40k Editorial: 2015 The New Direction
Hello everyone ! It’s your friendly neighborhood Black Blow Fly here to discuss the current state of our favorite hobby Warhammer 40k.
First I want to mention the new iOS game Drop Assault just released by Games Workshop. It’s free and fun. You might want to check it out. The game is based on the Drop Site Massacre or Battle of Isstvan V which was the opening engagement between the loyalist and traitor legions during the Horus Heresy. Like I said it’s free… You can’t go wrong.
There’s a lot of neat things going on now in the hobby with the new Necron codex right around the corner to be shortly followed by eldar Harlequins. There’s only one codex left to go – Sisters of Battle. Do you think Games Workshop will finally release it and do them the justice they truly deserve? It’s not something I’d bet on but it’d be awesome if they do. You never know and to be honest I was skeptical about the Harlequins but we’ve all seen the pictures so there’s no denying it.
I think this will be great year for the game. Last year this time we were all trying to wrap our heads around Escalation and Stronghold Assault which I often refer to as Black December… Dark times indeed. Games Workshop didn’t do a good job letting us know what to expect in advance and pretty much just threw it over the fence for us to sort out amongst ourselves… Not a good game plan.
I can say for me personally I didn’t really know what was going on and felt some anxiety. I know it was a real nightmare for tournament organizers and the nuts were coming out of the woodworks trying to tell us how we should play the game… Ban this, ban that… The mantra of those dark times.
Seventh edition eventually followed which got things back on track collectively. I like seventh edition because it fixed a lot of the things I didn’t like about sixth edition such as challenges and focus fire. The new rulebook is more of a user’s guide and is much better organized. I think the psychic phase still needs some work but for me it’s a big step in the right direction.
Looking all the way back to third edition I see 40k back then as a beer and pretzels game. The game is much more complex now and I don’t see it going back to a more simplistic system any time soon. Games Workshop is much too heavily invested in their new direction. Supposedly they will release more supplements in the future to further flesh out all the races. Maybe this year we will eventually see a real Legion codex for Chaos Space Marines such as Death Guard or World Eaters as opposed to the current trend for renegades (yucko).
In regards to the tournament scene it’s exciting to see many of the top national tournament organizers finally embracing the game from a seventh edition point of view rather than try to impose the antiquated past. I know it’s a tough job but moving forward is the right direction as opposed to rolling out stale formats that harken back to pre sixth edition. Lords of War are here to stay and a lot of people want to be able to field their favorite characters such as Dante, Draigo and Ghaz. Formations are what make new codices work such as Orks.
I have been very busy painting new models and preparing my current armies so I’ll be ready to attend large events such as the LVO and TempleCon. Like I said I think it’s going to be a great year for Warhammer 40k and I’m very excited. I think everyone has something to look forward to in 2015.
How optimistic are all the latest releases making you feel?
