40k, 7th edition, and the Black Templars.

     Warhammer 40k is my favorite tabletop wargame. Between the lore, the feel of the mechanics and system, and the aesthetic, I'm completely sold on it. I've invested hundreds of dollars this week alone, and will continue to purchase more for my army as a collection. I am a hobbyist-gamer, and things aren't changing. People continually bitch about 40k, and how things suck, or what's wrong with it, or how things aren't working out for them, or about the company (GW), but they are just spoiled naysayers. Being vocal and negative doesn't mean you are correct.

     I've only played in sixth edition, but it's pretty obvious that it's broken. It's very likely that GW didn't think things through numerous times, but merely adapted with each consecutive codex. Wanting to make money is the nature of business, and 100% this is a business for someone in every wargame. You can't fault them for wanting to sell models, but kind of forcing people to buy models is just ridiculous. Honestly, between Fantasy and 40k, GW has something magical on their hands, and 7th edition may be a grand blend of both worlds for 40k.
     The current problem with 40k is that it's entirely shooting oriented, psychic powers rule the world, and allies creates ridiculous combos and OP deathstars. So how does 7th look like it's going to address these issues for the game, and as a result for Black Templars? Well let's see what is confirmed:

1) Battleforged armies and unbound armies.

     Just play battleforged. Disallow unbound if you don't know your opponent or think he's trying to jerk you around. Infinite heldrakes don't affect Land Raiders very well/easily, so whatever. He can't deny objectives, and probably can't score either. If there isn't a rule change, he has to have something on the table that is hard to remove to even make it to turn 2. Hardly the "OP!" outcry that the first trickling of comments held when unbound where initially revealed. I'm sure we can dissect other "OP Unbound army lists!" pretty simply. 8 Chapter Masters on bikes with storm shields still fight at initiative 1 against a Battleforged Imperial Knight lists, and if you stomp well they all die. The rewards for being battleforged in the game are just too profound to really warrant most general "OP" unbound things you can think of.

2) Psyker Phase.

     Mmm. This is great. It's very much sounding like you require a 4 or higher on a die roll to succeed on a psychic power. But you need a success for every Warp Charge the spell requires. Hmmm. Even with 1d6+Total Mastery Level of psykers in army, it's looking like on average you won't just be spamming easy, powerful psyker powers every turn. That sounds good to me. If you are limited by how many dice you can use for a power, say your psyker level or psyker level +1, then you can't guarantee you can get off pivotal powers necessary all the time, let alone for things like the Seerstar or Screamerstar. On top of all of this, double 1s or 6s are looking to be perils. Perils is on a separate chart, and if it's as  potentially devastating as Fantasy's spell chart - then ouchie. And we get a Deny the Witch pool? Assuming Adamantium Will protects against spells, I wouldn't find it odd to see a unit with Adamantium Will getting to act as a Pysker master level 1 for Deny the Witch pool. Then an army of Adamantium Will units in Black Templars will a hard to beat army make. We are one of the only armies that gets no access to Psykers, and the only one that gets no access to Psykers with army-wide "pseudo-resistance".

3) Consolidation into assault.

     This is still rumor, and not entirely confirmed. What is confirmed is spilling over wounds from challenges, which already will make the Chapter Master even more potent and terrifying than he is now. Units will no longer slow down trouble characters from massive wounds, and denying challenges will slow down units immensely. Consolidation into another assault is pretty simple and effective, and blunt. There's not much more to say there. Gunlining will create a domino of death for your army. Spread out and be mobile. Or hit back harder. The choice is yours.

4) Scoring models/units and Objective Secured.

     There's a blurb that says a dedicated transport that's taken by a unit counts as a unit of that type. So a troop, IE: Crusader squads, taking a dedicated transport, aka Land Raider Crusader, makes the LRC count as a troop unit. If vehicles end up being able to score, this would become huge, and pretty much blow my mind. If vehicles can't score that's fine, because the major thing that appears to be coming is everything scores. Troops have the advantage with Objective Secured (preventing other units from denying them objectives that don't have the Objective Secured SR). Let's take 2 crusader squads in LRCs and call our troop choices for the day. I'm prepping my Assault Centurions now incase this is the change. If I can score with Assault Centurions, I'll be tempted to take them finally.


Take how much more difficult it will be to cast spells, the ability we can try to Dispel (Deny the Witch) key powers, not needing to take 3-4 troops in a 2k list with Crusader Squads, everything scoring, consolidation into combat, and being rewarded for not having allies (Since ally troops don't get objective secured)....that's a blender of Black Templar death that I wait for anxiously.