In The Lore Explainer, we take a deep look at the lore behind our favorite games, movies, and books, and talk about the story behind them and sum up what you need to know and how you can find out more. In this article series, we’re looking at the lore behind the Damocles Gulf campaign in Warhammer 40,000.
If you missed any other parts of the Warzone: Damocles series up to now, here’s your chance to go back and catch the previous four:
- Part 1: The Taros Campaign
- Part 2: The Taros Air War
- Part 3: Apocalypse
- Part 4: Operation Shadowtalon and Burning Dawn
- Part 5: Kauyon
The final chapter in War Zone Damocles would release in November 2015 with the book Warzone Damocles: Mont’ka, acting as a direct follow-up to the story introduced in the Apocalypse supplement less than a year prior. In Kauyon, the T’au once again gained a strategic advantage, pressing their tactical prowess and supplementing that with new technology – Ghostkeel and Stormsurge suits – to outwit Imperial forces, ultimately killing Chapter Master Severax of the Raven Guard and thrusting Kaayvan Shrike into the role of Chapter Master as the chapter had to figure out how to work together with the White Scars to enact revenge.
For their part, the T’au believed that killing Severax – who they thought was the “Warrior king” of the space marines – would more or less end the war for a time, forcing the Imperium to fall back and lick their wounds, freeing the T’au Empire up to expand throughout the Dovar System. The Imperium had suffered losses which would set the T’au back generations and it would be a long time before they could recover and mount a new assault. A great victory had been achieved on Prefectia and Ethereal Aun’Va gave a great speech about how the T’au race now stood on the precipice of greatness and possibility. The Third Sphere Expansion was only just beginning.
So yeah, the T’au had no idea what kind of trouble they’d started, nor did they fully appreciate the size and scope of the Imperium, who had already dispatched a massive force to Mu’gulath Bay to recapture the planet and eradicate the T’au. Imperial fleets would emerge as close to Agrellan’s orbit as possible, catching the T’au off guard and arriving before warning signals from the T’au deep space probes could even arrive.
The Thunder Arrives
If you’ve been bristling at the notion of the T’au continually clowning the Imperium in campaign books up to this point well, so were the Imperial Commanders. There’s a certain feeling of the Imperium being held back in Kauyon, fighting in a piecemeal and often disjointed fashion that makes them easy prey for T’au forces and seeming uncharacteristic for the massive war machine of the Imperium. Well the good news is that Mont’ka is the book for you – this is where the Imperium finally claps back against the T’au, who are generally more of a mere annoyance to a the galaxy-spanning Imperium of Mankind than an actual threat.
And it’s important to reiterate the largest advantage the Imperium have: Warp Travel. At this point the T’au aren’t even close to matching the speed of Imperial ships, and have only just developed technology that allows them to “skip” across the warp by briefly submerging into they Immaterium and being forced back out. It’s safer than full Warp Travel but also much slower and when the Imperial fleet arrives on Agrellan/Mu’gulath Bay, it captures the T’au navy by surprise – their own fleet had been scattered across the Dovar System. And while Agrellan was heavily defended, the Imperium had brought a force large enough that they could simply eat whatever casualties it took to break through and recapture the planet.
For the T’au, this was a dire situation indeed – Aun’Va was still on Agrellan, and protecting him would be Shadowsun’s top priority, along with stalling long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Her order is more or less to fall back and let the Imperium make planetfall to avoid losing all of her forces to orbital bombardment, and embroil the Imperium in a protracted ground war.
On the other side, the Imperium were more or less ready for a war of attrition, with General Troskzer of Cadia planning to commit wave after wave of his men to the effort while the Raven Guard and White Scars could focus on key targets. They were further joined by knights from House Terryn, and Skitarii forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus, who had only recently been released with their own pair of Codexes in early 2015.
Surgical Strikes
While the Guard clash with T’au forces in the field – and there’s a cool bit in here about Tank Commander Pask going up against Longstrike and things really going south for the T’au when all the baneblades show up – the Raven Guard hit T’au strongposts, taking the battle directly to them in order to prevent the T’au from falling back and regrouping to plan another ambush. These first days of the strike are brutal, and while the T’au fight valiantly to kill as many Imperial warriors as possible while minimizing their own casualties, they’re ultimately completely outmatched by the sheer volume and might of the Imperium.
The Imperial forces are making their final push to break Shadowsun’s forces when the skies turn red with wave after wave of red crisis suits – Commander Farsight had brought his forces to defend the empire. Led by the legendary heroes known as The Eight, Farsight’s forces push the Imperium back and turned the tide of battle. Then things turn again as the Skitarii forces arrive in a massive storm of dust and radiation.
There’s a lot of back-and-forth here and if I have a complaint, it’s that the Imperial forces seem largely operating without the kind of tactics or coordination you’d expect from the Astra Militarum, instead more or less winning on pure attrition. Both sides eexchange a number of haymaker blows but ultimately the Imperium are mostly throwing guard and lasguns and Leman Russ tanks at the problem over and over. As the battle grinds on, Shadowsun receives a special message broadcast on channels not used since Puretide’s time and decides to fall back from the latest assault as the weather conditions worsen.
Commander Farsight meets with Aun’Va and Shadowsun and relations are pretty tense – Farsight is an outcast and enemy of the empire. Aun’Va makes it pretty clear to everyone around who’s really in charge here – or tries to – but then Farsight cuts him off and says “look man I’m just here to fight and save your asses. Spare me the manipulation and politicking.” This really upsets Aun’Va, who has to put in his best efforts to not Get Mad in front of everyone, and Shadowsun helps him out by jumping into planning the next move with Farsight.
Execution Force
There was bad news looming for the T’au: Games Workshop had just released updated plastic kits for Imperial Assassins and that meant they were going to be here, in this book, killing key threats and having an impact on the story. After enough time had passed for Lord General Troskzer to have “had ample time to purge Agrellan,” assassins were dispatched to the planet’s surface, one of each type. Their mission was to execute key enemy leaders and throw the T’au forces into disarray, bringing a swift end to this conflict.
Of course the T’au had no idea any of this was coming as they prepared for their next mission. Up to this point they’d largely engaged in hit-and-run tactics, retreating before plodding Imperial forces could do much damage. But the result of these tactics were also that they spent a lot of time retreating, so although they’d won every major conflict so far, they also only had a single strongpoint left. This led to what General Troskzer assumed would be the site of the final battle for the planet – the newly installed T’au city erected in the plains east of the former capital of Agrellan Prime.
In the midst of their preparations, Shadowsun urged Aun’Va to be spirited offworld but the proud Ethereal refused, claiming that Mu’gulath Bay would be their greatest victory yet, and he’d stay on-world for it. Farsight tries telling him “hey I’m gonna peace out when this is over you don’t have to stick around,” but the Ethereal just won’t have it. They reckoned the Imperium would strike during the looming storm, and that during this offensive, the Space Marines would coordinate their own strike missions, going after shield generators and attempting to find Shadowsun and the T’au Command Centre. Farsight suggested he’d be a key target, and that his forces could offer themselves up as bait.
The Raven Guard took the bait, dropping in to attack the Farsight Enclaves forces. As they struck, the Imperial Guard’s artillery began to open fire and the grand assault began. Farsight’s forces, though taken by surprise, were ready for the Raven Guard and caught them in crossfires, luring their jump troops into deadly pathways among the spires of the city. Shrike realized they’d dropped into a trap, but due to the storms was unable to relay that message to his allies, who he also suspected had done the same. The distance the guard had to cross was vast, but Imperial forces had millions of guardsmen to throw at it.
The massive Imperial army ground forward into the storm for hours, finding no resistance. They were also wandering into a trap, convinced that the storm would clog T’au engines and blunt the effectiveness of their ranged firepower, convinced they’d be delivering a killing blow. Stormsurges and Hammerheads began to open fire on the Imperial forces, focusing on their superheavy targets first. Imperial forces were joined by a returned Obsidian Knight, who despite having been killed earlier in this series was suddenly back with renewed vigor to kill his hated foes. If that seems like it makes no sense well, that’s because it doesn’t. It’s probably a new guy in a new robot but who knows with 40k lore these days; it could just as easily be a g-g-ghost knight! (imagine some Scooby-Doo noises in there to complete the picture).
Vindicare
The Vindicare assassin was tasked with taking out Farsight. He’d been partially detected on his infiltration by Pathfinder scanners, forcing his hand, but found a suitable way in to his target. As he stalked Farsight, Darkstrider’s Pathfinders hunted him, using new prototype scanners that had picked him up days earlier. The Vindicare took out Farsight’s shield generator with a shieldbreaker round that went right through his force field. Before he could take out Farsight, a bodyguard stepped in his way and intercepted his second shot and the Vindicare took out several more key targets, including a full Crisis Team and a Riptide before realizing he’d been made and making an exit. The Vindicare was ambushed by Darkstrider’s team, who blasted the rifle out of his hands. He took out six Pathfinders before Darkstrider finally dropped him, firing into his corpse until all that was left was a smear.
Eversor
The Eversor’s pod crashed down not to far from there, intercepting Farsight’s forces on their way to reinforce Shadowsun’s attack. They made their way to the Earth Caste science centre where the Eversor’s drop pod had landed, only to find he’d murdered nearly everyone in there during the span of about fifteen minutes. Upon seeing that Farsight (his target) had arrived, he turned around and made a beeline for the Commander. The Eversor then proceeds to go full Gun-Kata mode on Farsight’s forces, jumping off gun drones and punching Crisis suits to death as he dodged barrages of missiles anime style. He’d end up killing half of The Eight before he was finally brought down in a hail of plasma fire. Then he gets back up and Farsight has to cut him in half. Notably, after he’s halved his top half starts laughing in a really creepy badass way as the Eversor claws his way toward Farsight and explodes, toppling the dome.
Callidus
On the other side of the battlefield, the Callidus Assassin made a beeline for Shadowsun, taking on the guise of the Ethereal Aun’Va. Unfortunately this was the very worst person to impersonate, as the T’au instinctively recognize the commanding presence and distinct scent of their ruling caste. So while the assassin’s tone and words were perfect, Shadowsun hesitated when greeting Aun’Va, jumping back just in time to avoid being killed by the assassin’s phase blade. The Assassin dropped her disguise and went after Shadowsun, but was stopped before she could deliver the killing blow by Shas’ui Starshroud, who held the Assassin just long enough for Shadowsun to varporize her with a fusion blaster. Starshroud died from the assassin’s deadly toxins moments later.
Culexus
Well that’s a disappointing outing for the Imperium’s deadliest assassins, with three straight duds. That just leaves the Culexus assassin, who is potentially out of place here as a pariah gene killer normally tasked with killing rogue psykers. The good news was that thanks to his animus speculum, no drone or sensor could detect the Culexus Assassin as he made his way to Aun’Va’s location, deep within the ruins of Agrellan Prime, in a secret bunker built by the Earth Caste. The Assassin slipped inside the shield dome protecting Aun’Va and infiltrated the hidden bunker, finally coming face to face with the Ethereal and unleashing his animus speculum. Aun’Va fled as his honor guard were cut down, and the Assassin followed, eventually cornering him in the ruins of an old cathedrum, where he killed his target.
Exterminatus
If you’re keeping track at home, that’s a 3-1 win for the T’au, but losing Aun’Va is a pretty big deal here. The Space Marines trapped in Farsight’s ambush fell back as a new Lord General, replacing Troskzer, issued a general order calling for the Astra Militarum to immediately withdraw from the planet. Then Shrike followed suit, saying the Astartes would withdraw within the hour. This left Kor’sarro Khan once again empty-handed, despite hollering for four books now about how he was going to totally kill Shadowsun. He was going to just stay on the planet until he got what he wanted or died, but then Chapter Master Jubal Khan told him to get his ass in gear, and that they needed him to help fight Red Corsairs back on Chogoris.
As Imperial forces withdrew, the storm subsided, convincing Imperial leaders that the T’au had found a way to control the storms on Agrellan. As Imperial forces withdrew, the T’au continued to attack them mercilessly, cutting their number. In the end, only about half of the Astra Militarum forces made it back off planet, along with a number of key officers and commanders and the knights of House Terryn. They made ready for exterminatus, given a special world-flame warhead by the Adeptus Mechanicus, designed to ignite the planet’s storms and “bless” the entire Damocles Gulf. The warhead ignited the gasses swirling around the planet’s northern hemisphere, causing unnatural firestorms to sweep across the planet, overwhelming the T’au enviro-engines and incinerating anything that wasn’t under a protective shield dome. Millions of T’au and humans alike died in an instant.
Worse still, the fires did not stop at Mu’gulath Bay; they spread across the Damocles gulf, turning that realm of space into a blazing inferno. The labyrinthine passages the T’au had discovered to traverse the Gulf had become untenable, leading many trapped on the Imperial side to believe they might never make it back to their sept worlds.
Terrible rumors swirled around the empire as Shadowsun recovered but soon it was announced that, in a matter of days, Aun’Va would broadcast a speech, beamed across the sept worlds and beyond. A message of hope. Farsight dips out before all of that, with Shadowsun telling him to get out before they order her to bring him in. They both know Aun’Va is dead, but Shadowsun is going with it for now – the greater good and all that.
The Rules
Similar to the Kauyon book, the Mont’ka campaign set is split into two books: Mont’ka (lore), and the Rules. The rulebook has eight Echoes of War missions, arranged in a small linear campaign for players to play through the main conflicts of the Mu’gulath Bay campaign, plus rules for playing with the Astra Militarum, Assassins, and Farsight Enclaves T’au forces.
The Missions
There are no special rules for this campaign; similar to Kauyon and other campaign books in seventh edition, these specify very strict rules for which armies you can bring and which units to include. They’re very much designed around replicating specific battles and set pieces in the campaign, though the missions themselves often have special rules for how they’re played to represent key environmental hazards and details.
- Death in the Void sees the initial battles occurring in space, on the network of orbital defense satellites above the planet. Raven Guard and White Scars forces are dispatched to destroy the networks. These missions have some interesting rules for asteroid strikes and playing in a vacuum with low gravity.
- Armoured Onslaught is a tank battle between the Astra Militarum and the T’au and has to include Knight Commander Pask. This game includes special rules for making D3 vehicles in each army into Tank Aces, though why this is a random number for each side and not the same number for both players is some true “7th edition 40k” nonsense. You can also roll “no effect” for the result, which is some additional terrible design.
- Conflicting Agendas highlights the sometimes conflicting agendas of the Adeptus Mechanicus (capture T’au tech) and Astra Militarum (destroy defense installations). There’s a fun rule here where Astra Militarum and Adeptus Mechanicus forces can’t control the same objective marker and cancel each other out, and they can also do friendly fire, though the benefits of this are marginal.
- The Unforseen Strike details the arrival of Commander Farsight’s forces, dropping in to attack a Cadian Battle-Group Detachment and attack their command HQ.
- The Eye of the Storm is a surprise attack by Farsight’s forces on Pask’s Tank column, set in the middle of an electrical dust storm. It also includes Tank Aces.
- The Killing Blow has Farsight’s forces – all battlesuits if possible – squaring off against White Scars and Raven Guard space marines, arriving through tunnels and low-altitude air drops.
- Return of the Obsidian Knight is all about knights taking on a bunch of big T’au suits – every unit in the T’au army more or less has to be a Stormsurge, Riptide, or Ghostkeel. The T’au army gets a special warlord trait randomly generated for one of their big suits.
- The Assassins Strike is a special final mission in which a single Assassin, supported by Raven Guard or White Scars space marines, attempts to take down either Farsight or Shadowsun.
The Formations and Datasheets
The Astra Militarum get new datasheets for the Baneblade and several variants to celebrate the release of the then-new plastic kit. These go along with subfaction rules for Cadians, who received their own Decurion-style detachment of Formations, the Cadian Battle Group.
The new Assassins also got new rules here, four new datasheets and some cool pages detailing their wargear.
Finally the T’au saw some additional rules, focusing on the Farsight Enclaves and their Decurion-style Detachment of Formation, the Dawn Blade Contingent. This is also the first time we got rules for The Eight in 40k, listed here as a special formation of Farsight and seven other battlesuit models.
Final Thoughts
What a ride! There’s more to the Damocles Gulf saga/warzone than most others in 40k lore – though Armageddon is definitely the big winner there – and it was fun going through all of this and picking up lore from different sources. There’s a definite vibe to this content which is “the T’au are generally better at fighting wars than the Imperium, but aren’t as callous and don’t have the resources,” and I’m not sure if that always makes sense – the Astra Militarum feel like they should be doing a better job, or at least being more tactical when it comes to how they wage war, and the White Scars come across looking like clowns through the whole thing, perpetually ignoring orders and good sense to try and kill one T’au commander, getting their asses kicked, and then needing to be rescued. It’s not their finest moment.
The T’au come out of this with some cool lore, and the best parts of Mont’ka are definitely the parts showing T’au hierarchy, and the interplay between Shadowsun and Farsight. He definitely thinks the empire sucks, she thinks he’s still a good guy, and they don’t kiss or anything but there is some clear mutual respect there, even if it does feel a lot like Zenigata letting Lupin get away because this time they worked together to beat a worse threat.
As a campaign setting, this one was big on exploring subfaction rules – we’d seen some subfactions get supplements in 6th edition like the Crimson Slaughter and Clan Raukaan, but these were largely disappointing and light on rules. Kauyon and Mont’ka instead provided rules for White Scars, Raven Guard, Cadians, and Farsight Enclaves, four flavorful subfactions, and these rules would see reprints later in books like Angels of Death.
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