Forge World and Horus Heresy details from Warhammer Fest!
Thanks to Horus Heresy Forum members Garro and Penddraig for covering the event. Full details and a great discussion on the Horus Heresy Forums.
Heresy Rules in general
FW are pushing 30k as a 40k supplement, designed to stand alone like
Planetstrike, Cities of Death etc. This means the the Original FOC is
officially in place along with the original Allied contingent. 30k is
not meant to be using the 7th edition army construction rules
(obviously, they pointed out that if your gaming group did want to use
that then it's your choice).
This also means that Objective Secured is not in place. Scoring troops
are limited to all Troops and units with the Scoring rule such as
Terminators.
They are also pushing the concept of 30k being a narrative / scenario /
campaign supplement with armies being designed with the fluff in mind.
Book 4 - Conquest
Biggest book so far, over 30 - 40 pages more. Being seen as a "stop
gap" to enable FW to catch up with models from the first three books.
Still the same rumoured forces involved (SoH, DG, IF, S and RG along
with Solar Auxilia, Knights and DM) however the rules for using
Shattered Legions have been cut due to space constraints. These will
appear at some over point so all is not lost for people planning those
types of forces.
The Book will also contain a new campaign system that will enable people
to create a detailed campaign for any system they want to play in. It
will also contain "Raid" missions that reflect small forces attacking
specific objectives. These missions are optimised for 1000-1200 point
armies and reflect trying to secure specific aims (destroying comms
centres, materials, etc).
It will also have two full army lists: Solar Auxilia (more of them in a
bit) and Knight Questories. The Knight army list, like the Legion army
list in Book 1 and the Red Book, reflects the Knights at the time of the
Great Crusade and therefore is different to the 40k list. It
also,includes details on 4 knight houses that haven't been seen yet
including both Loyalist and Enlightened (some may say Traitor) houses.
One house has only been in contact with the Imperium for 5 years prior
to Istvaan and only had contact with Horus - guess who they side with?
There is quite a lot of rivalries between the houses that add to the
decisions they make in taking sides.
The actual specific fluff campaign is based in the Northern section of
the Imperium that has been cut off with the Warpstorms from the Istvaan
section. This area contains several Forge Worlds that only pay lip
service to the Mechanicum of Mars. Horus basically allows them to "slip
the leash" and play with areas that Mars wouldn't allow.
Book 5 -Tempest
The next book is based on the Battle of Calth and will focus on areas
other than that covered by Know No Fear. This is still very much in the
concept art, development stage and will not be available until the
earliest Easter (April) next year.
The Word Bearers are fully immersed into the Eight Fold Path at this
stage and their Armour / tactics is starting to reflect that. There is a
picture doing the rounds of Word Bearer officer that is unclear if it
is a Preator or Chaplain, either way you can start to believe why so
many systems side with Horus when these type of Astartes turn up (Can I
interest you in a Book of Lorgar?). There were some suggestions that we
may start seeing demonic forces begin to appear.
The Ultramarines are the big news. FW are pushing the Roman Empire
approach with these guys and this is reflected in the armour and
equipment they use. Lots of eagles, colbalt blue and dark gold. They
are currently working on several Legion specific rules and units ranging
from another Breacher Squad to terminators. They want to also reflect
that Guilliaman was an innovator but not afraid to take the best ideas
from the other legions. Also, they did show concept artwork of Preator
Plate armour. This is a type of plate only forged in the forge worlds
of the Macragge system. Talking to some of the designers later, they
really want to move the Ultramrines away from the "standard" marine
image to something unique to their Classical Greek and Roman origins.
Oh, Guilliaman may not have two powerfists initially, probably a gladius...
Solar Auxilia
The fluff - the SA are aggressive explorers whose remit is bringing
planets into the Imperium through conquest. They are based on the
Conquisitors / 19th Century Colonial armies who enter an area and secure
"peace through superior firepower". The SA are led by individuals
whose whole intent is to be made hereditary governors of the planet they
conquer - they are often Terran nobles but could equally be Rogue
Traders. The soldiers themselves are Terran scum, to quote Wellington,
"they are the scum of the earth but what fine soldiers they make!"
Often the SA have their own Exploratory fleets but may be attached to
Legion forces.
The SA expect themselves to be outnumbered by forces they meet and so
focus on collective, ranged firepower. They are not designed to brawl
in close range combat - leave that to the Astartes. Lord Emperor Bligh
explained that basically they advanced to a position and then just shoot
everything in the vicinity. The troops are given the best equipment
possible for non-Astartes forces as they are the forward line of the
Great Crusade and intend to fight in all environments.
Rules - Lasrifles have a 30" range to reflect the tactics used.
The lasrifle section is the basic Troops choice and starts at 20 models.
However, the set includes options to replace the command models with
normal troops. To me, this sounds like you could have units of up to 40
models...
The Stormtrooper equiverlants are armed with Volkites (AB stated that FW
believe everything is improved with a death day). The good news is that
these are due to be released within the next two months and also count
as Troops choices.
The transport model, as Garro has mentioned, comes with lascannons and a
20 man transport capacity. You can upgrade with a demolished cannon
instead of lascannons but this reduces the transport capacity. Oh, did I
mention they are dedicated transports for the lasrifle section and the
stormtroopers 
.
.
The PV are apparantly quite expensive but the FW team have found they are a threat to Legion forces.
All are equipped with Void-Hardened Carapace Armour to reflect the hazardous conditions they fight in.
Models - are fantastic. There is so much detail on them from combat
knives and grenades through to little touches like proper hinges on
armour. They are also planning on released SA Ogryns that will look
nothing like the 40k variants, really hoping they will have decent
looking ripper guns. The basilisk and medusa use the same base hull as
the transport and this creates a really unified look. The Leman Russ
does comes with a volkite turret because, well, it's a Volkite - why
wouldn't you?
Most importantly, FW are going to produce a Stormhammer Super-heavy.
For those of you who don't remember this little beast from Epic in the
90's, this was armed with 4 Battlecannons, 4 twin-linked lascannons and 8
twin-linked heavy bolters with heavy Armour all around. It was
intended to drive into the middle of enemy formations and just unleash
hell. I can't wait for this to come out.
One thing I forgot to mention is that FW want to do more generic and
legion-specific Rites of War as they feel its a very easy way to
differentiate different styles of forces without having to have multiple
army lists. One developer mentioned an idea about just a book with RoW
FOC and rules.
FAQ's for updates to 7th ed. are almost complete as well and should be
available to download in the next few weeks. Alan Bligh stated that he
knows some areas will be missed so we would hope that people will
contact FW to let them know missing sections.
Imperial Fist Phalanx Wardens
Conrad Kurze is coming!
Sevetar
From Garro:
well i'm back, got some extra info and some cool stuff for you all.
- leman russ variants for the SA are as followed.
-demolisher, executioner and incinerator (volkite) are a mixed heavy support squad.
- FW are well aware of the desire to see more of the Character series. as such, edgar and simon are now only doing primarchs, the non-primarchs have been moved over to 4 other sculptors to do between other projects, this means that FW are now able to do the FW created characters and plan to get the ENTIRE backlog of named characters done. (this will take a lot of time). their being prioritised by characters that 'stand out' from the rank and file, so if the character has unique wargear or armour, or just really fancy armour, then their getting done first, (so remaining characters from book1 are low priority.) however dynat was named as one about to be started.
- the IF units ARE conversion kits, and quite extensive ones as well.
oh and this pic, because dat head!
- interesting thing, most sculptors have worked hard to finish all their projects for WarhammerFest, and as such, next to no one have yet been given their next project, so they don't know whats getting done next, none of the IW stuff has been started (so the rumours were wishlisting rather than actually fact based) but its good chance they'll get started on them sooner rather than later.
- release schedule is to only release 1-2 things a week or 3 related small things, so even then, what is on pre-release at WF will take the rest of the month and most of november to get out on sale, then it will be some of the more finished stuff, in the order its done. it could/will take probably right upto the FW open day next spring to see everything shown onsale.
- also don't expect any SA until at least november, they've sold a lot (mostly to me),
and they know its going to be very popular when it goes up on the
website, and as such they'll wait until they've got enough stock to
handle it.
IF shoulder pads, (mk2,3 and 4 on display)
Ultramarine shoulder pads (mk2,3 and 4 on display)Thanks to Horus Heresy Forums members Garro and Penddraig for covering the event!Loken
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