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I had the pleasure of attending the Horus Heresy Open Day yesterday, after a fellow hobbyist was able to nab me a ticket to the event during the rush the other month. It was my first event in quite some time, and I was ecstatic for the opportunity to meet some new and old faces on the day. Naturally, like many other attendees I have some thoughts on how the day went, what did and didn’t go well and what could have been done better. I’ve broken them down into little headings to make them a bit more digestible.

(Like an idiot, I didn’t snap many pictures from the event itself – the crowd around the new model cases and the sheer amount of socialising I did didn’t really give me much of an opportunity).

++ The Day ++

Overall, the social aspect of the day was fantastic – it was great to meet peers from the Heresy community for the first time since the pandemic. I had great fun chatting to the moderator team from the HH: Age of Darkness Discord (codewalrus, The Ironic Warrior, Martin Col.Hertford), as well as wider community members like Alysdair Lord Marshal, Leman Russ, Marsekay and Anvils_of_Konor. We were also able to score a delightful chat with Adam Troke from the Warhammer Community team.

That said, we did run out of things to do by 1500hrs. We’d visited everything typically on offer at Warhammer World, as well as the activities on offer at the Open Day itself. I feel like the venue space limits what Games Workshop can feasibly put on during the day, even with such a small crowd of attendees. If we’re going to see open days returning moving forward I’d love to see them shift to a larger venue.

All aside, once we’d finished at the event and split off into our respective circles to travel home or go out for a drink the day was pretty damn stellar. I look forward to future events!

++ Content ++

Generally speaking I was pretty satisfied with what they had on show for the new edition at the event – I was even pleasantly surprised to discover that Marduk Sedras and Ka’Bandha were on sale for the first time as well! The initial reveal stream was fantastic and contained a good few surprises that are likely to harm my wallet immesurably.

That said, I would have liked a little more news on what we can expect from the system moving forward – a potential casualty of the designers not being present as far as I could see (apart from Andy Hoare lurking in the back room). Confirmation of what’s going on with other armies like Mechanicum, Custodes and so forth book-wise would have been great, and I would have liked a confirmation on whether or not the existing resin vehicle upgrades are compatible with the new kits.

It’s entirely possible we’ll be hearing more on some of these points at upcoming events like UK Games Expo in June (03/06 – 05/06), so I’ll definitely keep my ears pricked for further news!

++ On Influencers ++

Possibly one of the more controversial decisions with the new event was Games Workshop’s decision to invite various content creators from around the community to attend, and I can earnestly say I sit on the fence on this one – there were certainly positive and negatives to inviting them.

There are a lot of passionate content creators in the community that were fantastic to engage with on the day – although unfortunately, I missed the opportunity to speak to some of my personal hobby heroes like JH Miniatures or Pete the Wargamer. However, I will say that it seemed like a few did not particularly want to be there; be it a lack of interest in the Heresy or a lack of interest in engaging with the community face-to-face.

I expect Games Workshop will learn from this event moving forward.

++ Closing Thoughts ++

Overall, I thought the event went pretty well, albeit feeling a bit off kilter at times. It’s great to see the community reinvigorated following the official announcement of the new edition, and the apparent scope of Forge World’s (and wider Games Workshop’s) support moving forward. I can safely say that it’s going to be an exciting few months moving forward!

~~~ JoeyBear ~~~