Hoo boy,
that week went by fast! I hadn’t intended to take quite so long to get this
next post up. Well, here it is, the first of what I anticipate being three,
maybe four parts on the things I’m excited about for 9th edition
40k. I have a lot to say, so we’ll see how far I get.
I want to
start with one of the most sweeping changes of the new edition. According to Games
Workshop, everything, EVERYTHING, is going up in points. I’m pleased with this
for three main reasons. One, it means army lists will be smaller, so games will
be smaller. With fewer models on the table, games will go faster, which I like.
Two, it means a lower barrier of entry for new players, or veterans building
new armies, which is good for the hobby – especially for broke gamers like
myself who want something new. GW games have a higher price tag that other
minis games, that’s just a fact of life. Either you accept it and play their
games, or you don’t and go somewhere else (I won’t go into the various ways to
get 40k or Age of Sigmar armies for cheap or free – that’s not what this post
is about.) That said, being able to shave the cost of a box or two before you’re
able to actually field an army is a really nice way to sell a new player on the
game, especially younger players who have less money to work with. The third
thing I like about higher point values is that as the edition wears on and the
game evolves, it gives GW more chance to adjust the points down as needed to
provide more granularity in representation of the various strengths and
weaknesses of the different units. The difference in cost between an
Intercessor and Tactical Marine, or an Imperial Guardsman and a Chaos Cultist,
should have enough room to adjust to reflect their relative effectiveness on
the tabletop, and in 8th, it was starting to get too compact to continue
doing that. GW had mostly been lowering points to adjust for unit power levels,
rather than adjusting up as needed, so you wound up with some units of roughly
equivalent point values being vastly different in effectiveness, because that
granularity had been lost. Starting over from a higher level gives GW the room
to adjust things again.
Circling
back to my first point about smaller armies on the table, I’m also very excited
about the prospect of the game being built to include smaller game sizes. In
previous editions, there was certainly nothing stopping you from playing a 500-
or 750-point game, but the game wasn’t really built for it. The scenarios weren’t
really designed to effectively function with a smaller game size like that, and
the way that the armies were built tended to skew things in certain directions.
For example, orks tended to have an easy time at 500 points in 8th
edition because they could flood the board with so many cheap bodies, even at
that low point level. Meanwhile, a faction like Space Marines or Grey Knights were
so limited by their higher point values that they simply couldn’t field enough
troops to keep up, and they were easily overwhelmed. The combination of bumping
points across the board, redesigning the scenarios and detachments, and adjusting
the board sizes will make smaller games a much more viable option. Honestly,
that’s something I like. As I get older, I have less time, energy, and
attention span for a three or four hour 2000 point slugfest, unless I’m really
having fun at a friend’s house or something like that. Don’t get me wrong, this
is a hobby, it’s a leisure activity. It’s something we all do for fun, but even
fun things can be draining if they drag on too long. Spending 6 hours at the game
store or club was a blast when I was 19, but I’m not 19 anymore. I have family
commitments, a life, and I just don’t have the inclination to go in there, hang
around for an hour or two and shoot the breeze, spend three or four hours
gaming, then another hour shooting the breeze before I finally trundle on home.
Being able to knock out a 1000 or 1500 point game in an hour or two will be
really nice, and it will help separate the casuals like myself from the guys
who are prepping for the next tournament, because they’ll all want to play the
full 2000 points. I like having that built in identification system.
On the note
of smaller games, I want to talk about the changes in board sizes. For those
that don’t know, Warhammer 40k has traditionally been played on a 6’ x 4’ board
(or the metric equivalent thereof, in countries where the lumber is cut to that
size.) In the new edition, GW has put out some new “suggested minimum” sizes
that differ from the traditional standard, based on the size of the game
played. This has been a huge point of contention and argument on the Internet amongst
the 40k fan base. People have floated various conspiracy theories, saying that
GW is in cahoots with gaming mat manufacturers, or even is planning on going
into the business themselves, or who knows what else. Some people are embracing
it as the new gospel, a 100% locked-in rule that all games in the new edition
MUST be played on boards this size. Others are howling anger into the aether, furious
that GW is “invalidating” their current play mats and tables. Personally, I am
utterly baffled by all the arguments and bother. GW actually had to come out in
another one of their rules reveals and remind people that these are, in fact, suggested
minimums. There is zero reason to switch to these new sizes if you don’t
want to. You don’t have to take a pair of scissors to your favorite game mat
and a power saw to your gaming table. GW isn’t going to send a Commissar in to
execute you for treason if you still play on a 6’ x 4’ table. Yes, the
organizers of LVO and Nova and other major events like that are all saying they’re
going to switch to these sizes, and with good reason. Smaller boards mean less
crowding in event halls, which makes players more comfortable, and can fit more
tables in. Pretty good deal for them. For the rest of us, though? Who cares?
Every gaming club, local game store, and basement gaming table in the world has
a 6’ x 4’, and we will all continue to play on them. It’s fine. As for the
conspiracy theories surrounding why GW is doing this… there is one very, very
simple reason: these dimensions fit Kill Team boards. They allow players to put
together Kill Zone boards from Kill Team and create tabletops without having to
buy a nice mat or build a huge table. You can play a 500 point game on your
average kitchen table now, and all you need is a couple of Kill Zone boards.
That’s it. That’s all. There’s no grand conspiracy, no tyrannical decisions to
crush the dreams of players all over the world. Simple logistics and
accessibility. Hell, GW even still sells the old Realm of Battle boards, which
put together into a 6’ x 4’ board. If they made these new minimums to be the
absolute ironclad standard, they’d be cutting their own throats. They’re
smarter than that. The arguing and fighting is all a bit silly, really.
The last
thing I want to talk about today is the new terrain rules. GW is doing a
tremendous amount to fix terrain, which is absolutely necessary at this point.
Having a Land Raider completely obscured, but that Fire Prism on the other side
of the board could see one of the lascannon barrels through two windows on two
pieces of terrain and therefore having line of sight to shoot? Ridiculous. I’ve
been playing Infinity for the almost 5 years now, and that game has very tight,
solid terrain rules. Warhammer 40k has always been a bit loosey-goosey with terrain,
and it’s good to see it finally being codified. It actually makes a difference
now as to what terrain you put on the board, what it does, and how it interacts
with the models in play. The different types of cover are a nice touch, though
I’m not sure I fully agree with the way hard cover works against melee attacks,
that one seems a little odd and silly. Overall, though, I’m pleased with them. Shooting
into or out of but not through terrain is something that has been the typical
meta standard (at least, in all of the games I’ve played) for Infinity for
years, and it prevents a lot of cheesey abuse of the rules. Also, thank the
God-Emperor that they decided to write the rules such that that stupid ITC rule
of infantry not being targetable on the bottom floor of buildings. That was the
absolute stupidest rule I have ever heard, and it really made me not want to
play against ITC players. GW is lifting a lot of rules from the ITC rules packet,
but they’re cutting out some of the more absurd ones, like that one. (For those
that aren’t familiar, ITC, or Independent Tournament Circuit, is a sort of worldwide
organization and set of house rules that Frontline Gaming put out to organize
and codify 40k and Age of Sigmar for high-level tournament play.) These new
terrain rules will solve a lot of problems for both infantry and vehicles
alike.
Well, I
think that’s enough rambling for one post. There’s still a lot left unsaid, and
GW is still releasing new teasers of 9th edition’s features. Tune in
next time when I cover my next batch of rules changes that I’m excited about!
No comments:
Post a Comment