Today on Twitch as part of the Warhammer 40k Daily stream we learned lots of new details for Matched Play in the new 40k 9th edition!

Stu Black from the studio was on hand to give everyone the lowdown on what a lot of people have been interested to learn about – Matched Play!

The new game is build around Mission Packs – to start with in the core book we will see 3 of these: Open Play, Crusade, and Eternal War – which is the first Mission Pack for Matched Play.

Mission Packs will contain information regarding list building mechanics and rules suited to that specific pack, special rules unique to that pack and the missions themselves split over different sizes of game.

For Eternal War we see a total of 18 different missions split across 4 different sizes of battle:

Patrol: 500 points

Incursion: 1000 points

Strike Force: 2000 points

Onslaught: 3000 points

Each of these sizes of game will have different recommended board sizes, and even distinctions in how far away objectives are in order to account for this.

Existing players will see things that have previously been Chapter Approved or FAQ updates cooked into these Mission Packs – for example the rule of 3 (Not being able to take more than 3 of a datasheet) will existing at a specific Mission Pack level in order to allow them to perhaps bring out future Mission Packs without this cap, for example increasing it to 10. By introducing new Mission packs they can have different requirements and new problems to solve that players will need to adapt to. This will keep matched play fresh and make sure people have different challenges to make sure the game stays fun and engaging.

Trying a Matched Play Mission Pack will also be a great way of learning how to play the game if you are perhaps a Crusade player who wants to learn the different tactics and strategies needed in a Matched Play game.

More Mission Packs will be added in future and we will see a combination of classic archetypes alongside new ideas!

Mission packs are aimed at giving you different types of objectives in order to give you more variety to your games. One of these additional types of objectives are the new Secondary Objectives. Each game has a primary objective and a menu of secondary objectives that you can pick from in order to tailor a mission that suits your play-style. Faction specific secondary missions will be added in codexes in order to make the factions do what the army would do from a lore point of view. You get to pick an objective from each category, so an aggressive army may pick an objective based around assassinating characters for example. The idea is to give a balanced play experience, but still makes them suited for your army. No longer will your objective be “Stand here.. for reasons…” the forces should be trying to achieve what you would expect them to do from a lore point of view. The objectives add an extra layer of complexity to hone your tactical skills, and you will need to be able to adapt to different strategies in order to complete at a high level.

While we will still see some simple objectives, some are more nuanced – for example one of the objectives is “Raise the Banner” which revolves around you units trying to raise flags in order to generate victory points. By having multiple objectives that you can select from, 9th edition is all about people putting their own stamp on their army from a strategy point of view.

At the core, 40k is a narrative game, and they still want this to come through in Matched play – one way they are making this possible is through a new game mechanic of Actions.

previously, units could only really move or fight. Actions are something that units can now do if they choose not to shoot or fight. A selection will be included in the core book, but this list will expand in Codexes and supplements. Raising a banner is one of these actions which costs them the ability to shoot or fight, other examples might be hacking a teleport homer, psychically trying to read an opponents mind in order to gather intel or destroying an enemies shrine. These will be related to secondary objectives, and there will be a list of conditions for a unit to be able to complete an action. The team are planning on having lots of interesting interactions that can be done through this system. By adding this they wanted to make the game as future proof as possible so they can add lots of cool new things.

The 40k team also wanted to make sure that it is never the case that someone is too far behind to be able to win. Objectives will have caps so that you can only get so far ahead before having to try and focus on a different victory condition. This means that both players will always have a chance of winning, and the game is more about thinking and reacting to events as they happen. You have to weigh up if you commit your troops to combat or use them to make an action to win a victory condition. By doing this is means that you have to make meaningful decisions in order to win a game – you will win or lose because you made the right tactical choices – due to this it is important to stay on target in 9th edition and not get distracted! You will need to also be aware of what your opponent is trying to achieve and balance countering them while trying to achieve your own goals.

Points have also been reworked for the entire game. Every unit and every weapon have been looked at in order to adjust them to the new edition. Some things that are now better will have increases. On average points values have gone up in order to make armies slightly smaller. They found that with more bodies the game slows down a little, so by adjusting this slighting it helps the game to flow. All will also become clear on why you still want to take troops- don’t assume anything based on current points values as lots of things have changed! No massive changes to costs, but lots of little changes over an army can make a difference in a 2000 point list.

They have also made sure to make the way points are listed in future Codexes are much easier to read with less flipping back and forth when creating a list! It is now a lot easier to write a matched play list for Warhammer 40000 9th edition! Especially due to the fact that the app features a full army builder and is launched the day the game goes on pre order!

We can’t wait to try out some of these new missions!

Published by Matt Crowther

View all posts by Matt Crowther