Discussion on Troops in 8th Edition, what do we expect to see?

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**Freman Bloodglaive**

I was having fun trying to streamline Warzone into a simple "attacker rolls dice and adds stat, defender rolls dice and adds stat" system, but had a thought about doing it to 40k too.

If you run the numbers a Space Marine with a bolter shooting another Space Marine with a bolter has a 1/9 chance of getting a kill. That's 4 /36 or approximately what you'd get if the Marine had an attack stat of 4+d6 and a defence stat of 6+D6, yet by the stat+D6 method you've reduced the hit/wound/save rolls down to a simple roll off.

Of course you gain greater granularity with a larger dice, like a D12 (Warzone was based on D20) which gives 144 possible outcomes instead of 36, but a D6 system is adequate.

**frozenwastes**

In terms of troops in new40k, I think a good window into the current vision for transports by the design team is found in the Arkanaut Frigate for AoS:

PDF link:
https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/arkanaut-frigate_ENG.pdf

Spoiler:

The "hero phase" happens before movement. So if that's any indication, I don't think we will see rhinos moving forward and marines assaulting the same turn. It'll be rhinos rush forward, opponent's turn, marines get out, move, shoot and charge.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
As for the "if marines are more points no one will take them!" thinking, that assumes the game largely doesn't change. That the current relative strengths are going to be maintained. That the basic stats of the game won't change.

If marines go up to 30 points but are as awesome as 32 point Stormcast Judicators in AoS, people are going to love them.

**Youn**

It also is a question of quest restrictions are put on the rest of the army. For example:

If we make a general assumption that the CAD still will exist in it's basic form. Then 1 HQ plus 2 Troop are required. You cannot get away with skipping buying your troops.

**frozenwastes**

Well, given that they said they are going with the 3 ways to play from the AoS general's handbook, I'm going to guess that army construction will have faction specific battleline units you have to take minimums of. So codex marines might have tactical squads, scout squads and so on. While a dark angels deathwing might count terminators as battleline. Or possibly have a formation you pay some points for and it includes counting a normally elite unit as battleline among other bonuses you get.

I don't think we'll see mandatory HQ choices at all.

At 2000 points, I think we'll see 3 battleline units minimum, a maximum of 6 heroes, 4 artillery pieces and 4 "behemoths" which will be things like truly large tanks and knights and the like. I think the AoS army construction system for matched play will work really well for 40k and given what GW has said about the success of General's Handbook sales, they're probably leaning in that direction for new40k.

The open and narrative modes will still allow for new players who grab a box of whatever they think is cool to immediately play with those units without worrying about the larger army structure right away. Sort of like unbound but without the attempt to force it into the same game mode as matched play.

**Red__Thirst**

I suspect we will see troops taking on an expanded role, thanks in part to a hopeful boost in effectiveness and of course more of them being needed as part of a 'normal' list.

I like this concept myself, as I've always preferred fielding more troops than anything else, to include full 10 man tactical squads.

We shall see. There's some kind of announcement coming tomorrow. Maybe it'll be info on 8th? Or more likely the Mortarion reveal. We shall see.

Take it easy.

-Red__Thirst-

**Dakka Wolf**

Red__Thirst wrote:
I suspect we will see troops taking on an expanded role, thanks in part to a hopeful boost in effectiveness and of course more of them being needed as part of a 'normal' list.

I like this concept myself, as I've always preferred fielding more troops than anything else, to include full 10 man tactical squads.

We shall see. There's some kind of announcement coming tomorrow. Maybe it'll be info on 8th? Or more likely the Mortarion reveal. We shall see.

Take it easy.

-Red__Thirst-

I like the idea of more emphasis on troops but nice as that sounds there is the question of Troops with extra movement - bikes/jetbikes.
Are all armies to have access to them or is every army going to have their own specialty troop?
Or is there going to be a massive gap between haves and have-nots?

**Tyel**

I wouldn't be surprised if they ditched the concept of troops - or, perhaps more accurately - expanded it to the point where it covers the majority of infantry squads (and possibly things like bikers).

There would then be a separate category for your vehicles and monstrous creatures.