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.

40K 6th- First Impressions- Psychic Powers

The reason the Black Ships exist

Hi all,

so, the penultimate post for this series of reviews. Hopefully it hasn't been too dull a read for you :) as is traditional, I've saved the best for last: Psionics.

There are 5 disciplines- Biomancy, Divination, Pyromancy, Telekinesis and Telepathy. Each has 6 powers and a Primaris Power- if you don't like the power you rolled, swap it out for the Primaris power. You can have each power more than once per army (unlike W"arhammer Fantasy) but they are still random- you essentially swap out a Psykers existing powers for the chance to roll some awesome.

40K 6th- First Impressions- Battles Section

Hi all,

I was going to do a lengthy post about this section of the book, but I've decided against it. instead, I'll say this:

This is a great addition to the book. This is the bit that should appeal to Vets. Big, well themed battles which are well displayed. 6 full scenarios to allow you to replay them, and give you an idea on how the designers expect this edition of 40K to be used. Starforts. 500 point games. How to build a mission. A multi-player scenario. Mission special Rules, battlefield traits, 3 page gatefold on eagles Gate- my favourite part of the book so far (that isn't rules). I'm not going to spoil it- read it, absorb it, enjoy it, then let me know what you think in the comments.

Which of course are welcome.

40K 6th- First Impressions- Background

Hi all,

let's take a break from the rules and concentrate on the fluff for a bit.And what a lot of fluff we have! It's like a fat mans' belly button in here...

The Imperium is again introduced, and yet again humanity is in dire straits. There's a little more detail this time- Psykers are put-down, but now we know why- if enough psykers create a warp-hole, then Chaos will be able to fully break though into real space. So it's not just fear that keeps the Black Ships running, they've got a valid reason. it's also suggested that at the end of the Horus Heresy, administration was doubled up as a fail safe (2 different departments generating the same report without knowledge of the fact they are working on the same thing.) As time has gone on, the process of doubling on never stopped- so now there really is a sense of administration gone mad, and the Imperium being tied up in red tape. As information has become even more stagnant, the rulers have become even more Tyranical and the Imperium gets more and more downtrodden. Grimdark indeed.

40K 6th- First Impressions- Scenarios

Lots of Scenarios....

Hi all,

so now you know your rules, you've built army, what's the mission? There's 3 deployments- long edges, short edges and diagonal. Short edges is a bit weird, but essentially it reminds me of the old Cleanse deployment, so OK. It's going to be fun at tournaments if you're in the middle of table row (in case you needed a clear example of how this game isn't designed for tournament play.)

There are also 6 missions, none of which use Kill Points (OK, OK, you can stop cheering...) That's 18 variations. Not bad- it would be nice to have 3rd ed missions back, which had 6 basic missions and 3 each of Raid, Battle and (can't remember the third category off the top of my head!) rather than 6 across three deployments, but OK, not bad.

40K 6th- First Impressions- Army Selection

Now all on the same side....

Hi all,

so that's most of the rules covered, time to start examining the Force Organisation Chart. yes, it has changed, for the first time since 3rd ed in 1998!

The core chart for you Primary Detachment hasn't changed. All of the compulsory choices must be taken from one Codex, as well as your Warlord. This is the same as all previous editions.

Everyone also gets access to 1 Fortification. This is a 0-1, so you don't have to take it (even though it's a black box in the book) and represents emplacements which you've presumably captured before the start of the battle, rather than constructed (at least, that's what my Tyranids will be believing for a while.)

40K 6th- First Impressions- Scenery

All now with rules!

Hi all,

Woot! Time to talk about my favourite aspect of any wargame- the battlefield conditions. This is where all of the aspects which affect your choices come into play. There are 6 key type of terrain in this edition, which is a good start. previous editions have only included 1 or 2- at least now we have a decent spread. It gives plenty of choices for what terrain counts as, and therefore how it affects your units. of course, combine that with how different units interact with terrain, and you get plenty of decisions to make. I don't think these rules fully reward clever use of terrain (like say Hail Ceasar) but they certainly impact the game, and will benefit players who think about how to interact with the battlefield. 

There are a few terrain archetypes:

40K 6th- First Impressions- Vehicle Types

Arbites Target Identification

Hi all,

I covered vehicles in general in the last post- now it's time to dig in to specifics. Vehicle Types! Also known as What Tanks can Do!

Lets start with the most common one- Tanks. These are- exactly the same. They can tank Shock, they can Ram, and now that you can pre-measure these become easier to resolve. Other than that, they are standard vehicles.

Heavy vehicles are slow, lumbering things and so cannot move at cruising speed or Flat Out. However, they do always count as Stationary for shooting.

40K 6th- First Impressions- Vehicles

Now with 3 Hull Points- then again, he's Immortal...

Hi all,

the 40K Endurance Review continues with Vehicles, which were the king of the tabletop in 5th Ed. Has anything changed?

I've got no idea- not enough time has passed, not enough games have been played. Here's what I know, and my initial reactions.

All vehicles have a new stat- Hull Points. there's a list at the back of the rulebook (pages 410-416) detailing the stats for every existing vehicle at time of writing, so it's all fairly clear (but does mean that you need to lug the book around with you for a while.) So how do they work? Every Glancing or penetrating hit strips a HP. Once a vehicle is on 0 HP, it is wrecked. Simple. In the main, vehicles have 3- so 3 Glancing hits will wreck a tank. Now that sounds pretty horrendous- to offset it, vehicles only need 25% obscured to claim a cover save, and there's plenty of jink saves and the like floating around. Also, Glancing hits don't roll on the damage chart- so the only way they can kill tanks is by stripping HP. This makes Missile Launchers and the like as valuable against light armour as before, but less valuable against high-end armour (13 and 14). by the same token, S 9 and 10 weapons are at a premium, as is armour bane, for its ability to damage vehicles.

40K 6th- First Impressions- Characters and Psykers

Hi all,

Well, so far I've covered a fair amount of the new 40K rules, but there's plenty more to come- vehicles haven't been touched on, or the new allies system, and what about the fluff? Right now, of course, I get to post about Characters and Psykers.

OK, first off Sergeants and the like are now Characters. They benefit from Look Out Sir!, can fight in Challenges (more on that in a sec) and you still keep all the old benefits for the unit. they also have Precision Shots- meaning that on a 6 to hit when shooting, you can allocate the wound where you want, rather than closest to closest. So keep your characters guns in mind- sniping plasma shots may be a worthwhile investment (although 6's to hit- probably not!) They also have to pile in first when it's their turn- troops can't get in their way to keep them out of the fight. In combat they guess Precision Strikes- guess what, it's the same as Precision Shots, but for Combat, where a higher number of attacks might pay off. This makes Power Mauls more open for consideration, for me at least, since you could stun a few choice enemy before your squad attacks.

6th Ed FAQ's are in!

Hi all,

Just to let you know, the FAQ's are up for 6th Ed:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=600005&pIndex=1&aId=3400019&multiPageMode=true&start=2

I've just had a glance through them before I head out, and a few things to note:

Space Marine Combat Squads split before deployment, and then count as 2 separate squads. However, each of them can ride in the same dedicated transport (so Rhino's can carry 2 squads of 5 men.)

Most of the Area Buffs have been re-worded so that they only affect the Codex they are from (no, you can't ally Blood Angels and get Feel No Pain/ Furious Charge on your Space Wolves!)

There isn't much Mastery 2 or 3 in the game. Eldar, Grey Knights and some Marine Chief Librarians (note- not Ezekiel, sorry Dark Angels) are mastery 3. The only Tyranid with Mastery 2 is the Swarmlord- everything else is Mastery 1.

I'll do a more complete when I get back, but for now I'm off to play me some 6th Ed.

Comments, as always, are welcome.

40K 6th- First Impressions- Weaponry

Only the Axe hurts Terminators

Hi all,

Well, after the monster post that was USR's, here's a short one on weaponry.

Most guns remain the same- all the old rules apply. Interestingly, Missile Launchers get an extra type called Flakk Missile, which is 48" Str 7 AP 4 Heavy1, Skyfire- so most Imperial forces have access to at least 1 anti-flyer weapon (Skyfire means that it shoots at Zooming Flyers and Swooping Monstrous Creatures at normal BS.) Not bad- it's nice taht they've thought about it, but Xenos players are going to be bemoaning the lack of Skyfire weapons until a Codex update arrives.

40K 6th- First Impressions- USR's and Units

Hi all,

welcome to the Cheat Section review :) Yes, it's time to look at Universal Special Rules, and how many different ways you can break or bend the game to your will. There's a whole raft of USR's in this edition (80 in total!) and most of them have remained the same, so I'll only cover the stand-out ones here.

Acute Senses lets you re-roll the table edge for Outflanking moves. Which from what I can gather, only affects tau stealth suits at the moment, being the only unit with the ability to Outflank that also has Acute Senses (why in the name of all that is Holy do long Fangs and Raveners have this rule?) Although it does also affect the unit when it arrives from a random table edge that's not from Outflank. this, I suspect, is going to be one to watch out for.

40K 6th- First Impressions- Morale

Hi all,

Moving swiftly on, we get to the Morale rules. this will be a fairly short post (there aren't many morale rules in 40K) since most of it has stayed the same. You trigger a morale test by losing combat, or losing 25% of a unit in a single movement or shooting phase. Double 1 always passes. if a unit fails, it must fall back 2d6" towards their own table edge, by the shortest route.

40K 6th- First Impressions- Shooting

Snap-fire in action

Hi all,

So let's take a look at the new shooting rules in 40K. Most of the core mechanics remain the same- to hit, to wound, targeting are all the same as 5th Ed. In fact, shooting has become better since cover saves are now mainly a 5+ rather than a 4+, so firing guns becomes more effective against these targets. going to ground still provides a +1 to the cover save, and is declared before saves are made (so if the plasma guns miss, your Terminators don't need to hit the deck.) So if most of it has remained the same, what's changed?

Well, for a start there's Snap Fire. This means that Heavy weapons and a few other specialist bits of gear can usually shoot even if they move- at BS 1. Yep, your Lascannon can now move and shoot, but will need a 6 to hit. The exception is blast weapons and templates, which can never snap fire. In all honesty, I don't expect this to have a massive impact- it's a nice perk to have, and will likely make heavy weapons a little more common in a few units, but in the main it's not something players will rely on! Nice touch though.

40K 6th- First Impressions- Movement

Hi all,

So, movement in 40K' latest edition. And not much has changed. Ultimately, units can move up to 6", must remain in unit coherency (2" for infantry, 4" for vehicles) and you can't pass within an inch of an inch of enemy models unless they are assaulting. All straight forward.

However, since movement in any wargame is pretty important (read: "most important") all of the other rules will impact your decisions in this phase. The good news is that you can pre-measure at all times in this edition, so your decision making can be more informed. Also, with the new wound allocation system, position of models within units is of primary importance, so movement of units isn't as simple as it sounds.

40K 6- First Impressions- Intro

Hi all,

As I promised at the end of my Warhammer Fantasy review, this is a series of articles on 40K 6th Edition- as a first impression. Doubtless, very few of any conclusions I draw will be proven 100% wrong within 1 year, but hopefully this will be worthwhile exercise in the meantime.

So, I'll be covering the various rules sections as they appear in the rulebook: Movement, Shooting, Assault, Morale, USR's and Unit Types, Weaponry, Characters, Vehicles, Vehicle types, Terrain, Army Selection, Scenarios, Background, Battles Section, Psychic Powers. So that's a lot of ground to cover! To start with though, I'll talk about the quality of the book itself.

40K 6th- First Impressions- Assault

Rolling a 2 for charge

Hi all,

So how does Close Combat work now? Good news- hitting and wounding hasn't changed :)

OK, there's now 2 sub-phases, Charge and Fight. In the Charge phase, you pick a unit, pick a target, resolve Overwatch, roll charge distance then move (or not.) Now, bear in mind that you can pre-measure at any time, so you will be able to know how risky it is to assault the unit. Also bear in mind that charge distance is random- usually 2D6".

There are a few caveats to declaring a charge. These haven't really changed- you can't assault if you shot with heavy, rapid fire, salvo or ordnance, even if it was snap-fire. Similarly, you can't charge if you ran, went to ground, are falling back, are already in combat. Oh- and you can only charge a unit which you did shoot at in the Shooting Phase- so no "Shoot A/ Charge B" tactics.

White Dwarf 391- first impressions

Hi all,

so the "big day" has finally arrived- official news on the 6th edition of Warhammer 40,000. I've made a bit of a day of it, chatting to guys down at the local gaming store and painting figures (more on that in a future post) and hot-damn does this game look good!

*EDIT- just before I wrote this post, I did a quick Podcast with Simon over at 6'stoHit- it's up here, go and have a listen.*

My immediate impression is that this edition is going to upset the tournament player base. This appears to be the final stage in Games Workshops retreat from the "competitive" tourney scene worldwide- and I don't think that's a bad thing. GW have never been that effective at tournaments- the community has always done it better- and I'm now looking forward to resurgence of WPS style organised play, on an international scale. It's certainly going to be interesting times.

Warmachine- Initial Thoughts

Hi all,

I know I haven't talked about it on the Blog, but I have invested a small amount of cash in Warmachine and played a few games. I only bought the started set (Khador, Menoth, small rulebook) so I'm not heavily involved. In all honesty, I bought it to see what all the hype was about.

My first introduction to Privateer Press was a few years ago, and it wasn't really positive. A gaming club invited me to try a few games to see what it was like, so I threw down with a borrowed Khador army against a Hordes Oboros force, played 3 games, and roundly lost all 3. It wasn't the loss, that bothered me, it was the fact my opponent, the guy who was trying to get me excited about the game, wouldn't talk about any of the mechanics in the game, or how anything worked, he just made me figure it out as I went along- consequently, the games took hours for small skirmishes and I was not left with the best impression of Warmachine and Hordes as a system (this was the guy, after all, who was put forward by the club to show me the ropes...)