Warhammer 40K: Five Thoughts On The 10th Edition Rules Announcement
GW pulled the covers off 40K 10th Edition! Take a look at the most important thing we noticed about the new teased 10th Edition rules.
Warhammer 40K is getting a brand new edition. With 10th Edition just announced we got a lot of information in the recent Adepticon seminar about how the game works and what the designers are going for. Let’s take a look at some things we liked and some things we didn’t about the new rules ideas.
5. Streamlined Rules- A Good Change
One thing that was repeated a ton was that the designers wanted to streamline the rules. Now this is a good goal, but also means very little on its own. In fact it’s pretty much something you hear at the announcement of any new edition for any game. No one wants to make a more complicated and harder-to-play game. The mistake GW has often made in the past has been concentrating on streamlining the core rules to very few pages, and overloading army books. The good news here is that the 40K designers seem to have caught on to that. Excellent news!
The designers seem to be really focusing on keeping army rules down. Fewer stratagems and fewer overall army rules. I think this is great and makes me pretty hopeful. You can have complex core rules, but it is the armies’ that really bog down stuff. The next worry is about how long this will last. 8th Edition also started out very streamlined and ended up not so much. It’s what naturally happens to games as they stick around.
4. The New Datasheet Format- A Good Change
Along with the streamlined format, we are getting a new style of datasheet. I rather like it. It contains all the same information as before just with a slightly different layout. I’m not 100% sure how this will work for units with lots of options (or how the multiple guns on one datasheet work) but it seems like a good thing on the face of it. I like the new OC (objective control stat). I also like the fact that a unit or character could be better at using one type of weapon over another.
3. New Army Building Rules- A Worrying Change
It looks like how you build an army is getting a major overhaul. As the designers said:
“Army selection is equally straightforward: pick a faction, a warlord, and the units you like (just no more than three of any one type*), and stay within your points limit. That’s it!
You no longer have to fit your army into a force organisation chart, or compromise on the army you really want. It’s a simple and liberating system, and opens the door to all kinds of fun, thematic or unusual armies.”
Now, this is one that I’m kind on the fence about. On the face of it “simple and liberating” army building can seem good. Just let people take what they want. But we’ve seen them try this kind of thing several times in the past, and it never really works. Building within a limiting framework actually helps balance things out and can be a fun challenge. We will just have to see how this plays out over the lifespan of the edition.
2. Putting Things On the Datasheet- A Great Change
As part of their focus on streamlining things, the GW Designers confirmed that they would be moving a lot of powers/stratagems back onto datasheets. This is a great change! 8th and 9th took a lot of intrinsic unit abilities and moved them into stratagems. Simply put, this was something that never made sense. I’m very happy to see things like smoke launchers (fingers crossed) back to being unit rules. They are also moving psychic powers onto the datasheets. All of this puts a good deal more focus on the units, and that’s great.
Honorable Mention – Combat Patrols- A… What Change?
This is one where I don’t really know what to think about it. They announced there will be a whole game mode based around Combat Patrols that will use some modified rules. Basically, players just pick a combat patrol box, and that is their army. Maybe it’s a good way to get new players in, but I just don’t see how it can be balanced at all. Good luck GW!
1. A More Interactive Game – A Very Interesting Change
One of the most interesting things mentioned was that the game is going to be a lot more interactive/reactive. Players are supposed to have a lot more to do on the enemy’s turn than they have now. One example is the special rule on Termagant datasheet up above. This allows the unit to make a move in the other players’ turn. Depending on how far they’ve gone with these types of out-of-sequence rules, we could see a much more dynamic game, with players not stuck sitting around as long doing nothing. It’s still going to be each player taking their own turn, but it’s a modern twist on turn sequencing. It seems to have taken cues from some other hot games in the industry. Of course, it does risk bogging the game down. If every time I do something, the other player makes three reactions it could get old. But it’s a really cool idea to aim for. Well executed this could transform 40K! More original ideas like this please.
Let us know what you think about the new rule ideas, down in the comments!
