Ever since the announcement of Warhammer 40,000’s 10th Edition, publisher Games Workshop has praised its accessibility and ease of play that it will bring, along with a myriad of changes and overhauls that were bound to attract much-needed fresh blood into the world’s most prominent wargame.
And while the new Edition has been widely met with praises and high hopes for the future by the wider Warhammer 40,000 Community, ever since Games Workshop released the Core Book and rulesets to the wider audience, people have begun to spot critical balance issues that apparently need immediate attention.
An Edition Tailor-Made for the Casual Fan, but Damages the Professional Player
Unsurprisingly, those people are well connected to the competitive scene of Warhammer 40,000 – something that is to be expected with new releases of any kind. Wargamer has reached and conversed with tournament organizer Tobias Wesselmann, who did not have many nice things to say about the current state of the 10th Edition, calling it “clearly not balanced”.
Wesselmann and his team of professional players and other team organizers observed “over 100 issues” with the new Edition in almost every aspect, ranging from Stratagem interactions to point distribution. According to him and his team, games were apparently decided even on turn 2 or 3, with one army being “crippled into oblivion”. About 50 total games were played with the new Edition.
Wesselmann has expressed concern with the game’s current state, feeling that he as a tournament organizer has an obligation to provide participants with quality content. This is why he and his helpers made a list of seven house-rule errata to the 10th Edition in order to combat the balance issues. He has gone on to further acknowledge that different players will always have different experiences with the new Edition of Warhammer 40,000, but the outcries of the professional players do raise a concern.
Like with most games, professional players paint the face of the game at major tournaments and bring a lot of eyes to the product. Competitiveness will always be a part of gaming, so it’s in Games Workshop’s best interest to look into the matter as quickly as possible and strike while the iron is hot. If the issues aren’t addressed, this could amount to losses in the future.