GW's Q&A, Playtesters Revealed, and Other Things - Exciting Times for the Community

So GW's announced it earlier than expected - I'm one of the playtesters for 40K 8th Edition, along with folks from AdeptiCon, LVO, and a couple others.

That said, there's really not a lot I can discuss still, at least nothing they haven't already shared. But I will say that in the process of playtesting, the "big 3" US GW cons (AdeptiCon, LVO, NOVA) grew much closer together in terms of the working relationships and friendships of their organizers.

Maybe too close, depending on how you feel about Reece, Frankie, Zach, and I getting all up in Robin Hood's business in Nottingham last year ...

But aside from that, GW obviously (unless you live under a rock) announced the forthcoming next edition of its flagship game, Warhammer 40,000. Furthermore, they shared that we were all involved in the playtesting of the game, and I'll emphasize how much work went into it both off the record and in support of the game we are all so very passionate about.

I can say without equivocation that 40K 8th is definitely the best balanced version of the game I've personally ever played. I really can't say anything more than that, but it's also really fun, and I'm excited to be able to play it with the wider community whenever it releases (nope, they haven't given us a specific release date either).

Per my previous post, NOVA will go 8th Edition if at all feasible, but we can't exactly know how feasible that is until a release date is formalized. In the meantime, it's fun watching the community try to piece together what they think the new game will be like off GW's daily little tidbits. For better or worse ... not quite close yet, folks; give it a bit, enjoy the new info, and get excited about the next rendition of the game. If you can't tell by things like Dreadnought profiles being leaked with T7 and W8, the game's *pretty* substantially different from what you've come to know over the past many editions. Those of us involved in the playtesting are all excited about it, however. It's gonna be great!

It should go without saying, then, that we *hope* it releases by NOVA :) ... and if it does, rest assured all of our mission packets, primer docs, etc. will be as well prepared as I can have them without violating any NDAs or other items. It's exciting times to be a GW fan.

What's ALSO cool is we're zero'ing in on the details of precisely who from GW is coming to NOVA! Not only is Forge World attending and vending, but we could have a ton of GW core staff in attendance, ranging from game developers to authors and community managers. It should be quite an amazing amalgamation of folks to really make the experience for attendees that much more memorable. Long story short, I can't wait to be able to talk more about the new edition.

More to come, but stay tuned to warhammer-community.com for your best info! Since things started releasing from GW, more than a handful of people have reached out to me bluffing that they were part of "other" test groups or the like, and I've heard all kinds of tall tales about what people say the game will be like that are "testers" who ... well ... aren't. Trust in what GW is releasing - it's going to be your sole best source of info until release, primarily because - as you can tell - they've gone pretty whole hog in being open and communicative with the community again.