Got my copy of 7th edition today, (I know it's earlier and no I won't tell you how) and after a few hours of reading through and picking out some of the main changes that I have found I have to say I'm liking it. I'm not sure it's going to be to every body's taste as some stuff has been simplified (dumbed down to the avid forum GW hate mongers) now I'm just going to go right ahead and say that the 3 book set is both pointless and awesome at the same time. How can it be both? Well put it this way there was no way GW where going to release a BRB without adding in the 40k fluff and what I call the warhammer 40k google image search results. And this makes the BRB rather heavy rather annoying and rather pointless especially when it is going to have to be dragged around from game to game. So it made perfect sense to have the rule book separate from the rest of the fluff. You are left with a codex sized rule book to cart about with you instead of a tomb of useless images and fluff. Now wile the constant handing out of GW fluff is somewhat like grandad from only fools and horses siting down in his frayed arm chair constantly repeating the phrase "during the war" it would be silly to not include it. After all new customer base is what GW wants and handing someone a book with rules in it and no explanation as to why the tin men with spikes are fighting the tin men without
spikes, is not going to entice anyone into the world of the 41 millennium.
Now the rules changes. Not so drastic as I thought it was going to be. I have for this first impressions pulled some of the rules the stand out from the crowed. Starting with what I think is the biggest change to the game.
Force organisation, well what better way to start other than to say if you did not like escalation you are going to hate this. Lords of war are now part of the force organisation for anyone with a copy of the Horus heresy rule books this force organisation chart is going to look pretty familiar to you. But the difference being is now you can take multiple forces without that 2000 point upper limit of taking two primary force lists in a single game as long as they are both from the same faction. Factions basically being each different codex army. You also have an allies chart and a new slightly changed allies matrix. You also have the option to use formations in your force organisation these being the ones found in apocalypse etc. these can also be found in the Unbound army selection. Now unbound has turned out slightly different. I thought it was no force org but from the same army. But after reading the very very very small paragraph it is as simple as this. An army built out of what ever the hell you want. Now it is stated that the use of unbound and battle ready armies must be agreed before hand. So no suddenly pulling out an army of blood thirsters with a phantom Titan as support.
However you get added benefits of using a force organisation chart. These being the ability to re roll warlord traits, and Objective secured rule that lets the player keep the objective even if an enemy scoring unit is within range, as long as that unit does not have the same rule in effect.
Vehicles......... well they have toughened up. You no longer get to automatically hit a vehicle if it didn't move anymore, the only time you auto hit a vehicle now is when it is immobilised (walkers excluded) they have also made the vehicle penetration damage table a little harder to blow stuff up with a 1 hit wonder shot. To blow up tanks now we need a roll of a 7. on a dice that only goes to 6.......... makes perfect sense when you add in the +1 and +2 bonuses for AP1 and AP2 weapons. make it impossible for a weapon with an AP of 3 to blow up a tank or flier with 1 shot.
Dedicated transports............ Transports are now categorised by the unit that took it. For instance a squad of veterans taking a rhino as a dedicated transport makes the rhino count as an elite choice. A troop selection making the rhino a troops choice etc.
Destroyer weapons.................... The one thing that people think of when it comes to the Superheavys. Well rest in easy. for the Big D has been nurfed. Now if a 1-5 has been rolled on the destroyer damage table. all cover saves and Invulnerable saves can still be taken. Only on a roll of a 6 on the D weapon table does the Big D remove these. thus making D weapons slightly more friendly. But remember those saves have to be made against each wound so there is still bite as the chances of a single terminator making a worst case scenario of 4 5+ saves is still not going to be easy.
Cover saves........... There is now no such thing as Area terrain, something I actually love. cover saves is simply if the model has 25% or more obscures then they get a 5+ cover save unless stated in the rules section for Battlefield terrain for instance Ruins still offers up a 4+ cover save. what this means is no more 9" high Wraithnights stood on the edge of a buildings base getting a area terrain cover save. there are rules for Moon craters and over previous "area terrain" that offers special rules and there are data sheets covering the different buildings including special rules offering up night vision for some of them as an example.
Shooting phase............ maybe some people where struggling with allocating shooting attacks from multiple weapons in 6th edition, but no you have to resolve all shots fired by a simgle type of weapon, Bolt gun, gravgun, plasma gun etc. one at a time. so you fire all your bolters resolve wounds and saves and remove any casualties. and you continue until the unit you are firing with has fired each different type of weapon in turn. It simplifies the process of allocating different str and AP weapons. but out of all the new rules this one struck me as odd.
Night fighting..................... not sure how I feel about this one if I'm honest. sure they simplified it. But the fact was My Dark Eldar had at least 1 turn per game where they could out shoot everything. but now night fighting only grants stealth special rule no more of this cant target past 36". Luckily enough you will all be happy to know that my Night shields still work the same way they did before.
Tactical Objectives.............. Now I'm not going to go into this, as I personally think, until I have played a few games using the new missions and the Tactical objectives, that it would be unfair to comment, same with all the rules really.
The psychic Phase............... The one rule that even for someone that plays zero Psycher armies. even I am excited about it. the steps involved in the Psychic phase are a bit long winded for a blog post of this size anyway. but it basically involves rolling a D6 and taking a number of dice equal to that roll you then add an extra dice for every psychic mastery level of every psycher in your army. Each of these dice represent a warp charge and you can spend as many or as few as you like to make a successfull test. the more dice you use the more you risk perils of the warp. It seems like a really good way to get the psychic attacks and blessing over and done with.
After reading the new rule book its safe to say that not much has changed from 6th edition. i would say some stuff has been made more balanced Destroyer weapons for instance. The fact that Rhino's are now no longer the useless boxes that you paid 35 points for only to give away a first blood. or are they? until I play a game when someone braves some Rhinos we wont know.
The only thing I hate about this is of course the ability for a Space Marine army to conjure flipping daemons. You can try quoting me little made up blurbs about rogue marines etc etc. but end of the day its plain retarded. And this little paragraph is the only thing i don't like about the new rule set. everything else I'm cool with.
However you get added benefits of using a force organisation chart. These being the ability to re roll warlord traits, and Objective secured rule that lets the player keep the objective even if an enemy scoring unit is within range, as long as that unit does not have the same rule in effect.
Vehicles......... well they have toughened up. You no longer get to automatically hit a vehicle if it didn't move anymore, the only time you auto hit a vehicle now is when it is immobilised (walkers excluded) they have also made the vehicle penetration damage table a little harder to blow stuff up with a 1 hit wonder shot. To blow up tanks now we need a roll of a 7. on a dice that only goes to 6.......... makes perfect sense when you add in the +1 and +2 bonuses for AP1 and AP2 weapons. make it impossible for a weapon with an AP of 3 to blow up a tank or flier with 1 shot.
Dedicated transports............ Transports are now categorised by the unit that took it. For instance a squad of veterans taking a rhino as a dedicated transport makes the rhino count as an elite choice. A troop selection making the rhino a troops choice etc.
Destroyer weapons.................... The one thing that people think of when it comes to the Superheavys. Well rest in easy. for the Big D has been nurfed. Now if a 1-5 has been rolled on the destroyer damage table. all cover saves and Invulnerable saves can still be taken. Only on a roll of a 6 on the D weapon table does the Big D remove these. thus making D weapons slightly more friendly. But remember those saves have to be made against each wound so there is still bite as the chances of a single terminator making a worst case scenario of 4 5+ saves is still not going to be easy.
Cover saves........... There is now no such thing as Area terrain, something I actually love. cover saves is simply if the model has 25% or more obscures then they get a 5+ cover save unless stated in the rules section for Battlefield terrain for instance Ruins still offers up a 4+ cover save. what this means is no more 9" high Wraithnights stood on the edge of a buildings base getting a area terrain cover save. there are rules for Moon craters and over previous "area terrain" that offers special rules and there are data sheets covering the different buildings including special rules offering up night vision for some of them as an example.
Shooting phase............ maybe some people where struggling with allocating shooting attacks from multiple weapons in 6th edition, but no you have to resolve all shots fired by a simgle type of weapon, Bolt gun, gravgun, plasma gun etc. one at a time. so you fire all your bolters resolve wounds and saves and remove any casualties. and you continue until the unit you are firing with has fired each different type of weapon in turn. It simplifies the process of allocating different str and AP weapons. but out of all the new rules this one struck me as odd.
Night fighting..................... not sure how I feel about this one if I'm honest. sure they simplified it. But the fact was My Dark Eldar had at least 1 turn per game where they could out shoot everything. but now night fighting only grants stealth special rule no more of this cant target past 36". Luckily enough you will all be happy to know that my Night shields still work the same way they did before.
The psychic Phase............... The one rule that even for someone that plays zero Psycher armies. even I am excited about it. the steps involved in the Psychic phase are a bit long winded for a blog post of this size anyway. but it basically involves rolling a D6 and taking a number of dice equal to that roll you then add an extra dice for every psychic mastery level of every psycher in your army. Each of these dice represent a warp charge and you can spend as many or as few as you like to make a successfull test. the more dice you use the more you risk perils of the warp. It seems like a really good way to get the psychic attacks and blessing over and done with.
The only thing I hate about this is of course the ability for a Space Marine army to conjure flipping daemons. You can try quoting me little made up blurbs about rogue marines etc etc. but end of the day its plain retarded. And this little paragraph is the only thing i don't like about the new rule set. everything else I'm cool with.
