Warhammer 40K: Leviathan and 10th edition feel incredible, but lack the human touch

polygon.com:

Decades into producing a franchise, it’s easy to lose perspective on who your fans are and what they value. Look no further than Dungeons & Dragons’ OGL fiasco in January, where the seminal role-playing game managed to piss off just about everyone — including its most die-hard fans. Blizzard pulled off a similar feat not too many years ago, announcing a mobile installment in the iconic Diablo seriesthat landed with a seismic thud at its own convention. As I sat in the audience at this year’s AdeptiCon, I wondered to myself: Is Games Workshop walking into the meat grinder here with its announcement of the 10th edition rules for Warhammer 40,000? Turns out, my fears were for naught.

The U.K.-based game developer and publisher has absolutely knocked it out of the park, somehow managing to fill its newest boxed set, Warhammer 40,000: Leviathan, with an incredible amount of fan service. The miniatures inside reward longtime collectors with reimagined favorites, while also managing to explore new and vital art and design choices in several of the sculpts. Meanwhile, the new 10th edition rules bundled inside that box are simpler and easier to use than ever before. And that’s why the crowd at AdeptiCon cheered so loudly and so often during an otherwise ponderous, 45-minute presentation: These are the changes they wanted to see, and I suspect that Games Workshop will be rewarded with another sold-out set as a result.

Of course, that’s what makes the company’s more subtle marketing decisions all the more curious. But we’ll get to that in due time. First, let’s talk about what’s inside this box.

Leviathan includes 72 miniatures, all of which are new to the franchise. There is a mix of both Space Marines and Tyranids, 40K’s