40K: In Defense of Power Levels
I’ve played 8th edition both ways and I have to be honest – I like Power Levels more.
There are two ways to build your armies in Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition.
Power Levels
You’ve all already seen these. Just look on any datasheet and there they are in the upper left of the chart:
Cawl – 13 Power Level
Match Play Points
The more detailed approach used for competitive play. In the back of each Index book is a list of exact points for each unit. Then you have to go back and add up each and every weapon and piece of wargear your unit has. Here’s a couple of example lists of points:
Pros and Cons
What exactly are we dealing with here?
First and foremost – there is no arguing that the full points are more accurate. How could they not? They are more granular in nature. In general a 50 Force Point army is roughly equivalent to 1000pts of Matched Play points. So roughly a 20 to 1 ratio in detail. But before you say – AHA! think about three other concepts:
Time Cost
Putting together a Force PoInt list takes a couple of minutes. It’s so fast you can just work it out in your head with your handful of units and their major size options. Moving to Matched Play points takes time. You are going to be flipping backwards and forwards with a calculator, and poring through not only your units, but every weapon and wargear they carry to get it all worked out. Don’t forget you will also be trying to make it all conform to your detachment limits to optimize your army’s Command Points.
Some folks really really get off on the fine tuning and fiddling with every last point in their lists. I call them tourney ringers. The other 99% of us would rather spend our time elsewhere.
Fun
This is closely related to the Time Cost, but is slightly different. Ask yourself an honest question – do you have fun when putting together lists? I love playing the game. To me everything outside of that on game day, like the lugging the armies around to pulling out the pen and paper for list creation is just a chore that gets in between me the actual fun. Sometimes just the thought of having to work up a new list for a pickup game, seems like a chore and can influence me to do something else for my evening. Power Levels makes army construction so easy – it doesn’t feel like work. Knock out a list in 2 minutes, grab the minis off their trays and get playing!
Effectiveness
Finally, the real test is does it actually make a difference? When you look at any Datasheet, you will see the assigned Power Level and all the upgrade options the unit can take. GW has stated the Power Level assigned to a unit is meant to represent the 50% mark in-between their basic equipment and a unit with a “max-upgrades” loadout. What this means for me is that if our local playgroup sticks with strictly WYSIWYG, we do fine. Some units may have a little more options and some a little less. Unless your army is 100% composed of maxed out units and you are playing against an army that is all default, you should do just fine.
In almost a dozen early games of 8th, everyone has been having a blast using Power Level with WYSIWYG enforcement. The games have been fun, fair and often go down to the wire – with all the drama and fun I’ve seen in the past. No one felt like they were just outclassed and had no chance to win (like everyone often did in 7th)
The Rub
So on balance, here’s my advice:
If you are a hardcore tourney player, or going to a tourney – take the time and use the detailed points.
For everything else – just use the Power Levels.
Give it a try and don’t ever let any player make you feel inferior for using that system. You may just like it and think about what you can do with that 20 minutes of your life you got back!
~ Get out there and have fun. I’ll be having a blast with Power Level outside of tourneys and never looking back.
