Warhammer 40K: Random Effect Rules Are A Problem
Goatboy here and 40K’s glut of random activation rules need to go. They are bad for the game and no one likes them!
40K rules with a powerful interaction latched to a random activation end up making for a rough time. I am asking about this as I look at some armies and other games where a major factor of how an army works is locked into a single dice roll. This is where we need to dig deeper to see if the effect is worth efforts to to force the action.
Let’s look at how the game we love works. One side rolls a batch of dice, looks for some kind of specific roll, and if that roll equals a success we cause a chain reaction of rules. This is the basic build of this game and we all accept that. We look at the math of the dice rolls and determine if rolling only one batch of dice is enough to cause the effect we want. If we want to guarantee an effect we make sure we roll the dice amount we need. This is just how Warhammer 40K works and we accept it.
The issue we have with this can come from when we don’t roll enough to truly ensure a viable guarantee. This is where we start to see how a rule might create a powerful interaction – but if we can’t make sure it happens, then is it really a good rule? Let’s break down some rules that are considered good no matter what the success roll would be.
Some Examples of Random Rules
Fight On Death – Worth It
Let’s take the rule Fight on Death. This is a pretty easy rule and it is the interaction of allowing a model killed in the assault phase to fight right after “dying”. There are a lot of iterations of this rule and most of the time they are all good and powerful. In fact for some armies it is the cornerstone of how the faction works in certain match ups. Right now a few detachments get access to this rule with a guarantee for a high CP cost or at least on a pretty good roll. There are some armies that have to activate it some other way but get the rule army wide instead of just a single unit.
We’ll take the World Eaters‘ army rule that utilizes Blessings of Khorne. One of the interaction is an army wide Fight on Death on a 4+. That is a 50% chance to activate it but in an army that punches so much higher on the assault side of things a Fight on Death with a 4+ is still really good. It is a way this army can survive running into another assault army and failing charges or getting punched first.
This rule works even with a 50% success because the interaction is powerful, the ability isn’t just limited to one roll, and World Eaters punch hard even if only 3 models in a 6 man unit get to do it. All of these things are how you can judge if a rule – even if only 50% successful – is actually good or not. When the range of interaction is so big that you can force true ability for success at the average rate is how you can judge if something is good or not.
Blood Tithe – Way Too Flaky
Let’s look at another side of the World Eater puzzle with the Khorne Daemonkin Detachment. The detachment rule is Blood Tithe which is another point based system based on units you kill. This initially sounds good as the army likes to kill things so gaining some kind of point system for doing what you want to do with the army is great. The issue here is GW decided to add a caveat to this rule in not letting you automatically get a point if you kill something. They want you to roll a single dice and on a 3+ you gain that Blood Tithe point.
Can you see why this is an issue? Throwing a major factor on how your army works onto a single dice roll is such a rough rule to play with. If you have an army build out that REQUIRES Blood Tithe to work and you can’t guarantee getting them – then how does your army function reliably? This is a great example of how a dice roll locked into getting your engine running isn’t a good rule to work with. The reason the army was popular initially was in how the Datasheets in the book worked. You couldn’t guarantee getting Blood Tithe because you could fail all your dice rolls and never power up your Khorne dudes.
Random Rules – What’s the Solution?
I gave you two sides of the dice roll coin flip for army rules so how would I fix them? I think most of the time the GW Design Studio should remove any kind of single dice roll for any rule interaction beyond the normal – passing Battle Shock, Hit/Wound/Save, or built in datasheet rule. If they think that is too powerful, then instead make it an almost-guaranteed roll. There are a ton of things that activate on a 2+ and that is ok too. There could be some drama in something failing on that dreaded 1 of the dice roll. Just don’t make a 3+ because having it fail a 3rd of the time is just a brutal pill to swallow. Which means plays will ignore it anyway and go with more reliable options.
Can you think of any other bad dice rolls that ruin a rule? Things that just ruin an armies ability to function in a unique way? All I know is a single 3+ roll will be something I fail all the dang time.
