Tournaments have begun banning certain 10th Edition Warhammer 40k rules, starting with the TOs who banned Votann in 2022…
There has been plenty of talk about the new Warhammer 40k 10th Edition ruleset and what people like and don’t, but this tournament in Germany is taking things to the next level and actually banning some rules in games.
According to the statement, these Tournament Organizers were also ones who banned Votann back when they launched in 2022 and were causing an uproar with rules that were perceived as “broken.”
We’ll see if other tournaments follow suit, but we’re expecting a big FAQ on both the datasheets and the core rules from GW soon, hopefully. Or if you like your tin-foil, perhaps this is all just a big playtest from Games Workshop to crowdsource changes to the 10th Edition Warhammer 40k rules in real-time.
Obviously, this is a new edition, and some things are bound to need adjustments. We’ve talked before about GW playtesting, and how it is basically impossible to truly balance this many factions and datasheets with their current team, but let’s hope these tournaments give GW a little hint at what needs to be changed so players can start playing 10th Edition tournaments with rules that feel like they are balanced.
10th Edition 40k Tournament Bans: Here’s What’s Broken
This situation in 10th is quite odd because, with the balance Dataslates for 9th Edition, they actually seemed to have the game in a decent spot in terms of balance. While Leagues of Votann got banned from tournaments upon release, GW really seemed to take quick action and make some big changes.
However, this quote from Blood of Kittens is a good summary of the situation:
They have been working on 10th edition for two years, which means they started moving on from 9th edition after just one year into release. This partially explains why they decided to stick with outdated interactions for certain units and factions.
This is really the only way things would make sense, as their team for 9th Edition was obviously aware of the issues with the game and tried to fix them. However, when you think about the 10th Edition team working off two-year-old data (and not taking the Dataslates into account), the overall picture of why we are having these issues starts to become more clearer.
Blood of Kittens elaborated more:
It’s as if they didn’t even glance at the balance dataslates released in the past two years to prevent interactions that should never happen again. It’s clear that the rules team doesn’t check each other’s work either thoroughly. You can easily imagine how each member gets certain parts, factions, and rules without a good peer review system in place to fix problems.
This leads to people like Stu Black running around in interviews, talking out the side of his mouth, while plausibly having no clue how broken parts of Warhammer 40k 10th edition are.
The rule lag is accurate, and perhaps if they reviewed the latest fixes to 9th Edition and kept up with them, we would have a more balanced game now, especially considering this is their 10th try!
However, GW also said there would be fewer re-rolls and like mechanics in this edition, but basically, every army has the option for huge re-rolls. They said auras would make for fewer re-rolls (and the auras aren’t maybe the problem), but Space Marines have Oath of Moment, Eldar gets all the re-rolls, Drukhari has pain tokens, etc. \
There really are just some crazy combos out there, and tournament TOs have taken things into their own hands already with custom house rules and bannings per event.
This video from Vanguard Tactics with Stuart Black has some really good questions, but it’s interesting to see him say the game is basically the way he wants it, and if had thought of anything to change, they would have already done it.
He does also mention they have worked on this for two years, really highlighting the points from Blood of Kittens. He thinks the game is in a great spot, but tournament organizers seem to have a much different theory.
Current 10th Edition Warhammer 40k Tournament Bans
Blood of Kittens sums up the current 10th Edition Warhammer 40k Tournament Bans and issues in this missive:
Now we live in a world where Titanic units can see everything, Indirect Fire is broken again, Mortal Wounds are a problem again, turning off saves might be an issue, cover and line of sight interactions are confusing, how does Assault work again, Anti-x counting as Critical Wounds, half the Battleshock abilities don’t function, tears of Overwatch, Lone Operative shenanigans, and so on. That doesn’t even begin to discuss other related issues like Forge World Legends units or the mistakes/obsolescence of the new Datasheet Cards.
Then we have the latest house rules and bannings for 10th Edition Warhammer 40k rules tournaments for the Münsterland GT and as they said, don’t shoot the messenger.
The group that decided to “ban Votann in Germany” (meaning a hand full of very handsome TOs and players) reassembled in these grim times of Warhammer 40k in order to restore the fun for their community. After careful consideration they decided the following houserules to be applicable on their tournaments. This list is by no means enough to extinguish the dumpsterfire that 10th edition looks to be by now, but it is the first step into the direction of making the game fun again.
Unless GW fixes the plentiful issues of 10th edition themselves in a timely manner, starting with the first 10th edition GT in Germany (Münsterland GT) we will use the following houserules in order to make the game enjoyable for all players:
- [Towering] has no impact on measuring line of sights (measure as with every other model)
- Wraithknights Heavy Wraithcannons lose the [Devastating Wounds] ability
- Fatedice are limited to one dice per unit per phase
- [Indirect] fire suffers the same penalty as in 9th edition (-1BS and +1 to save) in addition to any other applicable rules like cover, [Stealth], etc. and cannot benefit from the +1 to hit for being [Heavy] when fired without line of sight (model wise)
- Thousand Sons “Twist of Fate” Cabal Ritual is modified to “any armour saving throws of the unit are modified by -2” instead
- The range of the “Fire Overwatch” stratagem is reduced to 12” and only visible units can be shot
- Mortal Wounds from a single unit are capped at 6 MW per unit per phase when targeted at a non-Monster or non-Vehicle unit, any additional wounds e.g. with Assault Canons are then handled as normal (saves can be made etc.)
- Models can move over and stay on objectives without limitations (as per 9th)
- Lone Operative and similar abilities are subject to investigation of how to fix them best (tbd.)
This should be seen as a first try to restore the fun of Warhammer 40k in these grim times. It might be subject to change after the first results and/or actions done by GW themselves.
Whether you agree or disagree with the rules, there may be some problems with TOs making so many changes to the game. As one commenter pointed out, GW is probably using these early tournaments as testing grounds for 10th. However, with GW not making the changes, maybe TOs do, so the tournaments are more balanced.
If people change so many things, it could easily throw off the balance of the datasheets, and GW might have a more challenging time deciding what to actually change. It also seems like these “home rules” really seem to change the essence of the 10th, such as changing Towering, objectives, and Lone Operative.
Bugeater GT
This is hot on the heals of Bugeater GT banning Eldar rules as well from their upcoming Warhammer 40k 10th Edition event:
Regardless, things will be a little wonky if you’re playing a tournament within a couple of months of a new edition release. So we’ll have to wait and see where Games Workshop and tournaments take the game of 10th Edition over the next few weeks…
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
