40K 6th- First Impressions- Conclusion

Hi all,

So did, everyone enjoy the Endurance post on Saturday? Well, today I'm going to bring it to a conclusion.

Overall, I am pleased with this edition of 40K. GW seem to have gone back to their roots of producing rulebooks as templates, to let us tinker with as we see fit, which is fantastic from my point of view. That relies on the Codex releases of course, so we'll see what the future brings, but so far I'm fairly optimistic.

Now, I've not drawn any hard and fat conclusions so far (5 games isn't enough to base anything on) but all of them ran fairly smoothly, and most of the rules I found to be fairly intuitive. Thankfully, the same was true for my opponents. Small 500 point games were played out in around 45 minutes, and the 1850 game took us around 2 hours- so pretty much in line with what we've been used to up to now.


I'm loving the changes to basic infantry. They are more lethal at range than they used to be, but equally they are more effective up close (ranges of 12"- I haven't tried Tau yet.) Getting close reliably is the trick- Rhinos don't last very long. Thankfully, my Warriors have found their way back into my Tyranid list- 5 Warriors with Deathspitter can reliably knock off Hull Points at range, allowing my other bugs to get to the juicy contents. Guard of course provide their own problems- killing off Grey Knight Chimeras required the big bugs to get in fast, so that I could take them out. Thankfully 2+ Sv on the Hive Tyrant proved its worth, and the Grey Knights struggled to kill him off, so it's a little more balanced.

My Marines fared a little differently. Not being able to assault the same turn that you disembark takes a little getting used to. It's also worth noting that the Shoot and Scoot tactic touted by Stelek doesn't work- transports can't Flat Out the same turn a unit disembarks. However, I was able to get some use out of the fact that combat squads can be carried in the same dedicated transport- dropping off the "support" 5 man squad with Missile Launcher and Plasma gun, having the "Combat" 5 man with Sergeant advance in front to cover them. This also helped when the Rhinos were eventually pinged.

The main tactic I'm trying with Marines now is to reserve units in transports, and deploy my long-range units on the board. So I have Devastators, Sternguard (24" range with Sternguard ammo rocks!) and Dreadnoughts on the board, then Assault Marines, Bikes and Tac squads in reserve to move on rapidly when they arrive. I've tried this once in a game, and it allowed the Transports to get the men where they were needed without blowing up, while the Bikes can Turbo Boost. Assault Marines seem to be best in a counter-attack role, from the games I've played so far.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be doing a few army analysis posts, describing where I perceive armies to have lost out and gained advantages in the rules changes. I'm also going back to my All Areas roots, and doing some core tactics/ strategies and Perspectives posts in the future. So 40K is going to remain a major player here for a while :)

Comments, as always, are welcome.