Tyranid stratagem download pdf

Your warlord can reroll all failed hit rolls against all units with the same dataslate. All obliterator squads. After the end of any phase where your warlord takes a wound, for the remainder of the battle reduce all damage done to your warlord by 1 to a minimum of 1.

Kraken: You may select 1 friendly Kraken unit within 6' of your warlord ever fight phase, that unit can fight first. Gorgon: At the end of fight phase, roll D6 for every enemy within 1' of your warlord. Jormungandr: Enemy units don't gain cover save bonuses from attacks by your warlord or any friendly Jormungandr units within 3' of your warlord.

Hydra: At the beginning of each of your turns, roll a dice for each wound your warlord has suffered and on a 6 heal a wound. Kronos: If enemy psykers fail a psychic test within 18' of your warlord, they suffer D3 mortal wounds. Instead of deploying normal set this unit up underground. When you set up a unit of tunnelers Raveners, Trygon, Trygon Prime, or Mawloc any number of units that have been set up underground may deploy with them.

Roll a D6 for each Behemoth charging model within 1' of enemy units. For each roll of 6, deal 1 mortal wound to the enemy unit. Add an identical unit to your army and set it up as reinforcement wholly within 6' of any board edge, and more than 9' from enemy units. Choose a Kraken unit that does not have the Fly keyword. When Advancing you can double number you roll when determining how much to add to the unit's Movement characteristic.

Units fully within or on this piece of terrain do not gain any bonus to their saving throws for being in cover. Enemy units within 6 ' must add 1 to their morale tests. Increase the damage of its attacks by for 1 for this phase. That model can fall back, shoot and charge. Add 1 to that roll for characters and minus 1 from that roll for units that have 10 models or more. On 6, an enemy unit withing 1' suffers a mortal wound. Seeing the darkness rising to swamp the Imperium, he launched a desperate crusade across the stars that brought him by strange and bloody roads to the throneworld itself.

He quickly began instating changes that would permit the Imperium to fight back against the onrushing hordes of Chaos, bulldozing the bureaucratic stubbornness and hidebound pedantry of the Adeptus Terra as he went. The Adeptus Custodes found themselves putting down riots, doomsday cult uprisings and rampaging packs of luckless petitioners driven to madness and cannibalism.

Bands of Custodian Wardens stood their ground in the shadowed undervaults far beneath the palace as runic sigils burned out and timeless horrors burst from their containment cells.

Worse was to follow. One by one, the eight Bloodthirsters that led the attack were blown apart or cut down. Yet even as the skies boiled blood-red and carmine rains slicked the ground, the legions of Khorne faded from reality with howls of frustration and rage.

If the servants of the Dark Gods had bypassed the defences of the cradle of Humanity. Behind locked doors, complex wards and layers of psy-protections, Valoris and Guilliman ratified a formal amendment to the role of the Adeptus Custodes. However, as a logical extension of the vows of duty they had sworn, the Adeptus Custodes committed to greatly extending their extra-solar activities.

Aided by oracular doomscryers and alphalevel astropathic intercepts, and guided in part by the continued efforts of the Eyes of the Emperor, more shield hosts than ever before struck out from Terra. The aim of these forces was to exterminate utterly the most deadly threats to the Emperor himself. This mission might take them all across the galaxy, even into the shadows of the Imperium Nihilus beyond the sprawl of the Great Rift, but always their focus would be the sanctity of Terra.

It was not to be squandered or refused. When they deign to account themselves at all to other Imperial bodies their ranks appear complex and highly stratified. Yet much of this is tradition, or else purposeful misdirection; in practice, the Adeptus Custodes use a robust and easily adaptable system to organise their forces. The Adeptus Custodes operate as a military force, a gathering of champions each of whom possesses unassailable authority over virtually any other organisation in the Imperium.

Conversely, no Imperial agent can give a Custodian orders. Even such worthies as the High Lords of Terra and Lord Commander Guilliman are able only to request — not demand — their aid.

As befits such a body of elite warriors, the internal hierarchy of the Adeptus Custodes is remarkably flat. The Captain-General commands the Ten Thousand, inheriting a post that has been passed down from one gallant leader to the next ever since the mysterious disappearance of Constantin Valdor.

The Captain-General has absolute authority over the Custodes, acting as the ritual proxy for the Emperor himself and speaking with the voice of the Master of Mankind. Membership of this body changes periodically to ensure a blend of established wisdom and fresh ideas. A Custodian must have earned at least ten names before he can serve on the Tribunate, and have led his comrades victoriously in battle on at least three occasions.

Once he joins the Tribunate, a Custodian must serve for at least ten years. During this time he will not see the front lines, for he is too busy bending all of his considerable intellect to supporting — strategically and diplomatically — the Captain-General. Below this ruling council are the ShieldCaptains, who fulfil the roles of inspiring leaders, gifted generals and selfless champions.

Their titles vary enormously, from Supreme Castellans and Aquila Commanders to Master Guardians, often borne in accordance with the specific duties to which they have been assigned. The remainder of the Custodians possess roughly equivalent status to one another, forming loose warrior bands traditionally known as sodalities.

There are varying strategic roles within the organisation to which some Custodians find themselves better suited. However, whether this be the rapid jetbike troops of the Vertus Praetors, the heavy assault specialists of the Allarus Custodians, or the unwavering Wardens, they still operate within a meritocracy that sees them afforded whatever honour their comrades believe them worthy of.

A singular force of the Adeptus Custodes is referred to as a shield company. The numbers within such a formation can vary considerably, hand-picked by their Shield-Captain for the task at hand and ranging from a small band to a sizeable army complete with jetbikes, tanks and Dreadnoughts. Under normal circumstances, a shield company includes no more than one Shield-Captain and perhaps thirty to forty Custodians.

When a larger force is required, multiple shield companies gather into forces known as shield hosts. Led by conclaves of ShieldCaptains and boasting tens, sometimes hundreds of Custodians, shield hosts have the martial strength to crush enemy armies and bring entire star systems to heel. They have become weapons of vengeance, to be turned upon those who betrayed the Emperor and left him a broken shell. Though the Custodians are typically immune to such superstition, there are those amongst their ranks who harbour the hope that if enough traitor blood is spilt with these blades, it may in some way restore their master.

Another school of thought, the adherents of which are known as the Miserians, believe that through the wounds inflicted with misericordia they will slowly bleed the great descendants of Horus, inflicting a death by a thousand cuts upon the Black Legion and their masters.

Thus, though Custodians have the right to carry their misericordia or not as they see fit, it is rare indeed that they go to battle against the Heretic Astartes without these blades at their hips. More than a lethal sidearm, the misericordia signifies something greater. Its traditional meaning is said to date all the way back to the darkest days of Terran history, when cruel warlords ruled by the blade alone. These weapons of oppression were known as misericordia. Yet as the Emperor led his wars of unification, his Custodians are believed to have co-opted the term for their own use.

No longer would the misericordia be a symbol of tyrannical rule. Those Custodians that lead each force are permitted vast autonomy in selecting whatever forces they believe they will require to complete their mission, with only the broadest organisational guidelines by which to abide. As is typical with such organisations, their members often fight amongst the ranks of other shield companies also, but when Paliades calls, all of his comrades who can will answer.

The composition of this shield company was determined by the Shield-Captain to suit his strategic needs; others might contain wildly different arrays of troop types and vehicles.

These range from war engines and Dreadnoughts to seconded warships, and even noncombatant field agents. They have fought together many times since, typically gathering to eliminate suddenly arising threats close to or within the Sol System. It is important to note that the Solar Furies is a very large shield host — any formation that brings two or more shield companies together beneath the leadership of multiple ShieldCaptains is considered to be a shield host.

From a practical point of view, however, these assets still fight with their parent shield companies. Thus, each suit of armour is an individual work of exceptional craftsmanship with its own unique flourishes and decorations.

When a Custodian switches from one such organisation to another, the stones will be carefully extracted from his armour and replaced with those of an appropriate colour if needs be. The latter organisational tier takes precedence for these purposes. However, through closely guarded alchemical processes, auramite can be tinted, or its colour changed altogether on a molecular level. This is not standard amongst all shield companies, however. To the Shadowkeepers falls the duty of standing guard over them unto the end of time.

The Shadowkeepers hold the keys to the rune-locked portals hidden deep beneath the Imperial Palace. They alone know the ways by which the runic locks may be disengaged, the wards unbound and the sanctic circles breached. A full shield host is devoted to this grim responsibility, over a hundred Custodians patrolling the dark and silent corridors, vigilantly watching over the last terrors of Old Night.

It is a task that would soon drive most men mad, for though neither sight nor sound can escape the forbidden cells, the air of those corridors is charged with dread. A perpetual menace thickens the shadows and makes them crawl. Even the superhumans of the Adeptus Custodes are forever on edge in those dark oubliettes, for the sense of unspeakable threat never wanes. It is a testament to the discipline and spiritual fortitude of the Shadowkeepers that they stand their guard unflinching, sometimes for decades at a time.

The ranks of this shield host include many Custodian Wardens, whose oaths of protection help them to focus upon the task at hand to the exclusion of all else. The leaders of these forbidding sentries carry ancient weapons of mysterious provenance, their use intended as a last resort should anything ever break free from the Dark Cells. For ten thousand years the Shadowkeepers have performed their duty, yet the coming of the Great Rift changed everything.

With the power of Chaos spilling raw and seething into the spaces between the stars, new abominations have come to light. Worse still are the cells that stand suddenly empty, the entities and artefacts once contained within spirited away by some unholy force to curse the galaxy once more.

Fearing the consequences of such dread remnants of the Age of Strife falling into the wrong hands, the Shadowkeepers at last sent warriors out into the galaxy. These jailers must trammel that which should not be, slaughtering all who seek to impede them, before returning their foul prizes to the cells where they belong. Custodian Warden Jaeharl Feldorus Ghau, who stands amongst the steely eyed ranks of the Shadowkeepers.

Custodian Ghau has guarded the Dark Cells for seventeen years, during which time he has been called upon to leave Terra thrice on heavily veiled reclamation missions. This appointment confers the title of Lockwarden, a name that is borne in perpetuity and garners solemn respect from every other member of the Ten Thousand. The Lockwarden must be the sternest of all guardians, the most unrelenting and alert gaoler on the face of Terra.

Moreover, should any creature or relic escape the Dark Cells, or newly emerged threat need to be imprisoned therein, it is the duty of the Lockwarden to personally oversee the operation. The current incumbent of this position is Shield-Captain Borsa Thursk, who has been Lockwarden for a century and a half.

He is a grim and frighteningly intense warrior whose utter fearlessness and steely vigilance make him ideal for his role. It speaks volumes about the dire condition of the galaxy that Thursk left Terra but twice before the breaking of the storm, yet he has barely set foot there since the Great Rift yawned wide. Such esteemed figures are afforded the protection of the Aquilan Shield, at least until their usefulness is thought to be at its end.

As the doomscryers of the Imperial Palace sift the tides of the empyrean for warnings of disaster, they also take note of those who — through example, thought or deed — are likely to avert such catastrophes before they threaten the Golden Throne. Our war is like an endless game of regicide, played over countless boards against infinite foes at once. In such a contest one must be constantly pre-emptive, always cunning and ever ready to seize any advantage that presents itself.

Our gaze must rove far afield, and our every move must be perfectly executed. To do any less is to court final defeat. They have even protected two crusade leaders bearing the title of Warmaster, staunchly ignoring the historic associations with he who first held that rank.

Yet they have also appeared amidst flares of golden light to watch over firebrand frontline preachers, bewildered militia leaders and others of apparently little import. The Aquilan Shield fight to ensure such a future comes to pass, shielding their charges from harm until the exact moment the usefulness of the person under their protection is deemed spent. At that point they depart without a word, leaving those they guarded to look to their own defence.

Tragedy often follows, but this is of no concern to the Aquilan Shield — providing it does not jeopardise the safety of the Golden Throne. The Aquilan Shield are an informal brotherhood laced through the ranks of the Adeptus Custodes.

They typically operate in small warrior bands, journeying across the stars to stand watch over their charges wherever they may be. Such an honour is beyond compare, and is never refused no matter the circumstances or the individual chosen. His allegiance is indicated by the royal purple colouration of his left shoulder guard and his robes. The Dread Host represents a breathtaking concentration of military might.

It numbers hundreds of Custodians, organised into multiple shield hosts and transported aboard a trio of pre-heresy warships known as the Moiraides.

They cast down their false idols and set them aflame. They topple their cities, sunder their strongholds, and butcher their allies and followers. Not for them the pinpoint rapid strike, the hidden war or the measured defensive action. Instead, the assembled Shield-Captains of the Dread Host identify the most visible and dramatic threats to the Segmentum Solar and unleash upon them such overwhelming annihilation that it sends shock waves rolling through the warp itself.

Sometimes one warship is sent, sometimes two; only a handful of times in the entire history of the Imperium have all three of the Moiraides loosed their passengers against a single foe.

Yet always the effect is the same. They have fought against enemies thousands of times their number and humbled them through strategy, speed and strength. The breathtaking bloodshed and absolute destruction they leave in their wake has dissuaded hundreds of uprisings and invasions before they could even begin.

During the purge on Chormium, he ruthlessly slew well over two hundred renegade guardsmen. At the battle for the corvinium mines of Triton, Desh impaled a Genestealer Patriarch, ending its perilous cult uprising in a sizzling spray of ichor.

He proudly displays the sable shoulder guard and white pteruges of his shield host, which is itself one of several that currently wear the colours of the Dread Host. Each as large as a superheavy tank, these ominous sculptures are posed in vigilant stances, many staring up into the stellar gulf while the remainder peer down upon the thronging processionals below.

This information is used by the Dread Host to isolate and annihilate threats to the Golden Throne. These involve the watch gathering shield-company-strength forces and launching strikes against prevailing threats in the systems closest to Terra. The Solar Watch do not waste their resources in war zones already heavily invested in by Imperial forces. Rather, they sally out to destroy developing threats or eliminate enemies that have broken existing Imperial lines.

Deploying aboard their Venerable Land Raiders, they slam into their enemies in fast-moving armoured spearheads.

After all, the duty of guarding the Sol System is a vital one, and the Solar Watch cannot leave their posts for long. From the vast orbital fortresses of Luna to the cloud-keeps of Jupiter and the deep-space star forts of the Halo Belt, Humanity maintains hundreds of strongholds throughout the Sol System. Entire fleets of Imperial Navy ships prowl the space lanes, vigilant for the slightest threat. Though they typically travel via naval craft and intrastellar trade ships, the Solar Watch maintain a formidable concentration of Venerable Land Raiders, and are typically able to deploy forces that are predominately, if not entirely, mechanised.

This allows them to respond swiftly, and with overwhelming force, to any potentially threatening situation that may develop. While such dangers are not common within the Sol System, they are certainly not unheard of; the Solar Watch have been instrumental in bringing an end to Daemon-worshipping cults, Inquisitorial coups and subtle xenos incursions on every world bar Mars. While their authority technically extends to the red planet, the Adeptus Custodes are wise enough to maintain cordial relations with the servants of the Omnissiah, and so travel to that world only occasionally, trusting the Cult Mechanicus to police its own deviants.

Consisting of several shield companies of varying strength, the Solar Watch swear binding oaths to keep guard over the outer bastions of the throneworld. They see themselves as the first true line of defence for the Imperial Palace, and believe that it is their duty to ensure that no external threat ever makes it as far as Terra. To this end, Pydanoris Calligus fights as part of the Solar Watch. Clad in the marble-white and red of the Solar Watch, Calligus and his squad have boarded mass-conveyor barges that turned out to be packed with cultists, decimated the garrisons of defence platforms found negligent in their duties, and sallied out under Shield-Captain Thetus to cut the head from a cabal of xenos flesh-witches on Yorlos before they could work their evils against the Golden Throne.

It is a duty they still fulfil now, speaking with the authority of the Master of Mankind himself. To their comrades there is no implication of divine intervention in this, for the Custodes have never viewed the Emperor as a god. For thousands of years the Emissaries Imperatus have been seen abroad, but rarely and in small numbers.

Yet with the return of Guilliman and the commencement of the Indomitus Crusade, their activity has increased considerably. When the Primarch announced his intention to bear the secrets of the Primaris Space Marines to the loyalist Chapters, there was some resistance from the Adeptus Custodes, who feared strengthening those who might one day rebel against the Emperor once again.

Yet dozens of Emissaries Imperatus stepped forwards to intercede, stating this was the will of the Emperor. The presence of the Adeptus Custodes also ensured that even the most traditional Chapters accepted the Primaris warriors into their ranks. They band together in like-minded groups and, through discussion and meditation, interpret what it is that the Master of Mankind wishes them to do. By the grace of the almighty Emperor are they given now to you. Silence your questions and instead rejoice at the honour done to you this day.

You are handed the gift of hope by the immortal Master of Mankind himself, and you will accept it with sincere and solemn gratitude lest you be taken for the traitors that you profess to hate.

He fights as part of the Custodian Warden squad known as the Veritas Proclamation, proudly wearing the red shoulder guard and grey-white robes of his shield company.

The Veritas Proclamation had only just returned to Terra when the Great Rift opened, and they were among the first to speak out in favour of the Indomitus Crusade. With the opening of the Great Rift, that time has passed. The Sol System today boasts some of the most formidable fortifications in the galaxy, manned by determined warriors and shielded by technology and faith.

Yet still the greatest lynchpin of its defence is the Adeptus Custodes. The rest of the outer system is densely laced with thousand-mile-wide fields of void mines, prowling system monitors and huge, vacuum-hardened hunter servitors of terrifying aspect. Were the invader to overcome these hazards, they would find resistance stiffening the deeper they pushed into the system.

Heavy naval patrols from the Battlefleet Solar thunder through the darkness, their craggy silhouettes presaging death to any who fall beneath their sights.

Monitor-shrines, dock-fortresses, fighter bases and countless weapons platforms dot the darkness, their lumen winking like artificial constellations. The Grey Knights, the Inquisition and the Adeptus Mechanicus all have holdings within the Sol System, boasting suitably ferocious defences. Yet there are subtler threats to the Golden Throne, and it is against these that the Adeptus Custodes must be especially vigilant.

From all across the Imperium come endless streams of pilgrims, merchants, bureaucrats, adepts, zealots, emissaries, refugees and countless others.

Thousands of ships translate from the warp every day, entering strictly coordinated approach corridors that lead them to Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Luna and Terra itself.

Every world and moon in the Sol System — barring a few mysterious exceptions — is ringed with habitats and docking platforms, while all those whose surfaces are sufficiently solid play host to sprawling hab complexes, manufactora and city-sized fortifications.

It is amongst these masses that rebellion, sedition and heresy can and do foment. However, even these pious Imperial servants are not immune to corruption, whether by nihilistic ideologues, Chaos taint or xenofanatical mesmerism. Thus the Adeptus Custodes maintain their own presence, and perform their own patrols and monitoring sweeps throughout the Sol System.

The Custodians seed listening devices, spyservitors and dictalarcenous subroutines through the hives of the throneworld and beyond. The data prophecies that emerge from these vast engines aid the Captain-General in his command decisions on a daily basis, and help the Ten Thousand to be ever vigilant.

This was the flagship of the Imperial Fists, and remains their primary base of operations to this day. If this is so, then somehow it survived that cataclysmic conflict, and has endured the long millennia since.

Since then, repairs have been under way to restore Phalanx to its full functionality, and to purify those zones of the craft deemed tainted by the touch of Chaos. Amidst the endless bustle, the toing and froing of gene-bulked work gangs, and the interminable rites of the Ministorum, the Adeptus Custodes have had little difficulty seeding agents onto the craft. Hidden in plain sight, these intruders keep careful watch over what they view as a dangerously potent Adeptus Astartes war engine, and stand ready to take whatever action they must.

To the Custodians, even the most loyal Space Marine Chapters will always be potential traitors. It is their duty never to forgive, nor forget, what trust in the Primarchs led to. Thus, were Phalanx ever to direct its guns towards the Imperial Palace, the Custodians would enact veiled protocols that would see it scuttled before it could fire a shot. Phalanx was almost destroyed during the fall of Cadia, first by a daemonic infestation that overran its decks during warp transit, and then by the prodigious firepower of traitor warships.

The battle station persevered through all of these hazards, however, successfully bearing many faithful Imperial warriors back to the Sol System and resuming its time-honoured position in orbit above the throneworld. Their long path leads from the darkness of Old Night, through the fires of the Horus Heresy, and out of the shadows of ten thousand years of ignorant obfuscation into the cold light of the present.

In all of those hundreds of centuries the Custodians have never faltered, and they never shall. The Great Crusade sweeps through the void like a tidal wave, uniting the scattered worlds of Humanity and driving the xenos races into the shadows.

The Emperor leads the greatest battles of this era in person, and always at his side stride the peerless warriors of the Legio Custodes. War consumes the Imperium, a swift-spreading conflagration that threatens to turn to ash all the Emperor has built.

Yet as his sons and their Legions battle across the stars, the Master of Mankind is nowhere to be seen. This period will come to be known as the Scouring, and it is a time of violent catharsis and retribution. Yet the newly reorganised Adeptus Custodes take no part in it, standing their sombre watch upon the throneworld and contemplating their ultimate failure.

Though records conflict as to how and when, it is during this period that Captain-General Constantin Valdor disappears from Imperial histories, along with his weapons and armour, which never make their way to the Hall of Armaments.

The first outward sign of the coming catastrophe is the Burning of Prospero. In the end, the truth is immaterial; the Emperor unleashes a censure force under Constantin Valdor and Primarch Leman Russ of the Space Wolves, charged with apprehending Magnus on his home world of Prospero and returning him to Terra to answer for his acts. Still recovering from the events of the Horus Heresy, the Imperium is again beset. This time it is the Ork menace that almost overruns Mankind, bringing their war all the way to gates of Terra itself.

He meets Horus in single combat and defeats him at last, but the cost is appalling. Repeated attempts are made by the Adeptus Arbites to break the heretic barricades, but every attack is hurled back by tides of fanatics. Meanwhile, word escapes the space port that the cultists are repurposing hundreds of heavy landers and atmospheric barges for an all-out attack upon the Imperial Palace. Bands of Custodians tear through the cultists with merciless efficiency, driving their victims before them and trapping them in macro-hangar level onefour-two.

There the Cult of the Hedonic Lord are slaughtered to the last, and their deviant dreams of an attack upon the Golden Throne ground to dust. Blood Will Tell Envoys to the Omnissiah Leotydus Dat-Hastael runs a successful Blood Game, spending over a decade in hiding, evading every ward and sentry to finally reach the Sanctum Imperialis with blade in hand.

Precautions are put in place to seal off his route of ingress, just in time to catch the elite Drukhari killer known as the Blade of Ptesh as he attempts the very same route as Dat-Hastael in his efforts to slay the Emperor on behalf of a mysterious and exceptionally persuasive patron. Initially, the notoriously insular Fabricator-General Uixot of Mars refuses to pledge his aid in eliminating the Heretic Astartes. Mere months later, a combined force of Minotaurs Space Marines, Adeptus Mechanicus war maniples and Custodians from the Dread Host annihilates the traitors in their captured strongholds.

The Ominous Gift Halo-belt augurs reveal the space hulk Ominous Gift advancing inexorably out of the dark void towards Terra. Using his status as a High Lord to overrule objections by the Imperial Navy, Captain-General Aesoth Koumadra orders a strike by several shield companies to gut the craft from the inside and ensure its corruption is wholly purged.

Those outside the Adeptus Custodes do not understand the significance, but the attack is led by the Lockwarden of the Shadowkeepers and a band of his black-armoured comrades.

The Ominous Gift is destroyed — the wider Imperium need never know any more than that. Guardians of Greatness A controversial act of insubordination sees Lieutenant Nathasian of the Cadian 86th slated for execution. Yet he is spared when a band of grim-faced Custodians from the Aquilan Shield appear at his side in a blaze of golden light, and wordlessly cut down his would-be commissariat executioners.

With his remarkable bodyguards at his side, Nathasian is free to exercise his flair for unconventional tactics, which soon sees his promotion to Commander Army Group, then to Warmaster of an entire Imperial crusade. The Shuddering Stars are swept clear of Ork tribes, stopping Waaagh!

The Years of Madness A time of strange omens and ominous whispers engulfs Terra, beginning with the disappearance of the notoriously conservative Captain-General Galahoth. Reports from the Dark Cells cite a growing sense of agitation amongst the hidden inmates, and numerous support servitors have to be destroyed by the Shadowkeepers after they exhibit sudden, violent madness. Worse is to follow as possession is revealed amongst a sub-sect of the doomscryers themselves, though not until the false predictions of the fallen psykers send Captain-General Launceddre to his death at the Battle of the Gilded Pyre.

Sensing a deeper level still to this perfidy, Lencilius continues his investigations with cold, deliberate patience until at last he has concrete proof: the Inquisitors have struck a deal with High Lord Sennaca, who is contriving to hide their activities in exchange for being allowed to sell the stolen psykers on to wealthy nobles for exorbitant fees. At last the Shield-Captain is able to release his pent-up fury, assembling a combined force of Custodians, Sisters of Silence and Imperial assassins to pull the corrupt operation up by its roots.

They annihilate dozens of hidden cults, purge the polar underhives, eliminate a vermillion-classified xenos threat amidst the Plutonian void-fortresses, and launch thirty-two separate extrasolar interdiction strikes. Several, it is rumoured, even utilise shattered spars of the webway to reach their targets. As word reaches Terra of ever increasing warp storm activity, and cries for help sweep in from every corner of the galaxy, Valoris assembles the High Lords of Terra to discuss their response to this gathering storm.

Yet it is at that moment that word reaches their closed session of an incredible disturbance on the surface of Luna, of demigods battling through the airless void at the head of great armies, and of a Primarch restored by the strangest of roads. Riding their boiling crests comes a horde of Khornate Daemons, who burst through the skin of reality to assail Terra itself. Victory is bought at a steep price in irreplaceable lives, but it is victory nonetheless. Bringers of Greatness Roboute Guilliman announces the Indomitus Crusade, a desperate and determined undertaking by a combined Imperial force to drive back the rampaging armies of Chaos.

As part of this crusade, the Ultramarines Primarch intends to bear Primaris Space Marine reinforcements and the secrets behind their creation to the far-flung and hard-pressed Space Marine Chapters. On the eve of his decision, a large number of Emissaries Imperatus step forwards, compelled by the spirit of the Emperor to accompany the crusade. As their Dark Apostles summon creatures from beyond the veil, the fight turns viciously against the Imperial defenders.

Sure enough, even as hordes of traitors and abominations mobilise to attack, the Emperor answers the cries of his followers. Teleport flares erupt through the heretic lines, gold and silver lightning leaping as a combined force of Custodians and Grey Knights storm into battle.

Bolters roar and crackling blades tear through heretic flesh, Trajann Valoris and Grand Master Voldus leading an assault that sees the traitor army shattered into battling warbands. Inspired by the sudden arrival of veritable demigods, the Mordians and Sisters of Battle advance, hymnals rising from their ranks over the roar of flamers and the scream of massed lasgun fire. Blood slicks the streets around the macro-cathedrum, corpses piling in gory heaps as the Word Bearers and their daemonic allies fight back furiously.

Yet after three days and nights of unremitting savagery, the Chaos host is broken in the Battle for the Statue Steps. With fresh Imperial reinforcements flooding in to the wider Gathalamor war zone, the Custodians set course for Terra, leaving the Grey Knights to deal as they see fit with the unfortunates that they rescued from the macro-cathedrum.

Before they can lay claim to this mysterious structure, two of the warships known as the Moiraides appear in orbit. The Custodians of the Dread Host deploy in force, securing the mountain pass that leads to the Echovault with squads of Wardens who hold firm against wave after wave of attacks. Meanwhile, multiple shield companies strike at the flanks of the traitor force, pulling their formation apart and dividing their strength.

Finally, a decisive force of forty Allarus Terminators teleports into the very heart of the Black Legion lines, tearing their command structure apart and slaying Lord Hadrexus and his Chosen to the last. Though dozens of Custodians fall during the fighting, they smash the Black Legion invaders utterly and send their remnants fleeing back into the warp.

As for the Echovault, it is left undisturbed, and a permanent garrison of Custodian Wardens left to watch over it. The Dangers of Excellence Amidst the horrors of the ongoing war against Chaos, it is deemed heresy for Administratum clerks to suggest the Adeptus Custodes could ever lose a battle, regardless of the odds. Fearing for their safety and their souls, many adepts record campaigns as Imperial victories even before the first shots are fired, should so much as a single Custodian be reported active in that war zone.

Despite their best efforts, systems continue to fail, and no one still living knows how to repair them. He gathers a band of his finest warriors aboard the cruiser Scion of Argo, and sets off following a lead that points to the lost forge world of Morvane. Their advance is spearheaded by the renegade armoured companies of the Vostokh 7th, led by the traitorous Marshal Griegor, whose battle tanks repel every Imperial force sent to stop them.

At last, upon the rocky plains of Pallus, Griegor meets his match. Screaming into battle upon their ornate steeds come Shield-Captain Aadilus and his company of Vertus Praetors, melta missiles streaking from their salvo launchers to annihilate the lead vehicles of the Vostokh spearhead. The traitor tanks open fire with everything they have, seeking to swat the seemingly outmatched jetbikes from the air.

Yet the Praetors weave effortlessly between the shots, weathering those blasts that do hit home and suffering only scant casualties before they split into hunting packs and begin criss-cross strafing runs over and between the enemy armour. I've heard both 45 pts and 70 pts. Think the 70 pts is more likely accurate from a source who seems to have better book access rather than having a glance and going off memory.

Yeah that sounds more likely given the way psykers and support HQs are typically priced. No one would ever take a barbed one, the scythed one however is somewhat problematic to deal with.

They have no method to defeat poxwalkers. The hierodule is a unit that has a T1 charge and top tier melee. It is going to eat melta and lascannons so your hive tyrants can live. Sure it is a touch expensive, but it can win games. Barbed ones I agree are bad, but no one takes them over the scythed so who cares? That has to count for something. Smart players with good armies are going to screen themselves with things you can't assault e.

Nids do have some firepower that can chew up screens, but it's a pretty optimistic assumption to think that you will not only get to go first with your huge obvious target, but also that you'll be able to breach all of the defenses that players bring. What will actually happen is that it will get locked in combat with a garbage unit or MSU and achieve nothing, or get shot off the table turn 1.

And since it's resilience is pretty poor for its point value, it's not even a very good distraction from your other monsters. Kraken: Eh? The benefit's definitely good. But I don't know if it compares to reroll charges to get into combat in the first place or Jormungandr to survive into combat, though Jormungandr has its own issues with that that aren't mention in the above: doesn't apply when you advance, charge or have Fly from memory. No advance bonus on a cc list? Add that it's both relying on your opponent not falling back, and your units being able to extricate themselves from the melee they're currently in and get into a better one?

Rerollable 8" charges? Yes please. Doesn't stack with Shrouding Spores, and that's what mal's rule is. So, not sure how huge it will be — depends if you're already going to be running a mal with them anyway? You'll need Synapse anyway, but with IB changes, if you're not running much else you might just leave them sort of on their own for an extra 10 pts each. With Jormungandr restrictions, I think gunbeast fexes will make a comback. Not bad. I've been running heavy 'stealer builds lately, and hitting first is huge with them, due the combination of their relative fragility and their ability to delete things that they get to swing at..

There have been plenty of times I would have loved to pop 'stealers out of a combat, then charge them back into the same combat. It is going to be situational and require careful planning, but with the way combat works now I can easily see situations occurring where you charge a chaff unit, fight it, fall back from it, and now have the ability to charge something more important, like a character or a tank.

Kraken might be overshadowed by other hive fleets, and we won't know until we have the final rules and a few hundred games in, but I can see it being very useful for certain builds. I think Kraken's utility is basically entirely predicated on your ability to reliably make the charge and wrap something — though it does at least help a footslogging list with the Advance buffs. If your opponent can fall back…there's essentially no difference with the ability to charge again, because there's not many units who wouldn't want to fall back from nids, especially stealers and if they don't want to fall back, you're probably not going to be happy after they've fought.

If you've wrapped something entirely…how easy is it going to be to extricate yourself can't finish the move within 1" of enemy still, can't move through them unless you've got Fly i. Add on that you're taking overwatch again…eh. Maybe on a mostly footslogging army, HC a garg DS? I think for Hydra we have to wait for the precise wording.

If it consider all units in the same combat then it could be very useful to charge with a hormagant unit along with your big monster to give reroll to him. That's true, especially as Tyranids have good incentive to run a mix of big and little bugs these days. Stringing just one Hormagaunt into a combat to give you monsters the outnumbering bonus would be pretty easy. GW have just dumped the entire lot I wonder if they've noticed that they've already been leaked and are just trying to play catch up?

Basically confirms it all, though of note: Gorgon is reroll 1s to wound, and thus doesn't clash with scy tals. Their response to being leaked is to put up the stuff themselves. They've been doing this for a while now. Kraken: In addition to the charge after falling back, they roll three dice and take the highest when advancing.