How to get ready for 9th Edition, and the Return of the Police
Sufficiently hyped up for 9th Edition, it's time to do what any self-respecting hobbyist would do, and start a brand new army for the edition! I respect myself so much I fully intend to give myself more work to do!
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| I miss Judge Dreadnought |
Hello chaps and chapettes, we're back in the classroom to talk about what things you can do to prepare for 9th Edition. And here it is:
Just wait.
Literally anything you do will be countered by the new rules changes.
All right, so make sure to leave a comment on the way ou-
Okay, it's not the best idea in the world to just wait it out. It's usually a good way to drive yourself nuts with anticipation, and you'll way over spend when the Edition drops as you rush out to take advantage of the latest rules hack to come out. And that will end up getting FAQ'd out of existence a week later, so you will have spent a load of money to enact a strategy that you don't fully understand and probably won't ever get to use.
So what to do?
The best solution is to start a faction as a painting project over anything else. When new editions come out it takes a while for new metas to settle, and a little longer for tier lists to develop. Any faction you pick up as a passion project will usually have a good few months of viability before someone works out how to abuse T'au shield drones again. What this means is that you will have a good few months of fun until you realise your new army is weak.
But at least you will have painted it and enjoyed it for a while!
Now is the time to get away from your comfort zone and paint a few models that you've always wanted to dabble in, and although I've been somewhat sarcastic about it in a recent post, new editions generally have new army building mechanics to help you through the process. If you start now, you can begin your Crusade as soon as 9th Edition hits, without waiting for your friends or yourself to have models up to table top standard.
It's tempting to say you won't get anything until the Starter Box set is available, but in my experience the forces in there are rarely what you want or need for competitive play. They tend to be balanced around durability over much else, and will often be picked to give a good balance of new or updated mechanics (Hellblasters in Dark Imperium highlighting new plasma rules and the Foetid Bloat drone show casing new vehicle mechanics... both of which rarely find their way to competitive lists now). You'll also get frustrated by the mono-pose models not having the wargear you want. I've repeatedly tried to figure out ways of retooling my Dark Imperium Intercessors into Auto-bolt rifle users, but usually have to settle for just the regular old bolt rifle.
Your best bet is usually a Start Collecting kit, plus any models you like which are relatively new. If you pick later release models you'll typically find they last past the new edition unit cull... as in discontinued rules for some units. You'll always have the very long lived sculpts (with the Aeldari I think having the most dated at this point...), but it's not something to bank on if you're starting a new faction specifically for the new edition.
Disregard if you love the design of the models though, and grab them whilst they're still available.
So a Start Collecting kit, designed maybe to a 500 point list from the old edition. If you can do the painting before 9th hits you can get some games in and get a feel for their relative power level before going into the new edition. You'll be able to say first hand if the faction has become stronger or weaker, and you can make a better judgement as to whether or not you'll continue it beyond 500 points.
For me, I will be revisiting my lovely Space Marine Field Police!
They have gone through a variety of changes over the years.
With a revamped force for 8th Edition.
For 9th I will be pursuing the old colour scheme, the one I used for my original Marines and the Deathwatch rather than the white. I have already tested it out on my old Dark Imperium Primaris Intercessors...
It's not quite what I expected...
I'm not loving the blue flashing lights on the back packs yet, and I think I'll abandon the idea. I think what I might do instead is just go for a straight recreation of the Rogue Trader era Field Police image. But I do like the old style just plain red and blue back packs on the back. I might experiment with Citadel gem paints on them this time around, but mostly I'm going to stick with the good old plain red and blue on the tops of the back packs.
But what to start with?
Well, my advice is to start something I like the look of but don't find tremendously competitive. For me, that's going to be the Vanguard marines. Every now and then I try to excuse myself getting them, saying things like "Well they fit this specific faction idea" or "Those deplyment options really do make up for everything else" and "Shrike's special rules specifically work with Phobos Marines!".
And then I crunch numbers, make some lists, wish I had brought Aggressors and Thunder Hammer Sergeants, deeply regret the cost to wound efficiency of the Infiltrator Comm links, and... well never pick them up. This is that time to get them, when metas and efficiencies are thrown into Chaos!
So, I will be getting the Start Collecting Space Marines box set which I hope will get to me before 9th drops. I also quite like the idea of these guys being the quite literal Vanguard to the new models I will certainly be getting in the 9th Edition box set.
Until next time!
Thanks for reading.
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