I've had a lot of fun with the SoC missions, with a huge caveat: they work well at extremely small points and small boards (like for escalation leagues) or where both players know exactly what they're getting into and actively agree to run SoC. In my experience, the lack of time to develop matters much, much less than how the turn count exacerbates differences in army speed. If both players have the same rough army speed, it's fine so long as they're not extremely slow. If one side is jump pack or infiltrate heavy and the other army isn't, the fast army wins virtually every single time. The other army doesn't even need to be slow - it just needs to not be fast enough to counter-capture almost every single objective. I've watched an all-infantry Raven Guard army absolutely wipe the floor with pretty much everyone because there really just isn't anything you can do when your opponent starts the game controlling every single objective and you only have four total turns to do something about it. If both armies are reasonably mechanized and not just spamming scout and infiltrate, they seem to work pretty well. That being said, this is absolutely unacceptable for "core" missions. I do like that they offer a huge variety of weird and wonderful missions across the books, but every single core mission should work with a completely braindead setup - I have a box of dudes, you have a box of dudes, let's roll a mission and a deployment and have some fun. The SoC missions are so heavily slanted towards fast armies and first turn advantage that they're almost unplayable under those conditions. They really need to either be five turns or have a caveat in their introduction that says that they're an alternate way to play that may require different lists and strategies.

I think titans are fine in massive 10k+ games, but I'm walking out if someone drops a titan in a 2k game

casually splits tooth and yanks it out with a pair if pliers, Typical Australian Monday.

Plastic heresy exists in part to prompt additional resin sales. Selling out of resin charonites is the goal of selling the plastic range. Plastics are intended to get more people buying resin, not less - having only part of the army you want in plastic is the whole point

I like four turns. Games finish so quickly, its great.

Glad to hear you’re feeling better! Wouldn’t mind having the Beta-Garmon review if convenience allows. Would be great to something for reference. Excited to hear more about this ‘Build. Paint. Play. Initiative’, too.

It looks like an amazing book. I mean it has a picture on the front and silver writing on it !!!

According to the actual rule you put on screen the “take a titan as your army” thing is for one battle in a campaign if you use that strategem. I don’t think you’ll have to worry about it much.

Ron, from Parks and Recreation! :)

I like SOC missions but absolutely agree that reserves need an adjustment in 4 turn missions. I recently had a match running pale hunters and failed both reserve rolls. By the time the FA happened, exactly as you said I had no chance to remotely score even though the rest of the board was well balanced. Something like the reserve roll on turn 3 should be a 2+ or something.

Outer circle merch? It's about time...

I think i replied to you on the fb post you mentioned. Youve made some good points and i agree in general. For me wjat i like from the SoC missions are the objectives and tyrn based capture points + secondary ones over kill points or only score obj at games end. If they made 6 turn missions with decent obj and scoring that would be sweet.

Honestly, most of the issues you listed about low point titan games is how I kind of feel about knight armies as well. They're not exactly good, but just by existing they limit other players' options and warp the gaming experience for everyone else. I'd be interested to hear how you rate knights in comparison to your comments on titans.

Would love to see unit by unit analysis from you on the new books.

I've used a warhound a few times in a 3k point for 30k game and it seems pretty manageable for my opponent to handle and its not blowing loads of units away. I think this is the only viable titan as i can guess the reaver will just have greater output

NGL i forgot these models were coming out...

I'd be aiming at being able to earn the right to buy one. Also splitting a tooth is not a fun thing to have happen, sorry to hear about that

Notes: Will the blood slaughter be fury of the new fury of the ancients? The 4 turn missions as a part of that campaign system is not bad- but now it will be split into 3 books…. Likelihood of those missions printed again is highs…. That is a Campaign Strat… not normal play. Feels rude however. 4 Turn Missions have had a secondary effect with army composition, and with cheaper line units and rhinos- I have recently become a fan. It really puts a cap on your all elite army killing abilities. I wish it would have rules patches… the AdMech really had poorly balanced rules, no brutal and they feel un-playtested. Knights are really brutalized…. Praying this book is not written by Chat GPT. (I have some questions regarding Recent Products)

I think I will wait a few months to pick this one up if I pick it up at all. The rumors of Heresy 2.5 give me pause. I am not picking up a book that has little value that will have absolutely no value as son as the next edition is out if that edition is releasing any time in the next 8 months.

Any new Dark Mechanicum? Because the lore and teases in the original Black Books were really fucking awesome and GW should know it's like a Calth book without Word Bearer rules/models present. EDIT: They should aim higher, all the money they make shouldn't just be filling out the range...we should have a new faction because they had time to spit out Leagues and existing Mechanicum models and some HQ's give them ideas. Sell people a Mars book with both factions on Mars, warlord traits and deamon engines are not on the same level as 'hey here's some actual DM units'

How would one accquire a build paint play medallion? Do you have to play 2.0?

I was a bit interested when I first saw this but now I know it’s just like that daemon Fulgrim book where it’s free PDFs stuck into a book it’s obviously a waste of money.

i think GW "learned" that they should not release 2 "big" systems at once after eachother like the epic and warhammer old world, however to keep radio silence on every game system for several months after the announcment of new AoS to increase the hype and focus only on that (also we had femstodes incident which i think they wanna subtly forget which is why they aint releasing stuff until people forget about it) is not the best strategy keep the fans within the system. i bet this was the thought process behind these few months

To be honest, I would be interested in hearing what you thought of the Beta book it would add more for folks to weight any purchasing decisions on even if its mostly negative. While no one ever entirely agrees pretty sure you've established a reputation for being honest which plenty of folks respect. Of course if you don't feel its a good option/product of your work and decide not to publish that makes sense as well. Do take care of yourself.

was really hoping that there would be some cool stuff in this book. Dont know why I get my hopes up any more. Its gonna be even more soul crushing to see people praise and gush over this release when it comes out, but to each their own I guess

I’m holding out hope that the Martian civil war book comes with some new interesting units. If it’s just a vehicle to sell old models and titans (which, as you rightfully said, are so stupid to bring to a game although I can see where warhound might not be so bad).

People seem to think were going to see a plastic titan announced at some point soon.

the reason I am looking forward to this is because we might finally find out why during 10 years of Heresy Dorn doesn't send astartes to secure Mars for the loyalists!

Too little, too late, GW.

still waiting for the damn melee sprue. At this point, pretty sure it will be disappointing.

Ooh are we dunking on the Siege of Cthonia missions? Fuck those missions. That GW insists on using them for their official events is both bullshit (a special book you probably don't own has the missions for a 'casual' tournament? Okay...) but it shows that the people organising them don't play Heresy, because if they did they wouldn't use them.

I was definitely one of them people who got suckered into buying the solor box set, I always wanted an army of them. Put the first model together then sold them, they were without a doubt some of the worst models I've ever put together

So this book, for me at least as someone who wants to get into Heresy as well as back into 40k after a prolonged hiatus for personal reasons, is basically a smidge of hope that GW might (unlikely but whatevs) be planning to release some plastic Mechanicum and (this is the part I believe is a "well, that's never happening") possibly if it garners enough interest, a proper Dark Mech army for 40k, as in "Hey 30k players! If you have a Mechanicum army, here's your rules for 40k" type of swathe. Will it happen? Probably not. But hey, at least the Martian Civil War is getting some love.

Just make the games six turns its up to the players to do what we want with the frame work gw has given us ,if you limit yourself to just playing as they suggest you play then these missions will suck definitely, i say mess with them until your having the fun you want with these missions, i await the attacks .....

As an enjoyer of the once in a blue moon game in which someone or everyone shows up with big dumb barely usable units I have to question why even a second more wasn’t spent on actually writing some fun scenarios or extra rules specifically for some insanely high points limit game for titans to run around in. It’s a subculture in the community of the kind of weirdos that want 10k+ games where entire 50 man squads die at a time and it takes an hour for a single turn to happen while the lads throw buckets worth of dice per weapon.

not shocked really. Anyone bringing a warlord titan to small game is a dick. They need to sell them and big games aren't popular. As for the missions rinse repeat Cthonia

Wait, people are playing the 4-turn missions? They're such an obviously terrible idea that our gaming group has completely ignored them, sticking to the 6-turn missions in the rulebook. (...when we play, that is. It's just so hard to get up for playing 2nd Ed, as it's so very bad. But inertia and habit makes it hard to convince the whole group to go back to 1st Ed too).

titans are fine to me , if you cant get one ... well thats on you ... , if you run out and buy the new META can i say "pls dont use that " no , you learn to deal with it , if you buy it and they made rules well its fair game