40k - Thoughts on What We Know So Far re New Edition

Over the course of the past week GW has released teasers on the new edition of 40k.

Everything that we have seen so far seems to point to a desire to speed the game up. They have foreshadowed a reduction in army size by pointing towards matched play occurring at 2000 points but with a likely increase in points costs. This morning it was flagged that the minimum sized table for 2000 points is 60” x 44”  - and importantly the game was playtested (and presumably balanced) on that sized table. FLG - one of the biggest producers of mats and ITC owner - have indicated that their own events will be moving to that table size.

We also got the new army structure rules.  CPs are determined by army size and you then purchase detachments. The cost of the detachment is refunded if your Warlord is part of it. I am hoping that where you buy additional detachments and these are outside your faction/legion/chapter/craft world then these are punitive. Something like 8CPs for non-battalion different legion please! Make the cost of soup hurt (I know it won’t because “Freedom”).

We also saw an Americanisation of missions. The US gaming scene doesn’t like uncertainty as much as GW has had in the past. The ITC and Nova packs have removed variability and allowed players to largely “choose their own adventure” rather than have to react to uncertainty. Personally, I think this makes the ITC missions very bland, the variability being muted.

The other concern about the missions is the scoring. It appears that there will be more points on offer. While this can create granularity in score, it does look that there will be more bookkeeping. One of the benefits of the current GW and ITC Scoring is that it is straightforward with little room for error.

Overall the material to date looks quite encouraging. I don’t like to judge without seeing the whole product....however it doesn’t stop the internet. The ability to “see” the full system based on limited data points appears the default mode for a lot of commentators.

Looking forward to seeing what else GW previews.