I had the pleaaure to paint and convert some of the Tyranids for the book. This resulted in me freezing my former work on Hive Fleet Moloch and changing to Hive Fleet Ouroboros. Also several of the Tyranids shown in the book later won Golden Demon trophies. Oh the nostalgia ! Fond memories. Big thanks for this in depth look at the narrative. Loved it.
That all this was just a footnote in the history of the imperium, if even amounting to that, is why 40k is such a thriving setting. Endless stories, endless lives lived and and spent, endless wars & conflicts & conspiracies & betrayals & etc etc. There's no end.
Another blast from the past, I enjoy these videos. I wrote IA back in the day, a fun project, but the books were all just a way to put out rules and background etc for FW models... that was what they were designed to do, but in a fun way, given we could not do codexes. They are campaign books... tell the story of 1 campaign in a galaxy that has millions of such... develop it so it includes all the models we had or were planning on having. And yes, the Red Scorpions were chosen to be FW's own chapter, one we could develop, make models, etc. for and tell their stories too.. Culln was our re-occurring hero... the plan being to tell his career arch over many campaigns... nice vid... cheers, I'd forgotten so much. WK
Honestly I really wish they did more of this more in depth, special forces style stuff. Since it better fits the scale of the table top game, rather than only representing a part of a greater offensive. Things like defending the thunderhawk wreck site sound like really cool missions to do.
I agree. Just last week my buddy and I did a 1k game that was just a skirmish at a highway checkpoint! It was fun to set up terrain to look like a military stop point and battle over the road. I definitely encourage you to come up with some homebrew missions like that
I totally agree. I much prefer these books to the idea that the 40k "story" as a whole must constantly be advanced now. There is basically infinite space for well written events like this one. Unfortunately, Pandora's box was opened and I doubt GW will ever be able to go back to the old style of their storytelling.
@@LordyT34 A 40k version of something like Operation Storm-333 would be really cool. Something like the local administratum conducting a raid on a dissident planetary governor.
Imperial Armor's lorebooks were always the best regarding lore when they focused on the non-chaos sides. Between this and the focus on the Damocles Crusade, Forgeworld really knocked these out of the park!
Why do you think main GW team don't like the FW teams? FW actually produces amazing lore and products while nearly every current GW story is meh and is designed to sell models.
@@tdlainc.4737 In fairness, even the time GW cut them back for Horus Heresy the team was entirely different than that which made Imperial Armor. IA was literally a lightning in the bottle moment in comparison.
This book was the best 40K horror setting ever. People get so used to "Gun down the hordes of 'nids!" that they have no idea how scary a handful of Tyranids are. Or what things are like outside the context of a 6-turn battle. When the time span is months, weeks, or sometimes day, Tyranid evolution is terrifying.
Exactly - the Tyranids you can see and perhaps gun down would not worry you as much as the ones you don't see that might be lurking in the shadows all around you, watching you from the darkness until the time to strike is ripe. Over days, weeks or months of continuous threat that psychological pressure would begin to wear down even the most disciplined and self confident troops.
Honestly, this rundown is doing a lot to break my writer's block on a 40k rpg that picks up on some of those loose threads, finding out just how much Varius is allowed to get away with before getting Callidus-ed
I clicked on one of those once, and it's astonishing to me that they've got any level of popularity. Like, sure, the voice superficially sounds like him. But there's zero expression or inflection, zero surprise - it sounds like someone reading off a phone book.
😂 have you ever heard David Attenborough before? Ian is a great narrator but he's really not that far off from David at all. He's pretty calm and has an English accent. It's a lot better than someone getting overly excited while explaining 10 year old supplements to a tabletop game.
Another banger of a video, the best fluff videos out there! Really next- level stuff with graphics and actually sourcing the material and explaining its real-world context, I love it.
Back in the day (my early 20’s) I saved up my pennies to buy some forge world Elysian drop troopers. They were so expensive and I had so few I ran them as a D-99 list.
This whole mission and tragedy feels just like a live fire exercise and useless. Fantastic video. Concise, entertaining and informative. Thank you for respecting your viewers time. Looking forward to the next video. Keep up the good work.
Well, one Inquisitor eliminated his rival and proved the further viability of Gland Warriors/D99 and Red Scorpions so the High Lords would make more. I guess it had some use.
I always enjoyed the Anphelion Project. As the video title says, it is clearly influenced by Jurassic Park, along with a few nods to Aliens, and it really conveys how desperate the situation being faced by these forces cut off on a Tyranid infested moon in a dark, far flung corner of Imperial space truly is. In the final analysis it is all just a minor event in the broader history of the Imperium and the galaxy at large, but that is part of the appeal of 40K as a setting - it is so utterly vast that there is really no limit to the range of stories that can be told within the setting.
this was such an awesome campaign! I had the pleasure of playing it when 5th ed was around and loved every second of it! In fact, it kinda makes me want to make a Red Scorpions and nids army now that the 10th ed starter has bot of those forces * o *
Dang Arbitor, you sure make these old campaign books attractive again. It makes me want to spare no expense recreateing these days gone by. The nostalgia is strong. 👍🙂
I ran a 40k RPG campaign where the party (an Inquisitor's retinue) visited the remains of the Anphelion compound to find out what happened. It ended with them frantically reversing their Rhino back onto the drop ship whilst a Trygon was smashing in the front end. Good times.
Loved these old imperial armour books. Would love to hear you explain the “raid on kastorel novum” or whatever the Ork one was, the only one I never read
Nostalia. Inquisitor Lok and the Red Scorpions upgrade kit were my first Forge World purchase. I used both to flesh out my Inqusition/Deathwatch army. (Had Grey Knights and SoB to provide for the other Ordos too) I stopped collecting approx 2008.
This book was *SO GOOD*, the Imperial Armour series was absolutely the high-water mark of all 40k medie ever produced imo. The artwork was simply stunning, and presenting model dioramas as though they're in-action photographs of events did so much to ground the setting. Really sad it's gone.
I absolutely loved Imperial Armour 4, I remember it coming out while I was in primary school and my mum getting it for me. I was so excited to show it off to my friends and horribly butcher 40k lore for them. So happy to see it still get love
Seems like this would make a good movie, perhaps a bit too similar to the alien films for some but it does have a much larger and more apocalyptic scale by the end.
Unfortunately all the forgeworld talent went to work on the Horus Heresy. Which is probably why that game is so much more fun and the narrative books and community are thriving over there.
@@sturm9087 40k still is, i like that horus heresy is getting attention and this quality of content, it is a temporary thing so 40k should get that talent back
@@Luizguilherme-iz9yl 40ks narrative community is very much dead. Especially compared to heresy. Also the forgeworld team has been working on heresy exclusively for the last 8 or so years. I don’t think its temporary and I don’t think they’re coming back to 40k. Especially since they canceled the last imperial armor book that was supposed to be for 40k
What an incredible idea for a game plus a great selling program of forge world models which now can be replaced if you own tyranids from the Primaris box set ! Thanks Ian for sharing keep these ideas coming because they're brilliant!
I always felt that most people got what this book was all about wrong, while most people seen it as a Jurassic park tale I always seen it as as an insight into the cut trout world of the Inquisition.
I miss this sort of source book narrative being the primary source of narratives instead of trashy novels. This is real 40k. Trawling in-universe documentation.
Say Ian. Can you Please do a 20 to 30-ish minute Timeline Video Covering the entire lore and History of Warhammer Age of Sigmar? Because beside UA-camrs like 2+Tough you are one of the few honest people who can comprehensibly cover Warhammer in a honest and sincere Way. i also would want to know what are your personal thoughts regarding Age of Sigmar as a Setting that ostensibly rebooted the Warhammer Fantasy universe from scratch after controversially destroyed it during The END Times.
Anyone know how to run Necromunda Gangs (N95) in Space Hulk? I just want somthing that will mesh with 2nd Edtion rules and give me a tunnles option for scenerios. I guess im just asking what oldschool Space Hulk suppliment I should narrow in on.
Idea for future video series: have channel subscribers vote on which IP/narrative/historical event they'd like to see 40K-ified. Offer expert commentary on how it could be done, how it might turn out, and whether it could be monetised to the extent that GW might actually implement it.
It's usually a book that tells the story of a single campaign, and then gives you a way of playing through the campaign yourselves - unique missions based on the events that happened, rules for the environment it's set on, maybe rules for special units unique to that campaign.
@@WilhelmScreamer when we played Anphelion project as an apocalypse game. 10,000 points of Tyranids vs guard, metal stormtroopers and Ultramarines. 4 players each side.
@heralds that doesn't change anything, in fact, it reinforces my point. The tyranids are lazy world building and bring nothing to the setting the GSC couldn't have. If the tyranids disappeared from lore, 40k would not fundamentally change.
@spacemanx9595 why would you lose GSC? They predate the tyranids. They pose a much deeper existential threat because of their nature. Where the nids are a slobbering horde of zombies, the GSC represents a threat from within.
@spacemanx9595 they exist to consume. All of that "intelligence" is focused on devouring biomass. That isn't intelligence, it's poorly designed "brainnnnns".
Oh nids don’t bring anything but the 15 different marine chapters and imperium armies all bring something unique. If anything should be dropped it should be the non codex compliant marine chapters and probably custodes or sisters of battle. Those armies all do the exact same thing as space marines
I had the pleaaure to paint and convert some of the Tyranids for the book. This resulted in me freezing my former work on Hive Fleet Moloch and changing to Hive Fleet Ouroboros. Also several of the Tyranids shown in the book later won Golden Demon trophies. Oh the nostalgia ! Fond memories. Big thanks for this in depth look at the narrative. Loved it.
Fragging love your work, bro!
Thanks mate ! 😊
nice, which ones were your doing specifically
That all this was just a footnote in the history of the imperium, if even amounting to that, is why 40k is such a thriving setting. Endless stories, endless lives lived and and spent, endless wars & conflicts & conspiracies & betrayals & etc etc. There's no end.
This isn’t the benefit to storytelling you think it is
@@theendisoverdueyeah, it is.
Endless possibilities.
Another blast from the past, I enjoy these videos. I wrote IA back in the day, a fun project, but the books were all just a way to put out rules and background etc for FW models... that was what they were designed to do, but in a fun way, given we could not do codexes. They are campaign books... tell the story of 1 campaign in a galaxy that has millions of such... develop it so it includes all the models we had or were planning on having. And yes, the Red Scorpions were chosen to be FW's own chapter, one we could develop, make models, etc. for and tell their stories too.. Culln was our re-occurring hero... the plan being to tell his career arch over many campaigns... nice vid... cheers, I'd forgotten so much. WK
Thank you for your work Warwick, I love my IA books!
"... but things continued to go badly..."
Ah, the setting summed up succinctly.
Honestly I really wish they did more of this more in depth, special forces style stuff. Since it better fits the scale of the table top game, rather than only representing a part of a greater offensive. Things like defending the thunderhawk wreck site sound like really cool missions to do.
I agree. Just last week my buddy and I did a 1k game that was just a skirmish at a highway checkpoint! It was fun to set up terrain to look like a military stop point and battle over the road.
I definitely encourage you to come up with some homebrew missions like that
I totally agree. I much prefer these books to the idea that the 40k "story" as a whole must constantly be advanced now. There is basically infinite space for well written events like this one. Unfortunately, Pandora's box was opened and I doubt GW will ever be able to go back to the old style of their storytelling.
@@LordyT34 A 40k version of something like Operation Storm-333 would be really cool. Something like the local administratum conducting a raid on a dissident planetary governor.
@@LordyT34 What forces did you use. Sounds like a good scenario for PDF or a Guard force vs Chaos or Genestealer cultist.
@@Iron4rd We did Iron Hands vs World Eaters, it was a blast! Close to, 64-59 Iron Hands win
This one is very close to my heart being a big fan of the D99 and the Anphelion project. Thank you Ian! Great work.
Imperial Armor's lorebooks were always the best regarding lore when they focused on the non-chaos sides. Between this and the focus on the Damocles Crusade, Forgeworld really knocked these out of the park!
yeah i wish we were still getting these.
Why do you think main GW team don't like the FW teams? FW actually produces amazing lore and products while nearly every current GW story is meh and is designed to sell models.
@@tdlainc.4737 In fairness, even the time GW cut them back for Horus Heresy the team was entirely different than that which made Imperial Armor. IA was literally a lightning in the bottle moment in comparison.
This book was the best 40K horror setting ever. People get so used to "Gun down the hordes of 'nids!" that they have no idea how scary a handful of Tyranids are. Or what things are like outside the context of a 6-turn battle. When the time span is months, weeks, or sometimes day, Tyranid evolution is terrifying.
Exactly - the Tyranids you can see and perhaps gun down would not worry you as much as the ones you don't see that might be lurking in the shadows all around you, watching you from the darkness until the time to strike is ripe. Over days, weeks or months of continuous threat that psychological pressure would begin to wear down even the most disciplined and self confident troops.
"Varius!? What have you done with my Legions?!"
👏
And that was the last they heard of that insubordination
Honestly, this rundown is doing a lot to break my writer's block on a 40k rpg that picks up on some of those loose threads, finding out just how much Varius is allowed to get away with before getting Callidus-ed
Guardsmen: Look, they fly now!
Commisar: They fly now?!
Inquisition:....They fly now!!
This IA breakdown series is the best, well worth the effort 👍🏻
One of my Fav Books.
It captures the Forgeworld Charme lost to Time.
a cross over between 40k and jurassik park ? yes !
with lots of Predator, and Jim Cameron's Aliens in there as well!
Welcome, to Xenossic Park!
I cannot ever get enough of ArbitorIan's video, especially ones like this. Max tier content, every single time. Kudos for making such well done videos
One thing I love about your lore is that it's you narrating it, not David Attenborough
I hate how people just stole his voice like that. Truly ghoulish.
I clicked on one of those once, and it's astonishing to me that they've got any level of popularity. Like, sure, the voice superficially sounds like him. But there's zero expression or inflection, zero surprise - it sounds like someone reading off a phone book.
@@gkiyo absolutely ghoulish behaviour. That so many people even watch that is a testament to how people will consume slop.
Right? Ian's bring us the Emperor's light, those "people" are some abominable Intelligence if I've ever heard them
😂 have you ever heard David Attenborough before? Ian is a great narrator but he's really not that far off from David at all. He's pretty calm and has an English accent.
It's a lot better than someone getting overly excited while explaining 10 year old supplements to a tabletop game.
Loved the maps showing the troop movement. Great video as always
22:13 “…trust only in the Emperor to deliver you from your terrible predicament.”
LOL!
I enjoy self contained stories like this, it helps show the hubris of the Imperium better.
"We clocked the Hierophant Bio-titan at 64 miles per hour"
Another banger of a video, the best fluff videos out there! Really next- level stuff with graphics and actually sourcing the material and explaining its real-world context, I love it.
Back in the day (my early 20’s) I saved up my pennies to buy some forge world Elysian drop troopers. They were so expensive and I had so few I ran them as a D-99 list.
Way cooler than it seemed from what I'd read and heard before, thanks for the summary!
This whole mission and tragedy feels just like a live fire exercise and useless. Fantastic video. Concise, entertaining and informative. Thank you for respecting your viewers time. Looking forward to the next video. Keep up the good work.
Well, one Inquisitor eliminated his rival and proved the further viability of Gland Warriors/D99 and Red Scorpions so the High Lords would make more. I guess it had some use.
Really enjoyed that this whole operation and lives lost were just so an inquisitor could get his ducks in a row. Rock solid vid Ian!
I always enjoyed the Anphelion Project. As the video title says, it is clearly influenced by Jurassic Park, along with a few nods to Aliens, and it really conveys how desperate the situation being faced by these forces cut off on a Tyranid infested moon in a dark, far flung corner of Imperial space truly is. In the final analysis it is all just a minor event in the broader history of the Imperium and the galaxy at large, but that is part of the appeal of 40K as a setting - it is so utterly vast that there is really no limit to the range of stories that can be told within the setting.
I LOVE stuff like this and you tell these stories SO WELL!
This was a great bit of 40K lore. Cheers Ian!
Rewatched as soon as it was completed, great story and storyteller!
And now we're getting a novel for the Siege of Vraks!
I hope you do Doom of Mymeara and Fall of Orpheus anytime
this was such an awesome campaign!
I had the pleasure of playing it when 5th ed was around and loved every second of it!
In fact, it kinda makes me want to make a Red Scorpions and nids army now that the 10th ed starter has bot of those forces * o *
Great video. Love your style for retelling.
I have a tyranid army and had no idea about this lore, I might start folding this into it, its very much a vibe I adore
Dang Arbitor, you sure make these old campaign books attractive again. It makes me want to spare no expense recreateing these days gone by. The nostalgia is strong. 👍🙂
God this is so cool, I'm so sad they stopped making imperial armour books
also time to brainstorm red scorpion successor chapters
My favourite Imperial Armour.
The Tyranid models are still great.
Just got my Hierophant too.
Sad I missed out on Solomon Lok though.
I'm loving these. Great work
So D-99 was referenced in the rogue trader RPG by fantasy flight IIRC. As an arch militant background option. A glad warrior
Thanks for the nighttime lore story!
Still enjoying my 2006 first edition authors hand signed copy of this book.
I ran a 40k RPG campaign where the party (an Inquisitor's retinue) visited the remains of the Anphelion compound to find out what happened. It ended with them frantically reversing their Rhino back onto the drop ship whilst a Trygon was smashing in the front end. Good times.
Amonia atmosphere...must smell great
Loved these old imperial armour books. Would love to hear you explain the “raid on kastorel novum” or whatever the Ork one was, the only one I never read
What a fun setting that could be explored in more details.
Nostalia. Inquisitor Lok and the Red Scorpions upgrade kit were my first Forge World purchase.
I used both to flesh out my Inqusition/Deathwatch army. (Had Grey Knights and SoB to provide for the other Ordos too)
I stopped collecting approx 2008.
That terrain looks amazing. I wish someone sold reprints. It would be a fraction of the price if forgeworld sold it still
Another cracking video, and yay more moving maps!
So is the Raid on Kastorel-Novem due at some point?
That would be the last the Imperial Armour campaign book to cover.
Oh there's Orpheus and Mymeara too!
They fly now??
They fly now
love this thanks!
This book was *SO GOOD*, the Imperial Armour series was absolutely the high-water mark of all 40k medie ever produced imo. The artwork was simply stunning, and presenting model dioramas as though they're in-action photographs of events did so much to ground the setting. Really sad it's gone.
Ah, Inquisitor Lok and his flying servo skull toilet roll holder. He'd never be caught out at festivals. 😂
Spare no expense.
I absolutely loved Imperial Armour 4, I remember it coming out while I was in primary school and my mum getting it for me. I was so excited to show it off to my friends and horribly butcher 40k lore for them. So happy to see it still get love
This felt more like alien combined with warhammer than Jurassic park
Thank you.
Seems like this would make a good movie, perhaps a bit too similar to the alien films for some but it does have a much larger and more apocalyptic scale by the end.
All of Forge World's books are actually just more excuses to make more Carab Culln models, we're just missing his infant model and his scout model.
I know right.
The Red Scorpions are Forgeworld's Ultramarines.
I fucking love 40k
These are my favourite videos you do- old content, not the latest book that gw wants its influencers to push.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE how empirial armour did it's things, i hope we get stuff like it still
😭
The crusade books but thats not even close to a comparison saddly. Tje community needs to make more homerbrew events to play
Unfortunately all the forgeworld talent went to work on the Horus Heresy. Which is probably why that game is so much more fun and the narrative books and community are thriving over there.
@@sturm9087 40k still is, i like that horus heresy is getting attention and this quality of content, it is a temporary thing so 40k should get that talent back
@@Luizguilherme-iz9yl 40ks narrative community is very much dead. Especially compared to heresy. Also the forgeworld team has been working on heresy exclusively for the last 8 or so years. I don’t think its temporary and I don’t think they’re coming back to 40k. Especially since they canceled the last imperial armor book that was supposed to be for 40k
amazing video, but do you know which three successor chapters came from the Red Scorpions?
You should do a video on all the Space Marine Chapters created as a result of Forgeworld/Imperial Armour books 😊
It's just the Red Scorpions.
Who they constantly recycle.
They're Forgeworld's Ultramarines.
All the Badab War Chapters Already existed.
@@ChrisKCook the Red Scorpions were around in Rogue Trader already
Shame we never got Fires of Cyraxus.
Life.....er finds a way.
Also this book is why I despise the Red Scorpions so much.
I dislike them because Forgeworld overuses them.
This is great !
What an incredible idea for a game plus a great selling program of forge world models which now can be replaced if you own tyranids from the Primaris box set ! Thanks Ian for sharing keep these ideas coming because they're brilliant!
I always felt that most people got what this book was all about wrong, while most people seen it as a Jurassic park tale I always seen it as as an insight into the cut trout world of the Inquisition.
I miss this sort of source book narrative being the primary source of narratives instead of trashy novels. This is real 40k. Trawling in-universe documentation.
Say Ian. Can you Please do a 20 to 30-ish minute Timeline Video Covering the entire lore and History of Warhammer Age of Sigmar? Because beside UA-camrs like 2+Tough you are one of the few honest people who can comprehensibly cover Warhammer in a honest and sincere Way. i also would want to know what are your personal thoughts regarding Age of Sigmar as a Setting that ostensibly rebooted the Warhammer Fantasy universe from scratch after controversially destroyed it during The END Times.
For me I think this was their best book.
Tyranids on Red Bull.
Anyone know how to run Necromunda Gangs (N95) in Space Hulk? I just want somthing that will mesh with 2nd Edtion rules and give me a tunnles option for scenerios. I guess im just asking what oldschool Space Hulk suppliment I should narrow in on.
Idea for future video series: have channel subscribers vote on which IP/narrative/historical event they'd like to see 40K-ified. Offer expert commentary on how it could be done, how it might turn out, and whether it could be monetised to the extent that GW might actually implement it.
(dooku voice) i've been looking forward to this
Man this rocks
A Lore video???? Immediate Like ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
whats the intro music song called? them dark 80s vibez
What exactly is a 40k campaign supplement? Sorry I am new to all this, but is it something you play? Or just as you say a story and basically an ad?
It's usually a book that tells the story of a single campaign, and then gives you a way of playing through the campaign yourselves - unique missions based on the events that happened, rules for the environment it's set on, maybe rules for special units unique to that campaign.
@@ArbitorIan That's pretty neat need to look into that more!
The old books that did this were called Imperial Armour or Warzone supplements. I think the current ones are called Crusade supplements?
I had three Tyranid shrikes.
You ever get them to the table?
@@WilhelmScreamer when we played Anphelion project as an apocalypse game.
10,000 points of Tyranids vs guard, metal stormtroopers and Ultramarines.
4 players each side.
@@timothylyons5686 that sounds dope
I want Elysian Drop troops back! 😭
There us a Rumor they're coming back.
But I've been thinking about how to Kitbash them..
I had both fw and 3d prints. The 3d prints are better and easier (like so much easy to make)
How much did the big terrain kit cost?
BAZILLIONS
There are some 3d recations around that are prefect
sounds like the plot to Piranha 3d
Yeah
Ian ur the guy
This is a cool bit of lore
This is more like Jurassic Vietnam 40K
Cool
That's a 40kass 40k story
Still the coolest terrain ever.
Always thought the elyisans were... unnecessary... but still cool.
[...]...back in 2006 the idea for flying Tyranid armies was pretty new...[...]" *laughsin2001*
They fly now?!
Cool 👍
l
Tyranids are just zombies. GSC and Necrons do everything Nids do, but better.
I got news, gsc is tyranids
@heralds that doesn't change anything, in fact, it reinforces my point. The tyranids are lazy world building and bring nothing to the setting the GSC couldn't have. If the tyranids disappeared from lore, 40k would not fundamentally change.
@spacemanx9595 why would you lose GSC? They predate the tyranids. They pose a much deeper existential threat because of their nature. Where the nids are a slobbering horde of zombies, the GSC represents a threat from within.
@spacemanx9595 they exist to consume. All of that "intelligence" is focused on devouring biomass. That isn't intelligence, it's poorly designed "brainnnnns".
Oh nids don’t bring anything but the 15 different marine chapters and imperium armies all bring something unique. If anything should be dropped it should be the non codex compliant marine chapters and probably custodes or sisters of battle. Those armies all do the exact same thing as space marines
Great stuff. Cheers. 😎