Games Workshop has revealed the detachment rules for Warhammer: The Horus Heresy third edition, and they are certainly something. Up until now, army construction has mostly been limited by the same Force Organisation Chart used in Warhammer 40k 7th edition – the new system is both freer and more complicated. Will it be better? That’s the question.
If you’re coming here from Warhammer 40k, the Horus Heresy detachment rules are totally different from what you’re used to. Warhammer 40k detachments provide an army wide rule, 40k Stratagems, and optional Enhancements for your force. The Horus Heresy detachment system is a framework that defines what units your force can contain. Here’s how it works.
Each detachment has a number of slots for units of different types. No units are mandatory within a detachment: if a detachment has four slots for Troops, you can add between zero and four Troops units to your force. However, certain slots are highlighted as Prime Slots, and filling those slots gives you extra bonuses.
Crusade Primary Detachment
Heresy armies must begin with a Crusade Primary Detachment.
- High Command x 1
- Command slots x 3
- Troops slots x 4
- Transports x 4
One Command slot and one Troops slot are Prime Slots
Unlocking extra detachments
For each Command slot you fill, your force may include an Auxilliary Detachment. If you fill that slot with a Centurion (not an upgraded Consul), you may add two Auxilliary Detachments instead.
For each High Command slot you fill, you may unlock either an Auxilliary Detachment, or an Apex Detachment.
Prime Slot bonuses
Whenever you fill a Prime Slot, you may select one Prime Advantage. Games Workshop has only named some of these, and not their full effects.
- Logistical Benefit: this Detachment gains one additional Battlefield Role Slot of your choice. In the example above, the Army Vanguard Detachment gets an extra War-engine slot.
- Combat Veterans: effect unknown.
- Master Sergeant: effect unknown.
Battlefield Roles
Games Workshop has so far explained some of the unit types that fill the new Battlefield Roles
- High Command – Praetors
- Command – Centurions, Consuls
- Troops – Tactical Squads, Assault Squads
- Transport – Rhinos
- Heavy Transport – Land Raider
- Support – Special and Heavy Weapon squads, Apothecaries, Rapier teams
- Amour – Tanks,
- War-engine – Dreadnoughs and ‘other war machines’
- Reconnaissance – Light Infantry, Bikes
- Heavy Assault – Terminators
- Fast Attack – Aircraft, Jetbikes, Speeders
- Combat Retinue – Command Squads
- Veterans – Veteran Tactical Squad, Veteran Assault Squad, Legion-specific elites
Tank squadrons, Dreadnought talons, and similar formations no longer exist, so each vehicle or walker fills one slot.
Auxilliary Detachments
The following Auxiliary Detachments are available to all armies. All the Space Marine Legions have unique Auxilliary Detachments as well.
Armoured Fist
Transports x 4
Heavy Transports x 4
Tactical Support
Troops x 2
Support x 2
Armored support
Armour x 4
Heavy Support
War-Engine x 1
Combat Pioneer
Shock assault x 2
First Strike
Fast Attack x 2
Apex Detachments
The following Apex Detachments are available to all armies. The Space Marine Legions have unique Apex Detachments as well.
Combat Retinue
Combat Retinue x 3
Officer Cadre
Command x 2
Army Vanguard
Veterans x 3
Warlord Detachment
The Warlord Detachment is only available in 3,000 point or larger games, if you field your army’s Warhammer 40k Primarch. It has three slots:
- Primarch x 1
- Retinue x 1
- Heavy Transport x 1
Opinion
When GW hinted at the new Horus Heresy rules, I was cautiously optimistic that the changes I was seeing were indicative of refactoring – that systems were being broken down and reconstituted from slightly different foundations in order to achieve the same or similar results in a more elegant way. I think that is what’s been attempted here.
The old Force Organisation Chart was, notionally, a level playing field that encouraged balanced army construction. However, the plethora of Rites of War meant that – depending what color you had painted your Space Marines – you could build just about any force you wanted, with units shifting from one force organisation slot to another, provided you met the Rite of War’s requirements.
Rites of War were pretty simple on the surface – a set of restrictions, a set of benefits – but in practise they suffered from a lot of small print. Units could move slot, be taken in extra slots, become compulsory choices in a slot, become choices in a slot but not eligible to fill its mandatory slots, and so on. It was messy.
This new system? It’s messy too. Not messy because each detachment has lots of trailing clauses and stipulations, but messy because there are multiple ways to achieve similar results. It’s messy like a big Lego set.
I like Lego – I reckon most Warhammer fans do – so I’m reserving judgment. Like the other rules changes, this one seems to primarily be a refactoring of existing systems, achieving similar results in a different way. Whether it’s better or worse than what came before remains to be seen.
What do you think? Has this suddenly made your entire army list unplayable? Are you frantically trying to work which of your HQ minis you can use as Centurions? Or are you stoked that you can finally run the force of your dreams? Come and let me know in the official Wargamer Discord community.
If the trailer for the new edition of Horus Heresy has ignited your interest and you want to take on the daunting task of reading the novels, our Horus Heresy books guide can help you navigate through the series, and help you follow the threads of your favorite Legion.
Source: Wargamer
