Assault on Kol follows a Custodes investigation within the wider Signus disaster. While Sanguinius leads the Blood Angels deeper into the system, a splinter force turns towards a mining world occupied by corrupted Solar Auxilia.
The Horus Heresy team’s 7 October designers’ notes place Journal Tactica: The Battle for the Signus Cluster – Assault on Kol alongside earlier accounts of Signus Prime in Fear to Tread and Book Eight: Malevolence. Kol adds another battlefield and another force’s experience of the catastrophe.
A mining world beneath the radiation
The designers describe Kol as exposed to the Signus star’s radiation and hollowed by deep mines. Those excavations later house military bases and extensive underground settlements. The 606th Cohort of the Solar Auxilia is based there; by the campaign’s events it has been corrupted and is known as the Rad Serpents.
In the same account, Sanguinius advances through Holst, Ta-loc and Scroltum while the Custodes force breaks away to investigate Kol.
| Location | Place in the designers’ account |
|---|---|
| Signus Cluster | The wider theatre of conflict |
| Signus Prime | The familiar Blood Angels battle involving the Red Tear and Cathedral of the Mark |
| Kol | The mining world investigated by the Custodes, with corrupted auxiliaries and daemonic activity |
The geography gives the campaign room for different encounters. The Blood Angels’ advance and the Custodes investigation take forces into different parts of the same disaster.
Custodian duties and the Kol investigation
White Dwarf #287’s The Custodian Guard, published in November 2003, describes Custodes detachments accompanying the Legiones Astartes to ensure that the Emperor’s will is followed. Visions of Heresy’s The Custodian Guard gives the same broad duty.
That background helps place the order among the expeditionary forces of the era. The October designers’ notes supply the specific action at Kol: a splinter force leaves the main advance to investigate the world. The full campaign text is the place to follow its orders and the sequence of engagements in detail.
For their wider background, the Adeptus Custodes overview follows their creation, protection of the Emperor and broader duties.
Fighting through an inhabited underground world
Kol’s mines provide the foundations of military installations and settlements supporting a substantial population. Corruption takes hold in an established Imperial environment, affecting both the garrison and the world around it.
As a campaign premise, that gives the Custodes an investigation with a concrete setting: military facilities, underground habitation and daemonic manifestations around the fall of the Rad Serpents.
Custodes artwork accompanying this discussion of the force’s role in the Signus campaign.
Commanders for different Custodes forces
The 7 October article introduces two commanders and an amended jetbike profile:
- Ephoroi Venatari-Proconsul: a jump-pack commander designed to open up Venatari-led forces.
- Hykanatoi Proconsul-Delegate: a subordinate commander for smaller forces, allowing a command choice below a Shield Captain or Tribune.
- Gyrfalcon Jetbike Sodality: an updated profile adding the arachnus volley cannon option associated with the plastic kit.
The two commanders are intended to be represented by kitbashed miniatures, with component recommendations in the Journal. That makes conversion part of the supplement’s approach to representing these officers.
For equipment combinations, restrictions and costs, read the Journal alongside Liber Custodes and the relevant updates. The designers’ notes explain each profile’s intended role and how it fits the campaign’s forces.
The Slaanesh army list
The 8 October companion designers’ notes introduce the Daemons of Slaanesh as a sub-faction of Daemons of the Ruinstorm. The list supports a daemon army or allies in other Traitor armies, subject to its restrictions.
The team also discusses the gap between a reader’s recognition of Slaanesh and Imperial understanding during the Heresy. That perspective suits Kol’s investigative premise: characters encounter manifestations whose identity is more familiar to the audience than to the people facing them.
Our companion article on Slaanesh and Imperial records explores that knowledge problem. At Kol, the corrupted human garrison and daemonic activity give players two parts of the campaign to explore through its background and army rules.
Taking the campaign to the table
The designers’ notes establish the setting and introduce the new army options. The Journal supplies the campaign narrative and rules to read alongside the relevant army books. The 7 October article also records the supplement’s pre-order milestone; regional sellers provide current availability.
Kol’s appeal lies in that combination of setting and force design: an underground Imperial world, a fallen garrison, Custodian investigators and a Slaaneshi army list. The smaller command roles and kitbashing guidance help connect the story to a force a player can build.
