Horus Heresy Campaigns in the Age of Darkness: The Martian Civil War

[Noserenda]

Last black book is a bit of a white lie, it was supposed to be like... Book 5? But kept getting delayed forever :( 

[Castellan Wulfrik]

 

FW books have been increasingly deviating from the BL source material as the time goes on. It began with off camera Isstvan III survivors, and now the Khan apparently has a split personality and behaves like Russ, up to having his own version of Wolfsbane and being beaten in personal duel by Horus during Beta-Garmon. Ironically, for all the complains about excessive focus on primarchs, FW has been the most guilty of it by far.

In the original story, Corax leaves Terra almost inmediately during the Raptors project plot, and the RG doesn't get fresh normal inductii reinforcements in MkVI until just before the battle of Yarant.

I'd say it's less FW vs BL and more Bligh vs Post-Bligh. BL has always been inconsistent due to the number of writers. The old team who wrote the black books had a vision of a more realistic take on 30K fluff in line with historical wargames, whereas recently we've seen a move from all corners to a more character focused setting akin to a space opera. It's also worth noting the core of the horus heresy fluff is from a random selection of sources pre-HH book series, so I wouldn't call BL the 'source material', both BL and FW have sometimes altered existing canon for better or worse over the years. 

 

Personally, I have to agree the overuse of primarchs is frustrating; writers who lack the creativity to create their own interesting stories and characters or editors who insist on using popular names to boost hype and sales, whatever the cause it's boring. There's less substance and uniqueness to the actual battles and war and more SpaceBroA fought SpaceBadB and it was epic wow. A lot of the best 'stories' from 30K come from random unimportant battles with no major characters from the black books, that's been lost in recent works. 30K and 40K have both gone in the same direction in this regard so it's either something coming from the top down to boost sales, or it's a generation of writers who grew up with marvel movies and focus too much on recurring character drama. I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt to the writers. 

 

Regardless it'll be interesting to see if this more closely resembles the old black books, at least in tone, than the other 2nd edition books. 

[lansalt]

 

I'd say it's less FW vs BL and more Bligh vs Post-Bligh

I'd argue that is more John French vs post-French. The Black books began deviating more noticeably when he left after the initial Isstvan trilogy. The Prospero and Calth books already had stuff that never happened in the original stories for better or worse.

 

 

I wouldn't call BL the 'source material'

 

That's exactly what it is. BL's Visions of Heresy and novels set up the HH as we know it today, and are acknowledged as such in FW books. What's "canon" is another more muddy matter...

 

[Xenith]

The third chunk of story comes towards the end of the Horus Heresy, ...One was an attack on Mars itself led by Aster Crohne of the Blood Angels and the 94th Company,

 

It's been said above, but I don't thin the snipped was shared but I think this may be what the 'reprinted legacy units' might be. Hopefully they take a look the rules for Crohne also, he's currently ok so sub-par, would be nice for an ability bump, currently he's not worth the cost of inclusion. 

[lansalt]

 

an attack on Mars itself led by Aster Crohne of the Blood Angels and the 94th Company

There's a plot line in the BL books about Arkhan Land using Zephon to get an audience with Sanguinius and convince him of liberating Mars, but IIRC he refuses due to Dorn's "Terra first" policy. I wonder how this will be acknowledged or if FW will even bother.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

 

 

 

I'd bet the three legions listed will get a special character a piece, crohne and dias are both fan favourites.

 

 

Cameron Diaz in 30K?!

[MARK0SIAN]

 

Cameron Diaz in 30K?!

There’s something about Mars!

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

 

Cameron Diaz in 30K?!

, nop. A possible distant relative called Camba Diaz 

[Astartes Consul]

 

There's a plot line in the BL books about Arkhan Land using Zephon to get an audience with Sanguinius and convince him of liberating Mars, but IIRC he refuses due to Dorn's "Terra first" policy. I wonder how this will be acknowledged or if FW will even bother.

 

Tbf, I don't think 'Minor character leads strike on Mars' really contradicts the idea that Mars couldn't be liberated in full. 

[Mandragola]

It’s always seemed odd to me that they didn’t retake Mars. There was a *lot* of stuff available in the system to do that with. It was inevitable that Horus would break the blockade when he came, freeing up all those resources (e.g. a chunk of Legio Mortis and everythingMars built in that time) to attack Terra. Instead they could have been building things to keep the baddies away. 
 

I guess they didn’t know how long the heresy would last but once it was clear it would be a long campaign they should have done it I think. 

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

 

There’s something about Mars!

BAAAAAAAAD TEACHER!!!

[Marshal Rohr]

Mars is the Terra of the weapons manufacturers and tech wizards of the Imperium with a massive orbital ring, I imagine taking mars would be as difficult as taking Terra. 

[Marshal Loss]

Contents page on the NZ website confirms that Aster Crohne, Kaedes Nex and Camba Diaz have profiles in the book.

[Marshal Rohr]

Those three make the book instant buy

[01RTB01]

 

Contents page on the NZ website confirms that Aster Crohne, Kaedes Nex and Camba Diaz have profiles in the book.

Who are these for those of us that know nowt please? :)

[darkhorse0607]

 

Contents page on the NZ website confirms that Aster Crohne, Kaedes Nex and Camba Diaz have profiles in the book.

 

I'm all on board for a Blood Angels and especially Raven Guard character. Still do feel bad for the Mechanicum folks who wanted characters though

[Mr Farson]

Despite expecting very little I'm still let down

 

No new mechanicum units at all and free content reprinted.

 

I wasn't honestly expecting the skitarii army list that was long promised from the black book but damm more marine profiles than mech in probably the only book they're going to be the focus of is miserable 

[SkimaskMohawk]

Remember when another IF character getting a model was framed as a bad joke a few pages ago lol.

 

Glad Ravens are getting their first character and BAs have a pretty well rounded 3 now, and based on the past sculpts these will probably be pretty sick. Only wonkiness is the lore they've whipped up to support this. Deliverance Lost had issues, but it's pretty hard to shoehorn in more stuff overtop of it, since we saw from both high command and the grunts perspectives of what was happening throughout. None of them bothered to remark on the conflict they had gone through after the labyrinth? Nex also went from leaving I5 on his own to wage a private war with the shattered legions to...being with the main force? While also never being talked about? Sure.

[Waaagh?]

 

Remember when another IF character getting a model was framed as a bad joke a few pages ago lol.

 

Glad Ravens are getting their first character and BAs have a pretty well rounded 3 now, and based on the past sculpts these will probably be pretty sick. Only wonkiness is the lore they've whipped up to support this. Deliverance Lost had issues, but it's pretty hard to shoehorn in more stuff overtop of it, since we saw from both high command and the grunts perspectives of what was happening throughout. None of them bothered to remark on the conflict they had gone through after the labyrinth? Nex also went from leaving I5 on his own to wage a private war with the shattered legions to...being with the main force? While also never being talked about? Sure.

 

Ravens already had him in expanded rules, same as the BA character. The only one that's actually not just a reprint from the pdf is Diaz.

[Marshal Loss]

 

Who are these for those of us that know nowt please? :)

 

Aster Crohne (sort of a Blood Angels Centurion/Moritat equivalent called a Judiciar) and Kaedes Nex (Raven Guard Moritat-Prime) are black book characters without a huge amount of background. Camba Diaz is just another Imperial Fist character who is quite prominent in the Siege of Terra books

[01RTB01]

 

 

Aster Crohne (sort of a Blood Angels Centurion/Moritat equivalent called a Judiciar) and Kaedes Nex (Raven Guard Moritat-Prime) are black book characters without a huge amount of background. Camba Diaz is just another Imperial Fist character who is quite prominent in the Siege of Terra books

Grand, thank you kindly :) 

[sarabando]

dunno if this has been posted here yet

[Corswain]

Oh. This might not be the instant-buy I thought it was. I love Space Marines but for me this book was supposed to be the Mechanicum's time to shine.

The lack of any Mechanicum character or any new units kind kills the buzz a little for me.

 

Any Heresy is good Heresy but my money might have to be prioritised elsewhere right now.

[Mechanicus Tech-Support]

I need to pause my purchases of any mech stuff 30/40k this is too depressing 

[SkimaskMohawk]

 

 

Ravens already had him in expanded rules, same as the BA character. The only one that's actually not just a reprint from the pdf is Diaz.

 

I meant models, since the trend is campaign  book rules = new model. It's the first character model ravens have gotten since Corax in ...2016?