New Horus Heresy: Betrayal At Calth White Dwarf Leaked In Full [Updated]
November 3, 2015 by brennon
That didn't take long did it. We've seen the first images from the Betrayal At Calth game which will form the beginning of the new Horus Heresy plastic range by Games Workshop to tell the tales that made Warhammer 40,000 what it is...
Update: The whole White Dwarf has basically leaked now from Dakka Dakka showing off the models in more detail and some of the rules HERE.
- Game uses custom dice with Hits, Critical Hits and Misses (Blanks) - you generate a pool of dice based on a unit and then fire. Critical Hit (in an example case) negates the enemies armour save from a Melta Gun.
- Each unit has two actions per activation. You flip it over after the first and then remove it after the second
- One activation choice is ‘Run’ allowing you to move two hexes (game is hex based)
- Defence Dice rolled are made better by Cover
- Small squad based scenarios driven by custom dice and card mechanics
Update: Someone over on Bolter & Chainswords has posted up some images of the actual plastic models assembled which you can see HERE.
Update: More images have also now arrived showing off the kit in more detail including the book, cards, custom dice and the sprues. You can see the new images HERE.
New images from War Of Sigmar
Some more images have dropped HERE showing off the contents in full and painted up as well as a run down of the characters involved...
The leaks which you can see HERE show both the Word Bearers and the Ultramarines in more detail and the first glimpse of how exactly the game is packaged. It looks like it's going to be using an Execution Force style board game system where you have tiles and cards for the different troopers.
Content-wise the game should have...
- 30x Tactical Marines In MK IV Armour
- 5x Cataphractii Terminators
- Contemptor with Lascannon and CCW
- Praetor
- Chaplain
...which falls in line with what we were seeing on the sprues earlier in the year. According to the sites that leaked this it won't be a limited release box and will be supported further down the line by Games Workshop. How long that's going to last, we'll have to wait and see.
Images from Millest's Mediocre Meanderings & Spikey Bitz
What do you think of what we can see so far?
"It looks like it's going to be using an Execution Force style board game system where you have tiles and cards for the different troopers..."
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Still somewhat sceptical about this…
Intrigued despite myself. Interested in the models at least, but not the game.
Although for a moment at seeing that cover image I thought GW were now producing Rush albums…
Is it a modular tile game, from that picture it looks like the figures are on card tiles eg SPACEHULK style.
Yes it looks like it’s based on the Execution Force style game that did. Cards for the troopers, board/tile movement etc.
BoW Ben
Yes but the board looks much more like Space Hulk with many small tiles that fit together, as i remember Execution Force only had 2 big board tiles.
The price is rumoured to be 90 pounds.
Honestly, the art work looks amazing, but the end product seems, well dare I say it, bland. Even the AOS box packs lots of character into its models. This just looks, well, bland. Where is the individual flare of the legions? And a board game?? I don’t think this product itself will do what they want it too. Will it sell? Likely yes and probably very well. Why? It’s 30k and marines. But honestly, really underwhelming. It’s surprising when you compare it to AOS releases. Also why Calth? Surely Istvvan would’ve been a better choice? More legions to choose from,… Read more »
I mean, it’s nice that you can tell so much from the blurry pictures we’ve seen so far. Especially with regards to whether the board game will be any good or not. GW are in a damned if they do, damned if they don’t situation.They either stick a bunch of legion symbols (or skulls) on, then get criticized because people can’t then combine these kits with others and / or paint it in whatever legion they want, or vice versa. Personally speaking, having the models be relatively blank in terms of legion markings would be the right way to go.… Read more »
If this was a sci-fi heroquest I’d be all over it. Since it’s more likely to just be a bad rehash of Space Hulk I think I’ll pass, I already have a copy of Space Hulk if I ever feel like playing that.
I made no comment on the game itself. It just looks very bland. To be fair the models are likely to be very good. It’s just not what I’d expect of a board game about the horus heresy. Having generic models really works if they can be used for multiple different faction types. This doesn’t seem like the right setting though. Calth was a bitter war between two legions that are complete diametrically and philosophically opposed. The Ultramarines are clean and classical, and the Word Bearers are religious zealots. You miss out on that when you just render them the… Read more »
I don’t think this is to get new players into the hobby. I’ve heard that GW is looking at having 3 levels for gamers. AoS is the base game to get new young players into the hobby, easy free rules small model count but scaleable to larger battles. Then 40k is the medium flagship line that requires more of a commitment and then finally Horus HEresy for more advanced gamers and modelers. This also fits in with their plans to have options at all spending levels. The pictures of the sprues show all these models as multi part kits with… Read more »
My bad only 3 options for the contemptor, No lascannon.
yes Isstvan was where Horus showed his true intentions so would be the perfect place to set the game?
I would have preferred an Istvaan setting, too. Ultramarines and Word Bearers not my favourite choices (would have liked some Emperor’s Children and some Iron Hands, maybe!). But that’s just personal preference I suppose.
if you want to be accurate for Isstvan you can have Sons of Horus/ Lunar Wolves, World Eaters, Death Guard and Emperors Children to choose from for armies in the field.
Calth was recently the focus of a black library release, probably with subsequent releases to follow. And isn’t the next fw hh book meant to focus on inter legion civil war and other periphery events of the heresy. So its seems that the strategy is all around the edge of the heresy and would make expansions easy to deliver like the recent tau and marine 40k box releases coming with a codex for box contents and campaign missions to play. Especially as it would tie into fw’s upcoming book direction and could have a supporting novel or two from bl..
Will probably pick this up for the figures, but I’ll give the game a try too at least once
Nothing cool looking. Space Hulk had loads of flare and character, this just looks bland.
Grant it we can only really see it the tactical squads. The other models may change my view on this box to be honest.
I just can’t get myself excited about this one.
Pffft, I’m sticking with my resin FW goodness.
It’s nice that you can stick with your FW goodness, but if the rumours are correct with regards to what you get in this box (3 tac. squads, 1 term. squad. 1 contemptor, 2 characters), then if you wanted to get the equivalent from FW it would cost you (a quick look at the site) £60 for 1 squad of 10 tactical MKIV + weapons (so £180 for 30) £48 for the Cataphractii Terminators + weapons £53 for the Contemptor 2 Characters (hard to find a price equivalent, but lets say they are free because they are in a boxed… Read more »
Any reason you prefer the resin to plastic Dave? I personally prefer plastics or metals to resin.
That is indeed a whopping saving @fleety and something I was about to work out for myself so thanks for saving me the trouble. As for the characters, I’d compare to the pack of 2 Legion Praetors which are pretty close (1 power armour and 1 terminator) at £33 making the grand total from FW approx £314.
Another little comparison for folks:
If we look at the box contents and the sprue pics leaked so far, using the current Space Marines codex plus the IA2 2nd ed book (for the contemptor) the box contains around 1250 points worth of stuff without going overboard on gear.
Its pretty much just a good sized 40k army in a box for £90* that happens to come with rules for another game included and can also be used for FW 30k rules.
I personally am stunned from the sheer value of the set. Good work GW. Keep it up.
That looks awesome!
That explains why the rumours kept mentioning Space Crusade.
i though the only way i could get Kakophoni (Noise Marines) on the table was something like this…
If a board game, exactly what are the scheduled follow up releases going to be comprising next year?
Just seems to me GoA a full game with full factions and background released against that a boardgame….
I would guess that if it goes well they will release expansions and later on some 40k equivalent rules.
And another picture (http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/961841IMG4072.jpg), with the Contemptor and dice on it.
@admiralandy
Well they could release Expansions with new units/missions/tiles, many boardgames have expansions.
Or they could just release a HH rulebook and more miniatures and this boardgame would then function as a sort of “starter/teaser”.
looks like i was bang on the money, my guess is that you will have a game in between execution force, space hulk with expanded miniature range in the new year, with white dwarf providing 40k compatible rules and war gear listings (maybe with the stats for the box contents in the box as well), collated into legion specific data slates in the new year. It would be cool if the execution force tiles could be used as well as space hulks, if nothing else as i have both and be good to get more use out of them, but… Read more »
It’s going to sell like crazy. In fact it will likely outsell every other miniatures boxed set on the market this year, guaranteed.
Which is kinda sad really, considering how cynical this release feels.
It’s plastic space marines, it’s what they sell.
Same is true about any other GW game that gets released, record breaking sales for other would be rounding errors for GW’s global sales
The Marines don’t look very 30k, they look like normal marines with a different head, the bolters look like standard 40k…..need to see better pics to see if these are just 40k with 30k helmets
head over to the forgeworld website and look at all the different options for armour, heads and bolters and you’ll see that these match what they have done already. i think this is a great starting point for anyone wanting to get into the HH. i’ve already got a death guard legion in mk iii armour but i’ll be picking this up and most likely a second one to get me started on doing an iron warriors legion, but i’ve already ordered iron warrior legion heads and torsos from forgeworld to change mine up a bit a few weeks ago,… Read more »
The lack of Orks in Horus Heresy has been wonderful for my wallet and storage space. This is another thing that won’t be coming home. Hopefully all the HH/SM players find this entertaining, valuable.
Luckily for Ork players, Orks were the same face stomping techno barbarians 10,000 years ago as they are today.
maybe they were afraid of getting to far away from 40k designs?
backpacks also look un-30k and that dreadnought looks very compact…
The MkIV isn’t too different from “modern” designs. This is nothing new. It’s been in the fluff for a very very long time.
Interesting stuff. It is too early to make any final judgements. We need a better, less distorted look at the contents of the box. Still, worth keeping an eye on. I wonder if it is a coincidence that this is going up at the same time that Beyond the Gates of Antares is being released by Warlord, or if this is an attempt to take the wind out of a competitor’s sails (and indeed sales)? While this will sell like hot cakes (everyone loves the Heresy Era), I doubt it will do much to impact sales of Antares, which is… Read more »
Well personally I’m absolutely blown away by this game and the number of models you get for your money. My only concern is that they’ll sell out before I can get a copy!
Underwhelmed. All I really wanted were lots of HH marines… and if this had just been the plastics for £90, I’d probably have loved it… but now I’m just wondering how many more minis I could have had if they weren’t also charging for the game content.
Particularly as GW are attempting to re-model themselves as a minis company, and not a game company. Just sell me a big box of marines – surely that’s GW’s dream anyway, so why make it a game?
Ummm, really? scroll up and look at @fleetey ‘s comment. You can bet that when the pricing for the plastic boxes to bolster the contents are announced that the box contents will be considerably cheaper, so just like execution force the game is free when you look at the cost of the mini’s inside (assume £18 a character clam pack, 4 assassins would be £72, with the cultists, CSM and chaos lord, dice, boards, cards & tokens costing you £3). Assuming they stick to 40K list prices, and dont add an extra fiver on for kicks, then you would be… Read more »
About the numbers of Marines in the Box, dien’t GW Omar soll a whole Chapter box? That ohne Hand definitely more Marines in it.
Damn sorry for that unreadabke post, the autocorrection feature of my tablet messed that up:
About the number of marines in the box, didn’t GW once sell a whole chapter box?
That ohne definitely had more marines in it.
Yeah but as far as i was aware that was a company not a chapter (100ish marines, not 1000), and was just a bundle really so you saved like 5% over GW retail prices. Where as the box set games have always been a massive saving over retail, even the campaign boxes like death storm have been really good value, comparatively speaking, only thing cheaper is mislabled ebay finds, and then you run the risk of partial completeness and inch thick painting attempts…
I just googled an they really had a chapter box (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127930-Buy-A-Warhammer-40k-Space-Marine-Chapter-For-11K).
Now it would be interesting to know if they actually sold one of these.
£2.36 a mini isn’t really a deal imo.
@cpauls1
Its less than half the “usual” price for those minis so a pretty good deal really. Its a crap deal compared to print-your-own standees or tiddlywinks though. All depends what you’re happy to play with.
@cpauls1 well that’s cheaper than say 10 marines for £25, and the contemptor also only costs £2.36; now that is a deal :D, as i just did 90/38 to get the 2.36 figure
If you assume you buy with 10% discount from your FLGS then your looking at 81/38 = 2.13 a mini, and thats 90’s prices were talking about, and pretty much at mantic/warlord prices currently, i mean paint (even army painter) costs more per pot than that!
It’s all relative I suppose, @nakchak . I’m not a 40k player, but have been collecting Tau for a first-contact Traveller combat team (with some Robogear stuff). I’m a patient sort, and always have half a dozen projects awaiting parts. I’ve managed to collect the better part of two ‘platoons’ of Tau, and they came in at about $1.00 a figure… drones for $1.00 each as well. Likewise, I have acquired four devilfish for about $20 each by buying scraps here and there. I buy ‘lots’, in the piles of stuff sense, on Ebay, and do a lot of trading.… Read more »
Tau are cheaper thank space marines (especially terminators and dreadnoughts)
http://www.triplehelixwargames.co.uk/Categories/Warhammer-40K/Tau-Empire/TAU-EMPIRE-PATHFINDER-TEAM/3097
£1.15 a figure brand spanking new.
so not an ideal comparison.
@cpauls1 yeah I avoid paying retail by getting a staff discount at my local model shop (do the website) otherwise id be trawling ebay for joblots too. That said I was talking about retail prices not second , plus second hand marines tend to be covered in half inch of paint badly assembled and more trouble than they are worth. Other armies I.e. Ones not in a starter box tend to have belonged to people who had more of a clue when it comes to assembly…
Agreed @nakchak , but I don’t buy anything space marine, nor do I buy much in the way of GW these days. Quality wise I think they are falling far behind Corvus Belli, Nakamura Tower, and even Anvil Industry. They still make some vehicles I like, but I’m not good with the prices, and for most applications I’m in no rush, so I just sift through EBay with my morning coffee. Eventually I end up with everything I need. The only thing I paid retail for in the last year was the Valkyrie (gasp) as I needed it yesterday for… Read more »
@Oathsworn Seems a bit of a daft statement. You wanted lots of HH marines, you got a whole 1250 point army (40k equivalent) for £90 but are upset that it comes with some card tiles and rules for another game on top?
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be buying it – I just really wanted 30K minis for 40K, rather than a stand-alone game. I honestly think a box which was just the minis would pick up as many buyers as this game will, and if they hadn’t spent cash on the game components and development, we could have had an optional weapons sprue or something instead.
Basically, this is one of those times where I think GW should just sell us models – after all, Forgeworld didn’t need a boardgame to sell there HH stuff…
I dont think GW would ever release a game box with all the bells and whistles, not to be greedy but to avoid the hassle of newbs (and yes at least 50% of buyers will be first time purchasers of GW products) being overwhelmed by a sea of plastic and returning the box to the store. Plus people would only ever buy the game boxes rather than the squad boxes at a later date if you had it all in the box. I wouldnt be surprised at all now if FW upgrade kits become stocked in clam packs in store,… Read more »
@oathsworn
I see your point. It may have knocked a fiver off the cost of the game or something but how would GW as a company market those models? They would technically be models for a game that doesn’t “officially” exist outside of FW. I agree I would have preferred some 40k datasheets instead of the card tiles but who knows, maybe the board game will be good?
Either way, its a great value set whether you want the card bits or not.
The 40k rules will be in white dwarf, and later in a dataslate. Like they did with execution force and the execution force formation, if not in the construction guide as well.
If you look at the new unboxing pics see the black and white construction guide book, look close you can see the 40k logo at the top of the cover, wouldnt be surprised if that has the 40k listings in it like all the recent 40k boxes have had in the instructions…
In fact thats the only place i have seen the 40k logo on all the leaked pics, everything else has the HH logo, 50p says the stats are in there
There are also a few others knocking about, they are posted in the HH plastics thread
if what peopleare saying is true and it’s £90/95 for the set, then I can say I will be buying one on the 7th, any more than that and I was fully on the fence, but at that level I do think it’s a very good deal. Good on GW for hopefully finally giving their fans something vaguely representing a good deal.
It probably will look like a pretty bad deal compared to the Dark Vengeance box.
It is probably the best deal GW have done on miniatures since the old Skeleton Army box from the early 90s.
Nothing beats the Skeleton Army deal 😛
I bought three.
DV has more models and so much more variety compared to the samishness offerend here.
Of courese basing the comparsion on Forge Worlds laughable prices (and crappy quality) you are right.
Yes but this offers someone who only wants one army to buy one army in a box. Agreed its less variety of models but for me that’s actually better than having to split a set with someone. Marines in this set are compatible with all of the other marine kits out there from GW and FW and can be used for any legion / chapter. Lets be honest, having to scrape the DA symbols off all the marines from DV is a pain. As a starter set to get 2 new players into the game, DV is better. For anyone… Read more »
@yoshi the difference between the two is big. The sculpts with Dark vengeance whilst being very attractive were effectively nicely sculpted push fit models. This set is entirely in parts and therefore infinitely more posable, it sounds like a small difference but really it’s not.
looks like a reasonable game box for the price?
A box game with Ultramarines and Word Bearers you say very clever GW. Book V of the HH series includes the full rules for both Ultramarines and Word Bearers… sneaky!