The new edition has come, been purchased and opinions on the internet grapevine are starting to appear. So far the news comes out, not as a howling maelstrom of despair comparable to the release of Age of Sigmar, but with a nice, restrained joy that makes for a nice change from the regular bitterness and anger that I've come to take as par for the course in the online war gaming zeitgeist.
For a long time there seems to have been a tacit acceptance that the 40k, as it stood would always be what it is; a bloated and aging rules set that is carried on by sheer inertia of both the company and community. That was until Age of Sigmar at any rate.
I admit, I was among the many scoffers for such a violent destruction and rebooting of the Warhammer Fantasy franchise. Then again I wasn't particularly invested in it so I watched it more as an bemused spectator rather an army burning frother. However, in the fullness of time I can see why they took as big a gamble as they did. A few dumb but thematic rules aside, the new rule set quite clearly laid the ground work for a new fast play model, designed to make games fun and engaging again. Then with the release of the Generals Handbook the game became viable again not only as something fun to play, from my observations of it, but more structured with the reintroduction of a points system making it valid for competitive play again.
The 8th edition of the Warhammer 40k rule set, from my first impressions, borrows from the best of Games Workshop's Age of Sigmar experience and from my one game so far, it seems better for it. The rot and the codex creep that have long been a fact of life in the game seem to have been soundly demolished. Mechanics wise things seem to have swung in the direction of allowing more units to survive the opening rounds of shooting, which is definitely a plus. The reintroduction of a subtractive AP system compared to the target number of the prior editions helps make this possible, and has made a whole swath of units far more survivable on the field; which means traditionally low save armies like Orks and Guard are now fun to play again.
The removal of the traditional vehicle rules was something I was not entirely sold on, but given the how large monstrous creatures such as the Riptide, dominated the table I can appreciate the mechanical reasons for doing this. Tanks and vehicles in general are now more survivable, and have to be whittled down just like monstrous creatures, putting them on parity in terms of durability, thus making them as much of a viable choice as, for example, the hated Riptide.
In terms of close combat, I've yet to run enough scenarios to fully get a feel for how it works now, but thus far it seems promising. With characters being significantly nerfed in their ability to completely wipe a squad with challenges and the ability for everyone to fall back makes close combat less of an ability to lock units up for the entire game. This provides more options for units to extract themselves from melee, so no more locking heavy units in close combat with an unbreakable mob. Even the introduction of the battleshock system from Age of Sigmar cleans up the morale phase, making it less time consuming to action on the table top.
Overall, for the first time in a while, I'm hopeful that this game will be playable for more armies apart from the ones on top of the current meta. Of course, this could all turn to rubbish the moment a particularly egregious release hits the table top, as I've heard a few of these have happened in Age of Sigmar. Fortunately I've also been hearing that Games Workshop has been willing to patch their game more quickly. It is early days yet, but this is a promising start to what is hopefully a better period of fairer, more versatile play. Only time will tell if this is a lasting change for the better, but for the first time in a while, I have hope for the state of the game.
No comments:
Post a Comment