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Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Biggest Rules Issues in 10th Edition

5 Minute Read
Jun 26 2023
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Goatboy here with the list of the biggest 40K 10th Edition rules issues GW needs to fix yesterday.

I am sure we’ll get some 40K rules updates sooner than later – but here are the ones people seem to be upset about.  We won’t go into points right now, as  that is a separate issue that can take a lot to get right and sync up correctly.

“Anti” fun?

We all know how powerful Anti can be as a rule.  As a whole, it isn’t a bad rule as it gives a broader connection to things like Poison or weapons designed to hurt a specific choice.  I think the issue with Anti, is instead of saying Anti X 4+ creates a critical hit – it should simply have those rolls just be a success.  This would remove that whole “creating a choice that lets a better than a 6+ create a critical hit”.  It would leave the power of Anti as is and would help remove the other interaction we will talk about below.  It also means less of a change to the data slates and just an update to the Core Rulebook itself.

Devastating Wounds – Not Fun

Devastating Wounds is a rule that helps clean up the old causing Mortal wounds option.  I don’t know if having it activate and exchange the damage total into mortal wounds is exactly the cleanest way to do this.  I wonder if changing it to things like Devastating Wounds (2) would be better or end up making it too powerful.  This would mean if you critical wound something you would cause the damage and then an additional 2 Mortal wounds.  The issue right now isn’t Devastating wounds on a 1 damage weapons. The real issue is when you mix it with something that can do upwards of 9+ damage.  This changes that weapon from being deadly to big things to being deadly to hordes at the same time.  You roll two 6’s (or change two dice to 6’s cuz Aeldari) you all of sudden start to throw out 15+ mortal wounds to a unit of models which goes from killing two models to killing all of them.

Towering Has Potent LoS Interactions

Towering is a rule that I find interesting in that it helps elevate the annoying factor of having your big guys not being able to shoot at models peppering them thru windows. It was always a bad feeling interaction as your enemy could just hide all game and you had to try and run around a building to see them.  I wonder if more terrain would have their windows covered – if this would be less of an issue?   I don’t know how to fix this, really as I feel this interaction needs to be there to let these bigger models work better. So most likely a quick shift in their points would be a better way to interact.  Or just have everyone utilize the rule that first-level floors in buildings count as covered.

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Indirect Fire Is Spicy

Indirect fire seems to be the new boogie-man in 40k 10th Edition – just like it was in all the others.  If you pushed it too hard and made it potent – it was too good.  If you made it too bad then no one would ever take it.  I don’t know the real way to truly balance this other than limiting what armies have.  I think it should be there to get a chance to clear things an opponent hides, but when it becomes too much – either with too many shots or just too powerful of shots – it becomes an issue.  I think the best thing to do to fix Indirect Fire is to rules that hits can never be modified to be better than the initial BS.  There are too many factors that are allowing models to basically ignore a lot of rules to try and balance it.  It should also never get modifiers in general from things like wounding options and other fun Auras.  Heck I would remove a ton of other weapon options too just to make sure we don’t create a bigger Indirect Fire monster that we already have right now.

Dice Replacement Effects and Critical Hits

I think anything that replaces a dice with a specific dice roll success should never count as a Critical hit.  Yes it counts as a Success but the only way to get a Critical Hit/Wound/etc is to actually roll the Critical for that attack.  This would help clear up a lot of things and leave the success as an option but remove the guaranteed combo ability.  It would also still let Overwatch get Critical successes if you decide to roll for it and leave that excitement of rolling that Yahtzee.

Extra Free Stratagems Need Nerfing

There is probably too many Free Stratagems out there and it should be a concern for everyone.  Having these are neat for Epic Hero’s to do etc – but let’s try to limit some of these.  There are some Stratagems that don’t need to happen twice in a turn. Figuring out some ways to limit them might be needed.  We’ll see as the game continues on and we end up having to worry about it.

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Detachment Unit Choice Limits

Right now, the game is wide open with the ability to pick things in ways to ignore troops or other battle line options.  Is this ok?  It’s hard for me to say as I am a player that loves to throw out nonsense like 3 Lord of Skulls and Angron. So I wonder if it is worth it to look at.  I also feel like maybe Troops should just be better to make it viable.  Of course new codexes with limiting 40k Detachment choices might be the way to go.

What other rules have you found to be too good or need to be looked at?  Is Aeldari just another Votann waiting on a nerf to put them back in the box?

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