Warhammer 40K: Should The Heresy Era Miniatures Get 40K Rules?
New plastic Spartan, Leviathan , Kratos, and probably more kits are on the way to the Horus Heresy — should they get 40k rules, too?
The Horus Heresy is launching this weekend and fan of that particular era of Warhammer are excited. There are many new plastic kits coming with lots of support on the hobby side of things. Plus, the rules are looking good to go as well with each Legion getting special rules to make them play different. All cylinders are go! However, there is one lingering question about those new kits: Should they get 40k Datasheets, too?
The Case for 40k Datasheets
This seems pretty obvious: Money. For starters, giving the 40k-Era players rules for these new kits means that they will have a reason to buy them. We all know GW is a business and selling their kits is kind of how they continue to operate…So this makes a ton of sense from that angle. Plus, lots of these kits had rules for 40k at one point courtesy of Forge World. Imperial Armour was/is a thing after all.
It really boils down to the opportunity to sell more miniatures for the cost of creating more datasheets for them. That cost seems rather low relatively speaking. The kits are already done and ready for the Horus Heresy. Plus, they are plastic now! So why wouldn’t GW want to sell them to 40k players?
The Case Against 40k Rules
There’s a few reasons that GW might not want to release rules for the new Horus Heresy kits. First up, it’s Space Marine centric. Have you seen the Space Marine unit list lately? It’s getting pretty lengthy. Between classic Marines and all the new Primaris units and there various options it’s beyond crammed at this point. That codex is ready to burst! I doubt GW will want to include these Datasheets inside the Space Marine codex even though that’s a good spot for them. No, they’d really need to update the Imperial Armour book with a new batch of datasheets for the Horus Heresy Era kits.
The Kratos in particular is an interesting case. GW essentially created this new Heavy Assault Tank for the Horus Heresy specifically. It’s supposed to be unique for the era and, as with most of the other kits, it’s supposed to be extremely rare in the 40k era. Now, GW creates new units for 40k all the time but this tank is different. A new unit for 40k is typically added as a “new thing” that’s been discovered or invented. But this tank would have been around for 10,000 years. We should have seen it around in 40k before. Obviously, that isn’t the case. So, from a lore standpoint, we’d need a big retcon to explain why the Kratos wasn’t rolling along side the Baneblade or Leman Russes in the game.
There is also another matter of the player base. By keeping these units Horus Heresy centric GW is giving players a reason to play in that Era. “You want to use these really cool models then you gotta play the new Horus Heresy!” If nothing else, players would have to give Heresy-Era games a chance and maybe explore the ruleset to see if they like it. By pumping out 40k datasheets immediately GW might be increasing the sales opportunities, but they could also potentially stifle growth for the Horus Heresy games. “Why play in the Heresy Era? I’m gonna buy that Kratos and use it in 40k.”
To 40k Datasheet or Not?
At the end of the day I do think we’ll eventually see 40k datasheets for all these units — even the Kratos. Again, it’s a little obvious and silly to not create them for these new plastic kits. They are still 40k scale and compatible from a modeling/hobby perspective. However, I think GW might hang on to those Datasheets for a few months. That way they get to give the Horus Heresy a better chance at attracting more players with these amazing plastic kits. And then in a few months, they could release a Datasheet update (probably a new Imperial Armour) and then 40k players would have a reason to add them to their armies.
GW could also release their rules in a White Dwarf, too. That’s always an option.
What would you do? You need to sell miniatures but you also need to grow a player base for a new range without cannibalizing an existing one. Decisions, decisions…
