One, two, miss a few…

Hello again fellow gamers,

Somewhat inspired by Editor in Chief Bill over at The Miniatures Page I’ve decided to write my first opinion piece. Today’s subject Warhammer 40K 8th Edition, well sort of…

The long long ago…

I feel its best I start off with explaining my perspective on wargaming. I’m one of the oddball gamers who actually started off outside of playing GW products. I had the possibly dubious luck of growing up in a household where Airfix juts were introduced at a young age. My father had been a wargamer many years prior. As such the first book on wargaming I ever lay my hands on was Battle! Practical Wargaming by Charles Grant. This book lay out some fairly simple rules for playing with the old bendy 1/72 scale soldiers and plastic tanks. I do still fondly remember doing so. It wasn’t a complete rule set, more a guide on making your own, but fun none the less.

I did eventually however become entranced by that store with the black frontage with those bold yellow words GAMES WORKSHOP. I wasn’t a huge fan of fantasy at the time so my first stop was the 40K. At the time 2nd Edition was in its prime and I became a staunch Ultramarines player.

I was a little young at the time to play all that seriously at the time, in fact looking back at the 2nd edition rules I’m rather proud of myself at that age for managing to play at all. The majority of my 40K games were played under the 3rd, 4th and 5th editions. 6th and 7th were where my passion for the hobby waned and then died and its only with the release of 8th that I’m returning to the gaming table.

Now, to get on to the opinion part of the opinion piece: I feel that 8th edition is a breath of fresh air that 40K seriously needed.

I found 3rd through 5th editions very similar, with only some very gradual changes between editions. I always found these games enjoyable, complex enough for strategy, but not so much that it became a chore to remember each and every special rule. I of course continued to play my beloved Ultramarines in this period but also branched out in to a few other armies. Imperial guard, Space Wolves, Tau, Necrons, even some traitorous Iron Warriors. There were of course editions where certain armies got a little boost but things seemed to stay fairly even.

Now 6th and 7th, they were a difference beast. Though the core rules remained essentially the same things seemed to go a bit…wrong. I know many attribute this to certain codexes written by a singular gentleman I don’t think that’s fair. Design decisions were made that I think negatively impacted the game. People started to bring enormous armies to the table, often without increasing the playing space proportionally so units ended up crammed so tight there was no room to manoeuvre. The introduction of D-strength weapons and other less than balanced ideas seemed to radically shift what was a playable force. And so, so many special rules. Though I will admit I liked the return of the Psychic Phase.

Where I actually start talking about 8th

Now we come to 8th. Yes I’m going to use the word streamlined. Do I think streamlining a game is a good thing? Not always. Its entirely possible to strip all the character from a game but I don’t think that’s what happened here. Are things simplified? Yes. Some of them are such simple changes that I’m surprised they didn’t happen years ago. For instance: I’ve been looking up Ballistic Skill for models on the same chart for nearly 20 years. Its not a difficult chart to remember, but just listing what you need to roll on the profile of the model is even easier. I’m surprised it took so long for that to become the case, especially as it was done that way even in the first edition of the Lord of the Rings game in 2001.

Now I’m not going to try and claim I’ve played nearly enough games of 8th that I know every single in and out of the system. But on the whole it seems so much easier. Yes there are still quite a lot of special rules to remember but it seems less of a memory test than previous editions. I’m going to riff a little off of Atom Smasher from Tabletop Minions a little. In one of his videos he talks about some rules sets just being about one person being better at remembering all of the extra rules. And I feel that’s what happened to 40K.

Movement

I feel this is one place where things have changed a lot. Between different movement rates, advancing, and the distinct lack of the old ‘difficult terrain’ rules mean that troops can just get around much more easily. I feel this only adds more strategic options to the player. Sure your super heavy Cataphractii terminators are going to take a while to walk anywhere but lighter units seem far more mobile than they’ve ever been. Terrain taking a fixed amount off moves is not only easier but prevents hulking futuristic battle tanks being completely bogged down by a couple of spindly trees for the majority of a game.

Psychic phase

I’m glad this is its own separate thing, I don’t think it necessarily simplifies or speeds up play but I find it focuses my thoughts on what I want my Psykers to do. Psykers also seem to be far more deadly than they ever have been. I don’t think this is a bad thing at all as they’ve always been a bit on the impotent side in my own opinion.

Shooting

Oh how this phase has changed. Things are so much easier now. As I’ve already mentioned Ballistic Skill is now just roll what you’ve got on your profile (and occasionally modify or re-roll). Wounding no long has a chart and is simplified to comparing strength and toughness directly. Other reviews of this set of rules have gone deep in to the statistical differences of this and I’m not going to repeat it all. Sufficed to say most results are virtually the same. The changes to how cover and AP affect armour saves are both far more logical and far simpler to keep track of. Bigger guns can also cause multiple wounds now, which is very cool. The old days of only doing one wound or instant death with nothing in between are over. I’m a big fan of how things work now.

Fight Phase

Now this is where things get even more controversial. Weapon Skill is no longer comparative, its just a straight up ‘roll what’s on your profile’ like Ballistic Skill. When I read that I was shocked. But what does it really mean, your units that are good at hitting things can now hit units that are bad at combat just as easily as before. They’re now just better at hitting units who are also good in melee. This is a big change, I can remember games in 2nd and 3rd where characters would spend turns dukeing it out with each other and very little happening. The older system seems very routed in the Hollywood style of sword fighting, the hero and the villain spending a good while clashing steel so they can have a conversation at the same time. The new, far bloodier, combat system to me reflects a more realistic look at close in fighters. If you look at modern HEMA practitioners, even at the highest levels of skill, only a few feints and parries ever happen before someone gets a good blow in. All in all I feel close combat is far bloodier and actually better for it.

Morale Phase

Another big change. A single dice plus casualties taken this turn compared to Leadership and then however many you’re over by are simply taken from your unit. I’ve yet to see many people fail these checks, though that may be because I’ve been play as and against some of the more stalwart factions in the 40K universe. These is a much easier system, no need to keep rolling for a unit to see if they regroup or anything like that. Once people have decided to leg it they’re gone.

Vehicles

Another gargantuan simplification are the vehicle rules, gone are armour values and hit charts. These days vehicles just have toughness, wounds and an armour save like any other model. Some vehicles do also deteriorate a little stat-wise as they take damage, but its not a universal thing. I personally think this is a HUGE improvement. Yes I will acknowledge that now any weapon can damage any vehicle, but the odds are fairly slim and a tough tank will have enough wounds to soak the few scratches that do get through. I feel that Vehicles are far tougher than they have been. I know they got multiple hits eventually in 40K but a nice big pool of wounds feels so much more tangibly robust. It takes a substantial amount of firepower to destroy a vehicle in 8th and I feel this is far more fitting.

Detachments, Command points and Stratagems

Now Army composition has changed a lot over the years. I enjoyed the freedom of days of 2nd Edition when there were just simple points percentage limitations on different areas of the codex but I’m the first to admit it could lead to some very bizarre armies. I’m glad that I managed to miss the utter nonsense that Formations were. The new Detachments seem a good alternative, extra Command points seem enough incentive to build armies that are balanced but if you want to build an army that’s just HQs and Heavy Supports the option is there. Stratagems don’t seem game breaking, most people seem to just save their Command Points for re-rolls but as this is a stratagem everyone has access to it’s instantly self-balancing.

Scenarios

Another place where GW seem to have gone from strength to strength. I’m sure people do just still play a traditional meat grinder, where the only objective is to table the opponent but with 12 basic scenarios along with six different deployment maps that’s already 72 variations before even looking at the Tactical Objectives. Some of which are swapped out for themed versions for the force you’re using if the appropriate codex has been released. Oh and twist cards too? There’s a huge amount of variety available. Anyone not using these scenarios is really missing out on one of the main strengths of this rule set.

Conclusions

I like 8th. Its definitely not the rule set to end all rule sets, but it has a lot of promise. I think compromises have been made to speed up the game but I don’t feel like any of them are hugely detrimental to the feel of the game. Obviously things could go awry later on, all it takes is for a few bad codexes and the rules could be terrible again. I’ve still yet to play 8th in anything like a competitive way but I have a feeling it’ll work well. I’m sure some people will find ways to break or abuse rules but that is unfortunately where some people gain their enjoyment in the hobby.

Once I’ve got a few more minis painted I’ll hopefully be playing a few games worthy of writing up a battle report. More on 8th Edition on its way.