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So, we thought we’d seen it all. But the reveals on the Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness show that there is all that and more still–and it all looks great.

And my favorite thing is that this appears to have answers to all of the critics. (Not all of the critics, of course, but to the main criticisms. I still don’t know the target audience for this game or what future plans they have for it. I’ve addressed that here. But this seems to be ticking a lot of boxes.)

To start with, we get the Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness boxed set, which has previously been revealed to have 40 Tactical Marines, 10 Terminators, 1 Contemptor Dreadnought, 1 Spartan Land Raider, and 2 Praetors. But what we also see in this reveal is that the boxed set comes with a MASSIVE rulebook, templates, dice, etc.

The important thing about the rulebook is that there has been a lot of naysaying criticism of The Horus Heresy, saying that the rules are convoluted and insular–they’re all based off of 7th Edition. Or so people have been saying. But the reveal today shows that the rules have been, in their words “updated and improved.” Does that mean that it’s a whole new edition? I don’t know. But it does imply that things aren’t going to be as convoluted as the 7th Edition Heresy. And that’s good, because it was primarily those rules (and the expensive Forge World models) that made The Horus Heresy such a gatekeepery game.

Anyway, there are a lot of good models.

I want to know what paint combination they used to get the Sons of Horus marines painted with. I imagine that it will be a promoted paint line with specific new paints.

I am also 100% on board with the Praetors. I’ve heard some grumbling about Praetor which is painted as Sons of Horus, saying that he is too instantly Chaos, and I disagree. To me he is perfectly ornamented in the kind of artificer armor that makes Heresy-era marines so cool. (I completely agree with the VERY weird decision to let you have the Romanic crest on the Imperial Fist Praetor without wearing his helmet. That’s super strange, and mine will always have his helmet permanently on.)

I have to say that if there’s a model in this Heresy range that doesn’t land right with me it’s the Contemptor Dreadnought. And it’s not like the designers were reinventing anything–this has been the Contemptor Dreadnought look for a long time. I just think it looks a little too “Lost In Space.” I do very much appreciate that he is going to be fully poseable, but when you look at the very plain, unornamented Contemptor next to the over-the-top Praetors, they don’t look like they’re coming from the same universe. I would have liked to see a little more… something.

By contrast, the Spartan looks terrific. It is huge and bulky (carrying 26 marines!) but it looks huge and bulky, heavily armored and not at all sleek. Perhaps that’s what I dislike about the Contemptor: he looks too curvy and sleek. I love that the Spartan is so bristling with guns, and that it is so chonky. This feels very Horus Heresy to me. I love it.

The Terminators are somewhere in the middle. They have the curvy lines of the Contemptor, but the bulk of the Spartan. I think it’s their shoulders and helmets that put them over the top to me. Not my favorite Terminators in Warhammer, but I really do like them a lot.

Finally, we get the line that everyone has been waiting to hear. They haven’t confirmed the price for this massive box yet, but they do say “we can confirm that the set will cost less than £200 or $300 (US) when it launches.” To think that all of this stuff is going to be cheaper, or on par with, the Necromunda Ash Wastes box just goes to show how overpriced the Ash Wastes box is. I totally realize that they are going to be making a much smaller profit margin on this box, and that they’re doing so with the express purpose of getting people into the game–so they can snag you into buying some of the other kits. But I still love the decision.

Next up we see that, of course, there will be more books to buy. But at least it seems like you don’t need a special codex for each Legion. It’s either traitor or loyalist. (I realize that this means that we’re going to be choking up another $50 per book, or $100 if we want to split our Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness boxed set into two opposing armies. They are definitely going to charge extra when they can. But still, the books look good.

And, to silence some more critics, yes they will be selling full kits of Mark III and Mark IV Space Marines. I personally prefer Beakies, but I know that I’ve seen people griping a lot about Mark VI (because people gripe about everything) so this is nice.

They also tossed out a few special character models that have been unavailable outside of the Burning of Prospero boxed set. I wasn’t aware of these models but they look pretty good.

Moving on, we get special weapons. None of these are particularly noteworthy, except to say that they seem to be really investing a lot into the details of The Horus Heresy. I am a little dismayed that this means that the Horus Heresy Age of Darkness boxed set WON’T have special weapons? But still, it looks like they’re padding out the model range with a good bit of kit.

Then we get the Deimos Pattern Rhino, and I have to say that to me it looks an awful lot like a regular Rhino. I’m no loremaster. I get that it has subtle differences. I just don’t know what they are without seeing it side-by-side with a regular Rhino.

Last but certainly not least is the Kratos Heavy Tank. This thing looks amazing, and gives the Baneblade a run for its money in my book. I’ve always thought that the Space Marines needed more super-heavies, and while I’m not 100% sure what the scale of this thing is versus the scale of the Marines, it’s still a big massive beast and it looks great.

So all in all I am very happy with the Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness release. It was more than I was expecting it to be. I was expecting to see the stuff that had already been revealed. I didn’t think there was much more hidden in the wings.

Overall, a perfect way to cap off WarhammerFest 2022.