Terrain and Flyers 9th

Last week we got some more previews, both of rules and units. All these previews are great for the new edition but they are giving me a bit of an issue for writing about other things, namely what I hope for the Guard going forward in to 9th. I will get around to writing about what I hope to see and which rules I want to see changed and which I hope are kept the same at some point but for now, let's have a look at the new rules.

There are two rules to look at terrain and Flyers.

First up, terrain. There are new terrain rules that are supposed to simplify and streamline the old rules. At first glance, I can't see how they simplify things but then we don't know the full rules for all the different keywords.

There are now a set number and type of terrain all with set rules. While I think that this is a good idea overall, hopefully making it easier to decide what rules apply to what piece of terrain I do have one concern. With all the different rules now in play, keeping track of what trait you've assigned to what piece of terrain could be problematic.

The new obscuring rule does fix several issues that we're present in 8th however it does feel a bit clunky at first glance. It does clear up issues, such as shooting through windows and such but I'm still not 100 percent on this. 

So more details on some of the terrain traits which seem pretty simple and easy to deal with. It is worded in the usual GW manner but basically it's +1 to save (not invulnerable) to either shooting or melee (unless you were charged). Hopefully the rest will be as simple as these are. This mostly seems to be aimed at the tournament crowd again, closing down any avenue of argument or rules exploitation. For most of us there was never any issue with the terrain Rules and I personally never had any issues during games with rules around terrain. 

Hopefully when the full rules come out, it will all be pretty self explanatory and work as smoothly as they suggest it will.

The next talking point last week was aircraft. AIRCRAFT is a new keyword to help differentiate between normal infantry units that can fly and actual aircraft units. I think this is a good move and don't really understand why it was not done in previous editions. 

Aircraft seem to have been put in to a place, rules wise, where they should have always been, they are basically not affected by ground troops and ground troops are not affected in return. This is a good thing, as they are supposed to be flying around high above the battle not skimming around four foot off the ground. 

Lastly, flyers are now no longer stuck on the tabletop. Why they we're we restricted by the rules of 8th I have no idea, it didn't make sense but now they are able to fly around and zip on and off the battle field at will. This is back to the old days of 6th and 7th and how it should be. Having to hold off until turn 2 is no big deal but being able to setup on the battle field anywhere is a great bonus for aircraft and is how it should be. The only issue is, how will it interact with some of the existing rules, such as Grav-chute insertion for they valkyries and vendetta's. 

So far, kinda good. I still think things are heading in the right direction and that this edition will be better than the last. I wonder what this week will hold for 9th previews!