Fall of Cadia review

    Cadia has fallen! The forces of Chaos rejoice and the Abaddon’s army is ready to start their final march on Terra – nothing holds them back anymore.

   Well, the new book has outnumbered all the expectations about background revelations – Cadia is really destroyed The Eye of Terror is growing and the survival Imperial forces are saved by the unexpected Eldar alliance. This all means only that the End of Times is near…

   As for the rules, there are not many of them, comparing with the latest campaigns. All of them are for the Imperium, so, put your Chaos tentacles aside – you’ve got enough!



   I can say that huge changes in army building are coming according to the 2 new detachments – like in Age of Sigmar. They combine all the Mechanicum and all the Imperial forces. The first allows you to take all the Mechanicum and Skitarii units with Imperial Knights (really expected). The structure is like in the standard CAD, but everything is doubled. The troops are unlimited. Also you can take 3 lords of War and your army must contain units from different books. The same rules work for the Imperial detachment.




   All this gives you It will not die for all the vehicles, which is nice, since you’ll definitely take some Imperial Knights. If you take maximum units (quite trendy method), you can get access to the Canticles of the Omnissiah for all the army. Concidering the fact that there are 6 slots for every unit type, you are unlikely to make it in usual games. The detachment is interesting, but unnecessary – it’s still easier to take separate formations with their own bonuses.



   The second detachment suggests combining Space Marines, Guard, Scions, Sisters of Battle, Inquisition, Assassins and Imperial Knights in one massive army. «Grand alliance Imperium». It’s really interesting and provides a lot of possibilities and combinations. I’m sure, that will lead to lots of mixed rosters, created only to get as much power, as they can. Bonus here is much more pleasant – Hatred (Zealot if maximum units) and on 5+ every destroyed troops gets into the reserves with the same wargear. Don’t forget, you can have space marines or guardian veterans as troops here! This is really interesting and competitive. In general, both these detachments are made for the big scenario games. It can be really nice to field all your models at once as one army.

 


   Speaking about scenario – this book also suggests you a list of random D66 (Hi, Phil!) events, which take place every turn. Most of them strengthen (or weaken) magic, some summon daemons or heal units – all this for both players. You definitely won’t get bored with these events! Unnecessary, but fun.

   Next we have 3 new characters, so-called Triumvirate of The Imperium. They are the basis for the formations and artefacts.



   Belisarius Cawl – Archmagos Dominus with the great miniature and a bunch of special rules. At the first glance he may seem useless – no psychic powers, no ultimate killing instruments… And 200 pts cost. But if you look deeper, you may see that he’s almost immortal - 2+\5++, FnP, IWND, Т6, 5 wounds, D3 of them he heals automatically every turn. You may kill him only with Instant Death or Destroyer weapon. Also he has his own Canticles of the Omnissiah which affect not only Mechanicm, but all the imperial forces. There are IWND on 3 dice, 4++, and +3 BS (with maximum power). If it’s not enough, the only fact, you’ve taken him into the army grants you the access to the Arcana Mechanicum, where there are a lot of cool things like Skyfire or Cognis for the bearer’s unit, or toughness tests in base contact, which wound automatically if failed – and all of these you can give to every Imperial character is you’ve taken Mr. Cawl. Also, D3 melta shots of strength 10 are always nice. All in all – it’s a really tough guy with lots of buffs to his army and threat to the vehicles. If you use him right, he’s worth every point.



   Saint Celestine with 2 twin friends. The character, everyone wants now. Now she’s also almost immortal (got Eternal warrior, allocates all wounds to Geminae, whom she revives every turn), got Armorbane on her sword, and can buff allies like Belisarius (but not so useful, though). Also, that lady got orbital strike. So – we have 9 wounds in 2+\ 4++, which heal, can cut enemies (and vehicles) apart and can be taken as a shield into almost every death star. Behold, wolf packs with Celestine as a leader are coming…



   Inquisitor Greyfax. Unlike her colleagues, she costs 150 pts and doesn’t share any obvious buffs. However, she can be quite useful as well. First – thanks to her effectiveness against psykers – she always passes a deny the witch roll on 4+, so put her into any squad and forget about the witchfire threat. With the new Tzeench magic it may be quite dangerous again. Also she prevents enemy from infiltraring in 24 inches of her, which can literally break the game for something like Alpha Legion or Genestealer Cult.  Just out her on the edge of your deployment zone. If it’s not enough, she knows the psychic power which grants the enemy unit (or all of them in 12 inches if she tries) all the negative effects from the Slow and Purposeful special rule. So, if you use her wisely, you may really change the game. She’s more gentle than other 2 characters and relies on tactics.



   Formations. The most interesting one – Triumvirate of the Imperium, indeed. Only it lets you field all these characters with any imperial army without any fees. They inspire friendly models and each can take a warlord trait. But it’s not important since the main purpose is to get all the bonuses, we’ve discussed before. For example, otherwise you can’t take Cawl to any non-mechancum army.

   The formation with Celestine, Greyfax and Black Templars is quite interesting. It improves close combat potential of the Templars and make them more competitive. A nice choice if you like this army. Anyway, you don’t have anything else for them. 



   The 3rd formation is a compilation of differend mechanicum and skitarii formations. Under Cawl’s command. The bonuses from the both books share…wait a minute, like in that famous web-convocation! And like on the grand mechanicum detachment from this book.. It looks like GW are trying to forget about that web formation, by giving the same bonus to other ones. Otherwise, I don’t see a reason to take the new formation,  when the Convocation is still much better.

   All in all, the book is great as a background source and the rules provide really a lot of interesting options for the Imperium armies. However, the main point here is the story – the Galaxy won’t ever be the same… Looking forward to the new book…