Warhammer 40K: The Game is Balanced – But We Lost Something Along the Way
Goatboy here to talk about the balanced army meta of Warhammer 40K, and what it means now for us players.
Today, I want to talk about how the Warhammer 40K 10th Edition is really starting to push some of the skills back into the game. There are definitely some “better” armies out there in the meta. Events being won by all sorts of factions these days, armies are sitting in a good place win percentage wise, and a very limited set of new units are hitting the game. We are starting to see player skill becoming a primary factor in this game. The better player is starting to win more with whatever army they want to take.
The Armies Are Balanced – REALLY!
I say this as we see some armies that are not nearly played as much (due to costs, hard to play, and just lack of updates) have high win percentages. Usually, these are run by loyal players who have ground it out with an army and have perfected their plastic dudesmen on the battlefield. You see this in good players gravitating towards armies that might not be good for new players, but in the hands of a seasoned pro, they are just brutal to try and defeat. It is an interesting time in 40K right now as we really haven’t had this in the game for a long time.
Is this a good thing? Is having all this balance between most of the armies exciting enough? Are we in a golden age for balance but kinda a sad age for army excitement?
10th Army Updates Dont Feel As Exciting As In Past Editions
I think that is where I have a lot of questions in the game right now. The idea of when building a new list actually excites you? Right now’ I am just waiting on the Blood Angel Combat Patrol to come out so I can finish up this list and try to play it. But this wasn’t a whole army build as again – the changes in how GW views Marines, paint colors, and army builds has made Blood Angels not so much a new army build, but instead just a minor army update.
It feels like players aren’t going hog wild excited when their codex drops, but instead just continue painting the same marines the same way and add to their collection a little bit? Is this part of the problem of a game that introduced basically a locked in set of Unit Rules from the Indexes, and only a few small tweaks when their Codex is updated? It feels like in 10th Edition there a lack of excitement for new units or new codexes.
Fewer New Units, Slower Releases
It’s a weird time to be into 40K right now as I think the game is very balanced (Bravo GW!), the armies seem to work, but I am not excited about a new faction release. It feels a bit odd and while I know as a long time player I will have a plethora of stuff to play with I do miss drooling over new units/rules and getting excited about what I can do with them.
I think we are so used to getting rapid fire release of rules and minis from the past couple of Editions since 8th, that this multi-month break of no updates has really just kinda of staggered us in the hobby side of it. There was a ton of Kill Team releases but those were repackaged options that we already had and not new “rules” for the game we obsess over. I know we have 3 Codexes coming out pretty quick next year but is that enough to jump start 40K players to get excited?
Player Skill Is On Top!
Still, I am excited that player skill seems to have come back heavily in the game. With terrain getting better, getting standardized, and even missions getting fully locked in we are becoming a game where you can fully plan out your turns, your movement and your victory path. It isn’t a bad thing it is just a different thing, that the playerbase hasn’t seen in a very long time.
What do you think? Is the game in a good place? Are you excited to build anything new? Or are you just waiting to see if we get an actual real brand new army soon (Emperor’s Children)?
