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A little birdie told me all about 6th Edition and I'm pretty excited for it!
I was wondering what you guys were thinking of it all. I'm gonna list the stuff that interests me in a quick summary in case you haven't gone over this yourself.
Overview
As a hoard Ork player (and former league organizer with Dallas playing
) I am overjoyed with the elimination of moving models 3 times to get into assault. This will save me so much time!Swapping the phase order of the turn is pretty major, but I don't think it will take that much time to get used to. I will miss shooting pistols on the way in, but honestly I didn't do it that often for fear my opponent would take enough damage and fall back out of my assault range.
I hear a lot of people freaking out about Overwatch/Defensive Fire, but I must point out that you have to have that rule to use it! It's not just there for every unit.
The return of Area Terrain! Yay! 'Nuff said.
Moving
Moving is all fixed. There are no more random movement rolls. Terrain significantly limits moving, except charge moves (unless you have Move Through Cover; go Tyranids!).
Normal Move (Combat) = Movement Rate
Engage = Movement Rate, can go into CC
Cruise/Run = 2x Movement Rate
Charge = 2x Movement Rate (works through terrain)
Flat Out = 3x Movement Rate
Fleet = +2" to base movement rate
Only Fast units can move Flat Out
Star Engines = +12" to Flat Out
Bounding Leap (Calvary, Hormagaunts) = 3x Movement for Charge/Cruise/Run moves (Hormagaunts can't use fleet here).
Movement Rates
Infantry - 6"
Beasts/Calvary - 7"
Jump Infantry/Flying - 9"
Jet Pack - 6" & 2D6" consolidate jump
Bikes/Jetbikes - 8"
Eldar Jetbikes - 10" (built in Fleet) & get 2D6" consolidate jump
Ground Vehicles - 6"
Walkers - 6"
Skimmers - 8"
Artillery 3"
Flying
Units that are Airborne (Fly rather than Jump) don't have to take Dangerous Terrain tests unless they Charge into terrain (or move Flat Out for vehicles). This is awesome for Gargoyles, Hive Tyrants, Greater Daemons, Tau Gun Drones, etc. Not to mention the vehicles!
Assaults
There aren't terribly major change here (other than phase order). Seems weird, but that's how I read it... There's some big stuff, but nothing that I'd freak out about.
No Retreat wounds from Combat Resolution ignore armour. This is especially Painful for Chaos Marines and Chaos Daemons. It's also kinda nasty for Wraithgaurd, but screw those stupid Eldar wraithbone constructs anyway. Loyalist Marines have it way better than the chaos cult marines now. Units can avoid the damage by taking a Morale test at -1 Ld per casualty (this effects fearless units). Even worse, this rule effects Vehicles, but they are Ld 10 for this test.
Power weapons are good again! Not only do they give you a 5+ invulnerable save in CC, but sarge can cause Directed Attacks at specific models. Take that hidden power fist! (My Nob is mostly safe, you can only pick out targets if their armour save group had a wound assigned to it (so 'Ard Boyz nobz get screwed over)).
Flamers can be used in CC. D6 hits with strength and AP of the weapon. My Orks are not a fan! Those IG flamers squads are murderous. But not still as good as Burna Boyz! Grey Knights with Incinerators will be heinous. Oh, did I mention the obligatory Heavy Flamer on the Dreadnaught? Take that non-MEQ armies!
-Oh, and in the codex-specific section, Pyrovores attacks ignore armour in CC rule applies to this flame attack too. They might actually be used!
If you charge using a normal move (not the double move: Charge) and wipe out your opponent, you may shoot during the Shooting Phase!
Assault Weapons can be used as a second CCW.
Relentless models count Rapid Fire weapons as a second CCW.
Shooting
OMG. To hit modifiers! The world is ending!
Not really. Everything is basically the same as before, but with this:
Vehicles & Monsters = +1 to hit
Didn't move? = +1 to hit
Bikes/Fast Skimmers that moved = -1 to hit
Swarm = -1 to hit
Within 12"? = never worse than base to-hit (ex. BS 3 = 4+ at worst)
You can move and fire Rapid Fire weapons at full range! Yay! Bolters, Plasma Guns, Pulse Rifles and Gauss Flayers rejoice! Oh, and if you're Relentless (like a Chaos Terminator) you can double-tap at 18".
Preferred Enemy works with Shooting! Now the Tau will throw that special character Ethereal at the enemy on purpose.
I foresee the Swarmlord standing next to Hive Guard.Flamers hit D3 enemy models inside open-topped transports and closed-topped ones too if they cover a fire point. Toasty!
It's going to be a serious decision to buy the flamer, melta or plasma (remember, 24" range on the move!).
Sniper Rifles cause Directed Hits, which means the firing player can choose specific models that are hit. Go Ratlings, Scouts and Eldar Pathfinders! Pinning weapons no longer cause units to Go to Ground; instead they cause units to be Shaken, which disallows certain moving and firing options.
Rail weapons = wow! Mark a spot with a marker; roll to hit; if you miss, scatter the marker; Every model under the line (doesn't snipe) between the firing model and the marker is hit (cover saves apply). This is a generic weapon type so things like Vibro Cannons, Blood Lance, etc can all use the same mechanic. Go rail guns though. Str 10 AP1 line of death! (3x for Broadsides)
Bikes only effect Toughness in against Shooting, but it does affect Instant Death!
Vehicles
Tanks got beefier, but easier to hit (-1 on the damage chart for closed-topped Tanks). In the end, that probably means lots of Shaken tanks, while Non-Tank Vehicles are gonna feel it. We might actually see some closed-topped Battlewagons! It also looks like you can fire heavy weapons out of fire points on the move! That's gonna mean even more Chimeras! The drawback is that you can only target units within 18" from inside a transport.
Vehicles all have a new rule called Multi-Targeting. When they take damage, they lose Multi-Targeting, rather than specific weapons. This means that the owning player can always choose from all the weapons a vehicle has, they can only shoot a certain number of them.
-Also, Multi-Targeting allows tanks to split fire. It will be commonplace to see the Lascannon & Twin-Heavy Bolter Predator again, as it can fire it's weapons at appropriate targets once again. This also means that vehicles with only one potent weapon (Vindicator, Hammerhead, Fire Prism) will have to be damaged multiple times before the weapon is disabled. This is great in my opinion. Those tanks weren't as effective as those with more guns. This also means that you won't see Ork players buying Big Shootas just to become more survivable. You'll see Battlewagons without any guns!
-Shaken means you can only shoot 1 weapon (firing Ordnance counts as 2). This means again vehicles like the Hammerhead and Fire Prism are much more effective!
Meltas and other AP 1 weapons lose the +1 to vehicle damage, though they ignore the -1 for being a Tank. Essentially, that means they lose the benefit against non-Tank vehicles. That's pretty big in my opinion. That means meltas don't do increased damage vs. Walkers and those pesky light vehicles like the Dark Eldar have. They still punch armour though, so they're pretty darn good.
Repairing is better (tech-marine, mekboy): Not only can you repair damage, but you can Bolster Weapon Systems on unharmed vehicles, increasing their Multi-Targeting value (even beyond initial value).
Vehicle Squadrons are simpler now too. The squadron gets an Invulnerable save vs. Weapon damage and Immobilized results, but if the save is failed, you apply the result to the entire squadron. Repairing this damage is also applied to the entire squad, so you might see a tech marine by those Land Speeder squadrons.
Vehicle explosions ignore armour and only effect you 1/6 times (exactly like Dangerous Terrain). Oh yeah! That levels the playing field a bit! Those poor Nurgle marines feel it the most, I'd say. Also, explosions happen after all combat, so you can move away and there's no confusion about it counting toward combat resolution.
If your vehicle is Fast, you can fire out of it from a 12" move (16" for Fast Skimmers). Yay Shoota Boyz! Those Dark Eldar Mech spam armies are gonna be flying around like the fluff says they should!
Don't freak out! Terrain will play a huge role in this. You can't move quickly through terrain anymore except when making a Charge move. If your transport is in terrain, it's moving slow! This will make for much more tactical games, I promise! You'll see transports bottle-necking between terrain and you'll see this coming. You'll also setup for a fast assault and have blocking units. You won't deploy units where they'll get assaulted so easily. This will take some getting used to!
Assaulting from Transports
You can assault out of slow moving closed-topped tanks, but you gain no benefit in movement.
You can assault out of fast moving closed-topped tanks with the Fast special rule.
You can assault quickly (double move) out of open-topped transports.
Imperial/Chaos
Rhino/Chimera moves 6"; Disembark; Charge 6"
Land Raider moves 12"; Disembark; Charge 6"
Vendetta/Valkyrie moves 8"; Disembark; Charge 6"
Storm Raven moves 16"; Disembark; Charge 6"
Storm Raven moves 16"; Disembark; Charge 9" (Jump Infantry)
Land Speeder Storm moves 8"; Disembark; Charge(double move) 12"
Dark Eldar
Raider/Venom moves 8"; Disembark; Charge(double move) 12"/16" (w/Fleet)
Eldar
Wave Serpent/Falcon moves 8"; Disembark; Charge 6"/8" (w/Fleet)
Orks
Trukk moves 6"/7"(red paint); Disembark; Charge(double move) 12"/16" (w/Fleet)
Battlewagon/Looted Vehicle(open-topped) moves 6"/7"(red paint); Disembark; Charge(double move) 12"/16" (w/Fleet)
Battlewagon/Looted Vehicle(closed-topped) moves 6"/7"(red paint); Disembark; Charge 6"/8" (w/Fleet)
Tau, Tyranids, Necrons
Doesn't apply
Ramming
Ramming is much simpler. Basically, both vehicles take penatrating hits! The damage roll is modified down based on how much armour you beat the opponent by. (Ex. Trukk with Reinforced ram hits a Lemun Russ; the Russ takes a Penatrating hit at -2 because it has armour 14 vs. the trukk's effective 12 (+2 from the ram)).
Also, Tank Shock and Ram are the same thing now. If you ram a smaller unit, they can consolidate 6" to get out of the way. If they don't make it clear, it's an automatic wound with no armour save per model that is hit. (They still check morale first)
