So a couple weeks back I laid out my prophetic vision regarding the future of Warhammer 40,000. In particular, I explained that I believed that it would soon be AoSed. I still do. More than ever, in fact, and perhaps even sooner than I had originally prophesied. I won't go over the same ground entirely again, but if you're interested, you can find it here [url]http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?57790-Time-to-Embrace-the-Horror[/url] That thread seemed to spark a lively conversation and I'd like to use this thread to follow-up on what I originally proposed -- namely fixing 7th edition 40k so that we can have something worth playing after GW blows it all up. So, in this thread, I'll offer one proposal to fix 7th. But before I do, I'd like to reiterate and expand upon my basic philosophy regarding this overall fixing of the game. Close your eyes, wiggle your fingers before your face and let me take you all the way back to two weeks ago...
When 7th edition 40k hit the scene, I'll be honest, I thought it was clearly the best edition of the game that has ever been -- and I've played them all. In fact, it felt like 3.5 edition D&D. Pretty much perfect. Oh, don't get me wrong. There were (and are) things I didn't like about it, but hey, nobody is gonna like everything in a game this complex and just because I didn't like something, doesn't mean someone else wouldn't like it. Anyway, it pretty much took 6th edition (which I liked) and fixed/cleaned up the things that weren't working. Fixed chariots, added tactical objectives and created cooler battles that I could still win even if the other guy's army was just "better" than mine, altered the psychic power rules to better reflect the background and not be so predictable (they should not be in my opinion) and plenty more. There were a few mechanic issues I wasn't totally happy with, yet could live with, but the really ominous stuff was the obvious melding of the game with Apocalypse by adding Super Heavies and Gigantic Creatures to the game. In retrospect, the inclusion of new formations/detachments should have been ominous too, but they snuck up on me.
Anyway, I thought it was good. And I still do. But of course, GW had decided to ruin this great framework by not just power-creep thru codexes as we'd all come to expect (in fact, this did not happen at all initially, and many of us began to believe they intended to roughly 'balance' them all at a more restrained power level for 8-10 months there), but by amping up the power levels wildly by way of detachments and formations that just give you crazy powerful bonuses or let you bring either 'free' units or multiple units that should not be allowed in multiples. But I digress, this was discussed thoroughly in the last thread. The point I'm trying to get at is that 7th edition itself was not bad or broken initially. In fact, it was better than ever. But the things they've dumped on it willy-nilly since its initial release have made it much worse. So, having said that, I'm not advocating that we build a new game from scratch. We should just return it to its original state, more or less, and then tweak a few things here and there. Then, maybe, tweak a few of the codexes we all know are broken (though this depends a bit on the 'current' codexes we have when GW blows it all up). However, I believe that most of the problems we have with current codexes go away, or at least become far more manageable, once we go back to the beginning, and perhaps implement a few tweaks to the core rules, in particular, the one I intend to offer in this thread.
So, what change do I think we should implement that would help fix 7th edition 40k? Well, there's several actually, but the one that I believe has the most impact and fixes the most is ... we remove all formations and specialized detachments except CAD and the Allied detachment. Ban them all. Everyone returns to CAD and just builds their army using this and the simple Allied detachment. Let it sink in. Almost all the stupid shenanigans and obvious 'we just really want you to buy a whole bunch more models and we don't give a damn what it does to game balance' ploys go away. No more Ad Mech get 500-600 free points of upgrades, no more space marines get 500-600 points of free transports, no more multiple super heavies/gigantic creatures, and blah blah blah. Let's face it, my initial instincts about this was right, all these formations/altered detachments have gotten us to play Apocalypse at 28mm scale without many of us really knowing we're doing it. Really, it's no wonder the game is not even close to balanced with all this, Apocalypse was never meant to be.
I'll be honest, this still allows a limited number of super heavies in a game, as the CAD allows one Lord of War, and I'm not a fan of that. I don't believe they belong in 40k at all, but as I said before, I don't have to like everything. I can deal with one Super Heavy, even with my lowly CSMs, as I managed before. I know that there are some out there that have a bunch of wraith knights or knights or whatever, and this might not sit well with them. But you know what? If you want to run them, call it an Apocalypse game, and run the full formations/detachments whatever. But don't pretend it's not Apocalypse, because it is. Personally, I think these games should be over 2,000 points and be labeled as such. Honestly, the way it is now, there is so much shoved into the game, layered on top of the game, and it's such a mess, it amazes me I didn't see it sooner. It's because we ARE playing Apocalypse and not 40k. GW totally pulled that one over on us, or at least me. I've been reflecting on all this since I originally posted a couple weeks ago, and it really makes sense. No wonder I couldn't see it as sustainable. And this is why many are having difficulties with the time limits at some of the big tournaments. When the point limit is 1,850, but you're really playing 2,400 points, it just takes straight up too long to play the game in that 2.5 hours any more.
Oh, and I know, I hear some of you thinking, "What about Harlequins or the couple other armies that don't have access to CAD?" Well, I think we address these exceptions separately on a case by case basis. I think these can be adjusted, fixed with little effort, but I think the principal is sound. Stick with CADs for all and most of the problems, particularly the recent ones, just go away.
So, what do you think? Am I crazy? Would it feel too 'old school' for you? Did YOU realize you were playing Apocalypse?