40K 6th Edition - First Impressions, First Game

The latest version of the Warhammer 40K rules was released on June 30. (Here is a photo of the lineup to the till at the local GW store, when the line had shortened after a couple of hours.)

After perusing the rules and discussing tactics and strategy for a couple of hours, I joined Conscripts Brian, Dallas and Kevin for lunch at a nearby Quizno's. Afterward, I went to AlexB's house, where several gamers (including the organizers of 40Kegger, Astronomi-con, and Mechani-Kon) were taking the new rules out for a spin. With two tables available, and everyone bringing 1000-point armies, games went fast. I ended up squaring off against Astro's rules guru, Keith. I rolled with mech Eldar led by a Farseer. Keith rolled with his Adeptus Arbites:

• HQ: Lord Commissar with Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon, Reftractor Field
• Troops: 10 Veterans w/ Shotguns, 1 x Meltagun, 1 x Heavy Flamer, 1 x Grenade Launcher, 1 x Power Fist, riding in a Chimera APC
• Troops: 10 Veterans w/ Shotguns, 1 x Meltagun, 1 x Heavy Flamer, 1 x Grenade Launcher, 1 x Power Fist
• Fast Attack: Hellhound flame tank w/ Inferno Cannon and Heavy Flamer
• Fast Attack: Valkyrie flier w/ Multilaser, 2 x Rocket Pods, Heavy Bolter sponsons
• Heavy Support: Leman Russ Demolisher siege tank w/ Heavy Flamer and Heavy Flamer sponsons

We chose to do one of the basic Eternal War missions. We rolled the "Crusade" mission, fighting over four (D3+2) objectives on the table. Each such primary objective would be worth 3 Victory Points. In this mission, only Troops selections count as scoring, and only when they have their boots on the ground. No more endgame zooming around, zipped up inside my tanks!

I elected to use one of the new psychic disciplines, choosing the default Divination power Prescience, which is like Guide but better - the target friendly unit gets to re-roll all misses, both shooting and close combat.

Looking south, the four objectives were placed generally towards the centre and eastern portions of the table. The river was counted as a toxic sludge kind of affair. Keith won the deployment roll, and chose to go second. You can no longer use null deployment, so I castled up a few skimmers, and left an Avenger Wave Serpent and the two Hornets in reserve. The Farseer rode with the Fire Dragons. Keith set up everything in a line across the north from the centre to the east.



Moving east and north, the moving Eldar castle pulled off some Hull Points from a couple of vehicles. Vehicles are easier to damage, but move more and are more easily able to get cover saves, especially skimmers that get a jink save of 5+.



Casting was a 5th edition ploy (to give each other saves) that DOES NOT WORK now. Blast markers inflict damage at full strength to the limits of their radii. Accordingly, Keith dropped a Demolisher shell on one Serpent, damaging it and destroying the Warp Hunter and the Dragons' Serpent!

Note to self: always keep skimmer tanks moving and at least 3 inches apart!



A subsequent shot from the flamethrower tank killed the Farseer (S6!) and a Dragon, leaving only an  Exarch alive. These two shots scored two VPs for Keith, for "First Blood" and "Slay the Warlord". These Secondary objectives remind me of Astronomi-con and the NOVA Open, which feature alternative ways to win games.

Passing his morale, the Exarch charged the Hellhound, easily destroying it with a melta bomb. The Valkyrie was shot down by an Outflanking Hornet, which had come on from the east from reserves.

The surviving troops from the Valkyrie unloaded everything they had into the Hornet, taking all its Hull Points, destroying it (in the photo below the empty base is the location of the wrecked Hornet, the unicorn marker represents the destroyed Hellhound).



The Exarch felt frisky, and advanced on the Arbites and Commissar, wiping out all but two with his Dragon's Breath Flamer, despite "Look Out, Sir" shenanigans used by Keith to try and protect the squad's Sergeant with the Commissar.



The Exarch finally went down to a Plasma Pistol shot.



The Commissar then headed south, to join the party starting there. The lone Imperial Guard trooper moved west into the ruined building to control the northmost objective placed just outside. The second outflanking Hornet subsequently blazed the Arbite away, despite his Going to Ground to increase his cover save. Keith now had only one scoring unit on the table.

In the centre, the Chimera was immobilized on terrain and was subsequently destroyed via Hull Points. Its troops disembarked to attack the southernmost objective. They tried an assault, but received enough casualties such that, when the closest troopers were removed, they were unable to roll high enough to charge into contact. Closing in to assault is harder now, which bodes ill for close combat formations like Gaunt broods and Ork Boyz mobs.

Below, the Avenger Serpent to the east has just immobilized itself on bad going (the crater where the Warp Hunter blew up), but its Avengers were able to move up 6" to bring their fire to bear on the Arbites in the centre. Keith stands to the right, while Lance looks on in amusement.



By the end of the 5th turn, the last of Keith's scoring units were gone, and the Commissar and Sentinel went down to Eldar tank fire. However, his Demolisher tank was still mobile and able to fire.

Two Avengers in blue armour held the southern objective. Despite Running, the teal Avengers were about 1/4" too far away from the objective to score. The Demolisher thus tried a shot against the two hapless blue Dire Avengers, killing one...



...whereupon the lone surviving Avenger passed his morale and Keith rolled a "2" for Random Game Length, ending the game.

Final Score: Imperial Guard = 2 VPs, Eldar = 3 VPs for the (close!) win

Some Parting Thoughts:

The game was very fast and fluid. Vehicles are able to move and fire more, with the new movement and snap fire rules. They are harder to suppress, since glances do not roll on the damage table. However, vehicles are more vulnerable to destruction due to the Hull Points rules.

Aircraft are new. Eldar do not have any dedicated anti-aircraft weapons other than the Forge World Fire Storm anti-aircraft tank (yeah, I painted such a turret to go onto one of my tank hulls) and Nightwing Interceptor. I thought hard about fielding a Fire Storm, but at a base 180 points it is too costly to field when for that price I can get a Serpent and most of a Hornet. I may have to rely on the plethora of Eldar twin-linked guns to take on enemy planes.

The way deployment and reserves work, you cannot null deploy. In fact, you lose if you have no figures on the table at the end of a turn. Reserves are easier to get (3+ on turns 2 and 3, automatic on turn 4). So my usual "Reserves Denial" tactic is gone, and gone with it is the burning need to field an Autarch. A cheap Farseer gives anti-psychic defense with Runes of Warding, and the new psychic disciplines are cool and powerful.

For most of the new scenarios, scoring units are Troops choices standing on the ground. I may end up fielding full sized Dire Avenger squads with Bladestorm again! Some of the new scenarios turn other Force Org choices (Heavy Support and Fast Attack) into scoring units. "The Relic" scenario has a single objective that can be picked up and carried embarked inside vehicles, like in several Astro scenarios. All very interesting. 

I spent the last couple of weeks going round and round trying to come up with an Eldar list for 6th ed. Ironically, I have ended up with a 1000 point list similar to what I would have fielded for 5th, barring the presence of the Farseer:

• HQ: 1 Farseer -  Guide (swappable for a Psychic Discipline), Runes of Warding, Singing Spear  (93 pts)
• Troops: 6 Dire Avengers, riding in a Wave Serpent transport  w/ TL Shuriken Catapults and TL Shuriken Cannons (172 pts)
• Troops: 6 Dire Avengers, riding in a Wave Serpent transport  w/ TL Shuriken Catapults and TL Shuriken Cannons (172 pts)
• Elite: 5 Fire Dragons, led by a Fire Dragon Exarch w/ Dragon's Breath Flamer, all riding in a Wave Serpent transport  w/ Spirit Stones, Shuriken Cannon and TL Shuriken Cannons (228 pts)
• Fast Attack: 1 Hornet light tank w/ Scatter Laser and Pulse Laser (105 pts)
• Fast Attack: 1 Hornet light tank w/ Scatter Laser and Pulse Laser (105 pts)
• Heavy Support: Warp Hunter w/ TL Shuriken Catapults and D-Cannon (125 pts)

Slightly fewer Vehicle Upgrades, to allow for an extra man in each squad. 1500 points may add a Night Spinner, a full squad of mechanized Avengers, and some Warp Spiders.

I need  to play several more games to get into all the changes. Dark Reapers seem more dangerous now, especially if their Exarch has a missile launcher and Crack Shot (no cover saves!). Swooping Hawks and artillery may be coming back into my forces. However, I still see no need to field my Howling Banshees - they cannot even charge out of a stationary transport any more. The general consensus from the gamers I talked to was that 6th ed. 40K is a more tactical game, and a new and interesting way to play. I look forward to the challenge the new edition has brought!

Thanks again to Alex for hosting, and to Keith for a great game.

40K 6th Edition: part one

I'd like to start a conversation here regarding the changes to Warhammer 40K that are imminent with the sixth edition, to be released on 30 June.

Everybody's well aware, I think, of most of the main changes - the return of overwatch, Warlord traits, allies, taking fortifications as part of the army list.  But one change that surprised me is, in my mind, more fundamental to the way the game plays than any of these.

It's casualty removal. Remember how the sergeant or the guy with the power fist is always the last of the squad to die? Well, unless you deploy your squad very carefully this might be a thing of the past. From now on, casualties are removed from the front of the squad, presumably starting with the model closest to the firing enemy unit. (Although I've not seen the actual text of the rule, it's confirmed by mention in several places in the latest White Dwarf).

I like the thinking behind this change. However, I also think it's going to lend itself to some very gamey tactics - that is, if you remember the rule as you're moving your squad! Players will be careful to have a lasgun-toting grunt a few mm in fronto of the meltagunner. And if the rule is forgotten, and a number of models appear equidistant from the shooter, this could cause friction in the game and, at the very least, one of the ubiquitous "50/50" dice offs that 40K practically introduced to the gaming lexicon.

A more elegant casualty selection solution, in my view, would have been to allow the shooting player to pick the first model to take a wound, under certain circumstances. For example, in our WW2/Modern ruleset, if a squad suffers more than 50% casualties in a single shooting phase, there is a 50% chance that the shooting player gets to choose the first model (and only the first model) to be removed. Otherwise, there is only a 1-in-6 chance of this happening, and the owning player removes all casualties. That represents the lucky hit on the squad leader or heavy weaponeer.

I can also see a pretty serious "transition" period where this rule is forgotten, or selectively remembered by the shooting player ;-)

5150 SF Rules Battle Report and Review

As a result of the minor sh!tstorm that resulted from our group's less-than-overwhelmingly-positive first impressions of Tomorrow's War, "Ed the Two-Hour Wargames Guy" very generously offered me a review copy of his company's Sci-Fi skirmish wargame, "5150: Star Army". I duly promised to play and review the game and finally we've had a chance to do so. Here goes...

My hardcopy of 5150 comprises a 98-page rulebook bound "cerlox" style. The full-colour cover is well-executed and professional. The inside is black-and-white throughout, with no illustrations and a few line diagrams. While the layout is basic and unornamented, it's clear. Production quality is nowhere near something like Tomorrow's War, but then again, neither is the price. The writing style is conversational, in some cases a bit much so for my liking ("are you picking up what I'm putting down?" yikes) but in most instances, it works. The basic rules take up about half the book while the rest is comprised of the "army lists", scenario contruction and campaign information and the quick reference material.

Like Tomorrow's War, the game uses a "reaction system", where figures act and react to the actions of others, as opposed to the traditional "IGO-UGO" system where one side takes its whole turn, followed by the other side. Unlike Tomorrow's War, the reaction system in 5150 is relatively well-described and is more clearly laid out in the rules. There are a finite number of "reactions" and the circumstances for tests are pretty clearly described. An interesting feature of the rules is that each faction has its own reaction tables and a die roll that would result in success for elite troops often is much less positive if your troops are not as good. I like this feature but it results in a chart-heavy game... 

So we played an introductory scenario, "Rescue the Pilot", pitting three squads of PDF (Rep 3 and 4) against two squads of Star Army troops (Rep 4 and 5). We used Greg's cool new individually based 15mm figures, and just substituted centimeters for inches for movement and range purposes.

The "pilot" is in the building in the middle of the table

Star Army squads moves on

Hapless pilot, "objective-ified" yet again

PDF waiting in ambush

Star Army crosses the river

PDF lurking behind a hedge

Star Army squad decimated by PDF fire

Star Army survivor makes off with the pilot

Star Army squad withdraws

Conscript Brian played the PDF and Greg B. ran the Star Army. The game pretty much went as expected with the better-led Star Army squads lighting up the PDF and achieving their objective of grabbing the pilot. However, they weren't exactly unbloodied, with a Star Army squad caught in the open getting seriously mauled. Greg's die rolling was hot (lots of "obviously dead" results) and Brian's was mostly "not" so that may have made a bit of difference in the result, but as with most "reaction" rulesets we've played, small differentials in troop quality make a huge difference in the game (Tomorrow's War, I'm looking at you).

I think the guys enjoyed the game, but personally, it is gonna take more to move me off my beloved IGO-UGO (I know, I am a bit of a dinosaur that way). The different charts for the different factions are pretty cool, but it is the sheer volume of charts in 5150 that blow my brain a little bit. There are over 100 (!) in the rulebook... including three dealing with Spider Holes (standard chart plus "Discovery" and "Occupancy"), two dealing with Grenades ("Ready" and "Throwing"), etc.  Granted, most won't be used in a game, but still... I guess there were about three pages in the book I had to flip back and forth regularly from, and that's not too bad.

I actually think I prefer the reaction system in 5150 to that in Tomorrow's War, because it seems more clearly laid out and a bit more intuitive. For example, I like that 5150's "Received Fire" reaction is to either duck back, snap fire (at reduced effect) or fire at full effect... and that a firefight can rage back and forth until one combatant is hit, or ducks back out of sight. Very cool.

We didn't get into advanced stuff like leaders' dice in the first game, but I can see us getting detailed in future games. As I said, IGO-UGO may be less "realistic" but on a Thursday night, after a long day at work using my grey cells, sometimes I just want to crack a beer and kick back to some non-brain-melting Warhammer or Lord of the Rings-based gaming. My pleasure is mainly in pushing some nicely-painted lead around a well manicured table. But while I don't need "fancy" in my rules, I have to admit that from time to time it's nice to stretch the brain a bit and I think 5150 could do the trick for that.

Thanks again to Ed Texeira for the review copy. 5150: Star Army can be purchased as a hardcopy or .pdf from Two Hour Wargames.

Book Review: "It Was the War of the Trenches"

In our recent visit to France, we toured the fantastic Historial de la Grande Guerre museum in Peronne. Along with a staggering collection of uniforms, weapons, equipment and artifacts, the museum presented a very interesting perspective on the origins of the war. And there was, of course, a gift shop ;-) And in that gift shop, there was a fine collection of posters, including some very cool posters advertising past "special exhibits" at the museum. One of the exhibits focussed on comic art, and one of its finest current practitioners, the masterful Jacques Tardi.

The poster art inspired me to pick up Tardi's book "It Was the War of the Trenches", available in English from Fantagraphics. Notwithstanding the English title (which is so incredibly clunky that I'm surprised that it made it past the editor), the images in this book are mesmerizing - no less than visions of Hell through a two-dimensional black-and-white lens. The book is comprised of short stories featuring the average poilu. No superheroes (or really even regular heroes) here - just ordinary men thrown into the horrifying, otherwordly Hellscape of the Western Front. The artwork and storytelling is amazing - although depressing - and gives a real sense of the despair and horror that must have been the lot of the poilu.

It was very interesting to me to see the War from the French perspective. I'm used to studying the Great War from the British/Commonwealth perspective - and even in terms of comic art, the "Charley's War" series by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun. "Charley's War" is a quite different proposition from IWAWOTT both in terms of art and tone. The British strip has a very "2000AD" feel with a more realistic artistic style, while Tardi's work is a bit more... "impressionistic"? Faces are evocative and expressive while being more cartoony in style. Details of uniforms and weapons are excellent in both strips. The tone of "Charley's War", while it contains an element of horror, tends to be somewhat more "traditional comic" in the sense that the story is driven by action and combat, while Tardi's work is vignette-like and not episodic at all. From a gaming perspective, either work will get you revved up about painting and gaming, but to me it's clear that Tardi's is the more "mature" work, a definitive masterpiece of war art that will stand the test of time.

I'm not a big comic guy but I really love this book. I am anxious to hear whether Tardi's other Great War magnum opus - "Putain de Guerre!" - will be translated into English. It looks fantastic, following a single poilu through the War from 1914-18. In its English translation, IWAWOTT is highly recommended as part of a popular library on the Great War - even for readers who are not comic fans.

"It Was the War of the Trenches" Hardcover, 120 B/W pages, Fantagraphics Books. RRP $24.99USD

Review: Vampire Counts Army Book 8th Ed.

New Vampire Counts - not exactly as depicted...

I used some gift certificates to pick up the new Vampire Counts army book. First off, $50 for an army book? Seriously? As my daughters would say, WTF? I can't wait until the new edition of 40K comes out and all the books are hard cover.
Anyways, on to the content. Anyone that owns the previous Vampire book is going to be pissed off. Other than adding a few paragraphs here and there, the majority of the bestiary text is lifted directly from the previous book. They even used most of the previous art work, though it is in "color" now. Sure, there are some new units(some of the models are actually quite nice). The only real "plus" is that GW has finally started using a decent binding, so hopefully the pages won't fall out.
I don't want to come across a GW hater, but I am starting to wonder how much longer their current "business" practices can last. All in all, I give this book a big MEH.

Book(s) Review - The Horus Heresy

"Got a note from Horus today lads - turns out the Emperor is a douche and we're off to tune him up."

My wife and I took a little pre-Christmas vacation down in California last week. On trips like this I like to bring some reading material to relax, and this time my reading diversions included the first three books from The Black Library's Horus Heresy series - "Horus Rising" by Dan Abnett, "False Gods" by Graham McNeill and "Galaxy In Flames" by Ben Counter.  In other words, no Christmas-themed reading for me.

The series is much longer than these three books, but they really got me fired up, and they kind of stand alone as trilogy on their own, so I thought I would throw a little review up on the blog.

The Horus Heresy is one of my favourite "periods" within the fluff of the GW 40k setting. First explored (at least I think) with the release of games like Space Marine and Adeptus Titanicus, the Horus Heresy has been firmly rooted in the foundation of the GW's 40k universe for a long time. The broad strokes of the story are well-established - Horus was made Warmaster, turned against the Emperor, betrayed several Space Marine Legions in the Istvaan system, then attacked Earth with his rebel Legions and laid siege to the Imperial Palace. It was touch and go for the Loyalist side, but the Emperor personally led a direct counter-attack into Horus' HQ. The Emperor killed Horus, but was seriously wounded and now lives eternally as a kind of sci-fi-gothic-soul-consuming-drink-machine on Earth. With Horus dead, the rebels were thrown back from Earth, and the Imperial side gradually won the war.

The Heresy itself faded from any actual representation in the GW 40k games - the Epic rules moved away from the Heresy period towards representing the "current" era, in which the forces that once fought on Horus' side are represented by the various iterations of Chaos. I have always found this strange - after all GW will publish a rules supplement for almost anything (hello "Cityfight"), but the specific period of the Heresy itself has lived on only in background references of the fluff in rulebooks and codexes.

Representing the actual Heresy era civil-war type battles in a 40k game, before everyone on Horus' side grew a tail, a fourth eye, Nurgle infection etc., especially at the 25mm/28mm scales, is something that GW didn't really seem interested in, for whatever reason.

So I was surprised that the Black Library ever did books on the Heresy itself, starting back on 2007. Writing a book - much less a series of them - featuring major characters that are well-known by the fan boys (like me) based on a story arc that is already established must have been daunting. When you see the awful Star Wars Episode I, II and III, you see how easy a project with parameters like that can go wrong. Attempting to tell this story with multiple authors and still managing to keep a similar arc and tone must have been really, really tricky.

And a final challenge is (in my view) found with a key fibre of the material itself - the Space Marines. The Marines have evolved over the years since Rogue Trader and the "Space Marine" game came out. They have always been "Humanity's Finest" in the 40k setting, but through new versions of the 40k rules, newer fluff etc. they have started to become a bit....silly....almost self-parodying...how would the authors handle that?

How do you write a characters like Horus, much less the Emperor himself?

A very challenging endeavour! They started well...they had Dan Abnett do the first book!

"We're the Luna Wolves! For the Emperor!"

Dan Abnett is a fine writer.  His books featuring Inquisitor Eisenhorn are some of the most engaging sci-fi fiction books I've ever read.  His book "Titanicus" is just fabulous.  And that is only a small fraction of the volume he has written.  He captures the 40k setting perfectly, and takes you there.  So I was glad to see they handed the pen to Dan for "Horus Rising", and it's no small coincidence that this was the best book of the three.

In "Horus Rising" you meet not only the Warmaster himself, but key officers (like Abbadon) of his Legion, the Luna Wolves, fleet commanders etc.  This book takes you to the "Great Crusade", and the first chapters get you hooked into the period.  Actually, the first pages take care of it.

Abnett also takes you through the subtle seeds that would give rise to the Heresy - and he does it masterfully.  Wounded pride. Changing leadership. Changing times.  This book gives you the thrill of the Great Crusade, and you experience the disappointment and doubt when, for example, it becomes clear a council on Terra is calling the shots, as the Emperor goes about setting up an Empire, and no longer deals directly with Horus.  It all seems logical, but Abnett gives you the view from the personnel - Marines and civilians alike - and you get a sense of the tension the Emperor's decision creates.

Abnett handles the Horus character very well.  It's clear he is a total rock star, but you relate to his human flaws and strengths, as opposed to viewing him as some kind of loser comic book character even though he is a "Primarch" (see below for more on that).

Considering how ab-human the Space Marines actually are, Abnett does an amazing job dwelling on their humanity.  He plugs you in to the strengths, weaknesses and political tensions within the Luna Wolves Legion, and manages to avoid getting bogged down in too much Brother Dorculous and Captain Fantasticus-type silliness.  The Marines are super human, and super flawed, and that will totally suck at some point...but hey - what's so wrong with a warrior lodge?

Abnett also brings in other Imperium characters, and this is something he does so well - writing in characters that you would never encounter in a 40k game (except perhaps as objectives) but that are marvellous in terms of taking you right into the setting.  You meet "remembrancers" - very Imperium-type documentary sorts sent to "cover" the Great Crusade.  You meet "iterators" - official propagandists of the Imperium.  These characters not only become important to the plot - the perspectives of these characters provide a really cool "year 30k human" lens into the Great Crusade setting, and also providing an interesting contrast to the stone-faced Space Marines.

This book will have you wanting to paint up some Luna Wolves in no time at all! I heartily recommend this book - it's a page turner for sure, and if you appreciate the 40k setting, you'll love it.

"This Crusade Armour is awesome - wait till Forge World sells it!"

Graham McNeil builds the story on Dan Abnett's foundation, and he does a very good job. This book takes you through to the actual "fall" of Horus, and the divisions within the Luna Wolves (as well as their accompanying Expedition Fleet) start to build.   McNeil details how Horus' "fall" occurred on the world of Davin.  Obviously we all know what path Horus' character is on at this point, but McNeil still makes it a good read. 

This book is still a page turner, but some flaws in the series start to appear.  Thankfully, the author manages the material well so readers will not tune out.

What do I mean by flaws? Well, the forces of "Chaos" start to appear in this book.  Other "Primarch" characters start to make more appearances too.  The Primarchs are the founding leaders of the Space Marine Legions. Meant to be super-impressive, they just seem really absurd (take "Saguinius" of the Blood Angels he has wings - the tampax Primarch!).  Each Primarch has a back story and a flawed-yet-super persona.  They are supposed to embody the attributes of their Legion.  They really just make you roll your eyes.

This isn't a knock on McNeil - the Primarchs and their personalities are key to the story - after all, they will decide whether to join Horus or not, so you can't just avoid them - and their absurdity is also bolted into the fluff of 40k, so McNeil could not dodge it.  The Primarchs all seem to have come of the reject board of a Marvel Comics intern meeting.  A creation story is even floated in this novel - I don't want to ruin it for you, but it's just....absurd.  As pinnacles of Humanity and as idols of their Marines, the Primarchs are beyond hilarious.  Lucky for the reader, their direct parts in the book are brief. 

After all the real interest of this story lies with the grunts - after all, you know what Horus is going to do.  What will happen to these people - especially when it becomes clear that Horus will turn against the Emperor?

What is very good about this book is the continued development of other, more front-line characters. McNeil does an excellent job continuing to the story of the building tension among the front-line troops, work crews and others within the fleet, as people start to sense that...well, things are no longer what they used to be.  The unity and clarity of purpose of the Great Crusade is gone - what will replace it? 

The emergence of the notion of the Emperor-as-God is just starting too, and is a source of real (and, for the reader, I believe interesting) debate amongst the characters. That is fun to read too - after all, in the 40k setting, the whole Emperor-as-god thing is pretty much locked in, and your planet can be nuked for denying it.  Watching Marine captains, remembrancers and iterators debate the "absurdity" of the notion (which was the establishment view at the time) is entertaining.

"Goooooo Horus!"

"Galaxy in Flames" tells the story of the first shots fired in the Heresy.  In the fluff of the Space Marine rulebook, we know that Horus kicked off the Heresy by virus-bombing the world of Istvaan after the planet rebelled from the Emperor.  The act was seen as a major overreaction by Horus, the first major sign that he was out of control, and the signal for the Emperor to act. Author Ben Counter takes the reader through a detailed story about the campaign against Istvaan, and Horus' moves in that campaign.  

In this book Horus' betrayal is revealed - and Marine turns against Marine for the first time.  Horus basically sends all the "unreliable" types into his first wave against the formidable Istvaan rebels - which he then bombards from orbit using virus-weapons. Yikes!  Some of the heroes survive this betrayal, and try to hold out against Horus...

On the down side, the Primarchs also play a greater role in this book, and reading about their silly outfits and ridiculous personalities is....well, I find it lame.  Horus' character is still well done, but I wish the book would have dealt more with how Horus schemed to maneuver these characters into doing his bidding, as opposed to grand councils where clowns like Angron (Primarch of the World Eaters) are making vented pronouncements, and losers like Fulgrim (Primarch of the Emperor's Children) are making grand appearances.

Wolverine would make a perfect Primarch - unkillable, sullen and totally useless. I think his Legion could be known as the "Pouting Claws", and they would always arrive in drop pods, with reporters, after the fighting was over...but I digress....

Where the Primarchs suck, the front-line-type characters shine again, make this book an overall solid read. But the story arc takes these protagonist characters to a place that there really is no way out of, and you kind of know it early on.  They are betrayed on the battlefield of Istvaan, and considering that these new-found "loyalists" have zero support, and Horus has like four Space Marine Legions, a bunch of Titans, and a whole fleet, it's hard to see how they have much chance. The last stand is impressive, but you know how it's going to end....

*********************************************************************************

So to sum up, I recommend these books to 40k fans.  They are well written (Abnett in particular is brilliant) and very engaging. You get a feel for a 40k setting that is consistent with "today's" version, but still unique in that it feels "earlier".  These books will have you fired up to paint something...even as you realize you would have to play using 40k rules....