8th Edition: What We Know So Far

8th Edition has been announced and we are starting to see leaks and teases of what is to come.  I don't have time to write about each update as it comes out but I thought I'd write about what we know so far all together and what I think about it.

Standard Disclaimer: this is not news, I don't get any inside information or anything like that. It is just what I think about things that have already been released and reported on by everyone else already.  Also with new teases and information being released by GW every day at the moment, this may be out of date really fast.   If you want to keep up to date with news as it comes out of Games Workshop read Bell of Lost Souls, it's where I get most of my news from anyway.


We know a bit so far about how the game is going to be laid out and what the set up will be like so I am going to cover those first and then I will go through the rule changes we have seen after.  I am not going to cover fluff updates in this post, I might cover some points of it later but I'm sure other people will do a better job at covering that than I could.

Major Updates
Complete Rules Update

2nd Edition Rule Book

The main thing we know is that this isn't an update like the last few edition have been, this is a complete change.  I still remember the change between 2nd and 3rd editions which was the last time the rules were completely re-written.  The update seems to be taking the lead from Age of Sigmar which from what I can see is a good thing and if GW are being honest about listening to it's customers it could actually be a good edition and more balanced than we have seem in a long time, which was one of my major issues with the current game.  The core rules are apparently going to be free, which is a bonus.

3rd Edition Rule Book

This does mean that all old codices are no longer valid but the same thing happened when we moved from 2nd to 3rd and the basic army rules which were included in the back of the 3rd edition rule book for each army were fine until they got their own books.  GW have said this will be the same with 8th Edition and every army and model with have rules available on day one.

Losing the old Codex for each army does mean that hopefully everyone is balanced and they can carry that on going forward, no power creep with each new book that is released this time.  If GW pull it off and keep the game balanced it could easily be the best edition of 40K yet just for that.  Most other wargames on the market these days try hard to keep balance between factions and it would be nice to see Games Workshop listen to customer and finally follow their lead.

3 Ways to Play

Games Workshop have also said that this new edition will follow AoS and have 3 ways to play, Open, Narrative and Matched.  Open play will be "take whatever you like" and Narrative and Matched will both require players to fit into one of the 14 new force organisation charts.  I like this idea and it means that we do have more flexibility as players to not only choose our own play style but to mix it up for a different feel or to field some really odd forces.  I am also intrigued by Narrative play since I have never played AoS and do like the idea of playing through a story or campaign.

New Faction
There has also been talk of a new faction for 40K, while nothing has bee officially announced yet I have my theories, which may or may not turn out to be true.  With the return of Roboute Guilliman we have also heard he has refined the process used by the Emperor to made the original Space Marines to create his own SUPER Space Marines.  Combined with the Imperium being ripped in two by a warp storm I think maybe the Imperium could be dragged into some sort of civil war, with Guilliman trying to turn it into what the Emperor wanted before the Heresy and others trying to maintain what it has become since.  Guilliman has declared the Indomitus Crusade which I think would make a great catalyst for the civil war, if there is one.

Obviously this is just my theory, it could just be a new Xeno race or extra elite Space Marines but I'd like to think if GW want to advance the story they do something drastic that changes the balance of power in the galaxy without just killing off special characters (which I hate since it makes their models either useless or less thematic to play with).

New Warhammer 40K Galactic Map, now with added Warp

Rules Updates
New Stat Lines

8th Edition Stat Block

As part of the update we are getting new stat lines.  The first thing I noticed is that we are going back to each model having an individual movement value.  I think this is great since it means fast armies are fast again without needing extra special rules like Fleet to make them.  Removing the maximum value on stats has also meant that more special rules can be removed since powerful models can be represented better in their stat block and hopefully that will make the game more streamlined.

WS and BS are now a straight die role as well so there are less tables to consult to find out if you hit or not, if your WS is 3+ you hit on a 3+, simples.

Wounds are also going up on a lot of models so it means that keeping track of that could become harder but combined with higher max toughness it could mean rules like Feel No Pain aren't needed any more either.

New Weapon Profiles

8th Edition Weapons Profiles

Weapons are all getting a new profile as well with another blast from the past. AP no longer ignores any save it is lower than and instead is a modifier for the save.  If AP is -1 you have a negative modifier to your saving throw so Space Marines would need 4+ instead of 3+.  I always liked that in old edition and I'm glad to see it back.  I think it makes more thematic sense than an AP 4 weapon completely ignoring a Space Marine Scout's armour but a Space Marine in Power Armour getting his full save like it doesn't have an effect.

The next big change is no more templates.  As you can see the Flamer now has a range and does D6 attacks and hits automatically so you don't need to try and get as many people as possible under the template.  I think this is another good way to go to streamline the game and definitely stops one of the biggest arguments I see in games, the classic "he is under the template" "no he isn't completely", which is a good thing.  It should also speed things up since you don't need to make sure every model is 2" away from every other model at the end of each movement if you are going up against a lot of template weapons, you are just as likely to get hit standing next to each other as you are spread out.

To combat increased wounds you can also see that weapons now have a Damage value as well so more powerful weapons can do more wounds to a single model.  GW have said that it will be possible for everything in the game to hurt everything else, but with huge numbers of wounds now available the Damage value still means you need to use the right gun for the job.

Casualties are also now picked by the controlling player rather than just who is closest so you will get better value out of special weapons and don't have to worry about hiding them at the back of a unit to avoid getting killed early.  I am not sure how I feel about this, it does mean special weapons will last longer but it removes the tactical element of attacking from a direction that forced your opponent to remove high value models instead of standard troops.

We also now have Mortal Wounds the same as Age of Sigmar which ignore all saves (including Inv).

Vehicle Changes

Vehicles will no longer have AV and Hull Points, instead they will use the same profile as everything else.  This should make things simpler which is good.  It does mean that even basic weapons can now hurt heavy and super heavy vehicles but expect those to have a lot of wounds so they will still be better dealt with with Lascannons and Meltas which do multiple wounds of damage.

Another thing they have said which I like but think might undo the change they made to speed the game is that now instead of rolling on the vehicle damage chart will will see vehicles get less effective the more wounds they have taken.  I like the idea of a tank slowly stopping working bit by bit instead of being made useless with one lucky shot, but think that remembering what stops working at what wound threshold could get tricky.

Assault Changes

Initiative is no more, now whoever charges goes first in combat.  I'm not sure how I feel about this change, on the one hand it will be good for my Flesh Tearers army who have a large number of jump infantry with a large assault range so are more likely to be the ones charging.  On the other I am not sure how it will effect combats lasting more than one turn, if the charger always gets to go first even in later rounds that seems unfair (and hard to keep track of who charged who over the course of a game).

GW have also revealed that now units can break from combat  the same as how Space Marines used to, falling back in the movement phase and disengaging from combat.  To do so they will have to give up all other actions on their turn (no shooting or assaulting) but it could be good for shooting armies who can break off and allow friendly units to shoot their attackers instead of fighting them in close combat or to allow non-close combat units to retreat and an assault unit to move in and protect them while they make their escape.

Psychic Changes

There are positive changes to the Psychic phase as well now.  Instead of every Psyker adding to a pool for your whole army each can now cast as many powers as their mastery level.  This is good because it stops people using low level Psykers as a battery for more powerful ones and each becomes useful.

Test have changed as well, now each power has a casting value, stronger the power, higher the number. The player will roll 2D6 and if they beat the target number is succeeds.  This makes more powerful spells more of a risk since they might not go off and makes players choose between reliable spells and powerful ones.

Enemy Psykers can Deny the Witch as many times in a turn as their mastery level now as well and I assume Perils of Warp are still about, we don't know what form they will take yet but its a safe bet that double 1's are bad.

The generic schools of psychic powers are gone, which I am fine with, and are replaced by a unique selection of powers for each army although everyone gets Smite.  This isn't to much of a change since each army had it's own powers eventually in 7th edition once an updated Codex was released for them.

Command Points
Finally we have Command Points.  You get these depending on which of the 14 Force Organisation Charts you army fits into when playing Matched or Narrative play and grant you re-rolls during your turn or to affect enemy units trying to charge you, allowing you to attack first instead of them.  I like the addition since it means that your army organisation now has an effect on the battle not just the units you pick however I can see an issue if they are not balanced well with one Force Organisation being much more powerful than the others and that being the only one people bring.  Also I am bad at rolling dice so re-rolls are great for me.

Final Thoughts
There is more being revealed each day but so far 8th Edition looks to be a step in the right direction for me.  There are people being negative about it on the internet, but honestly if you don't like the changes, just carry on playing 7th Edition instead.

If they brought back Roboute Guilliman there is a Chance for Sanguinius...
...Right??