Competitive 40K: What Warhammer Legends Means
Hey everyone! Adam, here to talk about what Warhammer Legends means for Competitive 40K.
How We Got Here
This most recent edition of Warhammer 40,000 has been going on for about 2 and a half years now. We have moved from all armies having an index, to all the Games Workshop main armies having some type of codex or White Dwarf update, sorry Forge World. In between that time, as more and more codexes were released, Games Workshop had decided to release a chart that would help people figure out if some of the index units not in the new codexes could still be used. Although this was a joyous occasion for a lot of players, it also had its share of issues. Many players and tournament organizers had questions for some units when building lists. Whether it was being able to change out weapons or whether these index units benefited from the new hotness that was the new codex, there were many a time where these issues would cause a strain on the brain. Earlier in the year, Games Workshop announced that they will be moving those index units that are not in the new codex to “Warhammer Legends”. Although announcing that it will be done early 2020, they actually released the Warhammer Legends list just this past week. So what is Warhammer Legends? Glad you asked.
What Exactly is Going On?
As mentioned earlier, Warhammer Legends is where units that do not have official models go. They are given a final rules, power level, and points adjustment for one final time. They are meant to be played in Open and Narrative Play but not for Matched Play (Tournaments). They did something similar for Age of Sigmar, again after the game had been out for a couple years. A big difference is that 40k did not get rid of any armies as a whole. In Age of Sigmar the whole Brettonian and Tomb Kings ranges were sent off into the sunset. If you go to the Warhammer Community Page, you can see what models have been moved over to Warhammer Legends status. Now they didn’t move all the index models. Some were actually saved and you can find those under the Forgeworld heading in the upcoming Chapter Approved. These also list what wargear options are allowed if you plan on using Legends in you game, whether its open, narrative, or Matched Play. This has caused some confusion for people when they initially read it. A real easy way to remember if a unit, or wargear is allowed is to ask yourself “What book is it in?” If the unit, or wargear, in question is in 2019 Chapter Approved, it is allowed in Matched Play. If it is from the Warhammer Legends PDF, then it ia not allowed in Matched play. If you play in a Matched play environment, then know that you will most likely not be able to play with certain units anymore.
Why Did They Have to Go?
Many people have varying opinions about the move of units to Warhammer Legends. Personally, it is something that was a long time coming. From the moment Games Workshop released the Index Flow Chart, there were a lot of questions about index units and wargear. A lot of wargear had a name change in a unit’s transition from index to codex. As a result, some units, like Tzaangors, were able to double up on wargear because of the name change. This allows a unit to receive a stacked benefit due to the fact that both wargear, although having the same effect, have different names. Then there were instances where the unit may have different starting equipment. Can you switch out the starting equipment for free, even though they are in the codex as an upgrade, or do you still have to pay? There was also, at the time, the issue of possibly being able to bypass the Rule of 3 because the index name for a unit was different from the Codex name. These were just some of the things that had come up over the years. I do not miss this part of the index chart. I know it is a bummer that we have to give up those cool conversions that we made in the past. I have plenty of Chaos characters on bikes that are now just elaborate bikers or my unit champs now. However, this wasn’t something that was sprung on us all of a sudden. Games Workshop gave us plenty of warning about it, so you shouldn’t be surprised.
Given all that, there will probably be a tournament organizer, or two, out there that will run an event that allows Legends units. If you really want to use those units, let your local tournament organizer know and maybe they will run one. Good Luck!
~That’s all for this week. Hope you enjoyed the article and let us know what you think about Warhammer Legends in the comments section!
