With the dawn of 10th ed around the corner I think it’s a good moment to reflect on the highs and lows of the last edition. One of the big selling points of 9th was that GW would be creating, and heavily supporting a narrative rule set for all armies. These rules would off unparalleled opportunities for customization and game play. But how did it turn out? Will these rules be remembered fondly? Or did GW bite off more than they could chew?
In my view, 9th ed has been the pinnacle of narrative gaming for 40k. No edition has furnished players with more custom missions, rules relics etc. This is a golden age of narrative play for 40k and thus the future changes may be unwelcome.
There are weak points of the current crusade system. While the rules are very deep, they are also incredibly cumbersome. When competitive players complain that it is impossible to track all of their opponent’s strats and abilities, it’s nothing compared to what Crusade units can do. The system is so complex that it is almost pointless to to understand how your opponent got their buffs. I once had an opponent get two very specific buffs that had to be rolled randomly. The odds that he did were minuscule but, since it was a casual game, I didn’t feel like trying to call him out.
This burden carries over to events, wherein players have to spend a lot of time book keeping at events. This forces GMs to consider how to balance the time constrains of their events, especially weekend events. Players want to use these rules, but you can’t get three games a day in, and use the crusade rules.
10th promises to simplify the rules, but how they do this is unclear. On option is to reduce the number of units you track in a campaign. My group has used this tactic before with only certain units getting the buffs. Another is to reduce the manner of buffs you can get, which doesn’t save you much time, if every unit still needs to track how many kills it gets, etc.. It may be beneficial to restrict the faction-specific rules, as they are often bloated and very unbalanced. At the same time, they also offered a lot of cool flavor and unique ways for your army to be involved in the narrative.
I am curious as to how GW will modify the system and what the early campaign books will look like. I am anticipating that the 10th ed Crusade rules will be a lot simpler and less flavorful compared to 9th. However, my approach will be the same approach that I took for my last campaign. I start with the current set of rules and then modify them for my local group. While this does require players to read your rules, it can make things a lot more fun during the course of a campaign. Like I said, this has been a great edition for narrative play, thus any changes might be a step back. New editions are often a time of trepidation, especially when the game is completely overhauled. However, by approaching their rules as guidelines it gives you the freedom to shape them to the needs and desires of your local group!
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
