Last month’s Exemplary Battles download saw the Word Bearers facing off against the Blood Angels. Now we’re diving into the pages of Wolfsbane as the Space Wolves launch a desperate attack on Horus’ flagship, The Vengeful Spirit.
As the Warmaster made for Terra, Leman Russ, the Primarch of the Space Wolves, had a tough decision – would he stay behind the walls with Rogal Dorn, or go and face his brother in epic combat? Spoiler alert – he went out to face off with Horus, and now you can play out the VI Legion assault with a new mission and new units.
Here’s Andy Hoare from the Horus Heresy team to tell us more about this month’s download.
Andy: We're getting towards the end of the Exemplary Battles series now, with only a handful of Legions remaining to cover – but I hope you'd agree the format has worked out well, so there's no reason not to go back and do more articles in the future. The Horus Heresy setting is so vibrant and detailed that there are potentially dozens of battles we could dive into in the future, each inspiring unique narrative scenarios as well as interesting variations on familiar unit types.
For this month's article, we're looking at another of my favourite confrontations – the Battle of Trisolian, which is featured in Guy Haley's novel Wolfsbane.* This story ties into a much wider arc, one that explains why the Space Wolves weren't present on the walls of Terra when the Warmaster's hosts laid siege to the throneworld.
This arc begins with Leman Russ deciding to take the battle directly to Horus rather than wait for him to reach Earth. What happens next is the subject of Guy's novel, so I won't spoil it here, but its long-term consequences can't be understated. They’ll eventually lead the VI Legion to Yarrant, and the tragic events of the so-called Wolf Cull. But that's for the future – perhaps another Exemplary Battle article!
This article contains two new units for players to try out, and eagle-eyed veterans may recognise their names from the Horus Heresy collectable card game of the early 2000s. We like nothing better than mining the vast, future-historical lore of the Age of Darkness for these sorts of super-obscure canonical references, and I hope you do too!
The new units are easy to build for yourself – a Chieftain Squad calls for a Mark IV Tactical Squad and the Boarding Assault Upgrade Set, while you’ll find suitable Space Wolf parts for spreading throughout a Mark III Tactical Squad in the Grey Slayers Upgrade Pack and the Deathsworn Pack.
With our squads assembled, let’s see where in the galaxy this epic battle took place.
You can download the mission pack and new rules here.
Don’t forget that you can also download updated rules for Exemplary Battles units that came out before the current edition of Warhammer: The Horus Heresy. Sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date with the latest from the Age of Darkness.
* Fans of Wolfsbane or just Primarch-on-Primarch battles can also grabs this stunning artwork from Warhammer Art.