Why Grimdark Future is Better

 

1. All Faction Rules are Current.  No “codex creep.”  The faction versions are updated at the same time.

2. The Core Rules are Short but Sweet.  Everything in the base rules is captured on a single page, front and back.  This means the rules are super accessible.  Pretty much anyone can spend 10 minutes reading through the rules and are ready to jump in and play the game.  

3. The Faction Rules are Short but Sweet.  Likewise, the Army Lists and Special Rules for each faction are captured on a single page, each, front and back.

4. The Base Rules (and all Faction Rules) are Free.  Additional content is available for a single monthly Patreon subscription of about $5.

5. Alternating Activations.  No onerous “I Go, You Go.”  This helps with balance and pacing, and keeps both players involved throughout the game.  No more checking out for half an hour while your opponent wins the first turn and does everything with their entire army before you can do anything but take saves and remove models from the board.  Alternating Activations keeps both sides engaged in the game, and helps prevent 1st or 2nd turn “tabling” of an opponent.  

6. No Force Organization Chart.  If you have a model or unit that you want to take, you can take it.

7. No OP Units, and no Trash Units.  Pretty much everything is viable, due to how the designers use an algorithm to set points costs.  Even “low-power” units (e.g. Gretchin) can win games.

8. No random Number of Attacks.  Each unit and each weapon has a set number, so no “swingy” attacks from weapons that you can’t depend on.

9. No random Damage.  Each weapon does a set amount of Damage upon an Unsaved (Unblocked) successful Hit. Most weapons do just 1 Wound, a few do 3 Wounds, and the most powerful (like Melta-equivalents) do 6.  So, again, weapons aren’t “swingy,” so you get what you pay for.

10. No random Charge Rolls.  Every unit can charge double its standard Movement value (4” Movement for Slow units, 8” for Fast, and 6” for everything else,) so no guesswork about who or what you can assault in melee when it’s your turn to activate a unit.  

11. No Strength vs Toughness Roles.  Removes an unnecessary step from each shooting or melee engagement.  Saves time and improves game pacing.

12. No Mortal Wounds and No Invulnerable Saves.  Simple enough - every attack gets treated with consistent mechanics - attackers attempt to “hit” with dice rolls based on their unit’s Quality stat, and targets attempt to “block” successful hits with dice rolls based on their unit’s Defense stat.

13. Heroes/Characters Attach to Units (Again).  No more having to try and manage Auras, and no more worrying about which units are “Core.”  Heroes/Characters can be joined to units at the beginning of the game, and if they do can share the effects of certain special abilities with those units. 

14. No Warlord Traits, Command Points, Stratagems, or Relics to worry about.  So much less unnecessary bloat to keep track of.  Instead of worrying about Rule Interactions from things like all of these, the game strategy depends on positioning, maneuver, choosing how to engage (whether by shooting or melee, since you can’t do both in a single activation), and choosing who to target.

15. Simple Terrain Rules, but terrain still impacts the game in a meaningful way.

16.  Each Faction gets a Special Rule that captures its essence.  Each unit is designed to capture the appropriate “feel” of the original source material, but without all of the bloat of modern 40k army codices.

Examples: 

1. Space Wolves units all have Counter - Gets +1 attack with a weapon of your choice when charged.)

2. Blood Angels units all have Furious - Gets +1 attack with a weapon of your choice when charging.

3. Dark Angels units all have Grim - This unit counts as having Fearless, and whenever it fails a morale test it takes one automatic wound and the morale test counts as passed instead.

4. Deathwatch units all have Disciplined - This model gets +1 to hit rolls when shooting at enemies within 12".

5. Grey Knights units all have Aegis - This unit may block spells as if it had the Psychic(2) special rule. If it is a Psychic then it gets +2 to spell block rolls.  Additionally, most Grey Knights units have the option to upgrade to become Psychic - May cast one spell during its activation, at any point before attacking. 

6. Orks units all have Furious - Gets +1 attack with a weapon of your choice when charging.

7. Sisters of Battle units all have Devout - This model gets +1 to hit rolls when shooting at enemies within 12".

8. Most Tau units have Good Shot - This model shoots at Quality 4+ (which is 1 point better than their actual Quality stat).

9. Most Drukhari units are Fast - Moves +2” when using Advance and +4” when using Rush/Charge.

10. For Chaos Space Marines and Daemons, all of the units dedicated to Slaanesh are Fast or Very Fast.  Those dedicated to Nurgle have Regeneration (essentially a 5+ Feel No Pain).  Those dedicated to Khorne have Furious (see above), while those dedicated to Tzeentch have Stealth - enemy units get -1 to hit rolls when shooting at this unit.