"Simplified not simple" was a tag line for the 10th Edition of Warhammer 40k
10th started out looking to be a good game with good ideas about characters joining units as leaders, data cards for the units rules that are easy to have at the table and simplification of common rules so they are the same whatever army. But they messed with some things that, at the moment, I don't like and it's the death of a thousand cuts. The Little bad things that I just don't like the look of the gameplay and general army components that add up to make me not like the edition.
Here's the good
Leaders.
It's nice to have characters attached to units and their skills adding to that units power.
Command Point management
Having a smaller number of command points and starts to use them on makes use of them feel more strategic.
Data cards
Putting the unit rules in one place where they can go around the table is a good thing for ease of play
Here's the Bad
1. They removed options from units. This is an odd one but I will try to explain. In the most recent versions of 40k a unit could have any number of models between it's max and it's min. With the new broom they decided to simplify this and let you either take the min or increments the same size as the pack you buy. Good for new players but I've been collecting and converting for decades. I don't have the "standard" number of models for my units meaning I have to pay full price for smaller number of models.
2. They turned terrain into a simple plus one cover
Terrain is very much part of the narrative driven game play. If all it is is a bonus to a saving throw a lot of its value drops. You ay as well play with blocks of wood for line of sight blocking and cover cause there is little point making a dense jungle surrounding a bunker with swamps on one side because other than for visuals it does nothing to the game.
3. They removed the pyshic phase.
In two minds about this as it's now a weapon you can use along with the armaments but it kind of takes away that special thing and it removes choice.
Certain psykers can do certain powers.
How dull.
4. Tau drones becoming war gear.
I put together some of these and it takes time, effort and thought into what mix you want on your units. Now they are just markers. So what's the point.
5. Rule wording is lengthy.
This was a problem in 9th but it explained it in the same sentence. Problem usually occurred with overlapping rules in different places in different books. Now it's all like that. Not a fan.
6. They discarded codexes that were at max 3 years old and some were less than 4 months! I feel I have been had and wasted my money on 9th rules.
7. The removal of different weapon profiles
I like options! That why I collect more than one of a unit. For example my 3rd company has 2 units of intercessors. One with auto bolt rifles for close encounters and normal rifles for holding the back field. Now I have 20 bods with the same and they are both heavy and assault but look different.
Also combi weapons. What was hard why did that need to go into a mess of wordy rules. It's a kick in the teeth to all the conversions of melta and plasma that did different things and I had to choose or magnitude but it was obvious what was going on. Now my combi-plas is the same as my combi meltas and worse than both because it's not tailored to a job.
Lightning claws can now only be taken in pairs. Why? Otherwise they are not twin linked and that's complicated if you give them the old rule of re roll wounds. Nevermind the couple of space wolves I took a single claw on cos it looked cool and did something
And finally the WTF.
It's a Money grab.
To compare the wargame Infinity has a great digital rule system. A new player can download the whole rule set. Navigate to a free webapp to build their force which is then printable with all the stats and abilities listed so no digging through data sheets and Codexes on A4!
GW tried to go digital with their app. It's free with limited functionality. You have to pay to get access to the army builder and see the rules and you could see it coming from 9th model. When the Codexes release the rules get pay walled. Leaving players to have to fork out while already paying a monthly sub.
I get it. As the dominant market player you can charge what you want. But that doesn't mean I have to buy. Especially as I can make a spreadsheet that works just as well.
The datacards that were released as free indexes at the start of 10th as free digital or paid physical looked a good sign. Right up until you found the physical cards had misprints or GW changed rules making the obselete within weeks of purchase. If you bought Space Marines or Trynids they replaced your cards with new ones to go with their Codexes. Get your wallet out again player.
The free indexes disappeared from the website forcing you back to physical media for your cards or the sub for the app.
This isn't so bad for the player with one army or starting out just after their codex is released. One army's worth of rules isn't that large compared to the models. But it's bad for consumers generally cheeses off people new to the hobby who got the indexes and thought this was how it works. People with multiple armies (like me) are looking at a 4 figure bill to keep our 10+ armies relevant.
I'm not buying new rules until they show a change. If you are going to insist on physical media make sure that physical media isn't going to change.
Other army builders exist and for free. It's being done just as another revenue stream. I will fall back on my 9th ed resources I've paid for.
I suspect 10th was rolled out according to an accounting schedule rather than from a need of the game tself. Some have said it was needed from a rules bloat point of view but 10th seems just as bloated and contradictory and it's just 3 months old.
House rules for 9th ed games in the 10th crazy.
The bits I like of 10th I will add to 9th.
Leaders can join units. Any character can join any unit. Auras are still their rules but keywords add up with common sense.
-As per 8th rules. Space marines can pick when they change doctrines downwards. Devastator to Tactical to assault. 9th rules apply. Think this is in the Dataslate for 9th.
-Multipliers stack but a 6 is always a hit a 1 is always a failure. Snipers are still cool when shooting through windows.
-Los is a thing. This one I might change but I think it really helps make things a war game.
It was while I was thinking about this I found myself understanding why they did the shoot the whole unit thing. It removes a lot of extra mechanics.
I might try this idea, that essentially your troops can only hit the models they can see. Therefore if half the unit gets behind a wall and can't be seen the enemy unit can only kill half the models in that unit but conversely it's those models that have to be taken away so if the Sarge and the special weapon are out front out, of cover they are going to get hit.
When shooting at a unit in different states of cover the attacker chooses how many shots it takes at each type. For example 10shots at a five man unit with three in cover and 2 out they might pop 5 shots at those in the open and 5 at those in cover. If the shots overkill their targets the wounds don't spill over.
So in the example photo the Reivers are shooting the fire dragons at 10 shots. The Exarch (no1) can't be seen so cannot be a target. No2 is in light cover (+1 to armour save) 3 is in the open and No 4 & 5 are behind dense cover (-1 to hit). The Reivers pump four shots at the one in the open and 6 at the ones behind dense. When rolling this out the guy in the open is killed and so is one of the dragons behind the dense cover.
Compared to normal rules the guy in cover takes the shots and shrugs all but one and the guys on the end of the conga line takes the damage.
This then causes issues with unit coherence which might mean extra models in a unit get lost through no fault of the player. This is unfair. Easiest way to deal with it is to ignore coherency until the players movement when they must return to coherency.
Terrain still has 9th rules with the addition of dangerous terrain. Unit rolls per model entering terrain area on a roll of 1 the unit takes 1 mortal wound.
