Warhammer 40k: Five Things That Make Me Excited For Armageddon
The 11th Edition 40k arrives tomorrow, and there are plenty of reasons to be excited about Armageddon.
‘Twas the night before Armageddon, when all through the hive
Not an Orkoid was stirring, not even a squig-louse;
The deserters were hung by the gas-exchange stacks with care,
In hopes that Ol’ Yarrick soon would be there
Sorry. I’m sorry. I’m trying to delete it
In the meantime, here are the five things about Armageddon box set and the launch of 11th edition that I’m most excited about.
The Bannernob
The Armageddon box set is chock full of awesome Orks, but I feel like the Bannernob hasn’t gotten a fair shake in the excitement. Overshadowed by the undeniably cool Weirdboy, the Bannernob has one of my favorite bits of the 40k aesthetic: a giant F-off banner. Given my druthers, every Ork nob, warlord, boss, etc would have at least a moderately imposing back banner. So, the inclusion of a gigantic standard with lots of room to apply decals or your own freehand clan glyphs is a big step in the right direction.
Also, he looks really good in terms of gameplay with a whopping OC 6! Sometimes, tactical advantage is just about having a really big flag. I’m told they teach that at West Point now.
The Dominatus Campaign Deck
I love campaign play, so Dominatus has my attention in a big way. Campaigns are obviously nothing new in 40k. We’ve had Crusade for years now in all its crunchy homework glory, and I hope we continue to see it supported. But Dominatus is something a little different.
I am in love with the idea of a discreet card-deck-driven campaign system. Sometimes I’d just like to throw a weekend event for my club with some narrative hooks, but without the extensive bookkeeping of Crusade. Dominatus looks really promising to me, and I can’t wait to dig into it tomorrow.
The Return of the Landspeeder
The classic landspeeder has been overshadowed by its Primaris cousins for years now. Bigger, burlier variants like the Stormspeeder are cool, of course, but I’m really pleased to see the iconic base landspeeder resculpted for the new era. It’s relatively cheap in points and still packs a punch. I suspect we’re going to see quite a few of these on tables in the coming months as Space Marine players take advantage of the new Fulguris Strike Force detachment.
Operation Imperator
Nothing gets me excited for a war game more than an immersive campaign setting, and Operation Imperator promises just that. Narrative background material aside, I love that the Imperator book seems to be full of maps, force dispositions, participating Space Marine Chapters, and Ork Clans’ lists of battlefield assets, and the like. This kind of detailed info goes such a long way towards making your games feel like they’re over something meaningful and not just a random PVP game match. This stuff also makes for great inspirational fodder for painting and army building.
Armageddon Itself
I know, I know, but hear me out. Games Workshop comes back to the Armageddon well with some regularity but it’s been a minute since an edition used it as the default setting. We’ve been fighting over Armageddon for over three decades now and fellow Old Folks like myself will remember the questionable results of some of those early online campaigns. But with all of that history, Armageddon really does make a fantastic basis for an edition launch.
In recent years, 40k editions have launched with a focus on overall conflicts between armies, like Leviathan and its Tyranid menace. But what they lacked was a real sense of place. Armageddon is a fantastic setting for players both new and old. New players find that the overall conflict is easy to understand, Orks versus Space Marines and human defenders. Older players who know the storied history of the setting can look for hints about the future of the setting it its detailed lore. Do I want Armageddon to be the focus of 40k forever? Absolutely not. But It’s a great sandbox to play in at launch and I’m excited to get stuck in.
