Some new rumors on 40K, 6th ed via Tastey over at BoK and opinions on what we’re seeing.
So most of you have likely seen these rumors over at BoK, or related on BoLS.
Well.
I don’t know where to start.
My gut reaction is somewhere between panic and horror. As a competitively minded gamer, increased randomness in the game detracts from skill, which makes my desire to play it drop like a rock down an empty well shaft.
But then I think, hey, I am probably knee-jerking here. We don’t even know if these rumors are true….but then I realize that Tastey’s info is usually dead on the money.
So, the next thoughts through my head are: don’t judge a book by its cover. Wait and give the game a go before judging it too harshly. And that is what I will do, but I can say that all of the randomness being introduced into the game mechanics to make it more like Fantasy sounds soooooooooo unappealing to me. 40K has passed Fantasy in sales significantly, why on Earth then, would you take the more successful system and copy the less successful system with it? That seems like asking for failure.
Time will tell. For now though, I HOPE this isn’t true. Please don’t make this a game of just tossing dice, GW.
As for the Fluff progression? It’s good to see the game story moving forward. I will reserve judgement on that. If Mat Ward is writing the story, then we’re all F#(#%D. If Phil Kelly is writing it, then there’s a chance it will be really cool.
Allies and what not sounds cool, but anyone who played in 2nd ed knows how easily this breaks the game. The Dexes rules were not meant to crossed with one another, and the ease of finding game breaking combos is crazy. Again, we’ll have to wait and see what the actual rules allow, but if powers and such can cross over, good night.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
I completely agree… I LOVED 2nd edition…. WAY BACK THEN… but come on 5th edition is so close to being a GREAT system. Not much tweaking is needed. To over-haul a system which is undoubtedly their finest ruleset to date as well as messing with their biggest audience seems like the invitation for disaster.
*If it ain’t broke…*
Now perhaps this is in move to get away from the tournament scene. Dropping their sponsorship and changing the ruleset would certainly work to do that, but as someone who isn’t involved with the tournament scene I am very afraid. I just pray to whatever God is out there, please let the new game be 40K, not fantasy 8th with a 40K skin mod.
You said it. Why emulate the less successful system? It just doesn’t make sense.
This really, really smacks of a lack of connection to their player base. I know most gamers are casual, but come on, why go to a system that isn’t selling as well? It just doesn’t make sense?
It is broke though, mostly because of that one codex author. If GW stuck with a design philosophy then I agree, 5th is great because of the streamlined nature and core rules applying to all armies. But with more and more books coming out with “special” rules, or worse yet “exceptions” to the normal rules the system becomes more and more broken.
It is the design equivalent of putting monster truck tires on a Ferrari. It sounds cool, and even looks cool, but it works like crap.
They really need a return to the lead designer philosophy they had at the dawn of 3rd. Even then it’s going to be a couple years before it returns to a balanced and well designed game.
I agree. With all the different authors writing books, and all of them with different visions, you get a hodge podge system. I don’t think 5th is Broken, I think it is as good as it has ever been, but it isn’t perfect either, by any stretch of the imagination.
We’ll see what we get, but this is just such a turn off for me from a rules perspective.
One thing to consider with the random assault range, in 5ed with terrain involved how often are assault threat ranges already random? Fairly often. That factor is likely removed if this turns out to be true — with terrain having some other affect but not whether an assault fails or not). Overall I don’t like the change (I preferred pancakes removal of random movement) but on second glance its not so far removed from current.
Being a tyranid player I am a bit concerned with snap fire and whether overwatch is also back in in addition to snap fire. That could really screw low resilient assault armies like bugs. It appears the balance to this is the return consolidating into new units. All well and good for MEqs or other durable assaulters, minor consolation for T3 6+ save models and the like. And frankly it really depends on how far consolidation will be. If its d6″ its not like it will occur all that often. What I will like is being able to assault a transport and then lock up the contents — rather then them being free to rape my stealers.
I guess we will see how this all shakes out, I know for sure we need to see the whole thing in its entirety before claiming XYZ is dead. Remember when 5ed was rumored and the death of transports was pronounced due to the addition of run and hit on rear in CC? Yeah it’s funny to think about but that is what happens when things are looked at in a vacuum.
Excellent points. We do need to see the system in entirety before making judgments. I just do not like random. The dice are random enough, adding more just makes the game worse. In my eyes.
I personally like reactionary actions as it makes the game more immersive for both players more of the time.
The thing that really hoses assault armies though, is pre-measuring AND random movement. That means shooting armies gain a significant advantage. Consolidating into combat can balance this, but I really didn’t like that rule in 4th ed and was glad to see it go. To easy for a unit of assaulters like Harlies to just walk through entire armies.
Being able to Glance Vehicles to death helps bugs a ton though.
We’ll see. I want to try the system out and give it a go in its entirety several times before making my mind up. I just loved that fake rule-set we got as it removed so much randomness and made the game more predictable which is where skill comes into play.
I think one of the best things about fifth edition is not being able to consolidate into a fresh combat… I remember units like Death Company and Harlequins wrecking entire enemy flanks. There have been lots of false rumors floating around on the Internet so there’s no need to really worry – these new rumors sound like bunk to me.
Yeah, I agree. Consolidating into combats is not a good thing, IMO.
We’ll see what happens.
This completely contradicts GW’s one and only thought: to scrounge every last cent they can from customers, gullible and otherwise. That’s why a particular person writes ridiculous codices (proper pluralization of codex); look at how many people buy Grey Knights and Blood Angels – it increases their sales.
Guess we’ll just have to see how it turns out :\
Yeah, Mat Ward is good for the short term sales, but bad for long term customer loyalty.
And as you said, why emulate the system that sells worse? It doesn’t make sense unless their goal is to try and make the systems more similar to one another to try and make it easier for players to buy into both games.
If the system sucks, it will be up to you and other major Indy tourny organizers top get together and create a different standard tournament format. Perhaps this will involve changing or restricting any of the unsavory bits of the rules. Its not like we have to use their rules to collect the models, and its not like they are giving out prize support. This might turn out to be a good thing if it causes the unification of the competitive indy scene. Or we can all just play warmachine…
The fluff stuff sounds kinda tight. I love space-opera. Really hope that doesn’t transfer into allies. Pretty much dito what everyone else has said about that.
Yeah, my thoughts exactly. I like seeing more fluff and conflict in the game, but the rules sound bunk.
We in the IGTC (Independent Grand Tournament Circuit) are already talking about what this coming edition may mean. We’ll see what actually happens, but I am not really happy with what we’re getting so far.
I think everyone here is bringing some good insight to the table, I also feel that maybe tasty is hitting the mark on about one in three of these “predictions” However there is a truth here that most of the rumor mongers don’t want to acknowledge, and thats the fact that most of what they are spoon fed comes from the cutting room floor. It’s not to hard to imagine how this system works, GW lets slip some bad data, which contains what ammounts to a drunken jam sessions worth of ideas and pitches, which gets everyone riled up and talking about the next edition, which is then followed by the actual release, which has much more agreeable content. So not to put anyone down here (BoK features some great articles) but rumors are just rumors, and the more reliable you purport your “source” to be the more eyeballs you get.
To summarize all this, I’ll wait till the book is in my hands before making wild claims about wild marine tau space love.
So gentlemen let us kick back, pour another drink and watch the world burn around us for just a little longer.
Cheers
Scott
Haha, I like your attitude, Scott. You are right for sure about the need to be cool and just wait and see what actually happens as opposed to what may happen.
I want to see a game with some variability to excitement, but more predictability than not. Closer to chess than Craps for me, please.
Amen brother, but I will be happy I finished painting my 50+ bezerkers army this winter if consolidating into CC is back…. Muahahaha!
Honestly I hated allies in 2nd but I feel like it is the perfect sales gimmick. What better way to get someone hooked on another army then by letting them play a few units in there armies first. It definitely breaks games if played by TFG but most local RTT where I am from have alays banned allies from tourny play.
I hope Matt Ward writes himself into the fluff btw, so we can start an internet campaign. “The First Crusade to Kill Ward” or something epic, where Urien Rakarth bitch slaps the Emperor so he can walk again and he decapitates “The Ward” with a paper towel tube and…. I’ll stop now.
hahaha, that would be epic! Gah, Mr. Ward is such a d-bag. He writes broken codices which sells models in the short term but hurts the game in the long term.
I think you describe the origins of some rumors correctly. However, like Reece wrote, Tasty Taste is like the Delphic oracle: always right. You know what looked like more than a bull session? That Leak. It looked like a thorough document put together by a team of paid professionals.
You’ve heard my convoluted theory before on this site. Like an old man, let me repeat myself. They had the perfect update; it was the sixth edition leak, for which they could not take credit; now they have nothing to give but crap.
Here’s something to consider too: the differences in the natures of the rumors between WH40K and WHFB. The former have been contradictory and wrong since the leak; the latter spot on in content and in timetable.
I hope you’re not right. Tastey is usually spot on, so I don’t have a lot of hope, but I hold on to what little I have. That leaked 6th ed PDF was awesome sauce. Please give it to us! haha.
If not, well then, we’ll give 6th a fair shake and if it tanks, there’s always other games to play for a while.
It seems like investing in a secondary game would be a good movIFAD much as it would hurt gw if these rumors are true. I’ll play 6th once things are faqed and pray its still a fun game but til then, I will begin learning how to play warma hordes while getting as many 5th Ed games in as fits my schedule.
That is our plan, too. We will give 6th ed a fair shake and really come at it with as open a mind as possible, but in the meantime we’re playing a lot of Warmahordes and 5th ed! haha
I think it bears mentioning that while often accurate, good brother Tasty-taste is a sensationalist at heart. His blogs are predominately directed at the competitive community and feature topics that make us squirm simply because of the angle they are reported from. I mean, no one talks about the planes that landed… its just not interesting.
Fair enough. His site is the Tabloid of 40K. But, he is usually on the money with his info.
We’ll see.
This is true, but so far he has fed us what we don’t want, maybe for each of those items there are 2 things that are sick. We still have no idea how vehicles and fliers are going to impact the game for instance.
Also some items in those rumors are grossly out of context. For instance, we have no idea how allies would be introduced, what limits are on the purchase of buildings and we are making assumptions on psychic powers based on 8th fantasy.
In summery lets not assume the worst just yet.
Again, good point. We have to wait and see what we get.