10th Edition was officially announced at Adepticon yesterday, and though there’s a nice War-Com article going over it as well as the live stream, the stream had a bunch of little tidbits that the article misses. For those of you not wanting to watch a whole stream, this article is for you.
- Tenth Edition is a move towards streamlining the game. The phrase of choice is “Simpler – not simple”.
This will be accomplished by reducing the number of Stratagems/Traits/Relics and baking more things into datasheets.
Big emphasis on retaining depth while speeding up gameplay. - Tenth will launch with an index for each faction, as well as data cards (not sheets) for each model/unit in the game. These will include forgeworld models and be released for free in digital format.
- Each faction or subfaction will have a single page for their core rules, which includes six stratagems, some relics and warlord traits, and the “chapter” rules.
Sub factions will replace these entirely with a page of their own strats, relics and traits, and chapter rules.
Many 9th edition stratagems have been moved to datasheets, giving individual units more rules. - Many, many models will include rules that trigger or activate during your opponents turn.
- The Morale phase is being moved to the command phase at the beginning of the turn and is now called “Battleshock”. Morale no longer removes models, but instead changes the effectiveness of the unit as the game goes on and they lose models.
- The Psychic Phase is gone, and spells are being moved to data sheet abilities. Smite has been referred to as a ranged attack on a psykers datacard, retaining many of the same kinds of psychic rules on spells like mortal wounds, perils etc. Some psykers will be very unlikely to miss or fail (Magnus) whereas others will have a hard time casting their abilities.
- More core stratagems to counterbalance less faction/subfaction specific stratagems. Stratagems in general will be “more impactful” and we will also have access to less command points so using the stratagems effectively will be more important.
- All index rules and core rules will be free on day 1, including a brand new app/list builder. Physical options will be available for purchase as well if desired. Future Codex entries will likely be paid as they replace the indices throughout 10th.
- List building is simplified. No detachments, just pick a warlord and then up to 3 of any particular data card (or up to 6 for troops and transport models).
- List building will be much more synergistic and combined arms. Specific example – Space Marine Captain has a very powerful buff ability, but it only works on one unit at a time and can’t be active in more than one place, so spamming Captains won’t do much for you. Increased variety in datasheets by, again, returning many stratagem abilities to the base rules of the models.
Example Data Card:
- New Stat – “OC”: Means Objective Count. Each unit has a number here, and it indicates the amount of “value” each model in the unit has for controlling objectives. Objective Secured will be going away.
- Leadership “8+” – no idea what the + means.
- Weapons have their own range, Strength, Number of attacks/shots, and WS/BS built into them. Keywords such as “pistol” or “twin linked” or “assault” are attached to the weapon, not part of the attacks stat. No more baseline Strength, WS, BS, or Attacks characteristic.
- Abilities section – can list core faction abilities (Synapse) or specific rules for models such as “Skulking Horrors”.
- Keywords are now separated, and Faction Keywords are clearly defined.
- Game Lethality is generally down. Less AP and higher toughness in general (note that the Termagant data card is relatively unchanged aside from lower AP on the gun).
- Some Vehicles can have toughness higher than 11.
- Weapons are being tuned to fulfill specific roles rather than just spamming the highest strength/AP possible. Weapon Strength largely staying the same, and AP only going down if it changes at all.
- Boarding Actions will be getting 10th edition rules, and the books being released for them right now are designed to be 10th compatible.
- Combat Patrol boxes are getting slightly simpler rules balanced against each other and will be their own game format – great for on boarding new players or getting into a new faction.
- Crusade rules will be centered around the 4th Tyrannic War – Tyrannids from the “west” edge of the Galaxy.
As more information becomes available, we’ll post more updates!