GW Previews 10th Edition Warhammer 40k Rules Changes

By Travis Pasch | March 31st, 2023 | Categories: 10th Edition 40k, Adepticon 2023, Games Workshop Previews, Tabletop Gaming News & Rumors, Warhammer 40k

The new 10th edition of Warhammer 40k has been officially confirmed by GW, and they showed off a bunch of the rules changes as well!

Well, it looks like almost all of the rumors were true, as 10th edition is launching this summer and with free rules to boot! Alongside the launch, there will be new Terminators and Termagants models making up the new Warhammer 40k 10th Edition Starter Set!

Check the latest on 10th Edition Warhammer 40k by clicking on our article coverage below:

This is what Warhammer TV and Warhammer Community had to say about them, along with our commentary on it as well!

Reveals at AdeptiCon 2023

Fear not though, because the Warhammer Studio will also host the Warhammer Preview Online at 3:00am GMT. Trust us you will absolutely not want to miss this one – it’s going to be a real showstopper.

The reveal stream will be hosted live on Twitch and Warhammer Community, and you’ll be able to watch it later if you’re still sensibly tucked up in bed or busy working when the show goes live.

A 10 pm preview on a Wednesday night here in the states, what a time to be alive!

GW Previews 10th Edition Warhammer 40k Rules Changes

On the first day of the new edition, the rules for every datasheet in 40k will be free to download, or available to buy as convenient and portable card decks. Even your faction and army rules now take up just a couple of pages.

Well, GW is keeping to the 3-year cycle for editions. So, this means new core rules, models, and from the sounds of it, free rules! We have been asking for free rules for a long time, but they won’t stay around for the entire edition; just the index will be free…

Codexes will return in time to replace the free rules, but when they do the complexity of the game won’t increase, thanks to a one-in-one-out ethos for army and sub-faction rules. Effectively, you will only ever need your unit datasheets, the two pages of rules that govern your chosen army (available in your codex, on cards, or digitally), plus the core rules and whatever mission you’re playing.

Oh well, at least we’ll have free rules for a little now.

They showed off a new datasheet, and they said everything will always fit on one card and the rules for each army will be significantly streamlined.

Army selection is equally straightforward: pick a faction, a warlord, and the units you like (just no more than three of any one type*), and stay within your points limit. That’s it!

You no longer have to fit your army into a force organisation chart, or compromise on the army you really want. It’s a simple and liberating system, and opens the door to all kinds of fun, thematic or unusual armies.

On the rules side of things, they say everything will be simplified, and less dense. So, there will be less redundancy, and everything will be put in smaller books.

Basically, everything will be one page now, what a refreshing concept!

From the sounds of it, there will also be fewer stratagems, sub-factions, and Warlord traits.

Sub-factions will take over the initial rules; basically, everything will be on one page. Every army will only have six army-specific stratagems, along with a list of common stratagems that every army can use (which is more than the current list) and there will also be fewer CP.

All the index rules will be free on day one, along with points. You can buy data cards, but the rules themselves will be free.

The Psychic Phase will be gone; morale will be moved into the command phase (and now you can’t just straight up lose models now), there will be a battle shock phase, and psychic powers are now put into datasheets and not separate phases.

Changed Datasheets

The datasheets look a lot different, but Toughness seems to be staying in the game despite the rumors otherwise!

Building armies is much simpler as well, very similar to the Arks of Omen detachments. As you can also see, they have an OC number, which means how good they are at grabbing objectives.

So, a Knight is going to have a much more significant OC number than the Termagants. They also mention general lethality is down, the cover is going to work differently, AP is going to be rarer, and there is going to be a bigger stratification in Toughness.

They even mentioned some vehicles have Toughness over 11.

Last but not least, they said Boarding Patrols will still be in the game, and Combat Patrols will actually be able to play against each other with preset lists (whatever comes in the box).

Check out the latest Warhammer 40k rumors for the rest of the 9th and even 10th Edition, new releases, and more!

Click Gallery below for full-size images.

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Here’s the most up-to-date list of new Games Workshop bits from preview models that we should watch out for. Click on the gallery above to see dozens of Rumor Engines with new models still to be revealed!

All the Latest Warhammer Rules & Model Rumors

What do you think about the new reveals at the 2023 AdeptiCon preview? Are you excited about 10th edition?

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