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.
Update: 16th July 2025: A list of Legacies units has been confirmed here by Warhammer Community.
The backbone of any Space Marine list is 50-100 dudes in various marks of Power and Terminator armour, as well as their various tanks and armoured battle sarcophagi. The Legions come with a wildly flexible toolkit of options with a hammer for every flavour of nail, and list building options to fit a lot of anything into a list. If you want to run an elite terminator heavy list that scores through Vanguard, an armoured company with transport infantry, or a take all comers list. The important bit of listbuilding advice I would give is to bring a lot of Line and/or Vanguard, as these are vital tips to help you score!
Libers Astartes and Hereticus are full of ups and down, there’s a lot of “missing” stuff, but also stuff that you might not have expected in the “Core” army list of items in the current range. Warhammer Community has laid out a rapid pace of Expanded Rules content, with multiple Journal Tacticas and Legacies of the Age of Darkness heading out way swiftly. Although this document has not been provided to Goonhammer as of the release of this article, but we have had it confirmed it exists and what units are on it in the following article on Warhammer Community.
Army Wide and Legion Specific Benefits
There aren’t really any generic Marine rules, apart from the existence of Decurions you can use to upgrade tanks and a few Consul/Specialist specific Auxiliary detachments that unlock interesting slots. Given the lack of basic rules that overarc over all the Legions here, it’s worth talking about what each Legion is going to get and how it would modify all this. Every Legion gets their hands on:
- A set of unique wargear the Legion can deploy.
- A unique and flavourful Prime Benefit for Command models, most of which seem better but more situational than the basic ones. This replaces many of the Legion Specific Consuls that used to be available.
- Each Legion gets at least one Rite of War (confusingly this is completely different to the old Rite of War) containing:
- Legiones Tactica special rule that applies to all Legion models.
- A Gambit they can use in Challenges.
- One or more additional Auxiliary detachments available if your Crusade detachment is from that Legion. All of these are much broader than the basic ones, often combining slots in novel ways.
- A powerful Advanced Reaction they can use once per game.
- It’s worth mentioning that some Traitor legions have two sets of this info, including “Legiones Astartes” and “Legiones Hereticus” rules for late Heresy Chaos corrupted Emperor’s Children and World Eaters.
- A Primarch.
- A few Legion specific units and special characters.
The Marines also get a few special Advance Reaction that are not once per game like the Legion ones:
- Medic! Allows you to use your Medic (X) damage mitigation against an attack, which isn’t active normally.
- Shieldwall! lets models with the Shield Trait (found on Boarding Shields, not combat shields) gain +1 toughness against charges or shooting attacks.
- Smokescreen gives 5+ Shroud to models with the Smokescreen trait (most vehicles, dreads or recons).
What’s New?
Well, the obvious stuff from the new box is here: Saturnine Terminators, Praetors and Dreadnoughts, as well as the Araknae Squad Accelerator Emplacement. Alongside their bigger cousins, Tarantulas have been added to the main roster.
Vets have been split into the Vanguard-esque Veteran Assault Squads and Sternguard-esque Veteran Tactical Squads, with seemingly no Despoiler-esque squad (but you can just use a Centurion Command squad to replace that at a zero point premium).
There are disintegrators everywhere now! Assault squads can take chainaxes, even if they aren’t World Eaters! There’s tons of little quality of life changes and new stuff has been added for lots of the non-Consul units.
Arriving from the Siege of Cthonia are the various Decurions, and from Beta-Garmon the Overseers, Optae and Centurion Command Squads. It’s worth mentioning all of the Legion Specific characters from those sourcebooks (including the Martian Civil War) have been promoted to full roster. The only notable Astartes campaign book absences are the Inductii, Blackshields and Shattered Legions, but these are confirmed to be coming over the rest of this year.
What’s Missing?
Well, a lot of stuff has gone! Some of this might appear in “Expanded Rules” that are explicitly called out in the book. I fully expect a bunch of this stuff will come back later in Legacies of the Age of Darkness (at least I’m hoping), but honestly anything could happen.
There’s no longer any Scout Armoured models, so Scout Squads and Pathfinders are gone. Destroyers (both Assault and Mortalis) have disappeared too, whereas the Moritat remains.
For Consuls, the Primus Medicae, Mortificator and Forge Lord, have gone the way of the dodo. Basic Praetors and Centurions are now the only command level unit which can take Terminator armour or jump packs. Outrider bikes or jetbikes are completely missing from all High Command and Command units.
While Centurions, Optae and Praetors have pretty broad options for weapons, Consuls are very slim on weapon options, typically reflecting what is available on the newer resin sculpts. There are a few pistol options, or selecting from generic power or force weapons, but you aren’t picking full loadouts.
There’s lots of places where equipment options have slimmed down to reflect sculpts (or upcoming sculpts) as well.
It seems a lot of these units are being added back in the Legacies of the Age of Darkness doc, which has been announced here and the list of confirmed units includes a bunch of the other pain points: Consuls with better wargear options, Scouts, Destroyers, etc.
High Command and Command
Three classes of Praetor are tooled up to the nines with equipment options, who unlock your Apex Detachments (the best way to get Elites, Retinues and Legion Specific units) and give +1 Reaction point per turn. Their good wargear is cheap, and they have five attacks and 4 wounds now. Tool one up and throw ‘em at the bad guys. The Saturnine Praetor is pricey but an absolute brick, and I can’t wait to take one to the table.
The second thing I’ve been putting in my list is a basic Centurion with Officers of the Line (2), which allows them to take an extra Auxiliary Detachment. They’re also the only Command slot unit with access to a Terminator armour profile and a jump pack. Most of the time, this guy is eating up my Command Legion Specific Prime Benefits or Paragon of Battle.
The rest of the Command units only unlock a single Auxiliary detachment. Optae are cheap as chips Veteran Sergeants. The Damocles Command Rhino and Master of Signals use their command vox relay that can be used to add Line (1) or Vanguard (1) to a unit on a successful Intelligence check or improve reserve rolls.
Meanwhile Champions smash challenges, especially when buffed to a Praetor like stat-line if you throw on the Paragon of Battle Prime Benefit and unlock a special Veteran Cadre Auxiliary Detachment. Vigilators snipe with their toned down Nemesis Rifle, and hands out a Fast Attack and triple Recon slot Recon Demi-Company detachment.
The Siege Breaker has a fixed thunder-hammer and phosphex bomb loadout, unlocking a menacing Storm Battery detachment with Arquitor and Rapier slots, capable of bringing in phosphex munitions, and the Praevian unlocks the ability to take Castellax and Castellax Destructors.
As always, the Moritat shoots things a lot, always having a jetpack now! No disintegrator pistols though, despite how ubiquitous they are everywhere else. The Overseer can join Solar Auxilia units (not Militia, weirdly) and gives Fear (1) and lets them use his Leadership and Cool.
The Herald gives victory points for winning fights and challenges, acting as a big enabler for bigger characters in duels.
Finally, the Chaplain sees a major change and is just a stat-buffer now. With a Cool of 10 he certainly helps any unit he joins to stave off status effects but gone are the days of boosting the melee prowess of a unit. Probably just take him as a Centurion for more detachmens instead.
Credit: @badusernametag
Retinues, Elites and Heavy Assault
There are five flavours of command squad: Praetorian (with and without jump packs), Centurion, Tartaros and Cataphractii. They all come with bountiful bells and whistles, and you’ll mostly be bringing them with Logistical Prime Benefits or a Combat Retinue Apex Detachment. The basic models feel cheap for what you’re getting, but choosing melee weapons from the Sergeant or Terminator weapons lists adds up quick. Company and Legions Standards are always an upgrade to your basic guys and never built in, in case you want to save points or run a Herald instead, and the Chosen Champion has the Champion and Sergeant Keywords, meaning he can do challenges. This guy is a magnet for your choice of melee weapon (thunder hammer please), and slapping on the Prime Sergeant upgrade from the Logistical Benefits for your Combat Retinue Apex Detachment to make a mini-melee monster. Unlike last edition, you can run Apothecaries with these squads, which I think is always a good idea for 30 points.
The Praetorian squad in particular is a great spot to load up on cheap Disintegrators, as you’ll actually get an armour save against your own gun, unlike everyone else.
Three styles of Elites exist now; Veteran Assault Squads, Veteran Tactical Squads and Seekers. For the Vets it’s the same story as command squads here with cheap basic guys that take a load of gear that adds up quickly, though with Vanguard they’ll contribute more to VP. The clear “filth” options, perhaps of the whole book, are Seeker Squads. Kraken Bolters can choose either Panic (1), Suppressive (2) or Breaching (4+). While plasma has taken a hit, these 30” range 2 shot bolters are effectively AP2 against T4 targets with Precision (4+). Please, friend, don’t spam them.
In Heavy Assault, the newly T5 Tartaros and Cataphractii models are priced to move. They’ve got all the normal weapon options (apart from Tartaros missing power fists), and all have Vanguard (3), which open up some serious points scoring opportunities. Implacable Advance means that non-Heavy or Ordnance weapons gain Assault, meaning they can fire in the Volley Attacks phase, which rocks on both 4 shot combi-bolters or volkites.
I thought I’d do a deeper dive into our Saturnine Termies. They’re priced much less aggressively at 60pts each. These mini dreads Explode (6+) on death and have 3 wounds at T6. The ever-helpful Thermal Diffraction Field means any Las, Plasma, Melta or Flame weapons are -1 damage, and a massive percentage of AP2 guns with D2 or more use these damage types. The bad news is any big disintegrators (blaster and up) are going to hurt you badly, including your own guns, which have Overload (2) that goes straight through your armour.
The plasma bombard breach do a great job at clearing out infantry and are very points efficient; a double plasma Saturnine costs as much as 2 Heavy Support marines with a plasma cannon, and is much more survivable and has Barrage.
Weirdly their best gun is the one on the fist, the AP3 Template Particle Shredder, which will really mess up Power Armour, especially if a Praetor Deep Strikes them into a target rich environment. You also get to fire the template weapon during the Volley Phase, which is going to ruin anyone’s day.
Troops and Support
Our bread and butter. You’ll want Nuncio Voxes on some of these vital objective holding units to help remove Statuses in the Start Phase.
Tacticals have three shot bolters when stationary and Line (2). Despoilers keep Line (2) and have shiny choices of chainaxes, but chain weapons have lost re-rolls wounds in exchange for extra Damage on a 6. One of the fundamental problems with the weapon options, is a power weapon costs 10 points on a two attack Despoiler or a five attack Praetor, and extra attacks on the charge are gone too!
Assault Squads will have an easier time with these changes than Despoilers, with their jump pack’s rapid movement allowing them to pick and choose the targets they can definitely kill to rack up points with Vanguard (2).
Breachers look solid. The 40 point premium over tacticals gains Heavy, the Shield advanced reaction and a 5+ Invuln, but drop down to Line 1. They’ve lost access to fancy weapons with no volkites, melta or plasma, but their unique grav guns or lascutters both rock. They can also get in rhinos now!
Tactical and Heavy Support squads both feel expensive. Basic models are 8 or 10pts per model. All the heavy weapons clocking in at 10-25pts, while special weapons are 5-15pts. Meltas are pricey ways of reliably popping tanks at short range, while many of the other options have great options for applying tactical statuses.
Apothecaries are cheaper at 30pts but less universally useful. Instead of a continuous passive FNP, at the end of any attack you can use a reaction to turn on a 4+ damage mitigation that reduce damage by 1 (minimum 0) from an attack. The Narthecium allows you to make a 4+ Recovery Test, and if you pass you gain a -2 bonus on the Characteristic Check to avoid statuses during the Morale Sub-Phase. They’re less good than last edition, but taking less statuses rocks, and it makes sense to take apothecaries on vital units, particularly ones that want to sit on objectives.
Techmarines are also pretty neat, and allow you to use Battlesmith (2) to remove Tactical Statues from vehicles and heal them Hull Points (with bonuses for their Servo Arm). The 10 points Cyber Familiar upgrade to increase their IN to 10 seems like a no brainer. Vehicle heavy lists need techmarines.
The new plastic Rapiers seem great, expect to see a lot of these on the table. The highlight is the Laser Destroyer which is going to wreck tanks. It’s worth noting that the Quad launcher’s incendiary ammo seems to have disappeared.
The Araknae Quad Accelerator Emplacement churns 10 BS4 autocannon shots and gives everything within 3” a 5+ Invuln to set up a neat little firebase (distances are measured from the hull since we know you’ll ask!). God forbid anyone flies a plane near them, or anything else really. An average does about 3 HP (50%) a Fire Raptor or Storm Eagle. Slap one on your home field objective and dare them to come at you!
Deathstorm Drop Pods seem absolutely fine, but I can think of better ways to use my one deep strike per turn.
Dreadnoughts
I really hope dreads are better than I think they are. All Dreads have dropped to BS/WS4 but have gotten a little cheaper. The weapons are solid but the real shortfall is in durability. None of the dreads have gained wounds or toughness, and multi-damage weapons are flying around now.
For the Saturnine Dread, the guns that aren’t in the box look better, but I’m slapping 2 Disintegrators on mine and ruining someone’s life (my own).
The other challenge with Dreads is there is only a single War Engine slot in each Heavy Support Auxiliary Detachment. I expect a lot of Prime Logistical Benefits will be used to pull in more Dreads.
Weirdly, I’m happy they’re much so much worse because now I can run Fury of the Ancients without being an asshole.
Soggy: While a bit trickier to field, the one huge thing in favour of dreadnoughts is their ability to score objectives on a vaguely resilient unit. I could see myself using Deredeos to hold backline objectives while the rest of the army pushes up.
Transports and Heavy Transports
Rhinos look great! They have gained Front Armour 12 and Auto-Repair (4+) to help clean out Status Effects. They’re 60 points now, but you can (disordered) charge out of this 12” move vehicle giving you insane threat range.
There are a few forms of drop pod: vanilla, dreadclaw, dreadnought, and kharybydis. All forms suffer from the limit of only one Deep Strike per turn, and those full drop pod lists simply don’t work anymore (at least for now). Getting one unit safely within short range for shooting is good (meltaguns for example), but you can’t charge out of them! Honestly, I’d rather just run a Termite for 30 points more, which has better guns and will actually do something once it arrives.
The Land Raider’s 8 HP leaves it a bit more expensive at 265 points, but continues to do Land Raider things of getting mid-sized units where they need to be. Spartans rock massive weapons, and are a pricey way to get your Deathstar where it needs to go for 400 points base, even without the Flare Shield that is no longer an option. AV14 is really good now, since Armourbane and Melta are turning glances into pens, not giving extra dice to pen.
Recon and Fast Attack
Recons have lost a lot of weapon options, coming stock with shotguns and with only nemesis bolters as an alternative choice. Support Unit (2) means they score 2 less points on objectives, so they’re best used sitting back and sniping with Nemesis Bolters, which is a waste of Infiltrate (9) and Move Through Cover.
Sabres continue to be speedy but incredibly squishy, even less resilient than a rhino. In exchange they pack some solid guns at a low cost, with the neutron laser likely to Suppress enemy vehicles no matter their size.
Outriders have gained a wound and Vanguard (1), and are one of the few units to have Vanguard and serious guns, though 35 points is a lot for a twin-plasma gun. Firestorm means they can Volley Fire without Snap Shooting too, which gives them a lot of flexible midfield brawling potential.
The Land Raider Explorator trades Assault Vehicle for Outflank and a much cheaper points cost. I don’t know what you’re putting in this (Terminators or maybe a Legion Specific unit with Vanguard?), but I like Outflank more than I like Deep Strike.
Tarantulas are cheap and cheerful immobile heavy weapons, neatly upgraded to BS4 and requiring the use of a zero cost Advanced Reaction to fire when your opponent moves. They are made of paper but don’t give up victory points thanks to Expendable (3) and can cap objectives before the game. At 20 points for a base with a heavy bolter they earn back their points quickly and are a strong annoyance.
At this point, I have genuinely no clue what to think of planes. In our test games, my Storm Eagle arrived with a unit of Grave Wardens to get massively flexible long range charges. I think if the community settles on flyers being good, we’ll see a lot of Skyfire weapons to shut them down but if not the odd plane or two is a solid choice if the Araknae everyone gets for free in the box starts hitting boards.
Scimitar Jetbikes operate in a massively different space to Outriders. They have 2 wounds each, movement 16, and access to decent heavy weapons. Expect a lot of these with meltas swooping in and killing everything. Each is a single attack model in combat so hope they don’t get tied up!
Javelins took a hit with compulsory heavy bolters and one other double weapon. The days of double las + multi-melta are over, and they’ve also lost the chainswords we all forgot to use. Land Speeders, dropping the the Proteus in their name, have a nice choice of weapons but the cost will rack up quickly. You can also run them bare bones with an Augury Scanner and Heavy bolter base!
Armour and Heavy Armour
Vehicles have had a big slowup in third edition. The Predator and Sicaran have all the expected sponsons and turrets, all of which are capable of doing work. While armour values are equivalent across the board, the Sicaran has taken a bit of a durability drop with only HP6 compared to a Predator / Rhino’s AP5. The Kratos has dropped to 280 points and the turret go bang.
The various magna-meltas and melta-blast guns feel potentially hateful, jumping up to potentially damage 8 within ranges that feel all too reasonable. The real standout is the Vindicator, whose short range anti-armour guns feel incredibly dangerous.
The Legion artillery options seem neat and this new edition seems to have improved its predecessor’s rocky relationships with blast templates and Barrage. The Scorpius has been tuned down to small blast and Breaching (5+), with 2 shots if stationary. The Arquitor Bombard main gun feels like a clean miss, but there’s some potential in the new short ranged barrage weapons: the Graviton-Charge Cannon and the 7” blast Spicula-Rocket System.
All of the super heavies seem fine, but none of them have enough HP to survive concerted melta. They’re all going to need serious dedicated screening and they’ll likely continue to sit in the slot of being cool, novel and fun in narrative environments.
Final Thoughts
There are tons of exciting and novel options for building Legion lists, before you even start looking at Legion specific options. This is the most diverse / balanced we have seen the Astartes units since first edition. We hope to see a much wider range of wargear and units on the table despite a massive pairing down of wargear options. Rites of War might be gone, but there are options beyond counting for every imaginable army (apart from Drop Pods, you can’t really imagine those anymore).
We’ve got so much more to talk about! My colleagues are writing (right now) tens of thousands of words about these units. Let us know what you’re most excited to know about and check out the rest of our coverage for release day.
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