30K: What You Need

As 30K, also known as The Horus Heresy, gained a lot of popularity in the last few months, I thought it might be a good idea to give people a few pointers as to where to start, etc. – and seeing that I'm only interested in painting 30K miniatures right now, this might be a good time to start expanding this blog into the 31st millenium. So yeah, you can expect to see more articles like this one in the future.

Say you want to start with 30K. What would you need?

Before we start, it's worth pointing out that most of the stuff needs to come from Forge World, Games Workshop's subsidiary known for their premium price (unless you're living in Australia, in which case imports from Forge World are cheaper than the miniatures from GW proper). Furthermore, Forge World miniatures are made out of resin, not plastic. This means it's not as easy to handle, requires quite a lot of additional prep work, and must be handled with care when playing. But you probably knew all that already, right?

The Rules

First and foremost, because The Horus Heresy is "just" an expansion to 40K, you'll need the same rulebook, too. Right now that means 7th Edition. As you're (probably) coming from 40K, that's a non-issue, no?

You might think that the 30K books are very expensive, and you'd be right: the regular books (called "black books") in the series (which recently reached Book Six) cost £74 or more. These books go into detail about the different stages of the Heresy, beginning with Isstvan (the Battle of Isstvan III and the Dropside Massacre at Isstvan V, the two conflicts that nominally started the Horus Heresy), which is covered in Books One to Three.
Here's the good news, though: you don't need these big black and expensive books! While they are great (lavisly printed and decorated, chock-full of not just rules, but extensive fluff concerning both the history of the Heresy itself as well as the participating factions), all you really need to play the army of your choice can be found in the army list books (called "red books"). These are £32 a piece, and you could get started with a single one, depending on your army. In essence, these are The Horus Heresy's equivalent of Codex books – but they are just rules (apart from short unit descriptions) and no fluff. These books are:

• Legiones Astartes: Crusade Army List – All regular Space Marine units and vehicles can be found in this book. If you're planning on playing any of the Space Marine Legions, this book is essential.
• Legiones Astartes: Age of Darkness Legions – This is the companion to the Crusade Army List, without which you won't be able to use this book. It details special rules, units and characters for well over half of the 20 Legions. Why not all? Because two of the 20 are unknown, and some of the others don't have rules yet.
• Mechanicum: Taghmata Army List – If Space Marines are not your thing, this book offers all the rules for the Mechanicum units and vehicles. It's called "Taghmata", because that's the "catch-all" force of the Mechanicum in the 31st millenium. Nevertheless, this book also features two alternative army lists (using mostly the same units, but with other features and emphasis): Legio Cybernetica and Ordo Reductor.

Note that some factions (for instance: the Solar Auxilia (the elite forces of the Imperial Guard precursor)) don't have a red book (yet). If you're dead-set on playing one of those, you'll have to get the corresponding black book.

Building the Army

At first glance, The Horus Heresy might look a little boring. Marines versus Marines? That's it, right? Well, kind of ...

First, there are other armies, as previously mentioned. The different Mechanicum forces are probably the most prominent, but the Solar Auxilia certainly has its merits, too.

Second, Marine doesn't equal Marine. Forge World has done a great job at diversifying the different Legions. Each has its own flair, its own play style, its own strengths and weaknesses. This goes well beyond the few special units each Legion has to offer. But that's a different article for another time.

Last year GW published Betrayal at Calth (BaC), a boardgame (which I can't recommend enough, it's fun!) set during the Horus Heresy. One £95 box comes with 30 Marines, 5 Terminators (in Heresy-specific Cathapractii variant), one Contemptor Dreadnought, and two characters. If you want to play the boardgame too, you'd have to split these forces in the middle, so you won't have anything approaching a 30K army. So let's say you take a box of BaC and start building your army from there. Here's what you'd get:

• 2 Characters. Your HQ section is pretty much set.
• 1 Dreadnought. Because Dreadnoughts are cool (and Contemptor Dreadnoughts in 30K are actually fun to play!).
• 2 squads of 15 Tactical Marines each, all armed with Bolters.
• 1 squad of 5 Terminators.

That'd be well over 900 points, all told.

About those Tactical Marines: in 40K, most troops are more like a burden, a tax you have to pay to get to the good stuff. That's slightly different in 30K. First, troops are essential to secure objectives (we're approaching rules territory here, so for now you'll have to take my word for it), and second, because units can grow quite large (10 to 20 for Tactical Marines, compared to 40K's 5 to 10), they're actually worth it. Furthermore, while 40K point prices for additional troops (Marines 6 to 10 for a Tactical Squad, for instance) are pretty much the same as the initial unit core, in 30K additinal troops are always cheaper than the first ones, so it's actually worth it to build large units. With that nifty trick, it's suddenly in your own best interest to bring lots and lots of infantry!
But there's more! Tactical Squads do have a nice special rule that lets them shoot twice in the same shooting phase. And you can't attach special or heavy weapons to the unit (which are mostly wasted points in 40K, truth be told, unless said weapons are similar enough to Bolters that the have the same target preference, but I digress).

900 points is more than enough for a game or two, but sooner or later you'll want to play larger games, right? So why not double that with a second box of BaC? If you plan your units accordingly, two boxes would give you:

• 4 Characters, of which you really only need two for now (and identical characters are quite boring, no? – but if you're into conversions, go ahead!).
• 2 Dreadnoughts. One of those could be armed with two Assault Cannons, while the other sports a close combat weapon and a Multi-Melta. Nice!
• 2 squads of 20 Tactical Marines each, all armed with Bolters.
• 1 squad of 10 Terminators
• 1 or 2 Heavy Support Squad armed with (5, because 30K Sergeants in Heavy and Special Support Squads usually used the same weapon as the rest of the squad) Missile Launchers or Heavy Bolters.
• 1 or 2 Tactical Support Squad armed with (5, see above) Plasma Guns or Flamers or Melta Guns.

Note that you could also increase the size of the Support Squads to six, because you have six of each of those weapons.

So now you'll be around 1800 points or more. And the sky's the limit. What to get next (and exactly how to kit out those initial two BaC boxes) depends on your chosen Legion, so that'll be the next topic: the different Legions. But make no mistake: sooner or later, you'll have to dive into the Forge World specific units and vehicles. You want to give your Legion some colour, no?