40K Deep Thought: Where Are the Rules?
I’ve been having a heck of a time playing 40K lately – because GW won’t give us THIS ONE THING!
Like you, I love 40K. I’m a lifer and I’ve been in it since Rogue Trader. At last count I have 12 very large fully painted armies:
- Blood Angels (My first, from the 80s)
- Imperial Guard
- Chaos Marines
- Chaos Daemons
- Tau Empire
- Eldar
- Sisters of Battle
- Ultramarines
- Tyranids
- Kroot Mercs
- 30K Death Guard
- 30K Night Lords
That’s half of the Blood Angels. I have a problem…
You could say I’m highly motivated to see the game prosper…
For almost 30 years I’ve seen armies come and go, rise and fall, and enjoyed so many hours of fun with my friends I am starting to forget some of them. But in all my years I’ve always been able to physically sit down and make an armylist either on pencil and paper or with some type of tool such as Army Builder or app.
But at this moment – I’m frustrated with 40K.
It’s not rules, it’s not allies, and believe it or not it’s not even formations themselves.
It’s how I can’t find rules for things I KNOW EXIST!
Because GW won’t provide any index of where the heck the rules are for this game!
He’s an Example.
I want to play a Chaos Marine list and I have a friend who says I should give some underused unit a shot because it has some special rules or formation we both vaguely remember reading about a couple years back. So where are the rules? They could be in any of these locations:
Find his best rules in 30 seconds… GO!
- A Codex
- An Army Supplemental Codex (Black Legion for example)
- A Campaign Book (Curse of the Wulfen for example)
- A Rules Supplement (Death From the Skies for example)
- A Digital Only Supplement (Black Library)
- A White Dwarf (Genestealer Cult for example)
- An Advent Calendar Formation… for multiple years (Cypher for example)
- A Start Collecting Box Formation
- A Promotional figure/s Packaging (30th Anniversary Marine for example)
- A Forge World Publication
- I’ve probably forgotten a few…
And that is RIDICULOUS!
I’m not asking GW to make a master book of every formation or special rule in the game (it would be nice) – but at least how about an index that lists where everything is with a short summary, so I know where to look and possibly even buy the rules I need.
And no I don’t want players to be responsible for this. It is GW’s game – they write and sell the rules – it’s their responsibility to help us find them.
Oh I almost forgot – some of the above items are out of print… As I look around the industry I can’t find another example of a game so large and popular – with so many of it’s rules scattered to the four winds with no obvious way for customers to find them. It’s a problem.
~Come on Nottingham, help a gamer out. We WANT to play – help us!
