Today we’re going to be talking about why I think we don’t need any more new editions of Age of Sigmar or Warhammer 40k.
Does Games Workshop ever have to put out a new edition?
Games Workshop is notorious for doing complete rules revamps, labeling it as some kind of new edition, and next thing you know we, the players, are spending more money on books and learning new rules systems. But does it really need to be that way?
There’s a way for Games Workshop to make money, and at the same time save us a little, while keeping the rules we’re familiar with. The progression from 2nd edition 40k to 7th edition was a long bumpy road, and it got to the point where it was hard for new players to get started without having at least four college classes under their belt in 40k. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.
GW realized this, did a complete rules reset, 8th edition was released, and voila, everyone is happy again.
But how can we keep it that way??
One of the easiest things Games Workshop can do is simply drop a new campaign supplement to keep the ball rolling and engage with their player base who is also their chief financial resource.
Currently, we have a great foundation of easy to understand and play rules for both Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar. Malign Portents just came out and gave a nice makeover on Age of Sigmar without changing the rules structure, but still drawing people back in. Granted, I think they could’ve done a better job with the Malign Portents previews, but that’s neither here nor there.
So, here’s my proposal: Games Workshop can drop a new Chapter Approved or General’s handbook AND a campaign book each year for both games, alternating quarters. Pretty much it would be AoS Q1 and Q3, with an then a 40k campaign book and Chapter Approved coming out Q2 and Q4, or vice versa.
This will keep the players interested, keep the games always progressing forward, and there won’t be a need to completely change the rules on us.
Then, every three to four years, they can make a collaboration of all of the content that was dropped in the Campaign and Chapter Approved books, put them in one book, call it the MKII supplement or something catchy, and sell that as an all in one book type of deal.
MK II Updated with all Chapter Approved & Campaign Books?
Now, at the same time, this would be the perfect opportunity to release new starters for both, remodel existing minis, and this will, in turn, keep us, the players, happy because we love new minis whether they’re just remodeled or not. Technology is always getting better, so why not take some of the old casts that could use some TLC, redo them, and give the players what they want? I know the Xenos players out there wouldn’t complain about that one…
Plus in between the 3-4 year rules supplement re-drops you can do the same thing for all the codex books as well.
Codex Books MK II, Now contains Marbo, Eisenhorn & updated points costs!
What are your thoughts? Is this something you would like to see go into effect? Or do you like the rules resets that we’ve been getting every couple years? Let us know in the comments below.
