Wrath & Glory: A Battle On Four Fronts

Artwork by Frost Llamzon

Last week we released the final part in our Battlefield series -  Affliction Ascendant and today we're sharing more on this series and why we created it!

Buy the Affliction Ascendant PDF on our webstore here.

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.

That statement’s been extremely accurate for the Wrath & Glory team for the last several months. Writer Martin Lloyd and producer Cat Evans have been directing the strategy of Imperial troops ranging from the Astra Militarum, through specialist strike teams and Inquisitorial warbands, all the way up to elite squads of Primaris Space Marines, in a desperate bid to hold the hive spire of Tora Armis in the face of an onslaught by the forces of Chaos. 

The Battlefield Adventures quartet (The Bloody Gates, On the Wings of Valkyries, Lord of the Spire, and Affliction Ascendant) shows players every possible view of the stalwart defence of Tora Armis. Players are embedded with Imperial forces as the penal brigade of the Gilead Gravediggers slog through minefields to take the city gates; they play the elite strike team who are first inside the walls to investigate the deep-rooted corruption within; as agents of Inquisitor Dikaisune, they grow to understand the source of the contamination and its consequences; finally, as battle brothers of the Absolvers Space Marines chapter, they face down the Chaos Lord and Great Unclean One determined to gift Papa Nurgle with Tora Armis, and then the entire world of Gilead Primus. 

The decisions players make could change the face of the Gilead System forever; depending on their response to a crisis, there may be one fewer world when they’re finished. We created the Battlefield Adventures to give new and experienced players a taste of Wrath & Glory at its finest: small, tight-knit squads of Agents facing odds that are just about — with a little good fortune and the blessing of the Emperor — possible to overcome. They’re fast-paced and deadly, but they’re always meaningful. Agents’ lives may be lost, but every las-shot riddled corpse takes the Imperium another inch towards victory. If players don’t get to see the benefit of their sacrifices and decisions in one adventure, they’ll see it in the next.

Artwork by Bartek Fedyczak

The scope of these adventures starts small. The Bloody Gates offers a fantastic beginning in which new players get a sense of what life is like for the ground troops of the Imperium. Confident roleplayers have a chance to buck against authority (good luck to them), while new players will find a comforting structure to their forlorn hope of a mission. They’ll master weapons and combat, and get to grips with the many threats to the Gilead System. As they progress through the different adventures, and the different tiers of play, they’re presented with harder choices and a more sophisticated set of tools and tactics. By the time the players reach Affliction Ascendant, the fate of a world is in their hands. 

The story doesn’t have to end in a bunker deep beneath the city, and a pathway into Nurgle’s feculent garden. If the players save the planet, a new threat will doubtless arise to doom it again. And if they fail… there are months, maybe even years, of adventure ahead of them, atoning for their mistakes. 

Artwork by Sam Manley

Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd.© Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2021