332 Drax's First Games of 6th Ed + Reactions

Hullo All,

Well now, I'm delighted to say that in the last three days I've finally managed to play my first games of 6th Edition. Three games, in fact: a 2500pt sparring match with Jay at The Club (in prep for an upcoming tourney) and two 1000pt fluffy games this evening against the excellent Col. Gravis. What follows however isn't a battle report so much as a brief overview and then my thoughts so far on 6th Edition (If you want to skip, it's the bit in colour, below).

[Incidentally, check out Gravis's new pseudo-Praetorian gatling gun sculpts currently on sale!]

The first game was The Emperor's Will with Dawn of War deployment; me going first. I took a mech list (with which I'm always rather uncomfortable) and thought I was going to take an absolute battering from Jay's assaulty Blood Angels, but in the end he had a lot of metal nuts to crack and he was unlucky with the dice. A horrid, cheesy psyker battle squad and a failed terminator charge didn't help, I'm not proud to say!

This evening, Gravis and I decided to try to play a couple of small games with fun, fluffy forces, and as it happened the forces were fairly evenly matched, both being predominantly infantry (which we both enjoy) with a smattering of other bits. I took it as an opportunity to try out two rare choices: firstly one of my elusive Leman Russ Exterminators, and secondly my three sentinels, each on their own. For his part, Gravis tried two lists: one more offensive, with his beautiful cavalry and mounted vets; the other more static, instead brimming over with heavy weapons teams.

Game one was The Scouring/Dawn of War, and the second was Purge the Alien/Hammer and anvil. In each case I won the toss and opted to go second and first, respectively. To summate, the first game started off evenly matched and anyone's guess but eventually swung my way, and in the second game, as I arrayed my troops in a straight line in range and marched Somme-style towards inevitable death it looked for all the world like it'd be entirely one-sided...but somehow - just like in game one - a combination of Gravis's ill-luck and my sneaky flanking units rolling in from the correct flanks was enough to turn the tide. As I am The World's Slowest Player of 40K and we're still digging for new rules, Gravis gracefully conceded. 

Two great and sporting opponents - thanks, chaps!

DRAX'S THOUGHTS ON 6TH EDITION

 In no particular order, and please shout if I've got something wrong! I've just colour-coded it too - green is 'good'.

1. I really really love everything about snap-firing
2. ...except the hydra being forced to do so against ground targets (although I've not yet experienced this)
3. Pre-measuring, huh? Wow - that makes a difference. I like it, but it does seem to'cheapen' the game, somehow...
4. I really really like the new wound allocation rules.
5. Precision Strike is a good rule, and works
6. No assaulting at all out of 'normal' vehicles in normal circumstances? Technically this really benefits me as I suffer it far more than I use it and chimeras are (quite rightly) rubbish for assaults, but this rule really makes no sense at all when the vehicle hasn't moved
7. Hull Points - great. This seems to work fine and makes sense, but it's a real shame they wouldn't stretch to giving Leman Russes that fourth HP.
8. WHY oh why are vehicles still hit on rear armour in assault? Why on Terra not make it side? 
9. I like that glances have no other effect now. Works well.
10. Snipers are way better now, though mine still fail to do anything useful!
11. 'Look out Sir' is a bit of a pain, but a good counter to the new wound allocation system 
12. Plasma guns are considerably better now
13. ...As is mounting heavy weapons in chimerae
14. I like the new vehicle movement rules
15. 'Barrage sniping' is sneaky. I don't like it, but now I know about it, how do I avoid playing to it?
16. Mounted troops not claiming objectives? Well, it's daft of course, but it was needed for the game
17. Barrage always scatters 2d6. Grr. Makes a bit of sense, but I'm not mad keen. Still, this is countered by the very reasonable buff to whole-blast full strength.
18. I really like the different kinds (and values) of objectives
19. I like the tiered VP system.
20. VERY DISAPPOINTED to see, in Purge the Alien, the veiled return of Kill Points. What a bloody stupid mechanic. seriously.
21. Not being able to assault from resrve has somewhat put the kybosh on my poor Penal Legion, but will doubtless be very good for my squishy guardsmen in the long run!
22. Like the new missions so far
23. Psychic rules (what I've seen) are ineresting and flavoursome.

Overall then - although there's doubtless tons I can and will add to this list, albeit metaphorically, those are my thoughts so far. Let it hereby be known:

Drax approves of 6th Edition 40K.

Cheers!

- D.