The history of Warhammer 40,000 is full of incredible battles, from valiant last stands to apocalyptic sieges. These legendary conflicts define the war-torn nature of the 41st Millennium, and have inspired hobbyists for decades.
With the new edition now in full swing, the boffins in the Warhammer Studio will be revisiting some of these iconic battles and creating custom scenarios for you to try out. Not every battle in Warhammer lore is a symmetrical battle between even forces - in fact, few are! And we hope these Exemplary Battles will give players a taste of a very different way to play Warhammer 40,000. Some will feature outnumbered defenders battling to the last, while others will include unusual rules and new gaming challenges.
Of course you don’t have to use the historical participants - there’s plenty of armies that have found themselves on the receiving end of an ambush or been sent on a forlorn hope to certain death. An added bonus with many of these missions, is that players can use different sized armies - so if you’ve only just embarked on a new army, you could play the role of defender, as your smaller force takes on a larger enemy army.
First up is one of the most famous battles in Warhammer 40,000 lore - the Battle for Macragge, as the Ultramarines’ 1st Company fight a heroic last stand against the Tyranid menace. Timely, with Codex: Tyranids and a whole range of new Tyranid miniatures available to pre-order this weekend!
We spoke to Warhammer 40,000’s Lead Writer Wade, and Product Developer Rich to find out what makes this battle so integral to the grim dark future.
Wade: The Battle for Macragge is one of the most famous conflicts in the history of the Ultramarines, a defining moment that saw the ultimate test of the Chapter's courage and honour. The Imperium had barely made first recorded contact with the Tyranids when the swarms of Hive Fleet Behemoth descended upon the Ultramarines' Chapter planet, Macragge. The Ultramarines committed their entire veteran 1st Company to the defence of their Chapter planet's polar fortresses, a sight rarely seen on the battlefields of the 41st Millennium – a testament to the threat posed by the invading aliens, and the strategic importance of the defence lasers the fortresses housed.
These formidable weapons batteries kept the orbiting bio-ships from overwhelming Macragge's defenders, until Chapter Master Marneus Calgar and the Ultramarines fleet could drive the hive ships from the planet's orbit and scour them from Ultramar space. When reinforcements finally reached the last recorded position of the 1st Company in the northern polar fortress they found the veterans had been wiped out to a man, surrounded by dead Tyranid bodies.
They had died fighting back to back, making the xenos invaders pay dearly for every step they advanced. It's a tale of selfless sacrifice and heroism, an iconic part of the legend of the Ultramarines, and an exemplary battle in the history of the 41st Millennium.
Rich: As Wade says, The Battle for Macragge is one of the most iconic last stands in the Warhammer 40,000 setting. In order to evoke the spirit of this iconic event the Studio Team tried to capture the changing feel of the battle, all the way from the initial defence of an impregnable fortress to a final stand of the last few defenders raging against the dying of the light; even in the face of absolute annihilation.
I personally find last stands to be one of the most inspiring and emotionally charged elements of any story, and so the opportunity to oversee development of a mission to represent this was a very exciting one. The mission is asymmetrical and built around a very clear narrative, however has also been designed to be a balanced fight that is enjoyable for both players in unique ways.
Whilst this mission was designed to evoke the Battle for Macragge, there is nothing stopping any players from creating their own last stand narrative using their own favourite armies.
This custom mission has a few neat twists, where the Attacker gets more points, but must split their army into three waves that come on in the second and third turn Reinforcement step of their Movement Phase.
In the fourth and fifth Command phase they can also choose to remove some Below Half-Strength units, and bring back freshly replenished units to keep the pressure up. To counter this relentless onslaught, the Defender’s units will dig in near objectives, receiving the Benefit of Cover when in range of objective markers, and re-roll Battle-shock tests.
You can get stuck in as the Tyranids and overrun the Ultramarines defence, or attempt to turn your hand at defending the frozen fortress as the sons of Guilliman by downloading the exemplary battle for free below.
