Horus Heresy 3rd Edition Reveals: Tactica, Gambits, Advanced Reactions

This week in Heresy Land, we have been landed with the revelation that the old Rites of War are now being subdivided down into items that will be called Tactica (effecting the entire army); Advanced Reactions (effecting a unit); and Gambits (effecting single miniatures - and champions at that). 

At a legion level, it is clear that there will be some effort present to retain the old feel of the legion and their play styles. This is clear from the Space Wolves example in the Warhammer Community, and the World Eaters "Lost to the Nails" which is very cool. However, I am also very cautious as clearly we are not seeing the full picture emerge just yet. I really want to see the character of the legions come out more clearly. 

The Gambits are a bit hit and miss for me. The Raven Guard example is nice enough and perhaps a prime example of what we might expect from a legion who focuses on a quick dispatch. I also like Perturabo's gun them down for daring to challenge him. 

The Advanced Reactions are clearly going to remain in play. The Dark Angels example of repeating a fight phase is interesting and when timed well is going to swing games. And of course, the Night Lords better part of valour is very, shall we say, fitting. 

In addition to all of this, we are still seeing the focus on centurions unlocking other parts of the loose confederation of force organisation chart elements. Hopefully we will see some legions get some nice unlocks, although the differentiation for Apex ones for some legions makes me want to hold my breath. 

Overall, I now have mixed views, but largely because I have mixed sight of all of this. We know that we are missing critical parts of the puzzle here at this point in time. Without seeing all the parts together, its hard to know how everything is going to hang together. Put in a more blunt fashion: the success of this edition is really going to depend on how the legions special rules have been handled. From what I'm seeing some of this is very flavourful, but we need to wait to see what the rest looks like.

Finally, I note that there cannot be too many more reveals about third edition left to see. We have seen pretty much every phase of the game (not so much psychic abilities arguably). Hence here's my prediction: we are a matter of weeks away from pre-order now. I'm even going to suggest by the end of July. I have no sources for this claim other than my untrustworthy gut instincts based on the fact we've seen most juicy reveals already. 

End of 2nd Wargames Gallery: Alpha Legion Surprises the Salamanders

Coming out of nowhere, the Alpha Legion exploit gaps in the Salamanders formation despite taking heavy losses themselves to break up their lines and try to force them away. 

Taking surprisingly heavy losses for declaring a charge, the terminators close in on the tactical squad after Exodus (sneaking in at the background / top left) takes out their leader with some precise shooting. 

But all is not lost for the Salamanders. Their praetor in terminator armour stands firm against a champion from the Alpha Legion and the remnant of their command squad. His thunder hammer really does the job whilst the invulnerable save keeps him alive. This sub-battle is won by the Salamanders. 

Overall though, the picture is bleak for the Salamanders. After the turn pictured, there's really only the Praetor and the Contemptor left for the Salamanders, and the Alpha Legion have their terminators, Exodus, and their sniper squad (top right) still going. Victory ultimately goes to the Alpha Legion in a well executed plan despite losing their own HQ early on. 

Horus Heresy 3rd Edition Reveals: Allies and Missions

This week in Heresy Land, we have been treated to 1980's adverts for JoyToys along with the Heresy in general. Whilst amazing, what I'm going to write about today are the reveals about allies and missions for the third edition. 

The Allied Detachment follows broad brush strokes that long term players will be familiar with. Choose another faction and add your favourite models from them. Two main differences stand out at this point. Firstly that no force organisation chart entry is deemed to be mandatory. And secondly that there remains a strong emphasis on HQs - or to be more accurate for the new edition - command slots. Only by filling command slots can you open up further auxiliary detachments. You want terminators in you allied detachment? Add a command slot. You want skyhunters? Add a command slot. And so forth.

Lords of war remain as a special choice with the restriction of only being one quarter of your total points cost - but you can have 2 of them in the new edition. There are all sorts of buried opportunities here I think. It would be very easy, for instance, to include a command slot amongst your skyhunters if that was the way you wanted to undertake allies for (e.g.) White Scars or Emperor's Children. The stand out oddity is dreadnoughts which still have to have a command slot. I wonder if any dreadnought could also be a commander? Traditionally not, but I am thinking of Cassian Dracos from the Salamanders explicitly here.

Missions on the other hand seems to be all about victory points (although I am assuming that a traditional clean wipe will also win you the entire game overall). Control of objectives is now done on sheer numbers, and the Line(X) rule adds to the victory points such objectives are worth per turn as well as adds to the worth of the models holding it for the purposes of determining control - labelled tactical strength.  

More rules overlay this with Last Man Standing at the end of the game (nice, somewhat traditional); Slay the Warlord (very traditional); Giant Killer (somewhat traditional as well - applies to primarchs and the like); First Strike (interesting and promises armies will focus fire in their first turn - nasty). 

Vanguard and Expendable round out these basics by providing a strong counter attack against units holding objectives (former) and denying points for first strike (latter). I hope expendable is expanded beyond this to be honest - no victory points for killing those Khorne Cultists helping the Word Bearers. No one cares about those lost souls. 

Its shaping up to be interesting and I remain cautiously optimistic for the main part. 

 

Size of the Legions Prior to the Heresy?

Just how big are the Legions supposed to be?

Following yesterday's posting on Warhammer Community, I thought I would tabulate what the Black Books (in other words: first edition) had to say about the matter! There are, of course, other sources, such as the black library book series. But the canon in them is arguably less reliable. And besides, our liege lord Alan Bligh wrote quite a number of the old First Edition black books and frankly they're still amazing for the lore that who am I to go beyond them! These numbers mainly reflect the strength prior to the Isstvan battles. 

Dark Angels: Slightly under 200,000. 
Emperor's Children: 110,000.
Iron Warriors: 150,000 to 180,000.
White Scars: 95,000.
Space Wolves: 95,000 to 100,000 (note as well probably lower numbers after Prospero).
Imperial Fists: 100,000 (assumed from Black Library).
Night Lords: 90,000 to 120,000.
Blood Angels: 120,000.
Iron Hands: 113,000.

World Eaters: 150,000.
Ultramarines: 250,000.
Death Guard: 95,000.
Thousand Sons: 89,000-90,000 (note disagreement with literature after Prospero Burnt). 
Sons of Horus: 130,000 to 170,000.
Word Bearers: 150,000 up to Ultramarines levels according to some sources. 
Salamanders: 89,000.
Raven Guard: 80,000.
Alpha Legion: Conflicting Sources in Book 3 (naturally): 90,000 to 180,000. 

[Image - an older pic of my Iron Warriors]

End of 2nd Wargames Gallery: Gal Vorbak charge the Loyal World Eaters

With the mantle of loyalty resting firmly on their shoulders, the World Eaters brace the charging and twisted forms of the Gal Vorbak Word Bearers. 

In the image above, the Gal Vorbak have successfully charged the World Eaters assault squad. The ensuing battle is filled with warp laden gore and mutated bodies striking human berserker who regret having the nails hammered into them. Most of the squad are wiped out in the charge, but several remain and whittle the Word Bearers down to two remaining models. 

Meanwhile, the other Gal Vorbak squad fails to make the charge distance and triggers a shooting reaction from the Leviathan. The Leviathan kills several with contemptuous ease and finishes off the rest in its own shooting phase next turn. 

Overall, this eventually results in a victory for the Loyalists over the Word Bearers. And with plenty of thanks to a lot of lucky dice rolling, it has to be said. 

Horus Heresy 3rd Edition: Weekend Thoughts on Saturnine and Disintegrator Reveals

It has been yet another week of reveals from the Warhammer Community about the new rules for third edition Horus Heresy. 

We have now seen the plastic frames for the Saturnine Dreadnought, the Terminators, and the Araknae weapons platform. All of these look "crisp" and highly modern as we have come to expect in recent times of new plastic releases. 

The Saturnine Terminators are - in their own way - beautiful. They are not quite what I was expecting for this model (cross reference a weapon mounted on the top). Regardless, the power that they are packing is staggering. They have the option of plasma bombards, twin heavy disintegrators, or the disruption fist. The only thing that they cannot have is a double fist configuration. Key here is to note that the weapons all have the same range of 24inches which makes most configurations viable. The plasma is very nice for large pie plates everywhere and there's certainly a nice tactic available to rain down support fire everywhere for this unit (and teleporting them in to place to be able to do so). The disintegrators are very nice with the AP=2 and double shots. What is surprising perhaps is that plasma is locked at AP=4. I feel this is a bit of a change. They have breaching to help, but even so, that is not so good any longer. The fists remain very good for close combat purposes and I can see any combination of configuration working here. Although the points cost is obviously high. Yet they are probably - just about - worth taking. 

The Dreadnought is simply immense. There are other weapon options coming out distinctly from the boxed set to make more options. Obviously from the stat line, dreadnoughts are retaining the wound characteristic and toughness, rather than returning to armour values. This is not great. However, there are now reasonable options to deal with things like this via disintegration. The weapons for the beast are all viable here as well. I like the plasma and inversion beamer myself. But again all of them are very viable. The points cost is eye watering, but worth it. 

On the disintegration weapons, these are obviously very new for this edition to be seen in such numbers. I like the mysterious hints in the lore that no one really knows why they fell out of favour, and that only Leetu is a notable marine carrying one these days. Clearly the drawbacks might be severe, but they do look like they are worth taking. The remaining question is what the points cost is likely to be for a full squad of these (and presumably a support squad and heavy support squad variation, plus perhaps squads like veterans I would imagine as well). 

We are also continuing to see a multitude of leaks from various sources. I never post them directly, but I am certainly aware of them. Plenty of folks appear to have advanced copies and are now painting up those miniatures prior to the release date. I suspect it cannot be far around the proverbial corner.