Horus Heresy 2e Review: The Battle for Beta-Garmon - Overview

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️

1.5/5 stars. Rounded up. A mixture of flaws and highlights that I will explain in the review below. 

Background.

I have been postponing publishing my review of The Battle for Beta-Garmon for some time. Part of the reason for this is that I wrote to Games Workshop to complain about the book and wanted to hear their response. I have now given them sufficient time (over a month) and there has been zero movement. So here we are.

The good.

The background to the battle itself is very good. There are loads of little bits of detail that lore-mongers will genuinely like - myself included!

Rules for the Blackshields are amazing. Highly recommended and so tempting that I might make an allied detachment of Blackshields for fun. I'm stoked!

The reasonable. 

New rules for other legions are good (e.g. Hibou Khan, Company Command Squads and so forth). 

Similarly, the new rules presented for the Solar Auxilia (and the legion auxilia) are solid. I don't have any complaints, and there's some nice and flavourful things that players can now do with legion auxilia that I think are really good. Tempting to have an allied detachment of them too - but not right now.

The flaws.

Shattered legions are simply not playable. In fact, the designers themselves don't recommend their own rules for play! Its mind blowing that this has happened. I am so incredibly disappointed with the new rules for the Shattered Legions that I can never see myself playing them now. Even though I've got a really nice set of Salamanders, Raven Guard, and Iron Hands all made and ready. 

In the printed book that I received, the page numbering is hopeless. Two sections are mixed up, and the internal referencing is legitimately appalling. How could this have happened? I am utterly dismayed at the quality control. Yes, mistakes happen, but for a company as large as Games Workshop to go ahead with such a flaw is not a good look, even if it does happen once in a while. 

Overall.

This is really a book that I had such high hopes for. It could have been utterly superb. And parts of it certainly are superb! The background, the missions, the blackshields are all superlative. I want more of this. But it is hard to overstate how incredibly sad I am about the Shattered Legions rules. Its obvious that some of them haven't really been thought through (e.g., Night Lords flaw trait sticks out like a proverbial sore thumb) and the checking every phase for changes in unit composition is a book-keeping hellscape (yes - I tried it). At this point I really must tip my proverbial hat to Alan Bligh once more. His untimely passing is sorely missed for Second Edition. First edition did it better by orders of magnitude. The page numbering was just the killer for me and pushed me over the edge to complain directly to Games Workshop. I wrote to them about these top two issues. 

They responded to my quickly to state that they have forwarded my message upward in the chain of command. 

I have heard nothing since. 

I would very much like to have a book that doesn't have the page numbering and cross referencing flaws. That would be my minimum. I could accept the Shattered Legions if it looked like it had been play tested. It really is a mess though. It needs simplification and I look forward to a future FAQ for the Shattered Legions that will make them much more playable and eligible for competitive environments and casual games alike. Almost no one is going to be playing Shattered Legions outside of masochistic small points values engagements. And I do love casual small points value narrative play myself as my long term readers will certainly know, but these rules push me beyond the will to field my Shattered Legion forces. It is possible, but no thanks. Might as well select some Blackshield rules and apply them to the Shattered Legions forces to be quite honest. Sorry to sound so negative folks. Let me finish on an upbeat note then. The Blackshields are back with a vengeance in second edition thanks to being super fluffy and narratively compelling! We will be reviewing the rules contents of this book in due course in a lot of detail.