Horus Heresy (Fantasy Flight Games) - Initial Impressions
When Horus Heresy was announced I was filled with excitement since Fantasy Flight Games was giving their treatment to the epic battle in the 40k cannon that set the tone for the grim and dark future that is Warhammer 40,000. As photos started to pop up showing the components and the production quality I frothed even more at the mouth. There was no question that HH was a game that I had to play. The day finally came where Deacon’s copy arrived in the mail and soon after the date was set where we ourselves were going to determine the path of mankind in this landmark battle. But then we started playing…
The first thing I noticed after we started to play was that this game was more FFG than GW. Charm and character are words that I use to describe the boardgames of Games Workshop. Fairly straight forward rules with simple, intuitive and quick gameplay were traits to many of their titles. Outside of the 40k theme, FFG removed these intangibles and instead went in the FFG direction which is intricate and interwoven mechanics and procedures. Which in and of itself isn’t a bad thing, but for me I quickly sensed that my personal peak in terms of interest and enjoyment had already passed during the discovery phase of the game. Now that I had it in front of me and was playing I realized that what I wanted from the game was a GW game updated to modern game design standards through FFG’s resources. What I realized was that HH was a FFG design with a 40k theme and for me that was not what I wanted - It just felt like more of same. The “innovation” that was touted in the promotional material felt very similar to mechanics in their other games like Red November and StarCraft: The Boardgame although some twists had been added.
For me this game was a flop - mentally there was a point where in my head a sound echoed that could only be described as a large-mouth bass slipping off of your hook and hitting the wooden dock creating a thud that was hollow with a hint of a smacking sound from the fish’s slime coat. That sound was my hope and optimism for this game dropping as I realized that the game is not what I was hoping or wanted it to be. With opaque gameplay and layers that I felt were more bloated than Nurgle’s gut, my interest and enthusiasm waned.
Horus Heresy is a fine game and I was expecting it to quickly become one of my favorites and perhaps that is partially to blame for the downfall in my personal opinion. The rules and mechanics work and there are tons of options for players to pursue during the course of the Assault on Terra. And from what I can tell everything functions well and for all practical purposes work. For me though the bloat from things like the strategic map and the piles of piles of cards were just too much. Had the older GW design characteristics like dice and charts and a general lightheartedness been captured it would have fallen more inline with my expectations but as it stands, outside of the 40k theme, there is nothing in the game that really kept my attention or interest. Perhaps with a dozen or more plays this opaque feeling I get from the game would thin out or the cumbersome nature would disappear but even if I committed that much time and effort into this game I just do not think that it would inject any fun into the game which I feel is sorely lacking.
At this point I will admit that I have only played one full game and one partial game so you can take what I said with however many grains of salt you want, but truth be told I just don’t know if I’ll ever summon up the enthusiasm to play the game again. After my first partial play I felt that the only thing pulling me back was the 40k theme and after the full game even that was gone especially when I noticed my mind wandering less than a third of the way through the game to the game we were playing after HH. What I will say about the game is try before you buy as it will likely not meet your expectations if you enjoy the intangible traits that GW games used to have like I do. I wish I had it in me to play the game some more and offer up a full review, but I just don’t.
‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT
This one is a tough one - LordVonTush has more or less solidified his thoughts on this title, but while the initial impression for me was not a great one - after my second (and complete) game, a lot of things became clear for me, and this has started to change my mind, but mind you, it’s like turning a fucking battleship.
First things first - this game has an incredible learning curve; it’s like a sheer cliff face. Not so much in the basic way the rules work, but in all the subtle ins and outs. Many of these mechanics are, as LordVonTush mentioned, a bit much. It almost seems as if FF wanted to see just how many mechanics could be stacked upon one another until the whole thing just came apart. It’s kind of like mixing paint - mix too many colors and all you end up with is a grey sludge…
To be fair though, FF has captured what it might feel like trying to order millions of troops around a chaotic battle field, during the pivotal battle of the 40k universe, and still keep the play time below a week. Everything is handled through the use of cards, which speeds things up considerably over rolling dice and consulting charts, and often playing a single card covers multiple occurrences during the battle. Overall, the system feels like a wargame as it should - only from an incredible distance, and this means it feels like you’re trudging through a swamp - even moving troops from one area to another “feels” difficult, and this gets to you after a while…
The thing is, this game doesn’t need to be so heavy. The cards work great for combat, but needing them for EVERYTHING sucks. Moving around, attacking, etc should be done using a simple set of actions, not cards, and the strategic map should be chucked.
Another gripe I have, and it’s a big one, are the 3D components. Yeah they look sweet at first, but they’re thin as hell - they feel fragile. The worse part though, is they aren’t big enough, making placing troops on them awkward as hell. Add a character in there with the troops and it’s a fucking mess. The designers had to notice this - why didn’t they fix it?
Overall, the game is a showcase of redundancy. Too many mechanics and unneeded components. Some people may really like this sort of thing, but I can’t help but think that if you simply used a few of the mechanics, and ditched the 3D buildings or made them bigger and sturdier, you’d really have one hell of a game with an incredible theme.
Speaking of theme, I have to admit that it’s all that’s keeping this game on my shelf. If this game was based on any other theme, it wouldn’t have survived past turn 3 of the first game. Most games that serve up this heavy an experience don’t get a second chance on my table…
Having said that, the last game I played was much easier and things started to make a lot more sense to me. I can’t help but think that after just one more game, LordVonTush would start to come around also, but liking a game should just not me this hard…
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DEACON
“Everything is handled through the use of cards, which speeds things up considerably over rolling dice and consulting charts, and often playing a single card covers multiple occurrences during the battle.”
I disagree with this here. The cards provide so many options and contingencies that I feel it slows down play. For a comparison take a game like Nexus Ops and add in HH’s card based combat…That’s going to slow down the game as players try to figure out what they want to do during a turn instead of just rolling a dice.
There is an audience for this game that is for sure, but it just isn’t me. The game just doesn’t offer enough in terms of fun to justify working through the learning curve.
I’m sorry to hear that.
I notice that Fantasy Flight seems to have a preoccupation with cards and tokens for their board games… and it drives me nuts.
I enjoy the hell out of Arkham Horror, out of Twilight Imperium, and I’ve even found a happy, fun medium for Descent, which is a rules mess.
But I hate the plethora of tokens and cards. When the tokens and cards take up just as much, if not more table space than the game itself, you’re suffering from rules bloat. It sounds like that’s the problem here.
This game sounded like a lot of fun. I’m sorry to hear it’s got a learning curve like a cliff. My gaming group refuses to learn another Twilight Imperium.
Sean - The rules themselves aren’t that hard to learn and we were going well just after a turn or two. What is hard to learn and ends up making the game very opaque are the cards. I refuse to run any sort of statistical analysis to see what the chances are something will pop up.
I’ve started to write so many things along so many lines of thought but decided it was getting too preachy and long-winded. As long as FFG is profitable then they are doing what is right for them and it doesn’t matter if it is right for me.
In general the feeling I get while playing HH first and foremost is a feeling like I need to game the system. Gaming your opponent comes second once you learn how to interact with and exploit the system.
To me the system needs to disappear and fade into the background as quickly as possible…It is then that I have the most fun with games. And fun is what I look for from this hobby…If I wasn’t having fun, I’d be doing something else with my time.
I agree entirely with the statement that the system needs to fade into the background and let you focus on your opponent.
It’s sort of the same problem 4th edition D&D has. I gave up on it because my gaming group kept drifting back to gaming the system, and lost focus of the actual game.
Well, at any rate, you saved me a purchase. I was moderately interested, but hearing how… fiddly… the game system is, I’m going to pass for now.