“How do we prepare for 2nd edition without knowing what’s coming?”
“What do I build to be ready to play day 1?”
“What should I build from this box of mk 3 plastic marines?”

I have seen these questions, or variations of, asked a few times over the last week. There’s some options depending on the circles of the internet you’re willing to travel that will give you an almost 75% answer to those questions. I’m not going to go into those, if you’re reading this then you may already know of what I’m alluding to. What I am going to talk about is ‘without knowing what is in 2.0, what can I do to prepare’. Because I’m doing that now with my own projects. Expect this to be a summary.

The Easiest Option(s)

From what we have seen so far (time of writing is the day before the first WarCom preview article going live) all the factions that are currently in the game are going to carry over. Legions of Space Marines, Mechanicum, Solar Auxilia, Custodes/Talons of the Emperor, Knights and Daemons of the Ruinstorm. Nothing, so far, looks to be removed in so much as ‘can I play this faction’. That gives you some very easy options if you’re coming in new, wanting to start a project or are continuing with one already. These being:

• Knights
• Custodes/Talons
• Daemons

These are by far the easiest either because they’re already so limited in scope as to only have a handful of models or because they’re a faction where the words ‘do what you want’ spring to mind. They’re also multi-system armies for the same reasons.

Knights

Without digging into Forgeworld’s vast selection of resin and resin-accessories, the Knight faction has 3 model kits total that allow you to build most of your faction from. If we add in the options from Forgeworld (link) that can expand with another 8 large Knights, and weapon options for the Armiger kits. Worried about how to build them for Horus Heresy? Don’t be, the Forgeworld kits are what-you-see-is-what-you-get while the mainline plastic kits can be fully magnetised. Really the only concern you might have are with the Chaos Knight kits as those mostly don’t have a comparable unit in the Horus Heresy.
So why are Knights top of this list? You need a total of maybe 5 or 6 models for an army. That’s it.

Custodes/Talons of the Emperor

The Emperor’s favourite golden boys. When they were originally released they had 2 plastic kits, one for the Custodes and one for the Sisters of Silence. Each of those kits was capable of building up to 3 or more distinct units. Since then another 3 plastic kits have been released for the Custodes that look to be able to make a couple of different unit types from each. Look at Forgeworld and you’ll see another smattering of models including the gorgeous Contemptor-Achilles (FW link) model that really gives you a lot of options in just how you want to pose that thing. These make the list for the same reason as the Knights above did, you have limited options on how to build the models themselves but there’s nothing that should be changing all that much between what we have now and what we’ll get in 2.0. This goes likewise for ’true’ Talons and Sisters of Silence players, your model options are fairly limited in what kits you have available to make an army with at present. Hopefully they will be expanded upon in 2.0.

Daemons

Hoo boy. This is a wild one. There is a caveat with Daemons. When they were introduced the Campaign Book that added them didn’t have a hard and fast rule on what counted as what. See, unlike with Warhammer 40,0000, the Daemons list is very… generic. It doesn’t have unit entries for Plaguebearers or Bloodletters, instead having entries for ’lesser Daemons’ that can be represented by either of those models (or both). This is the same for Daemon Beasts, Lords, Shrikes, etc. What it did have was a rough base-size guide for each unit, because the Daemons plastic range is just so wide. You want to use a Bloodthirster as the Heavy Support Daemon Beast, while your Daemon Lord model is a Be’lakor? You can do it (Casual’s note: how many times am I going to write ‘Daemon’ in the section?) and it’s perfectly fine. On one hand this makes them just as limited and prescriptive as the Knights and Talons above, but on the other you can go wild and select almost any suitable model for your infantry, monsters, flying beasts and Supreme Daemon Overlord.

Mechanicum

I will be the first to admit I don’t really understand the Mechanicum list all that well. But from a model range perspective? You have big robots, little robots, squiddy robots, possible infantry from a plastic kit, bigger robots, Knights(??) and just enough mad science to shake a mechanical claw at. Much like the Knights players your model range is very specific. Yes there may be optimal parts for the Castellax unit, but we’re talking one of three guns/arm options. The rest of your units are what-you-see-is-what-you-get.

[Prince] So thankfully I AM a little more aware of the Mech list. And as a quick hot take can see a few key changes happening.

1. Arch-Magos Prime choices getting revived and rejigged. Honestly there are some that are great and some that really aren’t, and a rejig would fit the ’tone’ coming from the new edition.
2. Changes or loss of named characters like Caleb Decima. GW’s latest track of no model = no dice, may just ring true here.
3. Loss of some upgrades. I’m thinking things such as Cyber-Occularis in particular. Now this may not be the case, but it wouldn’t be out of line with how they’ve handled other systems.
4. More varied battlesmith. Hopefully allowing Arch-Magi to actually repair things without needing to heavily specialise.

Admittedly thats just a brief take, but the Mech list being the strange collection of odds and sods it is, it could go anywhere. Even possible rules for Daemon-mech…? (That may now just be wishlisting). As the core of the list is very unlikely to change though, as the units are already almost all on constant sale and easily available. So don’t panic, and just keep painting!

The Not-So-Easy Option

Solar Auxilia (and by extension Cults)

This is the most difficult one to write a summary of what you can do to prepare. Because I don’t know the army. The Prince, one of our resident fans of all things Solar Auxilia, knows this better than I do. As such…

[Prince] The Auxilia really sit in a strange place at the moment. As far as the list and range goes, they lost several kits within a year or two of release, including one of their few named characters. Which really didn’t bode well. However, as far as futureproofing goes, the Auxilia don’t sit in the worst place possible. Unlike their legion brethren, their list is pretty all inclusive and free of excessive bloat. With 3 core troops choices with three transports (Lasrifles, Storm Section, Flamer Section + Dracosans, Arvus, Aurox), 3 core HQs (Marshal, Command Section, Tank Commander), 4 core Elites (Ogryns, Medicae, Rapiers. Enginseers), 5 Fast Attack (Lightining, Fast-Russes, Tarantulas, Thunderbolt, Terrax), and 8 Heavy Supports (Russes, Artillery Tanks, Malcadors, Valdor, Cyclops, Carnadons, Castellax). So there isn’t too much to chop away really.

If I was a betting man though, I could draw you up a shortlist of units I’d be very surprised to see continue over.

• Castellax Honestly I don’t see them as a necessary in the list. And with a full heavy support section they make sense to go.
• Arvus I know. Its adorable. But its a leftover piece of an older era, and importantly a kit that doesn’t sell too well.
• Navigator You’ll notice I left it out of the HQ roster, and its for the simple reason that it really ought not to be a HQ. Its a nice elite option, but again its a leftover from a Weekender pamphlet.
• Tarantulas I really hope I’m wrong. But its another old kit taking up shelf space, and despite being an utterly gorgeous piece of resin, I can see it getting relagated in favour of a streamlined list.
• Named Characters We’ve seen one model get shelved, and the other one never get a physical model release. Just not seeing it folks.

On the upside though, a new edition may bring new life into the poor Malcador. Which will be a strong revivification the list desperately needs in all honesty. Allowing the Russ Squadrons and Carnadons some breathing room whilst the old faithful acts as an anchor. As far as actual ‘proofing’ goes then? Honestly just keep focus on thos core component units, the lasrifles, storm sections and tanks that make the solar what they are. I wouldn’t recommend selling anything, or setting fire for that matter, but definitely just focus on the core and wait and see what happens.

As for Militia? Honestly again the same rules apply. The Imperialis Auxilia/Cults Militia list is pretty self inclusive, and not too bloated. A hard focus on core units, your basic levy/infantry squads, will see you solid in the grand scheme of things. Don’t expect any magic miracles, or any ‘gamewinning’ units. The Militia have, and very likely will continue to be a second fiddle to the big boys in this setting.

Hard Mode (The Legions)

Right. These guys. The distinctive, if not ‘poster boy’ faction of the game. The Legions Astartes. Space Marines.
Where to even begin right now?
Broadly speaking the currently available Legion specialist units from Forgeworld should be staying around, as well as characters and the Primarchs. Those are all safe(-ish) options. But what about the rest? May I direct you to the humble tactical squad.
That isn’t a joke.
Every Legion to greater or lesser degree needs bodies on the ground. These could be in Rhinos or foot-slogging across the table. These are one of you few units (Assault and Breachers too) that can fill the compulsory slots for building an army. They all come with bolters, unless you have the parts to give them all bolt pistol and close-combat weapons. Unit size is 10-20 marines. If that doesn’t take your fancy then consider the plastic kits for the following options:

• Tactical Support squads. 5-10 marines in size, all with the same special weapon. You can get extra from spare bits boxes or direct from Forgeworld in resin weapon packs.
• Heavy Support squads. 5-10 marines, all with the same heavy weapon. Notice a theme with these two? Again you’ll need to either buy resin weapon packs or scavenge bits piles to make these."
• Veteran Tactical squad. 5-10 marines (again). This you can do out-of-the-box if you want. The way the unit build is that 1 in 5 can take a special or heavy weapon, your Sgt has the full set of weapon options you’d expect. It is very, very close to how a Warhammer 40,000 Tactical squad can be equipped. You can equip every model with combi-weapons, power weapons and plasma pistols if you want too, but then you’re diving into bits piles (again). But for an option that works out the box this isn’t a bad choice?

Now what about the non-plastic options I can almost hear you ask? We have an inkling that the generic options for all Legions is going to go plastic at some point (re-read the announcement, they almost spell it out). When you consider that the weapon arms for Legion Contemptor Dreadnoughts went last chance to buy but the Dreadnought bodies themselves didn’t that’s a very strong hint at a future kit. So what can you buy into and work on now that will likely still be ‘valid’ in 2.0? Put your tin-foil hats on because we’re going to do some guesswork here.

• Sicarans (all types)
• Leviathan/Deredeo Dreadnoughts
• Land Raider / Spartans
• Predator Tanks

These are core elements of the Legion list and, though we can expect some if not all to go plastic at some point, they’re all good options for what you can get now that will have a place in 2.0.

What am I doing to prepare?

Tactical marines. Like I said earlier, they’re your bread and butter no matter what Legion you’re playing. I’m working on one block of 20 for my Death Guard at present, and will be starting work on the other block after the Open Day and deciding just how many mk6 marines I’m going to need.

[Prince] Personally I’m very much in a similar vein. Although in all honesty, just grab the units that look and feel good. Unless you intend to only play in GW certified events for the rest of your life, community rules exist, and any units not in a main book will no doubt find a new home online.

I hope that helps give you a broad outline of what you can do now to prepare for the future. Until then, keep hobbying and sharing the Heresy.