Why are we obsessed with the Horus Heresy??

[DrLove42]

You mean I can't claim since I have to spend 10% of my wages on miniatures I can't claim it back? Damn

[Paul]

The Horus Heresy is the rage because Marines jizzing bullets onto Marines with more Marines somewhere doing Marine things is apparently awesome. Mix it up with Marines flailing axes into Marines with more Marines somewhere doing Imperial Army things and you've got a winning formula! /sarcasm

Oh, that single book about the Adeptus Mechanicus was good.

[DCompanyChris]

I think several of the other posters have hit on some of the key things, but for me the Heresy really represents what the universe of 40k is all about...unending, unceasing war between a variety of factions.

It is not hard to imagine the Imperium showing up and taking over a world, converting it from a forested paradise to an economic workplace full of imported menials. It's also not hard to imagine an organization as large and as heartless as the Imperium collapsing in on itself due to its sheer size and vanity.

In all honesty, the heresy interests me alot, but I was (and continue to be intrigued) by the Badab war for similar reasons. The Badab war, whatever it ultimately becomes, was really a small dispute that cooler heads could have settled, but the Imperium deals with all problems by the application of force, and the situation grew rapidly out of control.

In terms of tabletop play, I'm not a tournament player. I play and model for the theme of the game. My favorite opponents are orks and guard, and I like to play Marine based, but theme appropriate armies.

I built a 5000 point Tyrant Legion army (using the non-tournament legal Imperial Armor list) out a variety of GW, FW Wargames Factory and Ramshackle Games for a fun army to play in themed games. And while I have a tournament army in my Deathwing, and a "regular" army of Salamanders, as I look at some of the pre-heresy stuff coming out, I'm actually starting to think about a themed heresey-era army of a different chapter (How I will pay for that is something else entirely)

For me, the Heresy represents an age where there's new opportunities to model, and build up a themed list around the modeling aspect. I learned alot about painting, especially as I did the Tyrant Legion, and I'd like to put that to work. Getting to fight a brother on brother war...that's just icing on the cake.

[Paul]

For me, the Heresy represents an age where there's new opportunities to model,

For Marines

and build up a themed list around the modeling aspect.

For marines.

Getting to fight a brother on brother war...that's just icing on the cake.

By brother on brother, I hope you meant Marine on Marine ... my Guard and Mechanicus forces were starting to feel a little less left out there at the end.

[wittdooley]

The Horus Heresy is the rage because Marines jizzing bullets onto Marines with more Marines somewhere doing Marine things is apparently awesome. Mix it up with Marines flailing axes into Marines with more Marines somewhere doing Imperial Army things and you've got a winning formula! /sarcasm

Oh, that single book about the Adeptus Mechanicus was good.

The popularity has less to do with Marines and more to do with humanity. You've clearly not read many of the books if this is your outlook, as nearly ALL of them have human focal characters. Hell, the ENTIRE SPACE WOLVES NOVEL is told from a human's perspective. Plus Legion, Nemesis, A Thousand Sons, etc...

Anyways, I believe the HH is compelling because of the characterization. I've often referred to the HH books as the "literature" of the Black Library; where your normal BL books are for all intents and purposes military fiction or bolter porn (see Space Marine Battles), the HH books have taken great care to craft round, believeable characters. Magnus. Russ. Horus. All of the Remembrancers. The Mournival. These are all characters with depth. We get to see a great deal of humanity within the Astartes characters in the HH books, and thats why we're compelled to read them. Couple that with the fact that its a brother-vs-brother civil war, and it emotionally grasps us even more.

[Paul]

The popularity has less to do with Marines and more to do with humanity. You've clearly not read many of the books if this is your outlook, as nearly ALL of them have human focal characters. Hell, the ENTIRE SPACE WOLVES NOVEL is told from a human's perspective. Plus Legion, Nemesis, A Thousand Sons, etc...

Anyways, I believe the HH is compelling because of the characterization. I've often referred to the HH books as the "literature" of the Black Library; where your normal BL books are for all intents and purposes military fiction or bolter porn (see Space Marine Battles), the HH books have taken great care to craft round, believeable characters. Magnus. Russ. Horus. All of the Remembrancers. The Mournival. These are all characters with depth. We get to see a great deal of humanity within the Astartes characters in the HH books, and thats why we're compelled to read them. Couple that with the fact that its a brother-vs-brother civil war, and it emotionally grasps us even more.

It's not the books I'm referring to necessarily. It's all the pre-heresy stuff. ALL OF IT, these awesome new models and gorgeous weapons...

...for Marines. There's a lot of Humanity in the heresy too, but everyone wants to see Prometheus Land Raiders, not Guard Leman Russes. Everyone wants Mk 1 Rhinos, not Mechanicus wonderweapons.

[TheRise]

For one simple reason... Ultras are hardly mentioned.

[Rissan4ever]

The Heresy-era models and armies I've seen look very cool, and Heresy-era campaigns have an almost historical wargaming feel to them, so I understand that appeal. But it's all Marines all the time, and I find that boring. I'd much rather see the fluff move forward rather than constantly looking backward.

[MaltonNecromancer]

The Heresy's popularity (at least for me) comes down to the aesthetic (familiar, but different), as well as it's open embrace of the Superheroic: the Primarchs might as well have stepped from the pages of Marvel comics. 40K is, on many levels, a Male Power Fantasy ("I am a skilled general. Men follow my words. I am undefeatable."), but as we all know, on the battlefield, there aren't all that many superheroes. On a bad day, even Marneus Calgar can get taken out before he does anything of use.

Now, how many of us (when we were younger and stupider) wrote up stats for our beloved Primarch of choice along the lines of ten in every stat and a whole bunch of powers that enabled them to basically kill the enemy army during the deployment phase? The Primarchs are basically a Darker and Edgier version of superheroes (some almost explicitly so. Guilliman might as well have a big "S" in a triangle on his aquila). As superheroes represent the apex of the Male Power Fantasy ("I need no-one. I am strong. I am unafraid. I am undefeatable. All those who oppose me will fall.") the Heresy represents the coming together of two very solid Power Fantasies, and thus a massive increase in appeal.

Plus, the scary religious overtones of the whole thing lend it a mythic scope and scale that 40K doesn't really have. 40K is the Dark Ages IN SPACE! The Heresy is the Bibilcal Apocrypha, and thus taps into an altogether older set of stories with more resonance. It's closer to fantasy, and thus has the gravitic pull of both sci-fi and fantasy genres.

Also, there's goodies and baddies, and while we love 40K for it's "Evil against Evil" thing (I love the people who seem to think Chaos are the truly evil faction when compared to the totalitarian nightmare of the Imperium. In a fight between Charles Manson and Robert Mugabe, how do you begin to compare who's more evil?!), many people prefer to have their ethics cut-and-dried. While the modern Imperium is Germany circa 1943, the Heresy-era Imperium was undeniable brighter and more decent. The Emperor was a harsh but fair leader, Reason was the order of the day... Seriously, Sanguinius was an actual angel!

It has Romanticism, Good vs. Evil, and superheroes. It's also not remotely original, and for a genre piece, that's a good thing. Everything is recognisably an updating of an older myth, which lends it weight. Finally, to all those people who say "Marines are boring": well, you've not really got anything to contribute h here then, have you? Other than to say it doesn't interest you. You don't like 'em or care? Fair enough. Some of us like them, have always liked them, and will always like them, regardless of what is or isn't popular or in vogue at the present moment.

I just like Mk 5 armour, if I'm honest. That and the 1st edition Land Raider.

[MaltonNecromancer]

Fall of the Eldar > Horus Heresy. When was the last time you masturbated a god into existence?

Horus Heresy = balanced battle; two roughly equal forces, where the outcome was in doubt. Yes, we know the way the war goes, but in any game, it could go either way. It's Steve Austin vs. The Rock in front of a packed arena.

Fall of the Eldar = curb stomp of the Eldar. One grossly overpowered force utterly annihilates another, far weaker one. No real resistance of any kind is presented, and the survivors do so by basically running away. Some of them run so far and fast they run away into an alternative dimension. Much as I love the Cenobit... sorry, Dark Eldar, they presented absolutely no threat whatsoever to Slaanesh; they just ran away. It's Steve Austin vs. a lone agoraphobic with asthma, and Austin brought a gun. All the agoraphobic brought were his best running shoes and that loose, loose bladder.

I don't know about you, but a tale of an army just running away and surviving by the skin of it's teeth doesn't have quite the same grandeur.

Now, if we're talking a roleplaying game, Fall of the Eldar is far more interesting to me (because I prefer my RPG's to do what wargames and computer games can't, and explore ideas about morality, ethics, and personal horror, rather than just giving me yet another way to fictionally kill things.) In roleplaying terms, Fall of the Eldar would be the mature horror motherlode for Dark Heresy. But for wargames, it's the story of Dave (bravest of all the Eldar Guardians), walking up to the gates of Slaanesh's castle, knocking on the mile high doors, and announcing that Slaanesh has three minutes to surrender or Dave's coming on in to get him, then watching as Dave is submerged under approximately 900 billion metric tonnes of Daemonettes.

When your Eldar army's victory conditions for every single battle are effectively "Leave by the nearest table edge or webway gate", you know you've got an uphill battle to convince people.

Plus, I'm not getting back into Eldar until Striking Scorpions are available in plastic. (Which, admittedly, is probably going to be the day after never. )