Mysterious Objective Markers!

Nick speaking,

Are Mysterious Objective Markers good for our game or are they a waste of time?

I am now well into playing a few games with 6th Edition, and the one thing that I have experienced problems with, are Mysterious objectives! I was just wondering how every one else was doing with this new addition to our game? Personally, I actually like the 'idea' of random objectives, but in reality, I have found them to be nothing more that just something else to do and remember in the game.

It became quickly apparent that we either forget to roll for the effect, or forget to use the marker after we knew what it did! Even to the point where we have thought about ignoring the random abilities and using them as standard objectives instead. It is also amazing how easy it is to forget an objectives effect when it is a bad one, but easily remember it when it benefits you!

Maybe it's just because we have so much more to remember now, like rolling Night Fight on turn five onwards if it's doesn't happen turn one, rolling and remembering our Warlord Traits, rolling and remembering any new Psychic Powers, and of course, keeping track of the mission victory points, and that's all without throwing in some random terrain features as well!

So what do you think of Mysterious Objectives and how are you remembering to do everything?

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How will 6th Edition effect my Saim-Hann Eldar?

Nick speaking,

One thing I love about the Eldar is their versatility when it comes to making lists, and that's the main reason I gave my Eldar the name IDIC Eldar. These pointed ear Vulcan type dudes really live up to the Vulcan philosophy of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. In my mind I actually have three Eldar armies, a Saim-Hann jetbike themed army, a Harlequin themed army and a Hybrid army. In today's post though, I want to have a look at the IDIC Hann...

As you can see from the picture above, the starting point of my army is a Jetbike Seer Council. I have been experimenting with swapping the Farseers powers, but in all honesty, without Fortune, the Council really loses what it needs to keep it up as long as possible. I have concluding that it's not really worth dropping your Doom and Fortune for the random powers, unless you have more than one Farseer on the table.

Both the Council and the standard Jetbikes have a huge range of movement now, and it's especially useful that you can now cast fortune and turbo boost the same turn. With my five Dire Avengers in the Falcon now having issues with being a scoring unit, the Jetbikes are even more important to my army now, more than ever. I am seriously going consider putting in an Embolden Warlock in each group of Jetbikes, and it wouldn't surprise me if I ended up having to buy some more Jetbikes for my list in the future. Talking of Embolden, have you checked out Embolden40k Blog yet? If not, please go and have a look after you have finished reading and commenting here.

As for Vypers, so far it all looks even worse for these flying beauties. Not that they were the best unit before, but they really do fit in with the Saim-Hann theme so well. OK, so we now have a 5+ cover save for just moving and 4+ if we move instead of shooting as before, but we can now move 12" and shoot all our guns at normal ballistic skill. The main extra issue with these guys is both the rubbish two hull points and the new vehicle damage chart modifiers, +3 to the chart if AP1 and +2 to the chart if AP2, as we are open-topped. Ouch, that really hurts, and a 5+ save really doesn't make up for it. I am not writing Vypers off in my list, as I really like the models and they fit into the list too well for instant dismissal, but some new tactics are going to be needed for them, if they are going to work.

My first thoughts are that the two Fire Prisms are staying in my list. The new blast rules and random weapon destroyed results are going to help these two do damage. I don't think it's worth having Holo-Fields on them anymore though, as three Glancing/Penetrating hits will wreck it anyway. Better to spend the points on Warlocks for the Jetbikes instead. The main issue with them and any Eldar Tank now, is the lack of objective contesting, and long range tank shocking. In 5th Edition, I rarely had the big gun left intact, but they were nearly always around at the end of the game with their Holo-Fields, ready to contest objectives, and I think this is the biggest draw back any Mech Eldar list is going to have.

Now we come onto the Falcon, which was once the most survivable scoring tank in the game, is now just basically a gun boat. Is it even worth putting anything inside it? I think the Falcon is still great, but the only reason I took it over a Wave Serpent, was to have a solid Scoring unit in case my Jetbikes went down, and with the Holo-fields, it very often did score. Maybe it is time to change it over for a Wave Serpent, with a twin linked gun instead. To be honest, unless the Falcon was guided, it didn't really shoot very well anyway! The question is, what to put in the Serpent? I want it to have Troops, so it's either Storm Guardians or Dire Avengers?

One thing I want to quickly add in here, is how happy I am that Shining Spears have had a bit of a boost in 6th Edition. They are still over priced, but then again isn't everything Eldar? The main reason I mention Shining Spears, is from a previous post I did a while back, where I talked about how much I liked the Shining Spear models and paint scheme. Now with a Skilled Rider Exarch, they are actually a potential option for me! 

Well, that's my initial thoughts for my IDIC Hann from what I have seen so far. I haven't put any of this into an actual list yet, as my buddies and I are still experimenting with 1k point games until we get use to the new rules.

Any thoughts and comments are most welcome, as usual...

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Eldar 6th Edition Battle Report

Nick speaking,

This was the very first game I had with my Eldar, and it was against my buddies Blood Angels. We were just playing a 1k game, to try and familiarise ourselves with the new rules as best we could. The whole game was just taken as a bit of fun, so I had a go at swapping my Psychic powers for the first time to see how it all worked...
 

Eldar List

HQ
1 x IDIC Farseer Jetbike/Guide/Mind War/Runes of Warding/Spirit Stones (160)
(cheapest psychic powers ready to swap out for new ones)
1 x IDIC Warlock Jetbike/Witchblade/Embolden (50)

TROOPS
6 x IDIC Guardian Jetbikes/2x Shuriken Cannon (152)
3 x IDIC Guardian Jetbikes/1x Shuriken Cannon (76)
3 x IDIC Guardian Jetbikes/1x Shuriken Cannon (76)
5 x IDIC Pathfinder Rangers (120)
5 x Dire Avengers (60)

FAST ATTACK
2 x IDIC Vypers/2x Scatter Laser/2x Shuriken Cannon (140)

HEAVY
1 x IDIC Falcon/Scatter Laser/Shuriken Cannon/Star Engines/Spirit stone (165)

Points 999

Blood Angels list

1 x Dante
8 x Sternguard/Rhino
10 x jump Troops (2x Melta/Powerfist?)
10 x jump Troops (2x Melta/Powerfist?)


Mission: Big Guns Never Tire (four objectives), Vanguard Strike

Deployment

Before we deployed we rolled for our Warlords, we both got the same trait, and we both forgot to use it all game, sadly I can't even remember what trait it was now! I swapped my Powers, and ended up with the 4++ save and the Primaris re-roll to hit power, on the Divination table. We then rolled for Night Fight and it didn't happen. Blood Angels put out the Rhino with the Sternguard in and reserve the rest for deep striking. I reserve the two small Jetbike units and deploy the rest of my army in my quarter. I was then suppose to infiltrate my Pathfinders, but I totally forgot to do it!

Turn One and Two

Blood Angels moved the Rhino fast up to about mid table. I was happy with the 4++ save for my jetbikes, so cast it up on the Mini Seer Council. I then decide to go all out for First Blood with my twenty seven strength six shots and two strength eight shots. I should be able to glance the Rhino and maybe kill a few of the Sternguard when the bail out! I know I needed fours to hit, and hitting wasn't a problem, sadly though, I only rolled one glancing hit of a five and the rest were fours or less.

Turn two for Blood Angels and everything comes in from reserve, deep striking right in my face. I once again roll terribly and don't make a single cover save. Both Vypers go down, four Jetbikes and the Warlock die, even with their 4++ (no fortune sucks), and the Farseer is down to one wound after Dante automatically reduces her by one wound anyway.

I am feeling a bit down now, and to make it worse, I finally realise that I forgot to infiltrate the Pathfinders! Both Jetbikes come in from reserve, but the Pathfinders sulk and stay there. I move 48" with all three jetbike units over to the other side of the board, and use the Falcon to try and kill something my side. All it's shots just kill two jump dudes.

0VP Eldar 1VP Blood Angels

Turn Three and Four

Blood Angels then move over to my Falcon for a Big Guns Victory Point, taking it out with a single Melta shot as I fail my Jinks cover save. Then everything else shoots and kills the five Avengers who bail out. He then has two pop shots at my Farseer and her two bikes and I fail my 3+ save, rolling a one and a two, leaving only the Farseer left! My Pathfinders come on to the right, away from the Jump Angels, shooting Snap Shots but doing no damage, whilst my two bike units and the Farseer hide behind a big rock.

Blood Angels start to spread out over the board and try shooting my Pathfinders, getting his first piece of bad luck, killing nothing. I then continue to hide, destroying the Rhino with my Jetbike Cannons, and killing a Melta gun guy standing at the front of his unit, with my Pathfinders.

0VP Eldar 2VP Blood Angels

Turn Five, Six and Seven (Night Fight does not happen for any of them)

Blood Angels now have the game in the bag, BUT! I think he starts to get some Blood Rage thinking about how I tabled him the week before with my Necrons, and with only a few bikes left, he goes for the table. The Sternguard kill a few Pathfinders with their no cover save bullets, and he moves everything forward towards my bikes to shoot me down, but does nothing. He then realises he is now no longer holding any objectives! I turbo-boost one group of bikes onto one objective, and the rest turbo-boosts to the other side of the table, well out of range to the Blood Angels guns. If the game ends now I win 4VP to 3VP, including the Line Breaker, but the game goes on...

The Sternguard kill the rest of the Pathfinders, and the rest of the army takes one objective and shoots at my Scoring bikes, killing nothing. I then turbo-boost the Farseer to contest his objective, giving me 4VP to 3VP again and we see if the games goes on...

Turn seven, The Farseer loses her last wound from shooting and the Jump guys get into assault range of my Scoring bikes, I hold up in the assault, only losing by one, but failing my leadership and getting sweeped. I now only have one unit of bikes left, and the Blood Angels are holding two objectives. I turbo to a free objective for a bit of respect, and it's all over.

Blood Angels wins 9VP to 4VP

Conclusion

I am just going to put this one down to bad luck with dice rolling! Although I probably should have moved the Falcon over to the other side of the board with the jetbikes on my turn two, when I had the chance. I could have consolidated my loses their, so I would have had another unit to score/contest at the end, plus I wouldn't have given up a Heavy Support Victory Point.

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A disturbance in the Warp!

Nick speaking,

Looks like Chaos Images to me for sure...

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More Wave Serpent Progress

Nick speaking,

Another quick update on my Wave Serpent progress. I have now done the base coats for the spirit/gem stones, and prepared the energy field blue sections for blending. The next stage is highlighting the purple which I have just started doing at the front of the tanks...

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Wolf Guard Tartaros Terminators Won!

Nick speaking,

Seems like I have been pretty lucky this year so far. After already winning one competition a month or so back on YouTube, I have now just won another! Cruorangelussilicis had a competition to celebrate his Channel getting to 150 subscribers, and yes, I won the random draw. With the prize being a set of Forge World Tartaros Terminators...

As you would expect, I am very happy to have won these, so a massive thanks to Cruorangelussilicis for running the competition, and if you have a YouTube account, please go over and check out his Channel to give him some support...

As for the prize, it's really great to be handling resin models that are good quality, lets hope Finecast will be this good one day! I plan on converting these dudes up into Wolf Guard Terminators for my 13th Company Space Wolves, which will include some Chaos armour. I recon I should be able to make six Guards out of the five minis, by the time I have changed some of the armour about with Chaos bits.

More to come on this one...

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How will 6th Edition effect my Necrons?

Nick speaking,

So, what are the thoughts for my various armies in 6th Edition? In this next mini series of posts, I am going to have a look at my four armies, starting here, with Necrons. These posts won't be a huge break down of the rules and units of the armies, but more about my initial thoughts and the first directions I want to try out. I really don't see myself doing anything but experimenting and having some fun with the new rules for a while, as I start to learn the ins and outs of 6th Edition, so what about my Necrons?

Well, I played my first few games of 6th with the Crons, and it is pretty obvious, our lovely new Codex really was written for 6th Edition. The majority of the units have just got a lot better, and interesting enough, a lot of those units are the original units, that maybe we thought were nerfed when the new Codex hit! Sadly, this is not the case for all of them, take Flayed Ones for instance, they have got even worse in 6th, now that they can't assault from the Flank, but who was using Flayed Ones anyway?

In general though, there have been a lot of boosts for the Necrons, and the most obvious being Rapid Fire Gauss weapons, at last, I can get my sixty Warriors on the battlefield! Tesla truly has become a 6th Edition gun, AP- is no longer -1 to the damage chart, and those sixes to hit are great for Overwatch. Having said that, I think the Gauss/Tesla Immortal question has finally been answered, with Rapid Fire Gauss weapons winning outright, now that you don't need a Phaeron to move and shoot.

I am also pleased to see the Doomsday Ark got a bit of a boost, it's still not amazing, but it's a lot better now with hull points. It can now take three Glancing hits and still be shooting that big gun, plus the pimp to the blast rules really makes the weapon a lot better. Add to that most flankers can't assault it when they come on, and the new random rules for weapon destroyed results, means there is now only a 33.3% chance of the big gun being destroyed. The Ghost Ark is also looking a bit better now that it cannot be taken out with a single glancing hit and has the Jinks special rule. I think I will be experimenting with my magnetised Arks once again for sure...

I'm really loving the Destroyer Lord at the moment, and I am very pleased he is able to make a come back to my army. The 2+ Weave save, Warscythe, Mindshackle Scarabs and Preferred Enemy, all now make this guy a great HQ choice. Stick him at the front of a group of Wraiths or Destroyers to soak up the wounds with his 2+ save, and bobs your uncle. He is also excellent for Challenges, especially with Mindshackle Scarabs, and of course, he will give all your Wraiths Preferred Enemy as well, bonus!

I know taking the Destroyer Lord doesn't let you unlock Crypteks, but even with sixty Warriors on the table, you will still have enough points for the second amazing HQ choice, an Overlord in a Command Barge. The new Chariot rules have just made this combo even better than that it was, as the Lord can now soak up destroyed Hull points and can assault a unit from his Barge, gaining D6 Strength six, Hammer and Wrath attacks. He can even issue Challenges, so don't forget to give him Mindshackle as well.

I can't really do this post without talking about Flyers, which I have to say, I am really liking at the moment. I am very happy to see the nearly useless Doom Scythe, is now in a position to really compete in the Heavy Support slot, and of course the Night Scythe is going to make an excellent Transport for Immortals, it's a shame you cannot embark back on the Scythe once you have disembarked, but being able to move 24" and get out and rapid fire those Gauss Blasters at normal ballistic skill, has to be good.

So, what about the lists I was using in 5th? What changes to make? or do I need to start fresh?

Well, I mainly had two types of lists I was using, Lance Spam and the Immotekh Scarab Farm. I'm not one for fixed lists as such, and my lists were always changing anyway, especially as I added the new Vehicles etc. to my army. With Lance spam no longer needed and the big change to Warriors, I think it really is going to be a total shake up for my lists. I am interested to see how the Scarab farm is going to fair, as the chances are, there aren't going to be as many vehicles about anymore, and I am going to have a closer look at my Scarab Farm list in a future post. So far, I have only played 1,000 point games with the Crons, and I am really looking forward to getting even more of the Necron goodness on the table in the near future. Just in case you missed, or didn't read my previous battle report, here is a video of my very first game with the Crons, with my first 1k list...

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It's not all Black and White!

Nick speaking,

Recent readers of my Blog will know, I went out and bought as many of the old Citadel paints as I could, for all my painting projects. I didn't want any of my armies to not look right, with a replacement paint that was a different hue. The only colours I didn't buy were Skull White and Chaos Black, along with Astronomical Grey that I use for lining in the white sections on my Eldar. After all, could black and white be that much different? Well, I recently ran out of all three of these colours and so I bought the new Citadel replacements...

I decided to just buy the Ceramite white instead of the White Scar, as I needed it to cover up any purple errors I make on my Wave Serpents. I have heard good things about this new white paint, and I have to say, I was not disappointed. One or two coats easily covered the purple, unlike the old Skull white where I was going over it five or six times!

Next was Abaddon Black, and yes, it's black! I had no problems with the colour, but I did find it a bit thick. The odd thing was, when I added a bit of water to it, it became very translucent. In the end I just added a small drop of Liquid Retard to it, and that seemed to let it flow better without it being very watery.

Finally, was Celestra Grey, I found this to be a near enough perfect colour match to Astronomical grey. I found that I could quite happily paint it right next to the Astro Grey, without any visible difference. This was a bit of a relieve to be honest, as I was a bit worried it wouldn't match in like the new Mordian blue testing I did!

Now to continue painting the Serpents...

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Reading 6th Edition - Fluff... & Other!

Nick speaking,

There is a very large junk of the book dedicated to the 41st Millennium Fluff (history), running from page 134 to 303. That's 169 pages of reading about the 40k universe and armies! Personally, I won't be reading this section of the book, I don't mind a bit of fluff for my armies, but I really don't have enough interest to read this amount. I know there are many people who love this side of the hobby, and that is fine, it's just not for me.

With that said, I would be very happy to of had the option to buy the book without the fluff. Maybe a soft back version at the same price as a Codex, nice and easy to carry around without breaking your army from the weight! Would GW really suffer that much if they did this? To be honest, if they made a version like this, I would have bought both books anyway, the big one for my collection and the small one as a kick around book.

After the fluff pages, there are some hobby pages, called the Warhammer 40k Experience. Here, you can learn all about how to 'collect', how to use 'tools', how to assemble, and how to paint your minis with all the items that GW can sell you. Then there are a few pages on Warhammer World and the Thrones of Skulls competition, ending with a few pages showing off some Golden Demon painted models.

Next, there is a section called Battles, which is dedicated to recreating battles fought in the dark millennium. Here, you are encouraged to start making up your own missions and mission special rules, with five interesting example mission listed. After that, you will be able to read all about the expansion books available, like Cities of Death and Planetstrike.

Lastly, there are a few pages on creating your own Campaigns, and then a few more fluff pages that lead you onto the Appendix and Reference pages. These final pages, just like the rest of the book, are very well laid out and have a lot of easy to find, useful information and rule summaries. Overall, it's a massive thumbs up from me for the book and the direction it has gone with the game. I think The Wonders of Warhammer 40k, have just got a lot more fun.

Well, that's it for this series of posts. I hope you have enjoyed 'Reading 6th Edition' with me. I am hoping that I will remember the rules a bit easier from writing them all down! I know I for one, will be using my own posts for references in the future, and hope that they will be useful to you too. I will finish off this series with my all time favourite picture from the new book...

Previous Posts:
6th Edition Rule Book Unboxing
Reading 6th Edition - The first few pages
Reading 6th Edition - The movement phase
Reading 6th Edition - The shooting phase
Reading 6th Edition - The assault phase
Reading 6th Edition - Universal Special Rules
Reading 6th Edition - Independent Character
Reading 6th Edition - Unit types
Reading 6th Edition - Weapons 
Reading 6th Edition - Characters & Challenges
Reading 6th Edition - Psykers
Reading 6th Edition - Vehicle basics
Reading 6th Edition - Vehicle types
Reading 6th Edition - Terrain
Reading 6th Edition - Your army & Allies
Reading 6th Edition - Missions
Reading 6th Edition - Psychic disciplines

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Reading 6th Edition - Psychic disciplines

Nick speaking,

There are five Psychic Power Disciplines that Psykers are able to Generate powers from. Armies are limited to which disciplines they can use, if any at all. The five Disciplines are, Biomancy, Divination, Pyromancy, Telekinesis and Telepathy. Within each Psychic Discipline are six powers, which are randomly chosen, with the quantity equal to your Mastery level of your Psyker. If you have two or more disciplines to choose from, you are able to mix your random powers from any of the Disciplines you can take.

The powers in each Discipline all have different abilities, as you would expect, with most of them being pretty useful. Each discipline also has a Primaris Power, which is a fixed power that you are able to swap your randomly generated power for, if you should so wish. You can only do this once, per Discipline, but it does at least let you drop any power you roll that you think might not be useful to you. As we discussed in the Psykers post, each power takes up a certain amount of Warp Charge when you use it.

If a Psyker rolls the same power twice, you must re-roll until you roll a different power, although it is possible for two different Psykers to have the same power in one army. I will let you pick the bones out of whatever Psychic Disciplines and Powers are available to your armies, but personally, I think I will wait until I have a good few games under my belt before I start to experiment. I am still not convinced that swapping fixed powers, that you know how to use, like Doom and Fortune, for some randomly generated powers that are going to be different each game, but I have to say, I am liking the Divination powers...

The Psychic powers themselves are categorised to make it easy to know when the power actually happens. The categories are known as, Blessing (start of the movement phase and friendly models gain), Witchfire (shooting attack), Focussed Witchfire (Shooting attack that hits individual models), Beam (shooting attack using a line), Malediction (start of the movement phase, weakens your enemy with no line of sight needed, even in if in close combat) and Nova (Shooting attack that automatically hits all enemy units, even in if in close combat). Obviously, most of the powers listed will only last for that turn and not the whole game, unless you re-cast the power... 

Biomancy

Primaris Power: Smite
Witchfire, Warp Charge 1
12" S4 AP2 A4

1 - Iron Arm
Blessing, Warp Charge 1
Psyker gains +D3 Strength and Toughness and gains Eternal Warrior

2 - Enfeeble
Malediction, Warp Charge 1
Enemy unit within 24", -1 Strength and Toughness and treat all terrain as difficult

3 - Endurance
Blessing, Warp Charge 1
One friendly unit within 24" gains Feel no Pain, It will not Die and Relentless

4 - Life Leech
Witchfire, Warp Charge 1
12" S6 AP2 A2

5 - Warp Speed
Blessing, Warp Charge 1
Psyker gain +D3 to Initiative and Attacks, and gains the Fleet Special rule

6 - Haemorrhage
Focussed Witchfire, Warp Charge 1
12" Toughness test, no armour or cover saves allowed, if dead, randomly select another model within 2" (Friend or foe), if that one is slain, continue the process until the test is saved

Divination

Primaris Power: Prescience
Blessing, Warp Charge 1
12" target unit can re-roll all failed to hit rolls

1 - Foreboding
Blessing, Warp Charge 1
Psyker and unit has Counter Assault and shoot Overwatch at normal ballistic skill

2 - Forewarning
Blessing, Warp Charge 1
12" target unit has 4++ save

3 - Misfortune
Malediction, Warp Charge 1
24" one enemy unit re-rolls all successful saves

4 - Perfect Timing
Blessing, Warp Charge 1
Psyker and units weapons ignore cover special rule

5 - Precognition
Blessing, Warp Charge 1
The Psyker can re-roll all failed to hit and wound rolls, as well as saves

6 - Scrier's Gaze
Blessing, Warp Charge 1
Roll three dice and chose the result you want when rolling for reserves, Outflank and Mysterious terrain

Pyromancy

Primaris Power: Flame Breath
Witchfire, Warp Charge 1
Template S5 AP4 A1 Soul Blaze

Soul Blaze:
If the unit suffers one or more unsaved wound, at the end of each turn roll a D6, On a three or less the flames die out, on a four or more the flames continue. The unit takes D3 S4 AP5 hits. The wounds are allocated by the controlling player and cover saves are not allowed

1 - Fiery Form
Blessing, Warp Charge 1
Psyker gains 4++ save and +2 strength, his close combat attacks are Soul Blaze

2 - Fire Shield
Blessing, Warp Charge 1
One friendly unit has a 4+ cover save from shooting attacks, plus a form of Hammer and Wrath

3 - Inferno
Witchfire, Warp Charge 1
24" S4 AP5 A1, Soul Blaze, Blast, Ignores cover

4 - Spontaneous Combustion
Focussed Witchfire, Warp Charge 1
18" target model suffers a wound with no armour or cover saves allowed, if dead, has an extra Blast attack

5 - Sunburst
Nova, Warp Charge 1
6" S4 AP5 Assault 2D6, Blind, Ignores cover

Blind:
Any unit hit by a blind weapon must take an initiative test, if failed, all models in the unit are reduced to weapon skill and ballistic kill one

6 - Molten Beam
Beam, Warp Charge 1
12" S8 AP1 A1, Melta

Telekinesis

Primaris Power: Assail
Beam, Warp Charge 1
18" S6 AP- A1, Strikedown

Strikedown:
Any model that suffers one or more unsaved wounds or passes one or more saving throws from this attack. They will half their Initiative and move as if in difficult terrain. Vehicles and monstrous Creature are immune

1 - Crush
Focussed Witchfire, Warp Charge 1
18" 2D6, target receives a hit equal to result rolled, if more than ten rolled auto wound or penetrating hit

2 - Gate of Infinity
Blessing, Warp Charge 1
Psyker and unit can move via deep strike up to 24"

3 - Objuration Mechanticum
Malediction, Warp Charge 1
24" one target unit must re-roll to hit ans wound rolls of a six, vehicles are hit with a Strength 1 Haywire hit

4 - Shockwave
Nova, Warp Charge 1
12" S3 AP- Assault D6, Pinning

5 - Telekine Dome
Blessing, Warp Charge 1
12" friendly unit has a 5++ against shooting attacks, every save is deflected back to any unengaged unit with 6"

6 - Vortex of Doom
Witchfire, Warp Charge 1
12" S10 AP1 H1, Blast which will hurt the Psyker also if he fails his Psychic test.

Telepathy

Primaris Power: Psychic Shriek
Witchfire, Warp Charge 1
12" Roll 3D6 and subtract targets leadership, a number of wounds are received equal to the result with no armour or cover saves allowed

1 - Dominate
Malediction, Warp Charge 1
24" One unit must pass a leadership test each time it moves, shoots, runs or assaults or they do nothing

2 - Mental Fortitude
Blessing, Warp Charge 1
24" One friendly unit that is falling back automatically regroups and gains the fearless special rule

3 - Puppet Master
Focussed Witchfire, Warp Charge 1
24" The target shoots at one of it's own forces, but not into his own unit

4 - Terrify
Malediction, Warp Charge 1
24" Loses the Fearless Special rule if it has it, and treats all enemy units as having the Fear Special rule

5 - Invisibility
Blessing, Warp Charge 2
24" Friendly unit has Shrouded and Stealth Special rule. if the unit charges, enemy cannot make use of Counter Assault and are at Weapon Skill one

6 - Hallucination
Malediction, Warp Charge 2
24" One enemy unit suffers one of the following hallucinations...

1-2 - Bugs! I hate bugs!
Unit is pinned unless they ignore it or are locked in close combat

3-4 - Ermmm?
The unit cannot shoot, run declare charges or strike blows in close combat

5-6 - You! You're a Traitor!
Every model inflicts a single hit on his own unit, resolved at that models own strengths, but using the strength bonuses, AP values and special rules of their most powerful close combat weapons if they have any

Lastly in this series, fluff... and other!

Previous Posts:
6th Edition Rule Book Unboxing
Reading 6th Edition - The first few pages
Reading 6th Edition - The movement phase
Reading 6th Edition - The shooting phase
Reading 6th Edition - The assault phase
Reading 6th Edition - Universal Special Rules
Reading 6th Edition - Independent Character
Reading 6th Edition - Unit types
Reading 6th Edition - Weapons 
Reading 6th Edition - Characters & Challenges
Reading 6th Edition - Psykers
Reading 6th Edition - Vehicle basics
Reading 6th Edition - Vehicle types
Reading 6th Edition - Terrain
Reading 6th Edition - Your army & Allies
Reading 6th Edition - Missions

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Necron 6th Edition Battle Report (not video)

Nick speaking,

After playing a few 500 point test games with my son to see what 6th Edition was all about. It was time to move up to 1000 points and get a game in with my main gaming buddy, and his Blood Angels. We weren't expecting anything but a fun night whilst we tried out and learnt how everything is running. I chose Necrons as my first 6th army as they are the easiest to use and don't have any Psychic powers to worry about.

My Necron list was:

1 x Destroyer Lord, Warscythe, Scarabs, Weave (160)
5x Destroyers (200)
10 x Warriors (130)
11 x Warriors (143)
6 x Immortals (102)
1 x Annihilation Barge, Tesla (90)
1 x Doom Scythe (175)

1000pts

Blood Angels list was something like this:

1 x Dante
5 x Honour guard
8 x Sternguard/Rhino
10 x jump Troops
5 x Jump Troops

Mission: Crusade (five objectives), Hammer and Anvil Deployment

Deployment

Blood Angels
I won the roll off and chose to go second, Blood Angels combat down the ten Jump Marines and put Dantes group and two Marine groups into reserve to deep strike. He then deploys the Rhino with the other unit of Jump Marines behind it. Dantes Warlord trait was one that only worked in the Blood Angels deployment zone so was pretty much useless to him.

Necrons
I deploy the Lord and destroyers to the left, with the two groups of Warriors and Immortals on an objective in a large piece of area terrain, which turns out to be +1 to my cover save, bonus! I stick the Annihilation Barge on my right flank, and reserve the Doom Scythe as per the rules. My Warlord trait was Move Through Cover, which was reasonable for me.

Turn One

Blood Angels
The Rhino Moves 12" and the Jump Marines follow it up, The Marines then run into a ruined building whilst the rhino moves flat out 12" right into my face.

Necrons
I Destroy the Rhino with the Annihilation Barge for the First Blood Victory Point, and then kill a couple of Sternguard who bail out so my Destroyers can't target them. The Destroyers are out of range to the Jump pack guys and have nothing to shoot at. One unit of Warriors shoot at the Jump guys, killing two of them, and the Sternguard fail their Morale check and start running.

Turn Two

Blood Angels
Dante and one group of Jump guys come down right behind my Destroyers, killing them all and bringing the Lord down to one wound with all their Plasma and Melta. The guys in the ruin assault the Annihilation Barge but do no damage, and the automatically regrouped Sternguard shoot my Immortals, who go to ground and stay standing.

Necrons
I move the Lord and join him to the Warriors on the left, as the Doom Scythe comes in from reserve. The Scythe shoots out a few Honour Guard and wound Dante, whilst the Lord/Warrior group wipe out the Jump unit on the left, making good use of Preferred enemy on the unit. Over on the right flank I shoot everything else into the Sternguard killing them down to three dudes and the other Jump unit down to two.

Turn three

Blood Angels
The last reserves come in on the right flank, and it, and the other few guys who are left, shoot my Warriors on the right side, They then assault me, but my Overwatch kills nothing, I loose a few Warriors but hold up in the assault. On the other side of the table, Dante and his two dudes assault my Lord/Warriors, but fail to kill anything! No challenges were done as my Lord was not within the locked in combat range.

Necrons
With only one Jump unit to shoot at, I shoot all my guns into it to kill everyone. I then lose my Warriors on the right to the sweeping advance. My Lord offers a polite challenge to Dante, who fails his Mind Shackle Scarab roll and kills himself, to give me my second Victory Point. The last guy standing fails his leadership and runs away.

Turn Four

Blood Angels
The running Marine automatically regroups and every last marine left shoots and assaults my Lord/Warrior group. I lose the combat by five or so and the unit is wiped out in the Sweep. Blood Angels now consolidate on the objective I was controlling.

Necrons
Blood Angels only have a power fist troops dude and two Sternguard left now, and I am already 2-1 Victory Points up with Secondary Objectives, but now all I have to do is kill three Marines for the table.  I move my Immortals onto one of the other objectives, as I shoot out the last three guys with shots to spare, a total wipe out for a Necron victory.

Conclusions
Warriors still get wiped out in the sweep, as you would expect, but they have got a whole lot better for the points. Tesla Immortals are nice, especially for Overwatch, but after my first three games, Warriors are coming out on top with their Rapid Fire guns (not tried Gauss Blaster Immortals yet though). Loved the Destroyer Lord, Shackle Scarabs are amazing for Challenges, and he soaks up wounds easily when he is up front (except when you get a dump load of Plasma in your face). I think Plasma is going to be everywhere now, that AP2 is going to be real handy for getting rid of the 2+ save guys. Doom Scythe was fun to use, and I will be using it a lot until everyone has Skyfire! As for playing with the new book, we found the game very free flowing, except for rule checking of course. I did forget that you can still fire Snap Shots when you go to ground, but otherwise I think it went well.

More reports to come...

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Reading 6th Edition - Missions

Nick speaking,

Right, let's get onto actually fighting a 40k battle, and the first thing is secrecy, which is interesting to me as my buddies and I will very often play without knowing what is in each others army, before we deploy. The only thing that you have to declare, are which units are embarked in transport, assuming people are still going to be using transports! There is nothing about looking at each others army list before a game, but You HAVE to let your opponent see your army list after a game, and only during a game if both players agree.

There are six new missions and three new deployment maps. The order in which a game is set up is a bit different than it was before. First you have to roll for one of the six missions, I will have a look at the missions later in the post. Next you roll for the type of deployment, in all three deployments the table is divided into two halves, either long ways (Dawn of War), short ways (Hammer and Anvil) or diagonal (Vanguard Strike), and all three have you deploying at least 24" away from each other. It is at this stage that players choose which of the halves they will be deploying in. Next you set up any Fortifications that have been purchased in your own half and then it's time to set up the terrain.

There are two ways of setting up the terrain from then on, either in a narrative fashion that both players agree to, or as Alternating terrain. To place Alternating terrain, roll a D3 for each 2'x2' section (usually six) and make a note of how many pieces can be placed in that square. Then starting with the player that chose table halves, place one piece of terrain each, alternating until all the table sectionshave their allocated, or until you have no terrain left Both players can choose to stop placing terrain whenever they want, but the other player can continue if they so wish. Shuffling the terrain after it's all down is permitted if you want the terrain to look aesthetically pleasing.

Unless stated otherwise, the player who chose the table halves will also place the first objective, which is the next stage. Objectives have the same limitations that they always have, except they can go within 6" of the table edges. The last thing to do before you start deploying your army is determine what 'Traits' your Warlords have. Which we covered in this previous post.

Deploying armies is done with the usual roll off to see who is going first or second, with Infiltrators and Scouts deploying at the end. As before, the player who deployed first takes the first turn, unless the initiative is seized on a roll of a six. All six standard missions, known as 'Eternal Warrior' missions, use random game turns exactly the same as in 5th Edition.

Victory Conditions

The player with the most Victory Points will win any one of the new six mission. There are various ways to earn Victory Points in the different missions, and these victory conditions are split down into 'Primary' and 'Secondary' objectives. Primary objectives in some missions are the same as the old Kill Points were, but most of them are about capturing objective markers which have different values in different missions.

Secondary objectives are a way to gain extra points for doing certain things during the game. One VP for killing the first unit, One for killing your enemies Warlord and one for having a valid unit in you opponents deployment zone. these are known as 'Slay the Warlord', 'First Blood' and 'Linebreaker'.

Controlling Objectives

Controlling objectives are done the same as in the previous edition, either capturing it with a 'Scoring' unit within 3", or contesting it with a 'Denial' unit the same as before. The big difference here, is that a unit is only able to control one objective at a time! There also have been some changes to what constitutes a scoring and denial unit.

Scoring unit:
Unless stated in the mission, Troops are the only Scoring units in an army, although there are some exceptions when units of Troops are not Scoring. A vehicle, a unit currently embarked on a transport vehicle, a unit occupying a building, a unit with the Swarms special rule or a special rule that says it cannot score and a unit that is currently falling back, are all unable to Score any objective.

Denial units:
All units including troops can Deny an objective if they are within 3" of with the following exceptions. A vehicle, a unit currently embarked on a transport vehicle, a unit occupying a building, a unit with the Swarms special rule or a special rule that says it cannot deny and a unit that is currently falling back, are all unable to Deny an objective. 

Mission Special Rules

Night Fighting

It's all change for Night Fighting and not only that, Night Fighting is in all the missions, well, as long as you remember to roll for it! You will be fighting your battles in the dark on turn one if a 4+ is rolled before deployment. If Night Fight does not happen on turn one, you have to start rolling for it again on turn five onwards to see if it gets dark, on a 4+ it becomes activated for the rest of the game.

When the Night Fight rules are in play, any unit over 36" from the targeting unit cannot be picked out. Units between 24"-36" away are treated as having the 'Shrouded' Special Rule and units 12"-24" away are treated as having the 'Stealth' Special Rule. Targets less than 12" are shot as normal. The only exception is with Scatter shots, who are able to hit units over 36" away if they happen to scatter on them, but of course, they will still be 'Shrouded'.

Reserves

You can now only reserve up to half you army, rounded up. The only exception to this, are units that have to reserve do not count toward the half. A unit and it's dedicated transport count as one, when working out the reserved quantities, but an Independent Characters joined to a unit will count as two, even though you only roll one die to see when the unit comes from reserve.

Reserve rolls are also different now, coming in on a 3+ turn two, a 3+ turn three and automatically on turn four. Your still able to have any reserve bonuses, but a one is always a fail to come out roll. Then we come to the BIG change, unless stated otherwise, a unit that comes from reserve is unable to charge the turn it arrives! As usual it cannot use any abilities that are done at the beginning of the movement phase either.

It's worth noting here, if your army has no units on the table at the end of any game turn, you will automatically lose, regardless if you still have reserves!

Ongoing Reserves

If a unit (Flyer) enters reserve part way through a game, it will always enter play the following turn at the same speed that it left the table. If the game ends when it is in reserve, it is classed as destroyed for any Victory Points purposes.

Mystery Objectives

Some missions use Mystery objectives, theses objectives never disappear of move, but have a selection of different mysteries. Once a model is within 3" of an objective you roll to see what affect it has, although any unit activates the objective, only one scoring unit that is closest to it can benefit from it, if it has any advantages. The mysteries are...

1 - Sabotaged!
At the end of every turn, centre a large blast marker over the objective, and resolve any hits at S4 AP-

2 - Nothing of Note!
Rolling a two does nothing

3 - Skyfire Nexus!
As the name suggests, the controlling unit has the Skyfire Special Rule each time they shoot.

4 - Targeting Relay!
The controlling unit can re-roll any failed to hit rolls of a one when shooting.

5 - Scatterfield!
The controlling models gain a +1 to any cover saves, accumulative with any Stealth and Shrouding.

6 - Grav Wave Generator!
Any unit attempting to charge the controlling unit halves their charge distance.

The missions

1 - CRUSADE
Primary - D3+2 Objectives
Secondary - Slay Warlord, First Blood and Linebeaker
Special Rules - Night Fight, Mystery Objectives and Reserves

2 -PURGE THE ALIEN
Primary - Victory Points (Kill Points)
Secondary - Slay Warlord, First Blood and Linebeaker
Special Rules - Night Fight and Reserves

3 - BIG GUNS NEVER DIE
Primary - D3+2 Objectives plus one Victory Point for each Heavy Support destroyed
Secondary - Slay Warlord, First Blood and Linebeaker
Special Rules - Night Fight, Mystery Objectives, Reserves and Heavy Metal

'Heavy Metal'
Your Heavy Support units are Scoring as well as your Troop choices, even if they are Vehicles, as long as they are not Immobilised.

4 - THE SCOURING
Primary - 6 Objectives, with random Victory Point values, plus one Victory Point for each Fast Attack destroyed
Secondary - Slay Warlord, First Blood and Linebeaker
Special Rules - Night Fight, Mystery Objectives, Reserves and Fast Recon

Fast Recon:
Your Fast attack units are Scoring as well as your Troop choices, even if they are Vehicles, as long as they are not Immobilised.

5 - THE EMPEROR'S WILL
Primary - 2 Objectives (Capture and Control)
Secondary - Slay Warlord, First Blood and Linebeaker
Special Rules - Night Fight, Mystery Objectives and Reserves

6 - THE RELIC
Primary - 1 Objectives that your models can pick up
Secondary - Slay Warlord, First Blood and Linebeaker
Special Rules - Night Fight, Reserves and The Relic (extensive rules for moving The Relic)

Previous Posts:
6th Edition Rule Book Unboxing
Reading 6th Edition - The first few pages
Reading 6th Edition - The movement phase
Reading 6th Edition - The shooting phase
Reading 6th Edition - The assault phase
Reading 6th Edition - Universal Special Rules
Reading 6th Edition - Independent Character
Reading 6th Edition - Unit types
Reading 6th Edition - Weapons 
Reading 6th Edition - Characters & Challenges
Reading 6th Edition - Psykers
Reading 6th Edition - Vehicle basics
Reading 6th Edition - Vehicle types
Reading 6th Edition - Terrain
Reading 6th Edition - Your army & Allies

That's it, 131 pages of rules done! Next is to skip to page 418 to have a look at psychic disciplines...

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Reading 6th Edition - Your army & Allies

Nick speaking,

Isn't it interesting how quickly you get used to something! I had a look at the old 5th Edition book just a minute ago, and boy does it look old, it looks like it was a 3rd Edition book or something? Just goes to show how great the layout and ease of reading 6th Edition is, as I come to the Choosing your Army section...

Choosing your army is very much like it used to be, but there are a few things of note. The Force organisation chart now has a 'Primary Detachment', exactly the same as we always had, plus an 'Allied Detachment', which we will come to in a bit. There is also an optional, single 'Fortification' choice. There are four Fortifications listed, and they are the current GW terrain pieces such as a Skyshield Landing Pad and Imperial Baston. All four pieces have there own points values and Special Rules listed, other Fortifications are going to be released in White Dwarf or on the GW website in the future.

In games over 1999 points, you are able to take two Primary Detachments, also unlocking another Allied Detachment, but not another Fortification. However, taking two Detachments still does not make it possible to take more than one 'Unique' Character.

The Warlord

One HQ from your army has to be chosen from your army to be your Warlord, and to gain an additional ability. The Warlord has to be your HQ choice with the highest Leadership, if you have more than one in your army, you are able the select which one it is. As you would expect, an Allied HQ choice is unable to be your Warlord! There are then three types of 'Trait' categories that you can give them, and each category has six different traits that are randomly selected. The 'Trait' categories are, 'Command', affecting an area around your Warlord, 'Personal', combat skills that influence them and their unit, and 'Strategic', which affect your entire army with tricks and gambits.

Allies

If you wish, you are able to choose Allies for your army. You are only able to choose Allies from one Allied Codex in any one list, even if you are using two Primary and Allied detachments. An allied detachment has a compulsory selection of one HQ and one Troops for each detachment taken. You are then able to take another Troops, one Fast and one Heavy choice. Obviously, there are some limitation to which armies can Alliance. Some cannot alliance at all, like Tyranids, whilst others can alliance, but at different levels of confidence. These different Alliances range from 'battle Brothers' to 'Desperate Allies', and have their own Special rules listed.

Personally, my four armies don't seem to form alliances very well. Nids can't do it at all, Necrons and Eldar can't do it, and Necron and Space Wolves are only Desperate Allies. The best my armies can do is Eldar and Space Space Wolves, and that is only as Desperate Alliance. Of course, I could buy a few models from an army I don't already own, hang on, now I am thinking about starting a new army? Well done GW, your plan to introduce me to a new army and spend more money is working!!

Previous Posts:
6th Edition Rule Book Unboxing
Reading 6th Edition - The first few pages
Reading 6th Edition - The movement phase
Reading 6th Edition - The shooting phase
Reading 6th Edition - The assault phase
Reading 6th Edition - Universal Special Rules
Reading 6th Edition - Independent Character
Reading 6th Edition - Unit types
Reading 6th Edition - Weapons 
Reading 6th Edition - Characters & Challenges
Reading 6th Edition - Psykers
Reading 6th Edition - Vehicle basics
Reading 6th Edition - Vehicle types
Reading 6th Edition - Terrain

Next up, missions...

Read more ...

Reading 6th Edition - Terrain

Nick speaking,

The terrain section of the book is actually quite large, taking up twenty pages of the book. I am not going to go over everything here, but I do want have a look at some areas of note. The terrain section really does continue the theme of fun that the rest of the book has, giving you lost of options and fun things to try out. I am pretty sure most of it will never be used, but it is there if you want to spice up some of your old terrain you have been using for years...

First, there is a new type of terrain called 'Lethal', it sort of sits between 'Dangerous' and 'Impassable'. Things like lava, acid and the like count as Lethal. It basically follows the same rules as Impassible, but you can never end your move in it, if you do, the model is removed! I like this ideas, and I plan on making a small piece of Lethal terrain for my Necron terrain set.

Next is 'Area' terrain, which uses the Difficult terrain rules, and offers a 5+ cover save as standard. Models in Area terrain that 'Go to Ground' receive a +2 to their cover save instead of +1. They also receive a cover save in Area terrain whether they are 25% obscured or not. There is a small section that notes some terrain types will have random effects, called 'Mysterious' terrain, only finding out what type of terrain it is when a unit enters it.

There are three pages dedicated to buildings (intact), including a Building damage table. They cover rules like Building armour charts, Building sizes, leaping of roofs with 'impact tests' and fire points for buildings and Bunkers, which is great as my buddy has bunkers, but it's been a long time since we have used them. This section also covers Battlements for the terrain GW sells.

Next are ruins, and as I have Cities of Death terrain, is very interesting to me. The basic rules are again, pretty much the same, there is a new 'Jump down' rule so you can get down a building quickly, but you will have to take an 'Impact test', which is slightly worse than a Dangerous terrain test, depending on how far you jumped.

There is a whole page dedicated to Forests, jungles and woods as well as another page dedicated to rivers, lakes and pools. All of these pieces count as 'Mysterious' terrain and have some random terrain abilities listed. Looks like fun as my buddies and I have forests, rivers and lakes that we use already anyway.

'Battlefield Debris' is next and here we can find special rules for things like Defence Lines, Ammo Dumps, Gun Emplacements and all the other bits of terrain GW sell. The best thing here though, are barricades and Walls! Barricades offer a 4+ cover save to any models. So all terrain is not going to be 5+ as we first thought, we have ruin building and barricades in most of our terrain boxes which both grant a 4+ cover save.

There is a page for 'Archeotech Artifacts', Impassible pieces of Artifacts that have up to twelve random results such as, Booby traps, Holy relic and Alien Corpses. Lastly, there are the 'Unique' terrain rules, for 'Spiker'Plants' and 'Psionic Shield Generators'. It is also indicated that there is going to be some extra 'Data Sheets' for 'Unique' terrain, released in the White Dwarf magazines. It's woth noting that there are no specific rules for roads, so I assume they are just counted as open terrain.

So that's it for terrain, and there's a lot of fun stuff there if you want to add a bit more flavour to your 40k games.

Previous Posts:
6th Edition Rule Book Unboxing
Reading 6th Edition - The first few pages
Reading 6th Edition - The movement phase
Reading 6th Edition - The shooting phase
Reading 6th Edition - The assault phase
Reading 6th Edition - Universal Special Rules
Reading 6th Edition - Independent Character
Reading 6th Edition - Unit types
Reading 6th Edition - Weapons 
Reading 6th Edition - Characters & Challenges
Reading 6th Edition - Psykers
Reading 6th Edition - Vehicle basics
Reading 6th Edition - Vehicle types

Next up, your army and allies...

Read more ...

Wave Serpent Painting Progress

Nick speaking,

Just a quick progress report on my three Forge World Wave Serpents. I have been working very hard lining in the under carriage with grey, and then getting a nice bright white finish. A massive thumbs up to the new GW Ceramite White, it is amazing, and made my job much easier! I have also done all the top purple areas in my usual paint scheme, Hormagaunt purple, Lich Purple and then a wash of leviathan Purple. Now I am ready to do all the details and start the purple highlights...

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Reading 6th Edition - Vehicle types

Nick speaking,

Following on from my Previous post Vehicle basics, where we looked at the rules that are common for all Vehicles. Let's now have a look at the Vehicle type rules...

Vehicle Squadrons
The first change is for when moving Flat out, is is possible for some vehicles to move flat out and not the others in a Squadron, but they still have to keep their 4" unit coherency. All hits are resolved one at a time on the closest model until it is 'Wrecked' or 'Destroyed', the same as when shooting at infantry units. If one of the models in the Squadron is immobilised, the other models are able to abandon it by moving out of coherency. The immobilised model is then treated as a separate unit from then on.

Transports
There is a lot of stuff here that is the same as it was, including for 'Dedicated Transport', but there are a few different things as well. It is noted that models embarked on a Vehicle are classed as 'Fearless' whilst they are embarked. The big change though, is disembarking! A unit is able to disembark when a Transport does not move more than 6". The models can then disembark within 6" of the access points keeping coherency. The transport cannot move if it has already moved, but can move normally if it was stationary. Either way though, you are unable to perform a 'Tank Shock' or 'Ram' that turn. OK, we then move onto the biggest change of all, disembarked units are only able to shoot (counting as having moved) or run, BUT they are not able to assault, even if the transport stayed stationary! Wow! I was really looking forward to painting my Howling Banshee's and getting them on the table, but what is the point now?

Assaulting Transports:
Passengers in a transport that is being assaulted, can use fire points to perform 'Overwatch'

Effects on Passengers are now as follows...

Crew Shaken:
Can only make 'Snap shots' in the following shooting phase.

Crew Stunned:
Cannot shoot in the following shooting phase.

Wrecked:
Disembark 3" and 'Pinning' test

Explodes:
Same as the rules were before, but it indicates the model owning player can allocate any wounds to any models he/she wishes.
 

Flyers

Ariel Support:
Flyers must begin the game in reserve

Measuring and other models:
Measure from the vehicles hull and guns as usual, ignoring the base. The base is only used for when it's being assaulted, along with the hull, or when you are embarking and disembarking. Other models are able to go underneath a Flyer, as long as they are 1" away from it's base (unless assaulting).

Zoom:
Flyers can usually only make a special kind of move, called Zoom, although some can 'Hover'. Zooming has a movement of Combat Speed 18" and a Cruising Speed of 36". A Flyer needs to keep its speed up to stay in the air, so it can never Zoom less than 18". If it is forced to, it will Wreck itself automatically! When Zooming you have to move in a straight line, only being able to pivot on the spot ninety degrees before you move. Zooming Flyers always ignore all terrain checks and are unable to embark and disembark when they are zooming. They also cannot, or cannot be 'Tank Shocked' and Ramed'. A Flyer can move at 'Combat' and 'Cruising' speeds and still fire up to four shots the same turn at their normal ballistic skill.

Zooming Flyers can only be hit with weapons that can shoot 'Snap shots' unless the model or firer has the 'Skyfire' Special Rule.

Skyfire:
Models with the 'Skyfire' Special rule or a weapon with the Special Rule, uses its normal ballistic skill when shooting at Flyers, Flying MC and Skimmers. Unless it also has the 'Interceptor' Special Rule, it can only fire at other targets using 'Snap Shot'.

Interceptor:
At the end of the enemy movement phase, a model with the Interceptor Special Rule may fire at any one unit that is in range and has line of sight after it has deep striked. The weapon that shot cannot be shot again in the next turn, but a different one can be. A weapon with the 'Skyfire' and 'Interceptor' Special Rules can fire at any unit at its normal ballistic skill, unless shooting 'Snap shots'. A Zooming Flyer that is hit may 'Evade' before the penetration roll is made. Evading grants you the 'Jinks' Special Rule, but you can only fire 'Snap shots' the following turn.

A Zooming model that moves 'Flat Out' must move forward in a staight line between 12"-24". They can never be assaulted. If a Zooming Flyer ends up going off the table edge it goes into ongoing reserve and must re-enter at zooming speed even if it can 'Hover'.

'Hover'
A Flyer that is of the 'Hover' type can choose to Hover instead of Zooming. Declare if you are Hovering or Zooming before you move, Hovering Flyers are treated as a fast skimmer which we will come to in a bit.

You use the following exceptions for immobilised, Wrecked and Explodes results, when applying the damage chart to a Flyer...

Locked Velocity:
If a Flyer is immobilised, its velocity is locked and it can only move at the same speed it was moving when it was immobilised. It also cannot 'Evade' or move 'Flat Out'
Now FAQ'd to say they can only move 36" when locked

Crash and Burn:
If a Flyer is 'Wrecked' or 'Explodes', centre a large blast marker over the Flyer and scatter it 2D6". Any model under the blast suffers a S6 AP- hit, and the Flyer is removed. If the Flyer is a transport Flyer, the hits are resolved at S10 with no armour saves allowed. Surviving models are placed within 3" of the final position of the large Blast marker.

Flyer Special Rules...

Skyfire:
A Flyer may choose all its weapon to have the 'Skyfire' Special rule at the start of each of its shooting phases.

Missiles:
A Flyer with missiles can shoot two of them each turn even though they are once use only. However, the missile shots count toward the number of shots fired.

Bombs and Bombing runs:
A Flyer with bombs can drop up to one bomb in the movement phase, this is called a bombing run. Dropping a bomb in the movement phase counts as firing one of your weapons in the shooting phase, but your other weapons can shoot at a different target. To drop a bomb you have to be moving at Zooming speed, centre the large blast over a single model that the Flyer moved over and Scatter it D6", any models under the blast are hit at the bombs specific profile. A Flyer that makes a bombing run is unable to move Flat out in the shooting phase

Chariots

Chariots are personal war machines for high ranked Characters, like an Overlord in a Command Barge.

Moving:
A chariot moves the same as their vehicle type, but if it is a skimmer, the rider can make a Sweep attack.

Sweep Attack:
Pick one unengaged enemy unit the Chariot moved over and roll a D6 equal to the number of attacks the rider has. The attacks hit on a 3+ if it moved a Combat Speed, and a 4+ if it moved at Cruising Speed. Each hit is resolved with the weapon and bonuses of the riders melee weapon. Vehicles are always hit on the side armour and any sixes rolled have the 'Precision Strikes' Special Rule. There are no cover saves allowed against sweep attacks even for vehicles.

Shots at a Chariot can never hit the rider itself and and are always resolved against the Chariot itself. If a Chariot did not move Flat Out, it may declare an assault using it's hull and base for ranges. The rider is classed as being in base contact with any model engaged and can strike and be stuck in the assault. The rider will get a +1 to his armour save when in close combat from a Chariot, but the Chariot and rider will not be locked in combat, and the rider can not perform or accept any challenges. The crew of a Chariot are always ignored.

Chariot Special Rules...

The Rider is fearless whilst embarked on a Chariot and the Chariot itself has the 'Hammer and Wrath' Special Rule, however, its Hammer and Wraith attacks are D6 attacks rather than one, resolved at S6 AP-, unless otherwise stated.

Open-Topped


The open-topped rules have not changed, you still add plus one to the vehicle damage charge and they have the new 'Assault Vehicle' Special rule, allowing them to assault after disembarking. 

Heavy Vehicles

Heavy vehicles can never move faster than combat speed and can never move Flat Out. They are always counted as remaining stationary when working out how they shoot.

Fast Vehicles

Fast Vehicles can move up to 12" when moving Flat Out. Fast Vehicles can shoot all their weapons at normal ballistic skill if they move at Combat Speed, and two weapons if they move at Cruising Speed with any other weapons shooting at 'Snap Shots'

Skimmers

If a Skimmer is also 'Fast' it may move up to 18" when moving 'Flat Out'. Skimmers have the 'Jinks' Special Rule.

Walkers

I don't actually own a dreadnought and rarely get my War Walkers out (although that may change now). So to be honest I am not amazingly familiar with Walker rules. As far as I can tell, they are pretty much the same as they were, except Walkers are now able to fire 'Overwatch' if they are assaulted.

Tanks

Tanks are still able to 'Tank Shock' and 'Ram', the rules again are pretty much as they were before for both, except in clarifies that a unit already falling back will automatically fail a tank shock test. and a Tank coming in from reserve is also able to perform a tank shock, as long as you declare it before it moves on. A Tank that has performed a Tank Shock is unable to move Flat Out the same turn, and units cannot embark or disembark the same turn either. This also means, if a tank embarked or disembarks a unit before it moves, it cannot perform a tank shock. Death or Glory looks to be the same as it was, as do Ramming rules. 'Jinks' Vehicles are able to get a cover save against hits caused by Ramming, and Ramming has the same restrictions as Tank Shocking.

Vehicle Upgrades

All the vehicle upgrades like Dozer Blades, Extra Armour, Searchlights, and Hunter-Killer Missiles are the same as they were. Smoke Launchers now offer a 5+ cover save with the same rules as it was before.

Previous Posts:
6th Edition Rule Book Unboxing
Reading 6th Edition - The first few pages
Reading 6th Edition - The movement phase
Reading 6th Edition - The shooting phase
Reading 6th Edition - The assault phase
Reading 6th Edition - Universal Special Rules
Reading 6th Edition - Independent Character
Reading 6th Edition - Unit types
Reading 6th Edition - Weapons 
Reading 6th Edition - Characters & Challenges
Reading 6th Edition - Psykers
Reading 6th Edition - Vehicle basics

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