Why a new 40k edition could be a good thing

40K 6th edition has not even been with us two years and already we are seeing a new edition on the horizon. Many of us might feel cheated or angry at the situation, especially if you've recently elected to join the ranks of 40K gamers and shelled out £45 on the book or £62 on the Dark Vengeance boxed set, and that's totally understandable. But could this new edition actually be a good thing? Lets take a look...

40K is inherently an unbalanced game. That's fine and we all understand that. In fact, we kinda love the game for it. We like 40K because there are no rock, paper, scissor formulas and having fun at all costs is the most important thing right? Well, almost. You see, though the codices are balanced as much as possible, it's how they interact through the rule book that really affects how the game is played and the fun we can have. And that, I think, is the key here.

The codices being released of late are fantastic (lets not include codex expansions here). They are full of great rules, character and some form of balance. The rulebook seems to be letting them down though.... quite a bit. An example? How about my gigantic Wraithknight gaining a cover save because his foot is in area terrain and 99% of his body is in the open? Or my elite CC infantry being mown down by overwatch fire by the very squads they were designed to kill. What about the ridiculous fashion by which wounds can be allocated beyond their maximum range? These are all current rules that need to be used to ensure the game stays as balanced as possible as that is how it was intended to be played and that is the ruleset that the codices were designed around. It can however leave an unsavoury taste in your mouth if you're on the receiving end of something that “just doesn't seem right”. Surely there are more elegant solutions to these problems..... Oh wait, is that a 40K 6.5 edition I can see?

The new edition will not be an overhaul of the rules. It may be released as a 7^th to peak interest and boost sales but it will undoubtedly be a 6.5. This is a good thing. We'll see tweaks to rules to iron out discrepancies, we'll see a few changes to close combat, cover saves and flyers, the FAQ's will be updated in the book and we should have a cleaner, meaner, more fun 40K.

After chatting with CBC and Praetor, the one thing that we are dreading slightly is the almost inevitable inclusion of super heavies into standard games. GW had a terrible last quarter last year and it looks like they are trying everything to boost sales. You could look at this latest 40k release as an attempt to do just that, though I think it would have happened anyway, just a bit closer to Christmas. The more obvious way they are seemingly trying to do this is to include superheavies and introducing new, expensive, plastic kits. I can see no other reason for introducing a codex full of superheavy choices that can be allied with all but one 40K race. Can you? Only time will tell if they make the decision and if they do, how that effects the game.

So on the plus side, we are hopefully getting a more fun 40K without a huge rule overhaul and some minor tweaks. What about the cost? Well, it's likely that it's going to retail at more than the current rulebook as it will probably include Escalation and Apocalypse rules and that will be their justification for the price. Should we be happy about that? Well, if GW continue the downward trend in revenue then we could see drastic changes to the game and world we love. I think it needs to be a two way street though. There are plenty of gamers out there that want to support GW. Their products are part of many generations of childhood memories and those gamers are still playing these games into their 40's and 50's despite the other offerings out there. One can only hope that GW respond in kind and start to put more back into the community that put them where they are today.