This week, well, this week I've been having some difficulty with finishing a model to write a post about. Life and stuff have been getting in the way, but I have been spending time on 40k forums on Facebook, and, well, there's nothing like a good rant, is there?
So this week's post is going to be about people making unsubstantiated claims, crying because things might be changing, even though there is no evidence anything has been said.
So the last few weeks we have people all over the place saying "8th edition Warhammer 40k is coming!" "8th edition 40k will be a complete rewrite like Age Of Sigmar was for Warhammer Fantasy Battles!" "It's the end times all over again, oh noes!" Every time I see these posts, for some reason I can't help but reply with 'can you prove it, is there evidence?' And invariably there isn't, or people misunderstand what it is I'm actually asking for. So just to clear this up I think I should quickly talk about what evidence is.
From a quick Google search:
Evidence noun
the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid.
So evidence is something that proves what you're saying in some way, something that draws on facts and information, not feelings and hunches.
What follows is a conversation I had on a post earlier this week, this conversation was started with someone asking if Slaanesh was going to be killed off in Warhammer 40k. This is a direct quote, any spelling or grammatical errors are the poster's own:
First reply to the question:
YES
So as usual I can't resist and ask:
Can you support this statement? Give evidence, rather than rumours please.
Reply to this:
they need to kill off slaanesh to further the 40k universe storyline, as simple as that, without slaanesh dying the eldar cannot truly progress fluff wise, they will always be held back by slaanesh's existence and from what weve seen so far, the eldar are on their way towards some form of grand alliance between all three races, this is not rumour this is what the story dictates to allow for the advancement of the eldar, and for the 40k story itself. you can argue im wrong but how else to the eldar evolve into something better instead of the same old fractured craftworlds and forces that bug the imperium
Ok so I can't see the proof that I asked for, no supporting evidence, just the poster's 'feeling'. The poster claims that the story 'needs' and 'dictates' this. I'm not claiming to know what is happening over in GW HQ. I do not claim to know all aspects of the fluff. I do, however, wonder if Games Workshop is really going to cut an entire army out of their range on the basis of one guy's interpretation of the fluff. Is this a sensible way to go, alienating a group of players? Look at the people who feel alienated after the Small Space Folk were written out (I'm not going to be responsible for a clock reset on that), and remember that was 27 years ago for the last 28mm model release.
Next up I'm going to talk a little about the possibility of an AoS-style change to Warhammer 40k. Firstly, the change to fluff would not need to be as extreme. The old WHFB world was just that: a single world, limited amounts of space, so once a place had been burnt and the earth salted, that area was no longer "usable"and the world began to run out of space (I've got to add, just like our tiny planet earth, resources become rarer and eventually run out). So the massive change into realms that are infinitely expandable was needed. 40k on the other hand has almost unlimited space, and GW can always wave their hands and go 'oh yeah there was totally a system there all the time but we didn't mention it because it wasn't important at the time...' They've done it before, folks, and they'll do it again.
The other change that came with the swap to AoS was the removal of points values, and the simplification of rules. On the rules front I can tell you the rules of WHFB had become a nightmare, I'd been playing WHFB on and off for 5 maybe 6 editions, the 8th edition rule set was massive. had become unnecessarily bloated, and my final biggest gripe: you couldn't play the fun units unless you played an army that cost a hell of a lot of points.
For example, in my case I played Lizardmen, so if I wanted to play a game where I brought along a Slann (one of the models that first drew me into playing Lizardmen) I would have to play a game of at least 1200 points (300 points for a barebones Slann with no equipment, no upgrades) due to the percentage rule in place (up to 25% on heroes and lords, minimum of 25% on core, up to 50% on special, and up to 25% on rare units). I used to play about 3000 points, allowing me to take a Slann and an Oldblood and give them some fun toys to play with, including the almost obligatory Dispel Scroll. A game of fantasy battles of that size would play on for anywhere up to 4 hours, sometimes more if playing against someone who was new to the rules.
Now comes the kicker, at 3000 points I would have to bring at least 25% of Core troops, this means at least 750 points, If I was to fill this requirement with Saurus (the Core choice that would eat up the most points) I would need to bring a minimum 69 Saurus, which in monetary value is £92 (£23 for 20.) The thing to remember at this point it was unusual to bring the bare minimum, as 'hordes' had become the thing to have so it was more likely that you would bring 100+ Saurus, bringing this to £115 minimum. So already we've priced out most people from the game, who has £115 in their back pocket for core choice, plus £15 for a Saurus character, then the £30 for the Slann? This isn't even taking into account that you've still not filled the 3000 points with all this, so the costs keep mounting.
Alternatively, I could walk into a Games Workshop and buy 2 Tactical Squads and a Captain (at a total cost of £68) and play a game, OK a small game, but you can still get all the toys, try things out and understand the game. A similar game of WHFB you would end up with little on the board, no fancy toys and no understanding of the core mechanics of gameplay!
I'm not claiming that the 40k ruleset is perfect, there is bloat there (the psychic phase in particular has become somewhat unwieldy) but the core mechanics of movement, shooting and fighting are fairly simplistic, there's no difficult parts to understand and it doesn't cost you 3 figures to have a simple game.
On the feared 'end of the universe' Warhammer TV has stated:
This post is the closest we have to any evidence for what is happening in the future of the 40k universe: no mention of a new rule set, no mention of changes into how the game is played/set up, no mention of destruction of armies, or gods. OK so Cadia is gone, there's still thousands of Cadians off planet, and many non-Cadian regiments are organised and equipped in the same way as Cadians, so no need to remove models from the shelves!
So please for the love of God/Gods/Random Chance please use your brains in this world of 'alternative facts', and mass panic, look for evidence and find proof of things before you nail your colours to the mast or your writings to a door. What you think/believe/wish will happen in 40k and what is going to happen are likely to be two very different beasts.
Many thanks for reading!
See you next time from the table of a Plastic Addict.
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