Horus Heresy New Edition, or Just Horus Hearsay?

[Gorgoff]

It got worse.

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

On 8/12/2025 at 4:31 PM, Loishy said:

If we refer to the previous organization of the astartes legions, the centurion is the equivalent of a Captain with a hundred astartes under is commad :  



So personally I would go with 

- Chapter Master (10 companies under is command) - Praetor 
- Commander (5 companies under is command forming a Battalion) - Centurion with Paragon of War
- Captain (1 company under is command with 3 lieutenants) - Centurion
- Lieutenant  (3 squads under is command) - Optae

And a Praetor with Paragon of War would then be the Chapter Master designed to lead several other chapter master in a fleet in which the Primach is not present.

But I suppose that a centurion from a line company (companies II, III, and IV) cannot easily demand a large number of terminators from company I. That's why I'm not surprised that a centurion only gives access to a maximum of 4 terminator squads in 3.0.

Commander can be a Tribune.

[Marshal Rohr]

In game designs terms there are three specific options, Praetors, Centurions, and Optaes which line up specifically with Chapter, Company, and Demi-Company. It’s a 1-1 translation. Instead of building something like a Centurion unlocks something like the old FOC and an Optae unlocks something closer to an old allied detachment, they’ve built some kind of hybrid between Legiones Imperialis and old Formations without sticking to the Legiones Imperialis selection numbers or Formations themes. Like it’s Bananas your centurion requires an apex detachment from a praetor to take a command squad unless you use a logistical benefit and then your other centurion has to go naked. It’s just half-assed. 

Edited 17 hours ago by Marshal Rohr

[TheTrans]

1 hour ago, Marshal Rohr said:

In game designs terms there are three specific options, Praetors, Centurions, and Optaes which line up specifically with Chapter, Company, and Demi-Company. It’s a 1-1 translation. Instead of building something like a Centurion unlocks something like the old FOC and an Optae unlocks something closer to an old allied detachment, they’ve built some kind of hybrid between Legiones Imperialis and old Formations without sticking to the Legiones Imperialis selection numbers or Formations themes. Like it’s Bananas your centurion requires an apex detachment from a praetor to take a command squad unless you use a logistical benefit and then your other centurion has to go naked. It’s just half-assed. 

Hey now mate. Its a well thought out design choice by the extremely adequate design studio and its what everyone asked for.... like what the 40k and AoS players asked for..right? Like someone asked for this didn't they? People must have had a hard time with the Force Org, right? Like this wasn't just a knee jerk decision to try and have a weird homogonisation of all the systems list buidling and then somehow make it more confusing by using weird silouhettes that are confusing even for marine players, let alone any of the other factions.. right. 

[BitsHammer]

I thought about using index cards to visualize and organize my detachments but I hadn't considered the red string cand cork for it.

[BitsHammer]

35 minutes ago, TheTrans said:

Hey now mate. Its a well thought out design choice by the extremely adequate design studio and its what everyone asked for.... like what the 40k and AoS players asked for..right? Like someone asked for this didn't they? People must have had a hard time with the Force Org, right? Like this wasn't just a knee jerk decision to try and have a weird homogonisation of all the systems list buidling and then somehow make it more confusing by using weird silouhettes that are confusing even for marine players, let alone any of the other factions.. right. 

Based on designer commentary they did it because they felt the FOC was too restrictive on players forcing them to leave stuff they wanted on the shelf to take specific options they needed in a list. It also meant the designers had to keep layering exceptions into the rules to let people play specific lists.

 

Now do I think they nailed it out of the gate? Not exactly. I have complained about the lack of icons and legion flavored prime slot bonuses but I would like to add another to my complaints: apex detachments shouldn't be limited by filled high command slots. If all veterans seems too strong then either adopt a 0-1 limit per apex detachment, limit how many we can take perk thousand points or limit them relative to the number of aux detachments we have.

 

Any or all of these would go a long way to restricting the number of apex slots in a given list without locking us to such a miserly position of two apex detachments max.

 

The only good news is if you like running named characters like Argel Tal or Sigismund is that most named characters are High Command which gives us non-Praetor options for the slot, even if it's not much of an option.

 

Frankly I mostly get what they are trying to do but at the same time I don't think every army should be required a Praetor or named character at every points level just to access a retinue or veteran squads, much less any legion specific Apex detachments.

[Marshal Rohr]

Custodes with their 800 point shield captain tax demonstrate why they will have to revise the system but we have at least a year of journals before they release anything they’ve developed after the main release. 

[Gorgoff]

2 hours ago, Marshal Rohr said:

Custodes with their 800 point shield captain tax demonstrate why they will have to revise the system but we have at least a year of journals before they release anything they’ve developed after the main release. 

And they are slready making the new edition. Never forget that.

2028 the next one will likely drop. 

[BitsHammer]

More than likely they are in the pre-planning stages of the next edition at this point. They'll want to see how mechanics are received and what the sticking points in the game are before going all in on a new edition.

 

That said expect one new large change minimum if we see another edition in a few years since it seems someone in management thinks that new means it has to have a big change somewhere to separate it from past editions instead if refining things.