Returning to Armageddon - They Are Coming Back. So Am I.
They Are Coming Back. So Am I.
A Message to the Defenders of Armageddon — and to Those Who Would Stand With Them
The following is a transmission intercepted on astropathic channels, attributed to Commissar Sebastian Yarrick, Hero of Armageddon, Defender of Hades Hive, Slayer of the Beast. Classification: Inspirational. Do not suppress.
I have stood on Armageddon three times.
Three times I have watched the sky turn green. Three times I have smelled the promethium fires and heard the distant thunder of Ork artillery massing beyond the hive walls. Three times I have told myself — and meant it — that this would be the last time.
I was wrong each time. And when Ghazghkull's shadow falls across that blighted world again, I will be there a fourth.
Some of you know what that means. Some of you are new to this war. Allow me to brief you.
Know Your Enemy
Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka is not simply a warlord. He is a force of nature wearing the skin of an Ork. I have faced him twice. I have seen what he does to worlds, to regiments, to the men and women who stand against him. I have seen entire hive cities reduced to rubble because they stood in the path of his WAAAGH! I have seen Steel Legionnaires — soldiers of incomparable courage — break and run before the green tide, and I do not blame a single one of them.
Wazdakka Gutsmek comes first. He always comes first. The speedfreek. The outrider. The lunatic who once tried to ride a warbike around the entire circumference of the galaxy and, by the Throne, nearly managed it. Where Wazdakka goes, the main force is not far behind. He is the vanguard. He is the warning you are already too late to heed.
And yet we fight. We always fight.
If you wish to understand what we are walking into — and you should understand it before you set foot on that world — the Codex: Armageddon (3rd Edition) is the closest thing to a briefing document that exists for this war. It is the record of the Third War. The Steel Legion. The Black Templars Crusade. The campaign maps, the faction dispositions, the full scope of what Ghazghkull brought to bear against us and what it cost to stop him. If you want to know what Armageddon asks of its defenders, start there.
And if you want to know what is coming for you in green and screaming — the Codex: Orks (3rd Edition), the 8th Edition, and the 10th Edition Collector's Edition will tell you everything about the enemy's culture, hierarchy, and tactical doctrine. Know them. Fear them appropriately. Then stand your ground anyway.
The Angels Are Coming
I did not call for the Blood Angels specifically. I called for anyone. I broadcast on every frequency I could reach, through every astropathic relay still functioning on that dying world, and I said simply: Armageddon is falling. Come.
That the sons of Sanguinius answered first does not surprise me. They have history with this world. Commander Dante led his Chapter to Armageddon's defence in the Second War. Blood Angels have bled on those ash plains before. They know the smell of promethium and greenskin, and they came anyway.
I have fought alongside the Blood Angels. I will tell you what they are: they are magnificent and they are terrifying and I am profoundly grateful they are on our side. The Red Thirst and the Black Rage that haunt them are a curse I would not wish on any man — but in the heat of battle, when the Ork horde is pressing and the line is beginning to buckle, there is nothing on the Emperor's galaxy that steadies the line like the sight of a Blood Angel in full fury.
For those who would stand with the sons of Sanguinius — who would understand their history, their doctrine, their tragedy and their glory — Hammer of War carries the full lineage of their codices:
- Codex Supplement: Angels of Death — 2nd Edition — where their legend was first written in full
- Codex: Blood Angels — 7th Edition
- Codex: Blood Angels — 8th Edition
- Codex Supplement: Blood Angels — 9th Edition Collector's Edition
- Codex Supplement: Blood Angels — 10th Edition Collector's Edition
And for those who prefer their briefings in narrative form — James Swallow's Deus Encarmine remains the finest window into what it means to be a Blood Angel. The Red Thirst. The Black Rage. The weight of Sanguinius's death carried in every Marine's bloodline. Read it before you meet them on the field. You will understand them better for it.
For Those Who Remember the Second War
Some of you are veterans. Some of you were there — not on Armageddon itself, but at the table when the Second War was fought with dice and tape measures and arguments about line of sight. You know what this is. You felt it when GW announced the 11th Edition launch box and saw that cover art — Space Marines and Orks facing off — and something in your chest recognised it immediately.
That is not coincidence. Games Workshop drew it deliberately. This is a love letter to the era when Warhammer 40,000 was raw and unfiltered and the Blood Angels had the most gloriously excessive rules in the game. The 2nd Edition is where this mythology crystallised. If you want to hold a piece of that history, Hammer of War carries a dedicated 2nd Edition collection — original codices, rulebooks, and the Codex Imperialis itself — the original combined army reference from the box that started it all.
Friday. 2pm EDT. Watch the Skies.
On May 1st at 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST, Games Workshop broadcasts the full unboxing of Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon live on YouTube and Twitch. New miniatures. New rules. The full scope of what 11th Edition brings to the table.
Watch it. Then come here.
Because whatever they reveal on Friday, the history of this war is already written — in the codices, the campaign books, and the Black Library novels that Hammer of War has been collecting on your behalf. The new edition may be arriving in June. But Armageddon's past is available right now.
Browse the full Hammer of War Warhammer 40,000 collection →
For Armageddon. For the Emperor. For every soldier who stood in the ash and refused to take a single step back.
— Commissar Sebastian Yarrick, Hero of Hades Hive
P.S. If Ghazghkull is reading this: I kept the eye. Did you keep the claw?
Hammer of War is an independent tabletop gaming collectibles store and is not affiliated with Games Workshop. All Warhammer 40,000 characters, products, and associated marks are the property of Games Workshop Limited. Commissar Yarrick did not actually write this blog post. We think.