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The Horus Heresy and Gatekeeping? Is There Ever a Justification?
I’ve been reading blogs and watching videos, and while most people are very enthusiastic about the upcoming release of The Horus Heresy, some are not. There are a few who aren’t happy with the cost of the box–which seems like a relatable concern. But there are others who are simply not happy with the fact that new people are entering the hobby. The Horus Heresy and gatekeeping: not surprising, but it’s time for it to end.
Now, to be perfectly clear up front, I’m not going to be pointing you to any of these YouTube channels because I have no interest in feuding with any of them. I also have no interest in giving certain YouTubers more views–people who are essentially trolls. The Horus Heresy and gatekeeping are kind of par for the course.
(I have long held a fascination with the fact that there are content creators who make their entire living off of Games Workshop-related content, but who hate every single thing that Games Workshop does. I’m no Games Workshop apologist, but I also think if you’re going to spend all of your time hating a thing, you shouldn’t be rewarded for being edgy. Enough.)
I think it’s safe to say that if you’re a part of the online wargaming community, it’s easy enough to put the pieces together if you really want to track down who I’m talking about.
What is the argument for gatekeeping?
The argument from these content creators who are into The Horus Heresy and gatekeeping basically goes like this.
The Horus Heresy is Akin to Historical Wargaming
This argument states that there must be The Horus Heresy and gatekeeping, because Horus Heresy is different from Warhammer 40k or Age of Sigmar, because it takes place in the “past” in a world where there is a whole lot of lore (and there really is a whole lot of lore). There are paint schemes that are canonical.
There are stories that happened in the “history” of the game. We’re not playing in the “present”, we’re playing in the “past” and so if you’re painting your Mark VI or Mark IV or Mark III Space Marines for The Horus Heresy, then you need to treat them in the same way that you would treat the painting of Napoleonics or Roman Legions. If you don’t paint them correctly, then they’re “wrong.”
To some extent I can see this argument having some validity. Not a lot of validity, but some. To take their side, The Horus Heresy is an IP that has been nurtured primarily by fans for quite some time, because they’ve been neglected by Games Workshop for so long. Fans make it thrive, and fans hold themselves to higher standards.
One of the arguments that I hear most often is that Horus Heresy players are much more likely to bring story-centric armies to the games, and not be the min-max meta tournament players that you get in Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar tournaments.
This is, they say, because they care about the legitimacy of the story above all else. They’re more than happy, they say, to bring sub-optimal lists to tournaments because they’re all about camaraderie and enjoying the story. And while I have my doubts (I find it hard to believe that people who are so incredibly negative all time will be accommodating of sub-optimal lists) that’s what they say.
Now, For the Argument that The Horus Heresy is Historical Wargaming
No, it’s not. Warhammer, The Horus Heresy, takes place in a futuristic world that is not only futuristic world, but it an absolutely bat crap insane futuristic world. Much has been debated on Twitter about whether you have to paint your Heresy Space Marines in the colors of the original chapters, and the general–not 100%, but general–consensus is that you don’t have to.
Discourse Miniatures asked the following tweet:
“As someone who like has 0 idea about the Horus Heresy setting (big space man bad fights, right?), can you create your own colour schemes or are you stuck with the specific legion schemes?”
And the responses were all over the map. Some pointed out (well, a lot of people pointed out) that the Blackshields were Ultramarines in Black Armor.
Others have pointed out that different chapters have different camo patterns, different campaign markings. Magos Terra (@GroadmiralThraw) pointed out the various colors of the World Eaters:
And I think that this just illustrates that even within the confines of The Horus Heresy, there is PLENTY of room to branch out and do new and interesting things with your armies
Bear in mind, I come from 1st edition, so I have little patience for the people who latched on to The Horus Heresy in 2012. That’s literally twenty years after I started the hobby, and they’re telling me that I don’t know the lore well enough to play their game.
Take a look at this image from the 1st Edition Compendium. There are literally SO MANY Space Marine colors that you can use to paint your armies, and the fact that any given army in The Horus Heresy doesn’t have tiger stripes is just a reason to sat that THINGS GET RETCONNED.
We’re Getting New Rules
Listen, Horus Heresy players. The game as it exists currently, which you have been championing for ten years (and laudably, I might add.
Good on ya for keeping it running) is not the same Horus Heresy that is going to be coming out from Games Workshop in June. Some of the rules will be the same. A lot will not.
Knowing what is right for your miniature wargaming hobby means that you can embrace the new and adjust your play to make way for the influx of new players–who, admittedly, are coming from 40k. Or it means you can continue to kick against the pricks and return to your old rulebooks and become more and more insular until you die out. Simple as that.
No one is going to take away 7th Edition Horus Heresy rules from you. You can always play it. But the Games Workshop sponsored events are going to be played with the modern rules, with the modern sculpts.
If you want to stay relevant, you’re going to need to get a new Horus Heresy book, going to need to evaluate your stance on the Primarch. And you’re going to need to adjust with the time, or else your hobby, which you ostensibly love, is going down the drain.
Bona Fides
There’s a thing that I do on this website. It doesn’t get any traction, doesn’t get any repeat viewers, but I do it anyway. I write my articles, and they perform well, but I also make it a point to show my weekly Hobby Streak progress.
This is done for a very strategic purpose. It proves to my readers that I am not merely a content creator who has a lot of things to say but who has no interest in demonstrating that I’m part of the hobby community.
The edgelords on the YouTube Channels don’t do anything to show that they are actually part of the hobby. They talk a big game. They talk about how they don’t tolerate bad armies and that they will correct newcomers if they make mistakes, but they don’t show off any of their own stuff. For all I know, they’re great painters and hobbyists.
But from what I’ve seen, they’re internet trolls who have nothing to add to the hobby but toxic fandom. And that’s not what we want. So I put up my Hobby Streak models every week, some good, some bad, and I show that I’m putting m, money where my mouth is. I’m actually in this game.
Primarchs: Do They Show Up In Horus Heresy
One of the stranger claims that I heard from the internet trolls is that the 40k crowd are quickly to buy up Primarchs to add them to armies, but that is silly because True Blue Horus Heresy games very rarely have Primarchs. To that I simply have to say “shhh…. Let people enjoy things.”
If I want to bring Konrad Curze and Rogal Dorn and the Warmaster Horus and Leman Russ and Jaghatai Khan to my game, on various sides of supporting or hating the Emperor of Mankind in the Siege of Terra, then that’s my prerogative.
Going back to their Historical Wargaming analogue, this is like bringing a Napoleonic force that doesn’t have Napoleon. Was he in every engagement? No. Was he in a lot of them? Yes.
I think it’s okay to have Robute Guilliman and Magnus the Red, and Lion el’jonson.
Yes, there’s always going to be a dilemma between Games Workshop plastics and Forge World resins, but there is plenty of places to play out battles in the great crusade, the age of darkness, and the Heresy itself that will give your army a place to shine, no matter how it’s painted and no matter whether it’s Thousand Sons against Ferrus Manus or an imperial army against corrupted members of Lion el’Jonson’s disparate force.
The Point
The Point is This: Get Over Yourselves
To Horus Heresy players who have been stalwart fans for so long, good on you. But I hate to break some truly stunning, startling news to you: Games Workshop updates their games to make them more accessible. They tweak the rules, the make new models, and their goal is to bring people into the hobby. The Horus Heresy and gatekeeping needs to end. It shouldn’t exist.
And it is 100% not your responsibility to teach these Horus Heresy newcomers the “right” way to get into this game. This game is not The Horus Heresy as you know it. That’s over. Get over it.
The rules are not 7th edition, strictly ported over. The rules are new. Yes, there will be a familiarity to old players, but that doesn’t give anyone the right to say that their way of wargaming is the best and only way yo play a game.
Because, Horus Heresy players, this is not your game. This is Games Workshop’s game. And when Games Workshop wants to make changes then you can say “Well, I’m going to stick to my 7th edition rules and gatekeep new players out of the hobby.” Or you can accept that there’s some pretty sick stuff coming down the pipeline for the Horus Heresy.
The Horus Heresy and Gatekeeping. Let’s put a nail in its coffin.
