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Hello, for those of you who are unaware, BolterandChainsword created their own alternate timeline of the Horus heresy.
Basically it takes the loyalist legions and turns them traitor, and the traitors stay loyal. Sounds simple enough, but there's clever stuff.
But what are people's thoughts about the Dornian heretics on the table? Would it be weird playing against them, or interesting? What about allying with other chaos factions?
Would it be plausible to have a kill team of chaos-worshipping hellfire Salamanders team up with the Word Bearers, or the anti-imperial and anti-chaos Ultramarines giving a technological boost to the like-minded Soul Drinkers?
There's a LOT of worm-hole jumping and alternate reality crossing in the Dornian heresy fluff - one notable example is when a Thousand Sons sergeant chases a squad of Khornate Space Wolves through a warp portal, and comes out the other side in the crapsack 40k we know and love - and gets utterly mindfucked as to why his legion is suddenly made up of blue and gold zombie robot marines.
So, I think this is a cool idea with an expansive realm of modeling and gaming opportunities...but what are your thoughts?

The Soul Drinkers don't exist in the Dornian Heresy timeline to my knowledge, do they? I don't profess to be an expert but I didn't see any reference to them and their own peculiar back story doesn't really work with the SH setting without heavy modification.

As far as the Dornian Heresy background, I think it might be fun to play. It's a pretty well written back story, at least so far. There's better parts than others, but at this point it's no worse than the GW fluff, haha.

I can't see a problem with using any Dornian army. Thousand Sons would need to use the GK codex though.

Does anyone know when the second part is coming out by the way?

Durza wrote:I can't see a problem with using any Dornian army. Thousand Sons would need to use the GK codex though.

Does anyone know when the second part is coming out by the way?

Dornian 1k Sons have fluff that would make them work with the CSM codex. Blah blah, all their power is focused through the sargent and if he dies the whole squad gets discombobulated.

I think the Tzeentchian Raven guard are pretty sick, what is everyone's favorite Dornian legion?

Is there a link to this somewhere?

Here: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=155430

I really liked both the disciplined World Eaters and the Plague Blood Angels. Both are IMO perfect mirrors to the normal 40k counterparts. In fact, reading this kinda makes me want to start up a Loyalist World Eater army at some point, maybe use the BA or BT codex to represent their penchant to get stuck in cc?

I really liked the Dornian heresy. I already have a unit of Dornian loyalist World Eaters, so I don't have any problem with people using it as fluff for their own armies. And as far as the second part is concerned, it's been quite a while since the first one came out, and I've given up on ever seeing the second half in print.

Long live the technologically superior Ultramarines!!

The army has pulse weapons ( a la Tau), they all wear MkXVI Damocles pattern power armour (2+ armour save methinks), all the support weapons are plasma weapons, and it would surprise me if they had anti grav land raiders with sponson railguns......

I actually PREFER the Dornian Word Bearers. They're so much better and Angron is so much more likeable. Plus Tzeentchian Raven Guard are sick.

Personally I liked the idea behind the Dornian Heresy and alternate Horus Heresy fluff. It inspired me to write my own alternate heresy fluff (where Guilliman is the arch traitor and the fluff better mirrors the current fluff). There’s something about reversing the roles between the Traitor and Loyalist legions that make it more entertaining than the current Horus Heresy fluff.

Personally I reckon the fluff for the alternate loyalist legions (BA, IF etc) was fairly well written. My favourite part was the alternate Ultramarines being a direct parallel to the current Red Corsairs. The winged Vampire BA was also interesting

Pity the alternate traitor legion fluff was poorly written and somewhat rushed (not the same level of quality as the alternate loyalist fluff). Horus’ cheap death, Sons of Horus becoming the “Black Templars” and Thousand Sons being blind were particularly cringe worthy.

Lord of Timbraxia wrote:Long live the technologically superior Ultramarines!!

The army has pulse weapons ( a la Tau), they all wear MkXVI Damocles pattern power armour (2+ armour save methinks), all the support weapons are plasma weapons, and it would surprise me if they had anti grav land raiders with sponson railguns......

Naw, make it 3+, but have it give maybe a modified FNP or a 5/6++. If you go with a 2+, that's artificer armor for everyone is nice, but I think it'd be spiffier if the high tech Ultramarine armor did something different than just moarbetter armor save.

I actually like the Dornian setting better than the regular 40k one. Both the traitor and loyalists are more interesting, and having the Ultramarines as a third party is brilliant. It's a quick and easy way to take advantage of the size of the Ultramar holdings and Guilliman's personality to set up a three way struggle and remove the codex astartes, without having to come up with a counterfactual on how such a straight arrow could turn.

Otherwise, I find my taste for the various legions in the Dornian setting varies based on how neat the twist of their turning or staying loyal is. So 1k Sons and Space Wolves are great, especially since the soul binding is a bit of a no brainer solution, while the World Eaters and Imperial Fists are much more forced and artificial in feel.

At first, I was highly suspicious about the fan-made dex. It almost sounded like a bunch of Chaos-loving players had become frustrated about the repeated defeats suffered by their factions for no other reason than being the bad guys and had suddenly decided to turn the tables around and create a parallel 40K where their favorite armies would get the good roles.

And this feeling was actually reinforced by the begining of the book. The reinterpretation of the HH by those guys is simply too random and confused. When reading about the "Dornian Heresy", I was like: "Meh. Yeah right, whatever."


BUT THEN... I read the rest of the book, especially the current state of this parallel 40K. And I started to love this setting.

Lord of Timbraxia wrote:Long live the technologically superior Ultramarines!!

EXACTLY! Through the Ultramarines and their independent segmentum, the authors of this book provided one crucial thing lacking in official GW books: Hope.

This realm is enlightened and technologically progressive. It presents some hope for mankind's future. Something which the official GW fluff is entirely devoid of.

I also loved the tzeentch Raven Guard, the Khorne SW and the redeemed WE. I'd love to see some armies inspired by this book on the table.

Theres a few floating around on the B&C if you fancy a look.

Laodamia wrote:

Lord of Timbraxia wrote:Long live the technologically superior Ultramarines!!

EXACTLY! Through the Ultramarines and their independent segmentum, the authors of this book provided one crucial thing lacking in official GW books: Hope.

This realm is enlightened and technologically progressive. It presents some hope for mankind's future. Something which the official GW fluff is entirely devoid of.

I also loved the tzeentch Raven Guard, the Khorne SW and the redeemed WE. I'd love to see some armies inspired by this book on the table.

Even the Dornian Imperium is in less crapsack shape than the standard 40k one. There's at least two Primarchs running around and actually chipping in; and they kept the whole starchild thing, which is Magnus' pet project. It's not happy magic funland, but it's definitely not the dead end that the current 40k setting is.

Agreed.

This is actually kind of funny, because I recently started a DW game set in Dornian Heresy.

Tell us more, Sorrowdusk,