Goatboy 40k – Is Poison the new Black?
Goatboy here again – there is an interesting thing I have noticed. Lately in the new codices there seems to be a push towards poison making a huge come back. I know the Tyranids brought it pretty strong in the last codex but I think the upcoming Dark Eldar are looking to truly push it to the for front. So the question in my mind is why are GW pushing it so heavily?
First things first – the biggest thing about poison is that for the most part it is easy. Fifty percent of the time it works all the time. (If you know where this sentence is based off of – keep Staying Classy) You could see this change in dice rolling with War of the Rings and its push towards an easy – did you hit/wound combat system. Poison is just another way to make the game easier. It doesn’t need charts and cross checks to find the magical number you need to roll. I know we all think the system is easy but try explaining to someone who has no idea about the wargaming system? Poison is just simple in that you roll a 4+ and call it a day.
Another reason why I think poison is making a comeback is that I feel we will see the change in the wounding system that a 6 always wounds. We have seen in it Fantasy already and as we know both of these games borrow heavily from edition to edition. Bringing in poison just lets you play the new rules without having to change all the rules.
The other thought is that maybe this game is pushing towards some kind of change up to create a better environment for less mech. It is a thought as I am sure GW has seen the table tops covered in nice plastic boxes of death. A shift in a different direction might be what they are looking at, especially when you consider that they make more money in more squads purchased versus the bare minimum in a plastic box.
Personally I like poison coming in strong. I think the only worry I have is that they consider it too good and over cost it on units. It is one of those abilities that I think works out better in the game and doesn’t need to be too hampered by an increased cost. It is like how rending is a bit too expensive when you look at how ineffective it can be now. I am not saying it is worthless as we have all played a game where a rending unit somehow exploded a Land Raider with a massed amount of 6’s rolled. I just feel that it is overcosted when they add it to a unit.
