Crusade of Fire

Two surprises today: firstly the release for pre-order of the new warhammer 40k sourcebook: Crusade of Fire.  The second: no prelude rumours!  

There's plenty of people who are super excited by this source book.  But there's a little twist.  The descriptor says that the sourcebook contains additional, expanded rules for flyers in 40k.  This poses a potential issue: will these rules be "core" rules from now on in tournaments (etc.)?  Given the limited stocks of the product, I can see it selling out fast.  So, what for folks who don't manage to get their paws on to this release?  Perhaps a soft-back book later on?  

Turning to the actual content that was released.  Aside from the images of the miniatures and artwork, the background story features a clash of chaos, imperials and dark eldar.  On the one page that is dedicated to new rules, we see a new system for fighting on daemon infested worlds.  These involve tokens.  Before the game begins, each unit takes a Ld test on 3d6.  They get tokens for each point of failure.  These tokens are a double-edged sword: they grant a unit a bonus on the grounds that they've been (partially) possessed; but there's a downside: when removed, bad stuff happens.  

In the case of Khorne, for instance, the unit gains the rage special rule. But at the end of any assault phase, the opponent may remove any number of counters.  The unit then takes d3 automatic hits as if the unit attacked itself (using its most common weapon).  Analogues are presented for the other 3 major powers.

The other set of rules are what I would think of as "environmental" rules -- in the sense that they present daemon world hazards and their effects on models within the battlefield.  They're random and a bit like the "volcano explodes!" innovations of homebrew rules at worst, but very interesting, flavourful and pro-narrative campaigning at their best.

Looking forward to reading this one in more detail when it comes out. Hope that there's going to be some copies left!!