Pimpcron 40K: Hordes are King in 8th Edition
No, you aren’t dreaming. It may seem like you would only find this kind of enjoyment in your dreams, but this is real life. It is that very special time again when the Pimpcron comes out of his cave and delivers a message of either joy or insanity to the populace.
I haven’t decided yet which one I’m going to deliver. Let’s play it by ear. I was noticing something about 8th edition Warhammer 40K. It seems to me like multi-wound models such as Primaris or Custodes have a disadvantage compared to units that are single-wound but have many more models. Let’s pretend this is your nostril and let’s dig In.
Multi-wound Models Are a Liability
There are countless weapons in this game that deal more than one damage per wound or have the potential to deal more than one damage per wound. And being that the damage goes through after a save is failed really helps damage explode exponentially. If you fail one 4+ save with one of your vehicles you may be taking a nostril-load of damage. But on the flip side, if you fail one 4+ save with a single wound infantry model, you are only taking a maximum of one damage.
Even if it is with a super mega-death ultra-killing slaughter-awesome mondo-kill-kill gun like the Imperial Knights have. 10 straight damage? No problem, Bob the Guardsman jumped right in front of everyone and was vaporized instantly. Thanks Bob! You made the Emperor proud! Too bad Bob can’t jump in front of our Leman Russ. Just strap Guardsmen to the front you say? Hmmmmm.
Cheaper than armor plating, and they take Lascannon beams like a champ.
Primaris and Tactical Marines are a great comparison. Same toughness, same save, but one extra wound. At 1st glance it seems like the extra wound would be really helpful on a model. Just like at 1st glance that girl across the bar seems to be flirting with you. But at 2nd glance, you realize that there are many weapons that do more than one damage and that makes the Primaris no different from a Tactical Marine in that case. Just like at 2nd glance that girl across the bar is actually a coat rack and you are reminded that you need new glasses.
What’s the Problem Here?
The issue is that wounds do not carry over in 40K like they do in AOS and honestly I feel like they should. If a Lascannon hits a unit of troops I really feel like it should do D6 damage to the unit not just to one dude. As if it carved a hole through the unit and killed more than one person. I understand that making this decision in the rules is an attempt to make certain weapons geared towards multi-wound models and other certain weapons geared to single-wound models. And I like that different weapons are specialized in different things. I’m not saying that I hate the way that damage does not spill over in 8th edition, but this scenario makes hordes much more powerful then elite models.
The first thing that comes to mind would be “Yes hordes are more powerful for wounds, but they really suffer in Morale” While that may be true generally speaking, there are many ways that hordes can get around being destroyed in the morale phase. The easiest and best example for that would be that all armies have access to the auto-passing morale checks stratagem for two command points. That alone swings the paradigm far into hordes’ territory.
I made this detailed map of where exactly horde territory is. It’s all the colored parts. Even the blue.
Typically speaking, on any given turn how many leadership rolls are you going to be forced to make? One? Two? Many codexes also have ways around this morale issue for hordes if they are a horde army. So this is why I feel that hordes are the real workhorses in this edition. Not to mention, that stratagems or command traits from leaders will either add extra attacks to the models in range or it will improve their stats if they are within range. So if your commander’s ability affects models in a certain range, you are getting more output per capita because there are more models in each unit. A plus +1 to hit for 10 models is not as good as a +1 to hit for 30 models.
The Bottom Line
When I play my Primaris army, I always feel as if I am playing with one arm tied behind my back because their points are similar to regular Marines, but the extra wound does not go very far in this edition. No, I’m not saying that you can’t win with Primaris. I am not saying that Primaris are terrible and garbage. It’s just that for the points cost, more models at a cheaper cost per model are generally better than fewer models that are very expensive in this new edition. Also, multi wound things used to be much harder to hurt (or impossible)with armor values in previous editions. So yes, your tank has more wounds now but anything can hurt it.
Maybe desecrating the bones of an extinct species is cheaper than armor.
So it seems like the way to win would be to swarm the table with tides of the cheapest troops possible. Just watch out for morale.
~Do you agree or am I whack?
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