Warhammer, The Horus Heresy: Age Of Darkness

[JNAProductions]

Not sure what the exact title should be, but with the new edition of the Horus Heresy, I figured I'd make a thread for it.

Because this reminds me of why I got into 40k-the customization is all there. Compared to 9th edition, I'm pretty sure you could take three datasheets and have more options than the entire soon-to-be-released CSM Codex. I leafed through a friend's Liber Hereticus, but my own Libers (I ordered both) have yet to arrive.

Looking forward to knuckling down and figuring out a Legion that suits my playstyle.

[Avaris]

I’m thinking of finally painting up the stuff I have from Calth and Prospero for it. Main challenge is deciding on Legion: I’m probably leaning towards Thousand Sons, but also kind of want to do a Black Shield force that is painted like the Legion of the Damned (I know the LotD as they are generally known wasn’t a thing in the HH. I don’t care. Marines with flames and skulls are cool.). Sadly, there don’t seem to be any rules for Black Shields atm…

[JNAProductions]

I’m thinking of finally painting up the stuff I have from Calth and Prospero for it. Main challenge is deciding on Legion: I’m probably leaning towards Thousand Sons, but also kind of want to do a Black Shield force that is painted like the Legion of the Damned (I know the LotD as they are generally known wasn’t a thing in the HH. I don’t care. Marines with flames and skulls are cool.). Sadly, there don’t seem to be any rules for Black Shields atm…

TSons would make sense. Legion of the Damned paints would be dope on them too!

I'm leaning towards making an Iron Hands force, for their durability to ranged attacks.

[Wraith]

I've heard the rules described as "8.1-th edition", which frankly seems right up my alley. I had always shied away from HH because I already have several Space Marine forces in 40k and didn't think it would be worth investing in yet another with less options....

...But having seen some of the stuff coming out with 30k, I'm sorely tempted. It doesn't hurt that I know several people who have already picked it up and they're available to play, unlike 40k for the last few years.

And then someone showed me a gallery of Alpha Legion using a brand of non-GW metallic paints that gives them that shiny teal colour, rather than the traditional matt blue-green, and I think I'm falling for it. I normally collect Fallen Dark Angels, Grey Knights, Carcharodons and Black Templars - pretty much black, silver, black-and-silver, and black-with-silver-detail, and this is the first time in a long time that I'm really, really keen to paint something very different.

[Corsair14]

Loving the excitement on HH 2.0. We have quite a few people at my local store getting forces ready. I have a very large Iron Warriors army I am finishing up to get up to date. Also finding replacements for units that are part of my army that arent in the new book(Medusas and Caestus for example). I just knocked out 20 Breachers that I started years ago as well as some recon marines.

So I havent actually started with my new box yet. Still looking at rebuilding my Night Lords but I already have most of my tacticals and terror squads filled out. I havent yet come up with a list.

Next is something new. Trying to work on do I want Sons of Horus or Word Bearers. This decision is totally based on which paint scheme I like my end result better for. I have a ton of Sicarans, a levi and some other odds and ends from prior projects.

[LeSwordfish]

I'm really excited for it - playing my first game tomorrow! I had an (undefeated, in only like four games) Imperial Fists force from 1.0 which I'm now updating with the Age Of Darkness box set. Though I'm hoping for extra plastics like breachers and such.

[Grim Portent]

Decided to bite the bullet and finally order Angron and some bits to make a proper start on a World Eaters legion force. Need to figure out where the hell I've put all my unpainted mkIII and mkIV power armour bits, but I'm planning to actually do the footslogging marine horde army I always fancied doing back in the day.

On which note, does anyone know if Gahlan Surlak is still a thing in the new edition? Always liked the idea of running his berzerker inductees backed up by Red Butchers and Rampagers.

[LeSwordfish]

I believe most things without a model are not in the books, but a free pdf of rules for characters and old units is apparently due Soon(tm).

I played my first game of the new edition yesterday, 1500pts Imperial Fists vs Iron Warriors. Fafnir Rann is great - not quite the beatstick Sigismund looks to be, but boosting the WS of the breachers was excellent (WS matters now!). My breacher sargeant survived the attentions of an Iron Warriors praetor for two rounds of combat, too. I need to name him - gonna write the names of all my characters on the underside of their bases as they earn them.

[Grim Portent]

I believe most things without a model are not in the books, but a free pdf of rules for characters and old units is apparently due Soon(tm).

I played my first game of the new edition yesterday, 1500pts Imperial Fists vs Iron Warriors. Fafnir Rann is great - not quite the beatstick Sigismund looks to be, but boosting the WS of the breachers was excellent (WS matters now!). My breacher sargeant survived the attentions of an Iron Warriors praetor for two rounds of combat, too. I need to name him - gonna write the names of all my characters on the underside of their bases as they earn them.

Just as well I've been unable to get an apothecary model for now then I guess, though I'm probably going to need to get one or two anyway in the future.

So how would you say the new version is? I never really played much of the old version other than a few games using Imperial Militia rules, but I'm wondering how it stacks up to the old one and to current 40k.

EDIT: And the legacy unit PDF has dropped on WarCom. Surlak no longer works the way he used to, not surprising really, so I'm not sure if he's going to be something I'm still interested in until I get my actual books and start crunching numbers on how to most effectively run a mob of angry boys. 'Course he is my favorite HH era WE conceptually, so I might well make him regardless of his efficacy.

[LeSwordfish]

I think the new game will work pretty well. It looks like it's been very sensible about where to add or remove complexity from Old!40k, so is still a pretty crunchy game with lots of exceptions and lots of choices to make. I am a little less enthusiastic about Reactions than most people, because a whole movement or shooting attack for a unit is quite a lot of action to take off-turn, but perhaps that's because my opponent was pretty new so we were going through those pretty slowly.

Good to see that the PDF is clear about units being legit for all games. I'm a bit disappointed about how much my Caestus has lost though. Three hundred and fifty points and can't even carry ten terminators any more.

[Grim Portent]

Got my Angron a few days ago, and he's reminding me of why I tend to dislike resin models.

Also cannot for the life of me get one of his decorative marines to stay on when I add/remove Angron's playable base from his decorative one. Gets right in the way of the angles I need to use to pop him in and out of the ring part of the base.

I have managed to find some of my mkIII and mkIV marines though, and my melee arms/weapons from popgoes have arrived, so I can start working on the legionnares themselves.

EDIT: Trying to decide if it's worth running tactical squads with chain bayonets for convenience, or if I should just stick to trying to get a bunch of despoiler squads. 2 points for a +1 strength two handed chain weapon and access to special guns, or base points for a chainsword/chain axe and access to a few power weapons. WE don't lack for attacks, so the bayonet vs sword isn't an awful trade off, but I do like power weapons more than special weapons. Main reason to go bayonets is for the ease of getting mkVI models at the moment, because getting spare chainsword/pistol arms is a bit hard these days what with the primaris takeover.

[Grim Portent]

Slowly chugging away on my World Eaters, barely gotten started, but the nice thing about HH marines is the lack of details and trim compared to my normal 40k chaos, so I should be able to knock out 60 odd marines pretty quick other than the time added to get the remainder of the arms/weapons I need.

Settled on a target list to build, with the aim of 2000 points.

Gahlan Surlak

3 units of 20 'Berserkers' (Despoiler units with chainaxes and Surlak's Abhorrent Augmentations) with power weapons.

1 Moritat* Centurion, equipment undecided as of yet but probably a Caedare weapon and no other upgrades

3 Castra Ferrum Dreadnoughts with lascannons and fists

3 Contemptor Dreadnoughts with melta cannons and fists

Basic plan is much like my WE army from 7th edition 40k, infantry zerg rush the enemy infantry to drown them in attacks and power weapons, walkers target enemy tanks.

*Surlak's AA ability makes the troops that recieve the buff also have Bitter Duty, so my options for characters other than Surlak are limited. A Moritat seems to be the simplest option for throwing down another character, though I'm not expecting a whole lot from it.

[Corsair14]

Finally settling down on a stable Sons of Horus scheme. Its only taken 3 weeks of experimenting. One more recipe to try and one to finish... That done I can start painting squads and then try to figure out how to kit bash justeran terminators, not paying $200+ for ten dudes. Thankfully I found some STL files for SoH cataphractii shoulder pads.