Alex Kierkegaard's Metaverse

[icycalm]

Revealed today, the next narrative expansion after 500 Worlds [ > ].

The New Year Preview – Enter the Lair of the Tyrant
https://www.warhammer-community.com/en- ... the-tyrant

The Maelstrom: Lair of the Tyrant, is the next narrative supplement coming to Warhammer 40,000. It begins at the centre of the galaxy as vulnerable worlds are pillaged by traitors and xenos, and great heroes must brave this nightmare realm of the Maelstrom.

Like 500 Worlds: Titus, this expansion consists of four books stored inside a decorative slipcase, full of rules and lore detailing an entirely new war zone in the heart of the Imperium where Huron Blackheart and his Red Corsairs have launched a vicious raid into Humanity's underbelly.

The extensive background lore book covers many of the region's most notorious figures, from Huron himself and Prince Yriel of the Aeldari to scattered tribes of Ork Freebootas and Chaos warbands hidden within the Maelstrom. Alongside it, the Raid and Ruin book details rules for new campaigns that have players competing for Notoriety Points and earning titles to prove themselves the greatest captain of all—gathering valuable booty across 12 new missions with options for three- and four-player engagements.

They're really putting effort into the campaigns. I've been checking out all the Season 10 ones, and you can see how each one is more complex than the last (with some players even complaining about the complexity of the most recent ones), and tries to devise at least one new strategy meta-mechanic to lend weight to the battles (as e.g. the Notoriety Points in this one). It's great stuff. You've never played such inventive tactical levels. And certainly not with this much style.

Point is it's never just "kill everyone". Every mission has unique objectives that really make you think, which seems to never occur to the programmers. You can already see it in Battle Honours, which is hugely inventive for a 10-minute tutorial level.

Don't worry though, if you're a fan of the "kill everyone" style. My Stronghold mechanics will give you plenty of that too.

New Drukhari (space dark elves) and Leagues of Votann (space dwarves) battalion boxes are also coming; check the link for pics and details, they look great.

[icycalm]

I added the campaign to the overworld and the Codex! It looks smashing, if I may say so myself! Check it out: https://akbattlegrounds.net/w/multivers ... edef4eca9b



Campaign: Raid and Ruin
https://akbattlegrounds.net/w/multivers ... d-and-ruin



Check out the two trailers! You can even start them simultaneously for a pretty cool effect. The first one is just for the leader! He costs as much as a full-price Steam game, ergo he gets his own trailer.

Now you might say isn't it better to withhold content from the overworld until players have unlocked it and can play it? Absolutely. That's the best way. However, Insomnia is still a game news site, and of course I will report on this stuff because it's the best stuff coming out these days. So it's not like people will be able to avoid it. You're seeing it one way or another, so it might as well go on the overworld to start populating it with cool things and get us hyped. Ultimately, with my approach we are getting the best of both worlds: The early-season stuff needs to be painstakingly unlocked one by one, by playing all the content, so you never know what comes next; while at the same time we're following the latest news and putting it on the map to get us motivated to play all the content. And note that there are multiple paths to follow, so people will have to guess how to seek their desired goals, including this campaign.

So now there's some content to check out while listening to "Astropath"! More is coming asap.

And now you know where all this stuff takes place and can follow along, to an extent, as I present the news on the site. You'll be able to follow along even better once I start building out the Codex entries, so that you can look up location names like "Maelstrom", or character and faction names, etc. I mean you already learned something about the Maelstrom: that it's pirate-heaven.


P.S. I use the crossed swords marker to designate standalone missions, and the crossed swords with shield for crusades/campaigns. Not sure btw about the distinction between the two. The first four narrative expansions for Season 10 were called crusades, and it is only with the last two that they seem to be switching to calling them campaigns. I have no idea if it's just a naming convention or if there are substantive changes. I'll know when I get 500 Worlds [ > ] in my hands, which was the first to be called a campaign. More precisely these last two book collections are called narrative expansions that contain a campaign, among other things.