Warhammer 40K: Special Characters Are Becoming a Problem
Goatboy here and what happens when 40K special characters are just too good to not take? We’re there now!
We have an issue with 40K 10th Edition when coming to the table and playing versus a specific army – where you know who the leader will be every time. Is that too boring? Is it an issue where all the special characters are just way to over tuned?
The reason why I am talking about this is due to the preview we had for the upcoming Ultramarine models we have coming out. You might say they are extremely juiced up right now. I am expecting to see a lot of “non blue” Ultramarines to start showing up especially with what will most likely be a very powerful detachment they want to live in. It feels like every battle is just fought with a specific set of special characters every time it starts to lose some of the “luster” of having named characters in 40k.
The Faction Big Characters are BACK!
Wait why is this small skirmish dominated by the Leader of the Ultramarines? How did he get to this battlefield when he is fighting the Tyranid scourge on that other planet? Oh, is Abaddon leading every fight against the Imperium? Is Ghazghul able to clone himself to fight every enemy all the time? Am I putting too much thought into the Narrative when it should just be a game of odds played with plastic dice? Why is Kharn always here doesn’t he have a home to go to?
Welcome Back Blue Super Friends!
I do enjoy our special characters to be good but wished they were all equally as good. We are about to live in a world with a new Ultrablue Deathstar hitting the tabletop. The new Ultramarine one now can have a Vitrix Guard (only up to 6 models in that unit look at the Unit Composition Green Box), Marneus, and Cato Sicarius in a crazy unit of death. That is a whole heck of a lot of nonsense smushed together into what is essentially 10th editions version of Super Friends from back in the day.
Is this good for the game? Are we going to see it in every “Marine” army that wants it? Where is my Chaos Space Marine super friends list with Abaddon and some other crazy Sorcerer jabroni attached to a Chosen unit. Is that even coming or are we left just wondering what other upcoming super units will get added.
Named Characters Need to be Different, not Better
I miss my special named characters to do different things then what their “non named” counterparts did. They added unique wrinkles to the armies and while they could be good, they didn’t dominate the battlefield. You sometimes want just a regular captain or chapter master leading your unit. Should this mean that while they are a named character we should just make them structurally unique but not rules based unique? Or give them rules that break the overall arching demand of the game?
I like having special characters in the game as it gives a chance for the Narrative to have cool new models. I don’t like them being so much more powerful than any regular character unit in the game. When they become dominating on the table top you must wonder if it is worth it to let them play in the sandbox that is 40k. It just becomes a game of every army being solved or each iteration of that army being the same. You then just wonder if GW should release “battalions” with the same leader/battleline choices and just leave the differences being in whatever color someone decides to paint them as.
I will say I am happy it isn’t like the old days that would see different “characters” from different backgrounds joining up to create some kind of true monster. I also wonder if allowing characters to join units was a mistake in the long run for the game. I just always worry if you let more rules combine up you end up creating a beating that is truly hard to balance and justify for a competitive game. I think the method of big named leader followed by a helper is about as much as I would let into a unit with the idea to try and balance what units they join or at least make sure they are correctly costed to not dominate things.
Do you think Special Characters need to be reined in?
