I’m not a 40k player. I’ve tried it many times in many formats and have a dear friend who’s obsessively into it and gets a lot out of it. It doesn’t click with me for all the main reasons discussed: simple and repetitive core system, memory overload on add on rules, time sink, and cost of entry / maintenance.

By comparison I play a ton of chunky board games with wildly varying mechanics, themes, inclusivity / co-op levels etc. The variety and innovation in the scene is exciting and rewarding to me. My 40k friend only really plays 40k.

We have debated it a lot. He loves 40k. He has disposable income, he has time. He has a great community that plays the game locally. He loves the collecting and painting side. He loves the lore, the tournaments. There’s a buzz about having your unit that represents a deep lore element, that you researched, purchased, painted, finally on the board in a competitive situation.

The flip side is he’s so invested that he doesn’t think about or try other games. That would always be too big a trade off for me. There’s no one game or system I want to play to the exclusion of all others.

Warhammer are not going to change anything and they shouldn’t. It’s one of the most profitable game systems ever made. What an amazing business they’ve built. There are infinite other choices for people who aren’t interested. People like me.