Made a post about this a ways back, but that was before the conclusion of the HH as a book series. Now that time has passed and we have all had time to process, I figured I'd offer my opinion and ask for that of others.
My opinions:
Loyalists-
Strategic: Choosing to engage the traitors on Isstvan before all of the "loyal" reinforces arrived. Granted, they were going to get betrayed, but they didn't know that at the time. Why would you engage 4 traits legions with 3 loyalist, when you can wait and have 5 other loyalist legions backing you up? Ferrus had over all command and made the call, and it was a bad one.
Tactical: Leman Russ not killing Horus when he had the opportunity. After sacrificing most of his legion just to get close enough to have said opportunity, Leman fumbles at the last second. He has Horus dead to rights with the Spear of Russ, and then tries one last time to appeal to his humanity. He just allowed literally thousands of his legionaires and who knows how many supporting humans and ships to die for an assassination attempt that he abandons at the last second. This he gets rocked and has to sit out the rest of the heresey. I love the Space Wolves, and I like Russ as a character, but that was a really Really stupid decision.
Traitors-
Strategic- Removing Perturabo as head of the SoT. He was getting it done. Dorn is my favorite loyalist Primarch, but he was going to lose. In the end (and the Death, hue hue) he does lose, albeit in a different way. You can argue whether it was strategic acumen, resources available, warp buffs, and any other variable, but however you want to boil it down, Perturabo was gonna take the W. Then, he gets removed from power and the traitor forces degenerate into horde swarm tactics. Now, it was still getting the job done, but I think of Perturabo had been allowed to maintain, he would have won it more cleanly.
Tactical- Curze deciding to teleport onto the Invincible Reason rather than escaping with his legion. I know Curze is crazy, and he was essentially trying to get himself killed, but had he stuck to the plan and escaped with his legion during the events of Prince of crows, I believe he would have held the legion together during the later stages of the HH. Instead of being a force to be reckoned with, they split into warrant and started raiding and doing whatever they felt like doing. They were still problematic, but not to the extent they could have been.
Summary- these are just my opinions, YMMV. I know some of these things had to happen for the plot, and due to pre established events, but it's still fun to ponder what could/should have been. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your opinions, even if it's just to tell me mine suck.
Edit- sorry for the weird formatting. Did this at work on my phone.
