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New rumour by theDarkgeneral over at Warseer:

theDarkGeneral wrote:Soooo, apparently the new Warhammer 30K Campaign is indeed slated for this coming summer, and there's a lot of buzz from the GW staff about it.

I've been asked (along with my gaming club) to help prepare for it, as we do, building large scale armies. Apparently some rules packets will indeed come out, but not sure if it's just White Dwarf articles, or if it's an actual Campaign Codex. It'll be stretched out over the course of the summer, through out the Black Library collection, and each weekend will feature a particular battle from one of the books. Istavaan III and V were specifically mentioned to me as examples.

New sprues and small model range to be released as well, and at least one "old school" vehicle?

White World Eaters here we come!!!
(...)
It's designed to be an "in store" campaign, not sure if regular GW stores will be officially running them or not, I just know that the Battle Bunkers across the US will.

The info comes straight from GW, and their respective Bunker managers and old area directors.

Why do it? Because it's an easy sell for something NEW and NOSTALGIA! And an easy testing ground/waters for GW when it comes to Heresy stuff...if it goes well, perhaps more from the Horus Heresy will be released? That I have no clue on.

I just know that this summer will be a small campaign based on 30K, and each weekend will feature a different battle. (or maybe every other weekend, i'm not 100% on number of games)

ghost21 wrote:The only thing I've realy heard was a special box of 30k variants.
oh, and a jetbike

SunTzu wrote:No chance. HH will be in IA13 (well, the equivalent book, as presumably it won't be named "IA") and that's a Forge World thing, GW won't touch it, just as FW won't cover the Siege of Terra before BL do.

Where are you getting this from? FW keep stating over and over again on their Facebook page that they would like to do something for the Heresy but its not a plan they have even fleshed out, let alone actually started.
I'd love it if that has changed, but I doubt it.

Call it a birdy tweet. A whisper in the wind.

Only GW could take something as big as a 30K HH era campaign and do it only in the US through White Dwarf articles.

HH should be massive.

Howard A Treesong wrote:Only GW could take something as big as a 30K HH era campaign and do it only in the US through White Dwarf articles.

HH should be massive.

Agree. Only armies of a thousand marines, dozens of tanks, super heavies, flyers, etc. would do the heresy complete justice. I don't think it's something that can be played with only a few players. I can imagine something neat where each game going on in the store is between two factions(ie word Bearers and ultramarines) and regardless of color scheme the player's armies are, they align with a faction of the 'campaign'. Like. I play... Dark angels. I'm assigned to play for the word bearers using guidelines in the "30k" book or something.

Then, players play separate games against each other, and the winner of the game moves up to the next game with only what was left on the table when he won his game. Then, he teams up with another player from the same 'faction' and they play a game with two players from the opposite faction. Again, the faction that wins moves on with whatever was left on the board when they won, and those two players join up with another two players who also won their games. This would go on until there was a suitable amount of players to have one gigantic apocalypse game between the two factions. The losers are out, although I guess they could add their shattered and defeated armies to the final battle.

The most obvious problem is losing your models amongst the confusion or mixing them up with someone else's. Also, remembering what you have on the table to carry to the next battle would be tough. I don't think the goal of the games would be to completely annihilate the opponent either. Something deeper than that, so the winner would actually have enough to progress onto the next games. Certainly reinforcements wouldn't be out of the question either. Depending on your victory, you and your opponents might be able to regain some lost units or models...

This type of campaign wold represent how large head to head battles aren't always "one giant army fighting another". There would be numerous battles going on, and forces would join up with each other and press onward. Finally, the remaining forces from each faction would fight one gigantic head to head battle, and that would be the end to it.

Just thinking aloud though

Summer? That's after the supposed 6th edition chaos marine codex, which means pre-heresy legions might have some... heretical rules Bwahaha.

The only way to truly do the 30K/Horus Heresy era justice is with a World Wide campaign on the scale of Eye of Terror. Anything less would be inappropriate.

I love theDarkGeneral, he's a great guy but honestly I'm iffy on this happening. Then again I remember when I worked for GW and they released, briefly, the rules for several of the primarchs to the stores. So anything is possilbe....

Considering the Horus Heresy has basically been GW's one "get out of jail free card" for when things go bad, I don't like the sound of it as a big coordinated expansion. As a store chain-wide Summer campaign I can see it though.

ugh.... I love the idea of a 30k campaign. Even thow I live in Canada and don't play at a GW store. That's something the players at my LGS would easily get behind and play our own games along side to.

But then I see it was posted by the DarkGeneral and feel conflicted. Everything he posts feel to wishlist-y, and I feel like he's just leading us all along. (Not to mention some of his rumours seem to go ageist the conventional logic....)

Is The Dark General from Los Angeles or Seattle? The GW bunker managers of those two stores are planning a massive 30k campaign for this summer that has been getting alot of attention. From what I understand they may use other GW stores to run certain battles etc. I know that is definitely happening. It would be cool if its part of a larger national campaign, but I think it's a great way for bunkers (which can sell fw kits) to up their sales numbers.

Brother SRM wrote:Considering the Horus Heresy has basically been GW's one "get out of jail free card" for when things go bad, I don't like the sound of it as a big coordinated expansion. As a store chain-wide Summer campaign I can see it though.

I'm with you, buddy. Being as HH was the "oh crap, we're screwed" rumor from GW, I'm a bit trepadacious too. I was gonna mention it if nobody else did.

Damn this would be awesome as a world wide campaign. As Katie Drake said, anything less would be inappropriate. GW would be doing themselves a disservice not running it on a global scale. Imagine how many people would get brassed off at not having the opportunity to partake in this. I know i certainly would.

I would love for this to be true, but at the same time it runs contrary to the talk that was going around a few years ago. Namely, that there had been a discussion at the highest level whether or not to release a 'Warhammer 30,000' line to go along with the HH book series. However, for whatever reason (confusing the player base?) the decision was made to not take that route. Hence the rumours of a '30k sprue' (mentioned above) which was made some time ago, but was instead split and released as part of other generic 40k sprues - apparently AOBR and some of the BA amongst others. It's also why FW has released 30k stuff through the back door - yes all of those armour marks are technically for the Badab war, but they are exactly what Pre-Heresy fans have been after for years.

So, if this is true I would say it is more likely to be at the local level, rather than a concerted release from the company itself. Unless of course they have decided that the previous decision made was incorrect and a dedicated 30k line is worth a shot.

Hulksmash wrote:I love theDarkGeneral, he's a great guy but honestly I'm iffy on this happening. Then again I remember when I worked for GW and they released, briefly, the rules for several of the primarchs to the stores. So anything is possilbe....

Can you remember anything of the rules? I've never heard this before.

I think they'd avoid 30k for a while, since it alienates a lot of armies. GK, Necrons and Tau in particular. Most of the space marine codexes would be fine though, with the removal of land speeders and stormravens... modernish things. I'd expect to see more plasma. Plasma just strikes me as a heresy thing. There's a lot of talk in books about how plasma is so unpredictable, and how it's being phased out, etc.

Don't forget next year is not just 6th edition but also the 25th anniversary (RT came out in 1987).

I can see this as a way to keep up interest in the first and second quarters when a lot of people will be waiting for 6th and considering whether or not they'll keep on.

This lets them put out some new exciting stuff and keep people hooked through to summer even wtih 6th on the horizon.

Well, for a 25th anniversary I can't think of much bigger than that. Almost makes me wonder if maybe the rumor was misinterpreted somewhere down the line and there are some "modernized" versions of old kits, like the RTB01 Marines. Just idle speculation.

Brother SRM wrote:Well, for a 25th anniversary I can't think of much bigger than that. Almost makes me wonder if maybe the rumor was misinterpreted somewhere down the line and there are some "modernized" versions of old kits, like the RTB01 Marines. Just idle speculation.

An entire squad box of Plastic beakies would make me so happy. I'd finally stop false starting a PH army...or just expand my Black Templars with a "First Crusade" force.

Meh, honestly I can't see much point in 30K myself. Back when I collected I played Eldar, Tyrannids, and Tau. Think there will be anything 30K-related for them?

But for those of you who do like brightly-colored 9ft tall cavemen in power armour bashing each other while shouting melodrama like a 90s X-men comic, I hope this works out well for you.

JOHIRA wrote:Meh, honestly I can't see much point in 30K myself. Back when I collected I played Eldar, Tyrannids, and Tau. Think there will be anything 30K-related for them?

lol, feth no. This is very much a "Space Marines only" event designed to alienate everyone without a Marine army.

TheDarkGeneral is from the Los Angeles area. And a great member of the SoCal community. He along with some other fellas put on one of the largest fully painted Apoc battles to date not to long ago

Regarding the rules for the Primarchs remember it was 4th edition but they had pretty similar stats to souped up DP's (then) or the current Mephi. Lots of 6's

As for a Bunker run event I can absolutely see Bunkers pushing this. Especially if James is still running the LA Bunker. It'd be huge for their sales and a lot of fun. But it won't be World or even Nationwide.

JOHIRA wrote:Meh, honestly I can't see much point in 30K myself. Back when I collected I played Eldar, Tyrannids, and Tau. Think there will be anything 30K-related for them?

Eldar did have a minor role in the Horus Heresy as a whole, but they really didn't do any fighting.

Tyranids didn't come into the Galaxy until way later and Tau were shoehorned in late as well.
Note that also the Grey Knights, Necrons, and Sisters of Battle are also alienated from the whole thing.

Really, this will just be Space Marines vs. Space Marines like that Badab War two-part Forge World arc.
Imperial Guard may feature, but Eldar seem terribly unlikely.

James is still in LA and I'm friends with the other James who runs the Seattle bunker. They are doing a summer campaign for the heresy.

I could definitely see a summer campaign happening along the lines of what Tempest Fugitives did, but short of a Forgeworld book I don't think there'll be anything released model-wise. The fact that this will be a US-only campaign seems to confirm this suspicion.

Sidstyler wrote:

JOHIRA wrote:Meh, honestly I can't see much point in 30K myself. Back when I collected I played Eldar, Tyrannids, and Tau. Think there will be anything 30K-related for them?

lol, feth no. This is very much a "Space Marines only" event designed to alienate everyone without a Marine army.

Well. To be fair IG would be involved too. Well the most famous battles were Marines on Marines actions, their were plenty of "mortal humans" fighting on both sides of the conflict. Not to mention the Ad-mec/Dark-Mec split.

To do 30k justice you would have to represent thows other factions to stop it from being a marine sausage feast.

Heh... warhammer 30k battles should only allow armies of 30k points... Maybe a bit too much, but still, the HH should be a freaking huge battle event, not something just done in the US. Also, if this is next summer, that should coincide with the release of the new CSM codex.

What this will do for the story is anyones guess. Is there a purpose to this event other than "hey, lets have big armies shoot at each other?" Is there going to be something revealed during the campaign about... anything? I'm not saying there has to be, but it would be nice, since 6th ed isn't coming out anytime soon.

Samus_aran115 wrote:I think they'd avoid 30k for a while, since it alienates a lot of armies. GK, Necrons and Tau in particular. Most of the space marine codexes would be fine though, with the removal of land speeders and stormravens... modernish things. I'd expect to see more plasma. Plasma just strikes me as a heresy thing. There's a lot of talk in books about how plasma is so unpredictable, and how it's being phased out, etc.

Land speeders were around, just not quite so common as they were new. They are mentioned in the Word Bearer short story in Tales of the Heresy

Although if you look in the Heresy artbook, there are about 30 pictures of the things, as well as lots of jetbikes and a flying rhino!

One cannot but help noticing how this campaign, assuming it is a GW store run initiative, would make much more sense for rules for The Red Angel and Little Horus, rather than the forthcoming chaos codex as was initially rumoured.

Both the characters are running around/active in the time in question and with this not being a studio printed/designed project either, and therefore being (somewhat) non canon so to speak ( yes yes, let's not delve into yes/but/no it's all canon here please ) it avoids treading on the toes of the authors who are working on the HH books. Which would very much tally with what very informed persons said with regards to this issue.

Absolutionis wrote:

JOHIRA wrote:Meh, honestly I can't see much point in 30K myself. Back when I collected I played Eldar, Tyrannids, and Tau. Think there will be anything 30K-related for them?

Eldar did have a minor role in the Horus Heresy as a whole, but they really didn't do any fighting.

Tyranids didn't come into the Galaxy until way later and Tau were shoehorned in late as well.
Note that also the Grey Knights, Necrons, and Sisters of Battle are also alienated from the whole thing.

Really, this will just be Space Marines vs. Space Marines like that Badab War two-part Forge World arc.
Imperial Guard may feature, but Eldar seem terribly unlikely.

the necrons were active, it's how Ferrus Manus got his metal hands (by smothering a necron lord or pariah in lava)

I'd have to find a GW store 'near' me if this is really happening next year...

But there really aren't' enough GWUS stores to do an event of this magnitude right...

JOHIRA wrote:Meh, honestly I can't see much point in 30K myself. Back when I collected I played Eldar, Tyrannids, and Tau. Think there will be anything 30K-related for them?

But for those of you who do like brightly-colored 9ft tall cavemen in power armour bashing each other while shouting melodrama like a 90s X-men comic, I hope this works out well for you.

I heard something about being able to field units of Tau rock throwers and club swingers but that might just be the booze talking.

Eldar should be fine through.

And to tell the truth when I've run 30k scenarios I let anything in, because as far as I know the fluff never definitively says 'There were No time-traveling crisis suits or hive tyrants at the final battle between Horus and the Emperor'