Black Crusade, an upcoming roleplaying game that offers players a new perspective on the conflict between the Imperium of Man and the forces of Chaos, will be on store shelves later this quarter. Today, Black Crusade’s developer presents an overview of some of the enemies you’ll face in service to the Ruinous Powers.

Greetings, Black Crusade fans! One of the reoccurring themes of Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay is that the most dangerous foe the Imperium faces is Chaos and those aligned with the Ruinous Powers. This means the players in games of Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, and Deathwatch often find the forces of Chaos at the heart of whatever mystery or adventures they participate in.

Defenders of the Imperium

Of course, in Black Crusade the players are the forces of Chaos. Now, they are on the other side of that epic rivalry, facing off against the forces of the Imperium. So, what opposition can the Heretics expect?

The Black Crusade Core Rulebook provides adversaries for numerous power levels. For games involving Heretics attempting to worm their way into Imperial societies and corrupt them from within, the book contains several options. The Administratum Adept provides an example of a low-level Imperial functionary, while the cunning Bounty Hunter and dogmatic Ministorum Cleric promise to be more dangerous foes. Of course, Heretics are just as likely to meet the Imperium on the field of battle. There they’ll need to contend with hordes of Imperial Guardsmen led by fire-breathing Confessors, and the elite Space Marines. But the greatest danger to a Heretic lies in the threat of the Imperium’s Holy Inquisition and their elite warriors, the Grey Knight Space Marines. Can you survive combat with a Grey Knight in Terminator Armour, or match wits with the book’s example Inquisitor, Victoria Aldrich of the Ordo Hereticus?

Equal–Opportunity Enemies

However, the Imperium is just one source of adversaries for a Black Crusade warband. Many of the galaxy’s xenos races have no love for the Ruinous Powers, and some are willing to make special effort to see the Dark Gods’ servants dead. Foremost amongst them are the Eldar, specifically the Chaos-hunting warrior-dancers known as the Harlequins. A single Harlequin is the equal of a Chaos Space Marine, but a troupe of them, led by one of the dread psykers known as Shadowseers, can spell the doom of any warband.

But a warband can avoid the Eldar and still find plenty of trouble. The Eldar’s mercurial and capricious cousins, the Dark Eldar, are well acquainted with the Screaming Vortex. To these decadent xenos, the warbands of the Chaos Powers are equal parts uneasy trading partners to be bargained with, foes to be fought, and potential slaves to be culled. When the latter, the Dark Eldar can mobilize hordes of Kabalite Warriors, backed by the warrior elite known as the Incubi and the eldritch and shadowy Mandrakes.

Finally, a warband can unearth enemies beneath their very feet. Long before humans first left Terra, a race of creatures slumbered in their Tomb Worlds for millennia. Now these Necrons are awakening. An unwary warband may be exploring a seemingly deserted world when they are suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of Scarabs, or consumed by a dreaded Tomb Stalker.

With friends like these...

Even with all these enemies, a Heretic cannot forget that those who might nominally share his allegiance often prove to be the most dangerous foes of all. The Disciples of the Dark Gods are a fractious lot, and the horrible warp entities known as Daemons even more so. A Heretic may just as likely end up fighting a daemonic legion of Plaguebearers or a dangerous Tech-Assassin from the corrupted Forges of the Hollows as he is an Imperial Guardsman. One can never let their guard down, especially in the Screaming Vortex.