Two we already pretty much knew, but GW just confirmed the factions we will be seeing inside Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good. Check out the latest.
Warhammer Community gave us an early inside look at the next book in Psychic Awakening. Putting the speculation to rest, they gave us the names of the three factions inside. Take a look at the events leading up to the announcement as well as what we need to be geared up for in future previews!
Tau, Death Guard, & GSC in Psychic Awakening Short Stories
Over the course of a few weeks, GW has been teasing us with snippets of short stories to get us hyped up for the new Psychic Awakening book. After reading through the small events that were posted online, we had a pretty good idea of what was coming.
New plastic Shadowsun model
On top of the Tau getting a new model, there was a small run-in that the Tau had with the Death Guard. And by small run-in, we mean a fight for their life.
‘This is O’Shaserra speaking. I hope this message arrives in time for you to be warned. In time for you to act. We successfully traversed the Startide Nexus and established contact with our lost brothers and sisters of the Fourth Sphere. As suspected, they had suffered a failure of their AL-38 Slipstream modules but… we don’t understand exactly what happened yet.”
Shadowsun was warning the forces on the Tau side of the Startide Nexus that a fleet of Death Guard would be emerging from the portal. And that her forces would not be able to defeat the plague fleet.
“Thus,’ Commander Shadowsun spoke on, ‘I have come to a decision. We cannot stop the Death Guard this side of the Startide Nexus. After dozens of battles, our fleets are too damaged. Our strength has depleted to a point that we cannot halt this incursion any longer, if we still want to secure the expansion of the Nem’yar Atoll. We are now forced to choose, and we choose the latter. We are trusting in you, our comrades beyond the Nexus, to counteract the Death Guard threat.”
Unknown to the Tau, the Death Guard doesn’t need portals to access the Warp…
Be sure to read the full story for yourself to get a better picture of everything that’s happening. But coming from Warhammer Community, they dropped another short story on some Genestealer Cults overthrowing an Imperial outpost. They killed an investigator and a few Guardsman in the story and left with a cold look into the GSC’s purpose:
There is a unity to which we can all belong, he read, a higher purpose. A greater good.
While there wasn’t any focus on the Tau or Death Guard in this short story, it did add a third element to the pot in terms of what we could see.
Piling these stories together on top of the new Shadowsun model, we had a pretty good case to make. We thought we were going to see Tau, Death Guard, and GSC…But we were off about one faction.
Imperial Guard Confirmed For the Greater Good: NOT Death Guard.
Feels bads! As part of the latest preview from Warhammer Community, they outright spoke about the next factions we would be seeing:
The Greater Good focuses on the Imperium – in particular, the Astra Militarum – battling both the invading T’au Empire and the rising tide of Genestealer Cults. Commander Shadowsun leads the Fifth Sphere Expansion of the T’au Empire forces into the strategically vital Chalnath Expanse, bringing her mastery of the Kauyon way of war – the art of the patient hunter – to these embattled worlds.
It seems odd that, after weeks of Tau fighting tooth and nail to contain a Death Guard Plague Fleet, GW just drops all of that and now Tau are fighting GSC and Guard… But hey, Imperial Guard fans, your time has come sooner than expected.
What Might Guard Get?
The theme among Space Marines has been Doctrines. But due to the cheapness of Guard units, we really hope they don’t get an army-wide -1 AP/+1 damage to heavy weapons rules equivalent. While that might be a little too powerful for an army that can spam artillery like nobody’s business, they definitely need something.
Hopefully, we could see the lesser-picked units out of the Guard army get their time in the spotlight with some new rules or Stratagems that bring them up to speed.
While all of this is all complete gray area, the big word is that Guard are up next and coming alongside Tau and Genestealer Cults.
After this big announcement, will Guard and Tau be worthy foes of firepower? Will GSC get creamed in the gunfire? Or will they have new tricks up their sleeve to get in closer than ever before?
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
