Warhammer 40K: New Rules & Codexes May Reinvent the Game
Adam here to discuss with you some of the new and exciting 40K rules and releases hitting the scene.
Well, there certainly has been a very busy week. If you include all of the stuff Games Workshop had recently announced and showcased, then it has been a very busy week. The new animated stuff, along with the announcement of Warhammer+, has me excited, to say the least.
Although I do enjoy the visual arts of Warhammer 40K and Age of Sigmar, there are also a number of 40K-centric announcements that will have an impact on the scene. This week we will take a general look at these announcements and see how they may affect the meta in the future.
Chapter Approved
The new Chapter Approved will probably have the most immediate impact than the other announcements. Tweaks to the missions will certainly affect how people approach the game, and hopefully, we will see more different types of armies on the table. I think the biggest thing that will have an impact is Games Workshop redoing some of the secondary objectives. Let’s be real, there were only a few of the secondaries that people took because they were easy to score. From what we are seeing in the previews, there are enough that Games Workshop has changed that it should give you many more options in what you can choose as a secondary.
This could easily affect how armies are built as many players build their armies based on what secondaries they think they can achieve, or even deny. I’m actually not too concerned about point values as we don’t know if there was a drastic enough change in points for units that it will really affect on what units you take. Once we get the actual book in hand, and start number crunching, we will be better able to see how drastic, or not, the point changes are.
Adeptus Mechanicus Codex
We have known that this was coming out for a while but due to some circumstances the book, along with a host of other products, has been delayed. Thankfully we will finally be getting a new codex after this long wait and it seems to be something Admech players will enjoy. Just from the previews we have been seeing people have already started creating possible combos and are already showing us how devastating the army can be in the shooting phase. Now for some of these combos some assumptions are made but even if these are incorrect they are still strong. I am not sure how strong these armies will actually be or even how often you may see them in you local tournament.
I don’t know many Admech players but the ones I do know have always been passionate about their army. These dedicated players have almost always made a solid showing in tournaments but this new codex may have them make a major dent in the scene. Once we see this army on the tabletop, especially against Drukhari armies, is really where we can see the “rubber hit the road”, so to speak. Although some people seem to worry about the “Drukhari Effect” with this army, I hope this isn’t the case as other codexes come online but you know what they say in 40K about hope.
Thousand Sons & Grey Knights Codex
These two codexes were announced and almost seem like they will be released at the same time. The last time this happened was also with Grey Knights in 8th edition. They released the Grey Knight codex alongside the Chaos Space Marines Codex back then. Both codexes had struggled at the end of the last edition and currently still struggle. There are a lot of tournaments where you don’t even see these armies in attendance. Both, or at least one, of these codexes will hopefully bring a strong psychic army to the scene.
Whatever does happen, just be prepared to play with a clock. As we see more of these armies in tournaments, we will see these players use up all their time in the psychic phase. Being able to efficiently handle the psychic phase may be what determines how good the armies do. I mean maybe Magnus and Nemesis Dreadknights will win the day for players on their own. In my opinion, I think the complexity of the psychic phase may drive some top players away so they may still languish in the bottom tier. I certainly hope not.
~That’s all for this week. I hope you enjoyed the article. Let me know what you think, and what announcements really have you excited, in the comments section below.
