It has been about 11 months since my return to Warhammer 40k with the rise of 10th edition. I wrote THIS article about it and I thought it was about time to do an update!

First, let me just get the basics out of the way here. I have spent a lot more time building and painting my army over the last year than I have spent playing the game. This is not unusual for me, miniature games, especially big army games that take several hours to play like Warhammer 40k are not going to be a regular mainstay of my gaming life. In short, as I think Warhammer 40k is intended to be enjoyed, its a hobby first, game second kind of a game and I’m fine with that.

With that, let’s have a look at what I have painted and why I painted it! I’m a proud papa!

There are plenty of other models in my collection, my army has become quite robust, but it suffices to say that the Tyranids have turned out to be as much fun to paint and play with as I had hoped they would be when I first bought into the army last year.

The Gaming Experience (10th Edition Rules)

There’s something uniquely enigmatic about Warhammer 40K when it comes to the gaming experience—particularly in how its philosophy and rule structure shape the way it plays. Compared to other modern miniature games, many of its mechanics feel almost archaic, relics of an older design philosophy that Games Workshop stubbornly clings to.

Take the initiative system, for example—an eternal point of debate among players. The traditional “I take my whole turn, then you take yours” approach feels static, lacking the dynamism of modern games that utilize alternating activations or more fluid initiative sequences. In this era of game design, Warhammer 40K stands almost alone in preserving this rigid format, and it’s hard to argue that it’s for the better.

Another oddity is Games Workshop’s resistance to digital support. If you want access to army lists, you have to purchase a physical codex and then register it with the digital app before you can even view the content. This means that unless you’re willing to spend a small fortune, much of the game remains locked behind paywalls. You can’t even research potential armies properly without financial commitment—an absurd barrier, considering codex purchases are something players typically make after deciding on an army, not before.

This lack of accessibility doesn’t just hinder the gameplay experience; it stifles exploration. Do I want to play Space Marines? Who knows? There’s no easy way to find out without buying a book I may not even need. It’s an arbitrary system that makes no sense—until you realize the goal isn’t player convenience but driving sales through forced investment.

Then there’s the game itself, which can be wildly anticlimactic. The initiative system plays a role in this, but so does the sheer unpredictability of the game. Sometimes, half the battle is out of your control. Whole units can get wiped off the board before you even activate them. Reserves may never arrive. Secondary objectives can be physically impossible to achieve depending on mission pairings. The combination of randomness, rigid mechanics, and sometimes downright unfair scenarios can lead to frustratingly unsatisfying matches.

And yet, these complaints are nothing new. Players have been airing these same grievances for decades. Warhammer 40K has evolved in many ways, but its core issues remain unchanged. You’d think that, at some point, someone at Games Workshop would acknowledge these longstanding problems and address them. But here we are, 30 years later, with the same debates raging on.

Despite all of this, Warhammer 40K remains an undeniably fun experience. The setting is rich, immersive, and perfectly aligned with the game’s themes and aesthetics. The models, painstakingly painted over weeks, months, or even years, take center stage in battles that feel larger than life. The thrill of rolling dice, the chaos of unexpected twists, the sheer spectacle of it all—it’s a wargame that creates lasting memories.

At its core, Warhammer 40K is about the joy of pushing models around a table and chucking dice, and it does this with remarkable attention to detail. Units are distinct and flavorful, each with its own personality. Everyone knows the difference between a Tyranid Screamer-Killer and a Mawloc—not just visually but mechanically as well.

This is where the magic lies. So much of the hobby is about the preparation—assembling, painting, theorycrafting—that by the time the game actually begins, the frustrations fade into the background. For a few hours, you forget all the reasons you’re annoyed with Games Workshop and Warhammer 40K, lost in the simple joy of waging war with miniatures.

I could list endless complaints about Games Workshop, but for all its flaws, the truth remains: my Tyranid army is the crown jewel of my collection. And no matter how many times I grumble about the game, nothing quite matches the excitement of preparing for a 40K battle. I can’t fully explain it, but there’s a kind of magic in this game that makes up for its many… imperfections.

The Excitement and Disappointment of Updates

I’ve grumbled about Games Workshop before, but I have to give credit where it’s due—they’re doing a fantastic job maintaining the game. Constant tweaks and balance adjustments keep it fresh, exciting, and as fair as possible.

I’m not saying they’re nailing it every time, but know this, Games Workshop: I see what you’re doing, and it’s appreciated.

That said, it can be a real pain in the neck. The updates come thick and fast, and keeping up is no small feat—especially if, like me, you like to keep your books meticulously updated. I’ve scribbled and glued so many notes into my codex that it now resembles a 30-year-old high school textbook.

Despite this nuisance, it’s thrilling to watch the game evolve. Each adjustment opens up new list-building opportunities. Sometimes a unit you once dismissed as too expensive or too weak gets a buff, and suddenly it becomes a game-changer. Warhammer 40K is a living, breathing game that’s constantly reinventing itself, so every match brings fresh considerations and new strategies.

I absolutely love this aspect of 40K, even if I do grumble about the upkeep. Sure, sometimes I just want to play without all the legwork of updating my game, but when you love something, watching it be nurtured beats the alternative of neglect—a fate too many miniature games suffer from.

Conclusion After A Year of 10th Edition

What can I say? It’s the same old Warhammer 40K—both timeless and, at times, infuriating, yet as fun as ever.

I’m not ashamed to admit it: I love Warhammer 40K because it’s fun. I know that as a game reviewer with my own blog, I should be critical, objective, and candid. But the truth is, 40K is a hobby and a game I genuinely enjoy. Whether it meets modern mechanical standards or if GW’s practices seem a bit shady, these issues pale in comparison to the sheer joy I experience. In the end, I love playing 40K, and that’s the only opinion that truly matters.

The question is why? Why and how does Warhammer 40k have this unique quality to both kind of suck and also be the game I’m always the most excited to play. That is the million-dollar question, quite literally because it is the most popular miniature game out there, yet ask any player and they will complain about it endlessly.

I think the answer is that it has an ineffable quality. There is no way to reason or logic your way into an explanation that wouldn’t fall apart on even the tiniest amount of scrutiny, but I think many games are like this. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering comes to mind immediately and at least for me, fall into the same category.

It just is, how or why, I honestly can’t explain but if you ask me today, right now, what game I want to play, it would be 40k over any other miniature game. In fact, it would be AD&D over any role-playing game and to an extent, Magic: The Gathering over any other collectible card game (although here I might make a case for Star Wars Unlimited because it too has a kind of ineffable quality to it).

Suffice it to say, I have no answers, I can only tell you that Warhammer 40k is awesome while it sucks, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think at some point in the future I will need to do an article on this ineffable quality of some of these classic franchises where we might try to identify how or why this happens, but, for now, Warhammer 40k continues to be a thing in my gaming sphere.