F*&% the intro let’s get into it straight away. 

New Box Set

It’s finally here, after what seems like years of leaks and rumours the new edition of The Horus Heresy has been revealed. This new box set looks jaw droppingly expensive for the insane amount of model that you get:

• Forty Marines in Mark VI power armour

• Two Praetors

• Contemptor Dreadnought

• Spartan Assault Tank

• Ten Cataphractii Terminators

That’s a lot of plastic, and it is all plastic. No resin in this box! I wouldn’t be surprised if this box went made to order like they did with Idomitus. I imagine just about everyone that plays Heresy will want one (at least) of these. Nevermind splitting it with a friend, they’ll just keep it for themselves. 

The question is, do I want this? 

Maybe

I do have a small force of Heresy Era Space Wolves that I desperately need to do something with. Said force already consists of several infantry squads and a few Cataphractii Terminators. Perhaps I’ll give this boxset a miss but keep my eye out if anything catches my eye. 

Rules and Squads

The rules for the legions will be split between two books: Liber Astartes for the loyalists and Liber Hereticus for the traitors. Interesting that there isn’t a separate release for the new rulebook. For that you will need to get the above box set. 

Mark VI Tactical Squads will be available separately from the get-go. And the Mark III and Mark VI boxes will be getting some new box art. More importantly though, each of these boxes will contain enough bits for twenty marines. Hopefully the price of these squads won’t be too outrageous. Doubtful but a man can dream. 

Also available will be Geigor Fell-hand and Azhek Ahriman, both originally from the Burning of Prospero box set. As that was the box that pretty much got me back into Warhammer, I already have Geigor. 

Squad Upgrades

Now this idea I like, instead of locking special and heavy weapons to certain kits just have them available separately. Honestly, this idea is something I would love to see for the Imperial Guard. 

The Special Weapon Upgrade Sets contains ten each of:

• Plasma Guns

• Meltaguns

• Volkite caliver

• Volkite chargers

• Rotor cannons

• Flamers

The Heavy Weapons Upgrade Set contains ten each of:

• Heavy bolters

• Missile launchers

A different Heavy Weapons Upgrade Set contains ten each of:

• Plasma cannons

• Heavy flamers

• Multi-meltas

And yet another Heavy Weapons Upgrade Set contains ten each of:

• Lascannon

• Autocannon

• Volkite Culverins

Not sure why the last three are all called the same thing, I would have given them descriptors at least. Like the heavy bolter and missile launcher set could have been called the Destructor Heavy Weapons Upgrade Set or something. But that’s just me. 

Deimos-pattern Rhino

Not much to say here, nice to see just more of the Heresy stuff moving to plastic. And as they say, you’re perfectly fine using one of these in Warhammer 40,000. The Sisters of Battle Rhino is a Deimos-pattern I believe. I’d be tempted to pick one up but I painted a lot of Rhinos back in my Warhammer 40,000 3rd Edition days when the “Rhino Rush” was popular. 

Kratos Heavy Tank

Not sure why they decided to make a new model of tank when they could have converted either the Sicarian or the Fellblade to plastic and it would have sold like hot cakes. In any case, the Kratos sits between them as the middle child of the Legionnes Astartes tanks. Being a plastic kit it has a few weapon options, the Kratos Battlecannon on the turret can be swapped for a Melta Blast-Gun or Volkite Cardanelle. Additionally it can take either Heavy Bolters or Volkite Culverins as sponson options.
Honestly my biggest hope for this tank is that it’s competitively priced, a Sicarian will set you back £100 and a Fellblade a wallet-busting £220!

Black Library

It wouldn’t be the Horus Heresy without some books sneaking in. Least of which being another damned anthology. It doesn’t say which stories are in Lupercal’s War but I can only assume it’s various ones from the original Horus Heresy series.

I tell a lie, there’s two anthologies. The second being Cthonia’s Reckoning, a collection of short stories between the Imperial Fists and the Sons of Horus. I assume these are new stories set during the Siege of Terra?

Lastly, we have the next Primarch book Rogal Dorn: The Emperor’s Crusader. The only Primarch book I have read so far is Leman Russ’ but I hear good things about a few of the others, especially Angron’s. Maybe I will have to look into them.

Final Thoughts

I can see why the Horus Heresy has a day to itself. Not everything was a surprise given the number of leaks we’ve had but it is certainly more than I was expecting. The only thing I would have liked to have seen would be plastic Mark IV or V Assault Marines. Maybe they will be an upgrade set down the line. In fact, now that I think about it we didn’t see any close combat weapon upgrade sets. All in all, these are some really nice reveals and honestly I’m grateful that there was nothing that made me want to break my commitment not to buy any Warhammer in 2022. Sure there’s stuff revealed today that I’d like to have, but nothing that’s a must-buy-immediately.