Ok I had a dissapoointing game tonight (our 2nd) Inspite o unlucky draws in critical battles, I still was in a position to close in on the emporer and have a chance of killing him.

Then the shy Fortress comes up, Empore runs to some out of the war corner of the board with a large enterage, and in doing so joins up with the fabricator general, so he can be fortified with 6 guys.

This is all fine, all but the sky fortress basicly being a get out of jail free card for the emporor.

40K theme wise, the Empore shoudl not be able to leave the palace cause he is holding back some gate. He can only leave in order to do a quick run on the emporer.

I can;t see chaod EVER killing the emperor if the sky fortress rises comes up.

IIIRC, Sky Fortress is played on the table in front of the Imperial Player and he can only use it when he has initiative. So can't use it during Traitor's attacks. Or, you could, you know kill the Emperor before getting that far along the Events . Spaceport Victory is the easiest route for the Traitors, I go for it and only zap at the Emperor if the opportunity arises.

I agree with Dam, I have found that a Spaceport Victory is the most effective way to go for Traitors - the Emperor is intentionally hard to both reach and kill - sneaky escape tricks included.

As for the Emperor needing to stay in the Palace... He was confined to the Golden Throne to keep the ruptured gate to the Webway sealed, but had forseen that he would need to leave it, and had arranged for his second in command, Malcador the Sigilite, to take his place. Malcador is the second most powerful psyker in the Imperium after the Emperor (and possibly Magnus the Red, although they usually don't take him into consideration on account of him being naughty; he's the one who broke the gate, after all). So there is a built in precedent from the "true history" of the battle that allows for him to leave. Of course, he "actually" left to confront Horus on the bridge of his ship. Also, running off to a hidden corner to hide and fortify doesn't seem really "in character" - but then again the game isn't meant to be a precise historical reenactment, or Magnus wouldn't be in it, nor would the Fabricator General (who were occupied elsewhere at the time, on Prospero and Mars, respectively). Have fun with it, and now you have a fun strategy to try (or stand your ground and refuse to stoop to) when you are the Loyalists - not to mention that if you know his ace in the hole, you can take steps to keep him from doing it again!

Just my 2 credits.

RaiPaladin said:

Presence of those two is a bit on what fluff you follow. In the original game, both were there. Further, I think the FG in this game is Kane, who took over the Mechanicum for the Loyalists after Kelbor-Hal (?) switched to Horus. In the original game, he was called General Kane.

Kane isn't mentioned in the new fluff yet, but I strongly expect he will be (in future HH novels). Don't confuse him with Kelbor-Hal, who joined the Traitors before Horus attacked Terra, as can be read in "Mechanicum".

redsimon said:

Wait, Kane leads the Loyalist Mechanicum in "Mechanicum", doesn't he? Been a while since I've read it, but that's my recollection, he's the one receiving the Imperial Fists and helping them get the armor and ammo to haul back to Terra.

To be honest, I don't remember much of that novel because I didn't like it at all. But he is in the Dramatis Personae, so you are probably right.

But AFAIK in the novel he is not mentioned as the replacement Fabricator General for the loyalist Mechanicum.

No, I think he only headed the Loyalist faction at that point, but gets promoted between the events of Mechanicum and Siege of Terra.

Dam said:

Yes, Kane is one of the characters in Mechanicum. I believe he was second to Kelbor-Hal in rank. He was extracted from Mars by the Imperial Fists along with much of the supplies.