Goatboy – Let’s Look at Army Trends
Goatboy here again looking at what might come down the line with future releases. Every time we get a new book we get a better chance to figure out what we might be seeing hit the table tops as new books get birthed from the great and terrible GW.
HQ’s Coming of the Awesome!
First of all the most obvious thing is that there will be more “great and powerful” HQs. Lately we have seen a slight escalation with some nutty leaders hitting the table tops. The interesting thing is: even though these guys are statistically powerful the nature of 40k keeps them in check. The ability to pour large amounts of wounds on whatever model during a turn makes any kind of Special Character not nearly as amazing as you would think it would be by math hammering it. This is one of the reasons why I think Special Characters no longer break the game for 40k.
You mix this in with Special Characters creating new Army Building Tracks and you’ve got another reason why no special character should be banned. In fact, I feel any system that bans these characters really seems to gut the essence of 40k we are starting to get into. I do think some are a bit much, but in reality they are needed to allow for new builds. Is it the best system? No. I feel a way to create HQ’s that allow for new avenues would be much better but it is the system we have to use for this game.
I can see the new books coming out with some cool new characters. I am sure we have all seen the Necron rumors with some kind of HQ that activates Immortals as troops in the book as well as the coming of some new combat monster. Heck, the Tau rumors that somehow create new armies via their HQ choice just has me salivating with the new options that might come out. I really like these types of army design as it just creates more armies that are interesting and different on the table top.
Return of the Gun
This is two fold as I can see some new ways to create effective guns. The varied usage guns are making a come back, and I wish they were used on some of the old standbys to create new units and a less static game. Look at the Psycannon and its different effects based on how you move or your armor load out. I really like this and think this adds a whole new strategy to the game that is missing in a lot of armies.
What if the Heavy bolter went from just a straight 36″ Heavy 3 weapon and instead could be shot as that or as an 18″ Assault 3 gun? We have all seen those game videos of the Heavy Bolter marine running around and gunning down orks with his Heavy Bolter. Would it be too powerful? Probably not, but it would be really cool to get that chance to run around and Heavy Bolter the crap out of things. I know some weapons should always be heavy (Missile Launcher, Lascannons, Reaper Launchers, Dark Lances, etc) but there are a lot of things I think could use from a secondary rate of fire.
Will we see some of these in the upcoming books? We might see one in the Necron book. All the other future ones are most likely Imperium based so I doubt will see any real changes to the basic weaponry. I do think the Tau could have this especially with all the futuristic upgrades they have. The rumored super Rail Gun is sounding neat and I hope the rules at least work with it just going and going until it stops by not killing a vehicle. It would be interesting if the regular Tau guns had a heavy option as well as an assault option based on them being stationary and aiming.
Super Instant Death making a come back
Every book is starting to have a way to instantly remove a model. This is interesting as I feel it is GW’s way of giving a shot at killing some super characters, or some up coming crazy models. We first saw the push in Space Wolves with the line of “Let’s make you mad” and with the Bone Swords in the Nid book. Dark Eldar brought a few ways to do it, too. I think it is an interesting thought in balancing some things in the books. It isn’t the most elegant rule writing, but it works. I don’t think it is the most fun thing to do but sometimes you need that to help balance things out.
I bet we see some new warp prisons or other ways to make things go away in upcoming books. I just hope we don’t see true options for Vortex grenades in real 40k and instead of have something neat show up.
Big Monster Kits
It is looking like every army is going to have some kind of big monster thing coming. We are seeing this with Fantasy and it is looking to be infecting 40k too. I think GW has caught on too late on some things (Dark Eldar Talos, Tervigon, etc) but you can see that they are catching on with the Dread Knight getting released right away.
Most likely will see a new big Necron plastic coming with the army, and maybe for the Sisters we might see some kind of crazy penitent engine thing. It is interesting to see other companies do this, too – with Privateer Press and the big monsters they are producing. Who knows what will come out for the Tau. I am sure all new books will have a big fat monster thing as we all love monsters smashing things around on the table top. I can only hope that the CSM book has some kind of neat dread monster thing. Hell I can just hope for a CSM book.
So I am sure there are other trends we can see in the new Grey Knights book, but these are the big things I expect from the future of 40k. Right now I feel excited about upcoming releases as we have started to see the end of the army tunnel with only a few books left before all rules have seriously been touched. I can hope that 6th edition doesn’t change much with the new rules because I feel for the most part 40k is doing pretty good. If 6th does come out with major rules changes I do wish GW would just suck it up and release a book every month and get everyone up to speed quickly.
Based on what we’re seeing now what do you think the future has in store for 40k? What would you like to see?
