40k 6th: What's your plan B?

Random shit really is random

I met the Pinball Wizard a few days ago and we ended up chatting about what our hopes and fears for 6th ed were. There's two basic scenarios: A - they clean up the game and improve upon it or B - introduce an unnecessary amount of 'random shit is random' and ruin the game. Ala Fantasy, which for the record has seen numbers playing the game plummet in this part of the world. Except for Eoin, who is one of the few new gamers to buy and build up an army around here.

One thing GW did in the past with 40k was to use their GT/Throne of Skulls as a testing ground for rules changes. I think it might have been 1997 when they brought in wholesale changes (limiting the number of psychic powers a psyker had and requiring them to take a Ld test to use them) at a GT and they found their way into the 3rd ed version of the game. I'm quite worried that Jervis Johnson will be let loose on the game and we'll all be forced to play along with his vision of the game where at tournaments we'll all be made to give each other blowjobs to get most sporting awards to do well while in the corner Jervis chews his own faecal matter telling us how much more fun everyone is having due to the changes.


We ended up chatting about other game systems to play if 40k does do a Fantasy and becomes more random and/or requires more money to play by driving up the average points of a game (it's rumoured to be 2k) which would deter fresh blood from getting started in the hobby. I've already got a fair few Malifaux models and I'm happy to continue adding to my Neverborn collection led by Zoraida. I do love Bayou two-card.

Warmachine doesn't appeal to me in the same way: I still think the majority of the Jacks are awful models (I'm looking at you Khador and Menoth) and despite being cheaper to collect a faction, as you need fewer models, it's missing that certain something for me. It might be the fact that you run into the middle and try to smash each other up regardless of scenario or it might be that it is primarily a skirmish game and lacks a certain grandeur that 40k has. It might be the lack of tanks, or plastic dragons for Legion. Well, plastic models in general and at least they're rectifying that and while it will take time, it does allow me to judge 6th ed over a reasonable period of time and fully decide to stay with it or jump ship.

There's also Infinity and I've downloaded the rules and tried to get my head around ALL OF THE OPTIONS for actions open to guys in a warband/faction/whatever. I might convince some of the other lads to give it a bash over a few cans to see what it's all about. Again, because it only requires a handful of models to play it'll be cheap to get started.

I'm hoping that GW don't wield the knife and cut too deeply into the ruleset as it doesn't need the drastic overhaul that 7th ed Fantasy did - a tweaking here and there should suffice, with more emphasis placed on clear rules and definitions ala Whoremachine (which is something I really like) to speed up play and stop rules arguments from starting: it's called initiative GW and it's not just a fucking characteristic in a model's statline.

In any case, even if 6th ed does turn out to be a turd I have options open to me that'll give me something to play about with and spend money on after I've sold all my stuff as I don't fancy having it gathering dust for years on end again when I could be enjoying something else. So is anyone else planning for the apocalypse or are there eternal optimists out there that reckon things won't be that drastic come 6th?