Goatboy’s 40k Thoughts – Looking Ahead
Goatboy here to talk about what’s coming down the pipe and what it means for the 40K metagame.
Goatboy here and while we wait another week before there is some kind of meaningful review of the new Skitaari book. Instead of that lets look to the future and what the rumored release schedule might do to effect the so called competitive edge of 40k. Its been a rather crazy set of weeks as rumors of new releases keeps flip flopping all over the place. First we think the rest of they year will see Campaigns and a new Marine book to pump up sales and instead we get the juicy morsel of a new Eldar book to replace the boring nature of the current book. With that in mind lets start to break down what we could see in the coming months.
Skitaari and you! Robots, Cyborgs, Robes, and Fun! Buy one Cyber Advancement and get the chance to buy another for free!
First of all – the new Skitaari book does look interesting. The design philosophy seems to really exemplify the group thought nature of the book. The rules and ideas presented don’t seem to come from one mind set. You have some really interesting gun profiles as well as a really neat take on assault units. We saw this originally in the Harlie book and it continues in both the Daemonkin book (mixing things and removing clunky rules – ie Daemonic Instability/Warpstorm/Random Gits) and the Skitaari book (Guns utilizing all the rules and new ones). The HQ less nature of the book is somewhat disconcerting as I really would like to see some kind of leader clamback to use as either an Ally faction or just a conversion started for some crazy idea. Still so far the rules in the book seem alright in just the 7th edition landscape. Once you remove the Serpent Shield the troops and Elites start to look like they might survive longer. Feel no Pain is cute when you can take it.
I put this codex in the realm of fun right now. It so far doesn’t read like the single mindedness that the New Necron book had but still it looks like it could be ok. I like how the units seem to support each other with either the +1 nature of the Walker thingies invulnerable save or the other ways they can order themselves better in certain situations. Heck the weird swords that get better as they get used to your molecular structure just sounds friggin awesome. It just screams Grim Dark future with forbidden technology.
As some of my local buddies say they just wish the tall walker was a cheaper model. Its rules just scream to use them in large quantities and at 50 bucks a pop it becomes a lot harder to justify a unit that costs less then the total purchase price in points. The troops do seem costed correctly in both model turns and actual cash money. I think GW needs to look at the basics of an army and drop that cost. If you can quickly build the bones of a list and just only need a few “fancy” things to make it worth wile it becomes a lot less of a wallet threat investment to start a new army.
New Craftworld Eldar aka We Sold out of all our reprinted Wave Serpents in stock!
The newest bit of insanity this week is the reworking of the Eldar book. I know that I heard chatter about this among some buddies, chats, etc that you shouldn’t be buying any new Eldar stuff. I know many a tournament player would love to play less 4 Serpents + 2 Wraithknights and summoning nonsense. The list reminds me of the end of 5th edition with Grey Knights running all over the place. Still I think a new book that will make players play differently will be great. I expect nerfs but not nearly as many as some players are fearing. Here is one of those lovely lists people like to complain about in comments.
Things that will probably change
1. Wave Serpent. Expect the shield to have a massive overhaul. They will return this to being a troop transport with either the shield being one use only (per the fluff) or some kind of nova like power that implies it will get punched in its butt if it is using that power during the opponents turn. I really wish they would completely revamp it and make it an assault vehicle so those Assault units actually have a chance across the field. Still this is the one that will get rules changes and make everyone find the turrets for their Falcons again.
2. Summoning. This is the next thing that will go away. I am tired of hearing/reading the justification of Eldar players summoning Daemonettes with the idea that they are just bringing Ghosts back. You know Slaanesh ate all dem Eldar grandparents right? He/She put some sriracha sauce on them and rolled em in a corn tortilla (watching she/he’s figure). It just doesn’t make sense and the Daemon cash grab is over so they will resemble the casters in the Harlie book. I also expect the Ghost Helm to have some changes and some of the other wargear that helped cast spells reworked.
3. Troops. I think Dire Avengers and Guardians will be the only troop choices in the book. Why add in Guardian Jetbikes when you can make a supplement/detachment that does it for some extra cash. I think the Inyanden book will stay as is and thus allow you to get Wraithguard as troops that way. They might do a quick FAQ for it or who knows. Still – why give you all the options right away when they can make you pay for them one 33-50 dollar extra purchase at a time.
4. Wargear. Guardian Jetbikes will probably get a 4+ armor save like all the other Eldar like bikes. I also expect some of the vehicle options to change a lot too. Holofields are in the new Harlie book and I bet a copy and paste is in the future for this Craftworld Book. I think they will limit some of the cover save abilities as well to help even things out a bit. Or heck just make stuff more expensive because the Eldar like to pay.
Things that will get better – or they think they are better to sell more.
1. Falcons. You know they will try to push this as the choice for Eldar Transportation.
2. Avatar. A new kit is rumored (maybe) so they might make this a LoW with Eldrad. I wonder if they will use the CAD sculpt from the Dark Elves Chariot/Cauldron etc.
3. Aspects. Banshees will get grenades. This I predict. Maybe some of the other ones will get better too. I don’t think they need much work other then Grenades on Banshees at bare minimum.
4. Auratach. There is a new kit rumored so I bet these guys get a nice push up into the kick ass HQ range. There are too many Farseers it seems.
Overall I expect a Grey Knight style book with some small things that need upgrades. I don’t expect the push that Necrons got so hopefully it won’t be another set of summers with a constant barrage of Wave Serpent shields and sad panda pants days of 6’s on the Wraith Knight shot. The question is if they lose Battle Focus or have something different. We’ll see.
Marines and Daemonkin thoughts – or How GW makes some quick Cash!
After this things get murky. We have rumors of a Daemonkin book for Tzeentch as well as Tau and Space Marine rumors. I expect a bigger book change for the Tau as a lot of things either work to well or don’t work at all. The book just seems lost right now and needs some work to get it back on track. The Marine book… wait I mean the Centurion Devastator plus Ally friends book is another one that I just don’t know which direction they will go. Everything points to books losing the troop changing options but I can’t see GW removing the whole – biker troop armies. Still it could get shifted to a Supplement option. I don’t expect huge changes as the Marine book has 2 Supplements that should still work when the new codex comes out.
Look for changes to Chapters to push some of the other ones. Ravenguard are supposed to get a Supplement so I expect that Chapter to be the next “White Scars”. White Scars might lose some rules as well in order to keep them in line. I am sure they are tired of seeing all kind of color scars on the table top. I don’t know what new unit to add other then pulling in the Knight as a true LoW option for the codex. Calgar will get his LoW status too. I don’t see any rules changes to any of the HQ choices either – just more simple changes to different options in the codex. If the Horus Heresy plastic boxed set is true there might be some 30k stuff getting added to the book. That might be the one way to justify a new set of rules changes and purchases. The Marines might find a ton of Contemptor dreads in the same basement they found all this Grav gun stuff. Will we see actual changes to Grav? The only thing I think we should even consider with Grav guns is maybe lessening the amount of shots they fire off. I think the gun solves a lot of issues in the game right now other then being too devastating when mixed with some of the Ally options you can give the Imperium. I think we should just be happy we don’t see teleporting Tau Commanders with Gravs and Grey Knights.
Finally we end with some Chaos thoughts. The Khorne Daemonkin book is pretty successful in my eye. I think it adds a fluffy layer of decent rules to the game. The Blood Tithe is a neat mechanic and rewards Khorne like play with losing models directly advantageous to the army. I always like rushing at the enemy so a book designed to give me 80’s high fives as I throw my models into the grinder is always a plus. The Tzeentch version is another tough idea to crack. I like the idea of a Tithe you can use for abilities but the Khorne one needed it as they needed a way to sell summoning without having Psykers. Tzeentch has all the psykers in the world so it becomes harder to try and create a similar rule. I expect a different direction for that book and instead of generating a Tithe of points they might see some changes to their own Psychic disciplines.
What if they had the Warp Storm and when you cast spells it could effect it. Push it into different directions etc? Just the ones from the Tzeentch Discipline. Like every turn during the shooting phase for every Tzeentch Spell you cast you got a plus one to the table. If you didn’t cast anything the storm was calm etc. Maybe it was like a d3 plus the turn number where you had to cast spells in the beginning to get anything from it. That might be the one way to make it flavorful. I don’t know what options you put at each level as that would take testing to make a fair and viable rule. Still it would seem to be the most fluffy option for Tzeentch that isn’t just a rename of the Blood Tithe with Creepy Bird Thing Tithe that goes up to 9 instead of 8. There will be one big summon a super Chicken thing though.
Overall the next few months sound exciting for 40k. I like the idea of Campaign books adding new formations/units to specific armies. The main codexes don’t need nearly as much work and small tweaks like this could do wonders for some of the older books. I wish we had a better Chaos Space Marines book but the Daemonkin book showed no changes to the Chaos Space Marine options so I don’t think will see anything changed in the future. I just expect new stuff to make you want to replace your old stuff with better units.
Until next time – Goatboy.
