In modern times, when Warhammer 40k editions enter their final full year, Games Workshop tends to launch a nice big narrative campaign, releasing a string of books that see multiple armies and characters clashing, some interesting lore developments and set piece duels, some new optional rules to play with, and (when we’re lucky) some themed models.
In 8th edition (2017-2020) it was the Psychic Awakening. In 9th (2020-2023) it was the Arks of Omen series. It seems like 10th edition’s big finale is finally spinning up now – and it’s all about Armageddon.
Everything we know so far comes from GW’s Adepticon 2025 preview stream on Wednesday, March 26 – which revealed the setting for this impending battle, and which Warhammer 40k factions are its major players, including (huzzah) the triumphant return of the Space Wolves! I have no insider secrets, but there’s plenty we can puzzle out – so our starting point is to watch that video together.
Armageddon 2025 – what we know so far
So, what have we learned about Games Workshop’s big new storyline?
- The planet Armageddon (an “Imperial linchpin”) is being invaded by the World Eaters Chaos Space Marines.
- They’re being led by the legion’s daemon primarch himself – the Red Angel, Angron.
- The primary Imperial defenders are a force of Grey Knights – psychic Space Marines who exist to fight, destroy, and banish Chaos daemons.
- The Grey Knights have been forced to “issue a desperate plea for aid” – and the Space Wolves have come to their assistance.
- Forces of Thousand Sons and Death Guard chaos marines are also involved in the battle – though in what strength or capacity, we don’t know.
- Their daemon primarchs – the sorcerous Magnus the Red and plague lord Mortarion – don’t appear to be present, unlike Angron.
- But the traitor astartes are reinforced by new units: Eightbound Champions for the World Eaters; Sekhetar Robots for the Thousand Sons; and the Lord of Poxes for the Death Guard.
That’s a pretty spicy meatball already, but we can glean more nuggets of information from GW’s partner article on Warhammer Community. It confirms that all this good stuff is taking place in an upcoming Crusade campaign book, with “over 43 pages of story” – catchily titled “Armageddon”.
“Blood red skies have opened on Armageddon’s northern pole, and a daemonic horde of unimaginable magnitude will soon be unleashed upon the long-suffering planet,” reads WarCom’s summary.
“The Daemon Primarch Angron is back for another round, and even the intervention of the Grey Knights may not be enough to stop him.”
But choicer morsels of lore are hidden here – firstly we read that “Legendary Space Marine chapters gather” for this fight – suggesting our story may not only feature the Grey Knights and Space Wolves on the side of the Imperium of Man.
And GW confirms this with a teaser of two Narrative Play mechanics in the book – Hellscape rules to represent the battlefield being thoroughly (and potentially lethally) messed up by warp energy accompanying the daemonic forces at play – and Mighty Champions, which gives your main characters key buffs. GW’s example of the latter? The Reclusiarch himself, Chaplain Grimaldus of the Black Templars.
Whether the Templars are playing a major role in the storyline, or are simply an example used to show you can insert your chapter of choice into these Crusade games, we don’t know yet. But I hope and suspect my Boys In Black are seriously involved in the plot; Grimaldus has history with this damned planet. Speaking of which, what can we learn from what went before? Quite a lot, actually…
Armageddon’s history in 40k lore
The planet Armageddon has played host to many, many wars in its long history (and that’s even if you don’t think, as Guy Haley’s 2016 novel The Beheading suggests, that the planet is in fact the original Ullanor, site of extreme bloodshed and one giant, fateful parade in the Horus Heresy books).
There have been three big ones in recorded Imperial history, titled the First, Second, and Third Wars of Armageddon. Wars two and three were both fought against massive Ork Waaagh!s led by the legendary warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka – both featuring Astra Militarum forces including the late, great Commissar Yarrick.
The Third War saw the Black Templars, under Grimaldus, play a pivotal role in the defense of Hive Helsreach (for more on that, listen to the superb audiobook of Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s novel Helsreach).
But most important for divining what’s going on in the upcoming Fourth War of Armageddon is the very first one. As explained in a couple of Grey Knights 40k codex rulebooks – and Dembski-Bowden’s 2012 novel The Emperor’s Gift – the First War of Armageddon saw the Grey Knights battle the World Eaters to banish Angron, assisted by the Space Wolves. Sound familiar?
More dramatically still, while the first war ended in an Imperial victory and Angron bashed back into the warp, it also created a massive feud between the Grey Knights and 40k Inquisition on one side, and the Space Wolves, led by Chapter Master Logan Grimnar, on the other.
Anxious to contain all information concerning the daemonic forces on Armageddon – and especially Angron himself – the Inquisition subjected the planet’s entire surviving population (including all the Imperial Guard forces who’d fought in the battle) to death or sterilization and life in labor camps; shot down escaping Astra Militarum troop ships, and declared Exterminatus on several planets, just to stop the chaos taint spreading.
Grimnar and his Space Wolves were so enraged at this atrocity that they came extremely close to attacking the Inquisition forces and starting what would have been a catastrophic civil war. The Wolves of Fenris have despised and distrusted the Inquisition and Grey Knights ever since – so these chapters teaming up again, on this planet, to fight this enemy, is going to create some serious friction.
What’s coming next?
So, from what we’ve seen, what new lore can we expect from Crusade: Armageddon – and its inevitable follow up books – in what I’m expecting to be 10th edition’s big concluding campaign?
Here are a few of my own personal predictions, based on no insider knowledge (for I have none on this topic), but simply on what we do know about upcoming releases, combined with what would be the spiciest opportunities to tap into Armageddon lore and develop it further. It’s not quite a bingo card, but I reserve the right to create one…
- The Grey Knights spectacularly banish Angron (again), possibly using their fancy new Nemesis Dreadknights.
- Logan Grimnar returns and has a fist fight with a Grey Knights Grand Master.
- Grimaldus returns to the ruins of Helsreach, and is stoically mournful.
- The Salamanders get involved – we know they’re getting a codex soon, and they were involved in the Second War of Armageddon, too.
- We get some hints – based on the World Eaters, Thousand Sons, and Death Guard’s plans – of what Abaddon the Despoiler is up to, and what the current chaos grand plan is.
- Armageddon itself gets permanently riven with warp disturbances, or even destroyed (not Cadia-style, but a serious destructive climax of some kind).
Will these things happen? I don’t know, but I’ll be watching closely as more details seep out of the great, grinding Games Workshop war machine – the countdown to Warhammer 40k 11th edition has begun, and I’m with it all the way.
What do you think is coming in the Armageddon storyline and beyond? Am I right? Am I horribly wrong? Come discuss this article in Wargamer’s discord community, and share your hobby opinions, hopes, and dreams!
Source: Wargamer
