Horus Heresy – On an epic scale

We're leaving the realms of 28mm and moving on to a more Epic scale of 6 - 8 mm, basically the new one Games Workshop set for some of their side games like Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica Imperialis.

Where to start?

Well, I do own some of the old rule books of Epic, yet these are Epic 40,000 books from the 3rd edition, from 1997. The final edition of the "official" Epic was Epic Armageddon, often abbreviated with EA, the fourth edition of the game. Since then the game went a way, that many of the Specialist Games went through, having a living rulebook and being kept alive by the community. Nowadays the fan serviced rules are mostly NetEpic (based upon the 2nd edition of the game) as well as NetEA (using Epic Armageddon and added errate / updates on that). The rules for both systems can be downloaded for free:

NetEpic (incl. Army Lists)

NetEA (incl. Army Lists)

With the Australian Spin-Off of the NetEA ruleset, EpicAU, 30k themed army lists came along. These lists are compatible with the NetEA rules, don't worry. Unfortunately their website is currently down and only available via WebArchive. But the Wiki it provides, does such a lovely job on introducing you to the game, taking your hand through the first steps and guiding you a bit on reasonable list building. It's just too much fun to not share it without. Besides, the army list builder is available for free and online, via Departmento Munitorum. Covering not only all the 18 legions, but some of the non-Astartes lists and units too, like Imperial Militia, Adeptus Mechanicus, Custodes and many more.

What do you need to play Epic?

Not much more than any other wargame. Two sizes of templates (7,4 and 12 cm in diameter), a few blast markers (if you have pin markers from Bolt Action or the blast markers from Cruel Seas etc. you're good to go), a good amount of D6 and a measuring tape in cm (yes, Epic does use cm and not inch). And of course some miniatures, but more on that later. Size wise, you're good with a 4 by 4 ft table at the start for smaller conflicts, but move on to regular 4 by 6 ft, that you would use for most of your other games. If you don't have any terrain in the scale, you can use some hills and generic terrain pieces and add for example Civitas Imperialis or 3d printed pieces (for example GrimDarkTerrain) to your collection.

What am I going to do?

Well, you need two factions to play - and I went already last year with the decision of Imperial Fists (as I've set them for my 40k retro project) and Sons of Horus, as they are the pre-decessors of my 40k retro Chaos Black Legion project. The Imperial Fists were already the posterboys in 1997's Epic 40k (along side the mighty Green Horde) and why not go for the Warmasters legion as an antagonist - just like they do with the new Age of Darkness boxed set.

I did some research on what kind of battle force would be an interesting and "fictional historical accuracy" (true to the lore)? As a time frame I'd go for something widely around the Siege of Terra, the Solar War and found some very interesting corner pieces to combine into this project.

The Loyalists - VIIth Legion - Imperial Fists

The Primarch of the Imperial Fists, Rogal Dorn fortified Terra and organised the defense of the Sol System into Spheres. These forces were not just drafted from the Imperial Fists, but loyalist Imperial Army and Adeptus Mechanicum forces as well, which would give me the option for further projects and spin-offs. A brief overview on the Spheres taken from the Horus Heresy #39 Praetorian of Dorn and the first novel of the Siege of Terra series The Solar War.

The First Sphere was the outermost defensive zone from Pluto to Neptune and was commanded by Sigismund.
The Second Sphere was commanded by Fleet Master Halbrecht and oversaw Uranus.
The Third Sphere was commanded by Seneschal Efried and oversaw the Jupiter region.
The Fourth Sphere was commanded by Siege Master Camba Diaz and oversaw the blockade of traitor-occupied Mars This sphere was the largest of the four outer layers of defense, surpassed only by the Terran sphere.
The Fifth Sphere and most inner line of defense was Terra and Luna, overseen by Primarch Rogal Dorn himself.

Sigismund fought against the Sons of Horus on the first sphere, which would make him am interesting choice to build the project around, but I wanted someone less prominent, to be more flexible. Halbrecht as Fleet Master would be an interesting choice for the Battlefleet Gothic project (where I was just recently made aware, that a Battlefleet Heresy, 30k spin off of BFG exists). So I went further, and stopped at Efried, who had been promoted to Lord Castellan and given the title of Seneschal. There is not that much known about him, giving me the opportunity to fill in gaps with my own ideas, but enough to provide a starting point. His forces were later forced to withdraw back to Terra and join their Primarch, along with being suport with other heroes like Sigismund or Fafnir Rann, who I could include as Champions, Ltn Commander and Lord Commander from the Munitorum army list options.

This would set the theme of the loyalists on the Imperial Fists of the Third Sphere, under the command of Lord Castellan Efried. Army lists and intended models will be covered soon.

The Traitors - XVIth Legion - Sons of Horus

Now we need some character or theme for the Traitors. As I didn't go for the Primarch personal retinue, I wouldn't want to do that with the Warmaster either. Obviously I have the choice to add them on both sides on larger battles, but I need something more fitting for smaller battles (smaller battles, epic, get it? ... yeah, sorry for that). I looked at the Mournival, and of course Ezekyle Abaddon would be very tempting, especially with a lot of Justaerin Terminators as a theme. I will include him and the terminators in this list, but similar how I'll include Sigismund with the Imperial Fists.

But Sigismund is a good transition. Horus Aximand, another member of the Mournival, fought against the Imperial Fists in the first sphere, going toe to toe with Sigismund and being later part of the Siege of Terra. So multiple contacts in battle with the Imperial Fists, fitting the role of the Antagonist and adding interesting choices for this army, as he was later joined by Ezekyle Abaddon and the Warmaster himself on terra. As I don't have a proper name for this kind of force yet, I'd stay with the Sons of Horus of the 63rd Expedition Fleet. And just like the Imperial Fists, I'll add the army list and models in a separate article of their own.

I already have a few miniatures printed, I want to introduce them in upcoming articles, give you ideas and a rough guide line if you want to do something similar for your self.

So I hope that you enjoy this project. I am open for feedback and ideas, especially on the lore part to make it more vivid. Beyond that, this is a great setting and scale to combine and multi-purpose the ranges of Adeptus Titanicus, Aeronautica Imperialis and of course Epic 30.000.