Horus Heresy 3rd Edition - The Team's First Impressions

Time to talk, lets look at the new book

July 29, 2025

The Prince, The Casual, & The Tryhard

25-Minute Read

The Age of Darkness takes another great step forward, and from the skies over Isstvan V, a wave of new books drop Our team sat down, and assembled our initial thoughts on the matter

A New Edition!

Welcome to a new Age of Darkness! How exciting. This weekend sees GW officially release the new 3rd edition rulebooks and Libers, and the Saturnine box set. Now a few members of our team have been lucky enough to grab access to the sacred tomes early (not sponsored, we’re just jammy gits) and have been able to form some initial views on what’s going on and how we perceive the new face of heresy to look and feel. Now it’s important to caveat here, that unlike other sites we’re yet to get much in the way of tester games under our belts, hence these will only be our first impressions, be ready for a series of deeper articles into various elements of the new edition and our deeper personal views of it.

Excuses out the way, let’s dive straight in:

Rules

What, in your opinion, are the top 3 biggest changes?

Prince: There’s certainly plenty to pick from! But if I was to pick 3 I’d definitely start with.
Tactical Statuses: The more I read into them, and the numerous weapons and abilities that cause them, the more I feel that the ability to reliably inflict tactical statuses onto your opponent/find ways to negate them will be so crucial to the game. The moment any one of those statuses hits a unit, you lose any ability to score, effectively engage in close combat, or benefit from many key heavy weapons. Add into that the way that routing can mean a unit has run well over a foot across the board before you get the chance to regroup, and that it is entirely plausible a well placed enemy squad can keep units stunned or suppressed just through hits, and a poor strategy can see you losing access to half your army.
Weapons Damage: Not too much needs explaining for this one, with many more potent weapons gaining D2 or even D3, the lethality has never been higher. Where in 2nd Edition a unit in power armour with 2 wounds apiece could be expected to soak a reasonable amount of fire, now they may be considerably more fragile. Especially where some guns, such as autocannons, that formerly weren’t doubling units out, can now very easily wipe a squad in one barrage. The use of cover, and LOS has never been more important to save your units from their demise!
Charging: Less so the mechanics of the charge itself, which I think is an interesting and positive change, but all the additionals that now no longer happen during it. With units no longer gaining a +1 attack on the charge, or a +1 for just having two weapons, non combat orientated units are at a significant disadvantage even when charging an opponents unit now. And whilst charging just to ‘deny’ the enemy the charge bonus may sound heroic, it may be doing little more than just feeding your perfectly reasonable tactical squad into a blender.
Casual: Generally I agree with Ben here. Tactical Statuses and Weapon Damage are major changes to the game and will wildly swing what people consider ‘good’. Lascannons are no longer the auto-take so many people treat them as since you need to stand still to get that ‘instant death’ kill against Terminators now. The place where I differ is with the Vehicle Damage system. Tanks have more HP, cannot (in general) be one-shotted by a random Lascannon or Melta-cannon, and outside of a Tactical status are fully operational until their timely explosion. They are going to be harder to shift and could have a larger impact on the game even if they don’t win you games. The fact they cannot score and don’t get Vanguard is the only thing that isn’t pushing these over the edge.
Tryhard: Statuses statuses statuses. Gone are the days of hosing down heavy armoured infantry with lascannon teams, now all you need to do is force them to make status checks as frequently as possible and you’re golden. Any weapon with [Status inflicting rule] (2) or more is going to be king, so I’m looking at you graviton cannons or phosphex quad launchers. Want to make your opponent’s life really difficult for them?

Anything you think will catch players out/that veterans should be aware of?

Prince: A lot. Almost every rule and aspect of the rules has been tinkered with or outrightly overhauled in some way, and for veterans who think that they ‘know what that does’, you’ll be surprised that it often doesn’t work that way anymore. Two big ‘little’ ones for me is that units are no longer locked into charging the units that they shot at, and that consolidation is no longer an automatic move at the end of combat but an option instead of pursuing or gunning down an enemy. Both elements have been staples of Heresy and older Warhammer 40k since time immemorial, and I daresay a good number of players will fall afoul of their change. I strongly recommend you read the rules thoroughly before/during those initial games. I bet you’ll miss something even if you do!
Casual: Terrain and Line of Sight. I’m a big fan of this change, too often I was caught with the classic line “I can see you through the windows” that made the True LoS system just so annoying to play. Now specific area terrain can and will limit your ability to see through to the target models on the other side of the table. This, combined with the fact that as long as you can see one model in a unit you can kill off the full unit, is something that I know will catch people out for a while.
Tryhard: Three things come to mind. Number one is the ability to move full distance and disembark from a transport with no penalties, it’s been no more than 6” for so long I think some people are going to forget. Secondly, as Prince mentioned, you can now charge things you didn’t shoot. And thirdly, you now decide what weapons you are going to fight with in combat before setting initiative steps, so you can’t get to initiative five, elect not to fight with your praetor’s lightning claw, and then drop down to initiative one and swing with a power fist. Gotta be picked in advance.

Factions

What Faction or Legion change has caught your eye (good or bad)?

Prince: I must admit, the changes to the Iron Warriors did spark some interest, especially with their legion trait returning to its 1st Edition style of just ignoring 25% losses in the shooting phase. That combined with the option to make units Expendable is quite interesting, and I daresay will shape how the Legion plays going forwards. Past them, the new Night Lords bonuses and proficiencies to attacking enemies with tactical statuses will be huge, especially if players lean right into it! Unfortunately I have no desire to drive my perfectionist tendencies mad painting all those lightning bolts, so I’ll simply have to admire them from the other side of the battlefield.
Casual: Good, ironically, would be Word Bearers. They’re a melee army again, all of their Unique units look to have gained an upgrade in some way, the benefits of leaning into the Corrupted/Malefic upgrades. But I might be biased as I’ve always had a soft spot for these ‘Bad Guys’. On the bad side… I am hesitant about Questoris Knights. We’re back to an only Big Boy style of list, and the last time we had that was in 1.0. I need a deeper look at the units, I need to play across them on a table, but I am extremely hesitant on saying that they’re going to be good or healthy for the game at large. Too many flashbacks to 1.0 where you either needed to build to counter Knights or you’d just have a bad day. GW historically, across multiple editions of 40K and Heresy, has not been able to balance Knights in a way that makes them ‘feel fair’ for either the players using them, or the players facing them.
Tryhard: Off the cuff, Iron warriors. Now this is a status game, they look pretty good to be able to resist more of that than most legions. However, in a world where nobody gets an extra attack for charging, the World Eaters who still do will be eating good. Especially with the new combat resolution options, if your opponent breaks and runs (or chooses to disengage) you can pursue and count as charging again. Loyalist wise, I think the Ultramarines trait is very strong, when reactions are now capped per unit per turn, getting a free one is real good.

Any factions you’re interested in playing or trying? Why?

Prince: It’s been a strange one for me, as mentally I was preparing to enter this edition collecting Ultras, with a focus on the classic Logos style rite. But obviously that’s not the case anymore (with rites as they were no longer a thing), so my eyes went wandering and have been drawn to Mechanicus. Now I dabbled with the mech back in 1st ed, and their new Liber seems to be in a very interesting place. Lots of high toughness units, immune to status effects, that can only score in certain circumstances on paper seems to be an interesting base to build off. They certainly will have to play in a different style to the Legions, as many of the core rules interact very differently with the mech. They lack many decent combat units, with the formerly terrifying Myrmidons being reigned in somewhat, and many of their most useful wargear elements have been restricted or upcosted (it now costs to take their cybertheurgy spells), making many Mech units more expensive on a per model basis. Add in the new multi-damage weapons, and you may not be as reliant on just wading through seas of fire like mech used to.

That being said. Many of the core units are still strong (T6 Castellax at 50pts a model is going to leave a mark), and many of their guns are equally still scary. Widespread special rules such as Firestorm and Implacable Advance also grant many units a blistering amount of shooting potential in both your own and your opponent’s turns, with the many near-mandatory Techpriests and Magos having access to Battlesmith, and the ability to just repair their lumbering guards. Mech also have some seriously useful faction traits, and the ability to vary which trait and Prime Advantages your detachments get access to makes the base lists very flexible and able to field units to cover all manner of problem units. For example the Cybernetica Prime Advantage that grants a unit of Automata the ability to become scoring…

Needless to say, I’ll be donning my Martian robes, at least at first.

Casual: I’d like to direct you towards the piles of boxes full of Ashen Circle and Gal Vorbak. I have 20 Ashen Circle, 10 Gal Vorbak and Fire Raptor sitting ready to be painted once I finish the Grand Cathay doubles list for the end of August. Summon some Daemons, a Trait (I’ll call it a ‘Rite’ after I’ve played some games and we’re all in 3.0) that gives a +1 bonus to Combat Resolution that stacks with Vexilla’s, a Prime benefit to grant you a Str bonus on the charge (so you’re almost doing Blood Angel things) and a Detachment that grants multiple units the Corrupted trait which bypasses the penalties of Tactical Status effects… for a minor penalty of a D3 Marines just exploding as the Warp overtakes them. Was I going to do this project before I saw the units and the books? Yes. Am I still excited after seeing that the Word Bearers are a melee army? Absolutely yes.

Units

Looking at the new/updated core units, which do you see being important to the new edition?

Prince: Tacticals. Bolters being a flat 2 shots at 24”, and with the ability to be fired in Volley, makes a blob of 15 - 20 tacticals a real pain to shift. Add in Fury of the Legion making all their reactions at 3 shots per model, even at full range, as well as their Line (2) and you have the makings of a unit that can sit on objectives and really make them hard to shift. Despoilers and assaults gaining an extra attack by comparison is nice, but honestly I find it hard to compare them to the strength that the basic tacticals can bring to the table.
Casual: Any and every unit with Vanguard, especially if it’s Vanguard(3). Sure, Line is going to stack up your scoring with a Tactical squad sitting on that objective for 4-5vp. But a Vanguard(3) unit that either chases you off said objective or destroys said scoring unit is also giving you ~4vp (1 for holding the point they used to have +3 from Vanguard) while your own Line units sit on another objective for 4-5vp themselves. I feel this is going to swing more games by denying your opponent the ability to score high with Line units while doing the same thing yourself.
Tryhard: Tactical marines are fantastic now, with Line (2) and bolters being 2 shots all the time. I also echo the notion of Vanguard (3) having the potential to be very powerful, especially on units of terminators disembarking from land raiders. Drop out, fire combi-weapons in the shooting phase, fire them again as volley fire (if you want to) or just set up in to your opponent. Five tartaros terminators can have 21 attacks on the charge with lightning claws and that’ll do in most troops choices. Remember with Vanguard, you don’t have to kill the unit, you can also make them break and fall back. Seekers are also cracked. No support squad, infiltrate, and if nothing else two shots each with Breaching (4+). Take a unit of 10, thank me later.

What about Legion specific units?

Prince: There hasn’t been one particular one that’s caught my eye per say, although the new rules and continued options for Reavers certainly make them juicy (hand flamers to cause panic on the volley, followed by massed power weapons on the charge). My Palatine blades are also looking interesting this edition, losing their ability to Instant Kill a model, but gaining a little more reliable Breaching (5+), which is nice. Their Phoenix spears being a free option that are always D2 on the charge is also useful, and now will be at I6! As for possible future units, Suzerain look a little more palatable to field without feeling dirty, so I expect I may be okay fielding a squad of 10, although it’s a shame they’ve lost their ability to be a banner bearing retinue.
Casual: I’m going to sound like a broken record with the way I’m gushing over the Word Bearers, but I’d like to bring up the humble Ashen Circle squad. Without any Prime Benefit’s they’re a decent melee unit even at WS 4 that looks exceptional at cleaning off scoring units. S5 with the Axe Rakes that have Crit(6+) and Phage(M) to slow down any unit that tries to escape, template pistol weapons with** Panic(2)** that get double the number of hits when used as Volley Attacks and Vanguard(3) to make the most out of every Tactical squad they eat. If you could get them a Prime Benefit (which at present isn’t possible due to the slot they reside in) you could add the Word Bearers bonus from Zealous Assault to grant them Impact(S) on the charge, pushing them up to S6. One day I’m sure that will be an option.
Tryhard: Night Raptors are terrifying now they can all take thunder hammers. Lerneans are also pretty nuts with Line (1) and more weapon options than they deserve. Headhunters having Precision (4+) on the model means that it applies to all of their weapons unlike seekers so precision multi-meltas are back on the menu. And Mor Deythan using Fatal Strike to go up to BS7 and thus crit on 5s to hit is pretty nasty.

Army Building

How do you like the new Force Org?

Prince: I’m torn on this. On one hand the military historian in me absolutely loves a good Org chart, and in all honesty the new system of needing key officers to ‘command’ (unlock) detachments is a far more realistic attitude to army assembly than the traditional force org represented. I’m fond of the way they’ve actually spread out units into corresponding categories, so we’re no longer in the age of the overcrowded Elites slots, and made it so there’s a much greater flexibility in choice. If you want to go ‘All-Terminator’ you absolutely can do, and nothing in the rules can stop you. The focus on rewarding bringing key and classic units is far nicer than a forced compulsory element, and with scoring the way it is now you absolutely want to be maximising many of those more traditional ‘tax’ units. Making players pick between the different Apex detachments is also interesting, and reduces the likelihood of an opponent being able to just spam ‘Elite’ squads onto the field.
That being said, whilst the core chart is fine, I do have two big issues. Firstly I honestly find many of the Legion specific detachments to be quite bland. Many of them do grant a variety of slots within the detachment, but just as many have those slots ‘locked’ to specific units only, and not all of them even get access to Prime Advantages. If those detachments came with fixed benefits for the selected units, even if just in the form of a ‘fixed’ Prime Advantage, I’d feel a little more positively about them as right now for some legions they’re not necessarily worth it. Secondly, and in a way consequently, the loss of army wide ‘Rites’ and special rules in favour of individual unit Prime Advantages feels somewhat boring in all honesty. Yes we can make more flexible lists, but the actual variety of armies that fill those lists has been much reduced. I.e. In 2.0 a World Eater running Berserker Assault, and a Sons of Horus running The Black Reaving may both be running lists with three units of despoilers. But how they choose to use those units, and how they interact on the board would be considerably different.
We’ll see if the journals do anything to change this, but right now it’s certainly a mixed bag for me.
Casual: I am definitely conflicted on this. From a Dark Angels point of view it feels a lot harder to make a thematic list without the now classic Rites of War that focussed on each Wing. In 2.0 it was quite easy to have a Deathwing themed force without just relying on the excuse of “the Deathwing are the Veterans and Terminators” by leaning into the Wing benefits and the Unbroken Vow Rite. But in 3.0 when I look at the options available it feels off. My Despoilers aren’t Stormwing, but I’d get the most benefits out of them if I use the Stormwing Aux detachment. It doesn’t matter what Wing I have modelled or leant into from a gameplay purpose, and that makes theming those armies generally harder.
But then I look at the start of my Word Bearers project, and building a thematic list around an assault company that threw itself into the guns at Calth feels easy to build. I can have my fast unit; I can have my Gal Vorbak and Corrupted Troops; I’m not tied down with needing to jump through list-building restrictions to make my theme work or to not run afoul of the Dark Brethren Rite. If I wanted to have a Terminator heavy army that’s backed up by heavy tanks AND Leviathan Dreadnoughts, I’m no longer penalised from the Pride of the Legion Rite of War for wanting to put those models on the table together. But likewise if I wanted to lean into an infiltrating force of Dark Angel ‘assassins’ that are going to surround and take out your command structure that becomes a lot harder without just playing Recon’s and Seekers. This just feels a little off since the previous edition’s Rites of War could help you get that flavour.
However there’s only one, singular, issue I have with the Detachment system. Some of the Auxiliary Detachments don’t have enough slots to take what you want. For example, War Machine (Dreadnoughts), only gives you one slot whereas the Armoured Support gives you four tanks of various types. Sure they were so prevalent in 2.0 and so often restricted that they needed changes, but the limitations to them within 3.0 are needlessly restrictive especially with the changes to weapon damage and their stat lines.
Tryhard: I love it. No serious complaints, other than maybe I would have put a 4th Command slot in the Crusade Primary. Some legions definitely have better unique detachments than others though. The WB apex one seems a bit naff compared to others, such as the Iron Warriors’ Hammer of Olympia apex detachment with two flexible prime slots.

Do you think it will impact how people approach armies?

Casual: Yes, and let me give an example of some issues with a mixed Alpha Legion/ Custodes project I built in 2024. On paper that army is incredibly difficult to put on the table, not because of Wargear changes, but because of available slots for certain units. In the Allied section I have 2 Achilles Dreadnoughts and 2 Pallas Attack craft. That is 3 Aux Detachments between those 4 units (2 Warmachine, 1 Fast Attack). To get that into a list I must take the Shield Captain in the Allies to get Officer of the Line(2) and a Logistical Prime advantage. If I look at the units on the AL side of this coin, Lernean’s aren’t in the same slot as Headhunters. Apothecaries are their own special detachment, and let’s not forget the humble Vanus Infocyte Assassin I dropped in for the love of the model. To put this on the table I need to have more AL officers built, or I just simply do not have the slots available to play those units as I could ~2 months ago. This is where the Detachment system is going to be a problem, because players are going to need to build those extra characters to be able to play the exact same List that they could before.
Prince: It absolutely will, although I don’t know if it’ll be in the ways that the Design team necessarily expect. It’s clear they’ve designed the new system to be highly flexible, and make it so you don’t need any specific model or unit, doubly so with most models being able to score in some way now. This in theory should allow for far more varied armies, with players feeling free to utilise previously less used units in greater numbers.

That being said. As Lee has already alluded to, the reality is quite different. At 3,000pts most Legion forces will certainly require at least 2 Centurion or Consul options, just to unlock the additional Auxiliary detachments so you can actually field enough units. Add into that the fact that the Praetor/Characters with Master of the Legion are one of the only ways to get an additional reaction point, and expect to continue to see the mandatory Praetor and his buddies rocking along to most games. Consuls themselves have arguably become more situational and less strategically flexible and whilst I expect you’ll see them less on average, they’ll be distinctly more impactful to the army’s character when they do. The Master of Signals for example continues to be one of the singularly most useful, especially in an age of multiple oncoming reserves and aerial assets. Other rules such as Line, and changes to Boltguns, mean that it would be silly to not use a troops slot or two for big squads of tacticals, whose strong firebase and excellent scoring skills can easily help to swing the game in your favour.

Tryhard: Everyone is worried that there is nothing stopping people spamming all of the best units now, which I think is a valid concern, but not one that takes into account that there aren’t really many lists you can spam things to death with like that and they still be fun to play. Oh no, you’ve got six dreadnoughts. Well they hit my WS5 terminators on 5s now, and they aren’t fearless. Loads of predators? They can’t score. Horrible melee custodes deathball? Struggles to hold objectives.

Conclusions and thoughts

How do you feel about all these changes?

Prince: I’m in a mixed bag. On one hand I do really like a lot of the core changes and tinkering. The changes such as gradient initiative modifiers, attack modifiers, and changes to reactions are all things I’ve been going on about since 2nd edition rolled around. Making more weapons viable and fun to use helps to make for a more varied and fun game. The clearly laid out ruleset and clarifications makes the whole thing a little more wordy, but a lot better and clearer to understand, which is greatly appreciated. That being said, I can’t ignore my criticisms. I still am disgruntled by the loss of flavour again from the Legions, with the loss of Rites hardly equating to the odd additional detachment, Prime Advantage, and a gambit; but I am willing to see whether later journals re-add new flavour to the various legion forces and options. On a similar vein I’m not so hot with making all the various named characters into just combat beatsticks/ duellists. Whilst duels are a part of the BL novels, many of these characters are also meant to be commanders and tacticians, and I would have liked to see rules that better reflected that. As for the loss of customisation options on some units and the consuls, I’d rather not go into it right now.
Casual: On the whole I’m pretty positive. Might be one of the most positive of our group. Wargear changes, though they do affect me, is the big ticket item I’ve not mentioned and that’s because I look at those units and ask “what can I run you as now” and not “well, I guess I have to throw you out” which seems to have been one reaction to all of this. The detachment changes will take time to get my head around for army construction, but the core of the game itself doesn’t look off to me. There’s a change in combat resolution, but the Hit > Wound > Save > Damage process is broadly identical to the variants of this ruleset GW have been publishing for more than 25 years.
Tryhard: 3.0 is an infinitely better game than 2.0 was, though the edition itself has other issues with reception and the wargear debacle. I think a lot of the people who are hating on it are doing it because it’s cool to hate GW, and will miss out on what I think might be the best system the SDS has ever put out, if perhaps not the best edition of a game.

Any other thoughts or hot takes?

Prince: Ultramarines with an Auger squad and Ultramar pattern Solar Auxilia allies… A casual 3 free reactions at turn. Just saying… (Tryhard: Actually it’s 5. One from the legion trait, one from the augury C&C squad, and three for auxilia with their lasrifle sections).
Casual: Thaumaturgy allows you to Resurrect a Greater Brass Scorpion. In 2026, I will be buying a Greater Brass Scorpion.
Tryhard: Tarantulas. Out of sequence shooting attacks your opponent cannot react to. ‘Nuff said.

Conclusion

And there we go. A brief summary of our thoughts after a week or so of reading the new books.

Of course we’re missing a few bits, such as the legacies documents and any possible second wave of FAQs, so look forward to more deep dives in the future. But for now that’s our team signing out!

Casual and Damned