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The Horus Heresy #2
Massacre
Word of Horus’ treachery escapes Isstvan III and now the Legions loyal to the Emperor mobilise to make Horus and those who follow account for their crimes. However the depth of the betrayal is yet to be revealed.
The Horus Heresy Book Two - Massacre is lavishly illustrated in full colour and contains the dark deeds leading up to the terrible slaughter that unfolded during the Isstvan V Dropsite Massacre. Also detailed are the histories of the four legions that took part: The Iron Hands, Salamanders, Night Lords and Word Bearers, and an extensive campaign system so you can play out the battles on the tabletop. This book also contains additional entries for the Space Marine Legion Crusade Army list presented in The Horus Heresy Book One – Betrayal, as well as games rules for the Primarchs of the four newly described Legions, super-heavy vehicles and special characters featured in the story.
The Horus Heresy Book Two - Massacre is lavishly illustrated in full colour and contains the dark deeds leading up to the terrible slaughter that unfolded during the Isstvan V Dropsite Massacre. Also detailed are the histories of the four legions that took part: The Iron Hands, Salamanders, Night Lords and Word Bearers, and an extensive campaign system so you can play out the battles on the tabletop. This book also contains additional entries for the Space Marine Legion Crusade Army list presented in The Horus Heresy Book One – Betrayal, as well as games rules for the Primarchs of the four newly described Legions, super-heavy vehicles and special characters featured in the story.
- Genres40k
288 pages, Leather Bound
First published October 18, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 3, 2017
Absolutely amazing! This sourcebook for Horus Heresy: the Massacre at Isstavan is not only full of information and detailed maps and charts, but it has gorgeous illustrations as well.
The rest if for nerds only. Normal people carry on:
“Alone, an Astartes is a formidable foe as far beyond a man as a wolf is beyond sheep. Together, bound by ties of unshakeable loyalty, a Legion is a force that can extinguish stars and shake the very heavens.”
Lorgar Aurelian
Primarch, Word Bearers
Legio XVII
The Horus Heresy has begun, but the Emperor's Loyalist forces are unaware. Horus Lupercal, Primarch of the Sons of Horus and Warmaster to the entire Imperial military, has fallen to the Warp and now serves the Dark Gods. Horus begins to sound out other Primarchs in an attempt to further the corruption. Those who do not seem likely to turn, he sends off on far flung missions, along with their respective Legion. The rest quietly convert to the Dark Gods and the Chaos Marines are born. Horus sets a trap on Isstavan III. This is the infamous "Dropsite Massacre". The fallen Primarchs are Horus (Sons of Horus), Lorgar (Word Bearers), Mortarion (Death Guard), and Fulgrim (Emperor's Children). They select the sections from their Legions they deem to be Loyalist and send them to the surface. The sections from those 4 Legions came to over 100 companies of Loyalist Astartes. Once on the durface Horus' Navy turned their guns on the ground forces and also launched virus bombs in a surprise attack. 1/3 of Astartes on the ground perish immediately, along with tens of millions of Imperial civilians residing on Isstavan III due to the hyper-toxic virus bombs.
The remaining, but stunned, 2/3rds of the Loyalist Marines are assaulted by the Word Eaters and their Primarch Lorgar at their head. The remaining Loyalist forces, including orbital Loyalist Naval forces, try to regroup and make sure word of this treachery make it to Terra. Thus the last Loyalist Astartes fight to the death giving the famous battle cruiser Eisenstein a chance to flee to Terra with news of Horus's betrayal.
Terra is in shock. The beloved son of the Emperor of Man has become a traitor. Sadly, save for a small handful of people on the Council of Terra, few realize that Horus has fallen to the Dark Gods. At this time the Imperium was secular and the Emperor was a strict atheist. So no one really believed such a thing could happen. The Dark Gods strike and cause Warp Storms in space. The Emperor retreats to his private abode to conduct secret research. Meanwhile, the entire planet and the remaining loyalist forces exterminated by a 2nd bombardment.
Primarch Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists is infuriated by the treason and heads to Terra with his Legion to protect Emperor. Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children tries to corrupt Ferrus Manus of Iron Hands. Manus refuses and declares war on his former brothers.
As the Emperor does his secret research- Dorn is elevated to Emperor's Champion and Malcador, the Imperial Advisor, to run the Council of Terra. Still no one suspects the Dark powers, rather they think it was ambition on the part of Horus and discontent by renegade Primarchs at the power of the civilian Council of Terra. Terrible mistake.
At Isstavan V the Traitor Legions are found to have fled and dug in. Three loyal Primarchs and their Legions surround the planet (Ferrus Manus and his Legio Iron Hands; Vulkan and his Legio Salamnders; Corvax and his Legio Raven Guard). Four other Legions are in transit to support this assault. Manus, enraged beyond measure, ignores the advice of Corvax and Vulkan and declines to wait for the remaining forces to arrive. The three Loyalist Legions assault the fortress. What follows is an epic battle described in detail advanced by Hours past the Drop. It is epic reading as demigods battle and tens of thousands of Space Marines and their massive war engines battle Traitor Legions.
Eventually, when the "reinforcements" arrive it turns out that the four Legions (Iron Warriors, Night Lords, Word Bearers and Alpha Legion) have turned to Chaos. Surrounded on all sides this becomes the death ground of over 200,000 loyal Space Marines, 2 dead Primarchs (Manus and Vulkan) and one crazed and MIA (Corvax). During final phase of the Massacre Word Bearers Legio (at this point worshipers of Khorne, the Blood God, the Lord of Rage) showing their corruption with sigul and rune covered Warp armor. Demonic presence is shown for the first time. Empire is in SERIOUS trouble.
Ok then. That was awesome. A great book that I geeked out over. Now I am going to go buy the novel and read about the whole story. This great sourcebook has it all- the maps, the tactics, the information of the individual Legions (Chaos and Loyal), casualty lists..anything and everything you wanted to know about the Isstavan Massacres and the official start of Horus' war against the Emperor.
A must have for any fan of this series. I loved this book. Any Warhammer 40K fan would.
The rest if for nerds only. Normal people carry on:
“Alone, an Astartes is a formidable foe as far beyond a man as a wolf is beyond sheep. Together, bound by ties of unshakeable loyalty, a Legion is a force that can extinguish stars and shake the very heavens.”
Lorgar Aurelian
Primarch, Word Bearers
Legio XVII
The Horus Heresy has begun, but the Emperor's Loyalist forces are unaware. Horus Lupercal, Primarch of the Sons of Horus and Warmaster to the entire Imperial military, has fallen to the Warp and now serves the Dark Gods. Horus begins to sound out other Primarchs in an attempt to further the corruption. Those who do not seem likely to turn, he sends off on far flung missions, along with their respective Legion. The rest quietly convert to the Dark Gods and the Chaos Marines are born. Horus sets a trap on Isstavan III. This is the infamous "Dropsite Massacre". The fallen Primarchs are Horus (Sons of Horus), Lorgar (Word Bearers), Mortarion (Death Guard), and Fulgrim (Emperor's Children). They select the sections from their Legions they deem to be Loyalist and send them to the surface. The sections from those 4 Legions came to over 100 companies of Loyalist Astartes. Once on the durface Horus' Navy turned their guns on the ground forces and also launched virus bombs in a surprise attack. 1/3 of Astartes on the ground perish immediately, along with tens of millions of Imperial civilians residing on Isstavan III due to the hyper-toxic virus bombs.
The remaining, but stunned, 2/3rds of the Loyalist Marines are assaulted by the Word Eaters and their Primarch Lorgar at their head. The remaining Loyalist forces, including orbital Loyalist Naval forces, try to regroup and make sure word of this treachery make it to Terra. Thus the last Loyalist Astartes fight to the death giving the famous battle cruiser Eisenstein a chance to flee to Terra with news of Horus's betrayal.
Terra is in shock. The beloved son of the Emperor of Man has become a traitor. Sadly, save for a small handful of people on the Council of Terra, few realize that Horus has fallen to the Dark Gods. At this time the Imperium was secular and the Emperor was a strict atheist. So no one really believed such a thing could happen. The Dark Gods strike and cause Warp Storms in space. The Emperor retreats to his private abode to conduct secret research. Meanwhile, the entire planet and the remaining loyalist forces exterminated by a 2nd bombardment.
Primarch Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists is infuriated by the treason and heads to Terra with his Legion to protect Emperor. Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children tries to corrupt Ferrus Manus of Iron Hands. Manus refuses and declares war on his former brothers.
As the Emperor does his secret research- Dorn is elevated to Emperor's Champion and Malcador, the Imperial Advisor, to run the Council of Terra. Still no one suspects the Dark powers, rather they think it was ambition on the part of Horus and discontent by renegade Primarchs at the power of the civilian Council of Terra. Terrible mistake.
At Isstavan V the Traitor Legions are found to have fled and dug in. Three loyal Primarchs and their Legions surround the planet (Ferrus Manus and his Legio Iron Hands; Vulkan and his Legio Salamnders; Corvax and his Legio Raven Guard). Four other Legions are in transit to support this assault. Manus, enraged beyond measure, ignores the advice of Corvax and Vulkan and declines to wait for the remaining forces to arrive. The three Loyalist Legions assault the fortress. What follows is an epic battle described in detail advanced by Hours past the Drop. It is epic reading as demigods battle and tens of thousands of Space Marines and their massive war engines battle Traitor Legions.
Eventually, when the "reinforcements" arrive it turns out that the four Legions (Iron Warriors, Night Lords, Word Bearers and Alpha Legion) have turned to Chaos. Surrounded on all sides this becomes the death ground of over 200,000 loyal Space Marines, 2 dead Primarchs (Manus and Vulkan) and one crazed and MIA (Corvax). During final phase of the Massacre Word Bearers Legio (at this point worshipers of Khorne, the Blood God, the Lord of Rage) showing their corruption with sigul and rune covered Warp armor. Demonic presence is shown for the first time. Empire is in SERIOUS trouble.
Ok then. That was awesome. A great book that I geeked out over. Now I am going to go buy the novel and read about the whole story. This great sourcebook has it all- the maps, the tactics, the information of the individual Legions (Chaos and Loyal), casualty lists..anything and everything you wanted to know about the Isstavan Massacres and the official start of Horus' war against the Emperor.
A must have for any fan of this series. I loved this book. Any Warhammer 40K fan would.
April 7, 2016
More wonderful world-building in the 40k universe, specifically pre-Unification, Unification and the early Crusade.
December 30, 2013
Un livre très agréable à lire si l'on comprends l'anglais évidemment. Le profil des primarques Lorgar,Vulkan,Ferrus et Konrad Curze y est présent. L'histoire de l'hérésie y est aussi bien décrite. Le seul problème est le prix assez élevé.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews