Is it happening? Will Psychic Awakening’s Blood of Baal lead to a more a melee focused 40k meta ahead. Check out these key reasons why it’s teetering on the edge.
Relatively speaking, 40k has historically been a shooting-heavy game. It turns out that around 70-80% of the time, you’re better off hanging back and shooting at your opponent. If one of you has to cover 30+ inches of ground before you do any damage, you’re already a turn behind. It’s mainly a shooting meta because most of the players are using shooting units. But with Psychic Awakening: Blood of Baal up next, we may see melee factions get stuck in a bit better than before.
Editor’s note: 80% of statistics are made up.
Two Hugely Popular Melee Factions Are Getting Updated
Blood Angels and Tyranids, both melee-centric factions compared to most other 40k factions are coming in the same supplement book: Blood of Baal. While the jury is still out on what kind of support we’ll be getting exactly, if it’s anything like Faith and Fury, we can expect a new Doctrine bonus (probably in the Assault Doctrine), relics, and Warlord Traits.
For the Tyranids, we might be seeing new Psychic powers and mix of other surprise bonus rules. It’s difficult to tell what kind of support they’ll get exactly. They’ve needed an update for a while and there hasn’t been too much talk about them just yet. The default for the faction is that they are able to spam glass cannon units like Carinfexes, Genestealers, etc. and smash into things way quicker than anyone ever really expects.
Other Factions Are Making Headway for a Melee Meta
Factions like Night Lords World Eaters, Black templars, and White Scars are already geared up by GW to be focused on melee. Their major weak point is that they have to get into melee before doing a majority of their potential damage output. Under the sheer weight of shooting from competitive Tau, Necron, and other Space Marine lists, it’s a difficult meta for them to shine.
For an absolutely horrifying melee-damage example, A single White Scars Chaplain with The Strike Off the Dead Litany gives a 6″ aura of rerolling ALL wounds.
You can also spend a CP to give your Chaplain another Litany to make him a toolbox for whatever problem you might face once you get into the thick of it.
Once it’s all said and done, as long as the Assault Doctrine is active, that means that a chain sword-geared squad of something like Vanguard Vets will be swinging with a four-attack total S4 -1 AP 2-damage flat sword: rerolling all hits and wounds. (And that’s just a single model).
As we said, three factions are already equipped for heavy melee. And with two more hugely popular factions getting support, it might tip the scales for players jumping to more melee-focused lists. What do you think lies ahead for the meta? Would you like to see it shift to a melee focus?
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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.
