Today I want to go through the worst 5 Keyword rules in 40K 10th Edition, and why they will drive you crazy on the tabletop.
As much as I like the keyword rules we have there are some that I just do not like. They can range from a rule that feels to random, a destructive interaction, or just something that isn’t nearly as good as it should be. Let’s look at the 5 that just grinds my gears a bit. A few of these are pretty powerful and while I will abuse them from time to time they always don’t lead to the best “gameplay” interactions.
#5 – Hazardous
I won’t go into how many games I had opponents having to roll 10+ dice per shooting activation and watching as their suits took no wounds. I think my record was four rounds of shooting and then watched as my LVO crashed and burned due to food poisoning/sickness as I puked my guts out. I think part of it was just my soul being broken upon the wave of wanting your opponent to roll at least a single “1” in order to burn one suit.
#4 – Deadly Demise X
How many times has this screwed up your plan? Or did you have a giant tank blow up in the middle of your army? Did you watch as one of your poor little heroes eat some shrapnel and you suddenly don’t control that objective? Have you wanted your giant robot to blow up in order to secure your win? I always hated how random this roll can be and still find it annoying when you get those games where everything blows up, and wildly skews the game.
#3 – Scout
Man I used to love to scout my World Eaters Eightbound up, roll the super fast double blessings of advance/charge plus +2 movement, and then crash into their lines. Of course watching as your opponent put a dinky little unit to block your movement and keep you from having fun. I am so glad they took away that blessings roll so I could stop being sad from an infiltrating unit jailing me in.
#2 – Lone Operative
How annoying is this rule when they have it by default and don’t need to be near something to activate it. I wonder if all Lone Operatives should use the rule of needing another type of unit nearby to activate it. If you saw a “weird” looking enemy unit across the field you should be able to shoot it with your laser gun. I like how they added it to all the foot Daemon Princes and how each need a friendly unit to get it working. This should be how it works for any character if you ask me.
#1 – Fights First
This one drives me crazy. How friggin powerful is this rule? How much does it just crush your close combat dreams? How nutty is it where you have to figure out ways to “consolidate” into a unit in order to fight before the enemy? It is just such a pain in the butt to deal with and so powerful. I don’t know how to really fix it beyond just limiting it to specific awesome units or figuring out some way to keep a single unit overpowering the game with their speed, wit, and extra keyword rules.
What other keywords do you feel are too powerful or just not worth it? Do you think we should have more for simple things like Advance and Charge? What if we had something like Tough for those things that get a -1 to damage abilities or make that -1 to be wounded? I know a few rules have been templated a bit so rolling that out as a keyword would simplify the data sheets and just make things easier in the long run. We’ll see when the next edition comes out if we get more of these rules or lose some of them.
Which 40K 10th Edition keywords drive you up the wall?
Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I’ve been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on – or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.