Crusade of Fire Review Part 2: The Add-Ons

The first part of my Crusade of Fire Review covers the campaign section. The second part deals with the three additions in the book that go beyond the Crusade of Fire campaign itself: The flyer rules of “Burning Skies”, the rules for playing on “Daemon Worlds” and the mini-game “Arena of Death”. The inclusion of some is puzzling, but all of them will spice up your 40K game.

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Crusade of Fire Add-On #1 – Burning Skies

Burning Skies is a game-within-a-40k-game sort of add-on that can, by mutual agreement, be added to any regular game of Warhammer 40K that feature flyers. At the core of Burning Skies is the dog fight, which is inserted into the shooting phase of a regular game if (with an appropriate die roll) a flyer successfully engages an enemy flyer in a dog fight.

The dog fight has three rounds in itself, all build around a rock-paper-scissors-style mechanic for players to choose offensive and defensive maneuvers. You choose (or roll) for one of three options. Comparing your choice with that from your opponent gives you the resolution. The potential rewards are extra movements, attacks or damage.

Two additional rule-sets allow for even more options and depth in Burning Skies.

1. Special Maneuvers, which give each army in Warhammer 40K (with the exception of Sisters of Battle) unique moves for their flyers.
2. Fighter Aces, which allows armies (except for Sister of Battle and Chaos Space Marines) to upgrade a flyer to an “Ace” with extra skills and abilities.

Of all three “add-ons” in this book, this is probably the one that puzzles me the most.

The “Burning Skies” dogfight rules are not a separate mini-game in the way of Arena of Death (see below). Though there is a lot of crunch to it, these rules are not designed for people to simply break out a few flyer-models play and play a quick-and-dirty 40K-version of X-Wing, or something similar.

At the same time, the rules are fairly deep. I haven’t tried them on the table, but I cannot help feeling it would be awkward to interrupt a full game of 40K in the shooting face, only to play 3 rounds of Burning Skies, before going back to the “main action”.

Similar, I like the idea of “Fighter Aces”, but as they reference the Burning Skies rules often, they are not written to “only” use Fighter Aces in a regular Warhammer 40K game.

Also,why isn’t there a Fighter Ace option for Chaos Space Marines in a Chaos Space Campaign? An ancient, particularly loathsome Heldrake? A Hell Blade pilot feared across the sector? I can “understand” why they gave Sisters the short shrift, but Chaos?

I believe the best way to play Burning Skies will be to pick army lists made to play Burning Skies (i.e. mainly Flyers, possibly even ignoring the FOC) to go all-out.

This entry, IMO, would have been much better, if it would have been designed for a stand-alone mini-game from the start.

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Crusade of Fire Add-On #2 – Daemon Worlds

The second add-on is a is a brief 6-page entry with additional rules for playing Warhammer 40K battles on Daemon Worlds. It includes:

1. A general introduction to Daemon Worlds in the Warhammer 40K universe.
2. Brief showcases of 6 particularly infamous Daemon Worlds in the 40.000 universe, such as The Plaque Planet, home to the Daemon Primarch Mortarion.
3. Variant rules for Daemonic Possessions and Daemonic Hazards, which help to spice up a battle taking place on a Daemon World.
4. Finally, another Mission – Escape from the Jaws of Hell – that sees two players fighting not only each other, but also the third faction of the Daemons appearing all around them, seeking to consume them.

This section also received some flak – for example from The Independent Character – for being too much like a White Dwarf article. Partly because it mirrors a White Dwarf article for fighting on Death Worlds.

Despite this, I think this was to most logical and fitting “add-on” to the Crusade of Fire campaign. After all, the Crusade of Fire campaign includes two different Daemon Worlds. It is themed around a mighty Imperial crusade against the forces of chaos, trying to snatch the Corvus Sub-Sector from the grasping ambitions of the Dark Gods.

It makes perfect sense to have Daemon World rules in this particular book.

Again, I probably liked the extra mission best. It sounds like a fun game, though one would need a sizable collection of Daemon Miniatures, over and above the two armies actually in the battle. Again, gaming with a Game Master is probably the best solution.

Either way, ‘Daemon Worlds’ provides fun, no-nonsense rule to spice up a game of Warhammer 40.000. Good stuff!

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Crusade of Fire Add-On #3 – Arena of Death

Arena of Death is a quick and easy mini-game designed for those bloody duels that take place between the mighty characters of the Warhammer 40.000 universe.

This is probably a highlight of the book, and not only because everyone who has ever played Warhammer 40K has at one point mused about the question of two named characters taking on each other in a duel.

Arena of Death allows you to do just that. Moreover, it provides a fun and cinematic system for it based on a “speed” roll-off and manoeuvre cards. These two essentially replace two elements from the standard 40K rules that just don’t work as well for one-on-one duels: the fixed initiative of models and the fixed movement of miniatures.

Arena of Death also uses (unlike regular 40K) facing of miniatures, so that it matters whether you are behind your opponent or in front of him.

A further nice touch are ‘The Roar of the Crowd‘ rules, which give the game a proper “Gladiator” feel.

I thought Arena of Death is a lot better than Burning Skies, mainly by being focused on what it wants to do without trying  to shoehorn it into a regular game of 40K. It gives you a whole new fun beer-and-pretzels game to pit two characters against each other in a gladiatorial fight. Or two Monstrous Creatures. Or more than two.

They rules also seem to (potentially) reward player, who plan two or three steps ahead with his manoeuvres and positioning, giving it a bit more depth than just card-flipping.

I love the Arena of Death rules.

However!

Seeing how Arena of Death is entirely unconnected from the Crusade of Fire campaign (well, the studio guys did go out of their way to use them at one point), this is the one set of rules in Crusade of Fire, which – I feel – would have benefited most from a White  Dwarf treatment. Ideally (hopeless wishlisting, I know), one that gives you sturdy cardboard manoeuvre cards, as they used to with the White Dwarf in the 1990s.

Well, that one likely wasn’t going to happen either ways.

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In summary…

• Burning Skies: Good idea, but it feels a bit “neither here nor there”; too complex as a mini-game-within-a-40k-game, too short for a mini-game itself.
• Daemon Worlds: Not the most creative bit of rules, but they work. Fun, no-nonsense rules to shake up your 40K game.
• Arena of Death: A potential instant-cult-classic mini-game. Plays quick with just enough depth. It deserves a broader audience.

Catch up on Part 1 of my Crusade of Fire Review, if you missed it, and don’t forget to leave a comment!

Z.