In the grim dark of the far future one bastion of journalism exists free from the jackboot of the Imperium, holding out against the inquisition and the forces of chaos is GameHype.
I’ve been wargaming for around 18 years now, I started way back in the world that was, playing Games Workshops Warhammer Fantasy Battles (brilliantly enshrined in Creative Assembly’s Total War Warhammer), it wasn’t long before I stumbled into the darkness of the 41st Millennium.
I started playing 40k what feels like forever ago in the days of 5th Ed, (still no new aspects, yes, apart from the Banshees) and for many editions my then called ‘Eldar’ fought and died to dices rolls and much fun was had. Then came the ‘End Times’ and with it a lot of Salt, and boy was I salty, so much so that for awhile I stopped rolling dice. (I’ve since started playing AoS, Warcry and Killteam) and that’s where I left 40k as well.
Now, well for one it’s the 42nd Millennium and the New 40k is here, that’s what its called, it may be following 8th Edition but it’s not 9th, it’s the NEW 40K and the fine folks at Games Workshop and the Warhammer Community team kindly sent us the upcoming Indomitus box.
So I’ve cracked open the box and damm, that’s a lot of sprue, 61 minis in total, Primaris Space Marines (including new attack bikes, shout out to those old school White Scar players) and a whole Tomb World of new Necrons.
The majority of the minis are really impressive, even more so when you get the plastic in your hands and can see the crazy amount of detail on them. I think the standouts pretty much all fall into the Necron side of the box, The Skorpekh destroyers are amazing, along with their new lord. From the imperium side of things the Judiciar is a pure beast of bad ass awesomeness. I could get into the rules of each model here and now but I won’t, mostly because I’m all about the lore.
Yep, I’m a fluff gamer, does it matter that a certain unit ‘isn’t worth it’s points’? Nope, I’ll take it because I like it or lore dictates that it should be on the battlefield. The fluff in the booklet for the boxed set called’ ‘The edge of silence’ sets the scene perfectly and the description of the Judiciar is awesome. They are basically the mute vengeance of their chapter, letting their actions on the battlefield speak for themselves.
As previously mention I’m all about the lore. I love the 40k universe and spend much of my free time there in one form or another, be that rolling dice across a table or having my face buried in a Black Library novel. It goes without saying that what had me the most excited in the Indomitus box was the new rule book and boy is this thing pretty.
The first near 200 pages of the book are all fluff, now the majority of this fluff is the usual stuff and will be familiar to the more experienced players however as always there’s just enough to keep you reading and advance the story of 40k (of course, it’s not as much of a narrative shift as the 8th edition book and it’s preceding events) as well as having many a little nugget of new lore that I’m always happy to find. Each race or more accurately faction gets it’s own section. The end of each section is a collection of photos of tabletops featuring said faction. I love these parts, not only do I love seeing the work of the ‘Eavy Metal team I find tabletop shots great for inspiring narrative opportunities within my own play.
After the fluff you get onto the rules section, now the core rules aren’t hugely different from 8th edition on the surface, there are some big changes to things like CP, for instance you know start with a set number depending on the size of the battle and taking certain detachments costs you varied amounts of Command Points.
The best thing about the new rule layout are the bullet points, for the majority of players these will be enough to get on and have a great game of the New 40k. However, we’ve all met those players who look for any weakness in the wording of a rule and seek to exploit it. Well, for theses players the bullet points are in fact a summary of the more verbose rules. The actual rule descriptions are much more in-depth and clearly seek to remove as much grey area as possible, much to the annoyance of those aforementioned gamers.
Another welcome change to the rules are the new unit coherence rules, meaning that units should now actually have to act if they trained for war as parts of well drilled squads as opposed to a collection of individuals that just happen to move around together. I almost forgot about tanks! They can now fire their weapons in CC, hello flamers, welcome back. (Yes, I like flamers, would you guess I have a Sisters army).
Being a veteran of many a table top over the years I’m somewhat stuck in tradition, and that tradition of point values. Games Workshop tend to present 3 options of play, Open, Narrative and Matched Play. Matched play is always my first point of call and I’m very excited to check out the new narrative play rules (even it is based around power). I’ll be honest, Open play never really registers with me, I understand that it could be fun to drop whatever you like on the table and go at it, but I enjoy besting an foe when I know that our forces are equal, or as equal as they can be. Chapter Approved 2020 drops the same day as Indomitus and I’ll be picking that up to.
As you’d expect each section of play contains all the special rules for it and a decent selection of missions for each one that will test all your abilities. Now, I’m sure you’ve heard about the 10 Victory Points for having painted your miniatures. My thoughts on this are pretty simple, if you hate it, don’t use it within your gaming group. I actually like it, it’s extra motivation for me to paint, my painting skills rise and fall based on how active I am in the hobby. Back when I worked for GW I’d paint all the time, in the years since my skills have rusted somewhat. This new rule is a nice push to shake of the rust and get some paint on the battlefield. Your hobby, your rules, there’s a reason this catchphrase is so often uttered by GW staff, the most important rule is to have fun. Gamers having fun is what keeps us in the hobby and that keeps us spending, so no matter your view, GW aren’t going to come storming into your local gaming club and flip the tables if you choose to ignore or change a rule to suit yourselves.
Over all the Indomitus box is a fantastic product, at the time of writing we know that it will be up for preorder on July 11th and we don’t yet know the asking price. From my hands on experience with the box I’d say if this box comes in around or under £180 you’d be crazy not to snap one of these limited stock beauties up. If you aren’t fussed by the models (What’s wrong with you?) than the book will be available alone as well and it’s stunning.
Check back here for some New 40k Battle Reports, as well as all sorts of TableTop fun.
