Warhammer 40,000 10th edition lands this summer with streamlined rules, new format

polygon.com:

After months of mercilessly teasing its fans, Games Workshop finally announced the 10th edition of Warhammer 40,000, its marquee miniatures wargame. On Wednesday, at the annual AdeptiCon convention, it also revealed its two star factions — the heroic Ultramarines and the Alien-like Tyranids — with a lavish CGI trailer.

In amongst a host of new models — which includes a revision of the iconic Terminator Space Marines, among others — came details of a titanic shift in how the popular tabletop game will be structured going forward. The 10th edition of 40K will be more streamlined than ever before, and there will also be a new format custom-built for collectors and new players.

Here’s what we know, with additional details only shared in-person with AdeptiCon attendees in Schaumburg, Illinois.

Previously players of Warhammer 40,000’s 9th edition ruleset needed to lug around multiple hardback books, sometimes needing three or four such books on each side of the table just to play a single game. That type of rules sprawl has not only raised the complexity of 40K, but also the cost of entering the hobby in the first place. Tenth edition hopes to do away with that kind of excess.

At the core of this transition is something called a “datasheet” — effectively a large notecard — that will contain all of the rules needed to run a single unit of miniatures at the table. The format should be familiar to players of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, which has been using similar cards for years. More importantly, all the additional rules that will control how a player’s army (now called a “detachment”) will behave fits on a single two-page spread from a single book.

“It works in a one-in-one-out system,” said Games Workshop global events