Warhammer 40K: 10th Edition – ‘Simplified Not Simple’ Discussion
Games Workshop is talking shop about Warhammer 40,000 10th edition and discusses what “Simplified Not Simple” truly means.
The 10th edition announcement was the big news at Adepticon and one of the phrases we heard was “Simplified Not Simple.” This was thrown out there as a design philosophy and also a bit of a catchphrase for 10th. But we’ve seen terms like “streamlined” thrown out before — in fact, the last time there was a major edition shake-up that was all the rage. So what does that phrase really mean? That’s what GW is here to talk about today.
“We freely admit that currently the game has become a bit too complex for many players. With so many stratagems, special rules, and unique situations in the game, Warhammer 40,000 had also become somewhat difficult, and lengthy, to set up and play.
All that changes in the upcoming new edition, which takes the same basic ruleset you’re familiar with and just… makes it simpler without dumbing it down.”
Simplified Not Simple
That’s a pretty big goal. How are they distilling down the rules to make it easier to get into and play compared to what 9th edition is now? This is a pretty good explainer:
There’s definitely a focus on getting the rules in more consolidated and concise locations. Datasheets for the units will have the majority of the rules for that unit. Rules like psychic powers which are now either treated as attacks or abilities on the Datasheet. The army-wide rules are going to be on a single sheet (probably a front and back, but still not a massive codex — looking at you Space Marines). And the return of Universal Special Rules will allow for us to all use the same terminology across armies.
As for Stratagems, they are going to be more reactive things you can do during your opponent’s turn or “one-off cinematic things” that you’ll get to do. Personally, I was really glad to hear that army Stratagems would be distilled down to around 6 per army vs the 20-30 that were in codexes. Honestly, most armies really only used 5-6 anyhow and the rest were just filler. I’m glad to see a lot of the filler go. It should clean-up the rules to a point where finding the thing you need will be much faster.
To me, it sounds like the entire goal here was to remove barriers to entry to actually playing the game. It’s “simple” to get your army and rules together and start playing. And it’s the playing of the game where the tactics, skills, and player choice really comes in. Playing the game is where the depth is — not all the prep-work before you start playing.
We’ll be keeping an eye out for more info about 10th edition as it comes from GW. You can still watch the Adepticon Announcement video (skip to 01:01:00 for the 10th edition announcement) and be sure to watch the video above to get even more info about 10th. I’m liking the sound of things to come!
Simple doesn’t mean easy…
