The Warhammer 40K event comes to a thrilling conclusion with Arks of Omen The Lion. Continue reading to find out what it contains.
What are the Warhammer 40K Arks of Omen?
The Arks of Omen are a series of Warhammer 40,000 books that include new rules for playing based on the included narrative campaign as well as details about the next stage of the 40K narrative.
Arks of Omen The Lion, the Lion, who has been missing since the end of the Horus Heresy 10,000 years ago, has returned to face the combined might of Angron, Abaddon, and Vashtorr in an attempt to thwart their plan to conquer the galaxy.
New rules in Arks of Omen The Lion
Following player feedback, Games Workshop has stated that there will be no new rules in Arks of Omen for standard games; instead, there are rules for a completely new game type, Boarding Actions, in Arks of Omen.
Boarding actions take place within the tight confines of the twisted corridors of space hulks, utilizing the recently discovered walled scenery from the Kill Team Gallowdark series. A standard boarding action game requires two sets of Kill Team scenery, so if you own both of those Kill Team sets, you already have all of the scenery you’ll need. If you don’t have any, the Warhammer 40,000 Boarding Action Terrain set contains all of the scenery you’ll need in a single box.
Arks of Omen The Lion has the rules for a number of forces that can be used in Boarding Actions, which we describe below, as well as several new mission datasheets for 40K units.
Arks of Omen The Lion focuses on a few factions, adding special rules and options for list-building for the following:
- League of Votann
- Thousand Sons
- Adeptus Custodes
- Agents of the Imperium
Each of the included factions has rules for Mustering a Boarding Patrol, Rules Adaptations, Enhancements, and Boarding Patrol Stratagems.
The Agents of the Imperium also receive datasheets from the Elucidian Starstriders for the Rogue Trader and Voidsmen at Arms, as well as the Imperial Navy Breachers and Adeptus Arbites from Kill Team. Commander Dante of the Blood Angels and the Lion himself also get datasheets here.
When facing fire in Boarding Actions, the Agents of the Imperium have a reactionary strategy to help them out. They can use “Into the Breach” during their opponent’s shooting or fight phase to reduce the strength of the attack that is aimed at them by 1.
Entombed Automata is a very thematic Stratagem for the Thousand Sons. It lets them put Rubric Marines anywhere within 6 inches of an entry point as they carry out a plan that has been in the works for decades and activate Rubicae that have been hidden deep inside the ship.
The Leagues of Votann, 40K’s newest faction, get a warlord enhancement called Strength of the Hold, which allows any friendly unit within 6 inches of the warlord to be automatically set to defend.
Dread Encounters and Breaching Actions are two new mission types introduced. Breaching Actions uses the breached walls upgrades from Kill Team Soulshackle in the book’s 12 new missions, while Dread Encounters is six missions from the narrative moments of the Arks of Omen books.
The Lore
Spoiler arlert: We’re about to get into some major spoilers here, so skip ahead to the next section if you want to enjoy the book for yourself.
The first big question is, where has The Lion been all this time? He appears to have gained the ability to walk the spirit paths through the trees of old Caliban, allowing him to travel across the galaxy in a manner similar to how the webway works. He has been using this ability to track down members of the Fallen, determine if they are still faithful, and if so, return them to The Emperor’s light and have them join his entourage as redeemed. Any Fallen he finds who has been touched by Chaos, he ends with Fealty. Commander Dante has heard rumors and whispers about The Lion and has his Librarium tracking the Primach. The book actually begins after Dante has found him, with the Blood Angels hosting El’Johnson as they translocate to the system where Vashtorr has his base of operations.
The Lion and the Blood Angels are not the only forces heading there, as Azreal has gathered 75% of the previous Legion strength, with Dark Angels and Successors alike massing at The Rock, ready to deliver vengeance to Vashtorr by following the coordinates The Arkifane had released to them. They are well aware that it is a trap, but none of them are prepared for what they will discover…
We now know what Vashtorr and Abaddon have been up to. Following the War in Heaven, various godlike weapons were hidden in a vault somewhere within the Webway. Vashtorr proposed reconstructing an Old One device capable of creating the Webway itself – imagine a tunneling device that splits reality and immaterium in order to create new branches of the Webway. With this device, traitors could simply dig through the webway until they found the vault and use it to crack open the doors to gain access to these weapons.
Two of the three artifacts that make up the “Key” to this device (the Plagueheart and the Oroboros) have already been acquired by Vashtorr. Third, there’s The Tuchulcha Engine, also found inside The Rock. Once all three are combined, Vashtorr will have his key. To keep the key in place and fully harness its power, he needs a planet-sized structure that has been touched by the warp. Vashtorr, demonstrating his sick sense of humour, is aware of one planet that has been touched by the warp and scattered across the galaxy.
Caliban.
So, throughout the entire Arks of Omen series, traitor forces have been collecting fragments of the Dark Angels’ former homeworld, and Vashtorr has rebuilt the planet in his own image. Caliban, now known as Wyrmwood, has been reforged into a terrifying Daemon World of nightmares, and this is what the Dark Angels see when they enter the system. To make matters worse, Abaddon himself has assembled an entire traitor fleet led by the Vengeful Spirit.
Epic battles erupt both in space and on Caliban as the Dark Angels try everything they can to stop this desecration of their planet. Unfortunately, this is exactly what Vashtorr desired, and while the Dark Angels are focused on Caliban and the massive space battle above it, he gains access to The Rock (which they very conveniently brought along to lead the assault) and obtains the final part of his Key. Things worsen when the Daemon Primarch Angron, an unstoppable foe, is summoned to Caliban.
The arrival of the Blood Angels and The Lion confuses and elates the Dark Angels, but there isn’t much time to rejoice as Dante and The Lion, along with the Blood Angels, head down to Caliban to aid in the fight against Angron. We witness some incredible battles, with Primarchs dueling and a desperate rout for the loyalist forces, but with Vashtorr in control of the final key, it is too late, his Dissonance Engine is complete – the bloodied and battered loyalists manage to flee, but The Wyrmwood and the Traitor fleet vanish into the planet’s new hole cut into the webway…
And, yes, we have a cliffhanger with huge implications for the story of 10th Edition. Presumably, if the forces of Chaos now have a planet that can travel the Webway, create Webway paths, and even destroy the very passages created by The Old Ones, that alone is a massive weapon of potential, even before they crack open the vault and take the weapons for themselves. I’m really interested to see how this plays out and what consequences it may have for the galaxy as a whole, especially since the Tyranid invasion appears to begin around the same time.
With the close alliance between the Dark Angels and the Blood Angels, as well as the slew of models we’ve seen for them, I’m wondering if we’ll see a new Codex Angels of Death in early 10th edition…
Is Warhammer 40K Arks of Omen the Lion worth buying?
Arks of Omen’s plot The Lion is the best book in the series so far and a joy to read. If you don’t play boarding actions, this won’t have anything else for you as a player unless you’re a Dark Angels player, in which case you’ll get the Lion’s rules for 40K, or if you want to play Agents of the Imperium, in which case you’ll get a lot of new datasheets.
Even if you don’t use any of the factions from The Lion, you can still have fun with boarding actions thanks to the Dread Encounters and Breaching Actions; however, you’ll need to pick up the Kill Team SoulShackle Terrain upgrade set as soon as it becomes available in order to use the breached walls.
If you enjoy boarding actions and one of the included factions, this is an excellent purchase. The faction-specific rules add a lot of depth and character to the various factions. If you’re a Kill Team player, you’ll get the most out of this if you want to play 40K Boarding Actions because you’ll already have the scenery and some of the forces presented in this book.
