Games Workshop has given us another preview leading up to the release of 8th. Come take a look at the latest on reserves, points and Power Levels.
Warhammer Community just revealed some points, power levels, and how they are going to work in 8th edition, let’s see what they had to say.
Yesterday, we saw that Datasheets include something called a Power Level. This is a rough approximation of a unit’s relative effectiveness on the battlefield. These can be used to very quickly throw together two roughly equal forces to fight a battle. Or, in the case of some narrative and open play scenarios, will determine who takes what role in the game. For example, if you’re playing the “Ambush” mission, the side with the highest total Power Level for their army will always play the role of the attacker, where the smaller enemy force will need to escape the trap.
Power Levels are a great way to very quickly get a roughly balanced game organised and started, but they do not account for the various wargear options and upgrades a unit can have. For this level of granularity, you have points. These will be just as detailed as they are now, right down to points for individual weapon upgrades on every squad member. For example, a Tactical Marine Squad of five models is Power Level 5, but in a matched play game, each of those Tactical Marines would cost 13 points each, with upgrades ranging from a grav-pistol for the Sergeant at 7 pts, all the way up to multi-meltas at 27 pts. The full squad totals up at a similar number of points to what it costs today. With faster play times for most games, we’re expecting matched play games of a couple of hours to sit around the 2,000 points mark.
In matched play, your points will be capped across the whole game. So if you’re planning to summon units to the battlefield, you will need to set points aside to do this. You won’t need to specify what the points will be for though, so this does leave you with your options open and if during the game, you decide that what you really need is a fast combat unit instead of a durable objective holder, you’ll be able to summon the right tool for the job, points permitting. You will no longer be able to indefinitely replicate Daemon units, and instead, summoning will be used more as an alternative mechanism of deployment, much like deep striking or outflanking is today (both of which exist in their own forms in the new Warhammer 40,000 too).
The points for units don’t appear on the datasheet but will be elsewhere in the same book. This is because you don’t need them to play if you don’t want, which frees up room to include more rules for weapons on the datasheet. It also means that, in the future, points for units could change without invalidating existing books – so if one unit or weapon starts to dominate tournaments, or certain units don’t seem to be carrying their weight in competitive games, we can address the balance.
Games Workshop is defining the Power Level as a rough approximation of a unit’s relative effectiveness on the battlefield. The Power Level is going to help determine who plays what role in different missions during open play. They used the Ambush mission as an example of this, the player with the weaker Power Level is the one who has to escape the ambush. Power Levels do not factor in wargear options and upgrades a unit can have, instead points will be used. Every upgrade on every squad member will add to the total point cost of a unit, but only if you’re using Matched Play rules…
During a matched play game your points will be capped. You will need to set aside points for anything you plan on bringing, or summoning, onto the table after setup. The cool thing is that you’re not required to disclose to your opponent what those points are going to be used for. So you still get to keep an element of surprise and it also allows you to make your decision on what unit to bring on depending on your needs at that time during the game.
The days in indefinitely summoning Daemons are over just like the <add prefix>-star, but you can be more tactical with your reserve choices it seems like.
The point values for units will not appear on their Datasheets, but will instead will be available in a different part of the same book. It’s going to free up space on the Datasheets so they can include more rules and weapons. This will also allow for Games Workshop to make changes to the points if something starts to become unbalanced without invalidating anymore codex books.
Check back with us tomorrow when they give us another piece of the lore to the new edition.
What are your thoughts on the new Power Level and points information? Let us know in the comments below.
