Warhammer: The Horus Heresy updates the 40K spin-off with a new edition later this year
Prequel game also known as Warhammer 30,000 takes place ten thousand years before wargame’s 41st millennium.
Warhammer 40,000 spin-off The Horus Heresy is returning later this year with a brand new edition of the prequel game.
Based on the pivotal period of 40K lore explored through a number of other games and the titular series of Black Library novels, The Horus Heresy first became a playable game in its own right in 2012, with a standalone set of rules based on Warhammer 40,000’s seventh edition.
The game - sometimes referred to as Warhammer 30,000 due to its events taking place roughly 10,000 years before 40K’s 41st millennium - was developed by Games Workshop division Forge World, known for its work on other miniatures and titles outside of the core 40K series. Those games include mech game Adeptus Titanicus, also set during the 31st millennium and featuring larger-scale titans playable in The Horus Heresy.
Forge World has since released eight additional supplements for The Horus Heresy’s first edition, the most recent being late 2020’s Crusade. Alongside the rulebooks - which, like 40K, can be used with players’ miniatures collections - the series has seen multiple boxed sets designed to be picked up as standalone games containing both rules and figures, including 2015’s Betrayal at Calth and 2016’s Burning of Prospero, covering the in-universe battles of the same names.
During a Warhammer preview event streamed as part of wargaming convention Adepticon, Games Workshop revealed that a new edition of The Horus Heresy would release later this year alongside a line of new miniatures. The publisher called the upcoming evolution a “next step” for The Horus Heresy.
Officially titled Warhammer: The Horus Heresy, the new edition will include a boxed game that includes plastic miniatures. Among the plastic figures in the set will be the game’s Mark VI Space Marines, known for their iconic bird-like Corvus helmets - earning them the nickname of ‘beakies’. Despite featuring in the first-ever set of plastic miniatures for Warhammer 40,000’s first edition Rogue Trader, the Mark VI Marines have rarely been widely available in plastic in more recent years.
Other miniatures teased by Games Workshop for The Horus Heresy launch set include plastic Praetors, power-armoured warriors that can serve as leaders for any of the game’s legions. Horus Heresy includes a number of playable factions, including loyalists and traitors, among others. Like 40K, the factions can be collected and expanded, with dedicated army lists for each.
“While many general kits in the range will be moving to plastic, there aren’t currently any such plans for the Legion-specific units or Primarchs,” Games Workshop added.
The new Horus Heresy will retain many of the rules from the original edition, Games Workshop said, describing the gameplay engine as “refined and tweaked” but “very familiar” to existing players.
“Expect much of the same, but new and updated,” said the company’s Adam Troke during the Adepticon stream.
Warhammer: The Horus Heresy was announced with a cinematic trailer featuring Horus the Warmaster, Primarch of the Sons of Horus legion of Space Marines, after whom the Horus Heresy is named. The Horus Heresy sees Horus attempt to dethrone the Emperor and become ruler of humankind through a galaxy-wide civil war, with the destructive events ultimately leading to the 41st millennium seen in Warhammer 40,000.
An exact release date and prices for Warhammer: The Horus Heresy are yet to be confirmed, with further details on the game and its boxed set due to emerge ahead of its launch later in 2022.