Warhammer 40K: The BIGGEST 9th Edition Changes We Know

Let’s take a look at the major changes ahead for 9th Edition and what they mean for the game.

9th Edition is right around the corner and big changes are being promised. While we don’t have the full rules yet, or even a full list of changes, we’ve leaned a lot over the past couple days from the announcement, the website and the studio FAQ. Putting the pieces together we can see a familiar but changed game. Let us take a look at some of the big overarching trends and what these changes mean for the game.

Improved Vehicles (and Monstrous Creatures) 

No longer a bad idea

One major thing we are seeing with the new rules is that vehicles and MCs are getting some real buffs. These are two unit types that really suffered in 8th, losing most of what made them really special in the past. Vehicles in particular lost depth and flavor and many ended up not being very good. While there were exceptions, such as Knights, some flyers, and more recently FW Dreadnoughts, the bulk of vehicles in the game haven’t really been competitive.

I just want some hugs.

9th seems to be trying to change that. While it doesn’t look we are getting vehicle facing back, at least no hints at that yet, they are adding new rules. Flyers for instance are getting some kind of overhaul to make them work more like aircraft and have the ability to leave the table. Tanks and MCs are also getting the ability to fire when in combat, though it remains unclear if they can only target units they engaged with, or maybe they can only target units they aren’t engaged with, or something else. This is a great change and de-powers the FLY keyword, which was a bit OP. Indeed in 8th we saw that pretty much all the competitive vehicles has some way of firing out of combat or leaving and still firing. Blast weapons doing max hits vs hordes is also likely to help vehicles since they tend to carry those kind of large guns. Over all this seems like a lot of buff of track heads.

Curbing Alpha Strikes and Helping Assault

All our strikes are alpha

Alpha Strikes is another area that’s been an issue for a bit in 40K and it seems the Design Studio are taking some action against it. GW teased major changes for terrain and it seems we are moving away from true LoS and back to some more abstraction. The introduction of the Obscured terrain tag that means you can’t draw LoS through a terrain element, even if you can see through it is a BIG, and needed, deal. All of this makes it sound like drawing LoS will be harder this edition, which helps fight Alpha Strikes. On top of that are the changes to Strategic Reserves, with you now being able to pay CP to put any unit in reserve – meaning you can protect key units from an Alpha Strike.

Suddenly relevant again!

Both of these changes also will end up helping assault units out. More LoS blocking elements, and more things that provide cover, and better cover also teased, will help units get in close and into melee. Being able to outflank with any unit is a game changer for slower units that can’t deep strike. In addition we heard about some new generic stratagems that will punish enemies if they leave combat, Overwatch is also getting an overhaul. We also know missions are a bit push this edition, and depending on how those work we would see them skew towards hurting Alpha Strikes and helping assault out.

Fighting Soup

Soup was one of the most complained about issues in 8th and it seems like this is another area where improvements are being made. We’ve already seen GW putting incentives into newer books to play mono-faction lists, with Sisters of Battle and Space Marines both losing access to some rules if they chose to soup. Now GW is doubling down on fighting soup with the CP overhaul. In short each player will now get a set number of CPs based on the mission size they are playing. Using units not in your primary faction will end up costing you CP. Instead of soup having no downsides, and often allowing you to get more CP, it will now cost you CP and army wide rules.

On their own the CP changes are great and are going to help balance the game. Combined with the other changes we are seeing they promise to really help fight soup. While soup armies are still legal it seems they will often be at a disadvantage and the much hated CP batteries are dead. RIP Loyal 32.

Breaking Up Combos

8th has been a combo heavy edition, but 9th also seems to be doing some things to fight that. The first one is the afore mentioned CP changes and anti soup moves. Less soup means you’ll see less combos, and a soupy army will have less CP to spend on crazy combos. Another major change is GW is capping modifiers at +1/-1. Now this seems to refer to dice roll modifies, not stat modifies, but it does mean no more crazy combos to make you unhittible by give the enemy a -3 to hit you (also 6s always hit now) or wounding Knights on a 2+ after getting +2 to wound rolls. There will still be combos, but it looks like they’ll get toned down. This will make the came more approachable to newer players who won’t be exposed to the min-max uber modifier combos that do the rounds in “power lists”

Crusade Is A Big Deal Now

GW is really hyping up the new Crusade mode for 9th. While specifics are still a little sparse this seems to be a semi-campaign way to grow your army narrative. The descriptions they’ve given make it sound a lot like Age of Sigmar’s Path to Glory or running a Necromunda gang.   I honestly don’t know how popular Path to Glory has been so I can’t tell if this is building on success or what. They’ve said you could just play it on your own not part of any league, but I don’t know a lot of people who would let me show up to a random game with my strange trick outed list full of buffed units. It does sound like it could be a fun way to run leagues though. The biggest new about it is that each Codex will contain a decent amount of rules for Crusade, meaning this isn’t a one and done thing.

Look For New Codexes Sooner Rather Than Later

It’s too soon to say goodbye

GW announced at day one that they were starting the Codex cycle all over again. While it is clear new books would be coming we don’t know how soon or how fast they will be released. The news about Crusade makes me think we will be getting books sooner than some might expect. If this is a big element of the new edition they are pushing hard they are going to want to get a bunch of those Codex bound rules out there ASAP so people can enjoy the new playmode. In particular I think we will see a new Marine book in the near future, despite the fact that their book is pretty new. Not only do Marines normally get books at the start of a new edition, but they will have a ton of new units needing to go into a book and I can’t see GW locking their poster boys out of the Crusade goodness for long.

10th Edition Is Coming

Throughout their presentations GW has made several allusions to 10th Edition (just look at that whiteboard). I take this as proof positive that that edition will come at some point in the future. I won’t say more now, but I’ll return to the topic around December and push for a summer 2021 release. Hopefully by then the Index books will also be really dead for real.

Let us know what you think about this major changes, down in the comments. 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.