“Every one of these worlds belongs to Him-on-Terra already; they merely require His servants to enforce that dominion over them. Any soul who claims otherwise is a coward and a traitor, worthless to the Imperium except as an example to others whose belief may falter.”
      –Excerpt from Volume IV of Lord Militant Achilus’ memoirs

Last month, we announced the upcoming release of The Jericho Reach , a supplement for Deathwatch that provides in-depth information on the struggles of Kill-teams currently operating throughout the Reach. Each chapter delves into detail on the personalities, planets, and themes of a specific salient, while providing players and Game Masters alike with important resources for integrating the setting more deeply into their campaigns.

In our last preview , we looked at the Acheros Salient, where the Battle-Brothers of the Deathwatch wage a bloody war against the Chaos-worshipping forces of Stigmartus. Today, we’ll turn our attention to the Canis Salient and the Deathwatch’s struggle against the Tau. We’ll also get an early look at one of the most strategically important Imperial worlds in the Salient, Wrath.

Enemies on all sides

The territory covered by the Canis Salient includes dozens of worlds stretching from the edge of the Iron Collar to the Black Reef, with most of those worlds having been claimed in the earliest years of the Achilus Crusade. These territories, long established under Imperial rule in all but a few cases, are still far from stable and prosperous parts of the Emperor’s domain due to the sedition and unrest spread by the Achilus Crusade’s oldest enemy, the Tau Empire.

Now the Tyranid menace, which has so swiftly undone decades of triumphant conquest within the Orpheus Salient, presses upon worlds at the edge of the Canis Salient, threatening Imperial and Tau forces alike.

While some will give no quarter and show no mercy to the Tau even in the face of the Great Devourer, others have begun to feel that standing side-by-side with the Tau against the Tyranid menace may be the only way for the Achilus Crusade to survive. Such a heretical course of action has caused no end of controversy, and the Salient’s Lord Commander Ebongrave has begun a paranoia-fueled (and resource-draining) witch hunt to track down anyone subscribing to these beliefs.

But although the Tau menace is generally contained to the Greyhell Front, the planets of the Canis Salient still face threats from all sides. Instrumental in defending Imperial interests in the Salient, Wrath boasts a massive surveillance network capable of keeping tabs of dozens of worlds. Download our three-page excerpt (pdf, 1.2 MB) to learn more, and look for The Jericho Reach on store shelves in the first quarter of 2012!

Deathwatch is a roleplaying game in which players take on the roles of the bio-engineered super-soldiers known as Space Marines. United with their battle-brothers, players will complete extraordinary missions involving some of the greatest heroes and deadliest opponents the Warhammer 40,000 universe has to offer.