The Present

I've been into 40k now for 33 years.  I love the lore and the IP that Games Workshop has developed over the years, and I have collected multiple iterations of multiple armies (Space Wolves, Grey Knights, and Orks).  I've also played games in every edition, all the way back to Rogue Trader.  Although the 3rd through 7th editions were 'evolutionary,' every edition change brought about pretty big shifts in how the game is played, as well as how effective units and even armies would be on the tabletop.

Although I have always loved 'The Game,' 40k has always been complex, with pretty significant barriers to entry.  Each edition has comprised a pretty large body of work in the form of Rule Books, Codexes, and Supplements, as well as the inevitable Errata and FAQ documents.  An additional, frustrating, feature of 40k is that the Codexes have always been slowly released over time throughout the lifecycle of every edition; some factions wait years to get an updated Codex, only for it to be released right at the end of an edition.  Even worse, some factions don't even get an update with every edition - for example, neither Grey Knights nor Space Wolves had an army book for the 4th or 6th editions of the game.

An additional negative feature of the army book release cycle method GW continues to use, which is particularly noteworthy in the current, 9th edition of the game, is the aspect known as "Codex Creep," in which each new Codex seems to be intentionally designed to outperform those that came before.  As you can see from the attached pic, from a competitive standpoint, the current power/meta faction is the Tyranids, having taken 7 out of 12 possible 'Top 3' placements in the four large events from this past weekend (late May, 2022).

 

From a business standpoint, this approach makes sense - after all, in addition to 'The Game' itself, Games Workshop makes money by selling Models and selling Books.  What better way to sell new books and new models than to encourage purchases by making new books and new models give players a leg-up over their adversaries - particularly when 'The Game' has become so focused on competitive play.  The strategy is understandable, but pretty frustrating to those that aren't into a meta-chasing style of play.

Leaving codex creep aside for a moment, I must return to the larger issue with 40k, which is its complexity.  Keeping up with 40k right now is like a full-time job.  What do you need to pull off a pickup game with a stranger at the FLGS?  Although there are options for 'Open' and 'Narrative' play, those are alternatives that work best among friends; the default version of the game is the 'Matched Play' system, which tends to focus on balanced play between evenly-matched armies in symmetrical scenarios, so that's what you're most likely going to be playing at our hypothetical pickup game. 

To start with, you need the Rules of the game itself, captured (mostly) in the 'Core Book' you can expect to find about 69 pages of 'core' rules, plus another 24 pages of 'matched play' rules, plus another 4 pages of 'rare' rules at the end of the book.  Next, you're going to need your faction's Codex, and in some cases the Codex Supplement for your faction - that's the case for the Space Wolves, for example, which has their own supplement, but also players have to refer to the base Codex Space Marines for many of their available units and additional rule options.  Next, you'll need the latest edition of 'Chapter Approved,' which comprises the Munitorium Field Manual with the latest points costs for every unit and option in the game, and the Grand Tournament Missions pack.  Finally, you'll need the latest FAQ/Errata document for the Core Book, your army's Codex and Supplement, as well as the latest Big FAQ for the game.  Wow, that's a lot of book-keeping - you might need to hire a CPA. 

Once you’ve collected that huge assortment of rules, just to play the game with your chosen army, now what?  You’ve got to figure out how to plan out your army for the match, and make the right choices to give you a chance at being successful in the actual game.  Before a single unit has been deployed to the table-top the odds of success are greatly diminished if a player fails to pick: the right Secondary Missions, the right Chapter Tactics (in the case of Space Marines), the right Warlord Traits, the right Chapter Command upgrades, the right pre-game Stratagems, the right Relics, the right Psychic Powers, the right Litanies of Battle, and so on.  If your opponent optimizes his army list, but you fail to, you’re already a significant disadvantage.  And just look at that laundry list of things that you have to keep track of during a battle.

Because all of these pre-game choices can have such a large impact, it’s easy to understand why “metagaming” has always been so closely associated with 40k.  There are whole sectors of the internet dedicated to player analysis of army list creation. Hundreds of Facebook pages, dozens of Reddit subforums, and dedicated legacy web-spaces such as the Bolter and Chainsword and Dakka Dakka, all exist to provide a venue for players to figure out how to get all of those choices listed in the paragraph above just right.  And every time a new codex is released, the meta shifts, and everyone has to figure how that shift affects all of those choices all over again.

What does this all mean for your preferred army?  It means that much of the time units and models that you really enjoy, that you’d like to use on the tabletop, aren’t particularly effective or efficient, and are best left on the shelf.  Instead, in order to have a hope of competing, even in a relatively casual setting, you’re stuck in a constant cycle of buying and building new units that currently ‘work well,’ even when they might not be units that you particularly enjoy.

Now think for a minute about how all of that complexity, that unnecessary bloat, affects the accessibility to this game.  Because I spend too much of my time trying to keep up with it, I could probably jump in and play a casual game every now and then, and not feel like a complete idiot.  However, there’s no way I could bring in an old gaming buddy, who still has his model collection from the good old days, and try to pull off a game over a long weekend - there simply isn’t time to spool him up on everything.  Sure, we could try to play with just a few units per side, and cut out all of the Traits, Relics, Stratagems, and Secondaries, etc., but that wouldn’t really “scratch the itch,” so to speak.

So, I’m at the point where I can’t keep up - I feel like I’m three laps behind the rest of the player base and have neither the time nor the will to try to catch up.  After 33+ years in the hobby, I’m done with Warhammer 40k.