Goonhammer Approved: Horus Heresy Mission Pack 2023

These packs have now been updated to Version 1.1 after your feedback!

After our successful Siege of Vandia Horus Heresy narrative event at the Goonhammer Open UK last year, I took some time to reflect on how things had gone and what I needed to do to ensure our future events would be even better. One of the things that jumped out immediately was the need for a new mission pack – the core book missions were simply too swingy and unpredictable, and I felt strongly they could be better. The more I looked at this problem though, and took feedback from our Patrons and the rest of the team, the more it became clear that the game would benefit generally from a mission pack to be used not just at our events but more generally.

Ultramarines advance the battlefield with support from the White Scars. Credit: Aaron “Lenoon” Bowen

The core book missions have some charm to them, but they unfortunately have a number of issues. They often don’t reward the wild spread of different army formats equally. They can easily be won or lost early in the game and sometimes don’t lead to tense finishes, or worse they have results decided at the very end in which the performance of players across the entire game isn’t rewarded. That isn’t to say that you can’t have fun with the core missions – I wouldn’t have been playing 2E so obsessively until this point if you couldn’t. But I felt that there was room for improvement.

That’s why after the Goonhammer Open in 2022 I started working on a Goonhammer Approved Mission Pack for Warhammer: The Horus Heresy. I developed a few different approaches and we’ve been playtesting them behind the scenes for almost six months now. We’re finally happy with them, and ready to release them for people to play.

Goonhammer Approved Horus Heresy Mission Pack 2023 (Digital) 1.1

Goonhammer Approved Horus Heresy Mission Pack 2023 (Printer Friendly) 1.1

These two PDFs (one full colour designed for digital use, and one with limited colour and minimal ink use for printing) are now available for you to use in your games, run events with, and so on. You have full permission to use these, print them, distribute them at events or clubs, and otherwise use them for gaming purposes.

We’ve been testing these extensively, but that doesn’t mean we don’t still want your feedback! If you have thoughts please do get in touch at contact@goonhammer.com.

For those planning on attending the Goonhammer Open UK this year and playing Horus Heresy: these are the missions we will be using. This is your opportunity to get some practice games in!

Now head out there, Praetors, and conquer worlds for the Emperor/Warmaster[delete as appropriate]!