Games Workshop previewed something pretty big and yet pretty small this weekend. Epic has returned in a fashion with Legions Imperialis coming out later this year focused around the Warhammer: The Horus Heresy period.

Legions Imperialis // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

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The game allows you to play out the epic battles of The Horus Heresy on the proper scale. You'll no longer be trying to fit everything onto a traditional gaming table and can instead bring masses and masses of Troops, Vehicles, Titans and more to the tabletop with a new range of plastic miniatures.

Legions Imperialis is compatible with the miniatures that Games Workshop have already released like Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica Imperialis meaning that those miniatures can be used in your games of Legions Imperialis if you like! That means it's all around the same scale, coming in at around 8mm.

When it comes to the miniatures, you'll be able to pick up a mix of different Space Marines to form the basis of your fighting force for the period.

Space Marines // Legions Imperialis

You'll be able to bring a range of regular Space Marines to the tabletop alongside familiar vehicles. For example, the Space Marine half of this box comes with Command Squads, Tactical Legionaries, Assault Marines, Support Legionaries and even a host of Legion Cataphractii Terminators. You also get the Contemptor Dreadnoughts which can be armed with various weapons alongside the Sicaran Battle Tanks and the Predators.

On the Solar Auxilia side, you get an equally excellent array of options for you to use when building your armies for Legions Imperialis.

Solar Auxilia // Legion Imperialis

The set comes with a Solar Auxilia Legate Commander, an Auxilia Tactical Command Section, a whole host of Auxiliaries, four Auxiliaries with Flamers, four units of Veletarii Shock Troops and then finally, a set of Charonite Ogryns. That's at least sorted when it comes to the foot troops!

You've then got the mighty Aethon Heavy Sentinels which haven't been seen before, a set of Leman Russ Battle Tanks and two massive Malcador Heavy Tanks. You get a nice variety of weapons with all of these allowing you to drop a withering amount of firepower onto the tabletop.

You'll also note that there are two impressive Warhound Titans included in the box which will provide you with something fun to tinker with once you've worked your way through all of that teeny, tiny infantry.

When Is Legions Imperialis Released?

Legions Imperialis is going to be dropping later this year in August. You'll be able to pick up the main boxed set and split it with a friend to make two forces right out of the box OR you can just go all in and pick up the set for yourself and make a massive army for use in the game.

Legions Imperialis Boxed Set // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

None of the miniatures in the box are Legion specific so you can go in and paint them up however you like. The Games Workshop team painted them as Death Guard but they could be any of the Traitor or Loyalist Legions that you collect. You could use this to do a mini version of what you already have in 28mm or maybe take this as a chance to do something new.

Additionally, all of the Solar Auxilia there can equally be traitorous or loyalist depending on what you want to do. Plenty of the regular humans on different worlds sided with Horus rather than find themselves crushed under power-armoured boots.

You'll also be able to get your hands on the new Legions Imperialis Rulebook separately if you prefer (it also comes in the big box!).

Legions Imperialis Rulebook // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

This will contain all of the rules for playing the game in one place and give you access to miniatures from Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica Imperialis. Additionally, all of the previous terrain for those games is going to be available for you to pick up once again so you can create some properly epic battlefields.

I think this is a great idea from Games Workshop. People have been calling out for it for a long time and a lot of folks are going to be eager to give this a go I think. Keeping it with The Horus Heresy also means that they are able to make miniatures for lots of armies without having to worry about going down the route of crafting Xenos and the like!

I know a lot of people would have liked Warhammer 40,000-styled Epic to return but who knows, if this goes well, perhaps we'll see that in the future.

Will you be picking up Legions Imperialis?