault 1 weapons. A Pistol also counts as a close combat weapon in the Assault phase (pg 24 and 51 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

Gets Hot

When firing a weapon that Gets Hot, roll To Hit as normal. For each To Hit roll of 1, the firing model immediately suffers a Wound (armour saves or invulnerable saves can be taken) – a vehicle instead suffers a glancing hit on a further roll of a 1, 2 or 3.

Gets Hot and Weapons That Do Not Roll To Hit

Weapons that do not roll To Hit (such as Blast weapons) must roll a D6 for each shot immediately before firing. On a 2+, the shot is resolved as normal. For each roll of a 1, the weapon Gets Hot; the firing model suffers a Wound (armour saves or invulnerable saves can be taken) and that shot is not fired. A vehicle instead suffers a glancing hit on a further roll of a 1, 2 or 3 each time the weapon Gets Hot.

Gets Hot and Re-rolls

If a model has the ability to re-roll its rolls To Hit (including because of BS 6+, or Twin-linked), a Wound is only suffered if the To Hit re-roll is also a 1; it may also re-roll Gets Hot results of 1 for weapons that do not roll To Hit.

Frag grenades: Frag grenades are assault grenades.

Shooting

When a unit armed with assault grenades makes a shooting attack, one model can choose to throw a grenade, rather than using another shooting weapon.

RANGE: 8"

STRENGTH: 3

AP: -

TYPE: Assault 1, Blast

Assault

Models equipped with assault grenades don’t suffer the penalty to their Initiative for charging enemies through cover, but fight at their normal Initiative in the ensuing combat.

Krak grenades: Krak grenades are shaped charges, excellent for cracking the armour on light vehicles.

Shooting

When a unit armed with krak grenades makes a shooting attack, one model can choose to throw a grenade, rather than using another shooting weapon.

RANGE: 8"

STRENGTH: 6

AP: 4

TYPE: Assault 1

Assault

Unless used in assaults against vehicles or Monstrous Creatures, Krak grenades have no effect. When they are used in assaults against vehicles or Monstrous Creatures, krak grenades have the following profile:

RANGE: -

STRENGTH: 6

AP: 4

TYPE: -

Aura of Dark Glory: A model with an aura of dark glory has a 5+ invulnerable save.

WARLORD TRAIT: Hatred Incarnate.

The intense animosity that festers in this Warlord’s soul spills out into those around him.
The Warlord and his unit have the Hatred special rule.

SPECIAL RULES: Champion of Chaos, Fearless, Furiuos Charge, Independent Character, Mark of Khorne, Veterans of the Long War.

Champion of Chaos: A model with the Champion of Chaos special rule must always issue and accept a challenge whenever possible. If there is more than one model in a combat with this special rule, you may select which model issues or accepts the challenge. Whenever a character with the Champion of Chaos special rule kills an enemy character, you must immediately check to see if the Dark Gods reward him. To do this, roll a D66 on the Chaos Boon table opposite – by this we mean roll two D6, one after the other, counting the first dice as ‘tens’ and the second dice as ‘units’. Then refer to the table opposite to see what boon (if any) your champion has gained. So, if you roll a 3 on the first dice and a 5 on the second, you would get a D66 roll of 35 – your champion would now benefit from the Mechanoid Chaos Boon. This boon lasts for the rest of the game; make a note of it on your army roster next to that character’s entry. If a boon is rolled that the character already has, the roll has no effect. If an enemy character dies as a result of multiple Wounds being allocated to it simultaneously, and one or more of those Wounds were caused by the champion, that champion still rolls on the Chaos Boon table. Note that destroying models in a Sweeping Advance does not confer a roll on the Chaos Boon table.

Fearless: Units containing one or more models with the Fearless special rule automatically pass Pinning, Fear and Regroup tests and Morale checks, but cannot Go to Ground and cannot choose to fail a Morale check due to the Our Weapons are Useless rule (pg 26 in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

Furious Charge: In a turn in which a model with this special rule charges into combat, it adds +1 to its Strength characteristic until the end of that phase. A model that has made a disordered charge that turn receives no benefit from Furious Charge (pg 27 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

Independent Character: Independent Characters can join other units. They cannot, however, join vehicle squadrons (see page 77) or units that always consist of a single model (such as most vehicles and Monstrous Creatures). They can join other Independent Characters, though, to form a powerful multi-character unit!

Joining and Leaving a Unit

An Independent Character can begin the game already with a unit, either by being deployed in unit coherency with it or, if the unit is in reserve, by informing your opponent of which unit it has joined.

In order to join a unit, an Independent Character simply has to move so that he is within the 2"+ unit coherency distance of a friendly unit at the end of their Movement phase. If the Independent Character is within 2" of more than one unit at the end of its Movement phase, the player must declare which unit it is joining. If an Independent Character does not intend to (or cannot) join a unit, it must (where possible) remain more than 2" away from it at the end of the Movement phase. This is to make clear whether they have joined a unit or not. Note that, after an Independent Character joins a unit, that unit can move no further that Movement phase.

An Independent Character can leave a unit during the Movement phase by moving out of unit coherency with it. He cannot join or leave during any other phase – once shots are fired or charges are declared, it is too late to join in or duck out!

An Independent Character cannot leave a unit while either he or the unit is locked in combat, falling back or has gone to ground.

He cannot join a unit that is locked in combat or falling back. If an Independent Character joins a unit, and all other models in that unit are killed, he again becomes a unit of one model at the start of the following phase.

While an Independent Character is part of a unit, he counts as part of the unit for all rules purposes, though he still follows the rules for characters.

Look Out, Sir

Independent Characters pass Look Out, Sir rolls on a 2+.

Heroic Morale

A unit that contains one or more Independent Characters does not need a double 1 to Regroup if reduced to below 25% of its starting numbers, but instead tests as if it had at least 25% remaining.

Special Rules

When an Independent Character joins a unit, it might have different special rules from those of the unit. Unless specified in the rule itself (as in the Stubborn special rule), the unit’s special rules are not conferred upon the Independent Character, and the Independent Character’s special rules are not conferred upon the unit. Special rules that are conferred to the unit only apply for as long as the Independent Character is with them.

Independent Characters and Ongoing Effects

Sometimes, a unit that an Independent Character has joined will be the target of a beneficial or harmful effect, such as those bestowed by the Blind special rule, for example. If the character leaves the unit, both he and the unit continue to be affected by the effect, so you’ll need to mark the character accordingly.

Mark of Khorne: Models with the Mark of Khorne have the Rage and Counter-attack special rules.

Veterans of the Long War: Models with the Veterans of the Long War special rule have the Hatred (Space Marines) special rule and +1 Leadership (remember that a model’s Leadership cannot be modified above 10). When Veterans of the Long War is listed in a unit’s special rules, the Leadership increase will already have been taken into account in its profile.

GORECHILD

Khârn’s melee attacks always hit on a 2+ (even if they would otherwise hit automatically).

RANGE: -

STRENGTH: +1

AP: 2

TYPE: Melee, Armourbane.

Melee

Weapons with the Melee type can only be used in close combat.

Armourbane

If a model has this special rule, or is attacking with a Melee weapon that has this special rule, it rolls 2D6 for armour penetration in close combat. Similarly, if a model makes a shooting attack with a weapon that has this special rule, it rolls 2D6 for armour penetration. In either case, this special rule has no effect against non-vehicle models.

LUCIUS THE ETERNAL

Lucius the Eternal is the embodiment of the obsessive pride that saw the Emperor’s Children fall from grace. Lucius fell even further than his brothers after catching the notice of Slaanesh himself. Since that day, he has blighted the galaxy as a half-human monster, locked in an eternal dance on the brink of an abyss.

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

During his youth on the dismal planet of Chemos, Lucius shone out as a jewel in the dirt. He had an immense reservoir of talent that he could pour into any pursuit that caught his fancy, and he was possessed of a boyish handsomeness that even the harsh air of his home planet could not mar. Lucius quickly attracted patrons from the upper echelons of power. His sponsored studies gravitated towards the arts of war, for the business of killing held a fascination for him. Yet it was not large-scale strategy or tactical analysis that made his eyes gleam. Instead, it was personal triumph that captivated the young Lucius – the duel, the contest, the sword bout. Only there could a true warrior be feted for his skills; only there could the glory and approbation be his alone, and the fine wine of victory savoured beyond all doubt.

Such was Lucius’ hunger for personal glory that his entire life distorted around it, bending like hot metal around the pointed pursuit of excellence. By the time he came of age, the young swordsman had already surpassed the classical styles taught by the weapon-masters of Chemos. During his studies, his rapier took the lives of dozens of beggars and brigands that Lucius later claimed had attacked him. He dispensed hundreds of scars to lesser pupils, even claiming an eye or a finger here and there in the occasional ‘accident’. His character was called into doubt time and time again, but none could argue with the lustre of his skills. As he grew older, Lucius redefined the term prodigy. He fought with lackadaisical contempt against youths his own age, toying with them like a cat toying with a wounded bird before delivering the scar that signalled their defeat. Against his tutors, however, he fought like a man possessed, every iota of his being focused upon victory.

While competing in the yearly contest held by the Elders of Chemos, Lucius’ impeccable swordsmanship caught the eye of a hulking stranger who watched from the shadows. During the last round of the Golden Sword, there was a disruption in the tourney lists, and the young swordsman found himself fighting against a famed champion twice his age. Though Lucius had proven himself the better warrior within the first few minutes, when his opponent drove a knee into his stomach, the youth was knocked to the dirt. Winded, Lucius reeled and stumbled out of his foe’s reach long enough to recover his breath. A frown of concentration on his boyish face, he then proceeded to take his opponent apart, limb by limb and vein by gushing vein. The champion’s supporters were outraged at the callous dispatching of their leader, and they stormed the arena en masse. It was then that the bloodletting began in earnest.

Lucius would have met a gory end if it were not for the intervention of the shadowy stranger observing the contest. Both the youth and the stranger disappeared before the contest’s conclusion. Lucius was never seen again amongst the people of Chemos. The stranger, a ranking sergeant in the III Legion, had been so impressed by Lucius’s raw talent and determination that he offered the youth a single chance to join the Legiones Astartes. Lucius leapt at the opportunity. So began the military career of a young warrior who would eventually come to define everything that was evil and twisted in the Emperor’s Children.

A CRUSADE OF ONE

Enhanced beyond mortal bounds by the blessings of the Space Marine induction process, Lucius became ever more skilled in the arts of the blade. He never tired of outclassing his peers in the exercises that their sergeants put them through every day. The evening before the Feast of the Emperor’s Blessing, Lucius wrested a full sequence of flawless victories from each of the blade-machines in the practice cages; a feat that had never been achieved before, nor replicated after.

Though his confidence and supreme skill might have earned the enmity of mortal men, his brothers in the Emperor’s Children sang his praises in all honesty. Their Legion admired perfection above all else. Before long, Lucius had come to the notice of Lord Commander Eidolon. As the Great Crusade unfolded, Lucius directed his puissant skill towards the goals of the Emperor’s Children on a dozen worlds brought to compliance. He was rewarded with command of the 13th Company. At first, Eidolon saw his faith in Lucius as well-placed. Though the young swordsman was self-serving and cocky, he was never found wanting in the arts of war. The state of his soul was another matter.

Even after his elevation to the higher echelons, Lucius had a reputation for preening arrogance. He would throw himself into any fight without hesitation and inevitably come out the victor. On Hallelujah Prime, Lucius shattered the heads of the six-armed sword gholems that protected the heretic Malachoir, using the hilt of his blade when he realised that its edge could not hurt them. During the pitch-dark battles under Olchite Mount, Lucius stormed out of an argument with the Lord Commanders and proceeded to hunt down and impale the thirsting xenos entities known as the Ragged Fiends one by one over the course of a single day. His blade was the fulcrum upon which the Fausch Revolution was overturned, and at Siegebreak, his was the sword that took the head of the False Dorn. Many months passed without Lucius taking a single backward step.

These frequent displays of martial supremacy merely pushed Lucius’ towering ego to ever greater heights. Though he saved his brothers’ lives on countless occasions, he never missed an opportunity to crow about his largesse. It became increasingly clear that he took to the battlefield not because he believed in the Crusade’s intention to unite Humanity, but to prove his superiority over the rest of the galaxy.

During this time, Lucius was gently mocked by his fellow warriors for being ‘too pretty’. Though he had granted a thousand scars, he had yet to earn even a single sword-kiss in return. It was this fact, twinned with the breaking of his septum at the hands of his peer, Garviel Loken, that led to the ritual scarification of Lucius’s face and chest. No warrior was skilled enough to gift him a proper scar, he reasoned, so he would just have to scar himself. Sometimes the tip of Lucius’ blade sank as far as a finger’s width into his flesh, or carved a line into the skull beneath his close-shaven scalp. These self-administered wounds were seen by his battle-brothers as acts of strange but commendable piety. The truth was far darker.

Over the course of the wars waged by his Legion, Lucius began to equate pain with success. The network of scars he had carved into his flesh became more and more pronounced, reflecting a dangerous masochism that had taken hold of his soul. Should Lucius be denied a chance to show off his perfect bladework, his petulance and spite would bubble violently to the surface. The counsel of his fellow captain, the level-headed Saul Tarvitz, helped Lucius see his own flaws for what they were. To his credit, Lucius made a genuine effort to allay them over the course of their friendship, but it was not enough.

HERESY UNMASKED

As the machinations of Horus were revealed, the Emperor’s Children began their fall from grace. First amongst them was the Primarch Fulgrim. The Phoenician sought to rescue Horus from himself, but he became hopelessly corrupted by the words and weapons of the Warmaster in the process. Next to succumb were the Legion’s spiritual and martial leaders, each lured by the promise of perfection and caught upon the hooks of excess that Horus cast in their path.

Slowly at first, the corruption spread to the rank and file – the Emperor’s Children revered their Primarch and his Lord Commanders in all things, and they followed their masters’ doctrine to the letter. Horus’ insidious plan began to bear fruit as spiritual perversion spread throughout the III Legion at an unchecked pace. By the time the Warmaster ordered his traitor Legions to turn upon their loyalist brothers, almost every one of the Emperor’s Children had fallen under the sway of the Dark Prince.

With the Heresy playing out around him, the darkness in Lucius’ soul blossomed to fill him entirely. His allegiance was set – he would fight for Fulgrim and Slaanesh, proving himself against the Imperium’s defenders, one by one, until they were all eradicated. Perfection and excess were all that mattered. He would prove himself the best, no matter the cost.

A BLOODY METAMORPHOSIS

Lucius continued to distinguish himself in the arts of war as the Emperor’s Children traced the downward spiral into Chaos worship. The gaudily-painted fleets of Fulgrim’s traitor Legion moved from world to world, bringing ever more vile and extreme deaths to the populations that became their prey. In the transitory times between each invasion, the Emperor’s Children would indulge in pageants of violence and gladiatorial contests amongst themselves. Only the most inventive displays of bloodletting could stay their boredom for long.

Whenever he fought in these contests, Lucius truly excelled. His obsession with becoming the perfect swordsman lent him speed and skill that even other Space Marines could not match. The joy he took in both giving and receiving the hot kiss of agony was so intense that it echoed in both in the material dimension and the Warp. Some even whispered that Lucius had been brought back from the brink of oblivion more than once, and that his obsession was stronger than death. Lucius’ infamy grew in this realm and the next. Before long, it was not only the Emperor’s Children that drank in each of Lucius’ orgies of bloodletting, but the handmaidens of Slaanesh that clustered around his reflection in the Empyrean.

After each contest, he basked in the adulation of his fellow Traitor Legionnaires, bowing elaborately and fanning the applause with his blade. His grandstanding was such that it eventually drove the silver-maned Lord Commander Cyrius to action.

As the contest known as the Scarlet Blade reached its final round, Cyrius himself stepped into the arena against Lucius. The Lord Commander intended to teach the preening champion his place and cement his own position as Fulgrim’s favoured son in the process. Clad in baroque artificer armour painted with obscene dreamscapes and wielding a twelve-foot power spear, Cyrius made for an impressive opponent indeed.

The Lord Commander was every bit as fast as his chosen foe. Lucius fought hard to get within the reach of the power spear, ducking and rolling with fluid grace. Weapons clashed and clanged in a staccato blur. Though Lucius’ blade was sharp as a razor, it could not penetrate Cyrius’s ornate battle plate, and for his part the swordsman was wearing little more than a sleeved tunic. A well-placed kick from Cyrius sent Lucius sprawling backwards, coughing blood. A stab of the power spear took a finger from Lucius’ sword hand. Less than a second later, a sidelong blow from the power spear’s haft sent starbursts across the swordsman’s vision.

Each fresh wound had sent Lucius giggling with glee. Cyrius bared his teeth, slashing and jabbing as his opponent laughed, staggered and whirled across the scarlet sands like a demented marionette. At the last, Lucius corkscrewed through the air and levelled a decapitating blow right at Cyrius’ throat. There was a sudden crack of electrical discharge from the impact, and Lucius’ blade snapped in two.

As the crowd howled and hollered around him, Lord Commander Cyrius caught his laughing opponent by the throat. Grinning a mirthless smile, he pounded Lucius into the scarlet sands of the arena until there was nothing left but a red ruin of broken bone. The Emperor’s Children had lost their favoured duellist, but gained a memory to be savoured for years to come.

Over the next few weeks, Lord Commander Cyrius underwent a hideous transformation. His mane of hair fell out in clumps, his eyes changed colour, and the copulating figures that decorated his armour writhed and flowed to depict a host of laughing Daemons. To the commander’s mounting horror, dark lines appeared under his flesh, pushing outward with each passing night until they formed a maze of scar tissue. His screams were a source of great interest to his fellow Emperor’s Children, but none came to his aid. In the Lord Commander’s fate they saw the hand of Slaanesh at work. Some swore that Cyrius’ shrieks changed in tone, becoming ever more like maniacal laughter.

The next gladiatorial event saw Lucius stride the sands once more, his power armour adorned with the tortured, moaning face of Cyrius. The heavily scarred swordsman had been reborn, and the Lord Commander had been taken in his place. In the throne at the arena’s edge, Fulgrim smiled knowingly. His master Slaanesh was evidently loath to let such an entertaining protege fall from the mortal coil for long.

THE BLESSING OF THE DARK PRINCE

Since that day, Lucius has borne a peculiar blessing from his patron, Slaanesh. Whoever takes his chosen champion’s life, and finds even a moment of satisfaction from the act, will find themselves undergoing a painful and gradual metamorphosis. When the transformation is almost complete, Lucius emerges from their discarded shell like a butterfly from a chrysalis. All that remains of his killer will be a screaming face trapped forever in the fleshy panels of his twisted battle plate.

Thanks to his peculiar blessing, Lucius the Eternal has stalked the galaxy for almost ten thousand years. He is a pitiless and sadistic killer who welcomes death with as much passion as he inflicts it upon his foes, and he can only truly be slain by one who has nothing but mercy in his – or her – soul. Whether such a being exists in an uncaring universe, only Slaanesh knows, and the secrets of the gods are not meant to be shared.

165 Points

UNIT TYPE: Infantry (Character).

WARGEAR: Doom siren, power sword, frag grenades, krak grenades.

Doom siren: A doom siren is a bizarre weapon indeed – a complex arrangement of pipes, tubes and amplifiers that magnify the ecstatic war cries of a Noise Marine into devastating sonic attacks.

RANGE: Template

STRENGTH: 5

AP: 3

TYPE: Assault 1

Power Sword: A power weapon is sheathed in the lethal haze of a disruptive energy field that eats through armour, flesh and bone with ease.

RANGE: -

STRENGTH: User

AP: 3

TYPE: Melee

Melee: Weapons with the Melee type can only be used in close combat.

Frag grenades: Frag grenades are assault grenades.

Shooting

When a unit armed with assault grenades makes a shooting attack, one model can choose to throw a grenade, rather than using another shooting weapon.

RANGE: 8"

STRENGTH: 3

AP: -

TYPE: Assault 1, Blast

Assault

Models equipped with assault grenades don’t suffer the penalty to their Initiative for charging enemies through cover, but fight at their normal Initiative in the ensuing combat.

Krak grenades: Krak grenades are shaped charges, excellent for cracking the armour on light vehicles.

Shooting

When a unit armed with krak grenades makes a shooting attack, one model can choose to throw a grenade, rather than using another shooting weapon.

RANGE: 8"

STRENGTH: 6

AP: 4

TYPE: Assault 1

Assault

Unless used in assaults against vehicles or Monstrous Creatures, Krak grenades have no effect. When they are used in assaults against vehicles or Monstrous Creatures, krak grenades have the following profile:

RANGE: -

STRENGTH: 6

AP: 4

TYPE: -

SPECIAL RULES: Champion of Chaos, Fearless, Independent Character, Mark of Slaanesh, Veterans of the Long War.

Champion of Chaos: A model with the Champion of Chaos special rule must always issue and accept a challenge whenever possible. If there is more than one model in a combat with this special rule, you may select which model issues or accepts the challenge. Whenever a character with the Champion of Chaos special rule kills an enemy character, you must immediately check to see if the Dark Gods reward him. To do this, roll a D66 on the Chaos Boon table opposite – by this we mean roll two D6, one after the other, counting the first dice as ‘tens’ and the second dice as ‘units’. Then refer to the table opposite to see what boon (if any) your champion has gained. So, if you roll a 3 on the first dice and a 5 on the second, you would get a D66 roll of 35 – your champion would now benefit from the Mechanoid Chaos Boon. This boon lasts for the rest of the game; make a note of it on your army roster next to that character’s entry. If a boon is rolled that the character already has, the roll has no effect. If an enemy character dies as a result of multiple Wounds being allocated to it simultaneously, and one or more of those Wounds were caused by the champion, that champion still rolls on the Chaos Boon table. Note that destroying models in a Sweeping Advance does not confer a roll on the Chaos Boon table.

Fearless: Units containing one or more models with the Fearless special rule automatically pass Pinning, Fear and Regroup tests and Morale checks, but cannot Go to Ground and cannot choose to fail a Morale check due to the Our Weapons are Useless rule (pg 26 in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

Independent Character: Independent Characters can join other units. They cannot, however, join vehicle squadrons (see page 77) or units that always consist of a single model (such as most vehicles and Monstrous Creatures). They can join other Independent Characters, though, to form a powerful multi-character unit!

Joining and Leaving a Unit

An Independent Character can begin the game already with a unit, either by being deployed in unit coherency with it or, if the unit is in reserve, by informing your opponent of which unit it has joined.

In order to join a unit, an Independent Character simply has to move so that he is within the 2"+ unit coherency distance of a friendly unit at the end of their Movement phase. If the Independent Character is within 2" of more than one unit at the end of its Movement phase, the player must declare which unit it is joining. If an Independent Character does not intend to (or cannot) join a unit, it must (where possible) remain more than 2” away from it at the end of the Movement phase. This is to make clear whether they have joined a unit or not. Note that, after an Independent Character joins a unit, that unit can move no further that Movement phase.

An Independent Character can leave a unit during the Movement phase by moving out of unit coherency with it. He cannot join or leave during any other phase – once shots are fired or charges are declared, it is too late to join in or duck out!

An Independent Character cannot leave a unit while either he or the unit is locked in combat, falling back or has gone to ground.

He cannot join a unit that is locked in combat or falling back. If an Independent Character joins a unit, and all other models in that unit are killed, he again becomes a unit of one model at the start of the following phase.

While an Independent Character is part of a unit, he counts as part of the unit for all rules purposes, though he still follows the rules for characters.

Look Out, Sir

Independent Characters pass Look Out, Sir rolls on a 2+.

Heroic Morale

A unit that contains one or more Independent Characters does not need a double 1 to Regroup if reduced to below 25% of its starting numbers, but instead tests as if it had at least 25% remaining.

Special Rules

When an Independent Character joins a unit, it might have different special rules from those of the unit. Unless specified in the rule itself (as in the Stubborn special rule), the unit’s special rules are not conferred upon the Independent Character, and the Independent Character’s special rules are not conferred upon the unit. Special rules that are conferred to the unit only apply for as long as the Independent Character is with them.

Independent Characters and Ongoing Effects

Sometimes, a unit that an Independent Character has joined will be the target of a beneficial or harmful effect, such as those bestowed by the Blind special rule, for example. If the character leaves the unit, both he and the unit continue to be affected by the effect, so you’ll need to mark the character accordingly.

Veterans of the Long War: Models with the Veterans of the Long War special rule have the Hatred (Space Marines) special rule (see designer’s note, pg 28) and +1 Leadership (remember that a model’s Leadership cannot be modified above 10). When Veterans of the Long War is listed in a unit’s special rules, the Leadership increase will already have been taken into account in its profile.

Mark of Slaanesh: Models with the Mark of Slaanesh have +1 Initiative. Additionally, a Psyker with the Mark of Slaanesh must generate at least one of his powers from the Discipline of Slaanesh.

A model or unit may only purchase one Mark of Chaos. An Independent Character with a Mark of Chaos may not join a unit with a different Mark of Chaos. When a Mark of Chaos is listed in a unit’s special rules, its effects will have already been taken into account in its profile, where applicable.

Duellist’s Pride: While Lucius is in a challenge, his Attacks characteristic is equal to the Weapon Skill of his opponent.

The Armour of Shrieking Souls

The fact that Lucius’ would-be killers are trapped within his armour affords the swordsman endless pleasure, for in the end he has bested them, rather than the other way around. When he does allow his former foes a measure of release, their souls howl outwards in a barrage of psychic anguish – music to the ears of Lucius’ daemonic admirers, and a lethal shock to those mortals in its path.

The Blade of the Laer

Lucius wields a blade that was once inhabited by the daemonic entity that possessed Fulgrim during the Horus Heresy. Though the Daemon left the blade long ago, this curving and elegant sword still retains a memory of the darkness it visited upon the Imperium. With this blade, Lucius has slain countless champions and kings in realspace and the Warp alike.

Commorite Stimm-rack

Lucius further bolsters his already superhuman speed and strength with exotic combat stimulants, a prize wrested from the gladiatorial arenas of the Dark Eldar. The stimm-rack that dumps these combat drugs into his system before each duel was implanted within his flesh by the renegade Fabius Bile, a fellow student of the black arts and pilgrim to hidden Commorragh.

The Lash of Torment

While roaming the dreamscape of the Daemon world Moerpho, Lucius tracked down and killed a trio of Fiends of Slaanesh. Before their corpses faded into nothingness, he tore out the long and supple tongues of the daemonic beasts and fused them to his grip with a ritual of binding. From these loathsome organs, Lucius has fashioned a whip that writhes with a sentience of its own, ensnaring his foes and rasping their flesh from their bones as Lucius goes about his bloody work.

TYPHUS

HOST OF THE DESTROYER HIVE

Once known as Typhon of the Death Guard, the grotesque hulk that calls himself Typhus is no longer a man, nor even a Space Marine. Instead he is a walking incubation chamber for the Destroyer Hive, a teeming mass of daemonic insects that bring the most putrid of deaths to those they touch.

Typhus is the most feared of all Chaos Lords to command one of the legendary Plague Fleets. He rules the greater portion of the Death Guard’s armada from the bridge of his flagship, Terminus Est, a warship encrusted with the filth of aeons that was ancient even when the Horus Heresy began. His skill in ship-to-ship combat has been honed over many millennia of war, and when he broods in his command throne upon his starship’s bridge, he and the titanic war machine become one. Though the ship exists on the cusp of Imperial legend, its three-pronged pict-sign is dreaded by admirals and Planetary Governors alike across the Segmentum Obscurus. Wherever Typhus’ flagship appears, it heralds plague, death and misery on a system-wide scale. Even whispers of its coming can cause panicked evacuations from worlds in its path, for wherever Typhus goes, pain and despair blossom in his wake.

A HIDDEN GIFT

Typhus did not always belong to Nurgle, though the stigma of the Warp was upon him from birth. As a child upon the toxic planet of Barbarus, Calas Typhon was troubled by nightly phenomena over which he believed he had no control. Objects would shudder and smash around him whenever he was frightened or angered, and plants would wither and die under his gaze. These phantom powers troubled him greatly, but he resolved to turn them to his advantage. By the time Typhon reached maturity, he had learned to master the psychic energies that resonated within him each night; a feat of will that impressed his elders mightily. With this act, Typhon became stronger in his resolve to succeed than any of his peers.

When the Emperor reclaimed his lost son Mortarion from the poisonous mists of Barbarus, and reunited him with the the superhuman warriors born from his gene-seed, Typhon was amongst those chosen to join their ranks. His clan’s citadel had been visited by the Apothecaries of Mortarion’s new Legion, and during their assessments, Typhon’s inner strength had shone through. The esoteric processes by which Typhon became a member of the Death Guard are lost to even his memory, but when he learned that his Legion spurned the use of mental powers, Typhon quickly learned to suppress his psychic potential. His Primarch Mortarion frowned on the use of such arcane tactics, seeing them as a crutch unbecoming of true warriors. Instead, Typhon fell back on the iron will and rugged stamina that had seen him ride out the events of his tumultuous childhood. This, in itself, was a remarkable resource – Typhon outlasted all others in the toxin-trials and marathon endurance contests staged by his nascent Legion.

Such was his strength of mind and body that Mortarion soon favoured Typhon above all others, elevating him to First Captain of the Death Guard Legion. Such an honour was not lost on the stoic warrior. If Calas Typhon could win such a glorious post without even making use of his hidden abilities, he was truly destined for greatness should circumstances change.

As the errant worlds of the galaxy were brought to compliance, Typhon distinguished himself again and again. He became first a knight and then a warrior king who contributed greatly to his Legion’s success in the Great Crusade. Typhon’s ability to shrug off the baleful effects of hostile war zones and enemy weapons alike became an oft-discussed legend. During the Tribewars of Rothric IX, he lost his weapon and took a mace blow to the side of the head that would have killed a lesser man, but it merely drove Typhon into a cold rage that saw him kill every tribal warrior in the vicinity using only a short iron bar. He selflessly saved the lives of a squad of Sisters of Silence upon Madrighoul by throwing himself on a malfunctioning krak grenade and, after less than a week in the Apothecarium, discharged himself for active duty once more. Even the brotherhood of the Deathshroud, the forty-nine handpicked warriors who served as Mortarion’s honour guard, were in awe of Typhon’s uncanny fortitude. Though none spoke openly of it, the warriors of the Death Guard obeyed Typhon out of a lingering sense of fear as well as respect.

THE MAKING OF A MONSTER

It was whilst on crusade with the Word Bearers Legion that Typhon learned of a different path for the Legiones Astartes to follow, a future where his hard-won psychic abilities would be a source of greatness instead of a taboo to be hidden from sight. The foremost Chaplain of the Word Bearers, Erebus, inducted Typhon into the secrets of the warrior lodges that had begun to spread throughout the Legiones Astartes. It was during this time that Typhon caught a glimpse of what the Space Marines could truly become if they shrugged off the yoke of the Emperor’s ambitions.

Perhaps Typhon’s revelation was instrumental in Mortarion’s own fall to the Ruinous Powers; perhaps Mortarion would have walked a dark path on his own. Either way, the troubled Primarch saw a worthy master in Horus, whereas in the Emperor he saw only a self-serving and pompous pretender who had stolen Mortarion’s hard-won kingship in a single day. With the Primarch of the XIV Legion and its First Captain united in their hidden rebellion, it did not take long for the rest of the Death Guard officers to become infected by mutinous thoughts. The exception was Nathaniel Garro, whose refusal to allow the honour of his Legion to die out changed the course of the entire Horus Heresy.

The corruption spreading throughout the Legiones Astartes was to come to a head at Isstvan III, where Mortarion ordered those loyalists in his Legion’s ranks to destroy the heretical warsingers of that planet. While they fought planetside, the corrupted elements of the Death Guard virus-bombed the entire world. As their earthbound brothers’ flesh sloughed from bone, Horus ignited the planet’s atmosphere in a firestorm that burned thousands of loyalist Space Marines to ash. Despite the ground offensive launched by the traitor Legions under the command of the rebel Primarchs, a core of loyalists still survived. Garro and a handful of fellow legionaries even managed to escape, taking word of the rebellion to Terra upon the frigate Eisenstein.

As the heresy that Horus initiated slowly but surely escalated into galactic war, Mortarion ordered his fleet to head for Terra with all haste, intending for the Death Guard to join the other Traitor Legions in the destruction of the false Emperor. By this point, Typhon served one master alone, and it was not his Primarch. Typhon had seen to it that the fleet’s navigators were killed to a man, but reassured Mortarion that the Warp-gift he possessed would see them through their journey in the Empyrean safe enough. Though he hated the concept of relying on witchery, the Primarch was left with little choice. The Death Guard fleet made transition into the Warp, and in the process damned themselves to an eternity of war as the puppets of a foul and ancient god.

A LEGION REBORN

In leading the Death Guard into the Warp, Typhon had delivered them into the clutches of his new master, Nurgle, the Lord of Decay. The strange tides of the Empyrean are notoriously fickle, and during their voyage the entire fleet was becalmed. As their warships lingered, directionless and without hope, the cloying influence of Father Nurgle began to take hold. It polluted the vessels themselves as easily as it did the warriors within.

Before long, fat devil-flies buzzed through the thickening miasma inside each warship. Where they bit at the desperate warriors trapped within, flesh turned to suppurating jelly. The Daemon-venom of their stings caused flesh to blossom into hard new growths. Bellies distended and eyes ran like cracked eggs; even power armour melded and flowed into strange new shapes. Here, the superhuman resilience of the Death Guard proved their enemy, for they could not simply die. Instead, they were slowly, sickeningly transformed into Plague Marines, their souls claimed by Nurgle in exchange for a permanent release from pain.

Typhon, having orchestrated this grand corruption, was rewarded most of all. Swelling in size, his skin and armour became one. Great funnels of pestilential bone burst from his body. Into these poured thousands of Nurgle’s Daemon-flies, gnawing him from the inside out until his rotten shell teemed with heaved with squirming life. Typhon became a great hollow colony of disease-carrying insects. The bone funnels that sprouted from his back coughed black decay as Nurgle’s servants regurgitated the psychic energies pulsing through what was left of his herald’s body. Typhus, Host of the Destroyer Hive, had been born, most blessed and most cursed of all his repugnant kin.

A NEW BEGINNING

Though the heresy of Horus was eventually defeated, the Legions claimed by the Chaos Gods were changed forever. After the Warmaster’s death at the hands of the Emperor, the traitor Legionnaires fled Terra and burned their way across the Segmentum Solar towards the Eye of Terror. They were pursued by those Legions still loyal to the Emperor. As the retributive war known to Imperial scholars as the Scouring blazed across the stars, the Traitor Legions made new homes within the trackless reaches of the Eye. Typhus found himself fighting against the most surreal creatures he had ever seen. Wyrms of living crystal were shattered by his great scythed blade, eight-armed minotaurs were reduced to biological sludge by his psychic blasts, and shapely sirens met their end on the horn of bone that had sprouted from his forehead. Just as before, he survived.

Mortarion, by this point a Daemon Prince of Nurgle, eventually claimed a distant plague planet as his demesne. There, he ruled as king of Daemons and corrupt Space Marines alike. Typhus, by this point an unholy legend in his own right, was not content with a sedentary existence as his Primarch’s right hand. Instead, he marshalled those whose bitter enmity for the Imperium still burned fiercely, forming a Plague Fleet that took to the tides of the Warp once more. At their head flew the Terminus Est, the spear that Typhus intended to plunge deep into the heart of the Imperium. With the blessing of the Father of Plagues, he would deal a festering wound that would never heal.

TYPHUS THE TRAVELLER

Since that day, Typhus has visited a hundred thousand diseases upon the Imperium. The Destroyer Plague is without doubt the most virulent of all, though its vector of daemonic insects means that it is of limited use when infecting entire systems. Typhus was always an ambitious man, and his tireless search for the perfect plague has led to the destruction of nations, worlds, and even star systems.

Typhus has even walked in the Garden of Nurgle itself, learning of a great many ways to turn order and structure into chaotic decay. It is whispered that he followed a humanoid emissary composed entirely of his own Destroyer Daemon-flies to the outskirts of the garden, lulling its sentient fungus with his deep bass voice and bewitching its guardians with tales of entropy and despair visited upon the mortal realm. When the crimson legions of Khorne invaded the garden and cut down every living thing they could find, it was Typhus who coordinated the Garden’s defence, leading the final charge of buzzing Plague Drones and slug-like Beasts at Bubbling Gully.

At the climax of the battle, Typhus overcame the gigantic Daemon Prince that led the Khornate Legions, slowly but surely crippling the dog-headed monstrosity with ever more virulent plagues until he was able to best him in single combat and take his guts as a gift for Nurgle’s cauldron. Such was the resultant favour of the Lord of Decay that Typhus was allowed to reach the throne of Nurgle himself, presenting his offering before dipping his battle scythe into the filth that pooled around its base and withdrawing quickly before death finally found him.

Tales such as these spring up wherever Typhus treads, for his ambition is as fierce as ever. As his journeys across the Imperium bring system after system to ruin, Typhus becomes ever more convinced that he is the true son of Nurgle. Mortarion has proved his own lack of worth by failing to wage the Long War against the Imperium; to Typhus, the Primarch was purely the vector by which the Plague Marines were birthed into the universe. By comparison, Typhus has been tireless in his prosecution of his true master’s goals. He unleashed Nurgle’s Rot upon Carandinis VII and Protheus, turning billions of ailing souls into Plaguebearers that tirelessly catalogued the lesser diseases springing up in Typhus’ wake. On Ligeta, he loosed a plague-song that forced the infected to chant a hymn to Nurgle even as they slowly wasted away. He wiped out the entire male population of Florins with the dreaded Red Flux, and engineered the Jonah’s World pandemic, reducing a once-proud shrine world to a global necropolis of rot-filled tombs. Yet the crowning glory of Typhus’ achievements is the introduction of the Zombie Plague into Segmentum Obscurus. With this terrible new curse, Typhus has fused the cycles of life and death together, an act that has pleased his master greatly.

The Zombie Plague is a Warp-disease, and it can only infect those who have no hope or faith in their hearts. In the uncaring grind of Imperial life, the vast majority of the populace can be counted amongst that number. The unfortunate victims of this horrendous malady rot from the inside out, coughing themselves to death over a long, painful period. That is merely the beginning of their suffering. Those that fall do not stay dead – their bodies are reanimated by the uncanny power of the infection, and they lurch after the living, desperate to gnaw upon warm, supple flesh. Even a single bite can transfer the infection to a new host, and so the process begins anew.

Once the virus has taken hold, it is almost impossible to stop. Countless billions have fallen to the curse and risen again as undead monstrosities, and moaning packs of Plague Zombies stalk not only the halls of the Terminus Est but dozens of worlds that orbit near the Eye of Terror. Agripinaa has already been ravaged beyond recognition. Whether this new curse is Typhus’s crowning glory or merely the latest in a string of vile plagues, remains to be seen, but the Traveller shows no signs of halting his rampage, and is hell-bent on spreading the plague throughout the Cadian Gate. Should Cadia fall to the Zombie Plague, there will be little to stop the traitor Legions from waging their war all the way to Terra itself.

Manreaper

Even the smell of the pitted scythe called Manreaper can lay a mortal man low for weeks. Though Typhus has never confirmed the rumours that he dipped his weapon in Nurgle’s own brew of filth, any mortal being that is touched by its blade quickly collapses into a pile of festering bone.

The Destroyer Hive

Typhus’ mighty Terminator armour has become as much a part of him as the daemonic insects that thrive inside. Fused chimneys of bone sprout from his torso, and in the thick of battle, these tubes will belch out great clouds of Daemon flies. Each buzzes into the cracks and gaps they find in the armour of Typhus’ opponents, stinging their victims with Daemon-poison until there is nothing left but a pile of plague-riddled corpses.

Daemon Flies

The grotesque daemonic flies that infest the Destroyer Hive are truly disgusting creatures, though in the eyes of Typhus, and of Father Nurgle himself, each is a diminuitive angel of decay just waiting to pass on the blessings of rot and entropy to all they touch.

Blight Grenades

The Death Guard long ago perfected the grisly practice of using their enemies’ decapitated heads as crude grenades. Hacked from the neck, filled with maggot-laden toxic goop and sealed with wax, these projectiles burst apart on impact to spray liquid disease and biting, stinging flies in all directions.

230 Points

UNIT TYPE: Infantry (Character).

WARGEAR: Terminator armour, blight grenades.

Terminator Armour: Terminator armour confers a 2+ Armour Save and a 5+ invulnerable save. Furthermore, models in Terminator armour have the Bulky, Deep Strike and Relentless special rules, and may not make Sweeping Advances.

Blight Grenades: Models with the Mark of Nurgle only. Blight grenades count as both assault and defensive grenades.

Assault

Models equipped with assault grenades don’t suffer the penalty to their Initiative for charging enemies through cover, but fight at their normal Initiative in the ensuing combat.

Defensive Grenades

Shooting

A unit equipped with defensive grenades has the Stealth special rule against all shooting attacks targeting them, so long as:

* They are within 8" of the unit firing at them.

* They have not gone to ground.

Assault

Models charging units equipped with defensive grenades do not gain the bonus Attacks from charging (Warhammer 40,000 rulebook). However, if the charged unit is already locked in combat from a previous turn, or has gone to ground, then these grenades have no effect and the attackers gain bonus Attacks as normal.

SPECIAL RULES: Champion of Chaos, Fearless, Feel No Pain, Independent Character,
Mark of Nurgle, Psyker (Mastery Level 2), Veterans of the Long War.

Champion of Chaos: A model with the Champion of Chaos special rule must always issue and accept a challenge whenever possible. If there is more than one model in a combat with this special rule, you may select which model issues or accepts the challenge. Whenever a character with the Champion of Chaos special rule kills an enemy character, you must immediately check to see if the Dark Gods reward him. To do this, roll a D66 on the Chaos Boon table opposite – by this we mean roll two D6, one after the other, counting the first dice as ‘tens’ and the second dice as ‘units’. Then refer to the table opposite to see what boon (if any) your champion has gained. So, if you roll a 3 on the first dice and a 5 on the second, you would get a D66 roll of 35 – your champion would now benefit from the Mechanoid Chaos Boon. This boon lasts for the rest of the game; make a note of it on your army roster next to that character’s entry. If a boon is rolled that the character already has, the roll has no effect. If an enemy character dies as a result of multiple Wounds being allocated to it simultaneously, and one or more of those Wounds were caused by the champion, that champion still rolls on the Chaos Boon table. Note that destroying models in a Sweeping Advance does not confer a roll on the Chaos Boon table.

Fearless: Units containing one or more models with the Fearless special rule automatically pass Pinning, Fear and Regroup tests and Morale checks, but cannot Go to Ground and cannot choose to fail a Morale check due to the Our Weapons are Useless rule (pg 26 in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

Independent Character: Independent Characters can join other units. They cannot, however, join vehicle squadrons (see page 77) or units that always consist of a single model (such as most vehicles and Monstrous Creatures). They can join other Independent Characters, though, to form a powerful multi-character unit!

Joining and Leaving a Unit

An Independent Character can begin the game already with a unit, either by being deployed in unit coherency with it or, if the unit is in reserve, by informing your opponent of which unit it has joined.

In order to join a unit, an Independent Character simply has to move so that he is within the 2"+ unit coherency distance of a friendly unit at the end of their Movement phase. If the Independent Character is within 2" of more than one unit at the end of its Movement phase, the player must declare which unit it is joining. If an Independent Character does not intend to (or cannot) join a unit, it must (where possible) remain more than 2" away from it at the end of the Movement phase. This is to make clear whether they have joined a unit or not. Note that, after an Independent Character joins a unit, that unit can move no further that Movement phase.

An Independent Character can leave a unit during the Movement phase by moving out of unit coherency with it. He cannot join or leave during any other phase – once shots are fired or charges are declared, it is too late to join in or duck out!

An Independent Character cannot leave a unit while either he or the unit is locked in combat, falling back or has gone to ground.

He cannot join a unit that is locked in combat or falling back. If an Independent Character joins a unit, and all other models in that unit are killed, he again becomes a unit of one model at the start of the following phase.

While an Independent Character is part of a unit, he counts as part of the unit for all rules purposes, though he still follows the rules for characters.

Look Out, Sir

Independent Characters pass Look Out, Sir rolls on a 2+.

Heroic Morale

A unit that contains one or more Independent Characters does not need a double 1 to Regroup if reduced to below 25% of its starting numbers, but instead tests as if it had at least 25% remaining.

Special Rules

When an Independent Character joins a unit, it might have different special rules from those of the unit. Unless specified in the rule itself (as in the Stubborn special rule), the unit’s special rules are not conferred upon the Independent Character, and the Independent Character’s special rules are not conferred upon the unit. Special rules that are conferred to the unit only apply for as long as the Independent Character is with them.

Independent Characters and Ongoing Effects

Sometimes, a unit that an Independent Character has joined will be the target of a beneficial or harmful effect, such as those bestowed by the Blind special rule, for example. If the character leaves the unit, both he and the unit continue to be affected by the effect, so you’ll need to mark the character accordingly.

Mark of Nurgle: Models with the Mark of Nurgle have +1 Toughness. Additionally, a Psyker with the Mark of Nurgle must generate at least one of his powers from the Discipline of Nurgle.

A model or unit may only purchase one Mark of Chaos. An Independent Character with a Mark of Chaos may not join a unit with a different Mark of Chaos. When a Mark of Chaos is listed in a unit’s special rules, its effects will have already been taken into account in its profile, where applicable.

Psyker (Mastery Level 2): See page 66 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.

Veterans of the Long War: Models with the Veterans of the Long War special rule have the Hatred (Space Marines) special rule and +1 Leadership (remember that a model’s Leadership cannot be modified above 10). When Veterans of the Long War is listed in a unit’s special rules, the Leadership increase will already have been taken into account in its profile.

Manreaper

Manreaper: This rusted and corrupted scythe has been dipped in the filth seeping from the throne of Nurgle itself.

RANGE: -

STRENGTH: +2

AP: 2

TYPE: Melee, Daemon Weapon, Force, Unwieldy.

Melee

Weapons with the Melee type can only be used in close combat.

Daemon Weapon

At the start of each Fight sub-phase during which the bearer of a Daemon Weapon is locked in combat, roll a D6. On a roll of a 1, the model immediately suffers a Wound with no armour saves allowed and his Weapon Skill is 1 until the end of the phase. On a roll of 2+, the bearer gains that many additional Attacks until the end of the phase. If the bearer has multiple Melee weapons, only roll a D6 if he chooses to attack with a Daemon Weapon.

Force

If a Psyker inflicts one or more unsaved Wounds with a Force weapon, he can immediately choose to activate it by expending a Warp Charge point and taking a Psychic test (pg 67 of Warhammer 40,000 rulebook). If the test is failed, or the bearer has no Warp Charge points to spend, then there is no additional effect.

If the test is passed, all unsaved Wounds inflicted by the Force weapon that turn have the Instant Death special rule (see the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook). Deny the Witch rolls cannot be taken against Force weapons.

Force weapons have no additional effect against vehicles or models that do not have a Wounds characteristic.

Instant Death: Unsaved Wounds inflicted by an Attack with this special rule automatically inflict Instant Death, regardless of the victim’s Toughness (see the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

Unwieldy

A model attacking with this weapon does so at Initiative step 1, unless it is a Monstrous Creature or a Walker. If it does so, it will also Pile In at Initiative step 1.

The Destroyer Hive

Once per game, in any Assault phase, Typhus can unleash the Destroyer Hive instead of attacking. At the start of Typhus’ Initiative Step, place a large blast marker with the hole centred over Typhus (this does not scatter). All units (friend and foe) suffer a number of hits equal to the number of models from their unit that are at least partially under the large blast marker. These hits are resolved at Strength 4 AP2 and have the Ignores Cover special rule. Do not count Typhus when working out how many hits are caused. Wounds from this attack cannot be allocated to Typhus.

Plague Zombies

Any Chaos Cultist units in the same army as Typhus can be nominated as Plague Zombies. Plague Zombies are Chaos Cultists that have the Fearless, Feel No Pain and Slow and Purposeful special rules, and cannot purchase options. They are armed with a single close combat weapon – any guns are used strictly for the purposes of clubbing their victims to death!

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Published in 2013 by Games Workshop Ltd., Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS, UK

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