Today on Twitch Stu Black from the Warhammer 40,000 studio discussed Command Points!

So what has happened to Command Points? They still work the same way they used to, you can spend them on stratagems or to put units into reserve. The biggest change in Warhammer 40k 9th edition is how armies generate Command Points. In the current system you had to try and fill our detachments in order to generate command points – the new system is based around the size of the game. As reported yesterday, 40k 9th edition is broken down into 4 different sizes that reflect how many points you get to spend on your army. This also determines how many CP you get at the start of the game.

Combat Patrol – 500 points – 3 CP

Incursion – 1000 points – 6 CP

Strike Force – 2000 points – 12 CP

Onslaught – 2000 points – 18 CP

Essentially 3CP for each 500 points of your army. This levels the playing field in regards to how many command points people get.

In some missions you will also generate additional CP at the start of the Command Phase, this will mean that those missions will top you up with additional points to spend as the game progresses and leave you free to potentially blow all your points at the start of the game for upgrades and relics, as you know you will be getting more later!

They have moved away from the generation of CP being tied to detachments as they wanted people to take the models that they want to take in their army, rather than being forced to take certain detachments as they feel penalised in CP otherwise.

Now in the new system everyone starts with a level playing field. The size of the game determines how many detachments you can take, with additional detachments having a CP cost. A core detachment with your Warlord gives you a CP refund so you essentially get it for free, if you want more specialised detachments it will cost you CP to take these, but we will no longer see the massive command point imbalances seen in the previous rules. This will also apply to being able to take allied detachments (at a CP cost) if you wanted to take a Custode detachment alongside your Space Marine force for example.

Command Points are a strategic currency that you can now spend how you want – you might decide that its worth spending a couple of CP to have an army of nothing but tanks, terminators or bikers – alternatively you might decide you want to stick to a balanced force to save these CP to use them on other things during the game. This will lead people to have different forces and perhaps pick some units that may not have been selected in the past!

CP farms such as the “loyal 32” now wont be taken to just generate command points – the player will be able to perhaps take different units they want to take, or still take that guard detachment but use them as a cheap unit to perform actions (something you dont want your combat specialists doing perhaps!)

Characters who have abilities that influence CP still have rules that work with the new system, Guilliman for example still gives you additional CP and relics still exist that refund CP.

Some other tweaks have also been made to list building – Transports do not take slots and one can be taken for each infantry unit in your army, which suggests it’s going to be easier to do armies full of Land Raiders or Valkyries!

Some of the current matched play rules and FAQs are now baked into the core rules, for example the limit on the number of CP that can be refunded a turn,

Army construction rules now apply to both Crusade and Matched Play in order to have a framework for how an army is assembled. Unbound is still a thing, but this will only really apply to freeform games that sit outside of these core systems.

Stu’s preferred force is a traditional mixed army (As he is old school and likes a stock force org chart!) however he has been trying out some more unusual lists such as an army of just Terminators in Land Raiders – both options are just as valid in the new rules! The detachment system lets you create lots of different armies that we have never really seen on the table before, as no longer will there be a massive penalty for taking an unusual force, just a few CP!

We will start to see more elite armies on the table compared to 8th edition, as they will benefit greatly from having a lot more command points – Custodians in particular will get a massive boost here! Equally people will still find it useful to spend CP in order to take an allied Knight!

Stu also talked about some of the Stratagems in the new game – the existing ones remain, but we now get 5 new ones including the rather ace sounding “Cut Them Down” – you use this strat when your opponent wants to fall back out of combat, and causes a number of mortal wounds based on the size of your unit to represent them attacking the enemy as they retreat. The bigger the squad the more mortal wounds it causes (Stu points out that falling back out of combat from a squad of 30 Ork Boyz will be a very bad idea!)

As he has previously mentioned over the last few days, a lot of stuff is built into the core book, but this will only grow as more Codexes are released!

Lots of exciting stuff to come!

Published by Matt Crowther

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