Warhammer 40K: 10th Ed Faction Rules Preview – Simplified Detachments And Leaner Rules
Games Workshop is showcasing what the new Faction rules will be when you choose your Detachments and things are looking lean and mean!
Warhammer 40,000: 10th Edition is really moving towards a ruleset that is more approachable and easier to pick-up and play while still keeping a lot of the tactical depth. GW is following the mantra of “Simplified, not simple” and based on what we’re seeing of these Faction Rules it’s clearly working. They’ve made some design decisions to really help limit the “bloat” from previous editions. These self-imposed restrictions are great tools for helping to keep things focused and cleaner. That’s evident from the previews below. So let’s check out those rules!
“The Index Cards released at the dawn of the new edition will each come with one Detachment, representing a common fighting style for a particular faction, and more will emerge as new Codexes arrive and armies expand. There is one golden rule: every Detachment must fit onto a single double-page spread. This means you’ll never need to go leafing through an armful of rulebooks to find that key Stratagem – you’ll have your core rules, your datasheets, and two pages of unique rules, and you’re good to go!”
The New Detachments And Faction Rules Preview
Every single faction will get an army ability at the start of the new edition. These will be a part of that army regardless of the Detachment you choose. Think of these like the first layer of “rules” for the army. Lorewise, these rules “represents the totemic aspect of that faction in war” so the iconic thing the army does will be represented by those rules. The examples were given like Orks getting Waaagh! and Tyranids getting Synapse. Astra Militarum getting Orders. You get the idea.
The Adeptus Astartes are getting the new Oath of the Moment which allows them to target a specific unit and get re-rolls to hit and re-rolls to wound vs that target until your next Command phase. It’s worth noting that GW has stated they have toned down the re-rolls in 10th edition and they are “significantly less common” — so this will actually be very nice to have.
Detachments are the next “layer” of rules for the army. These start to get more specific based on the particular playstyle the Detachment is going for. GW has the example of the Tyranid Invasion Fleet. Their Detachment rule is Hyper-adaptations which allows you to choose some specific abilities at the start of the battle:
So there’s a few keywords and terms to learn here. But before we get into those you can see how the Detachments are that second layer of rules now and how GW could theoretically introduce more Detachments to completely alter the playstyle of an army…But more on that some other time. Let’s get into those keywords.
Sustained Hits X is a new ability — or rather it’s a new term of an existing thing. You might call this the “exploding 6s” rule for the to-hit rule. Everytime you roll an unmodified 6 to-hit, you score X additional hits. In this case, it’s 1 more. Also Critical Hits are the new term for an unmodified 6 on the die for a to-hit roll.
Lethal Hits causes you to automatically wound on a Critical Hit. This allows you to bypass the Strength vs Toughness check (aka the to-wound roll). Precision is another keyword ability but we don’t know what that does…yet. But you can probably take a few guesses about what it could do.
“For their army ability, the Tyranids can manipulate Battle-shock tests with Synapse and Shadow in the Warp – but we’ll find out what those do when we have a closer look at the Tyranid faction next month.”
Stratagems And Enhancement Reworks
“Stratagems and Enhancements are also now part of your Detachment. In the previous edition, many players found it difficult to juggle and remember two or three dozen Stratagems. Those days are gone – no Detachment will contain more than six Stratagems. Add that to a robust universal menu of 12 Core Stratagems, and there’s now simply less to keep track of.”
Sweet! I am thrilled to see this change. Your Detachments will determine the specific Stratagems you’ll have access to while there will be 12 Core Stratagems that everyone will be able to use. I think this is a great change as it really cuts down on the rules bloat. Many Stratagems were just re-wording or variations on other Stratagems anyhow. I’m glad to see the 20 or more per army get split-up and reworked into something manageable.
I also really like the reformatting of the Stratagems. They are so much easier to follow and learn for new players and they should help cut down on confusion or timing questions.
The Armour of Contempt comes from the first Space Marine Detachment we’ll have in the new edition: the Gladius Task Force. You can bet there will be more Detachments for the Space Marines in the future!
Also, GW did mention that a bunch of the previous Stratagems were basically moved from being Stratagems into unit abilities…like they probably should have been. That really exploded the bloat in the current edition and this move to undo that in 10th is a good one.
“Enhancements replace the old Relics and Warlord Traits, offering a unified list of unique upgrades for each Detachment. Unlike Stratagems, there are no Core Enhancements – each one is tied to a specific Detachment for a specific faction, tailored to your roster and abilities. These include refined personal wargear like Artificer Armour, or tactical talents that allow a commander to enhance the unit they’re leading.”
This is another large and interesting change. Relics and Warlord Traits are out and are replaced by Enhancements. These Enhancements are linked to the Detachments as well. I’m curious to see how these old systems got reworked to fit in these new Detachment systems. I’m also excited to see how easy it’s going to be to swap out a Detachment, update Enhancements, and play with the same “army” only to have a very different playstyle.
The fact that all these rules will be on a single double-page spread is exciting and convenient. It’s like a cheat-sheet for your army! And if you want to try a different Detachment, just switch sheets out and you’re ready.
‘Leading Units’ Tease
“Hold the phone, did we say “leading units”? Uh… find out next week here at Warhammer Community!”
Wait a minute…are we about to have Characters able to join units again?! I am both excited and petrified at the prospect of having Characters join units. I really hope we don’t go back to the days of the Voltron-like forming of a Super Friends unit with multiple Characters. But if a Space Marine Captain can join up with some Intercessors to make the unit better (and them untargetable) I could be okay with that. I’m now cautiously optimistic on this front.
How are you feeling about the new Detachments and Rules? Are you looking forward to having all your army rules on a single page?
