Horus Heresy has always been my favourite setting and when it was first released by Forgeworld officially over a decade ago in 2012 with the Betrayal black book I quickly adopted it from 40k. It was basically the only tabletop war-game I played since then. The original was based on 7th edition 40k and while 7th wasn’t a good version of 40k it worked very well for 30k. After a good long while of using this ruleset we were gifted 1st edition Horus Heresy! It was glorious! The peak of the hobby for myself and many others that I know and played with regularly. I was playing every week at my club, I attended events consistently and had so much fun playing the game I loved! To go along with that I have met some incredible people along the way!
Then came second edition, I was excited and hyped for it! The main range moving to plastic, is great for getting new players into the game and starting new armies myself! The buy in for a full Forgeworld army was substantial! I took the opportunity to get a shiny new army done in plastic and my Salamanders legion was born. My Sons of Horus that I had played for a decade had changed in both point cost and playability. The army increased in point cost by 800 or so and with the rule set changes it didn’t function as before. That was ok, I had more than had the use out of the army and fresh edition fresh army was the way to go! Early games were mixed but I figured that would improve as we gained familiarity with the rules. Unfortunately that was not the case. I attended my usual events but the games were not the same, I was enjoying it less as I felt the game had pivoted to a more competitive space and armies were being built to take advantage of the rules rather than for the love of a legion and the setting. Over the last 2 years I have gone from playing nearly every week at my club to playing a handful of games in last year. Opportunity to play hasn’t gone away but desire to has. Basically 2nd edition all but killed my love for the game! I’ve still had some fun games over the last 2 years but that has come from playing the right people with the same approach as to the games as myself. Something that I found in abundance in 1st ed.
There is a big long list of issues that I don’t enjoy about 2nd edition that have ultimately lead to me moving away from the game. This is a list of stuff that has bothered me and I know others have different feelings around this stuff.
- Reactions not being limited. Getting intercepted, returned fire and overwatched is not fun to be on the receiving end of.
- Wargear that cost 5 points and gave you a free reaction.
- Dreads with wounds, no problem in principle but not fully thought out.
- Wound allocation, artificer armour tanking was not fun.
- Primarchs lost the feel they had in 1st, more beat sticks and less army buff.
- Tanks didn’t match dreads in output or survivability but the points were not dissimilar.
- Brutal seemed to be around for dreads but also lead to whoever had the best brutal won the fight, especially when it came to Primarch on Primarch.
- Nemises bolters, yes sniper rifles needed an upgrade but this took things too far!
- Charging from deep strike and outflank, lead to a lot of swing in games that lead to big wins and loses.
The lack of FAQ support has been frustrating too, even more so when Old World has just become a vastly different and better game via an FAQ so why not Horus Heresy? Seeing a lot of the previewed rules from Games Workshop over the last couple of weeks has lead me to believe that the lack of FAQ support was because they have been busy writing 3rd!
So for me it’s a very happy goodbye to 2nd edition and fingers crossed that 3rd is what I hope it be!
Keep a look out lots of coverage on 3rd edition through the launch!
Andy
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