Games Workshop Interviews

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.

One thing I've speculated on that he confirms in this interview, is that Battle-shock represents combat readiness and pinning and not just morale.

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.

Let's Talk About Lethality

Games Workshop has come into this new edition with the stated intention that 10th Edition will be less lethal than 9th Edition.  To be fair, this is not hard.  Basically every Codex that came out after Death Guard had units that could absolutely annihilate the toughest unit in the codex before it.  From the sprinkling of AP received by Space Marines and Necrons, books started coming out filled with AP-3 and AP-4 weaponry.  While Necrons started the Ignore Invuln trend with the Night Bringer, we thought weapons like that would be restricted to demigod entities.  But soon it seemed every codex had at least something that could remove enemy Invulns.  Then the Ignore Ignore Wounds rules started showing up, not only negating FNPs, but also Phase Caps and eventually Damage Reduction.

Now the Battlefields of the 41st Millennium are supposed to be hellish places.  But this level of lethality had a direct impact on the game.  Vehicles all but disappeared from the board.  If it couldn't hide behind obscuring terrain or benefit from cover, it usually stayed home.  The game became very focused on tough, minimum sized, elite infantry units and fast, glass cannon, damage dealers to take them out.  On the one hand, this made the game focused on movement, positioning, firing lines, and board control, and I really enjoyed it.  But the fun, flavorful, and impressive battle lines of previous editions were gone.

GW'S ANSWER

As I said in the rules roundup, GW has decided to approach this problem from two fronts: revising Strength and Toughness, and lowering AP.

GW has increased the Toughness of every Monster and Vehicle across the board.  In general, starting with Toughness 7, they've changed each incremental step of Toughness to three steps.

So roughly:

• T7 -> T9-11
• T8 -> T12-14
• T9 -> T15-16

The weapons most impacted by this by far have been the mighty plasma guns and meltaguns.  In 9th these were your go-to general purpose weapon, easily capable of killing elite infantry or tanks.  Now, while they still have good AP, they'll find themselves struggling to wound the Monsters and Vehicles they hunted before.

By contrast, other weapons have gone up in Strength to compensate for this and designate them as Vehicle and Monster killers, in some cases far surpassing the pattern established for Toughness.  In 9th Edition, the strongest weapon profile belongs to the Belicosa Volcano Cannon.  At S20, even in 10th edition this Warlord Titan weapon with make a joke of nearly any model.  But GW has already introduced tank weaponry with higher Strength, peaking with the Valiant's Thundercoil Harpoon and the Stormsurge's Pulse Blast Cannon, both weapons featuring a Strength of 24.  Recently they unveiled the new Belicosa, at a whopping Strength 32.

By contrast, the AP reduction has been much more consistent.  With a few exceptions, nearly every weapon previewed has gone down a pip of AP.  Combined with sensible cover rules, armor saves will be much more useable.  The heaviest armour of the 41st Millennium looks like it will actually stand up to the threats it was designed for.

Additionally, a lot of the things that get around saves are gone.  Psychic powers are no longer raining down mortals.  No profile, including some that had it before, has been shown that ignores FNP, and the only ignore invuln is a once per game ability on the Vindicare Assassin.  So your defensives stats are more useful on the whole.

So that's that then!  Vehicles and Monsters are tougher, high strength weaponry exists but it's confined to the big boys, and armor counts for more.  Lethality fixed!

So why are people worried?

WEAPON SPECIAL RULES

In 8th Edition, weapons were defined by a single type rule.  Every weapon was Assault, Grenade, Heavy, Melee, Pistol, or Rapid Fire.  Then if a weapon needed further explanation, there was a section in the profile dedicated to special rules.  This made it easy to know a guns capabilities from a glance, but it also lead to some weird design requirements.  Starting with the 9th Edition Ork codexes, the design team felt they needed to introduce a new weapon type in order to make Ork weapons function the way they wanted.  Then finally in Votann, they felt forced to introduce HunTR, a type that defined a weapon as just being a gun.

In 10th Edition, weapons are simply melee or ranged by default.  Then one or more universal special rules can be tacked onto them.  The overwhelming majority of weapons are defined by these rules alone.  However, with these rules now in existence, GW has decided they can use them to make some of the basic weapons more interesting.  Over the course of the faction focuses, fans have noted that some rules that greatly increase the effectiveness of a weapon seem to keep popping up.

Of primary concern, given GWs stated intentions and approach, are LETHAL HITS and DEVASTATING WOUNDS.

LETHAL HITS makes any Critical Hit automatically Wound the target.  So far, we haven't seen too many rules that expand what counts as a Critical Hit, leaving this rule to trigger on an unmodified 6 in the vast majority of cases.  But that potential means Tough targets can be taken down by saturation fire.  Simply outfit your army with LETHAL HITS, then throw enough dice at something and it will die regardless of its Toughness.

DEVASTATING WOUNDS has a similar problem, but in this case the situation gets magnified.  On a Critical Wound, the target takes a mortal wound and the attack sequence ends.  The big deal here is that mortal wounds get around both armour and invuln saves.  Armies with access to DEVASTATING WOUNDS could potentially rain mortals the way Psyker armies and Tyranids did in 9th.  But here things get worse, as the ANTI rule expands the Critical Wound range for specific targets.  When the two are combined, the chosen target can reliably have both its Toughness and Save bypassed.

Combine either of these rules with sources of re-rolls, and some players are concerned that the game will be right back where it started.

RE-ROLLS AND OTHER FACTION RULES

Starting with the reveal of Faction Rules for 10th Edition, there were concerns of access to both these rules and re-rolls.  While GW had said they wanted to reduce the amount of re-rolls, the Space Marine Army Rule, Oath of Moment, gives every Space Marine model full re-rolls to Hit and Wound against a chosen target.  And with Guilliman on the field, they get to pick a second target if they can eliminate the first.

In the same article, the Tyranid Detachment Rule, Hyper-Adaptations, has the ability to give every Tyranid model LETHAL HITS against Monsters and Vehicles.  This means that a force made primarily of the new, tougher vehicles, could potentially be picked apart by an army designed for dice saturation.

And since then, more Faction Focuses have come out that can provide these powerful rules to an army.  Many are starting to claim these Universal Special Rules are less special and more universal.

So is 10th Edition doomed to be another game of keeping your army hidden and trying to get the all important first strike?

MY ANALYSIS

I decided I wanted to do more than just ponder.  I wanted to base my thoughts on as hard data as I could find.  So I combed through the Warhammer Community articles to find every rule and profile I could get my hands on.  I grouped the rules into three categories: offensive power, defensive power, and mixed or less obvious rules.

I then performed statistical tested a handful of weapons revealed from every faction, comparing them against their 9th Edition counterparts.  Wherever possible I chose weapons with one or more special rules on them, though there were a few I picked because I was curious about them in particular.  When performing these tests, I gave each unit access to their Army and Faction Rules and their own special rules, but nothing else.  Prior to the Kansas City Open, we didn't have anywhere close to as full a picture on what was available in 10th over 9th.  And in 9th, it's very easy to stack power.  So I wanted to go for something more baseline instead of just letting the 9th Edition armies pile on as many rules as they wanted.

So what did I find?

THE DATA

Let's start with what this analysis and data doesn't show.  This analysis does not show definitively whether 10th Edition is more or less killy than 9th Edition.  The only way to know that is when we finally have our hands on the full rules and get some games in.  I'm even working on a project that will give pretty sophisticated demonstrations of unit capabilities.

What we're looking at is whether the revealed rules depict a game that is more or less lethal than 9th Edition.  In other words, "Is there any reason to believe that 10th Edition will be as bad or worse than 9th Edition?"

Let's start with the rules themselves.  All told I found 242 beneficial special rules for Armies, Factions, Units, and Stratagems.  Among them:

• 105 or ~43% are purely focused on making a unit more lethal
• 55 or ~23% only provide a defensive benefit to a unit
• 41 or ~17% give access to re-rolls or a means to bypass Save or Wound rolls

When you consider that GW has almost certainly been trying to show off things that will get players excited to play their favorite Faction, this doesn't feel like a lot to me.  Less than half the rules are focused purely on lethality.  Less than 20% are rules we're really concerned about.  And since we don't know what the point tax on them will be, we have no means to decide how accessible they'll be.

By contrast nearly every army in 9th Edition has an HQ with a re-roll aura.

As for the weapons themselves, I found a total of 331 weapon profiles, not including generic close combat weapons (as well as things like armoured tracks and xenos claws and teeth.)  Of them:

• 113 or ~34% have no special rules or only detrimental rules (HAZARDOUS, PSYCHIC, ONE SHOT)
• 25 or ~7.6% just have a rule that makes them more useful (ASSAULT, PISTOL)
• 192 or ~58% have one or more rules that make the weapon more effective
• 51 or ~15% have LETHAL HITS or DEVASTATING WOUNDS

Again, considering that GW is trying to get us excited in these previews, this doesn't seem very impressive.  But this is still pretty subjective.  What do the statistical studies show?

STATISTACL TESTS

Over all, I've found it hard to find specific patterns for sure other than "there's a lot of red on the spreadsheet."  The game seems less lethal, on the whole with maybe Infantry having more to worry about, and Vehicles having less to worry about.  Lets go faction by faction.  Each set was tested against Cadians, Intercessors, Blightlords, Rhinos, Landraiders, and Monoliths.

Adeptus Sororitas

Tested Weapons: ministorum flamer, Exorcist conflagration rockets, and Exorcist missile launcher

Other than some ability to spike damage using 9th edition rules, Sisters look over all more effective against infantry and less effective against vehicles.

Adeptus Custodes

Tested Weapons: Executioner greatblade, Guardian spear, and Castellan axe

All weapons were unchanged or less effective, save against Blightlords.  The loss of Disgustingly Resilient allows Custodes to be much more effective now.

Adeptus Mechanicus

Tested Weapons: radium carbine, arc rifle, and solar atomiser

Other than spike damage, the carbine is slightly more effective now against hard targets.  Conversely, the solar atomiser is slightly more effective now against light targets.  In all other ways AdMech have lost damage.

Aeldari

Tested Weapons: witchblade, singing spear, bright lance, focused lance.

The singing spear shows decent improvements against hard targets.  In all other cases the weaponry is either similar or has dropped in effectiveness.

Chaos Daemons

Tested Weapons: bileblade, Witstealer, The Blade of Shadows on the strike

Witstealer has also benefited from the loss of -1 to Damage.  Otherwise, these weapons are less effective.

Chaos Knights

Tested Weapons: hellstorm autocannon, Despoiler battle cannon, Desecrator laser destructor, volkite combustor, warpstrike strike

Again, losing -1 to Damage hurts Death Guard.  The Despoiler's battle cannon absolutely shreds light targets now, while the Desecrator is all around more powerful.  Everything else took a nerf.

Chaos Space Marines

Tested Weapons: Fleshmetal guns warp hail and salvo and Drach'nyen

Other than good performance against Guard, everything got nerfed.

Death Guard

Tested weapons: combi-weapon, bubotic blade, reaper autocannon, Plagueburst mortar

Death Guard is all around more effective against Infantry now.  The reaper is also mostly better now.  Vehicles are now slightly, to much more tough against Death Guard weaponry.

Drukhari

Tested weapons: twin splinter rifle, splinter cannon, twin Drukhari haywire blaster, Lelith's blade

Providing they're Empowered, Drukhari are much more deadly now.  One of the more buffed factions.

Imperial Agents

Tested weapons: Exitus rifle and Castigation

Now that Headshot is no longer a dice game, the Vindicare is all around more powerful.  Only the Monolith shrugs that shot off at all well.  Castigation is strictly worse as a weapon than a power.

Imperial Guard

Tested weapons: lasgun, plasma gun, demolisher cannon, volcano cannon

The change to toughness really shows on the plasma gun, being more effective against infantry but far less effective against vehicles.  The Demolisher cannon is significantly improved though, while the volcano cannon and humble lasgun have taken a nerf.

Imperial Knights

Tested weapons: Questoris heavy stubber, Chainbreaker las-impulsor on low intensity, thermal spear, thundercoil harpoon

One of the more erratic datasets.  On the whole, the heavy stubber is more effective, while the low intensity las-impulsor is suitably strong against infantry and week against vehicles.  Other than some outliers for Death Guard and the Rhino, the thermal spear and the thundercoil are nerfed.

Genestealer Cults

Tested weapons: webber, seismic cannon, mining laser, Patriarch's claws

This dataset initially looks erratic, but that's only because the webber can now do damage to vehicles where it couldn't before.  It's otherwise mostly nerfed.  The seismic cannon is almost purely better, but the mining laser and Patriarch aren't fairing as well.

Grey Knights

Tested weapons: purifying flame, Nemesis force weapon, greatsword on strike, and daemon greathammer

It's almost all red.  The Grey Knights appear to have taken a nerf for now.

Leagues of Votann

Tested weapons: ion blaster, twin ion beamer, SP heavy conversion beamer, and heavy magna-rail cannon

Leagues felt like they took the biggest nerf of any faction focus.  But while they're also mostly in the red, the two beam weapons are more effective against Infantry now.

Necrons

Tested weapons: gauss flayer, deathray, particle whip, and doomsday cannon

Even with the new LETHAL HITS the guass flayer is still all around less effective.  The larger weaponry seems to have done far better, though the Land Raider and Monolith still shrug some of it off.

Orks

Tested weapons: Makari's stabba, choppa, 'Eadbanger

These weapons are still mostly best against light targets, though 'Eadbanger can at least hurt vehicles now.

Space Marines

Tested weapons: bolt rifles, multi-melta, Godhammer lascannon, heavy laser destroyer

Marines suffered from early codex syndrome and now they've been heavily buffed.  It's nearly all good news for them.

Space Marine Chapters

Tested weapons: master-crafted power weapon, frag cannon, Blood Reaver, Fealty on the strike

The non-compliant Chapters still get the huge buff from Oath of Moment, while The Lion seems to have traded some of his offense for defense.

T'au Empire

Tested weapons: EMP grenade, twin pulse carbine, rail rifle, railgun

It's mostly bad news, though the EMP can actually hurt vehicles now.  The railgun has been buffed though.

Thousand Sons

Tested weapons: Doombolt, warpsmite, Psychic Stalk

And here we see how the changes to Psychic Powers have affected their most dependent faction.  It's also mostly bad news, though Psychic Stalk can now hit vehicles.

Tyranids

Tested weapons: fleshborers, Genestealer claws and talons, Screamer-killer talons, rupture cannon

Even with the new adaptive trait, it's not good news for my 'Nids.  Genestealers really enjoy that WS 2+ though.

World Eaters

Tested weapons: Berzerker chainblade, Khornate eviscerator, daemongore cannon, Samni'arius and Spinegrinder on the strike

Again, it's bad news.  Though the daemongore appears to have taken a bit of a buff against lighter targets.

FINAL CONCLUSIONS

This is not an incremental step in the rules like 9th was.  This is a big enough change that GW saw fit to bring us back to Indexes.  And honestly, I feel like the data points to that.  There are definitely places where things feel considerably less lethal, just as GW intended.  But I'm also seeing places where GW has decide to give some love to things that might have been suffering.

In some cases, I think the design team has taken a step back and rethought what some weapons and units represent.  In others, they've really leaned into it.  The result is a hodgepodge of data that doesn't show a clear narrative, as should be expected from cherry picked rules and units that were revealed with the purpose of generating hype.

I began this project relatively early on as I started hearing concerns and even had a few of my own.  As I write this, the Kansas City Open is ongoing.  I have to admit, I wasn't expecting things to come this fast and furious.  My initial plan to present some form of evidence either for or against a lethality narrative has been superseded by live gameplay.  Soon enough we'll start to see if GW has succeeded in making the game less killy and more interactive like they wanted.

If anyone wants, I'll post my compilations and calculations as a Google doc.  I'm sure I made mistakes somewhere, despite my efforts, especially when fudging single re-rolls or 2 Damage and variable damage weapons against the Death Guard's 3 wounds.  But even then, I think most would agree the data doesn't tell much of a story one way or another.

And if things keep going well, someday I'll have the tool I'm planning available.  And then much better analysis can be done with a full set of data.

The Pychophage

The Pychophage Will Eat Your Brain (and Then the Rest of You)

Alright!  Finally we get a better look at this thing.  I was a little frustrated they hadn't just posted the rest of the datasheets when they released the Battle Report.  But I guess we're getting it now!

Or not . . .  I'm pretty sure these are the weapon reveals from the Battle Report . . .

So I guess I didn't talk about them really there, so let's look at them now.  The talons and betentacled maw looks like your standard anti-infantry fair.  But it comes with ANTI-PSYKER 2+ and DEVASTATING WOUNDS.  This obviously means it will be great against its favorite food source, but it also gives it some play into larger targets.

The psychoclastic torrent on the other hand is a slightly stronger form of the flamer fair we've seen so far.  At S6, I'm pretty sure it wounds any infantry we've seen on 4s or better.  Might be a potential target for Overwatch to help keep smaller units from tying it up.

The thing that really makes this a menace is Feeding Frenzy, which gives +1 to Hit against targets below Starting Strength and +1 to Wound against units below Half-strength.  I'm noting this doesn't include the standard "for purposes of this rule" text we've seen before.  So it looks like wounded characters and vehicles won't always trigger "below Starting Strength" rules.

I still don't know why they just didn't reveal the card.  I guess they still want to string us along a little more until the Indexes drop.

Faction Focus: Titans

Faction Focus: Titans

So I've already got two predictions, one positive one negative.

The first thing I want to point out is the title of this article is "Faction Focus: Titans," not, "Warhammer 40,000 Faction Focus: Titans."  It's posted under #NEW40K and they promised news about Titans for 40K, but I don't think that's all we're getting.  

So my positive prediction: there will be teasers for Titanicus and possibly even talk about their plans, if any exist, for Apocalypse in 10th Edition.  I'm even pretty sure that is Titanicus artwork.

My negative prediction: Titans will be getting the Forge World and Heresy treatment.

In short, though I'm betting we'll see some rules below, Titans will probably not be allowed at Competitive events.  I'm betting that will include things like certain Xenos models too.  From my faction, I'm guessing they're not planning on balancing Harridans and Hierophants for the game.  We might still get Hierodules, though.  But then, they already took away a bunch of our Forge World units!

Let's see if they prove me wrong.

ADEPTUS TITANICUS

So right off the bat we're getting Imperial Armour Indexes for each faction, with a separate one for Titans themselves.  And so far it sounds like they're treating these Indexes the same way as any other.  So that's good.

The rules for including one are simple.  If you're Imperium or Chaos, you can include 1 Adeptus Titanicus model.  Whether they'll be anywhere near affordable enough to include is another story.

THE WARLORD TITAN

And we're just going straight to the top for this article!  The Warlord comes packing with a new Toughness stat of 16 and 100 Wounds.  This is still 20 Wounds less than its 9th Edition counterpart.  Its Warp Shields have been simplified to a flat 5+ Invuln against all ranged attacks, so you can't break them anymore.  This massive war machine is also OC 30, meaning you'll need practically an army to steal an objective from it.  Strangely, it's got a 6+ Ld.  If anything was going to have a Primarch's 5+, or even Greyfax's 4+, you'd think it'd be a titan.

And it's bristling with guns, including the now Strength 32 Belicosa which will allow it to even wound other Warlords on 2s.  Strangely, it's not -6 AP like the previous big guns we've seen, meaning you can still get a save if you can find cover somehow.  But lets face it, you're shooting this thing at something that can't qualify for cover.  It's also gone up to damage 18!  I'm not going to go through all the other weapon changes individually, though some are nearly untouched.  The highlights are the Ardex-defensors losing their bonus in Overwatch, a pretty big nerf to the Sunfury, the Arioch getting a sweep, and the macro gatling blaster getting shots for days.

Titans in 9th Edition came with a CP tax in edition to their massive points bill.  This has returned in 10th as a tax on all Stratagems used on them.  Any Stratagem you use on a Warlord will cost you a massive four times the CP.  I think this is also a way to balance the Titan's ability to be included in any Imperium or Chaos faction.  Considering they probably haven't even written all the Stratagems that 10th Edition will eventually have, this is potential future proofing against problems.

The Warlord also gets the Screamer-killer ability we've seen a few times now, allowing it to for a Battle-shock test on a unit.  Though if any unit would get to inflict Battle-shock on multiple units, you'd think it would be a Warlord.

THE PHANTOM TITAN

We also get a little Aeldari number in the form of the Phantom Titan.  They went with T14 and 55 wounds with an OC of 20.  However its shielding still keeps its 4+.  I'm again not going to go over all of its weapons, but there are substantial nerfs here, even past what 10th Edition has been doing.  

However, unlike its Imperial counterpart, this one gains all the faction rules, including Strands of Fate.  We get a rule missing from the Warlord Titan here, the ability to move over models and terrain.  I'm guessing that must be part of the Warlord's Super-heavy Walker rule.  This one also gets a CP tax, but at three times the cost instead of four.  One massive thing to note here is that it gets a rule called Flawless Poise that allows it to Fall Back and shoot and charge.  Many of us were expecting some of the keyword rules would already allow models like Knights to do this.  But it looks like you have to be a Titan to see this kind of rule by default.  It does make me wonder if the Warlord will get that with it's Super-heavy Walker, or if it can be pinned in combat.  If it does, than that means the Phantom doesn't get a rule of its own.

THE HIEROPHANT BIO-TITAN

Yes!  We get to see the stats on the Hierophant too!  The bio-titan comes in at T14, 30 wounds, and a 5+ Invuln.  It's also Ld 8+ like most non-synapse units.  The bio-plasma torrent is actually pretty buffed by 10th Edition standards, gaining another D6 shots.  But the dire bio-cannon is honestly straight up nerfed.  This model used to be a descent Titan hunter, but those days appear to be over.  In exchange, they've boosted its melee, making it vicious against against both other Titans and ground troops.

Rules-wise, the Hierophant gets a +1 to hit against Battle-shocked units, emphasizing the Tyranid's new roll as intergalactic horrors, and gets the same rule the Phantom got for moving over models.  It doesn't get the ability to Fall Back and shoot though.  It's also still acts as a Transport, though we don't know which and how many models it can carry.  But the best part is there's no CP tax!

GARGANTUAN SQUIGGOTH

Oi!  Iz time da boyz show dem how itz done!

The Squiggoth gets similar stats to the Hierophant, though it's got slightly lower toughness and better leadership.  It's weapons have standard 10th Edition conversions to them, though the huge tusks have taken a slight nerf in exchange for a new sweep attack.

It comes with Firing Deck 20 to allow embarked Boyz to dakka away.  They also can fire perfectly fine while tied up in melee thanks to Walking Bastion.  This model also manages to escape a CP tax.  A simple unit for a more barbaric age.

T'AU MANTA

The reveals keep coming, making this our most packed Faction Focus yet!  We get the full card for the Manta, including what it can carry.  And that "what" is basically an entire Tau battle force.

The Manta hasn't lost any wounds, but is still nerfed by going down to a 5+ Invuln.  It's guns are mostly untouched, save a buff to the heavy rail cannon and burst cannon.  It gains the Fire Support rule in the form of Aggressive Deployment, allowing disembarking units to get rerolls to Wound against struck targets.  And considering what this thing can carry, that target probably will be a crater.  It also gets the CP tax we saw on the Phantom.

FINAL THOUGHTS

And with that, we've covered most of the factions that can bring these massive models!  Both of my predictions were wrong, though there was a foot note about Titanicus at the bottom.  This article was entirely focused on models you will be able to bring to a 40K game, with no exceptions stated for competitive play.

Obviously we don't know what they'll cost yet.  Save for painting competitions, you weren't taking a Warlord, Phantom, or Manta to a tournament since they're too expensive for a Strike Force game.  But you could bring Squiggoths and Hierophants.  I'm pretty sure under new army construction rules you can take just a single titan as your army if it's 2000 points or less, so if they dip that low it's technically legal.  My guess is they probably won't see the board in most lists, but its nice the option is staying there.  

It's Here!

I'm going to have my work cut out for me this weekend!

Since I'll be spending some time helping my folks with a show, I didn't know how I was going to get in the live games from Kansas City.  But those are definitely on the back burner now!

Today, GW has dropped the full Core Rulebook for 10th Edition!  Judging from the size, I don't think we've gotten the indexes yet.  But I'll finally be able to go through, parse the changes, and figure out how these rules I've been analyzing look in full.

Other than that, we've got the Faction Focus for Titans and it looks like the Datasheet for the Psychophage.  I thought the reveals would be fast and furious now, but even I wasn't expecting this!

Time to get to work!

Faction Focus: Space Marine Chapters

Warhammer 40,000 Faction Focus: Space Marine Chapters

From the moment GW unveiled the new rules for army construction, one question has been on the minds of many players, "What does this mean for Space Marine Chapters?"  Despite all the memes, Space Marines are by far the most popular faction in the game.  And it makes sense when you think about it, the game was kind of built around them.  They've been front and center in the lore and rules from the games very inception.  And with the expansion of the lore through Black Library's hit Horus Heresy series, this has only grown.  It's a cycle of hype and profit.  As Space Marine fans buy models, books, and merchandise for their favorite Legions and Chapters, GW dedicates more resources to providing them with more stuff to consume, which only builds up the fanbase more.  As a result, there are individual sub-factions of Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines that are more popular than other entire factions.

As I said before, I can't imagine that GW wouldn't make a Codex for at least the classic three, if not the big five.  And Dark Angels have already been confirmed as getting a new Codex in the spring of next year.  So let's see what details the designers have for us for now.

OVERVIEW

This faction focus will obviously need to be a bit different, as we're covering five specific Chapters of Space Marines as opposed to a single, more diverse faction.  So right from the get go, they reveal that these Chapters start with the same base-line Army Rule as all other Space Marines: Oath of Moment.  This is good, it's a powerful and flexible rule.  But as expected, each Chapter will instead be represented by its own Detachment with its own Detachment Rule and compliment of Stratagems.  We even get the name of two, the Righteous Crusaders and Champions of Russ Detachments.

They also confirm that these Detachments will be useable by all Space Marine armies, as well as that they will have restrictions on them.  This is something many of us theorized GW would do, and it's now been confirmed.  It looks like the restrictions will be done with Keywords.  The examples they give are that Psykers can't be used in Righteous Crusade while non-Space Wolves characters and Deathwing units can't go in the Champions of Russ.

DARK ANGELS

Oh!  We're getting more details than I thought!  This means these might be available on release!

The Dark Angels Detachment is the Unforgiven Task Force.  It comes with Grim Resolve, which lets them stay OC 1 when battle-shocked.  This is very useful.  But, well, it's not Combat Doctrines.  Here's hoping their Codex will have a bit more oomph to it.

We then get the full Datacard for the Deathwing Command Squad.  The unit consists of an Ancient, Apothecary, Champion, and Command Terminators.  We actually didn't have a specific Datasheet for a Deathwing Ancient in 9th, so that's nice.  Interestingly, we get a note that there is a rule not on this Datacard.  If you want to field the Command Squad with a Watcher in the Dark, you'll need the rule form the Deathwing Knights datasheet.

The entire unit gets the Terminator profile, with no special stats for any of the characters in it.  We get the rules for the Narthecium finally, allowing you to return a non-Character model to the unit in your Command phase.  It looks like the standard rule for Banners will be +1 OC, which I think we've seen before.

Then we get an interesting reveal!  The Honour of Death rule grants +1 to Advance and Charge rules while the unit has a Company Champion.  But it also make the Heroic Intervention Stratagem free.  I can't remember if that was revealed as a Stratagem yet, but that is very interesting.  Heroic Intervention gave Characters a lot of increased threat and board control.  And when units got it, or powerful characters had increased range for the ability, it could make them a potent force you needed to carefully play around.  Now you'll need CP to use it, meaning like Overwatch you'll need to consider it as you plan your turn, but you won't always be able to rely on it.

LION EL'JOHNSON

Get ready for some screaming Death Guard and Thousand Sons players, as Dark Angels get their Primarch as part of this reveal.  The Lion returns with a new 10th Edition friendly T9 and an extra wound.  He was one of the last Datasheets of 9th Edition, so I wasn't expecting many changes for him.  Still, they're definitely here.  Arma Luminis's Plasma profile has lost a pip of AP of course, as has Fealty on the strike.  Fealty's strike is also nerfed when you consider the new Toughness profiles, but that's been true for many weapons.  He's also lost a couple of Attacks with it, though nothing like what Angron lost.

Like his brothers, he gets one of these snazzy new Army Commander rules.  Hmm . . . maybe Faction Commander might be a more appropriate name?  Doesn't really work for Abaddon though.  All Secrets Revealed causes nearby enemy units your opponent targets with Stratagems to test Battle-shock, and potentially lose the Stratagem and the CP.  That's seems situational, but you know your opponent will want to use Stratagems if they're fighting a Primarch.  In the mean while, Martial Exemplar is an all around useful Aura that grants +1 to Hit, while No Hiding From the Watchers gives a powerful but situational 4+ FNP against mortals.

The Emperor's Shield gets a massive buff.  It keeps its mortal wound on saving throws of 6, but now also grants the rare -1 to Wound and a whopping 3+ Invuln!  The Lion be thicc!  And if that's not enough survivability, he also gets that wonderful Lone Operative rule when near friendly Space Marines.

SPACE WOLVES

From the Unforgiven to their rivals in the Vlka Fenryka.  Sagas have returned and they seem like a much more worthy replacement for Combat Doctrine.  Unlike before, you get to pick a saga after you've fulfilled it.  This will make the mechanic much harder to play around.  The buffs are army wide too, meaning the more you successfully complete, the stronger your army becomes!

We just get one unit reveal for the Rout.  The Hounds of Morkai seem largely unchanged, with their special rule now transferred to their weapons.  They get more attacks with their knives than before though.  Morkai's Howl is interesting though.  It refers to units being Stunned.  We haven't seen that referenced before, so I don't know if that's a condition that can be inflicted or specific to this rule.

BLOOD ANGELS

Er . . . okay the Red Thrist is definitely powerful but did you have to call it that?  Blood Angels fans don't normally think of that as a buff.  Savage Echoes was a much better name in my opinion.  Still, this will keep the Sons of Sanguinius a devastating assault army.

Death Company now gets a 6+ FNP and look like they're going to be absolute blenders on the charge.  They get re-roll Hits innately, and you can use Fire Overwatch and Heroic Intervention on them for free.  But in exchange, you'll want to keep a Chaplain with them or they can't Fall Back or hold objectives.

Blood Angels get a little more love than their lupine brothers, or at least their successors do.  We get a look at The Flesh Tearers Chapter Master and fan favorite Gabriel Seth.  We get to see his full Datacard too, as well as how his rules interact with other Space Marine characters.  He's coming in with a nice buff to his melee, getting 6 attacks and SUSTAINED HITS 1 on Blood Reaver now, and another +1 Attacks for every 5 models he's fighting.  But the big kicker here is that he grants Advance and Charge to a unit he's leading!

BLACK TEMPLARS

Vows return as a flat army-wide buff your units just get.  This is arguably more powerful than Combat Doctrines of the Space Wolve's Saga ability.  Granted I'm sure Templars players would love to have access to the Assault Doctrine's Advance and Charge.  Still, you get to pick the best buff based on the army you're fighting, and that's always a good thing.

We just get to see Sword Brethren for this preview, though that's not a bad reveal.  Still I'm betting people wanted to see Helbrecht or The Emperor's Champion.  They get a third wound now, so that's definitely a nice buff.  Even better, they get to choose between a buff of +1 Attacks or +1 Damage every fight phase.  Despite their rigid dogma, it looks like Templars will be quite flexible on the battlefield.

DEATHWATCH

The military arm of the Ordo Xenos suffered quite a bit in 9th Edition.  Honestly, it's innately difficult to balance an army who's schtick is fighting a specific type of enemy.  This has never seemed to hurt Grey Knights though.  It looks like they'll be much more flexible now.  The rule for the Black Spear Task Force is an alternate version of Combat Doctrines.  Just like with Gladius you have three options to choose from and you can only use each one once per battle.  These don't seem as strong, but it's so hard to beat Advance and Charge or Fall Back and Shoot and Charge.  Additionally, not all of these will be universally useful against every opponent.

The Veterans squad seems like it's had some weapons consolidated, but the Infernus heavy bolter is still there and completely intact.  Long Vigil weapons seem generically useful, but the Xenophase blade has taken an necessary but painful nerf.  Death to the Alien is an interesting rule though.  It's re-roll Hits of 1 against any target, but if the target is not Imperium or Chaos you get full re-roll Hits.  I guess that's one way to single out Xenos factions without giving them a unifying Keyword.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There's no denying it, Combat Doctrines are powerful.  It's going to be hard to give up that Detachment rule, especially since you can still play any Chapter of Space Marines with it.  There's nothing stopping a Black Templars player from using it and just not taking Psykers, and I don't think it excludes Chapter specific units like Ravenwing or Wulfen.  It won't surprise me if we see a lot of fans go this route until their Codex comes out.

Of the new Detachment Rules, Sagas seem like they're the most powerful.  If you plan properly and can keep your opponent from playing around you, you can stack up a some serious power.  Oaths are next in my opinion.  It's hard to argue with a flat army-wide bonus you get to pick at the start of the game.  I think Blood Angels gets my next pick, as there's no world in which hitting more and hitting harder is a bad thing.  Deathwatch feels lack luster to me, as not all of its buffs will always be useful and they only last a single round.  Dark Angels might be the dark horse though.  We don't know how big of a deal Battle-shock will be for 6+ Ld armies, but if it's a real threat that rule could help them maintain board control.  It certainly ended up an issue in yesterday's Battle Report.

Still, I'm pretty sure there are fans out there right now that aren't happy.

Horus Heresy Models in 40K

Legions and Legends - Warhammer: The Horus Heresy Models in Games of Warhammer 40,000

Before we get to our big article for today, GW appears to have decided its time to talk about Horus Heresy variants in 40K.  For a while now, players have been enjoying using the Horus Heresy versions of specific models in the game.  Dreadnought variants in particular are very popular, and in some cases have even been more powerful than their 40K counterparts.  In 9th Edition, GW seemed to want to limit this at least somewhat, charging a CP tax for many Heresy era patterns.  But that didn't stop players from running them.  With many of these models having plastic kits now, it does seem like this will only become a more popular option.

But at the same time, more models means more datasheets and more things that have to be balanced.  The Space Marine Codex is already extremely bloated.  We've already had the classic dreadnaught removed to be used now as a "counts as" model.  Still, I can't imagine GW would want to discourage players from buying these new kits.  Let's see what the design team has to say.

LEGENDS OF THE HORUS HERESY

And there it is!  The title should say all you need to know!  Horus Heresy patterns are now Legends models.  Their datasheets will be free, but will not be updated or kept balanced with the rest of the game.  They will thus not be useable in competitive play.

Gotta say I'm surprised by this.  As I said above, this does mean more models to balance.  But GW just released many of these kits and there are more on the way.  Between Heresy and 40K, it's not even a contest for which is the more popular game.  Yet GW has decided that they'd prefer Heresy kits remain firmly in the hobby side of the game for their largest player base.

As an example, they show us a Datacard for the Kratos.  They note that this is the Datacard that both Imperium and Chaos players will use, and that there will be rules for switching Keywords as necessary.

They again emphasize that you're still welcome to use these datasheets and models as long as it's not in a competitive environment.  What effect this will have on the player base as a whole, with competitive play growing in popularity, remains to be seen.  They emphasize that balance was their main concern (and even note about all the datasheets Space Marines of both sides already have) and do point out that in many cases you'll be able to use existing datasheets.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE TEST OF TIME

However, it looks like this will mostly just apply to the primary flavors of Space Marines and maybe Guard players.  Knights, on the other hand, will get to keep their Heresy patterns.  This is important, as Knights already have a pretty limited range.  As part of this, they reveal the recently leaked Cerastus Knight Lancer.

Custodes will also get to keep their variants, again for both lore appropriate and model range reasons.  To finish clarifying things they give a specific list of all the Heresy patterns that will be going to this special category of Legends.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I'm honestly surprised.  It's genuinely nice to see GW making a change like this with interest to the health of the game over profit.  They could have just released a bunch of underpowered datasheets and then never updated them, leaving players who like these models waiting in vain for an balance pass that would never come.  I think most players will probably be happy with this.  The ones who will probably be most impacted are Marine and CSM players who've recently purchased the new kits with plans on using them in official events.  Even then, they're probably still welcome to use generic datasheets.

I think on the whole this is a good thing.