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A brief caveat to this thread:

I've only actually played the Assassins board game and the deathwatch board game.

However, noticeable in both is the lack of tables.

Deathwatch actually reminds me a whole lot of Silver Tower.

There's a set to-wound roll and a set to-save roll. And then there are a very small, select number of special rules.

Noteworthy in the deathwatch game is that the to-wound roll does not depend upon the toughness of the opponent. The same roll is required to wound the little bugs as the patriarch.

Do you think that 8th edition is going to be similar in this respect?

We have, I am sure, all read rumors that GW is doing away with strength, toughness, etc. characteristics.

Also noteworthy in the Deathwatch game is the presence of a Movement characteristic.

So, broadly speaking:

Will 8th edition look like the board games? What do you think?

I think it would be a good idea, but I doubt it would be well received even if it's better for the game as a whole.

I think GW uses these boardgames as a testing grounds for new mechanics

No i think what we are going to see in 8th is more streamlined rules. But board game? No.

Someone suggested this over in Proposed Rules, he battered on through the tide of ridicule and may even be still posting.

The problem with the boardgame rules is that drastically altering the dice mechanic to that point doesn't let you preserve the distinctions that let you have this many armies in 40k in the first place (see Age of Sigmar making all the High Elf heavy infantry identical for an example of why this kind of thing annoys people).

40k is a mess, and it is too complicated, but there isn't a simple solution that is going to actually fix the problems instead of either throwing the whole game out (the way moving to the boardgame mechanics would) or just making a bunch of new problems (the way edition changes usually do).

could be a little of testing, would love to see movement stats on units but I have a feeling it would only benefit imperium of man and elder armies. I also like the roll higher dice like d8 or d12 for better armor saves, but I can see where that would get difficult needing more dice but then again gw then gets to sell a ton of dice so good for their bottom line

Never say never. The close combat system in 40k 2nd edition/Necromunda (they reverted to the 1st ed system with 3rd edition) was arguably derived from that of Space Hulk.

Previous editions have taken their cue from WHFB. With the meltdown that happened when AoS was released, I'm sure GW is proceeding very cautiously with how they will update the rules. The boxed games might very well be experiments to see how new ideas are perceived.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Someone suggested this over in Proposed Rules, he battered on through the tide of ridicule and may even be still posting.

The problem with the boardgame rules is that drastically altering the dice mechanic to that point doesn't let you preserve the distinctions that let you have this many armies in 40k in the first place (see Age of Sigmar making all the High Elf heavy infantry identical for an example of why this kind of thing annoys people).

40k is a mess, and it is too complicated, but there isn't a simple solution that is going to actually fix the problems instead of either throwing the whole game out (the way moving to the boardgame mechanics would) or just making a bunch of new problems (the way edition changes usually do).

You're approaching this from the "Is this a good idea" point of view. The problem with that is that we're talking about Games Workshop...so evaluating things from whether or not they are a good idea itself isn't a good idea when it comes to determining what they do. They're incompetent rules writers and, historically speaking, are also a pretty bad business in general.

So whether or not it's actually a good idea to sigmarize 40k is...pretty irrelevant to what they'll actually do.

But yeah. Deathwatch board game...very similar to Silver Tower. And what's interesting to me is that Silver Tower apparently is similar to how AoS is actually played, right?

So it seems as though GW has "sigmarized" the 40k board games.

The question at this point is whether the board games are a sign of what they'll do to the actual game.

I don't think so. Most of the boxed games have been vehicles for releasing new models (Horus Heresy) introducing new factions (Overkill), or pushing poor selling model ranges at a cheaper price (Lost Patrol, Knight Renegade, Gangs of Commoragh)

The games within them, while sometimes interesting, engaging and fun, aren't going to be played enough by the community, for GW to get any kind of reliable feedback, that's if they are even collecting feedback. We've all heard about how GW don't do market research haven't we?

Besides which, a simplified rule set is going to be far more enjoyable in a board game than a convoluted set of tables and charts. That's why things like Overkill and the HH games have set to wound rolls.

Will 8th edition get things like set to wound numbers, or a movement statistic? Who knows. But I don't think it has anything to do with feedback gained from the board games.

 General Kroll wrote:
I don't think so. Most of the boxed games have been vehicles for releasing new models (Horus Heresy) introducing new factions (Overkill), or pushing poor selling model ranges at a cheaper price (Lost Patrol, Knight Renegade, Gangs of Commoragh)

The games within them, while sometimes interesting, engaging and fun, aren't going to be played enough by the community, for GW to get any kind of reliable feedback, that's if they are even collecting feedback. We've all heard about how GW don't do market research haven't we?

Besides which, a simplified rule set is going to be far more enjoyable in a board game than a convoluted set of tables and charts. That's why things like Overkill and the HH games have set to wound rolls.

Will 8th edition get things like set to wound numbers, or a movement statistic? Who knows. But I don't think it has anything to do with feedback gained from the board games.

Here's the thing, though:

The simplified game already exists in Age of Sigmar.

That's what has me wondering.

It's not like the 40k board games have totally "new" game mechanics. They are basically just a Sigmarization of 40k for board game purposes.

 Traditio wrote:

 General Kroll wrote:
I don't think so. Most of the boxed games have been vehicles for releasing new models (Horus Heresy) introducing new factions (Overkill), or pushing poor selling model ranges at a cheaper price (Lost Patrol, Knight Renegade, Gangs of Commoragh)

The games within them, while sometimes interesting, engaging and fun, aren't going to be played enough by the community, for GW to get any kind of reliable feedback, that's if they are even collecting feedback. We've all heard about how GW don't do market research haven't we?

Besides which, a simplified rule set is going to be far more enjoyable in a board game than a convoluted set of tables and charts. That's why things like Overkill and the HH games have set to wound rolls.

Will 8th edition get things like set to wound numbers, or a movement statistic? Who knows. But I don't think it has anything to do with feedback gained from the board games.

Here's the thing, though:

The simplified game already exists in Age of Sigmar.

That's what has me wondering.

It's not like the 40k board games have totally "new" game mechanics. They are basically just a Sigmarization of 40k for board game purposes.

Sorry, but that's a massive stretch.

There have been games like this since first edition.

It doesn't mean anything either way.

EnTyme wrote:I think GW uses these boardgames as a testing grounds for new mechanics

How so? Where is the feed back? I haven't read any feed back except for Age of Sigmar Gorechosen. I believe most people bought these games for the minis and not many people are playing the games, so there is little feedback if any from playing these games. So I don't believe so.

Now Age of Sigmar does this. So if there is any feed back, it will be from Age of Sigmar not the board games if this happens. There is a lot of feed back from this kind of mechanic good and bad.

Davor wrote:

EnTyme wrote:I think GW uses these boardgames as a testing grounds for new mechanics

How so? Where is the feed back? I haven't read any feed back except for Age of Sigmar Gorechosen. I believe most people bought these games for the minis and not many people are playing the games, so there is little feedback if any from playing these games. So I don't believe so.

Now Age of Sigmar does this. So if there is any feed back, it will be from Age of Sigmar not the board games if this happens. There is a lot of feed back from this kind of mechanic good and bad.

I always send GW an email after playing one of their games giving them feedback otherwise how are they going to know what there doing wrong / right

Do you ever get any responses back Rolsheen?

How are these new GW games? Again, I never see anything on how good these games are on the net since nobody ever talks about them except for the minis.

I get replies from most of my emails.
The games that I've played are surprisingly good
Deathwatch: Overkill, Stormcloud Attack and Silver Tower and the new Killteam

 Rolsheen wrote:
I get replies from most of my emails.
The games that I've played are surprisingly good
Deathwatch: Overkill, Stormcloud Attack and Silver Tower and the new Killteam

Thank you for the reply. Besides Silver Tower, I am shocked nobody talks about the other games just the miniatures.

Several players here have bought board games recently. But nobody has played them.
The 8th ed seems to be miles away.