Horus Heresy good news!

I have great news for all fans of the Horus Heresy line of games from Forge World! There has been a lot of fears that Games Workshop will screw up their release of plastic Horus Heresy like they did with Age of Sigmar (funnily enough, in Singapore, I see quite a lot of people playing and enjoying Age of Sigmar so I don't know if it's a failure here), and a good amount of dismay that they are turning it into a board game. I have seen vitriol and hate directed at Games Workshop - undeservedly so in my personal opinion - and if the Internet is of any indication, many people have already resigned to boycotting Games Workshop's latest release because they firmly believe that the model (not games!) company will contrive some method of ruining their beloved hobby.

There were plenty of cries that Games Workshop will Age-of-Sigmar-fy (is that even a verb?!) the extremely popular Horus Heresy game also known as Battles in the Age of Darkness that was conceived by Forge World, destroying and overwriting all the supposedly well-balanced and more fun rules (than 40K anyway), that the higher-ups and management have absolutely no idea what they are doing, and are nefariously laying waste to yet another beloved franchise.

Well, worry no more. Somehow I found a way to get my filthy paws on a future copy of White Dwarf that's meant to be released on November 7th - and no, I will not give away my source because I don't want them to get into trouble. Anyway, yeah, this is what I saw.

Sorry for the small print

So yup, there you have it. Sorry for the horrible resolution, but I hope you can read what's in the screen. Nope? Fine, I'll type it out for you.

Ancient Armor in Warhammer 40,000

The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth is an amazing board game, but it's also a sensational addition to your miniatures collection, loaded with 30 Tactical Marines, five Terminators, a Space Marine Captain, Chaplain and a Contemptor Dreadnought.

The Space Marine Chapters fighting in the 41st Millennium cling to the relics of the past out of a mixture of reverence and necessity, faithfully maintaining older marks of armor and weapons, so if you want to bolster your Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine army with the models in this boxed game, you can.

The models in the set are also fully compatible with Forge World's range of Horus Heresy miniatures (as they are with all the plastic Space Marine kits in the Citadel range), which means you can upgrade them with Legion-specific shoulder pads and weapons. So, if you're looking to add more squads to your Adeptus Astartes Legions for Horus Heresy battles, you'll find these new plastic miniatures equally useful.

So there you have it, folks! Basically, this Betrayal at Calth release is similar to the Assassinorum: Execution Force board game - you have a special board game and tiles where you can play a standalone board game that replicates the situation at Betrayal at Calth, but at the same time you can ditch the board game and use the models in your normal Warhammer 40K games or Horus Heresy Age of Darkness Battles! There is no rewriting of rules, no Age-of-Sigmar-fying of a Horus Heresy that has already been meticulously play-tested by Forge World, just a simple board game in the tradition of Assassinorum: Exeuction Force where you have the freedom to plunge your new models into already-existing Warhammer 40k/30K games or try out the special board game.

By the way, this is the same issue where I found the news regarding the release of Adeptus Mechanicus bundles that I mentioned in my previous post - the Elimination Maniple and the Skitarii Battle Maniple. Damn it, I'm pretty mad that I had to go and painstakingly buy each Skitarii unit box by box, one by one, and so soon after I've finished assembling my Skitarii Battle Maniple (or Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation), they go and pull this stunt on me. Ouch. Just ouch.

Anyway, this is good news for all Horus Heresy fans...except me, who is still waiting for a Mechanicum release. This puts me in limbo, sort of. I don't know whether to start building a Mechanicum army by buying the Forge World models, or if I should wait for Games Workshop to release plastic sprues for Mechanicum in Horus Heresy - particularly because the plastic sprues are easier to assemble and work with, and offer a lot more customization than Forge World's line of models. If I want a Photon Thruster for my Magos Dominus, for example, the only way is to spend another 29 British pounds on 3 pointless Thallax and grab the Photon Thruster from one of them, thus rendering a single one useless. Sigh. The flexibility and customization the Citadel line offers will greatly help me out. Furthermore, plastic is cheaper and much more affordable.

If Games Workshop is smart, they would probably release a Schism of Mars expansion. Graham McNeill's Mechanicum is one of the most popular book in the Horus Heresy novel series so recreating a campaign out of that book would be awesome. A Mechanicum army versus Dark Mechanicum army...what more can I ask for?

And again, I won't reveal where I saw that copy of White Dwarf. This is to protect my source. I hope you understand.

Anyway, ave deus Omnissiah! May Games Workshop release Mechanicum models in plastic sprues!

++Knowledge is power++