This week's rules

We have seen a number of previews this week, mostly buried in faction focus posts. I've probably missed one or two and I'll cover some of the other posts like the Combat Patrol and Astra Militarum faction focus separately.

Dense cover is one of the new terrain traits. Again, I'm still split on these new traits, I still think that they will get very confusing keeping up with everything during the game.

This trait subtracts 1 for the hit rolls of ranged attacks. Added to the light and heavy cover we've already seen and you've got your a lot of rules to think about. 

The rules for dense cover mirror that of the other terrain rules we've seen. No surprises either. 

Strategic reserves is up next and while there are a few changes. Nothing dramatic, just a few tweaks by the looks of it. 

As per this edition, no deployment first turn but now the deployment changes depending upon what turn it is. However, there isn't much difference, just seems to be the enemy deployment zone that's different. I would have thought there would be more alteration, maybe start with your deployment zone, then no man's land and then enemy deployment zone. There are also some cleaning up of the rules around reserves, such as movement. The opportunity to deploy is extended right up until the end of the get, rather than up till turn 3, which is definitely an improvement.

Another improvement is that the cost of putting stuff into reserve is now combined to a core rules rather than a stratagem by individual units. Another good move I think.

Moral has also changed and not really for the better. The first part is the same but the second half seems overly complicated. First up, the morale test. 

On the whole, the test has remained the same with a day rolled and added to the number of models that are killed and a roll of one always passes. The change comes when you fail. In the past you'd loose the number of models equal to how much you failed by, now you loose just one model but must make a Combat Attrition test. So what is a Combat Attrition test?

Well, it's a bit of a mess, that's what it is. So, whole for the morale test, a 1 always passes, now a 1 fails? Anyway, you roll a d6 for each model remaining and then remove models that fail. This whole thing is yet more complication, more dice to roll and more rules to remember. At this rate it'll take hours to play a game, as you'll have to keep referring to the rule book every 5 seconds.

Lastly we have aircraft. There are a few changes here as well, mostly good. 

So, we know that AIRCRAFT is a new keyword that has enabled a whole bunch of models to take on a new lease of life. It gets rid of some of the rules issues, such aircraft not being stuck in combat by crashing as you can't move your minimum move distance by falling back. The new rules for aircraft are good and I like it. 

So, the rules are a mix bag really, there are some really good ones but also some rather long winded and overly wordy ones. I am looking forward to 9th as I think it will help me get back in to playing games, probably at the 500 to 1000 points, or combat patrol and Incursion. 

More new primaris units

So, with the release of the contents of the 9th edition box set, we got confirmation on some of the units we already knew about and some additional units as well. Now, I know that this is a week or so old now but with all the information we're getting at the moment, I'm struggling to keep up with it all. It's not so much that there to much information to keep to my regular 2 posts a week but more that I'm just not having the time to write everything. I normally like to keep a post or two ahead but at the moment I'm writing each one right up to the wire. Anyway, moan over, on to the new units.

First up are two  "new" units, the firestrite servo turret and the Invader ATV. 

The new thunder fire cannon, maybe? Or maybe not. It's obviously supposed to fill the heavy support role that the thunder fire cannon does but seems to be a more direct fire model, with (I believe) lascannons or autocannons. As a model, I'm not sure about this one. It sounds like a good idea but I've got a few questions the main one being, can it move? It doesn't look like it can move but then it could be pretty useless in the game if it doesn't. I won't be getting any of these anytime soon, as besides not being to keen on the model itself, it doesn't actually fit any of my army designs.  

Next up up is the Invader ATV. There are various thoughts going around about this and what it's supposed to be replacing. Many are going with the landspeeder but I'm more with the attack bikes, which makes far more sense to me. The load out for the vehicle is basically the same as the attack bikes and will tie in nicely with the new bike units both visually and rules wise. I'm torn on the actual model, I want to like it but just can't. The design just doesn't do it for me as a marine unit. For guard or GSC, maybe even AdMech but not for marine, especially not with all the anti-grav going around for the primaris. That being said, I will probably get one or two of these in the future to go with the bikes I plan on getting for my Dark Angels successors. That plan is for the far future, when we know the rules and points for 9th and I've finished off my guard armies!

This unit, the Eradicators, have featured before but I was hoping that they were the new devastator units. As it turns out, they are melta Gunner but with super meltas (because primaris). I'm guessing that this means assault multimeltas or similar. The extra armour makes sense, if your going to get up close and personal then you need extra protection. These start filling up the special weapons roles, with melta and plasma now sorted. Whether we get normal guys with flamers or if we see any grav armed primaris is a question many of us want answered (maybe, or it could be just me).

 

Lastly we have this bad boy, the captain. This is a glorious model, just look at all the detail! I am really liking the new captain and lieutenant models, they are just full of character and detail. I haven't seen this guy as a dark angel angel yet but I think he'd be perfect! I don't think that I will get this model, purely because I don't plan on getting the box set but I would certainly love to own one if I did. 

So there's the rest of the new models that we know of so far. I suspect that there will be more just after release but for now this will have to do and overall, I'm very impressed with the models, despite some obvious flaws (like bikes that can't go over a speed bump!). I'm still hoping for a guard update soon after 9th drops and if the detail on the marine models is anything to go by, new guard ones should rock!

Last week's rules previews

So we have some new rules this week to look at this week. This week is overwatch and characters.

There have been some big changes to overwatch for 9th edition, some of which I am less than impressed with. For starters overwatch itself has now become a stratagem, rather than an inbuilt ability from the core rules. This means that it will follow all the rules of stratagems, the key one being that it is a one use per phase thing. That means that only one unit can fire overwatch in any given charge phase, reducing the very act down to a bit of a nonsense. Here is the stratagem itself;

However much i dont like this move, it is compounded by the way the stratagem is worded. When a unit is target as part of a charge move, it can fire overwatch before the charge roll is made but what if the charge fails? does that mean if a second unit tries to charge it cant overwatch them? If a unit has this played on them, it could at least last till the end of the phase.

There have also been a few minor tweaks to the overwatch rules, mostly just to clean up the various interactions, mostly around characters and the like.

Over all, I'm not impressed with these changes to the game. The is a minor upside to all of this but it come with the usual GW caveats, if ypu go down the Crusade force route, what ever that may entail, you can get overwatch for free and on a 5+. So take the new shiny stuff or suffer. Thanks GW.

Next up was a small bit about the new terrain rules, which grant certain benefits to models in some situations. The example we were given was infantry dug in to a defensive position, which grants the Defensible special rules. No i do like the idea of this but it seems to be adding more things to the terrain rules! by the end of this, were going to need a whole big rule book just for the terrain rules, let alone anything else!

These are a good little bonus, although with the fact that overwatch is now a stratagem, pretty much everyone is going to go for "set to defend" for the +1 to hit. This is going to be good for everyone but especially the likes of guard and Tau, who need every help they can in combat. 

Lastly, we have the new edition character rules. They have changed a bit and in some respects are better and clearer but in other respects they are just as flawed. 

Characters now have to be within 3 inches of other units to receive the benefits of being a character. While this is basically the same it eliminates the issue of having a character just standing out in the open miles from any other units, yet being unable to be targeted. 

  

Overall this seems to be a good move, as if I am reading this right, if a character is out in the open it can now be targeted, even if it's not the the closest model. 

One last thing to mention and that is the change to charges. In the past you could declare a whole range of charges, usually one short charge and a couple.of longer ones and then hope to get the longer charge but if not just move towards the closest one and not waste the charge. Now you need to be able to reach all the targets or the charge fails. That means that if you declare a 4 inch charge and a 9 inch charge at the same time and roll a 6, you can't just take the 4 inch and leave the rest, no, now you would fail the charge and be left with nothing. This is a good move I think and will force people to actually plan charges, rather than just going for everything they can and hoping for the best.

Well that's it for now, we'll see what this week brings! Hopefully the guard preview!

New action figures

A little while ago, GW, along side Bandai, released a primaris marine action figure at a slightly ridiculous price of £65 (I think) or $100 US. Surprisingly they sold out in a matter of hours and so it's not really a shock to see that they have released some new action figures. This time however, they have been done by McFarlane toys, not that that means anything to me. Looking at the models, they look and are presented more like a desk ornament than a play toy, so I suspect that they won't be selling for a tenner at the local toy store. That being said, I might just get one of the assault guys, as it does look cool. 

Assault marine, posing to look cool.

Necron, posing to try and not look like an idiot 

Marine, posing in hope no one notices how grey he is.

The grey Intercessor is quite a cool model and I would love to have one and paint it up as an Eagle Knight, as finely detailed as I could and display is proudly on my paint desk. Unfortunately I don't have time to paint the models I have let alone one for pure display! 

My final thoughts will be kept to myself until I see the price tag for these, as I would love to get some for the kids but if they are as much as the first one, then I will pass on the opportunity. If they are more reasonably priced, I might grab one or two of them.