My Big Issue with Warhammer 40,000 Xth Edition

So I know my last post was about the hyperbole and negativity surrounding 10th edition. But there is one problem that I think will kneecap 10th edition if it isn’t addressed. Granularity. Army building is a mess because you just pay for the units. This is mostly fine for units with simple, similar options. Terminators for example have relatively few expensive options and even those are broadly similar. Other units have far more uneven options. The Wraithknight has been the standout poster child for this so far. The Wraithknight is 475 points no matter what you equip it with. Ghostglaive and Scattershield? 475 points. 2 Heavy Wraithcannons? 475 points. 2 Heavy Wraithcannons and 2 Starcannons? 475 points. This is… not great. The first one has no ranged weapons and good if not spectacular melee as well as some defensive boosts. The second has amazing ranged fire (2d6 wound shots with Devastating Wounds) and the 3rd is literally just an upgrade from that.

This loss of granularity isn’t just a problem here, it’s also a problem with unit sizes. A 5 man squad of Intercessors costs 95 points. A 10 man squad costs 190. Pretty straightforward right? 19 points / Intercessor. Well guess what a 6 man squad costs. 190 points. Between this and the loss of weapon options, army building has gotten FUNKY. You might be building a 2000 point army and be at 1970 and unless there’s an Enhancement for a character that really works… you have to remove whole units rather than shuffle options around. For someone like me with a MASSIVE collection of models spanning decades (God I’m old) this isn’t that much of a problem, I can shuffle around units and get to 2k using other unit combinations but it has meant tearing some army ideas completely apart and rebuilding whole groups of units.

I’m a fan of interesting decisions in gaming. I like granularity and I like making choices with impact. Picking the most optimal weapon for every situation because it’s an obvious choice and all other factors are the same isn’t an interesting decision. It’s pretty profoundly flawed, in fact. Certain choices will just never be used. By the same token reducing army building choices in other categories just reduces the number of decisions you can make while at the same time making some of them more difficult, especially for people without the resources I have. This is the opposite of what GW should be doing.

So why did they do it?

The app. GW has invested… some… time and money into an app for army building. While I’ll be the first to admit it’s MUCH better than their last attempt, that bar is so low you need a metal detector and shovel to find it. But I think it’s a lot easier to do an app fast and cheap if you want it to do the bare minimum. And if you change what it has to do you can really make that bare minimum a lot more minimal. Now this might be because they just announced that they are linking it to their much-maligned Warhammer+ subscription service, but it really just seems like a business decision made without regard to the effect it has on the game. I hope they revert to more granular army building, that they give us back flexibility and meaningful choices in army building, but for now this is definitely the rotten apple in the barrel for me.

So Much, So Suddenly

Well GW kicked off the week with a BANG.

I was getting ready for work and saw that GW had announced another round of Space Marines going Last Chance to Buy.

That’s a LOT. A truly surprising amount. I recall GW saying that they would be removing models based on sales, which doesn’t make a lot of sense here, so I think there’s two things going on in this case.

There’s two kinds of models in this purge, and it is a purge. Uncommon to downright rare models that have been unpopular for a long time, and extremely popular and even meta choices. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Hunter/Stalker on the table in my local meta, Assault Squads have been hot garbage for a LONG time, Thunderfire Cannons and Techmarines with Servitors just don’t come up unless some weird buff puts them in the spotlight. Scouts probably haven’t sold in a while, especially since they lost Battleline in 10th. Land Speeder Storms and Librarians you’ll see occasionally but again they just don’t come up very often. Ironclad Dreadnoughts are practically invisible with practically every other chassis outpacing them.

But some of the others? Land Speeders and Attack Bikes find their way into a LOT of lists. Bike Squads and Scout Bikes are clutch for several armies. Scouts with Sniper Rifles have been great sellers for a LONG time, although 10th did them no favors and I have a huge soft spot in my heart (or head) for the Company Command box (seriously, pick one up if you don’t have it.) BUT I also suspect that several of these are out of stock or very low stock at the moment because they are quite good.

And a lot of people are MAD. I get it. I have RTB-01 beakies in my army that I bought when they were new. But I’m not mad as a Space Marine Player. This has been inevitable since Primaris started coming out as a line. Space Marines even absent Firstborn choice have more choices than any other army. It’s disappointing that many choices are gonna be relegated to proxies for Primaris or Legends. It’s unfortunate and some very iconic units are going away forever. I can’t really blame GW though even if this is a BIG change. At this point I don’t know if any Firstborn units will be left by the end of next year and I really doubt any will be left by 11th edition.

I do think some units will stick around. Land Raiders (to carry Terminators) and maybe the variant LRs. Specialty units (GW has already commented that Ravenwing will continue to be sold) Flyers unless they release a Primaris Flyer. And that’s about it.

Armies like the Grey Knights will need a complete overhaul and it would really behoove GW to do something for White Scars especially but really all the non-blueberry chapters.

The people that should be mad though, are the Xenos players. I predict within 48 hours we’ll start seeing news of the next round of Space Marine releases. GW wouldn’t drop a bomb like this unless they were ready to clean up the mess. We’ll see the new Terminator kit, we’ll see other new kits, and we’ll get a feeling for how big the 10th edition releases will be. But here’s the thing, the other Xenos, the Orks, the Eldar, the Tau, will be lucky to get half the boxes Marines will get. So yeah I get Marine players are feeling disappointed, but it’s not something I can feel myself.

Scraping the Bottom

So the new Space Marine Codex for 8th is out. With it came updates to the non-Codex chapters. Blood Angels, Space Wolves, and of course, my beloved Dark Angels. To call this update a sop gives it far too much credence. I’m going to talk about 4 main portions of the update, and examine the effects that DA players have to work under while we wait for a new codex that hopefully will rectify the situation.

But first a bit of context so you can see the power level DA were in before the update. Here’s this morning’s ITC rankings.

One guy over 550, everyone else under 400, even dropping down into the high-mid 200s by #10

Vs. One score under 500. The #10 Vanilla Marine army would be the #2 Dark Angels Army

Ouch. So before the Codex, DA were virtually non-competitive vs regular Space Marines. That’s the environment we existed in Friday. From there we see four main changes to the new Marine Armies.

First off is Doctrines. This is a huge one, handing out -1 AP to either Heavy and Grenade weapons, Rapid Fire and Assault, or Pistol and Melee, depending on which you are on. This basically puts regular marines back where they were in 7th as long as their doctrine is going, and boosts intercessors a LOT, with grenades and grenade launchers getting some real “reach out and touch someone” on turn 1. Dark Angels did not get this in the update, leaving all our troops with inferior AP, and no way to “tip the scale” depending on what phase of the battle is going on.

Second is Litanies of Battle. This is GW’s attempt to make Chaplains much more valuable and I am here for it. Basically each chaplain gets to pick a Litany he can recite every turn. Some of these are very powerful, even if virtually all are situational. Of course DA didn’t get this in the update either.

Third was stat changes. This affects DA in a different way. Lots of Primaris units received +1 wound. Gravis units in particular. This DID get given to DA; however it’s still a nerf. Gravis units are now tougher than Terminators, relegating two of the few special DA units rather less effective. Those being Deathwing terminators and Deathwing knights. While DA has access to the units with more wounds, these units don’t have the same access to power boosts that vanilla space marine units have.

Finally there’s point changes. Many units received new, lower costs, which DA do not have. There were some increases (especially Thunder Hammers) which haven’t hit DA yet, but in general Dark Angels armies built to mirror vanilla marines will have fewer, less potent models on the table, compared to their basic bitch brethren.

I do want to point out that some changes did hit equally, Angels of Death being a big one, but even these hit equally. Every change has had either zero net effect or a negative net effect, leaving an already weaker army further behind the power curve.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. GW has said there will be something for DA next month, but I am less than sanguine about it. We’re pretty late in the day for us to get what I think would help the most (The Lion) and I strongly doubt we will get more than a near-equalizer. Rules that bring things roughly in-line with Vanilla marines but don’t address the larger power imbalance.

I would LIKE to see a new chapter tactic. Grim Resolve doesn’t mean much of anything in a world of buff auras and MSU. I think something like a +3″ to aura abilities would be suitably strong, and also show the control the inner circle exerts over the Unforgiven. I know that’s very strong but… DA need something very strong at this point. Space Marines got boosted because they honestly needed it to be a top tier army. DA weren’t a top tier army, or even an average tier, now they are getting shoved even lower, and Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Grey Knights, and Death Watch with us.

Catalyst and Kickstarter

So, we had some very unexpected news on the Book of Faces yesterday.

This is… very complex news. First the good. HOLY SHIT LEVIATHANS IS COMING BACK! For those unfamiliar with it, Leviathans was an amazing game with miniature flying warships taking place just pre-WWI that combined some very fun and innovative systems to make gameplay very deep and strategic even with very few units on the board. The miniatures were gorgeous, the rules quick, fun, and deep, the aesthetic was perfect and everything just seemed to work. However, the game had a very short lifespan due to some things we’ll go into below, and there has been very little news of it for the last 7 years.

The reasons the game failed had practically nothing to do with Leviathans, and practically everything to do with Catalyst Game Labs. The initial release was drawn out and delayed for long periods of time as CGL struggled to get their product. Something they still struggle with today I might add. The buzz and hype about the game could not be maintained over such a long delay, however the initial run did sell out eventually and then… well getting new stock took over a year. While new ships were developed, new miniatures never were and the only real updates were a couple of fleet boxes that were just the same miniatures with variant rules.

Then the flow stopped completely. Catalyst contracted a producer in China that completely screwed them over to the point I don’t believe they even have the CGI renders of the ships. They had irregular and often useless communication with their suppliers, and they eventually just stopped responding to anything, even from the fans.

So now we get to the part that is worrisome. The kickstarter. Now I’ve backed some kickstarters, and I’ve followed plenty more. Some have been very good. The History of EvE, Weird War I and Leon Johnson were all fantastic successes. Some have not. Star Citizen being on ongoing mess that still hasn’t left beta more than 5 years after the delivery date. Robotech tactics got so badly handled that there was a suicide attempt inside the dev team.

Now we come to Catalyst kickstarters. Shadowrun: Sprawl Ops was estimated to go out Oct 2018 and there are people today, August 2019 who have still not received some or all of what they were promised on Kickstarter. The product that has been received is error-filled and in some places simply missing information or pieces. Now they are running a huge Kickstarter for Battletech: Clan Invasion. It LOOKS great, it LOOKS flashy, it LOOKS amazing. But I question the wisdom of investing money on a company that has repeatedly demonstrated it has no ability to control its supply chain, and refuses to make changes that would enable them to do so. They appear as committed as ever to continue to use Chinese suppliers, they lack the resources necessary to keep them in line, and they use 1 supplier for everything leaving them frequently held hostage by 1 company.

And of course the “exciting” news is that Leviathans is coming by kickstarter next year. We are expected to fund the final steps of development, all of production, and then wait and hope that history does not repeat itself. For a company that controls Battletech, Shadowrun, and has produced games for other IPs including D&D and Masters of Orion. I think I’m within reason to say “What the HELL are they doing with their money that this is the answer?” I think a company that cannot fund itself, provide a stream of product that enables them to deal with manufacturers and handle distribution does not deserve the quality of IPs that they have, nor the cheerful support of customers who have repeatedly been burned.

I hope the game designers bring more new features to the game, that we get all-new ships and designs that the already excellent rules are iterated and expanded on. Mostly I hope the game gets ongoing support. That there’s plans to ship new product and keep it in stock. That they have taken the piles of money thrown at them and their IPs for years now and used them to build some relationships or capabilities to ensure that those of us providing the money get our value for it.

Why I’m not Doing Much 40k

So I’m painting Napoleonics (slowly) studying IT certs, and reading a lot.  I’m still following Games Workshop but I’ve been feeling increasingly unsatisfied with how they are doing things.  Today they made an announcement that neatly encapsulates all my dislike and distrust of the current direction of their releases and the lore.

Marneus Calgar, reborn as a Primaris.

There’s three big problems with this release from where I sit, as a fan of classic marines, and Dark Angels / non-Ultramarines.  First, it’s Marneus fucking Calgar.  This is a character who, in both Lore and Crunch has been completely surpassed by the times.  With Guilliman out, unless you’re playing a tiny battle, Calgar just isn’t necessary.  He knows it too.  Second, he’s an Ultramarine.  I’m going to go on a bit of a tangent on this but the obsession GW has with ultramarines has gotten completely out of hand and NEEDS to be reined in.  Rogue Trader and 1st Edition featured more of the Blood Angels than any other chapter (from GW) but the rulebook for Rogue Trader book featured Crimson Fists!  3rd edition featured Black Templar, but also had plenty for other chapters, in fact I believe most of the special characters we know and love were first released during 3rd.  4th was kind of the same as 3rd, 5th had Assault on Black Reach which was the first real deep dive into Ultramarines as the poster boys, 6th was back to Black Templar, 7th was my beautiful Dark Angels, and 8th… 8th has been ALL Ultramarines.  Everyone else has gotten a codex and a Lieutenant.  So yeah, Ultras get a chapter master, a Primarch, and a great chapter doctrine with amazing stratagems.  Third, it’s a Primaris model directly replacing a classic marine model.  So.  Now we literally have Primaris marines replacing a classic marine option.  This betrays a lot of long-term marine players.

Let me expand on that a bit.  The reality of the business model puts a cap on how many kits any line can have.  Space Marines have always probably been slightly over the limit to what they can profitably have.  Space Marines have long been the poster boys of 40k.  Every single edition has featured marines on the cover, there has never been a xenos cover, or even a Chaos Space Marine rulebook cover.  It’s all Space Marines, all the time.  Now Space Marines have 128 kits on the GW website, the largest non Imperial Marine faction is the Astra Militarum (Guard) at 67.  After that it’s Orks at 60.  That’s right, the largest non-Imperial faction has less than half what Space Marines have as far as kits.  That’s a lot of variety, and a lot of redundancy.  The niches that a lot of classic marine units fill can generally be filled by Primaris units.  Outside of tanks, there’s still a lot of need for more Primaris vehicles.  But that’s not enough reason to keep Marines as they are.  There’s still some units that are unique, Terminators, Assault squads, and scouts stand out, and Terminators are an absolutely iconic unit for 40k.  Then again, so was Calgar.

I look at the change in Calgar and I wonder if the sunset of my classic models is near.  I have marines that have been in my collection nearly 30 years.  When I look at increasing my investment in this hobby I wonder if it’s going to move in the same direction as other games where old models are pushed out of the meta, and eventually, possibly out of the game entirely.  Will my Rogue Trader era marines eventually end up like the Brettonian Knights of Warhammer Fantasy?

 

 

One year of 8th Edition, Looking Back, Looking Forward

8th Edition Warhammer 40k has been out for a year, and I really think this has been the best year of 40k ever.  In fact I don’t think it’s particularly close.  GW had a perfect storm of plans, events, and actions that created an amazing year for them.  It wasn’t all roses and love but things did play out very well for them.  At the same time there has been a lull recently in 40k content and I, for one, am very ready for that drought to end and have been bending a lot of thought to what they probably will do, what they could do, and what they should do.

First the bad.  Mechanically 8th edition needed to cut down on re-rolls, and invuln saves.  It increased them and added mortal wounds.  Which it has spent a year fixing and still has some fine tuning.  I think doubling down on these mechanics and adding another one to try to balance things hasn’t worked, and is unlikely to work.  We will see how this plays out but I think this is still a case of “less is more” from a balance standpoint, and a speed standpoint.  Spam and army variation has been a problem, it’s hardly new but it actually makes me long for the days of formations.  This is as much a factor of information access.  Everyone can find the good builds very quickly and there’s nothing GW can do about it.

Storywise, nothing has happened since release.  The Konor campaign spun the wheels and since then there’s been a deafening silence.  To give you an idea how little things have moved, the Crimson Fists destruction was retconned forward to happen right before Guilliman brought out the Primaris.  So LITERALLY the first major lore event in 40k is also now one of the most recent.  That is actually pretty representative of things since 8th has come out.  The more things change the more they stay the same.

Line wise things were very good for certain people.  If you liked the Imperium you probably got something you really liked.  Primaris marines are generally good models.  Death Guard have some fantastic models.  None of the Aeldari races got new models, just new names.  Tau, Nids, Grey Knights, Non-Death Guard CSM, Necrons, got no new models.  There have been some “Wow” models but a lot of missed opportunities as well.

Finally communication has been really uneven.  GW likes to try to keep the hype train running.  This has resulted in some forced hype moments.  Like the Blood/Dark Angels “BIG” announcement that was… a couple non special character Lieutenants.  This after the previous chapters to get a codex had Primarchs.  Similar hype surrounded the Eldar, with dismal results.  I think GW would be better served to stick to the facts rather than creating bubbles of disappointment.  If we aren’t getting anything, at least don’t lie to us about it.

Now on to the good.

Mechanically 40k is MUCH easier to play and understand than before.  Both because of streamlining of the rules and a steady stream of FAQs and Errata clarifying and balancing things on the fly.  This system has worked great for companies like Privateer Press and GW’s adaptation has generated great results for the company.  There’s not a lot to really add to this, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a lot of improvement.  This is a great time to play the game, it’s simpler than ever, straightforward, and fun.

The story moved.  It may have stopped again, but for the first time ever, the story moved in a meaningful manner.  I think a lot of people would like to see it move more, and I’m one of them, but we have to remember it has moved.

We’ve gotten a LOT of new models.  More than a dozen types of Primaris Marines, including troops, characters and vehicles.  The amazing Death Guard Line.  Some of the most intricate and interesting models.  Some new Thousand Sons models.  The entire Custodes line.  The new knights.  There’s some really amazing models that have come out, and that doesn’t even cover all the terrain that we’ve seen.

Now GW has done a complete 180 on communication.  They used to communicate only in the vaguest of terms and generally in a very high handed manner.  Now they’ve completely gone the other way, they communicate through people who love the game and want to push information out to us.  The rumor sites have more or less been relegated to trying to extrapolate from the pretty simple straightforward announcements GW puts out themselves, and their predictions have gotten even less accurate as time has gone by.  This has also included participation by a lot of staff in social media.  Gav Thorpe and ADB can be found on Facebook and Reddit, and they are engaging with fans in a way I find to be very positive, especially on the topics of decency and inclusivity.  Of particular note is their response to the angry clutching of pearls concerning the Warhammer Adventures kids books.  I’ll share a tweet from Gav regarding the snide comments about Slaanesh:

Gav Thorpe‏ @GavThorpeCreate

FollowingFollowing @GavThorpeCreate

More

For those wondering how Warhammer Adventures ‘will deal with Slaanesh’ remember that Slaanesh is god of all types of excess. For any ‘kid-friendly’ version just go trick-or-treating with a hyped 4-year old.

1:51 PM – 21 May 2018

Pardon the awful formatting

The results of all this are pretty straightforward.  More people playing 40k than ever.  My FLGS has basically got 2 dedicated 40k nights (Sunday and Monday) the Warhammer store has gone from being a nearly forgotten basement dwelling mall store to a destination that nearly always has people in it, even during the week.  GW has reported its highest profits ever, and has chosen to spend a good portion of that rewarding their employees, which is nice to see these days.

So here we are, GW has pumped the brakes a bit, pushed AoS for a while, and now we hope they turn their focus back to 40k.  We know the next two books are going to be Space Wolves and Orks.  This will leave only the Sisters Codex for next year in the “known but unreleased” category, and that is safely down the road.  Which means we are mostly off the map when it comes to future releases.

I’m going to guess Orks will get some new models.  We’ve seen some hints with pictures of blurry models so far, similar to the kinds we saw presaging Mortarion’s release.   I doubt they’ll get anything that big, but a Prime-Ork version of Ghazghkull Thraka would be amazing.   I hope we see another couple of other units as it leads into something I hope GW does in general going forward.  We’ve seen less in the way of clues for the Space Wolves.  I don’t think we’ll see Russ.  There’s been no buildup, no hints, no hype.  This close to release they would have completely changed the playbook to have a Primarch show up with so little lead time.  I imagine we’ll see a Primaris Lieutenant but it seems unlikely they’ll get much more than the Dark Angels and Blood Angels got.  I do think we’ll see points updates and stratagems that should put them on par or even slightly better than the other non-vanilla marines given the increased importance of melee in 40k and the generally fantastic mobility and melee ability Space Wolves have organically.

Beyond that the map is pretty blank.  I think we’ll see another campaign.  It has been about a year since the Konor campaign.  I would love to see another and better support for it.  Models similar to the ones for the recent AoS campaign would be nice, maybe a bit more tightly focused given how factions work.  A nice example might be a free for all with Orks and Nids overrunning a Tomb World with Eldar attempting to meddle and Tau caught in the crossfire.  Each faction gets a unit, maybe the Doom of Mal’antai for Nids, a new lord for the Crons, maybe a crazy Big Mek for the Orks, Harlequins can get a special character, and maybe a kroot character for Tau.  Something that mixes things up without being a necessary centerpiece for the army, similar to AoS.

Around Christmas I’d like to see an ACTUAL big release.  A Primarch would fit the bill perfectly and I really would be scratching my head if GW doesn’t have one for us this holiday season.  This time the script has been flipped between the Lion and Russ.  They won’t do a Russ model after the codex, they’d do it WITH the codex.  Even though 5 months could separate the codex from Christmas, that’s still an awkward gap with very little filling it for 40k.  I think another campaign, this one between the Imperium and Chaos would be very nice during or after the holidays.  And GW really needs to have some nice big models to put under the trees/bushes.  I’d love to see the Lion, Abaddon and Lorgar.  Preferably as part of 3 new triumvirate boxes.  The Lion, with Lion El’Johnson, Ibrahim Gaunt, and a new Cannoness for the Sisters.  The Bearer of the Word with Lorgar, Erebus, and Argel Tal.  Yes I realize he’s dead.  Do you think the Ruinous Powers care given how many times various other heroes have been brought up?  Could you imagine the fun that would come from having Tal return as a rival to Erebus?  Narratively I think it’s a very fun idea.  The final box has Abaddon, Kharn, and Honsou.

This is a lot more space marines in a game flooded with them, but it gives a very wide spread of characters.  The Lion gives the DA a beat stick with some buffing (think super-Azrael) while Gaunt could play some fun buff/debuff games and, hell a new Cannoness to boost those acts of faith sisters get could be amazing.  Lorgar would be the Chaos version of Guilliman, lots of buffs, meh in combat for his power level.  Erebus makes Asmodai seem tame and sane, while Tal hands out small buffs but also has the ability to throw out serious damage when possession strikes.  Kharn is Kharn, and Honsou gives the Iron Warriors some badly needed love.  Abby needs an update, not just a new model, a new raison d’etre.  Whether they make him a super buffstick, a super beatstick, or an endless CP battery, he needs to have something unique and distinctive, as well as some fluff explaining how all the Chaos Primarchs haven’t just gotten tired of his miserable failures yet.

Finally, GW has gotten a lot better at communication.  There’s still issues.  No one outside the family has any idea what the hell is going on with Forgeworld paring down its lines.  Mid to Long-term plans aren’t being put out there, and all the communication is one-way.  There’s no back and forth, either we communicate with them and we don’t see action (although things may change) or they communicate with us and any response we generate seems to hit a wall.  However this is worlds better than the old regime, which seemed to consist of the company treating their customers and fans like an annoyance rather than a stakeholder.  We are getting great videos on a regular basis helping with the hobby and gaming side.  We are getting announcements (a week out) regarding upcoming releases and both a website and social media presence that seems to be much more in line with the customer service reps in GW’s mail-order service.

So here’s to a good year done, and here’s to another one.  Let’s hope they continue to improve!

40k Year in Review

So I’m going to do a simple year in review for 40k.  Not much structure as this is just a horrifically busy week for me.  More an overview.

The Best of Times

8th Edition Release(s)

So after going through the fiasco that was the Age of Simar release, and watching as PP fucks up Warmahordes almost as bad with their 3rd Edition release, GW manages to orchestrate a very careful, organized launch, and carry that momentum clear through the end of the year, starting well before the actual release with the return of Magnus and Guilliman, and continuing through the release of 10 codexes this year, massive upgrades to Space Marine armies, and some pretty solid balancing of armies.

The New Kits

Holy shit these are great.  The Primaris look very good, even if they are a bit of a pain to assemble, the Death Guard look amazing, and all of the Primarchs look simply incredible on the table.

Events galore

Fate of Konor was a ton of fun.  Armies on Parade was great fun.  There’s plenty of chances for events from purely collecting/modeling competitions to ultra-competitive high intensity tournaments.  Des Moines has had at least 1 major event every month, and that’s JUST for 40k.

On Message, On Target

Ok, look, we all know I’m a feminist, and that representation in 40k is a bit lacking.  Female dominated armies are a bit lacking, and boobplate shows up a lot more than it should.  In addition the features of nearly every sculpt are very “European” even for armies that supposedly aren’t.  GW has been vocal about increasing diversity and cutting down on some of the more sexist elements of their models.  While there has been limited opportunity for them to do it with their long pipeline from project inception to release, they’ve played a lot of the right notes, now let’s see if the players on stage match the music.

Living Rules

I mean, yeah buying Chapter Approved every year is going to be a bit of a drain, but MAN it’s nice to see them FAQing and Errata-ing and just maintaining things.  SO nice.

The Worst of Times

(Not) Fixing the Rules

So the biggest things they needed to fix were invuln saves and re-rolls.  They did not fix them.  They added mortal wounds.  Now there’s army comps that can spam them through psychic powers that made the problem with Alpha Strikes just incredibly worse.  I think they will need to figure out what to do about the huge number of 4++ or better invuln saves (I think even special characters shouldn’t have them very often) and re-roll auras… I like how they make any character interesting but holy hell does it slow down the game.  Just give a +1 to hit or wound and call it a day.

Alpha Strike

First turn is huge.  Way too big.  I’m hoping next year’s Chapter Approved brings us some alternating activation because the way things are it’s just ugly sometimes.  You can be crippled in a turn and that before you get a chance to go.

Marines are great, what else is there?

Not.  Much.  Eldar got a brief re-release of old models.  No real upgrades or new releases.  Nids got a little love, but not much.  Grey Knights got nothing.  CSM other than Death Guard got nothing.  Other Chaos got only stuff originally designed for AoS.  I get that Space Marines sell better than anything, but they HAVE more than anything.  Give Eldar or Orks that kind of love and see what happens!

Blue-Washing

Things aren’t all steak and sunshine even for the Marines.  More and more, chapters with distinct and carefully developed histories are being turned into Ultramarines.  This isn’t good, it isn’t interesting and it doesn’t help the narrative.  Hopefully GW starts looking at the issue and either puts someone in charge of fluff development that isn’t Matt Ward.

It’s been a great year.  Probably the best for 40k in a long damn time.  There’s clouds on the horizon but there’s a lot of sun and a lot of clear seas too.  Just a matter of navigating the waters wisely, and so far GW seems to have hit more clear water the storms.

Blue-Washing the Legions

So the new Blood Angels Codex is imminent.  Recently we got a look at the “New Units” to be featured in it.  Here’s the list from Warhammer Community.  Inceptors, Reivers, Cataphractii and Tartaros pattern Terminators, Stormhawk Interceptors, Stormtalons Gunships, Hunters, and Stalkers.  Stormraven Gunships.  None of these is actually a new unit.  I’m guessing they get all the other Primaris units, since they come in the FUKHUEG BOX that GW has up for pre-order (not a great savings BUT if you want to add Primaris to your existing blood angels, or start a new army there ARE some savings so go for it) but there’s 0 in the way of actually new units.  All of these are units that currently exist now with the exception of the Primaris Lieutenant.

What’s more interesting, or concerning, is that these new units do not have the Black Rage.  So that’s no Death Company, no tragic flaw, just a Red Thirst bonus to attacks.  From the stream we got a lot of stratagems, most of which are picked up from the Space Marine codex although they did steal some speed from the Craftworld one.  I worry a lot that the Blood Angels are becoming Ultramarines painted blue.  Sanguinary Guard, Death Company, and the special characters are… ok.  Librarian Dreadnoughts are great, Furioso Dreadnoughts are great.  Death Company Dreadnoughts are apparently amazing.  All the flavor comes from old units.  OLD units.  Like, Eldar old.  Like Squats old.

I think this is one of two things.  Either a missed opportunity where GW wanted to get this army out fast without bothering to add anything good so they just threw in all the old shit they hadn’t given them before, or a deliberate step to bring all the chapters closer together.  This has happened before.  Black Templars used to have a codex.  Imperial Fists used to at least rate a supplement.  Then they stopped getting new stuff and started losing stuff they had.  Now they sit in the “other” section of the Space Marine Codex.

I don’t think GW wants to get rid of the Blood Angels.  After all, before the obsession with Ultramarines came about THEY WERE THE POSTER CHILD FOR 40k

3rd Edition btw featured the Black Templar.  4th Edition’s Battle for Macragge actually brought the Ultras into the spotlight.

I do think GW is painting themselves into a corner.  Primaris are lore poison.  They are so loyal and pure they never fall to chaos.  They are better at shooting, they are better in close combat, they are tougher when taking damage.  Have you ever been cornered by a guy in your FLGS telling you about his homebrew chapter that are “like X chapter but better”?  That’s the primaris marines.  There’s no flaw.  In fact they clean up flaws that already exist.  I have to think going forward that something will change.  Right now they are literally a bad fanfic of existing marines.  Only they are GW’s bad fanfic.  They are GW’s bad homebrew, and they are mucking up the Blood Angels.

Here’s the funny thing.  I don’t hate Primaris unconditionally.  I think it’s great that GW is advancing the story.  I think it’s very interesting to have these new troops joining the chapters.  I think conflicts like that between Dante and Seth in Devastation of Baal and soon whatever happens in the upcoming Dark Angels book are super interesting.  But so far all the flaws, all the conflict drivers emotionally are coming from non-primaris characters.  War of Secrets doesn’t come out until 2018 so any real resolution is going to take some time to get to us Dark Angels fans.  On the tabletop they are very interesting.  Intercessors are very good overall, but have no ability to specialize for better firepower up close or at long range, just solid, above average firepower, 2 wounds, and 2 attacks in melee.  Hellblasters have less power individually than devastators, but everyone gets a big gun!  2 wounds each!  And now for something completely different.  Inceptors are just plain neat.  I love them and already have 6.  I may go up to 12!  Repulsors are crazy tanks.  I’m VERY MUCH disappointed by the build, it’s just sloppily executed, but they are great tanks.  Ton of firepower, ton of points.  Really neat and go well with the slick, lots of firepower look of primaris.  There’s so much to like about them.

Fluff wise I love the idea of them being less experienced, less adept at the little things, and having some penalties to go with their strengths.  The recent Alpha Legion book played on this some.  They simply don’t know what they don’t know.  However they haven’t shown any fundamental flaw.  GW fluff operates on pretty much the classical model.  Heroes have a tragic flaw.  Guilliman can’t NOT build an Empire.  The Lion can’t NOT be secretive and sinister.  Dorn can’t NOT be defensive and stubborn.  The Khan can’t NOT be inscrutable and hate centralization.  Horus can’t NOT desire power.  Perturabo can’t NOT be jealous.  The Primaris can’t… what.  What is their tragic flaw?  When do they stop being the bonnie blue boys.

And next week pre-orders for the Dark Angels codex go up.  I was hopeful at one point that we’d see the Lion come back in the codex.  Now I’d settle for not having the codex be a glorified index with 8 pages of badly updated fluff.

PETA vs. GW

Ohhhhhh myyyyyyy.

Two organizations I love to hate.  PETA for their overbearing moralism.  GW for… basically being GW.  Yes it’s self referential but at this point if you don’t know why “GW being GW” is bad… I don’t have 10,000 words to describe it.

ANYWAY.

There’s been some great responses.

Fur is murder. In a universe where star ships sail through a sea of liquid murder guided by a murder powered lighthouse

No.  Seriously.  The Warp is the realm of murder (and a lot of other things) and the Astronomican is powered by the souls, not just the body, and blood, but the very SOULS of psykers being consumed to power this lighthouse.

Then there’s the Daemonculaba.  1D4chan, a rather infamous hive of scum and villainy refers to this is Chaos’ “Aristocrats” joke…I’m not even going to describe it.  It’s beyond horrific.

Now let’s look at our fuzzy little cuddly bears in the 41st millennium.

Most of the ones you see are Fenrisian wolves.  Think of a horse.  No.  A draft horse.  Good.  Now bigger.  Bigger.  Bit bigger.  Ok, close enough.  Now add fangs, teeth, a skeleton that would make Wolverine blush, and add a dash of PURE RABID PSYCHOPATH.

So yes.  That fur is murder.  Angry, bitey, scratchy murder.

The Unloved Rhino

So why would anyone buy just a Rhino anymore.  Seriously.  $37 bucks.  Rhino.

Here’s your other choices.  Razorback, $42 bucks.  For 5 dollars more you can choose a pile of extra bits that give you a lot more flexibility in the build.  Basically for each Razorback you see yourself needing, you buy the kit and you can swap it for a rhino just by changing the top deck.

Then there’s the armored assault squad.  For $55 you get a Rhino, a tactical squad, and I do love the current tac squad kit, for me there’s a Dark Angel upgrade sprue.  Finally there’s one of the REALLY hard to find Dark Angels Squad Transfers.  I’d rather get one of the really big ones, but even these are really useful.  My current build needs at least 5 of them.  Either way, this is a steal at less than $20 more than the Rhino on its own.  Heck just the upgrade sprue is $14.  The squad is $40.  Another way of looking at it is, any Dark Angel player that wants a tac squad gets the transfers, the upgrade sprue, and a free Rhino.  Basically there’s a lot of value in these packs.  Where there isn’t a lot of value is in units on their own.  Any unit you are looking for, look for it in a package these days.