I wouldn't say that the internet is abuzz with activity about the rumours of a Horus Heresy Plastic Starter Set but there is certainly a murmur. The rumours for this seem to be drifting between blogs and forums like whispers and then occasionally someone forgets themselves and shouts out the latest morsel. With that in mind it's generally good practise to take anything else in this piece with a big pinch of salt.

So, what could we be getting from Games Workshop and Forge World? Now the dust has settled on a few other rumours we seem to have more information on what could well be a big hit this year...

What's In The Box?

Two identical 'Generic Legion' sides within one box each consisting of...

• 20x Tactical Marines (with components to make Sergeants & Specialists)
• 5x Cataphractii Terminators
• 1x Contemptor Dreadnought
• 1x Legio Centurion/Praetor (with additional Consul options)

...in terms of models. Now, that's a LOT of stuff in a box and when doubled you're getting an insane amount of stuff to play around with. Not only is that something playable with HQ choices, Elites and two Troops (to play a standard game of Warhammer 40,000) but if it's all in plastic then you're getting something pretty special. Games Workshop might be many things but they do plastic kits very well and with a high level of detail.

Also in the box...

• Transfer Sheet containing Symbols for three Loyalist & three Traitor Legions
• Supplement summarising the Great Crusade and important events
• Descriptions of the Legions detailed on the Transfer Sheet
• Supplement for the Age of Darkness
• Rules & Detachment information for playing Legio Astartes & Xenos in the Warhammer 30,000
• New Allied Matrix
• Generic Dataslates for the models within the box including the characters

Once again, an insane amount of stuff within one box. In saying that Games Workshop have been known to go crazy in the past but this seems like a more reliable sort of crazy. If they can get people interested in the world of the Horus Heresy on a grander scale and link back to the resin kits that Forge World produce as a next step then they could be on to a winner.

This also relies on Games Workshop not doing something stupid. If they put together this box and then make it a collectors piece of limited edition then surely they're just shooting themselves in the foot. It's a shame that the existing boxes like Deathstorm and Stormclaw had to be limited time offers when they could have stood as a neat range of introductory boxes for Warhammer 40,000 and done away with the traditional army sets.

Where From Here?

All this opens the floodgates for a lot more gaming back in the Horus Heresy and suddenly those books that you've been collecting and reading through become less of a bespoke coffee table read and more of a rule book again. With an avenue into the game you could certainly see more people picking up the plastics to get started and then adding another model or two every month as they check out the Forge World website.

With the new way in which Warhammer World is being structured with its first Black Library and Forge World stores on location it suddenly becomes a lot more accessible too. Maybe we'll even see events start to pop up where you play through the events of the Heresy officially at the new place.

Something else that changes is the "Oh you can't afford that" mentality that comes with some Horus Heresy folks. If someone turns up to your gaming table and say "where did you get that from?" to then be met with a rather insane price wall it's going to turn people away. Instead if you can offer them a cheaper avenue into the game, maybe to be shared with a friend, you start to deal with that problem.

Extra buzzing that has surrounded this particular topic is that this might not even be anything linked to Forge World and that this could be a self contained box with a slimmed down rules set (or maybe even a different rules set) that enables you to play out a fight between Legions and Loyalists without needing anything else. A taster for both Warhammer 40,000 and 30,000 effectively.

2015 really is turning out to be a year of experimentation for Games Workshop and with Warhammer switching to a smaller scale game, the news of this plastic Horus Heresy set, and probably more rumours down the pipeline, it might turn out to be a good year to be a fan of the angry bear of tabletop wargaming.

What are your thoughts on this new avenue into wargaming in the Horus Heresy? You can discuss it in our forums as well right HERE!

Images above are of the current Forge World Miniatures NOT the 'new' plastics!

Let us know below.