Good Times and War Crimes

It all begins with an idea. I have long felt that I wanted to give something back to the Heresy community, I just did not know in what capacity. A few days ago, the idea came to me. People talk about what a great resource the old Black Books are. That is no lie. I am lucky enough to have seven of nine in hard copy (missing 4 and 5 if anyone is trying to offload theirs).

So, what if someone went back and revisited all the old Black Books to see what we could pull out for 3rd Edition? Originally, I thought this might be a good idea for someone else. However, why not me?

So, here I am starting with Book 1 - Betrayal! Therefore, welcome to my Good Times and War Crimes series covering the Black Books! Now, for the uninitiated, I am not advocated for war crimes IRL. I spent 20 years in the military, over 3 of those at war myself. The name comes from my best buddy Chris and I have used as our team name for the last two years at Adepticon in the Heresy Tag-Team event. The world of Warhammer is all about war crimes, there are no “good guys,” and the Heresy itself kicked off with war crimes. So, we are going to dig deep into that!

First and foremost, I would like to remember Alan Bligh, without whom any of this would be possible. As the architect of the Heresy as we know it, his impact cannot be understated! Having a look at the credits (when GW still credited their creatives), John French is credited with Writing and Game Design along with Alan. Lots of other greats throughout the credits. I had to look for my friend, Mathew Kane in the credits. He was instrumental as an early studio painter. However, he is credited in Book 2 as a miniature painter and play tester. What a time to be at GW!

Let’s begin with a short background of Betrayal. It was first published in 2012 and largely focused on the Isstvan III tragedy, where four once loyal Space Marine Legions purged their ranks of those suspected of remaining faithful to the Imperium over the Warmaster. Despite having heard the ruleset was designed with 5th edition rules, it was launched during 6th edition and later played with 7th edition rules as well.

Prior to the Black Books, Forgeworld had released the Badab War series and other books with beautiful artwork, but Betrayal was an absolute revelation! The book largely centers around the Sons of Horus, World Eaters, Emperor’s Children, and Death Guard. However, it also included information and artwork for Legio Mortis Titans. Jumping a bit ahead, there are even some unit entries for the Mechanicum later in the book. Anyway, the first 141 pages are just amazing lore and artwork!

Note: GW, even if you didn’t want to republish entire Black Books, you could repackage just the lore and art sections and sell those books like hot cakes!

The next section is the Death of Isstvan III campaign. More on that later!

Following that, we have Zone Mortalis rules. Yes, ZM rules in Heresy go back to Book 1!

Then we get into the army-specific rules, including some blanket rules and the infamous Allies Chart. (I do not miss that.) The Crusade Legion Army List brings back feelings I cannot even accurately articulate. Going from playing 5-man Tactical Squads with special weapons and Devastator Squads with mixed weapons, to 10-man all-bolter Tactical Squads and Heavy Support Squads all with the same weapon was a little bit daunting but also extremely exciting! Also, let’s pour one out for the Force Org Chart that we used in Heresy for a decade…

There is this idea that the original Crusade Army List was quite small, and, in comparison to all we have now, it was. However, that original list had over three dozen separate entries. Even Destroyers go all the way back to Book 1! But Legions having dedicated war criminals stock with rad weapons cannot match the absolute insanity of having rules for all four of the Isstvan III legions’ Primarchs! Let’s also not forget my original favorite Heresy character, Line Captain Saul Tarvitz. In my time, I have modeled and painted three separate versions of that absolute Chad.

Here you can see two versions of Saul Tarvitz, the left being the newer official version.

From the very beginning, the narrative and the art of the Horus Heresy drew me in. I might not have been able to afford the Black Books in the beginning; I definitely could not afford all-resin armies. Eventually, my resources increased and I did begin dabbling, mixing resin and 40k plastics. I think many people went on that same journey.

Anyway, I did say there would be more later on the campaign system and later is now! Over the last several days, I have been converting the Isstvan III campaign system into 3rd Edition. Don’t get me wrong, I am not creating anything new. However, there are some great missions and narratives to work through with this book! If you played Red Book missions, you have played some of the missions. However, if you only ever played Red Book missions (largely me), there will be new missions for you.

So, the idea behind all this is to provide an Isstvan III narrative campaign to the community. I have no idea if it is balanced. Spoiler A: (Spoiler B: Pretty much) all of the Loyalists die! However, it will be completely compatible with 3rd Edition. And even if you just want to use the missions, it will give you six (largely) new missions and four legendary missions.

I should mention that I may or may not do rules for the Istvaan III Battlefield Terrain. It is a really cool section, but is quite a bit of work. So, we will see. Let me know if that is something you would like!

In the meantime, keep your eye on this blog for more Good Times and War Crimes!

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