40K: What The Future Holds For 40K
With a new edition of Age of Sigmar under the belt, and the new line of codexes almost complete, 40K is preparing to head into the future. Here’s a look at what we think the future will hold for the game.
Now we’ve already looked at what the next year might hold for 40K. But I think it’s time to gaze a little further into the future and see what the game looks like in the coming years. Now 2020 is pretty easy to think about–it seems incredibly clear for some reason. But anyone can look a year or two into the future. Let’s go beyond.
2077
In the year 2077, Warhammer 40K is capitalizing on the advantage offered by cybernetics. Working in a partnership with the robotics arm of Zetatech to test out a range of microdrones, games of 40K are carried out on augmented reality tabletops, where both players are wired into the battlefield, controlling dreadnought microdrones across the table. Arguments about line of sight are finally resolved because players can look directly through the eyes of any miniature to see what they can and can’t see.
2199
Despite being trapped in a computer simulation of Earth, circa 1999, gamers are finally happy with the latest edition of Warhammer. Because they’re playing in 1999, and thus can use the 3rd Edition Chaos Codex.
3000
Warhammer 40k 21st Edition is delayed indefinitely. GW contracts with an affordable delivery service, Planet Express, to try and distribute their latest edition throughout the galaxy. Unfortunately no one could have foreseen the zany set of circumstances that resulted in the prototype of the game being lost on a lone, nigh-uninhabited planet in a far-flung corner of the universe.
In a distant galaxy, a swarm of harmless bugs becomes fascinated by the game, and finds years upon centuries of entertainment, before exhausting the possibilities in the game. But armed with the lessons of 40K, these space bugs and their hive mind set out for the planet it came from to try and find a new edition–armed with bio-engineered armor and a list of playtest suggestions, they begin their arduous journey.
3050
The much hyped new edition of 40K is poised to be one of GW’s most successful releases yet. They have finally locked down balance in the rules–while still keeping things feeling like they do on the lore. It’s a game, that according to leaked rules that spread like wildfire throughout the Comstar network, will appeal even to the holdouts who still just want to play 3rd Edition, the way man was meant to.
Sadly this new edition is due for official launch on Thursday, March 7th–much of the coverage is lost when the Clans invade and wreak havoc on the communications network.
~23,352
In the wake of the Butlerian Jihad, Necrons have been excised by the Warhammer Council. They find problems with their latest edition, though, because their primacy in the Landsraad is being threatened by Harkonnen and Atreides scheming. Again. In a bold move, they reskin necrons as undying and insane mentats, but the resultant upset in lore alienates their core fanbase.
The resultant war is brought to heel by the Padishah Emperor’s Sardaukar terror troops–they come out firmly against the lore change, this in spite of their Imperial Conditioning. In the wake of the fighting, a council of Loremasters is convened in secret, working with a Reverend Mother, a Mentat, and a Guild Navigator to develop a compromise that, while not ideal, does at least keep people from fighting.
M41
In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, officers throughout the Imperium of Man are known to relax with a rousing game of “Warhammer 40K” or as it’s come to be called in Low Gothic: Age of Sigmar, Second Edition.
What do you think of these thrilling developments? Looks like the game is going in a fantastic direction.
