Warhammer 10th - Lazy Terrain Rules

[LouieN]

Hello,

Just an opinion here.  After a few games of WH40K10Ed I have realized they were very lazy with the terrain rules.  I can respect the keep it simple motivation, but really?!?  There is only one rule "in Cover get = +1 Save" and yes plunging fire. 

There is no difference in hiding behind a small shrubbery vs a full blown WWI style trench system.  Both are "In cover"

There is no heavy terrain, bunkers, trenches, swamp, etc.  Seems like for the sake of tournament play they had to keep it simple or one side MAY have an advantage because they got the stone wall.  We all know how powerful a stone wall can be.

Just an observation.  I wonder if they will release rules related to fortifications in the future. 

[Freddy]

Rules for all the existing fortifications are released in the Legends cards, Guard has rules for trenches and cover walls. I do not know what will be the good system for cover, either it would be really detailed (bushes do not give cover for stuff above S5 for example), or it would start an arms race between ignore cover stuff and cover bonuses.

[Elbows]

It's just the direction 40K has gone for several editions now - simpler, and tournament-play focus'ed.  Remember, they're not concerned about the quality of the rules - simply selling models.  Their only need for the rules written are that they bring in more new customers than the ones they slowly drive away.

They'll be replaced in a year or two anyway (and before that they'll be edited in various FAQ, errata, and expansions).  GW has no vested interest in writing tight, well thought out, in-depth rules.

[lethallee61]

Yep. That way, when it’s time for a “new edition” of the rules to promote sales, they always start with the line “we’ve been listening to your feedback…”. No you haven’t. If you had, we wouldn’t need a new set of rules every 2-3 years, because you would have got it right by now.

[LouieN]

Thank you for the reference.  I found the Aegis Defense line stats.  At least a decent go-to for building some real works.

[Diablo Jon]

Yep. That way, when it’s time for a “new edition” of the rules to promote sales, they always start with the line “we’ve been listening to your feedback…”. No you haven’t. If you had, we wouldn’t need a new set of rules every 2-3 years, because you would have got it right by now.

Lol I doubt that. I've  never met a 40k player who didn't think their army had been done the dirty by GW and that all the other armies are overpowered. GWs business practice has been the same for at least 30 years now write, rinse and repeat every few years but GW players are never happy with the current rules set anyway so what does it matter?

[jon_1066]

Hello,

Just an opinion here.  After a few games of WH40K10Ed I have realized they were very lazy with the terrain rules.  I can respect the keep it simple motivation, but really?!?  There is only one rule "in Cover get = +1 Save" and yes plunging fire. 

There is no difference in hiding behind a small shrubbery vs a full blown WWI style trench system.  Both are "In cover"

There is no heavy terrain, bunkers, trenches, swamp, etc.  Seems like for the sake of tournament play they had to keep it simple or one side MAY have an advantage because they got the stone wall.  We all know how powerful a stone wall can be.

Just an observation.  I wonder if they will release rules related to fortifications in the future.

It's pretty simple.  The goal of WH40K is to sell models.

If they release terrain rules for different types of terrain they don't sell people will make their own or even worse  use competitors models

If they release rules for terrain which they themselves make as special rules bundled with the terrain they can sell more models.

The Aegis Defence Line (tm) is super cover with fancy saves and special rules.  Sorry your 3rd party concrete wall sections don't get any other benefit beyond your homemade shrubbery.

[Freddy]

Yep. That way, when it’s time for a “new edition” of the rules to promote sales, they always start with the line “we’ve been listening to your feedback…”. No you haven’t. If you had, we wouldn’t need a new set of rules every 2-3 years, because you would have got it right by now.

They listen to the feedback to some degree, I can believe that. The problem is that their business model is based on continuous updates of the range and the rules, and to make the new stuff appealing, it is always a little bit better. This results in a power level creep of the units/codexes, and also constant twisting, squeezing and bloating of the basically good rules ideas. In a few years it is all beyond repair- time for a tabula rasa and start over.

Also the game has a lot of units and army styles, balancing these would be really hard even if they had the intention (and the time between releases).

[fred]

I’m not a big 40k player, but do occasionally play (using other people’s figures!)

I played a big 10th Edition game recently, and it was fine as a game, a lot of complexity seems to have been cleaned up. There do some to be a few practical issues around sizes of figures (big) and sizes of bases (fairly small) and large units of many models that are a pain to move without movement trays being a thing - but due to the possible advantage of bunching up at times and spreading out at others these don’t seem to be a thing.

I do think with the latest version of the rules providing all the stats for current and old models online then there is a feeling that quite a lot of the codex creep has been removed. There was talk in the group of not even buying army codexes when they come out, as forces seem fairly balanced at the minute.

I think a lot of the appeal of 40k is the look, lore and player history / nostalgia for the game and universe.

[Diablo Jon]

I think a lot of the appeal of 40k is the look, lore and player history / nostalgia for the game and universe.

It is for me I was there when 1st edition was released I like the setting in general ( if not some the newer developments in the setting) I love the whole Grimdark asthenic I still buy the miniatures to paint but I don't really play anymore.