Games Workshop just gave us a nice rundown on how the Battle-forged armies are going to work in the new 8th edition of Warhammer 40k.
Spoiler alert! Formations are a thing of the past! Instead of formations and detachments you’re now going to have Battle-forged armies. Lets see what Warhammer Community had to say about it.
If your army is built using Formations right now, you’re going to be fine. In their place are a dozen new game-wide Detachments that are available to all factions. These are flexible enough that all of your current forces can be fit into them to form a Battle-forged army. The advantage of these is that all factions now have an even playing field of list building mechanics, rather than some having loads and some having to stick with the trusty Combined Arms option for every game.
These detachments are made up of a combination of 9 unit types, which will look very familiar to anyone who has played Warhammer 40,000 in the past two decades. Some you’ll recognise from Space Marines company markings and the classic Combined Arms detachment of today, plus Lords of War, Fortifications and the new one – Flyers, now with their own slot.
These Detachments come with a few benefits and restrictions. The most common restriction is that all units in a single Detachment must share a faction keyword (Tyranid, Blood Angels or Imperium for example). The most common bonus is that, depending on how optimised your army is for the logistics of war, you’ll get Command Points to spend. We’ll cover exactly what these can do for you soon, but trust us when we say they are incredibly useful if used wisely, and you generally get more of them if your army is a well rounded and balanced force.
Here are a few examples:
These are just a taste of the options available.
Battle-forged armies can be used with our without points, and we fully expect gamers playing matched or narrative play games to use these in most situations as they tend to create effective armies on the tabletop that also fit the background and lore of the setting. Matched play actually has a few extra rules too, designed for competitive events, which organisers can choose to use when setting the rules for Battle-forged armies – limits on the number of separate Detachments is one example.
So Detachments are made up of a combination of nine unit types. We’re getting a good look at how the Detachment, depending on which one you take, affects the amount of Command Points you will receive, which we still haven’t seen yet. Battle-forged armies can be used with or without points to give you more options.
Question is, how will points work in regards to units fitting into these detachments?
Check back with us tomorrow when they reveal “more news from the new Warhammer 40,000”. What could that mean?
What do you think about the new Battle-forged armies? Let us know your thoughts on it all in the comments below.
