The Return of Index Astartes (ft. the Raptors... that's weird, they were just here...)

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

Kind of a mid announcement given that there will presumably be no new rules.

 

Also, apparently they have so little suitable Raptors art for the article that they had none left over for the cover and instead made yet another pilgrimage to Smurf Mountain:

 

[Marshal Reinhard]

Boo for no tacticool olive marine art

[Orange Knight]

Does Index Astartes also include rules?

 

It would be great if White Dwarf provides rules for all the chapters that didn't make it into 10th. They could eventually release a stand alone booklet with the rules, similar to how they consolidated all the white dwarf rules for Blackstone Fortress.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

I would have expected LI content in that WD as well.

[Blindhamster]

pretty interested to see how they'll handle raptors, assume it'll be a new detachment with its own enhancements and strats.

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

Yeah, the presumption of no rules is mine, not informed by anything from the article (for that matter, I didn't even watch the preview video, so there could be a mention or screenshot of the article pages that proves me wrong). I'm sure if there IS a new detachment, it'll be fair game for all the codex chapters. Might even be the reason they went with Ultramarines for the cover, hoping to catch the eye of the largest possible audience.

[Felix Antipodes]

5 hours ago, Orange Knight said:

Does Index Astartes also include rules?

 

It would be great if White Dwarf provides rules for all the chapters that didn't make it into 10th. They could eventually release a stand alone booklet with the rules, similar to how they consolidated all the white dwarf rules for Blackstone Fortress.

Would love this.  They could use it to provide updates on the fate of the better known of these (Howling Griffins, etc) post Rift.  How did the Black Consuls survive? Which ones didn’t but were re-founded as a Primaris Chapter?   Lots they could do and WD is the perfect place to do it, rather than clogging up the SM codex.

 

On a similar tangent, I wish they would start showing more love for their older Chapters again instead of the current fad of using the home made ones of the GW staff.  I didn’t mind WD coming up with their own Chapter to use in articles as that made sense.  Using their own creations in official publications like codices and such not so much.

[Dracos]

I vote for Raptors to be joined by the Mantis Warriors, Crimson Fist, Flesh Tearers, and loyalist Fallen (post DA Codex) to all have unique detachments. 

[SvenIronhand]

5 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

Would love this.  They could use it to provide updates on the fate of the better known of these (Howling Griffins, etc) post Rift.  How did the Black Consuls survive? Which ones didn’t but were re-founded as a Primaris Chapter?   Lots they could do and WD is the perfect place to do it, rather than clogging up the SM codex.

 

On a similar tangent, I wish they would start showing more love for their older Chapters again instead of the current fad of using the home made ones of the GW staff.  I didn’t mind WD coming up with their own Chapter to use in articles as that made sense.  Using their own creations in official publications like codices and such not so much.

It's always been the case. That's the origin of the Dark Crusaders, for example.

[Azaiel]

As a Raptor player this will be interesting. Wonder if Chapter master Lias Issodon has crossed the rubicon for instance.

 

Would have been great if they made a decalsheet with the issue as they did for some other IA chapters (Wolf Spears and tome keepers).

[TrawlingCleaner]

 

Index Astartes returns to cover those olive-hued experts of stealth and misdirection, the Raptors. It’s a complete analysis of how they were founded, where they gather their recruits from, and how they engage their foes, and includes Crusade rules representing their clandestine approach to battle

[jaxom]

On 10/30/2023 at 9:27 AM, TrawlingCleaner said:

includes Crusade rules representing their clandestine approach to battle

I see this being the future for "unique" Chapter content, instead of anything for matched play.

[MoriyaSchism]

Curious to see the fluff side of the article. Hopefully it won't be a disappointment like the awful Exorcist rewrite that ignored almost all the old fluff and turned them into really bad dornian Dark Angels with their own Fallen knockoff to chase and a lame inner circle secret.

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

The fluff takes up eight pages (minus artwork). Seemed in line with their existing lore as far as I know it, but I'm not a Raptors expert. The last few pages go into the breakdown of activity by the elements assigned to fleets Primus, Secundus, and Tertius of the Indomitus Crusade.

 

Not suggesting the article was mistake-free: they somehow managed, when specifically talking about 10th Company elements in Phobos armor, to throw "Inceptors" in with Infiltrators and Reivers when they clearly meant "Incursors."

 

We can probably all live with that, though.

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Lord Nord

[MoriyaSchism]

2 hours ago, Lord Nord said:

The fluff takes up eight pages (minus artwork). Seemed in line with their existing lore as far as I know it, but I'm not a Raptors expert. The last few pages go into the breakdown of activity by the elements assigned to fleets Primus, Secundus, and Tertius of the Indomitus Crusade.

 

Not suggesting the article was mistake-free: they somehow managed, when specifically talking about 10th Company elements in Phobos armor, to throw "Inceptors" in with Infiltrators and Reivers when they clearly meant "Incursors."

 

We can probably all live with that, though.

 

 

Any mention of characters in the rules? Is it more of the same where they pick a random Primaris HQ and link it with some new character they invented?

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

34 minutes ago, MoriyaSchism said:

 

Any mention of characters in the rules? Is it more of the same where they pick a random Primaris HQ and link it with some new character they invented?

 

Unfortunately, while a character is (sort of) mentioned, it's not in the way you mean. As stated above, these are all Crusade rules. So it's just an agenda, a requisition, battle traits for Storm Speeders, Phobos, and Battleline units, and three Crusade relics. But one of those relics is "The Tyrant's Standard," which was looted from one of Huron's dead Ancients during Badab and is now being used to "inspire a vengeful fury" amongst the Raptors.

[Gamiel]

On 10/30/2023 at 3:42 AM, Felix Antipodes said:

On a similar tangent, I wish they would start showing more love for their older Chapters again instead of the current fad of using the home made ones of the GW staff.  I didn’t mind WD coming up with their own Chapter to use in articles as that made sense.  Using their own creations in official publications like codices and such not so much.

How do you mean? We have had seven Index Astartes articles since they begun with them again in 2019 and only one of them have been about the Tome Keepers which is the one created by WD staff.

[Felix Antipodes]

As stated, I wasn’t complaining about the Tome Keepers in any way.  I was hoping for updated articles on some of the ‘traditional’, less used, Chapters like the Howling Griffins, etc.  The Raptors update is exactly what I wanted.

 

There are dozens of Chapters GW has shown over the years that are little more than a name and/or a paint scheme that could be given an Index article to flesh them out.

[MoriyaSchism]

4 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

As stated, I wasn’t complaining about the Tome Keepers in any way.  I was hoping for updated articles on some of the ‘traditional’, less used, Chapters like the Howling Griffins, etc.  The Raptors update is exactly what I wanted.

 

There are dozens of Chapters GW has shown over the years that are little more than a name and/or a paint scheme that could be given an Index article to flesh them out.

 

I'd like them to refrain from covering already established factions and sub-factions in Index Astartes. For older chapters the best they could do is bring back Chapter Approved articles that just have the rules for already fleshed out chapters. Reworked Chapter Approved would be a great way to give every sub-faction crusade rules. Leave the new articles to things that don't have much to them. It's better to have something new than a terrible rewrite of old fluff that was already good.

[Dracos]

I’d like to see them do Mantis Warriors with a psychic/mystic monk vibe

 

i lived the Emperor's Spears and Silver Templar articles.