It’s now been a few weeks since the startling revelations that shook up the meta. Arks of Omen represents a wholesale shift in the competitive scene. GW’s shift appears to indicate it is abandoning several key components of 9th edition which limited detachments, allies, and unit selection. What is so intriguing about this decision is that it wasn’t telegraphed or needed as a way to shake up a stale product. In this article I will be examining some reasons GW may have taken such a drastic step and what we can learn from each possible scenario.
- Scenario A: This was all planned from the beginning of 9th.
- With the release of the new AM and World Eaters codexes, GW should be very close to being back on track in terms codexes releases. They like to stick to a three-year edition window, and we should see the new edition in July of 2023. Given this, it may be that Arks of Omen was always intended to come out 6 months to a year before 10th. Think about it. GW likes to release narrative books right before they release a new edition to build hype and advance the story. If the release was planned to come out after the last codex it could have been designed as a way to shake up a meta without releasing a new army codex.
- I am also thinking that these changes are meant to help players bridge to 10th edition. It looks like 10th might loosen the restrictions on allies and detachments that we have seen in the past. This release might be gearing people up to that reality by easing them into the new format. At the same time, it gives GW some ideas as to how players will react to the changes in time to incorporate those changes into 10th (if something backfires horribly).
- Scenario B: GW is spitballing Ideas.
- I find the lead times needed for each new edition to be a fascinating topic of discussion. It takes months of printing and prep for a new rulebook to come out. Thus, I am curious: where in that process GW is right now? It is possible the rules are firmly established. However, I find it equally likely that Arks of Omen is designed as a way to covertly test for, and incorporate, player feedback. If they wanted to make any changes to a final rule set they would need to do so in the next few months.
- Usually when GW does a money grab it’s fairly obvious, in terms of gearing a season towards a certain type of unit (e.g. monsters in AoS), or making a new unit really powerful. What catches people off-guard about the Arks of Omen release is that it seems unfocused. It doesn’t incentivize people to purchase more of a certain type of unit, if anything people need fewer units to fill out fewer detachments.
- What separates this scenario from Scenario A is that in this situation the big shakeup wasn’t thought up until right before it was released. The Arks of Omen rule set has opened a morass of rules quandaries for army interactions (inquisitors, etc.) One would think that if this shakeup was planned from the beginning they would have a clear FAQ ready to explain the changes.
Final Thoughts:
I still firmly believe that the Arks of Omen changes have something to do with 10th edition. It is possible GW is trying to get players ready for a new rule set. It is possible they are trying to field test ideas. It is possible they are doing both. We have rarely seen such dramatic changes so late in a season which makes me suspect these rules were supposed to come out earlier. I think GW wanted us to have a full Arks of Omen season before 10th. This would give them time to either fix the meta through 10th and/or use player feedback to refine 10th.
However, this is just my ill-informed musing. What do you think? Is this GW going full on “Just as Planned”?
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