Op-Ed: The Horus Heresy is Dying – and MUST be Saved
Hi all BBF here with a personal rant of mine. We need to talk about what is going on with the Horus Heresy game line.
I’m not happy with the direction Forgeworld has taken with my favorite hobby game Horus Heresy (HH) 30k. The past two previous years we got a nice box set of set of plastic crack – two years ago was Betrayal at Calth, last year was Burning of Prospero… this year nothing. Forgeworld has decided to maintain the clunky 7th Edition rule set for HH rather than make the effort to port the game over to 8th Edition and this is a grave mistake.
If you play HH you’re probably aware that the vast majority of players preferred for the game to be upgraded to 8th Edition. There are many good reasons why this is the right course versus maintaining an old rule set. The end result is that that the majority of players have switched back over to 40k and no longer play HH any more. There are still a few small pockets of players stubbornly maintaining that 7th Edition is a superior rule set… a classic example of an ostrich sticking its head very deep into the sand.
Forgeworld used to release new kit for HH in a timely manner on a regular basis but alas no more. The last book to release was Inferno which has many rules errors, none of which has been addressed and on top of that it was a big departure from the classic formula that made HH the great game it was. Inferno released rules for Custodes (properly pronounced Kuh-Stode-Ez not Kus-Toads), Thousand Sons and Space Wolves. The two former armies are totally over the top harkening back to all the reasons why players disliked 7th Edition and Space Wolf players are still waiting for new kit to build their armies.
Really there’s no good reason why developmental resources can’t be reprioritized to get HH back on track again. If you follow HH then you know that the game is literally dying off as I write this article. A year ago HH was the next big thing and there was lots and lots of activity all over the internet with amazing weekly video Battle Reports and lots of new discussion on forums dedicated specifically to this hobby… the excitement was real in a very big way.
Alan Bligh, the main developer for the game, passed away unexpectedly this May which was a really big blow. Alan was an absolutely amazing person who poured his vibrant energy into the game developing amazing rules for every Space Marine Legion which so accurately portrayed their background and made the game so fun to play. Every Legion was unique. It’s sad to see his beautiful and amazing work go to tatters as it has in the aftermath of his untimely demise.
If you like playing the game with Primarchs – thank 30K for getting us here.
The Horus Heresy story has developed so much of the background for 40k. It providing excellent rules for things such as Primarchs and fully fleshing out the Legions. I remember when I first started playing 40k – Primarchs were discussed as mere dreams – it was 30K that first brought them to life. In my mind a lot of this Horus Heresy passion has carried over to 8th Edition. 30K has an extensive amount of well developed characters which add depth to every army and make the game more fun to play. To me there is no other game that so accurately portrays its armies.
So I’ll close my rant now and move along knowing this truly needed to be said.
~What do you think of the Horus Heresy sticking with 7th Edition, and how can GW recapture its magic.
