Warhammer 40K: Army of Renown Winning One Of The Year’s Biggest Events MATTERS!
Let’s take a look at what this win means for Armies of Renown – and 40K 9th Edition.
Armies of Renown were a new mechanic introduced in the recent Charadon Warzone books. They give your army a number of benefits, at the cost of restrictive army building. Since their introduction people have debated just have comparative they are. Now we have an answer.
What Happened
Last weekend Richard Siegler won the Orlando Open running an Army of Renown. We’ve already covered the full list (here), but the basics is that he took a Skitarii Veteran Cohort on a 8-0 undefeated winning spree. The Orlando open is not only one of the largest events of the past 2 years, but it is arguably the most important so far. As the first of GW’s North American circuit and their return to running major events outside of the UK, this was a major event. As a GW-run GT, we know that the event was run how GW wants it to be, so this win is as legitimate as it gets.
Why It Matters
Ever since Armies of Renown were introduced in War Zone Charadon, people have wondered if they were any good. The first few didn’t seem all that impressive. While they provided nice benefits the resections that came with them tended to outweigh them. People, myself, really like the idea, but if they couldn’t make a break into the competitive scene they would likely remain a curiosity. However, we’ve now seen that at least one of them is good enough to win a major event. That means that these are more than just bits of fluff. Overall I think that should make people a lot more excited for upcoming campaign books and they will be scrutinized much more by the community.
A Few Caveats
Now we should take this win with a few grains of salt. Ad-mech are one of, if not the most powerful book out right now. On top of that Richard Sigeler is one of the best players around these days. He’s won a string of major events, often using meta-defining armies, such a drone heavy T’au and Iron Hands. All that is to say, that with this Army of Renown won, we shouldn’t think that they are broken or an auto-win. It was an Army of Renown for the best army in the game run by the best player in the game. On the other hand, Sigeler choosing to run it shows that it is a good army.
The Good
This victory has some positive implications for the game. First off it means Armies of Renown as a concept matter. Overall I think that’s a great thing. I’d much rather have rules that matter and that people want to use, than get a bunch of meaningless rules that never see play. It makes me excited for the new books and what we will get. In addition I think any time the rules can reward and encourage you to play a “fluffy” army – that’s a good thing. Making rules that reinforce the fluff is great and I think there is a lot of room for creative and cool rules.
The Bad
Of course, not everything is great here. There are some downsides to this. More people using Armies of Renown means more complex rules and more bloat. You’ve got layers and layers of rules now. Sure the rules were going to be there no matter what, but if they were never used it wouldn’t matter much. However, I think this is a minor issue overall. The bigger one is that it adds more unfairness to the game.
We’ve already seen how the game is falling prey to codex creep and how 8th Edition books are in a lot of trouble. This just adds to it. Armies that get an Army of Renown, or at least a decent one, will simply put have an advantage over ones without. Now you’ll have armies with a lot of new things, like AoR, extra Secondaries and Command Upgrades (chapter command etc.) facing off vs armies that are missing all those things. We saw a little of this with Vigilus and the Specialist Detachments, where they were unfairly distributed. Hopefully, this will balance out sooner than later, but for now, it is a worry.
Let us know what you think this means for the future of the game, down in the comments!
