Warhammer 40,000 10th Edition

Announced on March 30, 2023, Warhammer 40,000 10th Edition is yet another revision to Games Workshop's big money-hog and it's promising to be even bigger than the transition from 7th to 8th.

The focus of this edition seems split between Imperium vs Chaos and Imperium vs Xenos, with the Arks of Omen saga's after-effects still lingering while Ultramar and the rest of the Imperium is being embroiled in the Fourth Tyrannic War (Then again, 9th edition was supposed to be all about Necrons and they ended up barely doing anything, so time will tell if Xenos actually get focused on beyond the starter box for that one).

Major Updates

• Simplified Statlines. The promise here is that the unit stats are going to be so small they can fit on an index card so you can actually carry them around without needing to carry a whole goddamn book. More surprisingly, all units' statlines will be immediately available as free downloads at launch. Sounds awesome, but you can also recall that AoS also used to have free placeholder rules for all models... until they abandoned that model in 3E due to having enough army books updated at the time.
  • Taking a note from Kill-Team and Age of Sigmar, weapons now have their own statlines independent of each other. Saves an extra line of text for unwieldy weapons like the power fist by making its WS set at 4+ instead of 3+ like the rest of the squad's knives. This also gives you fixed weapon Strengths on your weapons so you don't need to fight about whether the +1 goes before or after the multiplier.
  • This has also resulted in negating the value of unit sergeants. With the exception of a few key units (e.g. Aspect Warrior Exarchs, Nobz in mobs of Boyz, Aspiring Sorcerers), there is nothing really differentiating these units aside from what weapons they can do thanks to Attacks being a stat tied to weapons. Hell, they don't even affect squad morale!
  • Objective Control. This new stat represents how many models a certain model counts as in terms of capping an objective. Battleline choices tend to have a high OC stat, as do vehicles and monsters to streamline the previous "Monsters/ Vehicles counts as X models when controlling objectives".
  • Leadership has been remapped to instead be something to roll over on a 2d6 instead of something to roll under.
• Loadout Simplification: In addition to the above, Weapons have become simplified (some may say over simplified). In 9th, we saw GW limit options to what was in the box leading to stuff like Chaos Terminator's and Chosen's schizophrenic loadouts. In 10th GW straight up removed variety and customization in favour of generalized weapons. The most egregious example are Combi-Weapons becoming a single, dedicated anti-infantry weapon. A WarCom article even stated that though the new Sternguard boxes come with 2 of every combi-weapon, it doesn't matter what you took because they're all the same profile now.
  • While this could theoretically make the game more balanced, in reality it just limits each unit to niche roles, and they're not even guaranteed to do it well. Outriders and the new Jump Pack Intercessors, in stark comparison their predecessors, are limited to just S4 weapons and small-arms. Another example is that Chaos Chosen are just Legionaries with an extra wound and an Accursed Weapon.
  • The fact that Nu-Sternguards have 2 of each combi-weapon could also be a way of future-proofing their fuckup.
• USRs Return. Turns out that there was no point in making up twenty different ways to explain "Feel No Pain" or "Deep Strike".
  • Weapons have their own special rules to account for. Assault Weapons can now be fired after advancing without penalty. Heavy Weapons add +1 to their BS if the user stands still before shooting. Additionally, weapons can have more than one type (e.g. Bolt Rifles are both Assault and Heavy weapons).
    • Unmodified 6s to hit or wound are now being called Critical Hits and Critical Wounds. Cool, that saves us some time in typing this shit down.
  • Twin-linked weapons work more like they did in the old days, granting a re-roll to wound. Melee weapons can also be twin-linked in some cases.
  • Despite USRs returning, Bulky seemingly isn't among them, as each transport still specifies that XYZ keywords take up more spaces. Why GW didn't carry over Bulky (X) from 30k or better yet make a specific stat for size is beyond everyone.
• Cut the Stratagem Bloat. There were too goddamn many of them, so a trimming of the very fringe ones is very welcome. A bunch of them now function as passive abilities inherent to the units they once enhanced, which was what everyone wanted back anyway.
  • GW is claiming to set a hard cap for available Stratagems, giving 12 universal ones that anyone can use and 6 strats exclusive to your detachment. Only time will tell how quickly this gets broken.
  • Keyword bloat has also taken a fair bit of trimming, and there's nobody arguing with that. 9E had a ton of keywords that were only relevant for certain strats and some only used to make exceptions - Not helping were the various Astartes keywords that only exist because loaner strats from the main SM/CSM codexes were added in as well as the intermingling of Chaos Marks between chaos marines and daemons that required the invention of yet another keyword to differentiate them.
• Characters can be attached to squads again. Some characters still have auras, but now you can have squads with characters leading them for special buffs as opposed to units being buffed into the stratosphere by overlapping auras.
  • Curious to note is that some characters can't attach to certain squads, and some characters called Lone Operatives can't attach to squads at all. The latter are protected from shooting attacks unless they're within 12" of the shooter. Not only is this applied to leaders who couldn't be attached to most units anyways like Guilliman and Cawl, but this also is seen on sneaky agents like the Officio Assassinorum.
• The psychic phase has been axed. Psychic attacks are now weapons with the proper statlines, psychic buffs/debuffs are now special rules. Just like the good ol' days.
  • An unfortunate development of this is that the lists of psychic powers seem to be gone. This is troubling considering that there were spells with all sorts of special uses that couldn't fit inside a single statline. Psychic powers like these have been reworked as abilities exclusive to certain types of psykers, so if you want certain powers, you need the psyker who has them.
  • Even though GW hyped up the lack of Psychic tests, there are still powers (Commentary describes these not!Spells as Psychic Abilities) that risk failure, though you only trigger that on a 1 on a 1d6 and all it deals is d3 MWs like in Horus Heresy 2.0. There are also some psychic powers that deal mortal wounds outright, but those are few and far between.
    • Needless to say, the implementation of this has been awkward. Many of the factions that had abilities to negate Psychic damage received either invuln saves or Feel No Pains against attacks made with [Psychic] weapons; not only does this affect spells, but also Force Weapons and Daemon Princes. What it doesn't do is affect the totally-not-spells on a Psyker's list of abilities, or the Doombolt Ritual from the Thousand Sons.
• Morale phase has been merged with the Command phase. Not like there was anything more that the phase did.
  • Battle-Shock changes. Instead of just causing extra casualties, Battle-Shock now inflicts penalties for the rest of the turn - the affected unit has its OC stat set to 0 so it can't hold objectives, it has to take a Desperate Escape test when falling back (Roll for each model falling back, lose a model for each 1), and it can't be boosted with Stratagems. This has the consequence of Tarpits being more effective, as without the additional casualties from morale, the only way to take them out is slaughtering them to the last. If the tarpitted unit can't do that quickly, tough titties. On the other hand, morale can cripple those tarpits' ability to actually hold objectives since 30-50 multiplied by zero is still zero.
• The Death of the FOC. Just like Warhammer Fantasy/AoS before it, 40k will no longer sport that old chestnut called the Force Organization Chart. Now there are only five real slots to contend with: Character, Epic Hero, Battleline, Dedicated Transport, and everything else.
  • The organisation instead will revolve around detachments exclusive to each faction, which defines special rules, enhancements (the relics and Warlord Traits, now treated as a single category) available and stratagems; all based on the army's fluff.
  • Being the central units to your army, the Battleline and Dedicated Transport units can be taken up to six times in an army. Epic Heroes (your named characters) can only be taken once, and everything else can be taken up to three times. You need at least one Character in the army to act as a Warlord, though.
  • Curiously, the Boarding Action play mode seems to be the least affected by this due to dropping a lot of the older additions for its own fixed rules; according to the website it was specifically designed with 10th edition in mind. The most you might need there is a revision for units that might have been taken despite not being Troops/Elites choices.
  • With the release of the first Munitorum Field Guide, we have confirmation that points now work like in Age of Sigmar: you pay only for a block of models and the points don't change with equipment. Units whose kits include characters (like most Custodes units) have their point costs modeled so that you can build the character and the remainder of the set can be still played even if the "whole unit" is missing a model.
• Tough units are tougher. Most Vehicles and Monsters have received a noticeable bump to their Toughness and Wounds, and several weapons have lower AP than they used to have, while dedicated AT weapons are upgraded (The Hunter-Killer Missile is now Strength 12). Expect it to be much harder to kill off tanks and the like without dedicated anti-tank weaponry.
  • Speaking of monsters and vehicles, damage tracks seem to be much more simplified. Rather than copypasta the same statline multiple times with smaller numbers, there's now a "Damaged" section that just states what penalties to impose on an unit when its wounds go below the threshold. The new Ballistus Dreadnought, for instance, only has -1 To Hit when at 4 Wounds or less. Bigger units like Knights also see their OC stat drop.
• Subfaction Gutting? Seeing how the World Eaters and Imperial Guard codices turned out, there is a very real concern that the subfactions that they've built up since 6th Edition are going to be extinct. At the very least, we might just see them reduced to a single rule like AoS has for their subfaction rules.
  • The detachments that have come with each army pretty much act like the Armies of Renown. Though Space Marines, the corporate favorites they are, got detachments for each major chapter with a divergent roster, we've yet to see if this is a kindness that'll be shared with other armies.
• Combat Patrol becoming a modified form of gameplay for new players. To start, GW has (allegedly) playtested Combat Patrol boxes for each faction in 10th edition to guarantee that all are balanced against each other so two players can take one and proceed to play the game. The datasheets of the units are modified to reflect this new mode. It also adds enhancements to give your Warlord and unique secondary missions.
  • Even though GW has said all the boxes were balanced and that you can use everything in the box, 'this isn't true for all factions. Some boxes are filled with cheap chaff, others with multiple Elite options; in order to "even them out," the Elite boxes make you pick between Elite options, meaning one of those elite units is sitting out on the shelf.
• Mission Changes On top of the standard Only War format, missions can be generated via the Chapter Approved system, which acts like a combination of Tempest of War cards and the Grand Tournament mission packs. After selecting the deployment, mission rules, and Primary Mission, each player chooses and reveals their Secondary Missions, which grant bonus VP. Secondary Missions can either be fixed (remaining in place the whole battle) or tactical (replaced with a new Secondary Mission upon completion but offering more VP). Additionally, at the start of the third round either player may play a Gambit that replaces the Primary Mission, giving up their ability to score from the Primary Mission but earning 30 VP should they fulfill the Gambit's requirements.
• Power Levels Are Dead, Long Live Power Levels. Despite there being much rejoicing over the announcement that Power Levels were being removed after they failed to work in the previous two editions of the game, GW has decided to rework points to be functionally identical to power levels meaning wargear is free, certain options are now mandatory, and unit sizes are in fixed increments which are usually equal to the amount of models sold in a box.
  • In a strange blast from the past, the only gear that costs anything are the detachment-exclusive Enhancements.

Boxed Sets

• Leviathan is the box that's going to be launching 10th Edition, pitting Space Marines against who else but the Tyranids. Its contents are new models for Space Marines and Tyranids, the rulebook with a Crusade expansion for the new narrative of the 4th Tyrannic War, a deck to play the game and a Space Marine transfer sheet.
• Starter Box: Like last edition, you have multiple levels of starter kits to work with based on Leviathan.
  • Introductory Set: 5 Infernus, 10 Termagants and a base of Rippers. Not really for competitive as it is something to learn painting with.
  • Starter Set: A trimmed-down version of Leviathan. 1 Termie Captain, 5 Terminators and 5 Infernus vs 1 Winged Prime, 1 Psychophage, 20 Termagants, 3 Von Ryan's Leapers and 2 Rippers.
  • Ultimate Starter Set: The Starter Set, but also the Librarian, the Barbgaunts and terrain are here.
• Kroot Hunting Pack: Includes all new sculpts for the Kroot.
• Death Company:Includes the new Lemartes and Astorath, along a Dreadnought, Intercessors and a Blood Angel upgrade sprue.

Combat Patrol

• Strike Force Octavius: It has part of the new Space Marines of the edition. A Terminator Captain, Terminator Librarian, 5 Terminators and 5 Infernus.
• The Vardenghast Swarm: It has part of the new Tyranids of the edition. Termagants, the Winged Tyranid Prime, Barbgaunts, Von Ryan's Leapers, and the Psychophage. Might also include Rippers, but they're just cosmetic.
• Purge Corps Deltic-9: The Combat Patrol box for Adeptus Mechanicus.
• Amonhotekh’s Guard: The Combat Patrol box for Necrons. It has an Overlord, 10 Necron Warriors, 3 Scarab Swarms, 3 Skorpekh Destroyers and a Canoptek Doomstalker.
• The Vengeful Brethren: A Combat Patrol for Dark Angels.
• Morgrim’s Butchas: A Combat Patrol box for Orks made of Beast Snaggas.
• Tristraen’s Gilded Blades: One of the smallest boxes, but understandable since this one is for Adeptus Custodes.
• Sisters of Battle:
• Genestealer Cults:

New Models

Space Marines

• The Leviathan boxset contains new models for the Termie Captain, Termie Librarian, Phobos Lieutenant, Primaris Sternguard Veterans to replace the old Firstborn models, and base Terminators. Being introduced to the line are the Apothecary Biologis (a Primaris Apothecary in Gravis armor who remembered Apothecaries are scientists as well as medics), and the Ballistus Dreadnought (a Redemptor Dreadnought offshoot that leans more towards the old Hellfire Dreads by having a missile launcher and lascannon), the Infernus Squad (A squad of marines toting Pyreblasters that used to just belong to Black Templars) .
• During the NOVA Open preview, the full set of releases coming with the Codex was announced: alongside multipart versions of the new Terminators, Terminator Captain and Sternguard, they announced a new Terminator Chaplain, Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs, a Jump Pack Captain, new Scouts and, least expected of all, a full Primaris Command Squad...with a forced loadout

Tyranids

• With the launch of the Leviathan boxset, they are getting new or updated models inside for: the Tyranid Prime (Being the first time the unit has ever gotten a unique model instead of just being a warrior and being the first time a warrior ever got wings after FW discontinued them), Termagants, Rippers, and the Screamer-Killer carnifex variant branching off its own miniature. Brand new to the line are the Neurotyrant (A super-sized Zoanthrope with smaller floating attendants, the psychic alternative to a Hive Tyrant), Neurogaunts (New gaunt variants that are led by a bigger gaunt that acts as a Synapse beacon), Barbgaunts (Essentially Gaunt Mortar Teams, fulfilling someone's wish for a heavy-weapons gaunt), Von Ryan's Leapers (smaller pack hunter Lictor-likes), and the Psychophage (a giant psyker-eating beast with a maw that puts the Haruspex to shame).
• Revealed once the Instagram page of Games Workshop reached 500.000 followers, a new sculpt for the Deathleaper was shown June 12, 2023.
• July 15, 2023 saw the end result of the Oghram Narrative Campaign, a pretty close Tyranid victory that led to the unveiling of revamps for the Genestealers, Hormagaunts, new weapons for the Termagants, Lictors (with a brand new psychic variant in the Neurolictor on top of Deathleaper's gothification), and some extreme rebirths for the Biovore and Pyrovore. Also introduced are two brand-new leaders: The Norn Emissary and Norn Assimilator, two super-sized Hive Tyrants that are overgrown examplars of the Hive Mind's psychic and biological might - and the latter might have people wondering if it's meant to be the successor to the Dimachaeron.

Adeptus Mechanicus

• The only new model for this codex is the Sydonian Skatros, a stupid-looking stilt-walker of a Skitarii with some decent sniping power.

Necrons

• Imotekh the Stormlord and Orikan the Diviner got updated looks.
• The closest thing this codex got to a new unit was an Overlord with a Translocation Shroud, a new piece of gear that gives the ability to teleport around.

Dark Angels

• Two characters got themselves new models. Belial got himself a slightly spiffier appearance, Asmodai got a new model that now has a power sword as well as the option to go hoodless.
• The Deathwing also got something of an update, with the Deathwing Knights getting new, Primaris-friendly models while a new upgrade sprue also does the same for base termies alongside a fancy tail-wing for Ravenwing bikers.
• The only ostensibly new unit for this codex is the Inner Circle Companions, essentially taking the role of the Command Squad/Company Heroes for the Unforgiven.

T'au Empire

• In a shocking turn of events, all the model reveals for the Tau this edition are ALL FUCKING KROOT. At the very bottom of the list, there are updated sprues for the base carnivores, Kroot Hounds and Krootoxes.
• New to the board is plenty. Shapers are now split between three subclasses with distinct loadouts and perks. Krootoxes now have a variant called the Rampagers that let them be the big angry fucking gorilla-birds they want to be. Another new hero is the Lone-Spear, a scout/sniper that comes on a lizard pet that's decidedly non-kroot.
• It seems this is the edition of the T'au Auxiliaries, because the Vespids are also getting a refresh through a Kill Team release. This gives them more options beside the classic Neutron Blasters.

Orks

• With the Warhammer Anniversary, they've introduced an overdue update to the Big Mek with a heavy gun mounted on his hand. Curiously, this doesn't replace any of the existing Big Meks that exist despite the KFF Big Mek being thrown into Legends.
• Ufthak Blackhawk from the novel Brutal Kunnin also gets his own miniature.

Adeptus Custodes

• With the Warhammer Anniversary, a bespoke model for the Shield Captain finally came forth, looking more like an egg than a man with it's odd proportions. Interestingly, he comes with a Pyrithite Spear, something that's been FW exclusive.

Chaos Space Marines

• On top of some updates to the base marines and raptors, there are also going to be new models for the foot and jump pack lords. The latter brings a sigh of relief after taking it away for 9th edition without any replacement.
• The Cultist Firebrand sort-of makes its grand debut as an actual unit outside of the Blackstone Fortress boxset. Unlike the Traitor Commissar and guardsmen, this guy didn't have a Kill Team box to hide in.

Genestealer Cults

• New to the edition is the Benefictus, a lady with a brain so swollen that it needs a whole collar to keep her neck straight. With her psychic power, she pretty much acts as your psychic powerhouse for people who don't want to spend on a Patriarch.

Sisters of Battle

• Introduces a jump pack Canoness, meaning that your Seraphim/Zephyrim can actually be led by someone other than Celestine.
• Taddeus the Purifier and Pious Vorne, both Ministorum Priests, are also being sold outside of BSF.
• Celestian Sacresant Aveline is introduced with her own novel titled Daemonbreaker.

Imperial Agents

• Torquemada Coteaz is getting a new model that sees his psyber-eagle grow big enough to fit on its own base. On the downside, the model's been seeing quite a bit of backlash for being arguably one of the blandest models out of the entire range, skimping out on details that the original model had as well as a hairetical-looking buzzcut.
• Navigator Espern Locarno is also getting out of BSF.
• Watch Captain Artemis is getting a rerelease. Sadly, they've lost rules for everything else except for Artemis, the generic Watch Master, the basic vets and the Blackstar.

Blood Angels:

• Lemartes and Astorath get updated primaris-ified sculpts.
• Also getting Primaris updates are the Sanguinary Priest and a Captain that is inspired by the cover of the Devastation of Baal novel.
• Both the Sanguinor and the Sanguinary Guard also got brand new models, with the latter getting the primaris-grade makeover, complete with those flaps on the jump pack being made into tiny wing-a-lings. While they retain their arm-mounted bolters and Encarmine Blades, their axes surprisingly got replaced with new Encarmine Spears, likely to make them much more dangerous on the charge.

Astra Militarum

• Rumor has it that this edition will see a focus on the Kriegers...
  • Confirmed through the NOVA event on August 28. To release on 2025.

Aeldari

• New Aspect Warriors are confirmed through the NOVA event on August 28. To release on 2025. Maybe *now* we'll finally get plastic fucking Warp Spiders...

Imperial Knights

• To be revealed.

Codex Updates

While there will be free rules released when the edition launches in the Summer, they will at best be placeholders like the Indexes of 8E, soon to be replaced by full Codexes. Fortunately, these new indexes are promised to be free for all like AoS' initial ruleset. Unfortunately, the common reception of these rules has been extraordinarily skubby thanks to some very weirdly-described rules, some armies getting some extremely favorable buffs and others being given rules so utterly trash that one has to wonder if they literally wrote all of these rules in a month and skimped out on QC just to get them out the door.

Of course, Warhammer Legends still assures that out-of-production or obsolete builds can have some sort of relevance. Shocking among the promised additions is the beloved boxnoughts, those sturdy bastions of the chapters for many decades, and a great many of the special characters from Imperial Armours past all got relegated to only getting proxy statlines - a tragedy considering how many of these characters have special weapons or rules that are impossible to replicate. Less shocking but still damning is the inclusion of the various vehicles from the HH wargame, which used to be within the purview of a Forge World book - which is a bit problematic since these are models that GW is taking increasing amounts of control over producing those models and yet are arbitrarily just restricting from competitive play. Alongside these are the Imperial Armour indexes, which add in the FW models that GW still deems "fit for competitive play", for whatever value that has.

• Tyranids: Set for September 2023. Par for the course as the poster antagonists for the edition. Perhaps as a double-edged sword for winning the narrative campaign at the edition's dawn, they not only got new models, but their codex was made the first to release. One can only hope that the jank isn't too excessive.
  • It's out, and with a huge GW-scandal - they simply made the point values outdated 2 days before the codex came out, removed nearly all the lore from the book, and used the pictures from the codex before, making the codex buyers buy nearly nothing for €45. Statcards also became €35 from €20, making the shortest and biggest price increase in GW history (75% up after 3 month of the arrival of the new type of product).
  • After a very necessary update, some of the rules and detachments see themselves become more useful. It also adds the snakes of the army to the VANGUARD INVADERS classification.
• Space Marines: It's uncertain how things will fare for the chapters that only got a codex supplement in 8E (which includes the White Scars, Ultramarines, Iron Hands, Salamanders, and Raven Guard) seeing as they all got crammed into the main codex. Judging by the Dark Angels' upcoming codex and also the fact that ones with 9E Codices (Black Templars, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Deathwatch and Space Wolves) got previewed together, it's very likely that only the more divergent chapters will get a full codex. More concerning, however, are how drastically the loss of certain discontinued models will affect the army.
  • Dark Angels: Confirmed for Spring 2024.
  • Blood Angels: Confirmed for August 2024 with a new boxset.
• Adeptus Mechanicus: Confirmed for Winter 2023. Anyone who had thought that this codex would improve any of the countless flaws that kept the army from being anywhere near playable were sadly proven wrong. Their units are still overpriced, their Skitarii are still treated like GEQ and their detachments don't help certain armies excel at anything. Eventually got a fairly hefty across-the-board buff that makes them significantly more dangerous.
• Necrons: Confirmed for Winter 2023.
• T'au Empire: Confirmed for Spring 2024. Alongside the boosting of the Kroot range, the most alarming change here is the subdivision of the iconic Crisis Suits, forcing them now into very limited loadouts with specific kits. On one hand, this does help keep the rules at a manageable size, but just imagine how many people will now be forced to cut off and replace their guns just to be codex compliant - or buy new models.
• Orks: Confirmed for Spring 2024.
• Adeptus Custodes: Confirmed for Spring 2024; maybe they'll get proper Sisters of Silence support. While the latter did get some fluffy detachments despite their still-limited range, the codex's initial release is essentially charging players for mostly nerfs.
• Chaos Space Marines: Confirmed for Spring 2024. The Emperor's Children finally divorce themselves from the main roster.
• Sisters of Battle: Confirmed for Summer 2024.
• Genestealer Cults: Confirmed for Summer 2024.
• Agents of the Imperium: The oft-forgotten Agents of the Imperium, this will compile all those loose Inquisitors, Rogue Traders, Assassins and other associated squads. Shockingly is including ways to include the various Chambers Militant into an Inquisition army...if all you wanted were basic battle sisters with immolators and Grey Knight Terminators. Rumor had it that the Deathwatch would have more going for them.
  • Turns out, the "full rules" for the Deathwatch included killing all the kill teams, renaming the veterans, axing the bikers and terminators, completely divorcing them from Codex: Space Marines, and making their already garbage detachment even worse. Deathwatch has functionally ceased to exist as a faction. It's a odd thing, a faction being Squatted so callously in the modern day when even the Harlequins got something more respectable.
• Astra Militarum: Confirmed for 2025.
• Aeldari: Confirmed or 2025.
• Imperial Knights: Confirmed for 2025.
• Adeptus Titanicus: At long last, the mighty god-machines of the Imperium will make their debuts in 40K proper instead of needing to wait for a Forge World book.
• Emperor's Children: ...and lo, did it come to pass. When the CSM codex neared release, GW made the announcement that Lucius and the Noise Marines would be shuffled out of the book and into their own independent Index. Now the question is how anemic their codex will be and how much different Fulgrim will be after ten thousand years of daemonhood.

The new USR

The return of the USR was met with great rejoicing, meaning that no longer do you have to dig through your units' data sheets to tell what they actually do. They are contained in three pages of the core rulebook for ease of use, however unfortunately whoever was in charge of typesetting them had been drinking heavily that day, so there's no order to them in any way, shape or form. Some of them are recognizable, others are new and yet more are now found in places or combinations never seen before. Here they are pulled from the free rulebook alphabetically, for your convenience:

• Anti-(keyword) X: Weapons with this rule critically wound on the value provided regardless of what a normal roll would require, as long as the target has the provided keyword.
• Assault: Can shoot even if the user Advanced.
• Blast: Blast weapons make a random number of attacks, and for every five models per unit (rounded down) they get one additional attack.
• Devastating Wounds: A Critical Wound (IE a natural 6 on the To Wound roll) automatically inflicts a number of wounds equal to its Damage value and the attack sequence for that weapon ends.
• Extra Attacks: Weapons with this rule can be used in addition to another melee weapon the user has. Often found on Monsters.
• Hazardous: The Plasma rule. After using a Hazardous weapon roll a die for every weapon, each 1 kills a model with such a weapon. Monsters, Vehicles and Characters instead suffer 3 Mortal Wounds, and you can't juggle between Characters and their attached units.
• Heavy: +1 To Hit if the wielder remained stationary that turn.
• Ignores Cover: Ignores cover. Duh.
• Indirect Fire: Can target units that the bearer cannot see, but get a -1 To Hit and the target gets Cover.
• Lance: +1 TO Wound if the bearer made a charge that turn.
• Lethal Hits: All Critical Hits (IE a natural 6 on the To Hit roll) wound automatically.
• Melta X: Within half range add X to the Damage value of the weapon.
• Pistol: Can be shoot in Engagement Range (IE in melee) at the enemy unit, but non-Monsters or Vehicles can only shoot other Pistols when shooting with Pistols.
• Precision: If you attack a unit that is Attached to a Character, you get to target the Character instead of the unit as normal.
• Rapid Fire X: Within half range this weapon's rate of fire goes up by X. Note the use of "within" instead of "at".
• Sustained Hits X: All Critical Hits (IE a natural 6 on the To Hit roll) deal X additional hits.
• Torrent: All attacks hit automatically. Torrent weapons don't have a Ballistic Skill to easily spot them.
• Twin Linked: Re-roll failed To Wound. Yes, To Wound. Not To Hit like how it's been for years.

Simple, not Simplified

One of the mantras repeated continuously by designers and community managers at GW is “simplified, not simple.” A quaint, corporate-friendly term meant to instill confidence in the players and reassure them of Games Workshop's continued dedication to producing and managing the tabletop game loved by so many while still maintaining the same level of quality we’ve come to expect. During times of change, particularly when jumping editions, there is always fear and consternation among players. Concerns abound about the squatting of old units, the nerfing of a strong or favorite faction from a prior edition, or the new rules adequately representing the fluff of the setting and its respective faction, etc. “Simplified not simple” became the calling card and defining design philosophy for 10th edition. GW had heard us. The rules creep of 9th was too much. Stratagem bloat had gotten out of hand. Lethality was far too high. 10th would be different, condensed, free from all the baggage of 9th, but still a game possessing the same depth and nuance as before. Except it wasn’t.

As reveals for the new edition continued to trickle in, it became increasingly apparent that “simplified not simple” was in fact the reverse. GW was trimming the fat everywhere, cutting the game down to a shell of its former self. While GW had reined in the AP creep and the stratagem bloat as promised, players were beginning to see the true extent of the game’s restructuring. Massive amounts of datasheets were shunted to Legends including the majority of the units available to Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines from Forge World. Combat Patrol was also gutted, being shifted from a small 500 point skirmish game to an even more stripped-down version of 40k that could only be played with predefined boxes. Weapon profiles were flattened out, with many weapons sharing the same profile or being reduced to one profile where multiple options had previously existed. Unit wargear options became increasingly restricted too as it became apparent GW wished to limit units to what options were included in their respective boxes. The Psychic Phase was removed entirely. However, the real insult was yet to come.

Back in 8th edition, after GW’s last hard reset of the game, a new list-building unit of measurement was created to supplement the points system that had long been used in 40k. Power Level was a new, simple unit of measurement applied to a unit as a whole regardless of wargear. Designed as a tool to speed up list building and make it easier for players to throw together casual games of 40k quickly, the new system was not particularly well received. Although perhaps more balanced than many expected, Power Level was still not nearly the level of complex game balance granted by the tried and true points system. With points, many players saw the additional complexity as a benefit that allowed for the game to be balanced at any level. GW continued to support the Power Level system into 9th and players continued to mostly ignore it outside of some casual and narrative play. Points were the preferred method of building balanced lists and the competitive standard and it appeared no one really wanted to change that.

Fast forward to 10th edition, and it seemed GW had finally gotten the memo. Power Level was out, points were in. 10th edition would be an edition entirely balanced around the points system, just like 40k had been prior to 8th. GW even promised that all points would be updated for free bi-annually in the Munitorum Field Manual, which would become the one source for all unit points values in the game. However, not all was as it seemed. Perhaps some of the more prescient players already anticipated this following the free wargear debacle at the end of 9th edition, but for the most part the change seems to have caught the 40k community off-guard. On June 16th, 2023, Games Workshop released the first Munitorum Field Manual of 10th edition, revealing their deception to the world and the reason for the simplification of weapon profiles became obvious. All wargear had been rolled into the cost of the unit. Not only that, but there were no prices for individual models in units. Each unit had to be taken in set increments of models at a set unit price at a set size regardless of wargear choice. In other words, points had become the new Power Level. List building had been simplified but at the cost of all the tools normally used to balance the game.

All of this paints the real picture of “Simplified not Simple.” The 40k design team, whether it was through laziness, tight release schedules, delays, corporate oversight, indifference, incompetence, poor staffing, or some combination thereof did not commit to producing a game with the same level of depth and nuance as they had in prior editions. Corners were cut, rules were flattened out, units were scrapped, subfactions were neutered or completely banished to the shadow realm. 40k wasn’t simplified. It wasn’t even balanced, which is pretty depressing given most of the changes were catering to the competitive side of the game. It was simple and boring. “Simplified not Simple” wasn’t a design philosophy, it was a lie to try and gloss over just how thoroughly 40k had been gutted jumping editions.

Time will tell if GW will be able to return the game to a more filled out and intellectually stimulating system, however. The indexes that they had released at the advent of 10th weren't meant to fully replace the codexes of last edition, but given just how zealously GW simplified the game and downsized their rules support, they have a lot of ground to make up and optimism for any course-correction is minimal. Following the dumpster fire of 9th edition, player confidence in Gdubs continues to wane. GW needs 10th to win back player confidence and be a smoother edition than 9th, but with such a rough start to the edition, it's going to be a long, hard road for both GW and the players.

Lore Updates

Imperium

• In order to counter Hive Fleet Leviathan's sudden push, Roboute Guilliman has commissioned the Solblade Fleets - small but elite strike forces led by the Imperium's greatest heroes, tasked with killing its synapse creatures and buying the Imperium enough time to get their defenses ready for the Tyranid onslaught.

Space Marines

• Belisarius Cawl has finally found something he couldn't improve upon: Terminator Armor. He has however managed to find a way to retrofit it (read: scale up) to fit Primaris marines.
  • In a more meta sense, it's looking like the gaps between Primaris and Firstborn has been growing ever slimmer, especially in terms of gameplay. The Primaris keyword no longer exists. That said, the armor marks (Tacticus, Gravis, Phobos) do still exist as keywords. Similarly, some Space Marine transports are being upsized to fit the Primaris strain...or perhaps their increased height was overexaggerated all along.

Adeptus Mechanicus

• Cawl goes to the Pariah Nexus to stop the Silent King and whatever he is planning.

Adeptus Custodes

• The Custodes have always had women in their ranks. This has been controversial...
  • How much of a retcon this is a bit of a grey area. Unlike Space Marines the Custodes have never had it word by word stated that men are the only source of applicants that can be accepted, but on the other hand they have been explicitly called only as men up to this point (referred to multiple times as a "Brotherhood" and requiring "Sons of Terran nobility") and it has been very, VERY heavily implied by the codex's and real life sources that this is the case. Famously Aaron Dembski-Bowden wanted to add them in Master of Mankind, but was told not to by the Suits from GW (obviously they've changed their minds). Also unlike Space Marines they don't have Geneseed that turns them into a miniature version of their Primarch (their genetics are however based on the Emperors personal modifications that make them to him as a marine is to their primarch, making them closer to what Grey Knights can only dream of being). Nor are their genetic templates are fucked up as many Astartes chapters are over 10,000 years. It is also ironic that in the opening chapters of Master of Mankind itself, its explicit that the Custodes gene weaving happens after the Candidate developed enough to show genetic markers of their ancestry.

Chaos

• Further revisionism is making it so that more previous Chaos incursions like Pandorax or Fenris were parts of Abaddon's wider-spanning plan to form the Rift.
  • Chaos has been free to run rampant in the Imperium Nihilus, conquering various planets that had feared themselves the last of humanity while others just became secessionist empires. The few forces here fighting back (Chiefly Dante and the Lion) are but token gestures spread too thin.
• Vashtorr naturally has a decent business relationship with Perturabo, having cooperated on various nightmarish projects. They're not really friends though.
  • Vashtorr's project Wyrmwood is scouring across both the materium and the Webway in pursuit of the "lock" and the reality-altering device he's been hunting for. It's caused lots of trouble for the various forces desperately tracking it down.
• Haarken Worldclaimer is revealed to have formerly been a Night Lord who used terror and intimidation to cow worlds into subservience but felt no joy in this because it meant nothing to the Imperium at large. It wasn't until the Fifth Black Crusade that Abby met with the madman and promised him the chance to fight in more vital fronts. After the crusade ended and it being noted how costly their victory was, Haarken decided to throw his lot with the Black Legion and clawed his way to a position in the Warmaster's favor.
• The Red Corsairs have various space stations set up within the edges of realspace and warp storms. These not only work as bases, but also hubs of all sorts of pleasures that clients desire.

Xenos

Tyranids

• Hive Fleet Leviathan has made its big revenge and is swarming the Imperium from the galactic west in a path that would take them straight to Terra, right when the Imperium's forces are still concentrated in the Imperium Nihilus and unable to get back in a remotely reasonable time. It's uncertain how much their victory in Octarius helped with this.
  • One such world that was attacked was the hive world of Oghram, which was the setting for a full narrative campaign like the one set in Konor two editions ago. Determined via reporting the results of games using the Leviathan boxsets, the space bugs managed to overpower the stiff Imperial resistance and place the sub-sectors vital anchor world in peril. In more meta terms, this led to the unveiling of some brand new units as well as the revamps of older ones.

Necrons

• The Silent King, Imotekh and Cawl start a three-way battle in the Pariah Nexus that ends up with the release of Necron and Adeptus Mechanicus superweapons in a free-for-all apocalyptic war.
  • In case it wasn't obvious enough above, Imotekh has necrodermis balls big enough to refuse the Silent King's dominion and is staging his own revolt, and several Crypteks and client Dynasties of the Szarekhan Dynasty have defected to the Sautekh Dynasty out of opposition over the Silent King's usage of dishonorable doomsday weapons.

Tau

• The Chalnath Expanse, which was only mentioned once during 9E in a Kill Team box, is looking to be the edition's next big focus, as elements of the Imperium are re-prioritizing the reclamation of this region from the Tau. However, being on the bad side of the Rift makes this a little easier said than done...

The Death Knell for Firstborn

In a disappointing but not entirely unexpected move, GW has finally seen fit to squat yet more of the old shorty marines, right after they got brand new rules in the indexes. They'll be getting legends rules, but how long that will last is unforeseen. So far, the casualty list and their current logical replacements is:

• The OG plastic Dreadnought (Rolled into a Generic "Dreadnought" profile that's used by the Venerable Dreadnought Model)
• Sternguard Veterans (replaced with a less customisable Primaris Sternguard kit)
• Attack Bikes (Invader ATV)
• Bikes, Scout Bikes (Outriders, by GWs direct statements in the announcement article)
• Land Speeder, Land Speeder Typhoon, Land Speeder Tornado (Storm-speeders, however the loadouts are vastly different, as is their size and purpose)
• Stalker/Hunter dual-kit (No real analogue, but this kit isn't also known to be in high demand, even by Firstborn purists)
• Ironclad Dreadnought (See the Dreadnought above)
• Assault squad (Assault Intercessors finally got their jump packs, all it took was the imminent release of Space Marine II)
• Company Command (Getting their own updated models, though Apothecaries are forced to go it alone.)
• Scouts and Scouts Snipers (LOLNOPE WE BIGGER NOW, though the reveal implies Sniper Rifles are now special weapons, so the kit only includes 1 (which likely means 1 per 5).)
• Librarian (Primaris Librarian)
• Techmarine with servitors (Primaris equivalent for the Techie, Servitors are out of luck)
• Thunderfire cannon (None, though some have argued the Firestrike turret)
• ALL of the Forge World and Imperial Armour characters and units (None)

While some of these are hardly surprises (the Hunter/stalker were never very popular, and the Thunderfire cannon was on borrowed time being resin), the Assault Squad is likely the most damning, being part of the old core trinity of tactical/Devastator/Assault. In this humble Fa/tg/uy's opinion, I don't expect most of the firstborn to make it out of the edition. Expect the remaining OG Marines (yes, including all the no-names) to undergo a perfected Rubicon Primaris in upcoming lore.

It's also fairly galling to the Classic Space Marine fans, as one of the main reasons given to this squatting is the need to "balance and cut the fat from the Space Marine range", which completely flies in the face of the fact that since Primaris marine were introduced they have more the doubled the Space Marine range, and have typically had multiple units created to do what one classic space marine unit could do. E.G a Devastator squads can be equipped to fill anti-infantry, anti-TEQ and anti-vehicle roles, but Primaris marines had to create about 5-6 different units to fill in the "Space Marines with heavy weapons" role, but of course all of these new units had to have their own gimmicks and special rules to make them even better-er. This squatting also comes along with the fact that that another wave of Primaris marines shortly came out which both re-filled the spots that were cleared (making the claim that this was done to fix bloat a straight faced lie} and undoing any so called "balance" that squatting the classic marines did.

Though the true reason this is happening is not for balance and is clearly a far more monetarily driven decision...

Faction Refreshing and Your Dudes

10th edition is a big opportunity for GW to refresh its models, 2023 being a big year for GW as its a significant anniversary for Warhammer in general. Range refreshes include Seraphon and Cities of Sigmar, their models previously being holdovers from WHFB. Because of the development of The Old World, it's possible they're creating enough of a difference between WHFB/Old World the Empire versus AoS's Not!Empire to require you to buy separate armies. And they're not afraid to squat entire sections of a game in the pursuit of novelty, seeing as they're removing all Xenos from Aeronautica Imperialis so that they can combine their new Epic, Adeptus Titanicus, and Aeronautica games into the same extended cinematic universe game.

GW's range refreshes, placing Forgeworld into Legends (while releasing a select few of those models in plastic) and revealing which Firstborn units are going to join them in Legends, are just a part of a bigger shift to #new40k.

While models get updated and units get squatted all the time *cough*Pariahs*cough*, GW has been sending a lot of mixed messages about the actual longevity and validity of your current models  : a lot of older models can't actually be used as good proxies or counts-as because GW has been scaling up quite a bit recently (it's not just Primaris, the new IG Sentinel is on a larger base), which is why a lot of these obvious replacements are separate units, they're just too different to really be called the "same thing".

It also doesnt help that 10th has also simplified loadout options and builds, which ironically really shafts established players who bought multiple boxes to create specialized units or custom kit-bashes: customization has always been a part of Warhammer, so GW unilaterally announcing that all your special weapons are now just "Accursed Weapons", or that the army defined by having ALL THE GUNS can now only take 1-2 of each, is hard to accept when you've already built those monoweapon squads, or based your kitbashes on now-OOP, now-Legends-only units like the Mortis Dreadnought.

TL;DR GW is refreshing older models to newer units on a larger scale so that older models cant be used, except as shittier-than-index-Legends-units. While some of the new models exist as separate units, it also means our current models are living on borrowed time, because GW expects us to buy the latest kits to stay relevant.