Goatboy here, to talk about the changes coming to 11th Edition. Here’s 3 army special rules that need a serious change or a complete revamp to make them a lot more interesting.
As we have seen in some of the previewed GW stuff (like the upcoming updates to the Ork Waagh rule) some 11th Edition army rules are not locked to what we have now. There are going to be changes and updates to help bring them into a new edition. I also hope GW does a little bit of clean up to make certain army rules less problematic. Let’s go over the top 3 armies I hope have a nice change to the army rule they have now or a complete revamp to make them a lot more interesting.
Adeptus Custodes – Martial Ka’tah
Currently this Custodes rule is a weird form of Karate that they are allowed to activate when they get into combat. This is a fine idea as they are meant to be the best “martial” experts of the 40k Imperial universe but as a whole it is pretty boring. There is also always the issue of exactly how do the Custodes tanks themselves know Space Karate as well? I think a simple tweak to this and something I would hope would be more interesting is to remove some of the Melee aspects of this and shift it to “different” options you can take at the start of the turn.
This could be a pile of 4 rules you can choose to help shift how you play thru each battle turn. You can even let them shift it during each players Command phase to help justify how this army can work as an even smaller group of “super” soldiers. What if you kept the two melee offensive options but now had 2 defensive abilities as well. You could say one is some kind of defensive stance that would give them a +1 to their toughness or some other method that would allow them to block damage thrown at them with either a reroll of failed saves of 1 or something along those lines. This would let you balance how each unit and army part would work, give you something to do during all aspects of the game, and most likely wouldn’t be back breaking. You could then work on finding new Detachment rules to help give more flavor and even other fun “stances” to try out.
Astra Militarum – Voice of Command
I have hated the Order system in every edition of the game. It is a rule that you can’t stop which is frustrating. It is a rule that can add so much value to specific Imperial Guard units that it is impossible to properly balance with points. It is just not a fun rule when you are playing against it. So many other armies need to pass some kind of test (Dark Pacts) to get their army rule and having this one just be some leader yells into a microphone gets your units to go super nova is just kinda of crappy. Also how the heck does telling your soldiers to Move Move Move let them move faster than alien super ninjas and genetic monsters.
I just think there needs to be some kind of balance added to the order system where either a LD check needs to happen or a better system of bonuses given to units. I don’t think regular Guardsmen should be hitting on 2’s with rerolls. I also feel that the army is designed to have a ton of bodies but when you let them stack rules too much you can’t have the bodies be too cheap and thus the army just doesn’t feel right. I hope we see some tweaks to the Order system as I don’t think it is going away. There has to be some method to “hurt” their ability to get orders beyond just hoping they fail a pile of Battleshock tests their army conveniently is able to ignore some of the time.
Chaos Knights – Harbingers of Dread
Over the editions, the Design Studio just can’t get the Chaos Knight Storm of Chaos to work right. I know there are issues having too much power in a creepy effect but there has to be some way to make this better. I think utilizing some kind of aspect with the bigger knights and getting empowered within the storm. It could be objective based with holding terrain and some kind of ordering system where you can empower the knight up while within the storm. They could do a lot more debuffing auras that are not just some mortal wounds. It could be just making their guns more damaging and even allowing some of them to cause Battleschok checks.
I think if they want the army to utilize scaring the opponent they need to have ways to allow that to happen more often than just “getting” near one. Those units that get near them are either killing your Knight or they die to the sheer rain of bullets the big Harbinger of Dread is bringing to your potluck dinner on the battlefield. Overall this army rule is just a bit too drab for what is is trying to achieve.
What are you hoping changes in your army whenever their new Codex comes out? The chatter on the 40K grapevine says Oath of Moment is going away so the question is what replaces it? Could we see some more individual tailored rules for Marines that help make each chapter unique? Or are we just going to be playing Red Gladius, Blue Gladius, and angry Black Armored Gladius?
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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
