Work on the Emperor's Children and a review of 10th edition 40k

Greetings friends, and welcome back to the Collardhammer special! I’ve had a few nice chill weekends, so I’m taking this as an opportunity to get back to writing this blog. This week in my hobby has been all about Emperor’s Children, finishing a unit of Tormentors and building the next 6 Noise Marines. I’ve also been writing lists and thinking about how to expand out the army, although I doubt any of that will see the table before the end of 10^th edition. Speaking of which, I thought it would be a fun exercise to write down some thoughts about the edition and some hopes for 11^th. History and speculation suggest that the new edition will likely be June of next year, so given my hobby lag, it makes sense to start thinking about it now.

 Before jumping into that, here’s the state of my Emperor’s children Trello board:

That means I’ve painted about a third of the boxset, with roughly another third still on the sprue. I’m hoping to rectify that over the coming week and at least get all the minis built. The Tormentors have been fun to paint and much faster than the noise marines (due to being smaller and having fewer details).

 

The full unit

There are still some things I’d like to improve – the plasma gun OSL is a bit rough and the skin/face on the meltagun model is far from my best work. However, on the whole, I think the unit looks great and am very happy with how this project is moving forward. I think the next thing to add will be a Rhino, although I will likely work on another 40k project (probably Sisters) before expanding this one, especially as I have an essentially playable 1k list for EC here.

The squad leader

Moving on from hobby work, I’d like to share some thoughts about what I like and dislike about 10^th edition, before diving into what I’d like to see changed for 11^th. Note this will be by comparison with 9^th and focussed on narrative play. Without further ado, here are my top 3 changes 10^th made:

A Deathwatch Conga line from a recent game against Orks

1. Removing the force organisation chart. I was pretty sceptical about this change when it was introduced, but I’ve really come round to it, especially in the context of narrative play. Having the ability to take a fully themed list without having to pay any troops tax and without competition for FOC slots is a real boon to telling a story through the army on the table.
2. The detachment system. Similarly, I initially didn’t like that this pigeonholed the player into specific playstyles and stratagems, but I’ve really come round to it from a gameplay perspective. A lot less of my games are filled by frantically searching 4 pages of stratagems to find what I actually need. Also, for crusade, having the ability to mix and match enhancements between the detachments creates some really fun interactions, and not being essentially locked to a subfaction makes telling the story of how the narrative is going, through gameplay, easier.
3. Toughening of vehicles and monsters. Completing a hattrick of things I wasn’t keen on at release, I actually think that making vehicles harder to kill has been good for the game on the whole. This is obviously coming from a casual perspective, but I think I prefer it when weapons and units have specific targets and roles. My recollection of 9^th was that inferno pistol seraphim would take down pretty much every unit in the game, and I am glad that they’ve been given a more specific niche.

However, 10^th has significant room for improvement:

1. Terrain and cover. My number 1 gripe by far is with how terrain works and the fact that as written, vehicles and monsters almost always have cover. While I understand that common sense terrain rules are hard, I think we could do much, much better.
2. Stratagems and command points. I think there are a range of issues around stratagems, but most of them boil down to the fact that they don’t scale well into smaller games.
3. Battleshock and leadership. Quite a lot of units have nonsensical leadership values relative to each other. It doesn’t really matter though, because I don’t think a unit failing a battleshock test has ever had a material impact on the outcome of a game for me.

Squaring off against the Imperial Guard

What would I like to see from 11^th? I’d really prefer not to go back to index hammer and to have the existing codexes carry over. I’m pretty sure that most of you whose codex came out or is coming out this year would agree, but that means changing the way core mechanics work could be a challenge. Reworking terrain and the benefit of cover so that it applies less to vehicles and models with a 2+ save would be healthy. Adding more to overall faction rules would definitely be possible, such as Space Marines getting Armour of Contempt and Sisters getting Divine Intervention as signature stratagems, for example. The effect of failing a battleshock test could be changed to be more impactful, such as with negative modifiers to offensive rolls. There are a few more changes I’d like to see, mainly to increase the pace of the game. Fewer rerolls and the removal/rework of Feel No Pain would be a start, but probably not possible in a soft reboot. Of course, I’d also want changes for my factions specifically, but that’s a discussion for another day.

The plasma gunner and the icon bearer

Anyway, with that rant out the way, thanks for reading! I am really curious what other people want to see from a new edition of 40k, so let me know in the comments or over discord. Hobby wise, I’m aiming to finish assembling my emperor’s children and maybe batch paint some skeleton warriors for old world. I also have another campaign game next weekend, so will be writing Sisters lists for that. Until then, have a lovely week of your own hobby!

Ben