Hi All,
One of the most stirring bits of news to come to the 40k sphere has been the recent announcement about the upcoming 40k seasons. Taking a lief from the world of online gaming the new system promises mission updates every six months alongside other balance changes, special boxes, crusade add-ons and stories. I think this is an interesting idea and, like the title suggests, has both promising and perilous implications.
Promise:
I will start with the positive implications. Ask any competitive player and I am sure they will agree that they would have loved to see an adjustment to the competitive environment (to blunt Drukharii) at the six month mark rather then living through an ongoing 9-month domination. This gives Games Workshop the option to regularly update the competitive landscape, to blunt oppressive lists, and re-balance under powered ones. Games Workshop has been operating in a rather nebulous zone with the continued absence of the next Chapter Approved book and lack of a spring FAQ update. This may partly be them waiting until after the LVO, which makes sense as you expect updates to occur shortly after a season ends not two weeks before it’s finale. Beyond the nerfing incentive these updates might also help players get more use out of their minis. Ideally, these regular updates will help players use more of their collection by more quickly addressing weaker units and rules. A quick cycle means that a specific unit or faction will have less time to wait until they get a review. Additionally, if there are particularly useless mission secondaries or bad missions they will be quickly removed from circulation. Even if you don’t like the new missions or rules for a season, I think it will be a lot easier to sit out one six-month season then a year or more.
Peril:
There are a lot of positives from this change, but there can also be some negative outcomes. The first concern is the sheer amount of rules bloat and confusion that can occur. It will be harder to explain the rules to new players, especially if they start around a time near a season shift. I also worry that this change will lead to a “Flavor of the Month” feel to 40k. I am concerned that Games Workshop will spin their unknowable wheel to decide which facet of the game to focus on for each seasons. You see this a bit in Age of Sigmar where the current edition focus on monsters which works much better for some armies better then others. I worry about a cynical future where one season favors some facet such as psychers or vehicles that arbitrarily punishes some factions because of their unit line ups. In a similar vein this may also increase the importance of “Borrow-Hammer” where in order to compete you need to know people who will loan you the best units as the meta will shift too quickly to economically adapt.
Conclusion:
I think this marks another step towards the professionalization of the 40k competitive landscape. As Games Workshop continues to shoulder the burden of balancing the game, they have now established a more frequent update cycle. This format is more familiar to online games, and carries with it the traditional benefits and downsides. In addition, this change will be a big impact on the competitive scene. Ideally this change will mean that more units will be able to be useful even if for a shorter period of time. In the worst-case scenario this change will herald a darker change making players have to spend or borrow more in order to adapt to the whims of the Games Workshop designers (which currently happens anyway lol). What are your thoughts? What do you think some of the other positive or negative effects of this change could be?
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