Warhammer 30,000 (Horus Heresy): the other sci-fi historical (aside from Star Wars Legion, which I have four armies for). It’s a game I’ve flirted with for years, but always bounced off when I tried to get into it. Part of it was the somewhat complicated nature of force building. Part of it was the inability to settle on a faction.

Well, I was stuck in my car for an hour this last Saturday and I solved the former issue (force building) which led to me solving the latter issue (faction selection). I’d like to talk through both here and maybe settle for myself why I select games and what consistently leads me back to Games Workshop games that generally don’t have very interesting game mechanisms. There’s something here to learn, and I don’t quite have my finger on it yet.

See, force building in Games Workshop games tends to be overwhelming. There’s so much going on in each of these settings that it seems like every faction has more units available to them than the modern US military. Want a main battle tank (MBT)? No problem! Here’s eight. The US in real life has one, arguably two MBTs.

Here, you select a faction from one of the 18 available Space Marine forces during the Horus Heresy, or a few other forces almost no one cares about. Because the game is historical (as opposed to Warhammer 40,000 where you have more leeway to make things up) you’re generally married to the proper paint scheme for your faction, not some unicorn multi-colored scheme you really want to paint. I love Sons of Horus for their paint scheme (metallic teal) but their gameplay fails to appeal to me.

Ultramarines appeal to me, but I don’t really feel like painting plain blue. The solution came as I researched Ultramarines. I discovered the Aurora Company (later Aurora Chapter) which had an emphasis on using armor (give me ALL the glorious MBTs) and a small differentiator on their paint scheme: their veterans use the company symbol and a small amount of green on their armor. This comes across as sparing to me, so I won’t be placing it on every model. Instead, I’ll likely do one or two squads with full markings, but I will disperse them across multiple units.

In other words: I’m still painting blue, but now I’m okay with it because it has a certain character. Ultramarines were very conservative in their stylings. They followed the book—that’s the whole point of the faction, so for their leader Guilliman to allow them these small green stripes was a big deal. They had suffered a trauma in their company history and no one could deny them the right to commemorate it.

This, in turn, helped me cut through my force building issue. I know I’m doing an armored company, so now I can select the respective options for doing so. I’ve built out the concept of three major divisions within this company (note that Warhammer is not using real world terms here—a company is 1,000 men, not 300-500). I will have a mobilized infantry division, a heavy armor division, and a hybrid division. Each will have different purposes and fulfill different mission sets within campaigns for me.

I think this here is what pulls me in: the amount of lore and the decision space permitted within it. I spent hours solving this problem, sacrificing hobby time (meant for 6mm, oops!) to settle out my force’s organization and lore. I had a lot of fun doing this. I’m listening to audiobooks, I’ve read up on lore, and I’ve really immersed myself in what makes the Ultramarines and the Aurora Company so interesting. They’re a small, differentiated force inside a Space Marine Chapter that values uniformity. It’s a cool hook, and it’ll get me painting in a hurry. Painting which I really look forward to because after painting four or so historical armies this year, it’s great to take a break and do something fantastical.

My poor 6mm British—I’ve finished their line troops, but the cavalry and artillery will likely have to wait until I’m doing painting comparatively giant armored goons for the next month.

All of this and I haven’t really read the rules. I just know they’re a variation on 7th Edition and I happen to like 4th Edition for a lot of the same reasons as folks like Horus Heresy. I’m skeptical this system will grab me the way Legion did last year (I played the entire year, painted four armies, and had a blast) but worst case I’ll paint up a force and I know I’ll be able to resell it for roughly what I invested. The painting and army creation are so fun, I’ll consider that worthwhile.

That’s really truly it. The painting and army creation are so fun, I’ll consider that worthwhile. I just wish the Games Workshop rules were interesting enough to follow on. I’ve painted maybe 5 or 6 large armies (4,000 or more points) in various mainline Games Workshop titles over the last few years and sold all of them: T’au, Orks, Skaven, Sylvaneth, Death Guard and likely one or two more I’ve forgotten. The hobby aspect is so strong, I desperately wish the rules would back it up better.

May as well put these marines up for sale already. Ah, well.