Well folks, here we are – the prophesied coming of the new age… 9th Edition. I’d heard rumours a few months ago, though a lot of that sounded like speculation. However, today’s the day that we’ve had it confirmed!
What a way to launch a new edition!
From how I understand things, this isn’t strictly a new edition in the sense of 8th Edition, however. More like Age of Sigmar 2.0, this will be a sort of improvement on 8th, streamlining the rules and amalgamating a lot of the new content from Psychic Awakening with the existing codexes, and giving us a new narrative system called Crusade. This last seems like the new thing, providing a way for armies to grow over a campaign, where previous battles matter. That sounds really cool, I must say!
New models are of course a given, and it seems that we’re going to be getting Space Marines vs Necrons in what is likely to be a starter box for the new edition. However, this little beauty is, well… something else…
I honestly never thought we’d get a Silent King, and even with the teaser from a couple of days ago, I was still thinking of the ways in which we might see something else besides a model. But no!
Oh my…
It looks like we’re possibly in for another of these centrepiece models like Katakros for the Ossiarch Bonereapers, or the Triumph of St Katherine. Despite having read a few complaints about these types of diorama-models from the more competitive crowd, who mainly seem to dislike them for transport, they’re clearly quite popular as eye-catching focal points for a collection. I really hope it’s going to be magnificent, and I can’t wait to get one for my collection!
So, this is very interesting. 8th Edition was the first edition I was there for the launch of, having gotten into 40k a couple of months slightly after 7th Edition had landed. There were a lot of promises for the rules to be streamlined in 8th, and by and large that held true for a while, but obviously the additions of the Vigilus campaign, and now Psychic Awakening, have caused a lot of bloat. So we’re definitely in need of some fat-trimming. The video talks about more command points for all, though the stream seemed to imply that you’ll have to use CP to pay for out-of-army allies, which is fine with me because I’d still like to try to play allied armies. We’ll see how that plays out though.
There are definitely some interesting ideas in this preview, though I’m not entirely sure just yet how I feel about the new edition. I mean, I don’t plan on getting out of the hobby, so it’s not like I’m mad about it or anything. But I’m feeling a curious sense of relief, or a sense of having a fresh start… I mean, it seems like the perfect time to thin out the ranks of some of my models, and focus down on those armies that I want to keep…
Necrons are, of course, top of my list, as they always will be, and I’m excited that we’re getting new stuff at last. Grey Knights and Dark Eldar will also be staying with me, and I think I might keep those Primaris Marines after all. But the Tyranids, the AdMech, even the Scions that I’d recently been building a list for – they’re all fair game…
It’s like I’ve got the perfect excuse to have a really good clear-out!
How about everybody else? Excited? Mad? Indifferent?
spalanz.com 
To me, it’s a mixed bag of mostly positivity and constructive criticism. Whilst 9th ed sounds great, there’s a lot of things that are yet to be revealed so an overall judgment is far off until 9th ed comes.
On the positive side I’m really happy to see close combat option for Primaris, as I have a successor White scar chapter and a Black Templar Collection. Now it’s much more justifiable to have Primaris in a BT army or any other close combat based chapter.
There’s also been some uncovering of Primaris bike squad found on the official 40k website. That’s caught my interest as I really want some bikes for my Astral Bears chapter. If the prices is at least £25-£30, then I’ll consider it a fair deal.
Rules wise, I’m a casual so I can’t really say much on that. The gaming app whilst a very late tool to announce will be very helpful if it’s anything like the AoS app. Just having basic profile rules on units to access for free will be very handy when I play games of 40k.
The down side however is the recent announcement of the price hike in a time of great uncertainty. It feels very disheartening that GW would do a move like this before announcing 9th ed. I can imagine many who can just barely afford the hobby being forced to quit and move on to another table top company. It’s made me question if I should continue supporting GW in the future, I want to support the company for it’s fantastic miniatures and IP works. But stuff like the price hike during a pandemic is very questionable.
Another issue I have is how this might just be another cycle like 8th where it was all hype and positivity at first, but gradually (and the promise of not having loads of books to carry around) go downhill in terms of lore and rules. I was initially very hyped by 8th ed as it was my first proper entry into 40k (kinda started back in 6th ed, but didn’t really commit to it as much did to Warhammer fantasy). But over time the overhyped reveals, constant lore shattering event claims and positivity just dropped imho. I don’t want 9th to be another 8th ed, I want to see if this edition will actually be a worthy one before I commit to spending money on the rulebook.
Finally, the Necrons are looking pretty good. If GW goes towards the eldritch horrors for the faction rather than immortal robots, it’ll be a great direction for the faction. Judging by what I’ve seen from Kirioth TV and CM Valraks videos on the pixelated quality sneak peak photo, the future releases of the Necrons will have a very different tone and style from the Ward era Necrons.
But hey, at least we didn’t see a Primaris Lieutenant reveal……
I’m very much looking forward to seeing the expansion of the Primaris range, as I feel a bit like they’ve been lacking with options somehow. I have always loved the flexibility of the old range, and the lack of anything for the Intercessors or Hellblasters has been a bit of a sticking point for me. The appearance of what looks like Primaris Devastators has gotten me quite excited, though I feel we might be just getting bland squads again without any mix-and-match options that the Tacticals etc could achieve.
I’m with you, though – as a casual gamer myself, I’m not necessarily interested in how effective the units will be. If they look good, and the Primaris marines definitely have that going for them, then it’s definitely a point in their favour! There is still so much to see about what we can expect from a new edition, and I suppose we just need to wait and see when that comes out. If they’re going to refine 8th edition, though, then that should be a great starting point… fingers crossed!
I do agree with you wholeheartedly about the hype – 8th edition is still fresh in my mind, and there were so many promises about trimming away the fat from 7th, only for us to quite quickly need to transport a library to games again. I’m guessing the app will help with that, whatever happens there – I’m thinking it’ll be a case of a QR code or something in each book, and it will add it to your digital library there so you always have the rules you’ve paid for, though ideally there would also be a way to buy, at a reduced rate, additional rules that come out, without paying for the fluff? Who knows – but it’ll be interesting to see what they do with it!
I know a lot of people are disappointed (to say the least) with GW for the price hike but, without trying to sound like an apologist, they do it every year. I suppose I’m just resigned to the fact that I’m buying proportionately less and less from them, but I don’t think I’d ever not buy stuff from them, as I enjoy their products too much. I do wonder if they actually realise that might be happening, but the numbers would appear to show that nothing they do will prevent their success in this field, and I’m no economist, so I’ll leave it there!
I’m sure I could wax lyrical for days on the new Necrons, but yeah, I’m also excited to see how they’re changing the look to more of a robot-zombie than Tomb Kings in space. I’ve always tried to paint my Necrons as being fairly pristine – the idea of a superior tech that will survive for the eons without ever rusting – though I know plenty of folks prefer a corroded look, and these new things will fit right in with that look, for sure. At any rate, more Necrons is nothing but a good thing, and I can’t wait to see this stuff when it properly comes out – and the Silent King? Whoa… never thought I’d see that come to pass!
I’d just like to say, as well, thanks for giving such a well thought-out comment! It was a pleasure to read your thoughts 🙂
Knowing nothing on the models side I just realized I have a tonne of books to probably catch up on before I am near to understanding what I am seeing in that first clip. I love that one guy’s skeleton shield, looks bad ass… Necron I have not read a lot about, but I played Dawn of War 2 and their faction was kinda one of my favorites to play.
I always thought you were a man of taste – Necrons are amazing!! They’ve announced a new Black Library series will start, as well, so yeah – there’s gonna be a lot to catch up with. I need to get reading, quick!!