Ever since the launch of Kill Team’s new edition, our attention has been firmly trained on the Octarius Sector as former Inquisitor Kryptman’s meddling sends Hive Fleet Leviathan barrelling into one of the largest Ork empires in the galaxy.
This rapidly escalating conflict now hits Warhammer 40,000, drawing in forces from across the galaxy. It’s a bubbling cauldron of violence that will finally erupt when War Zone Octarius – Book 1: Rising Tide arrives for pre-order this Saturday.
The book is full of new lore and rules covering some of the conflict’s main players, and it charts the Inquisition’s desperate attempts to stop warmongering armies spreading into the wider galaxy. With a veritable tide of background information, Crusade rules, and codex supplements for two major factions, there’s plenty for you to sink your teeth into.
Regular readers will recognise a few of these from recent articles, but there’s so much more packed into Rising Tide. How do you upgrade Fortifications in Crusade campaigns? Why are the Deathwatch fielding an entire Kill Team Strike Force? What is ‘Da Maw’? These questions and more will be answered across 120 pages of killer Octarius content.
The story of this jam-packed book begins with Inquisitor Sahansun of the Ordo Xenos,* a fierce critic of Kryptman’s, creating the Cordon Impenetra. This vast network of heavily defended systems encircling the Octarius War Zone was designed in an attempt to protect certain systems within the sector from the encroaching xenos, while abandoning others to their fate.
The Ordo Xenos has been busy throughout the sector, and much of the lore is interspersed with messages and annotations between the Inquisitors and their agents, giving a fascinating insight into the Inquisition’s activities before and during the Octarian War.
A sudden surge of Ork and Tyranid forces into the Pankallis Sub-sector threatens to bring the entire defensive cordon down, with armies converging in the Pankallis Assault campaign.
Rising Tide contains all you need to run a thematic campaign based on the ongoing narrative of the Octarius Sector, including new rules for tackling dangerous missions as part of a larger team with appropriately fancy rewards if you’re successful.
You and your friends will decide the fate of the entire sector with branching mission trees, and you can even earn an appropriately majestic title whether you’re Pankallis’ saviour – or its doom.
Among the many Imperial forces fighting across the sector, regiments of determined Cadians have particularly made a name for themselves with their famous skill and discipline. They’ll need all the help they can get with the new Codex: Orks on shelves and Beast Snaggas tearing their massive tanks apart.
Rising Tide’s Codex Supplement: Cadia provides a fresh set of Warlord Traits, Relics, and Stratagems to update these iconic forces for the latest edition of Warhammer 40,000.
The Cadians aren’t the only ones getting a shot in the arm as the Octarius War spirals out of control. Hive Fleet Leviathan takes the Hive Mind’s adaptability to heart with its own codex supplement and the terrifyingly effective Synaptic Link abilities. With new Warlord Traits, Relics, and Stratagems of their own, the Tyranids will be a force to reckon with even before they chow down on all of that tasty Ork and Human biomass.
To cap it all off, Crusade rules for Astra Militarum and Tyranids armies give them awesome bespoke Relics and Battle Traits to requisition whether they’re stuck in the mayhem of War Zone Octarius or not. There’s plenty for other armies too, with all the rules and rewards you need to fight a campaign** in the hellish Octarian War.
War Zone Octarius – Book 1: Rising Tide is up for pre-order in both luxurious collector’s edition and hardback formats from Saturday the 16th of October. Will you be campaigning to save or conquer the Pankallis Sub-sector? Tell us why your army is getting stuck in on Facebook and Twitter, and stay tuned for more information from the 41st Millennium coming soon.
* As the name suggests, the specialist alien-hunting arm of the Inquisition.
** Or part of your existing campaign – perhaps your armies made a wrong turn on the way to Ultramar?