Wow time flies eh? The end of an edition is looming and is coming quite soon with all signs pointing to sometime soon for it to drop.
I’m stoked! 7th edition, while quite vibrant in its release schedule, new models, rules, and whatnot, has become the cumbersome bear in play for me with games taking way to long to finish and tournament games not getting completed in a timely manner. The game is too complicated with so many ways to slow things down it is rather ridiculous. Our GW overlords have recently announced the end of this 7th Edition and have brought us NewHammer! Rejoice! Here are some reasons why I am personally excited for all this.
Loopholes
One big thing I’m excited about is the admission of “loopholes” in the system, especially when it comes to deathstars. Some of the big crazy deathstars we see are pretty abusive of the system with Independent characters from many different sub-factions being shoved into a unit to make it min/maxed to utter absurdity. I know some people like to play that way and that’s fine, but it has made many games all about utterly ignoring that unit, picking on support, and playing with out a lot of interaction between your forces. Less WARhammer and more AVOIDANCEhammer. I like that they see that players broke their game in a way that was unintended and are hopefully changing things to fix that.
Tournament Player Feedback
The inclusion of players like Reece, Frankie, Mike and others to play-test this edition is fantastic. Having an edition that is playable by all forces will only strengthen the game as a whole and make it a better experience for everyone. I do hope that these TO’s or GW brought in some of the top players to help break to code as I know some guys that spend all day in their mind palaces making combos from different books to create uber death forces of doom. If I take this model from this faction with this artifact and combine it with this unit and that other character with this USR then win. These guys find those dirty unintended combos that wreck the game for a lot of us. I am encouraged that we have some solid 40k minds mixed in with the play-testing of this edition.
Quickened Game Play
From what I’ve seen of the rules so far I’m excited. Things like no templates, set attack values, move and run combined, 1500 reported at playing out at 90min, these things are great! Seeing tournament games only go to turn 2 or 3 is depressing and having things that speed up the system are excellent. I am personally sad about the loss of templates as I loved that tactile feeling, but do totally recognize how slow they were, especially with armies like Renegades, or how they introduce arguments with how many models were under the template and what direction the template should actually move. I was sickened with how bad players were in moving that template. Parallel lines people! Not perpendicular! Anywho, I like what I see and am excited for much shorter and expeditated game play.
Every Codex Updated
Holy cow! In one fell swoop, every unit in every codex is getting updated! How crazy is that? Every player will have access to every unit and their stats in the game when the new edition drops. I am astounded at this! We have a very real chance for so many sup par units and codexes to rise to a tournament playable force. Above all else, this is amazing to me. Every. Codex. Redone. Seriously, think about that.
Reactive Ruleset
With the Generals Handbook being touted we have a truly reactive yearly reset on the rules. We won’t have to wait eons for the edition to change or this or that unit to get better or be realigned so we have more balance. I know it won’t be perfect, but it is a great start that should give you a lot of encouragement in the health of the game to come.
Interested Parent Company
Finally! This was something that was truly missing from the game set. Players were left in a vacuum and it took the rise of prominent TO’s to wrangle and force the edition to something more playable. We have the parent company asking us for help and our input which is huge. It was our voices that fixed some of the foolishness of the proposed FAQ’s and brought them into reality. They are reaching out and sharing information in many ways that is great. They just need to avoid the trolls and keep the lines of communication open.
New Starter Set
This new edition is surely to bring us a new starter set! I love these with the mini rulebooks and great value of models included. Could be a time to start a new force! I love these starter sets and see them as a great way to bring in new players and in adding to current forces.
Free Ruleset
Another fantastic thing GW is doing is following the path of other game companies and providing their rules for free. The core set of rules will be downloadable by all so we can get right into it and start playing. I love this! The barrier to entry is lowered and people can see readily whether they are interested in the game or not.
BUT…
It isn’t all roses and candy, I know this. There are things I don’t like or am worried about, but on the whole, I’m excited. Truly, what choice do we have? I can get sour and burn my models or forge ahead and look for the silver lining, and I see a lot of silver lining overall. Granted, part of my livelihood is invested in this, but I still love playing the game, meeting new people, and building the community. I have met some lifelong friends that I look forward to seeing at the events I go to. It’s a ton of fun! We can get down in the dumps or move forward and I’m moving forward. I hope you join us!
Otherwise I know a guy who can offload your armies for a very competitive price www.trader-a.com! I also know some other guys who do the same…www.frontlinegaming.org! Shop around and see what fits you best.
Shameless Plug – Boise Cup GT
Having recently moved to Boise, ID, I’ve pushed to start up our ITC league at ABU Games! We are also running our first GT on June 24-25! ABU Games is a huge online retailer of Magic and have a superb game store in Boise. They purchased an old fitness center and we will be playing in the basketball court so there will be a ton of space with no butt on butt action. We are also working hard to have top notch terrain for each and every table with a lot of themed tables and FAT/FLG mats on each one. We will have a fantastic Fenris snow table, I’ve just completed a Robot City FLG table (article incoming), and have some big ideas for more with a Imperial Knight repair depot, Tau City, Greek Ruins, Infested Tyranid table, and more. I’m pumped! We are capping at about 40 players and only have about 19 tickets left as of writing this so get your ticket and come out! – http://abugames.com/item404285-new/0/-magic/Boise-Cup-GT-Hosted-by-ABUGames-.html
We are having some great trophies for Best General, Best Sports, Best Paint, Best Overall and faction trophies to boot! Come slug it out for best Space Marine or Best Daemons! Also, the majority of the entry fee is being used as prize support which will be some great GW kits and more! The store is going above and beyond to support us and our community and I’m very excited to partner with ABU to get this ball rolling.
There is a good chance we will be doing Newhammer at the Boise Cup so join us for what may be the first GT of Newhammer!
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
