May 2026 UK Goonhammer Open: Horus Heresy Those Who Die

They talk of the battles between Gods amongst the distant stars, with Primarchs and their Legions clashing on Istvaan, Beta-Garmon and Calth, and a bloodsoaked road to Terra. Half a galaxy away a war is fought between heroes and villains, between saviours and the monsters of myths, but this is not heaven. We are mortals here.

It’s been raining for four days. The shells have been coming down for longer. The earth has been churned to mud, stained a faint blood red that you can tune out if you choose to focus on the fog. The barbed wire peaks out from beneath the mud.

I’ve forgotten how long this deployment has been. Our attrition rate has to be upward of 60%. I’ve lost hope that they’ll rotate us back to the bastions. I know I’m going mad because this foxhole is starting to feel like home. I can tune out the thud of the guns and get a nice bit of shut-eye.

The good news is we’re running out of officers. Our Captain’s dead. She took a sniper’s bullet last week while peaking out on No Man’s with her ampli-visor. Her second ate a shell a few days later. The “Discipline Officer” suffered an accident while we took our morning mess. There’s a Lieutenant in charge now; a pimple-faced weasel cowering in one of the dugouts on the second line. Vox makes the orders clear though, and we still know to follow: hold the line; man the guns; watch no man’s land; don’t waste ammo; wait for support. At least there’s no one brave or important enough around here to order us to walk through a minefield.

There’s rumblings amongst the men that a company of Marines made planetfall last night. They better stay well away from our sector. War is best when it's boring.

- Sergeant Otto Ruthvin, 6th Infantry Company, 29h Pan-Harmonian Blacks

Francian Dragoons at the Horus Heresy Second Sphere Defense Credit: Soggy

is the new keystone narrative event from the Goonhammer Horus Heresy team at Leicester DeMontfort Student Union on the 23th and 24th of May. We’re pleased to announce that tickets to our biggest event of 2026 are now on sale – Those Who Die.

Prepare to bleed and die on the surface of an unremembered planet, as we run a faction focused event for mortals players. The Solar Auxilia, Imperialis Militia and Skitaari Conclaves will battle for superiority as we explore the stories of the uncounted millions of mortal soldiers who fought in the Horus Heresy.

We've aimed to make the format approachable for those without an existing army, so the army size is a humble 1500pts. 400 Levy at most!

The two teams will battle in a series of missions depicting the mass assault, trench warfare and high body-counts of a conflict between mortal men. We're running a wide variety of unusual, highly narrative asymmetric missions, challenging players and their lists in even more unusual games than at a normal Goonhammer Event.

Limited quantities of non-Mortal (Immortal) tickets will be available for the event. This planet is not important enough for thousands upon thousands of the Legiones Astartes, but a few hundred Marines may be used as stealthy special forces, the point of speartip assaults, or to reinforce the most vital of strongpoints. Immortals players may be required to battle against Mortals in challenging missions which may favour the Mortals players.

Cthonian Headhunters at the Horus Heresy Second Sphere Defense Credit: Soggy

As always the latest event information and packs can be found on our event page here. If you weren’t able to make it to this one, save the date for our other events in 2025 which we announced here.

Come play some Warhammer with us and see some of the finest and most multitudinous armies in the 31st Millenium!

A Rogue Trader aligned Traitor Auxilia force at the Horus Heresy Second Sphere Defense Credit: Soggy

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Tags: Horus Heresy | goonhammer open