This weekend, a series of YouTube videos were released featuring interviews with Stu Black, the 40K studio manager, to give us even more details on the runup to 10th Edition. While I was focused with my latest mega post, I did still want to go through these and talk about anything interesting brought up. The interviews were hosted by Matt from MiniWarGaming, Nicholas from Play On Tabletop, Lawrence from Tabletop Tactics, Adrian from Tabletop Titans, and Stephen from Vanguard Tactics.
While I wouldn't call these interviews puff pieces, they definitely felt like part of the hype cycle building up to 10th. And while multiple talking points were repeated by Stu throughout the interviews, each content creator took time to focus on the aspects they were most interested in.
MINIWARGAMING
Appropriately, MiniWarGaming focused on the narrative aspects of 40K and Crusade. While Warhammer Community has released an article with some peaks at Crusade, this is an aspect of the game that we still don't know much about. Crusade was one of my favorite parts of 9th Edition, so I'm interested to see how the new rules pan out.
Matt from MiniWarGaming immediately wanted to know about how Crusade Narrative rules will interact with each other. Stu says he wants Codex Crusade content to feel more like the player's individual story, but the campaign books are where the Crusade rules will focus on a shared narrative with more interaction. This means as you play Crusade, you and your friends will be progressing a narrative and having it affect your own forces, while at the same time you'll also be pursuing your own narrative progress.
When it comes to whether individual Crusade supplements will be broad and faction agnostic, or more focused on individual factions like the upcoming Leviathan rules, Stu wants it to be a mix. So depending on the kind of game you want to play, supplements will be available.
When it comes to data and Competitive Play verse Narrative Games, Stu treats them as two different experiences and what metrics are needed for each are different. The team seems to use both sales data and internet temperature to try and get a feel for how mechanics are doing. Where as Competitive Play is focused on balance, Narrative Play is focused more on engagement by the community as a metric for success.
PLAY ON TABLETOP
Nick put his focus on the new player experience, tying it to the relative youth of his channel.
One interesting question is how players will know if they're using the most recent version of the rules. Indexes and Codexes will have slightly different designs, and even sizes, to make sure they can be easily distinguished. Codexes datasheets might be different than the index, meaning the rules we've seen are far from final. Finally the 40K app will always have the correct version of any given rule. Let's hope they succeed in giving the app the updates and functionality it needs this time.
Another point I like is that Stu says they tried to tie the rules on the Datasheet to the physical size and appearance of the model. He wants players to see the forces their opponent has and be able to roughly understand what any one unit or model will do.
TABLETOP TACTICS
Lawrence asked about why 10th Edition is resetting us back to Indexes. According to Stu, the design goals they had for the new edition required a full reset. This makes sense considering how extensive an overhaul Characters and morale are receiving.
When it comes to looking back on older editions, Stu looks at it from a problem solving perspective. If they're trying to figure out how to do something in the new rules, they might look back on previous editions to see how they did it.
Codexes are of course a hot topic in the community. With all the rules being available for free, will the codexes bring new value. He brings up how different Detachments in the codexes will focus on more specialized playstyles. An example he uses in this and other interviews, is that Tyranids will have detachments for Crusher Stampedes and an Infiltration swarms. He emphasizes these rules will not be tied to a particular sub-faction, allowing you to paint and play your models how you desire.
TABLETOP TITANS
Adrian asks Stu about game speed and how it will compare to 9th Edition. According to Stu, the game feels a bit quicker, but they also really tried to emphasize each turn of the game being important. So play as a whole might be faster and simpler, but they don't want games to feel decided on battle round 3.
When it comes to the new rules and changes to factions, he says he's keenly interested in how the new GSC mechanic will play in the wild. You and me both Stu. This is probably the most interesting mechanic introduced so far.
Codexes come up again, and at the end of talking about content he brings up Combat Patrol being in the codex. In a previous interview he'd mentioned Combat Patrols coming alongside new Codexes, so this might be where we find the rules for them.
When it comes to the idea of 10th being easy to learn and difficult to master, Stu brings up Battle-shock. He believes Battle-shock will probably be the primary mechanic that players will spend some time plumbing the depths of, and that Mastering Battle-shock will be key to high level play.
VANGUARD TACTICS
Stephen focused his interview portion on competitive 40K.
Random mission packs comes up pretty early on, and this is something I'm keenly interested in. I'm curious to see how the more random missions and objectives will play out in the Competitive Scene, if Competitive players will embrace random secondaries, and how Tournament Organizers will use the system.
It looks like we're keeping the competitive season around 6 months. New GT Mission packs will potentially recommend specific missions and rules, like they currently do, while still allowing the option to use the mission deck.
Okay, here's a big one! Points will change roughly every quarter and rules will change every six months. I like that! And points will remain online as well as on the app. Balance Dataslates will occur around the same time as the Tournament packs.
One thing I note is that the new edition has been under work for 2 years. This seems light for a development time to me. Considering the scope of 40K, I wonder if they should draw editions out further and use more campaigns to maintain interest. I guess it does also depend on how big the changes are in any specific edition. But considering the scale of this one I feel like they should have given it more time.
FINAL THOUGHTS
A great portion of these interviews definitely was dedicated to pushing the selling points of the new Edition. Still, each creator put their own spin and interests into the interview, and the gag they shared between eachother was fun. There were definitely question answered in these interviews. But there's still so much to know. I'm curious to see how the Codexes and the App will interact with each other. Will it be like in 9th where the Datasheets disappeared the moment the codex came out until you put in a code? Or will the App allow players to use the updated Datasheets while requiring you to get the Codex for the new Detachment rules? I really hope it's the latter, as I feel the game, and with it GW, will benefit more from a centralized source of updated rules than from any income the Codexes bring.
I'm definitely curious to see how Crusade pans out. And the Competitive scene is honestly doing better than ever. If they show the same dedication to game balance, I'm sure it will remain enjoyable throughout the edition. No matter what, I'm sure these channels will continue to put out top quality content for fans like me.
And regardless of the purpose of these interviews, they're working. I'm still incredibly hyped for this edition. And there's still so much more to cover before preorders even start.
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