40K: 9th Teaser Rules – Emerging Meta
Adam here to talk about the teaser rules that will most affect 9th’s emerging competitive scene.
It has certainly been a busy week. If the announcement wasn’t enough we are see a host of new news every day this week. Games Workshop has been teasing us with different aspects of the game. Some of the stuff we have seen is fairly easy to translate and understand how they mean it to work. We also have examples and information that leaves us with our heads scratching and trying to figure out how this new information fits into the rules for the new edition. Unfortunately we do not have the full picture of the rules so it makes it difficult to figure out what might be the new thing to use in your army. This week we will look at a few things that we learned and the changes to the meta.
Fixed Command Points
This seems to be an overhaul of the command point system. Depending on your army size, you get a fixed amount of command points. This is much different than the current edition. There is no benefit to use additional detachments unless they are part of your strategy. In fact, in order to use the detachments you have to actually pay command points to get access to them. This further reinforces the fact that you will see a large number of mono faction armies, with multi faction armies being seen in fewer numbers. This forces you to focus more on what your codex can accomplish and leaves little room for much else.
Summoning Daemons?
This does pose a question in regards to summoned units. In most armies that have summoning, it is usually units that are from the same codex. Chaos has the fortune, or misfortune, of being able to summon units from a different codex. Would this still be allowed? It might since it isn’t a new detachment. If that’s the case, then Chaos may have an early boost in that they can pull units from another codex without having to pay the command point tax. Hopefully we will be given an answer fairly soon.
All New Point Values
While talking about army building, we may as well talk about the increase in point values. This isn’t just idle speculation but has been commented about and an example shown. Games Workshop has continually mentioned that they wanted to make the game move a little quicker. Let’s be honest, in competitive 40K, or even in just casual games, the time it takes to play is a long one. We put a 3 hour limit during tournaments but even then we see some games going to turn 3 by the time limit. The increase in point values will definitely make for smaller armies. This plus the fixed command points will make small elite armies even better and more potent. Although we have seen some examples, it is hard to say if the same formula of the change in points will apply to all of the models. This will definitely change the composition of people’s armies and hopefully we will see some rarer units back on the battlefield. Once we get a bigger picture of the point values we will see what we have to work with and wait to see if it will change at the end of the year with Chapter Approved.
New Reserve Rules
This is a big change that will greatly effect how the new meta will shake up. Games Workshop has hinted at how you can reserve any unit and that many units will be able to come on from different table edges. This new available reserve option give you a lot to consider when deploying your army. Units that hit hard but are fragile can now be kept safe in the early game and appear on the tabletop when you need them to make an impact. This also gives you something else to worry about as now, instead of worrying about that one or two units that can deep strike, you have to worry about the possibility that every unit in the opposing army can now strike from reserves. I don’t think this will bring back null deployment, like in previous editions, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Games Workshop brings back that possibility. Because of this, when you build your army it may be something to think about. I look forward to seeing what the reserve rules will be and how to best utilize my units to take maximum advantage of this.
~Well, that’s all for now. There is plenty of new stuff being talked about, so let me know what you think and what you think of some new tidbits that Games Workshop has shown, in the comments section below.
