6

I've been very busy with non-nerdly items lately and thus have not gotten much hobby in.  I have however read the 6th edition rule book (ok, I'm actually only half-way thru the book but I've read all the rules) and figured I could at least put up a post concerning my thoughts on the new rules.  First, I just generalize and then I'll chat about how 6th will change my armies.

Overall, I really dig the new rules.  I'm saying that without any play experience, but I've played a good amount of 5th edition games (and some 3rd edition games way back when) and I feel like the rules will help the game as a whole.  It won't be more competitive from a tournament point of view, but I don't really give a shit about that.  In my mind shooting has become king dog, vehicles and assaulty armies are much less reliable, and wound allocation seems like it will be better.  Most of the rules that changed I think changed for the better (so I won't go over all that stuff), however there are two things I really don't dig.  First, challenges.  I get the cinematic reasoning behind this being added, I just think most people are dicks and this rule will be abused...a lot.  Also, the vague power weapon ruling is already causing really, really, really, dumb arguments on the internet ("I think it looks like an axe"  "no, it's a sword."  "Fuck you, its an axe." "Your Mom's a whore.").

Another big sticking point with the new rules are allies, overall I'm pretty "meh" about it.  Sure it can be easily abused, but every army has something cheesy they can spam if they want.  I'm sure I will try it out at some point (perhaps Chaos, Tau, or Orks with my Necrons and probably Raven Guard with my Blood Angels) but I would much rather play a bunch of games with the new rules and see how my armies are changed before adding troops from other codexes.  That being said, I fear that the new Chaos Space Marines (my first 40k army) will be super awesome and I'll be inspired to sell my blood angels and get Chaos Marines to ally with my Necrons.  So far, I'm holding strong.

The final new addition to 6th everyone hates are the fortifications and mysterious terrain.  I like these additions and it makes me want to build a cool table.  However, much like the other controversial new rules (allies and challenges) this one seems pretty easy to ignore if you want.

Starting with my first army, Blood Angels I'll hit on some key points.  Death Company are now flipping awesome.  Fearless and Rage are now way better than they used to be, Feel No Pain is now less reliable however it can be used against more things so I think its a win.  I used to love these guys and now I think they are a must have.  With the changes to jump troops it may even be worth spending the extra points to get these guys with jump packs.  Also getting a boost are the Sanguinary Guard.  With most power weapons changing to AP3, those 2+ armored nipples look a lot more attractive.  On that vein of thinking, terminators got a lot better.  Heck, even regular termie's may be useful now!   Finally, my love for sniper scouts will only increase with the changes to sniper rules (on a roll of a 6 you can pick your target).

On the negative side, dreadnoughts and all vehicles kind of got kicked in the dick (right on the tip).  The thought of a heavy dreadnought army seems a bit silly now.  All that AV12 and 13 looks to be fairly easy to glance to death.  Sanguinary Priests while still useful no longer feel like an necessity due to Furious Charge losing the initiative bonus.  Most importantly, Blood Angels are an assaulty army and I'm not sure how viable a tactic that is anymore.  Considering I play against Tau and IG my simple tactics of just getting into their lines from 5th won't work.  I may be able to eat a unit or two that way, but the sheer weight of fire from overwatch will eventually take out a measly 10 man assault squad.

With reserving changing and losing the ability to assault the turn you come in on (for infiltrators or outflankers) I am more likely to ignore descent of angels and all that reserve shit and just start everything on the board.  It's something that I'll need to try first, but reserving seems like a less viable option.  Also along those lines, transports look to be really crappy.  I may load up on Land Raiders due to their assault ramp, but I think my days of taking Razorbacks and Rhino's are over.

While I think the new edition presents a mix bag for my assault heavy Blood Angels (if its good or bad for them truly remains to be seen) the new edition seems like it will make my Evil Robots an even scarier army.  In the past my Necron armies have been fairly foot solider heavy and I think that this will be the way to go from now on.  Like every other army, the Necron Vehicles are fragile and I can't see myself spending 200 points on a monolith, or 100 points on a AV11 flyer.

With the changes to rapid fire and the addition of Overwatch, the two troop types; Immortals and Warriors got a good bump.  Also, tesla in general got a bit better.  In overwatch/snap fire situations every hit I score is actually 3!  Most importantly for Necrons is the change to glancing vehicles.  Now my rapid firing squad of 20 warriors only needs to roll 4-6's in order to wreck a land raider?  Ok, sounds good to me.  I thought it was odd that the Necron's had very few high strength guns for taking out vehicles, but with the changes to glancing its obvious that they don't need them.

Although multi-assaulting (and assaulting in general) got a knocked down a peg, wraiths got better (thanks to the changes to fearless and hammer of wrath), scarabs are more survivable (again, thanks to fearless changes), the warscythe may be the best melee weapon in the game (+2 str, AP1, extra die for armor pen rolls), spyders are a bit better thanks to the new monstrous creature rules and deathmarks are flipping awesome now (sniper changes).  In addition to that, there are some units that I never tried before because in the previous edition they looked worthless.  Triarch Praetorian's could be a viable option now and the biggest change is Tomb Blades.  Bikes and Jet Bikes got a pretty big bump in the new edition and I'm eager to give them a go (I've already built 1 squad and am working on a second).

5 assembled tomb blades, 100 points for 5 with twin-linked gauss, or spend an extra 50 and they can get a 4+ Jink save

On the negative side of things for robots, not much.  Their vehicles are glass-like (I really want to try a Cylon Raider with death ray or the Cylon Raider with teleporting beam but they just don't seem like good choices in the new edition) but again, everyone is feeling this.  Also, with the changes to pile-in moves based off initiative steps I could see that hurting lowly I2 necrons.  Their shooting is way more effective in this edition but they may actually be worse in assault than before.  Finally, with the changes to night fighting the solar flare shenanigans are going to be much less effective than before.

Despite all my bitching, I have bought some flyers off of e-bay (and some Praetorians and more Lycheguard armed with warscythes).  They may suck but they look cool dammit!  I'm in a holding pattern now in regards to my Blood Angels.  I would like to get some Raven Guard allies and some Stormtalons to go with my Stormravens (very stormy).  However, I play so rarely and I'd rather spend my time and money on my Necrons because I would rather be full on evil, then half-ass Blood Angels evil.  So I'm contemplating getting rid of my BA...but who knows.

Praetorian's, it's too damn hot to prime anything

I can't wait to actually play some games of 6th and see if anything I said here is actually true!  I'm also considering resetting the records with the new edition change, but I haven't made up my mind yet.