Greetings Readers,

Now that my excitement over Arkham Horror has died down somewhat, it’s finally time to get down to the business of tackling the hobby’s current ‘elephant in the room’; Games Workshop’s Gathering Storm. Naturally, it would be remiss of me to continue without first shouting, “SPOILER WARNING!” for the benefit of those who’ve somehow managed to studiously avoid the news that has been plastered all over the gaming scene since the first book hit the shelves in January, but at least now I’ve said it, my conscience is clear.

So what is Gathering Storm? Well, that is actually an interesting question. On the surface, it appears to be a trilogy of expansions, produced in a similar vein to the Games Workshop’s recent spate of ‘War Zone’ campaign books such as Shield of Baal, Damocles and Fenris. However, it is worth noting that, with hindsight, it could be argued that Gathering Storm is actually the end of a long-running sequence, starting with the publication of Shield of Baal back in 2014. The intent of this sequence would seem to be the first significant advancement of the setting’s timeline in 40k’s thirty (plus) year history, and possibly feature as a prelude to more general, but no less major, revisions of not only the metaplot itself, but also the core game mechanics as well, all of which will doubtless be delivered via the release of the 8th edition of the core rules in 2018. The timing of this is, in-and-of-itself, also worth noting, as it would appear to restore the four-year release cycle for new iterations of the rules previously disrupted by the 7th edition, which caused an uproar in the community when it was published in 2014 just two years after its predecessor.

But we’re getting slightly off-track…

Gathering Storm comprises of three books; Fall of Cadia, Fracture of Biel-Tan and Rise of the Primarch whose titles do a superb job of providing a helpful précis of their contents. The first book in the series, Fall of Cadia completely rewrites the narrative of the 13th Black Crusade, retconning the materials previously published in (amongst other things) Codex: Eye of Terror for the 2003 Summer campaign of the same name, and rendering ANY previous ‘canon’ utterly defunct. As the name suggests, by the end of the narrative component of the book, Cadia itself cracks and burns, and the system, in general, falls to Chaos. Part of the retconning of this event also sees Abaddon given a little more ‘credit’ (for want of a better word), for past mistakes, as it turns out the preceding twelve ‘Black Crusades’ weren’t the abject failures we’ve always been led to believe but were, in fact, important stepping stones on the road to the 13th and final Black Crusade; the key aim being to weaken the galactic network of Necron pylons centred on Cadia, so that the Eye of Terror can finally overwhelm the Cadian Gate, paving the way for the expansion of this blot on realspace and Abaddon’s final march on Terra.

Interestingly enough, many of the previously iconic characters from the older canon (including Abaddon himself) take a distinct backseat to the newer characters, and by the close of the narrative the action is firmly centred on our three new Imperial heroes (Saint Celestine, Inquisitor Greyfax, and Belisarius Cawl), with the likes of Ursarkar Creed nowhere to be seen. This also begins to set up the first ‘meta-faction’ (again, for want of a better term), which sees the various forces of the Imperium (Imperial Guard, Space Marines, Inquisition and Adeptus Mechanicus) coalesce in a manner which feels very similar to that which has occurred in Age of Sigmar over on the fantasy side of GW’s intellectual property…

Gathering Storm: Fall of Cadia

In the second book, Fracture of Biel-Tan, the narrative wends its way from fallen Cadia, via the webway, through Commorragh and on to Biel-Tan and we rapidly pick up a new trio of characters in the form of Yvraine, the Visarch and the Yncarne, not to mention a new Eldar meta-faction in the form of the ‘Ynnari’ and a weaving in of various previously, slowly accreting, plot-threads related to the Eldar’s efforts to finally vanquish Slaanesh by creating a new ‘God of the Dead’ called ‘Ynnead’. It has to be said at this point, that the pace of the narrative is very rapid, and the writing style is difficult to get to grips with: The End Times sequence which saw the end of Warhammer and presaged the birth of Age of Sigmar very wisely separated narrative and rules into novels and campaign books. What we have with Gathering Storm is more a lesser synthesis of the two, with a significant portion of the actual books given over to a narrative that often feels like a detailed recapping or outline, rather than true prose. It is also interesting to note that Gathering Storm continues Games Workshop’s more recent (and worrying) policy of not crediting the writers or artists responsible for their publications. Overall it gives the distinct impression that, either GW were loathed to make the same kind of investment in time, money and resources they did with the End Times for Age of Sigmar, or that there was a greater time pressure forcing them to condense their vision for what may turn out to be End Times for 40k – But we’ll come to that a little later.

Fracture of Biel-Tan quickly chews its way through the eponymous craftworld to forge the Yncarne (think ‘Avatar of Ynnead’), collecting up the Imperial meta-faction on the way, and high-tailing it for the realm of Ultramar, which then sets the stage for Rise of the Primarch.

Gathering Storm: Fracture of Biel-Tan

And thus we arrive at the final book in the trilogy. To say that the pace of the narrative in Rise of the Primarch picks up even further is perhaps a polite understatement, and to be honest, this final entry in the series feels like it could easily have been made into either lengthier tome or broken down into two smaller books. It’s going to feel like I’m really whipping through the key information, and if that’s the case, then all the better, as it will accurately reflect the feel of book itself.

SO, in short order we arrive in the Realm of Ultramar and are quickly transported to Macragge, which is helpfully in the midst of being besieged by Chaos; over the course of the last two books the galaxy has generally gone to hell in a handbasket, warp rifts are opening up everywhere, and Abaddon has really been hammering his free minutes calling up every ne’er-do-well he can to put pressure on the forces of humanity from one end of the Pax Imperium to the other – Whilst this is not necessarily made explicitly clear in the preceding two tomes, it is certainly rammed home with a vengeance in this one. Without stopping for breath, our original two meta-factions fight off said Chaos incursion, resurrect Roboute Guilliman (not necessarily in that order), and begin an Odyssey-like voyage to Terra. The includes much ruminating en route upon the parlous state of the modern Imperium, a circuitous journey via daemon planets and the Maelstrom, and a brief stint which sees our heroes imprisoned in a Blackstone Fortress, before being rescued by Cypher (and entourage), and ending up on Luna.

If that wasn’t enough to compress into one book, we also get a guest appearance by Fulgrim on the way, and Magnus the Red showing up towards the end for a good, old-fashioned fistfight with Roboute, before we enjoy, what we can only assume, is a tearful reunion between (secular) avenging son and (deified) corpse father held entirely off-screen, behind literally closed doors. Cypher is also thrown in the slammer for good measure, and Roboute re-emerges to begin a long-overdue reformation of the Imperium, again, mostly conducted off-screen and mentioned in précis. The latter component, in particular, feels more like the prologue to the new edition of Warhammer 40,000 and (in my humble opinion) has all the makings of ‘first-page’ blurb.  The only other relevant event worth mentioning in this hot, hectic mess of a finale, is that we also ‘kind of’ pick up our third meta-faction, in the form of a ‘Roboute-Voldus-Cypher’ love triangle which never really presents itself in a meaningful way during the narrative, but rather gives you the impression that GW felt obliged to maintain the ‘three new iconic figures per book’ schtick of the first two outings.

Gathering Storm: Rise of the Primarch

All of which begs the question, what next?

And what a question – Whilst GW has maintained that the Gathering Storm books do not represent a Warhammer-style End Times for Warhammer 40,000 and that the setting will not receive the Age of Sigmar treatment, it is clear that big changes are afoot. In terms of the setting, Warhammer 40,000 has long been a victim of its ’10 to midnight’ ethos and this has increasingly left little room to manoeuvre in terms of narrative: The timeline has already become catastrophically compressed, and the results of this can be seen in the burgeoning growth of retconning which has occurred as GW try to leverage ‘new’ events and characters into previously established canon. Surprisingly enough, it could be argued that the Horus Heresy actually ameliorated some of this pressure, by allowing GW to shift narrative focus onto a previously under-developed, and to a large degree, untouched area of the canon. Given the timing of Shield of Baal, it may well be that the earlier release of the 7th edition of the rules in 2014, two years ahead of schedule, was also part of this effort to buy time to find a solution to the 40k problem (with Age of Sigmar being the ‘we can ditch it if it goes wrong’ dry run) – In terms of mechanics it is generally acknowledged that 7th represents more of a tweaking of the rules, rather than an outright overhaul, so by releasing two years early, then releasing 8th after the normal four-year span, GW actually bought themselves six years to really formulate a strategy to truly overhaul Warhammer 40,000.

And this is what 8th Edition is shaping up to be.

Quite apart from a true advancement of the metaplot beyond the 41st Millenium which seems to be intimated by the Rise of the Primarch‘s closing remark concerning “A dark new age”, it seems almost certain that there will be significant changes to the rules as well. First of all, the tendency towards meta-factions seen in Gathering Storm seems to echo what has already occurred in Age of Sigmar with smaller factions receiving their own ‘Battletomes’ but also featuring in larger publications as part of ‘Grand Alliances’. It also seems likely that Game Workshop will continue their current strategy of metaplot-advancing campaign books. It is already occurring in Age of Sigmar with the Realmgate Wars publications and it follows a more general trend in the hobby which GW is actually late to join: Other (albeit, notionally smaller) competitors already make regular use of the campaign-style publications or episodic expansions to keep their metaplots moving forward (Hawk Wargames‘s ‘Phase’ books being one example that immediately springs to mind). This creates an on-going need for new products, and thus sustains their fanbase’s engagement with their IP in a systematic, long-term manner. It is also a strategy that avoids cries of overhaul for overhaul’s sake: GW have long been accused of pumping out new rules, new faction books and ‘updated’ faction kits, simply for the sake of it, and this newer strategy would help to avoid this criticism.

The shape of things to come?

Secondly, bar the addition of the odd novelty feature (such as unbound armies) the actual mechanics of Warhammer 40,000 are undoubtedly beginning to show their age. Whilst controversial, Age of Sigmar did represent GW’s first serious attempt in decades (if not ever) to move beyond the restrictions placed upon them by the core mechanics they created in the earliest iterations of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000. It can be argued that Age of Sigmar‘s predecessor, Warhammer 8th edition, represented the end of the road in terms of further development/refinement of the core mechanics as they stood. Unfortunately for Games Workshop, the renaissance currently being enjoyed by tabletop gaming has seen a significant refinement of the general concepts inherent to gaming mechanics developed in the 80’s: Many features, such as alternating activations, streamlined stat interactions and scalable play have become de rigeur and despite bolts-on and spin-off games to try and counteract this, Warhammer 40,000 has sadly (and demonstrably) not kept pace. A prime example of this is Mantic’s new Warpath which successfully kickstarted last year and is due to hit shelves at the beginning of Q2 this year. Warpath is arguably Warhammer 40,000 for the modern gamer and, in terms of mechanics, represents a much sleeker, modern game. Even the setting, whilst still providing a sense of encroaching danger, manages to provide a fresher atmosphere that may well resonate with the gamers tired of the relentless darkness of the grim far future. Whilst it’s likely to start off with a smaller following, if GW are not careful with their overhaul of 40k, it may well be that Warpath becomes their direct competitor and ultimate successor.

Personally, I would not be surprised if we see significant changes when 8th edition hits next year, with Gathering Storm representing a tacit foreshadowing as GW attempt to come out swinging…