Warhammer 40K: Where Does the Game Go From Here?
A rising codex has the 40k community wondering where we are headed from here.
Well, it has certainly been an interesting last couple of weeks. The first big week that the Drukhari book was out saw them win almost all the major grand tournaments. This past weekend at one of the major-sized tournaments, we saw the number of Drukhari players just about double. More importantly, Drukhari, or a mix of Eldar, filled out the top 5 of the same tournament. They are currently on track to have a similar win percentage of the 8th edition Iron Hands. Just like with Iron Hands, there is starting to be some talk as to what to do about this codex that seems to be menacing the tournament scene. This week we will look at some of the suggestions and talk about their merits, or lack thereof.
Ban the Book
This was one of the big suggestions back when Iron Hands started dominating the scene. Many tournament organizers and players have suggested just banning the codex. I don’t think this is a viable option and could actually hurt the local tournament scene. First off, you are alienating a group of players from coming to your event. Sure it may be a small group but that group may not come back to your event once the book is lowered in power or they play a different army. They may also influence other players because they are friends of the Drukhari players.
The other issue is that there are some players that actually enjoy the challenge of putting their army build and skills against a stronger army. Even if they lose, most times they learn something about the army, opponent, or themselves after the game. By not allowing certain armies in your tournament it really gives almost no incentive for someone to play in a field with no strong armies to test themselves. I don’t see this one being adopted by any large tournaments anytime soon.
Bring Back Comp
For those that don’t know “Comp” is short for Army Composition, and in this regard, it is a system of building your army in such a way that it, supposedly, would balance the game as a whole by having restrictions and penalties when building your army. This method was used back in the day but with the release of 8th edition a few years ago, it was largely abandoned. The issue with an army comp system is that the restrictions are largely based on someone’s, or a group’s, perception of what they think needs to be corrected. What may seem like an issue for one group may not be seen as an issue by another group.
There is also the fact that there is no centralized body that would govern something like this. ITC certainly won’t and Games Workshop seems to show no interest in implementing something like this anymore. Because of that you may end up with dozens of different army comp systems that could easily confuse people that travel to tournaments and may not be up to date on the latest army comp in the area.
Adapt or Wait for the Next Codex
We hear these two things a lot, especially from Drukhari players. Players just simply need to adapt. Changing the way you play or your army composition could actually work. The problem, at least so far, is that the Drukhari have played against enough variations of different lists that it really looks like there isn’t a certain type of army-build out there that could deal with Drukhari right now. There may be a codex or two but not everyone wants to, or can afford to, play those codexes to begin with so they have to rely on the tools that they have available to them.
In regards to the other statement, we shouldn’t have to rely on a book coming out to help deal with the current meta problem. I am wondering though, is that the plan? Is this the edition where they just make everything really powerful, starting with Drukhari? I guess you can say that if everything is overpowered, is anything really overpowered? If this is the route that Games Workshop is taking, then I suggest you buckle up and get ready for a roller coaster of a ride in the months ahead.
~Well, that’s all for this week. i hope you enjoyed the article. Let me know what you think, and what you think should be done about the Drukhari codex, in the comment section below.
