GW just shed more light on how Matched Play game sizes will work in 9th Edition 40k, example points changes, Command Points, and more!
Warhammer Community just revealed how many Command Points each player will get depending on the game size they play. On top of that, they’re giving some teasers on Secondary Objectives and missions that we’ll see in the new Edition. We’ve got a lot to cover so let’s dive in.
Here’s the most recent previews in case you missed them.
- Crusade: a New Way to Play 9th Edition 40k
- Online 40k 9th Edition Rules Reveals Q&A
- 9th Edition Turn Phases & Mechanic Rules
- 9th Edition 40k FAQ: Reveals What’s Changing & More
GW Reveals 40k 9th Edition Matched Play & Points Changes
As we’ve talked about before, your Command Points don’t depend on detachments anymore. Instead, both players will be given the same CP regardless of faction. For 2,000 points which is easily the most popular game size for Matched Play, we’ll all be getting 12 CP. Custodes players can breathe easy as they don’t have to ration 5CP in their games anymore!
GW Has Their Own Secondary Objectives
Yet even though the missions each share a primary objective, the secondary objectives are asymmetrical, and are actually chosen by the players themselves. The primary represents the shared story on the battlefield, while the secondaries represent your army’s theme and help balance tough matchups.
If you’re familiar with the ITC format in 40k, you should be no stranger to Secondary Objectives. Well, it looks like GW caught on and came up with their own Secondaries that players will choose between.
While the ITC missions give you a max of 4 points per Secondary, the way this is worded, it seems like you can get a max of 15 points for each Secondary. That’s astronomically higher than what we’re used to seeing scored.
There are a number of categories of secondary objectives you may choose from pre-game, but you can’t select more than one from any given category. Take a look at some examples from the standard categories available to all players (don’t worry, we’ll see faction-specific ones in the future).
A new Psychic Power is on the way called Mental Interrogation with a WC4. Keep your eyes peeled for more on this as we get closer to 9th’s release.
It looks like each objective is worth more than one Victory Points as we were talking about earlier. But what’s really cool about all of these Secondaries that were teased, we know that faction-specific Secondaries are also on the way. It’ll be interesting to see if the ITC will adopt these Secondaries or if these two Secondary lists will be kept apart from each other.
New Mechanics Hinted At For In-Game Depth
The new edition also adds actions to Warhammer 40,000. Traditionally, your models could either stand near objectives or shoot/punch. No longer! Now you can perform rituals, plant homing beacons, raise banners on key objectives and more. This creates dynamic moments where you may need to decide between firing at the enemy or bravely accomplishing a mission.
We don’t know a lot on what this will look like. However, if we had to take a guess, this will be some kind of trade-off system. For ecamble, if you raise a banner on a key objective, you probably won’t be able to shoot. However, you’ll score more points. That’s just our shot in the dark.
New Mission Revealed: The Four Pillars
Missions will come with different Primary and Secondary objectives with a key note being that they are capped at 15 points. This is to prevent one alpha-strike army from securing the early game and ultimately controlling the board all the way through the end.
If you look at this mission-specific Secondary, you can have units in your army start an action at the end of the movement phase. Once it rolls back around to your Command Phase, you’ll score a certain number of points.
Keeping the same deployment as we’ve seen before, they’ve laid out guides on where to place objectives. This looks A LOT like ITC content that’s currently super popular.
Finally…Points Values
We’ve also gotten a points teaser and it looks like Intercessors and Cultists are both going up two points per model. In the grand scheme of things, Cultist spam lists are about to get a lot more expensive in the grand scheme of things. Meanwhile, lists that rely on Intercessors might also have to drop a unit to make up for the points increase. Both units are going up three and two points per model respectively.
Finally, as part of developing the new edition, points values were reviewed and have been adjusted UP across every faction. This may sound odd at first, but it yields several benefits. Firstly, games will play faster with, generally speaking, smaller armies on either side. This also makes starting a fresh army for the new edition a more accessible, quicker experience. It also means there’s room for more granularity when establishing how powerful one unit or ability is compared to another, and a global points reset ensures everyone starts in the same place on Day 1, with no established meta or ‘best army’.
40k Army Builder App Goes Live Same Day As Pre-Orders
On top of all this foundational 9th Edition news, GW mentioned that the app will be going live the same day as pre-orders.
On the same day that the Warhammer 40,000 pre-orders go live, a new app will be launched alongside it, providing several cool features to help you, including a full matched play army builder. The new app will do a number of things to assist players with their games, but one of the most useful will be the ability to build army lists using the updated points values and Detachments.
Before we even get a rulebook in our hands. it looks like we’ll be able to start plugging units into the app and seeing their updated points cost!
With all of this on the table, 9th Edition is definitely gassing up the community. Keep your eyes peeled for more as all of this develops.
With points going up, games could be getting smaller. Do you think smaller-sized games will make for a more fun experience even for 40k matched play in 9th edition?
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials: @RealmbrushPainting
About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
