Horus Heresy Weekender 2015

This weekend just gone (7-8th Feb) was the Horus Heresy Weekender and I was lucky enough to go so I though I'd share some photos of what I saw and some notes on what I heard.

So for the seminars I went to the Book 4: Conquest seminar, which though its been out a while it was still good to got to and listen.

The book focuses on Horus' initial consolidation of a power base following Istavaan having lost the element of surprise with a lot of the brunt of the fighting for the loyalists falling on the non space marine forces such as the solar auxillia and mechanicum though fragments of the Iron Hands, Salamanders and Imperial Fists also appear.  For the traitors the Sons of Horus and Deathguard are leading what was dubbed "Dark Compliances".

In the book there is a full campaign system for use in the Horus Heresy for 2+ players, which is very customisable with character progression and relics of the Dark Age of Technology.

Also in the book is the Solar Auxillia army list, who are the elite of the Imperial Army and formed in an exploratory fashion ready to fight in hostile environments and in the void. Additionally a knight household army list is included where the force organization slots for the knights are defined by the pilot then you give them a suit of knight armour most suited to his role.

In the Q&A after there where a couple of interesting ones which area as follows:

The first was the the Legio Tempestus (who are loyalists in Mechanicum) are trator in this book?

The Answer was that this was always in the fluff and the titans in the book are more loyal to Horus having been at the front of the crusade, and ot was laos said that they are the Tzeenchian titans when it comes to Terra.

The New Models seminar was the next one I attended, where the new models shown off are hoping to be released by or at the Warhammer World Grand Opening in May.  I wasnt in a good position for this seminar ( I was having to stand at the back) so for photos from this you'll need to look elsewhere but if they were in the cabinets there will be pic of the real models rather than of the slide show.

The first shown was the new Solar Auxillia command section, which seemed to have both the command squad and the Lord commander models as part of it.

Next us was the Magos-Enginseer, which I'd think is for both mechanicum and solar auxillia and then a new version of the Tanator called the calix which has a weapon called a gravity hammer as well as a dark lance style massive cannon.

The largest model shown was in the 3D CAD drawing stage which is a new mechanicum lord of war, an Ordinatus which is a massive track mounted cannon with inbuilt void shields.
There are also two new tiles coming out, one called the Primus Redoubt, which mounts what looked like a warhound weapon and a Thunderhawk landing pad, which are just about to go into production.

There are also some new upgrade packs, a raven guard accessories pack, a mk6 command upgrade pack and a ultramarines accessories pack on the way.

Dynat, an alpha legion character from Extermination was also shown along with Samus who will be appearing in book 5.

A new space marine flyer, the Xiphon Interceptor is coming in the new book too, which I got to look at the rules and it looks to be very nasty against other flyers, and also previewed was a new weapon option for the Deredeo, a plasma carronade.

The biggest reveal of the session was the Solar Pattern Stormbird, which is still a work in progress but it larger than a Thunderhawk being able to fit a rhino in the internal area of the model and down the back ramp.

The final seminar I attended was on Book 5: Tempest, which is planned for Spring 2015 and hoping to have some advance copies at the Warhammer World Grand Opening.
In the book are going to be the Ultramarines, Word Bearers, Mechanicum, Imperial Militia, Warp Cults, Knights and Titans.
It focuses on the Word Bearer's assault on Calth, not including the underworld war or the shadow crusade and it contains the background on the Ultramarine Legion, more for the Word Bearers and for the Knight households and Titan legion at Calth.  It also contains a campaign to play out the final hours of Calth.
In the book are army lists for the Imperial Militia and War cults which are the normal human troops of the imperial army and the word bearers hangers-on who will rely on numbers above all else.
There will also be new legion units in the book for all legions plus specific units for Ultramarines and Word Bearers, with new characters being Telemarcus, the dreadnought who fell from the sky, Ventanus plus updates for the word bearers characters and potential one new character as yet unmentioned.
They also previewed the next primarch in this seminar, who is Robute Guilliman I think sculpted by Simon Egan (but I may be wrong).

They also said briefly that the next book will detail the Shadow Crusade and maybe the Underworld war on Calth, then the following book will hopefully be Calth.

So this is my brief summary of the Heresy Weekender, hope it was informative.  If you have questions put them in the comment and I may be able to answer them.