Summer Preview of Mark 2 Assault Squad

The summer preview that recently happened shows close ups of the new Mark 2 Assault Squads for the Legions in Horus Heresy (and presumably 40k if you want to go that way). 

What I like about this kit is not simply the posing possibilities and dynamism that is on display.  It is the presence of the accessories and weapon alternatives such as the power mauls, heavy chainaxes, volkite serpenta, disintegrator pistols, and the combat shields - which for the first time are round ones judging by the Salamanders one that was painted up! 

To me, these scream World Eaters. And it is for that reason alone that I will be buying them. That, and I'm also sick of having almost no reliable option for chain axes for the World Eaters in 30k that are not overly Khornate or come from other ranges. Simply brilliant! But don't get me wrong, I think this assault squad would suit almost any legion to be honest. After all, the legions are very large and not all of them will be equipped with chain swords. 

What I do find interesting on the Warhammer Community web page is this snippet:

"You’ll find the rules for the Legiones Astartes Assault Squad in the Liber Astartes and Liber Hereticus books, where you’ll find that the chainaxes are a points-free alternative to the classic chainsword loadout you might have seen elsewhere."

Why are they the same points values when free replacement of chain swords with chain axes was always (always) a World Eaters boon? Does this imply that chain axes have the same weapon profile as chain swords now? I will find out in a week's time, but if anyone has spoilers for me, I'd love to hear from you (either here or by email). 

Changing Hobby Plans due to Third Edition

At the start of the year, I noted down some hobby plans for the year ahead. These were:

"I'm thinking of maybe expanding my Mechanicum mini-force slightly to make a full (if minimal) primary detachment. I am more considering some Black Shields though - I just need to determine which my favourite Oaths are. Its actually a really hard choice! I might also get a unit of Solar Auxilia las rifle men to be ruled over by an Overseer when the space marine model for that gets released."

Due to the announcement of Third Edition, I am now having a bit of a re-think.

Firstly, and probably most obviously, my Black Shields are in a state of limbo (let alone Shattered Legions). We do not yet have sight of how either will be handled in the new edition. Although I liked the Black Shields, it has to be said that the Shattered Legions rules were simply a mess. 

Therefore I will shelve these ideas for the moment in favour of detachment expansion plans. Specifically, I want to look at expanding the Emperor's Children and World Eaters detachments that I already have in place. 

I will need to evaluate what to do with the new boxed set, and where the miniatures will go. I don't think I will start a new detachment just yet (even if Death Guard or Thousand Sons are appealing right now!). Instead, I think I will expand World Eaters and Emperor's Children. I am sorely tempted to also expand my Shattered Legions forces including Salamanders and Iron Hands (maybe Raven Guard, but probably not) with the Mark II miniatures included in the new set. I might assign the terminators to my existing Iron Warriors, but I'm not sold on that concept just yet. I'll have to decide! I think I won't expand my Alpha Legion any more since I have a rather full collections of Alphas already. 

As for the Mechanicum, I remain to be convinced just yet, but it remains viable. 

I also want to see the possibilities for the Overseer joining the Solar Auxilia las rifle men in a bit more detail before deciding on the colour scheme for the Auxilia and whether to glue bayonets on (etc.). None of these decisions are critical, but the new edition feels like it has put a lot of the concepts and ideas I had at the start of the year on hold for the moment. So I'll wait to see the proverbial whites in the eyes of the new rules before planning in any deeper details. 

[Image: World Eaters loyal overseer minus any Solar Auxilia!]

Horus Heresy 3rd Edition: What Will Be Moved to Expanded Units?

Legacy Units. Expanded Units. Non-Core Units.

Call them what you like, but they've been a feature for a long time. 

The first time that I genuinely took note of the movement toward such non-core units was when the Caestus Assault Ram was no longer sold by Forge World. At that point, I did wonder about what people might do to purchase them. There's clearly a reasonable second hand market on eBay, and I would wager that 3D printing can help out (but I have never looked as I don't own a printer). Yet it is the first unit that I think of when considering those Legacies. 

Although I am quite certain that the Caestus will make it into the new pdf release, I am left wondering what may or may not be transferred across from the core rule book into those pdf releases. I realise we already have some shape of that from seeing the contents pages leak for the Libers for the new books. But I'm equally conscious that we've not seen everything yet. 

I also wonder if the pdf booklets will include the unusual armaments that we've become accustomed to else where (like those melta guns on Mor Deythan) or whether we really will be stuck with un-usable conversions in all of our armies. The community - at least to my mind - really flourishes with conversions and bespoke miniatures that I frankly love to see on the tabletop. So many great conversations about conversions and paint jobs whenever I have managed to get to tournaments ensue, and I really want that aspect to continue strongly. But I remain very concerned about how Games Workshop / Warhammer will attend to these notable deficiencies. I remain convinced that power fists on Tartaros terminators will be a day 1 FAQ or similar. But what else will be? And what will be relegated like the Caestus ultimately. My Black Shields plans hang by a thread!

Horus Heresy 3rd Edition: Pre-Order Available and Thoughts Therein

The pre-order has been available since 10am UK today today, 12/July/2025. 

And to kill the tension that might be in the room: I pre-ordered it. 

So why did I pre-order it knowing that some, many, or perhaps most of the changes are not what I really wanted to see? I have to say that the miniatures alone are a massive pull factor for me. I actually like the Saturnine terminators and want them in my collection! I haven't yet planned out what legions I will use the miniatures for, but I'm going to look to see if there's another allied detachment that I might plausibly be able to take. I will also be looking to augment my World Eaters, and am tempted to expand my Shattered Legions Salamanders into a fuller main detachment. Beyond that, I will await reading the new rules. 

I also ordered the Loyalist and Traitor books, along with the Knights / Titans book. I am leaving the others until later - perhaps Christmas? I think it will take longer than that to review the units within those books alone. I am also disappointed that there wasn't a massive re-stock of Heresy items available today. I might have bought (for example) Angron if he were available today since I was ordering. The lack of re-stock for such a major release is a real head-scratcher from an economic stand point. 

Speaking of which: yes. I DO intend to review the units again for 3rd edition. I hope this will once again be a valuable resource to the community and will highlight to the rules designers what we have lost as a community. Indeed, if the rumour and leaks are true, then I will certainly be writing to Games Workshop / Warhammer about the invalidation of army choices. I would also encourage my readers to do the same. It is one thing to moan about it to each other on the internet, but another thing if we as a community get organised a start some petitions and pressure on the game designers to revise and renew unit options. All it would take would be a short pdf file which says something like:

Power Fist = +10 points, available for Tartaros terminators, ++ (etc.). 

Combi-Meltas = +5 points, available for Raven Guard Mor Deythan, ++ (etc.).

Esoteric Weapon X = +20 points. Only available to Praetors or Psykers (etc., etc.).

i.e., it doesn't have to be long, or complicated, but would solve the immediate issue if it comes to pass. 

End of 2nd Wargames Gallery: Illegal Armies on Parade?

I was going to entitle this post something like Terminator Grudge Match. But given the rumours and leaks we have been hearing, it seems like the hashtag "IllegalArmiesOnParade" has been gaining momentum and traction. If borne out, this is not great for the game, or the fan base. I hope Games Workshop / Warhammer Horus Heresy Team are ready for the on-going backlash if it is true and come up with a quick solution. 

Anyway, here are the Alpha Legion engaging the World Eaters in a terminator grudge match! Spot the power fists, chain fists, power maul, and other conversions in my armies (and I'm sure: your armies too). 

This game was ultimately fought to a standstill and was a draw. i.e., time ran out. But what an epic terminator versus terminator match it was overall! 

End of 2nd Wargames Gallery: Garrison Breach

On a lonely colony world, the World Eaters traitors assault an unassuming Iron Warriors garrison that they've kept held for a decade, unaware of the wider conflict like many of their garrisoned legion brethren. 

With the element of surprise, and needing to capture precious resourced, the World Eaters press their surprise attack against the Iron Warriors. The Iron Warriors hold the objective (the agate slice that looks mysteriously like a warp portal behind the tactical squad here!), but suffer a charge which wipes them out to a man.

Nearby, the lac cannons of the Iron Warriors make short work of the leviathan dreadnought which explodes in spectacular fashion as the lasers slice apart its critical components. 

Sadly, it is not enough for the Iron Warriors in the end. The World Eaters over-run their positions and destroy them all. Victory to the World Eaters by tabling their opponents. The narrative rolls ever onward!

Horus Heresy 3rd Edition: Saturnine Pre-Order Next Weekend 12/July/2025

It is official. The pre-order drops next Saturday, 12/July/2025. This is not a drill folks - it is here, and ahead of when I estimated it would be, but still in July!

As announced on the Sunday preview, the Saturnine boxed set and the new rule books for the third edition of Horus Heresy arrives next Saturday, 12/July/2025. 

Citation via Warhammer email, and the Warhammer Community blog, here: https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/zojna4pr/sunday-preview-the-horus-heresy-begins-with-saturnine/

This will make things challenging for me as I've already made plans for next weekend! lol! Wish me luck - I hope I can get online and in the queue for this regardless. 

My hype train has no brakes right now. 

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. 

End of 2nd Wargames Gallery: Emperor's Children and Iron Warriors Reckoning

Unsure of who is a traitor and who is a loyalist (sounds like an Alpha Legion plot if you ask me), the Iron Warriors might takes on the Emperor's Children elegance and arrogance.  

A group of Iron Warriors terminators is attacked by the Emperor's Children assault squad. Swinging slower than the Emperor's Children, the terminators suffer massive wounds - more than enough to see the end of their days. 

In return, the Iron Warriors Siege Tyrants rain down a fire storm on the assault squad to wipe them off the board through a very rapid rout above the remains of a dead rhino. 

But the Emperor's Children are not yet done. A las cannon heavy support squad sits at the apex of a ruined tower and fires back at the siege tyrants. It isn't enough though - the tyrants are able to take them down at range and force enough unsaved wounds to wipe them clean off the board. Victory to the Iron Warriors!

End of 2nd Wargames Gallery: Salamanders test the Iron Without

Continuing the End of 2nd Wargames Gallery, this is the turn of the Iron Warriors against the Salamanders (in an apparent prelude to third edition perhaps?!). 

The Iron Warriors pour out of the Land Raider and make ready to charge into the Salamanders Praetor and assorted Isstvan survivors. The Salamanders have a handy reaction on their side though and will shoot back at full strength before the Iron Warriors make their lines.

Whittled down by one terminator, the Iron Warriors make quick work of the squad, but the Praetor stands firm and counters with his thunder hammer and (after more than this turn) is the sole survivor of this encounter. 

A larger scale overview of the situation can be seen in this second image. There's an Iron Warriors plasma support squad pumping volleys into a dreadnought which is about to exchange fire with an ordinary tactical squad. 

The tactical squad doesn't stand a chance and is readily partially eliminated and routed. 

Toward the end of the game the Iron Warriors support squad is the only one remaining whilst (a very burned and battered) dreadnought and the (rather sliced up) Praetor remains for the Salamanders after destroying the Land Raider. The game ends up a tie overall. 

End of 2nd Wargames Gallery: Corax Smashes World Eaters

Corax smashes into the World Eaters ranks to deliver a severe blow to those who would think the Raven Guard a spent and dead force. 

[I kept the scenic base on Corax here at it fitted so beautifully well!]

The second image shows a slightly wider angle, including the scene from last week, here. 

Victory in this battle went to the Raven Guard who were able to overpower both the long range firepower from the World Eaters dreadnought and dealt with the close combat threat via their Primarch moving very swiftly across the field of play. 

More Leaks Than Fishnets: Horus Heresy 3rd Edition

Yes, I saw the leaks before they were removed from Reddit. 

Its clear that some people already have the goods and are perfectly willing to post such things. I don't have a copy, nor would I post if I did. I don't have to either: there's more leaks than fishnets. 

But then some of the information was duplicated on Warhammer Community. Including the Force Organization Chart. 

On the one hand, I am rather disappointed by the fundamental changes that they have wrought. There won't be any more division of HQ-Elites-Troops-Fast Attack-Heavy Support. This has been with us for an exceptionally long time and the introduction of newer categories certainly feels very strange and unfamiliar at this particular point. 

Yet on the other hand, there certainly seems to be possibilities for new forces to be constructed without losing too much about current armies. If anything, more HQ selections (champions!) will need to be included in order to field certain arrangements. For myself, it probably won't make too much difference for my established armies and I'm grateful for that. But for the more specialised armies that I know friends have collected, I am antagonised on their behalf. 

As for the lack of glancing hits stripping hull points any longer, its certainly an interesting move. I can see how it isn't so bad though as we can still strip the hull points with repeated negatives for vehicles. The option of removing vehicles entirely instead of leaving wrecks is not in keeping with how anyone really plays the game, so I can see everyone agreeing (and tournaments ensuring) that wrecked vehicles will always become cover. 

Its shaping up to be a very fundamental re-write of the rules, not merely the "version 2.1" that the community was really hoping for. 

Warhammer Store: Metro Centre (Gateshead)

It has been a very long while since I wrote one of these pieces. Largely because my travels have slowed down a bit in recent years, coupled with the fact that I seem to visit the same old places all of the time! But lo and behold - a new place was visited recently! This time, my travels took me in the direction of Newcastle, UK. 

The Metro Centre is not even ten minutes by train away from Newcastle train station. It is a large out of town shopping mall containing lots of common UK high street stores, all under one very large (and multi-level) roof. The Centre is physically well served by rail and very regular bus connections, alongside masses of car parking space. It is a wonder more people don't come here instead of going through Newcastle itself - although I think this is at least in part the main attraction for many of the customers. 

The Warhammer store here is in the blue zone, on the upper level, and is located in "The Village" part of the centre. Handily, the Blue Zone is also where the rail and bus interchange are which makes it very accessible to those using public transport. The Village in turn is a rather salubrious part of the mall and very well appointed. 

Physically, the store is not the smallest known to humankind, but is not much bigger. The stock has a range of exactly what you might expect including paints and the basics. The staff here are very friendly and attentive and I rather enjoyed visiting and talking about Horus Heresy and 40k. Highly recommended - a very nice store, well appointed, and in a great location. Not much not to like overall!

Wargames Gallery: Targets Acquired

The World Eaters leviathan made a bit of a mess of a previous squad that tried to crack open its shell. These Raven Guard are all armed with melta weapons though and are in a suitably short range to hope to do something about the target that they've acquired. 

[Part of "Goodbye to Second Edition" -- a recurring Wargames Gallery over the next few weeks!]

Horus Heresy 3rd Edition Weapon Stats

More updates via the Warhammer community came out about the third edition this week, including today's focus on the array of modifiers that weapon stats are getting. 

The new weapon stats do away with Brutal as a rule. I see this as very good stream lining. However, what they also seem to be doing is adding some extra crunch with rules like Heavy. Instead of not moving but firing at full ballistic skill, they now get added bonuses for not moving. Such as a bonus on the number of attacks a weapon gets for staying still (like the heavy bolt gun getting 4 attacks for being stationary instead of 3). Does this mean full ballistic skill at all times? I'm deeply unclear, but it seems so. 

The modifiers to initiative and strength are nice enough, but I need to remember the acronyms which are curiously hard for me to grasp! One thing that stands out is that the power fist is now S+4 rather than Sx2 as the multiplier. That feels very peculiar!

Finally the "Gets Hot" rule now seems to be "overloaded" unless I'm reading things incorrectly. So the disintegration rifle risks disintegrating your own troops on a misfire. Bit of a risk, but I think the AP=3 and D=2 stat more than makes up for this risk. I don't quite like power axes as much as I once did though since they are just getting breaching 5+. I will need to run the math hammer on that unless someone has already beaten me to it. 

We also had the tactical statuses examined earlier in the week. In short, it looks like Routing and Running Away are all still under Leadership. But the rest of them are basically Cool tests (Pinned, Suppressed, and Stunned). Interesting here is that flamers are explicitly getting Panic which can cause routs. 

Buried in all of this is a bit of a give away that Reactions will still exist in third edition since "Stunned hampers your reactions" - or at least I have interpreted it this way. It could, alternatively, mean that you get some kind of initiative penalty. Who know. 

Crunchy Stats for Third Edition Horus Heresy

Here in June 2025, we have an article on the Warhammer Community about the new additions to the stat line for Horus Heresy. In short, Rogue Trader stats are making a return.

Direct from the text:

Leadership shows how receptive your troops are to following orders, and is used to gauge panic and rally fleeing units. Cool shows how calm your troops are under pressure and incoming fire, and it is used to avoid debuffs – such as penalties from suppressive fire.

Willpower is a more metaphysical stat, used primarily for manifesting – or resisting – psychic powers. Higher Willpower makes powers more likely to work, and you’ll take less damage from the Perils of the Warp.

Intelligence is used when interacting with technology. This could mean a Techmarine trying to fix a vehicle, or a specialist using an augur to track enemy units.

Tests are taken against the lowest characteristic in a unit, with two key exceptions. Models that have the Sergeant rule can always test on behalf of their unit, while Commanders who join units may also lend their stats to any check – an important role for middleweight characters.

The reality is that this level of complexity will certainly add more crunch to the game overall. Maybe it isn't such a bad thing. But as an old timer (I am old), I can put my hand on my heart and say that the reason that Rogue Trader stat lines were eventually abandoned was due to the complexity of the crunch and the slowing down of the game. This is maybe not ideal, but it does promise to be a little bit better perhaps. Certainly if they can make every stat a bit different rather than 7's or 8's across the board. 

The Sergeant is a good example of this with a higher Ld, but lower by one for the other entries. At least they haven't opted for the same across the board. I remain optimistic that it can and should do well. Psykers are going to have high WP - which again is good, and Ogryns low Int. All good. And crunchy. But please don't slow the game down. Speaking of which. I am concerned about the challenge sub-phase that is being introduced. Not sure what that will contain and how it is different from regular combat yet. Worried that it'll be another slowing down factor. Equally, challenges were always a bit distinct, so maybe formalising what has been is actually not going to be too bad either. Looking forward to hearing more soon!

Where are we up to this week about 3rd Edition for Horus Heresy?

Where are we up to with the new Horus Heresy 3rd Edition this week?

Still no confirmed release date. However. Games Workshop has announced a competition online which involves winning your choice of Primarch, a bunch of upgrades like resin heads and shoulder pads for a legion of your choice, as well as the relevant transfer sheet and so forth. This comes with the new boxed set. Of significance here is the small print:

• 6.2 The approximate retail value of the prize pool is £1245/$1942.5 USD/$2975 AUS/€1565. This value excludes delivery and sales tax, where applicable. 
  
  

• 8.1 A redraw, if applicable, will take place at Games Workshop, Willow Road, Nottingham NG7 2WS at 10 a.m. (UK Time) on 6th August 2025. The redraw will be made by computerised random selection.

I am left wondering about the release date of the new boxed set. It seems from this it won't be until AUGUST! That seems a long way out here at the end of May. 

The prize pool is incredible as well. GBP1245 is very high. Let's break it down. There will be 5 winners, hence each winner gets a value of GBP249. This is incredible value just by looking at it. 

We will assume that a Primarch is worth GBP100 (it isn't on average, but Magnus the Red is clearly expensive compared to Angron). Down to GBP149. 

Shoulder pads are worth GPB16. Multiplied by 4 - because there's supposed to be enough for the box - that's GBP64. Heads are the same price. So another GBP64. Add on GBP23 for the transfer sheet and we get down to GBP negative 2. And that's before any of the paint brush bundle, and the paint pot bundle. Let alone the boxed set itself. My estimate for the boxed set is somewhere in the region of GBP150. Total guess. YMMV. 

And then the Horus Hearsay page itself has updated to confirm which things were real, versus hearsay. And to be honest, there are no surprises. There's no d18 in the boxed set. Hardly a surprise. I don't think the rest is exceptionally surprising either. 

Regardless, loving the forthcoming miniatures (breachers, assault squad, and everything else). Just a bit disappointed that the three year old books are already being eliminated. 

Wargames Gallery: Contemptor Clash

For reasons that I swear made total sense at the time, two contemptor dreadnoughts that lack any melee armaments engage in close combat. 

In imagination, the combat was won by the best dancer since all of the damage was presumably done through sheer application of weight, the odd blast going off, and mostly kicks. 

For the curious, the Salamanders dreadnought won the battle against the Alpha Legion dreadnought. But only just. And it took a while. 

The Dropsite Preview / Horus Heresy 3rd Edition: Thoughts, Opinions, and Impressions

Did you watch the Dropsite Preview live? I did. And I have thoughts. Let's dive in.

First up: there is NO CONFIRMED RELEASE DATE for the new rules and the Saturnine boxed set at the time of writing. This is incredibly disappointing to say the least. I wanted to know this factoid more than anything, and have walked away from the otherwise excellent preview disheartened. The best we got was "Summer". I remain optimistic that the mean Terran Northern Hemisphere Summer. With apologies to my Antipodean friends out there. My guess at this stage is late June pre-order perhaps. 

Cinematic. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars. Cool. But not quite on the same level as second edition cinematic for me. I didn't like the voices too much, I have to admit. I did like the "ambushes" that seemed to take place, but of course, these were focused on the new miniatures to showcase them. No problem really. I liked the disintegration effects. And the consul charging in was very good. Would have liked to have seen the plasma in action a bit more! The teleport in could have been better too. 

Mark II Armour and Disintegration weapons. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 stars. Nothing else I could give realistically! Love this. The disintegration weapons are so good, and it is great that they are interchangeable with the rest of the range. 

Saturnine Armour.  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 stars. I started out a little skeptical, but I actually really like their sheer goofiness. The terminators are massive, and the dreadnought simply epic. Amazing scale comparison to the leviathan as well. Truly amazing. 

Rules Changes. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5/5 stars. Rounded Down. Challenges are yet to be fully revealed, so I'll hold my tongue a little bit on them. I am optimistic. Army construction seems to be more liberal and this might be a good thing, or it might be a bad thing with too many lists drifting to become over-powerful in competitive play. Could go either way. Tactical status evolves to be more than just pinned and running away / routed, adding into the mix suppressed and stunned. Seems more tactical, but who knows. Maybe suppressed and stunned could have just remained as pinned for simplicity sake. In terms of the Stat Line Characteristics, Rogue Trader returns basically! Look, there was a reason we ditched Cool, Willpower, and Intelligence, and just rounded them down to Leadership originally. We seem to have collectively forgotten why. As an old timer let me tell you: better flowing games. I worry the extra stats will slow games down. I remain open to be convinced otherwise. But I do see the benefit of greater tactical depth for the game! The re-work of weapon profiles is actually good in my opinion. Looks like we drop (e.g.) Brutal(2) and gain D=2 instead. That's fine by me. The modifiers for Strength, Initiative, and Attacks is a nice slim lining move. I like it. 

We obviously have not seen the full extent of the rules updates. Nothing on reactions here. Are they still part of the game or not? 

Other new miniatures.  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 stars. Fellblade is exciting to see in plastic. But what is a real highlight for me is the chain axe wielding jump pack marines. Oh my. The World Eaters will jump for joy. I want a box set of these already. Love the tarantulas as well (and their bigger brother in the boxed set - wow). Fantastic to see the rapiers back as well. Just tell us about drop pods for goodness sake. And those tech-marines that use them are nice as well. Possibly new cataphractii armaments. And. Finally. Plastic breacher marines. Finally. Oh my. How many years have we collectively waited for these. Since 2012 ish? Seems about right. 

Other thoughts. 
"The rules for the new edition of Warhammer: The Horus Heresy are not compatible with the rules in older books"

Boo. How long has the new Martian Civil War book been out? Not long enough. I hate the fact that we have a new edition within 3 years. All those lovely printed books outdated already. Despise this. Not good. 

I will probably just invest in the digital versions from herein to be honest. 

Very disappointing to hear that the Custodes and Sisters are not getting released along with the initial FIVE books. But spare a thought for the Daemons players out there as well, okay. And goodness knows which units will now become relegated to legacy units. I had plans dammit. And what about black shields too please? Too many unanswered issues right now. 

More Horus Hearsay

The rumour mill is seemingly running amok on the 3rd edition for Horus Heresy - and the Horus Hearsay website is keeping on turning that mill at increasing speed. Clearly there's a lot on there now and in the last few days we have seen things like cardboard dreadnoughts being prints out for battle. We all know that is going to be very low on the probability scale. So instead, I wanted to pick out something that I was personally interested in. This image, below. 

Did you know that in the metadata of this image, it is labelled as "post 25". I need to count the number of images on the page to see if they're doing it sequentially and check all the metadata, but perhaps someone else might like to do that or beat me to it.

What I like about this image is the sheer retro-feeling that it gives off. It is labelled as a multi-melta, but visually I am not 100 per cent sold on that interpretation (could be a multi-disintegrator?). Regardless, I really like the stripped-back feeling that it has to it. The detail is also really crisp and superior to yesteryear. Beautiful sculpt really. 

The other thing to notice here is the numbering. This component is number 5. Now. Usually when we are building miniatures, the core parts have the low numbers. Arms. Legs. Torsos. Shoulder pads. The weapons typically have a slightly higher number. So I think what we might be seeing here is an upgrade frame rather than a core Mark II frame? The assumed rectangles to the left and below the centre of shot are suggestive of the same as well. How many of these will we get, are they distinct to the core box itself perhaps? Not sure at this stage. But we are seeing and living in interesting times now. 

More updates and thoughts in future days, I'm sure!

Despoiler Test Model

I've still got a few Mark 6 marines left to build before the new boxed set goes on pre-order for the mark 2 marines. I've therefore decided to assemble them as Despoilers. This is the first test model, and also the squad leader.

The backpack and head are from the chaos space marines range, but is a nod to the forge world that supplies the World Eaters in general. The power fist and bolt pistol are left overs from the assault squad range, where as the base features another barrel that I chopped up to make the miniature have a more dynamic feel. I like this overall and am now intending to round out the rest of the squad soon. Small goals!

Horus Heresy 2e Review: Krios Squadron

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

3.5/5 stars, rounded down. The rules are reasonably good overall.

Background.

This is probably the final Second Edition review!!! Wow. I'm really surprised that second edition has only lived for three years. Let's see what Third Edition might bring. 

The Krios is a re-print of the Mechanicum entry, but with a new gun option which is the Irradiation Blaster. 

A battle tank that is swift and deceptively skeletal in appearance. Its armour is essentially provided by overlapping power fields and its true origin is unknown. What is known is that it falls outside of the STC constructs and therefore doesn't appear outside of mechanicum forces. 

Strengths.

The main strength of the tank comes from its primary weapon. There are THREE variants now. The first is the lightning cannon which I see as being well able to handle marines and other lighter tanks. The second is the pulsar fusil which is more of a terminator killer overall. The Irradiator Blaster if it gets a penetrating hit on a vehicle will also get a flame hit on the transported content. This is very interesting and unique. But the strength isn't great here. 

Other worthy notes here are the movement rate of 16 which makes it incredibly fast and easy to position.

Weaknesses.

Watch out for the rear armour of 10!

Builds. 

3x Krios, Lightning Cannons (375 points).

In all honesty, the "naked" version is great. I actually don't think the pulsar fusil is quite worth it. Add some hunter killer missiles to taste. The triple tank version is very nice and can take out many targets that you set your sights on short of those all round armour=14 tanks. 

Please Do Not Bring Back The Psychic Phase For Horus Heresy. But Yes to Shattered Legions.

Please do not bring back the psychic phase for the Horus Heresy.

There. I've said it. The title of the post was so important to me, I've written it again above. 

But "yes" to shattered legions. 

Link: https://thehorushearsay.com/

An AI Image Generation Experiment for Horus Heresy: The Isstvan Boxed Set!

Hello readers! Today I wanted to have a brief experimentation with how easy (or not) and how realistic (or not) it is to produce fake images of novel Horus Heresy boxed sets. This is purely an academic experiment and not meant to cause any offence or over-step any copyright claims - it is conducted under "fair use" and is a purely academic investigation. 

Given the recent "leaks" that we have all seen by now about the new boxed set, I was wondering if it were possible to create a novel boxed set that felt "authentic" but was nonetheless completely fake. I used two sources for this: both MidJourney, and ChatGPT. The results are below. 

Of course, I'd be willing to eBay or Facebook them for some 500 dollars each. But they simply don't exist. So how well has the technology done? 

To the trained eye (which is probably you and me, dear readers) they are OBVIOUSLY fake. The second image is worse and comes from MidJourney. It doesn't even have the right logos associated with it. The marine looks okay, but it's not great either. I did like the explosions in the background though. And it is certainly sitting in a car, so that looks good at least! 

The first image is better and comes from ChatGPT. The artwork of the Iron Warriors is poor though. Where are my hazard stripes? And what exactly has happened to the eye lenses? If I could improve on that, it might be better, and maybe I can, but I'm not willing to put in the time and effort here. 

Conclusion. It is easy to generate images that at first glance might look authentic, but to get them passed the trained Horus Heresy eyes is much, much harder. I think with work I could do it. Just. But its not worth the effort. My short conclusion then is that the leaks we have seen are real enough!

Saturnine

No, I'm not going to link it. But it is readily found by looking in some of the more obvious places on the interwebs. 

Just some brief thoughts. Firstly, it appears that most of the rumours are entirely true. We are seeing a large boxed set with 40 new mark 2 space marines, a praetor in the same armour, along with 2 sets of 3 saturnine terminators, a praetor in the same armour, a saturnine dreadnought, two sets of disintegrator weapons, and a quad gun platform. These all appear to come with templates, dice, instructions, transfers, reference cards, and a book that (as far as I can make out) is called the third edition rules. 

Honestly, I love what I'm seeing! I get that some others don't like the aesthetic, but I absolutely do! It is going to be an automatic purchase for me in less than 399 hours time!

I wonder what else will go on pre-order at the same hour?

What I hope we will NOT see is the need for entirely new units and entire rules replacements for everything. I just cannot believe it is going to be an entire new system a mere three years out from second edition's launch. We just need a tidy up of the rules, not re-built from the ground up. Pretty please?

Hours Heresy 2e Review: Decimator

Warpstone Flux Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4/5 stars. Good for close combat, but not for ranged.

Background.

Designed as the antidote to the leviathan, the Heresy would see them infused with malevolent warp powers and used for the traitor side. They are much like a dreadnought otherwise!

Strengths.

The stat line reads like a dreadnought and it comes with a suite of special rules such as hammer of wrath (2) and furious charge (2) which help with its core mission. It re-rolls saves against low strength firepower thanks to Malevolent Artifce which means that bolt guns probably will not be taking it down. 

Where it really shines are the decimator claws that it comes with. These are AP=2 with Brutal (3) hitting at S=8 which is impressive and very intimidating.  

Weaknesses.

I do not hold a high regard for the ranged weapons to be very honest. The butcher cannon doesn't pump out enough shots for my tastes but it is sufficient for low value AP tanks arguably, whereas the soul burner is actually okay for softening up a target. Keep to the claws and get in combat as quickly as you can!

Builds.

Decimator, 2 Claws (265 points).

This is the non-upgraded version that is purely focused on close combat and it really shines for this battlefield role. You just have to get there with movement rate=7. 

Primarch Corvus Corax Painted

Corvus Corax - Primarch of the XIXth Legion - Fully painted!

This is a project that I started years ago, but have not finished until recently. I had a bit of a "painter's mental block" on this project until a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if that is a real thing or not, but if writer's block is real, then I'm just going to assert that painter's block is also real. I'm not quite sure what it was. 

The pinions were certainly part of it which I did want to airbrush initially, but veered away from in the end. I'm not sure if I've done them justice or not using traditional painting, but it'll do. The blend from grays to blacks all over was challenging, but the sheer detail in the sculpt helped along the way no end. 

I also didn't know what type of legionary Corax's opponent was until I started the World Eaters project of mine - this decided it in the end as ultimately this was going to be very Isstvan in origin if I could help it. I've applied some decals to the World Eater to give it a bit more impact.

The broken tiles were also a challenge until I decided upon the alternating pattern that I've painted up some of the older scenery in my collection with. Deciding which tile was going to be blue, and which was going to be vanilla was surprisingly difficult to envision across the broken nature of the diorama. Some were just guesses, but others were trying to visualize what the tiles would have looked like before Corax smashed into them. I think I've got this bit almost right overall. 

The debris is picked out in two tones as well. I was going to just go for rock grey initially, but the base of the miniature cried out in more earthy colours. This was also a point of indecision, which ultimately also went for two-tones in the end. The larger slabs are picked out in the grey colour, whereas the smaller debris is the earthy brown colour overall. They provide a surprisingly nice contrast to each other without either seeming out of place or dominating. This is rounded off by some splashes of metallic paint and night haunt gloom technical blue paint streaked here and there. 

Speaking of technical paint. The blood for the blood god paint is just brilliant once again with the World Eater. Although the core of the chest has this painted on, I've added more sploshes to the chain blade as well as the pistol hand as it lets go of the side arm in the moment. Contrast red paint has also been flicked over the surface to round it all off. This is a legionary who chanced his luck against the enemy lord and fell very short indeed.

Corax himself was also a bit challenging in his own right due to the sheer detail in the sculpt. I could have gone further by having the pouches painted in a leathery colour, but held back on that and opted for the matte off-black shade instead. I'm not sure the dry brushing on these has paid off, but I am satisfied regardless. 

And his face. Oh my. That took a lot of effort to get even vaguely right. I mis-painted one of the pupils in the eyes as well first time and had to correct this. That was a pain and very embarrassing. The face, if anything, was intended to be a bit more pale, but given that he's probably been fighting on the sands of Isstvan for weeks without so much as having a wash, I suspect the deeper colour is no bad thing. I should probably have added some stubble, but hey, maybe he doesn't grow facial hair, or that's his one grooming habit on Isstvan using one of his lightning claws to have a really close shave. I think I've got the look of matted hair done well though, even with the dynamism in the model. The face is a really beautiful sculpt overall - I'm very excited by it. 

Hope you like it! It has been far too long to finish off due to the painter's block! 

Comments very welcome.