Warhammer 40K: Burning Questions Answered This Week
Space Marine & Necron codexes are next for GW this week. These are the big questions they will settle once and for all.
We have all been waiting for two months. As the weeks since the Starter Boxed Sets dropped we have been seeing little tidbits of information about what 9th Edition is really going to look like. In the last two months we’ve seen all kinds of little rules reveals, kits on shelves and some FAQs that only raised more questions. In the end the biggest questions about the direction of the game need published codexes to answer.
Here are the biggest mysteries we should finally get answers for this weekend:
Marine Wounds
We slowly came around ot the concepts of marines getting 2 wounds, but mysteries remain. Is it going to be W2 across the board? Are Classic Scouts staying at W1, or moving to W2? Who is going to get W3 (looking at you classic bikers)? How will characters be affected? We still have a lot of unknowns to get nailed down to see just how beefy the Astartes will be. Who will get better, and who if anyone will get left behind.
Marine Arsenal
We have a handful of confirmed weapon stats like the Multi-Melta, that tell us big changes are coming. But the assembly guides had many contradictory or typos in their stats. We still don’t know things like why different squads have different ranges for their bolters? Why do dreadnoughts seem to have reduced stat versions of weapons used by others? What other weapons are getting big buffs? Is the entire flamer family getting the extra range? I expect players to go poring over the weapon stats line by line the second the codex drops.
Necron Rebalance
There are a lot of new Necron units we know nothing about. There are also changes described in in White Dwarf to Reanimation Protocols. We have not seen an existing mature army get this large of an overhaul in over a decade. I expect giant changes to play options and general characteristics of the Necron faction. This one is less about specific changes and more about the black hole of knowledge we possess. I hope to be pleasantly surprised and blown away by the Necron’s potency once their book drops. They certainly need it.
CORE
With two codexes to use as examples, we should have a really good idea of what GW has in mind for the new CORE rule. We will get to see what categories of units they apply it to, if it appears in things like Stratagems, Warlord Traits, Relics, and unit special rules. It will be interesting to see if it applied evenly across Space Marines and Necrons, or if GW tailors it strongly per army to give them a distinctive feel. I’m extremely curious to see how far they push the new rule mechanic.
FAQs & Aftershocks
This update will send aftershocks through the entire game. Big changes to weapon stats will need to be FAQed across all the armies that use them (think of the Heavy Bolter for example). Wound increases may get FAQed into the Chaos ranges. There are a lot of armies that will probably get a band-aid FAQ to keep them competitive while they await their own codex release. I assume that these will follow the Marine & Necron release in short order.
40K is going to look very different 2 weeks from now.
~ I can hardly wait! What questions do you most want answers for from the new codexes?
