Escalation Poll: Will the new Supplements Change Your 40K?

It has been a curious experience browsing Warhammer 40K forums and blogs this weekend. Why? Because GW released two Warhammer 40K supplements – Escalation and Stronghold Assault – that add super-heavies and fortifications to Warhammer 40K respectively.

In some corners of the internet, the sky is falling and “Warhammer 40K is changing forever”, yet I somehow doubt I’ll ever see much more of these books in play than I did of things like Crusade of Fire or Death from the Skies (another famous storm-in-a-teacup).

However, I could certainly be wrong. Hence my little survey here: How will these two books change your Warhammer 40K?

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#1 – The “Standard” vs. “Non-Standard” Dilemma

A good part of the debate, as I read it, hinges on the (erroneous?) separation of Warhammer 40K into “standard” or “regular” Warhammer 40K and … well, “non-regular” Warhammer 40K.

Some products get boxed into the “regular” side and some products into the “non-regular” side. You’re good ol’ Space Marines Codex tends to be “regular” for most Warhammer 40K players, all-out Apocalypse usually “non-regular”.

Now, for reasons of Games Workshop’s labeling of books (or rather, for lack of GW’s explicit labeling to the contrary), the interwebz are packing “Escalation” and “Stronghold” into the “regular” box, claiming Baneblades will become as ubiquitous as Tactical Marines in 40K.

I doubt this will happen (though GW sure wouldn’t mind selling Baneblades to that amount).

I might be wrong, but like Death from the Skies and the less successful old “expansion” (e.g. everything xept Apocalypse), I predict these books will hover on the margins, allow the odd player to run a mini-Apoc-game, and will largely be forgotten this time next year.

Games Workshop’s “capacity” to define how people play “Warhammer 40K” may be more limited than people think.

But, as said, I could be utterly wrong and horribly out-of-touch.

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#2 – Will Escalation become YOUR new Standard 40K?

So here’s my little survey. I kept it too Super-heavies (Escalation), as this seems to be the more controversial book. The same questions could apply just as well to Stronghold Assault.

My hope is to move away from the rather abstract internet-nitpicking over “regular” and “non-regular” 40K, and to get a feeling how Warhammer 40K will be played “in the real world”.

Think on your group, your local tourny scene, your friends, wherever and with whom you usually play Warhammer 40K, and how you think these games will change (or not) in 2014.

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#3 – Thoughts?

Many thanks for voting!

Feel free to leave a comment below and add a bit more context to your vote.

Also, as always, I’ll leave my previous (Dark Elves) poll open for a few more days.

Z.