Tim Kaye is here with a guest editorial on the seemingly immanent 7th ed!
Well, this, the first article I have ever written on 40k, was going to be a summary of the Home Nations Team Championships, held last weekend in Scotland, and a preview of a ‘no holds barred’ tournament being held at my home club, Brighton Warlords, this Summer.
All that seems a bit by-the-by now, due to the official announcement of the forthcoming release of 40k 7th Edition. I have read the leaks on Pins Of War, Bell Of Lost Souls and Beasts Of War and, whilst it seems like they obviously have lots of new ideas over at the G.W. studio, I don’t know if these changes are being implemented at the expense of simpler, more fundamental issues that should be addressed.
What have we heard so far?
The three main aspects of the new edition that we have been told about are:
Optional adherance to the Force Organisation Charts (F.O.C.)
This seems to be a pretty blatant effort to exacerbate the current trend for ‘moneyhammer’ that has already been rife int 6th ed. The release of expensive, large monstrous creatures for Eldar and Tau was just the start. The Riptide and Wraithknight became, very quickly, a must-have option for their armies. Then came Stronghold Assault and the release of Imperial Knights, opening the floodgates for Lords Of War. I’m not saying having these units in normal games of 40k is in any way inherently a bad thing; they could be the answer for some of the Deathstar lists out there. What I object to is being forced in a direction, as seems to be the intent, where I feel competitively inadequate because I can’t afford to spend £100-300 pounds on the new large kits. I just fear that giving players the option of adhering to any form of F.O.C. will be detrimental to both game balance and any sense of ‘fluff’ or narrative element in games. I’ve already seen 40k Facebook groups inundated with people putting combinations forward to take advantage of this.
New mission objective cards This actually should be a really good thing. I have long been of the mind that having a more varied mission structure is extremely conducive to giving a more thorough overall indication of who actually played the better game. I saw some time ago a beta-test series of missions with optional objectives and aims, which gave players various options like scoring points for objectives on a turn-by-turn basis, making a specific secondary objective worth more points and so on. This was intended to be done in a way that allowed both players to pursue the goals which they felt most confident of achieving, so one player could choose a different option to the other. If the new mission objective cards system is along these sorts of lines, I think it will be an awesome addition to the game and give unprecedented flexibility to players. I can actually see a huge potential in this to be a great force for game balance.
New Psychic Phase
This one seems to be getting a great deal of attention across the internet, and seems to be a hugely divisive issue. I have long been of the mind tha the current Psychic power mechanism is far too powerful and game-changing than it should be, the ability to ‘supercharge’ units with multiple blessings and make them nigh-on unkillable has been responsible for pushing lots of people away from the game. I should mention at this point that a new allies system is also said to be included in the new edition, possibly making some of the worst culprits, namely Battle Brothers, obsolete. I choose to exercise my right to reserve judgement on this, it really could go either way. One of the main fears is that it will add even more time to a game which already takes a good long while to play. If the Psychic Phase, along with the two touted new disciplines, adds enough to be worthwile, while being streamlined and removing some of the ridiculous combos available now, I’ll be all for it.
So, overall, I am excited to see what 7th edition brings. I mainly hope for a much clearer, tighter and overall more concise rule-set than we currently have. On a personal level, I would like to see the balance between the Shooting and Assault phases improved, mainly because I enjoy the visceral aspect of assault. Less than three weeks to go now, so we shall soon see. One thing’s for certain, it’s going to make the Brighton Warlords anything goes tournament in the summer a very different event and a really useful litmus test for how the new system works at it’s most extreme level. We can but wait and see……
Timothy J. Kaye
I’ve read this before? BOLS?
Yeah, bols
Yeah, Tim’s article was on BoLS, but UE actually sent it to us first. I just had such a crummy internet connection I couldn’t get it posted until now.
As a community can we just accept that GW does stuff to make money and stop harping on it? I’m tired of reading the same thing in every article. If you need to actually write out the cash grab rant in your articles, maybe italicize or underline that part so I can recognize and skip it.
Agree with his other views though. Psychics powers sound wonky but I love the magic phase in fantasy so hopefully it turns out well.
Here here, this article wreaks of repetitiousness.
The Magic Phase is one of Fantasies biggest issues at the moment.
The level of damage certain Lores can do is outrageous.
The complete and utter random element that is the 2d6 system to generate power is ever so annoying, impossible to plan around.
I do however like the implications of d6+ ML worth of dice, I am wondering to as how this will affect Grey Knights as I just started converting up an army of them.
Will force weapons have to be activated in the PsyPhase and will they take up charges (I assume so), will Psychic Pilot count for anything?
Also, will the amount of dice still be relative to ones Ld!? I was wondering if you were still going to be required to roll under ones Ld, so in theory you can toss out 3-4 dice but the risk of failing ones check becomes ever greater. This train of thought stems from the Tyranid Codex, as a book so close to the new edition will most likely have been designed for it, no?
If so, then Tyranids will be amazing at the counter PsyPhase, if enemies are playing about with only 1 die casts (average Ld would be 5-6, making anymore very risky…) then the Shadow in the Warp will truly become a major player in the nullification of Psychers the galaxy over!
Anyhow, just random speculations, until the end of the month,
Keep Calm and Grim Dark On!
Some good points, yeah, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
I have re-read my article and I totally can see how the section on the FOC could be seen as having a whinge. I really should have qualified that section of it by saying that I just hope some sense of responsibility for the enjoyment of one’s opponent starts to creep into the collective consciousness of 40k players. I didn’t make that point very well, I admit! I can’t see how it could be described as repetitive, however, as it was the first article on the 7th edition rumours to be put out by any of the major online communities; maybe you’re referring to articles that followed mine and have it the wrong way around? After all, this is a ‘re-issue’ of what went up on BOLS, Reecius just published it here again when he was able, due to having poor internet connection. We’ll all have to wait and see what 7th ed actually brings, but it will definitely be exciting.
I feel that a pys phase in 40k will work better than it does in WFB. Reason being in WFB I will throw a tonne of dice to get one killer spell off once ( dwellers or purple sun), in 40k its a different story most want the powers turn on turn. Your not going to blow your farseers brain out for fortune one turn.
I am hoping so, my greatest fear is that they will “overcharge” the psychic phase, much like what has happened in Fantasy. We shall see soon enough I suppose!
Agreed, psychic powers are good enough as is.
Hi guys, long time reader first time angry poster.
Psychic phase, not impressed. The problem I have with fantasy is the restriction of 6 dice for one power and 12 dice total. What happens when I want to play a 10,000 point a side game? My magic phase is capped out? If this is done in 40k it would seriously detriment the Eldar, what would be the point of taking more than a couple farseers.
FOC, silly but wont change the way I play the game. I am under the assumption that battle brothers will be removed and that if you really want you can still take your cheese list, or an even more cheesy list than is possible now, but that you will receive punishment for doing so in order to level the playing field. This is one solution for some of what happens currently in the game, leaves the door open for people to still play the lists they spent time building and opens some new interesting doors. So long as the bonus you get for a battle forged army is enough to balance the cheese I think we will be fine. Someone will always find some new super cheese that is so good the bonus will not matter, but I am hopeful it will be thought out well. The armies that are the best in 6th edition are those that have wonderful synergy between all units and function as an army. When you do not play the army correctly everything falls apart. A riptide by itself is not amazing, it needs other units to support it. Kill your friends farseers and suddenly his army is a lot less competitive. Nids are like this but to an extreme where you really have to synergize everything. I hope that the next edition continues along those lines, with an ability for people to explore new synergy at a cost or play silly buggers and bring all of the most expensive things possible only to get tabled by a proper army.
Looking forward to new battle missions. Keep up the awesomeness that is frontline gaming.
Hey gtossguts, yeah, well see what happens. I am not super pumped about a potential fantasy style magic phase, either, honestly. The missions sound crazy if they change each trurn, but hey, we’ll see how they actually play out soon enough! Thanks for the encouraging words!
On the plus side, if they make the psychic phase awesome then we might see some more thousand sons on the table!
:/
It’s not like they are going to get smashed by grey knights, eldar and IG at all 😛
Yeah, some of the rumors sound really interesting. Lose a psychic power if you fail a test? Damn.
Don’t fear change but he starts his article negatively lol…