Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: What To Expect From Your First 10th Edition Games?
Hey everyone – so you are going to go off and play your first 10th edition 40K tournament. What kind of nonsense should you expect to happen?
You have pulled out all your models, marveled at all the wargear you can take, and have set up to have a good time. So what should you expect? Well – for the most part you should hopefully have a good time. I saw this because not everyone is inclined to just wing it and hope for the best when throwing down with a new edition. I usually look at it like this – you are going to get caught with your pants down, probably discover something powerful, and most likely will want to change your list after the event is over. It is just the nature of a new edition and how rules will evolve as we continue to play it.
Matched Play Just Arrived
Heck we just got the Matched Play Tournament Companion (And the Leviathan boxed set is still only a couple weeks old). I know that Matched play isn’t what everyone engages the game with – but it is one of the easier ways to ensure you have a hopefully fair and expected experience when hitting the tabletop.
Which of course means I should answer the question – what is Matched Play. Matched play is basically as close as you can get to Tournament 40K. Just like Tournament Magic: The Gathering which has rules, limits, and other boundaries – Matched Play 40K is very similar. A lot of the boundaries in the basic game matches the ones in Tournament play because a lot of the game was written with that in mind.
From how terrain should be set up, how you should set up scoring, and even how you should present your army rules is all factored into this tournament play. It’s isn’t a bad thing as while we all know some armies will be better than others the hope is that skill could circumvent some of that as well as the lovely luck coming into play. It is just the nature of a game where the amount of dice rolls will never be enough to truly activate the odds in a way beyond just feeling that hunch that you might win this fight.
Expect Stuff To Be Off
This leads me to my next thing on any new edition. There is going to be some BS in how some armies just seem way too good to be true. This is especially evident in how some of the new rules really outweigh some of the bad armies’ rules. I am sure if you’re reading this and reading other online sites (which I read a ton too) you know there are some “powerful” options that feel too cheap, too good, and just oppressive right now.
If you are going to an event, be mentally prepared – you WILL be playing against these – or you may yourself be playing these armies/units themselves. They will be there, they will wreck some of your stuff, and there is a good chance you will lose to or with these things. This is a new 10th Edition, and losing is going to be common for any player – no matter the skill level.
Heck, the art of losing is just as important as the art of winning. It all comes down to how you should interact with this new 10th Edition meta. I use this game to activate some art stuff in my brain on cool minis, my desire to hang out with friends talking about dumb Warhammer stuff, and engage in the fluff in a way that is meaningful. I also like to build all these plastic toys too but that is another avenue of creation that lets my brain stay alive after dealing with oodles of spreadsheets and workflow nonsense during my day-to-day job. So remember why you are playing Warhammer 40K in the first place before getting bent out of shape by the meta of an Edition that is two weeks old.
Come On In – The 10th Edition Water’s Just Fine!
Anyway this is more just a hey – we know the game is going to be wonky in the beginning. This is all new stuff, we all have to get used to 40K’s new core rules, things probably need to be balanced more, and it will just take a bit to get everyone used to things. It also means Tournament 40K will take a few growing pain steps to get working right.
Also, if you think you found something that is too good and use it to win a lot – it will probably get tweaked at some point to not be as good. It is just the nature of the beast when you have a ton of people looking, playing, and writing about how something is broke as heck.
~The silver lining of course is that that complaining about the 40K meta IS one of the oldest and established part of the game – so enjoy it as well!
