40k Editorial: Age of the Overpowered
Today Black Blow Fly tackles the effect of formations and allies on 40k – and what the future of the Tau may hold.
Hi everyone !!! It’s your ever friendly Black Blow Fly swinging through your neighborhood to shock and amaze you yet again. The Summer of Sigmar is officially over now with the first day of fall in the Western Hemisphere. The company some love to hate will be returning their focus to Warhammer 40k for good or bad and you can never truly tell what is going to happen… At first 7th edition was proclaimed as a period leading to the restoration of game balance with the release of weak codices for races such as Astra Militarum, Orks, Dark Eldar and Blood Angels. My theory is these are the red headed step kids of 40k now for whatever reason. Remember it was widely speculated at the time this would be a constant theme throughout 7th edition seeing that other earlier released armies such as Orks and Tyranids were not warmly received either.
You might have noticed I did not include Grey Knights in the above list of nerfed armies. To me and my way of thinking this was a perfectly written codex that has as close to perfect balance as you’ll ever find from the development crew at Games Workshop. The thing is Grey Knights now require some actual modicum of skill to play competitively. They lost their OP-ness but also gained some quite nice points reductions for certain units such as their Librarians and the Dreadknights.
Grey Knights are truly a strong army when fielded using their Nemesis Strike Force detachment and allied with another Imperial army such Space Marines – this is how the game is intended to be played now like it or not. While Draigowing is a relic from the past, DraigoStar is extremely competitive and can beat any other army in the hands of an experienced competent player.
If you like to play Grey Knights you might want to stop by my blog – I have posted lots of tactical articles for them there…
Give and Take
GW gives with one hand and takes with the other… We have all seen and experienced the OP-ness of the newer codices such as Admech, Eldar, Space Marines and Necrons… then on the other hand look at the disaster that is now Orks. What was really good in sixth edition is even better now and I think we should accept that for what it is rather than try to impose our sense of how the game can or should be played.
Continuing on with this train of thought there is a general vibe permeating the Internet that the new Tau codex will continue the neo OP trend – however anything could happen such as the Greater Good getting the Ork treatment. Tau are one of those armies that has always been very strong initially upon release but then wane over time as the game continues to progress. A good example is the effect upon Tau as a competitive army in 6th edition and what they have lost in 7th edition with the advent of Maelstrom missions and the refinement of what constitutes battle brothers in regards to allied choices… Tau-dar which once highly was vaunted as Ched-dar is now looked upon as nothing more than a limp biscuit… hurrr hurrr !
Some herald the release of the new Tau Lord of War choice (I.e., the KX139 Ta’unar) from Forgeworld as a true indicator that the greater good will continue to receive the royal OP treatment from GW. While the Taunar is indisputably very strong we should keep in mind that there is and always has been a general disconnect between Games Workshop and Forgeworld for whatever reason. Also keep in mind that for the points cost of one Taunar you can roughly field two bare bones Wraithknights.
We have all seen the picture of the new KV128 Stormsurge which will probably be classed as a super heavy walker and it’s truly a huge model towering over the likes of other Tau units such as the ever humble Fire Warriors. Ask yourself this one question – will it be viable to build a competitive Tau 1850 point army with a gargantuan monstrous creature and a super heavy walker ? I highly doubt it simply due to what will be the most likely points cost for the Stormsurge. Wraightknights are competitive mainly because they are criminally under costed. So most likely you’ll have to make a decision which of the two is best suited for those of you that like to play Tau.
What to Do Now? Where do We Go?
This is a serious issue for armies such as Orks. Many of us were shocked when we first saw the new codex. Many of us expected a bit more and Orks require the use of at least two separate codices to build a semi decent army list. While Dark Eldar are seriously lacking now that BeaStar has gone the way of the Dodo bird they have their broken cousins to take as battle brothers. It seems that GW has finally got it right though now with the release of Khorne Deamonkin, Eldar, Necrons, and Space Marines – everything you need is in one codex again and I think this is a good move on their part.
A lot of players are using allies of convenience and Come the Apocalypse to supplement their army of choice and this seems to be the best route to building an army that can perform well on the tabletop if you play a non OP race. It is literally the age of the ally now. Interestingly enough the most buffed OP races such as Craftworld Eldar and Necrons don’t really need any allies with their super amazing formations and detachments that provide yet even more awesome rules. While this may well be a marketing ploy I just have to say wow it really seems to be working well for them… and so we come back to our dear old friends the Tau – will the trend of uber OP-ness continue or come to a dead end ?
What do you think ? Personally I would love to see GW pull the plug on OP-ness.
