The Imperium was torn apart by apocalyptic battles during the Age of Darkness, as Loyalists and Traitors hurled the full might of Humanity at each other in a desperate struggle for supremacy. These battles are the canvas on which games of Warhammer: The Horus Heresy – Legions Imperialis are played, recreating epic scenes from the grand drama of Horus’ rebellion with massive armies and titanic war machines.
To find out more about how the cataclysmic battles we know and love from the Horus Heresy series – like the deadly showdown at Beta-Garmon and the infamous Drop Site Massacre – helped guide Legions Imperialis to greatness, we turned to the team who designed it with a few questions.
Warhammer Community: What makes Legions Imperialis so good for representing the largest battles fought during the Heresy?
While a typical Warhammer: The Horus Heresy battle may contain 30 to 50 Space Marines and a few Dreadnoughts and armoured vehicles, this is merely a small part of a Legions Imperialis game, which routinely feature hundreds of infantry and dozens of armoured vehicles and walkers battling over whole city sectors.
In fact, a close-ranged fight between Detachments in the Engagement or Advancing Fire stage in Legions Imperialis is almost analogous to an entire Horus Heresy battle in scale, resolved as only a small part of a much larger battle with only a few dice rolls!
WarCom: Are there any major battles from the Horus Heresy you're keen to relive through Legions Imperialis?
The really vast ones, for sure! Battles such as those fought on Tallarn, where large numbers of armoured vehicles did battle across enormous toxic wastelands, are easily represented in Legions Imperialis, where such numbers can be easily fielded. Similarly, the Drop Site Massacres of Isstvan V, where whole companies of Legiones Astartes did battle shoulder to shoulder, can be more easily represented at this scale.
WarCom: Did any of the major battles give you ideas you wanted to use when designing Legions Imperialis?
Several of the famous battles of the Horus Heresy inspired some of the Missions found in the Legions Imperialis Rulebook. However, in the same fashion as the Warhammer: The Horus Heresy or Adeptus Titanicus supplements, we wanted to make sure we could really do these battles justice in future books, so those found in the rulebook are deliberately broad in their scope – allowing players to attach their own narrative to their battles.
Thanks guys! We can’t wait to put our Legions from the awesome launch set onto the battlefield and play out the most destructive battles Warhammer has ever seen – and if you’re just as keen as us, stay tuned to Warhammer Community for more as we get closer to release day.