Looking at 8th edition, there’s a quirk or two that maybe should change? If you’ve played 8th edition 40k longer than an hour, you may know what we mean.
After playing 8th edition 40k for a little over a year, we’ve all had those games where we wish a few things were different. We’ll be looking at one of those instances with characters today. So what’s the deal with characters?
The Non-Targetable Character: 40k Rules To Change
So, in 8th edition, there’s a rule in place that says characters under 10 wounds can’t be targeted unless they’re the closest unit. The idea behind that is in the heat of battle it’s hard to distinguish Space Marine from Space Marine. Bodies are constantly shifting and turning and it’s just hard to pick that one guy out of a crowd. Cool, sounds good on paper.
Now let’s move to the tabletop. We’ve all had that game where the enemy’s character is standing out in the open. I mean WIDE OPEN. Like, he’s mooning you, open. But you can’t target him because there’s a lone Tactical Marine about 10 inches closer to you.
This quirk is extremely annoying because both players feel cheesy that the game works like that. You would think that humans 40,000 years into the future would be able to spot a Chapter Master or even a Primarch standing about 20 feet behind unnamed Space Marine #43.
What’s a Solution?
The proposal to this quirk is to let characters become targetable again, but give them the ability to join units. Now to prevent your character from being completely blown apart from Knight fire (because yay meta), there could be some rules in place. Rules like your character is -1 to hit because he’s actually got bodies around him. On top of that, the unit he’ s with can perform a look out sir (like in Age of Sigmar 2.0).
In short answer, I’m saying that we bring back a little touch of 7th edition into the game.
To go even deeper, those characters could give special rules and bonuses to the unit they join. They do that in 30k and have done it in past editions of 40k. Of course, we can see characters walking up the field in blobbed infantry squads. That works, but if characters became targetable once again, we may start seeing more Rhinos and Drop Pods come into play. Of course, we may slight rule tweaks like this when the new Chapter Approved and big FAQ book comes out post-NOVA as well.
What do you think about the way character targeting works? Would you like to have your characters join units? What other ideas do you have to fix the cheesy targeting rules? Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group.
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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.
