I know nobody cares, but I wanted to get a thought out of my head
I watched a video on YouTube this morning about Horus Heresy 3rd edition, and the thoughts of several big channels who make content about it one year on from its release. It had a lot of the typical "the rules are the best ever but there's no flavour" non-comment you get from people trying to not be too negative, which is uninteresting but it did make me think about the problems I have with it. For context, I've collected Horus Heresy since its 1st edition and played a lot of both 1st and 2nd editions of the game, but my work schedule and the amount of time, space, and models required to play "properly" mean that I don't get to play any more and the move to 3rd edition has removed any desire I had to play altogether. I still buy the books because I love the setting and hope to play the game at some point in the future because I'll probably end up enjoying at least some part of it.
But anyway, when the new edition came out in 2025, I bought ALL the game books for it because I was so excited. The information about it that was available on Warhammer Community had caused me some anxiety but overall I was positive. When I read the rules, there was a lot of changes and "streamlining" which to me seemed like they'd been done for the sake of change and to basically just make it feel more like 40k. They removed the targetting rules I really liked and added statuses which add a lot of complexity and tokens for what seems to me like very little gain. Challenges were expanded into an entire sub-phase of fighting when they kind of didn't need to be(?) and charging has three sub-steps where you move slightly, shoot your pistols/throw grenades, and then move the rest of the way which I can't see the point of other than "we got told to make it thematic". A lot of legion-specific weapons and upgrades were stripped out, and army building was changed from what it had been for 13 years to a system of detachments which is convoluted to the point of being actively miserable to actually do.
All that said, I liked it the way it was. Sure, it was a bit janky, but it was a narrative game that was more about building a cool force and playing out 'historical' battles rather than 40k's win at all costs "tournaments are the only way to play" ultracompetitive mindset, so it didn't need to be as "balanced" (as if 40k could ever be balanced - play Go or Chess instead if balance is all you care about) in the same way games about World War 2 where you're playing out a battle don't really need to have the two opposing armies be balanced against each other. There were army building variants called Rites of War which allowed you to take certain units in certain slots and prevented you from using others at all, and gave you a special rule (or several) for doing so - I never used the special rules, but loved running a dozen Dreadnoughts because I love them.
To be clear, I'm mainly the sort of person who plays Warhammer games at a casual level. I dislike tournaments and just want to have fun and explode some stuff on the tabletop. I don't even use my army special rules because I don't care about them. 40k nowadays feels like a board game designed with competitive players solely in mind, and it feels like Horus Heresy is leaning the same way. I still love the models and the books, so I'll still do those, but I guess the game I used to love doesn't really have a place for me in it any more.
But anyway, when the new edition came out in 2025, I bought ALL the game books for it because I was so excited. The information about it that was available on Warhammer Community had caused me some anxiety but overall I was positive. When I read the rules, there was a lot of changes and "streamlining" which to me seemed like they'd been done for the sake of change and to basically just make it feel more like 40k. They removed the targetting rules I really liked and added statuses which add a lot of complexity and tokens for what seems to me like very little gain. Challenges were expanded into an entire sub-phase of fighting when they kind of didn't need to be(?) and charging has three sub-steps where you move slightly, shoot your pistols/throw grenades, and then move the rest of the way which I can't see the point of other than "we got told to make it thematic". A lot of legion-specific weapons and upgrades were stripped out, and army building was changed from what it had been for 13 years to a system of detachments which is convoluted to the point of being actively miserable to actually do.
All that said, I liked it the way it was. Sure, it was a bit janky, but it was a narrative game that was more about building a cool force and playing out 'historical' battles rather than 40k's win at all costs "tournaments are the only way to play" ultracompetitive mindset, so it didn't need to be as "balanced" (as if 40k could ever be balanced - play Go or Chess instead if balance is all you care about) in the same way games about World War 2 where you're playing out a battle don't really need to have the two opposing armies be balanced against each other. There were army building variants called Rites of War which allowed you to take certain units in certain slots and prevented you from using others at all, and gave you a special rule (or several) for doing so - I never used the special rules, but loved running a dozen Dreadnoughts because I love them.
To be clear, I'm mainly the sort of person who plays Warhammer games at a casual level. I dislike tournaments and just want to have fun and explode some stuff on the tabletop. I don't even use my army special rules because I don't care about them. 40k nowadays feels like a board game designed with competitive players solely in mind, and it feels like Horus Heresy is leaning the same way. I still love the models and the books, so I'll still do those, but I guess the game I used to love doesn't really have a place for me in it any more.
