40K: GW Hints at Command Points Per Detachment
GW just put out a not so subtle hint at a solution to the Command Point issue in 40K.
With the triple-flavored Neapolitan spam armies that are so hot these days, it seems like Command Points are on everyone’s minds. We know that the secret sauce that makes top-shelf armies work isn’t the unit’s themselves, so much as the glue that binds them all together – stratagems and command points.
We’ve talked about ways to fix command points before, and we’ve talked about if units are really the issue at all, but with the arrival of the two Rogue Trader mini-codexes, GW has shown something new, we’ve not seen before: Take a look at these faction special rules from the Gellerpox and Elucidian books:
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Did you see that? I did. Right there in black and white GW is throwing factions into the game that give you command points, BUT SAY THEY CAN ONLY BE SPENT ON FACTION STRATAGEMS. And that is a whole new ball of wax. On one level this is just GW introducing 2 pages of Stratagems to Warhammer 40K without wanting them to “get out in the wild” and possibly destabilize the wider game. But I think it’s something more than that.
What Does It Mean?
Technically, it means nothing more than two minor factions that will only see casual play have some new rules. But I think this is GW putting their toe into the water and getting people used to the concept of keeping track of CP sub-totals. Right now, armies can only have 3 detachments in standard competitive play levels. So what we are talking about is the concept of GW making players track 3 separate pools of CPs, based on their detachment of origin. Some have said that that is just too complicated – but let’s get real. 40K is already complicated and players are tracking all kinds of things during a game. Moving to a system of 3 pools of CPs is totally do-able. Heck, I can already see the laser-cut accessory makers tripping over each other to get their “Bitterdark Triple Command Trackers” to market first.
Like this – but with 3 color-coded dials…
- It’s a solution that fixes a lot of issues, and would finally rein in the silliness that CPs have become.
- Want all those AM CPs and even more from Kurov’s Aquilla, – great – then use them all on AM units.
- OH, wait, suddenly those CP hungry Castellans and Blood Angel Slam Captains go hungry – unless you actually do something novel, like back them up with actual units from their codexes.
- Agents of Vect suddenly is tied ONLY to the amount of Drukhari in your Ynarri lists.
OH THE HUMANITY!
But no matter what the solution, GW has a decades long history to teasing out future rules in little ways before they drop them into a game wholesale. Things like Necrons, advanced vehicle rules, assault rules and dozens more were rolled out like this.
~ I don’t think those rules are an accident, but rather a harbinger. What do you think?
