Warhammer 40K: Arks of Omen – No Matched Play Rules…Maybe?
Arks of Omen won’t have Matched Play rules but will have new models — so where are we going to find rules for those?
Alright folks it’s time to get a pedantic about Arks of Omen really quick. I’ve got a question that’s been bothering me about the new miniatures coming for Arks of Omen. So far, we know Vashtorr is coming as part of this event. That’s great and we’re excited about the arrival of this power broker to the game.
We also know that the Arks of Omen will not have Matched Play rules — “no new rule for the core game of Warhammer 40,000.” That was stated in the Online Preview. You can rewatch the presentation here. The whole Arks of Omen thing starts at around the 50 minute mark. At the 55:40 mark, Eddie goes into how the rules in the book aren’t for the “core Warhammer 40,000 game” ie, Matched Play. Instead, it’s a whole new way to play which is what the Boarding Actions are.
The video within the video also covers the background and mentions a bit about the limitations on the Boarding Actions rules, too. One last thing we know is that each army is going to get new rules for Boarding Actions during this “event” and it’s being dubbed one of the biggest 40k narrative events since the Great Rift. Those are some pretty big implications.
So…About Those Matched Play Rules
We know we’re getting at least 1 new model with Vashtorr (and it was hinted at even more models are coming). But even with just Vashtorr, we’ve got an issue. And this all brings me to my question: So where are the points going to be?
Boarding Actions are going to be their own thing. We’ve got a look at the Table of Contents for the Abaddon book and you can see…no “points” section. I’m guessing that GW will just use the points from the codexes and/or from the Munitorum Field Manual. That all makes perfect sense. But what about the new models? Where will their points be? And taking a step back, where will their unit dataslates be?
Take the Traitor Guard as an example. GW just hosts their rules on their website along with the dataslates and points.
Is that the plan for Vashtorr and any other new models that may show up for this event? That seems like the easiest fix for GW and they can still stick with the “no new Matched Play Rules” in Arks of Omen. Are points even “Matched Play” rules though? And by no new core rules for Warhammer 40,000 did they mean no new army stratagems or upgrades?
We can clearly see that Boarding Actions are going to have their own stratagems and rules from above. So it seems like GW really is taking steps to separate the Boarding Actions ruleset from the “Core Warhammer 40,000” game rules. We know this is essentially a different way to play the same game. We’re also guessing that the same basic core rules apply along with all the existing unit dataslates and points.
Or maybe GW will only have Power Levels for the new units…which, man, that seems like a massive mistake if they just don’t create points for any new units. There’s no way that Vashtorr doesn’t get a dataslate and points for Matched Play games. I mean, c’mon. But will they put the dataslate for any new units in the Arks of Omen books and do those count as “matched play” rules? If not, where will those rules/points live if they aren’t in Arks of Omen: Vashtorr?
Chaos Space Marines just got a new codex not too long ago. I doubt we’re going to see a new Codex: Chaos Space Marines during the Arks of Omen event to incorporate Vashtorr in the Matched Play side of things. So again, where are the points going to be at?
What do you think? Where will GW put Vashtorr’s rules and points along with any other new units they create for the Arks of Omen event? Will they be in the Arks of Omen books or will GW stick them somewhere else?
GW has to just put them on their 40k downloads section, right? It’s the only way that makes sense…
