Horus Heresy: New Edition Changes Ahead
Games Workshop has a new video as well as some more info on what’s changing in the Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness!
If you’re a veteran of the Horus Heresy setting then you’re already familiar with the fact that the core rules are essentially from the same stock as Warhammer: 40,000 7th Edition. However, with the new updated edition of the game launching very soon Games Workshop has taken the opportunity to make some tweaks and changes. And so far things are looking very interesting.
“The latest edition of this fan-favourite game refreshes the rules to keep games as tactical as ever, while injecting new decision-making and excitement into the mix. The boxed set has everything you will need to get gaming in the Age of Darkness, but what if you’re a veteran looking to catch up on what’s new? This video introduces the most important changes.”
Horus Heresy: New Edition Changes Ahead
Reactions
The first BIG change is the addition of Reactions to the game. We’ve seen these pop-up as GW has been doing various previews of the Legions. There Reactions and Advanced Reactions — but what exactly are they? Well, just like the name implies, these are special “interrupt” actions that happen during the game.
“You can make one Reaction during each Phase of your opponent’s turn – though specific special rules can give you extra Reactions, up to a limit of three per Phase.”
In a lot of ways, these sound very similar to some of the orders you can issue in Age of Sigmar — and I think that is a good place to borrow from. Only these don’t require you to spend any Command Points. There are six Core Reactions (which pretty much anyone can use). The Core Rules also have two more Advanced Reactions as well. Oh and (as mentioned above) each Legion also has their own Unique Reaction.
The Advance Reaction is an example of one of the Core Reactions. After reading that you might be wondering why you’d want to get closer to the enemy after they’ve moved in to (probably) Rapid Fire you units and then charge. Maybe you want to keep them off an objective. Maybe you want to get your flamers within 8″ so you can burn them when they charge. You’ll think of a good use for this one eventually!
Dreadnoughts Are Tougher
Dreadnoughts are no longer using the traditional Vehicle Hull system. They now have a stat line much more similar to a typical trooper — albeit a much mightier trooper than your standard marine! Gone are the Hull Points and Armor Values. It’s now a Toughness 7 model with 6 wounds to chew on with a +2 save!
And speaking of wounds:
“Legion-specific Elites now sport two Wounds to represent their robustness in the face of withering fire. “
Remember: The Horus Heresy is based off the 7th edition rules which means most Space Marines still only had 1 wound. This change is kind of a huge bump for them!
More Universal Special Rules Updates
Lots of the Special Rules are getting tweaks. For example, Deep Strike is changing. Transport Capacity got tweaked for vehicles. The Bulky/Very Bulky/Extremely Bulky rule got an update. It’s now changed to be Bulky (X).
So yeah, you can fit some Terminators inside a Deimos Rhino…if they are under the Transport Capacity, that is. There’s a whole rules section for the rest of the universal Special Rules in the Core Rulebook. So be sure to scan that section in a bit more detail for all the changes.
In a lot of ways, this edition is sounding like an old pair of pants that have been taken to the tailor to be hemmed or repaired. Personally, I had played a whole lot of games of Warhammer 40k in that ruleset. The 3rd-7th edition rules were very familiar to me but I haven’t really touched them in a while. These changes have me curious about picking that back up and giving some Heresy Era game a go. I’m also contemplating pulling out some of the older codexes from 7th and throwing those armies at some of these Heresy Era lists to see how that works. I think those codexes and this ruleset just might play very nicely together…
What rules changes are you excited about in the Horus Heresy?
