I’m pretty stoked about the latest reveals and releases by Games Workshop at the NOVA open, but the one thing that got my attention was the impending transition of 40k models to Warhammer Legends. (link: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/08/29/breaking-news-sisters-psykers-and-skeletonsgw-homepage-post-4/)
“With so much awesome stuff on the way for Warhammer 40,000, you might be wondering what’s happening to some of the treasured older models that previously had rules in our Index books. While these might not have a place in our codexes any more, we know that they definitely have a place in your hearts, which is why you’ll be delighted to hear that we’ll be supporting them FOREVER with Warhammer Legends.
Your Imperial Space Marine? Rules, FOREVER. Your Chaplain on Bike? You can use him until actual Space Marine Chaplains on actual Space Marine bikes are invented in the year 30,000.** And, to top it all off, they’ll be getting points, meaning if that’s how you like to balance your games, we’ve got you covered.
Every year, we review all of the points values (for all of the units) in Warhammer 40,000. We won’t be doing this for the Warhammer Legends, though. Once we’ve assigned them their final points, they won’t be part of that ongoing balance review – and we won’t be recommending Legends units for competitive tournaments. This means that event organisers and attendees alike can guarantee everything they’re gaming with is easily available and has been subject to the same rigorous balance and playtesting process. Of course, organisers are also free to run Legends events, allowing the use of the full classic range in their games. “
As mentioned in the post, Legends models will be point costed but not recommended for competitive play (i.e. not tournament legal), and their points will never be reviewed. In essence, GW is taking the game design step of not catering to past models and their abilities, and instead building a new game design and meta around current models.
This is a big thing launched in a soft way. The last time GW did this, they blew up the Old World of Fantasy Battles to launch Age of Sigmar with new models and rules and points. Part of the transition to AoS was also to build new IP which they can get better profits from, but part of it was to also reset the gameplay balance of fantasy.
40k already has a great IP going; its universe is instantly recognizable as unique and has spawned many copies. Using Legends to retire models that no longer have a place in the game play design seems to be a great way to soft reboot 40k; introducing new ranges, rules and points without worrying about the 1% of players who have their favourite unit type from 2 decades ago. It also means that GW doesn’t have to blow up the Imperium to start balancing rules better.
