3.0,failed or not

[JeffJedi]

"Horus Heresy 3.0 failed" is internet created protest/fight the power/hate on whatever thing that some people can't stop trying on every single thing that comes up. Not just against GW but you name it. It's really stale, old, been done before. Get views on YouTube, etc.

 

Are there problems, sure. Could we figure out  some good fixes in 15 mins? Yes. "Should GW do better? Maybe,  but there way the cycles work push them for time and resources and that's how the suits want it. Work around  instead of simply complaining like many j see here at the B&C.

 

I'm not putting down your valid concerns here. I'm talking about the doomsayers I saw on YouTube.  I myself need to get deeper into the rules and really see for myself. Sorry if I came off as hostile. 

 

When I look at where 40k is now I just dont see a game I want to play. Horus Heresy has much more that I want in a game.

Edited November 29 by JeffJedi

[Irate Khornate]

Honestly, the only thing I see that GW will "learn" from the 3.0 release is they will wind up putting less models in the future boxes due to all the damaged sprues. Not that the rulebook wasn't secure enough, but we tried to give them too much and it cost us.

 

I've got no faith in current GW. I've seen the boxes steadily get smaller and smaller while jumping in price every year.

[Orange Knight]

16 hours ago, JeffJedi said:

"Horus Heresy 3.0 failed" is internet created protest/fight the power/hate on whatever thing that some people can't stop trying on every single thing that comes up. Not just against GW but you name it. It's really stale, old, been done before. Get views on YouTube, etc.

 

 

 

Yes, but also no in this particular case.

 

It's normal for a game systems to lose players or excitement as time goes on. This happened with Heresy 2.0, and it also happens with regular 40k.

 

It's why GW regularly update the edition, and with each new edition you get an influx of new and returning players, as well as a boost in sales and the general popularity of said game.

 

Horus Heresy 2.0 had lost steam since it's release which is normal. 3.0 did not rejuvenate the game, nor does it appear to have led to a boost in sales.

 

From this point of view, it doesn't appear to be a success. Although even a less popular GW game probably has more fans and sales than most of the competitors.

Edited November 30 by Orange Knight

[TheTrans]

On 11/30/2025 at 3:45 AM, JeffJedi said:

"Horus Heresy 3.0 failed" is internet created protest/fight the power/hate on whatever thing that some people can't stop trying on every single thing that comes up. Not just against GW but you name it. It's really stale, old, been done before. Get views on YouTube, etc.

Look anything on youtube is going to be clickbait with a soyjack face for the algo bro.

But 3.0 Failed is probably different depending on where you're looking at it from:

GW: If it sold to or above expectations, it will be classed as a success. If it sold below, it won't be.

Broader Community: Who ever yells the loudest will push forward what they think happened, pass or fail. I still believe that 50% of the rapid people that came flying into denounce/exalt 3.0 never played a game of 30k before its drop. 

Local Community: Are there more games and event for 30k or less post 3.0 drop. If more, pass, if less, fail.

Personal 'Group': Again if everyone is smashing out armies and playing games, pass, if no one is wanting to start something up, fail.

So I suppose the pass/fail of 3.0 is:

GW: commercially we'll never know, but get a good idea in 3ish years time.

Broader(internet) Community: You'll never get a good gauge.

Local/Personal Community:  will be different for every person. 

So if its going well for you, fantastic, if its killed the scene, it sucks and I'm with you! 

[Brofist]

I think GW now occupies the same place in my mind, and evokes the same sort of bad vibes, as Electronic Arts 

[Pacific81]

On 11/29/2025 at 9:24 PM, Irate Khornate said:

Honestly, the only thing I see that GW will "learn" from the 3.0 release is they will wind up putting less models in the future boxes due to all the damaged sprues. Not that the rulebook wasn't secure enough, but we tried to give them too much and it cost us.

 

I've got no faith in current GW. I've seen the boxes steadily get smaller and smaller while jumping in price every year.

 

I would love them to take a different message, which would be a rulebook half as large! They could probably still charge as much, would be cheaper to produce so would be a win-win..

[JeffJedi]

I will agree the rulebook reads like an 80s VCR manual. And the game wasn't asked for by the end of 2.0. And they went nearly tanks only releases for too long, there are still so many holes in the range.

 

It seems a new edition is the only way to get more models these days.

[MARK0SIAN]

2 hours ago, Pacific81 said:

 

I would love them to take a different message, which would be a rulebook half as large! They could probably still charge as much, would be cheaper to produce so would be a win-win..

I think it would go the other way:

 

“Want to know the rules for the charge phase? Better buy the upcoming journal ‘the charge phase massacre’!”

 

“Obviously this slimmed down rulebook doesn’t allow us to include any missions for the game but worry not, a separate book of missions is ready and will only be available exclusively as a limited edition collectors volume with a print run of just 50 for the first six months of the edition!”

 

Edited December 2 by MARK0SIAN

[TheTrans]

8 hours ago, MARK0SIAN said:

I think it would go the other way:

 

“Want to know the rules for the charge phase? Better buy the upcoming journal ‘the charge phase massacre’!”

 

“Obviously this slimmed down rulebook doesn’t allow us to include any missions for the game but worry not, a separate book of missions is ready and will only be available exclusively as a limited edition collectors volume with a print run of just 50 for the first six months of the edition!”

 

 You know those jokes that aren't funny because they are probably too close to the mark.... 

[Brofist]

[Shard of Magnus]

I hope for a day when the background lore is in a separate book from the rules.

[Brofist]

All 4 pages?

[Nagashsnee]

I was HUGELY into 30k in its creation and first ed, second ed was....to me as a mech player a total disaster. The fact that we did not have rules and could not play the game on release (plus other armies) left a bad taste that never left. I got the book and played the edition but our local scene had taken a hit and 30k grew smaller.

 

Third edition brought the vast majority to where i was with second, most people found a bad taste in their mouth, be it

• People who had bought all the book and found the edition change far too fast for the ammounts they had been asked to invest.
• People who found the way the new rulebook and books in general was written so unfun to read their hobby became a chore.
• People like me who had hoped 3 ed would course correct and just give us what we wanted in 2ed, 1 ed with better balance and some rule fixes. Instead we got what we got. And while the minis sale (tho far less) to marine players, i as a mech player have not bought a single thing in 3ed.  No one really plays, the community is on life support, the books BL wise dried up, and mechanicum has been left to rot. Oh we get minis sure, the same ones i got 10 years ago but in plastic....big wow. 

But honestly more then anything the Mars black book killed HH for me. After waiting for YEARS, after marine after marine after marine focussed book, it was finally here, i remember going to the open days and speaking to the FW people about the then distant plans for a MECHANICUM focussed book. And it finally came, and it was WD dark mech re prints and SPACE MARINEEEEEEEES.  IIRC loaylist mech got 1 krios gun in the book, and it was because the plastic model had it, otherwise it would likely not even be that.  

 

1 edition 30k was a magical time, and the original black books were of a level that GW is now INCAPABLE of making. They also managed to achieve the hard to get feeling of making everyone feel they got something in each book. Even if it was just 1 character or  unit or two.   3ed did nothing to wash the taste that i was a second class player in the games eyes that 2ed gave me.  Not in minis, rules or books. So between lukewarm rules, a dying local community and nothing from the game to make me excited i saved my money for things i would enjoy. 

[TheTrans]

4 hours ago, Nagashsnee said:

Words... 

Mate as a Mechanicum and Blackshields Arny of Dark Compliance player in 1.0, I think you've perfectly encapsulated my feelings on how it felt to be beyond a second thought, not aided by the general marine player logic of 'well its a marine war, so like you don't really need stuff/be able to compete'.

[Nagashsnee]

13 hours ago, TheTrans said:

 not aided by the general marine player logic of 'well its a marine war, so like you don't really need stuff/be able to compete'.

I am lucky enough to be in groups with people who are smart enough to know that a community needs...well a community. If a game starts losing players they will take friends, people who car pool and general energy and game availability with them. Worse then that they are likely to move to another game/system that may also 'steal numbers'. Not to mention that a variety of armies add actually spice to games. Even most HH marine players dont actualy want to just fight marines for ever and ever, 

 

The vast majority of people around me were not happy with how second dropped because it meant that instead of 15 people being excited and ready to game it was 11. Only it wasnt 11 since some of them were playing us 4 in other games since we couldnt play 30k. Only by the time we got rules the initial buzz was long gone, and some of us had joined a BB league, and some of us... you get my point.  It stopped a league forming as many dint want to start till everyone could take part, and then it just never started. 

 

I know this thread is about 3ed, but i cannot overstate how much 2ed poisoned the HH scene locally to me. It just never recovered and 3ed just wasnt the smash hit needed to put it back on track. 

 

Something else that occured to me since posting yesterday, is both 2ed and 3ed have waged war on unit variety and options. As a mech player i had a lighting AND avenger flyer, i also had a termite. I wont even touch on the mess with secutarii and now skitarii being seperate armies.  Every edition made me MORE uncertain if the models i am buying would be playable. And with the flyers and termite there was 0 reason to suspect their suddent deaths (in some cases the website still had them under mech when they had no legal mech rules), they were in the red book, they are in mech armies in the lore and in the books. They were sold to us for mechanicum for years and years.

 

Likewise and this affects marines more, as 30k and 3ed especially took on 40ks mentality of units as they are sold only, suddenly allot of conversions and kit bashes and the like become uncertain, and the fiasco of codex vs pdf with 3ed did allot of damage. Not just presently but it solidified the fear and paranoia of how long any model will be playable. And 30k was the HEAVEN for marine conversions and kit bashes. But suddenly everything is only certain for its edition and editions are only 3 years long.  With the cost of the hobby that becomes a high ask for a uncertain investment. 30k 1 ed offered stability rules wise which as others have noted was a real pull for some people. But that is long gone. 

 

So yeah 3ed failed locally, but it was not totally its fault, and seeing what the studio did in 2ed and wider GW trends it was set up to fail. 

 

I mean the Martian Civil war black book has a shelf life of what? 1 year? ( i checked, july 2024, to edition change in july 2025) How do you try and ask me to buy a 3ed book after that, regardless of book quality.

Edited yesterday at 08:53 AM by Nagashsnee

[TheArtilleryman]

Whether or not it “failed” is not a question I can answer as I don’t have the info to make the judgement. Personally, for me it fails for a couple of reasons.

 

1. I had only last year bought the 2.0 box and the libers, having been super hyped and coveted them for some time. Having a new edition so soon was completely unnecessary in my opinion. Not only does it invalidate all those rulebooks, it attempts to create this sense of FOMO because you’re now out of date. I thoroughly dislike this about the GW model these days. I never even got a game of 2.0 before the new edition dropped.

 

2. The models in the set, apart from the MKii marines, hold no interest for me at all. Not only are they ugly and oversized (BigGeRrEr Is BeTtErEr), they are not in the rulebooks I own, and therefore are a nagging reminder of what I don’t have and can’t use them without.

 

At some point, I may buy some of the mkii marines from eBay as they are cheap and plentiful on there, even cheaper than the MKVI were going for. But I have no interest in the box set this time around. Had it been a 2.1 box with just an updated Rulebook and models from the existing army lists, I would have been much more inclined to want it.

 

I mainly just collect and paint these days to be honest, and have to a large extent stopped caring about the rules.

Edited yesterday at 12:58 PM by TheArtilleryman