Welcome to our second look at the new rules coming in the latest edition of Warhammer: The Horus Heresy.
After diving into Advanced Characteristics earlier this week, today we turn our attention to Tactical Statuses – a new mechanic that brings added nuance to battlefield control without slowing the game down.
More Than Just Blasts and Bolters
Getting shot in the 31st Millennium doesn’t just mean a bad day – it might mean being atomised by a volkite charger or shredded by a Rotor Cannon. But damage isn’t the only thing a weapon can do anymore. The new edition captures the psychological and tactical weight of battlefield suppression with four Tactical Statuses: Pinned, Suppressed, Stunned, and Routed.
These statuses reflect the havoc that futuristic firepower can wreak on even gene-forged warriors. Rather than simply removing models, weapons can now impede a unit’s capabilities and control its actions, adding a whole new layer to how you approach the tabletop.
Each Tactical Status inflicts specific penalties:
- Pinned units are frozen in place – no movement, no repositioning.
- Suppressed units lose accuracy, making ranged retaliation unreliable.
- Stunned units react sluggishly, often striking last in combat.
- Routed units panic and may flee the field altogether, representing a full-blown morale collapse.
While each effect is distinct, all Tactical Statuses share a few nasty side effects. Units under their influence can’t contest objectives, suffer Disordered Charges, and usually fight last in combat. They’ll need to pass a test on their Cool or Leadership (drawn from the new Advanced Characteristics system) at the end of their turn to shake it off.
Bringing Old Weapons Back Into Play
Tactical Statuses aren’t just a thematic flourish – they breathe new life into weapons that previously struggled to make an impact. Take the humble Rotor Cannon: once overshadowed by its high-strength cousins, it’s now a suppression powerhouse, blanketing the battlefield with pinning fire that can disrupt even elite formations.
Flamers and other terror-inducing weapons have also received a glow-up. They now feature the Panic (X) rule, which can immediately inflict the Routed status on a unit if they score wounds. This gives these short-ranged weapons a powerful role in forcing enemy units to break and run, especially after inflicting heavy casualties.
Tracking the Chaos
To make it easy to track the shifting conditions of war, the Saturnine box includes a full set of plastic Tactical Status tokens. These let you mark units clearly and consistently, and once you’ve played a few games, the flow of applying and recovering from Statuses becomes intuitive and dynamic.
The Big Picture
Tactical Statuses are a smart addition. They don’t bloat the core rules, but they add meaningful choices, revive underused units, and mirror the chaotic nature of large-scale warfare in the Age of Darkness. They reward players who plan ahead, wield psychological pressure, and understand that sometimes control is more powerful than raw destruction.
Stay tuned later this week, when we explore how weapons themselves have evolved in the new edition – and how your favourite tools of war might be deadlier (or sneakier) than ever.
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