Last weekend, I embarked down south, to the little town of Irthlingborough, to engage in one of the largest and best regarded community events in the heresy.

What is ‘Greetings?’

Greetings from the Warp is a long running and well known host of Warhammer events in the UK. For the last number of years, on top of their narrative focussed gaming events, they have been hosting their own ‘Horus Heresy Weekender’. This is a call back to the once a year weekend event hosted by Forgeworld, where around 200+ dedicated Horus Heresy nerds showed up at a hotel in Nottingham to listen to the creators of their favourite hobby talk about the things they’d made, and the things they were about to make (which included a hour long presentation on the upcoming sculpts, books, and concept art for the next year). As well as getting early access the the newest books and models, it was an opportunity for the many varied members of the community (some from all around the world) to meet with each other, share a couple days (and a few drinks) together and have a lovely hobby fuelled time.

Now the GFTW version of the weekender doesn’t have the same atmosphere of new release hype, however it does have the same community spirit, in oodles! This year saw over 136 attendees in a variety of halls and activities. From gaming, to hobbying, to painting, to just chilling and enjoying chatting!

What did you get up to?

I was attending for the doubles. 4 games with 1750pts per team member - a nice straightforward setup that allowed for decently long games, and a sizable lunch, without running too late (seriously, 4 games really needs to be the community standard for big weekends). I took the 11th Destroyer Company - The Dawn Host, to be allied alongside the Wardens of Iax and their Armoured Company, in a home to combine our loyalist strengths to smash the traitorous scum!

For those interested, the list was:

• Rite of War: Day of Sorrows
• Praetor and a 5 man Ofanim Court
• Herald with a Boarding Shield and Blade of Perdition
• 3 Units of breachers, one with all volkite and two flamers, one with all bolters and two flamers, and one with all bolters and two Volkites (from last edition).
• Castraferrum with Flamestorm and Fist
• 8 Angels tears
• Sicaran Omega with all flamers. (1750PTS)

I won’t go through a play by play of all four games, but to summarise:

• Game 1: vs White Scars and Night Lords. A brutal ambush beginning, with kill points and re-spawning units. This game was unfortunately weighted against our force by accident, as the Sagyar Mazan don’t grant kill base victory point. Nevertheless we gave as good as we got, with our surrounded forces brutally slogging it out against a wave of white armour troops and deep-striking Terminators, but an overall traitor victory.
• Game 2: vs Night Lords and Death Guard. A straightforward fight over 5 shifting objectives that granted random victory points. The death guard and ultras settled themselves into a shoot-out, Typhon and Vindicators tanking it out against our twin Arcus and Vindicators, meanwhile my BA engaged in a brutal melee with the Night Lords. Overall the game was nearly a draw, until the very last moment where our opponents flipped over their special event one use ‘Tarot’ card - that granted them a VP if they were closest to the centre - winning them the game!
• Game 3: vs Dark Mechanicum and Emperor’s Children. This game was all about seizing table segments, and saw the armies each deploy in a corner. My Ofanim and Angels Tears tore through the Mechanicus forces, although in return their decimator ripped apart my back-line. By the end of the game my forces were down to a single feral praetor with one wound and an accumulated Fear (4). Despite this - we won!¹
• Game 4: vs Dark Mech and Knights. This game was so swingy it was amazing. The traitors had to destroy 5 objectives across the centre of the board. The attackers had to defend and hold them. The opening salvo of shooting saw my Omega and the twin Arcus take down the enemy Knight Atrapos in one volley! However, despite best efforts out early victories were shortlived, and my scoring breachers unable to hold the objectives in the face out hard firepower. We were soundly defeated.

Overall our individual scores didn’t matter - only overall victory! And on this occasion it was eked out by the loyalists!

Why should I care?

So theres a few good reasons to care about these kind of events, and why I wanted to talk about it.

Narrative Events are Just The Best

I’m going to be open, narrative events absolutely fit the theme of heresy far better than competitive events. When I rocked up to game 1, and the commander of the enemy Night Lords (the lovely Toby) asks me “Whats the name of your commander?” - it honestly made my heart sing. Because attitudes like that tell you that your opponent is there to have as much fun as you. Not to crush your skull in.

Now this doesn’t mean you don’t have to play to win. You can still be tactical (though I rarely am) and have a good time. But the focus on enjoyment first will really improve the tone of your games and the tone of your events. Heresy is all about the story, and I cannot emphasise how much pushing that angle will make for a far more relaxed style of play, more entertaining games, and it will make your Event Organiser far happier and less twitchy!

With each mission being distinctly different in tone and flavour, it keeps the player on their toes too. You don’t just approach every game with an intent to slug it out and kill everyone. You can try that sure, you may even win. But you won’t win every game like that, and depending on the narrative you may even lose more than you win. You can’t take a hammer to every problem.

Because of that players are also forced into thinking about their lists in terms of scoring and holding objectives. Are you fast enough? Do you have enough line? Can you get a unit to last all game? Yes you can have 10 Lascannons in 1750pts, but will they actually be able to be both effective and scoring? Likely not.

Community has a huge impact

Community’s are hard to build. The best time to make a local or event community is about 5 years ago. The second best is now. Greetings wouldn’t have half the pedigree and entertainment if it didn’t have such an amazing community cultivated by genuinely enthusiastic hosts that has taken years to garner the well deserved reputation. Because there is a strong community, there is a level of cameraderie and self control. Everyone knows the tone of the event, and knows what to bring to match that, both list-wise and attitude-wise. If you are looking to improve your heresy experience, look to the people around you. Promote each other, help each other, talk about painting and modelling and having fun! Because the more you do that, the more you open your doors to each other, the more amazing your games and events would be.

At the end of the day, we’re not actual commanders of enemy armies. We’re a bunch of nerds, enjoying our plastic soldiers, on a small rock in space. Have some fun, don’t hold grudges, and enjoy yourself. When you do that, people will gravitate towards you, and when that happens, you’ll have made something amazing.

Kickstart the hobby love

Sometimes you get in a rut, or you’re enjoying the hobby but just not feeling it in the same way. And event like this is sometimes just what the medicae ordered!

For me, I didn’t realise how lackluster I felt about events until afterwards. When I got in the car to leave and rather than decompress, I spent the entire journey back utterly buzzed about preparing the army for the next one! I had a new fire lit under me, driven by some absolutely fantastic games, and wonderful opponents. Because people in the community are so supportive, and passionate, I had been on the receiving end of a number of compliments and questions about my painting and models, and the army composition. And whilst it absolutely threw fuel onto my imposter syndrome, I now also wanted to come back next time with something new, something interesting, and an even better quality of painting!

Now I know this won’t be for everyone, your social battery may differ entirely (although I did have to take Monday off to decompress properly from talking to so many people), if you can do something like this, or even just hang out with fellow hobbyists, then I really do recommend it. Share the love, have it shared back, and let it re-ignite your passion for the hobby!

Examples of excellence

Events like this can be a display of the best and brightest in your community. And even if you don’t feel you’re one of them, you can enjoy seeing the amazing talent and being inspired!

For example, here are just a few of the armies on display this weekend. From some legends within the UK heresy community. (And yes I have entirely forgotten all the instagram handles).

Conclusions

A brief but straightforward conclusion for this one.

1. Greetings was amazing fun.
2. Try to attend a big narrative event at least once a year - to boost your hobby!
3. If there’s no events around, try to build one. The payout is worth it.

Either way - always have fun with your hobby.