Warhammer The Horus Heresy – Legions Imperialis – Unboxing

It is finally here! We have a large release for Legions Imperialis, battles within the Horus Heresy in an epic scale! And we start with an unboxing of the starter set, covering Legiones Astartes, Solar Auxilia and even two Warhounds.

This will be the initial unboxing, followed by detailed, indepth reviews, as you have seen it in the past for example with the Age of Darkness or Leviathan boxed set. And it is great that we return once again to when I was there the day Horus slew the Emperor.

Upon lifting the top of the box, you get a view on a lot of plastic sprues, not only grey for the miniatures, but bright orange for the templates as well. And the plastic part is separated by a designed card board inlay, which is black with a logo on one side and the other gives us a preview on the new box design and upcoming products (incl. the repacked Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica Imperialis boxes. Beneath that, you find the rule book, a closed envelope for the addititional print products (tokens, reference sheets etc.) and to the left and right dice and bases.

The entire content of the box can be stacked like this!

The hard cover rulebook covers 244 pages, with a rather brief introduction of the setting, about 100 pages of rules, 40 pages for the Legio Astartes army list, 26 pages for the Solar Auxilia, further 22 pages for Knights and Titans, and about 20 pages of hobby segment. A lot of the 100 pages core rules are dedicated to unit and weapon special rules. I hope this does not drag the game play down. From the first impression, a lot of units, especially with the Astartes are missing in the first wave. For example the only option for transports are Rhinos and Thunderhawks, no rules for Spartans or Land Raiders. Due to the Warhammer Community articles and battle report in White Dwarf we know that the Drop Pods and a lot of the assault options (of which only the Marines with Jump Packs are available with this book) will the part of the first supplement.

As for the additional print material, one sheet of tokens, two reference sheets, a decal sheet and the assembly instructions.

The instructions are clear and multi-coloured over grey-tones. You get one sheet of thin card board markers. And there are two reference sheets, covering the sequence of the game and the most relevant information.

A small sheet of decals, covering four different Legiones Astartes (Sons of Horus, Imperial Fists, Death Guard and Iron Hands), eight different Solar Auxilia cohorts (Cthonian Headhunters, among others), numerals and some generic warhound decals. Please note, the individual boxed set of the vehicles (not the infantry!) has dedicated decal sheets for the Astartes and Solar Auxilia.

And before we head for the miniatures, to finally talk about the scale. It's not 6mm, 1:300 or what ever, it is simply 25% of the current 40k scale. Just as we covered in all of the Adeptus Titanicus reviews, we've written so far. This means, don't compare these new 25% scale miniatures with 4th edition Space Marines or Resin Horus Heresy models. They don't mix with the old Epic scale (especially as these changed scale quite often and weren't consistent within the infantry and vehicles etc.), so this new Legions Imperialis is 25% of the 30/40k scale, as is Aeronautica Imperialis and Adeptus Titanicus. This means, all of these ranges are compatible.

Beyond that, this is a new book of scale Games Workshop opens up, we had the small ~6mm of the early Epic, we had 10mm with Warmaster, 25mm to 32mm in the main Warhammer Ranges from the 80s until today and the large 54mm of Inquisitor.

Each of the main forces, Space Marines and Solar Auxilia, is spread across four sprues, with the Legiones Astartes having two sprues of infantry in Mk VI power armour, a single sprue of three Predator tanks and another sprue of two Sicaran tanks. Both forces in this set are about 500 points (with the Astartes being the smaller force) and another 330 points per Warhound. For orientation, a full sized game is set at 3.000 points. Find the detailed coverage on the Legiones Astartes HERE.

As for the Cohort of the Solar Auxilia, two sprues for the infantry, a third sprue for four Leman Russ tanks and a fourth sprue for two Malcador tanks. Find the detailed coverage on the Solar Auxilia HERE

And an allied contingent from the Titan Legions, with three sprues for the two Warhound scout titans, but with a new weapon sprue covering brand new options (Volkite Eradicator, Incisor Pattern Melta-Lance, Natrix Shock Lance, Ursus Claw, Missilie Pods with either Swarmer or Shudder Missiles) that we've partially only seen as resin. Find the detailed coverage on the Warhound Scout Titan HERE

A bag of bases, some dice, a sprue of templates (in the retro style translucent orange) and the classic red measuring sticks. Both of these are really a blast from the past, with initial moulds from 1995 and 1998 (!). Unfortunately, the red measuring sticks are off a bit and not properly verified.

The bases for Horus Heresy Legions Imperialis are new. A flat design, with ruined streets on top. The 6 different designs of the regular 25mm round bases, are not distributed equally in this box, some are double the amount as others. And even the larger units, like Titans (and probably other units like Knights, flyers etc.) have new, lower bases as well.

The height and size is basically identical to the Renedra or Warlord Games bases, so depending on your base design (for example rubble or desert) you can source these as an alternative. But the most important change to the older design, there are no inserts anymore you glue the miniatures on top of the base design.

Conclusion

There it is - postponed from the initial released in autumn of this year, it is finally here and available for pre-order from today November 18th, with the delivery on December 2nd.

Does the box withstand its expectations? I would say so. The sprues are mostly filled to the brim, a good amount of detail on the vehicles. Something that was already a strength on the Aeronautica Imperialis and Adeptus Titanicus range. It makes sense to go for lower bases for the miniatures, to have a better immersion compared to the "regular" angled round bases, we know from Citadel / Games Workshop. As for the selection of units, I'll cover this in the detail reviews of both factions, as it is clearly nice to have the Warhounds right away, but I guess I would have prefered more of the actual tiny tanks in this kit.

As per savings, if you count the rulebook at 50 EURs / 42,50 GBP, each of the Infantry boxes at 40 EURs / 30 GBP each, and 4 times half a vehicle box set at 40 EUR / 30 GBP, along with the Warhound Scout Titans with 60 EUR / 45 GBP that adds up to 270 EUR / 207,50 GBP. At a RRP of 155 EUR / 120 GBP that is not bad, at over 40% off - if you buy it directly from Games Workshop. Yet the price point of 40 EUR for the double sprue packs for the side games is something that stacks much easier in smaller games like Blood Bowl or Necromunda, compared to a mass combat system like this, where you will need multiple of these for single units. For comparison, with the prices we know today, the armies used with the battle report Blood Angels vs. Death Guard in the last White Dwarf are about 900 EURs each - and that is all plastic, without any costly resin upgrades by Forge World.

In my opinion this boxed set would have benefited from a little bit of terrain, maybe two of the Civitas Imperialis sprues (half a box) and one of upcoming ruined Civitas Imperialis sprues (or two), to get you faster into gaming. Maybe even more important than the Scout Titans.

More Details in the upcoming individual reviews on the sprues / boxes.

The Horus Heresy and Legions Imperialis are brands by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.