8th Edition Announced: It's FREE??

[BigToof]

Hi All,
New edition for 40k is announced.
Big news: The main rules are going to be FREE.
The actual points values (ala AoS) is going to be updated annually, probably akin to the General's Handbook.
Every model is supposed to be included (even forgeworld) in the update.
"Faster, Better" type of gameplay.

Reactions?

Best,
-BT

[Deraj]

A lot of things about it seem to be a lot like age of sigmar and... honestly, that makes me happy. Age of sigmar got off to a bumpy start, but there are plenty of great things, rules-wise.

[Cammerz]

Well if the rules are indeed free then I might actually give 8th edition a try, I sat out 7th entirely so I'm open to something new, if I don't like it then I'll revert to 6th edition.

[Waaaghpower]

I think I'm a little against-the-grain in that I actually quite like the 7th edition rules, they're perhaps my favorite ruleset (I've played in 5th and 6th,) so I'm a little hesitant about the update - If they change it, it's definitely not going to be the thing I like, but it MIGHT not be as good as what currently exists.

That being said, movement values and save modifiers both *seem* like good ideas. Making there be an actual reason to take Terminator Armor over Artificer Armor, adding more value to armor saves over invulns, and reducing the number of rerollable saves and the time taken rolling defensive dice could all be good things. I don't want the Psychic Phase to change much, though the method of choosing powers could be tweaked so that there's less of a gap between good and bad powers. I like the way assault currently works. I like the way shooting works.

So... cautious, but optimistic that they fix the problems without breaking the stuff I like.

[Waaaghpower]

I watched their Q&A today, and am now... Less optimistic.
Armor value is gone.
Templates are gone.
Lasguns can now hurt Land Raiders.
Formations are gone, though more complicated/specific detachments are now available.
Allies are now heavily discouraged, at least based off of what they're saying.
They're actually going with 'Whoever charges first, hits first'.

Oh, and the rules aren't going to be free, or even any cheaper to get universal access. Unit rules will be split into a number of books (for 'Space Marines,' 'Imperium', 'Xenos', and 'Chaos', or so it sounds,) at a 'lower pricepoint' than codices, but if you want detachment rules or other special options you need to buy that army's codex as well.

Angry reacts only.

[Mabbz]

I watched their Q&A today, and am now... Less optimistic.
Armor value is gone.
Templates are gone.
Lasguns can now hurt Land Raiders.
Formations are gone, though more complicated/specific detachments are now available.
Allies are now heavily discouraged, at least based off of what they're saying.
They're actually going with 'Whoever charges first, hits first'.

Oh, and the rules aren't going to be free, or even any cheaper to get universal access. Unit rules will be split into a number of books (for 'Space Marines,' 'Imperium', 'Xenos', and 'Chaos', or so it sounds,) at a 'lower pricepoint' than codices, but if you want detachment rules or other special options you need to buy that army's codex as well.

Angry reacts only.

So... I was cautiously optimistic. Most of the changes I knew about I had mixed feelings on (Bs and Save modifiers, Move values, etc.). Then you posted that and I'm getting more concerned.

I don't mind so much that Armour values are gone (provided they make it suitably difficult to hurt vehicles) since I've always thought there was a lot overlap between Walkers and MCs. But if Lasguns can hurt Land Raiders, then thing are horribly wrong.

Templates disappearing could be okay depending how they do it (if it's anything like Shadow War Armaggedon then it's more along the lines of removing scatter dice).

Discouraging allies is probably a good thing.

And then there's the scrapping of Initiative based combat... Why? How is that ever going to be a good idea? Giving chargers a bonus to initiative could work, but claiming that Fire warriors charging Harlequins would somehow be faster is just plain stupid.

As for the rules not being free, meh. I already buy new codices for my armies, as long as they don't get more expensive, I won't care much.

[Waaaghpower]

I wouldn't mind the discouraging of allies, except... I play Sisters of Battle. I play Inqusition. I have about fifteen Grey Knights. I play Deathwatch. I play Custodes, and Sisters of Silence, and I have less than Mechanicus models (including Belisarius Cawl.)
All of these were sold to me (and bought BY me) under the idea that I could use them all together, and that most of them were *designed* to be used together. Deathwatch are not a legit army on their own. Inquisition on their own would be laughable. Being penalized for an army comp that was previously encouraged is annoying.

I wouldn't mind losing Armor values either, except with it goes a whole host of other things - Dedicated anti-tank fire becomes, at best, another variation of 'Shred against specific enemies'. Flanking the target for a better firing solution is gone. Special weapons that only work against one target or another (haywire/poisoned) become less special.
If they ditched Walkers I'd be fine, but all tanks is too much.


Templates will be missed just because I like 'em. Carefully placing models so that you don't get destroyed by a grenade is fun. Hitting multiple enemy squads that are tightly packed together is fun. Launching a 7" or 10" blast into a big squadron of enemy tanks is really fun. (Plus, it offered a way for inaccurate armies (like my Orks) to still have threatening single-shot weapons.)

As for the rules... I'm mostly annoyed because I'll have to re-buy everything, with no spacing out. The rulebook, three army books, and probably five or six codices. Grrr.

[Narric]

To be honest, its probably not surprising. They probably used Age of Sigmar to test the waters on certain changes, and have taken what they want from that experience. Considering even in age of Sigmar you have to pay for more specific rules and their supposedly utility app for the game felt un-navigable, this just feels like they're dropping what they feel didn't work for AoS.

It will be interesting to see what their main competitor will do once this update hits. Mantic Games saw a significant increase in their market share from disenfranchised players switching over to them, and have gone out their way to include similar races to Fantasy in their Kings of War range and army selection lists. It would not be surprising if Warpath suddenly had a fresh host of races for players to use.

[Cammerz]

I'm starting to like this less and less;
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/04/25/warhammer-40000-unit-profiles/

Also as a commenter on facebook pointed out, Tactical Dreadnought Armour has a better armour save than actual Dreadnoughts. Which seems weird to me.

Giving all vehicles toughness and wounds completely eliminates any reason to outflank, they're now equally tough/squishy all over.

I might test it, but I'll probably end up sticking with 6th edition.

[Waaaghpower]

I'm starting to like this less and less;
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/04/25/warhammer-40000-unit-profiles/

Also as a commenter on facebook pointed out, Tactical Dreadnought Armour has a better armour save than actual Dreadnoughts. Which seems weird to me.

Giving all vehicles toughness and wounds completely eliminates any reason to outflank, they're now equally tough/squishy all over.

I might test it, but I'll probably end up sticking with 6th edition.

I'm guessing the idea is that Dreadnought defense comes from high Toughness and number of wounds. Also, if they give it a 2+, then they have nowhere to go for Contemptor/Ironclad dreads.

[Irisado]

I'm confused about the situation regarding the rules.  It's my understanding that, like Age of Sigmar, the core rules are free, and it's only if, like Age of Sigmar, players want all the narrative elements or certain expansions, paid rules are going to be needed.  Has it been explicitly clarified anywhere?  I've only seen GW say that the rules will be free.

I think that the new edition is looking a lot better than the awful seventh edition which made me give up playing the game.  I like the streamlining and simplification, but I do have concerns about the weapon profiles and excessive dice rolling and random damage rolls.  Is it really going to be necessary to roll damage dice for every specialist weapon and heavy weapon to see how much damage it's going to do?  I hope not.  Also, random hits were disposed of years ago when they ditched the concept for the Eldar Scatter Laser.  I do not understand why they want to bring that concept back with Flamers.

[Osiris]

June 3, preorder.

Releases June 17, 2017

[Cammerz]

I must say I am loving the models in the Dark Imperium set. Whilst I may not agree with the fluff behind Primaris Astartes, I like these True-scale marines (except perhaps the Interceptors, they're a bit weird).

And those Death Guard look beautiful. I'm not so sure about the Poxwalkers but at least they seem happy which followers fo Grandfather Nurgle should be. Has the Lord of Contagion borrowed that axe design from the orks though?

Pics here for those who haven't seen them: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/05/23/warhammer-40000-launch-date-announced-may22gw-homepage-post-1/