Let me begin by saying if you want a beer and pretzels game 40K is just fine. But as a tournament rule set they have proven what they have always said that they do not design 40K to be a competitive game. The most interesting thing about 7th edition to me now is will the tournament organizers be able to save 40K in spite of GW by building mass restrictions into the game in a consistent and even handed way. My bet is not. I believe that Hawk Wargames is celebrating this weekend as this is the beginning of the end for 40K. Just like Fantasy we had one rule set with some serious flaws come out followed by another rule set that completely set the game on a non competitive level.

Anyway, enough ranting here are the flaws I see in a competitive game of 40K:
1. No limit to detachments..... almost as stupid as unbound.
2. Invisibility...... This is stupid as psychic heavy armies will be able to stack the 2++ rerollable behind invisibility...
3. Did not fix the 2++ rerollable. I mean how hard is this. Read the forums, watch a couple of tournament results. Take a little bit of time and care in your game and you can fix this. It is the fact that 7th ed came out and this is still not fixed that pushes me away from the game. If they couldn't be bothered to fix this then they obviously just do not care.
4. Psychic powerhouses - The psychic phase in 40K just became as game breaking as the magic phase in fantasy. It just takes longer. 40K just became a game of the haves and have nots. You can either bring 10+ psycher levels to the field to begin with or you will loose.
5. Deamonic powers are stupid good - Especially for deamon players who have multi wound casters and units that can throw dice at powers. Just like in fantasy you mitigate the perils and then just keep casting.
6. Destroyed the tie between the fluff and the game. I was pissed off enough when the 6th ed allies chart made no sense. But to throw it out completely. And don't get me started on certian forces being able to summon deamons. I go back to its like they don't even care.
7. New edition, $80, 6th edition with more stuff broke. So I get the pleasure of paying for a rule set that the only major change is the one thing they break even more.

So I am done. I am not even going to try. It's not worth it. It is obvious they do not care about a competitively balanced game so I am going to move on. Warma-Hordes is solid, Dropzone looks very promising, those infinity guys keep showing up. GW is no longer the only game in town. My prediction is that 40K will go the way of Fantasy. 100 man tournaments will become 50 man, 50 will become 20 and the tournements will disappear in 2-3 years. GW seems to think that this is fine. I have a suspicion it will not be. I have always believed that one of the reasons 40K was so successful is that there was a core group of players that were always playing the game in the store as people wandered in. Many of these players are competitively minded like me and so we formed a nucleus that when people walked into a store they could see this game being played and the cool armies. My gut is that this edition changes that. We will find another game to play and when those new players come into a game store they will see us playing a different game with cool armies instead. I have a massive investment into 40k so I hope I am wrong. I hope some group of TO's come together and fix 40K in spite of GW. But as 7th ed shows, GW does not only not want to service this market they are actively working to make the game more noncompetitive.

Oh and if any of you GW people actually read this (which I doubt as 7th ed shows you don't care) I am a share holder and I will be selling my stock. I held on to yhe shares after your latest set of financial results thinking you might bounce back in a big way. It is clear you will not. Maybe enough of us will sell that the stock price will get low enough someone new can buy you out and fire you all.