On Monday, GW revealed some of the new detachment rules for Orks in Warhammer 40k 11th edition, and I'm concerned that the rules bloat that flourished throughout 9th edition is coming back with a vengeance. An article published on Warhammer Community clarifies that the "70 new and updated detachments" previously announced for 11th edition will be in addition to all the existing detachments from codexes and recent narrative supplements - and the new detachment system gives players the option to stack multiple detachments within a single army.
Anyone who was around for the progression of 8th edition Warhammer 40k into 9th edition has seen this before. Each codex in eighth edition provided armywide rules, subfaction rules, and a massive selection of stratagems and relics. As the edition went on, dedicated subfaction supplements added yet more stratagems and relics - then, when 9th edition came along, the new codexes added even more complicated army-wide special rules.
It massively increased the cognitive load of playing 40k: army special rules were minigames unto themselves, and you had several pages of stratagems to choose from, many of them extremely situational. It was harder than ever to learn how all the other armies in the game functioned.
One of the smartest changes in 10th edition was the revised Warhammer 40k detachment system. Each detachment provides an army-wide special rule (in addition to the rules in the codex) and a selection of just six stratagems and four enhancements. This gives players a breadth of options during army construction, while reducing the complexity of actually operating the army during the game.
As we near the end of 10th edition, the choice of detachments is now huge, thanks to many free supplements. You could face the same faction for every match in a tournament and play against armies with subtly different capabilities each time. Army variety is broader than ever, but the game is also harder to learn and remain current with.
In 11th edition, players will be able to bring multiple detachments by spending a budget of Detachment Points; detachments with a narrower focus will cost fewer DP. Even if each bonus is small, building an army this way means filling your list with multiple extra abilities that aren't written on unit datasheets. It's all extra cognitive load.
And as far as we know, cheap detachments will have just as many stratagems and enhancements as expensive ones. We have to assume GW is going to follow a standard codex release schedule for 11th edition, which means that many of the current codex detachments will be legal for a long time. The new Detachment system limits armies to two 2DP in 1,000 point games and 3DP in 2,000 points games. So either none of the current codex detachments will be playable in 1,000 point games (because they cost 3DP), or there are 2DP and 1DP detachments in the codexes. With multiple detachments each contributing six stratagems, that puts us right back into the same situation as eighth and ninth edition, flicking through pages of rules that aren't written on unit datasheets.
It looks like we're retreading a familiar path. Every so many editions GW resets the rules and burns all the codexes in a brush fire to clear out the undergrowth of errata and rules bloat, giving us fertile soil to regrow from. Inevitably, even if the game is simple and streamlined when we get one of these resets, it will become overgrown once again. The question is always - how fast will that happen?
What do you think - is 11th edition off to a promising start? Are you concerned that not enough rules bloat is being shed from 10th edition? Or is it just too early to say? Share your thoughts in the Wargamer Discord community.