Games Workshop Explain 40k 8th Edition Datasheets
May 11, 2017 by brennon
Games Workshop has been continuing to deliver snippets of information on the new edition of Warhammer 40,000. Their latest sneak peeks into the future of the game came with the role of Datasheets in the game.
The Warhammer Community Blog focused in on the Datasheets for the Rubic Marines. Here you can see how their stat lines work within the larger picture, framed against their abilities, weapons and more.
Noticeably it is very similar to the design of the Age of Sigmar Warscrolls where everything is self-contained rather than split amongst multiple tomes. Even weapon statistics are recorded here so you don't have to flick between books.
You'll also notice the abundance of keywords listed at the bottom as well for both the game at large and the army themselves. It's kind of cool that they're called Heretic Astartes no too. Weapons are then dealt out in a similar fashion as before and the Power Rating increases the units 'cost' as you add more into the mix.
Characters & Infantry
In addition, earlier posts from the last couple of days focused in on the role of Infantry and Characters. The big news was that Characters no longer join units so can't hide from firepower. However, if a Character with ten wounds or less is not the closest target the enemy must fire at a different one - the maelstrom of battle and all that.
We also got to see the toned down and simplified To Wound Chart.
This spells it out nicely and while not a massive departure from what we've seen before it should be a little easier for new players to get their head around. No need for a matrix anymore!
What do you make of the new Datasheets and the way Characters and Infantry work now?
"Noticeably it is very similar to the design of the Age of Sigmar Warscrolls where everything is self-contained rather than split amongst multiple tomes..."
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Like that a lot. My friend has a large collection of Rubric Marines, so he should be very pleased when he sees this.
If I’m reading things right, when adding extra models to a unit it costs the same ammount regardless of how many minis you add to it within a certain range (e.g. it costs 6 power regardless of whether you add three Rubricae or five). Also, are the weapon upgrades free? I can’t see any so I’m guessing a unit of ten automatically gets a soul reaper for nothing for example. I haven’t been keeping up with AoS, so no idea if these questions can be answered by what’s been implemented for that. From the main article, it also sounds like… Read more »
It looks like the ‘upgrades’ are ‘free’. I use quotation marks because from what i can see replacing one weapon with another is not necessarily better nor worse, and all options have pros and cons, with the exception of the Soulreaper Cannon, for which the unit must meet certain requirements ( ten models ) and which is further limited to one Rubric Marine ( of the ten required ). So to me it looks like these aren’t ‘upgrades’ so much as options that come with the cost of losing the weapon they are replacing ( rather than points or power… Read more »
I think the “Power Level” is purely for a semblance of balance in games where you just want to chuck a load of models on the table and fight, not spend hours working out army lists. All of the upgrades are free so much like AoS things will get out of hand quickly if either player decided to do some min-maxing. Its not so bad for Rubricae but once you get into squads with options for serious firepower at a high cost, free weapon options can get daft. (looking at you 7th ed War Convocation). Hopefully there will be more… Read more »
Yea, I’m liking this new edition the more I see. My Orks look like they are happy, too. 😛
Orks are dumb and always look happy
No Orks are Cunnin’ not dumb (otherwise Mork doesn’t have a sphere of influence … don’t do that to poor Mork) 🙂
I, as a ancient player who played from 3rd to early 6th Edition (1 or maybe 2 games in 6th) then stop completely… I pretty much love everything about 8th. Nearly, we’ll see that in action and I kinda regret they not go for the alternate Player actions in a single turn… But well, I have Antares for that. 🙂 And for the notice, they will talk more about “Power Level” and “Points” tomorrow. Power level are for a quick balance for narrative games, so without weapon costs. But yes, weapon costs and equipement will be in “Points” for Competitive… Read more »
That’s great to hear. I am a solely Narrative player of any game, competition is’nt my thing at all where the tabletop is concerned.
If what your saying is true, why would this data sheet not have the competitive points listed on it and only the narrative power level system? I don’t think this will have a points system like before as it did make the game tedious in the army building stage.
Personally I like the idea of group costs with gear accounted for in that group cost. But I do wonder can it really work if a weapon is so powerful that adding it to the squad will dramatically alter the balance should be of no cost?
They’ve said that there will be two points systems – the power level one we see here, which allows people to get a quick and simple rough idea of balance if that’s what they want, and also a more granular system for competitive play where I guess you will pay for all the upgrades. I guess the detailed points are not on the datasheet because they might take up a lot of extra space, and the sheet is already quite busy. Also, the sheet is an in-game reference tool, so you don’t need the points for that. They’ve said they… Read more »
So these guys get two saves ?
One at 3+ and another one at 5+ ?
Isn’t that a bit over kill ?
I think the point cost for the additional units could have been worded a bit better.
Simply stating +6 power per additional 5 marines, maximum 15 models in a squad.
Then again … the way it is worded you don’t need to calculate any points costs
Since at least 4th or 5th ed it used to be 3+/4++, so there’s long standing precedent. Also, unless they’ve changed things, the invun save doesn’t kick in unless the armour save is nullified/made worse than the invun save, so it’s only going to be good against stuff that has a -3 or better save modifier.
And technically ‘All is Dust’ makes it effectively 2+/4++ against most weapons (before modifiers).
In the editions i played they would have had two armour saves. It was great. The points reflected this level of resilience. I like my marines tough and rare.
It’s a maximum of 20 Marines in this squad.
The datasheets are a great idea and worked really well for AoS. But the design is hideous, like something someone made in excel. AoS had the nice stat wheel and some other elements that made the sheet easy to look at not just a stat dump with too much going on.
Agree on the ‘design’. They badly need to check the typography. E.g. the headline font’s D is horrible. It’s looking like an O or 0 and that confusion is not acceptable for an essential profile stat. And, please, you need to use open space as an arranging element supporting viewer’s comfort. I’d propably rework the whole hierarchical structure anyway. Putting together what you need in game in the same kind of moment. E.g. doesn’t make much sense gamingwise to have the model’s stats separated from it’s weapon stats. So put the unit stats next to their weapon opions’ stats, then… Read more »
That wound table looks really short and simple compared to previous one.
I hope that units that are scarce in the 40K narrative have that scarcity reflected in the rules for adding them to your army. To some extent ( last time i looked ) they do this with unique units and characters, which have a limit of 1. With units that aren’t unique but are none the less scarce this could be reflected in a unit specific rules, for example a rule that reads something like this: “Maximum 1 [ whatever ] unit per X [ whatever ] units in your army”. Is this done in the current edition of WH40K?… Read more »