40K: 8th Edition Army Construction
The time has come to take a closer look at the Army Construction Rules for 8th!
For the first time in an edition of Warhammer 40,000 that Games Workshop has provided some guidelines for Organized Events. Now these are specific to Match Play and use the very granular points system. That said, you can extrapolate out how those points would work if you wanted to use Power Levels instead of points (it works pretty much the same – if you know how upgrade options work). Let’s get started!
Choosing Your Army
When choosing your Army for Matched Play, the army MUST be Battle-forged. The total points also cannot exceed the agreed upon amount! That means if you are limited to 2000 points, a list that is 2001 points is NOT valid. Remove a Bolt Pistol or something…
The Keyword system helps to combat the wackiness that ensued from the Allies Matrix. The Army Factions is a very clean and simple way to add in appropriate units to your battle forged armies. Again, this is only for matched play – if you want to do some crazy narrative or open play game you have the freedom to do so. What I like about this is that you can still mix Factions that fit the lore and background but still provide some flexibility in your list construction. Now, not all powers/auras/buffs are going to work on all units – check your Datasheets for specifics!
Here are the specifics about Points Limits. I won’t get into them as you can read for yourself – but the basics are that once you agree to the limit, it’s the LIMIT. Add up all your points (remember ALL wargear) and you’ve got your total – make sure you’re at or under your agreed upon limit and you’re all set.
Here’s the BIG one. Reinforcement Points. The only time the Reinforcement Points MUST be used is when they are ADDING a new unit to the battle – ie, one that wasn’t already on the board when the ability started. Summoned Daemons is specifically called out but here are a couple other cases:
Case 1) Necron Reanimation Protocols – When the models are destroyed set them aside. If the unit is still alive, you roll to see if they come back. While this seems similar the big difference is that the unit is not new – it was already on the board. It’s a healing ability and not a creating a new unit. The key difference is “Each time a unit is added to an army during battle.” The models coming back are re-joining their previous squad and therefore aren’t a “new” unit. Now, if the entire squad gets wiped out…
Case 2) Tyranid Tervigon Gaunt Spawning – The Tervigon’s ability allows it to place a new unit of 10 Termagants with Fleshborers on the table during it’s turn. Or you can use that ability to replace up to 10 Termagants in an existing unit that have died previously. If you’re ADDING a new unit, you had better of set aside Reinforcement Points. If you’re just “healing” a unit up to 10 models, then you don’t need to pay the points. But remember, the Tervigon’s ability can’t be used to go over the units starting size. Any excess Termagants are lost.
Lastly, 8th Edition 40k is the first edition where Games Workshop has created a recommended “Organized Event” chart. Here you can see the most common point sizes, the recommended number of detachments, battlefield size, and recommended game length. These are great for Tournament Organizers or really anyone looking to play some Pick-up Games. I’m really glad to see this in the BRB as it’s been a much needed addition for a long time. Now, there is no reason folks can’t do there own thing – this table is still a suggestion. But it’s a pretty good one if you ask me!
Other than recording your army on paper (known as an Army Roster) and nominating your Warlord, that’s pretty much it!
So what do you think of how we are to construct armies for Matched Play?
