amazxon Uk has sold out

The Achilus Assault is a really good book, and a really important book as it fleshes out the Jericho Reach and gives GM's and players a lot more to work with. It's rules lite, but then again all the background books in each line are. The rules that are there (like the Mist Reaper, Dark Apostle, and Mephidast) are lots of fun to use.

And I defy anyone not to see the pure awesomesauce that is the Fire Wasp. I love those little things.

BYE

Btw, shouldn't the releaseschedule/preview of 40K Roleplay products for the coming year be out already? Just asking.

Alex

Okay, been reading my copy - I agree it's nice to see a fluff-centric book for a change, and there are some great bits in there (I particularly like Samech and the stuff on Kokabiel's Drop and the Cyclopean Congregation for example, the important characters at the back are well done too).

One thing that leapt out at me though was the continuing, and in fact now increasingly, baffling conspiracy at the heart of the Achilus Crusade (ie that the Margin Crusade no longer exists, and troops thinking they are headed for the Margin are now in fact being funnelled into the Jericho Reach). This book actually makes it clear the Achilus Crusade began about 10 years before the Margin Crusade 'was lost', so both crusades were being originally fought during those years seperately ... so, the Achilus Crusade we're now expected to believe was originally a wholly secret Crusade. Troops raised to fight in it were originally told NOTHING about where they were fighting?

Then there's the thorny question that springs to my mind; what the flying frick happened to the Margin Crusade ? A crusade army is enormous, it is made up of multi-battle groups of IG, Titan Legions, Astartes companies, maybe even Chapters, and multiple Navy fleets - what could possibly completely swallow/destroy the entirety of such a force? I suppose you could claim a massive warp storm swept in - but that would have to be some kind of majorly HUGE and ridiculously fast moving storm - the Crusade Army would have been spread over potentially dozens or even hundreds of worlds after all. Assuming the whole army was lost to enemy action ... why is no one in Calixis Sector not worried by this? Anything that can take out a whole Crusade army could also destroy whole sectors if it were so inclined, yet the loss of the Margin Crusade Army is presented as a lucky chance for the commander of the Achilus Crusade rather than a military catastrophe arguably unique in the canon annals of the Imperium's history.

This just smacks me of being a tangled mess caused by FFG bolting on ill-thought through add-ons to Calixis Sector. They clearly just wanted to have some way of pc's being able to square off against Tau and 'Nids, and yet still be connected to the default Calixis setting, so they came up with the Gate/Conspiracy idea - but it simply doesn't make sense when you think it through.

Why doesn't it make sense?

A crusade being lost doesn't mean that the entire force sent there was wiped out. Think of Operation Market Garden. The allies lost that, but their forces weren't utterly annihilated and left reeling with nothing to follow up with. Instead they just dusted themselves off and thought up some new plans.

A Crusade can run out of steam, find an enemy too entrenched to be worth fighting, and so on. The Margin Crusade failing doesn't mean that every soul sent to fight it was killed by some great calamity.

BYE

mmmm, I think it does...

From what I recall regarding the Margin Crusade (from various sources...Rogue Trader related, I think), it was an Ecclesiarchy-sponsored crusade overseen by one particular confessor/cleric/fanatic...think the children's crusade or the pauper's crusade from our history, or, heck, even the voyage of the Mayflower - a lot of well-meaning, inspired, religious crusaders take off to 'tame the wilderness and purge the unholy'...and are never heard from again, because they all got wiped out (sure, didn't happen with the Mayflower, but it could have).

And there is another reference that states the Margin Crusade had never been heard from again (or maybe it was the same reference...geah! too many books!)...no word in like 20 years...that spells W-I-P-E-D-O-U-T to me...

As for the Achillus Crusade's beginnings...hmmm, that does seem a bit pickle-ish...but, if we assume Achillus has always been super-secret, then the Margin Crusade was only used by the powers-that-be because it became available as an effective cover (and because Achillus was taking faaar longer than initially planned...[due to Tau/Chaos being unexpectedly present in Jericho])

I don't think the "margin conspiracy" is THAT far fetched, if one reads it as a cover-up dictated from on high by the High Lords of Terra.

Assume you're a High Lord, worried about the Tyranids, and you discover there's a warp gate connecting two Segmentum together. You'd be terrified of Tyranids sweeping in towards Terra from that unexpected quarter.

So you order the local authorities tasked with the Achillus Crusade to keep the warp gate secret. This is such a tall order that the cover up is messy and fragmented, but ruthlessly enforced, as the order comes from on high. Many people have pointed out how they deem the cover up as ridiculous, and to some extent these arguments are all valid, but if you put these objections before the High Lord who ordered the cover up, he'd say "I don't care. Enforce secrecy, or I have you executed and find someone else who CAN do it."

People always assume that things are either a cock up or a conspiracy. They forget there's always a third option: a cocked up conspiracy! Many times throughout history, entire nations have been swept up in sustaining a clearly untenable historical lie or conspiracy.

The "margin conspiracy" is an excellent example of this. To the Inquisitors enforcing it, the failed Margin crusade is a bit of a godsend, something they can leap upon as justification for the Achillus crusade. At first, pretending that the troops sent to the Jericho Reach are fighting the Margin Crusade probably seemed like such a good idea; one that makes sense when viewed from the highest levels, but becomes harder to justify as you enter the warzone itself.

As for the disappearance of the Margin crusade - who knows the details? It will be interesting to see this fleshed out in future.

I must admit that I don't think this through that much. It's a bit far-fetched but not too far-fetched for a pulp-y setting.

Alex

Picked up my copy of the book yesterday, have read it extensively and shall say, for my own campaign. I feel proud that most of the planets that were named I had close to the mark. On the Margin Conspiracy: In DH they mentioned that it has petered out and failed but they still send out regiments and forces to go and fight it. In DW they have the cleric from it sealed in the Omega Vault and that is where the Margin Crusade forces are now going to. Sounds like FFG had it already planned out.