Hey everyone! Adam, from TFG Radio, here to once again to fertilize your brain with knowledge*.
This week we had a number of exciting new announcements from the NOVA Open. There is new stuff coming out in the very near future that has a lot of people, including myself, very excited. Along with the new models, campaigns, and story lines there was also an announcement that will affect a lot of players. Games Workshop has decided to do once last update for units that they do not make models for and retire them are Legend models. These models will no longer be updated annually in the Chapter Approved book. This is, essentially, the death of the index units and I couldn’t be happier.
I know there are a lot of models that had rules for many years, and are upset about them being unplayable for Matched Play events. I have a whole army that was removed from the game when it went from 2nd edition to 3rd edition. Finally some models seem to be making a small comeback, so who knows. The honest truth is that for many armies, the index units available were not worth it. How many units of shrikes do you see in Matched Play events? I don’t even know if any of the other Xenos books lost anything because you never saw them even when in was indexhammer. Thanks to the wonderful Index chart that Games Workshop made, that just added to the confusion of building an army. We get the lovely issue of Tzaangors having a +2″ to their charge because of the brayhorn being an index option. We have the question of Dark Eldar wargear for the Archon because of the difference in default weapons. We also have the issue of a Daemon Prince with warp bolters that had people’s underwear twisted in knots. These are just some examples of the issues that the indexes have cause since Games Workshop allowed index options to be used for Matched Play after the codex was released. Since all of the codexes have been released, there really is no need for the indexes.
I do understand the frustration of having units that are no longer available for Matched Play. I have a number of Chaos lords and sorcerers on bikes that will now be demoted to just regular bikers. I know there are plenty of Ork, Space Marine, and Blood Angel players that will be missing key components to their army once the move to Legends takes place. Hopefully theses players can find something to replace the lost units. Although I do wonder if they will be gone from Matched Play forever? With the upcoming release of a number of campaign books “for every army” I would not be surprised if we got new models and new rules to replace the Legends. They may not be the exact same model but they may function in the same way or may serve your army in the same way. I can’t really see them not doing that. Sure it could easily be just a money grab, but isn’t everything Games Workshop does just a money grab? Having gone through similar things before, I have become more used to things not being available to play in tournaments. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing on my part, to be honest. In the end, I think the move of the index units, for Matched Play, has more positives than negatives. Who knows, we could end up seeing Legends Tournaments start popping up in a FLGS near you!
That’s all for this week, I hope you enjoyed the read. Let me know your thoughts, and what models you will miss or hope they bring back, in the comments section. Don’t forget to visit our Facebook, Twitch, and Patreon pages to stay up to date on what we’re up to and when episodes drop!
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*Or bullshit. The result is the same
So in addition to all the other stuff that’s been gouged out of the DE codex, we’re also losing the only worthwhile weapon available to the Archon.
Awsome.
Still waiting for even a single codex or update that doesn’t remove more from my codex than it adds.
I have to agree. As solid as the dark Eldar dex currently is, and it really is… It kinda sucks to have some units that are just so limited…
I can not tink of any other subfaction that is limited to only a single non-special character unit as an option.
To remove even more options is a slap in the face.
Most of the issue, for me at least, has to do with the removal of mobile Character options. Some of them still have Jump Pack options, but not all, and the ones that don’t just got way worse, since they need to be able to reliably get to the Units they’re supposed to be supporting. It’s def kicking Slaanesh Daemons while they’re down, and it’s a knock to SW (Iron Priests) and Craftworlds (Autarchs just lost the vast majority of their options) as well.
My white scars lost chaplain in a bike, librarian, apothecary,command squad and ancient con a bike and it pisses me off cause those are models I worked hard on converting and they are gone.
I hate this “if you have to convert it should exist” it is nonsense.
The fact GW never made a model for them was a big indicator those options were not going to make it. And the Primaris killed everything else.
Agreed.
It’s a terrible and unnecessary philosophy. So long as the necessary parts exist within the model range, conversions should be perfectly legitimate.
My understanding is that it’s because of the initial ruling in the IP lawsuit with Chapter House a few years ago.
The tl;dr version is the courts ruled CH wasn’t infringing on GW’s IP by making models that GW didn’t make itself. Quickest/cheapest response to protect their IP was to cut the units that didn’t have models.
Except that they constantly break that rule.
In my example above, Archons don’t come with Venom Blades, Power Swords or Blast Pistols – yet all of these remain legitimate choices. So why not Blasters?
Hell, Grey Knights are allowed a model that doesn’t exist and that can only be made by converting other models. Why can’t other factions – especially those with easily-converted models (Orks, Dark Eldar etc.) have the same privilege?
Or – and I know this is a crazy idea – GW could actually get round to making models for units with preexisting rules. You know, instead of pissing around with Marines 2.0 and Roman Marines.
While I totally understand how annoying it get, they had to prune to a reasonable amount the playables models. In typical GW fashion, I have the impression they did that as badly as they could, but *maybe* I am just an inhabitant of the dead sea. (*grmbl* why do they want to center on the least annoying part of the setting each time ?)
Now, I would be interested if people had suggestion of a better system, and what GW could have done better in implementing the current system (like making sure to not axe too many mobility option for HQs)
“Matched play” = only 10K players world-wide (ITC’s own figures … and most of those have little chance of hitting the big time.) Compared to millions playing every week in garages, clubs etc.
Nothing stops you using them in your own games/tournaments … it’s just that with the new Studio Design Team, these Legend models won’t be getting annual updates. In fact, every week GW Tv tells you to do just that.
Remember there are three ways to play …
There’s a difference between ‘competitive play’ and ‘matched play’. And I’m willing to bet a large majority of those “millions playing every week in garages, clubs etc.” are all using the matched play rules for their games.
Thought legends aren’t banned from matched play which most people play. They’re just soft banned from tournaments. People shouldn’t feel so restricted by tournament play. Sure it means that tournament lists have to change to to everyone else this is just a rules update that most index options sorely needed.
There are far more than 10k matched play gamers, that’s just how many were actively registered in the ITC last year for 40k specifically. We haven’t achieved full market penetration or anything, not even all that close I would guess. We still have a lot of growing to do.
As for the total amount of people playing the game? It’s hard to tell but from what we can tell there’s roughly 2 million active GW hobbyists out there right now, at least those that are online. And as others have said, the majority of them, when they play casually, play matched play rules.