The Dawn of the ImperiumI think that it's fair to say that the Horus Heresy has become the Holy Grail of many forty kay players.
It's a subject that has attracted a lot of attention with the release of first the Horus Heresy artwork books and now the novels exploring the heroes and villains of the Heresy itself.
The object of this forum is to assist players in recreating armies from that time and go beyond just the forces of the Imperium at the time.
It is not intended in any way to be official and at the end of the day a subject like this is down to the interpretation of the players themselves.
Instead my goal here is to present what I see as the most plausible representation of the armies of the thirty first millenium using the existing Codexes.
Pre-HeresyBefore we go any further we need to clear up what actually constitutes a Great Crusade (also known as Pre-Heresy) era army.
At the time of the thirty first millenium the Imperium was only just begining to florish under the leadership of the Emperor as his forces re-took the worlds that had been settled during the Dark Age of Technology.
The rise of the Emperor of Mankind had been a long an ardous task spanning many millenia before his rise to power.
Age of Terra: First to Fifteenth Millenia.
Great civilisations of man come and go throughout this time, eventually the Terran system is colonised with human settlers on Mars and the moons of Neptune, Saturn and Jupiter.
Age of Technology: Fifteenth to Twenty Fifth Millenia
Using sub-light space craft humanity spreads to nearby solar systems. .
The vast distances between the outer system colonies and Terra mean that they self governing and rely on soley locally obtained resources.
At around the time of the twenty second millenia the first Navigators are born, human hybrids with the ability to navigate vessels through the turmoil of the Warp.
Humanity enters a golden age of enlightnement where the old colonies are re-united. The Standard Construct Template system allows colonies to create whatever they require from simple tools and accomodation to weapon platforms and star ships using whatever materials tehy could acquire locally.
Treaties and non-agressive pacts are forged with aliens races and mankind florishes.Age of Strife: Twenty Fifth to Thirtieth Millenia.
Unforseen storms appear in the Warp disrupt interstellar travel. Growing in intensity Warp travel is rendered impossible. Cut off from the rest of Humanity many colonies tear themselves apart as civil war and mutation run riot. Many fall prey to the invasion of hostile aliens and the emergence of the Human Psykers expose humanity to the threat of warp-creatures.
Mankind stands of the edge of total destruction.
The Age of the Imperium: Thirtieth millenia to present
The Wars of Unification.
Amidst the turmoil on Terra a powerful individual known to history only as the Emperor emerges. With his Regimentss of enhanced proto-Astartes he defeats the armies of the techno-barbarian tyrants dominating the planet uniting mankind under his banner. He begins to create the Primarchs, superhuman beings that will one day lead his Legions of Astartes in battle.Conquest of the Sol System.With control of Terra secured the Emperor and his Legions set about reclaiming the colonies Sol System. Although many had succumb to alien rule Mars had survived under the leadership of a caste of Tech-priest known as the Mechanium or Cult Mechanicus.
During the Age of Strife the Tech-priests had maintained fleets of sub-light vessles that visited the other worlds of the Sol system plundering Terra for whatever technological secrets they could find.
Over the centuries they founded many colonies that would later be known as Forge Worlds.
When the Emperor of mankind finally rose to power the Mechanium recognised him as a man of science that had been fortold of in ancient prophesies and a union was formed. In return for equiping his armies with fleets of warships and equipment the Emperor promised to protect the tech-priests and allow them independant rule of their forge worlds.
The Great CrusadeThe ferocious warp storms surrounding the Terran Sol system finally pass allowing warp travel to become possible again.
With the Primarchs spirited away by some unforseen force the Emperor begins to lead his Legions on a crusade to unite mankind that will last two hundred years. One by one the primarchs are reunited with the Emperor and each is assigned command of an entire Legion of Astartes augmented from their own genetic material.
The Imperium of man begins to expand, liberating worlds from alien rule and enlightened by the Imperial truth the faith and superstition of the past are driven away in their wake.
For further reading see:
"The Horus Hersey Vol I - IV."
"Horus Rising" by Dan abnett
"False Gods" by Graham McNeil
"Galaxy in Flames" by Ben Counter
"Flight of the Eisenstein" by James Swallow
Available from : Black Library Publications