--- title: "Pariah Nexus" subtitle: "A boldly belated book review" author: Seth publish_date: 2025-08-18 08:00 date: 2025-08-18 08:00 hero_classes: text-light title-h1h2 overlay-dark-gradient hero-large parallax hero_image: book_pariah-nexus.webp show_sidebar: true show_breadcrumbs: true show_pagination: true taxonomy: category: blog tag: [ gaming, tools, modules, gm, settings, scifi, wargame ] --- Coming as I do from the world of RPG, I'm used to a long-lasting core game release, with several playable modules published each year. After I started playing **Warhammer 40,000**, I was pleased to learn that Games Workshop provides a similar structure. Over the lifecycle of each edition (which is arguably too short but also [arguably doesn't actually matter](https://mixedsignals.ml/games/blog/blog_warhammer-editions-are-not-important)), Games Workshop publishes a few campaign books containing lore, optional additional rules, and battle scenarios relating back to the provided lore. During 10th edition, this has included **Tyrannic War**, **Pariah Nexus**, and **Nachmund Gauntlet**. I liked the look of **Pariah Nexus**, so I finally bought a copy and this is my review. _This review contains spoilers._ **Pariah Nexus** is split into 4 sections: lore, Crusade rules, expansion rules, and missions. ## Lore The first 44 pages of the book is fictional future history about a war executed in the Nephilim sector. The book gives a decent overview of how the conflict started, what major players were involved, and which armies showed up for the fight. All that matters to me personally, and the reason I chose this book to buy first, is that the Adeptus Mechanicus got involved. It sounds critical, but I love that the story of **Pariah Nexus** feels surprisingly unspectacular. Sure, it's a war and bad things are happening, but this isn't one of those stories where Terra is under seige or the galaxy's existence is at stake. Most settings feel the need to constantly elevate the threat. You can only threaten to end the world, or galaxy, or universe so many times before it gets to be both mundane and comical. **Pariah Nexus** doesn't risk that, and sets our sights exclusively on the Nephilim Sector, where the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Necrons are fighting over Blackstone. This is a story we basically already know, and it's a refreshing choice that kept me wholly invested in the story. The story is this. Szarekh, last of the Silent Kings, is campaigning in the Nephilim Sector, manœuvering all the pieces into position for...er, you know, like, the master plan, or whatever. One of the effects of his campaign is that citizens of the Imperium within that sector are succumbing to The Stilling, an extreme lethargy bordering on zombification. Forces of the Imperium move in to put a stop to this, and leading the charge is the Adeptus Mechanicus because they smell Noctolith. Humourously, each of the magi joining in on the expedition have the exact same idea. They all know they're not supposed to bring forbidden archeotech on the journey, but what good is archeotech if you just leave it sitting around at home? So they all bring archeotech, known collectively as the Omnissiah's Gifts, just in case. They're not going to actually use it, of course. They just want to have it on hand in case of emergency. Another joiner is Inquisitor Draxus of Ordo Xenos. Obviously a Necron uprising would interest her, so she requisitions a fleet and joins in the fight. While the Imperium does their best to thwart Szarekh, it becomes apparent that Szarekh is facing opposition from an unexpected source. Imotekh, Stormlord of the Sautekh Dynasty, has become disillusioned with the promise of the Silent Kings, and are keen to take over Necron leadership. In fact, Imotekh has come to see the metal forms of the Necrons as superiour to their formal fleshbound lives, and would have the Necrons remain in android form. The Necron civil war does little to relieve destruction. While there is a general withdrawal of forces as Necrons are redirected to fight Necrons, it's still the Imperium's territory serving as battlefield. Inquisitor Draxus destroys a major Necron pylon, which is both a major victory against the Necrons and cause for the Necrons to turn their attention back on the Imperium. The Adeptus Mechanicus decides to use their forbidden archeotech, and end up imposing equal casualties on both sides. Belisarius Cawl scolds the magi for using the Omnissiah's Gifts after he'd expressly told them to keep those gifts as display pieces only. But hey, live and learn, I'm glad we had this talk. What the lore section fails to do is provide equal entries into the campaign (er, Crusade) for all factions. I've got plenty of reason to send an AdMech or Astra Militarum or Space Marine army into a Pariah Nexus mission, but what if I wanted to play my Chaos Space Marines? What about someone with an Ork or T'au or Aeldari army? I found this a surprising omission because it would be a quick and easy random table to provide, and the book only exists to encourage people to play the game. The **Missions** section, later in the book, does offer some army classifications that help. There are Seekers, Protectors, and Interlopers. Whether your army is seeking Blackstone or hoping to protect territory or is just taking advantage of an existing conflict, it definitely fits into one of these classifications. Even so, I was a little surprised at the lack of any narrative around at least one interloping faction. Here's my d6 table to add flavour to an interloper's story: 1. You support the Necron cause for reasons known only to your mystics. 2. You were just about to attack the planet when you noticed it was an active warzone, so you decided to join in the plunder. 3. Everyone else is getting Blackstone, and you'd like some too. 4. You detected fighting in this direction and have come to assist. 5. You want to help end this war so it doesn't spread to your own sector. 6. You love killing anything that moves. It's 40 pages of pretend history, and it serves exactly the purpose it's meant to serve. You get to read a military history of a war in which nobody was actually harmed, and then use that story as the backdrop for your wargames. It might seem trivial, but I admire this kind of production. I've read about the [real] Punic Wars, and honestly by the time I get to the Third I feel pretty bad about them. I mean, I didn't partake in them, but they really did happen and people really were brutalised, and lives really were ruined. Sure, it was thousands of years ago, but it can still affect your mood. **Pariah Nexus** is humble in simplicity. It's short fiction with no main character, no dialogue, and only cursory overviews of too many events spanning too many worlds to track. None of it happened, so you don't feel bad about it, and yet it's truly immersive. You can disappear for hours into your studies of this history, and you can place armchair pretend-historian judgments upon the generals involved, their tactics, and the choices they made. What's really up with Draxus? How did she bring down a pylon and survive? And how about those magi? Was the loss from friendly fire worth using the Ark of Oblivion to destroy a Necron fleet? ## Crusade rules Pretty much every game book in 10th edition includes [Crusade rules](blog/blog_warhammer40k-crusade). Once you're familiar with the concept, the rules are basically the same regardless of what book or [website](https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/downloads/warhammer-40000/) you find them in. Basically: 1. List all the units you own on a Crusade Force (also called an **Order of Battle**) sheet. 2. Use your Crusade Force sheet as a master list of what units you can include in an army for a game. List each unit on a Crusade Card. 3. Use the game's Crusade Card to track each unit's performance. A unit might earn rewards for excellence, or it might perish on the battlefield. A unit that's destroyed in battle loses its upgrades, but of course you still own the physical models so it's likely that your next Crusade Force will include an identical unit (except without the upgrades.) There's no change in this book. These are the same rules, the same Requisitions, the same Ranks and Battle Honours and Battle Scars. No big deal, but what's next is pretty great. ## Expansion rules I don't necessarily think that _new rules_ mean _better game_. But I do love to cherry-pick cool stuff from a well-organised resource, and in the **Nephilim War** section of the book, there's a bunch of new stuff you can throw into your game. Or you can ignore it all and just play the game. Personally, I think of it as a Game Master Guide for a roleplaying guide. And I think that's spirit in which it's intended, because **Pariah Nexus** explicitly states that a Crusade is best with a Campaign Master. I can imagine running a Crusade and producing a Blackstone Upgrade or a Battle Trait from the **Nephilim War** section of this book. There are several different components, so here's a quick overview: * **Blackstone**: Expensive upgrades for Characters and warlords, granting abilities like **Scout 6"** for the bearer's unit, or the ability to designate one objective marker as a zone granting invulnerable saves to a unit in your army. My favourite is the **Blackstone Amulet**, which has a very cool automatic counter-attack ability, and is _definitely_ a relic I'll be including in a game in the future. * **Battle Traits**: New Battle Honours to award a unit when it gains a Rank from a battle. A Battle Trait is yet another rule, specific to a single unit, that you're likely to forget. That is, until it really matters. Then suddenly that Battle Trait you got that one time is your saving grace. It's happened to several of my favourite army units. It's a real thing. * **Crusade Relics**: Basically magic items for your game. Sure, they're sort of Battle Traits by another name, but they're themed as _things_ instead of as just traits. They feel powerful and exciting, and it makes me wish **Warhammer 40,000** printed stuff on cards. These are the kinds of things I want to collect for my army, and keep paper-clipped to the unit's datasheet. As it is, I settle for Post-It notes with book and page numbers. * **Crusade Blessing**: To help an army that's badly lagging behind in the campaign, you can grant it a Crusade Blessing. There are several, so you can choose the ones that makes the most sense for the army according to theme and mission. * **Agendas**: The real star of the Crusade format are Agendas, which is a system that arms each player with a game within a game. For one player, "victory" might mean getting 3 specific units through the game with minimal losses, while for the other player "victory" is to maintain a Character model within 3" of the centre of the board. There may be a goal for the mission, as well, but in Crusade you can play as much to level up your army as you do to win battles. I play most of my games with official or custom Agendas (whether I call them that or not.) * **Crusade Badges**: It's an Achievement system. I love Achievements in video games. They're entirely external to the game, they don't mean anything, you don't get rewarded for them, but it's a brilliant way to get a sense for how you played. Crusade Badges do the same thing. Did you earn the **Protector Adepts** badge? Or an **Interloper Adepts** badge? Or something else? Did you get all the way up to **Conquerors**? You can learn a lot about your approach, whether it was willful or forced upon you, by looking at your Crusade Badges. ## Missions There are 15 missions in the back of the book, and I've [played through all of them](http://mixedsignals.ml/games/blog/blog_battle-report-pariah-nexus-1). They're good, but I guess it's probably hard to go entirely wrong with a mission. You set up some objectives, and you fight over them. The mission design isn't anything new or exciting, but they're good foundations for the tabletop magic that happens when you get friends together to play Warhammer. The mission doesn't have to be anything, and arguably shouldn't require too much attention, because you probably want to play a game and not manage a simulation. While few introduce whole new mechanics, many of the **Pariah Nexus** missions (and the Crusade itself) do manage to add yet another layer to what's arguably already an overloaded game. If you thought you had a lot to think about with Stratagems and Army Rules and Detachment Rules and Crusade Forces and Requisition Points and Blackstone Acquisitions, then just wait until you add Crusade Blessings and Strategic Footings and Progressive Objectives and whatever Mission-specific rules come into play. Comically, the process for playing a Crusade game is outlined in just 20 steps. That's in the book. Games Workshop was happy to admit, through publication, that there are 20 steps in preparing for, playing, and administrating a Crusade game. I can only imagine that this is why the book explicitly recommends a Campaign Master, a third person whose job it is to help track the meta game. I feel like that's boldly honest. On the other hand, it's also a little misleading. As with everything in the book and, heck, the game itself, it's all optional. You don't have to account for every last Blackstone shard and every Victory Point and Blessing and Battle Honour and Campaign Badge. They're just more toys for you to use or to conveniently forget. In my experience, the Crusade is fun whether you have someone meticulously tracking a bunch of new rules, or whether you just add a new rule when you happen to remember it. If something is intimidating or confusing or cumbersome, just don't use it. ## Pariah Nexus Crusade I enjoyed the **Pariah Nexus** book, and have no complaints about it. You get fun lore, you get photographs of models, and a game expansion. There's a lot in this book, and none of the game components are limited to just this book. You can use everything in this book in your own campaigns or games, if you want. I intend to. This is, I think, a good example of a sensible lifecycle. Deliver a good game that stands on its own, and then deliver modular components that players can use when they want to add something new to their game sessions. More of this, and fewer edition updates, is exactly what I want from 40k.

Photo by Freddy Castro on Unsplash and modified by Seth Kenlon.