GW is currently revealing the cost of detachments in the new edition of Warhammer 40k, and some of them are unplayable in games smaller than 2,000 points. I don’t meant they’re “so bad you can’t play them” – literally, rules as written, you can’t use them in smaller games. While some players will be content to house-rule this oddity away, I’m genuinely compelled – a new 1,000 point play format with a restricted list of detachments will be completely different from anything we’ve seen before.
In the revised 40k detachment system for 11th edition you can combine multiple detachments, each costing a certain number of points from your budget, It’s a balancing tool – in a 2,000 point game you’ve got three points to spend, and the best detachments in each Warhammer 40k faction (Blades of Ultramar or Ceramite Sentinels for the Space Marines, or Aspect Host or Warhost for the Aeldari, etc.), will eat up every one of your points.
Weaker detachments now cost two points each, and are joined by new one point detachments, which can be mixed together. Every struggling detachment has been given a shot in the arm – doubly so, since combining detachments allows you to pick from either detachment’s force disposition, granting you a choice of missions for your army, while mono-detachment armies are locked into just one set of missions.
But this system gets really weird for 1,000 point games, which are capped at just two detachment points; three point detachments are out. Since most two point detachments are heavily themed around a specific type of unit or keyword – one reason they’re not as good as the three point detachments, most of which hand out buffs to any and all units in a faction – there’s going to be real pressure to build lists that skew heavily into a narrow theme.
This feels like a side effect of GW designing for 2,000 points first and foremost, a consequence that smaller games just have to deal with. Obviously this isn’t a rule anyone has to abide by in casual play games, but it seems genuinely weird that any official tournaments below 2,000 points will soft-ban mixed arms forces in favour of thematic skew lists.
But I’m not convinced this is a bad thing. Looking around the corner at Magic: the Gathering, one of the reasons that game is so hugely successful is the proliferation of different play formats. Magic has multiple variants of its regular 60 card constructed format, all played with the same rules but with very different lists of banned cards. Each format has a unique metagame of viable decks, and a distinctive style of play that favors different strategies and different play patterns.
Looking over at Warhammer: The Old World there’s Low Fantasy Warhammer. This fan format limits the power of heroes and wizards, caps the number of magic items, and emphasizes core units. It pulls focus away from wonder weapons, death stars, and unbeatable stat checks, and puts more emphasis on the game’s core rules of positioning, combat resolution, and morale. Mountain Miniatures Gaming has some great Low Fantasy battle reports if you want to get a sense for it:
I’m genuinely interested in a 1,000 – 1,850 point, 2DP format for 40k. Perhaps it will be a complete balance mess – if GW is balancing for 2,000 point games, I can easily imagine a 2DP detachment that dominates smaller games but is overshadowed by a 3DP sibling in bigger tournaments and so remains untouched. But maybe we’ll get a distinctive format with a different character – where the thematically skewed unit selection results in match-ups you won’t see anywhere else.
What do you think? Do you already run a 2DP detachment and plan to keep using it in all sides of games? Can you see some obvious problems that are going to torpedo this before it even launches? Hop into the Wargamer Discord community and let me know.
Source: Wargamer
