40K 8th: Battlezones Preview
Games Workshop is talking about Battlezones – a new addition to Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition!
We have been told repeatedly by Games Workshop that there will be three ways to play Warhammer 40,000: Open, Narrative and Matched Play. We have also been told by GW that they want to support each way to play – and one way they are doing this is with the new Battlezones. Check out the teaser Battlezone: Fire and Fury.
via Warhammer Community
“Effectively, these are special rules that can be layered over the top of any other game to represent an unusual environment.
You can see that these rules will alter the way you play and position your forces, which not only gives you a new tactical challenge but is just incredibly cinematic.
What’s really elegant about these is that they can be used in any mission, giving massive replayability to the (not inconsiderable number of) missions in your main Warhammer 40,000 book.
While certainly created with narrative play in mind, there’s nothing stopping this being used for other games – even matched play. If you’re looking to add just a little extra flavour to your matched play event, for example, maybe every table could have its own Battlezone rules, or maybe the first game of the day kicks off with a Night Fight game?”
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Okay, that mission looks like a ton of fun. The sky is burning, the earth is cracking, and meteors are falling on the battlefield! Of course the Warlord would be insane to take the fight to the enemy there – or maybe just desperate! But that is the beauty of this Battlezone – it adds that little extra to the cinematic nature of the game.
Personally, I have always been a fan of crazy missions and scenarios. I still have players bring-up some of the wonky missions I created when I used to run local Tournaments for 40k. To me, these type of things should be encouraged and used by all types of gamers – Open, Matched, or Narrative. Use them to spice-up your causal game nights or if you’re a Tournament Organizer, maybe toss one in early in the tournament – but I don’t recommend wonky stuff for the final match (the players at the top tables will appreciate it).
Games Workshop has announced three of these new Battlezones: Night Fight, Psychic Maelstrom, and Fire and Fury. I’m sure that when they put out future supplements we’ll be seeing more of these types of adventurous battlegrounds to fight over. Again, these are optional special rules to layer on top of the existing missions in the book – you don’t have to use them. But for those of us who like to add some extra crazy/cinematic/adventure to our games these are a welcome site!
What do you think of the new Battlezones? Are you going to give them a try or are you going to create some of your own?
