Yes, coming a mere 2 years after 6th Edition, we're being treated to ... 7th Edition! How awesome is that! What other game company can provide its customers with the opportunity for an edition upgrade after a mere two short years? Nobody! With 6th's big bulletproof rulebook priced at a low low $75 I'm sure we'll be treated to a pricing upgrade as well!
It's an odd move. The previous three editions came nice and steady every four years. Now suddenly they're changing that, and it's not the predicted-by-some light refresh of 6th edition with a new printing of the rulebook. Nope, there are multiple and significant rule changes and a new starter set, supposedly Blood Angels and Orks. Known rule changes include:
- A new Psychic Phase, pushing the turn sequence back to the 4 phases we had in 2nd Edition. This might solve a lot of annoyances with the psyker stuff so I am OK with making a change here
- A revised ally chart. Anything that makes Battle Brothers less awesome is fine by me. For the dark, paranoid universe they keep pushing it's amazing how many different xenophobes and religious fanatics get along so well in a combat situation.
- Force Org changes, well, making it one of two options instead of the only option. I'd almost rather see some alternative structures for the force org (raiding force, defensive force, etc) or some scenario-specific options than a completely free-form option but I suppose this is the ultimate trickling-down of Apocalypse's "take whatever you have" philosophy. This has probably caused the most uproar on the net - see this for examples - but I'm willing to wait and see the details before proclaiming the end times.
- New scenarios and victory conditions - there are a lot of ways to do this and I think it has the most potential to change up the game in interesting ways. Cards with specific victory conditions dealt out at random were a thing in 2nd Edition and they were fun back then. If we end up wit ha mix of open conditions (like kill points or objectives) and secret conditions (assassinate the enemy leader, hold a particular building, get units off of a particular board edge) it would liven things up considerably. I am looking forward to this part quite a bit.
If you're concerned about the source of this information, well, it's White Dwarf! See here for pics of the article. There are two images, so be sure to read the second page for the details.
As for the starter set I am perfectly fine with Blood Angels and Orks. I've had an Ork army since second edition and I started putting together a space vampires army last year, so this will give me an excuse to get some work done on both of those in the near future.
Anyway, this probably takes the prize for largest disturbance in the gaming Force for this month. I'm sure there will be more. It's going to be an interesting year.
3 comments:
I have already passed on the most recent WHFB rulebook, which I was hoping would be the next major release for GW. A new 40K book while loads of starter boxes still sit on shelves is boggling to me.
I have been following this -- and I would have bought the set if it was the rumoured Eldar versus Guard box -- and I've been baffled by the uproar over the force organisation chart. Perhaps it's because I last played the game back in the second edition days but percentage based army lists don't seem like a sign of the End Times to me.
It's a strange turn to be sure. There were rumbles about this back in December and I blew them off as "that's not how this works" but apparently it does this time.
The Force Org chart has been the standard way to organize your army for 16 years now, and though allies and detachments have altered it a bit, it's still the core. having an option to ignore it built into the rules is a pretty big change and opens up things like the all-Riptide army and some pretty abusive stuff if it's truly "no limits". I am curious how it will all work, so I'm not wailing and gnashing my teeth just yet.
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