Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K – Metawatch: Upcoming Changes
Goatboy here and we know some competitive upcoming changes are coming down the pipeline. Let’s take a look.
They range from a rebalancing of the points (much needed) to complete changes in how we play the competitive aspects of the game (mission pillars). Today I want to try and do a little bit of future gazing to see what might be coming down the pipeline. Also to see how close I get to picking what GW ends up doing.
Point Changes Inbound?
First will talk about the easiest – the points are going to be updated. Some of the newer codexes feel very undercosted when you compare them to other books.
Tyranids Changes
The biggest one appears to be the Tyranid book where the points make it feel like it was tested at the same time as Drukhari in how aggressively they have costed things. It feels like the amount of wounds they gave all their monsters were due to being thrown into the fire of flamer templates that did 2 damage and other bad Admech nonsense. Of course with those things tempered down you end up getting a book that has too many wounds for too little point cost. Just compare the Warrior and Pyrovore to the initial big daddy the Heavy Intercessor. Its safe to say we are going to see Nids hit in this direction and hopefully they won’t make the Drukhari mistake by pointing other things high but dropping a few things too much. Will just have to see but expect 15-20% less bugs on the table. Heck they might make it even higher as the bigger monsters are rough.
Aeldari Seem Good
From there I don’t know if will see Eldar point changes at all. The book just feels more expensive than others and that is probably a good thing. I feel the issues with them is more in their rules being a bit to spicy. Thankfully it isn’t easy to get an Eldar army with a lot of stuff just harder to get or not in plastic. I expect to see more of these armies pop up if Nids get hit a bit more in the upcoming point adjustments. The only other Aeldari army that might get his is the Harlequins just due to having some extremely rough characters. Same with their Troops as they could just be looking at ways to cut 10-15% of their army out to allow for less saving throw redundancy.
The Other Codexes
All the other books most likely will be ok with maybe some foresight to look at some of the other rough books like Sisters having some pretty mean things. They might not or just continue to kick Death Guard in the junk a bit more. I don’t think we’ll see Thousand Sons hit nor Grey Knights again as both those books feel right on the point cost front. Custodes as well but most likely Trajann is going to get hiked up a bit more as they love to release a character at a too strong point and then shoot them to the moon like Vahl.
I am hoping we see the new CSM points in the digital release too because we know the book is coming out soon. It would be a nice surprise and let players kind of plan out how they want to build their army. It is the same with the World Eaters little mini dex coming in the next White Dwarf. Will just have to wait and see.
Command Points Changes
After the point changes the other thought would be how they are changing Command Points. They talked about giving half the command points so it makes me think that either detachments are going to free. Or maybe something is going to be done to try and still allow these combo armies. There is a ton of rules in the new Knight books that show how things should cost for detachments. Ss they could just be like – instead of 12 CP you all start with 9.
I don’t know how this will really change up the game as the current big bad – Tyranids – don’t really care about CP too much. It is the same with a lot of other armies that just get other free rerolls (Harlies) or can effect the Fate of the dice in some way (Sisters/Eldar). It does hurt some of the other armies that rely on it to build their lists out and get that every important Reroll ability for armies with few big swings for damage.
This all makes me think any of the households/abilities that give you some kind of reroll become more powerful. It is probably why Vextrix is going to end up being the better Chaos Knight household over Herpetrix. It again points to a flaw in the game. Too many rerolls have become over burdensome to the game and how it keeps moving along.
Mission Tweaks?
On top of this it sounds like some mission tweaks are coming too. The Secondaries have issues with some of them being auto takes and others just never being worth it. I would like to see some changes done but having some easy ones allow some armies to just compete with some of the lists that have busted options. It you pay attention to the event scene, you can see missions that are obviously too good and the ones that are a trap. I always feel like there should be better “kill more” ones. Armies can be built to either not give up good ones or just become traps too easily. I also really think To the Last needs to be updated. There are a few lists that can easily have a unit that can kill you and still stay protected.
Let’s See What Happens
What do you hope will be coming for the updated Competitive side of things? Are you hoping your current list isn’t kicked in the teeth or you have to cut stuff? Do you think they will go after Nids enough and somehow many Death Guard Better? Can we get some Necron Love as well?
What do you think GW will change?
