The time has come. Pre-orders are going to be fired up this weekend over on Games Workshop for those looking to dive into Warhammer: The Horus Heresy and the new Age Of Darkness boxed set. This hefty entry point into battles during The Horus Heresy is going to be landing alongside a whole host of additional releases.

Age Of Darkness Boxed Set // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

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The new boxed set is looking to be coming in at around the £180 mark (or near enough). With the addition of discounts from stockists, you should be getting a pretty darn good deal on this set as opposed to buying each of the miniature packs separately. Whilst the deal might be good, it's still certainly designed for those who know they are going to be diving into The Horus Heresy.

Sons Of Horus // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

Inside the set, you're going to be getting forty (yes, forty) Space Marines in their Corvus Armour. Armed with a mass of Boltguns and the option to strap chain bayonets and regular bayonets to them, you're not going to be wanting for regular infantry with this set.

Imperial Fists // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

Alongside the Space Marines, you'll also get two Praetors, ten Cataphractii Terminators, a new Contemptor Dreadnought and the Spartan Assault Tank. The boxed set could therefore easily be used by one person looking to build a massive army or you could split this with a friend and share out the Space Marines equally whilst then picking and choosing between the other elite elements from the set.

But, that's not all. In addition to the mass of miniatures, you will also get yourself the huge Age Of Darkness Rulebook, Reference Sheets and Transfers (for the Sons Of Horus and Imperial Fists).

Age Of Darkness Rulebook // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

The rules for The Horus Heresy are based on the rules that many folks will be familiar with from the 7th Edition of Warhammer 40,000. Weapon Skill and Strength Vs Toughness charts are back alongside the facings for tanks and all that jazz.

The basic rules for using the troops, vehicles and characters in the box are included within the Age Of Darkness set. Since everyone (for the most part) is going to be playing as Space Marines, this means at least everyone is going to be on the same page!

Another addition to the Age Of Darkness rules is the use of Reactions. Sitting in a similar place to Strategems from 8th and 9th Edition Warhammer 40,000, Reactions are global and can be used to get you out of trouble, fire overwatch at advancing enemies and more. They seem pretty neat!

It would also be remiss of me to forget the fact that the new set gets a pair of whippy sticks (the bane of all parents) alongside a set of dice and blast templates from the olden days.

Accessories // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

For a lot of people, this is going to be the Warhammer 40,000/The Horus Heresy that folks are going to identify with as the game they played when they were younger. So, this might be what Games Workshop need to draw in folks who left the hobby many moons ago.

Loyalist & Traitor Books

As well as the main set, there are loads of additional releases on the way. The first of these are the two books that you're going to need if you want to play with the specific elite units that each Loyalist and Traitor Legion can use during your battles.

Liber Astartes // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

Liber Hereticus // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

Inside each book, you'll find all of the shared profiles for the units common to each of the Legions. On top of that, you'll then find unique rules for the Legions in question plus Warlord Traits, Rites Of War, Wargear, Faction Abilities, Unique Reactions and more. So, they are pretty important if you are looking to dive in deeper beyond the Age Of Darkness set.

New Specialist Weapon Sets

Another of the quirks of The Horus Heresy is that Space Marines tended to make larger squads of specialist weapon troops rather than introducing them alongside Tactical Squads as in Warhammer 40,000. So, two new sets are going to be available this weekend.

Special Weapons Upgrade Set // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

Heavy Weapons Upgrade Set // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

That means you will have squads of ten Heavy Bolters, Missile Launchers, Flamers and the like. That then does tend to mean that a lot of things will end up dying quickly on the tabletop so you'll want to bulk up those squads and make use of those new Reaction rules!

New Vehicles!

Legions of The Horus Heresy are going to need vehicles to keep them safe. That's where the return of a familiar face is welcome with the addition of a new Deimos Pattern Rhino kit.

Deimos Pattern Rhino// Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

Working as a heavy support choice and facing down your foes, vapourising units with their massive weapon arrays, we also have the Kratos Heavy Assault Tank.

Kratos Heavy Assault Tank // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

Quite impressive and it's all in plastic. I know a lot of folks will be very happy that vehicles like these are coming over to the decidedly more usable material that is plastic. It should make assembling armies a little easier a task.

Returning Space Marines

We're not done yet! As well as the new vehicles and all that jazz, we also have the return of some old Space Marine sets that were first released with Betrayal At Calth and Burning Of Prospero. Mk III and MK IV Space Marines are returning with twenty miniatures per box.

MK III Tactical Squad // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

MK IV Tactical Squad // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

These sets haven't been specifically designed to work with the new special weapon kits but they should work nicely regardless. Additionally, this feeds into the idea that during The Horus Heresy, many of the Legions used various marks of armour. They would even mix and match them to try and repair broken portions of their armour. So, picking up some of these sets would be handy for those who like kitbashing.

Oh, and if you like collecting Thousand Sons then you might want to snap up the returning Ahzek Ahriman.

Ahzek Ahriman // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

I would imagine that Geigor Fell-Hand will follow soon after Ahriman alongside some of the other weapon sets in the next few weeks. So, it won't be long until you can play out the Burning Of Prospero once again.

Warhammer: The Horus Heresy Accessories

A few additional bits and pieces are going to find their way onto the Games Workshop webstore.

Legion Dice // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

Themed dice for each of the Legions are one such bonus you'll be able to pick. Show your allegiance and then swear at your fancy dice when they all come up showing ones during those all-important armour saves.

Talking of showing your colours, there are also going to be Transfer Sheets for all of the Legions.

Transfer Sheets // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

You will be able to use these to adorn your tanks and troops. They should make those standard Space Marines pop and link them in with their Legion with the simple application of a transfer.

If you order through the Games Workshop webstore then you can also get your hands on this bonus set of Reaction Tokens and Cards for tracking what you've used during a turn.

Reaction Token & Card Set // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

These are quite nice but you'll want to be weighing up getting these alongside the discount that you'd get from independent stockists.

Forge World Options

Whilst everything above has been plastic, there are also going to be some resin kits making their way to the Games Workshop webstore from Forge World. Notably, there will be the chance to buy the Primarchs from the webstore alongside the new boxed set.

Loyalist Primarchs // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

Traitor Primarchs // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

These are going to be rather expert kits but I can see them being a "must-have" for those who have decided to swear allegiance to a particular Legion. It would make sense to have one of the main characters of this unfolding narrative as part of your collection. Just be aware that they cost quite a bit!

The bonus Head and Shoulder Pad packs are also available to pre-order this weekend in resin.

Imperial Fists Accessories // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

Sons Of Horus Accessories // Warhammer: The Horus Heresy

More specific head and shoulder pad sets are going to be ported over onto the Games Workshop webstore in the coming weeks and months for the other Legions so have no fear. You should still be able to buy these kinds of things from the Forge World webstore if you desire though.

So, there we go. That's everything for Warhammer: The Horus Heresy (for the most part) that is landing for pre-order this Saturday.

Which Legion will you be choosing?