The three point rule!

Nick speaking,

When I first started this hobby many many years ago, my buddy who introduced me to 40k had this little rule that we used to make it easier for me to make a list as a beginner. We use to call it the three point rule, where you were able to take three points above the selected agreed points level!

We used this rule for about six months, and then we dropped it and made way for not being able to go over the points value selected! From then on, I have never played a list that has been over on points and have never really thought about it, but reflecting on the three point rule now, what would you say if your opponent was a few points over the agreed limit?

Obviously, I wouldn't expect anyone to be over the points in a tournament environment, but how about in a pick up game or a game with your buddies? Would you mind your opponent being a few points over? How would you deal with it? Not play them? Get them to drop a piece of wargear? Take something in your list to take you to the same points? Or wouldn't you be bothered and just play?

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A Flaw with The Psychic Phase!

Nick speaking,

Well, maybe not a flaw from Games Workshop's point of view, as the the Psychic phase works absolutely fine when you are playing one on one or two on two games, but what about when you are playing three or four way games?

It's fair to say that GW have taken multi player games into account before, with missions like 'Battle at the Camp', but has GW now totally abandoned this type of fun play in 7th Edition? Or did they just forget about it! I play four way games quite often with my buddies, and we always have a blast with them, but we are now having trouble working out the best way to do Deny the Witch?

As it stands, player A rolls a dice and adds that number to his mastery level, as do all the other players, but who Denies the Witch? Surely, all players cannot, as that will just overpower the Psyker! OK, so lets say only the player that the target unit's army is from can Deny, well yes, that's fine, but what if it is a blessing? Maybe the closest person to play A?

Maybe the highest Mastery level should roll the Deny roll, but then he may try to not dispel a power if he knows it may benefit him somehow! What about going back to the old ways of 6th Edition as an option, where you cannot Deny a blessing, but have Perils on double ones and sixes again, and maybe using the current Perils chart?

Have any of you come across this problem? What are your 'House Rules' to solve it?

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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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Eldar Doom or Eldar Doomed?

Nick speaking,

Oh dear, the new FAQ updates are now out and it looks like it's going to have to be Footdar all the way from now on. Please GW, leave us alone or give us a new Codex!

Q: The Farseer Psychic Powers rules state that they do not require the
Eldar Psyker to have line of sight to the target. Does this mean that they
can be used by an Eldar psyker embarked on a Transport? (p28)
A: No.

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Rules Help! Tyranids and Quad Guns?

Nick speaking,

OK, so can Tyranids fire a Quad/Icarus Gun in a Defence Line?

The Tyranid FAQ's ruling for Nids means they are forbidden to manually fire 'Emplaced Weapons' in buildings, but there is no mention of 'Gun Emplacements', which seem to have their own distinct rules! So I am correct in saying that Nids CAN manually fire 'Gun Emplacements' (which are free standing) but NOT 'Emplaced Weapons' (guns in buildings)?

I have done a reasonable amount of searching to try and find out about this, but there seems to be a lack of a definite answer. Some say yes, some say no, I even went into my local GW store, who said you can't, but as you have purchased it for your army, you can, but only shooting it at BS2! This seems totally odd to me, and is obviously something they have just made up! So, what is the answer? Can I fire the gun with my Nids or not?

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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

Read more ...

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...

Read more ...

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 ...