Age of Darkness-Warhammer 30k/2.0 Tactics/General Tactics
"Night falls of the Golden Age of Humanity.
Sons shall turn upon their Father,
and his worlds drown in blood.
The Eye will open,
and the Galaxy will Burn."
This is the current edition tactics page for the Age of Darkness ruleset. The Previous editions can be found here
Below you will find general tactics and tips for building armies and playing The Horus Heresy, also known as Warhammer 30k, using the 2.0 Age of Darkness rules.
Required Books
- The 2.0 Age of Darkness Rules.
- Your armies Rulebook. May be in PDF form at the moment.
Key differences between old 30k and 2.0
Most Legion and army rules have changed so you'll need to check out your new rules since your force will likely operate in a different fashion to how they used to. In addition there are new USR's and changes to some of the existing ones so you will also need to check over them to see if they do the same things that they used to. While somewhat humorously a few of the new additions to 2.0 appear to have been taken from Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition, continuing the trend of new 40k editions copying Warhammer Fantasy/Age of Sigmar, the the biggest influence for 2.0 appears to be 3rd and 4th edition 40k (which makes sense considering both this new rulebook and the 4th edition rule book were written by Andy Hoare), making the game a real return to what made 40k what it is today. As such a lot of the changes from the old Age of Darkness ruleset and the new one will be very familiar to people who have played the older editions of 40k.
The big changes in 2.0 are:
- Movement: Gone are the universal movement values for unit types, movement is now a value on each units similar to 8th/9th edition 40k, AoS and WHFB. Interestingly while 6" remain the standard for humans, Space Marines have been given a movement Value of 7" to better represent their superhuman speed, making them run at the same speed as Eldar do in 40k. Take that you knife eared bastards.
- Reactions: The new gimmick for 2.0, reactions allow units to make tactical choices in response to actions taken by the opponent during their movement, shooting and assault phases, allowing units to fall back, trigger overwatch, counter charge, return fire, etc. during the opponents turn. This seems to be an attempt to balance against the person who goes first and also allow more interactive between both players during the entire game, not just during their own turns. Normally only one reaction can be taken during each phase, but pretty much every Legion has one "advanced reaction" the army can do in a specific phase, albeit under stricter circumstances. Some people view it as an interesting addition, some people view them as shitty stratagems with no CP requirements, which imbalance the game. Will people be happy and learn to live them and not argue? Do you really need to ask that?
- Psychic Phase: It's gone. Seeing that 7th editions clunky psychic phase that had been plaguing heresy for years, and the fact that a single army almost always got to use it unopposed, FW seems to have just wiped it from the game. This news was met with most peoples rejoicing and some people's dismay. Psychic powers are now done in specific phases, as stated by each power and can be picked rather than rolled for (thank god).
- Weapon Skill: Melee combat has been made far more brutal and much less forgiving as a combat is capable of slipping into one sided savagery if engagements are not thought out by one of the sides. You now only hit on 4's if you WS is equal to each other, with a unit hitting the other on 3's if it has better WS and 2's if it has double or higher WS. The same applies in reverse as having worse WS means you hit on 5's and having half or less WS means you hit on 6's. This makes high WS characters and Primarchs absolutely savage in most engagements, hitting most things on 3's and 2's, and even having having a 1 WS difference between a two units can really throw one unit on the backfoot and make the combat an uphill battle for them.
Key differences between 40k and 30k
30k is a very different beast to modern Warhammer 40k, despite not looking like it on the surface. Firstly while 9th edition 40k used AoS as it's basis, 30k uses 7th edition 40k as it's basis, which means many things that disappeared from 40k are still around in 30k, most notably Armor Values for Vehicles (except for Dreadnoughts, which have Toughness and Wounds like infantry), Universal Special Rules, Initiative and the Weapon Skill of units interacting with each other. These differences means that Horus Heresy plays much more like the older editions of 40k, with a lot of the same caveats. The direction of tanks is important both to keep them alive and because their guns can't magically shoot through the tank to hit someone on the other side. On the infantry front, you need to be more considerate when you pick targets for shooting, since you can't fire what ever you want at how you want. Everyone must shoot at the same target, you can only charge units you have shot at, and you can only charge after shooting if you shoot Assault or Pistol weapons or have not fired your weapons at all.
One of the big differences between 40k and 30k is the community approach to army building and theming (discussed in further below), as 30k is pseudohistorical and the 30k community has become more focused on balanced and fluffy army lists over hyper-competitive army lists. As a result army lists designed to purely crush your opponent and not built around any sort of cohesive army theme are not well tolerated by the existing 30k community and failure to comply with the social standards put in place will get you labelled a "Faggot of the highest degree" and no one will want to play with you. This scenario can easily be avoided however by simply picking a theme, painting your models and not being a cunt while building your army list.
So you want to build an army
They key to building a good army in the Age of Darkness is to bring a good balance of what you will need, as if you don't have the tools to fight what your facing you're not going to last very long. Tanks and vehicles are tougher than they are in 40k and you will need to bring some dedicated units to kill them, and even one Leman Russ Squadron can cause an absolute headache if you haven't brought any anti-tank to deal with them. On the flip side, infantry units are typically a lot larger in 30k than they are 40k with Space Marines being able to take up to 20 men in one tactical squad, and Militia being able to bring 50 fuckers for a mere 100 points so not having units capable of destroying or routing infantry can be just as much of a problem. Finally scoring units are vitally important in most games of 30k, as only a select few units in an army can actually score thanks to the new Line sub-type, so make sure you bring enough units to hold the objectives since you can wipe out most of an army but lose on victory point if you didn't bring enough troops or all your scoring units got wiped out.
The force organisation
Also known as the Force Org chart, this is the basic framework for how you build your armies in 30k. If you played 7th and earlier editions you will remember it well. The standard Force Org chart is the Crusade Force Org chart, which is what most armies will be built around and is the most flexible for building armies. It is important to remember that you must adhere to the force org chart when building you armies and you are required to bring:
- 1 HQ choice
- 2 Compulsory Troop choices
The Crusade Force Org chart also allows you to bring other units and you may also take:
- 1 Additional HQ choice
- 4 Additional Troop choices
- 4 Elite choices
- 3 Fast attack choices
- 3 Heavy support choices
- 1 Fortification
- 1 Primarch (this and Lord of War may not cost more than 25% of the armies total points)
- Lord of War (this and Primarch may not cost more than 25% of the armies total points).
You can also bring a force of allied units to help aid you main force if you feel like mixing armies a bit. You must bring:
- 1 HQ choice
- 1 Compulsory Troop choice
And you can bring:
- 3 Additional Troop choices
- 2 Elite choices
- 1 Fast attack choice
- 1 Heavy support choice
Army theming
So you've picked the army you want to build? Good. Now we can proceed to army theming, which entails building you list around a you chosen armies personality. This is actually a very simple concept but it can be given a good amount of depth and provides plenty of opportunities to create unique and clever army lists.
NOTE: You do not have to make a themed army, you can just build an army and fill it with things you like (though keep it balanced). However narrative play is very big in 30k and most people do build thematic armies. In addition most armies in Heresy do play very well when built around a certain theme or narrative list.
To begin with you can very simply build you list around your chosen armies personality and known quirks, (e.g. a White Scars bike force, an Iron Warriors Artillery battalion, a Blood Angels assault army, ect...) which is a perfectly acceptable and suitable approach to build armies. Basing armies on the forces and characters from the Horus Heresy books, both the Black Library and Forge World black books, is another simple but effective way of building themed armies (e.g. building an army based around Autek Mors and his Iron Hands or a Sons of Horus Terminator army led by Abaddon).
It is also very easy to make a Your Dudes army in 30k, even if at first it doesn't seem like it. You can put an interesting spin on an army by making your own personal fluff for the force, with you own personal characters and story for them (e.g. a group of Ultramarines who have been cut off from the Legion and have been slowly whittled down until everyone left is the survivor of dozens of battles making the force a very veteran centric force). And since the Legions were so big and the Heresy was so encompassing, you can come up with hundreds of different and interesting army themes for your force, whether it is the Loyalist elements of a traitor legion, traitor elements of a loyalist legion, a chapter with specific specialisations, a company dug in to a world they were sent to garrison or a group of Black Shields who have left to do their own thing (not that those are receiving rules any time soon, or ever). The possibilities are near limitless. This does come with the caveat that the army should be connected to the Heresy in some way and just saying "yeah this is my 40k chapter, but in Heresy" is boring and going to drop you down a couple of rungs on the 30k community social ladder (but making a specialised legion chapter that are the origin of Your Dudes in 40k is very acceptable and very cool). Non space marine forces such as Militia and Cults or, to a lesser extent, Solar Auxilia (since those have strict patterns of Void Armor) are also very open to the Your Dudes treatment and are arguably more flexible to some of the more out there army themes, as Militia and Cults pretty much requires you to convert your own army and no one will get angry at a Redcoat themed Solar Auxilia army or something like that.
An important thing to note is that the existing 30k community enjoy to making balances armies, that revolve around their armies story and themes. This means it is VERY frowned upon building hyper competitive and broken armies since these are not fun to play against and will almost guarantee you won't get a game with someone. This does not mean you cannot bring strong units, but remember to keep your armies balanced and fun to play against. One unit of battery of Quad mortars in your Death Guard with Phosphex shells is strong and fluffy. 12 Quad Mortars with Phosphex shells, taking up your entire Elite choice in your White Scars Army is unfluffy and bullshit.
Another important thing to remember is 30k is a pseudo historical so certain things cannot be used in 30k as they where not around at the time or do not fit with the style. Much like you don't use WW2 infantry in a Napoleonic era game.
- Stuff you can't use in 30k:
- Mark VII or later armour.
- Primaris marines. For the love of god, just don't.
- Stormcast models and most of the weird and high fantasy/mythic fantasy AoS stuff in general. They look bad for regular 40k conversions and look even worse in 30k.
- Post Heresy symbols such as the Crux Terminatus and 40k specific symbols.
- Purity seals. One on the pauldron or chest as an oath of moment on the squad sergeant is fine but 20 of the fucking things covering a single marine is a big no no. Unless you're a Word Bearer, but then conversions are in order since theirs lack the wax part.
- Storm bolters. No really, they where made after the Heresy and so you need to replace them with combi-bolters.
- Xenos. This is a story about humans, no smelly aliens allowed (If you convert them into humans then some of the model ranges can be used, but don't put a bunch of Eldar Guardians down and say they are Milita levies).
You can argue that Space Marines are Space Marines and that these social rules are just "gatekeeping" and "elitism" and you can continue to argue these things while you are nailed to cross for using a Stormcast model as a Space Marine Praetor, but this is how the 30k community has operated since it's formation and they will have no problems ostracizing you if you act like this (i.e. a cunt). So if things like being told to fuck off for building broken armies or using Primaris or Stormcast models is a deal breaker for you, then 30k is not the game system for you.
But I like my kidneys!
Then you shouldn't be playing Warhammer.
But on a more serious note, a lot the Heresy stuff is still resin and sold on FW making it a more expensive game system to play than 40k (only marginally but still). Luckily a lot new plastic kits have been released specifically for 30k (with more on the way) and there are a lot of conversions and units you can make from the cheaper GW plastic lines, so if you have grown fond of your organs and starting a drug empire seems like too much hassle there are "cheaper" alternatives you can use from GW.
- Stuff you can use in 30k:
- Those plastic space marine kits made specifically for Heresy (duh). As an added benefit these won't be at risk of going out of stock.
- The plastic Custodes and Sisters of Silence made for Heresy (double duh).
- Mars pattern vehicles (this would be the GW Rhinos). Land Raider Phobos and Castaferrum Dreadnaughts were squatted.
- Any GW Space Marine in Mark II-VI armours.
- Imperial Guard models.
- The less goofy plastic Mechanicus models (like all the Techpriest models).
- Pretty much any human model with the Purity seals/Inquisitorial/post Heresy symbols shaved off. Even Converted Warhammer Fantasy models can work for Milita.
- Plastic Knights. They have rules for 30k and have their own army list.
- Converted Chaos models. While Chaos Space Marines wear an unholy mix of mk VI and VII, thanks to an idiot who sculpted Word Bearer Praetor it's now a Heresy accurate armour mark, and with some work can be used for late Heresy Word Bearers, Sons of Horus, and Black Shields. Possessed can also be used for Gal-Vorbak. Daemon engines can be used by Dark Mechanicum in conversions and Daemons of the Ruinstorm are literally just Daemons, and the whole army based around converting your own force (more specific details about their conversion opportunities are on their tactics page).
The Turn
The turn system has been dialled right back and is now very similar to older editions of 40k, with it's three phase system being near identical to 3rd and 4th edition 40k. None of those pesky psychic, charge, fight and command phases. Just the Movement, Shooting and Assault phases.
Movement phase
It's the phase when you move... that's about it. Each unit has it's own movement characteristic and while most units of the same type will have the same movement characteristic you might have to double check every now and then. Making sure you make good movements can be more complex than initially thought as, as haphazardly marching towards the nearest objective can leave you out of cover and get you torn to shreds by high AP weaponry. Also beware counter movements by your opponent to intercept you units and try to predict charges and counter reactions to you can keep your units safe from melee blenders or so you can get your melee units into combat effectively.
Shooting phase
The phase when your army unloads their guns and a good time to hand out some significant hurt on your opponents forces. It's pretty similar to how it's always been so there isn't much to talk about here other than picking your targets well.
Assault phase
The phase where you charge, fight and die like men. You pick the unit you don't like, declare the charge and you roll 2D6 to see if you get to them like before, though a few more things need to be considered. Firstly Overwatch is now a reaction and can only be done once per-turn so you don't need to be as scared about it as you were in the previous edition. In addition the new WS chart means that throwing that squad of WS4 Tactical marines into that WS5 command squad is an even worse idea than before, since the new WS chart now means that you only hit each other on 4's if you have equal WS, while the guy with the highest hits on 3+ and the guy with the lowest hits on 5+. This can get even more one sided if one of the units in combat has double the WS of the other, since the side with double WS will be hitting on 2+ and the other will be hitting on 6+. This means combat should be more carefully considered than before, as a bad matchup can be even harder to win than in the previous edition of 30k as a squad with a good WS can tear apart other units with far greater ease than before. Secondly, one should remember new Charge distance modifiers: for example, Movement of 8-10" gives you +1", as opposed to 1-4" that deducts it.
Moral
The thing that determines if your units stay and fight or turn and run for the hills. Moral tests are taken when a unit loses 25% of the models in the shooting phase or it has been beaten in combat. Upon failing a moral test units will fall back, simulating the unit routing or retreating to a more advantageous position. A unit will continue to fall back during each turn until it makes a successful moral test to regroup. Units falling back from combat are also subject to their opponent making a sweeping advance test to finish them off, where both units compare their initiative + die roll. If the unit that is falling back has a higher result it escapes, while if the unit that is trying to run them down has the higher result the falling back unit is wiped out. This can be pretty brutal and it can be a serious punishment for units that were thrown haphazardly at the nearest enemy unit.
Psychic powers
WE 4th EDITION NOW! With the psychic phase having been removed, psychic powers are a bit different than how they were in 7th. Firstly you can now pick your powers and don't have to waste your time rolling for them, an since there is no psychic phase, powers are now taken in the specific phase noted down on the power itself. In addition warp charge is gone and a psychic power is now manifested by taking an unmodified leadership test, which if you pass the power is manifested and if you fail the Psyker suffers POTW, D3 wounds that can be save by Invulnerables only.
Reactions
The new gimmick feature for 2.0, reactions allow you to take actions during your opponents phase and "react" to what they are doing. This can range from returning fire at a unit that just shot at you, to charging your opponents models that got too close during their movement phase. Depending on which reaction is used, reactions can be taken during the opponents Movement, shooting or assault phase with typically only one being allowed to be taken each phase, but some rules and warlord traits allow you to take up to a maximum of three per-phase.
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