Some 15mm 30k Characters - Part 2

Some 15mm characters ready for action with the VII Legion Astartes.

A couple of days ago I posted some of the 15mm Sons of Horus character figures I had painted up for my crazy little 15mm 30k project. Here we have some Loyalist counterparts to go with them - a Praetor, a Champion Consul and a Librarian - all wearing glorious Mark VI "beakie" power armour. These are 3D prints courtesy of Byron, and all are in the colours and symbols of the VII Legion Astartes, the Imperial Fists. 

"I am right, because I have a big sword! And also a blaster if you still insist on disagreeing..."

Swish cloak too...

The Praetor is a faithful tribute to the "sword Praetor" who came with the 2.0 edition of GW's Age of Darkness box set. An excellent, whacky-looking commander, this 15mm rendition is a brilliant version of the original figure, and gets all the key points just right. The blaster. The sword. And, of course, the over-the-top cloak that one wears as part of the appropriate formal attire when smashing the enemies of The Emperor. 

You will soon feel the SPOOKY POWERS...

But there is a handy axe to settle things

In fact, all three of these figures are wonderful little tributes to their 28mm inspirations. The Librarian has the same "I'm about to blast you with some cool mind-stuff" pose as his larger cousin - and of course is also carrying a big axe that will sort things out should mind tricks fail. 

I love this pose...at once "ready for duty" and "I can't wait to hit someone with this sword!"

Not a ton of detail to show, but pretty great considering it's a 15mm figure!

The Champion Consul still manages to exude an air of tightly-controlled fanaticism, waiting to be unleashed at the appropriate time and against the appropriate heretic(s). His bolt gun is present, but tucked away, as this fellow clearly relished sorting things out with his blade.

The loyalist characters face off against the Sons of Horus characters in my previous post...

All of these were fun little projects to paint up over the summer, some extra flavor for the whole "just because it's fun" 15mm 30k project.  

Some 15mm 30k Characters - Pt 1

30k Characters for my 15mm Sons of Horus collection. 

As I get older, I find myself exclaiming words to the effect of "wow, it's already [INSERT MONTH]!" more and more often. This post is no exception...wow, it's already November! And I'm still posting up stuff I painted in the late summer! Oh well, better late than never, I hope. With that all out of the way I present a few more 15mm 30k characters. These little guys are all amazing 3D prints from Byron.

One great thing about the 15mm 30k stuff is that it travels pretty easily, so I tossed a bunch of the figures into a box during the summer and brought them with me to the cabin back in August for some relaxing summer painting by the lake. Here we have a small group of characters for the XVI Legion Astartes, the Sons of Horus. In this batch we find a Praetor, a Librarian and a veteran sergeant. All are wearing glorious Mark VI "beakie" armour. 

The "Axehole", ready to conquer in the name of the Warmaster.

Obligatory skullz and oversized cloak present ant correct!

These prints are all tremendous fun. Whoever did the digital sculpts was clearly a fan of the setting, and these are excellent reproductions of their 28mm brethren. I particularly love the "Axehole" Praetor...he certainly looks the part of a Sons of Horus commander!

Power armour AND a tabard? Why not? He has SPOOKY POWERS after all...

"Soon I will throw this fireball at you...but I just want to look at it first..."

The Librarian has the necessary sinister cloak, because obviously. The little ball of blue flame in his hand is a nice touch too. 

"Not that way. THIS WAY. Move it, morons!"

Trusty helmet clipped to his belt. Why would he need it? He's a veteran!

And the veteran...well, he looks like a grouch! You'd be mad too if you had to have studs drilled into your forehead because reasons. Anyway, he is doing one of the most important thing that figures representing junior officers on a wargaming table must do - he is pointing at something!

I'm not really painting these up with a specific plan in mind, beyond trying to keep an approximate balance between loyalist and rebel forces in my painted collection. These little 15mm guys were a lot of fun to paint up during the summer. Up next I'll show some of the Loyalist characters who came off the painting line. 

Another Command Flunky for 30k - Loyalist Overseer Consul

Loyalist Overseer Consul - ready to provide all manner of "encouragement"...

Some more painting to share - here is a "Loyalist Overseer Consul", the latest in a lengthening line of assorted command-level flunkies to be found among the Space Marine Legions of GW's "Age of Darkness", a.k.a the Horus Heresy. This is a 28mm multi-part resin-plastic figure from GW, and he is painted in the colours of the VII Legion Astartes, the Imperial Fists.

View of the shoulder bling.

Not so fancy from the back...

The "Overseer Consul" is intended to be a senior figure commanding/inspiring the throngs of Auxilia and Militia called to arms in order to aid the defence of The Emperor's domains in the face of The Warmaster's betrayal. A great many of these soldiers volunteered to serve, but we expect that a much greater number of these were simply pressed into service. We can imagine the "direct touch" the Imperium would apply when it comes to matters of military conscription.

Fancy helmet and associated decorations? Why of course!

At any rate, these lesser soldiers might need a bit of help when attempting to face down an assault by traitor Space Marines. That "help" might come in many forms...inspiration? Encouragement? A pretty clear and concise explanation of what will happen if they fall back? Some combination of all three perhaps? This fellow appears well-equipped to apply any of these means of "persuasion" - the ornate armour, the comb on the helmet, the tabard and back banner, the Crozius-style baton, the plasma pistol, and, of course a couple of skulls to top the whole thing off...

Feel the oversight!

Whether this fellow serves as an "Overseer" or just as some other brand of officer or consul, I like the look. I am a sucker for the Mark VI "beakie" style armour, after all, so I really wanted to get one of these chaps into my collection. While I have not yet had the opportunity to try out version 3.0 of the Age of Darkness rules, it does seem like the newer force-selection rules call for a larger number of officer/character type figures, so this guy will help where that is concerned. 

Some New Plastic MkII Marines From The VII Legion Astartes

"Careful with those rifles now!" Imperial Fist veterans sporting "disintegrator" weapons. 

Earlier this summer GW dropped a new edition of its Horus Heresy rules - the "Saturnine" edition. When GW rolls out a new edition for any of its mainline games, new figures are, of course, a big part of the marketing appeal to players. Horus Heresy 3.0 was no exception in this regard, with many fans of the setting zooming in on the new Saturnine Terminator armour (and the associated hilarious retcon). For my part, I was much more intrigued by the new multipart "regular" Space Marines sporting Mk II power armour. You get 40 of these guys in the new boxed set, so I thought I would start off with a 10-man squad as part of this summer's painting. This is a veteran tactical squad in the colours of the VII Legion Astartes, the Imperial Fists. 

Helmet with comb? Check. Big sword? Check. Scrolls and grenades? Well OF COURSE. 

The Horus Heresy setting is, of course, far in the (terrible) future. But at the same time, it's also "old", in that it occurs some 10,000 years prior to the 40k setting. One of the "oldest" bits of that "old" setting is the Mk II power armour, worn by the Legiones Astartes as they set off on The Emperor's so-called "Great Crusade" to sort out the Galaxy. All of us who enjoy the setting have our favorites when it comes to the different Space Marine armour variants, but those who opted for Mk II models tended to be going for a particular "old school" look for their force, and for years and years they have had to use Forge World resin (or that of, er, "competing suppliers") to do it. 

Vexillary on the left, regular veteran on the right. 

No longer. The Mk II is now available in multipart plastic glory, and I have to say, they sculptors really nailed it. There are few features I might quibble over...for example, the "belt buckle" style joint on the front now has a stupid skull in the place of the previous Imperial Eagle...but overall, these figures are excellent. The proportions are lovely (much better than the original resin ones, which sported oddly thin waists). The assembly is relatively straightforward, and becomes very familiar once you spot the assembly patterns used in the previous plastic Mk VI and Mk III sets. I also love the look of the bolt gun variant that comes with these guys...it is nice and chonky, with a cool sickle-style magazine and nice scope. 

Vox operator with the usual skull-enhanced communications system. 

You will note, however, that none of said bolt guns are to be found here. These fellows are instead equipped with various "disintegrator" weapons. Now, the Horus Heresy is already crowded with a blizzard of weapon selections, but the designers opted to retcon yet another set of weapons into that packed lineup. These "disintegrator" weapons are meant to be near-lost relics from the Dark Ages, very powerful but also dangerous to use, and thus only pulled out of their secure lockers in times of serious emergency - such as a betrayal by The Warmaster and half of the Space Marine Legions...

A view of the heavily segmented Mk II armour. 

The new rules reflect the power of these weapons (because of course), but they are also subject to a variant of the tiresome "gets hot" rule which makes them even more dangerous to those firing these weapons. It is, IMO, yet another case of the rules getting out of whack with the lore. These rare, dangerous weapons are such that they are only trusted to veterans...yet firing these weapons more than a few times is one sure way to ensure you never become a "veteran" in the first place! Makes sense in a 30k-kind of way, I guess :) 

Disintegrator "Blaster" on the left, "Heavy Disintegrator" on the right. All very, very safe to use, no doubt...

Since these weapons were dangerous and stupid to use, I thought they fit in perfectly with Rogal Dorn's lot! There are four types of "disintegrator" weapon in the group - the Sergeant has the "pistol", and most of the lads have the "rifles". There is also a "blaster" variant - I think that is the one with the twin barrels, while one chap is hulking along with a "heavy disintegrator". As one does. 

Don't roll a "1" lads...

"If anyone survives, I shall smack them with my sword!"

I was very slow to paint these fellows because...well, it was a slow summer for actually get stuff painted, and I wasn't in a huge hurry, as I sort of already have quite a few Space Marines, and while these Mk I kits are lovely, in general, the Mk II is not my favorite flavor of power armour. These were lovely to paint up - the only really challenging part was getting the decals to sit properly on the shoulder pauldrons. This a minor thing, but it vexes me constantly that GW always makes the Legion symbol decals a touch too large, such that you need a fair bit of decal softener to get these things to sit down on the curved surface of the shoulder. 

Xenos Rampant - A 30k Battle Report

The Galaxy is in flames! The Horus Heresy is played out...using "Xenos Rampant" from Osprey.

It is always great to welcome a friend from the hobby world for a game - and a particular treat when they travel from far away. So it was pretty awesome to welcome hobby enthusiast and unbelievably talented painter "MartinN" (aka Nick) on a recent visit to Canada. It's a long, long way from his home in Bavaria, so to make the trip worthwhile, I wanted to run something a little different for Nick. Lucky for me, he is a very relaxed fellow - and when I suggested giving "Xenos Rampant" a go, he was happy to oblige!

What is "Xenos Rampant"?

"Xenos Rampant" is a set of sci-fi skirmish rules published by Osprey. They were first released in 2022, so this is hardly breaking news here. Those familiar Osprey's wargaming rule ouevre in general will surely note the word "Rampant" in the title and suspect a kinship with the "Lion Rampant" rules - and you would be right to, as they share a common author. You can find many reviews and play-throughs of the rules elsewhere online, but I can confirm that, while the two rule sets share many familiar ideas in terms of core game mechanics, "Xenos Rampant" is a delightful, figure and scale agnostic tribute to sci-fi wargaming in general. I had a specific goal for the games with Nick - could they be made to work for the 30k setting?

Spoiler alert: YES. I loved it. Here are a few photos and notes of our own game. 

The Mission: Scenario Kilo - VIP Extraction

I love the whole "both sides show up and try to kill each other" type-game as much as the next gamer. And we are talking 30k setting-wise, of course, so that style of game pretty much tracks. But the 30k setting is also so much more - at its best, it reaches into some of the sci-fi-of-the-absurd from the Rogue Trader days. I figured the "VIP Extraction" mission might make for a nicely warped background. We just needed the right sort of "VIP" for the setting.

The VIP and his flunkies await assistance...

And so - meet Totally Legitimate Plenipotentiary Ruler Effrey J. Trumpstein.  TLPR Trumpstein and his staff have been out on a tour of the explodium refinery facilities in the desert segments of their world. Suddenly, the shuttle is forced down in an isolated area. The vessel is wrecked, but Trumpstein and his staff have (mostly) made it out from the wreckage...they access a terminal near the explodium pipeline and signal for help...but that signal is intercepted by more than Trumpstein's planetary militia...

"It's not all wall-building! We've got work to do!"

Both loyalist and traitor detachments detect the signal. The chance to take "custody" of TLPR Trumpstein is too much to pass up - and in any case, his custody must be denied to the other side! Detachments from the Loyalist VII Legion Astartes and rebel XVI Legion Astartes descend on the target coordinates with a clear objective - secure Trumpstein, and eliminate any problems that arise.

The Detachments

A 24-point detachment resplendent in the fine colours of the XVI Legion Astartes

When I started reading through the "Xenos Rampant" rulebook, one immediately encouraging clue was that the competing sides are described as "detachments", and not "armies"...it's a little thing, but to me this is always a clear signal that the writers have a sane take on gaming...

Stubborn idiots wearing yellow. 

Anyway, for the test game, I opted to use similar detachments for both sides - after all, we were experimenting here, and I wanted to keep it relatively straightforward. One great feature of the "Xenos Rampant" set is the provision of different rules to customize the troops types so that they might closely reflect your chosen setting as possible. 

In "Xenos Rampant", each unit in the detachment has a number of "Strength Points" ("SPs") - either 5, 10 or (in some cases) 15. Note that "SPs" are not the same as the "points cost" to select the unit - so I try to keep each element straight in the roster below.  

Each side, Loyalist and Rebel, had a 24 point detachment:

Example of how you can just use a bunch of cool figures to represent the flunkies, rather than worry about which model has which power/ability/etc. This is the Commander and his detachment. They are bad-ass. The apothecary is a reminder that the unit has the "combat medic" ability.

- Space Marine Commander and command squad (i.e. Elite infantry/detachment commander - enhanced with "high powered blades" and "combat medic") - 9 points, 5 SPs

- 2 x 10-man tactical squads with bolt guns (i.e. Heavy infantry, with "increased squad size") - 4 points each, 10 SPs each

- 1 x 10-man assault squad with chain swords and pistols (i.e. Heavy infantry, with "increased squad size", "assault doctrine", "close quarters doctrine", "mobile" and "skimmer" rules to account for the jump packs and close assault weapon load out) - 7 points, 10 SPs

As you will see if you squint at the photos, each SP= 1 model in each unit. And while the assorted special rules let you capture some flavor among the different squads, they are abstract enough that you do not sweat the load out of a specific figure too much. This is the sort of thing that I observe to be slightly triggering to a lot (although by no means all) GW players, but I find personally awesome and liberating.

The Table

The table was 4'x4', featuring some old temple ruins from some long-gone, pre-Imperial compliance civilization. Explodium pipelines ran over and through these ruins, as well as a roughly paved service road. Finally, the remnants of the VIP's downed shuttle craft dotted the site. 

The Imperial Fists hunker down, as is their wont...

The VIP placed right in the middle - near the terminal his flunkies were using to signal for assistance. The detachments competing to put him into custody deployed 9" in from opposing table edges. I took command of the Sons of Horus while Nick took charge of the Imperial Fists. Battle was. joined!

Another photo of the VII Legion setup...

The Engagement

Both Nick and I sought to advance to the VIP, take him "into custody", and spirit him off our respective table sides. The forces were evenly matched, and fittingly enough, the opposing assault squads repeatedly assaulted one another on one flank. My jump troopers were ultimately able to wear out Nick's guys, driving them back. My jump troops were now free to pounce on one of Nick's tactical squads, and while we were not able to rout them, we tied them up and opened a clear path for my Commander to reach TLPR Trumpstein and his entourage...

It's brother vs. brother in a chain sword brawl! Oh yeah!!

On the other flank heavy gun battles wore down one of my tactical units - lucky for me, they bent-but-did-not-break. All together, they tactical and assault marines were able to jam up the Imperial Fists long enough for my Detachment commander to spirit Trumpstein away to a, er, secure location. Yes...that's it...a secure location...safety first with The Warmaster, of course!

"Sir, you'll need to come with us."

In all the action took about five turns, tops. On reflection, I wish I had more terrain available, particularly some buildings, to break up line of sight a bit more - that might have compelled more maneuvering. I would also expand the size of the playing table, as a 6' x 4' would still provide plenty of fun while challenging players with a bit more maneuvering. 

My assault squad can be seen here fleeing tactically repositioning after a less-than-successful attack on the Imperial Fist tactical squad at the right side of the photo - but at least we delayed them.

Conclusion

For my part, I loved "Xenos Rampant"! You roll buckets and buckets of dice while exchanging fire and hurling your units into violent assaults. The units for the most part wore down very slowly, but this made sense given the nature of the stats of the troops involved - to me this "felt" right, very much "marine vs. marine". It's got enough detail to provide for flavor and character, but abstract enough that you are not fussing about which precise version of plasma pistol or power sword or whatever is equipped on the model. 

XVI Legion Praetor, accompanied by flunkies, sets out to accomplish the mission. His iterator is already putting out the good word! 

It is also SO easy - and fun! - to assemble detachments. In the future I can see how it would be fun to, say, include a lightly-equipped militia rabble alongside the Marines, or to include a unit of Marines from an allied Legion featuring some different traits. The newer version of 30k is certainly more flexible in terms of force construction, but there are still a bunch of rules to watch and hoops to jump through. "Xenos Rampant" keeps it WAY more simple.  

Should you ditch 30k to play "Xenos Rampant" instead? I'm not here to make that case per se - the 30k game is a specific sort of wargame experience, and I have enjoyed many, many games of 30k myself over the years. 

But I would still very, very much suggest picking up "Xenos Rampant" and giving it a try! Think of it as a fun, easy sort of palate cleanser. If you have a 30k force, odds are you already have more than enough painted models to try it out, so it is not hard. The "GW Hobby" can be engaging, but it's good to try different stuff, and this is a fun and easy way to enjoy the setting you love without burning the calories needed for the full GW rules experience. The hobby is not a zero sum game, after all and Osprey have some wonderful skirmish rules out there. Give them a shot!

Anyway, it was SO awesome to host Nick - thanks for visiting us in Canada. 

And that's it for this post - stay tuned for more painting (soon, I hope!). 

More Sons of Prospero

For Prospero! Another XV Legion Astartes tactical squad is ready to move out. 

We are in the final weeks of summer, and it is time to show some results from the painting desk, including a project that started, um, last winter...you know, sometimes, how a specific painting effort just sort of dribbles along...well, here is one such effort, from GW's Horus Heresy setting (no surprise there). This is a brand new, 20-man tactical squad for the XV Legion Astartes, the Thousand Sons. These are multipart Mk III armoured plastic kits from GW's newer "Age of Darkness" range, sporting custom resin heads and embossed shoulder pads. 

A couple of the "regular" grunts. Love those whacky proto-space-Egyptian helmets!

The "newer" plastic Mark III armoured kits are, well, not that new any longer, but still seem relatively new to a grognard like me. I was a huge fan of the previous generation of Mk III plastic Space Marines and the newer ones, while nice - and admittedly better-proportioned - still didn't quite have the full "space-baroque charm" of those previous sculpts. Plus, they featured the divisive spiked helmet...anyway, see here for more on all that. 

Another view of some of the regular chaps. I also find that I love the chunky bolt guns that come with the newer Mk III plastic kits. 

At any rate, the point in this post is not to revisit that, but I did wonder late last year if perhaps a blend of the newer plastic Mk III kits and the older, custom Legion heads might look cool in the instance of the Thousand Sons? I had seen some examples online, and it looked...kind of sharp! Given that I had been looking build up my XV Legion collection, I thought a second large, full-on 20-man tactical squad might be the way to go...

Vox trooper and vexillary on hand to support their fellows. 

And it turned out pretty good, at least in my biased opinion. The old custom Forge World helmets don't have the best fit with the newer plastics - the "neck" recess on these plastics is much deeper than previous, so it takes a little careful adjusting to make sure the helmet sits. But it still comes together nicely! I painted these fellows in singles and in pairs through the spring and summer - so it took forever - and then I procrastinated on getting the photos, then finally getting the post done etc. etc....but here they are at last!

The Sergeant got to keep his "regular" combed helmet! As is proper, he also has some scrolls - and a grenade - because 30k.

You might also note that I left the unit's Sergeant with the original head from the new plastic kits...and it turned out alright! Of course, his helmet sports a comb and not a spike, but this has emboldened me to experiment further with these newer plastic Mk III kits - if not for this Legion, then another one.

I do like this fellow taking aim...

As ever, I continue to stick to the non-metallic red for this project. As nice as it might be to find some way to achieve that metallic red look, I do like this matte finished red/gold/white combo as well. The custom Thousand Sons bits really help them "pop" on the table as well. 

A great many Horus Heresy enthusiasts love the assorted specialized units to be found among the army lists, but for me, the very best Horus Heresy gaming is to be found when huge 20-man tactical squads march across the battlefield and bash each other to bits! Good times! My XV Legion Astartes is now in a much stronger position to pursue this strategy, as these fellows will join a similar-sized "beakie" squad painted in a previous Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. 

One last group photo...

Will bashing away with huge tactical squads still be fun in the 3.0 version of the "Age of Darkness" game? That remains to be seen - I'm still awaiting my first game using the new version of the rules, and I haven't even yet tortured myself in trying to understand the new variations on the Thousand Sons' legion-specific rules. I do know that a chunk of my version 2.0 force will not be fully "valid" due to the changes in how Veteran Tactical Squads are configured - but having this second huge tactical squad handy will more than cover that "gap". As ever, the real pressure continues to be a dire lack of vehicles...might be something I will look to address during (when else?) the next Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge!

Age of Darkness 3.0 - The Slow 40k-ification of the Horus Heresy

Following a months-long online marketing campaign, featuring some cheeky levity at the outset and clouds of "leaks" - the officially arranged sort and the incidental sort - the brand new "Saturnine" edition of the Horus Heresy rules has arrived - and by "arrived", I mean, has arrived outside the bubble of GW's studio and its small ecosystem of connected fellow travellers and irritating online "hobby influencers". The new box set and rule books are now circulating in the hands of actual people who play the game and love the setting, but don't do it for a living :) 

This post is...well, it's late! I don't move in hobby-influencer circles, and nobody at GW is worried about what I think to the extent that they would send me stuff in advance, right? 

Come on GW...I'm biddable!

Anyway, even though I'm late, I want to share my thoughts on the new edition - the rules, the lists, the models...all from the humble perspective of who someone who has loved the setting for decades, even if I haven't loved all the rules that have come with it.  

But for this first post, I wanted to reflect on an aspect that is not found in the box set or the new books at all - at least not directly - but rather take a look at the quite bumpy run-up to the launch of the new edition last month. At one level, it was just "a bunch of online grousing" and "people always hate change" etc, sure, but I think it was more than that, and worth a look....

The Bumpy Run Up

I'm not certain the rollout of the new edition went quite the way GW hoped. It is hard to tell - the signal to noise ratio of GW's official marketing communications to players is always set for confusion. Certainly it is difficult to credit the things GW says about its own products or intentions in these circumstances with any good faith.  

The anxiety in the 30k community was palpable during the run up to the release, and as the leaks started to reveal that certain units had vanished (like Destroyers) and that a variety of wargear combos were no more, the anxiety and nerd anger really built. Because the whole pre-launch marketing effort was leak-driven, GW's efforts to manage this online concern (to extent they even tried) were, at best, clunky. It was hard to tell if these removals were a false rumor, a mistaken leak, part of GW's tongue-in-cheek "Horus Hearsay" effort, were part of a plan to shape the new rules and adjust the model range, or simply errors due to incompetence (like the "no power fists for Tartaros Terminators" fiasco). The vibe online really felt negative, and long-time fans feared treasured units, carefully converted character figures or even big parts of their collections were about to be nerfed into oblivion. 

To the extent GW appeared to acknowledge any concerns by actual players during this period, it was to assure everyone there would be a "Legacies of the Age of Darkness" PDF that would contain rules for all of the units and wargear combinations that were otherwise removed from the new edition. 

Like, if you were willing to do that, then why remove them in the first place? But I digress.

GW then missed the date they had promised to issue this new PDF (by, like, a couple of days or whatever, but still, this did not build confidence). There was also a slightly hilarious release of an FAQ/Errata document immediately prior to the actual formal release of the new edition - again, better that GW did this than did not, but it did not build confidence in the product or process around the product we were about to receive.

All of this before any regular gamer even had a physical copy of any new books or models...yikes, I know as geeks we have strong views (I sure do!) but even by these standards, it looked like quite the mini-mess online!

IT'S MORE NARRATIVE.

As I said above, the volume of angst was in many cases dismissed as "wargamers always hate change" and "you always hear the angriest people online"-type reactions. These are lazy "takes". The anger/concern was legit in my view. To understand it, I think it is important to back up for a moment consider the "why" of Age of Darkness 3.0 - as in, "why do they think we must have a new edition at all?" What is the studio was doing, or at least claiming it is trying to do, with this new version of the Horus Heresy rules? 

Well, we know "the answer". More money. After all, we all understand the actual reason for the new edition: it's business my friends! GW is a business, they want to stimulate and drive sales through the Horus Heresy product channel. A new edition is a sure and certain way to accomplish this. 

But the studio would never openly concede commercial motives. That's just poor form! I have seen new editions of rules appear in other games. Those writers and publishers operate for a profit, yes, but they also seek a higher purpose with newer rules editions - to capture new players, refresh and update rules processes, correct mistakes and address oversights from the previous publication. Sometimes a rules writer has been completely overtaken by whole new ideas on how to play a period/setting, and the new edition is a bold departure from the previous attempt!

GW's corporate overlords want profit, but the GW studio people...they want to assure you they, too, seek to refresh the Horus Heresy rules toward a higher purpose. This purpose? MORE NARRATIVE. This idea was at the core of the almost all of the marketing newspeak exercise of the run up to the official release of the new edition. Whatever else this game was going to be, version 3.0 was going to be "MORE NARRATIVE". You got that? This will be "NARRATIVE DRIVEN".

But...like...that can mean a lot. "MORE NARRATIVE." "NARRATIVE DRIVEN." 

So, like, in what way? 

"WELL, YOU KNOW, LIKE THE BLACK LIBRARY BOOKS." 

Ok, but...in what sense...? 

Narrative Hogwash

YOUR NARRATIVE ENJOYMENT IS NOW AUTHORIZED

There are a number of changes to the game between edition 2.0 and 3.0 of the Age of Darkness. I'll touch on some of them in later posts (and you've probably already read at least the official explanations for many of them at the generally-tolerable Warhammer Community site). But for the purposes of this initial reflection, I just make the point that the new Tactical Status, Challenge Phase, the tie to officers and slots in army selection...this is all meant to be "more narrative". So I return to the question - what do they mean by that? Is the new game that different?

You will find it has a LOT of changes, but it is still not a very different experience. Yes, I know that sounds like a contradiction, but it holds up if you just zoom out and compare the overall game structure. 

Horus Heresy 2.0 was, at its base, an IGOUGO-mediated contest between painted collections of miniatures, using forces matched via a points system, with the winner determined via the accumulation of victory points derived from varied but almost always abstract circumstances on the table. Some fairly simple rules lie at the core of the game, but they are wrapped in a thick plankton of various and sundry special rules which are used to achieve a measure of nuanced difference, creating a fairly complex gaming experience overall. 

Did the GW studio attempt any actual radical changes for 3.0? Did they bring in d10s? Did they expand the reaction options, or even blow up IGOUGO? Did they change the turn sequence? Did they do away with templates? No. Not even close.

Horus Heresy 3.0 is rather...an IGOUGO-mediated contest between painted collections of miniatures, using forces matched via a points system, with the winner determined via the accumulation of victory points derived from varied but almost always abstract circumstances on the table. Some fairly simple rules lie at the core of the game, but they are wrapped in a thick plankton of various and sundry special rules which are used to achieve a measure of nuanced difference, creating a fairly complex gaming experience overall. 

And edition 3.0 is no more "narrative driven" than any of the other editions have been. But this not mean 3.0 will be bad. I generally liked playing Horus Heresy 2.0, after all, and amid the endless small tweaks made to the rules I think Horus Heresy 3.0 will be worth a try. 

But spare me the "MORE NARRATIVE". "Narrative driven" gaming doesn't occur in the wake of rules saying they are such. The creation of the story behind a game, the belief in/engagement with that story is up to the players. The lore, the setting, the books - that all helps a great deal, of course. But I have never enjoyed a "narrative" game because a rulebook told me do, and I find it kind of funny that the GW studio thought this concept could be a marketing and design concept cornerstone for the book. 

It is also sad. 

Because it cuts to what I see as really lying at the heart of all the online angst: the 40k-ification of the Horus Heresy, and the loss of the unsaid/unwritten spirit of what had previously set 30k apart in the minds of so many players. Yeah, people are mad about losing their destroyer units (I'll miss mine) but what is really driving the frustration is the direction of travel in the studio towards the 40k-style of hobby. And that sucks. 

40K-ification of the Horus Heresy (aka "Enshittification Of Wargaming Rules)

Writer Cory Doctorow developed the idea of "enshittification" to describe the pattern of decay he sees in online platforms and services over time. I see 40k-ification as the tabletop gaming rules equivalent of "enshittifcation". 

Face it - there are a lot of reasons people love the Horus Heresy setting and Age of Darkness gaming. We love the story. We love the miniatures. But there is also a cornerstone feeling of watching the "evolution" of 40k and saying quietly "Thank God that is not happening to my game". But the sad fact is that 30k players longer this luxury. The blowup of online angst prior to the release of this edition is, to me, a recognition of this fact. 

Oh sure, you can look at Age of Darkness 3.0 and point to the many, many, many ways in which it is still different from the 40k game in important ways. But there are a great number of signs that show the direction of travel clearly. The changes made to the reaction mechanic (one of the best aspects of Horus Heresy 2.0) tilt the game towards the 40k feel. Vehicles have wounds now - wait, sorry, I guess they are still "structure points" - but they are wounds in all but name. These are small things, but they point to how the GW studio's 40k rule making tendencies have now leached into the 30k space. 

But my argument is not only tied to these specific, seemingly minor, mechanical rule changes. The whole 3.0 process itself in the clearest evidence. The turgid, almost unreadable circular language that makes reading the new rules to be an exhausting process.  The presentation of rules as "simple", when they are in fact surrounded by a galaxy of complicated special rules. The addition of very chonky new Saturnine models to the lineup carries the whiff of "Primaris" about it. 

And most of all...the release of a new edition for no real reason, full of changes that are mostly cosmetic and don't actually change the gaming experience, wrapped in a leak-led and online-influencer mediated gaslighting exercise of shouting "MORE NARRATIVE" to pretend otherwise. This, to me, is pure 40k-ification. 

As I said, I will give Age of Darkness 3.0 a try. I may even come to like it! But an era is over. The Horus Heresy game is now clearly within the sights and desires of the sorts of design types who rendered 40k into what it is today - a baffling wargaming experience, such that I cannot even pretend to follow what is happening on a 40k gaming table (other than to recognize it by the presence of a bunch of dumb circles which are generally not part of the terrain). And around it all the endless Codex Creep, the cringe-inducing "meta" chasing. Our 30k rules are not yet THAT bad, but as I said, the direction of travel is clear, and when edition 4.0 comes along in a couple of years, the 30k community will have much, much more to be concerned about, I fear...

But anyway, at least there are some totally nice new figures coming out! We'll move on to that, and some thoughts on some of the rules changes, in future posts!