Hello all,
Phat J here to talk about my personal wishlist for the next edition of Warhammer 40,000.
It’s no secret here in the office that I have been losing interest in Warhammer 40k for some time now. The game used to be my go to for entertainment. I wouldn’t even think of starting a new game system while I had 40k to play. Things have slowly shifted for me starting with the release of 7th edition and at this point it’s almost a chore for me to get my army out to play for a battle report or play on our live stream for a Tuesday Night Fight. It’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly where and why my interest waned but I find myself longing for the days when a twin linked S8 Autocannon was considered OP. Since 7th edition we’ve seen power levels grow uncontrollably. I understand the reasoning on Games Workshop’s part, if you introduce weapons that remove models on the roll of a die or allow people to take ‘free’ models by taking formations you encourage larger games becoming the norm which (hopefully) translates to increased sales of models, which I get.
It’s just becoming a bit too much.
Rules are coming out fast and loose and the community has never been as nasty to one another as they are now. Rules disagreements and arguments over what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is has populated the various 40k forums for what seems like years at this point. Thankfully, rumors of an 8th edition being released in the near future have given me some hope that Games Workshop is ready to reign in this crazy train. I have a couple of issues I would like addressed in the next edition that I feel would bring balance back to the force game.
D Weapons – This would be a hard one for Games Workshop to change since the rules and weapon profiles are printed in so many publications but I feel having a mechanic in a game that removes singe or whole units (stomp) is just bad for game balance. Yeah, you rolled a 6 so you won the game. Do you feel good about it? I certainly don’t. How many of you have apologized after rolling that 6 and seeing your opponent’s face. Feels bad man.
Free Units and Wargear – Adding a mechanic solely for the purpose of selling models was bad and Games Workshop should feel bad for doing it. It’s the definition of game imbalance when a game supposed to consist of 1850 points of models allows one player to have 300 points over their opponent. It doesn’t make any sense and causes a lot of frustration in the community. This also goes for summoning, which again gives one player a massive advantage in points in a game that is supposed to be defined by them.
Battle Brothers – The creation of Death Stars begins and ends with the Battle Brother mechanic. Do away with this and you will see the majority of the abusive psychic Death Stars rampaging through the community disappear. They started this already by not allowing Battle Brothers to start the game in different transports a la the FAQ Draft but I think this needs to be taken one step further and just get rid of the ally section completely.
Grav Weaponry – As a person guilty of not only getting the free transports in my White Scars Battle Company but of running 10 Grav Cannons in it, I can say with a straight face that Grav weaponry needs to be toned down. Grav weaponry is the reason vehicles collect dust on the shelves. Sure that new Forge World vehicle looks amazing but all it takes is a single 6 to immobilize it. I was at a tournament with said Battle Company and faced off against a Khorne Daemonkin army with several Maulerfiends. My first shot of the game was with a Grav Gun and I immobilized the closest one. The look on his face was absolutely tragic. You can imagine how the rest of the game went.
Yes I know this isn’t the most in depth look at the myriad of issues with current Warhammer 40k but these are the ones that make the game not fun for me at the moment. What do you think? Do you like the current state of Warhammer 40k? Are there any issues not covered here that really grind your gears? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading!