The new edition of the Horus Heresy is here, and there’s no better time to dive in to playing the terrible battles of this dark age. With a full rules revamp, a new starter set and a plethora of army books all dropping at launch, we’re diving in to give you our first impressions of the new edition, hitting the highlights of what’s new, what’s interesting and what’s worth playing in Horus Heresy third edition.
Before we get started, thanks to Games Workshop for sending these over for review.
Your core rules for the doughty defenders of the Emperor come in the Liber Astartes, with additional units likely to follow in Campaign books, potential Legacy PDFs and whatever other shiny stuff the Heresy studio dangles in front of us next. The nine Loyalist Legions get a bevy of rules to launch into third edition, with a Rite of War (Legion special rules), unique detachments, weapons, characters and units to bring some legion-specific flavor to your army.
All loyalist legions have access to five extra detachments in addition to those found in the core rulebook, letting you bring along Apothecaries, Retinues, Recon, Tech marines and more. Traitor versions of the Loyalists get an extra one too, so you can still summon those demons!
This piece covers the parts of Liber Astartes concerned with the individual Loyalist legions. For coverage of the units that both Loyalists and Traitors share access to on the table, check out our Marine Legion Core Units article.
Dark Angels
I’m not going to pull any punches; things have changed a bit for the Lion’s little brothers. With the streamlining of this edition, a lot of the classic Dark Angels nonsense got left on the cutting room floor. The Hexagrammaton and its six customisable wing-buffs are gone, replaced by the sleeker (and potentially more lore accurate) Legion Tactica, Angels of Death. Representing the stolid resolve of the First’s centuries long war against unknowable horrors, you’re less likely to run away from fights you lose than other Legions. Thematic, but pretty niche. Your new Reaction is great, however, in essence allowing you to repeat a fight in your opponent’s Fight Phase. It’s tactically really flexible, synergizing excellently with your unique units, giving you (or your enemy) the opportunity to finish fights, leaving them open for your next turn.
Your armoury has been balanced a bit too. Plasma burners, like all Plasma weapons, now have two profiles with a potential to Overload with a max Breaching of 5+. Incinerators have lost Torrent, but gained a Damage boost. These are all still pretty decent, toning Interemptors down a touch, but still making them a decent threat to any massed infantry. Calabanite Warblades are better now, basically being a faster Power Axe, but Terranic Greatswords are a bit mixed. Your premier anti-Elite weapon (that relied on you only rolling 5&6s) still works the same way, now with a consistent damage 2, instead of Instant Death (no more one-shotting characters).
But don’t worry there’s still room for some Stupid Dark Angels Bullshit with SIX unique Auxiliary detachments representing the Wings of the Hexagrammaton. These are all pretty thematic and give you even more flexibility in list creation, with some really useful grouping of roles (Deathwing Conclave has ended up in every list I’ve made so far).
The Lion is as great as he ever was, being an absolute combat beast, with his Stasis Grenades meaning you’re always alpha striking if you’re charged, and in Challenges where he’ll eviscerate almost all comers. Corswain also remains a very strong duelist, with WS7, Duelist’s Edge (2) and an effective Eternal Warrior (1) in Challenges from the Armour of the Forest. Marduk Sedras, the bane of Traitors (and unlucky Imperial Fists), works similarly to last edition, granting Hatred (Traitors) to the unit he’s with and carrying a big fuck off sword. Don’t forget his cheeky phosphex bombs.
Deathwing Companions are still a great Praetor/Primarch retinue, blocking any Precision hits on your leader and now soaking up that damage even better with Eternal Warrior (1). Probably to balance that out, Cytheron Pattern Aegis now only grants you a flat 5++, so you might want to bring a few more shields than the usual two. Inner Circle Knights Cenobium are still a top tier elite terminator unit, with their choice of six mini-buffs from their Orders at list creation. It’s a shame they’ve lost access to Thunder Hammers, but at least their Plasma Casters are a little better. And finally, one of the last remaining destroyer type units in the book, Interemptors are still a great anti-infantry threat with their Plasma burners (and throwable Rad Grenades), though they’re a bit more vulnerable to Reposition now that your opponent can go in any direction (e.g. out of line of sight).
Is 1st Legion still Best Legion? In my heart yes, but they definitely feel more middle of the pack this edition. The loss of some of the Hexagrammaton flexibility of second edition stings a bit, but find me a player who says they remembered every time their Dreadwing buff triggered and you’ll have found me a liar. Whilst I’m sad about losing some of the jank, losing the extra book-keeping is good, and it does feel like the internal balance is better. Besides you’re not playing Dark Angels because their rules are the best, you’re playing them because Loyalty is its own Reward.
White Scars
The white-clad sons of the Khan do well in third edition. Your Legion Tactica, Swift of Action, is a simple and effective one, adding +2 unit movement until the end of your turn (all units, every turn). That turns footsloggers into sprinters, kicks Terminators up to Tactical speeds, and makes for a very mobile force. It’ll impact your base and Set-Up moves too, so your mobility isn’t simply limited to the Movement Phase. You are going to seriously shift up the board when you need to. It won’t work with your unique Reaction, but it probably won’t need to – getting a full additional move with a reacting unit is potentially extremely powerful, letting you move units out of (or into) trouble when you wish.
The White Scars challenge Gambit, The Path of the Warrior, rewards a bit of gambling, gaining a potentially very good bonus to the Focus Roll if you can predict what your dice are going to roll. It’s a coin flip as to if you get it right, so 50% of the time this will do exactly nothing. The other 50% of the time you’ll do quite well out of it. Unfortunately, other Legions have far more reliable ways to boost their Focus Roll, so you’ll probably be using a more reliable, generic, Challenge Gambit.
The unique speed and tactical nous of the White Scars is in full display in the Chogorian Warband additional detachment, where a (I think!) unique combination of fast attack and recon slots will allow you to heavily skew appropriately into Jetbikes and Outriders. With Instant Death gone, both units received a bit of a resilience glow-up this edition, so stacking them might well be pretty good. The Cyber Hawk equipment grants a unit Move Through Cover, letting your Infantry almost be able to keep up with your Cavalry and Vehicles!
As you’d expect, your unique units and characters hit hard and move fast. Qin Xa can guarantee a unit arrives from Reserves (and hits pretty hard to boot), Stormcallers can grant your units a full Movement + Rush as a standard move, or shoot things with magic, which is substantially less fun, and the Golden Keshig carry ludicrously powerful lances, hitting with a ridiculous S9 AP2 on the Charge, with a fun and spicy Template weapon to soften up an enemy before combat begins.
On the Ebon Keshig side of things, you’ve got some of the only Expendable Terminators in the game (and a character to accompany), giving you a terrifyingly fast fire-and-forget combat threat that will rack up the points with Vanguard (3) and Power Glaives before they die. If they do, no problem – Expendable (2) means little gain for your opponent, if any. You can grant Expendable (2) to any unit you wish with a Prime Slot too using your unique Prime Advantage, Sagyar Mazan. Pinning the enemy down with Expendable, tough, Vanguard units while the speeders and jetbikes position for the kill is very doable and seems pretty strong!
Space Wolves
The Sons of Russ are all about chopping through hordes of foes this edition (as ever), favoring smaller squads of tooled-up legionnaires who can punch far, far above their weight. Legion Tactica, specialist weapons, and the Prime Advantage all support a close range combat army that wants to get up into setup range and start swinging. You’ll have long Set-Up Moves with the +2″ you get from your Tactica, The Hunter’s Strike, helping you escape Volley Fire and Overwatch. A variety of Frost Weapons with Reaping Blow and Breaching cut through armor and a super-Optae with the Pack Thegn Prime Advantage granting +1WS and A and swapping a power sword for a free Frost Weapon.
That’s all to the good because everything for your Legion is about getting up close and personal. The Rout’s Advanced Reaction, Bestial Savagery, helps you weather a round of shooting with a 5+ Feel No Pain, then make a Set-Up Move, Charging if they are close enough. This effectively combines the effects of an Apothecary in 2.0 and the White Scars super reaction, also feeling a lot like the Blood Angels or World Eaters 2.0 Advanced Reactions. This looks extremely good, and will definitely deter close-range shooting with all but the most powerful weapons.
The core unique unit to the Vylka Fenryka are the classic Grey Slayers (which also form the main body of your two Troops two Heavy Assault Bloodied Claw Detachment), the classic “Tacticals who also have really good close combat weapons.” Effectively a Veteran squad in the Troops slot, Grey Slayers are going to do a lot of work for you for all that they’re base the same cost as a unit and a half of Tacticals. Varagyr Wolf Guard Terminators reappear in full force (and are Elites rather than Heavy Support) and while they can’t be tooled up to face all foes, there’s an interesting and characterful interaction with Challenges in there that can win you some combats, giving you bonuses to Combat Res if your Thegn survives a Challenge.
As befitting one of the more character-heavy Legions, the Space Wolves come with a ton of characters – Geigor Fell-Hand, Hvarl Red-Blade, unique Rune Caster Command consul, and the Freki and Geri the Wolf-Kin (a unique Retinue just for Russ) all reappear. The combat characters are as you’d expect – they hit things – but the Runecaster is interesting, with a solid, Stun-inducing Psychic Template Weapon, Wrath of the Death Wolf, and a Psychic Blessing, Stormwraught, that reduces incoming fire to Snap-Shots which may be one of the more useful Shooting Phase Reactions in this brave new multi-damage world.
Imperial Fists
Have you ever thought to yourself, “I just love defense?” If you have (I, realSnice, certainly have), then the Imperial Fists retain the style that you have grown to love, and now they might not piss off all of your friends.
The edition boogie-man in second, the Imperial Fists are still strong but a lot of things have been pared down. The legion retains a +1 to Hit for Auto and Bolt weapons with their Tactica, Fire Discipline, but only if you have 5 or more dice in a Fire Group. This is still quite common but it means that some Vehicles and some Units will either not be able to take advantage or will lose effectiveness after only suffering a couple wounds (Recon Squads, I’m looking at you).
Solarite Power Gauntlets (a power fist with Critical Hit (6+)) and Vigil Pattern Storm shields remain (4++ while providing both Heavy and the Shield Trait), while the Castellan is a Prime Upgrade that basically serves as an Armistos (which is no longer an option) armed with an Autocannon, Heavy Bolter, or Illiastus Assault Cannon (IAC). It’s fine. But it should be noted that the Castellan is the only Imperial Fist unit (beyond the returning Decurion Sagittar) to use an IAC. This is going to cause pain to many a converted squad and Dreadnought but also removes one of the most painful weapon and legion trait combos of second edition.
The Legion Gambit, A Wall Unyielding, provides Eternal Warrior to its user making them more tanky against heavy Damage weaponry. Paired with a thematic Siege Gauntlet Detachment that provides 1 Prime and 1 regular Troop choice (both can only be Breachers) alongside 1 Heavy Assault and 1 Support choice. This is a very flexible yet thematic choice for IF players and I’m thrilled to see it as the provided option.
The IF Advanced Reaction, Bastion of Fire, has changed, allowing a player to make a shooting attack at an enemy unit that moves within 10” of a reacting unit. It does not work for Vehicles. The out of sequence The Best Defense Charge is no more, but Bastion of Fire serves as a great way to deter a Charge anyway.
For Legion Unique units, nothing is missing. Dorn is still tanky with similar passives as before. Sigismund is still a monster and Rann, Garrius, Diaz, and Polux are all effective with rules that match their personality and background. Templar Brethren are fantastic with a Veteran Sergeant that can duel and is a lovely taker of the generic Veteran Sergeant Prime Advantage, effectively creating a Champion in the unit. They lack Vanguard, which feels like a strange omission, but they do however get their second edition Templar Assault RoW buff as a default special ability. I expect to see a lot of Templar decorated Land Raiders in this edition. Finally, Warders are still good but not amazing. Without an over-tuned Stone Gauntlet to lean on, they are largely the same as in second edition, while lacking the unmodeled bolter from past editions.
Blood Angels
Fancy boy space vampires are back with a very familiar playstyle this edition, but with some interesting kit side-grades and flavor that I think many Blood Angels players will really enjoy.
The Legion Tactica, Encarmine Fury, is the classic +1 Strength on the Charge, nothing too crazy there but still very good and will synergize better with more weapons this edition.
The Prime Advantage, Revenants, grants the Fear (1). Coupled with the new Aflame (X) rule given to Perdition weapons inflicting additional negative LD modifiers in combat, the IXth’s ability to cause combat Routs this edition can get bananas.
The Advanced Reaction, Wrath of Angels, allows a unit targeted by a shooting attack to make a full move towards what shot them, causing Pinning if they get close enough. Not super sexy, but the utility of being able to use this on any unit at any range can’t be overstated.
Unfortunately, Assault Cannon Squads have gone the way of the dodo, but the cannons that remain can pump out a scary amount of shots with their new maximal fire mode and Heavy (FP). Baal pattern turret remains as a free swap for the Predator Cannon, but unfortunately assault cannon sponsons are no longer a thing (just proxy them as heavy bolters or volkite culverins, it’ll be fine.) The Leviathan and Incaendius remain the only dreads that can take assault cannons anymore; #sorrynotsorry Fist players. Y’all jacked our swag anyway.
Crimson Paladins seem big winners for me here and have become a good bit tankier, retaining their outnumbered Feel No Pain in melee through The Blood Is Forever while the Coriolis Shields now reduce incoming Damage in and out of melee. Line (1) and innate Deep Strike means cheeky drop-ins to score last minute objectives will very much come in clutch. Dawnbreakers do Dawnbreaker things, swinging in strong with power spears and being immune to Interceptor outside 12”. While the grenade launchers got a lot better, Angels Tears are sadly now locked to their model loadouts, either twin volkite pistols or grenade launchers. RIP Assault Cannon Angels Tears. Lastly, the Incaendius dread remains largely unchanged except that he can use his jump pack more than once, gaining Antigrav when he makes a run move.
Blood Angels still want to hit hard and fast with elite jump troops. However, thoughtful and characterful rules add more utility than ever to the Blood Angels toolkit, so I think the Sons of Sanguinius will be making Traitors afraid again!
Iron Hands
The Sons of Medusa are back with a vengeance this edition, rocking the same legendary artifice and endurance as always. Your army is built around taking a beating (almost) better than any other Legion, surmised perfectly by your Legion Tactica, The Gorgon’s Scales. This decreases the Strength of all shooting attacks against non-Vehicles by 1. Vehicles also get some love with the now incredibly cheap Armatus Necrotechnika which can give any vehicle a 5+ Repair roll (4+ if something died near it recently), giving you, hands down, the most resilient Vehicles in the game. You also have one of the funniest Legion Prime Advantages, The Iron-clad, allowing you to not only add a free War-engine Slot into your force, but also making that Dreadnought a Champion WHO CAN FIGHT IN CHALLENGES. The flesh is weak indeed! The Graviton pistol also makes a welcome return, but due to keyword shenanigans the Moritat can no longer take them. RIP Gravitat, you will/won’t be missed.
Your Advanced Reaction, Spite of the Gorgon, is pretty much a carbon copy of last edition, allowing you to shoot the ever-loving crap out of anyone who tries to charge you, with a slight risk of Overload. Your Legion detachments are also super interesting, either giving a very convenient way of getting Terminators up the board with the Spearhead Phalanx Auxiliary Detachment, or giving you a load of useful slots at the cost of needing an Iron Father (which you’ll probably be taking anyway) and a Praevian with Medusan Vanguard Apex Detachment. Speaking of the Iron Father, they get their own profile this time around. Now a sort of combo between the Terminator Praetor and the Praevian, they get some fantastic vehicle repair chops and the option to run a little retinue of Castellax alongside him. Shadrak Meduson also turns up, though he feels weirdly underpowered for his points cost, basically on par with a regular Centurion without any special buffs; sad times. Ferrus Manus seems great, with Forgebreaker looking very dangerous. He also has the ability to grant all your Infantry a 6+ Feel No Pain in the first turn which feels very Iron Tenth.
Whilst we’re on the subject of Infantry, Gorgon Terminators whilst they look as hardy as they ever did with an interesting, if niche, ability to apply the Suppressed status at the end of combat on units that Volley them on the charge. They are, however, another unfortunate victim of ‘Option Squashing’, not only losing access to all their different ranged and melee options, but bizarrely even the combi bolters they’re modelled with (expect this to get FAQ’d asap). Medusan Immortals on the other hand feel like auto includes on every list. With Expendable (2), Cool 10, and 5+ Feel No Pain, these units are going to be an absolute pain in the arse for your opponent to deal with if you sit them on the central objectives.
Despite a few odd design choices, Iron Hands look like a really strong legion this edition and one that feels very thematic (and fun) to pilot.
Ultramarines
The 40k poster boy azure pencil pushers return with an un-sexy, but highly effective, new set of rules, as one would expect of the tax auditors of the 31st Millennium. This army is all about getting more bang for your buck out of the units you are already taking and creating efficiencies for organizing them into an army rather than taking a bunch of fancy upgrades and donut steal units.
Look no further than two of my favorite examples of this idea, the legion passive aptly named Tactical Flexibility (God, these guys are vanilla wafers) and the Logisticae Prime Advantage. Tactical Flexibility essentially grants a free Reaction each turn, and Logisticae lets you add a free Transport or Heavy Transport to the detachment with a slightly expanded Transport Capacity, which will be hugely helpful in list building. When paired with some other list building options in the Astartes toolbox, you can get up to a silly number of Reactions pretty quickly. Combined with an extremely flexible Demi-Company detachment, Ultramarines players will have no trouble fitting their existing armies into a list.
Ultramarines currently only have two special units: The dreaded Suzerain and the Praetorian Breachers. We now know that the rest of their Legacy units will come later but for now RIP in Hell, Fulmentarus. Suzerains have taken a couple well-deserved hits with the nerf bat, including losing the ability to juggle wounds around and losing the option for thunder hammers; legatine axes only, boys, so get those clippers ready. Praetorian Breachers stay relevant with 2W and breaching shields, coming stock with power swords. Not bad at all.
Ultramarines are an army for folks who like taking “All Comers” lists, who like having a lot of flexibility in play style, and having a lot of chances to make sure they are never caught with their pants down. While not super flashy, this army has a lot of potential and will reward the savvy player while also supporting the less experienced one.
Salamanders
The Salamanders are doing real good in this new edition, but their rules have significantly changed since second. Keeping with the theme of exceptionally tough infantry from the prior edition, their rules have been updated to really drive home that the Eighteenth are the toughest SOBs in the entire Legiones Astartes.
The two legion special rules, Promethean Endurance and Blood of Fire, are both thematic and powerful, reinforcing the inherent toughness of the Salamanders in comparison to the other Legions. Promethean Endurance prevents Salamanders models from being wounded on a roll of either 1 or 2, helping mitigate the damage output of high-strength weapons.
Meanwhile, Blood of Fire allows them to ignore status checks from Flame weapons – with the Panic-inducing nature of flamer weapons in this edition, this can likely be very useful in certain matchups. Lastly, the legion Prime upgrade, Duty Before Death, allows a prime unit taking it to have a Feel No Pain (6+), something especially lucrative with the changes to Apothecaries and the Medic rule.
The legion armory is also rather extensive. Master-crafted weapons are gone, replaced by Forge-crafted Weapons. These represent the better quality weapons that the Salamanders legionaries were able to forge. In general, the melee versions grant an additional Attack over their baseline versions, and the flame weapons cause 2 Damage instead of the 1 of the normal flame weapons. Also, the Drakenscale item upgrade, which replaces all of the dragon skin items from previous editions, is excellent, reducing the damage of all incoming Flame, Plasma, Melta, and Volkite weapons to 1. This will make multi-wound models in particular much more resilient – and so this will likely be an auto-take for Salamanders players.
For the legion-specific units, Firedrakes and Pyroclasts, return in the Liber. Firedrakes have undergone a significant change – they cost the same as they did in previous editions, but now come stock with forge-crafted thunder hammers and Drakenscale in addition to the Shield trait to represent the Drakenscale shields on the models. However, they have lost the option to take other weapons; thunder-hammers and shields only. Pyroclasts are just as versatile as they have always been; their projectors are can be fired as meltaguns or heavy flamers, and with a 2+ save, 6+ invulnerable, and Drakenscale, they will be tough to kill before getting their short-range weapons into striking distance.
Vulkan is just as tough as he has always been, with a tough-as-nails statline making him one of the beefiest Primarchs in the game. In addition, both of his ranged weapons cause Panic, something that would be less than ideal if he then gets into melee range. Speaking of, his hammer, Dawnbringer, is downright terrifying. Striking with at-Initiative S10, Critical Hit (5+), Armourbane against vehicles, and 3 Damage, Vulkan will likely kill anything in front of him. His legion rule, Sire of the Salamanders, is also very cool and thematic – if you take four Troops units with Sergeants with forge-crafted weapons in Vulkan’s Primary Detachment, he makes each of them Prime allowing you to either massively expand your detachment size, or to take one of the many Prime Advantages on those units to represent the elite troops that would likely accompany a Primarch into battle.
Raven Guard
Raven Guard are very different in third edition. Instead of infiltrating all your power-armoured models, the Legion Tactica, Shadow Walkers, causes all shooting from more than 18” away to be made as Snap Shots.
This provides great protection from long-range shooting for everyone from a Legionary up to a Saturnine Dreadnought – though not vehicles. BS3 enemies might find they suffer more damage in their own shooting phase from return fire than they cause to the Ravens. Assault-heavy armies won’t even notice Raven Guard have a Legion tactic. This could result in a rock/paper/scissors effect and some “feels bad” games.
The Raven Guard Prime advantage, Wraiths, seems hard to make effective use of. You make a Rush move, meaning you won’t Shoot or Charge, then take a Willpower test on a baseline 7. Succeed and enemy charges against your unit the following turn count as Disordered. Fail and you get Stunned, so can’t score Objectives or React – though you may recover at the end of the turn. Okay benefit, but for such a risky downside, I don’t see a lot of players using this very often.
The Decapitation Strike Gambit lets you strike first with one attack in a Challenge, with no Focus Roll. If you Hit and Wound (even if the wounds are saved), then you get to make the rest of your attacks too. You should arguably take big heavy weapons like a Saturnine Praetor’s hammer, rather than Raven’s talons that might not wound.
Carrying on the theme, the Decapitation Cadre Detachment contains two Recon slots that can only be used by Reconnaissance Squads and two Elites slots, only for Veteran Assault Squads or Dark Furies. It lets you take loads of Dark Furies if you want. Reconnaissance Sniper Squads are okay, but Mor Deythan and Seekers are better.
The Shadow Veil Advanced Reaction lets you move all the models in a unit a distance equal to their Initiative. If the enemy can’t shoot them after the move, they waste their shots. The unit gets Shrouded 5+ for the rest of the Shooting phase too.
In the armory are Raven’s Talons as a free upgrade for Raven Guard with the Command Subtype. They’re basically Lightning Claws that give you +1 to Initiative on the charge. Corvid Pattern Jump packs are an upgrade for jump pack characters, making them go even faster.
Several units also have Cameleoline, giving them 5+ Shrouding outside 12”, or 4+ if combined with another source.
Corax has a lot of very blendy but D1 claw attacks, a fairly useless whip, a 16” move, and a reasonable price tag. It’s great not to need an expensive transport for your Primarch, and even so he may well make a Turn 1 charge. His Gambit, The Shadowed Lord, lets him escape a duel he’s losing.
Kaedes Nex can freely join any unit he wants but, as a Specialist rather than Command, can’t fight challenges. Dark Furies have about as many attacks as before but are now all WS5. You can have two Choosers of the Slain per unit, but Artificer armor shenanigans are no-longer possible, which is good for the game. Mor Deythan now can’t have combi-weapons, which will annoy a lot of people who made them with combi-volkites. They’re excellent snipers though, with a once per game boost to BS7, which gives them Critical Hit (5+).
The Rite of War (again, just the Legion panoply) directs Raven Guard to play an infantry-heavy gunline, using Rapiers and Dreadnoughts for your shooting. Vehicles could be in trouble if there’s nothing else the enemy can hit.
Final Thoughts
Overall, marines are off to a good start this edition. Most of the legions feel a lot more like they’re supposed to, each exemplifying the stereotypical style of warfare for their legion. Players are given compelling and narrative tools and choices to make their legions feel like they are supposed to while still being effective on the tabletop.
There are some oddities with internal balance between the legions, such as points costs or or what special rules/traits such as Vanguard that their Legion units have access to. Time will tell to see if we start seeing Raven Guard Seekers and Rapier Batteries supported by a horde of Salamanders or rhino rushing World Eaters.
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