The 8th Edition 40K Rulebook Review - Part 2 of 3

Cocked up on scheduling so this has appeared in the wrong order! Well, unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ll be aware that the latest edition of 40K is being released on Saturday. If, for some reason, you still haven’t pre-ordered your copy why not do it here now? 

Today I continue my look at the new 8th edition 40K rules with my thoughts on the Shooting, Charge, Fight and Morale phases. If you missed the first part of my review, you can find it here.

Shooting Phase

First thing to remember is that, in general, you can’t shoot if you’ve Advanced or Fallen Back. The other key thing is that units can split their fire. That means your tactical squad’s lascannon can hit a big monster whilst your bolter guys are hosing some infantry. Bear in mind that models with several weapons can fire each one at different targets. This certainly makes things like crisis suits incredibly flexible. Remember you have to declare targets for the entire unit before rolling any dice. There were complaints that this will slow games down but in practice, how often are you really going to fire 10 marines at 10 different targets?

There’s still no shooting into combat. It’s a shame but I suppose it makes sense. With everything having the ability to Fall Back I don’t suppose it’s too big of a deal either. You can always shoot your pistols at a unit you’re locked with though in your next Shooting Phase.

Characters can no longer join units but can only be shot at if they’re the closest target (apart from a few exceptions). It’ll be interesting finding ways to hide your characters whilst you attempt to expose enemy characters.

The weapon types have changed in this edition too. Firstly, twin-linked is gone to be replaced by most of the weapons that used to have it getting double shots. Rapid Fire no longer stops you from Charging. Assault weapons can now fire after Advancing, albeit with a -1 to hit. You’ll have to decide whether it’s better to Advance to be in range for a less accurate shot or not shoot at all. Similarly Heavy weapons can fire at -1BS when they move, a massive upgrade over the Snap Shots of previous editions and again there’s nothing stopping them charging afterwards. Destroyer, Salvo, Ordnance and Barrage weapons are no longer a thing but now have individual rules depending on the weapon.

I'm sure everyone is aware that templates are gone. It seems small blasts have been replaced with D3 shots (although some get D6 e.g. frag missiles) and large blasts are generally D6. Remember you still have to roll to hit after seeing how many shots you get. Templates generally cause D6 automatic hits but vary in range. It's tough to decide whether this makes these weapons better or worse. In the past it was pretty situational but you'd quite often find your opponent would leave their models in a helpful formation to let you get all 10 of them with flamer. You might only hit one model now even if you're right in front of them. Blasts are probably about the same owing to the nature of scatter (which isn't a thing now, even for Deep Strike - add your scatter dice to the pile of useless accessories). All of these weapons are better against single models though as you'll get more than one hit most of the time. This makes things like battle cannons much better against vehicles. Can flamers now hit flyers though? Granted most of them aren't going to do much damage but I can't see anything saying they aren't hit automatically like everything else?!?

Grenades are limited to one use per unit instead of that model firing a weapon and most of them can no longer be used in combat. Melta bombs are now combat only rather than being able to chuck one in the direction of a tank. Makes sense from how they’re supposed to actually work.

Pistols are interesting. They’ve got similar range to the 7^th edition versions but you can choose to fire them instead of any other weapons. If you do so, you can fire into a unit you’re stuck in combat with. Obviously only effective in the turn after you’ve survived a charge though. Remember there’s no need to switch to pistols with your marines if you want to charge as they can fire their bolters and still head into melee.

It’s important to discuss the new to Wound chart too. I’ve summarised it in the diagram below to help explain a few things about it.

Green shows 2+, blue 3+, grey 4+, yellow 5+ and orange 6+. The black numbers show the same value as in previous editions, white values are better than before and red ones are worse than before. 

The key lines to look at are S4 which is still the standard value for most infantry based weapons. It’s not worse against anything but is better against anything over toughness 5. Interestingly T5 seems to be around entry range for vehicles and anything up to and including T7 you’ll wound on a 5+. Most of the vehicles that were AV10 are now being wounded on 5+ instead of 6+ so they've been given more wounds to compensate. Obviously a save modifier and good damage is important but as GW have said. Anything can, theoretically at least, kill anything. Toughness 8 is another interesting part of the chart. Little will be able to wound you on a 2+ (granted only S10 could before) and this is the point where S4 starts to need 6s. Also worth noting that T4 is better against S6 and 7 but otherwise the same.

Trying to figure anything out from this table alone is too simplistic though as obviously you've got several shots one some weapons, varying ballistic skill, save modifiers and obviously varying types of save. 

Speaking of save modifiers, these are worth some discussion. AP seems to have been converted as follows:

AP5/6/- = 0 save mod

AP4 = -1

AP3 = -2

AP2 = -3

AP1 = -4

This means that a 3+ saves now gets a 6-up to AP2 and 5-up vs AP3. That's obviously a big boost to power armour but remember that AP4 now reduces you to a 4+. Weapons that previously had S6 AP3 e.g. a Heldrake's Baleflamer. Now wound marines on 3+ and they'll get a 5+ save. They've given it a damage of 2 to compensate a little but in general that's significantly worse against standard marines but strangely more affective against Primaris! 

That's assuming you aren't in any cover which, generally speaking, gives a +1 to your save. A much simpler method and it makes sense that a marine behind a barricade should be tougher to kill than one in the open. Bear in mind the ENTIRE unit has to be in cover for any models to benefit and most big things now have to be 50% obscured. 

A weapon that causes multiple damage will be much more effective against vehicles or monsters but the damage is wasted on single wound infantry. That's a bit of a boost to hordes and regular marines I'd say. 

Charge Phase

As I said in the first post. It's important that all charges now happen before any fighting begins. This was kind of the case in previous editions but you'd often let your opponent charge and fight with a unit before moving onto the next. You won't be letting them off with that now though as charging units nearly always go first in combat. This has massive implications for some units and makes getting the charge hugely important. Sure you can use your command points to strike first but you'll get through them pretty quickly doing that. Once the charging units have fought, you alternate between the two of you to pick a unit and fight. That makes for some tough decisions.

The loss of Initiative is a big deal for some units. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. My Wyches aren't going to like being charged very much. They already got to strike first most of the time when they charged but are now vulnerable to being charged. It's difficult to figure out how much of an impact this will have until you factor in all the movement ranges etc but I can't help but feel formerly high initiative units will suffer. A unit of guard charging something with much better reflexes shouldn't get to strike first in my opinion. 

The actual mechanism of charging is essentially unchanged (still 2D6" move) except you no longer need to get into base contact to be successful. Overwatch is similar too although now units can fire several times if those charging them don't make it in. Flamers become awesome here too with their automatic hits. Again, I can't see anything stopping them being used to full effect in Overwatch, correct me if I'm wrong. Since you can now charge with vehicles I can see their generally higher toughness being used to soak up Overwatch before a squad charges in. I'm glad this mechanic has replaced the clumsy Tank Shock and Ramming rules.

Multiple charges can now happen without penalty (except multiple Overwatch). That'll save a lot of confusion. Just declare a couple of units will be charged and, if you roll enough inches to get to them, you can engage both.

Fight Phase

Characters can now jump into a nearby fight using Heroic Intervention (woohoo no more Challenges!). It might be difficult to get them in like this as they need to be within 3" of the enemy unit. It'll be important to keep them pretty close to your units to get them involved. Obviously they can try to charge as normal in their turn but getting into the fight might be difficult. I'm not really clear on how they're going to work in combat. Can you target them separately? It seems to me there's nothing stopping you other than needing to be within an inch. If they aren't though, how are they going to hurt you back? Timing their pile in will be important.

Speaking of piling in. I've seen some people saying you can use this to engage a second unit if the one you charged was destroyed by another unit. However, in "Choose Targets" it says units that charged can only target the units they charged. In subsequent turns you probably can though. 

You can now split your attacks between your close combat weapons. There'll be some decisions to make for some units but most will be using the same weapon for all their attacks. Speaking of which a lot of the melee weapons have changed significantly. With initiative no longer being a factor most of the power fists, hammers, etc. just give a -1 to hit modifier. That's a huge boost for them and remember they can double your strength above 10 now! 

Finally, cover no longer has any effect on combat. That's a big boost for units that don't have grenades. Well, in a way at least, they'll still need to be the one charging to guarantee going first.

Morale

I've liked this mechanic from the point I read about it. Firstly you aren't testing for a unit several times a turn. Second, nothing is getting swept in combat and most importantly no full squads of trained soldiers are running from the battlefield in fear because a couple of their mates died. You'll have to test sooner though as it's any units that have any lost models rather than 25%. You'll get used to which units can skip testing when they've only lost a model or two though:

I've highlighted the 6 on the D6 row because obviously that's the worst case scenario. It means a leadership 7 unit needs to lose two models before it will take any casualties from morale. Remember the casualties are whole models not extra wounds. That's pretty harsh for units with multi-wound models. I've highlighted Ld10 too because that's the point where you'll never have to test on a 5-man unit and a 10-man unit will never take casualties. 

Interestingly, it doesn't seem like vehicles are immune from Morale checks. The majority of them are single models of course but vehicle squadrons could potentially need to test. A quick flick through the indexes though and a lot of squadrons are now treated as separate vehicles after deployment. When you think about it there's no real advantage to keeping them in squadrons anyway since you can't split damage like you used to.

Transports

I wanted to cover these separately because I think the changes are a big deal. Firstly let me say that, like some other rules, the rules for these are seemingly randomly placed in the rulebook. It's not like there's tons of rules to wade through though so I can't say it bothers me that much.

A transport has a capacity as ever but can now transport multiple units. You could therefore throw several characters in the same transport or a couple of 5-man squads into a rhino. 

Embarking now just requires you to get all the models within 3". You can't do anything from inside a transport any more which seems to include firing out of hatches although individual vehicle rules will probably allow for this. 

Disembarkation now happens at the start of the movement phase i.e. before the vehicle moves. You don't deploy from access points now but with AV no longer a thing and likewise fire arcs, it doesn't really matter which way your vehicle is pointing. No more emergency disembark etc. You can now charge from a vehicle but obviously with having to get out before the vehicle moves you'll not be getting many first turn charges! Sitting there in your vehicle hoping you survive a turn to charge whilst your opponent moves his units out of range is going to be tough to get used to. Still, getting out 3", moving and then charging is a pretty big range. You won't need to get your vehicle as close as before.

If the vehicle blows up you're only losing models on a 1 now which is a big deal for Orks and especially Dark Eldar but bear in mind you aren't getting a save against it and multi-wound models are just removed. 

Conclusions

Games Workshop has probably written less words in the core rules section than I've just used in these two posts talking about them! That's an awesome thing for new players. The old rulebook was intimidatingly complex. Of course the datasheets are where the complexity comes but they're generally just adding a modifier or giving a re-roll here and there. There's a nice example turn in there to give new players an idea of how everything works together. They've done a great job in getting sets out to stores early so they can give people demo games. Something that would've been unheard of in previous editions.

The rules are much more straightforward. There's a lot less rolling of dice but, early on at least, there'll be a lot more referring to unit entries even just for things like checking how far they can move. Still, you can easily see that games will be a lot quicker, especially when you're used to how your army works. Being able to pick your psychic powers rather than roll for them for example will save a huge chunk of time for some armies. Obviously you might want to change them in each game of a tournament though. 

I think there'll be a lot of "are you sure you can do that?" followed by "well, show me where it says I can't" in the early days of 8th. It'll be tough not to assume things have remained the same from previous editions. Even little things like no longer getting an extra attack for charging or no longer being pinned after your transport explodes. Oh and the Most Important Rule is still there. Such a shame, I much prefer a good argument and the animosity that then hangs over the rest of the game. Each to their own!

It's crazy to think about just how much has been culled from the rulebook. Obviously the USRs are now on the datasheets but there's no longer page after page about vehicles, unit types, etc. I'm all for it. I don't think it's dumbing the game down on any level just making it more enjoyable to play. I still think they missed an opportunity by keeping it as a D6 based system. I'd love to be rolling D10s and the like again and it'd add a bit more variety to the weapons which can feel a bit samey.

One last thought for today: GW said something interesting in their Faction Focus for Ad Mech on Tuesday: "And be aware that if you can get a +1 to hit, you get the bonus hits on the roll of a 5 or 6". The wording of most of the bonus is "+1" to whatever roll. I'm just assumed you'd simply pass a 3+ roll on 2+ in that circumstance. I hadn't thought that you'd therefore have a better chance of getting a six. This is interesting for a lot of weapons which give extra damage (and often mortal wounds) on a 6. I'll try to find examples of this in my faction reviews.

Come back tomorrow for my last post on the rulebook where I'll cover army selection, missions, deplyoments, etc. I hope you're enjoying this series. You can support my efforts to review all of the new material by buying your new models from Element Games using the adverts on my blog. I get a small cut and you get a decent saving on your miniatures. Win-win! Alternatively, click on some of the Google ads if you like. 

The 8th Edition 40K Rulebook Review - Part 3 of 3

Well, unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ll be aware that the latest edition of 40K is being released on Saturday. If, for some reason, you still haven’t pre-ordered your copy why not do it here now? Although, you'd probably not be getting it by tomorrow at this point!

Today I continue my look at the new 8th edition 40K rules with my thoughts on the Army Selection, Missions, etc. If you missed the first parts of my review, you can find part one here and part two here.

I'm not going to cover the Open and Narrative Play portions of the rulebook. They offer some interesting ideas for thematic battles but since most of my 40K play is centred around tournaments I won't be discussing them here. They do offer some interesting ideas for custom missions at future events I might run but for my first 8th edition events I'll probably keep things pretty simple. Narrative missions tend to give one side a bit of an edge to represent attacker or defender so in competitive events they're unlikely to get much use. I won't go into Battlezones or the rules for things like Planetstrike etc as they probably won't see much use in tournaments. I might borrow them for my events though in one form or another. I'll also refer to points in my reviews of the factions as I think that'll still be the most common selection method at events.

Army Selection
Keywords come into play here as an army's units much all share a faction keyword. The allies chart and it's associated rules are gone. I can't help but feel this gives Imperial players far more options as everything shares the IMPERIUM keyword. I think as the codexes come out it'll be advantageous to limit things to say BLOOD ANGELS or ASTRA MILITARUM but for now there's no real penalty to mixing and matching. Eldar and Dark Eldar now have AELDARI and CSM and Daemons have CHAOS. That isn't much fun for Tyranids (although they get Genestealer Cults to play with), Orks, Necrons, Tau, etc. I think those armies will be fine though!

Reinforcement Points are an interesting idea. If you want to create extra units e.g. summoning, Tervigons, etc. you'll need to pay for them in advance. This isn't saying you have to decide you'll summon plaguebearers though. I know there's been consternation about this but I think it's an elegant solution to the summoning problems of 7th. There'll still be an advantage to be gained from being able to bring in the right tool for the job in the right place. For a Tervigon you can replenish units for free but newly created ones will need to be paid for. More on these things in the faction posts though.

Interestingly, GW suggest that for a 1,001-2000 pt game (which basically covers nearly all tournaments) you should be allowed a maximum of three detachments. Bear this in mind when I'm talking about detachments in a minute.

The Force Organisation Charts (FOCs) feel pretty familiar with a compulsory core of units to allow you to take other optional ones. Depending on how restrictive they are, you can gain Command Poitns (CP) to spend on Stratagems. We're told there'll be faction specific ones in the codexes but for now we can choose between three:

• 1CP to re-roll a single dice
• 2CP to fight out of sequence with a unit that hasn't charged
• 2CP to pass a morale test automatically

All of these could have pretty dramatic effects but knowing when to use them will be important. I'm not sure they add the tactical depth that GW seem to think they add but we'll see how things play out when we've got more of them to use.

There are currently no faction specific warlord traits so you're stuck with the three mediocre ones from the rulebook. At least you can pick from them rather than randomly generating if you want.

Matched Play Mission Rules
Psychic Focus is a big deal for some armies. Since we've currently only got a maximum of 3 powers available to single faction armies, they'll soon exhaust their faction specific powers and have to use Smite for everything else.

Stratagems (more on them soon), are limited to one use per phase. That means, for example, you can't use several command points to make multiple units fight first.

Reserves can only comprise half of your army now. No null deployment. That's not really that drastic I don't think and remember you aren't rolling for reserves in Matched Play (you do in some Narrative Play missions). Having some tactical choice about when to bring units in is a refreshing change. Don't wait too long though as you've only got the first three turns to bring them in. Presumably units like Swooping Hawks and Mawlocs which can leave the battle are able to return in turn 4 and beyond though. It's worth noting here that Flyers aren't forced to start the game in reserve and it doesn't seem like you can put something in reserve that doesn't have a specific rule to allow it.

Deployment
The three deployment types we've gotten used to Vanguard, Dawn of War and Hammer & Anvil return but they're joined by three more. Veteran players will remember Search and Destroy but Spearhead Assault and Front-Line Assault are new. It's nice to have a bit more variety to proceedings and it'll be interesting to see how these play out with some armies. Starting 18" away is always interesting for fast moving armies and even more so now there's varying movement values.

Bear in mind you determine the deployment map after placing your objective markers. This was the case in 7th but I'm not sure people paid much attention to it most of the time. Also note that you now control an objective if you have more models within 3". No more contested objectives, well in theory, what do you do on the occasion where both players have a model each which are equidistant or even touching the objective marker?

From a quick skim of them missions it seems like all of them use alternating deployment with each player deploying a unit at a time. This is similar to other games but it makes a welcome appearance in 40K. It's interesting that the person who finished first gets to choose whether to go first or not. There's a significant benefit then in having a smaller unit count but I can't help but feel this a big boost for elite armies that will naturally contain less units. This is probably the first change in the new rules that I struggle with. Maybe going first isn't going to be such a big thing but I really don't see how it isn't!

Terrain
Let me remind you that Difficult and Dangerous terrain are no longer a thing. Instead we're given classifications for all of them. They generally all offer the same +1 to saves. Some area terrain reduces charges by 2" but interestingly has no effect on movement. Gone are the days of a big monster having a toe in cover and claiming a cover save though as for most of these units they specify they need to be 50% obscured to benefit.

Missions
There are still six Eternal War and six Maelstrom of War missions. Most are similar with some subtle changes here and there. The secondary objectives of Slay the Warlord, First Blood and Linebreaker are still there. Here's a rundown of the Eternal War missions:

1. Retrieval Mission - four objectives worth 3 VPs at game end
2. No Mercy - basically Purge the Alien - 1 VP per unit destroyed
3. The Scouring - six objectives with one "Superior" worth 4 VPs, one "Inferior" worth 1 VP and the rest worth 2 VPs at game end
4. Big Guns Never Tire - four objectives worth 3 VPs at game end but Heavy Support essentially have Objective Secured. Heavy Support worth 1 VP each when destroyed.
5. Secure and Control - single objective each (set up in own deployment zone) worth 3 VPs at game end
6. The Relic - single central objective - major victory if carrying it, minor victory to player with closest model if not carried. Can only be moved by INFANTRY and can't be put in a TRANSPORT. Can move a maximum of 9" per phase.

Random game length remains the same with round 6 on a 3+ and round 7 on a 4+. Pretty similar then with Big Guns being returned to a more sensible form where Heavy Support have a benefit not just a drawback. The Relic still seems pretty stupid. You can move it pretty fast. Granted you can't take it more than 9" but that's quite a lot really and could potentially take it with you when charging.

I'll talk in more detail about the Tactical Objectives in a separate section below so I can properly analyse them. You still can't discard impossible objectives but you can spend 2CP to discard an extra one (you can still discard one for free). Importantly they can now be scored in both your turn and your opponent's turn. The missions are as follows:

1. Cleanse and Capture - three objectives per turn.
2. Contact Lost - one objective in first turn then one objective per marker controlled in subsequent turns - can use a 3CP stratagem to generate an extra one (still capped at 6)
3. Tactical Escalation - same number of objectives as round number - nominate a "Tactical Priority" for a specific objective type to be worth a bonus VP. Also get a bonus point for achieving more of their Priority objectives than their opponent.
4. Spoils of War - as before. Can steal objectives from your opponent and can't discard "Secure Objective X". Get a bonus VP for scoring more of these cards.
5. Cloak and Shadows - keep objectives secret. Night fighting in effect (-1 to hit over 18") - can bypass this by paying 1 CP to light up an enemy unit with flares.
6. Deadlock - start with six objectives in round 1 and decrease by one each turn. Stratagems double in cost from round 3.

Nothing drastically different here. There's a few little bonus rules thrown in here and there but I still think Maelstrom will be my preferred way to play the game. Eternal War feels a bit tired in comparison and they've not really done much to rejuvenate it.

Tactical Objectives
The cards are pretty similar but there's a few that have been replaced and others which have been tweaked. Here's a brief rundown:

• 11-16 (Capture and Control) and 21-26 (Take and Hold) - the same as before
• 31-36 (Storm and Defend) - give you a 2 VPs for controlling objective X for two consecutive turns
• 41-46 (Seize Ground) - as the group name suggests, Behind Enemy Lines, Supremacy, Domination and Hold The Line which are similar to before with new additions Advance (get everything out of your deployment zone) and Mission Critical Objective (random numbered objective worth 1 VP or D3 if you steal it from your opponent).
• 51-56 (Purge) - Overwhelming Firepower, Blood and Guts, No Prisoners and Psychological Warfare, Master The Warp (formerly Harness) are all roughly the same but and Area Denial gives points for clearing out the centre of the board.
• 61-66 (Annihilation) - Kingslayer, Witch Hunter, Scour the Skies, Assassinate, Big Game Hunter all essentially the same but Priority Orders Received is new and gives you bonus points for scoring an additional objective with your Warlord (stolen from Blog Wars? I'll let you decide - probably not let's face it!).

That means no more Demolitions, Hungry for Glory and Recon (for obvious reasons). Supremacy is gone too but it Ascendency has been renamed to Supremacy to make things confusing!

It's a shame the D3 points are still in there. I think Maelstrom is random enough without keeping that in. Fast armies will still have an advantage in Maelstrom but with no ObSec you won't find it so easy to steal objectives from your opponents with those Windriders. 

Conclusion
There's a lot of subtle changes to the mission rules that will have a profound impact on the way armies are chosen and battles are fought. I can't get over the rule essentially giving first turn to the player with the least units.

Army selection will be an interesting thing in 8th edition. Not least because the indexes make it a pain in the arse to work out how much units cost! I'll get to that in more detail when I do my index reviews though.

Right, that's it for the rulebook. You'll have it in your grubby mitts tomorrow! Come back for reviews of the armies as an when I get through the indexes. I hope you're enjoying this series. You can support my efforts to review all of the new material by buying your new models from Element Games using the adverts on my blog. I get a small cut and you get a decent saving on your miniatures. Win-win! Alternatively, click on some of the Google ads if you like. 

The 8th Edition 40K Rulebook Review - Part 1 of 3

Well, unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ll be aware that the latest edition of 40K is being released on Saturday. If, for some reason, you still haven’t pre-ordered your copy why not do it here now? 

You’ll also likely be aware that it’s a pretty dramatic shake up of the game we know and (mostly) love. My longer serving readers will know that I used to do detailed reviews of every new rulebook and codex that was released. This started to become impossible to achieve with rules coming thick and fast from various sources. I think I gave up around the time Skitarii was released but 8^th edition sees all those many source materials merged so it seems a great time to start full reviews again. 

I’m going to try and avoid too many comparisons to the old edition but they’ll inevitably creep in but I think the key to enjoying 8^th edition is not to worry about the things your army used to be able to do and not to assume that units that used to be terrible still are (and of course, vice versa). It’s probably better to forget everything you know from previous editions too. If the new rules don’t say you can’t do something then assume we can until told otherwise. I’ll give some examples later. 

I’m going to work systematically through the rulebook. It’s not going to be completely exhaustive of course but once you get your hands on the book you’ll be able to fill in the blanks.

One last thing before I start. I’ll talk in general terms about the rules but, from reading through the indices, for every rule there’s a unit that breaks it in some way. For example, you can’t Advance and Charge but Orks under a Waaagh! can. That means I'll nearly always say "in general", "for the most part", etc. since some units bypass the restrictions. Right, onto the review:

Ways to Play

The first thing you’re presented with (once you’ve got past some gorgeous artwork) is that there are now three “Ways to Play”.  I’ll cover these in more detail in the next post but for now: 

• Open Play is essentially Unbound from previous editions. Bring whatever models from whatever army you want and fight it out. There’s some basic scenario/deployment rules in there but the aim is to get you rolling dice quickly.
• Narrative Play is pretty self-explanatory. Power Levels (more on them later) are used instead of points and there’s a multitude of fluffy scenarios to play through that help set the scene for more cinematic battles. These come with their own stratagems to really help theme the battles and differentiate between playing attacker or defender in some missions.
• Matched Play is essentially the game as it was before 8^th. Units cost points. as do their upgrades. and armies need to conform to detachments to be legal. This will be the basis of tournament play and, from what I’ve read at least, early tournaments won’t need to worry so much about “comp” as the rules laid out here seem to make for a pretty solid rules pack. I can imagine tournament organisers (TOs) will still limit the number of detachments you can take but the missions, deployment and army selection criteria will mostly be left alone. 

From this point forward all of my discussion will be based around matched play. I’ll also be basing my faction reviews on the assumption that you’re playing in a points based system with a reasonably competitive atmosphere.

Before I start talking about the core rules phase by phase it’s worth noting that they’ve finally started to call them “Turns” and “Battle Rounds” no more confusion between “Turn” and “Player Turn”. The turns themselves are pretty similar to previous editions with Movement, Psychic, Shooting, Charge, Fight and Morale phases. The key differences being that Charge and Fight are deliberately separate phases and the Morale phase is the only time you check leadership.

Statlines

Veteran players will be relieved to see that the statlines are, for the most part, similar to what we’ve had before. The key difference is that Initiative is completely gone (more on that in the Fight Phase) and the Movement value has returned. Stats are no longer capped at 10 which is worth thinking about when we consider things like power fists doubling Strength 7 up to 14. Vehicles now have wounds instead of hull points and often well into double figures to make them tougher to take down. I’ve not played much 8^th yet but I’m in favour of this so far as I think it’ll make tanks feel tough to stop and prevent some of the flimsier vehicles e.g. trukks from feeling like they're made of cardboard.

Finally, WS and BS are no longer a number but rather a roll. These can be modified by various in game effects but it takes an extra step out of working out what roll you need. Not a big deal for veteran players but nice for new guys. Not to mention that it means that your characters will often be hitting everything on 2+ rather than comparing WS. I’m not necessarily a huge fan of this on first glance because it seems a bit strange that really skilled combatants aren’t any harder to lay hits on (in general at least).

Keywords

Age of Sigmar players will be familiar with them but for people like me who’ve never square-based these are a new way of grouping units together to determine how they’re affected by various in-game effects. For example, some weapons are better against INFANTRY and units with FLY can ignore terrain. Again, there are a lot of exceptions to these things but for army selection purposes, choosing units with the same faction keyword will make things more straightforward and, once the codex comes along for your army, it’ll be clear which units benefit from specific special rules.

Movement Phase

Not the most complicated section but there’s still some important changes. The most notable being that, as I’ve mentioned above, units can now move at different speeds. There’s quite a range of values here too so slow lumbering units will actually feel like that and quick nimble units will too. As they FAQ’d in previous editions, they’ve clarified that no part of a model can move more than the movement value. No sneaky pivoting of my Dark Eldar Raiders then!

Might sound daft but they’ve even clarified that you can’t move through walls. Well, in theory at least. The rules for Ruins muddy the waters a little here. In general though there’s no rolling for difficult terrain and moving straight through a wall. Speaking of which, Difficult and Dangerous Terrain are no longer a thing. Some terrain types will slow your movement by a set value but there’s no longer a random element to it. They don’t specifically clarify it but to me you still can’t move your model through a gap its base can’t fit through. Common sense will hopefully prevail.

There’s a multitude of ways in which armies can be deployed (e.g. Infiltrate) or arrive from Reserves (e.g. Teleport) but most things have to remain 9” away. In general these units arrive at the end of the movement phase so can’t move any more but they can shoot and charge as normal. That means roughly a 1 in 3 chance of getting a charge off with a teleporting/deepstriking/whatever unit. Remember you don’t have to get into base contact anymore.

This is also a good point to talk about Coherency. You still have to stay within 2” of other models but with Blasts and Templates gone there’s no need to spread out your models. My 30-strong mobs of Ork Boyz have suddenly become a lot more bearable to play with!

Advancing (formerly called Run) now happens in the movement phase but it’s still D6 extra inches. It’s going to be an important decision though whether to Advance or not as it still (for the most part) prevents shooting and charging. That means you’ll no longer find a unit suddenly without a shooting target and decide you may as well run them. It also means no more running a unit that just arrived from reserve (as they can’t move any further). Most of us would let our opponent move and run in the Movement phase in 7^th to speed things up but having it in the core rules will certainly move things along quicker (pun intended).

A final note on Movement, the rules for ruins say that only INFANTRY can end up on top anything but the ground floor of ruins unless the models have FLY. There should be a semi-colon in there somewhere (page 248 - GW again struggles with punctuation) to make it clear that you can still put a flying Hive Tyrant on the top floor but can’t get a Rhino up there.

Psychic Phase

There are again some pretty major changes here. Firstly, they’ve clarified how many powers a psyker can cast per turn (and attempt to deny). In the indices at least, there doesn’t seem to be a way of increasing “mastery level” by paying points. A Rune Priest can cast two powers for example. Everyone gets Smite plus a varying number of powers from their Index entry. There are no other psychic powers in the rulebook so, for now at least, armies will have to stick to their faction specific powers. That means no Invisibility for all and no Summoning for non-Daemon armies (again, for now at least).

You can choose which of those your psyker knows though. Frustratingly an army can only attempt to cast each power once per turn (in Matched Play). Even if you have several psykers who all have the same power you can only use it once. That’ll be pretty frustrating for Tyranid players who want multiple units casting Catalyst. It does mean the psychic phase won’t go on for hours though as you’ll quickly work through the limited number of powers your army can cast. It’s worth noting here that Summoning (now Daemonic Ritual) is no longer a psychic power but I’ll talk more about it when I get to Daemons.

I’m a big fan of the new mechanism for casting powers. No more piles of dice for psychic armies. Each power has a set value you have to achieve on 2D6 to successfully manifest it. Your opponent has to roll more than your roll to Deny it. Simple but effective. Smite for example has an 83% chance of a successful cast without modifiers (although remember you can’t pick your target). 

I’m also a big fan of Deny being limited to Psykers only but being able to block buffing powers too if you’re in range. It always seemed daft to me that Guardsmen could prevent a psyker from targeting them with a power. It means it’s probably a good idea to include psykers for defence purposes as well as for their offensive power. Also worth noting that if you get your power off on a double six (and don’t die in the process) it’s nearly impossible to cancel it.

Perils now happen on a double one or double six again but there’s no table to roll on to see what happens. Just a pretty good chance the psyker will die from it and if they do every unit nearby will suffer too. Should make for some dramatic psychic phases and saves you looking up the Perils table because who could remember anything other than 1 and 6?

It’s worth talking about Mortal Wounds here. They ignore absolutely everything, invulnerable saves included. That makes for a pretty simple mechanic and makes anything that can cause them pretty damn effective against everything! It seems to me that the variously named versions of Feel No Pain can still be taken against Mortal Wounds though.

One last thing here, the ranged effect powers will, unless stated, affect the psyker too. The same goes for Characters with aura effects. It was one of those things that was always assumed but wasn’t explicitly stated in the original rules.

That'll do for today. I'll be back tomorrow with the Shooting Phase, Assault Phase & Morale Phase then some more on the missions, army selection and terrain etc.

Hobby Resolutions for 2017

Not sure why I keep doing this to myself since clearly my resolve is lacking and I never seem to stick to them. Still, it's a tradition now so let's get on with it starting, as ever, with a look back over last year's resolutions.

• Double Trouble - this is at least one I can tick off. I was really pleased with how the event went and how well people embraced the spirit of it. I'm really looking forward to the next one.
• Get the scenery done - I'm looking at last year's resolutions post and Siph's comment "I'll believe it when I see it Alex" is haunting me. I made some progress on my scenery but nothing finished all year. 
• Clear out the crap - I ended up with more crap if anything - fail! Needs to happen in 2017 though before the move into the garage. Watch this space! 
• Paint all my knights - well partial credit here surely? Two of my four knights are "finished". Be nice to get my original knight up to the same standard and work on my freeblade too though.
• Finish some Tau/SW units - nope!
• Blogging - more hobby posts was the aim. Well, I barely posted about my hobby in the past so this was a somewhat meagre goal but with all of the knight stuff I think I did reasonably well.
• Torunaments - think I managed my lofty goal of "the odd one here and there". Go me!

What about this year then?

• Scenery - this is getting to be a bit of a joke/farce but I really really really want to get my scenery done. Doesn't help that I can't remember playing more than a couple of games on my own table all of 2016 though! Perhaps I should forget about the idea of having an alternate set of desert terrain and just worry about getting my winter stuff done. Still, it really doesn't take long to produce so there shouldn't be any excuse. Right Jamie and Siph, hit me with your sarcasm.
• Clear Out The Crap - I've changed my mind about the Dark Angels. Seems a shame to get rid of another army that I've put work into (like I did with my Eldar a while ago). I think I just need to rationalise my collection though. The same goes for all my armies to a greater or lesser extent. There'll be a decent amount of space in my garage but I really want things to be better organised in there.
• Painting - As I posted about at some point in 2016, I've given up on the idea of setting myself targets to keep to get my armies done. Instead I'm just going to go with the flow. Since I posted about this I haven't actually finished anything but again, hopefully the garage will change that.
• Blogging - I've found my motivation lacking of late but hopefully I'll find some inspiration again when I start playing more games again
• Tournaments - I'll be attending at least one event this year, Double Trouble 2 but who knows if I'll be playing in it. Outside of that I'd like to attend some 40K, X-wing and Blood Bowl events.
• Double Trouble 2 - obviously I want this to be bigger and better than DT2. At least the venue will be better so I'm already winning!

So, essentially what I'm doing here is avoiding setting specific goals so I can feel better about myself next year! I'm putting a lot of hope into the garage conversion spurring me to new heights of hobby production but we'll have to wait and see I guess. 

As I said in my review post. We've got a big game coming up at the end of Jan so I need to get some Orks ready for that so there'll likely be my first order of business. What I'd really like to do though is get my new Human Blood Bowl team painted. I can't promise I won't be distracted and paint them instead. Clearing out the crap has to come before anything else though as it's a necessary part of the garage move. 

So, hands up who thinks I'll get any scenery finished in the next 12 months....

New 7th Edition Tau Codex Review (2 of 2) - New Units and Formations

The last post covered all of the minor changes from this book to the last. This post will be about all of the new stuff. I think we can all agree that none of us expected there to be quite so much new stuff in this book. We expected/hoped for new Crisis suits and Fire Warriors and probably thought there'd be a new big kit but hands up who really thought you'd see Tau scenery!?! Today I'll talk about the new units and where they slot into the army.

Breacher Teams

Costing the same as the newly renamed "Strike Team", the Breacher teams share the same stats and basic equipment as their more familiar cousins. They still get photon grenades and are still awful in combat. Both units now get the option for a Tactical Support Turret too which give you a BS3 missile pod or SMS when you're stationary. They're probably more suited to the Strike Teams but for just slightly more than a Fire Warrior I'd be very tempted. An SMS fires like four pulse rifle FWs at long range and two of them (without Ethereal) at short range. Bargain. Of course, you don't get an extra model for morale etc but if you're taking that Ethereal who cares?

Anyway, for Breacher teams the big deal is their weapon, the pulse blaster. It's an incredibly short range weapon. At anything above 10" you're better with a pulse rifle or carbine but under 5" is where it gets interesting as they're basically marine killers. Don't forget if you're near an Ethereal it'll be 3 shots at 5" too. That means 30 S6 AP3 shots. Throw in a couple of marker hits and that's death to anything with a 3+ save. Don't get too excited though to get that kind of range you either need to be hopping out of a Devilfish or about to be charged. Neither of which will result in a long and prosperous life for your Fire Warriors. Even if you shell out for a Guardian Drone to combine with the field amp relay for a 5++ save, they're still just Fire Warriors. Personally I say keep them cheap as possible and make a bee-line for something juicy. I'm thinking Deamon Princes for example.

I think they're an interesting unit though and I'm going to give them a go with a bit of proxying before committing to any models. They bring back the good old Fish o'Fury from the good old days and that's no bad thing in my book. The problem comes in subsequent turns. You'll either have to saddle back up and move onto to the next target or hope that something is daft enough to come close. It's very easy to avoid them after that first punishing fusillade.

Ghostkeel Battlesuits

This most important thing to note here is that, either in a CAD or Hunter Cadre (as part of the Hunter Contingent), Ghostkeels compete with Riptides and Crisis teams. That's already a pretty big ask but then I suppose it depends on your playstyle (and whether you're using formations or not).

Ghostkeels are T5 MCs with four wounds a 3+ save. On its own that doesn't sound like much but throw in the included Stealth Drones and things get interesting. There's a bit of debate about this but personally I think the Ghostkeel gains Stealth AND Shrouded as a result of the drones, whereas the drones just get Stealth. Throw in the electrowarfare suite and that's a 2+ cover save over 12" and 4+ the rest of the time. Assuming there's no Ignores Cover for your opponent (which is a big assumption), the Ghostkeel becomes pretty durable. The drones can be thrown in harm's way too as ablative wounds. Even with both drones gone the Ghostkeel gets a 3+ cover save. That's not all though, once per game they get to force a unit to fire Snap Shots at them. That could make a huge difference against say, grav-gun toting bikers. Defensively they look pretty interesting then.

For that chunk of points though I'm going to want some offensive capability. First off they've got a twin-linked flamer but I think I'd probably always be paying the price for the twin-linked fusion blaster. The main gun though is the fusion collider which is a blast fusion gun. That makes for a pretty decent anti-tank combo albeit at close range. That means either deep striking or trying to JSJ across the board and survive long enough to get close to a tank. Of course, like any melta equipped unit they're going to work well against heavily armoured infantry too.

Alternatively you could throw on a twin-linked burst cannon and the cyclic ion raker and go after infantry (or light vehicles for that matter). A six-shot auto-cannon isn't awful and the option to overheat for a S8 large blast is nice too. It's difficult to say which combination is better really. I suppose it depends on the needs of your army. I can't help but think that other units fill this role perfectly well already though. I'd lean towards the melta option as I think Tau can often struggle against targets they can't just bring down with weight of fire.

At the moment I'm not really rushing to buy one or more of these guys. Mind you, I wasn't blown away by the Riptide when I first read the rules (and I still maintain they can be hit and miss). Perhaps then, the Ghostkeel will grow on me.

Stormsurge Battlesuits

Being a Lord of War there's no competition for the Stormsurge (outside of FW). The only question is will you fork out the hefty price tag for a model with a 3+ save?

The main temptation with the Stormsurge is it's damage output so let's start there. For starters, being a gargantuan creature means firing at multiple targets. This means you can be peppering a couple of objective grabbing units with shots from the cluster rockets, AFP and SMS whilst taking on an Imperial Knight with the main gun and destroyer missiles. Speaking of which, you need some sort of markerlight support to use the Stormsurge to it's full potential. You could easily destroy an opposing super heavy if you got enough hits. You'll be wanting quite a few hits though to give you enough to boost the BS and fire the missiles at strength D.

The anchors are an interesting idea. It's a shame you can't start the game "anchored" though. Having at alpha strike on turn 1 would be nice. The issue with the anchors is that your opponent may just keep out of range. Perhaps that's a good thing though as you'll be keeping out of combat. I think I'll need to play a couple of games with mine to decide.

I think you'd always want to stick with the pulse blastcannon over the pulse driver. If the driver was AP1 I'd be more tempted but since it costs extra I really don't see a reason to ditch the D, even if it is short range (childish snigger). Again it depends on the role though. The driver does allow you to sit back and hammer vehicles at long range and therefore protects you better in combat but I think the role of the stormsurge is to sit front and centre and hammer stuff as hard as possible whilst taking the brunt of the enemy firepower. I can't see them surviving a lot of games but their presence will probably keep the rest of your army alive.

How long will it survive though? Well T6 is pretty poor for a gargantuan creature. Riptides aren't that difficult to drop and they have a 2+/5++ save. Chucking on a shield generator is probably a good idea. It may push the stormsurge above 400 pts but I think it's necessary. Don't forget you'll be getting FNP of course and a semi-immunity to poisoned. There's a chance that your opponent might ignore the Stormsurge completely and focus on the rest of your army but I think that's unlikely.

Tau Tidewall
Frustratingly absent from the codex, the Tidewall is a complete new range of kits like the Wall of Martyrs that can be used in various combinations. Kauyon has some formations for them but the basic rules are in the box. I picked up a set and it's great kit.

Rules-wise I'm not totally convinced. Having a re-roll of 1s would make a huge difference to anything standing on it that has been boosted to BS5 by markers but it does force you into a (reasonably) static playstyle. That's not going to be a big deal for Broadside spamming armies but I prefer a pretty mobile cadre. Hold on a minute though, seriously, this will be disgusting for Broadside spam lists. They're already pretty horrific and now they'll be behind a 4+ cover save and hitting more accurately. Joy.

I really love the kit and it'll look great when I eventually get around to doing my desert table (my winter table hasn't exactly flown of the production line mind you). I'll probably use it as scenery though rather than as a part of my army.

The Hunter Contingent & Formations
So the Hunter Contingent is the Tau version of what was started with the Necron Decurion. It's basically a shopping list as far as I'm concerned but let's take a look anyway. The Coordinated Firepower rule is the reason to take this detachment as it gives a massive boost to markerlights. You only need a handful of hits for a huge portion of your army to benefit. It also means that other rules will carry across too. Correct me if I'm wrong but a buff-commander could boost half the army in this way? If so, that's obscene even before you factor in the +1BS for 3 or more units. Normally you'd be forced to take a unit that you wouldn't normally but with Tau that isn't an issue. The Hunter Cadre basically has everything you'd want to take anyway. Sure you might not want three units of kroot/fire warriors but generally speaking that's what I'd be putting in my list in a CAD! The detachment also let's you get around the problem with the bodyguards moving to Elites too by including a Contingent HQ.

Let's look at the individual formations now:

• Contingent HQ/Drone Network/Assigned Air Cast Asset - basically allowing you to take a Commander/Ethereal, drone unit or flyer without taking another formation to do so. No bonuses of course. 
• Hunter Cadre - as if the bonus from the Hunter Contingent wasn't enough a boost to 12" of supporting fire radius means a massive blow to assault centric armies. Adding in a Tau version of Eldar's Battle Focus pushes it to ridiculous, particularly for vehicles (although it doesn't clarify how many weapons they can shoot at full BS).
• Optimised Stealth Cadre - Here's the silly one. Giving automatic Ignores Cover and increased BS (again to BS5 probably) is harsh enough. Throw in hitting rear armour and we might actually have found a use for stealth suits.  I do think people are getting over excited about this formation though. They aren't all that tough to deal with.
• Retaliation Cadre - Probably means quite a chunk of points off the table which would be pretty risky when going second. I'm not sure the +1 BS is worth it, although it would probably mean BS5 for the most part when combined with the Coordinated Firepower rule. 
• Allied Advance Cadre - if you're already taking three Kroot units in the Hunter Cadre I can't see you wanting 4 more and being forced to take Vespids too. 
• Firebase Support Cadre - a remake of the dataslate formation sold previously and I can't see anywhere that says it replaces it. To my mind then the other one is still a valid option. Let me know if I've missed something though. Anyway, the new one makes you fire everything at the same target to get a bonus. It does boost markerlight hits but often you'd want to pick separate targets.
• Air Caste Support Cadre - I do think the Sun Shark is underrated but even so I'm not going to take 3 Tau flyers any time soon. The bonuses here aren't much good when you've got to survive long enough to repair an 11-10-10 flyer.
• Infiltration Cadre - These are all units that are of debatable value in your army so the special rules would need to be great. I'm not convinced they do though so if you want these units fine but I think there's better ways to field them.
• Heavy Retribution Cadre - Not far off 1,000 pts including upgrade even if we assume just one of each suit per unit. The sacrificial lamb of a Ghostkeel does make for some potent Stormsurges though. Wouldn't be too hard to keep things in 12" of it with JSJ either. Monsoon of Destruction helps protect the Ghostkeel too. 
• Armoured Interdiction Cadre - Not sure I'd want to take 3 Hammerheads and a Sky Ray in a sub-2K army but the re-roll to hit is pretty nice. Shouldn't be too hard to pick a point within 6" of a couple of juicy targets either.

Conclusion
There's a general theme with the formations and the Hunter Contingent itself in that it minimises the need for markerlights. You'll still want to take some but they're boosted in effectiveness and therefore less important. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I really hate formations. You can try to convince me they create new and exciting ways to play the game but basically they're just making already powerful armies more powerful in a perverse arms race that makes some of the already weaker armies next to useless. If you need formations to help you imagine ways to combine units for a tactical effect then go for it but I like to come up with my own combinations with just the units themselves. They're an inevitable part of the game though as GW tries to convince people they need more stuff. They're what's putting me off going to tournaments more than anything else though. Not only that but they're adding an unnecessary extra level of complexity to the game.

I don't think any of these new units jump out at me as must-haves. In another army perhaps they would but Tau already have so many solid units. The Ghostkeel is stuck in a no-man's land where it doesn't have a definite role (unless you take the formation). The Breacher team could be devastating but is a bit of a glass cannon and the Stormsurge is only really worth the money if it's got its anchors out.

Ultimately I'm pleased that Tau got some new units to mix things up a bit. It's a shame that some of the silliness didn't get addressed but I think I was being optimistic hoping for that. I've had a mixed relationship with my Tau since the last book. I loved them before the book and struggled with their outdated rules. The new book came along and made them super powered and made everyone assume you were jumping on the bandwagon by fielding them. I think the problem with Tau and formations is that usually you're being forced to take a substandard unit to make everything else in the formation better. There aren't really many even below-average units in the Tau arsenal though so there aren't really downsides to these formations to justify the buffs. I think that all of the formations saying "Restrictions: None" is pretty telling too.

I'm not sure I'll pick up much of the new stuff but of course, thanks to the lovely Blog Wars competitors, I'm off to build my new Stormsurge now so we'll soon get some after action thoughts! Perhaps I'll feel differently then.

New 7th Edition Tau Codex Review (1 of 2) - Spot The Difference!

Apologies for the delay in reacting to the new book but thanks to the fantastic people who come to Blog Wars, I'm now the proud owner of a copy of the new Tau codex and a Stormsurge battlesuit. Expect to see more of the latter in upcoming posts but it's the former I want to talk about today. Whilst we've had several 7th edition books that don't feature massive changes, this new Tau codex is the first to see hardly any changes to the existing units. I had a discussion with Gareth Newton-Williams (who kindly organised the whip-round at BWX that bought me my codex) and I was saying that I couldn't really justify buying it. With the rules for the new units published in WD (or in the kits themselves) and pretty much every formation from the codex leaked online it seemed unnecessary. GW also took the strange step of saying you could buy the Kauyon campaign book to get all the new rules instead. The campaign book that costs £45 instead of £30 for the codex. What is a pain in the arse though is that the Tidewall isn't in the codex but does appear in Kauyon but that's no accident let's face it.

Don't get me wrong I'm tempted by the campaign books in their own right but don't try to sell them to me as an alternative to a codex! Anyway, moving on. This will just take a couple of posts rather than my usual several posts since not a lot has changed.

The Book
The cover art is just a recoloured version of the beautiful Raymond Swanland piece that adorned the "old" book. The spines are identical and the inside cover is the same artwork but red instead of blue?!? The most noticeable difference inside is the switch from predominantly ochre Tau to the white colour scheme of the Vior'la sept. Personally I think it's a nice change to break up them monotony of the yellowy-brownness. I like how the new kits look in white and I only wish I'd persevered with white Tau instead of copping out and going for grey. Otherwise the big change in the book is the now familiar switch to dataslates. I've already expressed my views on this but I'm slowly coming round to them. There are also some of these 2D colour scheme pictures which are essentially page fillers as far as I'm concerned.

New Models

It's great to finally have some new kits for Crisis suits and the Commander. The interim new commander kit that came in finecast was a bit of a disappointment for me. I bought one but never assembled it so it went on
eBay. The new crisis suits are great though. I was worried they'd change to the more curvy aesthetic of the FW suits but I'm pleased to see the same basic look with a few minor tweaks and a lot more pose-ability. I'm tempted to buy a set and magnetise them for every weapon just to replace some of the incredibly static poses I created with the old kit thanks to my poor early modelling skills.

The Ghostkeel and Stormsurge are taking Tau even further down the road towards Gundam etc. I'm actually a big fan of both of them and I think it's a great touch to be able to see the pilots. Without that you can start to feel that these suits are just monstrous creatures and forget that they're immense feats of technology. Finally, the new Fire Warriors are again a subtle improvement and I like the look of the new Breacher team. I'll probably playtest them a bit with pathfinder proxies before I commit to any but they're certainly nice to look at. I defy anyone to tell the difference between the Strike team models and the old ones without a thorough inspection. Still, it's nice to see GW update some tired kits and it gives me hope for some other models that need it (here's looking at you, CSM).

Changes to Existing Stuff
The Kauyon book has a handy guide to the seven minor changes to the book. There's nothing particularly earth-shattering here.

• Commanders can now be fielded as a XV86 Coldstar with fixed weapons. That's a 6 shot twin-linked burst cannon and a missile pod to be precise. It becomes a somewhat limited FMC which basically just gives it faster movement and increased durability. I don't think it's worth the trade off for the limited weapons though and forces him to run solo for an extra 70% of his original cost. Think I'll pass.
• Ethereals can now take recon armour which is meh (but perhaps if you've got 5pts burning a hole in your pocket) and a hover drone which is equally meh. Other than that they've just clarified Storm of Fire doesn't affect Stormsurges! I'm frankly amazed that GW realised this as I'm sure the interwebs would've figured that one out quickly and it would never have been FAQ'd.
• Fire Warriors as we knew them are now Strike Teams and get the option to take a support turret (more on them in the next post) but are otherwise identical. Well, apart from the minimum squad size now being 5 instead of 6. That might sound insignificant but for those who want to just take minimum troops in a CAD and have more points for bigger toys that makes two FW units 30 pts cheaper than two Kroot units. The Kroot are probably of more use but 30pts is a lot!
• Darkstrider's Fight on Foot rule is updated to include Breacher teams.
• Crisis bodyguards move from slotless (effectively) to Elites. This is a bit of a pain in the arse if you're sticking to a CAD. I often used it to allow me to take a crisis team with my commander plus a second team in Elites alongside two Riptides. Both crisis teams and crisis bodyguards can now be taken in units of upto 9 models though which makes things interesting. Not saying I'm going to field 9 of them regularly but might consider 4-5 every so often.
• Riptides, Hammerheads and Sky Rays can now be taken in units of three and gain the Fire Team special rule. Not that excited about fielding any of these in units. If anything I think it harms them. You don't want your Riptides in a big unit that can be charged and taken out of the game. Better to split them up and deploy them separately. Likewise for the tanks too. Of course the Riptides can be given target locks to help matters but still. Fire Team is a nice bonus but I'm not sure I want two together in a unit, never mind three. Time will tell I suppose.
• Finally, markerlights got some minor wording changes plus the addition of the Destroyer option. This upgrades the Stormsurges destroyer missiles to D. That's a big deal but more on that in the next post.

Conclusion

Not much has changed really. You might think I'd see that as a good thing. In a way I do but I really think that some things needed to go from the old book. I don't hold with the view that Devilfish need to come down in price. They're 12-11-10 and those extra drones can be a pain in the arse (ask Matt). Likewise I think everything else is reasonably costed with one major exception: Signature Systems. Part of me wanted them changed completely but I'd have also settled for a massive points hike. Compared to every other book's "relics", the signature systems are just too cheap for what they do. I know the MSSS and CaCN stop you from firing but ask anyone who's played against a buff-commander (again, Matt) what they thinks of that. It might sound crazy for a Tau player to be asking for stuff to be toned down but they're just daft at times. They're probably no worse than some of the formations in this book (more on them in the next post) and obviously I'm not being forced to take a buff-commander but it frustrates me that they're pretty much an auto-include.  

Think what you will of the new Necron book but at least silliness like Mindshackle Scarabs and Tesla on Snap Shots was sorted out. People already hate Tau for their ridiculous rules and I feel that this codex isn't going to help matters. It's frustrating when you think back to those heady days before the Necron and Eldar books dropped when it looked like GW might actually find a balancing point. Play Wolves, GK, BA etc against each other and you get some great games. Granted DE was a clusterfuck and Orks still struggle at times but generally speaking they're quite balanced between each other. I welcome the new units for some variety but I fear we'll still just see broadside-spam and other such silliness. 

Right, that'll do for today. In Friday's post I'll talk about the new units (yay!) and formations (sigh). Incidentally, if you're planning on buying any of the new Tau stuff you should check out Element Games who offer discounts and use the banner on the right which helps support From The Fang too. Totally optional of course but I appreciate it.

EDIT: I didn't get round to writing the second post like I intended so it'll probably come on tomorrow night (Saturday) instead.

Review: Assassinorum Execution Force Boxed Game

First off, I'm not the first person to review this game. There are already excellent reviews posted on Index Astartes and Tale of Painters (who include detailed unboxing shots). Anyway here's my take:

My friend Matt and I decided to spend Star Wars Day (May the 4th) gaming. After a bloody 40K battle between Space Wolves and Eldar we broke open Matt's brand new copy of Assassinorum: Execution Force. I'm sure you all know this by now but Execution Force is the new standalone game from Games Workshop. GW have had a turbulent relationship with their standalone games. Everyone knows Space Hulk is a huge success (and a brilliant game to boot) but Dreadfleet wasn't particularly well received by the gaming community.

To me at least, the reasons for this are clear. Both games feature some beautifully detailed exclusive miniatures but Dreadfleet's can't be used in any other game. Personally I like Dreadfleet as a change of pace from 40K every so often and as a way of introducing non-gamers to the fold. There's another problem with Dreadfleet though, the Fate deck. Having your game ruined by a crazy twist of "fate" is frustrating. Let's see if Execution Force has the same issues.

Models

Well clearly GW have no issues with transferable models with EF. The cultists, CSM and Sorcerer Lord are taken straight from other kits and are supplied with the conventional 40K bases. It does feel a little bit lazy (when you consider Space Hulk retails for a similar price and we get unique sculpts), but the selling point is the four stunning new assassin models. They're a great revision of the previous sculpts which are showing their age now. It does still seem a lot to pay for the models but when you consider GW will probably sell the assassins separately for £15 each (at least), the four of them plus the Chaos miniatures for £75 doesn't look as bad.

For the hobbyist there's plenty to be going on with on the painting front but without it feeling like a mammoth task. I'd like to get a set painted up myself amongst my many other projects! Anyway, once painted the whole game will look gorgeous.

It's a clever move by GW to package up the new assassin models in this manner. I'm sure if they'd been released individually they'd have still sold but by putting that bit more effort in they'll probably shift a big chunk with EF and still be able to release the separate kits at a later date. Well, that's assuming they have some sense and don't make them a limited edition thing (which the game itself is for some stupid reason). Even so, I'm happy to have a new game to play and I'm sure assassins fans will love the new sculpts.

Board and Cards

The board is beautifully detailed and owners of Space Hulk will be pleased to see the same sturdy looking laminated card used here. Minor niggle here, but it's a bit of a shame they didn't make the three pieces clip together to make the whole thing stay in place. I'm really nit-picking here but it did bother me a little.

The cards and tokens are cut from the same thick card and again feel durable. There's effectively a fate deck in the form of the Event cards but I'll get to them in the Rules bit of this review. Each assassin gets a stat card detailing all their relevant rules and the "renegades" forces get a card for each unit type. This is a nice touch and saves flicking back through the rule book constantly. Tokens are also provided to keep track of everything which I'm always a big fan of. Finally, there's the "room deck" which makes use of a really well thought out mechanic for making each and every game different. When the assassins reveal a previously unscouted room you draw it from the room deck and place the relevant renegades inside. I'll cover this more in the rules but it's a great idea.

The Rules (potential spoilers)

The most important thing to point out is that this is a co-operative game. I say this is important because if you aren't a fan of that kind of gameplay then this game isn't for you. For us though it's a refreshing change from the competitiveness we both exhibit when playing any other game. I love a good co-operative video game and it's nice to play a board game with the same ideas. I'm not pretending this is revolutionary or anything, I'm sure it's been done plenty of times but it's the first co-op board game I've played at least. Potentially you can play with up to 4 players each controlling an assassin each but I actually think 2 would be the maximum without it feeling like you were twiddling your thumbs a lot. If you did want 4 people involved it could be quite fun to play two games simultaneously and compete to see who can finish first (see, I can't help but make it competitive!).

Generally speaking the rules are excellent and feel really well thought out from first impressions at least. There weren't many times we needed to consult the rulebook and when we did we found answers pretty much every time. It's good that there aren't tons of rules, as this will make it more accessible to non-gamers and there's less to forget between games!

The basic mechanic is simple. The Sorcerer Lord is trying to enact some Chaos ritual (I didn't have time to read the fluff) and the assassins must try to kill him before he completes it. They have just 16 turns to do this (which doesn't feel like a lot). The only way into the temple is by teleporting in. To do this the assassins must scout out all the rooms and find both the teleportarium (good word!) and the control room. All the time they're doing this they must avoid Chaos patrols and each time they reveal a room more cultists are discovered. As sneaky as those assassins are they're still going to end up alerting patrols to their presence.

With that clock ticking away they need to move quickly but the faster they go the more difficult their task will become. Act too slowly though and the ritual will be completed ending the game. It's nice to have a definite end point and that pressure to do things quickly whilst being as stealthy as possible. Alert too many patrols and they're likely to receive more reinforcements or otherwise make things more difficult for the assassins.

It's hard to explain without playing the game but there's a genuine feeling of time pressure and a desire to complete the game whilst alerting the minimum number of renegades possible. Incidentally, for replayability GW have added in some "achievements" which up the difficulty and provide a challenge to keep you coming back. Not forever, but at least they're considered it. You could easily come up with your own challenges too.

Our Game (definite spoilers)
Sadly, with it being out first run through we weren't the quickest so we only got chance to have one run through. It was quite simply epic though. We sent the Calidus and Eversor assassins up the middle quickly to try and scout ahead whilst the slower Culexus and Vindicare would examine the closer rooms. We revealed the Teleportarium with just two rooms to spare. This meant there was a 50:50 chance the control room would be in a room near to our assassins or, if not, we'd need to send one back to the start to go into the only remaining unrevealed room. Sure enough what we feared happened and we were forced to send the Vindicare all the way back to the control room.

The event deck worked brilliantly with the events we revealed really feeling like they were building to a crescendo and adding to the tension. We had the other assassins poised ready to enter the teleportarium and the vindicare kept being delayed by the forces of the ritual preventing him from sprinting and shooting in successive turns. With the clock counting down he finally got to the control room and sent the other three assassins into the Temple of Shadows where three CSM and the Lord waited. The ritual continued to progress and it was only thanks to the presence of the Culexus that the Lord wasn't only woundable on a 7! On the 15th assassin turn we managed to wound the Lord once. In the final turn the Culexus took another wound and it was up to the Callidus to finish the job. She failed to hit but re-rolled thanks to the poisoned blades and killed the Lord with moments to spare. We still had the option of blowing up the Eversor so it wasn't quite our last roll of the dice but suffice to say we wanted to avoid it.

We were pleased to have finished the mission on the first play through and not only that but with all four assassins remaining alive. Perhaps we'd played a bit more cautiously than we could have by trying to keep alerts to a minimum but this made things even more tense towards the end. Perhaps it was just luck of the draw but the Event deck played out brilliantly with CSM only arriving in the first area towards the end. I can see potential for the Event deck to ruin the game, if we'd not had the Culexus with us then the Event card in the final turn would've made the Lord near invulnerable. I suppose that works though as a means to encourage you to use all of the assassins together and play to their individual strengths. Not just that but also to make you keep alerts to a minimum to reduce the risk of Events making things harder.

Conclusion
The co-operative side of the game really sets it apart from other GW offerings. Matt and I always enjoy playing 40K doubles together and being able to recreate that feeling of teamwork is excellent. I also like the idea of being able to play the game solo (sad I know) as an alternative to video games! The new assassin models are beautiful and I'm sure we'll see plenty of Execution Force games showing up on eBay minus the models (if they aren't there already).

You don't get tons for your money, there's no escaping that, but what you do get is well thought out which isn't something you can often say about a GW product. There's some innovative thinking here and there's no reason for the game to play out the same way twice. I'd urge those who might be put off by the reprint models to try to ignore it and give it a go. For once it's more about the gameplay than the models, again not something you can often say.

It's difficult to come to proper conclusions after just one game but I'm already looking forward to playing it again and it's persuaded me to buy my own copy. I'm not thrilled to have more models to add to the ever increasing pile of unpainted stuff but I'm prepared to make an exception. Perhaps that says it all. I'd recommend this game to anyone, even those who don't play 40K.