When you think about the Horus Heresy, you usually think of large, 3000-point or more games featuring Primarchs, Lords of War, tank squadrons, epic heroes, big blocks of power armour and Terminator Deathstars, not really small skirmish games with only a few squads and nothing heavier than a Rhino. However, I’ve recently discovered a mode that lets you play smaller Horus Heresy games that feel really fun but are also different enough from Zone Mortalus to warrant a separate mention. I call it Civil War based on the event post from Heresy Hammer, however, I believe that they adapted the ruleset from a group called War Head who seem to be the first to use these style rules, so thanks to them both for creating and adapting them!

The post containing the rules I used is here, but I’ll break down the main parts before explaining why I enjoy this so much.

• Single Faction (no allies)
• Only 1 Compulsory Troops
• No model may have more than 3 wounds
• Max of 1 model with a 2+ armour save
• No vehicle can have its 3 AV values total to more than 33 (so Rhinos basically)
• No Rites/Warlord Traits or Warlords
• Heavy Support Squads and Rapiers are limited to 0-2 and 0-1 respectively
• 48″ Square Battlefield
• ZM Reactions Only (no Legion Reactions either!)
• One Reaction Per Phase at most and a unit may only React at most once per phase regardless of wargear or special rules
• Non-vehicle units are Scoring, but Line is “super scoring: (ie, they supersede any non-line units) and Line can only be denied by other Line units
• No Pinning
• No Morale checks after losing 25% of a unit
• The 2+ Model may only be allocated wounds up to their Initiative Value (so your Tactical Sergeant may tank 4 wounds at most before other wounds must be allocated elsewhere)
• No Deep Strike
• Unit Activation is Randomised (this is done via a token drawn from a bag system, with one token per unit for each side)

Now there’s a lot to unpack here, for the most part, it’s very reminiscent of Zone Mortalis but obviously with quite a few changes and some implemented fan patches. The biggest changes are the restriction on 2+ saves to a singular model and that no model may have more than 3 wounds. To put it simply, no Terminator squads, no Dreadnoughts and no Automata bigger than a Thallax (bye-bye Myrmidons), so if you’re playing Legions you’ll pretty much only be bringing Power Armoured squads. It also means you won’t be seeing Terminator Praetors as they are 4 wounds although with no access to Rites or Command Squads (due to the 2+ restriction) you won’t need one anyway and at the lower points level a Centurion will be more than enough, if fact something like a Chaplain would be very good in the close quarters environment. This, combined with the Initiative patch on 2+ save wound allocation means you’ll be seeing just 1 instance at most of Artificer Armour (or a Terminator Centurion), meaning the 2+ save shenanigans are out the window and I think a lot of people would be very happy with this. During the games I played, this made bog standard squads feel a lot of fun to play with as your opponent’s Sergeants aren’t defying physics and blocking all 60 of your Fury Bolter shots.

Units like Despoilers, Assault Squads, Destroyers and Seekers (who can get into combi-melta range really easily) really shine here, especially with more options open to take them with HSS squads being less essential and limited and of course no Dreadnoughts. I reckon Charonite Ogryns would be brutal in this mode as they won’t be running into WS5 terminators.

The AV limit is pretty interesting too as it just edges out things like Predator and Scorpius tanks so your regular lads won’t need to deal with them. For the most part, the allowed vehicles include smaller transports like the Rhino & Aurox, but you can just about fit Sabres in due to their front AV of 12. There might even be a use case for the Arvus as while you can’t Deep Strike, there’s no reserves limit so your Storm Sections will have a good amount of manoeuvrability and with fewer Dreads or other long-range firepower, they might even live for a turn!

I do like the restriction on Reactions as well, if only for this smaller level of play. I’m personally not a fan of just how good Return Fire and Overwatch are, especially combined with things like Lascannon Squads and at this smaller scale, they would just be too oppressive and thus unfun. The only thing I think is a bit odd is that the ZM movement reaction usually causes pinning… which this ruleset forbids so basically is just 40k Overwatch but only in the movement phase. It’s not a bad thing per se, but feels a bit weird and we rarely bothered using it… mostly as in our games, the strongest guns were either one-shot combi-meltas (not going to waste that on Snap Shots) or my Veteran’s Banestrike Bolters.

Now for the biggest change, the random activations! We did this by placing some tokens (which ended up being the Forge World legion dice we both owned) into a bag and during each phase, drawing a token (taking turns in doing so) and then using that to activate a unit, placing the token next to said unit. This was REALLY FUN and made the turns incredibly unpredictable and strategic, especially in the movement phase where you’re sort of trying to counter what your opponent is doing but of course, you don’t know exactly when one of your units will move. Or maybe you’ll draw a bunch of your units first and try and find a way to block your opponent from getting to an objective or get into that bit of cover before it’s claimed. Of course in the Shooting and Charge phases, you want to be going first, so each token draw becomes this incredibly tense moment before you then decide exactly which order you want to shoot in. Do you put your big guns down first so they have a chance, or perhaps you choose a unit in range of a potential charge threat to thin their numbers? Of course with the charges, going first means you’ll get any bonuses your units might have, or perhaps you can deny them by throwing in a cheap unit first, giving you time to set up a better charge with a more assault-focused unit. The thought process behind this mode is different enough from the base game to be its own thing, strategic and tactical enough to be challenging and enjoyable, but also with the smaller scale, it’s surprisingly fast!

If you couldn’t tell, I really do like this game mode. We managed to fit in 2 games in a few hours and it was a blast, even if for the time being we just did kill points I do think adapting an objective mode from the books would work very well. We played at 1000pts which was more than enough, I even managed to sneak in a Rhino for some ramming shenanigans (very effective, especially with that extra 3 hits Sons of Horus get). I’d really recommend giving it a try, the links at the top will provide all the rules you need, then you can use whichever missions you like best.