Changes Coming To Warhammer 40,000 Rules + New Death Guard!
March 23, 2017 by brennon
Games Workshop dropped some new information on what lies ahead for Warhammer 40,000 as we see a New Edition on the horizon. This more straight talking side of them is really great to see, especially with funny (if cringe-worthy) videos from them are going to keep coming (see above!)
Yes, it seems like the times are a-changing for Warhammer 40,000. But, what's new (or revamped)?
- Three Ways To Play - Taking a note from the Generals Handbook for Age Of Sigmar you will have three ways to play including Open, Matched and Narrative.
- Army Selection - The way you design armies is changing to reflect their 'real world' counterparts. Command Points will be used to benefit those who theme lists.
- Movement - Movement values are returning and cool bespoke rules alongside it.
- Shooting - Armour Save Modifiers! Weapons are being redesigned to make them feel more like the way you imagine they work in combat.
- Combat - They are reworking the combat works to make it so charging has a benefit and feels more fluid.
- Morale - Implementing a rule from Age Of Sigmar once again your Leadership will govern just how many extra units you might end up losing in combat after a round of fighting.
This all sounds rather good and would shake things up. This is of course just scratching the surface of what lies ahead for Warhammer 40,000 but it provides us with a good marker as to where things are going.
The Death Guard Return
Additionally, the Death Guard were also revealed with their new look Plague Marines and more. They have a wonderful look to them, and are fantastic for hobbyists who like experimenting on their miniatures.
Here are a few of the screenshots from the video above...
So, if the world of Warhammer 40,000 interested you and you were on the edge about diving in this could well be the big push you needed to dive in. We'll be keeping an eye on how things are progressing concerning the rules but if you spot anything, let us know!
What do you think about the proposed changes so far?
"Taking a note from the Generals Handbook for Age Of Sigmar you will have three ways to play including Open, Matched and Narrative..."
The new DS rule almost gave me a heart attack! On the outside I was laughing but I was crying on the inside.
I like new GW, they have fun 🙂 …. back when I started GW had fun 🙂 …… then someone killed the fun 🙁 ………. It was bad 🙁 ………. really bad 🙁 but now the Sun is slowly rising again 😀 That being said I love the new deathguard models….. 40K is a funny one for me. I love the background and the history, but have never really got into the game (except in the Rouge trader years…. when it was fun 🙂 …. and I had an army 🙂 ……… which doesn’t exist anymore >:-( )
Absolutely nailed it, this I my story as well. I still have my rogue trader stuff though, just not the land raider or the dreadnought.
that’s the spirit GW.
i too shall raise a glass to the rouge trader years, when realms of chaos was kingdom death monster.
What an emotional roller coaster!
Deathguard! Woohoo! I’ll be picking those rotters up for sure, they look great.
Been a while since I’ve played 40k, so maybe I’m unaware about how moral is these days, but I don’t like the sound of the Ld changes; I prefer seeing things fleeing rather than just keeling over dead.
The advantage of keeling over death is that it speed up the game fleeing unit take time to move
Does it really bog the game down that much though? I suppose if you have an infantry heavy guard army and everything is fleeing it would, but otherwise I can’t imagine it’d soak all that much time up. At most it’d add a minute or two after each round of combat and in your own movement phase might speed the phase up over regular movement as you don’t have to deliberate over where to move them, they’d just keep heading towards a predefined point. Okay that’s still not as fast as keeling over, but surely it’s not that much longer?… Read more »
It doesn’t bog a game down much but by changing little things like that all over the game, while you won’t notice a huge difference in play, it means a game that used to last 4 hours may now last 3 which for me (and many others) means getting 2 games in a Friday evening instead of 1, or the ability to play a 3000 point game in the same time you currently take to play 2000 points, which makes sense from a sales perspective. This is all the same arguments as happened when AoS was released and I was… Read more »
Dunno about you, but I haven’t played since I think 3rd edition (I went off to uni and dropped out of wargaming) and since then model counts have gone way up. Which makes for denser tables, so less stuff to track and shuffle about should be positive, if less fluffy.
Hacked down as they turn to flee like cowards sounds more grim dark 😉
I love the change. It works nicely in AoS and will do just as nicely in 40K.
It can easily represent a few fighters running for the hills or losing their minds and hiding down a rabbit hole as much as it represents fighters being cut down as they run, yet it speeds the game up loads.
Like I said been awhile since I last played so maybe fleeing bogs down the game loads more than I remember. To be honest, there’s probably an element of it being an abstraction I can’t get my head around. For something like Warmaster I can make that mental leap because each base represents an abstract group of warriors, but for 40k as each mini is one guy (at least it is in my mind), it’s an abstraction that doesn’t click for me. All that being said, my primary army is Thousand Sons who are Fearless, so maybe it’s something I… Read more »
I agree. It cuts out the need for all those messy rules about how to flee and rally. I quite like that the result is less “all or nothing” as failing a big leadership test against the odds is always annoying.
I guess the rule could seem a bit odd if you imagine it represents some troops literally dying from fear. Better to think of it as the troops being removed from play because a few of them have lost their nerve and slunk off, or are no longer capable of fighting effectively.
It’s just as realistic as models taking space fleeing the tabletop- once a route starts, it’s almost impossible to stop it, so they’re dead for all practical purpose of contributing to battle. Rallying a broken unit is not as easy as going “you there, stop running” that so many games use.
Never said it was more realistic, there’s a reason I talked about it as an abstraction ;). Everything in a game is an abstraction to one degree or another, and for me personally the keeling over abstraction doesn’t click at this scale. At different scales it works, just not at this one for me.
The Bravery tests in AoS kinda represent some troops losing their nerve and running off/giving up/being overwhelmed per combat round while others choose to fight on.
Duncan is becoming the face of the new friendly GW, love the new deep strike rule
lol … yeah, it’s totally realistic now.
I’m sure space marines consider those drop pods to be scap metal after each use anyway.
Plus now GW gets to sell even more of them as players destr-*eh* use them in battle.
Deathguard – Yay
Mutants = OMAFG YES! Take all of my money!
Armour save modifiers returning is awesome. All or nothing save has been daft since 3rd ed.
Movement values returning is cool. Saves having to remember how far stuff moves (how far do I move a jump infantry unit again?) where I can just look at the stat line of the model.
Main thing that isn’t mentioned above is formations. Hopefully they will cost an appropriate amount of points and not be completely broken like most are now (I’m talking to you Decurion / War Convocation etc.)
All in all, super excited for 8th Ed.
Nurgle and Tzeench get all the love when are we getting something for Khorne? He never gets anything.
(Please read in a whiney voice)
(The views in expessed in the above post, are just the poster being a sh!t stirring @r$e, They have no basis in fact or actual belief)
Kharn The Betrayer got his own book not long ago during the build up to the Gathering Storm and the current plot line chap 🙂
Khorne has gotten a tonne of love in AoS.
That said, Khorne berserkers could absolutely do with an update, but that’s about it (beyond a general Chaos Marine release).
I guess if / when Angron gets released (it now only seems a matter of time), you’ll probably see a bunch of stuff for the skull throne.
Outside of Slaneesh (I suspect that GW are trying to figure out what to do with the faction), I would go so far as to say that the other 3 Chaos powers are very well catered for.
More Khorne or superhumans in gold armour would be my choice 😛
Absolutely mate … you read my mind 😉
Hahaha! Amen brother. GW hates Khorne!
Cool that death guard are getting some love, shame its just looks like slapping bolters on putrid blight knights, Really wouldnt be surprised if the rumored super marines turn out to be sigmarine marines
That’s what I though as well ( I assembled the Blight Kings for Hammerhal and a week later they turn up in 40k)
You say shame, I say awesome. Been thinking of converting Blightkings to make Plague Marines since they were released. Now I don’t have to.
I’m a follower of Tzeentch, but those Death Guard are gorgeous. Damnit, my poor poor wallet. I guess my children can go without food for a while.
These models look great and I love the direction GW is headed in 😉
Ooh new death guard! Was that Mortarion’s scythe there as well? I sense an expensive month coming up!
I wouldn’t worry about the DS rule, once they play with it a bit more they’ll realize that mechanic is much more suited to AoE attacks. Followed by a rapid FAQ banning the use of ball bearings and other shrapnel in your “templates”. +1 for a less corporate and more friendly GW, they’re not my mainstay these days but when I was a kid they were a huge part of my downtime so this is great to see 🙂
I’m firmly sat on the fence with this one. I’ve played very edition of 40k since 2nd Ed so I won’t dismiss it until I’ve played it. However, I’m not a fan of the AoS ruleset, and the suggested new Morale rules doesn’t enthral me at all.
I really like the new deep strike rules, I used those rules a lot with Lego when I was a kid.
And who can forget the infamous LEGO minefields ?
They are super effective …
😉
I do not play 40K. Have not for over 10 years, so i cannot really like or dislike the changes. They are not enough to bring me back by a large margin. What I do like is that they seem to be listening to the changes people are requesting and that is a great direction.
Same here. I’ll never (strong word, I know but it would take a miracle!) go back to 40K, but changes that are designed to make games better rather than just sell models can only be a good thing.
Agreed, they seem to be trying to make meaningful changes, but I have no idea if it goes far enough. I am very curious to find out if the scale of the game is changing along with this stuff or if they are just trying to compete with Warpath for the ‘fill a table with big models’ market.
GW pretty much are the market leaders of ‘fill the table with big models’. I went to Warhammer World last month and damn you never really appreciate the scale of some of the models till you’re right next to them.
Nothing on breaking up igougo is a bit disapointing tbh .. but who knows, perhaps they put in some actually useful reaction rules instead. Also i wish the system with phases to go the way of the dodo.
what a set of brilliant rules! well done GW i like what you doing ! you may win space in my heart again!
– ‘We have a thirty year old set of rules that we tweak every few years and are really in need of a fresh start. Any thoughts?’
– ‘I’ve got it, let’s tweak the rules.’
– ‘Genius’
Based on some reactions though its probably best to go slow on this :p
Lol.
So…. what you’re saying is that my power armored psychopathic killing machines fall over dead when they get scurd? That sounds…. thematic.
I don’t think it’ll be quite like that. They are not really falling down dead, they are removed from play because a few of them are choosing to retreat and so are no longer effective for this battle. And space marines no doubt would have a high leadership (or bravery as in AoS) and probably special rules to make them more resilient – so losing a few models would be unlikely to make them fail the test, but maybe having a bloodthirster land amongst them and lay waste might. I think it’ll be fine.
The scythe at the end – gotta be Mortarion as the next primarch we see in 40k
Yep, reckon so. The meaningful way the camera lingered on the scythe has to mean it belongs to someone of primarch-level significance.
All the changes look great! maybe I will be playing 40k or Age of the Emperor or “insert new name” again once the new rules appear
Probably be something like Warhammer 40k: The Crusades Era.
I’d like to see if in the new rulests i can use big monstah from my tyranids collections! Fuck i don’t want to be shooty i want to be omnommy!!!!
That’s not a plastic thunderhawk that’s a cardboard box! You can’t trick me 😛