One Thousand Chapters in Shadow War: Armageddon

[Brother Tyler]

Is there anyone that still plays Shadow War: Armageddon and who would be interested in expanding the rules for the Adeptus Astartes?

 

We've already created rules for the Adeptus Astartes in Shadow War: Armageddon and the Badab War Chapters in Shadow War: Armageddon, so I'm looking at rules for other Chapters (built on this framework).

 

Chapters that I can think of that might benefit from this include:

• Relictors (some Chaos relics)
• Flesh Tearers (Blood Angels, but angry)
• Blood Ravens (not sure, but definitely something)
• Crimson Fists (dovetailing off their 8th edition Index Astartes rules)
• Deathwatch (basically, each fighter would be able to take a different Chapter Tactic)
• Anyone else?

Of course, if no one plays Shadow War: Armageddon anymore, there's no point. So right now I'm just gauging interest.

[Captain_Krash]

I would be willing to help if needed Brother Tyler. I'm one of the few who prefer the Shadow War rules to Kill team.

 

(Although I still play and cannot recommend enough Heralds of Ruin if one is looking for a "Mordheim" 40k experience)

 

Krash

[Ioldanach]

I think you'd get more traction developing chapter tactics for the kill team game. I'd look at the Deathwatch RPG from FFG for ideas for a range of chapters. Either way (SW:A or KT), I'll help if I can.

[Brother Tyler]

I think you'd get more traction developing chapter tactics for the kill team game.

That's an intriguing idea.

 

I'd look at the Deathwatch RPG from FFG for ideas for a range of chapters.

Absolutely.

[Brother Casman]

For my part, I never really got into Shadow War: Armageddon. I do play the newest version of Kill Team, though, so if you wanted to start a parallel thread for that, I'd help out there.

[Brother Tyler]

The Deathwatch RPG Rites of Battle rulebook covers the following Chapters (in addition to the "First Founding"):

• Angels of Absolution
• Angels of Redemption
• Black Consuls
• Blood Drinkers
• Consecrators
• Crimson Fists
• Flesh Tearers
• Genesis
• Hammers of Dorn
• Knights of Blood
• Lamenters (covered in the Shadow War: Badab rules)
• Mortifactors
• Novamarines (covered in the Shadow War: Badab rules)
• Subjugators
• White Consuls

Going through the Deathwatch RPG Honour the Chapter rulebook, the following Chapters are covered:

• Angels Encarmine
• Angels Sanguine
• Angels of Vengeance
• Angels Vermillion
• Astral Claws (covered in the Shadow War: Badab rules)
• Black Templars (covered in the Space Marine Kill Teams rules)
• Blood Ravens
• Carcharodons [Astra] (covered in the Shadow War: Badab rules)
• Crimson Fists
• Disciples of Caliban
• Doom Eagles
• Exorcists (covered in the Shadow War: Badab rules)
• Fire Angels (covered in the Shadow War: Badab rules)
• Fire Hawks (covered in the Shadow War: Badab rules)
• Fire Lords
• Flesh Tearers
• Guardians of the Covenant
• Howling Griffons (covered in the Shadow War: Badab rules)
• Invaders
• Knights of the Raven
• Legion of the Damned (no business in this project)
• Marines Errant (covered in the Shadow War: Badab rules)
• Minotaurs (covered in the Shadow War: Badab rules)
• Novamarines (covered in the Shadow War: Badab rules)
• Raptors (covered in the Shadow War: Badab rules)
• Red Scorpions (covered in the Shadow War: Badab rules)
• Silver Skulls
• Sons of Medusa (covered in the Shadow War: Badab rules)
• Star Phantoms (covered in the Shadow War: Badab rules)
• Storm Wardens

I'll review the rules for each to see if they can be converted into Chapter Honours for Shadow War: Armageddon.

 

Are there any Chapters I'm missing from any Deathwatch RPG books that I didn't mention?

 

In addition, the following Chapters have been given rules by Games Workshop/Forge World:

• Angels Revenant
• Emperor's Spears
• Red Hunters
• Relictors

Did I forget anybody?

 

As far as Kill Team rules go, I'd like to hold off on that. We can tackle these first, then see what converts well into Kill Team later.

[Brother Tyler]

Here is an initial stab at things. Looking at my previous post (above), there were a number of Chapters whose Deathwatch RPG rules read something along the lines of creating a character for Chapter X just like for Chapter Y (First Founding). If the rulebook didn't give such Chapter any additional rules that mattered for SWA (i.e., if there were no real special rules or if the special rules focused on roleplaying issues such as how they got along with members of other Chapters), I cut them out. Similarly, if previous rules for the Chapter didn't affect SWA level game play, I cut them out. An example here is that the Relictors had access to some special relics way back when, but those were limited to characters that don't appear in SWA (e.g., Captains and Chapter Masters). That whittled the list down considerably, leaving us with only 11 or so Chapters. I'm open to discussion of re-introducing any of the Chapters that I cut out, but such re-introductions should be based on credible need and not just on a desire to make additional Chapters. I haven't really worked on the intro page (page 1) yet, so here are the ones that matter.

Page 2 (skills for the Blood Ravens, Consecrators, Crimson Fists, Emperor's Spears, and Fire Lords)

Hidden Content

Page 3 (skills for the Flesh Tearers, Hammers of Dorn, Iron Snakes, Scythes of the Emperor, Storm Wardens, and Subjugators)

Hidden Content

Page 4 (Chapter Honours for the Blood Ravens, Consecrators, Crimson Fists, and Emperor's Spears)

Hidden Content

Page 5 (Chapter Honours for the Fire Lords, Flesh Tearers, Hammers of Dorn, and Iron Snakes)

Hidden Content

Page 6 (Chapter Honours for the Scythes of the Emperor and Storm Wardens)

Hidden Content

Page 7 (Chapter Honours for the Subjugators)

Hidden Content

For the skills trees, each started as a copy of the progenitor Chapter (e.g., the Consecrators started identical to the Dark Angels). Chapters that don't have known progenitors copied the Ultramarines (everyone wants to be like them anyways ). I then shuffled a few around as their lore and rules suggested. This was very unscientific, so I have no doubt that things will change here as we take a closer look at things.

As with the skills, I copied the Chapter Honours of the progenitor into the base Chapter Honours for each Chapter. Those were then adjusted based on the rules/lore given in the FFG Deathwatch RPG rulebooks or actual Chapter Tactics/Stratagems (in the case of the Blood Ravens, Crimson Fists, and Emperor's Spears). I tried to keep things balanced - where a Successor added something (such as the Consecrators having some master-crafted weapons), I took something away from the baseline. I think that there are a few of these for which I retained the "Doctrines of War" name (Ultramarines Chapter Honour), but for which that name should really be changed since it's different from the baseline. That will be part of the next version, I suppose.

All in all, this was the result of one day's effort, so I'm fairly certain that things will need to be tweaked.

Something I considered was creating a sort of menu of rules for Successors, which would allow players to create their own Chapter Honours. This would be similar to what we see in the new Codex: Space Marines. If there is interest in this, we can start working out details.

[Ioldanach]

The costs for the power scythe and claymore power blade are missing. More later (once I have time to digest things).

[Brother Tyler]

The costs for the power scythe and claymore power blade are missing. More later (once I have time to digest things).

 

D'oh! 

 

I'll fix that on the next go around.