Goatboy’s 40K Thoughts: Two Rules 40K Needs More Of
Goatboy, here again, to talk about a pair of rules and ideas that should show up more in 40k. I think there is a lot more room for 40k to grow in interesting and fun ways. With that – let’s look at the pair.
Some of these are already a part of ONE codex but could quickly spread to others – while other ideas would be completely new.
Testify brother!!!
The Power of Prayer
The new Dark Apostle rule is a very interesting set of powers. I feel this one could easily show up in other armies with Prayers to the Emperor, Gork/Mork, and whatever other space god they want to whisper too. The abilities are powerful but feel very balanced as you have to make sure and plan your set up due to the nature of starting at the top of the turn. This also lets you have some form of protection from Alpha Strikes and other nonsense as its an ability just dependent on your dice roll.
Not being able to be counter the ability is potent and gives you another form of protection. It also lets armies that are not psychic in general perform actions that help mitigate the loss of powers. You are starting to see this in Age of Sigmar, and now we have the first example of this in 40k. I think this ability should come to some of the other – Imperium armies.
“Deny THIS heretic!”
Imagine a set of prayers to the Emperor for the Sisters of Battle? Remove the Faith system and instead utilize a set of Prayers units can do. This can be stacked up in ways to make an interesting set of options that isn’t dependent on you having another set of dice or a different dial to count down as you spend and earn points. I liked how the Sisters tried to utilize characters to create different Auras, and I think just changing it to a simple Prayer system would do wonders to make the army easier to play, powerful, and unique.
Beyond the Sisters of battle could you imagine an updated Black Templars army? Or just updated Chaplains to be something more than just reroll hits in combat? There are a ton of options here that are just not straight copies of the Dark Apostle. I have found this other form of “psychics” to be fluffy, interesting, and just plain neat. I don’t think every army needs this – but there are a ton of “non” psychic armies that could easily use this rule.
Heck – let’s update the Ad mech army as Canticles is a very similar ability and could easily be fixed by adding something like this. Make the Tech-Priests something more interesting beyond fixing some vehicles and being the mandatory HQ you have to take. It is one of the more interesting bridge rules between AOS and 40k that feels like it makes sense. And again – the ability to help mitigate some Alpha Strike while also being a rule that takes planning to use properly makes this a winner.
Like this – but grimmer and darker!
“We Can’t Stop It!”
Beyond this add, on the other rule, I am expecting to come to 40k soon is the whole Endless Spell, Judgement, and Endless Prayer options we have in Age of Sigmar. While the idea of some kind of model doing dumb stuff around the table might seem weird in 40k – I do think it could work. It would again give your Priests, Apostles, and Saints something else to do beyond being an ok melee character.
There is some notion of how Summoning works that could be very helpful in this idea of creating a sideboard for your army. Having points left over for some of these “endless” style spells/effects could be exciting. From things like anti psychic options from Khorne to powerful unit buffs – the ability to maybe change things in a game might be powerful. Or they can just create a ton of interesting looking models to use for these “endless warp energies.”
“Brother-Captain, I rolled a two on my deny the witch test – what does that mean?”
Basically what if you could just summon an Avatar to the table top instead of having to start it on the table. Maybe they are not even part of reserves and instead function more so as an army multiplier that tries to wreck parts of the battlefield. This could also be a way to bring things in like a building or other device that wouldn’t just take up a detachment slot as well. It could open up a whole lot of other opportunities for armies to function without having to be locked down etc.
The last time we had something like this – was the random vortex grenade floating around the battlefield. I don’t think we need so much random movement nature in the game, but the idea of this rolling vortex summoned from the warp sounds pretty dang cool. Now, this would mean a whole slew of rule add ons and other things – but it could be very interesting.
What other things have you seen that you might like in other armies? Do we need more Aura buffs in general? How about a few more default Stratagems that allow Heroes and Warlords to be more than just something you hide or give a powerful relic too? Do you think we should just remove the fortification detachment and shove it into a Battalion as a single slot?
~What other fun things are we missing in 40k right now?
