40K: 9th Edition’s BIG Burning Questions
The New Edition’s floodgates are open. Now we will find out the answer to these big questions.
The wait is finally over. The app is released along with the new edition. The floodgates have been opened and, even with some restrictions, we should start seeing tournament results start coming in from around the world. Hopefully you all have your armies ready to go out on to the battlefields. It will still be a little bit before we have a good amount of data to make some concrete statements. I know I’ll be out there battling it out, mostly with my brother, and testing some new army lists to see what will now work and what won’t. As we play games and look forward to how the meta will actually shake up, there are still a few questions, at least in my mind, that I hope will be answered soon. This week we will take a look at these as the new edition dawns on us.
How Good Will Space Marines Be?
Towards the end of the last edition, Space Marines dominated the meta. They were seen in large numbers at just about every tournament. Whether it was generic vanilla marines or the dreaded Iron Hands, they had a high win rate with many finals being mirror matches or two different space marine chapters facing off. It seemed like if you didn’t take Space Marines you were competing for second place. We all know that Space Marines will still be good in this new edition. My question is really how good? Will they still dominate the tabletop like before? Sure the nerf right after the Las Vegas Open did bring them down a little but they were still at the top of the meta food chain. The increase in points, smaller board, and some rules adjustments will see if the books have been brought down another notch, or if they are still as powerful as before. This can also apply to the more specialized chapters, Space Wolves, Blood Angels, and Dark Angels. All these books have been kind of underpowered in the last edition. I’m curious how the addition of the new models and rules will affect their performance as well. I am both curious and worried.
How Bad are Knights, Really?
When players got a look at the rules there were a lot of assumptions made about Knights, both the Imperial and Chaos variety. Many players had declared that the Knight armies won’t be playable or even have a chance of winning, as a pure force. Whether it was the new ways that armies are created, the terrain rules, or just the rules in general, there were many a Knight player that has simply given up on army and either shelved them or sold them off. Recently, however, there seems to be a push to try to make the armies work. As we got more information, both about the points and missions, a number of players seem to have more confidence on how their army may fare. I am curious how this army will perform. I do know that the size of the army can be an issue as this edition seems to lean heavily on holding objectives. I think that coming out of the gates you will see a lot of variety in people’s army as they try to make their giant robot armies work in the new environment. Even with these supposed negatives, a smaller board certainly helps the army get in to grips with their enemy and brings some of their short ranged guns into range much earlier than before. I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised in how they fare.
Is Assault Dead?
This is one question that I personally am really interested in as I tend to play assault heavy armies. From almost the start players started to state that assault was dead, or dying even more. These statements were being made as we saw more and more of the rules. Now these were mainly directed at T’au and their overwatch ability but these statements are still being made. The way the charges now work and the new stratagem that allows someone to fall back, even if surrounded, have led to these statements being made. I still think that there is some play to be made with assault units in mind but that players have to be more considerate about it. You have to remember not everyone can overwatch anymore and not everyone plays T’au. Some codexes have units that can deny a unit falling back, so you may see more of those units appear on the battlefield more often. I think this aspect of the game will need a lot of testing for a lot of armies if players want to have a viable assault oriented army. I sure am going to give it a try with my Chaos Space Marine army.
~Let me know what you think, and what questions you hope will be answered in the new meta, in the comments section below!
