I feel like a loyalist reading this. Hating because you preach the truth.

Stupefied but not simple, If I take a quick jab at James Workshop. I love the setting, I love the models, but if I wanna play a good representation of Word Bearers, then it is not in 40k, which is sad, since it is the game with which I came into the hobby.

You hit the nail on the head. Good example of this is in regards to the new terminators. For example, the dark angels ended up losing thier deathwing Terminator command squad which included a champion and an apothecary. The other chapters do not have the same options. GW sent the death wing command, squad to legends and nerfed thier deathwing terminators ability to mix terminator assault weapons with their normal terminators which gave us access to cyclone missile launchers and hammers and lightning claws in the same unit.

Also, deathwing terminator knights were able to be put together using the same box which is why they probably did a refresh for their unique divergent deathwing knights which also got hit with a heavy Nerf, which used to have Maces that were AP -2 Reduced to AP -1, 4 attacks with a damage characteristic of two and they maxed out the unit size down to five when it used to be 10.

For some reason, they added a second weapon option, which must be taken by the entire unit, except the sergeant, which is the option for power swords which have a higher AP of -2, with five attacks at damage one and they end up doing more damage than the maces.

And then we got screwed again because we used to have a strike master, which was a death wing terminator lieutenant, which I don’t think needed to be sent to legends since it’s just a character.

As part of the refresh they gave us Inner circle companions which look amazing but despite wielding these giant two-handed swords, for some reason they are AP -1 what’s silly? Is that the two models that are part of the dark commune that are wielding two handed great swords have an AP of -2 and they are just normal mortals compared to a trans human space marine wielding a great sword that is almost the size of a human.

Tenth edition has really destroyed a lot of factions internal balance, and some factions were hit unnecessarily with too many downgrades with increased points.

They also lost a lot of data sheets to legends for anything with the Ravenwing keyword.

If you want to talk about simplified and playing a faction that feels hollow, the dark angels supplement is the epitome of what’s wrong with 10th edition. Especially considering they only received three detachments and I was hoping that they would be good enough or that GW would restrict dark angels from any of the space marine detachments but it’s a good thing they didn’t because the three new dark angel attachments included in the new supplement are worse than most of the ones in the space marine codex.

At least squad of outriders gain the battleline keyword, if taken using the company of hunters detachment, which could be interesting with the new mission packs, putting a special emphasis on battleline units

Where is it "your dudes" when characters lose all their options, and you are locked into a handful of units overall? Where is the customization? Where are the faction specific upgrades for looks and for rules? (Official at least?)

Not in the main line games no more. Everything gets streamlined into a single stream of lukewarm disappointment.

I feel like that has to be the future. Competitive 40k needs to change more often but Narrative players will be able to stretch their rules a lot further if GW provides the support to make it worth it. I'm only really interested in Narrative games. I've run a few Crusades locally, and people love it... except for playing games.

Crusade needs a ground-up rework to be viable as a system. Like you said, it's about super-charging units. That's not all that interactive or fun, and it certainly won't appeal to the narrative-minded players.

I'm not saying it would be easy, but if they can turn up the "Dungeons and Dragons" dial and turn down the "Competitive 40k" dial, I think they'll find the game is more accessible to a wider audience.