Welcome to our second article covering rules changes in the forthcoming edition of Warhammer: The Horus Heresy. Today we’re taking a look at Tactical Statuses, a smart new system that brings a lot more battlefield detail without bogging things down.
Getting shot isn’t much fun, especially during the Horus Heresy when that can mean getting turned into a shower of glowing blue confetti by a disintegrator. The new rules show off the brutality of the weapons during the 31st Millennium, and the psychological effect they can have on even the most stalwart Space Marine.
In the new edition there are now four Tactical Statuses in play, each applied by a different type of weapon or battlefield effect – there are more ways to dominate the battlefield than simply killing the enemy.
These are: Pinned, Suppressed, Stunned, and Routed.
Pinned
The Pinned Status reflects a Unit that has been forced to take cover in the face of overwhelming firepower or the sudden crack of a sniper’s rifle.
Suppressed
The Suppressed Status reflect a Unit that is distracted and confused by heavy enemy fire, environmental effects or psychological warfare.
Stunned
The Stunned Status reflects a Unit rendered insensible or stopped in its tracks by the sheer force of an impact, explosion or other battlefield event.
Routed
The Routed Status reflects a unit that has suffered such a catastrophic reversal that it must fall back from the front line in order to regroup and recover.
Pinned stops you from moving, Suppressed makes your shots fly wide, and Stunned hampers your reactions. There are many ways to inflict these statuses on your foes, which typically involve testing one of the new Advanced Characteristics. There are tokens included in the Saturnine box to mark units under these effects.
Various weapon types now specialise in inflicting a Tactical Status. For example, the Rotor Cannon previously performed poorly against Space Marine armour; it’s now a highly efficient, fully automatic Pinning machine – Tactical Marines will dive for cover under its withering hail.
By adding more ways for attacks to affect a unit, Tactical Statuses breathe new life into weapons that might previously have been left behind in favour of raw killing power.
Flame weapons benefit greatly from this new system, and they bring us neatly onto our fourth status: Routed. This is where the old rules for Morale find a new home, and much of its conditions will feel familiar – this Tactical Status will most commonly be applied to a unit that has lost combat or suffered 25% casualties in a single phase. Routed units move towards their battlefield edge and may run off the table entirely. The new Panic (X) special rule – found on most flame weapons and other similar pieces of wargear – can also inflict Routed should they successfully wound as part of an attack.
In addition to their unique effects, Tactical Statuses all apply a cocktail of common drawbacks to the unit they affect. Charges become Disordered, troops fight last in most combats, and they are unable to capture objectives. Units test on their Advanced Characteristics – Cool for Pinned, Suppressed and Stunned, and Leadership for Routed – at the end of their turn to see if they recover.
There’s more detail that we won’t dig into here, but that’s Tactical Statuses in broad strokes. You get a whole handful of plastic tokens in the Saturnine box that help you track who has which Statuses, and it’ll be second nature before you know it. Come back later this week as we take a look at the new weapon characteristics and see how your favourite guns have changed in the new edition.
