Why I hope FW don't do a Horus Heresy series

[eldargal]

If you read [URL="http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?t=22343"]here[/URL] you will see that we are rumoured to be getting a Horus Heresy series of books from FW in the now too distant future.

I hate this idea. So much. For two primary reasons:

1) We have a series of admitedly excellent Black Library series that cover the Horus Heresy and makes up a fair proportion of BLs output. This has also demystified what was a very fascinating, barely understood period in the Imperiums history. Whether you consider this demystification good or bad is up to you, personally I think it is a bit of a shame. But do we really need another wing of GW devoting much of its resources to the HH?

2) We have the Imperial Armour series already, itgoes like this:
IA1-2: Apocalypse units, mostly SM/IG
IA3: Marines & Guard vs Tau
IA4: Marines & Guard vs Tyranids
IA5: Marines & Guard vs Marines & Guard
IA6: Marines & Guard vs Marines & Guard
IA7: Marines & Guard vs Marines & Guard
IA8: Marines & Guard vs Orks
IA9: Marines (& Guard?) vs Marines
IA10: Marines (& Guard?) vs Marines
IA11: Marines & Guard vs Eldar
IA12: Marines & Guard vs Necrons

You see the pattern emerging? Now on top of that we are going to have a series of books as follows:

HH1: Marines & Guard vs Marines & Guard
HH2: Marines & Guard vs Marines & Guard
HH3: Marines & Guard vs Marines & Guard
HH4: Marines & Guard vs Marines & Guard
etc.

Now unless FW double their staff or something there will by necessity be a slow down of non Marine & Guard releases. Even if IA starts including more Xenos forces or even Xenos vs Xenos (which FW have said they will never do) this means that a good half of the 40k playerbase (Xenos players) will be even more neglected than they are now. I mean there are more entries in the SM Dreadnought section alone than in the ENTIRE Eldar section as it is.

I understand why people want them to do a HH series, I understand why FW would want too both because they are interested and because it will sell. But I still don't think it will be a healthy thing for FW or the hobby in general to be inundated with even more Marine releases. Even if Marine models sell well, it is still catering to only half the playerbase at most. I can't see how this will be healthy when between GW and FW the Marine range already outnumbers the entire combined Xenos ranges several times over.

These are my opinions, I expect many will disagree with them. I'd love to hear why you think this would be a good thing for the hobby overall. Just keep things polite, we don't even know for sure it will happen.

[Corvus-Master-of-The-4th]

I would see the Horus Heresy not seeing 'too much' more in the way of marines... By this I mean they are likely to expand a little on the armour patterns and tanks + more character, but other than that you could suggest alot of the older stuff is already being made .

I'd imagine that they would look more at the Xeno's and Chaos side of things... But I dunno, that's just a perception of mine, seeing as the purging of the Xeno's makes up a fundamental part of the great crusades.. Megarachnid models would cool

I'd actually like more stuff like the Black Crusades from Forge World

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

I can see your point, constant Marine releases can be a pest...
I always look forward to seeing the Xeno forces with each IA release.
However, the Imperium is much more numerous and far reaching than any other faction in the galaxy. So they are countering all the threats.

[Psychosplodge]

Would FW release something that is essentially in direct competition to the core game?

I know if I still actually played as opposed to paint/collect/live in the fiction, I'd be tempted to go down the HH route as opposed to the 40k one...

[SotonShades]

To be honest I highly doubt they will. At the open day I asked the question (at the behest of several BoLSers I believe) and they catagorically stated that they had no plans to do Horus Heresy from a modelling side and really really didn't want to write rules for it because Heresy Era armies would not balance with 40k era armies. Similarly they also said they wouldn't make Primarch models, other than possibly maybe, some day in the far far future, potentially doing a set of busts (similar to ones they have done in the past) but it was unlikely because those kinds of pieces don't really sell too well. Same reason they had to pull a lot of their scenery pieces (particularly the foam bits).

Admittedly it has been a good few months since the Open Day, and we have seen GW and subsiduries make U-turns before, but this sounds like just too big of a U-turn. Especially considering their promises to get to the other races not yet covered by IA (So Necrons, Tzeentch, Dark Eldar and Slaanesh) and then starting the loop again, particularly with strong ideas for Orks, so doing a very different order.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Especially considering their promises to get to the other races not yet covered by IA (So Necrons, Tzeentch, Dark Eldar and Slaanesh) and then starting the loop again, particularly with strong ideas for Orks, so doing a very different order.

You called?

[isotope99]

I don't see the need for Heresy era books. As stated, the fluff has been covered pretty thoroughly by black library (which I am generally positive about as they have done a decent job of it on balance).

I would on the other hand like to see a continuation of releasing the old style armour and vehicles, particularly the iconic pre-heresy terminator styles as these are popular and useful. Branching out into heresy style chaos armour might be fun too.

I have no problem with every FW book including Imperial elements (marines/guard) as they are the biggest sellers and a xenos-xenos book is probably a pipe dream, but think they should stick to Xenos opponents to mix things up. The recent eldar releases have been nicely done and some proper attention for DE and Necrons would be good.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

It is called IMPERIAL Armour after all.

[westside]

I think it would be great if FW did Horus Heresy, here is why:

1) FW tends to kick it old school, they know, enjoy, and respect the fluff (unlike some current studio efforts)

2) Plenty of Xenos in the Heresy, and doing the proper Xenos thing too, getting exterminated by the Imperium (but, hey might mean lots of cool Xenos models, right?).

3) Dang near everything about it, a potential awesome, well cast FW model: Horus, the Primarchs, dark age of tech, flying rhinos, Sisters of Silence, Custodies, Xenos scum, Heritic non compliance humans.

Bring it on FW

[Col.Gravis]

3) Dang near everything about it, a potential awesome, well cast FW model: Horus, the Primarchs, dark age of tech, flying rhinos, Sisters of Silence, Custodies, Xenos scum, Heritic non compliance humans.

Bring it on FW

Quoted for truth, there are already plenty of third party options for some of these, but I'd love to see what FW would do with these concepts. Hell, even if it was a return to the display type models with busts etc of significant figures.