Why The Horus Heresy is the Warhammer game for me
Anyone that has spent any amount of time gaming with me over the past few years will be far from surprised when I say the following: Warhammer the Horus Heresy is the game that I want to play. It has advanced to the point where I barely care about 40k at all these days. I am infatuated, and have no problem admitting that. By this point, you are either terrified of what is to come and frantically trying to hit the back button on your web browser, or, you want to know why.
Many, and varied, are the reasons that Warhammer the Horus Heresy is the game for me. I love the ruleset. I love the setting. I love the models. Oh, and not just that, but… I fucking love Space Marines.
Rules that Rule! (Lame)
I was excited for a rules reset that was to accompany the release of 8th Edition of Warhammer 40k. I hadn’t played in the past few editions, although I had kept up buying the rules updates, and it seemed like an opportune time to get back into the game. Plus, it was being touted as a more streamlined system to play games faster. I did love the new version of the game and built literally half a dozen new armies before 9th ed dropped: it was during this edition that I slowly came to realize I wanted more.
Don’t even get me started on what I think of tenth edition. I literally can only choose half or full size squads, there are no points for gear or weapon upgrades and all abilities feel recycled across every army. I’ll halt this rant before it goes for an entire article.
Needless to say, I found that I wanted to go old school. I missed the complexity.
While it’s true that I began playing Warhammer 40000 during the tail end of Second Edition, it was Third Edition where I became addicted dedicated. Each edition, from 4th to 7th, added a little more depth and expanded the options: what was an optional expansion in one edition became an integral part of the game in the next. This all culminated in the 7th version of 40k, which became a little clunky and inevitably it was found that formations became pay-to-win options and upset the game as a whole.
Amidst the evolution of 6th and before the eventual turmoil of the period that was 7th edition, a new and altogether different type of game expansion emerged from the game designers at Forge World: The Horus Heresy. Honestly, I only played a few games of the original version of the Horus Heresy game, using the updated Red Books. But I owned two sizeable 30k era armies by the time summer 2022 rolled around and gifted the tabletop wargaming world with a second edition titled Warhammer: The Horus Heresy.
That’s it boyos, we have become a Flagship game. It was exciting to see Heresy up there in bright lights next to AoS and 40k.
Minor history lesson aside, the newest version of the Horus Heresy includes all the crazy old crunchiness and randomness that I missed from the modern 40k games. It also came packed with some modern quality of life updates that made the game more approachable.
Warhammer 40k has lost a bit too much of the grit and become too abstract for me. Regardless of how streamlined and easier to balance it may be, rolling dice to determine how many hits were allocated by a flamer or explosion is not even close to the level of fun found by placing a template over the target models. And sometimes the circle template that represents an explosion will scatter, moving across the table in a random direction. Adding a bit of unexpectedness aids in it feeling like a chaotic warfront in my eyes.
Also, similar to templates, I feel like vehicles are handled better in Heresy than 40k. Specifically the whole armor facing thing, but also the line of sight and shooting. I can not argue that it is far less likely to cause arguments during a tournament game when the rule says something along the line of “if any part of the vehicle can see the target then it can shoot all its fucking guns at it.” I don’t like it, nor does it make sense to me. I prefer weapon fire arcs: I prefer the chance of moving a tank badly and not being able to shoot some of my guns. But what I like far more than that is armor values on a tank being different depending on what side is shot at. The front is more heavily armored: it should be tougher. And also impossible to be damaged by small arms fire. A pistol is not doing anything beyond possibly scuffing the paint on a tank, but, according to 40k, there is never less than a one-in-six chance that a simple pistol can penetrate the armor of a tank. Fuck that.
These quicker and easier game mechanics appear to me to support a balanced game of Warhammer 40k intended for competitive play, which I just do not appreciate. I get it. Believe me, I enjoy a balanced, matched play game, where we take even points on both sides and let our tactics and the roll of dice determine who wins: That’s not what we are talking about. Tailoring the game to the competitive scene hurts the culture for me in the long run. I enjoy the fact that Warhammer has become a living game, advancing and adjusting as needed, but rapid changes to the game has the opposite effect on my appreciation of said game. Not only do the updates come fast and furious these days, and far too often for a casual player to keep up with. These game updates create problems instead of fixing problems for non-tournament players.
Changes to rules seem based on how much something gets abused in ranked events. Again, appreciation bounds for the fact that Games Workshop sees Warhammer as an evolving game and allows it and the army books to change over time, as opposed to the old method of here, this is your book, hope you like it cause it may be your last for several editions. In my eyes, this would be alleviated if 40k separated Matched Play, which involves relatively balanced gameplay to have fun without any glaring problems, and Tournament Play, which focuses on pure min/maxing. The sole purpose of attending a tournament is winning (fun is secondary it seems). Often times this is achieved through some divination of an unforeseen synergy between rules, and then abusing the fuck out of it as much as possible. Wow. That’s a powerful combo: I will take eighteen!
Not strictly a rule but part of the game system as a whole, heresy still holds on to individual point costs for unit upgrades and weapon options. Warhammer 40k has lost that recently. I can cope, but I don’t have to like it: This is detrimental to me and many others. I understand that assuming everyone will take any option they can ease the balancing challenge of the game. There are literally thousands of choices across the game. Attempting to make any one unit or models options internally balanced against each other, so that it’s balanced whichever way you go Is an option that in my mind reduces the point of having those very options to begin with. A Plasmagun does different things than a meltagun or a grav gun. To me, they deserve to do different things and have divergent point values, not just arbitrarily evened out in worth upon the battlefield to make things quicker.
Is Heresy 2.0 perfect? Oh, by no means. The rulebook is laid out in an order that feels like they were designing a puzzle. The special rules are all in the core rulebook, oh, except for the space marine only special rules, which are in the Loyalist and Traitor books. And don’t forget the Mechanicum only rules in that book and, well, you get it.
Cumbersome is a term that could be used to describe the Heresy rules at first, but, here is the thing: most are used by every single army. The core rulebook has 80% (scientifically guessing here). To make matters easier, both the Loyalist and traitor books come packed with everything you need to play your chosen space marine legion. The first half of each book is the same: generic characters, infantry and vehicle units, gear and special rules. Afterwards, each book dedicates a section to the legion specific rules and units available to them on top of the generic stuff. One stop shop.
The best part is that most players are fielding a space marine army of some sorts, and a majority of those models are using a lot of the same rules, stats and equipment on both sides of any given battle. I know what my opponent’s tactical squad, leviathan dreadnought or land speeder squadron can do because mine do the same.
My friends and I have found the smaller scale Zone Mortalis games as an easier entry for new players. Smaller games, with fewer rules to learn, trapped in the claustrophobic and dangerous confines of a star ship or space station corridor. With no vehicles and many other units restricted (why can’t I ride my motorcycles through a spaceship?) the learning curve is tapered down. Plus, The reactions are less devastating, easing players into the cat and mouse game of getting your opponent to react to the unit you want them to, instead of the one they should.
And, on top of all of that, I will take the Heresy reactions over fucking stratagems any goddamn day. There are six core reactions, two for the movement phase, two for shooting and (you guessed it) two for assault. Additionally, there are a few special circumstances reactions and exactly one reaction special to each legion, and those are only allowed once a game. There are more stratagems in one single fucking 10th edition 40k codex then in the entire Heresy game. Do I like stratagems in 10th better than 8th/9th? For sure. But, I would also like getting shot in the foot more than shot in the face; stratagems are still a heaping cumbersome pile of unwieldy bullshit. (did I include the word “stratagems” enough in that paragraph?)
Amongst the fire of Galactic Civil War
One thing the Horus Heresy has going for it is the fiction it is built around. Something like thirty years ago, a box-out bit of fluff in a rulebook used the idea of a civil war to justify printing the same models in two colors to fight each other. Or so it goes, anyway. Maybe it was the original Adeptus Titanicus box set (or maybe it was the Space Marine box that came after. Either way a reason was given for models that looked the same could fight each other.
From that little bit of test in a convenient box evolved into the mythic founding era for the 41st millennium and all that took place in the Warhammer 40k game. We got 60+ novels in a linked narrative telling the story of a seven year civil war where brother fought brother. And, lucky for me, we got a game based off those books.
Even though I enjoyed the fiction that infused the army and rulebooks since the beginning of my Warhammer 40k experiences, I was originally hesitant to read the Heresy novels. The few instances that I had indulged in the fiction seemed to me to be the Warhammer 40k version of a sitcom episode: Some shit happens, it’s dealt with, then it’s never referenced again. Fun maybe but ultimately shallow.
Well, Cliff eventually wore me down and I gave it a try. Then I literally beat my head against the books until I cleared all 54 books in the main series within two years (with a little help from Audible during car rides and painting sessions). I finished the last book the day the first installment of the Siege of Terra, which was a capstone series to tell the tale of the final conflict, arrived at my apartment. To say I was hooked would be a gross understatement. Through this time I collected the largely out-of-print Black Books. A series of hybrid campaign and rule books, these told the story of the heresy as if from the perspective of history being recorded, while also allowing players to join in the fun. The two divergent but complimentary book series combine to tell a wonderful story. A story of brotherly love, unfathomable betrayal and a level of hate can only be born of that ruined relationship.
The best part of this whole ridiculous thing, really, is that the ending was already well known before the first words of the series were committed to print. Decades in the making, it was still thrilling to meet the characters involved, and be in the thick of the heroic actions by both sides in the war for conflicting ideologies. The bonus for me, and other long-time fans of the Warhammer 40k universe, is that the past of the setting, which the Heresy era represents, is filled to the literal brim with wonderful juxtaposition. Where the year 40,000 is bleak and grimdark, the crusade of 30,000 era is ripe with hope. While 40k is both dogmatic and fanatical in the worship of the Emperor of Mankind, 30k is a secular society attempting to bring enlightenment to the galaxy. This flows all the way down to the relationships, as Horus and Sanguinius are best of buds, and, well, we know how that ends, don’t we?
Games Workshop calls them novels, and I absolutely loved reading them. I think a better term for them may actually be expertly crafted and compelling propaganda. I shit you not, every one of those books I read made me want to make a new army, or at least collect the models needed to play them a specific way. That story of marines boarding that space ship was badass: I wanna do that. Those marines were awesome: I could paint a collection of those. Hell, I even received an xmas gift of a model that Cliff wanted to kill every time we played, because he was such a bastard in the books.
All this story, often referred to as the fluff of the setting, is fuel for the rules applied to the varied Space Marine Legions within the Civil War. Special Legion specific rules are applied to the universal Space Marine rules to alter things to fit the culture and style of warfare of the specific army. White Scars like fast assaults and so they are capable of taking jetbike units as troops. Salamanders can bring a lot of fire to any fight. The Word Bearers can bring some daemon friends to play. Specializing in terror tactics, the Night Lords focus on disrupting the moral of their opponents.
There is a specific aspect to the fluff and the army composition rules that really hits me right in the slightly-crazy obsessive-compulsive completionist-collector part of my brainpan: The Ally Detachment. In various stories, one Legion will lend a contingent of marines to a different Legion in a fleet or war front. These seconded Marines are there to learn from their Legion brothers and make better connections with their cousin Legions. Cue the bromances. This is represented by Ally Detachments in a game of Heresy, which allows me to take a small, characterful force to either further support the way my primary Legion is playing, or overcome a deficiency.
All of this allows me to buy and paint a small collection of a different legion without committing to an entire army collection. Well, I don’t have to, but, as many of you can probably surmise, I often do end up with an entire new army (lookin at you Emperor’s Children). I hope to have at least an ally of each of the Eighteen Legions eventually. I have models for half of them already. There are even Gallery pages for a few of them.
Legions of Space Marine Models
Sure, there are all variety of creepy-robot mechanicum options and elite human armies available in the game of Horus Heresy. There are even armies of large, bipedal walking tanks known as knights, and their inherent level of cool is impossible to argue with. But, here’s the thing…
There’s fuckin’ power armor!
Everywhere!
My First Love. Seriously. I fell in love with Space Marines in the mid-90s. Over the decades, Space marines have been adorned with more and more, let’s say flair, as Games Workshop has embraced the gothic space monk vibe in 40k. More purity seals. More gadgets attached to belts. Flying cyber-babies carrying ammo. And skulls. So many fucking skulls. One of the newer Captain models literally has the bones of his predecessor nailed to his goddamn shield. Guess it’s bring a dead buddy to work day. Not here. Nope. The Space Marines of the heresy game are as pure as they get. Even the wolf-pelt covered space Vikings are relatively tame in the Heresy era.
It’s not just a single bulky and unmistakable Astartes (I forget when the title Space Marine was replaced with Adeptus Astartes) silhouette we are left with. Several generations, or marks of armor are on display. Some fit the demeanor of a specific legion more than others, but, don’t let purists try to tell you otherwise: Every legion had access to every mark of armor. Use the one you like the best, or mix and match how you see fit. Mark 3 armor is heavier and more knightly looking while Mk6 is sleek and minimalist, with the fashionable beaky helmets.
Unlike Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar, Heresy is a flagship game system from Games Workshop that embraces kit-bashing and custom models. Sure, you can bring your own proxy models and custom builds (or even 3d prints) to a friendly game of 40k, but your custom models are not allowed at a GW store or event. In the newer 40k codexes, they have even removed or limited options to represent only what exactly comes in a plastic kit for the squad. Not Heresy. The Loyalist and Traitor books are full of characters and units that you can buy from the Games Workshop website. But, unlike the 40k counterpart, the digital download units, arriving in glorious PDF format, are 100% legal units to use. Many of these represent options that were available in the first edition of Heresy but had to be custom built.
For Instance, my Palatine Blades with jump packs from 1st ed became the Palatine Blade Aquilae in the Legacies document. Other options are completely new and exciting units to build. Most of the PDF units have obvious official units to modify in creating them, but, some take some serious work and kitbashing, not to mention extensive time on eBay buying ten of those guns that you get one at a time in some specific kit. Regardless, if you enjoy kitbashing, Heresy has built in options for you. Be ready to let your imagination soar as you build yourself some badass marines.
What’s even better than a whole plethora of Space Marine armor Marks. Multiple terminator armor types, that’s what. My Warhammer collection proves that I love Space Marines, but, the genesis of that interest starts with an humble old metal terminator model. As I stated in the past (the past version of the website that is) I originally found and instantly lusted over the Deathwing Terminators. I can’t get enough. Quite frankly, one of the only things I love about 10th edition Warhammer 40k is that Terminators are in a good place again finally.
The normal 40k terminator armor is referred to in the Heresy era as Indomitus armor; it’s literally the crappy, mass-produced bargain brand terminator armor. Far more advanced sets of Tactical Dreadnought armor, more often simply called Terminator armor, exist in the setting. Cataphractii (yup, the extra “i” is supposed to be there) armor is slow, heavy and capable of shrugging off hits that could blow a tank off its tracks. On the other side of things is the Tartaros pattern Terminator armor. While it doesn’t quite offer as much protection for the wearer, its far more mobile. I love the look of both, and one style or another fits the personality of each legion. What’s more, in 40k the tough Death Guard use the filth encrusted Cataphractii pattern armor, where the Thousand Sons still wear Tartaros armor to battle, covered in space-egyptian style decorations.
So, we have lots of Astartes in power armor. There are marines and several different types of terminator armor. When a hero of the chapter is mortally wounded in battle, they get interred in a Dreadnought Sarcophagus. There are many Dreads in Heresy. Many, because they come in units. Several dreads rushing down the board to smash their way through the front line of your adversary. As has been made obvious in past posts, I love dreads and they are all over the place in Heresy. There are legion specific designs for Contemptor Dreads and a few legion specific Leviathans that add character and destructive ability to any Legion army.
As a bonus, or a sort of honorable mention, there was a particularly pleasant design choice made early on. The look of the old rogue trader era models were modernized a bit for Heresy. The slightly sad relics of the past became the glorious relics of the Heresy era, as the decision was made that the old designs were just that, the ancient versions of the modern day 40k counterparts. The original cube with wrap-around treads of the Rogue Trader era Land Raider became the Proteus Land Raider of the 30k Legions. The Heresy Rhinos look an awful lot like the tiny little mid-90s tanks in which I transported my plastic monopose 2nd edition Tactical Marines around the table in high school. I think this was an excellent decision on the part of Games Workshop.
Conclusion
There is a lot going on for Heresy, and it’s a rather exciting time to be a fan. Forge World is no longer making the game. It’s been moved to a flagship title at Games Workshop. Effort continues with the goal of replacing tedious resin kits with perfectly engineered plastic sets, for which I am thrilled. Same look, better end result. According to the last years report to their shareholders, GW is on pace as planned, and intends to keep going.
They may be replacing old resin with new plastic kits, but I wish units were releasing faster. Nearly three years in and I still can’t get all of the troop choices in plastic. I guess the plan from the get-go was the keep me (and others, not just me) frustrated in this regard. So, I keep buying expensive resin Breachers, because, I fucking love them. Plastic would be nice though.
There is so much more I could go into. So many nuances remain unwritten here. I haven’t even spoken of the bromance between Argel Tal and Kharn and how wonderful the friendship between these two damned souls turns out to be, but I will save that for later. Needless to say, while not every book is amazing, the whole thing came together in a satisfactory way.
And I won’t bore you with a full dissertation of the update to the classic rule system which results in a game that plays better than it ever did before. It allows me to act out my own stories within the wealth of background info and stories already written in the setting. This is the best part of it all.
So, yeah, long story short(ish), I love The Horus Heresy. I will go into more detail about a few of these reasons over the next few months. Until then…
Just lemme know when you wanna give it a try.
Tyson
Obsessive and neurotic collector of little plastic men, novels about the same little plastic men and paints to make the little plastic men pretty. Married to Kera, who puts up with him and pretends that she doesn’t hear him speaking to the little plastic men in between making pew pew noises in the hobby room. Requires adult supervision. A menace to himself but rarely to others. More beard than man
