40K: The First Seven Months of 8th Edition

It's been a glorious first half-year for 40K. The rules work well, the support from GW has been fantastic, and it's just been a whole lot of fun. Our first fight with the new rules was just over 7 months ago and we've had quite a few since then. With the codexes coming fast there's been new lessons to learn every month and with the FAQ's following right along there have been curbs to the worst abuses in short order. There have also been new ways to play with the Open War card deck and new missions in Chapter Approved. It's the most amazing, active, alive six months of 40K gaming I can remember - and I remember a lot!

I've mostly played my Iron Warriors with a few games of World Eaters, Dark Eldar, one game of Ravenwing and one with Khorne Daemons. I've mostly played against Space Wolves, Necrons, Eldar, and Tyranids. I've won some and lost some but I've enjoyed the games regardless and that's kind of the point. Playing more and enjoying more also drives army building. I've added a lot to my armies over the past few months and even managed to get some significant painting done as well. I've spent the past two weeks reorganizing my workspace so that I can be more organized and hopefully get more out of those chances to sit down, build, and paint.

There are more codexes coming out as GW maintains their furious pace into 2018. The new Daemons codex will have a big impact on one of my armies this week and I can't wait to try it out with the new rules. The big revelation from the codexes has been stratagems: they have had a huge impact. "Here's something cool you can do with your army" is a great way to reinforce the flavor of a particular faction and they give each one some tricks that are worth exploring and learning beyond just units and point costs.

My plans and hopes for the first part of the year are to finish up the chaos stuff while getting in some more games with them and then spend some time building out my various marine armies into a force I like for 8th. There's a rumor that the Ork codex will be out this summer and I'd be happy to spend the second half of the year building and playing them.