Heresy & Heroes

That’s right. You heard it here last (probably – I sincerely doubt that H&H has broken the news to you, but if it did, yay me). June 17th is the day that we’ll all be able to get our hands on the brand new rules and, excitingly, the new box set as well. In an article that will be a repeat of many of those facts with a few of my opinions thrown in, here’s what’s up…

What’s In The Box!? 

Well, shockingly, there are Space Marines in the starter box (I don’t think anyone would have guessed that, do you?) and, once again, the forces of Chaos show up in the opposite corner. What is kind of new, is that we haven’t got a standard marine or tactical squad in sight. The Primaris Marines will take on the role of “goodies” this time around, and I have to say that Jes Goodwin’s newly designed Super Marines have got me itching to get the brushes out. They’ve taken the existing, much loved Space Marine template and subtly improved on that, though not in a way that invalidates the old miniatures. These are cool because they’re new and different, and not because the old ones were bad or boring (Oh, I can feel the xenos players itching to write a contradictory comment to that).

My one criticism of the loyalist force in this box is that they’ve given them a unit of five Primarines (I invented that – you read that here first) with plasma guns. I hate plasma weapons. Not only do I tend to fail more than my fair share of ‘gets hot’ rolls (and my subsequent saves) but I’m also getting slightly tired of the over-done lighting effects that are often done with them. Seriously, the OSL used with plasma is reaching ridiculous levels. But the rest of the loyalist force is looking great. Especially the lieutenants who are going to be really fun to work on. I haven’t seen a Space Marine Lieutenant in a long time so it’s good to have them back.

I’m also very excited about the Plague Marines. I’ve got an old Death Guard army somewhere (not very well painted) and these could be some damn fine reinforcements for them (though, thinking about it, the old army is so badly painted, I may as well just start afresh here). The plague cultists look like a lot of fun, the new drone isn’t quite as nice as the Forge World miniature but it still looks top notch and it’s still great to see – makes a change from a dread/brute. The Death Guard themselves look brilliant – all puss-oozing, horn-covered and disease-ridden – as it should be. The characters look like a lot of joy to paint and play with too, though I’m not a huge fan of the sorcerer – kind of has a little baby head, and unless there’s a story behind that, I’m not sold on it. He kind of looks like he needs a dummy.

Miniatures aside, we’ve got a rulebook, a couple of specific guides to the forces included, a set of templates – oh, wait, sorry; force of habit. No templates (RIP), but we do get some dice, rulers and rules cheat sheets as well. It looks like a good set, and I will definitely be getting my pre-order in on June 3rd.

Too Much To Take In

I’ve been a bit quiet on this blog for the last month, and while some of this is down to being rather busy (started a new job), I’ve also been somewhat overwhelmed. There’s been an unprecedented amount of information coming out of Nottingham over the last couple of months and with so much to take in, I’ve barely been able to get my head around the idea of writing any articles.

That’s not in any way a complaint. Don’t get me wrong; it’s amazing to be getting so much information out of GW at the moment, but with such a high level of breaking news pieces, it’s been hard to get one’s head around it all. Every time I think I’ve got the bones of an article in my head, another bit of news hits! I think ‘Wow, the Imperial Knights are going to be good. I could write and articles abou- ooh, the Tyranids are going to be top notch now, I better wri- wow, the new starter set is out…’ and it’s been like that for a month at least! Brilliant but exhausting.

So What Are The Official H&H Stances On 8th?

Well, they are pretty much all positive. I generally like what GW does, but I don’t think I’ve ever been scared to take a pop at them when GW does something I don’t like. And try as I might to find any real negatives surrounding 8th Edition, I really can’t. As was covered in a previous post, even the invalidation of codices was handled very well by Games Workshop. So here’s the official line: We (yes, I’m using the royal Imperial ‘we’) are remaining positive. To break that down a little: