Well that was pretty much as expected. Adepticon dropped the Lion and the new 10th edition as most people expected so it is save to say there were no shocks in this one; though there were a few surprises. I have just finished watching a re-run (seriously annoys me that GW focused the reveal in the US rather than the UK where they are based but the US wargaming scene is more profitable I guess.) and wanted to put my initial thoughts down.
The Lion
Not a surprise this one as the narrative desperately needed another loyalist Primarch and the Dark Angels have a big fan base. That includes me as i did once have a small Ravenwing army and plan to paint my heresy models as First Legion. This sculpt though was, in my view, the best Imperial one yet and I would go so far as to say he is a better rendition of the Lion than the Forge World model! I will be buying this one when I can, though won’t be playing FOMO games. I particularly like the aged and worn look and that bareheaded hood head option is perfect in my view. Big sword, big shield and a worn, grizzled look. It kind of reminds me or Mark Hamill in Knighfall if I am honest and even though I have no intention of collecting a 40k DA force I will be getting this one.
Oh and GW better release that Lion against Angron art or I will be most displeased because that is absolutely outstanding irrespective of your views on the game.
10th Edition
I wrote earlier this week why I felt it was the wrong time for tenth and my gut still feels that way but, and I stress it is a provisional but, there were some things in that reveal which would change my mind.
The free core rules and datasheets being available for all on day one. The mechanics of this are unclear but if this is the case and that basically the codicies will be for fluff, more advanced competitive gaming or bigger scale gaming then this would be a seismic change in the game. It would make it accessible and allow updates and FAQ releases to be done quickly and would mitigate power creep. There is a lot which was not said of course i.e. codex and I am not sure I can see GW just throwing away the idea of an essential £30 book to play the game (and I have already seen a lot of complaints from those who have just had their codexes drop in 9th which is fair) so I will reserve judgement on this until more is known but even if it is just during the transitional period this is to be welcomed.
Finally, GW have seen the light and realised that not every player is a min/max meta chaser so you do not need a legal documents worth of rules. The slimmed down data cards with the new layout do look similar to those in Imperium magazine and coupled with the stratagem reduction this suggests a shift back to casual and smaller scale games rather than the horrid focus on competition which has, in my view, broken 9th. I have already seen plenty of complaints from people on the ‘six strats’ approach. When I see the words ‘thematic, fluff and themed’ from players what I tend to find they mean is ‘my army which plays every advantage to mean I win.’ If this new streamlining forces people to actually play 40k like a wargame rather than just stacking strats like top trumps. I have said many times before that playing a game where your opponent is winning due to stratagems or rules holes is not fun at all. Much remains to be seen here but so far it is promising.
I tend not to read too much into GW reveals in terms of the lore so will reserve proper judgment until I have the rulebook and also some games. We do hear the accessibility line a lot but this time it does seem that GW are actually making an effort in that direction and they deserve credit for that.
As for whether 10th will be a better and balanced edition? Guess we wait and see.
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