Goatboy here with the most important 5 rules changes new players and old players alike need to remember for Warhammer 40K’s new 11th Edition.
11th Edition isn’t completely reinventing the 40K wheel but there are some nice shifts into how we were used to the game by the end of 10th. I do expect some of these new rules to change in the future if things get a bit crazy but I don’t feel we’ll have nearly as many major rules swings as we had in 10th from the beginning of the game to the end of it. So let’s dive in what what a competitive player should expect:
5. Toe-In Terrain Lets You Unleash Bullet Hell
10th edition brought in a shooting balance aspect by making models be wholly within the terrain to be able to shoot through it. This helped balance the old 9th edition parking lot issues we had and brought some of the lethality down a bit. This new 11th edition bring backs the whole toe-in experience we used to have. You can think of it that every vehicle now has the Towering rule which allowed Knights to touch a terrain piece and shoot through it due to being too big to truly get inside the terrain. This is going to be a huge thing and will see players get shot up a lot more when their opponent drives up a vehicle, touch the big middle terrain/objective, and blast you to heck and back. We’ll see if this rule shifts in the future or will settle on some terrain layouts that help curtail this a bit more by shifting the middle piece into two smaller pieces.
4. Terrain Set Up Every Game
Right now we have layouts selected with missions so even organizers can set up a few games using the same layout to help limit time setting up your army. Now we have to set up the table each time we play as it can all be based on the mission “card” you have for your army detachment. I think this might become a pain in the butt but thankfully the middle piece is normally pretty static so we should be able to chain off of that and set up all the other areas quickly. It will still be a bit of a shock to go to each table and expect to shift areas around and rebuild the battlefield each game.
3. Wound Allocation is Weird – Until It’s Not
The whole idea of rolling all the saves per “weapon” interaction is going to take a bit getting used too. The idea here is that it is all fast rolling dice and you as the player gets to decide the buckets of saves and how they interact with your unit. You will roll all your saves per weapon interaction and then assign the dice rolls per group bucket if your unit has different groups in it. Let’s say you have 10 marines and a leader you would assign all the lower saves initially to your 10 marines and then assign you continue thru the save pile your better dice rolls end up going to your leader if they are the only one left. It will take a bit getting used too but it should make the game a bit faster. I expect that for most games the initial interaction with a unit and a character should have a character live and any further interaction sees the leader go down in a blaze of glory. It does do some funky things with Precision though – which will be a wild rule as you get to change how the unit bucks get assigned and thus all the bad rolls hit the character first.
2. Pretty Big Changes To Classic Stratagems
Overwatch is now at the end of the movement phase and not limited to a unit that moved. This gives a lot more power to the attacking player as they can easily move everything and set up things a lot differently. If you can move from out in the open to behind a wall you can do that and ensure you get a better charge after running thru the open. This is the same as Heroic Intervention shifting to allow you to charge things that didn’t charge for 2CP and getting your strong unit into combat. All of this plus the 1 stratagem use per unit per phase will also do a lot of weird things in the game. Those abilities that allow for advance and charge but you have to use it in your movement phase get a heck of a lot more powerful now. This also means those units that get rerolls in other ways are going to be stronger too.
1. Detachments & Determining Primary Mission
Right now a lot of detachments have been solved for their respective armies. This is the best choice and you will play it. In the new way of playing your Detachment determines the type of primary game you are going to play. There are a few of these primary type of armies that play a much “easier” game when you compare them to others. If your better detachment has a hard mission to win the game with then it might not be the best detachment to take. Also most of the good detachments cost 3 detachment points which leaves you not able to take any of the new small ones and get access to another primary mission you could play for your army. It is going to be an interesting time as we all figure out the best way we like to play the game and if that is actually the right option to let you get a chance to win the game.
11th Edition is Upon Up – Get Ready!
Don’t Miss:
Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I’ve been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on – or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.
Source: Bell of Lost Souls
