GAMES WORKSHOP HAS NOT BEEN SITTING AROUND DURING THE QUARANTINE AND INSTEAD HAVE PREPARED THE NEW EDITION OF WARHAMMER 40K!
It feels like it was only months ago when Games Workshop released Eighth Edition but in fact has been close to three years! Based on the fact that this is only the sixth edition in about 20+ years I would consider three years plenty of time. I will say it now, some of the changes that have been leaked are very much needed for the betterment of Warhammer 40k. (Keep in mind when this article was written this was first announced.)
SO WHAT CHANGES ARE COMING?
There are a ton of changes but the best part is that the recently released codices and expansion books (ie Psychic War) are still compatible! The best change in my opinion is the fact that even when in close combat tanks and other war machines can still fire! Realistically this makes sense because if I’m driving a tank and you are poking it with a stick or a sword I’m still going to fire my massive guns at the targets that are a bigger threat. In Eight Edition we saw a major decline in the use of armored units because a horse based army could swarm it and make its weapons useless so I expect to see armor coming back in a big way for tournaments and local games alike.
Another great addition is Conquest gameplay. It is essentially a way to play narrative games where your characters or units improve over time. This is similar to Necromunda and how your gangs improve as you continue. This will even help promote slow grow leagues as players will become more invested in the successes and failures of particular units and less on their win/lose ratios.
SO WHAT DOES THE COMMUNITY THINK ABOUT THIS ANNOUNCEMENT FOR WARHAMMER 40k?
Regularly on my show #TableTalk I mention my local community through our sponsors at Games U in Gilbert, Arizona. With the owner’s permission I reached out to the public Facebook group to gather their thoughts.
Dylan Smith- “The timing seems a tad misplaced. Granted, they likely planned this out years in advance, but to me it overshadows anything else Warhammer 40k related until it drops. Plus, COVID messed everything up I feel rather significantly for the consumers.”
Jeff Caples (owner of Games U)- “
I personally am encouraged by what I see so far. Tanks firing in CC is great news, the changes as I understand them to flying vehicles seem on point and I am very interested to see how they address terrain as I felt it was mishandled in the last edition.
I am also very keen to see what they have put together for the very small combat patrol scale. My son is almost 10 and I am hoping it will be something he can really sink his teeth into without me having to sort of water it down for him.”
Patrick Cortez- “Wishlisting here
I’m hoping Command Points and Strategems are less of a crux or focal point of darn near every turn, every “major” activation.
Some armies have fantastical “cheap” monster strats and efficient CP generators.
I miss clean Warhammer 40k and not the MTG card hijinx feel. Of strat this or that.
I’m sure stratagems and CPs aren’t going anywhere.”
Matt Campbell- “I don’t see any updates to Character targeting and I think it needs to be addressed. Characters have to be the “closest model” and it should be more like “closest targetable model.” When I cannot shoot something 5″ away in the open, because something else is 3″ away on the other side of a wall and I cannot see it, that’s a broken rule. I don’t have models that ignore terrain or los rules so why does the closer out of los model protect that Character?”
Alexander Zhang- “I’m hoping the game scales better when it’s small like they suggested. I think I’d be able to jump in more if smaller scale games were a more regular thing.”
Edward Morlan- “
After the QnA I like what I am seeing. I have sent them feed back on every one of their questionnaires that the terrain rules need to updated and changed.
It seems like others have felt the same. From the sound of it we will have options before the game to announce the different terrain types. Honestly obscure is the only type they mentioned and the only one we need. Simply saying you can not shoot through a piece of terrain because that template is obscuring is soooo good. Suddenly the forest templates become usable again.
The Tank and Monster rules really help a few armies that we have not really seen in several editions, namely Tank commander guard like the armageddon steel legion, and Nidzilla. I for one am fine with that. Sure it makes getting into combat with tanks and Riptides risky but honestly it should be! There is a reason you put tankbusta bombs and power klaws in your units of boys! You will have to commit to charges versus those things and have some weapons that can help you finish them off.
Going back to 7th edition flyer rules is also great. I have frankly hated the battle filed force bubble that 8th had for them. The cap on -1 or +1 to any units saves means that while the eldar flyers are still good they will no longer be game breaking. Heck we might even see a drop in points now that the negative is capped.
Excited to see all the CP mechanics. I like everyone starting with the same size pool based on the game size. I hope the CP starting pool for 2000 points is large at loke 15cp. I also wonder if their will be ways to increase the cp pool with army choices not just take them away. Really looking forward to this and the terrain rules the most.
Never got a answer on how they will address the slower dice for horde armys in combat. Currently if you have 2 units in combat with 4 units all together in a big blob ( common with orks vs guard ) it can take 45 min trying to roll that one combat out. I puts a serious disadvantage on horde armies in tournament. If we are only ever able to get through 2 or 3 turns in 2 hours we will average way less points then a elite army that finishes all there games.
I hope the missions hit where they are supposed too. That between them and the new rules we no longer have to ask people if they want to play ITC, Book, or some other tournaments rules. If they pull it off it will be nice to just play out of the book with no other 3rd party rules mixed in.
Crusade sounds like the most fun. Nothing to say except I am looking forward to having the info in my hands and will likely be playing most of my games as crusade games.”
There were several other comments but to avoid making this overly long we’ve had to drop some of those from the list. Personally I am very excited about the announcement and love the teases models for both the Space Marines and Necrons.
NO ANNOUNCEMENT WOULD BE COMPLETE WITHOUT SOME TEASER IMAGES OF THE NEW MODELS, RIGHT?
I have seen some complaints about the new logo but it reminds me a lot of the one they had in second or third edition when I first started playing so I approve.
If you haven’t yet be sure to check out their cinematic trailer for the new release:
I still get chills watching that! oh and James Workshop did a video highlighting the big changes as well: