We are now (as of writing) nearly 4 months into the project post-launch. In the meantime we have (so far) amassed about 750 subscribers on Reddit and 40 members on Discord. The rate of growth was way beyond what I expected when I launched the project in August and I’m really glad not to be plugging away at it on my own – as I was when I started this around March.

I’ve started the site because it has become clear that there will be soon too many resources to keep on Reddit and Discord – this is just more convenient to navigate. As per – I am not sharing material that I/we didn’t make or write, only supplements to existing rules. I thought this to be a good first post to fill people in with where the project is.

The Backstory of the Project

I started this project having dedicated a year or so towards the Siege of Vraks – collecting the armies in Book I and playing through the missions. The sort-of ‘historical’ play was very much my thing and I really wanted to explore the Age of Apostasy, particularly as I bought myself a Sisters of Battle army.

Mission creep being what it is, I then did all the research and saw the Nova Terra Interregnum – a period I was also interested in and which very much sets up the Age of Apostasy. So I thought it better to start there (despite there being no Sisters of Battle). It all worked under the 35k moniker – the Nova Terra Interregnum happening in the year 34,000 (M35) and the Age of Apostasy in 35,000 (M36). Thank you confusing year system! Very cool.

I had already developed the ‘4.5 edition’ ruleset for the Siege of Vraks, which uses 4th and 5th edition rules. Having played more 4th as a kid, I wanted to use that ruleset more but I found fewer changes involved in putting 4th ed stuff into 5th than vice versa. That’s one good early lesson – don’t get wedded to nostalgia but just cut and change what works best.

So I originally plugged away on a forum, which is still up (35k.forumotion.com). It later appeared that forum features were introduced to Discord, so I now do most the work there. I had tried to get a good draft done of the first book before launching the project as I wanted people to have something to engage with. That was good as I could keep posting the art and stuff I had done for a while to keep the subreddit alive (also has been useful for the website). Eventually, my Void Watchers attracted a lot of people to the subreddit and that’s largely how the community got going.

What I’ve been doing

So in August I set myself some targets. I looked them up to see how I did: Paint minis and do more art, work through the campaign rules in Book I, rewrite the Votann list that released after I finished Book I (sods law).

Here’s what I’ve done: Organised the first community campaign, painted a whole army for the Void Watchers and a few other units (e.g. the Knights of Vengeance), played a few games of the core rules, written Zone Mortalis/Boarding Actions rules, written a community campaign (which has now launched), updated and tidied up Book I’s lore, updated the core rules (to be released after the campaign), written a Space Marine supplement and started a Blood Angels one, started an Imperial Guard supplement.

Now this might seem like I’m not good at sticking to plans, but I actually don’t regret how I’ve done this. The Void Warfare (Boarding Actions/Zone Mortalis) project helped flesh out some lore that’s now in Book I but also allowed me to work out how missions work in 35k. The same goes for the Meigor VI campaign supplement, which similarly allowed me to make changes to the core rules around scoring units and kill points. These are pretty important changes I otherwise would not have made.

The community campaign has allowed me to play through the ruleset with more factions and really get an idea of which rules changes were not needed (explosions in buildings) and which were (being able to choose to fail a combat you can’t win). I think it’s also been valuable to give the community a way to immediately get involved. If you want to get people interested in taking part, give them an outlet. I learned a lot writing that supplement. I similarly painted a whole army to get this done, which gave me stuff to share in promoting the community.

The new supplement for Space Marines is needed as, really, Book I updates them and the Imperial Guard. I don’t like big clunky books and PDFs for changes. I prefer one sheet of paper you can slip into a Codex for reference if it is a gaming document. So getting those supplements done lays the groundwork for finishing Book I (and necessitates the website due to all the PDFs). Again, the game is better for me breaking this part down and doing it thoroughly.

So Votann still need rewritten and I dread it slightly, as it’s a lot of work and their roster is more complicated than it was. The new core mechanic around resource points also doesn’t massively fit the ruleset and needs thought. The campaign rules are less difficult to think through and I will do last.

Looking Ahead

So launching the website gives another place to put things up. The current site is written as an early draft. I hope, in future, we have space for people to post their custom Space Marine chapters, regiments, lore, and different projects for people to browse. Some of the resources on the Discord can also populate it. These things take time, particularly when you do most of it in your free time and lunch hours.

My aim is to get these supplements (Space Marines, Blood Angels, Imperial Guard) done in November. Blood Angels are a weird addition but I want to see whether the Space Marine stuff ports well to the different supplements. Also the ruleset for Blood Angels in 4th is a mess so I wanted to see if they can just use the 5th ed book without major issues (they can).

Once they are out of the way, I have just the Votann to think about and the campaign system. The Votann I just have on the backburner. I haven’t thought of a new core mechanic, but I am thinking about it. The campaign system I just need to look away from, come back, rework it.

There are also the missions in Book I. I wrote them like the old Vraks-type books where you have specific armies to use. I liked that with Vraks but I think it might be better to take the armies out and let players try to capture the armies their own ways. So I will probably rewrite the missions to work more like a campaign and less like the old Imperial Armour books. Some people won’t like that, but few are going to go out of their way to collect the exact armies in the book.

Finally, I have a lot of terrain to do for the event in December. It’s my first event. I’ve not even gone to these things in the past. I have a lot of worries of ‘what if nobody comes’ and ‘what if I don’t get to play’ but you just have to try get everything done as best you can. Everything you do you don’t know how it will go, but you have to do your best and (normally) people will appreciate all that effort.

I’m really thankful for everyone who has joined the community, taken part in any way they can, and made this so much fun for me and others. Here’s to a fun campaign!

Calgacus