This project is a personal hobby project based on the Warhammer 40,000 intellectual property of Games Workshop Ltd. The project is completely unofficial and not endorsed by Games Workshop. Trademarks of Games Workshop Ltd. used without permission. No challenge to their status is intended. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.

The background text and all illustrations are excerpts from published works, copyright their respective owners (Games Workshop or their subsidiaries), used without permission. No challenge to their status is intended. The text and images are used to support the body of the article, which is original work by the author Mike Adams, copyright 2006.

The project is intended to support the Warhammer 40,000 game. In order to make use of this project, you will need a copy of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook as well as the source books “Codex: Daemonhunters” and “Codex: Chaos Space Marines”.

The article may be printed and/or stored for personal use only, but may not be distributed or re-published in any form without written permission from the author.

Background to the Battle

Gambling the result of the Heresy on a single action, Horus lowered the shields protecting his battle barge. The Emperor, accompanied by an elite bodyguard, teleported aboard, but were cast throughout the Chaos-warped starship. Horus easily defeated several Imperial Fists veterans before slaying Sanguinius, the angel-Primarch of the Blood Angels. Finally, the Emperor found his way to Horus' command room, and engaged his once-beloved son in a titanic duel of strength, wits, and power.

Although accounts of the actual battle vary, almost all confirm that the end of the duel resulted in Horus' death, and the fatal wounding of the Emperor. While there are conspiracy theories about the Emperor and the Golden Throne, these are yet unfounded. Knowing instantly when their leader had fallen, the forces that had declared their loyalty to Horus splintered and fled, most hiding within the warpstorm known as the Eye of Terror. The Sons of Horus did likewise, but under the direction of Horus' lieutenant, Abaddon, took the time to launch an assault on Horus' battle barge and retrieve their leader's body.

The Emperor of Man

Note you will need a copy of “Codex Daemonhunters” for an explanation of some of the special rules used by The Emperor.

The Sword of Light, The Razor Gauntlet, His Runic Armour, Golden Halo, Purity Seals, Frag Grenades.

The Emperor is an extremely powerful psyker. He can kill most mortal men with but a stare, and is a formidable psychic duellist. He has the psychic powers “Hammerhand” and “Scourging” and carries a Force Weapon (see The Sword of Light). In addition, The Emperor has the “Life Drain” ability, which counts as a psychic power that does not require a Psychic Test. The unique Psychic Hood built in to His Runic Armour also doubles the range of any psychic powers he uses, so Scourging has a range of 36” not 18”. Once per battle, he may use two of his powers in a single turn. That means either two of the three psychic powers or one of these and the Force Weapon. The rules for “Hammerhand”, “Scourging” and “Life Drain” are to be found in both Codex Daemonhunters and Codex Witch Hunters.

The Emperor has a strong warp presence able to repel creatures of the Warp, and prescient abilities to anticipate attacks. When The Emperor takes a Psychic Test, he only suffers a Perils Of The Warp attack on a roll of 12, not on a roll of 2. Any enemy wishing to target The Emperor or his retinue with a psychic power must first pass a Leadership test. If they fail, they may not target The Emperor or his retinue but they may attack another target instead. The Emperor and his retinue also benefit from a 4+ save against the effects of any and every psychic power used successfully against them. If this save is passed then the power is nullified and has no effect. In addition, The Emperor’s His Runic Armour incorporates a Psychic Hood. To nullify enemy psychic attacks, the player can choose to use either the Psychic Hood or else The Emperor’s innate psychic warding, not both. Minor psychic powers have no effect at all on The Emperor.

The Sword of Light
The Sword of Light was meticulously crafted over a generation by the best artisans in the Imperium, using the most arcane technology scoured from the Galaxy. It is psychically charged and transcribed with sigils to ward off daemons. The Sword of Light may only be wielded by The Emperor, designed to fit his glove and provide a channel for his unique, psychic abilities. The Sword counts as a master-crafted Force Weapon which also confers +2 Strength.

The Razor Gauntlet
The Razor Gauntlet is a master-crafted Lightning Claw with built-in Digi-Lasers. The Digi-Lasers are powerful short-ranged lasers. They may be used at the start of close combat before any attacks are worked out. One model in contact with The Emperor, chosen by the player, suffers a wound on a D6 roll of 4+. Normal saving throws are allowed. In addition, the Digi-Lasers count as an extra close combat weapon, giving The Emperor a total of 5 Attacks on his profile.

His Runic Armour
The Emperor’s armour is unique, splendid in brilliant gold, forged by master craftsmen, ornate and inscribed with runes. It incorporates the best protection technology known to the Imperium of Man. The armour confers an Armour Save of 2+. The Emperor does not suffer Instant Death when wounded by a weapon whose Strength is at least twice The Emperor’s Toughness, taking a single wound instead. His Runic Armour also incorporates a Psychic Hood designed to enhance The Emperor’s already formidable psychic talents. The Hood can be used to attempt to nullify enemy psychic attacks instead of The Emperor’s innate psychic defences (see Psychic Warding above). The Hood also has the effect of doubling the range of any psychic powers used by The Emperor (see Psychic Powers above). His Runic Armour also incorporates technology to allow the Emperor to teleport into battle using Deep Strike.

Golden Halo
The Golden Halo incorporates a powerful energy shield, granting The Emperor a 4+ invulnerable save which may be used instead of His Runic Armour’s normal 2+ save.

Prescience
The Emperor’s unique psychic abilities give him foresight, enabling him to anticipate events at the personal level and at the battlefield level. At the battlefield level, this ability manifests itself as follows. The Emperor can detect enemy infiltrators just as if he were equipped with an Auspex, and gets a free shot at Daemons and Deep Striking units just as if he were an Inquisitor with a single Mystic in his retinue (see Codex Daemonhunters).

Awesome Presence
The Emperor is an awesome presence, projecting a holy light, both in real space and in warp space. Any enemy wishing to shoot at or charge The Emperor must first pass a Leadership test. If they fail, they may not attack The Emperor, but may attack another target instead. Any enemy in base contact with The Emperor wishing to attack him in close combat must first take a Leadership test. If it is passed, the model can attack normally. If it is failed, the model counts as having Weapon Skill 1 for the rest of that round. Any enemy wishing to target The Emperor with a psychic attack must also first pass a Leadership test (see Psychic Warding).

Abhorrent to Daemons
The presence of The Emperor is abhorrent to foul creatures of the Warp, who rail against his psychic purity. To represent this, all Daemons within 6” of The Emperor suffer -1 to their Leadership. Daemons which take Instability tests while The Emperor is on the battlefield take the test with a -1 modifier to their Leadership. And all Daemons attempting to charge The Emperor must roll dice for their assault range as if they were moving in difficult ground.

Noble Spirit
The Emperor is a giant among men, a super-human of supreme courage, iron will and noble spirit. The Emperor and any unit he joins can choose whether to pass or fail any Morale Check or Pinning Test he is called on to make, even if failure is normally automatic.

Immortal Majesty
The Emperor is a rare and extraordinary being, blessed by the gods. The gods will intervene to preserve him if he is close to death. Each time The Emperor suffers a Wound, that Wound is saved on a D6 roll of 4+. This is an additional save taken after all other saves.

Final Deathblow
Should The Emperor ever lose his last Wound, before he becomes a casualty he make one free “Life Drain” psychic attack as his final act before he passes unconscious (when a Primarch or other supreme hero will recover his body to the Imperial Palace on Terra to place him on a life support system and feed his psychic soul with sacrificial volunteers, while supervising the construction of the Golden Throne).

Commander of Legions
The Emperor is a supreme leader and grand strategist, revered by all loyalists. If The Emperor is on the table, then all loyalist squads may use his Leadership for Morale, Pinning or Leadership Tests (but not Psychic Tests). Where there is a choice of mission based on strategy rating, The Emperor player may always choose the mission. Similarly, he may either choose to win the dice roll for choice of table edge or request that the dice for the first turn be re-rolled.

Independent Character
The Emperor is an Independent Character.

Royal Guard
In battle the Emperor is always accompanied by a retinue of Custodes (see below).

The Royal Guard

Captain of the Guard and 3-8 Custodes.

Custodian Blades, Purity Seals, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Terminator Honours (included in profiles).

All Royal Guard have Artificer Armour (included in profiles) and all are treated as Independent Characters for the purposes of close combat.

Custodian Blades
Custodian Blades are meticulously crafted heavy power halberds with built-in bolters. They count as a power weapon wielded in two hands and confer a 4+ invulnerable save in close combat only. The Blade can be wielded normally or it can be wielded in one almighty blow. In this case, all Attacks may be replaced by a single Attack at +2 Strength. The bolter built-in to the Blade can be fired as a normal bolter in the shooting phase and is subject to the normal rules and restrictions for Rapid Fire weapons, except that it is master-crafted.

Deep Strike
The squad can teleport into battle using Deep Strike.

Warmaster Horus

Note you will need a copy of “Codex Chaos Space Marines” for an explanation of some of the special rules used by Warmaster Horus.

Talon of Horus, Slayer of Mortals, Blessed Armour, Eye of Horus.

Horus is a powerful, dark sorcerer who has made a pact with the Chaos Gods. Tzeentch has conferred on Horus the Sorcerer ability. He has the major psychic power “Wind of Chaos” and automatically passes all Psychic Tests he is required to take. Horus disdains minor psychic powers.

Talon of Horus
The Talon of Horus is a fearsome gauntlet with enormous, razor-sharp claws and built-in combi-bolter, fashioned by the greatest artisans of Horus‘s rebellion, inscribed with Chaos symbols and blessed by the Chaos Gods. The Talon counts as a master-crafted lightning claw with built-in combi-bolter.

Slayer of Mortals
The Slayer of Mortals is a huge, ancient mace that has crushed so many heads and limbs that it is said to be imbued with a daemonic thirst for combat and will fell the mightiest enemy with a single blow. The Slayer of Mortals counts as a master-crafted 'rending' power maul, with the additional effect that each Wound it inflicts instead causes D3 Wounds.

Blessed Armour
The Warmaster’s armour is adorned with arcane devices, runes and fetishes and blessed by the Chaos Gods. It has the abilities of normal Terminator armour but the invulnerable save is increased to 4+ (included in the profile). The armour will also nullify any psychic power used against Horus, or that includes him in its area of effect, on a D6 roll of 4+. In addition, the armour incorporates a Daemonic Rune, making Horus immune to Instant Death.

Eye of Horus
Horus bears an insidious, evil eye, gifted from the Chaos God of Change, which he uses to see what will come to pass, allowing him to pre-empt opponents in combat. The Eye allows Horus to re-roll either a single armour save, a single to-hit roll or a single to-wound roll in each of his own turns.

Warmaster
As well as being a ferocious warrior, Horus is a consummate leader and skilled orator. The Warmaster, his personal retinue and any other Chaos units apart from Daemons with a model within 6” of him will automatically pass any Morale Tests or Pinning Tests they are required to take.

Chosen of the Gods
Uniquely, Horus does not follow any one particular Chaos God, but is blessed by all of them. He counts as having all of the Marks of Chaos: Mark of Tzeentch (Chaos Sorceror, automatically passes Psychic Tests); Mark of Slaanesh (Warp Scream); Mark of Khorne (included in profile); Mark of Nurgle (included in profile).

Daemonic Gifts
Horus has not succumbed to daemonhood, but has the following daemonic gifts: Daemonic Essence (included in profile), Daemonic Rune (included in Blessed Armour).

Attracts Daemons
With his strong presence both in real space and Warp space, and with the blessing of all of the Chaos Gods, Horus is a focus for daemonic incursion. He counts as having a Personal Icon aligned with any and all Marks of Chaos.

Independent Character
Warmaster Horus is an Independent Character.

Sons of Horus
Horus is accompanied in battle by a personal retinue of Chaos Chosen from the Sons of Horus Space Marine Legion (see below).

Optional Rules

The following optional rule adds progressive damage to the two mighty champions as they fight. It makes the game more interesting if you are just playing the two characters.

Whenever The Emperor or Horus takes a wound (after all saves), in addition to the character losing a wound against its Wounds profile as normal, roll for progressive damage to the character. Roll first on the Wound Location Table to determine the location of the wound, then roll on the corresponding location table to determine the effect of the wound. If the character takes more than one wound in a turn, roll for each wound inflicted.

In the case of an Armour wound, if the effect rolled for is not applicable, re-roll on the same table. In the case of a Weapon wound, dice first for which main weapon is affected. If all main weapons are destroyed, then the wounded player chooses a secondary weapon. If all weapons are destroyed, ignore the result (in that case, the character is in enough trouble!) If the given weapon wound effect is not applicable to the particular weapon, re-roll on the same table. If no results are applicable to that weapon, simply count the weapon destroyed.

Designer's Notes

Reason

The titanic battle between The Emperor and Horus is the most major historical event in the Warhammer 40,000 background. It marked the end of the Horus Heresy and the start of the 10,000 year period of human history which is represented in the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game. At the end of the forty first millenium, The Emperor is barely living, sealed in The Golden Throne on Terra and worshipped as a God. The battle with Horus is the last time when The Emperor walked the earth as a man (although a super-human man). It represents almost a former, glorious age, before the really dark period of the main Warhammer 40,000 setting. It is begging to be gamed in some form. It would not be too difficult for Games Workshop to release a special Warhammer 40,000 variant which takes us back to the time of the Horus Heresy, and I would be very surprised if it is not already in planning or in some draft format in the vaults of Games Design.

For joe wargamer, the most accessible way to bring this era alive is to replay the famous combat that ended the Heresy. I was surprised not to find something like this already in existence. Anyway, this is what I am presenting here for your delectation.

I have concentrated on the two main combatants themselves, but for completeness I have created profiles for their retinues. I could go further (and maybe one day I will) and create profiles for the Primarchs, especially Sanguinus of the Blood Angels who was slain by Horus just prior to The Emperor's arrival. I guess it depends on how far you want to go. At the moment you can play a fun game substituting suitable character models for The Emperor and Horus, but ideally you would create special conversions. I can see each character model being a major project in itself, plus the retinues. And then you really need to build some custom terrain to represent Horus' Battle Barge where the fight took place. Like I say, it depends how far you want to go, but I hope somebody out there is inspired to go 'the whole hog'!

Design Principles

I adopted quite a strict design principle from the start, which was that I would build each character from existing rules. The reason is that there are lots of powerful special rules already in existence that push the boundaries of the game system. They are well proven, well play-tested, and carefully designed to fit into the Warhammer 40,000 game. What I would do is bring appropriate rules together to fit the theme of each character.

For example, for The Emperor I decided that I could pick the best stats line from any human or Space Marine in the game, and give him any Imperial wargear without limit or restriction. The only qualification is that he must remain 'in character', e.g. it would be stupid to give him a lascannon and a medi-kit! I also decided that because of his famous psychic abilities, he could choose the best psychic stats and abilities. The Emperor character could also take any Imperial special rules to do with leadership or command, but not to do with close combat.

So The Emperor's stats line is based on Marneus Calgar (very senior Space Marine special character), with wargear based on things like Iron Halo, Adamantine Cloak and Nemesis Force Sword (as wielded by a Grey Knights Grand Master of course!). I created my own names in many cases, because The Emperor's equipment would of course be unique, specially fabricated for him alone.

I did the same for Horus, who is based on Abaddon The Despoiler. I allowed myself the choice of Chaos abilities and wargear with certain restrictions, primarily that he has not succumbed to any one Chaos power and has not ascended to daemonhood. He is a psyker, but can not pick psychic special abilities in the way I allowed for The Emperor.

Of course this was just the starting point. I had to tweak a little, but really very little. The problem was that when I first playtested the characters, Horus whipped The Emperor every time, usually in one turn! The reason is that, being a follower of Chaos, Horus had slightly better combat-oriented stats, and a master-crafted lightning claw wielded by a WS6 character is going to make a nonsense of anybody's defences. It was then that I realised I needed a very simple solution, which was to give The Emperor a special "Immortal Majesty" save (this is actually "Ignore Injury" from the Blood Angels Death Company).

Points

I have not attempted to come up with points values, I hope for obvious reasons. Points values are mainly arrived at through a lot of play testing in different scenarios against different opponents, which I just don't have time nor resources for. In any case, these characters can only be used in very specific scenarios created just for them. It is obvious that The Emperor or Horus will unbalance most armies and most games. Having said that, I believe the balance is right between the two individuals. If you play The Emperor versus Horus, I believe the outcome could go either way, hopefully as close and nail-biting as the historical encounter.

Multiple Weapons

Both The Emperor and Horus have two main close combat weapons. I have interpreted the Warhammer 40,000 rules as follows: A character must choose which weapon he is using in each round of close combat and fights with that weapon only. For example, The Emperor must choose whether to fight with the Sword of Light or the Razor Gauntlet, not both. However, note The Emperor does get the benefit of the digi-lasers, whichever weapon he uses. This is a very important rule and gives each player a key decision to make in each combat round.

Playtest Results (Tactics)

As I wrote above, in my first playtesting Horus whipped The Emperor every time, in just one round. Back to the drawing board! I took away the D3 Wounds on Horus' power maul and gave The Emperor the 4+ "Immortal Majesty" save, but in my next round of playtesting I decided I had made the classic error of overcompensating. Finally, Horus got his D3 Wounds back.

I think what I am left with is a good game based on just two characters. For The Emperor, the key decision is how to use his psychic powers, when to use his "Once per battle, he may use two of his powers in a single turn" special rule, and whether to use the Sword of Light or the Razor Gauntlet. "Life Drain" is very powerful, but can only take one wound and stops The Emperor using the Force Sword. The Force Sword is the killer weapon because of its ability to take all Horus' remaining wounds and kill him outright, but it doesn't get the re-roll of the Razor Gauntlet, and there is a 50:50 chance Horus will nullify the effect of the Force Sword anyway. For Horus, his stats are so good he can keep pounding The Emperor every turn. His difficulty is getting enough wounds past The Emperor's "Immortal Majesty" before he succumbs to the Sword of Light.

One final note - just in case you thought these superhuman characters were impossibly powerful - during playtesting the characters were brought down to earth by a couple of things. The Emperor suffered a wound from a Perils of the Warp attack, which was embarrassing, and his Royal Guard looked clumsy when they assaulted Horus across a wall, but got stuck crossing the wall (i.e. fell short because of their difficult terrain roll) and then got counter-charged!

Well, that's it. Good luck with your dice, have fun and drop me a line to let me know how you got on.