Warhammer 40K: What 10th Edition Got Right
Goatboy here and while we anxiously await the big Adepticon 2026 GW Reveal, I want to talk about the top 5 things GW nailed with 10th Edition.
I think 10th Edition was one of the most successful editions we have had in making this competitive game work. It did a lot of good strong work and I hope the lessons learned from this edition go to the next one to continue to make a strong product and game. Let’s talk about the top five things I like from this edition
Terrain Worked Well – Tabletops Were Fairly Balanced
If you haven’t been playing 40k for long then you don’t remember the old days of planet bowling ball or walls so high you couldn’t see anything. You would also have those maps that were asymmetrical so whoever won the roll off to pick sides would dictate the flow of the game. The tables might look a bit boring but they actively work to let players not have to worry about who got what side, or who got which table piece, or even really think about how they will deploy. There is a lot to love about the table top full of L’s and square areas of terrain and how it balanced the way players interacted.
Army Detachments Made Army Construction Easier
I loved the 2 page rules for your armies detachment. I thought limiting them to a simple set of 6 extra Stratagems, an army rule add on for your army, and 4 Enhancements was a great way to simplify army building. It is just an easy way to see all the rules and lets you easily bring a printed sheet or showcase what your army can do in the app. I still wish there was an easier for players to get all the rules but limiting the initial top choice is a good thing for the game.
40K App Made the Game More Accessable
If you had your armies rules in the app it was an easy way to find and showcase them. The army builder game is a great thing too as you can easily smash some units together even if you didn’t have the rules unlocked. I liked just having the App on the phone and could easily find things quickly. While it didn’t have all the rules for those who didn’t unlock them you could easily just combine the units up to check your opponents math was correct. It also spit it out in a way to easily make it upload able to BCP and other game scoring systems.
Random Nature of Missions Was Good
The card mission structure could be boring but it did give a lot of leeway into controlling how an armies’ balance could be easily disturbed by a few bad card draws. If you didn’t get the right draws you could be behind even if your army was “better”. I think this did a lot to balance things out in a game where so many units could create really busted interactions. The card system did a lot to help balance this and overall I thought it was a pretty good add on to the game.
Digital Points Is the Future!
I think locking the overall points in a digital release was healthy for the game. This let GW quickly fix things if something got printed incorrectly or allow for a lot more balance opportunities. The idea of losing any “upgrade” costs is a hard pill to swallow but letting GW have more control through point changes and updates helped make the game healthy. You only have a few weeks to worry about something that was too cheap and even if it was really bad it was quickly fixed.
Honorable Mention: GW Moving FAST to Fix Balance Issues
I liked the updates that came every few months as well as the feeling GW cared that the players were having a good time. If something felt too good it probably was too good. This meant that trying to jump on the meta bandwagon was something you had to think about before spending that hard earned cash. If you already had the units then it was easy but for anyone else you had to truly think is this plastic nonsense worth it or do we wait to see if anything is going to change this balance or nerf the teeth out of the army.
As 10th Edition is winding towards it’s end, what do you think GW got right this time around?
