If you've been painting up rank after rank of Solar Auxilia and wondering when they'd get a stage worthy of all those flak helmets, the answer is two weeks away. The Goonhammer Open's "Those Who Die" Horus Heresy event lands at De Montfort Students' Union in Leicester on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 May 2026.
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Start organising for freeA quick primer for 40k players passing through. Horus Heresy is Games Workshop's 30,000-year prequel system where Space Marine legions fight each other in a galactic civil war. Solar Auxilia are the regular human regiments and Militia are the rougher conscript-and-cultist forces. Both spend most of their printed lore getting steamrolled by Astartes. Goonhammer is the hobby blog and podcast that runs deep meta analysis and increasingly its own narrative events.
The pitch this time is unusual for Heresy. Most narrative weekends lean on Astartes legions doing legion things. This one focuses on the uncounted millions of mortal soldiers who do most of the dying in Horus Heresy fiction. Tickets come in two flavours: Mortal slots, which are the focus, and a small batch of Immortal slots for Space Marine players willing to fight scenarios tilted to favour the masses.
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Find events near youFormat is four games across two days, 9am to 5:30pm each day, narrative-first rather than tournament. Goonhammer's Horus Heresy team has been running this kind of event since 2024, with previous outings building campaign-arc storylines that get printed up afterwards. Expect missions covering mass assault, trench warfare and asymmetric set pieces.
Tickets are on Eventbrite, 18+ only, in-person attendance required. De Montfort SU sits a short walk from Leicester station, so it's a manageable trip from London or Birmingham for a weekend.
Got a hobby club that's been threatening to run something narrative-led? "Those Who Die" is a useful blueprint. Pick a forgotten faction, pick a campaign arc, run four short missions instead of tournament behemoths, and you've got an event your members will actually paint for. List your local club's narrative day and you'll be surprised who turns up.
Sources: Goonhammer | Eventbrite
