Reading 7th Edition - Universal Special Rules

Nick speaking,

Right, so lets take a look at the Universal Special Rules and see what changes there are. I will only note rules that have not been totally copy and pasted, and the first rule change is to the faithful Space Marines...

'And They Shall Know No Fear' The unit no longer gets to regroup the 3" as well as all the other bonuses they have.

Assault vehicles have a listing saying passengers cannot assault the turn the vehicle arrives from reserve.

Armourbane is now an addition D6 for armour penetration instead of 2D6

Barrage Weapons are no longer pinning

Feel No Pain is confirmed that it is not a saving throw and thus can be used even against weapons that say 'no saving throws of any kind allowed' or perils of the warp attacks!

Independent Characters have an extra line saying that they cannot infiltrate with an infiltrating unit unless they have the infiltrate special rule, which was previously in the infiltrate section.

Infiltrate now states that a unit inside a vehicle can infiltrate with their vehicle. It also confirms that infiltrating units cannot charge in their first turn!

Intercept no longer lets you shoot at ground units with Skyfire weapons at normal ballistic skill.

Jink has changed as previously discussed.

Missile Lock now lists that once use only weapons can re-roll failed to hit rolls if not a blast.

Move Through Cover is the same except you are now not slowed down when assaulting through terrain.

Rending against vehicles are no longer AP2, but just use the attackers weapon AP instead

Smash attacks are just a single attack!

Sniper is no longer Pinning or Rending, they are however AP2 on a roll of a six and are now strength four against vehicles.

Split Fire no longer needs you to take a leadership test to do it.

Strike Down attacks can now affect Monstrous Creatures

Supersonic no longer says you cannot hover!

Template Weapons inflict D6 wounds on units embarked in an open topped vehicle or inside a building if they hit the vehicle or fire hatches.

Vectored Strike is now AP2, but is only one attack unless it is against Zooming or Swooping units, where it is D3 attacks. These attacks have the ignores cover special rule.

Zealot units have gone up in the world, they no longer have fearless and hatred special rules, but they automatically pass Pinning, Fear, Morale and regrouping tests. They cannot go to grounds (sounds like fearless to me). They also get to re-roll all failed to hit rolls in the first round of each close combat.

Next up, weapons...

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Reading 7th Edition - Missions

Nick speaking,

OK, lets get straight to this, the book starts off talking about preparing your army, which includes unbound and battle-forged armies, detachments, factions, formations and command benefits. No doubt that everyone already knows all about this new stuff already, as it has been the main hot topic everywhere. Personally, I never used Allies unless I was playing a game where my forces were joining my buddies. I don't have anything against Allies, it's just the way I like to play. For me, I am more interested in the new missions, which we will get to soon...

First comes the new Warlord pages, and this is interesting, as Warlords can now be any Characters in your army, indeed, if you have no Characters from choosing an unbound army, you can select any other model to be your Warlord, making that selected mini form your primary detachment! Having said that, you can only take a Warlord trait, if your Warlord is a Character. There is a new Tactical Trait table to roll on, as well as the three old tables, and you can still use other tables, if you have them in your Codex etc. There are a few tweaks to the original Traits, but the new Tactical chart looks very interesting indeed, with it being based around objectives.

Right, so there are two mission tables, with the first set of missions being the same as before. You either choose which mission to play of roll for it. The three previous deployment styles are still in, but the order of things are different now. Now you chhose your mission, set out the terrain, roll for your deployment type, and then deploy. Any Fortification in your army are now put down when you deploy with your army. You now need to roll off, with the winner choosing to deploy first or second. Once deployed, the winner of that roll off can then choose to go first or second, seize the initiative is still there as before.

With all the new sets of scenery, there is now a rule called 'not enough room'. Basically, if you can't deploy any units they have to go into reserve. Variable game turns are as they were before, with the victory conditions also being the same, including an army not being on the table at the end of a game turn as an automatic lose, so still no reserving everything. Primary and Secondary objects are the same, with the exception of Linebreaker, where now a scoring mini within 12" of your enemies table edge wins you the point.

Placing objectives are as before, and it notes objectives should be 1" to 2" in size. All units are scoring now except if you are Swooping or Zooming, and units in a Zooming Flyer cannot score. You still cannot score if your unit has a special rule that says it cannot score.

Mysterious objectives are still in, but there is a big change for night fight. If night fight is listed in the mission, either play can ask for night fight to be activated. On a roll of a 4+ it will be night fight turn one. Night fight now only offers the stealth special rule, but every unit has it, regardless of distances etc. There is no 'half your army' rule for reserves, you may now select whatever units you want in reserve, but as I said before, if you have no units on the board at the end of the turn you automatically lose! Rolling for reserve are the same as they were, as are ongoing reserves.

We now come to the tactical objectives section, which is for the second set of six missions. All six missions use a fixed number of objectives, which is six, and these objectives have to be numbered 1-6. Then there are 66 different objectives where you have to capture certain objectives and kill certain units etc. The mission indicates how many cards to generate at the beginning of each turn, and once you achieve an objective, you get a victory point and disregard the card. This seems like fun, and I am looking forward to trying it all out.

Ok, Special Rules are up next...

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Reading 7th Edition - Battlefield Terrain

Nick speaking,

First, there is a clarification that the Citadel Real of Battle game board is classed as open terrain for gaming purposes. All tests for moving through terrain are as before, but it is now a simple minus two to your charge result when charging through terrain. Models in ruined buildings receive a 4+ cover save even if they are not 25% obscured. There is no mention of Area or Lethal terrain?

Craters now only offer a 6+ cover save, although you gain +2 if you go to ground. Whereas Rubble is now listed with a 4+ cover save, even if you are not 25% obscured. There is a huge amount of terrain features that are no longer listed in this section, area and lethal terrain as already stated, along with wild undergrowth, forests, jungles and woods, rivers, lakes and pools, shield generators and fuel reserves! Mysterious terrain is totally gone from the book, with them only being used if you have a datasheet with you citadel terrain!

The book then quickly moves onto buildings. The large buildings section in the previous edition has been reduced down to just four pages covering all the usual building basics, there is a section to clarify who is controlling a building and how to claim them. Now I have to be honest and say that I have only scanned the buildings section. I will revisit buildings at some point, but I really want to move onto the missions and find out what they are all about, which is coming up next!

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Reading 7th Edition - Characters

Nick speaking,

The first thing I noticed on the Character pages is the lack of Precision Shots/Strikes, a quick flick to the special rules section tells me that the rule still exists, but there is nothing that indicates Characters have it. Never mind, I always forgot that rule anyway! Everything else is the same, even the Look out Sir roll...

Now to look at Challenges. The first sections are all copy and paste until you get to the Fighting paragraph, where it says that models and Characters that move to satisfy the challenge are unable to pile in at their initiative step. Any excess wounds after a Character is slain are now allocated to the next nearest model! The morale support rule has gone and other models can now attack the enemy in a challenge once they have slain the rest of the models in the unit.

That's about it, next up, Battlefield Terrain

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Reading 7th Edition - Vehicles

Nick speaking,

OK, the start of this section just goes over the basics, which is the same as always, but there is a note that a vehicle that immobilise's itself takes a hull point. It also notes that vehicles that have Psychic powers do so in the psychic phase as well. Moving and shooting vehicle is the same as before, with a note that vehicles have the relentless special rule...

The next pages are about vehicle guns line of sight, which is all copy and paste, with the same pictures as before. No change for moving flat out or to hull points, as well as glancing and penetration hits, except there is a new damage table to roll on! The results being Shaken on a 1-3, Stunned on a 4, Weapon Destroyed on a 5 and immobilised on a 6. There is now a 7+ result, Explodes, which I assume is for low AP weapons as they still get the +1/+2 as before. Surrounding units are now hit at strength four instead of the old strength three. Zooming flyers have to roll an additional dice when they get an immobilised result, with a three plus sending them down the chart to Crew Stunned results, but a one and two making them crash and burn. Crash and burn is the same strength six scattering blast, but there is no mention of the strength ten hits on embarked units in this section, but it does have it later in the book under effect of passengers.

Cover saves for vehicles are the same as before, but the charging a vehicle section no longer says you cannot charge a vehicle that you cannot hurt!  Unless you are immobiled, all vehicles are treated as weapon skill one, even if they haven't moved with the usual exception to Walkers etc. The rest of the assault section is the same as before.

Vehicle squadrons are the same as before, as are the transport rules. There is an added bit that says psykers can only manifest witchfire powers, they of course can only use them if there is a hatch to shoot from. You still cannot target units embarked as before.

The effects on passengers has changed, any passengers in a transport that takes a Shaken, Stunned, Weapon Destroyed or Immobilsed result has to take a leadership test at the end of the phase, if they fail they can only snapshot next turn. Wrecked vehicle results are the same, and you now have to allocate wounds randomly for exploded vehicles.

Most of the Flyer rules are unchanged, there is a note that a Flyer can only be repaired if the repairing model in on board the Flyer. The Flyer rule pages look a lot simpler, with some of the old rules like vehicle damage results and bombs being moved to other areas of the book.

In the Chariots section, Chariot riders can no longer disembark from the Chariot. If the Character or Chariot dies, both are removed from play. If a model such as a Necron makes an Everliving roll, both Character and Chariot come back with one Hull Point. There is a paragraph to cover Characters shooting from the Chariot counting as stationary, but having to shoot at the same target. Except for blast and template weapons, the controlling player can now allocate hits to the Chariot or closest Character on the Chariot. The Hammer and Wraith attacks stay the same, but you no longer gain a +1 save to the rider. An Immobilised Chariot Counts it as stunned, or if it is Immobilised from difficult terrain, just takes a Hull Point.

No change for open-topped, Heavy or Fast vehicles, although skimmers no longer have the rule that says they crash if they moved flat out the previous turn. I don't play Walkers that often, but as far as I can tell the rules are pretty much as they were before, except they now have Hammer and Wrath. I also never really used ramming much either, but I can see that the chart has changed as there is no longer the +1 for each 3" of movement.

All the vehicle upgrades are the same, and there are some new sections dedicated to Super-Heavy Vehicles, Walkers. and Flyers. I own non of these models and have never played against any of them, so I visit these pages at a later date.

That's Vehicles done, next up, Characters...

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Reading 7th Edition - Unit types

Nick speaking,

Unlike the move from 5th to 6th Edition, there isn't a huge change in this section, there is definitely a lot of copy and pasting going on in this book. Infantry, bikes and Jetbikes are exactly the same, with a note that they are Very Bulky. Jinks of course has changed, and you now get a 4+ Jinks save, but can only snap shot the next turn. More than that though, you no longer need to move to Jink, but you have to declare you will Jinks once the unit has been selected for a target and before any hits are done!

Artillery, Jump and Jet Pack rules seem to be exactly the same, and Beasts have now lost their move through cover special rule! Cavalry and Monstrous Creatures are unchanged, except for how the special rules work, which we will look at in the special rules post later in the series.

Next is Flying Monstrous Creatures, and here we see some changes. Mainly being that you cannot assault the same turn that you change flight modes, so no landing and assaulting the same turn. Making the dakka flyrant king, and it seems this book is not going to help choppy armies! Grounding tests are different, you now take a test at the end of the phase, and only if you take one or more unsaved wounds. If you are grounded, and you stay in gliding mode in your turn, you are able to assault. A quick look at Vectored strike tells me that it is now only one hit, but it's now AP2. Smash is also now only one attack!

Lastly there is the addition of Gargantuan and Flying Gargantuan Creatures to the book.

Next up, Vehicles...

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Reading 7th Edition - The assault phase

Nick speaking,

Right, the assault phase, and yes, Flying Monstrous Creatures cannot charge on the same turn they change flight modes! Next is charging through difficult terrain, you now minus two from your charge distance, which means a double one is an instant fail to charge through terrain. Also, if you charge a unit that has gone to ground, you do not get an initiative penalty for charging through terrain...

After a good read of the rest of this section, believe it or not everything else is the same as before!

With the USR moved toward the back, it now means that we will be looking at unit types next...

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Reading 7th Edition - Weapons

Nick speaking,

The first rule in the weapons section that is different is a new bombing run rule. This is for Flyers and Flying Monstrous Creatures, and is a once use only attack, it is done in the movement phase and you can only drop one bomb per turn. Dropping a bomb counts as shooting one weapon and you may not move flat out. You can shoot any other guns at a different target as before. Bombs use small blasts, except for a Pulse bomb which uses a large blast.

There is now a listing for Primary weapons for super heavies

Next up, the assault phase...

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Reading 7th Edition - The shooting phase

Nick speaking,

OK, so first of all, line of sight still exists, but you now shoot and resolve each weapon type in your unit separately. Most stuff here is the same as it was, including snap shot firing making you BS1. There is an out of range rule, where you can only kill what is in range, but it says that if you are shooting guns like rapid fire, you use the full distance when it comes to their killing range and removing causalities.

The closest models die as normal, and the book briefly states here that most cover saves are 5+. It also says that units that have gone to ground can no longer snap shot in overwatch. The focus fire rule is also missing!

Surprisingly, next up is not the assault phase, as the weapons pages have been moved to the next spot

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Reading 7th Edition - The psychic phase

Nick speaking,

Right, lets have a look at this new 'magic' psychic phase! First of all, the book gives a basic run down on psykers and how they work, mastery levels etc. The first change is that if your psyker generates all of it's powers from the same discipline, they will get the primaris power for free. This is called 'psychic focus' so a psyker with a mastery level of one, now gets two powers! Powers outside of disciplines, such as 'force' do not count towards psychic focus....

Generating your powers is done in the same way as before, except there is an additional note, if you have the psychic cards to hand you can just randomly pick your card rather than rolling dice! Now for the new stuff, at the start of each psychic phase, the player who's turn it is rolls a D6, and both players get that amount of warp charges, plus a charge for each mastery level on the table at the time (even in vehicles). Both players adds these up and that becomes their warp charge pools. Once the player who's turn it is has zero warp charges left, the psychic phase ends and all warp charges are lost. The shooting phase would then begin.

Only the player who's turn it is can manifest a psychic power and no unit can attempt to manifest the same power twice in one phase, you are able to go back and forth between psykers and generate the powers at will, assuming you have warp charge left. To manifest a power you need to pass a psychic test. You will need to roll a 4+ for each warp charge needed to manifest a power, and you can elect to use as many dice from your pool as you wish to try and pass the test. If two or more dice rolled are sixes, then you have to take a perils test. There is a new perils table, where the failed pysker will roll to see his fate. You basically will lose a wound and maybe have something else happen to you, like losing one of your other powers.

Deny the witch is still there. Once again you use your warp charge pool to deny the witch, having to nullify all of the successful warp charges to stop the power. There is a little modifier chart for depending on wether you are a psyker yourself etc. but generally you will have to nullify on sixes. Regarding the chart, if you had a psyker in the target unit you nullify on rolls of a five. If your units psyker has a mastery level higher than your enemies you nullify on fours, and there is another +1 if you have the adamantium special rule! You are now able to nullify powers that were not directed at you, such as blessings, but this is only done on sixes, with no modification chart. Once your pool is empty you can no longer deny the witch!

Having a psychic hood with 12" of that unit lets the psyker with the hood take the deny the witch roll

Then there is the usual psychic disciplines, with a new Daemonology type. The new discipline cannot be used by Tyranids. Daemonology is split up into two sets of powers, Sanctic and Malefic with a couple of special rules to go with them. Grey Knights cannot take Malefic, and Daemons cannot use Santic powers. All other psykers that use these disciplines suffer perils on any doubles thrown!

That's it, next up, the shooting phase...

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Reading 7th Edition - The movement phase

Nick speaking,

Not too much to report in here. Everything is pretty much the same as it was before with the exception of a section about vertical movement, with models moving 3" across and 3" up if you throw a six for moving models up levels, you can be 6" apart between levels and maintain coherency and the usual 2" for everything else! You are still able to nominate which models in a unit are moving and which ones are stationary, as before!

Next up, the psychic phase...

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Reading 7th Edition - The first few pages

Nick speaking,

OK, so there are three books as we all know, I had a flick through the fluff and hobby books, and to be honest, that's about it for me. The main rule book is all I am really interested in, and although I still feels like I paid for more than I wanted, it is a delight to finally have a manageable sized rule book again! I started off flicking around the book in excitement trying to get snip bits of rules, and I soon realised that there has been a lot of copy and pasting going on, even so, there is only one thing for it, I would just have to read it from the beginning, one page at a time...

Looking at the first few pages classed as 'general principles' and there is all the usual stuff with no change, except there is a new D66 in the book! Roll a D6 and count this result as tens, then roll a second D6 and count this as units, so a three and then a five, that's thirty five. Along side this, there is also an introduction to the larger apocalyptic templates etc. which is in line with how 40k is going to be from now on! Next is the turn pages, and yes, it's all the same except there is a new Psychic phase, this is indeed done after the movement phase and before the shooting phase!

So that's it for the first few pages, next up is the movement phase... 

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