Start Playing Horus Heresy Part 1

Hello there, Knight of Infinite Resignation here, your friendly Remote-Scottish--Island-Dwelling-

Kierkegaard-Aficionado.

We had a little conversation in the comments a week or two ago about starting to play Horus
Heresy. Then I was reading the March White Dwarf and I noticed a completely inadequate two page
spread on the same subject. It struck me that for the interested non-player, 30K is extremely opaque
and confusing. So many books and so many factions. Or is it so few? Hard to know where to start.

Well esteemed reader, be confused no longer. Like a fairly bright thing partially illuminating a slightly
dingy corner I am come to end your confusion, and perhaps encourage you to start playing this
marvellous game. You might have heard a lot of this before if you are vaguely interested or even if
you just hang out in 40k circles, but hopefully it will help someone to put it all down here. If not, well
then my shallow storm tossed life is without meaning. Please forgive me if I patronise or repeat
commonplaces, it is far from my intention.

A little caveat before we start, I am writing these articles on a heaving ferry in the middle of the
North Sea in a Force 7 Gale. I don’t have my books here to look things up, so if I misremember
something, please be merciful and point it out in the comments.

So Why Play 30K?

Well there are I’m sure as many reasons as there are players. Maybe more. Counting isn’t my strong
point. Anyhow here are a few reasons you might have thought of, or not.

1) It still uses the rules for 7th edition Warhammer 40K. Well this is more or less true and may be a
plus or a minus depending on how you feel about 8th. In reality, most of the rules for 7th are
followed, but there are significant differences. Firstly, scoring is like in 5th, so with a couple of
exceptions Troops are the only scoring units and other units are purely denial units. Just as it did in
5th, this makes Troops very important and you won’t win many games without a good number,
helping armies feel a bit more realistic and reducing the spamming of uber-destructive units.

Army building is completely different, being based on 6th. With a couple of exceptions armies are
built from a CAD-like detachment, which allows 3 HQs, 4 Elites, 6 Troops, 3 Fast Attack and 3 Heavy
Support plus a Fortification. There are a couple of additional optional themed Force Org Charts if you
and your opponent feel like some variety, but this is the basic one you are most likely to see. Then
you can add a single Allied Detachment (1HQ, 2 Troops, 1 FA, 1 Elite, 1HS). There are various levels
of allies, Sworn Brothers, the closest level where unit joining is permissible, is fairly rare. There are
no Formations or their equivalents. Neither does filling out a FOC get you any bonuses or
stratagems. However, there ARE ways to change up the army structure, called Rites of War, and we
will come to them later.

To prevent MSU (multiple small units) builds most missions have a Kill Points element and also most
units are quite expensive for the first few guys, but adding more guys is very cheap, encouraging the
fielding of big units and fewer of them. Thus, even at high points levels, the game goes quickly as
there are not that many units running about.
Lastly on the army building front, Lords of War (which usually includes Primarchs) are restricted to a
single slot and to no more than 25% of the total army points. Knights cannot be fielded singly so no
adding a Knight to your list to give it punch, you must commit to a Knight allied detachment of one
HQ and one Troop if you want any Knights at all, meaning you WILL be short of scoring troops.

There are many other small balancing changes, perhaps the biggest being to the psychic phase.
There is no Invisibility power and Summoning is very highly restricted, to only Word Bearers
Librarians and maybe one or two other models. Daemons cannot summon more Daemons. All this
adds up to a very different feeling game with much more balanced armies.

2) There is far less rules churn. This is perhaps my favourite thing about HH. The books are released
fairly slowly, one or two a year, and new units and factions are drip fed into the game. This means
that the ‘meta’ isn’t constantly changing, you do not need to continually buy new books, you do not
need to continually change your army or replace wargear. Stuff that is good this year will not
suddenly become rubbish next year.

Doesn’t that make it boring I hear you ask? Well no because…

3) There is a huge variety of ways to play. FW have provided us with several sets of missions,
representing the battles around Istvaan, typical raid style missions that the shattered remnants of
legions might fight post-Istvaan, City Fight missions and even a couple of full campaign systems to
play with if you feel like invading an entire planet or sector. If you get bored with normal games
there is a skirmish Kill-Team/Necromunda type variant where small teams of troops compete for
resources and gain experience. Or you could play Zone Mortalis, battles inside bunker complexes or
set onboard Starships in the void. Zone Mortalis is actually a great way to start playing since it
typically features armies of between 500 and 1000 points, although you will need a fair amount of
terrain. The fancy Zone Mortalis boards from FW are optional, just covering a 4x4 with loads of
intricate line of sight blocking terrain, with doors in some of the gaps between terrain elements
works just as well.

But isn’t it all Marines all the time?

4) There is a surprising number of playable factions that all feel very different. There are six non
Marine factions. Firstly the Mechanicum (not Mechanicus). They have tough very customisable HQs,
many types of Monstrous Creature robots, a variety of either elite multi wound infantry or horde
style Troops (lobotomised undead tech thralls anyone?) plus extremely tough vehicles and can take
Imperial Knights as part of their army. Secondly there is the Imperial Knights themselves which can
be an independent faction.

Then there are two other human armies- the Solar Auxilia who are extremely elite (for non-Astartes)
with excellent equipment, stats and special rules, and the much more varied Imperial Militia and
Chaos Cults. The Militia and Cults army list is incredibly adaptable. You choose two ‘provenances’ for
your army, varying from Tainted Flesh to Abhuman Helots or Survivors of the Dark Age, there is quite
a list… These provenances and the basic army list can be used to represent anything from non-
Compliant civilisations which survived the Dark Age of Technology with their own versions of power
armour, Rhinos and Land Raiders, it can represent Squats, an Imperial Governor’s Planetary Defence
Force, the private armies of Rogue Traders or simply the ravening hordes of insane poorly equipped
scum herded into battle by some of the Traitor Legions.
Then we have the Talons of the Emperor, ie Custodes and Sisters of Silence.

Lastly Chaos Daemons can be taken as allies by Word Bearers under certain circumstances.

Then we come to the Marines. All the Legions have at least basic rules. Dark Angels, White Scars and
Blood Angels haven’t had their full rules yet, so no unique units or Primarchs for them, but they will
be on the way soon. All the Marine armies follow the same format and are built from the same army
list with the addition of two or three special units and characters per legion. Each Legion also has a
few special rules of its own to add flavour and character. You might think this would lead to identikit
lists, but the saving grace here is the Rite of War system. Certain HQs unlock Rites of War. Each
Legion will likely have two or three of its own unique Rites of War, there are a whole bunch of
generic ones that almost every Legion can use and some unique to Traitor or Loyalist aligned forces.
Taking a Rite of War (and you can only take one) can change your force in a great variety of ways,
some give additional extra bonuses (and penalties), some change army construction, giving more
slots or moving units from one slot to another. Some give special rules to particular units (such as
Deep Strike to Terminators) or to the whole army – for example Iron Hands have a Rite of War that
allows all their tanks to outflank, some allow you to take a Primarch outside of a Lord of War slot.

Adding a bit more variety again are the rules for Blackshields (mystery Astartes who have no
iconography and follow their own agenda, either Loyalist, Traitor or maybe just space pirates or
deserters) and Shattered Legions, armies constructed from multiple Legions representing cobbled
together task forces or scattered survivors banding together.

5) The models are stunning. They are generally in a more realistic and less cartoony vein than
Games Workshop’s core ranges, as is fitting a more gritty and realistic setting.

6) The fluff is EPIC!!!! It’s the f*cking Heresy! Play the characters and the forces in the battles from
the books that you love.

7) The unloved is loved… You want convincing and different feeling rules for that ignored Space
Marine faction, you got it! Although there are differences in power levels between forces, FW do a
pretty good job balancing and the players also take this seriously. The 30k community is more keen
to make the game work than to break it. Which brings us to…

8) the culture of Horus Heresy/30K players. HH players are a different breed to 40K players. Perhaps
the expense (though that can be mitigated), the perceived exclusiveness or the seriousness of this
‘historical’ game or the simple fact that there are fewer players more thinly spread changes how
they interact with each other.

WAAC players are extremely rare, and so is min-maxing and over competitiveness of the sort
common in 40K. Lists are often shared on Facebook groups not to make them more powerful, but to
ask if they are too powerful or too cheesy and whether they should be toned down! Quite a
different attitude. People seem more attached to their armies and the much lower amount of
‘churn’ and meta change facilitates people building beautiful and extensive collections. HH players
are a friendly, respectful and helpful bunch. They even smell nicer than 40k players. OK I made that
last bit up…
So if I have whetted your appetite stay tuned for the next instalment when I will discuss HOW to go
about starting HH and the books you will need.

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Start Playing Horus Heresy Part 2

Hello there, Knight of Infinite Resignation here, your friendly Remote-Scottish--Island-Dwelling-

Kierkegaard-Aficionado. Welcome back to this short series about starting 30K, it hardly feels as if
any time has passed for me, and that’s because it hasn’t, I’m writing these articles back to back
during a single exceptionally long ferry trip across the stormy North Sea.

As I said last time, I don’t have my books with me, so if I forget something or misremember it, please
be merciful and point it out in the comments. Anyhow a much shorter article today you’ll be glad to
hear!

SO MANY BOOKS!!!!

So if 30k is about one thing it’s about books. And models. Oh and terrain. And dice and shit. Yeah its
about lots of things, but first come the books, you can’t play without them, and there are SO
MANY!!!

Red Books and Black Books

Conveniently the books are divided into two types. The Black Books are big, and black, and the Red
Books are not quite as big, and red. Hope that helps.

Oh you want more? OK well the Black Books, and there are now 7, soon to be 8, are marvellous
agglutinations of rules, narratives and artwork. They are the most delightful thing a 30K player could
imagine, like beautiful arcane Space Hulks made from the crushed together bodies of kittens and
candy. They contain firstly an account of part of the Heresy, with ‘historical’ battles and their causes,
results and ramifications described in the journalistic style you’ll be familiar with from Imperial
Armour books, complete with pretend documents, intercepted transmissions and fake despatches.
They are really well done and full of grimdark flavour. Next each book also has a section on two or
three Legions, detailing their creation, the story of their Primarch, note-able battles and so on. All
this is illustrated with stunning colour plates and the distinctive Forgeworld style photo-real art we
know and love. I have to say that unlike the codexes this is not the same endlessly repeated and
rehashed fluff we find in the 40K setting. Its fresh and new and shiny and adds a lot of depth to the
background. It’s also very well written and conceived.

Lastly we come to the rules content. Varying from book to book, you’ll find the special rules and rites
of war for the Legions or other forces covered, possible campaign rules or a new way to play
(skirmish, Zone Mortalis etc) or even a full army list, the main Astartes list being covered in book 1.

OK the fly in the ointment. Some of these books have been out a long time, and the rules have been
superseded by rules in later books or confused by edition changes. The first Black Books were
released during 6th and then the later ones under 7th for a start. So don’t go out and rush to
Forgeworld to buy the Black Book with your Legion in it, instead think about the Red Books…
The Red Books were clearly thought up as a solution to the problem of having rules scattered
through multiple Black Books, some of which were out of date or conflicting. Unless you are a
masochist or have a huge bank balance the size of my wife’s shoe collection it’s the Red Books you
will most likely buy for your army, to start playing the game with. There are several different Red
Books available too…

The Horus Heresy Rulebook is a red book, and is essentially a reprint of the 7th Edition rules with a
few changes. If you are on a tight budget buy a 2nd hand copy of the 7th Ed rules (if you don’t already
have them), read a few reviews of the new FW version of 7th, make a note of the descriptions of the
changes and write them in the margins.

Then there are TWO Red Books concerned with the Space Marine Legions. One contains the special
rules for the Legions, the other is the army list. If you have a friend with the Legions book, you do
not need your own copy, just photocopy the ten pages or so about your own particular legion, it’s all
you will need. If you are playing a Legion, you will need the army list book. It’s now in its second
edition, so don’t be fooled and buy the old one on Ebay. Points have changed and there are a lot of
new units in the newer version. It’s worth saying that if you want both the army list and legion rules,
they are cheaper bought together as a bundle from Forgeworld.

Exceptions: because the Black Books come out fairly regularly, not all the latest rules are in the new
edition of the Red Army List book. If you want the Legion rules for Space Wolves and Thousand Sons
(or Sisters/Custodes), they are in Black Book 7. You’ll still need the army list book too, because the
Black Book only contains the special rules, not the basic army list. I hope that is clear…

Eventually they will release a new third edition Red Book version of the Astartes army list with all the
missing Legions in it.

Things are clearer if you want to play Mechanicum. Its pretty much all in a single Red Book, the
Taghmata army list.

Same story with Imperial Knights, Solar Auxilia or Imperial Militia and Cults which all share another
Red Book.

So to Sum Up

It’s not all that complicated. Here is a handy chart, which is probably what I should have done in the
first place:
Army Rule Book(s) needed to play Optional Fluff Book

Mechanicum RB: Mechanicum Taghmata Army List (also BB6, BB7) BB3,5,6
Solar Auxilia RB: Crusade Imperialis Army Lists BB4
Imperial Militia/Cults RB: Crusade Imperialis Army Lists BB4,5
Imperial Knights RB: Crusade Imperialis Army Lists BB4
Custodes BB7 BB7
Chaos Daemons Chaos Daemons Codex (7th Edition) As Word Bearers
Sisters of Silence BB7 BB7
Dark Angels BB6, RB: AoD Army Lists
Emperors Children RBs: AoD Legions, AoD Army Lists` BB1
Iron Warriors RBs: AoD Legions, AoD Army Lists BB3
White Scars BB6, RB: AoD Army Lists
Space Wolves BB7, RB: AoD Army Lists BB7
Imperial Fists RBs: AoD Legions, AoD Army Lists BB3
Night Lords RBs: AoD Legions, AoD Army Lists BB2
Blood Angels BB6, RB: AoD Army Lists
Iron Hands RBs: AoD Legions, AoD Army Lists BB2
World Eaters RBs: AoD Legions, AoD Army Lists BB1
Ultramarines RBs: AoD Legions, Aod Army Lists BB5
Death Guard RBs: AoD Legions, Aod Army Lists BB1
Thousand Sons BB7, RB: AoD Army List BB7
Sons of Horus RBs: AoD Legions, Aod Army Lists BB1
Word Bearers RBs: AoD Legions, Aod Army Lists BB2,5
Salamanders RBs: AoD Legions, Aod Army Lists BB2
Raven Guard RBs: AoD Legions, Aod Army Lists BB3
Alpha Legion RBs: AoD Legions, Aod Army Lists BB3
Blackshields BB6, RB: AoD Army List BB6
Shattered Legions BB6, RB: AoD Army List BB6

BB=Black Book RB=Red Book AoD=Age of Darkness

Hope that helps. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments!

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Start Playing Horus Heresy Part 3

Hello there, Knight of Infinite Resignation here, your friendly Remote-Scottish--Island-Dwelling-

Kierkegaard-Aficionado. Welcome back to this short series about starting 30K, it hardly feels as if
any time has passed for me, and that’s because it hasn’t, I’m writing these articles back to back
during a single exceptionally long ferry trip across the stormy North Sea.

So today’s article is a quick guide to which power armour types you might like to buy for the various
Legions, and also some money saving ideas to help smooth the path into 30K.

Big Money Saving Event

That’s what my wife calls it when something goes wrong in life or takes an unexpected path in some
way that can at least be called an economy measure – like you get ill and can’t go on holiday. There
are no Big Money Saving Events in HH gaming, though there are a few ways to save some pennies.

Often people assume 30K armies are going to be hideously expensive, especially when they discover
that the standard points size for a game is around 2500 points. However it’s important to note that
the points values are not exactly equivalent between 30K and 40K. Many times, Horus Heresy
characters or units are hugely powerful and hugely expensive in points. A 2500 army may well have
around the same number of models as a 1500 point 40K army, or even less. Look at a few sample
30K armies and you’ll see what I mean.

Use It Or, er, Buy It Again

You probably already have lots of models you can use for Horus Heresy gaming. Although the funky
Deimos style rhinos and predators are cool, the Mars pattern (that’s the plastic 40K ones) are
perfectly acceptable for 30k and were around in large numbers. After Istvaan V the Traitors were
even starting to spike up their vehicles so those spikey Chaos Rhinos might be useable too.

It’s really worth thinking about what you can adapt from old stuff you have. I dislike 8th, and have a
huge collection of 40K stuff, so I’m busily stripping and repainting ancient old school Deimos rhinos
(the old smaller plastic ones from before the current plastic kit was released), Dreadnoughts,
Vindicators and Land Raiders from my 40K World Eaters and Death Guard to re-use for my 30K
Death Guard and Iron Warriors. Now the Traitors in 30K aren’t as chaosified as their 40K versions, so
if you have normal Dreadnoughts for instance they can be used in Traitor or Loyalist forces, and who
doesn’t have a few old Black Reach Dreads knocking about. No Helbrutes with their freaky feet
though, they wouldn’t fit in!

If you are building a new 40K army, have a think about how things can do double or triple duty and
be useable in 30k too. Magnetising or blue-tacking icons, banners and spike racks can mean the
same vehicle can do duty in more than one army. Plain black vehicles could be Black Legion in 40K
but Raven Guard in 30K, just switch the removeable icons and spikes. Red tanks could be Word
Bearers or Thousand Sons in 30K or World Eaters or Word Bearers or even Blood Angels in 40K.

By building your 40K marines with 30K plastics then they can also do double duty, though you’ll need
to think about how you equip your units as squads are quite differently equipped in 30K/40k. Some
40K forces really suit the 30K look, MKIII Iron Warriors look great for 40K as well as 30K, though
some 40K Chapters just don’t look right with 30K armour Marks and of course some have radically
changed their colour schemes. I built my Iron Hands with mostly MKIV parts and lots of Anvil
Industries bionics. MKIV aren’t quite so obviously Heresy as MKII or MKIII armours so can pass in 40K
a bit easier than MKIIIs might for a Loyalist army particularly if you add in some MKVI and VII helms
here and there or bare heads. I don’t suggest you try to use the same infantry in more than one
army, infantry really need their exact colour scheme and heraldry to look right and it’s too fiddly to
make that removeable though you might well be able to use the same models as the same
Legion/Chapter but in different time periods.

If you play Blackshields in 30K they would be perfectly useable in 40K as renegades or some poorly
equipped loyalists on a long campaign or even as an idiosyncratic Chapter with lots of old kit,
depending on how you build them. 30K Blackshields are really the closest thing to a 40K home-brew
Chapter, and one could easily do double duty as the other.

There are a couple of 30K armies that can use 40K plastic Tac Marines too. The Alpha Legion had lots
of late model armour and so did the Raven Guard, so using the 40K Tac Squad, or mixing that with
other 30K Marks can be fine, and we all know how cheap Tac Marines are on Ebay.

Anyhow here is a chart showing which armour marks are generally thought to suit each Legion’s
aesthetic. No hard and fast rules though, with a few exceptions all the Legions had several different
marks in use at the time of the Heresy and this chart is not in any way official, its nased on a few lists
making the rounds in HH circles. The use of MkV should be restricted to later in the Heresy but could
be used by anyone as it represents a stopgap armour cobbled together from available resources.

Dark Angels MkII

Emperors Children MKIII, MKIV
Iron Warriors MKII, MKIII
White Scars MKII
Space Wolves MKII, MKIII
Imperial Fists MKIII
Night Lords MKIV
Blood Angels MKIII, MKIV
Iron Hands MKIII
World Eaters MkII, MKIII, MKIV
Ultramarines MKII, MKIII
Death Guard MKIII
Thousand Sons MKIV
Sons of Horus MKIII, MKIV
Word Bearers MKIV
Salamanders MKIII
Raven Guard MKVI
Alpha Legion MKIV, MKVI
Blackshields Any, MKV
Shattered Legions As parent legion. MKV

Of course if you already have lots of Daemon models this might influence your choice of army. You
may find you only need buy a couple of special characters and perhaps 40 tactical marines and you’ll
have a serviceable 30K Word Bearer army with Daemon allies. Spice it up a little later with a
possessed Contemptor and some Gal Vorbak or Ashen Circle.

Solar Auxilia and Imperial Militia/Cults

Solar Auxilia are a very expensive force to collect being all resin from FW and a relatively high model
count army. I have seen kitbashed Genestealer Cult Neophytes with 3rd party helmets look good, but
the guns aren’t right. Tempestus Scions are similar in the fluff, but the armour doesn’t look like
space suits. Solar Auxilia are thus the hardest 30K faction to collect cheaply. They do use Leman
Russ tanks at least in addition to their unique and expensive Dracosan transports.
Imperial Militia and Cults however are completely flexible in terms of appearance. Want an
Abhuman regiment kitbashed from Beastmen and Empire Handgunners? Go for it! How about
pirate looking guys from the Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago Crewmen? It’s a big galaxy and the less
regimented forces of either the Traitor or Loyalist side in the Heresy could look like anything!
Likewise the full range of historical minis is open to you from Napoleonics through to Medieval and
beyond. Its never been easier to buy 3rd party sci-fi looking weapons to help with conversions,
though the description of the Inducted Militia’s weapons in the army list could include anything from
crossbows and bows and arrows through to black powder weapons or simple las weapons. As an
example I have a bunch of 50 tainted flesh provenance mutants made from Escape From Goblin
Town gobbos with a variety of plastic GW pistols added.

There is always the option to use plastic Cadians or Catachans too, though the odd bit of 30K colour
might show you are willing to make an effort!

Because of its flexibility as far as infantry models is concerned and its use of normal Imperial Guard
vehicles like Sentinels and Leman Russ tanks the Imperial Militia/Cults list is one of the cheapest to
build, despite its high model count, particularly if you use historicals or Frostgrave figures for your
infantry. You can also play them as squats using either GW or Mantic models (select the Abhuman
Helots and Survivors of the Dark Age provenances for FWs’s sneaky Squat rules) …

Mechanicum

The 30K Mechanicum is quite different to the 40K Skitarii and Mechanicus. The Onager Dunecrawler,
tracked servitors and the chicken walkers don’t appear in 30K. However Belisarius Cawl and the
Magos can certainly stand in as their 30K versions. The plastic Skitarii can be used as Titan Guard in
30K, though beware the weapon options are VERY different so check before you build them. The
Skitarii can be Troops in a Mechanicum army, as Secutarii, but cannot fill the minimum troop slot
(unless you bring a Titan) so you will need some Forgeworld Thallax or some Tech Thralls to fill those
two minimum slots (or one in an Allied Detachment). The good news is that Tech Thralls could be
kitbashed from a lot of different minis, G-Cult Neophytes with Skitarii Ranger heads springs to mind,
though since Magos’s (Magi?) are famously idiosyncratic I guess Adsecularis Covenant Tech Thralls
could look like almost anything. Squads of 10 to 20 Skitarii Vanguard models built all with radium
carbines will do nicely to fill the other troop slots on the cheap however.

A lot of people use the Castellax robots to stand in as Castellans but they do really look quite
different, so I’d think twice, or at least attempt some conversion or get 3rd party heads to replace the
dome-heads. Remember you can field an Imperial Knight as part of a Mechanicum army so if you
have one of those you may already be 400ish points towards your total.

For the Future

Forgeworld just teased a tunnelling machine (the Termite) which seems set to become a standard
transport for Legion armies and maybe Mechanicum. It will probably be around the £40 mark when
released. Mantic Games already have a very nice plastic tunnelling machine as part of their Veer-
myn range at less than half that cost. Likewise some 30K forces can use Arvus Lighters as transports,
again Mantic are about to release their Hornet dropship, which if your opponent is willing would
make an acceptable Arvus proxy at a fraction of the cost.
So that’s all for now, hope this short series of articles has helped a little to reveal the mysteries of
the 30K world to you and get you on the road to playing this excellent and engaging game! Feel free
to ask any questions in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.