Hello all Phat J, your favorite PHAT philosopher here to talk about my thoughts on 40K after playing a SINGLE game of the brand new 11th edition.
Recently I was able to get together with a new 40K friend in my area, Travis from Life After the Cover Save, and had my first game of 40K 11th edition. It was a lower point game, only 1k, in order to make it more manageable for myself with all of the new rules and missions and stratagems, etc. Even keeping the points low I made a ton of mistakes, both tactically, and rules-wise. But that is to be expected when I barely even played 10th edition 40K. I decided to bring out my Astra Militarum Cadians, an army I have been slowly collecting over 10th edition but had never used in a game. My opponent Travis brough out his beautifully painted Space Wolves, which is an army I rarely see on the tabletop. Needless to say, having not played a game of 40K in some years and not knowing anything about the new missions I was defeated rather quickly. I had an amazing time though and am already looking forward to our next matchup. I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the new edition, as well as the state of the game, now that I was able to dip my toes into the maelstrom.
New Missions and Objectives
Even though I was lost in the sauce for most of the game, I did appreciate how the new mission deck works. The mission of your army is directly tied to the type of force you decided to bring, a la which detachments. The fact that you can now hold onto your secondary missions until you’ve completed them is also something I really enjoyed. The game can swing pretty wildly depending on what you are holding in your secondary deck, which means you may not be out of the game if you are down on points.
Terrain Footprints
I like the idea of terrain pieces being tied to objectives. The board just looks better without the bland circles and L-shaped terrain. I’ve already gone to the FLG STORE to order some MDF terrain footprints that I can build up with terrain for my home board. I’m not SUPER happy with the toe-in situation, I’ll be honest. I did like the old rules having to be within a certain distance from the edge of a terrain piece to be able to see out of, but overall I am happy with these terrain changes. The level of lethality in the game really makes it important to have a dense amount of terrain on the board. Its reminiscent of Infinity in a way. If you are caught out in the open you are basically just dead meat (or metal).
Lethality
I know it’s been a thing since the change from 8th edition but boy howdy does your army die QUICK. It does seem like every unit hits on 2s or 3s and there’s always a re-roll or a lethal element to it. Most weapons are damage 2 or 3 or MORE. It truly feels like a game of checkers at times. It’s a game of positioning and honestly I don’t know if that is something I will truly get used to. Terminators being removed in a single throw of the dice just seems wrong. I lost an entire Cadian infantry 20 man squad with attachments to a single Head Taker unit in a single round of combat. NICE. But I know that may be the old grognard in me and the majority of players have only ever been used to this level of lethality in the game.
Game Diversity
The fact that your mission will change based on not only the detachment YOU bring but also what your opponent brings really limits the monotony of some of the previous editions. Also, the fact that you can now mix and match detachments based on how you want to play your army almost guarantees that we will be seeing a huge amount of diversity with army lists. Yes, there will always be meta lists with sweaty gamers but that’s just how she goes, you know? List building for me has always been a large part of my interest in this hobby and the last three editions really limited that aspect for me. Now I find myself thinking of detachment and unit combinations, coming to the computer after work and playing around with army lists.
Obviously after just a single game it’s hard to come up with a definitive feel for what 11th edition will be like but I would say I am cautiously optimistic, and even dare I say actively excited to play another game. I’ve already begun to dust off my 40K armies, taking stock of what I have and what I’d like to build towards. Just that alone is more than I can say for 10th edition. I’ll keep updating you, my few but sturdy readers, on how my journey through 11th edition 40K is going. I think the next article will be about how I am currently building each of my current armies.
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