40K Rumors: 8th Edition Dual Ruleset Details
One rumormonger returns with more followup on what the new edition will hold:
This one comes from longtime rumormonger: Mikhael on 2-1-2017
Yesterday Mikhael reported this:
Regarding 40k’s New 8th Edition belived to be on the way in Q2:
- The new edition will have two separate rulesets.
- 40K: Primary game will have a new set of streamlined rules.
- 30K: Heresy era ruleset will be seperate and more complex.
Today he follows up with more details on the “split” rulesets:
40K 8th Edition Ruleset
- The new rules are streamlined but retain the core of current 7th edition 40k rules.
- Age of Sigmar style Warscroll-datasheets are in.
- Look to find unit stats, special rules and rules on these Warscrolls-datasheets, in short everything you would need to play in one place.
- Most of the core rules’s complexity is staying, with only some fiddly peripheral rules and a percentage of the unit special rules being phased out.
30K Horus Heresy Ruleset
- The 30K rules will allow use of current Forge World books without alteration.
- Technically the ruleset is not new.
- It is the current 7th edition ruleset, with 40th millennia portions removed and the 30K Age of Darkness sections added in their place. ~Editor: So 30K FOCs, missions, allies, etc…
Thoughts
This is all fairly unsurprising and fits with previous rumors we have been hearing for months. There has been talk of a streamlining of 8th Edition, using the best aspects of Age of Sigmar (the Warscrolls mainly) for a while now.
The more interesting part to us is the Horus Heresy part, as folks HAVE been wondering for months if Forge World would also go forward with a streamlining process that would invalidate large sections of their rules. Under this set of rumors, the answer is no, and begins the parting of the ways between the two systems. With the runaway success of the HH series and line of models can you really blame Forge World for wanting to stay with the current rules? There are a lot of complaints about the bloat and runaway rules in 40K right now, but none of it is coming from the HH side of the fence. Forge World has done a good job of keeping a tidy garden on their side of things – so why rock the boat for no reason?
I did note that nowhere in these rumors does it way the two rulesets will ship together, or if they are going to be separately available.
We will have to wait and see how much of this actually pans out, but it does make business sense.
~Would you play 40K, 30K, or both?
