Horus Heresy General FAQ

Horus Heresy/30k/Age of Darkness FAQ READ THIS SHIT, ESPECIALLY FOR NEW PLAYERS WHO ARE STARTING WITH BAC!


Clarifications- Horus Heresy and 30k are a set of army lists that represent various forces during the Horus Heresy. The Age of Darkness is a slightly tweaked set of 40k rules that make the game play more like earlier editions.
FAQ-

1. Can I play 40k with 30k?
-HH Vs. 40k- Horus Heresy armies use the same rules as 40k ones, and are a balanced, if weak, opponent to a 40k list. This is due to HH having Unit Creation taxes, inflexible units, and being restricted to single-CAD only.
-HH with 30k- 40k lists cannot ally with 30k ones or vice versa, as 30k uses a different allies chart.  Note, Daemons are in HH somewhat. It's complicated.
-40k in AoD games- If one is doing an Age of Darkness game, only 30k armies are allowed. (Of course, any of these restrictions may be homebrewed). Fluff is much more important in a 30k list than your typical 40k one. There might be some exceptions for Orks and Eldar in a Great Crusade game.
- 40k models in HH games- This depends on the model. Chaos Terminators as Deathshroud? No. Droppods? Yes. GW Rhinos as FW Rhinos? Get some FW doors and trick them out if you must. Heldrakes as Fire Raptors? No. Deffkoptas as Legion Jetbikes? Fuck no. mk7 tacticals (the guys in the GW tactical box? I’d strongly advise against it, as MK4 tacticals are now cheaper, and only legions present at the Siege of Terra at/after the SoT had it.

2. I want to get started, what books do I need?
If you want to play a Space Marine legion of any sort, you will need this book, and maybe another.
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/The-Horus-Heresy-Legiones-Astartes-Crusade-Army-List
If you want to play SoH, WE, DG, EC, IH, Salamanders, NL, RG, IF, AL, or IW, you want this bundle
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/The-Horus-Heresy-Legion-Astartes-Gamers-Collection
If you want to play WB or Ultramarines, you want
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/the-horus-heresy-book-five-tempest
If you want to play BA, DA, SW, WS, or 1k Sons (or some homebrew legion), your legion doesn’t have rules as of now.
There are placeholder rules for these legions, and it is their choice of Furious Charge or Stubborn on all units with Legiones Astartes. For WS, BA, and DA, they will get actual rules in HH6, which is coming soon (February). 1ksons and SW will have to wait for a bit longer.
If you want to play Mechanicum of any sort, you want this book
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/The-Horus-Heresy-Mechanicum-Taghmata-Army-List
If you want to play Imperial Knights or the Solar Auxilia, you want this book
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/The-Horus-Heresy-Book-Four-Conquest
If you want to play Cults or Militia, you want this book
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-US/the-horus-heresy-book-five-tempest

NOTE for homebrew legions- If you want to play a homebrew legion, you will be looked down upon by many. 30k is known for being a pseudo-historical affair with it being based on events that have already happened, as opposed to 40k’s 1-minute-until-midnight setting. Having a faction that wasn’t there is going to trip a lot of autism, so you better have everything else be top fucking notch. A homebrew legion named ‘The Asskickers’ whose colors are grey and black is going to make you look like an enormous piece of shit.

3.  Why are people calling me a 40kid?
Prior to the introduction of the Betrayal at Calth box, Horus Heresy took considerable financial, and with it, emotional investment to begin. People would start a Space Marine legion because they had always loved that legion, etc. Now we are seeing a lot of low-effort shit, and that understandably frustrates some of us.

4. I just bought a BaC box, How can I get started?
The first thing you should do is download or buy the books you will need. Read through them. Completely. Then, choose a legion. Make sure you love your legion, as it’s yours, and those are your dudes. Then, write up a list by starting with a Rite of War, and start collecting. Betrayal at calth gets you 30 marines that can be Tacticals, Veterans, or Seekers, and with conversion work, can be made into Support Squads or Heavy Support Squads.  It then gives you 5 terminators, and a contemptor. That’s flexible as shit, although it is 2 elite choices. You can always trade one unit for another. You then get 2 HQ’s, but you can do whatever with those.  It works well with Pride of the Legion and Orbital Assault for Rites of War.

5. How do I grow my Horus Heresy army? (I don’t like/can’t afford FW)
Unless you want to make an army with nothing but BaC boxes (which is going to be as viable as a 40k army made of nothing but Dark Vengeance sets) you are going to have to buy from FW. You can’t just take a bunch of GW marine kits and not come across as a lazy shit. Having a bunch of mk7 and 8 armor in your DG force is in 0 ways fluff accurate.
Alternative games and Kill Team variants also exist to keep them small. Victory is Vengeance and Strike Teams are for 500 and smaller games, and Zone Mortalis is for sub-1k games.
http://adepticon.org/wpfiles/2015/HorusHeresyTacticalStrike.pdf
Victory is Vengeance is a game and campaign system found in HH3
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/resources/fw_site/fw_pdfs/Warhammer_40000/Zone_Mortalis_Expansion.pdf

6. What units are strong/weak/great/OP?
Go to the 1d4chan tactics pages. They are fairly in-depth already.

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Space_Marine_Legion_List_(30k)

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Mechanicum:_Taghmata_(30k)

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Solar_Auxilia_(30k)

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Questoris_Knight_Crusade_(30k)

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Imperial_Militia_and_Cults_(30k)

Note, squads borrow partially from WHFB as they get Champions (sergeants), Musicians (Voxes) and Banners (Vexilia), and squads are usually identical. (no special weapons on tacticals, heavy weapons are all the same gun, etc). The unit creation taxes (tacticals cost 150 for 10, and 10 for each more) are not a typo, and are intentional.